Continuing on the subject of interesting pics, and shamelessly willing to post whatever it takes to drive traffic (within limits), here’s one I just ran across that encapsulates Sarahmania more than any other I’ve seen. It’s from the same rally as the shot in the previous post, by the way.
Perhaps irrelevantly, doesn’t her smile in this one look a little like that of the nice, attractive girl whose Mom made her go out with the geeky guy, and he’s having an AWESOME time, and she’s gamely trying to see it through, all the while thinking, "Can I plead a headache yet? Would he believe me if I said my father wanted me home by 7:30?"
Speaking of Sarah, I think the coolest shot of her since she came on the scene is the one below that I put on the Monday letters page. It’s emblematic of someone young and new and fresh being sprung on the world. She looks kind of like a smart kid in a spelling bee, standing on the stage, hands at her sides, waiting for the next word with no fear, no fear at all. Botticelli put Venus on the half-shell; a Republican artist would present Sarah Palin to the world this way.
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Bill Clinton was a natural; time will tell if Sarah Palin will inherit his mantle. I’m sure she’ll send it out for a thorough fumigation before she puts it on.
Not to be outdone by her husband joking about an impending hurricane on the eve of the GOP convention, it seems Carol Fowler, Chair of the SC Democratic Party, simply could not pass up an opportunity to stick her foot in her big fat mouth.
According to Ms. Fowler, Sarah Palin’s only qualification for office is that she didn’t abort her Down Syndrome baby. When asked about McCain’s increasingly strong numbers among white women, she stated that “Those white women are Republican women anyway.”
And they wonder why SC is a solidly Republican state!
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0908/SC_Dem_chair_Palin_primary_qualification_is_she_hasnt_had_an_abortion_.html?showall
Brad –
Regarding your favorite pic, an NRO contributor attended the Fairfax County (VA) McCain-Palin rally today and had this observation:
There’s more at the link.
NRO also offers a critique of the WaPo’s coverage of the rally:
JJ – I was speeding up I-81 in VA on my way from Columbia to NoVA this afternoon when I heard that report on a satellite radio channel. I durn near sailed off the road. The Politico reporter who conveyed the report was not the one who spoke with Fowler, but he expressed surprise that it had been uttered, as did the host.
It was a stupid, offensive remark. That she would say such a thing to a reporter from a national media source is astonishing. She has since apologized, but the Obama campaign will lose another day or two handling this eruption.
What’s amazing is that the Republicans are doing a much better job of controlling their message since mid-summer, and the Obama campaign looks as bad as Kerry’s did.
When is bubble girl going to actually face the press? She’s probably too busy replacing the iron curtain in Cheney’s bunker with a shotgun rack and a caribou head. But really folks, isn’t it shameful the way the GOP handlers are hiding her from the tough issues?
Gov. Palin is not hiding from the press. She is to smart to play their stupid game. She knows they like to determine every thing. They will just print lies. Its fun to watch them sweat, isn’t it?
What’s amazing is that the Republicans are doing a much better job of controlling their message since mid-summer, and the Obama campaign looks as bad as Kerry’s did.
-Mike
What’s amazing is how the press eats up all the obvious distraction techniques. McCain’s folks obviously knew what Obama meant with his pig with lipstick comment. Yet they continued to run with it as though it actually had any relevance beyond his intended audience. McCain’s campaign is sinking lower and lower into the gutter with the smear and fear tactics. The press needs to just ignore this stuff and focus on real issues. But they’re too much into this horse race stuff so it won’t happen.
What should be much, much more important is the Palin lie about her role in the bridge to nowhere and the bridge to nowhere sequel. Apparently there’s a billion dollar bridge designed to connect Wasilla to Anchoridge that Palin still supports. Talk about pork. Where is Sanford’s pigs, Pork and Barrel when you need them.
bud –
First, please add some links for your charges so that we can all savor the richness of your sources. Putting them in fancy HTML format is not necessary, you can just copy (Ctrl-C) then from your browser address window and paste (Ctrl-V) them into your comment.
If you want to do the HTML thingy, take a gander at these hints I posted some time ago.
Palin did meet the press, ABC has excerpts and segments ran on ABC earlier and will run on Nightline tonight.
There is some fussing going on in the rightwing blogosphere over misquotes Gibson foisted.
