By John Batchelor on July 3, 2009 7:02 PM
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UPDATE: Rather than a blow to a career, Sarah Palin's decision to resign underlines her self-awareness, writes The Daily Beast's John Batchelor. She is now unmatched for the 2012 primary.
The early excuse for the Republican circular firing squad of the holiday weekend is that Weekly Standard editor and party brainiac Bill Kristol claims that pugnacious McCain campaign enforcer Steve Schmidt has been caught gossiping to Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum about Sarah Palin's rambling and incoherent vice-presidential campaign last September and October. (Now that Palin has announced her resignation from Alaska's governorship, the late excuse for the fisticuffs will certainly be that the boys smelled a special mom baking an apple pie in the kitchen of the GOP and they got in line early with a plate and appetite.)
Purdum, writing with a polite disdain, does flatter Palin as "the sexiest and riskiest brand in the Republican Party," before he goes on to mention unnamed McCain campaign sources who tell stories of Palin's erratic behavior on the trail supposedly caused by her "post-partum depression." Kristol asserts as evidence that Schmidt was the source of this defamatory rumor that Kristol knows that Schmidt has recently emailed Palin out of the blue. "Perhaps Steve was nervous someone would finger him for the Purdum piece," Kristol proposes.
What Palin begins with an announcement from Wasilla is not only a campaign, it is an Iditarod of a crusade.
Firing back, Schmidt immediately emailed a reference to Bill Kristol's distant youth when he worked for the perennial GOP chump, Vice President Dan Quayle: "I'm sure John McCain would be president today if only Bill Kristol had been in charge of the campaign."
Meanwhile, the sniping continues to deteriorate, with erstwhile McCain campaign advisers like Randy Scheunemann choosing sides with Kristol (Scheunemann hates Schmidt, who tried to force him out of the campaign as a leaker and confiscated his BlackBerry), while Schmidt reveals that he had the permission of McCain and Palin to ferret out who was leaking unkind details on Palin to the media. No comment yet from the senator and the governor on their genius of a Plumbers Unit. Another campaign aide, Nicole Wallace, and her husband, Mark Wallace, are mentioned as founts of poison on Palin. "This is all news to me," Nicole Wallace proclaims.
Is this normal after a losing presidential campaign? No. Nor is this a normal year for the Republicans. Kristol and Schmidt and their cronies all know that the Republican brand that they depend upon for a job and for money, lots of money, has been wrecked to the point of no return. They are veterans of a lost cause with one wild adventure to try before history moves on--and the adventurer's name is Sarah Palin.
Palin's sudden announcement that she will resign the Alaska governorship at the end of July, delivered alongside the fireworks of the 4th of July, underlines her self-awareness that she must respond to the pyrotechnics of her stature in the GOP--and must respond in an explosive fashion. Discarding the demands of an Alaska job that is at best part-time, undemanding, predictable, banal, means that she will now devote full-time to traveling the "lower 48" in order to speak, speak, speak. Wherever she goes, she is Alaska, moose-hunting, and Wasilla. As a candidate, she begins the nomination hunt with a formula that none of her rivals can match, not even Mitt Romney, not only because she gave up something in order to go for the White House but also because she reached this decision by being drafted.
What is going on right now in the Republican Party--even as the professionals scramble to react with grins and snorts to the news of Palin's Alaska resignation--are the early scenes of the 2012 campaign for the presidency with Sarah Palin as the once and future hero. Like Joan of Arc, Catherine the Great, Elizabeth Regina, and, skipping four centuries of quarrelsome princes, Margaret Thatcher, the Republican Party has already decided that the governor of Alaska will rescue the GOP from its ruination. What Sarah Palin begins with an announcement from Wasilla is not only a campaign, it is an Iditarod of a crusade--first woman, first mom, and second moose-hunter into the White House.
If you scoff at Palin for president, you are likely insufficiently cynical to work on a national campaign. Eight months after the election, the governor is as natural and gifted a presidential candidate as anyone since Huey Long. The farther she stays away from Washington and the longer she pushes away those sharpies clamoring for her to raise PAC money, to prepare gray-bearded policy positions, network at the barbecues in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina (well, maybe not South Carolina right now), the more box-office irresistible she will be to Republican primary voters. What most recommends the Palin boom is that she is now, 40 months to the election, as celebrated by the GOP right wing as she is reviled by the Democratic left wing.
Sarah Palin is the change that every one has wanted. The Harvard bunch has done us in. The Harvard bunch has brought our country down. Obama is just so much more of the same ole.
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9:59 pm, Jul 3, 2009
bonnetteblj
Batchelor's article gives Palin way too much credit for being intelligent and astute. America knows Palin from her run as VP. Her ignorance and hatefulness came out loud and clear during the election. She brought out the worst in the Republican base (bigots, racists, hate-mongers). The only people who are clamoring for Palin for run are the anti-abortionists and those who want a Theocracy in America. Our Constitution, Thank God, declares a separation of church and state. Palin is going nowhere. She can run all she wants, but still going nowhere.
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9:36 pm, Jul 3, 2009
fk4711
I think Palin is stepping out and going about town. Good for her! This is a natural course for a party that is out of idea, out of talent, and out of time and Palin, a not so talent politician with super size ego (after being pampered by the party right wing) steps in. I say go girl, go as far as you can go but don't come home crying if you did not get the presidency. Governorship of Alaska probably is the highest office for you but no hurt for trying, you have nothing to loose. But I just don't like the resigning press conference in which you have to trout out your 4 kids again. You use them every chance you can but when other's make a joke you tossed "pedophilia" accusation on them. That is not fair, you use your kids, including Trigg as a political (rhetoric) tool, that open them up to political ridicules by comedians, so don't pretend you are angry when they mentioned the kids, you make it possible. I personally will not vote for you but you, like any other citizen of this country, can try. I wish you luck, but PLEASE don't complain when you cannot stand the heat in the kitchen. At that time, I don't want to see you resign from the presidency because your kids vote that you should leave the office. The voters voted for you, not your kids.
