David Broder is one of the most fascinating traditional media columnists out there today. Not because of his opinions - which are rarely insightful - but because of the tangled ideas and emotions that swirl and bake into a pie of absurd contradictions. He's the ultimate DC insider, always advocating for conservative, status quo policies, yet sees himself as the champion of Regular People.
Her invocation of "conservative principles and common-sense solutions" was perfectly conventional. What stood out in the eyes of TV-watching pols of both parties was the skill with which she drew a self-portrait that fit not just the wishes of the immediate audience but the mood of a significant slice of the broader electorate.
Freed of the responsibilities she carried as governor of Alaska, devoid of any official title but armed with regular gigs on Fox News Channel and more speaking invitations than she can fulfill, Palin is perhaps the most visible Republican in the land.
More important, she has locked herself firmly in the populist embrace that every skillful outsider candidate from George Wallace to Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton has utilized when running against "the political establishment."
Let's get this out of the way. Palin is about as popular as toxic waste with American voters. Her latest poll numbers are in the tank. Over 70 percent of Americans don't think she's qualified to be president, including 52 percent of Republicans. The more she's in the spotlight, the less people like her.
But Broder thinks she's got what it takes to woo voters! Even though voters really hate her!
So...you've got a conservative, establishment insider who hearts big-business Republicans, swooning over Sarah Palin because she's an anti-establishment, anti-insider populist hero? And to further complicate matters...she's not actually, you know, popular with the people...
Worse still, Broder actually represents inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom. This is what DC insiders actually think what we want.
...As I say, it's clear that most mainstream journalists are totally over Obama, the Democrats, and any sense that Republicans have demonstrated that they can't be trusted with power. That's just so 2006-2008. Stimulus? Health reform? Financial reform? Cap and trade? They're much more interested in that issue right-wingers love to use as a frame -- deficit reduction.
They're going to follow Broder's lead. Just as they've surrendered to the tea parties, they're going to surrender to the demagogic populism of the next crop of GOP presidential aspirants.
Now, this may not benefit Palin specifically, because every Republican candidate is going to hit the same populist/demagogic/know-nothing notes she hits. Broder and the rest of the media mandarins may develop a much bigger crush on demagogic populist Mike Huckabee or demagogic populist Tim Pawlenty or demagogic populist Newt Gingrich.
But they all may decide Palin's the one. They all may decide that her flat vowels and inept syntax are the realest. And that media consensus may, paradoxically, create a populist wave that delivers the GOP nomination to Palin, if not the election. The people will hear "Take Palin seriously!" so often, they'll start to believe it's true.
This site has some really interesting images of women and gun advertisements over the years. Watch out for the annoying gun shot sound when you first open the page. You can definitely the difference between ads designed to attract women to buy guns and ads designed to use women to attract men to buy guns.
The title of this post come from this bizarre website, where you can pay $5,000 to $40,000 to shoot naked women with paintball guns. In case you don't know, this leaves a giant welt. The website encourages men to be cruel and take out their aggressions on these women.
When you get down into the FAQ page, you find they were (shockingly) engaged in some shady dealings, and when criticized for promoting their service at a family outdoor trade show they said that
"they didn't realize that a "family" show meant teaching your kids to go out and kill animals."
Then there's this news about one of the most famous women recently identified with hunting, Sarah Palin. Palin has apparently given up pretending to be a moose hunter and is hunting for lipstick endorsement deals.
Finally, I just saw a great moving about hunting in a different culture, The Cove, which I highly recommend.
A little reminder of why health care reform is important, and why the lies about reform are important:
Don't talk to me about death panels, Sarah Palin....
In your free market wonderland everyone somehow manages to get healthcare, even those who are poor or live in isolated areas, though the poor and isolated in your own state required assistance from the federal government.
And despite all of this, you appear blithely unaware that the free market healthcare system we have now does, indeed, have "death panels." I've been part of a death panel conversation. I know about death panels.
You have no idea what it's like to be called into a sterile conference room with a hospital administrator you've never met before and be told that your mother's insurance policy will only pay for 30 days in ICU. You can't imagine what it's like to be advised that you need to "make some decisions," like whether your mother should be released "HTD" which is hospital parlance for "home to die," or if you want to pay out of pocket to keep her in the ICU another week. And when you ask how much that would cost you are given a number so impossibly large that you realize there really are no decisions to make. The decision has been made for you. "Living will" or no, it doesn't matter. The bank account and the insurance policy have trumped any legal document.
