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TechnoratiSarah Palin's Extreme Sports
Ever since Andrew Johnson welcomed the New York Mutuals to the White House in 1867, presidential politics has exploited professional sports. It's a foolproof way for politicians to show voters they enjoy competition, fair play and are salt-of-the-turf Americans.
Sports signifies different things to different voters. Football (JFK) and baseball (George H.W. Bush) are good. Windsurfing (John Kerry) and hunting "varmints" (Mitt Romney)--not always so good. And no candidate should ever bowl in a necktie, unless he can seriously roll.
Barack Obama's game is basketball. He shot three-point baskets with the troops in Iraq and his high school b-ball videos have become a YouTube sensation.
During the campaign Obama has appeared on sports radio, including a cameo last week on ESPN's Mike and Mike in the Morning. He earned cheers from co-host Mike Golic by saying, tongue-in-cheek, "I would have my attorney general investigate the possibility of instituting a college football playoff system through executive order. I'm tired of this nonsense at the end of every college football season."
A month earlier, John McCain made his own ESPN appearance. He's also known to work the crowds at NASCAR events. But no one in this election uses sports like Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. At times on the campaign trail, sports is her primary form of communication with voters outside of her narrow, Christian fundamentalist base. Communication is critical for Palin, since she mangles the English language so consistently that she's become the subject of ridicule. Talking sports--whether as a mom on the sidelines of her kids' hockey games or a as an outdoorswoman who loves to hunt and fish--gives her the opportunity to seem genuine, friendly and accessible.
Palin's politics may be beyond the fringe, but her sporting interests are effortlessly mainstream. In this sense, she resembles the current occupant of the White House. George W. Bush built his public persona as the owner of the Texas Rangers. When asked for an example of a political mistake, he would speak with a smirk about trading Sammy Sosa. The press and the public let him get away with this blather and the country has been worse off because of it. Palin has the most extensive sports resumé for a politician since former Representative Steve Largent. But unlike Largent, an NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver, Palin's sporting bona fides are more style than substance.
Palin was introduced to the country as "Sarah Barracuda," the former high school point guard who led her team to a state championship, a fact McCain actually uses as an argument to tout her experience.
She is, as Fred Thompson said at the RNC, "The only candidate who can field dress a moose." She worked as a sports reporter for KTUU, Anchorage's NBC affiliate, and once dreamed of being a reporter for ESPN (although according to the campaign, her daughter's name, Bristol, is not in fact a tribute to ESPN's Bristol, Connecticut, headquarters.) She told Katie Couric that her favorite movies were the sports flicks Rudy and Hoosiers, although she claims she only loved the endings. She likes to shoot caribou from a plane, a fact that made Chris Rock wonder why she walks free, while Michael Vick is in jail.
Sarah Palin has made every effort to embody all that is rugged and real. It turns out she is a breathtaking fraud.
Palin speaks about being Joe Six-Pack when in reality she's Jane Champagne, with a net worth over $1 million. As the Washington Times reported, "A check of financial records...shows the Palins live anything but a common life when compared with their fellow residents of their hometown of Wasilla. Their combined income of nearly a quarter-million dollars last year was five times the median household income for Wasilla's 7,000 residents. They own a single-engine plane, two boats, two personal watercraft and a half-million-dollar, custom-built home on a lake that is worth three times the average of other homes in town."
Palin spoke at last Thursday's debate with a collection of folksy "you betchas," but, as conservative Obama supporter Andrew Sullivan pointed out, "Just compare this recording of Palin in Alaska in 2006 to what you heard last night. Ask yourself where the folksiness is. See how many times she says 'doggone' in 2006. Or 'betcha.' Or 'Joe Six-Pack.' "
Palin uses sports the same way she uses her looks and language, which have turned the blog corner at National Review into something like the Penthouse Forum. The simple truth that Palin is Bush with lip-gloss, the only difference being that she was a better athlete than the former Yale cheerleader. She is still the same person who was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at her high school. FCA is a group whose stated mission is to "use the powerful medium of athletics to impact the world for Jesus Christ." Substitute "politics" for "athletics," and we have Palin. But it isn't just about spreading the word of God.
