UPDATE: More Alaska response at Mudflats. And for those of you who’d like to dig a little further, click on the Sarah Palin topic link and start scrolling.
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Oh-key, dokie, and what do those in Alaska think of Sarah P? Popular, yes, but not quite the 90-percent approval rating we’ve been hearing so much about today. It seems there are one or two (or eight) interesting things one might want to know about our new VP gal Sarah.
Here, for instance, is today’s post from one of Alaska’s popular political blogs, Mudflats. I’m just going to post the first few ‘graphs, but be sure to click through and read about Divorced Troopergate.
“Is this a joke?” That seemed to be the question du jour when my phone started ringing off the hook at 6:45am here in Alaska. I mean, we’re sort of excited that our humble state has gotten some kind of national ‘nod’….but seriously? Sarah Palin for Vice President? Yes, she’s a popular governor. Her all time high approval rating hovered around 90% at one point. But bear in mind that the 90% approval rating came from one of the most conservative, and reddest-of-the-red states out there. And that approval rating came before a series of events that have lead many Alaskans to question the governor’s once pristine image.
There is no doubt in my mind that many Alaskans are feeling pretty excited about this. But we live in our own little bubble up here, and most of the attention we get is because of The Bridge to Nowhere, polar bears, the indictment of Ted Stevens, and the ongoing investigation and conviction of the string of legislators and oil executives who literally called themselves “The Corrupt Bastards Club”.
So seeing our governor out there in the national spotlight accepting the nomination for Vice Presidential candidate is just downright surreal.
[HUMUNGOUS CLIP]
…if McCain had made his selection six months ago, the squeaky-clean governor meme would have made a little more sense. But, Sarah Palin is currently under an ethics investigation by the Alaska state legislature. The details of this investigation read like a trashy novel, and I suspect that the players will soon have newfound celebrity on the national stage. I’ll try to explain for all you non-Alaskans who suddenly have good reason to want to know more about Sarah Palin. For those of you not interested in trashy novels, feel free to skip ahead. Here it is…what we in Alaska call “TrooperGate”.
VETTING PALIN: Andrea Mitchel Says McCain Has Only Met Palin Once… Palin: What Exactly Does The VP Do Everyday?… McCain Spokeswoman: I Have No Idea What McCain’s Relationship Is With Palin…
Gallup Daily: Obama Stretches Lead to 8 Points.
Wow! All the people, experienced professional people (and I’m not even a Republican), that McSame had to chose from.
First off Condi Rice, Joe Leiberman, Colin Powell, Mitt Romney (oh well an air head but somewhat experienced), Gen Petraeus, Lindsey Grahm, and on and on, and who does he select to replace him if he goes Davey Jones locker on us,
Dan Quale in drag, in way over her head and looks it.
I hope she doesn’t try to teach school kids how to spell Potatoe!
Joseph Mailander at his blog – Street-Hassle, has an insightful post on Sarah Palin.
It doesn’t take long for the Democrats to start throwing mud.
One more quirky side note to throw into the mix, Celeste.
It is suspected that Elephantman may haunt Glenn Greenwald’s threads under that name. But, who knows.
Woody, it doesn’t take long for Republican’s to start throwing mud.
Adam C., Republicans are not allowed to criticize Obama, because you guys say that it is racist. Now, quit attacking Palin, you feminist hating pig.
I heard Romney has been in shock at not being picked, he thought it was a done deal for him. He is NOT going to be in McCain’s Cabinet either, Romney is dispised by the McCain camp for his lowball sleazy tactics during the primaries and after as he shamelessly pushed himself on McCain. Romney and his hacks are gone They have officially become eunuchs in the GOP party, no juice no clout no future.
Webster, McCain recognized that Democrats may vote enthusiastically for a Muslim, but they would never accept a Mormon.
Now, Celeste, when are you going to cover the fashions of Gov. Palin?
Don’t worry, Woody. I’ll get there. (I have an entire essay’s worth of comments on hair alone.)
