Thursday, November 6, 2008

Hail Mary full of gaffes



Whew, talk about dodging a bullet.

It's hard to tell how much of this is the GOP trying to find a single scapegoat for their massive failure in this election, and how much of it is the honest-to-goodness truth (or a bit of both). But it's also hard to figure why Fox News, of all places, would report these stories at all. They were, after all, some of the biggest Palin cheerleaders on cable news. If we want to get really cynical, I suppose you could chalk it up to spite, or maybe they're just being played by McCain staffers in order to further that whole scapegoat thing.

Whatever the case, I still think it's pretty damn clear that almost no vetting was done for the Palin VP pick, and that she was a pretty big weight around the campaign's neck. That said, Palin was not the sole reason for the failures of the Republican party on Nov. 4 - rather, it was a complex and many layered cake that had been baked over the last 8 years of GOP dominance in Washington (it probably goes back even further, honestly). They let cronyism and hard line ideology take control, and the results are being crushingly played out on the American people's pocketbooks and lives.

Still, the not knowing that Africa was a continent thing is, if baffling, pretty damn funny. Oh Alaska, I don't envy you right now.

7 comments:

Dustin Christopher said...

As in any situation where I can't decide whether to laugh or cry, I choose hysterical laughter. But a part of me just died inside as well to think how close she came to holding the second most powerful office in the land.

George H. said...

This needs a skeptic. No way. Nope. Don't believe it. And the source is the guy, according to Salon, who said this to Fox news Nov. 3:

"When you look at what's happened in the polls in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida -- they believe that they've strengthened. Essentially, the conservative districts in those states are now secured. That they still have a little bit of work to do, particularly in the much-vaunted GOP ground game: knocking on doors, making phone calls, lots of e-mails to shore them up entirely. But most of the red states they think they're now safe in ... In places like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Missouri expect a late night. No quick calls tomorrow."

I worry about this. That media will keep dead-on liars like this around for flashy quotes and bogus insight. I say let them rot and I say let them rot in plain sight.

Emily said...

Dustin - Regardless of if these new stories end up being true or not, we all saw enough of Palin that we were entirely justified in being flabbergasted that she might actually end up as VP.

George - You're right to be skeptical, I think. It is, after all, both coming from Fox News (not known for fact-checking their shit) and the dubious source you mentioned. I'm in total agreement that I wish the we, as a society, would stop rewarding liars and criminals quite so much, for what seems to be purely entertainment reasons.

Still, I stand by my assertion that the vetting process on Palin was terrible, and that she's an viciously ambitious moron.

Em Richards said...

Mmmmm... failure cake.

I agree that it's not all on Palin's stupid shoulder pads, but what she represents is a piece of that cake: branding ignorance and bigotry as "small-town values" and "common sense", while dissing education and thoughtfulness as elitist and out-of-touch.

You know the fun part about cake? Smashing it in people's faces. Take that however you want.

Okay, enough lame metaphors for me. My quota is up.

Emily said...

Dammit Em, now I want cake.

Anonymous said...

Mmmm... cake.

I'm not sure what to make of this. Assigning her as a VP contender makes no sense. You'd think if they were going for the out of nowhere choice, there must've been someone lesser known with better credentials.

As for all these stories, well, maybe they're worried about their jobs... who knows. Does it matter? Or are they just trying to quell any chance she has of running in 2012.

capper said...

A Democratic dream come true:

Palin/Jindahl 2012.

They will change it form GOP v. Democrats to GOD v. Demoncrats.

Obama wins four more with a new VP who will carry the next eight after that, just because the country would be too scared that someone like that could even when a primary.

The Lost Albatross