Koch:
Why do I defend Palin in this case? I don’t agree with her political philosophy: She is an arch conservative. I am a liberal with sanity. I know that I am setting myself up for attack when I ask, why did Emile Zola defend Dreyfus? Palin is no Dreyfus and I am certainly no Zola. But all of us have an obligation, particularly those in politics and public office, to denounce, when we can, the perpetrators of horrendous libels and stand up for those falsely charged. We should denounce unfair, false and wicked charges not only when they are made against ourselves, our friends or our political party but against those with whom we disagree. If we are to truly change the poisonous political atmosphere that we all complain of, including those who create it, we should speak up for fairness when we can.
In the 2008 presidential race when Sarah Palin’s name was first offered to the public by John McCain as his running mate, I said at the time that she “scared the hell out of me.” My reference was to the content of her remarks, not to her power to persuade voters.
It was McCain who lost the presidential election, not Palin. Since that time she has established that she has enormous power to persuade people. A self-made woman who rose from PTA mother to Governor of Alaska, she is one of the few speakers in public life who can fill a stadium. Her books are enormous successes. Her television program about Alaska has been a critical and economic success. When Sarah Palin addresses audiences, they rise to their feet in support and applause. She is without question a major leader of the far right faction in the Republican Party and its ally the Tea Party.
I repeat my earlier comment that she “scares the hell out of me.” Nevertheless, she is entitled to fair and respectful treatment. The fools in politics today in both parties are those who think she is dumb. I’ve never met her, but I’ve always thought that she is highly intelligent but not knowledgeable in many areas and politically uninformed. I don’t believe she will run for president in 2012 or that she would be elected if she did. But I do believe she is equal in ability to many of those in the Republican Party seeking that office.
Many women understand what she has done for their cause. She will not be silenced nor will she leave the heavy lifts to the men in her Party. She will not be falsely charged, remain silent, and look for others – men – to defend her. She is plucky and unafraid.
While I disagree with her and I am prepared to oppose her politically, in the spirit of longed-for civility I say, Ms. Palin you are in a certain sense an example of the American dream: You have the courage to stand up and present your vision of America to its people. Your strength and lack of fear make America stronger and are examples to be emulated by girls and boys, men and women who are themselves afraid to speak up. You provide the example that they need for self-assurance.
happyfeet (paraphrased):
yeah but Palin speaks funny and shoots wolves with Wal-Mart ammo and is a dirty dirty Christer whore what supported Meghan’s cowardly daddy and has nurtured a cult of celebrity that is not really what our failshit little country needs right now what it needs is somebody who can win an election by being popular and polling well with focus groups but not from being a vapid celebrity and a homophobic Christer and will do conservatism not just talk about it because talking about it is not doing it and just brings celebrity and Palin is a whorish whore who is whorish, plus she clubs halibut with sticks, and that is very unfair plus it scares children. So really she should shut up and go away for freedom.
Compare and contrast.
Palin is absurd most particularly in the context of her presidential ambitions I think. I think Ed would agree that Sarah Palin’s talents are best utilized in the pursuit of other, more realistic, goals.
You’re a footsoldier for the left, happyfeet. You just haven’t admitted it to yourself yet.
actually I am not a foot soldier for the left I am a classical libertarian what foreground the primacy of the individual over and against that of a waning failshit little country what is awash in cults of personality and a general lack of resolve
*foregrounds* sorry NG just brought me a carnitas sammich on a bagel with chipotle mayo
life, it is good, no?
Great ‘feets imitation, Jeff. Bravo, bravissimo! Spot. On.
Palin is absurd most particularly in the context of her presidential ambitions I think.
Which are exactly what, now?
Because from where I stand, her main talent, which she pursues with all gusto, is to drive the Left and other culture-snobs such as yourself into an incoherent froth, merely by “looking into” renting office space in Iowa, by unashamedly saying “you betcha” out loud, and by publicly being her “snowbilly” self, elitist opinion be damned.
Half the reason she said that Americans don’t retreat, they reload, is that she knew it would give the Left an attack of the screaming purple-and-green vapors.
Ever watch a magpie torment a cat? One of them has a blast, and it ain’t the cat.
I could tell that the paraphrased passage wasn’t actually happyfeet, because it didn’t include “hoochie cumslut” anywhere.
And Koch’s not talking about how Palin should use her talents, happyfeet, not that it’s any of his business, nor yours. What he is saying is that even though he doesn’t much care for Palin’s political beliefs, “Nevertheless, she is entitled to fair and respectful treatment.”
Seems like Ed would rather argue with her on the merits. But some work is just too hard for a mindless, spineless power weasel to tackle.
— unless the individual is a Christer who won’t keep her stupid whore mouth shut, the bint. Then I hope she dies under an avalanche of L.L. Bean outerwear.
Is what I hear you saying.
Lacks resolve? Whatever. I note that you only take fire under the name “happyfeet.” I wonder what your resolve would look like were it actually you or your family coming under attack — or accused of being complicit in mass murder.
I’m not a culture snob I just know that Palin is unelectable … by virtue of being widely perceived as being annoying…
if you believe that our failshit little country’s problems must be addressed with some urgency, then Palin’s presidential pretensions become as distinctly unamusing as they are unhelpful I think –
the absurdity that vast swaths of Team R embrace a hoochie for president what is every bit as inexperienced and unqualified as the whore what is presently in our White House tells you I think how far this once-great little country has fallen
Then why are you so utterly obsessed with her every video frame and audio-track syllable?
Palin is paying a high price for her silly presidential delusions. But she’s also being well paid for them at the same time.
We like that people can comment anonymously precisely because personality cults such as the one surrounding this hoochie are very dangerous. They brook no dissent. If you dissent you are obsessed or crazy or un-American.
Ed Koch is a lot like Camille Paglia. Happyfeet is a lot like Pauly Shore.
But I do believe she is equal in ability to many of those in the Republican Party seeking that office.
he’s being snide here you realize that yes
OT: SA-WEET! Reason 43/100 of why you should not go to grad school.
Make sure you watch the vids: they’re spot on.
Palin is paying a high price for her silly presidential delusions.
Rather she’s been made to pay a high price for the aspirations an idealized Palin presidency represents. Ed Koch isn’t the only one she scares hell out of.
That second video is hilarious and dead on.
And of course you’ve done nothing to turn that assertion into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because you’re staunch and defend freedom of speech.
Moreso, even, if Palin would just shut the fuck up and stop speaking for your side. Because she’s just embarrassing.
I’ve mentioned here that Palin lost her chance at my primary vote with the McCain decision. Abe’s not her biggest fan. Others have said they’d prefer she didn’t run for president.
No one gives us shit. Why is that?
Stop questioning everyone’s motives and maybe they’ll stop questioning yours. Majority view on immigration reform? Probably racism. Majority view on same sex marriage or DADT? Probably homophobia.
Palin? Probably doing it for the money. If not, vulgar self-aggrandizement. Her supporters? Blindly tribal. In the thrall of her slick pandering.
Now you’re worried about this poisoned well you’re pulling water from? Too late. And, shit, dude, it’s not like people weren’t warning you about it.
Yes, that’s what it is. Palin doesn’t say anything of substance that promotes the conservative message. It’s all smoke and mirrors.
And those cute glasses.
Only you (and David Frum, and Kathleen Parker, and Peggy Noonan) see through her. The rest of us are too dumb to see her for what she is.
But that doesn’t make you a snob!
Face facts, happy. Were you a Senator, you’d be Lindsay Graham.
No one gives us shit. Why is that?
cause you’re super nice
I liked graduate school, and I don’t regret going, but the reality is that it tended to price me out of the market because what I’m doing doesn’t need a PhD to do it.
Palin doesn’t promote conservatism so much as she regurgitates it like a momma bird I think.
It’s not the bh is super nice, it’s that you are super assholish.
Marijuana non-inhaling draft active-avoiders were unelectable until one was actually elected. Same with divorcees. And Catholics. How is the snowbilly different?
What price is that, and is it tax deductible? Because from here it looks like she can use all the deductions she can get her chillbilly hootchie cash-stuffed hands on.
Wait, are you talking about how you and the rest of the mean girls mock her? That would be funny.
Majority view on immigration reform?
I mostly agree with the majority view on immigration reform I mostly just said it shouldn’t be a big part of the 2010 debate. Fortunately lots of Team Rs agreed.
Majority view on same sex marriage or DADT? Probably homophobia.
No it’s not homophobia people get confuzzled I think cause gays are involved, but it’s actually just plain old everyday bigotry.