If this isn't a "death panel" I don't know what is.
...since Good People, Real Americans, have health insurance, only bad people have to worry about this, which is how it should be. The problem is that if the government takes over they're going ration by taking away the Good People's health care and giving it to welfare queens and illegal immigrants who don't deserve it.
(All Good People have health are? Maybe not. Or maybe Good People solicit donations after mauling ministers...er, I mean, after a mauling by union "thugs"...though he looked pretty sprightly after the "attack." Funny how he's wheelchair bound and unable to speak the next day? D*mn those lingering funny bone injuries...)
I don't think this is going to help Montana shake its growing reputation for harboring wingnuts and corporate owned lawmakers.
AlaskaReport has learned today that Todd Palin and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin are to divorce. Multiple sources in Wasilla and Anchorage (including a former Palin staffer) have confirmed the split.
Palin's divorce
A National Enquirer story exposing previous affairs on both sides led to a deterioration of their marriage and the stress from that led to Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska last week.
...if the consensus of the economic experts is grim, the consensus of the climate experts is utterly terrifying. At this point, the central forecast of leading climate models - not the worst-case scenario but the most likely outcome - is utter catastrophe, a rise in temperatures that will totally disrupt life as we know it, if we continue along our present path. How to head off that catastrophe should be the dominant policy issue of our time.
American prosperity has always been driven by the steady supply of abundant, affordable energy. Particularly in Alaska, we understand the inherent link between energy and prosperity, energy and opportunity, and energy and security. Consequently, many of us in this huge, energy-rich state recognize that the president's cap-and-trade energy tax would adversely affect every aspect of the U.S. economy.
There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn't lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America's economy.
Montana Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer ribbed Alaska Republican Gov. Sarah Palin Friday for announcing at the last minute that she will not be attending a Sunday discussion of energy policy that the two governors were scheduled to lead at this weekend's meeting of the National Governors Association (NGA) in Washington.
"I don't know where she's going to be. You'll be stuck with me," Schweitzer told ABC News. "There will be no glamour, certainly no snappy dressing. I brought my best two pairs of jeans. There's a little bit of a horse s**t stain by the knee. But I've been washing that stuff out."
It was among the juicier post-election recriminations: Fox News Channel quoted an unnamed McCain campaign figure as saying that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent.
Who would say such a thing? On Monday the answer popped up on a blog and popped out of the mouth of David Shuster, an MSNBC anchor. "Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks," Mr. Shuster said.
Trouble is, Martin Eisenstadt doesn't exist. His blog does, but it's a put-on. The think tank where he is a senior fellow - the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy - is just a Web site. The TV clips of him on YouTube are fakes.
The funny thing here is I was bombarded by emails linking to Eisenstadt's videos for weeks before the election. It was pretty obvious the whole thing was a ruse. The funny thing was "Eisenstadt" was able to infiltrate McCain operations across the country...but it was so over the top, it seemed patently obvious the dude wasn't who he claimed to be.
Dang, and I hadn't realized this guy was the same as the "source" of the McCain campaign "leak" about Palin's intelligence and knowledge. Nice going, Fox News!
...she had a kind word for President-elect Barack Obama, who she said called her during the campaign to wish her luck.
"He was cool," Ms. Palin said, with almost a giggle. "He said, 'good luck, but not that much luck.'"
In the interview, she also basically said whether she runs again in 2012 will be up to God. Oh, and she said this, too:
Ms. Palin directed most of her media criticism at liberal bloggers, whom she twice called, "those bloggers in their parents' basement just talkin' garbage."
D*mn, I'd get angry about this if weren't so d*mn cold down here. Gotta talk to my Mom about getting a space heater or something...
I understand that it's a rough year to be a Republican. I understand that it's rough having conservative ideals, and watching them fail, spectacularly. Conservative foreign policy gave us Iraq. Conservative governance gave us the prosecutor purge, deficeits, collapsing bridges, torture, and the banking crisis. I also understand it's human nature to retract and get defensive rather than fess up and change your way.