Those were not her exact words: he left off the first two. She said:
And she insisted to Gibson that she had meant to echo Lincoln’s sentiment that the nation was on God’s side. The proof — with video — is here at the progressive Puffington Host.
Duckie, good to see you posting again.
Tell us about Lyin’ Miss Sarah’s administration charging rape victims for their rape examination kits.
The state legislature had to pass a law in Alaska to ban local governments from continuing to do so as Lyin’ Miss Sarah’s city had done.
Since when did Clinton supporters suddenly start caring about rape victims?
Mike,
Getreligion.org has had a series of serious posts about how coverage of the Palin thing is being wildly and willfully distorted. See, for example ”The Shelf Life of Bad Reporting” on the CNN debacle. Such rabid snarling is bound to backfire at some point, though I think some of the attack dogs are beginning to back off.
There is no way to discuss real issues then this sort of mudslinging is going on.
Herb –
Thanks for the link. I’m puzzled by Gibson’s misquote and am not sure whether he or some nameless but politically active researcher left off the first two words of the sentence, transforming a reasonable and Linconesque (not in terms of simplicity and elegance, but just modesty) concept into a jihad-like statement. At least she had the wit to quibble.
The folks on the left are making some pretty big mistakes in their attacks and it will cost them at the polls. First, they come across as elitists, Obama with his ego is the biggest offender. Obama does not come from the sort of privileged background that McCain does, but he looks, acts, and, apologies to Guero, quacks like an elitist. Here’s a Democrat fundraiser who explains quite well Obama’s and his supporters’ conceivably fatal error in looking down their noses.
That elitist attitude has convinced them that they and their candidate are undoubtedly superior to the “common” Palin, completely ignoring the fact demonstrated by archival videos of speeches and debates that she’s got the common touch, she connects with her audience of common folks who show up for work on time, do their jobs reasonably well, and head on home to their family and that whole set of joys and challenges. Obama and crew end up generating the impression of pompous jerks dismissing a capable individual of common origin.
Put politics aside for a moment and focus on personality like a lot of folks in what’s called “the middle” will. While lots of folks like the idea of a black president, do they like Obama, and the condescending manner he at times adopts? Do they perhaps like Palin, the person who happens to be a woman, more? Think Ike versus Adlai Stevenson (“I like Ike”) or Dewey and Truman. Then add to the mix the predictable Republican emphasis on terrorism and security, and think “Bambi versus Godzilla.” You’ll find that folks will think of Obama as Bambi to Palin’s Godzilla.
Cak continues with the hypocrisy.
“elitist” as in not knowing how many houses you own? Or suggesting “the economic crisis is in our heads”?
Obama was in the trenches as a community organizer when he could have been working at a powerful law office (or working at Daddy’s brewery or chairing a 527 for a crooked senator) while writing checks for charity as his good deed for the day. This elitist tag is more tiresome GOP rhetoric because the issues are a losing proposition for McCain.
If you want to see elitism in action, take a look at the lilly white GOP convention or the McCain campaign staffed by corporate lobbyists, or look at the tax cuts given to the wealthy (those making 5 million or more)during a time of war.
Keeping putting that lipstick on the pig, Cak.
I feel much safer about putting the future of our country in Sarah Palin’s hands despite some minor flaws.
She didn’t know what the Bush Doctrine is even though it’s been our fundamental foreign policy approach for the past 7 years.
She talks about war with Russia as we defend Georgia.
She hemmed and hawed about whether we could strike terrorists in Pakistan (even though we are doing that already).
Despite all that, she has ideas about energy policy, can see Russia from her state, and had a “life changing” experience in her one trip out of North America. WHEW, I feel much better…
We certainly need to discuss Palin’s views, but right now there is so much smoke being generated about what she allegedly said (but didn’t say) that it’s hard to trust anybody’s reporting. If the journalists are manufacturing “truth,” what do we have to go on?
I just wish everybody would calm down, and we could ascertain what she really thinks and says. I have the feeling that she is being pre- because she doesn’t fit in everybody’s categories. I’m not making any decisions until I can get beyond all that and hear her out.
That should have read “pre-judged.”
As someone has pointed out, there is a difference between praying that God’s will be done, and claiming that it ish. The AP report on Palin is totally off.
Mike, all your points went out the window last night with Palin’s Gibson interview. She is hopelessly unprepared for the presidency. She didn’t have a clue what the Bush Doctrine is. Do we really need another My Pet Goat president. She may be able to relate to the common man and but what we need is someone who’s intelligent and well versed on the issues. Sarah Palin is simply not up to the job.