Of course that’s it, happyfeet. Because how can someone with that accent be genuine or even competent? Probably fucked some local bigshot hick to become governor.
You see through her though. Right into her soul.
Crackheads, too. Now look at us.
Palin doesn’t promote conservatism so much as she regurgitates it
That just means she’s a synthetic thinker.
Oh, yeah! Nobody was interested in immigration or talking about the federal government suing a sovereign state over it. Nope, not a Republican peep about Arizona’s SB 1070 last cycle. Not a one.
What isn’t bigotry, conversely? Listening to an accent and deciding someone is an incompetent glory hound media whore who doesn’t care for the country as much as you do because you read Proust and eat designer cupcakes and Whole Foods’ udon noodles.
Marijuana non-inhaling draft active-avoiders were unelectable until one was actually elected. Same with divorcees. And Catholics. How is the snowbilly different?
True. She too could easily garner 43% of the vote.
Besides, have you ever seen her make red velvet cupcakes? Who the fuck eats moose chili?
I don’t think she’s much of a cook or she’d be selling the cookbook on QVC already
Sarah Palin Battle Hymn
look in my eyes what do you see
Who knew ol’ Ed was so…staunch :)
I’m very pro capitalism. Except when it means the masses are involved.
Most of them are slovenly and have figurines on their glass tables. And Sarah is their patron saint. Yuck.
Conservatism would be so much cooler if Aaron Sorkin was into it.
Palin doesn’t promote conservatism so much as she regurgitates it like a momma bird I think.
That’s all you do. The only difference being your rather perverse impulse to regurgitate left wing emotive claptrap when you stray from conservative positions.
also they hang plates on the wall, which is a weird thing they have in common with europeans
side by side on the piano keyboard oh lord why can’t we
look in my eyes what do you see[?]
zealous nihilism
What nonsense. Koch wrote a reasonable piece echoing time-honored liberal notions of free speech and the response is a stream of pidgin-English gibberish and slurs.
Does anyone else find happyfeet’s emotional detachment when he’s the center of negative attention to be a little creepy?
Look, there’s an easy way for “team R” to keep Palin out of 2012. And that’s to not make her get in.
If the real thing don’t do the trick, no, you’d better make up something, quick.
I’ll retract those first two. Don’t feel like going through comments and writing up a long, petty tl;dr, mainly. Felt at the time that you weren’t really crediting the possibility that lots (most?) of the folks just genuinely thought what they thought without a bunch of malice or ignorance involved.
Isn’t your motive-questioning involving Palin and her supporters enough of an example to emphasize the point though? It’s not very fair-minded, it pisses people off, and you actively encourage them to ignore any good arguments you might bring up. What’s to recommend your approach then?
Shoot, I’d feel a lot more comfortable about the country if there were clear signs that the possibility of that idiot being reelected are currently zero, than that I should have to contemplate the possibility that we could be speaking of a President RomneyHuckabeePenceGingrichPalinBarbour or President ChristiePaulRubioPawlentyCainGuliani. There aren’t though, and there’s the rub.
Dick Cheney is a smart man and all, but why isn’t Ed Koch — not to mention four out of ten other randomly chosen Democrats — already campaigning against Obama?
I like my approach bh cause this way if Team R nominates this goof-ass hoochie it’s most emphatically not my fault.
why isn’t Ed Koch — not to mention four out of ten other randomly chosen Democrats — already campaigning against Obama?
Probably because the Democrat party is a wholly owned subisidy of the transnational socialist left.
sdferr,
You left Mitch Daniels and Paul Ryan off that list.
H8TER!
Neither of those two have any tug to speak of Bob, is the only reason why.
I thought the lists were of people what are probably not optimal choices
Mitch Daniels is the future if the future is an America what is graced anew with hope and promise
Not so much as that intentionally hf, as that these are the ones I’m guessing we’ll actually be looking at when push comes to shove (although, not so much Rubio, and probably not even Christie . . . them I included mostly on account of the fan clubs forming).
Take heart, $5 gas is on the way.
Ernst said the secret word here. And that’s the reason no moderate Democrats, nor even the slightly left-ish ones, will challenge Obama in 2012 unless things get real bad. Besides, they wouldn’t get any of those sweet Soros bucks and pro-bono propaganda from any of his many outlets.
Well, maybe that whack-job Dean might, but the Democrats realize he’s simply unelectable. Hell, if Obama were any run of the mill white guy he’s be unelectable…
Without the programmed white-guilt response and the near-solidarity of the black vote Obama would be unelectable; he’s be a slightly more charismatic John Edwards without the womanizing problems.
Tell me, when were we ever presented with an opitmal choice?
1980
1789 and 1792. Not since, near as I can tell.
it’s very disheartening Mr. sdferr
ernst I think absent a for reals leader we shall have to be content to be led by the bond market
Anderson, right?
I wouldn’t necessarily count Ryan out, although he will be busy with the budget battles.
And Daniels just needs to go public with his intentions; let folks know he’s running so they start seroiusly listening to his ideas.
We’ll have to get JD to have a talk with him…
Nah. Too much of America despised and derided Reagan. We may never see optimal again.
What’s a for reals leader look like in a condition of unrelieved fail-shittery such as ours?
Inclined to agree with Pablo about the optimal choice.
(I assumed Ernst to be limiting “our choice” to those of us who favored the man, as opposed to everyone)
Ryan is out. Forget him. Daniels has been rejected already on a scale that I believe utterly precludes the possibility of his winning general favor. So, I think he’s done too, though on the choice of the same sorts of kneejerking imbeciles who put Obama in office. However that may be, done is done, unless we want to try to drink the milk out of the sponge.
Heh, I guessed George Washington for those years but I still had to google it to be sure.
We might want to consider removing my franchise.
I think Mr. Daniels is fairly optimal really… he’s the only one what’s expressed an understanding of just how urgent the problems are what confront our little country and he doesn’t chirpily imply that we can just splatch on a bit of “commonsense conservatism” and sail merrily along the course “Ronald Reagan” charted for us.
I don’t care about optimal. I’d settle for someone with a winning personality and the requisite mental acuity to dissect Obama extemporaneously.
GW is kinda unfair, insofar as none of usn’s were around to pick him. I was gonna reach for Calvin C, but left him off on the same grounds.
Who’s rejeted Daniels besides ACE and some of the other righty bloggers? Did I miss something? I mean, I know he’s not a *perfect* candidate, but who is?
No one ever got to listen to him on the national stage, so-to-speak!
And why is Ryan out? Too busy in the House? Or did I miss something else?
(I assumed Ernst to be limiting “our choice” to those of us who favored the man, as opposed to everyone)
No, I seriously meant “when has there ever been a optimal choice?”. I’m a big believer in voting for the lesser of two evils. It helps to keep “gubmint” in the appropriate perspective.
Ryan is out because Ryan has no interest so far as I can see. I take the man at his word. As to Daniels, I only invite you to look around Bob. There’s no there there, and a whole lot of “That traitorous bastard? No way.” in its place.
optimal 2012: herman cain right on the issues, screws up the black/white guilt vote
also herman cain ain’t a washington/party creature
I guess I mistook (mistake?) what you mean by an optimal then Ernst? Is an optimal by definition something that can’t happen? I took it as the more middling, something that can happen and does occasionally, though more rarely than not.
Well, appearances so count.
Seriously, actually. Which means that Jeff’s right: You’ve been co-opted by the left’s co-opting the language. Not one of your strong points — of which you have many — and pw is definitely a poor choice in blogs to troll while so afflicted.
Palin probably is unelectable in this failshit brokedick little country, where by the polls a remarkable two thirds want Obarkycare repealed –and 26 states are suing accordingly — two-thirds know shooter boy-man was a loner lunatic and not a tea party operative … while half of us fools collect foodstamps and years of unemployment, the debt and obligation level passes a hundred trillion unpayable crap dollars and not a soul on the ostensible right bats an eye, and an astounding 78% think Obarky did a positively bang-up response job on said shooting while hapless Palin, her lovely presidential-level speech notwithstanding, garnered a 30% approval for her “response”. National political figure that she is. From her Alaskan 2nd national capital or something.
Folks in this country make me want to puke. Accordingly you’re probably right that Palin is unelectable. But Jeff’s assertion that the language was jacked beyond recognition is why this is, feets, and your continually punching that same identical ticket is bound to annoy by the same identical principle.
Hence, useful idiot. No better that you emulate that figure than you cast Palin as your own personal typecast moron.
I’d settle for someone with a winning personality and the requisite mental acuity to dissect Obama extemporaneously.
An anti-Obama? What would that look like?
