Is It Just Me?

When the photos began coming in of Sarah Palin's appearance at this year's CPAC conference, something seemed amiss.

Sure five years have passed since Palin was the heartthrob of angry old white dudes backing John McCain's bid for the presidency.   We've all gotten a little older and worse for wear since then.  But was that really it?

Then a thought crossed my mind.   Is that really pop in that cup she's holding or might she have snuck in a half quart of Jack to help pass the time before she took the stage?

Ya Think?

Dick "go fuck yourself" Cheney says John McCain's decision in the 2008 campaign to pick Sarah Palin was his vice-presidential running mate was "a mistake."

“I like Governor Palin. I’ve met her. I know her. She – attractive candidate,” Cheney told ABC’s Jonathan Karl. “But based on her background, she’d only been governor for, what, two years. I don’t think she passed that test … of being ready to take over. And I think that was a mistake.”

The former vice president, in his first interview since a successful heart transplant, suggested that Palin’s selection wasn’t well-handled.

“The test to get on that small list has to be, ‘Is this person capable of being president of the United States?’” he said.

Really, Dick, ya think?   Guess what?   John McCain agrees.

Timeless - Sarah Palin's Stupidity

When it comes to rank stupidity, Sarah Palin takes even Dan Quayle off the hook.  In the runup to the release of the HBO docudrama "Game Change" based on John McCain's decision to revitalize his flagging presidential campaign by naming Palin as his running mate, new morsels of Palin ignorance are floating to the surface.

Palin, for example, believed Queen Elizabeth, not prime minister Gordon Brown called the shots on Britain's military force in Iraq.

 Mrs Palin's confusion emerged during a coaching session with Steve Schmidt, a McCain adviser who asked her what she would do if Britain began to waver in its commitment to the Iraq war.

 

In one of the many rambling responses that eroded her credibility, Mrs Palin reportedly replied she would ''continue to have an open dialogue'' with the Queen. A horrified Mr Schmidt informed her the prime minister, then Gordon Brown, would be responsible for the decision. She also mistakenly believed Saddam Hussein ordered the September 11 attacks.

[The book] describes panicked cramming sessions during the campaign, with aides beginning history lessons with the Spanish Civil War and carrying through to post-September 11. Mrs Palin was initially enthusiastic, making notes on hundreds of coloured flash cards, but became increasingly sullen and was described by tutors as going into a ''catatonic stupor''.

 

Now, can somebody explain to me again why this Sarah Palin isn't contesting the Republican presidential nomination?

 

Sarah Palin's Biggest Enemy - Her Mouth

Watch the village idiot - and enjoy

Sarah Palin Clutches Hunting Knife, Slices Own Throat

In the United States pundits and the public alike have been waiting in anticipation for Sarah Palin's response to the Tucson shootings.   Prominent Repugs have urged her to wait a few days and then come out with a personal statement well larded with compassion, even if it is faux.

So what does the Lizard Queen do?   She comes out with (apologies in advance) both guns blazing!   Palin lambasted the media, accusing them of "blood libel" and inciting, "the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn."

Palin shrugged off the shootings as solely the work of Jared Lee Loughner, saying, "acts of monstrosity stand on their own.   They begin and end with the criminals who commit them."

So, let's get this straight.   It's all the media's fault.   They're fomenting the rabid hatred and violence oozing from the Right.   It has nothing to do with the Wasilla Swamp Pig or her exhortations to "reload" or her electoral map showing Ms. Gifford's head framed in rifle crosshairs.

Palin's support for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination was faltering before the Tucson tragedy.   The shooting of Representative Gifford further damaged Palin's prospects.   Her arrogant outburst in response might just have cemented her fate.  On the other hand that might just have been a Wasilla concession speech.

That should just about do it.

Footnote.  The phrase Palin used, "blood libel," is a very loaded term.  It refers to the anti-Semitic slurs once leveled at Jews, claiming that they used the blood of murdered gentile children in their religious rituals.

Yeah But Did They Use a Fact-Checker?

Sarah Palin's memoir, you bet'cha. Comin' out in November, don'tcha know. She's fixin to tell us her whole life story and it's bound to be a good one - story that is, as in tall tale.

Now we know that Sarah isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. That she made it to the drawer at all was due to a chain of flukes. Sarah may be the darling of America's radicalized right but, like them, she can be a stranger to truth and reality.

I'll tell you who will be snapping up advance copies of her tome - anyone interested in the Republican nomination in 2012, that's who. They'll be parsing every phrase, dissecting every claim, preparing themselves to slice and dice her into slaw during the drawn out nomination campaign.

Oh yeah, somebody else - Tina Fey.

