if you have the stomach and patience to scroll way down the comments of joan's post about this, to get to the twisted and tortured logic of readerx2 and his ilk, you'll find that NOTHING palin does could ever be construed by her base as a misstep. if she were caught in a hotel room with two dead hookers and a bag of coke, they would still find a way to blame it on the liberal media and hail it as a savvy political move.

but you're right, these are not the people she has to convince going forward to 2012. i find it hard to believe that anyone could reasonably decide to begin campaigning now, six months into obama's first term, for the next election, but palin's ego and obliviousness to decorum are just large enough to make that explanation plausible. the timing and sheer oddness of the decision do invite one to imagine an impending scandal, but that seems like wishful thinking to me.

i just don't see how she manages to overcome the negative connotations of this move, and the ridicule it invites -- especially from barracudas like romney and gingrich! -- during a prolonged campaign.

if the stimulus plan is a flop, by cantor's logic, it's because not enough money was spent (and not quickly enough), not that the plan exists at all. i don't see how doing nothing, or relying on private enterprise to pull us out of the unemployment morass -- which amounts to the same thing -- could possibly make these numbers go away faster.

the bottom line: the housing sector imploded, the economy tanked, companies started shedding jobs. until something happens to make one or more of those situations reverse itself, unemployment must continue to rise. don't see how any of this can be pinned on obama -- unless, as stated above, you don't think the stimulus was large enough.

"no logo, no letterhead was given..."

just because they weren't atrociously, horribly stupid doesn't mean they weren't terribly stupid.

can't wait to see how the various chattering asses explain this one.

but it's foolish to imagine that obama can ride to the rescue on this. higher education needs to become a priority for EVERYONE, only then will the political will exist to reverse the tide of damage that's been done for a generation now.

i graduated from a decent state school in the mid-90s. managed to get a good education without taking out a single student loan. currently, i'm in my fourth year of grad school as a teacher/student, and the situation -- for me and my students -- has gotten markedly worse every single year.

more and more students are falling away because they simply can't afford rising fees and tuition. the quality of education is declining sharply as departments freeze hiring and wages, making the best professors flock to higher ground (if they can get a job in the first place). class sizes rise, duties expand exponentially -- and don't even get me started on the academic textbook industry, which is an out-of-control racket in its own right.

the reason this should be a priority: as the economy continues to falter and the u.s. gradually makes room for -- or is replaced on the stage by -- china, india, et al., as economic powers, the one true advantage we still have is our superior university system -- which is also the nation's storehouse of knowledge and culture. letting it whither and die will truly be the death knell of our country.

We need to encourage them to stop saying things like this. Let the party continue to fracture and sink. And let the birthers keep whining too. Scares the hell out of anyone who doesn't have one foot in the looneybin.

just bought a new yaris and would have used cash for clunkers, but my all-but-worthless 94 nissan actually got TOO GOOD gas mileage to qualify for the program. this is my one beef with the program -- it ought to be based on percent better mileage you're trading for, not some arbitrary baseline that allows jokers to trade their land rovers for new pickups with slightly better mpg. if the program said you MUST trade in for +8 mpg, that would qualify more people and be better for the environment. it would also allow people who do have trucks to still buy trucks, but trucks with much better mileage numbers.

These people are off the reservation and need to be stopped. I'm all for free speech, and I've been endlessly amused by updates about this movement, and the tortured logic of defenders like stinkhead in the comments thread.

But this shit is getting scary, and dangerous. It's just a matter of time before some of these idiots decide to take things into their own hands -- because, you know, the "mainstream media" (which apparently includes michelle malkin now and ann coulter) and "the politicians" (which includes every relatively sane member of the republican party) don't give this crap any credence.

I don't mean to invoke some sort of orwellian controls and call for the thought police, but we need to start calling this what it is: complete, utter, dangerous lunacy.

They want their idiot back.