Not being snarky here entirely for snark’s sake. I just wonder if the right is even capable of producing a phenomonon like candidate Obama.
Nope.
Ed Koch said:
Can we get an oxymoron alert on this one?
Yes. She is unelectable.
Just so.
Jesus, let’s hope not.
They’re handing out badges. The left, I mean.
Video: Herman Cain challenges Bill Clinton on HillaryCare in 1994
If so, for the same reason you say she is, feets. Bad company, that.
I have to go I have a thing
but don’t turn this around on me
I’m only trying to warn you people here be dragons
really annoying garish twangy unpresidential dragons
If only that were the extent of your issues with Sarah Palin. But, alas…
Hypothetically, if it came down to Palin v. Obama, how many of us would rather see an Obama second term than the Republic of Failshit at the tender mercies of a hoochie cumslut?
The left isn’t even capable of producing a phenomenon like Obama absent rampant interference from the media. But I suppose that what I’m getting at is that we need someone that the slime doesn’t stick to quite as easily as it does Palin. Wingnut protestations notwithstanding, her very real shortcomings only cement the narrative the left invests so heavily in.
Hypothetically, if it came down to Palin v. Obama, how many of us would rather see an Obama second term than the Republic of Failshit at the tender mercies of a hoochie cumslut?
Never. But either outcome would leave me feeling a little embarrassed for our failshit little country what produces presidents based on something even more hideous than The Peter Principle.
link
As far as “failshit” try these charts and flip back and forth between the GDP equivalents and the population ones. As an example my State of Michigan has the GDP of Taiwan with the population equivalent of Chad.
Abe,
I’m not sure we’ll have a suitable candidate in 2012. Hopefully, we’ll have somebody who can beat Obama, and somebody we can live with for a term or two. Fortunately, by that point, we’ll also have a lot of weight to swing around in Congress, so even a squishy Executive will feel the need to go along with the way the wind is blowing.
My real hope is that the Tea Parties kick ass at the state level, and that by 2016 or 2020 we’ll have a couple of governors with established track records of fiscal sanity, backbone, and wit. I realize that’s a long way off, and we probably can’t survive that long at our current trajectory, which is another reason why I think we need to keep up the pressure in our states and in Congress.
To the extent that a hoochie snowbilly cumslut can fire up the masses, motivate volunteers, and keep cash flowing to the appropriate candidates, I think said celebrity whore is a valuable member of the team.
Whole Food udon noodles suck. They are three times the cost of the noodles the real Japs eat.
If you are going to pretend to be Asian, at least be frugal.
Wrong. You feel. When it comes to Palin you abandon all reason happyfeet. All reason.
Yes. It cannot, could not, would not without a complicit media. Fortunately, their star making power is waning, and with the bloom off that last stinkflower they foisted on us, we shouldn’t be seeing a repeat of that trick any time soon.
“Palin v. Obama”?
Wouldn’t even need to think about it.
Overall, from my perspective, Squid pretty much nails it above.
Further, speaking with lots other volunteers this last cycle, pretty much everyone liked Palin but there was a very real split between those who wanted her to run for president and those who thought she was contributing the most in her current advocacy position.
I remember I wrote to Ed Koch on Israeli politics. Ed had written an op-ed at the time in the NYT or WSJ. It was about what the borders should be in Jerusalem, I proposed it be a shared capital, with new Palestinian state (that was coming into existance at the time) on the east side and the current Israeli capital on the west. He wrote me a personal letter back. Ed disagreed with a split capital, but he did not get all cranky about it. Ed is a class act.
everyone likes Heather Graham too
she’s from Wisconsin you know
Heather Graham is… optimal.
Jeff and JHoward @ 76,
Speaking for the lurkers, Thanks!!! I Think it is quite destructive to attack the leaders of our side without ever offering an example of someone who would do better.
Palin takes the fight to the enemy. That is all I need to know. (I’ll denounce myself privately for the incivility). She doesn’t stand there toe to toe, in head on assault like U.S.Grant or Omar Bradley or Krauthammer or W.F. Buckley trying to wear the enemy down or win them over. She is more of Sherman or Patton, driving straight into the heart of of marxist/elitist/socialist left and laying bare the ugly, hateful emptiness therein.
Love her for what she does, vote for who you fucking want in the primary.
Heather Graham is on the back nine, tho. Does Wisconsin produce hot chicks with the frequency of Hailey’s Comet or something?
I was under the impression that we produce many. More than our fair share even.
Someone should compile a comprehensive list maybe.
I like Heather Graham. I like Ed Koch. But I like different things about Healther Graham vs. Ed Koch.
I do however remember Ed doing a press conference on revitalizing the West Side piers when he was mayor. A reporter asked, what about striped bass spawning. Anyone who has seen the piers on the West Side would quickly realize we are not dealing with pristine Alaskan wilderness.
Ed paused, then turned to the reporter saying “Love will find a way.”
And then there is Heather Graham’s work as RollerGirl. Did I meantion I like Heather Graham?
Slime is what the media does to Republicans. If they’re not sliming someone, it’s because that someone is not a threat to the Leftist narrative. The only way to innoculate one’s self from the slime is to not allow one’s self to be defined by the narrative, and that in turn involves cultivating the kind of following that Palin herself has.
And I guess I don’t get the very real shortcomings part. I mean, everyone says, she has faults and vulnerabilities, but you don’t necessarily hear so much about specifics. So I guess I need to reminded of what those short comings are.
Aside from the hoochie, cumslut chillbilly trailer trash christer jesusfreak matriarch of the Clampett Clan of the North whose folksy ways and scary sex appeal threaten to unman us all, that is. I know all about those shortcomings.
And I guess I don’t get the very real shortcomings part. I mean, everyone says, she has faults and vulnerabilities, but you don’t necessarily hear so much about specifics. So I guess I need to reminded of what those short comings are.
I guess it means that when the narrative is that you’re stupid, obvious mediocrity ain’t a strong rebuttal.
Seriously Abe, how is she obviously mediocre? Where’s the bar for public achievement being set here, and who’s doing the setting?
Roller girl is the greatest character in the history of cinema.
Roller girl is the greatest character in the history of cinema.
I’m partial to Joe Monco, myself.
I’ll do it, but that’s going to require lots of field research and I’m going to need a grant, I think.
Does Joe Monco ride around on roller skates and make young men happy without a word? Is Joe Monco as hot as they come and sweet as pie, unless you piss her off, in which case she stomps you with roller skates? Does Joe Monco look like Heather Graham?
Public achievement? I’m not talking about her resume. While the left spares no effort in attempting to paint her as stupid, she hasn’t shown any evidence, in public – extemporaneously – of being particularly smart. Do you even read the comments sections on a variety of blogs? Not that I want to give any credence to happyfeet’s tribalism blather, but there is an endless stream of wingnuts who find her averageness enthralling. As though it’s some kind of perverse validation of their own dim-wittedness. The crowning problem with this is, well, good luck trying to translate it into broader support.
Wisconsin girls are indubitably hot. The sleep naked, five to a bed. They’re also promiscuous to a fault, willingly sleeping with foreigners from England with crooked teeth and terrible accents. I saw it a movie, so it must be true.
Usinger’s more so though, optimally speaking. For all I’m fond of knockers, knackwurst spins my cabbage.
But one of the great joys of living is that no one — other than Heather Graham — looks like Heather Graham, which can be among her preeminent virtues and her’s alone.
It sounds like fun but you can’t drink while in the field. That’s been known to mess with the results.
No. But he’s a laconic wit. And he’ll kill you for laughing at his mule.
“but there is an endless stream of wingnuts who find her averageness enthralling”
average janes dismantle republican state machines everyday don’tcha know
Alaska is a flipping Banana Republic, newrouter. She so thoroughly dismantled the Republican machine that the state just gave a senate seat back to Poppa Murky’s little cumslut.
it is indeed some kind of perverse validation I think
Just don’t bring up Goodbye Mr.
PippsFist. Or was it To Sir, With [Four fingers and a thumb of] Love? Oh wait, Kevin Jennings was Obama’s “safe school” education czar.Am I not being civil?
I had to look up laconic; there was a picture of Calvin Coolidge, point conceded.
Speaking of Heather Graham, did you know (or do you care) that she was in Bowfinger with Steve Martin, which was a revenge movie? Martin had been dating Anne Heche, who apparently slept her way up the Hollywood food chain until she got to Martin. She then switched teams, dropping Steve to date Ellen Degeneres, who was a hot property at the time. There is a real hoochie cumslut in the movie modeled exactly on Heche.