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9:06 pm, Jul 3, 2009
dodgeyaussie
Palin has self awareness?
Who knew?
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8:36 pm, Jul 3, 2009
totallyDilapidated
Batch puts up a nice, positive republican spin on palin's actions and fortunes
better yet from my seat in the theater the lack of her positive actions leading to negative reactions every time she appears
the only thing positive in her appearances come from the evangelical far right and the pro-war, narrow, biased, thoughtless, reactionary, immigrant hating, gun loving, sons a bitches we all love to send to war when they're 18
a very narrow base of support
palin elicits a mudslide of negative press except to the aforementioned base
she does have her positive press though Limbaugh radio and Fixed News with nod to Batch
the sudden and abrupt announcement to quit the governorship is in direct relation to the vanity fair piece
palin has to keep her face in the mix and not disappear ugly so quit the governorship
my money on palin radio or tv show no white house she doesn't have the support to come close
now it's about getting the green betcha...
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7:08 pm, Jul 3, 2009
exploora
Since we are all speculating, did anyone consider she could be pregnant? It is just a question.
That would be the only good reason for quitting, after taking an oath for office, in my opinion.
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6:45 pm, Jul 3, 2009
quick2no
She has a family to support - who's going to pay the bills? Somethin's up.
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7:29 pm, Jul 3, 2009
fk4711
She will raise plenty of money from the right wing side of the Republican party (33-35% of the US population). TIME magazine speculate the reason she quit is because she wants to try out her 1)fund raising capability 2)talk show possibility 3)a book to write. These will all lead to lucrative pay off, much better than the boring Alaska governorship.
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9:09 pm, Jul 3, 2009
exploora
A person who quits before her term is up, will probably quit again when the going gets tough.
Blood politics is typical of the whole climate related to successful women in my opinion, and I don't think in this case it was really one sided.
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6:21 pm, Jul 3, 2009
VinceP1974
Nothing in my past years gave me a "What country am I living in" feeling than did the Leftist orgy of lies against her that first weekend after she was announced VP candidate.
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4:41 pm, Jul 3, 2009
cookiecrumb
Whatever that "leftist orgy of lies" (very very rich coming from the Swift boating right that not only did in a Vietnam vet Kerry but McCain in his run against Bush!) - anyway I digress, whatever that "leftist orgy of lies" was (?) absolutely paled into understated insignificance as Palin proved she had the gift for stupidity, inanity and absurdity throughout the presidential campaign and beyond!
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8:33 pm, Jul 3, 2009
VinceP1974
Palin did cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent
She demanded that books be banned from the Wasilla library.
She was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party
Palin endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president
Palin has pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools
Shes anti-semitic.
She believes that the Iraq War was directed by God
That her most recent child was really her daughter's daughter
She tried to fire her brother in law
Cut funding for unwed mothers
She implemented abstinence only sex ed
She had an affair with business partner
She eliminated AK's WIC program
She made rape victims pay for their own rape kits
She institutued windfall profits on oil companies
BP was the sole sponsor of her inaugural
She thinks dinosaurs walked the earth with man
She cut Special Olympics budget
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10:17 pm, Jul 3, 2009
philipjames
This is great... she can now go out into the whole of the US and campaign for Republican congressman and help raise money for them and the GOP and build connections and relationships which would give her the choice to run in either 2012 or 2016.... perfect move that doesn't follow all the baloney advice from the so called genius pundits that gave Republicans a stupid candidate like McCain
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4:39 pm, Jul 3, 2009
Ritarita
And she'll be forever tagged As the half-term Governor.
You're dreaming Phillip.
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10:50 pm, Jul 3, 2009
Shockacon
Sarah was here, And now she's gone, She leaves a lot, to ponder on.
She hates her gig, She loves her Trig, Hey, who is Sarah trying to kid?
She will resign? There's nothing finer, (Please take a hint in South Carolina!)
Something's up, you'd best believe, What else does she have up her sleeve?
A scandal coming? Indictment soon? A pundit's job? What made her fume?
Perhaps the truth will be x-rated? For sure her exit is belated!
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4:38 pm, Jul 3, 2009
politico83
One thing the author misses is that the part of the country that loves her (the right wing of the repub party) is a tiny 20-30% compared with the part that wonders if she might be retarded and certainly doesn't want her anywhere near the nuclear football. Near the end of the campaign she was around 60% unfavorable and what has she done since then to turn it around? Now on top of all her other flaws she's a quitter, leaving the gov mansion before even her first term is up. Her family is a train wreck and her policies are non sensical. How anyone could describe Todd Palin as having "rock Star good looks" instead of being more or less "trailer hillbilly" is beyond me. John has clearly never seen any rockstars, or has only seen the kind that play at whole in the wall country western bars in Louisiana. I have to have confidence that America isn't stupid enough to elect a want to be beauty queen to the presidency, comparing her intellect to Reagan is profoundly unfair to Reagan, who I am no fan of.
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4:27 pm, Jul 3, 2009
piktor
Sarah Palin has announced she will resign her governoship. WTF?
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4:07 pm, Jul 3, 2009
ConstitutionalRights
I find it interesting that those who have no respect for Palin spend so much time trying to discredit her.
Women have a different take in politics and all of them take shots that most men would not. Those who have love for Hillary Clinton should know that by now.
When we're done with the slander and name callilng, lets take a fair look at the records of all politicians, and the results they participate in, good and bad. At the end of the day, results matter.
I'm more concerned with the total disregard for the Constitution in our Congress and the bloated budgets of the Senators and Congressmens personal departments than I am about Alaska. In the big picture, Washington DC is where we have to worry, and big states like New York and California. A closer look at those two states, how they have been run, who is spending the money, and asking the question, why have they gone down the toilet? "Feel good" politics doesn't pay the bills, and if we don't have representation that can make the tough calls on our behalf, then those "employees" should be fired.
Personally, I would fire all 535 elected employees and start over, they have all misused their positions and put us where we are now. Remember, Presidents create budgets, but Congress passes them and spends the money!!!
