And tremendously incisive. You've hit the nail on the head.

Didn't we travel that road for eight years? I remember in 2000 a Bush supporter being interviewed said he liked George Bush because, "He sounds stupid like me."

You repeated "MSM" in your post and I tried to find out what it stands for. Here is what I found:

"Men who have sex with men or males who have sex with males (MSM) refers to men who engage in sexual activity with other men, regardless of how they identify themselves; many choose not to accept social identities of gay or bisexual.[1][2][3][4][5] The term was created in the 1990s by epidemiologists in order to study the spread of disease among men who have sex with men, regardless of identity.[2]

MSM is often used in medical literature and social research to describe such men as a group for clinical study without considering issues of sexual self-identity."

I'm trying to be charitable here but your raving about Obama and repeating Limbaugh's diatribe and lies does not seem to square with "MSM".

Please enlighten us.

My sentiments, exactly. Yesterday, Joan posted an article full of disdain on the memorial service for Michael Jackson. The same day, there were 6, SIX!!! articles on this site on Sarah Palin. I wrote the same sentiments you expressed. If not for the memorial, Joan would have also had an article on Palin, as she does today!

Part of the grief in Michael Jackson's passing is the unconfirmed knowledge that his death was a tragically sad one. If we do not find out, in the final report, that his body was ravaged due to a terrible debilitating disease, we will have confirmed that it was a death due to self inflicted destruction arising from progressive mental and emotional disorder that all of the love, success, fame, and adoration could not prevent. Still, he contributed a lot and leaves a beautiful legacy in his art. Palin has given us nothing but fear and embarrassment. She has not even earned her celebrity. It was given to her because, normally, she would have been laughed away after her first week in the lower 48.

why Rush is so obsessed with bending over and grabbing his socks for a black man.

Bush fit the piss liberals off with a dumbass pattern. The right wing had problems with McCain because he wasn't a total dumbass.

She has been idolizing an existence of complete blindness to the outside world, of extreme anti-intellectualism, ridicule of cosmopolitanism and a simplistic frontier mentality that would take this society back a few hundred years. The impression she leaves is of someone who has lived in a cave and is unaware of what happened to the world in the last couple of centuries. The scariest thing of all, she acts as if ignorance is a virtue that qualifies her for high office and she gives very strong hints that a USA with her as President would rapidly retreat toward the dark ages. The attention she's given by the media actually helps increase her popularity among the un/undereducated, often racist white population. Palin as a person is so light weight and insignificant, essentially a cartoon character, she seems more like a fictional character created by Sasha Barron Cohen for an Ali G. episode, but the state of mind she represents points to a significant (in numbers) anti-intellectual segment of the population that is extremely angry and frustrated.

Let's do a brief comparison of Obama and Palin statements and behaviors and see who seems the bigger gaffing, lying idiot who doesn't deserve a seat in national politics:

Lying Media Palin:

'I can see Russia from my house'

Real Palin:

"You can actually see Russia from land in Alaska"

-Katie Couric chop & paste interview

-Ethics investigations, all proven or to be proven without merit

-An advocate for chastity and sanctity of life under any circumstance, yet is somehow unable to controll her own daughter! How dare she advocate!

-Appearing on SNL

Obama:

"Typical white Person"

"I personally did not hear those sermons"

"The 57 states"

-No flag pin? Oh wait, now that you won you wear one?

-Spending over $100,000 in lawyer fees to hide birth certificate in HI (Real reason for hiding = Religion listed as Muslim on Certificate of Birth)

-No release of medical records (STDs? Addictions? Probably but until released we can only guess)

-No release of HS, college, or any other grade transcripts

-Chicago politics (Blago, Rahm, Sniveling rat-faced Axelrod) et al.

-Rezko

-2 years in senate voting "present"

-Community organizer i.e., an ACORN Cappo

-Ummm, ahhh, hmmmm, umm, ahh (without teleprompter)

-Cheap Roman Columns

-Insulting the queen of England with ghetto familiarity

-Thoughtful DVD gifts

-His own Ghettofabulous umbrella holder, ala P-Diddy.

Again liberals, please tell me how can you think this joker is any better than Sarah Palin?

It is not the PUMAs in the least. It's the misogynistic left of the Democratic Party. A lot of the Hillary hatred moved over to Palin virtually instantly. I agree with the post about the irrationality of the Palin obsession, but not with the idea it emanates from PUMAs. They are much more in the posture of asking for civil discussion of her merits and demerits, and then being accused of supporting her for not joining in the pile on.

I love Kamiya's writing and ideas, and agree about toxicity. But one statement in the essay is silly: I felt no such compulsion when an English "princess" died. Her life has no relevance for me. Ugh. I actually think that any such compulsion to mourn famous strangers is linked to royalist inclinations. My own life and the life of my loved ones is far more important than any of those famous strangers who are idealized.

except for my own experience last fall.

Full disclosure: I am a liberal and I wouldn't have voted for McCain or Palin if they were the only ones running. That said:

I was in the backwoods in late September when Palin did the Couric interviews.

After I got back, I watched the SNL skit of the interviews first. I was appalled. This SNL snarkiness was way over the top. Yuck. Yuck. So the liberals (myself included) don't like this woman or her stand on the issues. But really, have we fallen so far that we just dump on this woman - SNL making her look like she's retarded? Please.

Then I watched the Couric interviews. I practically fell out of my chair. The SNL skit could hardly even be called a skit. No creativity was used in the making of the SNL rendition of the interview. All SNL did was have its actors regurgitate the exact words, mannerisms, etc. of Ms. Palin. Palin was so horrible, I wouldn't have expected her to run for class president, let alone the vice presidency.

This is why moderates and liberals dump on Palin at will. My 95 year old mother could discuss the issues better than Palin, and could manage a government better.

This woman was considered an appropriate candidate for VP/ potentially POTUS by the Grand Old Party? Our lives could literally have been in her hands?

If you don't like those who dump on Palin, turn off the TV, Twitter, PC. But don't complain when those who have witnessed a black hole are still trying to get over the "What if" scenario.

We should never forget.