“gave a senate seat back to Poppa Murky’s little cumslut.”
average people don’t kick the machine out even once. herman cain 2012!
Cornyn’s SRCC might have had a role in that as well, Abe.
So your problem with Palin boils down to a “style thing”?
Abe Froman posted on 1/18 @ 6:15 pm
Alaska is a flipping Banana Republic, newrouter. She so thoroughly dismantled the Republican machine that the state just gave a senate seat back to Poppa Murky’s little cumslut.
Abe are you channelling Happy or are you serious? I think a better explanation for what happened in Alaska is Palin never completely took Alaska away from Boss Murky and Miss Hatchet Face Murky ran on political patronage to those who supported her, promising her favors to all who joined in. And she squeaked by in a three way race.
seriously the gal won the governorship in ak at least give her that. herman cain 2012.
I like Ms. Graham in Bowfinger. She was a randy one in that film. I also liked Steve and Eddie making a lot more fun about Scientology than Ricky did the other day.
“Alaska is a flipping Banana Republic, newrouter. ”
yea chitown is what then with the O!?
Alaska is 650,000 people every goddamn one of which has three titties in their mouf at any given time
1. My fingers are the things what are happy.
Is anyone making the claim that Palin has persuaded Alaskans to her own view? But if not, how come not? That is, if she’s all that, how come she couldn’t sway the voters of her own proud state to vote for the tea party guy and against MurkyMurk? Something’s fishy about that, isn’t it?
there is an endless stream of wingnuts who find her averageness enthralling. As though it’s some kind of perverse validation of their own dim-wittednessthere is an endless stream of wingnuts who find her averageness enthralling.
W.T.F?
Palin is not “average”. And “average” is decidely not “dimwitted”. What an Obama thing to say! Palin is average like GW was average — “average” in the sense that most folks outside the beltway can relate to her. She’s not snorting coke off a $10,000/night hooker’s tramp stamp, climbing in the back of the limo to wet her whistle with a bottle or two of Clos Ambonnay Champagne, then marching up the steps of the Capitol Building refusing to hang with the dimwitted hicks from hicktard land AKA flyover country or :::shudder::: The South.
For all the shit the Left piled on GW, any honest person who hung with him said he was warm, personable, funny and decidely NOT arrogant. Ditto Palin. Yet word is for all that Obama likes to speechify in lofty language, anyone that knows or knew him (like in college) and is willing to talk about it says he is a “cold fish” who isn’t comfortable unless he is certain he is the smartest guy in the room, and loves to be the “idea” man who leaves the grubby details to others.
Palin is NOT stupid. But she is approachable.
And for star-bellied sneetches, that is enough to attack her (plus she is too pretty for their taste. Any good looking woman who disagrees with them HAS to be stoooopid, gender traitor, cumslutty whore who has sold herself to the Patriarchy ….blah blah blah)
Alaska is 650,000 people every goddamn one of which has three titties in their mouf at any given time
Seek.help, asshole.
I don’t have delusions I’m a gonna be president darleen. I think we know who needs help with reality and ironically enough she’s a reality tv star.
Palin is savvy, and she charts her own course. And given that our current president is perceived to be the smartest motherfucker in the history of ever, I’m not all that sold on “brilliance” in the White House. The POTUS needs to be a manager, a salesman, a negotiator and a shark, not a professor, not a savant. I don’t want a super duper smart President, I want a smart enough president who knows how to drive the fucking boat. He/she can have the smart people working for him/her. If smart were everything, this would be the richest, most powerful blog readership on the planet.
That said, I don’t think Palin is going to run, and I hope she doesn’t…yet. She’s too valuable doing what she’s doing already, which she’s doing because she ain’t stupid.
While you have none, and long, long, long for just one of Sarah Palin’s, so you can bite it.
I hope she doesn’t run either Mr. Pablo.
She would lose cause people don’t like her and they don’t think of her as presidential.
And then we’d have four more years of bumblefuck and America for all practical purposes would be just be sort of sad scary and foreign anymore.
And poor as shit.
If so, then Team R can run a horse and win. I mean, the entire democrat universe is some kind of perverse validation I think.
Dude, what did you come back from Whole Paycheck with anyway? They vending LSD now?
2. Eat me.
I haven’t been to whole foods … tonight is noodle night but I’m just doing sushi and salad
oh crap have to go see you later!!
Yeah, That’s why Chimpy McHitlerburton couldn’t get hisself reelected.
“oh crap have to go see you later!!”
see @85
sushizonosalad,
she.
So your problem with Palin boils down to a “style thing”?
I think she owes her prominence to her style. It fuels enthusiasm for her as well as the hatred she inspires. But I’m not sure that I’d characterize her limited ability to connect with, for lack of a better word, the middle, to be a matter of style. Conservatives have the benefit of knowing the music, so they fill in the blanks in their own minds. But whatever sound instincts and principles she has, they don’t translate. The insularity we see in Obama is equally evident in Palin, only whatever one thinks of Obama, his sophistication enabled him to pile on just enough horseshit so that what was incredibly obvious to us was not so clear to the mindless middle. Yes, he had help from the media, but this particular attribute has been a recurring theme for his entire adult life.
Hmmmph. Give this man a cracker.
“The insularity we see in Obama is equally evident in Palin”
affirmative action dope head = mayor of wasilla, governor of alaska. sure why not push that bs. herman cain 2012.
This…
He’s a great actor, that says all the right buzzwords, and is just vague enough, to let both low information voters and uncosciously indocrinated youth be dazzled by his BRILLIANCE!; helped along by mantra like repetition of his greatness by the doctrinaire lefty peers in the age groups and social circles and, of course, the tngling legs of the gushing TV punditocracy.
Now, I can say clearly that Palin doesn’t elicit the same response from me; although I liked the “cut of her jib” long before McMav hitched her to his falling star. But I won’t rule out that there are those among her cadre that are in that league due to a similar effect.
Sarah Palin is a sharp knife. I love it when she’s sticking in the craw of the left, causing the herd-mentality hatreds to flow.
And, Sarah Palin is an excellent bird dog. If nothing else, she exposes the worst thoughts of the left, so we can know ’em better.
Take ‘feets, for example. Sarah Palin flushed him out of his hiding, for all to see. Some of us now see him fully exposed, and think much less of him. A shame, getting bird-dogged like that, and exposing his monumental weakness of character. I’d just as soon not know of that, really.
What the population of Alaskas is commensurate to what is Delaware what is the home of Joe Biden what he can see his undisclosed location from. Seems that the prospect of a heartbeat away unmuzzled Joe might be more cause for feets foaming what about the mouth about. But that’s just me.
“But I won’t rule out that there are those among her cadre that are in that league due to a similar effect.”
yes i’m waiting for the faggot*(banned in canaduh) to tell use about his misadventures in sarah p.’s woman parts. maybe us sarah drones should ask andrew s. if he has a dick?
I’d have to think for a bit about the common insularity between the two though, Obama and Palin, Abe.
I’m sure that in parts of America there is a “Palin” bandwagon effect. But I’m not sure that in the mind of those bandwagon crew members anyone who disagrees with them automatically becomes a H8TER!, like is most often the case when it comes to Obama.
With Palin, there is a component of naked populism, but not one based on the typical material hand-outs; it’s not a “chicken-in-every-pot” kind of thing. It’s more of a populism based on liberty, personal freedom, and, for lack of a broader brush characterization, “the American way”. It’s reverting to an American of individualism, meritocracy, and save for economic stratification of course, a classless society.
With Obama it’s more like a populism based on snobbery and elitism; snob-u-leet-ism…
It’s the wink-and-a-nod franternity who know that they are smarter than anyone else, and therefore collectively know what is good for everyone else. It’s like being in the “in” crowd a high school, but possessing absolute moral authority as well; and in their benevolence they will enlighten us with their brilliant observations and prescriptions for all our self inflictied ills and “antiquated” Constitutional shortcomings. They get to decide how much everyone is allowed to equally have; and who the winners and losers are-because they know better than everyone.
And, of course, being “in” the club, none of these rules apply to them. Unless, you know, exigencies require that a few of their ranks be given up for the collective.
Like the West Va. Senators being boned by Obeyme’s EPA…
calling jeff g.
It’s come to this: CNN apologizes … after guest uses “crosshairs” metaphor
I think she owes her prominence to her style. It fuels enthusiasm for her as well as the hatred she inspires.
20 second shot clock violation.
Yes, like we’ve never known before, as far as I can remember. She is extraordinarily useful in that regard and I’m pretty sure she gets that.
