US POLITICS: AMERICANS, PLEASE WELCOME YOUR NEW PRESIDENT... SCOTT BROWN!

she probably had all those people the second she made fun of community organizers, because making jokes like that is how stupid/stubborn white people affirm and excuse their own complacency.

This seems a remarkably offensive thing to say, and it certainly doesn't jibe with the Palin fans I know that are not white, stupid, or complacent.

Am I just a weird kinda dude for wanting to figure out why someone like Palin appeals to such a broad swath of people (nb that most of the Palin fans I know are nonwhite with college degrees) instead of being content to dismiss her adulators as stupid & not worth a moment's serious consideration? People who swear by Beck & Palin aren't a construction of bloggers to me. They're my family and my friends and my roommate and more. I want to find out what it is in them that Palin manages to tap into, and I don't think the answer is something as stupidly self-congratulatory as xenophobia or racism or personal laziness.

And suzy I am not, of course, calling you stupidly self-congratulatory. Anticipatory apologies for that and the brief interlude of quarterly hoos political identity crisis.

i don't think they're stupid. i think they think other people think they're stupid & are reacting against it..

i mean they do speak to the (entirely correct) perception that big-moneyed interests esp wall street have influence on the government to the point that it works in their favor, and not for the good of the general public..

i mean, if one isn't already enamored of palin, i don't see how she wins anyone over, she has nothing of substance to say.

Having nothing of substance to say is a major plus to a certain segment of Republican voters. It's how they manage to dismiss Democratic candidates as intellectuals, eggheads, out-of-touch, etc.

suzy, what Hoos said. To jump right to "stupid/stubborn white people" . . . well, you don't actually know any of the people I'm talking about, so you're making an awful lot of assumptions here.

Well, you have your anecdotal sample group and I have mine, which is definitely over-entitled white people who crow about how useless 'book smarts' are and demand 'English only' while butchering every sentence they have cause to scrawl, or utter. They've had several moments of serious contemplation from me; you just don't like the conclusion I drew.

and that many of those who are the public faces of the political system and the mainstream media seem to be entirely out of touch/uninterested in the situation in much of the country. and that the only obvious effects of the government in their lives are.. sending people off to fight and die in wars, using a bunch of taxpayer money to bail out wall street. so you can't trust the government to do anything right, really. so perhaps from that POV there may as well be less government and lower taxes b/c what little there is, is doing nothing for you?

No, my anecdotal sample group's features don't overlap yours, apparently. xp

Having nothing of substance to say is a major plus to a certain segment of Republican voters. It's how they manage to dismiss Democratic candidates as intellectuals, eggheads, out-of-touch, etc.

but this is the history of American politics, isn't it? At the risk of creating false equivalences, what did Walter Mondale, Dukakis, and Gore have to offer as "substance"? Certain candidates, I've become convinced, are set up to lose major races because the political parties stand to gain much by preserving the status quo.

But then neither of us is projecting the characteristics of our sample group onto yours, suzy. xxxp

Certain candidates, I've become convinced, are set up to lose major races because the political parties stand to gain much by preserving the status quo.

i'd def say certain are not set up to win because factions within the party want their candidate to run and win, 4 years later. for instance did the clintonistas go all-out to help kerry win? not so sure.

“How’s that hopey-changey thing workin’ out for you?”

hey, at least she used one of my lines.

http://www.wfmu.org/flashplayer.php?version=2&show=29347&archive=49937

Dave Emory's got a nice paranoid podcast above, from 2008, all about Palin's anti-American tendencies.

Good Lord, Dave Emory is still out there?!

That Limbaugh thing in the Wallace interview is fucking retarded.

^satire

You betcha

At 31 minutes into that above podcast he lays out how Ronald Reagan staffed his administration with former nazis.

http://www.newpatriotjournal.com/PostImages/974e37c9-607c-4c24-8f6e-d72f6add6fd5.jpeg

At the risk of creating false equivalences, what did Walter Mondale, Dukakis, and Gore have to offer as "substance"?

Gore certainly had a little and that little was more than his opponent.

LOL at Trojan horse of socialism.

the trojan horse with apparently no space to actually hide anything inside lol

There's a copy of "Das Kapital" and Mao's Little Red Book in there iirc.

I was gonna comment on that photo but I've been in the bread line all morning long and now I'm just too cold and tired to think of anything to say.

And a Che t-shirt. xp

the palin "writing notes on her hand" thing seriously has me wondering if she's like a deep cover operative for tina fey

Shelby lets go of most of his holds.

Kind of heartened by BTL comments under the piece, like for once in my life. Also, friend's appointment back on track!

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b6b4700a-10fb-11df-9a9e-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

Clemons also thinks that the Chicago team sucks
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2010/02/core_chicago_te/

"Any serious survey of the Obama administration's accomplishments and setbacks over the last year has to conclude that the administration is deeply in the red.

If current trends continue, this once mesmerizing Camelot-ish operation will be be seen in the history books as the presidential administration that -- to distort slightly and inversely paraphrase Churchill -- never have so many talented people managed to achieve so little with so much."

newsflash there

to distort slightly and inversely paraphrase

Really reaching for that namedrop.

that is terrific

Satire, people:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62RgDII17M0

wow who woulda thought a campaign team wouldn't be suitable for governing

lot of anonymous sourcing in that article

"Any serious survey of the Obama administration's accomplishments and setbacks over the last year has to conclude that the administration is deeply in the red.

If current trends continue, this once mesmerizing Camelot-ish operation will be be seen in the history books as the presidential administration that -- to distort slightly and inversely paraphrase Churchill -- never have so many talented people managed to achieve so little with so much."

― I Am Lord Al's Bitch aka the Village Idiot (Dandy Don Weiner), Monday, February 8, 2010 11:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

just... *rmde* at this. any "serious" survey? if by "serious" u mean... not paying attention then i suppose so yes

just throwing this out there--if martha coakley had run a halfway decent campaign, or if ted kennedy had held on another 6 months those articles would be celebrating rahm emanuels abilities and barack obamas 1st year

haven't read the article yet, but . . . the media narrative that the obama administration is incompetent and bumbling is silly.

I'd heard c. inauguration that Kennedy was already on borrowed time, but if Republicans want to think 'hey, meet my truck' is a good campaign slogan, let them.

yeah im not um blaming kennedy for dying

Where was that suggested? Dude was very lucky and well-cared for to stretch the end of his life out as long as he did. There seems also to be an agreement amongst commentators that women trying to get elected to the Senate or as governor in MA have a much tougher time than male candidates, due to Masshole bloc vote. Coakley ran a shitty campaign too, such a bonus.

the media narrative that the obama administration is incompetent and bumbling is silly

Sure, just look at this track record! It's like Aragorn has cometh.

HEY MAYNE HE TOOK TIL THE THIRD YEAR TO GIT ER DONE

even elrond doubted him in year 2 iirc

srsly Daniel, Esq., they planned for things to go this swimmingly? You pep squad members always top yourselves.

I would argue that Obama's administration has been impotent rather than incompetent, knowing that arguing about semantics is really just an exercise in avoiding doing work.

i know no one cares but they have accomplished a hell of a lot, and the only reason people are saying otherwise is because scott brown won MA and hcr hasnt been passed yet

the other team gets to play too

and i say that w/out passing judgment on the things that have been accomplished--just saying that pretending that obama hasnt done anything (thanks either to 'impotence' or 'incompetence') is... willfully buying into a not-particularly-true narrative

Let's add "narrative" to the list of banned words like "rescr**ned."