Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
A couple quick points in response to your colorful post.
First, you could be right. The Republicans might be finished. But then again, some Democrats toasting LBJ back in Atlantic City in the summer of '64 thought there might never be a Republican president again. Who knew Nixon would be back in four years, or Reagen in sixteen? In politics, anything is possible.
Second, I find it interesting that the Republicans themselves do not seem to be learning the lessons of this election, as outlined by their own betters within the party. According to Gallup, the two most popular national figures are Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, both fundamentalist Christians. It could be suicide for the party, but hey, look at Masada. Sometimes it's okay to lose, with dignity.
Third, I enjoyed your description of a "mad, dying party" filled with the willfully ignorant. When I went to a Palin rally, liberal friends suggested I was visiting either a cult meeting or a banjo dueling contest lifted directly from Deliverance. It was neither. Honestly, I think it was the most decent group of 12,000 people I have ever seen in my life. Sure, there are kooks and haters on the far right; I admit it. But 99% of conservatives are not kooks and haters, and the admiration for Sarah is heartfelt, decent emotion; there's nothing bad about it.
Fourth, Palin was rapped for not enough foreign travel. The cure for that: more foreign travel. It was said she did not talk turkey well enough when asked about entitlements. I have a very sophisticated view of entitlements, and one Palin could readily adopt: cut them. If she ever runs for president, she would do the same thing she does as governor: review fedreal programs and stake out positions on those which deserve more funding and those which do not. To paraphrase Hubert Humphrey, if Sarah Palin ever runs for president and cannot perform this task, I will print out these various tributes and eat them.
Fifth, I was not intending to re-argue Bill Ayres, and will not waste space doing so here. I don't think the record supports that he and Mr. Obama are perfect strangers, but if that is your position, I will adopt it for purposes of this exchange. It is irrelevant to my general points.
Finally, I am happy to step away from this thread and let you folks argue about Mr. Obama, and whether he is liberal enough. I think the answer is yes, but his borrow and spend agenda is more about incumbency than party purity.
Did you forget that Obama refused public financing and instead raised an obscene $600 million for his campaign? Less than 20% of this was in contributions of $200 or less. The bulk of it was from Wall Street financiers and other monied corporate interests.
Obama chose to owe people, rather than not to (he almost surely would have won if he had accepted public financing). He's a smart politician. He will stay bought.
It should be no surprise that he's surrounding himself with the old pillars of establishment politics, and with representatives of the very industries that got us in this financial mess.
You say that many are "dismayed that his government will be run by Washington insiders."
Wrong! His government will be run by Barack Obama!
Doesn't anyone in this country get tired of whining? The man hasn't even taken office yet, and all anyone has done is complain.
Poor me, he didn't pick exactly who I think (because I'm an expert) should be in his cabinet! Not enough change! A Clinton!? How could he do this to our country!!!!!!!!!!!
Come on people. We all know that you would be angry if he would have picked some inexperienced guy or gal out of nowhere. Instead, we would hear--I told you he didn't know what he was doing. Our economy is tanking and he picks some inexperienced fool to run things! I should have known.............Oh, the horror!
Like I have reminded people time and time again on this site and other far left sites, he isn't just the President-elect of liberals. He is going to be President of everyone in this country. And right now, with our economy in shambles, we need to start getting along and work together. Because like I said, we are in a recession which could quickly become a depression. And none of you will want to stand in a soup line next year at this time. I should know, I'll be doing it next week. Be thankful for what you have and give the man a little time to do his job.
"Wednesday night I watched the Republican National Convention on television and there, before my very eyes, I saw my Dad reborn; only this time he's a she."
Michael Reagen on Sarah Palin, Sept. 2008.
I was too young to remember much of Reagen, besides the decline period of Iran-Contra and the like. Today, it's interesting to see his son's comparison.
All this trillion dollar borrowing we are discussing had better produce a backlash, at some point. My hope is it will, and Sarah Palin will be a part of it.
I've seen you write about her for pages and pages and pages...but you only say that she's a nice person, likeable, good, pretty. Wonderful...millions of other Americans possess those same qualities. It's not enough.
Every successful politician has some idea behind him or her...Bush, hilariously enough in retrospect, ran as a compassionate conservative.
Obama successfully ran as the anti-Bush. Plain and simple he was able to say I'm change--not primarily because I'm black, but primarily because I'm not Bush. He also carried this off by opposing Bush on major issues like tax breaks to the wealthiest .01 percent and by just calling a timetable to evacuate Iraq a timetable, and Bush just looked more slow by talking about a time table using the words "time horizon" instead. Obama was able to look like a leader.
Even Ronald Reagan said, famously, "government isn't the answer to our problems...government IS the problem..." In retrospect, given the radical deregulation that has contributed to today's banking crisis and global financial precarity, this may not have been a good idea, but it was an idea.
The biggest problem Palin has is not a lack of star power or charisma (funny the very qualities that conservatives mocked in Obama they don't see as even slightly shallow in Palin)...but what idea does Palin have about government that distinguishes her from anyone else?
It can't be just a regurgitation of Reagan....as conservatives have been doing for years. Because right now the borrowing for bailout front that I see you're licking your chops to blame on Obama...the banking bailouts, to most Americans, I hate to say this, but they are going to be blamed on Bush. Do you know why? Because Obama hasn't even taken office yet. That's why. And we're already around 8 trillion promised in the hole...Conservatives have grown government at roughly twice the rate Democrats have (I heard that today even on fox news!) so even fox news adherents (those who are not brain dead) know that Obama is not to blame for the banking crisis today.
So, I wouldn't count on Palin being able to run as the anti-obama in four short years, and that being enough. You can hope so, but looking at Obama's cabinet, it's pretty centrist and he seems to be, whatever his faults, willing to work with and talk to those he doesn't agree with.
So as far as your great hope, Palin: distill an idea she represents that is not just a culture war washup or something regurgitated from Reagan or from Bush. What new and original idea has she brought to the political scene?
(And, no, I'm sorry, but spiky heels don't count!)
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