This is the very best part of that.
Palin smokes out people who think the goddamn Avon lady has presidential qualities
Pipe down, bitch.
I apologize for using the phrase smokes out I know I don’t always live up to your standards
Yes, like we’ve never known before, as far as I can remember. She is extraordinarily useful in that regard and I’m pretty sure she gets that.
She definitely does. Can we even begin to imagine the HATE she must have in her heart for the left (and people like Princess Pikachu) at this point? I mean, I don’t have a high opinion of her political viability, or, for that matter, her potential to be a successful president, but it isn’t personal. I’d love to be wrong, it’s just that the nature of my job is to step outside of myself and look at how communications are received by a broad range of people with varying degrees of built-in interest. And I just don’t see her being able to both fight the narratives and successfully sell a vision.
“I apologize for using the phrase smokes”
second hand smoke bothers me.
successfully sell a vision
she should start with the cookbook first and go from there
“And I just don’t see her being able to both fight the narratives and successfully sell a vision.”
herman cain 2012
“she should start with the cookbook”
shoot moose eat
Why wouldn’t the Avon lady have presidential qualities? She owns her own business. She successfully sells herself and her product. She adheres to the principles of her company. She works well with others and can identify people that are beneficial to her company. She is the essence of the citizen politician. IF she was into politics. Which she may or may not be.
I thought the essential traits for presidential timber were a knowledge of business practices and adherence to conservative principles.
What HF is laying out for all to see is that Palin a) is a woman EEEK! and b) isn’t bred to the job coming up through the approved ranks with ‘credentialed moron’ tattoed to her forehead.
Wrong party, HF. And the wrong side of the republican fight. If democrat lite is what you seek, you aren’t tea party.
Pabli, as I recall Reagan also had a way of bringing out the worst of the lefties. Remember all of hateful spewing about him being a “STOOPID ACTOR!”, “A HOLLYWOOD PHONY!”, or episodes like Teddy the K hitting the senate floor to deliver these words:
So much for the “comity” and “civility” of the 80s, eh?
Palin’s ability to “bird dog” the left is a very Reagan-esque facet of who she is…
yo herman cain 2012
The middle is not what it used to be, nor is it where it is perceived through the lens of our media to be. If there is one thing the left is good at it is division. They think of divide and conquer, but the division is forcing a choice to be made by all. Even the squishy ones will and are making a choice.
They didn’t realize that when G.W. Bush said you are either for us or against us that the course they charted would make their decision on that question more and more evident. They also assumed that they would have not only the power but the majority long enough to make that power permanent.
That was, in my view, an assumption to far. One that was the result of, as always in these things, hubris. What shall follow is also as always, and it will not be without cost all around. In a democratic system we all share blame and the pain.
“I thought the essential traits for presidential timber were a knowledge of business practices and adherence to conservative principles. ”
let them beat up sarah while herman cain moves undetected. ain’t about either. who can do it.
I thought we just had the one Pablo.
Because, Stephanie, Aaron Sorkin would find her something of a cliche.
Plus, L.L. Bean. I mean, isn’t that ex-cheerleader-married-the-highschool-QB-church social chair-turned-adopted-mother-of-a-future-big-black-NFL-offensive-lineman-from-the-streets-who-just-needed-to-be-shown-love-and-respect-bourgeois…?
“They also assumed that they would have not only the power but the majority long enough to make that power permanent. ”
that is why at this time you dismantle all of their bureaucracies. now and for the foreseeable future.
Newr: I’ve already voted for the man. I have no problems with EITHER choice.
It’s funny how HF and others say the republicans need new out side the box choices not the same ole same ole, but when push comes to shove and some new blood crops up, it turns out they aren’t “seasoned” enough for them – keep looking and they revert back to the same names that have been sloshing around inside the political box for years. Funny that.
“Don’t turn this around on me”
– You know, seldom have I seen a blog owner put up with what amounts to some number of years of personality issues such as we’ve all watched feets engage in, and then that same owner actually do a post concerning same, and then have the denier focus of attention continue the same vapid denials, even as he repeats the exact same phrases within his denials.
– feets, you’re just plain full of crap.
– You’re fortunate I’m not the site owner, or you and your asinine litany of Palin-hate, and barely disguised Leftist bullshit would have been gone long ago.
Aaron Sorkin would find her something of a cliche.
Aaron Sorkin is a cliche.
Sandra Bullock for President!!!! Problem solved.
That’s ok bh, I thought I could type…
Wrong again!
Yep. That’s why the McCain campaigning bothered me so much.
Any chance I have to seize a second declension joke, I’m taking it, Bob.
It’s a weakness.
“Newr: I’ve already voted for the man. I have no problems with EITHER choice. ”
(excuse me for my boorishness) there’s a statement by sarah out there(it was recent but i can’t find it)where she talks about a conservative coming out where by she doesn’t need to run. it will be interesting.
Pipe down, bitch.
I was speaking of Madam President’s only other seeming alternative as regards her style, but I like yours better.
the best part of sarah: she don’t need to control the ball. cain 2012.
Her lack of faux-sophistication will undoubtedly hurt her with faux-sophisticates. Unless of course authenticity, self-reliance, individual liberty, and American Exceptionalism become the hottest trend among political fashionistas. The virtue (if it can be called that) of a two year Presidential campaign is that it affords candidates like Palin the opportunity to prove that she can sell a vision while fighting the narratives.
n.b. What I mean by authenticity is that the political persona Sarah Palin is based on the person Sarah Palin, unlike the political persona Barak Obama, which bears scant resemblence to the person Barry Soetero. It’s that authenticy that I think, can be the basis for refuting the media driven characature. If, that is, she decides to run for president, and is serious about it. And like I said, the best way for Republicans to avoid that, should they so desire, is to not make her run. Herman Cain occupies much of the same political space, although he carries similiar liabilities. Others could seek to occupy it as well.
I appreciate your perspective Abe. Thanks for sharing.
Seriously, though. Isn’t part of the basis for HFs arguments that the idea that we were all raised on – the idea of the citizen politician “one day one of you sitting right here in this classroom could grow up to be president” – is really a blue norwegian dressed up as a peacock designed to keep the rubes striving for something that is really out of reach and HF is just articulating that fact that deep down in his little Pikachu heart aspiring citizen-politicians have no business anywhere near the oval office?
The teachers and politicians (even the “look at the black man that did it” narcissist) keep pushing the meme, but recent evidence and actions by the left and by certain establishment republicans put the lie to that. As do HF and others who say she (and Cain – he’s NEVER held office) aren’t seasoned enough. She’s been in political office in one capacity or another since 1992 (had to look that up). How fucking seasoned does someone have to be? And don’t say senator, recent evidence proves they make lousy presidential candidates. Hf’s argument always starts with “she ain’t qualified, so I ask
What are the proper qualifications (specific) that ANY citizen politician could meet? I suspect the answer for HF and others is NONE.
Oh God, no.
She seems to understand them for what they are and she isn’t going to give them any more rent free space in her head then she absolutely has to. Which, clearly she’s got to give security a lot of thought, (something she’s just beginning to take seriously from what I gather) but she’s just not going to be chased off by progressive hyenas. The more they howl, the more people tend to want them to just shut the fuck up.
I really hope she keeps just doing what she’s doing for a while.
– If Rudy runs this time, and I have no idea if he will or he’s even interested, you can bet your ass he’ll be in it to win it this time, and won’t be sitting out any primaries.
Yeah…It’s too bad there’s no civility these days, like when Reagan was President:
Why, oh why, would Palin precipitate such a never-before-seen climate of hate?!?!
CIVILITY NOW!
You could buy him with bakery goods or crappy pop music.
The progressives certainly thought so. New Dealers as well.
One thing I know for certain, based on the bigotry exhibited lately, the eighties trend of plaids and work boots has zero chance of a resurgence in the fashion industry. Be prepared for disco chiq – there’s nothing more apropos to the current state of affairs than reliving the excesses of Tony Montana and Limelight/Studio54 v 2.0.
“cause you’re super nice”
Happyfeet,
bh is honest, polite and funny which earns him the respect that you once enjoyed here. Perhaps you should go back and reexamine your notes from your Dad’s sermans. Start with the one on the Golden rule and once you get that one down try the beattitudes.
“Ellen Degeneres, who was a hot property at the time”
Ellen Degeneres is actually Bob Sagat…
with pants;)
A good start… http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703779704576073750780454850.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
I’m not entirely sure I understand this point, Steph.
All of them were citizens (well, and technically remain so) before they become elected officials. So, strictly speaking, they support citizen politicians as well because all politicians fit that definition.
