Can Anyone Defend Palin as Anything But a Gigantic Joke?

It's weird how a lot of conservatives feel comfortable embracing her. Like they're claiming feminism on their own terms. Do charity work with a lot of Christian organizations. Some genuinely nice people are caught up in the sway. Have to really bite my tongue.

(To answer your question, no)

Actually, it might prove to be a brilliant choice. Up to this point, it doesn't seem disastrous, which had a 50/50 chance when announced.

She's a good choice if your aim is to bring about the Apocalypse, hardly a new twist for the Rapture-ready Republican party.

I don't think he's talking about her worth as a political tool so much as the fact that having her as second-in-line for the White House is a completely terrifying prospect.

As a pawn, she's worked wonders for McCain's campaign, but the thought of her actually LEADING is an awful one.

Seems like rather than defending her the usual tactic is to attack Obama and shift some of the dirt.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/160080/output/comments

The thing that scares me is how fast everyone supposedly embraced her without knowing anything about her at all.

When you think about her ability to actually be President of the Senate and--in the likely scenario that McCain dies in office--President of the United States, it is an indefensible selection. Politically, however, it's a stroke of genius. She's the darling of the lunatic fringe of the Right that currently controls the GOP and she mobilizes the base into actually showing up at the polls, which gives him an actual shot at beating Obama. He didn't have that prior to the selection because the base suspected he was telling them what they wanted to hear in order to get elected. With Palin, he's providing them with good reason to think the change in his political persona is genuine.

At this point, I'm hoping that--if McCain actually does win--the McCain of 2008 and not 2000 is the false front. If 2000 McCain is the real guy, Palin represents pretty much everything he stands against and finds wrong about America. Seeing McCain get sworn in, give a circa 2000 speech about the need for national unity and the need to spurn the "agents of intolerance," promptly firing Palin, and holding a confirmation hearing for a person he actually wants in the position with a Democratic congress would come in a close second to seeing an Obama victory. It will very probably never happen but holding out hope for such a scenario is what keeps me sane when McCain is actually up in the polls.

But she stood up to the good ol boy network!

For reasons that go deeper than the intellect, she's resonating with a certain core Republican constituency in ways that can't be defused by the negative facts of her experience and exposure of her extremist views.

She may be a joke, but the joke will be on us if we can't get past the fact that she's a joke and work our asses off to off-set the number of "true believers" flocking to the polls for her, along with stemming the tide of outright election theft Republicans are lining up for November.

If McCain wins we should hopefully get some more Tina Fey sketches out of the deal. I guess that can be a silver lining as the world ends.

I'll defend "her" ("her" being the image of Palin, which is far more important than Palin, herself) as the single best marketing move in the entire campaign. Sure, there's no substance there, but if we see her as a means to an end (getting McCain elected), the selection is proving to be brilliant.

You can't even counter her appeal with the dubious actions of Palin, the flesh-and-blood human being. Her appeal comes strictly from what she represents, and no amount of talk about her policy decisions can make a dent in that.

If McCain had gone with Lieberman or Romney, Obama would have had this thing in the bag. So, on that level, she's a terrific choice.

As a politician, no. She's about as indefensible as anyone this side of GWB.

Palin has already allowed him to move back to his comfort zone, the die hards are already getting pissed off because he's bring up the subject of immigration reform. With Palin, they can't do anything but hope he dies in office.

Doubtful that he would ever fire her, but she would definitely have a limited to no role in a McCain White House.

Yeah, but why? For the life of me, even if someone could find a logical reason to vote for McCain, her inclusion should drive them away. The mere fact that you're actually considering her a valid option is actually scaring people over here in Europe.

Nothing good could ever come from having someone like her in power.

He's a man in his 70's with a history of cancer and a body ravaged by a half decade stint as a POW. The chances of her getting at least SOME time as Commander-in-Chief are better than average.

Can you guarantee that for me? And the VP can't be fired so that's really academic. VP requires removal by Congress or resignation.

