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

can't imagine there wouldn't be sizable majority of folks (of all parties) that would be terrified at the thought of that woman at the levers of power.

sort of hope she just flames out in a sex scandal or something, or it turns out she's been poisoning her aides... something that will prevent her from seeming victimized.

though falling off the side of the earth would work too.

Pretty sure she thinks it's flat so that sounds like a plan, yo.

Esq: Nah. This time after the '04 cycle nobody thought Obama would run for anything except his second Senate bid. We seriously thought we might've been looking at a President Giuliani.

I really think much of what Obama's facing from the center-right is down to the authority they are willing to accept from a President who is black, whether this resistance is subliminal or public, stated or not. I'm sure Obama gets it (see: 'no sudden moves') but because of see above: victim shit, he just grits his teeth and gets on with it. Yes, it is frustratingly slow but previous Presidents had all that white privilege to carry the day, no joke (and Roosevelt was so patrician anything he did to help people was totally painted as noblesse oblige, not socialism).

roosevelt was accused of socialism in his day!

also of fascism!

We seriously thought we might've been looking at a President Giuliani.

ugh, never say those words.

Yeah, but to be fair there were numerous Socialists and an American Bund then and nobody tried to portray him as Hitler.

...ps PRIVILEGE means you get to do most of what you will regardless of criticism.

lol. hey, amateurist, you'll love this:

The snows that obliterated Washington in the past week interfered with many scheduled meetings, but they did not prevent the delivery of one important political message: Take Sarah Palin seriously.

Her lengthy Saturday night keynote address to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville and her debut on the Sunday morning talk show circuit with Fox News' Chris Wallace showed off a public figure at the top of her game -- a politician who knows who she is and how to sell herself, even with notes on her palm.

_________________________________

Blessed with an enthusiastic audience of conservative activists, Palin used the Tea Party gathering and coverage on the cable networks to display the full repertoire she possesses, touching on national security, economics, fiscal and social policy, and every other area where she could draw a contrast with Barack Obama and point up what Republicans see as vulnerabilities in Washington.

Her invocation of "conservative principles and common-sense solutions" was perfectly conventional. What stood out in the eyes of TV-watching pols of both parties was the skill with which she drew a self-portrait that fit not just the wishes of the immediate audience but the mood of a significant slice of the broader electorate.

____________________________________

More important, she has locked herself firmly in the populist embrace that every skillful outsider candidate from George Wallace to Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton has utilized when running against "the political establishment."

______________________________________

This is a pitch-perfect recital of the populist message that has worked in campaigns past. There are times when the American people are looking for something more: for an Eisenhower, who liberated Europe; an FDR or a Kennedy or a Bush, all unashamed aristocrats; or an Obama, with eloquence and brains.

But in the present mood of the country, Palin is by all odds a threat to the more uptight Republican aspirants such as Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty -- and potentially, to Obama as well.

Palin did not wear well in the last campaign, especially in the suburbs where populism has a limited appeal. But when Wallace asked her about resigning the governorship with 17 months left in her term and whether she let her opponents drive her from office, she said, "Hell, no."

Those who want to stop her will need more ammunition than deriding her habit of writing on her hand. The lady is good.

davidsbroder!

This is a pitch-perfect recital of the populist message that has worked in campaigns past. There are times when the American people are looking for something more: for an Eisenhower, who liberated Europe; an FDR or a Kennedy or a Bush, all unashamed aristocrats; or an Obama, with eloquence and brains.

This is a tone-deaf reading of history.

Oh, Broder wrote this! That toolbag has been wrong wrong wrong so often he deserves an Oscar.

Haha! love the term "toolbag."

yeah David Broder is an idiot

davidsboner!

broder is wrong all the time. i thought her interview with wallace was awful.. it was chris matthews who pointed out a couple times this week that the really remarkable moment was when she said obama might win in 2012 if he 'played the war card' by either starting a war with iran, or supporting israel more (said just that vaguely). what in the world was she suggesting? the casual association of starting a war with winning an election..

also, found it - howard dean, jan 2004. at the time i recall Very Serious People in the media mostly disregarded whatever he said about religion, and tbh it was out of character for him to speak about it, but anyway:

''Don't you think Jerry Falwell reminds you a lot more of the Pharisees than he does of the teachings of Jesus?'' he added. ''And don't you think this campaign ought to be about evicting the money-changers from the temple?''

roosevelt was accused of socialism in his day!