So, I assume you’re talking more about some sort of legal background, NGO experience or previous bureaucratic appointments composing the non-citizen politician pool of candidates?
It’s an odd question, I know.
Because I think I get what you’re saying but I can’t quite put my finger on it in words.
I think she’s talking about career politicians climbing the American version of the cursus honorem, bh. Humiliores need not apply.
What a vile, deluded little turd.
link
Think I had a nightmare based on this once.
And, yes, I think we can all agree that I’m super awesome and possibly have as yet undiscovered super powers.
(Agree, damn you! Agree!)
‘feets, which of these reactive smokin-hot politicians got you the angriest: the reaction to Kevin Jennings or the widespread support of Sarah Palin? Or toss out a third much-discussed issue, for kicks and giggles; the non-politician but hated-by-the-Left life-celebrating Pam Tebow?
Which of these surprising flashpoints caused the biggest ‘Stench from the Staunch’?
Steph, wasn’t that grunge thing a phenomenon of the early to mid 1990s? Right before hooker chic, as I recall.
Yes, cursus honorem, gotcha.
Thanks.
(Guess if I googled that or not!)
Something I wrote earlier in an email about qualifications for President and Palin or anyone.
As for Palin being a viable candidate. I answer yes. Causing this much havoc on the left using some postings on Facebook is showing a formidable presence. As for whether she would be up to the Presidency I don’t see why not. It is the left that puts so much emphasis on the “Great Man” who knows the number of hairs on every head and sees the fall of each sparrow.
For myself the President sets a general course for the national policies and must be able to articulate them and the reasons for them. (S)He then hires those who are to figure how to navigate the currents of the world to stay on that course. You vote for the course, the direction, offered. I like the course she seems intent on the nation sailing and think from what I have seen of her that she could and would defend it and find the proper persons to do the navigating.
“An anti-Obama? What would that look like?”
C’mon Ernst,
Do I have to say it?
Can I get an F from the choir!
<i?I think she’s talking about career politicians climbing the American version of the cursus honorem, bh. Humiliores need not apply.
Yes. Unless you have ingrained yourself to the politician whether it be through lobbying or campaign contributions. The driver of all of this of course is something that the middle class really doesn’t have… money. And the middle class – as far as being aspirants to the quaint notion of citizen politician are just to be patted on the head and sent to play in the garden because they have neither the gravitas to get an appointment nor the money to garner interest. They don’t count until they have been corrupted – “made his bones” by becoming a corrupt cog in the system. Then he isn’t a real citizen politician anymore is he?
“Someone should compile a comprehensive list maybe.”
It’s already right there under our noses. The hall-monitor handbook, which clearly leads to the solution to our dilemma:
bh for President!!!
HTML fail aisle 205… damn fingernails.
Ernst… I was thinking more Urban Cowboy.
What sorts of various piles of dreck is Obama going to be leaving behind when he departs office in 2012?
What in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, the “Palestinian territories”, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Russia, Turkey, Georgia, NoKo, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, on and on across the world? Improvements? Hardly.
What in the American economy, in the agricultural sector, energy, health care, pharmaceuticals, banking, housing, education, manufacturing, and last but not least, politics? Will it be more or a little less than a decade to undo the damage he will have done by then?
What sorts of various piles of dreck is Obama going to be leaving behind when he departs office in 2012?
Dude, we will be lucky if he leaves office in 2012. I pray that is the case. And I want that to happen through an election.
Which back to Sarah Palin… the biggest knock I see that is expressed against her is that she doesn’t have sufficient experience, to which I say, A GOOD START! and to which they then say, Fool!.
But the definition of a citizen politician (in Jefferson’s usage) is someone who takes time out of their successful lives to go to Washington and do the people’s business for a while and return to their business, so what those folks advocating for experience are really advocating for is political experience, which I think, excludes about 95.5% of the American population. And which already means they are advocating for an experienced politician already corrupted into the current system of lobbying/contributions/backscratching bullshit. Which is, I think, counter to the stated goals of returning Washington to the people – particularly if 95.5% are automatically “access denied” by virtue of not being a certified politician. Conundrum.
If one is faced with a 185 yd carry over water to a generous fairway, the thing to do is think about how nice that ball will sit on the closely mown grass, not what the splash will look like when the ball plops in the pond. Leastwise, that’s the way I’d approach the thing.
Urban Cowboy isn’t part of my repertoire Steph.
I’d put my clubs down, disavow my allegiance to the golf cult once and for all and then go get a gin and tonic at the clubhouse.
I’m not sure what that translates to as a political metaphor.
Towards the damage done? International relations is past my ability to reason so it’d be silly for me to attempt an answer. If I was smart, I’d answer the same towards the domestic economy. But, I’m not smart. So… I honestly think we could bring our economy back in a couple years if not sooner. Make me tyrant and I think I could do it in a month. Honestly.
If our economy was a car, we’d need new brake pads every week. We could set this mofo on fire. We (collectively) simply choose not to.
http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/01/18/sheila-jackson-lees-original-take-on-the-us-constitution/
A schtoopiter person has never been elected. And a person that SOME would point to and say, see!!! we need experienced, smart politicians in Washington. To which I’ll say… this person went to YALE and had gobs of experience in the political trenches. And she’s already IN Washington. Oops.
“We (collectively) simply choose not to.”
Yeah bh,
We’d rather blame the Chinese for doing what’s in their best interests. That and raise corporate taxes, pander to unions and place our natural resources off-limits. That is what will get us ahead. /s
Previous SJ Lee.
Mine either, Ernst. But, hey, I was asked to collaborate on a book about Limelight last week.
/read that with the holiday inn express commercial snark intended.
Credentialed and certified. I’m an authority on excess.
As political metaphor, that sounds kinda like moving to Costa Rica bh.
But it’s good to hear I can put you in the far!-less-than-a-decade camp. Have we got the politician who could drive toward the confidence and freedom necessary to get things rolling (in the event we can’t make you tyrant-for-the-month)?
Exactly right, Danger.
This bugs me, btw. I’m not one for empty optimism but I don’t know why someone doesn’t seize that as the main part of their message. This isn’t written. There is nothing predetermined about our decline. It’s a choice.
Heh, that sounds oddly like my retirement plans, sdferr. Which isn’t a joke. This baby boom entitlement crunch is timed to hit during my peak earning years. I simply won’t be here once everyone else starts talking about soaking 70% of my income. Not gonna happen.
We turn it around before then or the future Newsweek will be talking about the surprising rightward turn the sudden influx of people into New Zealand are causing.
is causing
I don’t know of any “politician” advocating for Car America. Most seem to be haggling over the price of the bumpers and doors.
And no one has really answered the basic question I posed above which I will rephrase
What are the proper qualifications (specific) that ANY “out of the box thinking” citizen politician should meet?
That kind of cheery optimism and faith in the American people and the American ideal is naive, simplistic, unsophisticated, utterly detached from reality, etc.. Not to mention that it threatens too many rice bowls.
bh: look into Panama, Nicaragua or the Dominican Republic. Costa Rica has already been run up in price by the speculators.
My favorite pearl of wisdom from geoffb’s Sheila Lee link:
In 1997, during a subcommittee briefing, Jackson Lee asked a NASA scientist if the Mars Pathfinder had photographed the flag that Neil Armstrong had left on the moon.
What dumb bimbo were we talking about again?
That “Stuart” woman from a few days ago moved to New Zealand.
Does an “out of the box thinking” thing of any sort mean someone who can solve the nine dot problem, never having seen it, without being told the solution? Or something else?
Okay. Let’s hope for a good lie and break out the proper club. You an iron man at 185 or do you go for a wood?
Carole Mosely Braun could give SJL a run for her money. There’s another one from Stephanie’s neck of the woods, who was pretty execrable as I recall, but I can’t remember her name. She got primaried she was so bad.
Cynthia McKinney! (amazing what google can find off of “conspiracy mongering Georgia Congresswoman”).
Ok,
g’night all.
Tomorrow we go down-town!
Who’s with me?
– There’s a reason they absolutely hate American exceptionalism. Can you think of it?
I was recalling a friend, Joe, (remaining here nameless) who, when standing on the tee and perfectly capable of hitting his driver to a 240 – 250 carry (I’d seen him do that all the time) would, on seeing water only to 185, hit that driver an awful topper or pop it up — having thought himself into it unbidden — with an astounding consistency he could hardly have achieved were he trying. He knew it was coming, yet he could not stop. All he could think was “water”.