Still, the rhetoric emanating from the right over the Obama campaign is, frankly, reprehensible.
Kevin Drum posted a compiliation of some recent examples a couple of weeks ago:
One: Bill Ayers really wrote Obama's book, Dreams From My Father. Two: Obama had an underage, gay affair with a pedophile. (That, by the way, is called "molestation," folks. -- Jay) Three: It's entirely possible that Obama was involved with bombing the South African rugby team while he was at Columbia in the 80s. Four: Obama, Bill Ayers, and Jeremiah Wright (via a chain of associations too Rube Goldbergesque to summarize) were engaged in a conspiracy to teach Pan-African "cultural nationalism" to Chicago schoolkids during the 90s. Five: Obama was having an affair with one of his fundraiser babes in 2004 until Michelle found out and banished the woman to a "little Caribbean island."
And then there was serious discussion about whether Obama is a Maoist or a Stalinist...and this was at the Corner, the blog for the National Review, a "reputable" magazine. This week's hooplah is that Obama was accused of altering a United States flag to put an "O" in the field of stars and standing it alongside US flags during a speech in Toledo. Turns out it was an Ohio state flag. To sum it up, apparently Obama is a "black Muslim, anti-Christian socialist plotting with an evil Jewish billionaire."
And let's not ignore the fact that a lot of this is encouraged, if not abetted by the McCain/Palin ticket. It's McCain and Palin, for example, who are pushing the Bill Ayers line of attack. It's McCain/Palin who are pushing the ACORN story. It's Sarah Palin who's identifying certain areas of the country as "pro-America."
Looks like I'm not the only one who noticed Palin's creepy answer about the power of the office of the VP during her recent debate with Joe Biden:
Ms. Couric asked Joseph Biden, Ms. Palin's rival, the same question in a separate interview. He had it exactly right when he told her that Mr. Cheney's theory of the "unitary executive" held that "Congress and the people have no power in a time of war." And he had it right in the debate when he called Mr. Cheney "the most dangerous vice president we've had in American history."
The Constitution does not state or imply any flexibility in the office of vice president. It gives the vice president no legislative responsibilities other than casting a tie-breaking vote in the Senate when needed and no executive powers at all. The vice president's constitutional role is to be ready to serve if the president dies or becomes incapacitated.
Any president deserves a vice president who will be a sound adviser and trustworthy supporter. But the American people also deserve and need a vice president who understands and respects the balance of power - and the limits of his or her own power. That is fundamental to our democracy.
So far, Ms. Palin has it exactly, frighteningly wrong.
Like I said then, she answered the question, which likely means it was scripted. And means that her anwer was no mistake.
One of the more striking exchanges in the vice presidential debate was this one about the power and the breadth of the office:
IFILL: Governor, you mentioned a moment ago the constitution might give the vice president more power than it has in the past. Do you believe as Vice President Cheney does, that the Executive Branch does not hold complete sway over the office of the vice presidency, that it it is also a member of the Legislative Branch?
PALIN: Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation. And it is my executive experience that is partly to be attributed to my pick as V.P. with McCain, not only as a governor, but earlier on as a mayor, as an oil and gas regulator, as a business owner. It is those years of experience on an executive level that will be put to good use in the White House also.
IFILL: Vice President Cheney's interpretation of the vice presidency?
BIDEN: Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.
And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit.
The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he's part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.
And this later from Palin:
PALIN: ...Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that's not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also. I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are.
McCain probably thought that by choosing Sarah Palin as a running mate he could mask his record on women's issues - or to borrow a timely phrase, put lipstick on the pig that is his platform.
But WakeUpWalmart.com is going to make sure he doesn't get away with it.
In a new ad, WakeUpWalmart.com highlights what is one of the most egregious examples of his standing in the way of progressive reforms like fair pay for women.
Women working at Walmart make notoriously less than their male counterparts (it's the Walmart way). That's why WakeUp Walmart joined together with other groups to form the largest discrimination class action in history.
This was a chance for Big Mac to prove those reform credentials he likes to talk about, but instead he case a big, fat, regressive "NO" to fair pay.
Couric: When it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this, to stay informed and to understand the world?