It's about the right-wing edge of the fundamentalist movement that uses sports to mask a political agenda of creationism, bigotry, environmental catastrophe and deregulation. And if that leads to the "end-times," then so it was written. If sports teaches us anything, it's that you can disguise a lousy competitor for one round, one quarter or one inning, but the truth has a way of making itself known. There is a reason Sarah Palin hasn't done a press conference. In every conceivable way, she belongs in the minors: strictly Bush league.
67 Comments so far
Show AllUnfortunately, no amount of proof of corruption, felonious behavior, adultery, drug or alcohol addictions, lying or any other form of turpitude is enough to dissuade the radical Republican redneck religious right from its support of those who have brought us to such a low estate economically, environmentally, militarily, constitutionally, internationally or domestically. The stupider the candidate, from Reagan onwards, the more they love him or her. The more anti-scientific, superstitious, ignorant and devious, the better.
Alex
My fellow Prisoners - LOL!
Palin is going to be dropping the puck at the next Flyer's game - the ratio of boos to cheers should tell us who watches hockey in Philadelphia. One of the comments to the story wondered whether the Flyer establishment supported Palin's views.
Harland Colts new album - One Heart Beat Away (including a duet with Sarah Palin - who makes a good point for once):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Dxps8fwp0
Hey Sarah Palin (with lyrics/subtitles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DIc8jdra0o
"Hey Sarah Palin, do you tell them in Wasilla
That 4,000 years ago we roamed the planet with Godzilla
Is it true
I am so xxxxing scared of you
As number 2
Hey Sarah Palin, I think Alaska's very pretty
But just 100,000 people more than Oklahoma City
Yes it's true
Go look it up, I'm telling you
Oh man, were through"
The most important difference between blind Patriotism (ex. Republicans can do no wrong) and blind sports fanaticism is that sports teams generally don't start wars.
"So, how many hours for McCain?"
Not so many, actually: mortician cosmetologists are fast!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Let's elect Obama and support Progressive Democrats of America http://pdamerica.org to convince him that progressive policies make sense and resonate with people's ultimate desire for peace, sustainability, and responsible economics.
LOL.........I wonder what the Crypt Keeper McCain was doing, wandering around while Obama was speaking at the Town Hall Meeting Tuesday night. The poor fool, like all Rethuglicans, has no manners whatsoever and doesn't believe anyone else has the right to speak if they don't goose-step along with them, the Brown Shirts. They constantly interrupt and speak loudly to drown the opposition out. McCain called Obama "That one" while pointing a finger at Obama and jumped back and refused to shake Obama's outstretched hand at the end of the "debate." God almighty --- McCain is a no-class idiot. I guess he thought his withered old white hand was too good for Obama's.
Obama exites crowds. Palin incites crowds.
Who would you rather have as a national leader.
I'm not one of those who feel like also rallying against the road that America may find itself on.
— Sarah Palin Fictional Quote Generator v1.0
palinquotes.sillycloud.com/
This is about the level of serious consideration that Palin deserves.
If God is such a big supporter of Sarah Palin, He needs to pay more attention and give her some smarts right quick. For a video that trashes Alaska Barbie, go to http://www.youtube.com/Eskit99 and scroll down to “Sarah Palin Music Video”.
amy goodmans an alarmist commy, and anybody that listens to her crap is a fool.
And you are a bigoted sexist with room temperature IQ?
Amy Goodman's far better than rightwing looney tunes such as Rush Limbaugh and Neil Boortz or for that matter Faux Noise. Which do you prefer?
McCain Loses It: Calls Americans “My fellow prisoners”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYFm5kK4f1k
lolol
For once in his life McCain told the truth!
Since the 700 billion dollar swindle, "prisoners" is pretty close.
I don't see how he expects to reach out to moderate or independent voters like that.
So maybe Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin should go a little 2 on 2 roundball for the Presidency?