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2:35 pm, Jul 3, 2009
LivingInCT
She appeals to the anti-authoritarian crowd? Who are you kidding? Her cult-like followers are as authoritarian as you can get! They want a theocracy, they think we're fighting a religious war in Iraq and at home, all hail Palin, and they regularly warn anyone who dares to speak against her. If they're anti-authoritarian, why do they tolerate no dissent? You are as dishonest as they are.
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1:59 pm, Jul 3, 2009
NHBill
Please, please, please let it be Palin in 2012! Palin Vs. Obama could be the biggest Democratic landslide ever. Even the red states would not put that knucklehead in the White House.
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1:51 pm, Jul 3, 2009
finderj
At this point, the argument is no longer about the essential Sarah Palin. It matters not what she is, or is not. She is a convenient target/excuse.
Could we talk about something else now? Please?
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1:40 pm, Jul 3, 2009
mredder4
"as celebrated by the GOP right wing as she is reviled by the Democratic left wing" doesn't mean anything. What matters is how she plays to independent voters, and the truth of that is that she does not play very well with them. The GOP is probably hoping to fool some people next time around by nominating a woman, but it doesn't change anything. Palin is a stereotypical loose-with-the-truth Republican, and America knows it.
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11:49 am, Jul 3, 2009
sippewissett
Forgot to add the good news in Batchelor's article, summed up in this quote: "Palin does not need to prove anything at all about wise government, because she appeals directly to the anti-authoritarian crowd that has been with us since Shay's Rebellion in 1787".
Mercifully her base of "anti-authoritarian" "real Americans" is sufficiently small that it cannot place someone in the White House. She may want "Joe Six Pack" represented in a high federal office (http://townhall.com/MediaPlayer/AudioPlayer.aspx?ContentGuid=9c930bbd-2571 -4987-bd47-d1862ba390eb), but mercifully the majority of our society aspires to have the president be higher in the food chain.
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11:41 am, Jul 3, 2009
sparklers
Sarah will never..... I repeat, never.... live down those Katie Couric interviews. They are wallpaper on the rest of her career.
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11:39 am, Jul 3, 2009
cookiecrumb
Her inane ramblings today were a fond throwback to Katie Couric's tough hard hitting interview (lol).
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8:27 pm, Jul 3, 2009
TrueRed
I saw a Larry King interview with Judge Judy. When asked what she thought of Palin, she hesitated a moment and, apparently trying to polite, said, "Well, she was not very well informed."
I think you are right, Sparklers; those Couric interviews will never go away. I think Palin can be forgiven in some ways (not being able to name a Supreme Court case, for example) but some are just too ridiculous: Palin could not name a single magazine that she reads.
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6:41 pm, Jul 3, 2009
Spasticula
...and asking her what mags she reads is "gotcha!" journalism. absurd.
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8:02 pm, Jul 3, 2009
sippewissett
"Eight months after the election, the governor is as natural and gifted a presidential candidate as anyone since Huey Long."
How eerie is this comparison to a populist Democrat who aspired to the presidency, but was stopped at the pass by someone much brighter than he: F.D.R.
Both Long and Palin taxed oil as a source of revenue and the spirit of his "Share the Wealth" program resembles the (socialist?) dividend Alaskans get annually from oil revenues. Unlike, Palin, all of the LA roads Long built went "somewhere."
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11:37 am, Jul 3, 2009
jobert
Sorry, John. I think the darkest revelation about Palin from the Vanity Fair article was that she does not tell the truth, and has no problem in fudging/exaggerating any story if it is to her advantage. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al, were that way, too.
She is fascinating, that's right. The same way a car accident is.
Didn't Stephen Colbert say something once (aside from coining the word "truthiness") that reality has a well known liberal bias?
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11:33 am, Jul 3, 2009
EdinNJ
It never ceases to amaze me how stupid these conservative commentators are. Fame and notoriety are not the path to electoral office, especially the presidency. In 2008 Hillary Clinton, John McCain, John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson all ran for president and lost while a little-known first term Senator won.
2012 is light years away in politics. One can only hope, from a Democratic point of view, that Sarah Palin is still the Republican's presumptive nominee at that time, for a number of reasons. First, she is wholely unqualified and has been rejected by the American populace already, and second, she is so inherently negative and thin-skinned that she will cut down and attack any potential primary challenger so relentlessly that if she loses, the survivor will be so damaged that they will be unelectable.
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11:18 am, Jul 3, 2009
cookiecrumb
Exactly! I especially like your point about her thin skinned and incredibly petty nature. She can't resist rising to the bait and boy, if she tries to run, she will be baited and dirtied ruthlessly by the Republican field before slamming into the incumbent.
Not just for this reason, I pray that the country has pulled out of the nose dive fundamentally stronger - with a far reaching environmental policy that will keep on being a catalyst for the economy besides reducing/starting to reverse the US reliance on carbon based energy; a health care policy that though not perfect is profoundly fairer, cheaper and more inclusive than the teetering disaster that is heath care today; a sounder financial system with better oversight etc...
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8:25 pm, Jul 3, 2009
nycwerewolf
The problem for Sarah Palin going forward is that no matter how many articles are written by people like Mr. Batchelor (a republican/libertarian/conservative independent/whatever) most of the American public (THANK GOD) are wise to the fact that she is a total idiot. All of this talk about her being this "natural political talent" is all hype. She has absolutely no substance to her at all. She's all style and looks. Period. She appeals to women who would never vote for liberal any way (unless it was HRC) and she appeals to GOP men who weren't going to vote for a Democrat anyway. Palin will never win over liberals in the same way that Obama was able to excite young people, indies and moderate conservatives. The Republican party's best (and ONLY) hope is former Sen. Chuck Hagel. And they are too dimwitted, close minded, bitter, bigoted and dopey to pick him because he did the right thing (when it was unpopular to do so) in going against many of Bush's insane extremist decisions where foreign policy is concerned. Take it from a mixed race (black and white) 'brotha'...