Palin: I've read most of them, again, with a great appreciation for the press and for the media --
Couric: Like what ones specifically? I'm curious...
Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me for all these years. I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news.
Alaska isn't a foreign country, where you've kind of suggested, it's like, wow! How can you keep in touch with the rest of...Washington DC may be thinking and doing while you live up there in Alaska? Believe me: Alaska is like a microcosm of America.
Ouch! A glimpse at Palin's temper here, apparently, spurred by a completely innocuous question. Well...innocuous if you read newspapers, that is.
Palin's answer raises a question: exactly what "sources" is Palin getting her "news" from?
If you are a Republican, it stands for vagina puppet. As a former Clinton supporter and a moderate Democrat, I am apparently the target audience to be won over by Sarah Palin. Instead, I'm offended. If they needed to pick a vagina, there are lots of others who may have swayed me - Kay Bailey Hutchenson, Olympia Snowe - but instead, McCain picked the one woman who was a mockery of everything I believe in as a feminist.
You know that used feeling you get when your guy stops taking you out for dates, but still thinks he can call and come over at closing time? That's what Sarah Palin makes me feel like. She and her vagina are being used to mock woman and puppet conservative values, and they expect me to cheer about it. If it was a guy, I would kick him to the curb and find a new man. I hope voters do the same.
What do you know, Sarah Palin emerged from a swirl of controversey and delivered a pretty d*mn good speech. And I have to say, after watching years of presidential elections, Palin sure does break the mold of your typical GOP candidate, who are usually crusty old cranks or smarmy young trust funders. Her delivery was good, she hammered the media for playing up her family woes, and she presented a young, vital face to a Convention so direly lacking in youth and vitality.
Her supporters were ecstatic, as they should be. Palin could very well be the new face of the Republican party, and I admit it was thrilling to see a woman at the GOP podium, and her husband caretaking the couple's youngest child. In that one speech, Palin no doubt did much to undo the institutionalized sexism so prevalent in conservative circles that disdains professional women and stay-at-home dads.
But...what effect this speech?
Honestly, I don't see much of a bump for McCain her. While Palin was certainly good at zinging, I think her contempt for Democrats, community organizing, and the spectacle of the Obama phenomenon isn't going to woo Democratic women. Period. I also think that the campaign's casting of Palin as the attack dog was the wrong choice -- she was at her best when holding herself up against the media's recent investigations into her family's life. That effect, that sympathy she won, faded with her sarcastic and misleading barbs against the Democratic candidates.
So last week, as I was negotiating the bowels of the Convention, drifting in and out of panels and mixers, conventioneering, and parties, I missed a lot of the news stories being generated about the Convention by the talking heads on their cable shows.
The biggest story of the DNC was the supposed Obama-Clinton rift. What would happen during the roll call? gleefully mulled the punditocracy, would there be a split Convention, a power play by disgruntled Clinton backers? Of course, no such rift was manifestly evident if you were actually at the Convention. Yes, Hillary Clinton supporters thought the best candidate was speaking on Tuesday night. Yes, tears were shed, applause bittersweet from many quarters. And certainly after Clinton's speech, maybe the best of her career, with her strong endorsement of Obama and passionate advocacy for women's issues, maybe a few of us had some mild regrets. But there was no rebellion manifest. Nobody was going to cause trouble. And there was no trouble.
On Thursday night, I got a peek into why the traditional media talking heads were so removed from the real stories of the Convention -- like Sirota's take on the Convention setting possible "building blocks for change," say -- and focused on wild speculative nonexistent plots. That was the night Obama spoke in Invesco field, and, because of my credentials, I was pretty much allowed to roam free. I ended up meeting New West's Jill Kuraitis in the elevator, and we rode up to the Press Box to find a place to plug in and file our stories.
We found the biggest media celebrities from the most influential media corporations enclosed in a quiet glass box litterally hundreds of feet above the spectacle.
I can imagine them, chatting with each other on what they think the biggest stories of the politics and the Convention are, free from the noise and distraction of the actual Convention. And those media folks who did wander down went as celebrities, not journalists. There was Ted Koppel in the basement snapping pics with his admirers. There was Joe Scarborough on the floor of Invesco field, one blonde woman under each arm, grinning foolishly for cameras.