Palin's winking at joe six pack during her debate with Biden reminded me of a street walker! What an insult to REAL christian's. I am not a fan of the otherside, but girrrrl, you need to clean up your ways. The more she speaks,
it obvious that she lacks substance.
And what's wrong with street walkers?
The term today is "working girl".
How about her favorite quote, "Drill baby drill." Whew! Did she think she was talking to her husband or Brad Hanson instead of Joe Biden or what.
WTF -
I think your assessment of Palin's character type and dynamics are on the mark.
To me, it's the intensity of Palin's narcissistic traits that reveal her clinical-level pathology:
- blatant interpersonal manipulativeness [a compulsive form of lying rooted in obsessive fear of rejection]; coupled with and compensated for by
-ultra rigid compartmentalization of ethical values [viz: I must teach other people to be humane and moral in order to make up for me secretly not being so.]
These character traits, even modestly manifest, would mark anyone as dangerously unfit to hold public power. In Palin, god help us, they radiate outward with such a persona sheen as to blind millions of commercially-literated political consumers into seeing nothing but 'savvy,' 'noble determination,' and 'positive brand identification.'
I was surprised to read Sioux Rose's response comment that "...such persons are not especially harmful.." Though Sioux quickly recognized in her next sentence that "To put one of this ilk into high office is tantamount to criminal intent."
Strange to behold: In a hyper-commercialized culture like ours, it's become a cinch to get millions of people to embody such criminal intent toward themselves.
Dilly dilly willy willy spotes dilly willy hunting dilly willy Jesus dilly willy willy dilly me be pwesident someday so like Jesus we can kil them all and let God sort 'em out.
Thank you, Mrs. Palin, you'll do.
- Sarah Palin's interview with John McCain concerning whether or not she should be his running mate.
To further indulge in sports metaphor, I consider that the Katie Couric interview and the VP debate have pretty much exposed Sarah Palin for what most folks sensed she was on the day McCain announced his selection - not a light weight, but only a middle weight at best.
Still, she has perfected an energized, sexy, semi-ditzy speaking style and public personna that to a great degree is working just like the McCain campaign spin meisters hoped it would: Governor Palin's presence on the GOP ticket masks her subliminal enhancement of the Bradley effect upon white voters.
White female voters can self-justify a vote for Sarah Palin as a pro-woman vote, not a racist vote or an anti-male vote.
White male voters can self-justify a vote for Sarah Palin as a pro-my-kind-of-a-woman vote, not a racist vote.
To me, Sarah Palin appears to be approximately equivalent to George W. Bush in genuine intellect and cosmetic political skills. But to most of the GOP base and the McCain campaign's target demographic groups, that's just fine: the same folks who rant against George W are now not only elitist, but sexist to boot.
Yes, the bar has been set that low.
Dave Zirin is right that over the long haul phonies do get exposed, even though you can disguise "a lousy competitor for one round, one quarter or one inning, but the truth has a way of making itself known."
That's precisely why Sarah Barracuda was activated and brought up from Double AA after the regular season was over, like the rookie reliever with the unorthodox delivery added to the big club just in time for the Series.
Given the short time remaining, maybe the stunt will work.
Bill from Saginaw
.Nope, lightweight for certain...Quie possibly crazy as a bedbug too....
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
I wonder where Palin's million dollar net worth came from? I dont think being Mayor of Wasalla pays that much...
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Why is Palin "palling around" with Russians and polar bears?
Why did McCain "Pal Around" with the Viet Cong for 5 years and help them with their war effort?
If Ayers is a domestic terrorist...somebody arrest him!!