....Sen. Hagel is the WHITE Barack Obama.
And after a second term of President Obama (who I couldn't be happier with right now - he's doing everything a true indie/centrist like me could want) I'll be pleased to support Chuck Hagel and his campaign 150% if he chooses to run just as proudly as I did for Obama. But Obama will DEFINITELY have my vote in 2012....No question about that. He's doing a fantastic job. He is doing everything he said he would when he ran. Obama is doing such a terrific job in fact that he has even caused me to begin respecting Hillary a little more. That's a feat!
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11:05 am, Jul 3, 2009
jus1drun
call her good, call her bad. call her smart, call her stupid. doesn't matter, through the public's fascination with her she's been raised to the level of a legit political player and i for one sincerely doubt she has what it takes to get there. we have given it to her. all you have to do is check the posts on anything palin. nothing else comes close.
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11:41 am, Jul 3, 2009
jobert
nycwerewolf: good points about how Palin would only get the votes who are solid Republican votes anyway. They just might be a little more eager to vote her, but the same votes nonetheless.
I would be interested to see some polling data on how minorities view her in general--not compared to Obama--just general attitude toward her. I seriously doubt her ratings would be high.
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11:38 am, Jul 3, 2009
bassinapple
I think her willingness to immeadiately respond to her attackers is exactly what the Clinton/ Carville team did. Gov. Palin's campaign handlers wanted her to do what Michael Dukakus did. Ignore the attacks, hoping no one would notice them. I kind of like how she hits back.
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11:01 am, Jul 3, 2009
cookiecrumb
You kind of like how she hits back?? To compare Palin and her team with Clinton / Carville is truly laughable! Palin lacks the simple intelligence let alone command of the English language and ability to string a sentence together on the fly! Look at her press conference this afternoon - truly incoherent rambling nonsense. The thought of her as president is absolutely dreadful dreadful dreadful.
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8:14 pm, Jul 3, 2009
piktor
Elizabeth, Catherine, Maggie and now... Palin.
That's precisely the problem with GOPers: they think Palin is a political woman of substance, intelligence, vision. Good luck with that thought!
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10:54 am, Jul 3, 2009
donatello
Definitely, being a MILF is her only positive and this attribute is suppressed by her disgusting narcissism. Substance, intelligence and vision are truely missing.
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7:18 pm, Jul 3, 2009
Chuckv
Well said, well said! But what can you expect from a party where it is an advantage to be so ignorant of science as to disbelieve in evolution?
By John Batchelor on July 2, 2009 9:31 PM
|4 Comments
Murder.
Street video above from Tehran source via LA source on demonstrators on July 2, and about one minute into the clip you are pointed bya red arrow to where the young man is murdered by a Basij rifleman. A headshot. The demonstrators run at first, then gather around the body. I do not see any police presence. The demos were throwing rocks, there is a shot, there is a body, and still no authorities. The video is handheld and very clear. It appears a general breakdown in order in Tehran, with the young demonstrators too numerous and nimble for the police, with the Basij militia given the power to murder at random. Ahmadinejad has lost control of the battlefield; he is a besieged stooge of the disgraced Supreme Leader and the frightened and cowardly mullahs. Iran is now ungovernable. The only rule is murder. The only credible future is more murder.
Neda's Grave.
Below find the first photo I have seen of Neda Soltan's grave in a routine plot in an industrial sized graveyard in the south of Tehran. The reports last week were that the authorities were chasing mourners away from Neda's grave, even her mother and family, and that the regime had launched an investigation into Neda's deliberate shooting by a British agent. Now we have a photo said to be Neda's flower strewn grave. The narrative is clearly on the side of the anti-regime martyrs. The Shia religion is built upon the stage piece of martyrdom. Neda satisfies all the needs of a spiritually damaged and desperate peoples. The fellow cut down by the Basij above died an anonymous and cruel death, but Neda died on a video seen round the world in hours and mentioned by POTUS within days. Neda was not looking to be the Madonna of the nation, yet now her grave rises.
By John Batchelor on July 1, 2009 4:03 PM
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"Green Dam" Breaks.
The unelected leadership in Beijing suddenly backs down from its folly to censor the web in China -- the brainiacs called the software censor "Green Dam Youth Escort" -- and this may be more significant than just a boost for chat rooms, PC makers and bloggers celebrating in Beijing internet galleries. Mainland China is badly governed, is largely a collection of feudal estates without transparency or accountability. The gang of apparatchiks in Beijing, and their uniformed versions in the PLA leadership in Shanghai, do not have rules or procedures -- they have group think and back-stabbing. What genius Beijing cadre dreamed up the idea that you can put the web back in the bottle? Spoke with Mary Kissel and Gordon Chang Sunday 28 re North Korea, and I asked if there was a connection between the Kim regime stupidities and the Beijing suppression of web access. The answer was that hard times in China have pushed unwise elements forward in the leadership. Dumb and Dumber rule.
Chicken Wars.
Sunday 5 July I will speak with Leslie Hook, Asia Wall Street Journal, re why the leadership gulped and blinked at the very last moment. The official website for the scolds explained that "Green Dam" was "delayed." Leslie Hook and colleagues reason that this may be apparatchik weasel talk for "never mind." In any event, the back down is a blow against the bullies and a win for the younger minds. It comes as news of a protest in Hong Kong for more democracy, better government, circles the earth in video (below). Is there a trend here? It is twenty years since Tiananmen Square. The cranks, crones, lackeys and waterboys who ran the terror are either dead or middle aged, and the new cadre coming up does not have much to fear in reprisals. Still, Hu and Wen (right, Dumb and Dumber stand-ins) are midlife fossils who move around like Brezhnev. They may be losing control of the web and HK at the same time. There are a several futile gestures from Beijing that point to a loss of ideas -- such as the trade retaliation on American chicken imports after the geniuses in Washington banned Chinese chicken imports. Now there is a crude, hollow, simple-minded gesture from Beijing, in retaliation for the Obama administration's crude, hollow, oafish "Buy American" codicil in the March stimulus package and the Chinese retaliation, "Buy China," on coke and other steel making products. The two giants are throwing steely gazes at each other while making chickens fly. I will speak to Joseph Sternberg, Europe Wall Street Journal, on Sunday 5, at Brussels, re the mad, mad world of WTO chicken fighting.
