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Sarah Palin: Like A Female Version of Ann Coulter
OK, I didn't come up with that line, but it's good, isn't it? Found it on the boards over at Huffington Post. But it raises an excellent point. What the Republicans offered last night wasn't a vision for America. Instead, they put forth the same sort of negativity and division they've been selling for the past eight years. Will it work for them? Possibly, but I believe they're misreading America this time around. I think most Americans are sick to death of this sort of campaigning. If McCain delivers a solid policy speech tonight, clearly laying out a clear vision for where he wants to take this country, I'd say we've got a race. But if we get more schoolyard level heckling and negativity like we saw on Wednesday night, people are going to compare the two conventions and the two candidates and, I believe, overwhelmingly go with Obama's clear, positive vision for a united, strong America.
The change we need in America is not the sort of "reform" Palin promised last night. No, it's far simpler than that. What we need is fewer Republicans. Do McCain and Palin really think Americans will buy the notion that two members of the party that created this mess have the solution for getting us out of it? In McCain's own words, he voted with George W. Bush 90% if the time. In McCain's own words, he is going to do away with the sort of earmarking corruption that his own vice presidential pick hired a lobbyist to pursue. Are Americans really this stupid and gullible? As Mitt Romney used to remind us, Washington is broken. McCain and Palin are two of the people who broke it--McCain by supporting the policies of a corrupt administration, and Palin by taking full advantage of the corruption in order to enhance her own town and state to the detriment of the rest of America. Will Americans give McCain and Palin a pass on their complicity in creating the situation we now find ourselves in? We'll see. Once the excitement of the conventions wears off and the drooling buffoons of the press pull their pants back up and the rebuckle their belts and adjust their skirts, we'll see.
Clearly, Palin's job last night was to divert attention away from her own problems and refocus it on the fear and anger and suspicion and doubt that have served the Republicans so well over the years. When the Republicans chose to run, in their opening video, a mugshot of Dr. Martin Luther King rather than one of the thousands of uplifting images available, they said far more than all of the empty words that rolled across Palin's teleprompter last night. Their job is to kill hope and raise suspicion and doubt. Their goal is to maintain their hold on power. Their way is to smear and ridicule and belittle and attack.
We shall see.
Comments (13)
No, I don't think so. Attacking them with sexist "humor" doesn't help any of us. Ann Coulter's problem isn't that she's a woman or a man in a woman's body. It's simply that she's a hateful person. And while I dislike Sarah Palin's views on just about everything, she hasn't come even close to providing the hateful rhetoric that Coulter has.
September 4, 2008 7:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, come on. Coulter is a pig. Fair game for derision and slander. Let's not start pretending that she's a member of the human race.
September 4, 2008 7:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Now, now... Sarah Palin hasn't had nearly the amount of time to be as hateful as the Coultergeist.
Give her time, I'm sure she'll improve.
September 4, 2008 8:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Mostly off-topic, but it's my post so I can spam the thread if I like:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/03/AR2008090303133.html
An excellent piece about how we know nothing more about Sarah Palin today than we did yesterday. Except that she can read a teleprompter.
September 4, 2008 7:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
She's not Ann. That's what makes her dangerous. Ann Coulter is completely disgusting and divisive while dishing out the red meat to the base. Palin dishes the raw meat, and looks good while doing it. And she strikes different chords.
What she's really is the female version of Rick Santorum. Only, she comes across as folksier, which only makes her more useful to the Republican base.
If she doesn't fall on her face in the weeks ahead and if she can sidestep all her ethical landmines back home, she's going to be the face of that party in the years ahead. But that really says more about the Republican party than it does this country at this point. I'm not getting the sense right now that having Sarah Palin as a party boss over there is a good thing for the GOP as a whole.
Just my humble opinion at this early stage.
September 4, 2008 7:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
What do you suppose are the chances? I'm been watching the morning shows, and while they all say she delivered a great speech last night, it's clear the pundits aren't completely sold on her. I think McCain's speech tonight is critical for sealing the deal. If he stays on message and delivers a real plan, he'll have a chance. But if he delivers the same sort of snotty, dismissive, negative attacks that Palin did last night, I think they're gonna be in real trouble.
September 4, 2008 7:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Another great post. I spoke to some of the same things in my last blog Hold Fast.
I think what we are seeing is the neoconservatives grasping at whatever shrinking portion of its base that is still there. Most smart republicans are voting democratic this year and will continue to support progressive democrats in local elections until the GOP puts forth the right candidates. I don't think it will take too long.
The bar is finally going up in this country.
September 4, 2008 7:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
The only thing the Republicans EVER off is bamboozlement. When have they EVER demonstrated the slightest respect for the constraints of due diligence and careful attendance to the facts of the matter. It's all straw men, myth making, mystification, and the long con.
September 4, 2008 7:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
The simpering and the smirking on that pretty face while saying the most awful, negative, and nasty things reminds me of another so-called reformer.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/09/sarah-palin-reminds-me-of-dolo.php
There's something kind of yeeeech about her. American's learned to read that smirk on GW Bushes face, it's the same one. The same lack of respect for ones opponents, and the same sense of entitlement because they think, or rather, know they are "better."
No McCain. No Palin, No way, No how.
September 4, 2008 8:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
"There's something kind of yeeeech about her. American's learned to read that smirk on GW Bushes face.."
Yes. It's interesting, how that seems to be a common genetic characteristic of Republicanism.
September 4, 2008 8:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe they practice in front of a mirror for hours.
September 4, 2008 8:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Did you see the commentary directed at Palin before she even said a word at the convention? That about sums it up. We made their way our way and resorted to a campaign of negativism rather than the change and hope that are the themes of Obama's campaign. So she spent her introduction speech responding to the attacks on experience to the detriment of Obama. Obama doesn't win the experience battle and we on the Left were stupid enough to hand her some solid body blows.
So Palin established last night that yes, she is a credible candidate for VP and a dangerous one at that. But where do we go from here? Will we focus on real policies and issues like economics and healthcare or more slander and personal attacks? If this is a character/experience election we will lose and I fear that's where we are heading if people don't wake up and focus on the real issues.
And if you want to question whether taking the high road and relentless focusing on issues in the face of character attacks works, look no further than the last democratic president.
September 4, 2008 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Negativity not negativism. Eagerly anticipating preview feature :)
September 4, 2008 11:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
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