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
I believe that McCain was a prisoner of the North Vietnamese and not the Viet Cong. Can't we at least get our facts straight before posting?
palin wouldn't have received the positive adoration if she had been a man, imagine a 40ish looking man who was the governor of alaska, w/ close ties to the oil industry, who is a rabid fundamentalist (6000 yr old universe, evolution is flawed theory , americans are exceptional, we all are part of god's plan);
would this person be able to hunch over the podium stare into america's eyes, smile and then wink and giggle during a VP debate. or say from the beginning of the event - ya know, i'm not going to answer your questions, i've only been at this for 5 weeks, ok?
sarah's getting big breaks from the public and MSM b/c clinton ran such an effective campaign earlier in the year during the primaries and because america has become the land of reality television where many uneducated people live for 'dancin w/ the stars' or 'american idol'. our land has become the usa of vonnegut's 'harrison bergeron',
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron
where the protagonist (a future manager) gets the good fortune of being able to call a person randomly selected in the country, to inform them they are the next president of the country.
sarah palin's entire career was created for this one season run of 'election 2008'
the fact that many 18 yr olds in america are more intelligent and sincere than palin, only amplifies her appeal - her 'one of our own' attraction to billy-ray-jim-bob and his wife and children, who honestly believe simon from 'american idol' has better judgment than say larry tribe from harvard and that jesus is gettin ready to drop out of the sky as the shit hits the fan -and it is hitting the fan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Tribe
{..."Tribe was considered a potential Supreme Court nominee until he testified against Robert Bork, making lasting enemies in the U.S. Senate (although he supported Anthony Kennedy who was eventually appointed in Bork's place). His protege, Kathleen Sullivan, is now thought of by many as a potential Court nominee if a Democrat takes the White House; he has called her "the most extraordinary student I had ever had."[1] Tribe continues to strongly support liberal political causes. He is one of the co-founders of the liberal American Constitution Society, the law and policy organization formed to counter the conservative and libertarian Federalist Society.He is actively supporting the candidacy of Barack Obama, and describes Obama as "the best student I ever had."[2][3"}
who's it going to be america ? larry tribe on the supreme court or simon from american idol as UN ambassador.
it's a tough call considering 1/2 the people in this country decided twice to accept/endorse the decider.
...peace...
And this constant obsession with Palin shows the real lack of any substance from the Democrats. No one cares. I can't think of any election that's ever turned on who the vice President would be. Heck, Bush Sr. got elected with Dan Quayle running with him, so that shows how little this matters.
Why don't the Democrats talk about the issues? Well, 75% of the American people oppose the bailout, but Obama stands with McCain and all their Wall St buddies on that one. 75% of the American people want the wars to end, but Obama stands with McCain on that one in demanding that we continue the wars and expand them during his term. A big majority wants some sort of single-payer health care, but Obama stands with McCain in opposing that. Americans want us to stop sending our good jobs overseas to make more corporate profits, but Obama stands with McCain on that one too.
I guess all the Dems have to talk about is more Palin jokes. That just shows how pitiful the Dems have become as a party.
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
Samson October 8th, 2008 3:06 pm: "75% of the American people want the wars to end, but Obama stands with McCain on that one in demanding that we continue the wars and expand them during his term. A big majority wants some sort of single-payer health care, but Obama stands with McCain in opposing that. Americans want us to stop sending our good jobs overseas to make more corporate profits, but Obama stands with McCain on that one too."
Samson, this is a triple play of error: 1.) Obama has said repeatedly he is going to end the war in Iraq and have the troops out in 16 months; McCain will stay indefinitely until we achieve 'victory.' 2.) Obama supports universal health care, but knows it won't pass Congress, so he has proposed a stop-gap health care plan that will cover all Americans; McCain has this goofy $5K 'rebatable' health care refund that he will then turn around and level taxes on -- if you are making a salary of $30K, under McCain's plan you will be taxed as if you earn $35K. Also, Obama said at the last debate that health care was a right; McCain said it was a 'responsibility.' In the past, McCain has also supported privatizing Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid; Obama is against privatization. 3.) Obama wants to stop sending our jobs overseas and has said so on many occasions; McCain told workers in Michigan that their good-paying jobs were gone forever and that, maybe, they could be retrained -- for what: to cook fries at McDonald's or wear a blue vest at Walmart?
I'm not one who is "obsessed" with Sarah Palin. I'm interested in her since she could become president of the U.S. if Rethuglicans manage to steal yet another election next month and if McCain kicks the bucket. However, since Obama is quite popular, and it looks like the Rethugs won't be able to put another a**hole in the White House with so many people voting for Obama.