By John Batchelor on June 30, 2009 2:19 PM
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Abandoned in Moscow.
Colleague George Friedman looks ahead to the scheduled pow-wow between POTUS and Russian President-stooge (and surprisingly doll-like) Medvedev in Moscow next week. George Friedman is keen on Poland as a future power center in Europe as the Russian federation sags under the weight of bad decisions and Russian pigheadedness. Turkey is another of George Friedman's choices for future power center. The US alliance with Poland is shrewd, long-term, sophisticated and a low-profile way of keeping a knife at Moscow's throat. POTUS Obama will likely offer to remove a Star Wars component (Reagan's and Bush's SDI: the defense system that cracked the Soviets and ended the First Cold War) from going into Poland, but POTUS will do nothing about the arms sales to Poland. POTUS will enjoy abandoning some small piece of Reagan's SDI; it's the prankster in him. Russia is in a strong position just now and regards POTUS as fresh, clumsy, naive and impressionable. May be true that POTUS is simple-minded about strategic defense; it is not a profound concern for this pow-wow, as not even Moscow cares that much about SDI. Putin is the potentate for now, and he keeps his eye on Georgia and Ukraine. Putin will fight to keep Georgia and Ukraine out of NATO. Easy to assume that Georgia has been abandoned by the Obama administration. Joe Biden is the VPOTUS because of his show-boating to Tblisi last August, but that was then and this is now. Ukraine is hopeless, another failed Soros operation. This makes Poland the front line of battle with Moscow. POTUS Obama may try to give up Poland but that is beyond his skills. Besides, the EU and NATO and Germany are keen on keeping Poland a non-Russian front porch.
George Friedman Future War.
See GF wondrous book "The Next Hundred Years," in which Japan and Turkey launch a sneak attack from their secret moon base to knock out the US Battle Stars in geosynchronous orbit in the year 2050. We then fight a ground battle for Poland. Once we get new battle stars up, we prevail. Intense. Where is Moscow in 2050? Cut up between Turkey and Poland. The Germans fight with us. China is a Japanese vassal. And the US is in the hands of a gritty cyberwar-fighting cadre that is born in the year 2012 and educated by men and women who are just graduating from college now. How far back are we in politics from 2050? POTUS Obama and cranky John McCain will be as dusty then as Nixon's "Bring Us Together" is to us now. And 1970 was when RMN backed this oilman in Texas who hailed from old Prescott Bush in Connecticut. Young guy named George H.W. Bush, bunch of kids, and a wife who wore the pants. The Beatles just broke up. Cool.
By John Batchelor on June 28, 2009 4:54 PM
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Example of the Neda music going up, and I choose this one because it has cameos of her in fresh places and poses. Neda looks to have been a fun loving and affectionate young woman of many styles and much energy. I do not have the translation fo this singer, but his beat and his voice are charismatic and convincing. The Neda chorus grows and moves into many languages as it moves into music. Expect cinema, painting, dance, performance and style to be based upon those awful scenes in Tehran.
Hard News.
The unconfirmed reports out of Tehran continue threatening.
By John Batchelor on June 27, 2009 7:38 PM
|4 Comments
Hope Is Not A Plan.
Impossible to figure at this time if the BBC has changed its tone and direction about the Twelvers because of the Tehran sadism and tyranny of the last weeks or because the BBC has decided that, with the the deaf Bush administration safely retired, it is useful to support liberty again. The conduct of the Twelvers is vastly more open and far more restrained than the brutality practiced by the Saddamites the last sixteen years of the Baathists's reign in Baghdad. Saddam Hussein was an Idi Amin lunatic in comparison to the clumsy, pious, sophisticated, media saavy Ahmadinejad and his coterie. Imagine what the Baathists would have done to protests like those in Tehran. Yet the BBC stood by from 1991 until 2003 reminding everyone that it was wrong to interfere in Iraqi affairs. This despite the no-fly zones in the north and south and the intervention more than once by the US and Britain launching missile and bombing strikes at Baghdad. After 2003, the BBC stood for non-interference in Iraqi affairs, stood against the American and British removal of Saddam's cadre of desert savages. Now the BBC is pro-democracy and pro-protest and pro-harassment of the Tehran regime. Still against intervention. Perhaps Neda Soltan is supposed to rise up and lead a nation of open-handed children chanting "Mousavi," and the Pasdaran will crumble and the Basij will turn in their Brownings. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition works in a more timely fashion. Twenty years after Tiananmen Square (right) -- where the student rebels showed up with open hands -- there is no justice, no credibility, no plan in China; and the goons and their flunkies in Beijing are working to shut down what transparency exists while stoking the proliferation fires in Pyongyang, Rangoon, Islamabad, Tehran. Hope is not a plan.
Satellite Dish.
Watching the second part of the above clip, a Tehran victim leads a video cam to the roof of his building and complains that the security police broken in and wrecked the place because folk were shouting slogans at the mobs below. What I found more important is the number of satellite dishes spread out on the roof (right). Those are all communication devices linked to what used to be called Shah TV cable from Los Angles. They are also internet links via satellite. Compared to Baghdad 2003, Tehran in 2009 is a wide-open and voracious consumer of information that it also adept at feeding video back through the links. The regime is now said to be under ferocious cyber attack by what are called "hacktivists." Denial of service attacks and genuine penetration attacks of government sites.
"Internet is down in most of city..."
Late in the news cycle, London Times reporting a variety of messages from Twitter and Facebook that point to continued conflict and persecution not only in Tehran but also in other cities. None of these messages are confirmed. The regime is using the same services to insert agitprop and disinformation. The Beeb reported an unnatural and contrived dullness on the streets of Tehran Sat 27 (below). Sunday is the first work day of the new week. The predictable announcement that the election is fixed is due from the Qom Council of Elders, the dictator's privy council.