― by another name (amateurist), Thursday, 11 February 2010 03:15 (2 hours ago) Permalink

also of fascism!

― by another name (amateurist), Thursday, 11 February 2010 03:15 (2 hours ago)

Quite fairly on both counts!

I mean, thank goodness he was president, but there were some... bad moments.

Well then.

Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., will announce this afternoon that he will not seek re-election, and his brother, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, is expected to seek the seat, which is more Republican than ...

?? so if mario is taking lincoln's seat, who gets mario's?

those two guys are a treat btw

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a1gLeuUUbQy8

President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.
Obama, in a Feb. 9 Oval Office interview, said that a presidential commission on the budget needs to consider all options for reducing the deficit, including tax increases and cuts in spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

“The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table,” the president said in the interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “So what I want to do is to be completely agnostic, in terms of solutions.”

Why can't we just tax rich people more? Surely they are not overtaxed yet--you know, the rich people that actually might pay taxes instead of "avoiding" them through tax shelters.

"Completely agnostic" hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahhah

It's a shame I'm not in his district!

Palin's Poll Numbers Hit Historic Lows, even among Republicans.

boo

Although if she goes full-on third party and runs anyway, then YAY

huh it just occurred to me some other GOP nominee winner might be forced to put her on as VP again. if she would be ok with that is another question. but her level of very small but very committed support tends to make her basically a political zombie: can't win, can't be killed. i don't think we're ever going to be rid of her.

boo

i know, right? i can't bear the thought of the ardor cooling between palin and the gop. they are a perfect match imo.

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/twn_up_fls/sarah%20palin%20cycle%20twn.jpg

^^^ SEXIST FOTO

political zombie: can't win, can't be killed

so true

can we skip to the part where one of us brains her with a pickaxe

Is that your way of saying you wanna pork her?

yeah my general prejudice is that the GOP basically answers to a wall street-houston-pentagon axis that is really and truly interesting in ruling the earth. all that back-country populist stuff in a means to an electoral end; acceptable candidates have to be able to play that thing, but palin just IS the thing itself w/o any of the real imperial skills and so, no dice.

dude even I draw the line at fucking zombies

x-post

^^^ SEXIST FOTO

i do not deny it.

SEXIST SOTO

my general prejudice is that the Dems basically answer to a wall street-Microsoft-pentagon axis that is really and truly interesting in ruling the earth

or interested even

Don't forget the unions.

why not, the Dems have.

and, what's the one guy's name, rasheed kaleedy

haha I misread that as "unicorns" and was still like "... well that is kind of true"

http://bloghopenchangery.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/obama_victory_unicorn.jpg

lol I demand a pro-unicorn plank in the party platform

Check out Obama's unicorn plank in that foto.

ILX politics thread called it first

obv Obama will be challenged in '12 primaries by Chesley Sullenberger

my general prejudice is that the Dems basically answer to a wall street-Microsoft-pentagon axis that is really and truly interesting in ruling the earth

why because it look intersting

i know this is kind of dead point from upthread, but ... i always found it odd that some of the folks back in the day could accuse FDR of being a "fascist" in one breath and in another call him "President Rosenfeld" (b/c, you know, he was the Jews' plaything or something like that). sort of the same thing as the Teabaggers who call Obama BOTH a communist and a nazi (although in the minds of the far right communists and nazis ARE the same thing).

FDR about the bankers: "Don't these fools realize that I'm saving capitalism?"

Would vote for Sullenberger, he's a labor union guy.

Is it just me or is the US narrative incredibly anti-union? All my life (born in '81) I remember unions portrayed in pop culture almost always as corrupt, power-mad, etc. I mean there is some amount of corruption but it's totally the pot calling the kettle black. Seems like any and all unionization is thought of as evil to conservatives. I guess on this issue the right has the corporations on their side, which is why their view prevails.