Yes, did you notice during last nights' debate how Obama danced around the question of whether he believed healthcare should be for-profit or socialized? Too bad the debates aren't held to judicial court standards with a peoples advocate doing the questioning. 'Mr. Obama, please answer the question - yes or no.'
Sampson - could be the dems don't know what else to talk about. For fifteen years I've tried to find out what that party's platform is - and I was raised in a family of democrats and never learned it. I know what the repug platform is. Difference between the two is the repugs understand the premise that "united we stand, divided we fall" and the dems don't have a clue. They are free thinkers, and no twi people on this planet think alike. But the repugs at least know how to shelve their own ideas and rally round a concept that will get their party to where they want it to go.
Sioux Rose
Woops! The statistics should have been in reply to Frank.
why don't you learn how to use the "reply" function?
.Why dont you learn to shut the hell up?
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
You shut the hell up you clueless left winger
This forum is for people to post. If you don't like it here, then just leave. Grow up.
Sioux Rose
GREENIS: If you're right, imagine the neglect to that baby, a special NEEDS child...
SINCE 1492: Those statistics are based on buying everything NEW... many of us make use of consignment shops for what we need. It didn't cost me anything like that to raise my two daughters.
Siouxrose October 8th, 2008 2:42 pm, speak the truth, Sister Rose.
To be a member of the Republican Party, you have to be a macho egotistical maniac, man or woman. Palin is only following party orders as follows. If Sarah Palin were a man, this probably wouldn't be brought up. Sometimes, I wonder if I was a woman in my previous life !
If she winks like that at me, I will offer her fifty dollars, tops.
Ther e isnt enough examination of hunting culture.
Its amazing that when gun arguments come up the politicians tend to focus on the rights of hunters--not the rights of city dwellers facing crime. I am not a gun nut-only chipmunks should have guns--but clearly having a gun for self protection makes much more sense than having guns for recreational hunting(and um-if a hunter can afford to watch a tv debate in which a politician is kissing their rural ass they can afford to eat from the supermarket--and if meat is too creul for you-easy-go vegetarian).
Hunters kill each other all the time(who cares) but they also kill and injure pedestrians. Do they ever get prosecuted?
Rarely.
In France a hunter killed the last wild bear, and in Spain they torture hunting dogs to death by letting them strangle on ropes or injecting them with oven cleaner.
Most people dont care for hunters but a real hostility needs to be built up against them(thankfully less people hunt every year).
Webber October 8th, 2008 2:32 pm, I'd be willing to bet that Palin's whole 'moose hunter and fisher' thing is just a bunch of staged photo-ops to enhance her Alaska political career; I've met some women who hunt and fish and they don't have long, beautifully-manicured fingernails of the type Sarah the Terror has had since her first beauty pageant. (In fact, it would be impossible to keep their nails like that and still do such things as 'field dress a moose.') This is like Bush putting on a cowboy hat and pretending to be a real Texas cowboy -- the man is terrified of horses!
.Please, dont hold back now, tell us how you really feel.
Was your Mom frightened by a Winchester ad while pregnant with you? This post of yours is so filled with myth and utter nonsense as to be quite entertaining.
"Hunters kill each other all the time"...well sometimes they do actually, but far less often, far ,far less in fact, than do people kill themselves or others with weapons held solely for home security..You could actually look it up if you cared at all about truth or honesty. See hunters actually practice with their rifles or shotguns, while those who purchase a handgun for safety(?) usually put it in a drawer and think themselves invulnerable.
I dont know about the bear thingie, or that rather strange tale of torturing a valuable asset to any hunter, his bird dog. My Chesapeake cost a bit more than your obvious poor education ( mail order I presume), is a member of the family and is the best damn retriever in this part of the country.
Perhaps where you live most folks dont care for hunters, but I would suspect that, with your attitude and lack of respect for the opinions of others, who the hell would talk to you about anything much less hunting?
Oh and by the by, not caring about a human being's death, whether hunter, fisherman or stamp collector is a rather assinine attitude...Why is there not an age limit here?