Reliable source Isfahan hospital -- many injured from last 24 hours Persiankiwi 11.30
Stay the hell out of our affairs!! We don't need your help to have an election!!!Iranian Facebook user 14.15
Basij is after us. Slept in the streets last night. Internet is down in most of the cityChange_for_Iran 14.30
I want a president like Obama to protect my people and I think so far Karoubi and Mousavi are better than the rest of those jackasses Iranian Facebook user 16.30
They are now arresting human rights activists in large scale. where is UN watchdog?! Change_for_Iran 16.40
Rally is on. Silent, calm, and peaceful. This is what we all want! Thanks for everyone who's there, and who's watching! parhamdoustdar 17.30
Not only that they attacked us, now they are hiding the bodies of those we lost! I will kill Ahmadinejad myself! Change_for_Iran 19.45
The Persian Empire will come back! The new age has come! Iranian Facebook user 21.15
"University Alley, University Alley, murder scene, murder scene" was the written message held aloft on a makeshift paper banner. Rather than ring out in the air, the rhythmic message reverberated inside the minds of all who read itTehranbureaublog.
By John Batchelor on June 26, 2009 12:31 PM
|5 Comments
Marked Man.
BBC interviews the Iranian physician who was nearby Neda Agha-Soltan when she was shot on Saturday, Dr. Arash Hejazi.
Hejazi says that he did not know Neda Agha-Soltan. Hejazi is a physician, originally from Tehran, who now lives in London as a publisher. He was with friends in Tehran, visiting for several days. He and his companions went outside on Saturday 2o to see the protesters going by on the big streets. Teargas drove them and others down an alley away from the main protest. The sound of a shot. Hejazi turned to see a young woman collapse. He jazi is one of the two men leaing over the woman. The other man is her music teacher. The two cellphone videos we have tell the story brutally. I showed the videos to a nineteen year-old American male who is just now focusing on the story. Within seconds, the nineteen year-old understood the injustice. The Youtube generation measures what it see on video swiftly. No agitprop from Tehran or Washington can interfere. Hejazi's lengthy testimony to the BBC will stand up as an annotation of the video of Neda Agha-Soltan's death -- a video that is a sudden, damning indictment of the Twelvers -- much the same way the execution of a VC by a Saigon police chief during Tet in 1968 became the icon of what was wrong in Vietnam.
Basij Shooter
Afterward, Hejazi says that people in the crowd grabbed a Basij with a weapon whom they said had done the shooting. The Basij cried out, "I didn't want to kill her." The crowd complained, "Don't harm him; we are not killers, like them," then, "We can't turn him to the police, what should we do?" Hajazi says that the Basij shooter was just crying because he was afraid. "So they let him go... They were afraid to expose themselves to the police. They took his identiy cards. I know there are people there who know who he is. I know that some people were taking photos of him..."
Hejazi Remembers
"I was washing my hands complusively, for many minutes. A fear of death overwhelmed me. That guy who shot her could have still been there. It was the first time in my life I felt that fear of death...Profound sense of guilt that I couldn't save her.... I didn't sleep for three nights. The look in her eyes, she didn't have time to say anything. Very innocent look...."
"She wanted freedom of assembly."
"The most important thing is that I'm putting myseklf in jeopardy because I am talking to you.... She died for a cause....She wanted freedom of assembly, which is even mentioned in the Constitution of Iran... She died on the streets to say something... As an eyewitness... I haven't seen any of the protesters carrying a gun... they just had their hands and the their voice... This is a crime, unarmed civilians were on the street asking for something..."
Flowers.
"I hear that people were planning to gather in a mosque, and it was cancelled by the government... People put flowers there.... the next day... a rubbish truck came by and threw rubbish on the flowers... there were more than ten people gathering there and they were hit by the Basij to scatter... I've never been in politics,...I want the world to know that I'm here on my own will.... just the innocent look in her eyes before she died.... But the Basij is armed, it's an armed force..."
Thugs.
Hejazi is now a marked man, and he knows it. He knows he cannot return to Iran. Will the regime persecute his family in Tehran? Yes. Will the regime strike at Hejazi in London? Yes. Where is he safe? Nowhere. And the shooter? From Hejaz's remarks, his identity is known. There may be a photograph. The weapon may by available. Much turmoil ahead; much to discover; much for the regime to cover-up.
The political mystery of the moment is why two virile Republican presidential contenders with decades of hard work and years of political savvy both set themselves on fire on TV within weeks of each other.
Is this a mutation of Potomac fever that cuts down Republicans like dandelions? Or is this the sort of Allen Drury soap opera that comes to a waxen party that is out of touch with its own history, drained of a sense of proportion, shrunken to the size of a boys locker room full of cowboy manqués, Dixiecrat clones, and Lothario losers like Nevada Senator John Ensign and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford?
Sanford may look like a "19th Nervous Breakdown," but one week ago he was a cunning self-promoter who was creating the network needed to win the nomination and use his snake-charms, cruelty, lust, and cynical vanity to sneak into the White House.
The Ensign and Sanford cases are so similar that from just a little distance like Rome--where they have a genuine Don Giovanni--you would be safe assuming that this was all the same tawdry, cheatin'-heart tale, like a Nashville ballad on replay.
A chiseled-jaw, baritone voiced, self-righteous pol achieves lordly party acclaim from his peers in preparation for a presidential run and then, without warning, walks into a live TV conference to confess, grovel, obfuscate, and flee.
The facts available so far do not add up to a coherent timeline for either of these now self-disgraced has-beens.
