3361

I can’t believe her lack of gun skills are the turning point in some peoples’ minds about her qualifications.

3362

I can, completely. Sarah is their girl. She thinks like them, talks like them, hunts like them, and so on. To find out that she’s not as genuine as she’d like them to believe feels like a betrayal of the first order. Her core supporters don’t care if she confuses North and South Korea–neither is American, and that’s what matters–but they care very much if she can’t shoot.

3363

Yeah, she’s a total fake. I’m surprised she let herself be filmed doing that.

3364

I don’t find it that unreasonable. Given her very obvious lack of political knowledge or leadership ability, her only appeal rests in a “one of us” identification, a belief that she understands the issues that are important to “me” because she’s just like “me”.

Something like this would reveal a) she’s not actually like me, and thus unlikely to understand my problems, and b) she actively portrayed herself as something she wasn’t, so feelings of betrayal, etc.

That being said, I doubt that there are significant numbers of supporters that we actually turned off by the lack of gun handling prowess in the show.

3365

She was nervous! Wouldn’t you be, knowing that you were being filmed for a reality show? Fucking media. THEY SHOULD’VE TURNED THEIR CAMERAS OFF!

3366

Ok, I guess I’m just frustrated by what people project onto politicians and how much they value these feelings. I think about what a fake Bush was–born with a silver spoon in his mouth and raised in Connecticut, but able to convinced half the country he was an ordinary guy that could relate to them and would be fun to sit down and drink a beer with. Or that Obama was born in Kenya and is a secret muslim.

Blarg. I really shouldn’t be crapping up such a wonderful thread with such thoughts. Looks like Sarah Palin’s the choice. Very smart move by McCain.

3367

Do folks on the Left want to see Palin put up as a candidate? It kind of seems like that’s the case.

3368

I know it’s popular gamesmanship to say “yes,” but I wish the electoral process would never, ever put up someone as incompetent as a Palin or even a George W. Bush as a candidate. For either party.

3369

There’s some desire to see a weak candidate from the right, as it implies a comparative coast to victory, sure.

Personally, I’d like to see her run and get trounced in the primary. That would, hopefully, put a bit of a damper on her influence going forward and help the Republican party shift back away from crazyland. If she actually managed to win the primary, even though I can’t forsee a scenario that she’d win in the general, it’s still too close to disaster for my comfort level. I’d really like to see a truly strong legitimate candidate from the right. I want to see a legitimate battle of ideas. The current political and media climate doesn’t make that very likely, though.

3370

Like most things, some do and some don’t. Those who do think she’d be easy to beat. Those who don’t are afraid of what it would mean for the country if she became the nominee of the other major party. Count me in the latter group, though I’m not on the Left.

Edit: beaten to it by others.

3371

This is the thing that pisses me off the most about the behavior of the Republican party since roughly the mid-90’s. From the trumped-up impeachment of Clinton onward, it’s been about party first and winning at any cost, not following the process and trying to find the best solution. It got worse when they lost power in 2008. It’s not just “politics as usual,” we’ve never had this level of filibustering before.

3372

I don’t want to see Palin get nominated by the Republican party. I do, however, want her in the primaries so that Republicans go after her. Her actually getting out of the primaries would be depressing to say the least.

3373

Absolutely not. The two parties always go back to equilibrium and split the country eventually in the long term. Better to get sane candidates on both sides.

3374

3375

Well played.

Does fooey even post anymore?

3376

Nope.

3377

I wouldn’t feel too confident about that. The Republicans have been working hard for two years to demonize Obama; the result (along with a bad economy) is a historic midterm victory and bitter disillusionment among Democrats. Unless this trend reverses there is going to be a considerable number of Independent voters chanting “Anybody But Obama!”, just as Democrats were ready to vote for virtually anyone other than Bush. The possibility that Palin could coast to victory on an anti-Obama wave isn’t implausible, however weak her candidacy would otherwise be.

3378

Romney? Maybe. Palin? No chance. The woman couldn’t stand the scrutiny of an election for a second. Reality tv is perfect for her. She gets to run her mouth on television while the press treats her like the woman with 48 kids or another reality tv empty-head.

3379

If GWB somehow finagled through a constitutional convention and managed to run for a third term, almost everyone on this forum would have voted for George the Curious Monkey instead, a fictional cartoon children’s book character notwithstanding. The Republicans will soon start the wardrums beating to the tune of Anyone But Obama, to the delirious joy of those with “Obama Lied, the Economy Died”* bumper stickers.

  • I feel a bit Nietzschen trying to comprehend that phrase, like staring into the bottomless pit.
3380

Sure, but if you were planning an “Anybody but Obama” campaign for the Republicans, why would you choose Palin, who has a terrible track record and high negatives with those very independent voters?

You wouldn’t. You’d pick someone fresh and new and with a relatively short record who doesn’t bring a lot of baggage with them. There are, after all, hundreds of millions of people who are Not Obama. No reason to saddle yourself with all the negatives Palin brings.

(This is all moot anyway, as Palin has conclusively proved she has no interest in actually serving as President. She’ll run all right, but just long enough to get her TV contracts renewed. Then she’ll flee from the race, blaming the eeeeevil media for being mean to her.)