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
hunters kill pedestrians????
Uh?
Is this someone who's trying to hunt moose in the middle of a city? Or what the heck are you talking about?
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
Don't know about pedestrians - but my sister's house (and neighborhood in hardly- rural NJ)) is surrounded by several acres of woods - posted everywhere NO Hunting. Nevertheless, her house has been hit a couple times over the past 10 years by stray bullets from hunters who've ignored the signs and trespassed to go after deer.
Thank goodness none of her family was out in their yard when that happened.
Corporate America will use Palin in any capacity that will bring them benefit. They will fuck her just like they do to any corporate flunkey. If she can get them some great legislation and sell a few sporting goods then her value goes up. If Palin had learned Baseball as a kid maybe she wouldn't have turned into a hat trick of being a political whore, a corporate whore, and a media whore. And if she learned baseball she wouldn't go shoooting at animals from a helicopter. Baseball teaches you the true meaning of the sports. Baseball would be embarassed to find shoting animals from helicopters is even considered a 'sport'. But to corporate America anything is fair game.
Hoa binh
Scary is as scary does. That rally in Florida where the little mob turned on the reporters and camera persons, threatening them physically, and where the "terrorist" card was played against Obama, triggering the blood/lynching urge, was very far from funny.
The Repugs couldn't have come up with a more winning combination than this one: a Christian vamp with a touch of Ilse Koch and Annie Oakley, and the adoring mob that turns on a dime to hunt down the Other. Shades of a fascist wet dream.
And the lies never cease - the populist millionaire posing as "one of us" (W., now Palin), the sleight-of-hand on her relationship to Big Oil, the McCain switcheroos, and of course Obama equivocating and posing and then strong-arming the Black Caucus to change their vote on the bail-out, etc etc.
Thank goodness we're having an election in Canada - kind of cleans our airwaves a little up here. The campaign, the reporting, the debates and the discussion have been as good as they come, and the contrast with the US has been starker than ever. 5 smart leaders (Harper may be a dangerous Republican in Canadian clothing, but he's probably brighter and better prepared than most US candidates rolled together) and five parties (three of them --Bloc Quebecois, NDP and Greens-- fairly progressive on most issues and a fourth --the good old Liberals-- struggling to compete showing off its left inclinations), one spirited debate with ALL 5 candidates, a 5-week campaign, a number of local candidates being forced to resign days before the election because of some stupid hateful sexist or racist or homophobic statement they've posted on the web or spoken - in a few words, night and day, probably making our friends south of the border a little envious. Sorry you've had to put up with so much unmitigated crap for so long, with no end in sight even after the Inaugural...
BTW: raydelcamino - you probably mean "flout (ignore) the law" - she "flaunts (shows off) her sex appeal"- a note from your friendly pedant.
So where did all the money come from? The numbers do not even come close to adding up, especially when taking into account the cost of raising 5 kids.
"For 2004, the newest data available, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that families making $70,200 a year or more will spend a whopping $269,520 to raise a child from birth through age 17."
Dugali
Obama will win thanks to the youtube generation:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EMu6hxngvDI
Whooooa, thanx for the link!
Some of earth's most poisonous species are veiled in beauty.
But I could be wrong !
What makes anyone think she understands 'rule of law' - Who is that guy named 'LAW' anyway?
At least Dubya admitted he doesn't read, rather than dodging the question by saying "any and all" like Palin did in the Couric interview.
If Palin's campaign behavior is any indication, once in the White House she will flaunt the rule of law more frequently than Dubya and the Dick have.
Sioux Rose
WTF: Interesting assessment, just another derivative of Narcissist, isn't it? The woman truly believes she is God's chosen. This type of individual thinks their good fortune is the result of God's personal favor, which works in reverse to suggest that all those who suffer have not won the love or approval of the mighty punitive father-god image to which she's under thrall. Such persons are not especially harmful unless and until their numbers run into the many millions (implied by the popularity of Tim Lehaye's series, Left Behind, and the attendance at huge mega-churches that rally round the End Times idea). To put one of this ilk into high office is tantamount to criminal intent... but given what's come out of the Oval office in recent years, it would not be all that surprising. Perhaps the current economic downturn will be a bolt of sanity to wake people up to the here and now... and leave End Times for later.