This was the most important decision John McCain could make in his candidacy and until someone points out exactly how she would be a good VP and possibly, ultimately President, it is clear he made it entirely for political reasons and without any thought to the actual well being of the country.

She's made it close, that's for sure. And the left pundits attacking her like Maher and some of the HuffPo people are not helping.

Her creds need to be attacked, often and on the hour, and the fact that she's lied several times needs to be addressed, but the messenger needs to come from somewhere else than the left of the party or the left of the press. George Will's McCain attack, I think, could potentially be damaging as hell to him. What needs to happen is something along those lines against Palin. Someone people will listen to who doesn't smack of opportunism. But the right closes its ranks far more effectively than the left does.

Basically, we need someone like Lieberman to freak out over her wingnut nature, but I don't think that's going to happen.

I'm shocked that people are shocked that this VP pick (or any other VP pick) was done for "political reasons".

Dismissing the political reasons to pick somebody in a campaign like this is just ignoring reality. From the perspective of the McCain campaign, this pick was about just having a shot at the office. And please, I'm not justifying her qualifications, just explaining the obvious political realities.

I'll back up what Stelios said, here in the UK we're terrified of McCain/Palin getting elected. Even our more non-partisan news agencies have all but said 'holy fuck, this shit just got real' and every time she's interviewed it makes it even worse.

Credentially, she's a joke. Politically, it resuscitated his campaign. Basically, if he hadn't have picked her, we'd be picking the bones of his campaign right now.

waah??

Who's shocked that it was done for political reasons? Of course it was done for political reasons. That doesn't change the fact that the prospect of her leading is a horrifying one.

Whenever Sarah Palin comes up, I soon begin to feel like Dan Hedaya in JOE VS. THE VOLCANO. And suddenly I find his character sympathetic.

I know she can get the job, Harry, but can she do the job? I'm not arguing that with you. I'm not arguing that with you. I'm not arguing that with you, Harry. I know she can get the job. But can she do the job? I'm not arguing that with you. I'm not arguing that, Harry...

Judging for her history of using people then "exposing" them for her own gain, I don't think we're going to have to wait for McCain to get sick for a Palin administration. This is one crafty, Machiavellian, Eve Harrington-like politician. If I were McCain, I'd be watching my back every minute.

Vote in "groves"? the fuck?

But don't you see the difference between Biden and his foreign policy experience and Palin and her base rallying? I would trust Biden to take the office of President, Palin leaves me in a cold sweat imagining it.

We're not shocked that she was chosen for political reasons, we're pissed that she was chosen SOLELY for political reasons. Obama picked Biden for political reasons but Biden is qualified to be President.

Stop talking about about tactics and political maneuvering. Palin and what she stands for pose a serious danger if given power. Serious danger.

She may have been picked to look nice and have a vagina, but she doesn't seem to know it. Expect an unprecedented attack on civil rights if they get elected. And that's the best case scenario.

Well she's apparently got the orange growers' vote. And yeah - I think it's painfully obvious that she's a pawn and, hell, I believe (or WANT WANT WANT to believe) that the MAJORITY of people have let that speech aside and started to wonder "Who the hell is this chick?" Unless I've been brainwashed by the "liberal media," I can't recall a single stitch of good press on Palin. Has there been? Like AT ALL?

at least this looks promising.

Foreign policy experience?

Presto-CHANGE-O!



This is like some movie ...

She's still coasting on the residual glow of the first couple of weeks.

Palin is hilarious right up until you realize that if McCain is elected, she is way too close to becoming the 45th President and that will make the last eight years look like a pleasure cruise by comparison.

Maybe not.

I must be the only person to read that as "Tina Fey wants desperately for McCain-Palin to lose." I don't think she dislikes playing Palin, I think she dislikes the idea of Palin as VP.

Why do you always have to ruin my life, Alex?

myk;
Uh ... that's how the whole world read it ...

I read it as "Tina Fey's daughter is British."

