QUOTE (Ken Stone @ Jun 30 2009, 19.30)

It's scary how close we came to having Palin as President. Not that McCain was close to winning, but that someone so unqualified was on the ticket of one of the two major parties. Just stop and think about it for a second. What would President Palin do? It's a horrifying thought.

Its really an appalling and morbidly fascinating question. How would President Palin react to the Iran crisis? What kind of respect can she expect from the other countries, the other world leaders out there? I mean can you really imagine this woman engaging in high stakes international diplomacy? What fucking abomination from the depths of fundy hell would she appoint to the Supreme Court?

I mean she's dumber and even less informed than Bush. Incurious as they come. But she's even more brazen and amateurish with her disregard for rules and ethics. And apparently doesn't like to be handled, so the opportunist Repub movers and shakers thinking they have a their own White House to run from the shadows might be mistaken. I can't even contemplate the scale of the trainwreck that would be our government, our country.

I'd love to have an alternate universe in which to watch 'President Palin' play out. Damned curious.

QUOTE (Trencher @ Jul 1 2009, 19.55)

The media is starting to wake up. The WH Press were jumping all over that "Family Guy" dunce who speaks for Obama for staging their events and not allowing open questions in a town hall. They know Obama doesn't do well without the prompter or off the cuff questions.

This is what you call waking up? Tightly screened and scripted town halls were the bread and butter of the entire 8 years of the last White House. That along with virtually no press conferences (at least none with actual question & answers). By comparison, Obama's made himself 100 times more available unscreened, unscripted interviews and Q&A's. And if there is some handling of events and town halls, the reason isn't Obama's inability to speak without a prompter, its the likelihood of some retarded wingnut asking some batshit loaded questions to which the only rational response is 'You're a fucking idiot'. While accurate and justified, 'You're a fucking idiot' simply doesn't play well on TV. A responsible press corp asking questions or professional, one on one interviewers? Obama's never shied away from those and often gives frank, direct, thoughtful and insightful answers...all without a script.

I've seen the guy in interviews, Q&A's, scripted speeches...he's great in all of them.

QUOTE (Trencher @ Jul 1 2009, 20.29)

He was a lock until Palin gave her first speech to the nation. Then he was down by about 7 pts in the polls. The media scrambled to fix that and are still worried about her apparently. They just keep having to bring her up to try and tear her down. That says quite a bit.

Are you seriously typing this shit with a straight face? Palin tore herself down because she's a fucking imbecile and sounds like it. After the convention, every pundit with a microphone was declaring 'A star is born'. Its only when she talked without a script that everyone realized how appallingly dumb she is and jumped ship. Further, Palin is doing everything she can to position herself for a 2012 run. She's got a book coming out. Reaching out to the core conservative demographics. Attending nationally covered Republican events well outside her state. Her daughter's signed on to do fundy abstinence only tours. She's keeping herself in the news. She is not sitting quietly in Alaska and getting picked on out of the blue.

Also, on what fucking planet is being a black man with an arab sounding name a political advantage in fucking America? Wean yourself off the Rush-sauce, quickly.

QUOTE (Trencher @ Jul 1 2009, 22.08)

And EHK, name me all the "challenging" interviews Obama had to go through. No one questions how good he is with "scripted speeches". That's why he takes the prompter everywhere he goes. Bush was also good with the prompter.

You mean besides the GE debates, including the final one where the subject matter revolved around right wing echo chamber nonsense, the 10 fucking thousand primary debates, the countless interviews he gave with every fucking media outlet in existence during the election...I'm sure one or two of them MIGHT have had tough questions. In every interview he's given, Obama always comes off as intelligent and thoughtful, giving expansive answers on a wide array of subject matter, all without notes or prompter. The guy knows his shit and can speak it without a script.

QUOTE (Trencher @ Jul 1 2009, 22.08)

Are you kidding me? Name one white candidate with as little experience as Obama who would have done as well in the election. True. McCain was a weak candidate, but still take away the skin color and prompter speech and you got nothing.

Little experience? 11 years of elected government service. 12 years as a Constitutional law professor. 11 years as a Civil rights lawyer. President of the Harvard Law review, graduated Magna Cum Laude. More than 12 years as a community organizer, serving on boards and participating in groups dedicated to community outreach, voter registration drives, youth leadership, college prep, tenants rights, job training, and education. Sure there are bigger resumes out there, but this ain't too shabby. But I assume you'd prefer the guy who traded on his family name to a bunch of failed business ventures, essentially dodged the draft, then played governor for a mere 5 years in a state where that position is little more than a steward. (And got elected in the first place by having his cronies spread the rumor that his opponent was a lesbian.)

You might have missed it, but I saw the bigots come out in droves to the McCain/Palin rallies. The ones that popped up everywhere on Youtube. Your working class whites that used to be union style Democrats, but couldn't changed their tune as soon as a black man got nominated. The rampant 'He's a muslim/terrorist/not American' rumors.

QUOTE (Jaimeskele @ Jul 3 2009, 15.14)

Palin is resigning as governor of Alaska. I assume this is so that she can campaign non-stop for the 2012 GOP nomination.

Is this serious? I hadn't heard anything.

Shit, front page on Yahoo. Damn.

I don't know how retiring from the only position that gives her an ounce of credibility will help her 2012 chances.

Hey Jaimie, want to make this the Palin resigning thread since that's pretty big news at the moment? (title change and all)

QUOTE (Jaimeskele @ Jul 3 2009, 15.38)

Jaime? Who's Ja...oh shit, that's me.