Relax Sioux Rose, she will be going back to Alaska in a month. Obama has the election won.
.I believe you fail to take several things into account. Mr. More.
1. unscrupulous republican tactics in the swing states, already in progress according to some accounts.
2. the inherent racism in far too many of us, some unaware of it. This forum has noted the so-called "Bradley effect" before and thus the poll numbers may very well be as meaningless as they were for Mayor Bradley.
3. The unscrupulous tactics ( according to one or two far too prominent posters here) of those rascally Naderites who plot and scheme relentlessly to take the election from the hands of Obama and the white hat wearing Democrats and hand it to Snively Whiplash...err John McCain.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
These are all conspiracy theories and at a time when the economy is in the worst shape even more than the 1970s and for the first time, the US shows its failing colors in foreign policy, people aren't going to care that Obama isn't white all the way. The second point has been especially disproven in virtually every election. If Obama were to lose, race would not be one of the reasons.
And by the way, why aren't we saying the same of male voters who out of fear of being labelled misogynists give Palin an elevated status and then turn around and vote the other party? If Palin were a Democrat, this is exactly the conspiracy theory that would have been brought up.
The election is not even going to be close no matter what. Except for 1988, no party has ever won 3 presidential elections in a row every since the two term restriction for each president was placed. And besides, the GOP might have to shed the conservative ideology since it has lost its value after it peaked in 2004 and declined thereafter.
If there is one.......just sayin'.
But I could be wrong !
Anyone who evokes cries of KILL, KILL at a political rally should give any thinking person pause for thought ...... but it probably won't
curmudgeon99 [October 8th, 2008 1:25 pm], the phrase was "Kill him!" -- they also screamed "Traitor!" and "Terrorist!" -- but I think it will turn out to be plants from McCain's campaign who yelled these things as opposed to just rally attendees. The thinking behnd this is the same that Tom Parker used to promote Elvis Presley in the early days of his career; pay several teenage girls to swoon, scream and act goofy and many other girls in the crowd will follow suit; after a while, it will no longer be necessary to pay anyone; as the word gets around, teenage girls will come to believe this is appropriate behavior at an Elvis appearance. It worked for Elvis, but not so much for Palin.
I think the McCainiacs running the Palin traveling carnival have misunderstood why so many people turn up at her events -- she's now a cultural phenomenon, a freak of sorts, doted on by the supermarket tabloid media, as well the the MSM. Gawkers of the American Idiocracy show up not because they endorse her message, but just to get a look at the Two-Headed Woman in person. She's a sideshow attraction now, more than a serious candidate for political office. At a campaign rally the other day, a good portion of the crowd started leaving after Palin was done speaking, giving the hapless McCain a view of their departing backs. It's Palin and McCain these days, from the same mold as Barnum and Bailey.
"I look up, about five minutes into McCain's address and see a steady stream of people walking out of the rally. They just came to see Palin apparently."
-- "Palin Steals McCain Rally: People Walk Out After Her Speech," Rachel Weiner, The Huffington Post, Sept. 18, 2008.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/18/palin-steals-mccain-rally_n_127480.html?page=2
"But there is little doubt that Palin is the main attraction. Before each rally, crowds chant "Sarah, Sarah," and Republicans come away gushing, calling her "adorable." Some even leave after Palin's speech without hearing McCain."
-- "Among Republicans, Palin overshadows McCain," AFP, Sept. 22, 2008.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Among_Republicans_Palin_overshadows_09222008.html
A story told about the recently-convicted O.J. Simpson illustrates this point: Simpson had the idea that the people who asked him for autographs and to pose with him for pictures must also have believed that he was innocent. Not so -- most actually thought he was guilty, but he was a celebrity curiosity; another oddball sight for the Idiocratic Gawkers to slow down and drive by, as they do at horrible highway accidents.