Here's the thing, you can't really reason with the people who like Palin because she's 'like us.' So what you need to do is convince them that she's not like them, not that she's inexperienced because you'll never get much traction there.

So you need to find actual bad personal/professional dirt. If she cheated on her husband, actually had a tanning bed put in the governor's mansion, have hard evidence showing how she abused her power as either mayor or governor in a vindictive or personal way, or any other ridiculous things that make her NOT the image that they are trying to portray her as, that is when you'll be able to make some headway.

The news scroll makes that picture.

lol, didn't notice that at all! haha

Well... it's a difficult pick to defend. But I like playing devil's advocate.

Even so, I don't see what she brings to the ticket on anything other than a 'rah-rah' political level. But, for one, she's run a city and a state. Yeah, it's Wasilla the city and Alaska the state, and yeah she did a questionable job. But that's something that people see as a positive.

Secondly, and this is the only other thing I can think of, she's a 'Washington outsider'. She's as far removed from Washington as you can get. And McCain is the only guy left in the race that has really fought against his party on a few important issues, even if he has been playing the game for years and the last time he did it Iraq was a complete mess... moreso than it is now, I mean.

So that's it, really. People see the 'maverick outsider' posturing (which probably has more weight and truth than some on this board would like to admit, but not much more admittedly), and they think the idea of 'someone like them' for VP sounds nice, someone they can relate to being in a real position of power, they hear them saying taxes are going down for everyone and they are going to defend the nation, and that's all they need.

Personally I don't (or didn't) think either side is tons better than the other as Obama seems like a pretty standard democrat to me despite his incredible ability to inspire... but I can't in good conscience vote for a ticket that is one heartbeat away from Sarah Palin as Commander-in-Chief.

I would HOPE that after the atrocity that is the GWB Administration, people would realize that having a drinkin' buddy in the white house was a despicable idea.

Yah. That way it's easier for you to miss the forest for the trees.

If only there were some word that was only one letter different than 'groves' that might make more sense there. Oh well, I guess the person who accidentally or incorrectly typed that must be a complete idiot since they said 'groves' and not 'droves'.

I've finally been confronting some of my well-educated republican friends here at work about Palin. When I ask them what they think of her, all four of them retorted with a variation on "Yeah, what do I think of her? Well, I think that both of the candidates are liars, and that you could dredge up dirt about anybody, not just Palin. Even with Palin, McCain is the lesser of two evils." Palin seems to be driving smart republicans insane. She's indefensible to anyone with a brain.

I keep hearing the echo of McCain's desperate statement from the convention: "Now dont you think we picked the right candidate for Vice president of the United States?" I want to be able to laugh at that in November.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/705/

I think most of that debt is from the sports complex the voters asked for, and I read another article saying they were on course to pay that loan early. I'm puzzled by why people expect a town like this to pay for a sport complex in cash?

People still see all that stuff as a positive. Except the debt, but she was governor and people think that makes her experienced. And on some very small level they are right, I think.

I've thought about it, and I will defend her as possibly the moose-killingest VP candidate ever.

I'll try:

1. She has executive experience leading at the local and state level.

2. As mayor she brought a relatively large amount of money into Wasilla in the form of earmarks and other boondoggles. As governor she fought for the same at the state level. In both cases, that counts as success in a key part of the job.

3a. She has been smart/canny/clever enough to rise to power relatively quickly - I don't get the sense that she was plucked out of mediocrity by the Party (at the local and state levels) in the way that W. was, it seems like she pushed her way in.

3b. She was smart/canny/clever enough when she became mayor to first engage in a series of firings and realignments to change things to her liking, and then to back off when criticism started to grow and a recall effort was bandied about.

4a. She would be the highest-serving woman in the history of our young nation.

4b. She reinforces the whole "American Dream" thing - any one of us can be VP and, cancer/stroke/walnut-in-the-windpipe willing, someday President.

5. I have no doubt that the First Dude would be good for some laffs, if not a full-blown scandal, every month or two.

There.

I feel sick and need to lie down now.