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RSS icon Comments on Palin: Ready to Lead

1

I kinda want to vote for McCain just on the chance that Caribou Barbie will be President. Mind you, we would all die but it would make for great television!

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger | September 4, 2008 8:45 AM
2

It's called muted group (or the more Nixonian Silent Majority).

You don't have to elucide what is assumed.

There, it's assumed you have a job -- with health care insurance.

It's assumed, you moved to the best neighborhood you could afford, with the best schools.

It's assumed you have a house...or are saving for one.

You know there's a war...and you know why. The explanations make sense to you, if not to the editor of the big city newspapers in your state.

In other words, because you are middle class, so you don't talk about "the middle class"...because to you it's the only class.

Posted by John Bailo | September 4, 2008 8:47 AM
3

I also thought it was interesting to note this article from one of those hometown folks she knows so well:

http://www.crosscut.com/politics-government/17341

Posted by Amanda | September 4, 2008 8:47 AM
4

The GOP doesn't believe we have any of those problems. We're all just a nation of whiners, remember?

LOL real hard @ Caribou Barbie

Posted by monkey | September 4, 2008 8:48 AM
5

@1, that's a great point. Comedians everywhere (not to mention tabloid journalists) must be salivating over this candidate. Tina Fey's agent must have out the Obama and Biden voodoo dolls...

Imagine, the first WWE/NASCAR vice president, serving heads of state Happy Meals on Wal*Mart plates. Also, people in the US might even realize hockey exists...

Posted by Just Sayin' | September 4, 2008 8:49 AM
6

Rest easy. The speech is largely irrelevant. Nearly all people have already made up their minds about McCain/Palin. This won't matter in a month.

Posted by Gomez | September 4, 2008 9:03 AM
7

Please, John, invoke Nixon as much as you possibly can. That is definitely a winner.

Posted by Greg | September 4, 2008 9:04 AM
8

Lousy response by Biden.

"She didn't tell you what she's going to do" sucks.

Biden should have told the voters what Obama is going to do, for those middle class and working class swing voters, including:

-tax cuts.

Just say OBama will cut your taxes, stop saying "for 95% blah blah blah detail percentage blah blah blah"

Try saying HOW MUCH Obama will cut the taxes for an ordinary family.

$100? $100? $2000? I have no fucking idea.

Haven't they worked it out? Why is this a big secret?

-health care.
Well Obama already screwed this up by not going mandatory but get a sound bite out there that he will ower health care costs by one third or something, whatever his plan is.

--Ihousing crisis.

What is his plan exactly? How does it help folks about to enter foreclosure?

--college education.

Again, tell us how.

--"all the things that the middle class is being burdened by now."
Um maybe like how we are going to stop China from being dominant economically for the next 100 years and destroying the American Dream?

Yeah, maybe OBAMA should tell us his plan.

--"I didn’t hear the words Afghanistan or Pakistan where al-Qaeda lives and bin Laden resides"
Yup we didn't hear Biden say what he'd do either. Does Obama praise the recent incursion into Pakistan we just did this morning? Condemn it? What's the plan, man?

--"you know, there was a deafening silence about the hole that the Republicans have dug us into and any specific answers"
as to what OBama will do.

Yes yes the're on his web site but how come Biden, who got the little 2 mintues resonse to Palin, couldn't have a fucking sound bite ready saying how we will help themiddle class and get OBL?

Democrat communication skills virtually nonexistent.

Palin, and the GOP, have great communication skills: they are for smaller govt. lower taxes and more energy from the USA.

Simple. Clear. Commuicative.

Where is ten word Democratic response????????

Posted by PC | September 4, 2008 9:04 AM
9

#6:

Fine, let's have the election next week. I dare you.

Posted by John Bailo | September 4, 2008 9:05 AM
10

I listened to two minutes before I had to turn it off. Her speech just seemed average & petty in tone; if Biden is impressed maybe he had low expectations? Although compared to Bush and McCain's difficulties with speaking she was impressive.