For Ensign, what we have is chiefly his assertion in his clumsy, hasty, ill-attended media conference on June 14, that he separated from his wife, started an affair with a married staffer, Cynthia Hampton, in December 2007, ended the affair with the married staffer in August 2008, reunited with his wife, and has now come forward voluntarily to the media to confess because he may have become the target of threats of exposure by the married staffer's spouse, Doug Hampton, who was also an Ensign staffer at one time. Both of the unusual Hamptons left Ensign's employ in May 2008 and have yet to speak out on their own behalf, using a lawyer letter to plead, "please respect their privacy."
Speaking up loudly is a pesky watchdog, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, that has filed a complaint to Senator Barbara Boxer's Senate Ethics Committee, pointing to its suspicions that Ensign used his political action committee to pay money to Cynthia Hampton during and after the affair. Also making noise is the Las Vegas Sun, which has published its suspicion that Hampton sent by FedEx written allegations against Ensign to Fox News on June 12, three days before the Ensign voluntary presser on June 15, and that somehow not only did Fox not pursue the story, but also that someone may have "tip(ped) off Ensign."
Ensign continues to cringe mutely, resigning his staff-and-budget-rich position as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, turning down all invitations to high-profile TV shows to explain himself, bowing for two minutes before his Senate Republican colleagues on Tuesday, June 22 in order to illustrate his contrition. The only thing that is convincing about Ensign is that his ambitions for the nomination are trash and that his dash to Sioux City, Iowa, on June 1, two weeks before his humiliation, was the high-water mark of his White House run.
After Ensign's brief apology to his peers, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sounded like a mortician wishing a client well across the River Styx: "I think Senator Ensign will address whatever needs to be said from here on."
Mark Sanford's sudden dive overshadows Ensign's just because Sanford was much higher on the list of dream presidential candidates. Sanford's one-man campaign to force the state of South Carolina to refuse $700 million of the Obama administration's March stimulus package raised his profile as a conservative firebrand, both to the Tea Party set and to despondent party Brahmins. As recently as June 2, the leader of the South Carolina state legislature, Republican Glenn McConnell, prophesied usefully of Sanford, "He's moved into the national arena," while Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer coyly suggested to the Wall Street Journal that there were "no plans" to run for the presidency.
Sawyer and the rest of the governor's staff have spent the last week promoting bad adventure fiction about Sanford's whereabouts on the Appalachian Trail. We now are told that Sanford's absence included a rendezvous with a female paramour in Argentina whom he regards as "a dear, dear friend." Sanford's revelation of his deceptions is just the beginning of the yarn. The governor appeared stubbornly disconnected from reality as he rambled on about his romance and "the odyssey we're all on in life." He left the stage to the shouts of the not unbemused media asking if he would be resigning, as if that was the worst thing that was going to happen to his family and to him the next days of the tabloid cat o' nine tails.
The Republican Party cannot walk away with the same square shouldered self-pity as Sanford. According to just-released emails from Sanford to the Argentine woman, named Maria, he was boasting in July last year of the "VP talk" around him when he visited John McCain in Colorado. Before they took it back today, the other GOP governors had made Sanford the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, which was a first-class ticket on a one way campaign plane to 2012. Sanford may look like a "19th Nervous Breakdown," but one week ago he was a cunning self-promoter who was creating the network needed to win the nomination and use his snake-charms, cruelty, lust, and cynical vanity to sneak into the White House.
The twinned disasters of Ensign and Sanford expose the whole party apparatus for the laziness, pettiness, and emptiness of what is left of the leadership. Look at what the party has come to, Republicans: A handful of sharpies and a gang of back-scratchers, all persuaded that Ensign and Sanford were credible campaigners. Have you noticed how many of our pols look like Citizen Kane as he faced the inevitability of his exposure for fraudulence and refusing to back down, shouted, "Don't you worry about me! I'm Charles Foster Kane! I'm no cheap crooked politician, trying to save himself from the consequences of his crimes..."
John Batchelor is radio host of the John Batchelor Show in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
By John Batchelor on June 24, 2009 2:38 PM
|8 Comments
We Were Cautioned to Surrender.
Good, connected Tehran news source (he is outside Tehran) sent me this Youtube of Joan Baez covering the famous partisan lyrics "La Complainte du Partisan," 1943, by Anna Marly and Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie." I puzzled why he sent it to me. Received the clip about six hours ago. He had sent me additional grim news three hours beforehand. I checked his details with my best signals source and another long time signals source. All of it fit together. I put up Joan Baez now not because it is my taste but because it is what those who mourn the disappeared want to hear. "They poured across the border. We were cautioned to surrender. This I could not do. Into the hills I vanished..." Because what follows is not anything but rough news. I have received confirmation from best source that the crackdown Wednesday 24 in Tehran was total and thorough. I was warned last news cycle that the web had been penetrated. That no Twitter or Facebook or email was trustworthy, that the regime had command of the sites and IP proxies. This makes all information impossible to confirm. This caveat is critical. In war, the first three reports are wrong. In this information war, what we have now is raw and aimless and scary because we will never get the facts. Those who vanish now into those graves in South Tehran will not leave a mobile phone video record to mourn. "They poured across the border. We were cautioned to surrender. This I could not do. Into the hills I vanished..."
Unconfirmed.
Information received within the last nine hours: Iranian Student Solidarity Movement secret headquarters in Tehran. (G---- Street.) Attacked. Eight Basij, led by the identified thug "Seyed Fazl-o-Ilah Sabzevari." There was stiff resistance. No mention of gunfire. Basij thugs subdued five of the resisters. Many WIA. Basij thugs confiscated computers. Resisters and equipment slammed into SUVs and taken away. At least one of the resisters was badly wounded.
The Iranian Student Solidarity Movement website is hacked. Many of the leaders are gone. The only way for the regime IT to get the passwords was from the arrested leadership. The assumption is torture and murder.
Additional information is that one of the leaders was abducted Saturday 20 from her home. No name. Her body was found the next day, Sunday 21, near Karaj, north of Tehran. Multiple stabbings. Throat cut. Her family now said to be safely outside of Iran.
18.06 Reporting restrictions make verification virtually impossible but it does seem that there have been outbreaks of sustained violence in the Iranian capital today. Associated Press is now also reporting that witnesses have seen protesters involved in clashes with Iranian riot police near Iran's parliament in Tehran.