And just think – Palin is so much smarter, informed, and experienced than Obama or Biden.
Herb, there are QUOTES from Palin, in full context.
From the Alaska Buisness: ABM: We’ve lost a lot of Alaska’s military members to the war in Iraq. How do you feel about sending more troops into battle, as President Bush is suggesting?
Palin: I’ve been so focused on state government, I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq.
ABC News: she was clueless about the Bush doctrine – the ideology that in the long run resulted in her son being shipped out to Iraq (the video clips of that part of the interview are ubiquitous).
You and Cak would like people to take a step back and giver her a pass…
Sarah Palin is more focused and knowledgable about the war in Iraq that Obama is.
More importantly, Obama has been raised as a Muslim, and financed by Muslims, Black Panther, Black Muslims, and those with terrorist connections for most of his life.
Sarah Palin is pure, patriotic American.
Randy, I’m not asking for a pass on Palin, but if people like Charlie Gibson throw around words like “holy war,” which she never said, nor intended to say, then that is just plain wrong reporting, and very much intended to distort.
That won’t work, any more than Lee inventing his “facts” won’t work. It just drives a sympathy vote, and we don’t need that.
Quite frankly, I’ve been swamped with stuff, with no time to read up on her views, nor do the sentences you quote give adequate context. I haven’t written off any of the candidates yet, but I intend to make my decisions based on adequate reading of what she said, in what context, and in answer to what questions. That includes the whole text of interviews, and not just little snippets, and preferably interviews by people who have some journalistic fairness in their blood.
What’s more, I have time to do that. It’s not like we are voting tomorrow. Whatever happened to intelligent, analytical discourse? What are you people in a hurry to do? Why the lynch mob? The media has been going for the jugular, as intelligent media people themselves are pointing out.
It is pretty obvious that she lacks a lot of experience, and that is most likely a great disadvantage. But I have also been around enough “experts” to know that well–they are sometimes not nearly as smart as they think they are.
It seems that some think she must be some kind of weirdo, because she used to belong to what many people think is a “fringe” denomination. Well, it may be news to everybody, but the Pentecostal movement is spreading rapidly world-wide, and they are actually normal people.
Gibson’s cheap shot proves that he doesn’t know what the Bush Doctrine is.
The good news is that the arrogant and condescending Gibson came across as somewhat arrogant and condescending.
Contrast Gibson’s Palin interview with his Obama interview. I can’t find a video right now, but one critic characterized Gibson’s approach as empathetic.
Aha! It’s finally up. The Hammer created the “Bush Doctrine” and explains what it is. Gibson and the New York Times got it wrong. Krauthammer identified the four meanings it has taken on over time.
It is not the right of anticipatory self-defense; that was the third meaning. The current meaning is this:
Krauthammer concludes as follows:
The rest is herstory…
I am sick and tired of lines like this:
Clearly Palin is out of the mainstream on abortion and feminism, but I would imagine that she still has a claim to womanhood.
Regarding Palin’s comments about “God’s will,” a Catholic minister wrote the following commentary :
Herb –
As it turns out, Gibson did grant her point about Lincoln’s words (hoping we’re on God’s side) but his acknowledgement was edited out. The part edited out is in bold below:
The transcript is here.
If Palin had any knowledge about US international policy under the current cowboy administration aside from her cram session the past two weeks, she could have answered Gibson’s question about the Bush Doctrine with some intelligence – perhaps even challenging him on the actual meaning. Instead, she did a rhetorical jig like a high school student fumbling for an answer in class because she didn’t do her homework.
To date we have learned that she is ready to be commander in chief because her state is close to Russia, she has ideas about energy policy, Gibson is biased, and Obama was a community organizer. I would like to hear Mike Cak or some other cheerleader offer up case showing her competence without having to cite Obama. My bet is a person would immediately attack Obama to make the case for her.
Obama failed as a community organizer.
In contrast to Palin’s many achievements, most of the housing projects which Obama worked on as a community organizer failed. Many are shuttered. Millions of tax dollars were funnelled into contracts given the Nation of Islam and Mr. Rezko for lots of these failed projects.
Charlie Gibson doesn’t know what the “Bush Doctrine” is. Actually, there is no such thing. It is a fabrication of the liberal media.