"Governor Palin's Office Declined to Comment..."

That one brief sentence in The Guardian report on the birth of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's first (to our knowledge) grandson spoke volumes.

Sarah's unwed, now 18-year old (whew that was close!) daughter, Bristol, delivered a baby boy and the Governess dummied up? You would have thought Sarah would have a stage, complete with podium, American flags and fireworks, ready for a quick photo op.

Palin didn't waste an opportunity to troll Bristol along last fall during the election campaign spinning the whole thing as an example of her daughter's virtue in not seeking an abortion and her intention of marrying the plainly reluctant dad, Levi Johnston.

Sarah Palin whose favourite hobbies, according to Robin Williams, are breast feeding and shooting animals from helicopters, seems to have lost her enthusiasm over the blessed event now that Bristol is no longer a useful stage prop and her co-grandma, Levi's mom Sherry, has been busted for selling oxycontin, better known as "Hillbilly Heroin." I guess she's probably apoplectic at the prospect of being accused of "palling around" with a hard drug dealer.

Good luck Bristol. I think you're going to need as much as you can get.

Sarah Palin "Pals Around" with Hard Drug Traffickers

From what I've read I guess you could safely say that of any former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the crystal meth capital of the state. But, for Sarah Palin, her contacts in the hard drug world may be a lot closer than that.

Palin's lovely daughter, Bristol, is due to give birth this weekend to a baby boy whose grandmothers will include the governor of his state and, apparently, a hard drug trafficker.

Yep, you betcha'. Gramma Johnston, poppa Levi's mom, will be in court on January 6 on charges of manufacturing and/or distributing oxycontin, Rush Limbaugh's own favourite Hillbilly Heroin.

During the US election campaign, Palin didn't waste an opportunity to smear Obama for "palling around" with 60's radical/terrorist William Ayers. If Palin does run for the Republicans in 2012, you can be sure that little stunt will come back to haunt her.

Meanwhile, Sherry L. Johnston's arrest is bound to be good news for someone - either her son Levi or the American people. Levi who described himself as a "f___king redneck" and earlier wrote that he never wanted kids might no longer be the husband Sarah wants for Bristol. On the other hand, maybe Levi will still marry Bristol which ought to put a real damper on Sarah Palin's 2012 aspirations.

Those as live by the sword... well, you know.

My, My, My, Ain't That a Lot of Lipstick?

It didn't help Sarah Palin's credibility but it sure made her a piece of eye candy for the party faithful.

The New York Times is reporting that Republican vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin ran up a tab of - wait for it - $165,000 - on stylists for the nine week campaign. Keep it in perspective, that's still comfortably less than twenty thousand a week.

The fees showed up in new campaign finance reports filed late Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. The filings furnished a trickle of new details to what has become one of the lingering controversies of the 2008 presidential campaign: the expensive makeover of Ms. Palin, the vice-presidential nominee, for the campaign, including the tens of thousands of dollars spent by the Republican Party on clothing for her and her family, undermining her calibrated “hockey mom” appeal.

Besides the payments to the stylists, the new reports, for the period of Oct. 16 to Nov. 24, showed additional purchases on Ms. Palin’s behalf, significantly beyond the $150,000 already reported that was spent by the party at luxury stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

Jeebus, I don't think the Soviets spent that much to embalm Lenin, and he's still looking daisy fresh even today, decades after he croaked.

Now, remember, that was for just the nine weeks she was actually brought aboard the McCain campaign. She's already indicated she wants to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 which means, next time, she'll start campaigning in 2010.

Sarah, best start your campaign fundraising soon. At the rate you go through money, a gruelling two-year primary campaign is going to run you better than $1.8-million - on hair and nails alone. Yikes!

Palin Will Run in 2012, Alluah Akbar!

Alaska governor, small town mayor, hockey mom and moose assassin Sarah Palin says with a little help from mighty Allah, she will seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

Palin, who probably doesn't know that Muslims, like Christians and Jews, worship the same, Old Testament God, says a little Divine inspiration is all she needs. From The Guardian:

"If there is an open door in [20]12 or four years later, and if it's something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, then I'll plough through that door," she told Fox News on Monday night.

"Show me where the open door is. Even if it's cracked up a little bit, maybe I'll plough right on through that and maybe prematurely plough through it, but don't let me miss an open door."

So, to recap. An open door is all she'll need to plough straight through but if the door isn't opened, she'll "prematurely" plough through anyway. The good news - we've got two more years before the campaigning begins for the 2012 race. The bad news - all we've got is just two more years.

I'm bettin' there are a lot of Republicans who aren't real keen on giving Sarah Palin another chance to destroy their party's prospects of retaking the White House. Then again, Hillary versus Sarah in 2016? Where do you get tickets? Sign me up, you betcha!