Good idea.

Trisk, Jaimie, same difference. If you guys are gonna impersonate, I'm gonna call you by those names.

QUOTE (TheKassi @ Jul 3 2009, 09.44)

MSNBC is reporting people close to her said she is done with politics.

I am not saying that is true, or highly believable, but if it is true I have to say I think I might convert. Today might just become a holiday for the educated women of America.

Think she calculated her chances, saw the inevitable and said 'fuck it, I'll cash in' with books and/or radio deal?
Not to mention $20k+ a pop speaking engagements?

Think the Wasilla hillbilly is cutting and running for GREENER pastures?

Fox News is going the whole 'Evil Media' angle.

Now they're blaming Letterman.

QUOTE (TheKassi @ Jul 3 2009, 16.04)

Yeah, Huck makes my head hurt sometimes. This is a really embarrassing decade to be a republican. We have become the party of they whimpering victim.

That is a very good point. The Republicans have long been the self-sufficient, personal responsibility, 'pull yourself up from your own fucking bootstraps' party...at least in rhetoric. But they have spent the last many years playing the poor little victim over everything in sight. I mean even if the media scrutiny and public criticism played a factor in Palin's resignation, shouldn't that mean that she wasn't cut out for the bloody world of politics in the first place? I mean shouldn't that be the first and most prominent Republican response? She couldn't hack it and got the fuck out of the kitchen? I have absolutely no doubt that's the angle they'd be playing if this were a Democrat resigning for similar (potential) reasons.

How could they not see this as weakness? Even if they don't say it, most of them have to be thinking it. Boo hoo, the media said mean things about me and I'm gonna run away...who the fuck wants to elect that? Who wants a person with that minimum of fortitude running the country? Hell, I remember some Daily Show clips during the election that had Republicans applying that exact form of criticism to Hillary over some issue or another.

CNN commentator when trying to analyze her reasons for stepping down: "Well she does have that speaking style where its sometimes hard to follow her"

Diplo-speak for 'She's an ignorant, incoherent hack'

Man, the Lt. Governor is walking a rather hilarious fine line here. When asked for her reasons for stepping down, since everyone's still trying to decipher the incoherent Sanskrit of her speech, he said "Really her comments reflected what you heard today from the governor. She said it so well and I don't want to put any new words in her mouth"

He knows its ridiculous. The CNN host knows its ridiculous. But nobody's smacking the emperor on the ass and telling the fucker he's naked.

QUOTE (Lord O' Bones @ Jul 3 2009, 17.55)

Bizarrely, in her speech she talks about this as the quitter's route, or somesuch.

That's another strange one. Quitting isn't the quitters route, continuing the job you were elected to do is. She's stepping down so that she can finally to enact real change in her state, which apparently is much more possible from the sidelines than as the most powerful fucking person in the state. Its all VERY clumsy Orwellian double-speak. Please tell me at some point someone's gonna call bullshit. I know CNN and others like to imply bullshit, but you've got an audience of imbeciles here. Gotta smack them over the head with it.

After that speech, this has suddenly become every bit as bizarre as the governor Sanford shit.

I can't watch clips of that embarrassing abomination of a speech without busting out laughing. What the hell man? She seemed like she was doped up on speed while facing an indictment for murder. Just incredibly frantic and incoherent.

QUOTE (Commodore @ Jul 3 2009, 18.15)

I've never seen such a good hearted, successful person more worthy of emulation and less deserving of ridicule torn down the way Palin has been. She seems to bring out the worst in self-loathers who resent her mere existence. EHK's maniacal posts at the very mention of her name are frightening. Life is too short for so much hate, that energy could be put to better use.

Now I don't want to make the mistake of letting you think anyone took you seriously before this, but how the fuck can you expect anyone, ANY man, woman, dog, or gerbil to take you seriously after spewing that nonsense?

Good-hearted book banner? Do good-hearted people infuse cordial local politics with divisive, hot-button national issues over which they have no control? I've been party to a number of local elections...I've never seen abortion pop up in any of them. Does a good-hearted person threaten or fire her underlings for not kowtowing to her personal vindictive, ideological, or possibly even illegal whims? I can think of few people in American politics today worthy of more ridicule and less emulation. That includes Sanford.

She's an appalling embarrassment, would be a disastrous commander and chief and you fricken know it. Every Republican knows it. Including John McCain who should feel enough burning shame to turn a continent into a cinder at the moment for even considering the rambling, incoherent, ignorant, worthless twit. The act of nominating Sarah Palin as a running mate should be considered an act of high fucking treason. All the Bin Laden's in the world wouldn't be remotely as dangerous as her in the White House.

Fuck man...drop this shit. Find a winner and back him or her. Surely the Republicans have someone people can support with a straight face and clear conscience.

QUOTE (Commodore @ Jul 3 2009, 18.36)

She is uncommon.

It was a combination of her desires and the state's needs (to have unhindered leadership) that she gave for resigning, not the nature of the complaints (which were all dismissed anyway).

So she's too incompetent to run the state? At least that's the message most sane people would take away from that. So what was your reason for placing faith in her as a potential leader?

I heard a bunch of college students just died. They had to take a drink every time Palin said 'Politics as usual' and a double dose for basketball analogies. Their livers committed suicide.

Got some family coming over tomorrow for the holiday. Also got some conservative members in the family. I've recorded Palin's speech and I'm gonna force those fuckers to watch it. If after watching that they still think it was anything less than treasonous to put her that close to the Oval Office, I'm gonna fucking disown them.