Anyways, all I caught was that "America needs more energy, not less," so presumably if Palin becomes president she'll start drilling and mining every square inch so we can be "energy independent." And fuck that commie conservation shit!

ps - PC, you know sometimes the reporters don't include *everything* the candidates said? And I have faith that the Obama campaign won't let Palin's speech go unchallenged, but she does have the eye of the media right now.

Posted by asteria | September 4, 2008 9:11 AM
11

My only hope is this deep lack of thought and lack of seriousness won’t play all that well in the swing states of the Midwest

Good luck with that. I live in the dreaded midwest, and believe me, the only thing that plays well here is, "WE'RE GOING TO GET THEM A-RAB MOTHER FUCKERS!"

See: 2004 presidential election.

Posted by Mike in MO | September 4, 2008 9:11 AM
12

Congratulations, Bailo and PC. You've made the Slog fucking unreadable.

Palin is the stuck-up bitch in high school who stabs all her friends in the back to get the cheerleading job. That's going to play pretty well in some demographics but not too many. Notice that when she does play the expert, she's full of total crap -- "as someone who knows the North Slope, I can tell you, we've got plenty". It's just so laughably false. She substitutes smarm and snark for real argument, and assumes that ordinary people don't care about government, they just want to be surrounded by people like themselves and talk about their babies.

Posted by Fnarf | September 4, 2008 9:13 AM
13

@9 - Great! Let's do it. Set it up. I triple-dog dare you. (Now I feel like a big boy.)

Posted by Georgia Guy | September 4, 2008 9:14 AM
14

The mute button on my remote won't survive another Republican administration.

Posted by tenterhooks | September 4, 2008 9:21 AM
15

@12 - "Congratulations, Bailo and PC. You've made the Slog fucking unreadable."

Thanks for saying what's on all of our minds. I swear, I'll never understand the troll mentality. Don't you people have anything else to do with your time?

Posted by Hernandez | September 4, 2008 9:49 AM
16

thanks #3

everyone on television who's praising her but have no more knowledge of her than her speech last night should shut up!

everyone who's trying to gauge her suitability as a VP nominee should read that email found in the link provided by amanda.

thanks again, amanda!

Posted by cineaste | September 4, 2008 9:51 AM
17

Mike in MO--
My whole family, beyond me, still lives in the upper Midwest--Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. My dad and I have been arguing this point all week.

Fun fact: A typical auto factory that closed this year employed more people than reside in Wasilla, Alaska.

PC--
Here is the beauty: It won't be Obama or Biden who would write those details. It would be Hillary, in the Senate. That's how the US government is meant to work: Congress writes the detailed policies that the president signs and executes.

It's hard to remember, after all these years of Republicans--where it was more like industry writes the laws, Congress copies the industry written policy into law and the President selectively executes the law to his liking, at his pleasure.

So, be joyous! If Hillary were the nominee, she'd be signing legislation written by Obama and Biden. And how happy would you be then?

Posted by Jonathan Golob | September 4, 2008 10:00 AM
18

@1 "Mind you, we would all die but it would make for great television!"

it's absurd that mccain's campaign could compare obama to the like's of britney spears and paris hilton and then choose a candidate such as palin. her life is a vh1 reality show. for the americans who are comfortable in their distracted and disassociated state, palin is exactly the right pick. look at the reaction she has created on slog. we are paying attention to her every move just as we do when such and such celebrity commits such and such atrocity. she is the vp for the individuals who don't actually care about any of this because they are unaffected directly or indirectly. unfortunately, there exist many like this.

meh, just my theory.

Posted by whomsRU | September 4, 2008 10:02 AM
19

The strength of the Republican party is their ability to shit in the mouths of working class poor and call it a sundae.

Lies. Lies. Lies. Double speak. And more lies. The formula works. And, don't forget to cultivate fears.

Actual facts don't matter. If people think they are real, then they are real enough.