The notion that Palin will bolster McCain’s appeal to moderates is going to fall apart rather quickly as folks get to know her. Among other things, she’s the pick of the Limbaugh wing of the GOP – dimwits and nutcases like Kathryn Jean Lopez at NRO are slobbering over her – while sober types like David Frum are appalled. More interesting, Palin and her husband were Pat Buchanan supporters not just in ’96 but as late as 1999. I don’t remember the exact terms of Buchanan’s effort in the year prior to the 2000 race, but if that support for Buchanan held, it means that Palin didn’t vote for George Bush (God bless her) but for Third Party Pat. This puts her at the outermost margins of rightwing ideology. Pretty much “crank” territory on some central issues. She’s an anti-abortion absolutist – which is fine as a personal choice – but opposing exceptions even for rape and incest defines extremism on this one.
Buchanan seems to like her personally – frankly I sort of like her personally, although I certainly wouldn’t want her on my city council or even active in my PTA – but he was pretty clear that this is coming from left…or, uh…right field: “I think this is the biggest political gamble, just about, in all of American history.â€Â
See today’s WaPo for the start of the free rectal exam that the media will give Sarah and her hubby – can you say “Geraldine Ferraro?” The “Troopergate” story is just the sort of trivial but juicy bit they love and it has everything but adultery – a bitter divorce, a sister’s wrath, a sexually harrassing appointee – and lies, lies, lies. And what about her spouse’s oil deals. Oh this will be fun.
But Sarah has a plus – Don Imus calls her a “Slutty Librarian” and she’s invented a new category – VPILF!
Don’t you find it amazing that Woody complains about cheap shots here?
I can’t let that “Mormon” crack go unrebuted. One of the reasons Mitt didn’t win in the primaries was the belief – widespread among the GOP’s fundie base – that Mormons are a anti-Christian cult.
McCain’s choice of Palin is an insult to the women in his party – he could have chosen Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Susan Collins or Olympia Snowe, but he went for a neophyte as a pander more to the far-right Limbaugh-leaning base than to women. Limbaugh’s been pushing Palin for weeks, which would be poison to any sane person. Media celebrity “John McCain” is officially dead. What we’ve got is a guy whose chosen t o do the rest of his time as a presidential candiate in a 5X5 cell as captive of his party’s most extreme ideologues.
Okay,RLC, I’d been avoiding any remarks about the slutty libarian hair—which I would have discribed slightly differently as—although I am disliking Palin more and more and more as I get to know her (wants creationism taught in schools and hunts wolves and bears from helicopters, are you fucking kidding me?!)—I actually like the off-kilter Marian-the-Librarian do that screams “Ask me to take my hair down, baby.”
VPILF! Perfect.
Scholars question Palin credentials. Historians say she’s the least experienced person on a modern ticket. “I think she is the most inexperienced person on a major party ticket in modern history,†said presidential historian Matthew Dallek.
That includes Spiro T. Agnew, Richard Nixon’s first vice president, who was governor of a medium-sized state, Maryland, for two years, and before that, executive of suburban Baltimore County, the expansive jurisdiction that borders and exceeds in population the city of Baltimore.
It also includes George H.W. Bush’s vice president, Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle, who had served in the House and Senate for 12 years before taking office. And it also includes New York Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, who served three terms in the House before Walter Mondale chose her in 1984 as the first woman candidate on a major party ticket.
The Palin pick changes the storyline away from Senator’s magnificent speech and might limit Senator Obama’s convention bump somewhat, but it doesn’t change the underlying fundamentals of the race: This is still Senator Obama’s campaign to lose.
I think this looks like what it is – a political pick. Maybe she can win over conservative voters and maybe she’ll make inroads with women, goes the thinking at the McCain campaign. While I think she will give a boost among conservative voters (and is certainly a better choice than Leiberman), I suspect Palin will offend at least as many women as she impresses. Women are often sensitive to the promotion of young, inexperienced, and, wait for it, attractive women. I’m not saying it’s fair, but I think it’s real. Meanwhile, for all my problems with Hillary Clinton, she earned her reputation as a heavyweight and worked very hard to position herself as tough and knowledgable. Palin’s not going to stack up well.
Hunts from a helicopter ? I don’t have any problem with hunting, but that’s creepy.
Rasmussen:
Palin ready to be President ?
Men, 35% yes, 41% no, 25% don’t know.