The Extremely Scary Almost Vice-President

Her defenders insist she's really, really, really smart. But, by dribs and drabs, information leaking out of the McCain organization indicates Sarah Palin is - wait for it - a ditz.

Even Fox News is getting into the act with McCain campaign reporter Carl Cameron telling what he wouldn't mention before the vote. From the LA Times:

Cameron, the Fox beat reporter for the Republican presidential ticket, said he had been told by unnamed sources -- and on the condition he not report the details during the campaign -- that Palin could not name all of the countries that are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He did not mention which one (or ones) she whiffed on, but there are only three: Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

Nor, according to Cameron, was Palin aware that Africa is a continent. (Perhaps she was hamstrung by the fact that no part of that land mass can be viewed from her homestate.)

Asked if she damaged the Republican ticket, Palin today expressed doubt.

Cameron also related that the anonymous McCain aides were frustrated that Palin blew off their suggestions that she put in a little prep time before her interview with CBS journalist Katie Couric.

And this is the person John McCain tried to foist off on his nation, his people and the world as fit to succeed him and serve as president. "Country First," yeah right John.

From the day she first arrived on the McCain ticket it was plain there was something about Sarah that didn't add up. Her vice-presidential bid had been in the works for more than a year with supporters such as William Kristol (former Quayle aide, which probably ought to have been a red flag) extolling her virtues. So why didn't Sarah pick up a high school civics book and learn just a smidgen about her country, its constitution and the position she craved? Why didn't she bother to learn the basics of American foreign policy? Why did she show up in Washington dumber than a post?

There's a serious malfunction in Sarah Palin's mind, some reality disconnect. She showed so little respect for John McCain, for the Republican Party and its supporters and for the opportunity given her that she couldn't even make an effort to prepare for it.

It's no wonder McCain didn't talk to her during the campaign, something as plain as day when he didn't inform Palin, much less consult her, prior to pulling the plug on Michigan. She found out about it from a newspaper article the following morning.

There seems to be a serious effort by the McCain people to ensure that there'll be no comeback for Sarah Palin in 2012. With a factional war about to break out within Republican ranks and genuine "conservative" Republicans determined to wrest control of their party out of the hands of cowboys and yahoos, Sarah Palin has probably just shot whatever chance in hell she had of a career on the national stage.

Sarah Palin's problem is that Sarah Palin never outgrew Wasilla.

Burning the Bridge to Nowhere

It could just be that no one has more at stake in the November 4th presidential election that Sarah Palin. If Obama wins, it's very much a lose-lose proposition for Ms. Palin, both in Washington and back home in Juneau.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that Palin's campaign blunders and excesses haven't gone down well at home and she faces a much different reality if she has to go back to the governor's mansion:

Palin has always attracted controversy, but she is now a far more polarizing figure, both in Alaska as well as nationally, than before her nomination. If she returns, the Republican governor will face former Democratic allies furious at her campaign attacks.

She will also face lawmakers from both parties ticked off at her handling of the so-called 'troopergate' investigation and her recent false assertions that the investigator's report cleared her, according to interviews with a number of lawmakers and others who watch Alaska politics.

"We've seen her do and say things that are shocking to us, so it's going to be different, to put it mildly," said Juneau Democratic Rep. Beth Kerttula, the House minority leader. "We have a whole different way of looking at her."

Who's Really Un-American, Sarah?

Sarah Palin loves to incite the mob with sleazy "guilt by association" tactics, no matter how flimsy. Turns out, as this clip from the Jed Report shows, that Sarah has a few troubling associations herself and they're far from flimsy.



There's actually a longer clip than this that reveals Palin and her wife, Todd, to have had quite an extensive involvement with Alaskan separatists for years. It really is worth a look. Find it here:

www.236.com

Gwen Ifill- "Palin Blew Me Off"

Fareed Zakaria - Sarah, Just Go!

The esteemed editor of NewsWeek International has joined the chorus of voices - left, right and in-between - urging John McCain's living, breathing, senior's moment - Sarah Palin - to pack up her moose hides and go home.

"Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, "to spend more time with her family"? Having stayed in purdah for weeks, she finally agreed to a third interview. CBS's Katie Couric questioned her in her trademark sympathetic style. It didn't help. When asked how living in the state closest to Russia gave her foreign-policy experience, Palin responded thus:

"'It's very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where--where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to--to our state.'