Posted by John Bailo Über Alles | September 4, 2008 10:08 AM
20

Was Bailo on slog before the whole Palin thing started? Maybe once she falls off the radar he'll just jack off to his Caribou Barbie screensaver quietly, instead of misdirecting his repressed guilt and fear towards slog.

Posted by asteria | September 4, 2008 10:12 AM
21

I'm donating $1 to the Obama campaign for every John Bailo comment between now and the election. Anyone else? I'm not kidding.

Posted by drf | September 4, 2008 10:13 AM
22

Was it just me, or did the "pit bull/lipstick" line remind anyone else of the old saying, "you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig"?

Also, all us SLOGers KNOW what happens to pit bulls when they go on the attack, right?

Posted by COMTE | September 4, 2008 10:17 AM
23

@17: I have been arguing with my dad for months about this. The problem that the Dems have is that the GOP will parrot the same 3 things, and people believe them:

1) Democrats raise taxes, and we won't
2) Democrats take away freedom, we don't
3) Democrats can't protect you, we can

That is it. They all repeat this, over and over and over. Every second of every year. Which is why it has been believed. The mantra never changes, even if (like the last 8 years) it is mostly false.

Posted by Original Monique | September 4, 2008 10:19 AM
24

@21 - I'm John Bailo, and I approve of this message.

Posted by John Bailo Über Alles | September 4, 2008 10:43 AM
25

In the interest of full disclosure, the writer is the father of Science and a resident of Michigan, the mid western state that is suffering the most from red (state and neck) rule. Remember that little state to the south, Ohio, home of crackers, red necks, and crazed Buckeyes, gave the last 2 elections to the forces of darkness. Historically, Ohio lets its cultural biases overrule its economic interests. Isn't that what the great undereducated white working class usually has done since 1968? Until racism and anti-intellectual bias recedes, nothing will change. Don't hold your breath.

Posted by M H Golob | September 4, 2008 10:46 AM
26

have no fear O has the 50 state strategy.

what happened to bellevueavenue and his predictions for O wins in GA and SC?

Oriinal M - you are soooo right and as much as I hated HRC's war vote it would have served her well in the general - O ran a brilliant primary campaign...

Posted by McG | September 4, 2008 10:53 AM
27

@25: I'm from Ohio. While some of your criticisms are fair, in defense of my home state's good sense and decency, the election results from 2004 that supposedly confirm your portrait of them as a bunch of racist, jingoistic morons were not actual election results. They were virtual election results. Actual results would vary considerably, if there was any way to count them.

An example: There is no way in hell that Union-friendly Cleveland voted the way they are purported to have voted in that election. A rather high number of people in those Democrat-heavy districts left their choice for president blank, if official counts are to be believed. Just ask Attorney General Blackwell! Of course, he was also the co-chair of President Bush's re-election committee. But hey, that's no reason not to take his word for it, right?

Not all Buckeyes are mouth-breathing morons who vote against their economic interests. But those who are get their votes counted a little more successfully than those who aren't. Ohio: The Florida of the North!

Posted by flamingbanjo | September 4, 2008 11:44 AM
28

To our Ohio friend, I have no doubt that voter deprivation was a factor in the 2004 election by forcing African-Americans to wait 6 hours in lines in order to vote. However, I stand by the cultural issues by noting that it was gay marriage being on the ballot which provoked a huge turnout of the intolerant faithful. Michigan faced a similar anti-gay constitutional amendment which passed but our state stayed in the blue column.

Posted by M H Golob | September 4, 2008 12:14 PM
29

"Caribou Barbie" almost made me wet my pants!

Posted by cognitive dissident | September 4, 2008 12:25 PM
30

The RNC has pretty much written off the West.

We've turned against them and their Big Government Big Spending Big Deficit ways.

Other than Alaska, where 75 percent of the state government budget is Federal Tax Subsidies ....

Posted by Will in Seattle | September 4, 2008 12:45 PM

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