Women: 25% yes, 48% no, 29% don’t know.
Looks like this bullshit won’t work if it was aimed at women.
Details of TrooperGate here:
http://tinyurl.com/55zc4z
Looks like she lied about pressuring the guy she eventually fired for not firing her ex-brother-in-law. Without much of a resume and an emphasis on her person and “ethics” image, the details of this mess are going to loom larger than they normally would.
The Palin pick was an unexpected move to shake the race up. If the McCain campaign had been satisfied by the current trajectory of the campaign, Romney or Pawlenty would have been tapped. Instead McCain went for a higher risk/higher reward choice, in the hopes that the history making move will help re-establish his maverick identity and appeal to voters excited about the idea of a woman on the ticket. In exchange, McCain ceded the experience argument against Obama and brought questions about his own health and age into play. Governor Palin has a compelling biography but has never been in the national spotlight. Much will depend on her actual performance — she better know who the President of Georgia is in time for the first journalist’s pop quiz — and on what the media’s vetters and the Obama campaign find when they arrive in Alaska.
Any woman who participated in “beauty contests” in the late ’70s and early ’80s where women are paraded around like pieces of USDA beef does not deserve to be president of the United States.
Palin is a game-changer:
Rasmussen – Among undecideds, the Palin pick made only 6 percent more likely to vote for McCain; and it made 31 percent less likely to vote for him. 49 percent said it would have no impact, and 15 percent remained unsure. More to the point: among undecideds, 59 percent said Palin was unready to be president. Only 6 percent said she was. (Daily Dish)
Top Alaska Republicans on Palin:
“She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?” said Lyda Green, the president of the State Senate, a Republican from Palin’s hometown of Wasilla. “Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?”
Another top Republican, John Harris, the speaker of the House, when asked about her qualifications for Veep, replied with this: “She’s old enough. She’s a U.S. citizen.”
Class:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKkydrUnBZE
Bush was the governor of Texas and it taught him nothing on how to run this country.Candidate Bush seem to not much care or know about foreign affairs when he was running for President. Palin is the governor of state with the population of 700,000.I live in Michigan and that is the population of our largest city Detroit..Palin does know anything or seem to care about foreign affairs like Bush.Palin is the woman version of Bush and look how well that has worked out for this country.
Lyda Green IS a bitch, just like Nancy Pelosi was to Hillary. Nothing bitchier than a “feminista” of a certain age who’s happy to help up a little sister as long as she’s way down on the rungs, but let her come close to her or bypass her and she’s got her leg out trying to trip her up and knock her down. Nancy’s jealousy endeavored to ensure Hillary didn’t get the nod — remember how she kept trying to push her out earlier, and mobilized the delegates to support Obama even when Hillary was winning elections — and she set the rules of this game, to see how low each side could go in “experience” in favor of “change.” Nancy sacrificed a sure success for her party — all polls showed Hillary/Obama a winning ticket — for personal reasons.
McCain made a mistake in playing by Pelosi/Howard Dean’s rules, instead of picking a more qualified, unknown female or Condi. Another middle-aged or older white guy wouldn’t have cut it, would have seemed too boring on the face of it. (Wonder if he ever approached Condi?) The ones that other bitch Boxer suggests should have been picked ARE those that might have taken some Hillary votes, but not the right-wing, evangelicals and blue-collars McCain’s weak on.
Sarah: Any woman who participated in “beauty contests†in the late ’70s and early ’80s where women are paraded around like pieces of USDA beef does not deserve to be president of the United States.
Do you feel similar about a perky college cheerleader who flaunted her body and smile in front of tens of thousands in the 1960’s, but who is a journalist today?
“Hate…” – I’m dead certain that Lyda Green could reasonably be called a “bitch” – the problem with that radio interview is that for Palin to giggle- particularly with the the “cancer” attached to the shock-jock crap – rather than redeem the distasteful moment says more about Palin than it says about Green. Beyond that, you’re off on your own little trip and it’s not worth bothering to comment.
Incidentally, to blame Pelosi for Hillary’s loss, rather than Hillary’s own manifest, serial missteps and exceedingly poor judgement in putting together and managing her campaign team and strategy, is truly bonkers.