"There is, of course, the sheer absurdity of the premise. Two weeks ago I flew to Tokyo, crossing over the North Pole. Does that make me an expert on Santa Claus? (Thanks, Jon Stewart.) But even beyond that, read the rest of her response. "It is from Alaska that we send out those ..." What does this mean? This is not an isolated example. Palin has been given a set of talking points by campaign advisers, simple ideological mantras that she repeats and repeats as long as she can. ("We mustn't blink.") But if forced off those rehearsed lines, what she has to say is often, quite frankly, gibberish."

Zakaria focuses on this Palin answer in response to a Couric question, "designed to see if Palin understood that the problem in this crisis is that credit and liquidity in the financial system has dried up."

PALIN: "That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the--it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that."

Nothing could make it plainer that Sarah Palin has no business standing as a potential "next in line" to the presidency of the United States. She is vacuous - an empty vessel from the neck up. She is Dan Quayle minus the intellect. The McCain people have been trying to groom her for weeks and yet she still has no grasp of even the most major issues of the day.

Okay, fairness demands that I acknowledge Fareed Zakaria is an elitist. Yes, he is well educated. Yes, he is highly experienced and very knowledgeable. Yes these are the qualities that fuel the righteous indignation of you fundamentalist nutjobs. There you go. Now, bite me.

Will McCain "Disappear" Palin?

Maybe it's just one of those giddy ideas that gets a bit of traction yet some pundits are talking about whether the McCain organization has decided the only safe thing to do is ditch Sarah Palin.

Where was she after last night's debate when her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, was making the rounds of the TV networks? It turns out the McCain people wouldn't make her available for interviews - no live TV appearances for Sarah Palin.

The Huffington Post has this from radio talk show host Ed Schultz:

"Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as "disastrous." One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, "What are we going to do?" The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is 'clueless.'"

Now, in fairness, Schultz is a progressive and he's said some pretty scathing things about Palin before. But what about the uber-uber-right, National Review? HoffPo links to this opinion piece by the NR's very conservative commentator, Kathleen Parker, who claims Palin should take a powder:

As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there.

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

What to do?

...Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDZiMDhjYTU1NmI5Y2MwZjg2MWNiMWMyYTUxZDkwNTE=

As if the McCainsters don't have enough problems without lugging about this anchor, Biden made it clear last night that Palin has no reason to expect any kid glove treatment from him when they square off in the vice-presidential debate. Conservative Kathleen Parker is right. Palin does exhaust your cringe reflex.

Poor old Johnny McSame. He hired her for the bump and now he's stuck with the grind.

h/t Unrepentent Old Hippie

McCain's Veep's Scandal

Sarah Palin, McCain's choice for veep and 2-year governor of Alaska, may be very grateful indeed that she was picked. Sarah may welcome the chance to put some serious distance between herself and the Alaska legislature.

Palin is caught up in a nasty scandal. She's alleged to have pressured the commissioner of Alaska's Public Safety Department to fire a cop, trooper Mike Wooten. Why? Hard to say but it could have had something to do with the ugly custody battle Wooten was then engaged in with Palin's sister.

For a while Governor Sarah denied there was anything to the story. Then the Alaska legislature unanimously approved the hiring of an investigator. Suddenly Governor Sarah had an epiphany - why yes, someone in her office did press the Public Safety Department to fire trooper Wooten - but, of course, it has nothing to do with her. She knew nothing about the whole nasty business.

From McClatchey Newspapers:

Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday [August 13th] revealed an audio recording that shows an aide pressuring the Public Safety Department to fire a state trooper embroiled in a custody battle with her sister.

Palin, who has previously said her administration didn't exert pressure to get rid of trooper Mike Wooten, also disclosed that members of her staff had made about two dozen contacts with public safety officials about the trooper.

"I do now have to tell Alaskans that such pressure could have been perceived to exist although I have only now become aware of it," Palin said.

The majority of the calls came from Palin's chief of staff at the time, Mike Tibbles, according to an information gathered by the state attorney general's office. Attorney General Talis Colberg and Palin's husband, Todd, also contacted Monegan about the trooper.

Palin said she'd only known about some of the contacts and never asked anyone on her staff to get in touch with state public safety officials about Wooten.

"Many of these inquiries were completely appropriate. However, the serial nature of the contacts could be perceived as some kind of pressure, presumably at my direction," she said.

Governor Sarah apparently overlooked something back when she was denying the whole thing - the Public Safety Department tapes all these calls.

Yes, Governor Sarah, two dozen calls from your aides and your husband to the Public Safety Department demanding trooper Mike Wooten's badge, "could be perceived as some kind of pressure, presumably at [your] direction." If you would like people to perceive it otherwise, kindly come up with some explanation of why you wanted Wooten sacked other than the custody battle with your sister.

And I thought Cheney was the grand dissembler. That Dick has nothing on Sarah.

h/t Scott Tribe