Sarah Palin is Perfectly Representative
I guess I'm sort of a Palin contrarian. I disagree with Kevin Drum that her nomination was a shocking anomaly.
Sarah Palin is perfectly representative of the Republican party. She's no more or less intelligent, articulate, informed, curious, experienced or qualified for office than George W. Bush was.
I remember 2000. Voters were reassured that what Bush lacked in native intelligence he would compensate with good advisers. Because his name was Bush, he supposed to have access to this vast reservoir of grownups, remember? After 8 years of peace, prosperity and the disgraceful interaction between gravity and Bill Clinton's pants, almost half the 2000 voters found Bush plausible enough to elect.
Palin 2008 is no different than Bush 2000, right down to her supporters' assurances that she'd have plenty of on-the-job training from John McCain. The difference is simply current events and 8 years of history.
After two wars, Katrina, an 8 year recession and a total financial meltdown, about 5% of the voters decided maybe the President and Vice President should be smarter than the average Joe Plumber after all.
Sarah Palin is perfectly representative of the Republican party. She's no more or less intelligent, articulate, informed, curious, experienced or qualified for office than George W. Bush was.
I remember 2000. Voters were reassured that what Bush lacked in native intelligence he would compensate with good advisers. Because his name was Bush, he supposed to have access to this vast reservoir of grownups, remember? After 8 years of peace, prosperity and the disgraceful interaction between gravity and Bill Clinton's pants, almost half the 2000 voters found Bush plausible enough to elect.
Palin 2008 is no different than Bush 2000, right down to her supporters' assurances that she'd have plenty of on-the-job training from John McCain. The difference is simply current events and 8 years of history.
After two wars, Katrina, an 8 year recession and a total financial meltdown, about 5% of the voters decided maybe the President and Vice President should be smarter than the average Joe Plumber after all.
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If Obama had not mobilized the youth and the hispanic vote, and if the African American populace had not felt truly enfranchised, Sarah and John would have won. If this had been a "typical" election the republicans would have won.
You are right. There is a huge bunch of people out there who don't trust people who are educated and who are intelligent, and so vote against them. The "Joe the Plumber" meme is the perfect example. This is a guy who first of all, isn't a licensed plumber, whose name isn't really Joe, who has been on welfare, and who has not paid his taxes. Ironically, this is the typical guy who Ronald Reagan ran AGAINST (welfare queens - or kings)!
But this is 2008. So they embraced Joe(?) as authentic as an emblematic person whose taxes would be increased by Obama (not true, but who cares?). They like the name Joe better than Sam (too Jewish? but who cares?) Who says he doesn't want other people paying his way (welfare?) And who doesn't want wealthy people paying more taxes (but he hasn't paid his own).
Republicans just love to run on bullshit. They know it's a bunch of lies but as long as their base swallows it, who cares? They never challenged Joe the Plumber and they won't challenge Sarah's many lies either. They get a steady diet of lies every Sunday morning and so they are used to just yelling halleluliah and feeling good about it. That is all they want. To feel good about their own delusions. Facts? Easily disputed by faith!
November 13, 2008 7:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for your comment. You know what interested me most about Joe the Plumber? His counterpart was unthinkable. An obvious Obama ringer would've never been admitted to a McCain - Palin rally. I imagined myself signing the loyalty oath, sneaking in to a McCain event, and asking him why he wanted to tax my Cadillac health insurance. My camcorder would've been destroyed and I would've been lucky to escape without permanent brain damage.
November 14, 2008 7:28 PM | Reply | Permalink