how was the play??

When Peggy Noonan, she of the eternal hearthrob for Ronnie Reagan, the Morning in America, the 1,000 points of Light . . . when Noonan bails on ya, you've got a serious message problem.

...they will be decried as "RINOs", "traitors", and "liberal"... or worse, behind closed doors and closed minds.

In the upcoming battle for the soul of the GOP, I hope that Noonan and others like her prevail, and clear the ichor that has so infected our national dialogue.

Is that actually a word?

Oh Snap! She did not just say that!

Of course Palin is a vulgarian, and it was inevitable that the GOP would sink to this level. Their Manichean rhetoric goes back at least as far as Dubya's first term. The only thing that is new is the abandonment of any pretense of experience, education, or intellectual attainment as a requirement for GOP candidacy. The GOP demonization of intellectual attainment goes back at least as far as Adlai Stevenson, and it has worked; as any strategist knows, whether we are talking sports or politics, you keep doing what works until it doesn't work any longer. Reagan, too, was lauded for being of modest education, so spare me the usual "how did this happen?" faux soul search. The dwindling thinking minority of the GOP let this happen, and they are getting their just desserts. They deserve their well-earned suffering of watching their vulgar candidate spew xenophobic slogans to the frenzied crowds at their rallies. Pardon me for not feeling sorry for them in the least. It is no wonder that thoughtful voters are fleeing the GOP like the wildlife fled Chernobyl.

Of course Palin is a vulgarian, and it was inevitable that the GOP would sink to this level. Their Manichean rhetoric goes back at least as far as Dubya's first term. The only thing that is new is the abandonment of any pretense of experience, education, or intellectual attainment as a requirement for GOP candidacy. The GOP demonization of intellectual attainment goes back at least as far as Adlai Stevenson, and it has worked; as any strategist knows, whether we are talking sports or politics, you keep doing what works until it doesn't work any longer. Reagan, too, was lauded for being of modest education, so spare me the usual "how did this happen?" faux soul search. The dwindling thinking minority of the GOP let this happen, and they are getting their just desserts. They deserve their well-earned suffering of watching their vulgar candidate spew xenophobic slogans to the frenzied crowds at their rallies. Pardon me for not feeling sorry for them in the least. It is no wonder that thoughtful voters are fleeing the GOP like the wildlife fled Chernobyl.

Will those folks on the right now attack another one of their own and throw her out of the party?

How could anyone think a John McCain presidency would be be any different from what we've had for the past 8 years? For all his bluster, McCain has handed over his campaign to those who delivered GWB and its pillaging policies. Palin is the best evidence that someone else is pulling his strings. Are we supposed to imagine he will govern independently?

My problem has never been with Republicans or Conservatism. Its absolutely necessary that differing viewpoints exist to maintain as much a balance as is possible in our eternally imperfect world.

My issue has always been with ANYONE who feels that this nation (and world for that matter) deserves only ONE viewpoint and that if you do not share that viewpoint, you must be eliminated.

As far as who I think who would be a more inclusive administration then, according to campaign rhetoric, it appears Obama has an advantage there. If it were not for McCains campaign managers decided tone and what he has allowed Palin to represent, I would not have been dissapointed if he won had won either.

She sees this disgraceful campaign is diminishing her own personal brand, and wants you to know that she's in it but not of it.

----

In a candid interview with the reporters travelling on her plane, Palin said voters "get a bit irritated with just being inundated" by her campaign's "robocalls" linking Obama to the 1960s radical William Ayers.

"If I called all the shots, and if I could wave a magic wand," Palin told CNN, "I would be sitting at a kitchen table with more and more Americans, talking to them about our plan to get the economy back on track and winning the war, and not having to rely on the old conventional ways of campaigning that includes those robocalls".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/20/uselections2008-democrats

(and at sig)

Dunno why, but for some reason, this quote popped into my head and I feel like sharing:

“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.

Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.

Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.

Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.

Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.

Elves are terrific. They beget terror.

The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.

No one ever said elves are nice.

Elves are bad.” - Terry Pratchett

what if the voter suppression, the flipped votes, all the other dirty tricks, really do throw this election to McCain? Hmmmm??? What then?

With a Democratic congress and all these conservatives having come out against McCain and especially Palin, what will the Republicans do? This year might not be the end of the Republican party, but if they win, we can almost guarantee it.

Ms. Noonan might in this case very well be right about her assessment of the vast and broken-hearted base that comes to hear Palin speak; but I see it as just one more example of the smug beltway commentariat breezily explaining away what average Amercians think and feel, based on nothing more than their prejudices and echoing the echo chamber.

I have no doubt that Sarah Palin, whatever her many faults, has had a lot more actual exposure to the base than a salon anti-socialist like Noonan.