When I read someone commenting on this issue, I take their reference to out of the box to mean someone with a foundation in business and not a lawyer or community organizer :eyeroll implied: with some overglazing of the sentiment “not a politician” implying someone not corrupted since their next statements usually are a slam against “politics as usual” and “haven’t these idiots ever run a business” and “we need someone new” dialed up to eleven.
Which is how I’m intending it here. I’m just not sure the commenters have ever really thought through what their demands entail. To which I ask: What qualifications meet this criteria?
Particularly when some fine examples qualified on their vague rant can be tossed into the mix and the response is usually “not qualified.” Which is usually when I go find my hammer, table saw and a nice piece of wood for therapy.
Or my golf bag, which BTW I have no! club that can clear 185 over water. Can I use the women’s tee?
Carol Moseley Braun, saw her in ’92, @ the U of C. Biggest banner and booth on the quads. I went over and registered Republican instead so that I could vote for my first losing presidential ticket.
Should have predicted Obama, sensed him in some way through that experience, shouldn’t I have? Nope. No such luck. Didn’t even care. Wanted to see girls naked, maybe learn some econ and get hammered instead.
Could have been walking around the other side of the midway by the law school getting embarrassing footage that whole time. Blew that opportunity.
All he could think was “water”.
My daughter can hit 185 over water. All it took was the coach telling her to visualize crocodiles and pirahnas and did she want to go in after it? Worked for her getting out of a deep bunker, too. Didn’t work so well for me, but your buddy might try filling the water with nasties and giving it a go.
Qualifications for me are fairly simple. 1) Share my goals. 2) Be willing and able to deliver them.
Both of those are a bit trickier than they appear at first glance. Old blood or new blood.
I once pressed a thought on qualifications Stephanie, that went something like: she is qualified who thinks the job the last thing she would want to do (or he), despite the notion others might have that she knows a great deal about politics as such, or law, or economics or a great deal of detail on what have you (i.e., she’s already a success in some other walk of life).
The idea being: she “doesn’t want the job” or “thinks the job of representing fellow citizens the worst possible job she could have because of a deep knowledge of her own ignorance in general plus the additional burden of the awful responsibility entailed in the act” and could only be pressed into it kicking and screaming. But it was just a thought, rather quickly dismissed.
I agree that I want a candidate to share my goals and be willing and able deliver on them. Also, my ideal candidate would not want the job, just like I would not want the job. However, there is no way in a free society to impel someone who does not want the job to take the job.
I think it would be enough if she wanted the job out of a conviction that the job wanted her, which is, to my mind, the opposite of wanting the job from the age of 13 or thereabouts and planning one’s life accordingly. The problem with your idea sdferr is that if the only people qualified for the job are those that would never, ever seek the job, then you’ll never get anyone qualified running for it.
The idea being: she “doesn’t want the job”
Fred!
Which was one reason why I was on board his short train ride, too.
My qualifications include both of bh’s expanded a bit to include a plain talker that could tell us without BS what the situation is, what we need to do to fix it and what the government is going to sacrifice to get us there.
Said person also able to liberally use the words “that’s bull crap” when asked a BS question from the press or the other side of the aisle. I’ll take them using “bull crap” as I don’t want to lose the old folks and religious folks who might take offense due to personal reasons. Someone good at mocking the talking points of the day rates bonus points, too.
And someone who doesn’t think it is their job to save me from myself or that the government should take on tasks which I should be able to handle.
I was thinking about this as they were going after the GA DOT for not clearing subdivision streets of snow on the news today. WTF couldn’t each household on the street be responsible for the street in front of said household in subdivisions relieving the government to concentrate on Interstates and busy commercial roads and such? That so many are bitching cause they sat home waiting for the government to rescue them so they could go to Walmart and are now demanding that GDOT do whatever to make sure this doesn’t happen again set my nerves on edge. The price tag for new snow equipment for a once in 15 year storm doesn’t pass the good governance test.
it just gets glossed over that you can tune into Fox News just about any given week and watch this woman alternate between babbling incoherently and haltingly mouthing someone else’s words and arguments
I think the idea is social pressure, not legal coercion. You’re needed, and, as a citizen, this is your responsibility.
And, if that didn’t work, it’d probably mean we found the right person. Then you try again, I suppose.
On the other hand, I think there might be something to be said for electing the 535 electors to whom the decision falls, and locking them in a room, conclave-like, until they come out with a decision.
Of course that would require amending the twelfth amendment.
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2238962
Someone’s getting nervous.
It’s true, we couldn’t make someone take it, but we could do our damnedest to persuade them to heed our plea. Or use a golf club. Or worse, threaten to make them play golf.
The major problem as I see it Ernst, is that it would be left up to us citizens to seek them out, choose them, then followed by the pressing persuasion parts above. All of which — in the totality — I have been persuaded is highly unlikely to come to pass.
If that were the case, she should be right up your alley.
That was for our resident Jacobin, in case it’s not contextually clear.
And leave politically motivated pseudo-science to go its merry way, funded, we presume, with tax dollars.
I think the idea is social pressure, not legal coercion. You’re needed, and, as a citizen, this is your responsibility.
Works for my situation above, too. How about a government plan that spells out for the idiots what the government can do… oh wait.
Seriously, we are to the point that we need to spell out the rules for government and civil responsibility and where the bright line is along the lines of “ironing your clothes while wearing them could result in burns.”
The major problem as I see it Ernst, is that it would be left up to us citizens to seek them out, choose them, then followed by the pressing persuasion parts above. All of which — in the totality — I have been persuaded is highly unlikely to come to pass.
Worked for a few of the founding fathers. Washington didn’t want the job. Neither did several others if my civics course was worth a damn. And that is what I was getting at with using citizen politician as a description above.
My gripe at the time I was pushing this goofy idea Stephanie was precisely that Americans have become willy-nilly habituated to accepting every tomdickandharry who comes along self-selected for office. And that in the self-selection, something is already haywire.
haywire indeed
what a mess
You’ll need to execute what I’ll euphemistically refer to as “The Shakespeare Sanction” first.
Evidently the narrative is so controlled by the left that they can offer up candidates like Howard Dean (an MD!!!) Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, John Kerry, Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton…. but Sarah Palin is unqualified.
None of the above mentioned Democrats would be a better President than Palin.
Add the filter of best President for conservative interests and it is a landslaide.
Palin is better than anyone they’ve run in decades, I mean really, how insulting is it that they’ve run “serious” campaigns for Howard fucking Dean?
John Kerry?
Dick Cheney’s 80 year old brass ballsack on heart meds could slap Iran, Venezuela, Boliva, Russia and China back into line within days… but he’s too “extreme”.
Palin would just refer to the giant brass ballsack that the common collective of American people possess and say work with us and we’ll be your best friend…. mess with us and teabag this.
On taxes and regulation, it’s pretty clear to me that she’d do her best to enable businesses and energy do their best…
But she does talk funny and hasn’t read the NYT much. And she didn’t take KATIE COURIC!!!! seriously, because God knows how much I do
I agree, sdferr. And I have found that, at the local level, the best are frequently asked to run and do so and then don’t stay around. Disgust with the process is often cited after having to put up with the self selected. Easier just to go back and improve their business and avoid the trouble. The burnout rate at the local level is high. Those that go far are usually self selected corrupt bastards, so by the time you get to the upper echelons, the ratio sux. And the self selected usually play – what a naive person just getting into politics would view as – “dirty” so the ratio isn’t a gentle curve. More like a hockey stick.
Of course I misspelled landslide…. how dare I expect to be taken seriously when basics like the spelling of “landslide” elude me… God knows there was just a landslide in Brazil’s slums with horrendous loss of the precious lives and the insensitivity of misspelling “landslide” at a time when landslides have killed poor slum dwellers is inexcusable.
I hereby withdraw my candidacy for sewer district.
I think Washington wanted the job Stephanie, even though he did not seek the job; that would have been beneath his dignity.
What we’re all talking about, more or less, is a candidate who offers himself up out of a genuine sense of public duty and not out of self-aggrandizing careerism masquerading as public service.
I heartily endorse SteveG for sewer district. To do otherwise is to let the Palin H8TRZ (that’s how the cool kids spell it, right?) win.
g’night all.
Is the person the problem or is the stances they take the problem? I ask this because of the (MD) OMG!!! they ran an MD.
Isn’t a citizen politician likely to come from any walk of life and having been successful be asked to run to improve the governance of the people asking them to run? The nub of the issue isn’t OMG he’s a doctor, but OMG he’s successful. Which means the proper qualifications we should be selecting for don’t so much include career but success at it? That qualification then gets you to the top of the possibles, but then the real qualifications for a republican becomes a filter that determines whether that successful person is a conservative or democrat. Examine their ideas on the issues. And no answers with polispeak or DQ. IF they best represent an R, then they are run.