Of course there are GOP and Palin True Believers at these events, but not in the numbers advertised by the McCain camp.
She's drawing a crowd, but for all the wrong reasons, if you're McCain and actually trying to get elected president.
"McCain-Palin Crowd-Size Estimates Not Backed by Officials"
Lorraine Woellert and Jeff Bliss, Bloomberg.com, Sept. 13, 2008.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a1J0tfV3XJYs&refer=politics
"A Palinomenon: John McCain waves and the crowd chants "Sa-rah! Sa-rah!"
Los Angeles Times, Sept. 2008.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/09/sarah-palin-mcc.html
"McCain-Palin becoming Palin-McCain?" AP, Sept. 7, 2008.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-09-07-mccain-palin_N.htm
Palin is a seductress. She has little talent but resorts to body language and friendly familiarity to rope people in.
Seductress' (according to Debbie Ford) are after one thing and one thing only: To make themselves feel better about who they are by getting whatever they might be after. Birthed out of the fear that they are not good enough, loved enough, or smart enough, they search until they find suitable targets to trap in their energetic webs - in the case of Palin, first the citizens of Alaska and now the entire country.
As a Seductress, Palin is a predator because her main goal is to feed on the self-esteem of others in order to soothe her own emotional wounds. The Seductress literally throws out an energetic hook by being kind, loving, interested, sexual and, in this case, folksy - luring her victims closer, all the while planning her next move. She spends her time thinking about how she looks, how others will perceive her, how she can win, and how she can get more of what she's after. The Seductress' "catch" enhances her inner perception of herself and covers, at least for the moment, the enormous pain and self-loathing that are stored in her psyche.
As a Seductress, Palin's main attack is disguised in love and, more specifically, service. Her signal broadcasts in all directions, sometimes loudly and at other times as a soft whisper: "I will give you some love and take care of you if you give me your power. I am going to make you feel better about yourself if you give me some control. I am going to tell you everything you ever wanted to hear if you just make me the next Vice President of the United States of America."
Palin is more dangerous than you can imagine.
I see body language and friendly familiarity as talents, and not considering them so the true danger. She's so good at the energy power game that, like W she must have been apprenticing from a very young age. Bush's deflective humor, practiced since his sister's death, if not before, though compulsive, is border line genius. No? What do you call using a one liner at the National Editors annual conference to subdue that many people of intellectual talent? And as you point out Palin's a master of friendly familiarity: "Can I call you Joe?". And her 4 part invocation of fear at the beginning of the debate was the best fascist passion since W sneered into the camera and touted "American Justice" as the torture chambers around the world where going at it 24/7. With his intelligence and talent, why did "Joe" let that slide, and why didn't he call her out when she went into her "evil" and enemy imagery rant? No, the Palin's and W's of the world are talented people, to not recognize this leaves one grasping at empty space when trying to develop the talent necessary to out duel these masters of human behavior that we are confronted with on a daily basis. Hopefully before the campaign is over someone with the talent to do so will call Palin on the terrorist and evil words - the human world would take a quantum leap in development, and sweet Sarah would have fulfilled her greatest task as a kind of petty tyrant to so many millions of people.
Sarah Palin's Seductress List:
Whitened teeth .......... check
Highlighted hair ........ check
Tan (from tanning machine)check
Eyeliner ................ check
Mascara ................. check
Eye shadow .............. check
Eyelash curler .......... check
Foundation .............. check
Cheek blush ............. check
Cheek contour............ check
Moist lipstick .......... check
Lip liner ............... check
Winks ................... check
Folksy talk ............. check
Cutsie expressions ...... check
(It must take Sarah two hours to apply make-up and get dressed before a public appearance.)
So, how many hours for McCain?
Not long.......he just slaps some flesh-colored putty to fill the holes in his golf ball cheeks and wrinkles. My bad. Oh well, if he and the rest of the nasty Rethuglicans can insult a young kid like Chelsea when her father was president and call her "ugly," I guess I can do the same to him, a rude old man with no class.