I mean Bloomberg is a successful person, but I don’t think he would be considered the 300th best choice to embody the republican platform. But his resume is impressive…
I’m not sure how he got filtered into the Rs to begin with. Wasn’t it that the R path to mayor was easier so I’m running as an R? Some republican.
Ideas matter, not people.
LOL SteveG.. I second the nomination, you may now ascend to the seat. “cue the toilet”
Exhibit A for why careful screening of “citizen politicians” is necessary.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/01/17/schwarzenegger-i-was-addicted-to-being-governor/
The savior of California brought to you by the new and improved, saved by running the savior of CA, California Republican party. Long may they rest in peace.
And no, HF he is not exhibit A in why Palin is not qualified. He had no track record other than campaign contributions and a short stint as Reagan’s Let’s Get Schoolkids Fit program or something. His conservative talk had no record to back it up. Palin OTOH has a track record so she’s way more qualified than Arnold ever was. But he was ingratiated into the establishment R club something wicked.
Palin OTOH has a track record so she’s way more qualified than Arnold ever was
Expand… Palin OTOH has a conservative track record so she’s way more qualified that Arnold ever was to trust that she will push for the republican platform in whatever she decides to do. Arnold was just a muscular Obama without the tan hail mary from a corrupted state party. The California Republican Party didn’t perform due diligence as to his Conservative v Liberal instincts.
Yeah, well sneer and sniff if you want, but at least I wouldn’t vote to put a meter on your sewer system that’d tell us what to charge your ass… and that commonsense comes to you courtesy of a GED
Which is why you and other twits swarm all over the blogosphere repeating the claim over and over and over and over.
Odd, looks more like a frantic attempt to convince those who might support Palin that she’s “unelectable” so they’ll give up on her.
Hmm, you’re a “classical libertarian” who yet parrots the progressive line.
#203
She couldn’t possibly be any worse than what we have now, but I have to keep reminding myself that she really isn’t a conservative.
Comparison: Neither of these cocksure writers has paid any attention to who Sarah Palin actually is. Both are more interested in posturing than in understanding.
Contrast: Koch can write a coherent sentence in English.
Ideas matter, not people.
Totally. (Cue menacing martial lietmotif.)
I guess I would have to say that that would be relative to the idea expressed, and the lives impacted, for better or worse, by the manner in which that idea is put into action.
Washington didn’t want the job.
Washington did not want to leave Mt. Vernon for another 8 years like he did during the war. He did not care for cloying attention. But he wanted the job, both for his own legacy (in the best senee of creating a legacy) and out of a sense of duty.
I have seen similar things. Although I remember seeing a guy scull a three iron that skipped several times (like a flat stone) over a water hazard, bounced up onto the green and into the cup for an eagle.
We must be working from somewhat different definitions.
Optics:
Odd, looks more like a frantic attempt to convince those who might support Palin that she’s “unelectable” so they’ll give up on her.
Sadly enough, it’s working. Millions of our neighbors have been trained to hate the cartoon version of Palin that lives in the heads of Perky Couric, Maddog & Olberdouche, and happyfeet. I fear that the damage already done is more than she’ll ever be able to recover from, which is a big part of the reason why I hope she’ll continue in her present role of motivating people and drawing fire from the usual suspects. They’re expending so much capital on attacking Palin — in terms of shallow arguments and dwindling reputation/audience — that I’m hopeful the next candidate to sprout up will be better able to counter their attacks.
see now you’re casting about for someone to blame
hoochie isn’t even accountable for her own unelectability
Go left, young (metrosexual) man.
I don’t think Palin is particularly presidential (yay, alliteration!) but having made that point once or twice or even thrice, I leave it alone. Because nothing is more detrimental to point-making than tediousness, excepting maybe outright antagonism.
Something you might want to think aboutk, hf. Also, when stating an opinion, it’s best to expound on said opinion, building some logical structure other than the ghost of a proxy of the purported opinions of others, followed closely by some subject-changing mention of what’s for lunch and what music you’re currently listening to. See, when you attempt to foist your opinion on others over and over and over, it’s best (or at the very least: more effective) to at least make some gestures in the direction of convincing others.
Finally, I think that no one who has the taste in music and pop culture that you evince should be throwing darts at someone because of their appeal to the masses. It’s just not a smart argument to be making, and causes some of us to LOL at the irony.
Voter 1: So, who are you going to vote for?
Voter 2: I like Palin, but she’s unelectable, so I guess I’m going with X.
Voter 1: Why do you say she’s unelectable?
Voter 2: Everyone says so.
I just love this race to mediocrity. It’s so fate accompli.
She was extremely electable according to the good folks in Alaska til the ‘unelectable’ meme was launched. Then some of those same folk ran like a herd of reindeer to repudiate their hillbilly ignorance and trumpet their sophistication. Herd mentality not withstanding, they are justifiably proud to have gotten the memo.
There’s a significant difference between the herd who shop at Wal-Mart and the herd who shop at Whole Foods. One is a bunch of no-nonsense Americans looking for the best value for money, and the other is willing to spend absurd sums to dress up the same crap in cutesy, feel-good packaging.
Guess which herd the Sushi Hamster runs with.
That’s not even true Mr. Squid. Most people don’t do their grocery shopping at Whole Foods they supplement their grocery shopping at Whole Foods or buy for specific occasions or just want to try something they saw on the cable show. Or sometimes they’re people who don’t eat a whole lot but are particular about what they eat when they do.
Me I get my produce from a tiny little supermercado in the ghetto and I get my meat from Vallarta, which is also in the ghetto. Dairy I get at Ralph’s. Whole Foods is for side dishes and just walking around with friends mostly. What we need is a Fresh & Easy but they don’t have them in the valley yet I don’t think. It’s sort of a competitor to Trader Joes except hopefully with better parking.
Whole Foods is … just walking around with friends mostly.
The mall on Friday nights for adults. Got it.
“That’s not even true Mr. Squid. Most people don’t do their grocery shopping at Whole Foods they supplement their grocery shopping at Whole Foods or buy for specific occasions or just want to try something they saw on the cable show. Or sometimes they’re people who don’t eat a whole lot but are particular about what they eat when they do.
Me I get my produce from a tiny little supermercado in the ghetto and I get my meat from Vallarta, which is also in the ghetto. Dairy I get at Ralph’s. Whole Foods is for side dishes and just walking around with friends mostly. What we need is a Fresh & Easy but they don’t have them in the valley yet I don’t think. It’s sort of a competitor to Trader Joes except hopefully with better parking.”
That a lot sounds like shopping at Whole Foods is an aspirational venture to you. Sort of like buying a Porsche t-shirt.
You’re a Totebagger, happy. Oh, sure, you call them names and complain, but that’s where you hang out, and those are the people you surround yourself with, and that’s the crowd you’re so desperate to fit in with.
When the undergrads were wearing trucker caps and flannel, you looked on with some bemusement, because they thought they were edgy and ironic. But actual working people who wear trucker caps and flannel because they don’t know any better? Knuckle-dragging hicktards with a penchant for NASCAR, incest, and Palin-worship, the lot of ’em.
You’re a Totebagger, happy. Admit it. Embrace it. Own it.
What Squid said. Really, you’d be a lot happier I think if you just gave in to your deepest impulses and went with them.
What squid is describing is in large part my reality as well, though I’d maybe characterize it a little differently. The difference is that happyfeet is fucking weak and a rather witless follower.
Whole Foods is a fun way to kill time on a nice day when you just want to run around the valley except in LA most of the Whole Foods are really small and crowded not like in Texas or even like in San Jose.
Jeff – I’m no fan of either, but you’ve insulted both Lindsay Graham and metrosexuals by equating them to this compulsive sphinctersniff.
I have some good friends who are originally from Alaska. They loved the show Sarah Palin’s Alaska. They are evangelical Christian and when they speak about Palin they give the trained reflex caveat: “I don’t know if she’d be a good President; but I really like her”
Geez.
None of the democrats that have run have had anything better… and the media swoons. John Kerry?
Anyway I’m checking out of this thread…. happyfeet is a team r squish, I think he should be more respectful to a woman who stepped out into a huge challenge; when called (running for VP) and did no one any harm… but I’m not going hang around to see him get a virtual scourging
Dear God … where is Whack.a.Troll(TM) when you need him? [kneels and prays} SBP … get your ass back here and fix it!