Rafsanjani and Mousavi.
Best source reports that Mullah Rafsanjani and his stooge Mousavi will not be turned out of the leadership. There will be a false front to maintain order in the face of the student dissent and the working-class doubt. Yet Rafsanjani loses. Rafsanjani will not be the new supreme leader. The next big boss, once Ayatollah Khamenei dies, will be Mullah Yazdi, the gun-toting sadist and apocalyptic predator. What does this mean for the US and Israel? "They poured across the border. We were cautioned to surrender. This I could not do. Into the hills I vanished..."
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Sarah Palin is the change that every one has wanted. The Harvard bunch has done us in. The Harvard bunch has brought our country down. Obama is just so much more of the same ole.
Batchelor's article gives Palin way too much credit for being intelligent and astute. America knows Palin from her run as VP. Her ignorance and hatefulness came out loud and clear during the election. She brought out the worst in the Republican base (bigots, racists, hate-mongers). The only people who are clamoring for Palin for run are the anti-abortionists and those who want a Theocracy in America. Our Constitution, Thank God, declares a separation of church and state. Palin is going nowhere. She can run all she wants, but still going nowhere.
I think Palin is stepping out and going about town. Good for her! This is a natural course for a party that is out of idea, out of talent, and out of time and Palin, a not so talent politician with super size ego (after being pampered by the party right wing) steps in. I say go girl, go as far as you can go but don't come home crying if you did not get the presidency. Governorship of Alaska probably is the highest office for you but no hurt for trying, you have nothing to loose. But I just don't like the resigning press conference in which you have to trout out your 4 kids again. You use them every chance you can but when other's make a joke you tossed "pedophilia" accusation on them. That is not fair, you use your kids, including Trigg as a political (rhetoric) tool, that open them up to political ridicules by comedians, so don't pretend you are angry when they mentioned the kids, you make it possible. I personally will not vote for you but you, like any other citizen of this country, can try. I wish you luck, but PLEASE don't complain when you cannot stand the heat in the kitchen. At that time, I don't want to see you resign from the presidency because your kids vote that you should leave the office. The voters voted for you, not your kids.
Palin has self awareness?
Who knew?
Batch puts up a nice, positive republican spin on palin's actions and fortunes
better yet from my seat in the theater
the lack of her positive actions leading to negative reactions
every time she appears
the only thing positive in her appearances come from
the evangelical far right and the pro-war, narrow, biased, thoughtless, reactionary, immigrant hating, gun loving, sons a bitches we all love to send to war when they're 18
a very narrow base of support
palin elicits a mudslide of negative press except to the aforementioned base
she does have her positive press though
Limbaugh radio and Fixed News with nod to Batch
the sudden and abrupt announcement to quit the governorship
is in direct relation to the vanity fair piece
palin has to keep her face in the mix and not disappear ugly
so
quit the governorship
my money on palin
radio or tv show
no white house
she doesn't have the support to come close
now it's about getting the green
betcha...
Since we are all speculating, did anyone consider she could be pregnant? It is just a question.
That would be the only good reason for quitting, after taking an oath for office, in my opinion.
She has a family to support - who's going to pay the bills? Somethin's up.
She will raise plenty of money from the right wing side of the Republican party (33-35% of the US population). TIME magazine speculate the reason she quit is because she wants to try out her 1)fund raising capability 2)talk show possibility 3)a book to write. These will all lead to lucrative pay off, much better than the boring Alaska governorship.
A person who quits before her term is up, will probably quit again when the going gets tough.
Blood politics is typical of the whole climate related to successful women in my opinion, and I don't think in this case it was really one sided.
Nothing in my past years gave me a "What country am I living in" feeling than did the Leftist orgy of lies against her that first weekend after she was announced VP candidate.
Whatever that "leftist orgy of lies" (very very rich coming from the Swift boating right that not only did in a Vietnam vet Kerry but McCain in his run against Bush!) - anyway I digress, whatever that "leftist orgy of lies" was (?) absolutely paled into understated insignificance as Palin proved she had the gift for stupidity, inanity and absurdity throughout the presidential campaign and beyond!
Palin did cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent
She demanded that books be banned from the Wasilla library.
She was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party
Palin endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president
Palin has pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools
Shes anti-semitic.
She believes that the Iraq War was directed by God
That her most recent child was really her daughter's daughter
She tried to fire her brother in law
Cut funding for unwed mothers
She implemented abstinence only sex ed
She had an affair with business partner
She eliminated AK's WIC program
She made rape victims pay for their own rape kits
She institutued windfall profits on oil companies
BP was the sole sponsor of her inaugural
She thinks dinosaurs walked the earth with man
She cut Special Olympics budget
This is great...
she can now go out into the whole of the US and campaign for Republican congressman and help raise money for them and the GOP and build connections and relationships which would give her the choice to run in either 2012 or 2016....
perfect move that doesn't follow all the baloney advice from the so called genius pundits that gave Republicans a stupid candidate like McCain
And she'll be forever tagged
As the half-term Governor.
You're dreaming Phillip.
Sarah was here,
And now she's gone,
She leaves a lot,
to ponder on.
She hates her gig,
She loves her Trig,
Hey, who is Sarah
trying to kid?
She will resign?
There's nothing finer,
(Please take a hint
in South Carolina!)
Something's up,
you'd best believe,
What else does she have
up her sleeve?
A scandal coming?
Indictment soon?
A pundit's job?
What made her fume?
Perhaps the truth will be x-rated?
For sure her exit is belated!
One thing the author misses is that the part of the country that loves her (the right wing of the repub party) is a tiny 20-30% compared with the part that wonders if she might be retarded and certainly doesn't want her anywhere near the nuclear football. Near the end of the campaign she was around 60% unfavorable and what has she done since then to turn it around?
Now on top of all her other flaws she's a quitter, leaving the gov mansion before even her first term is up. Her family is a train wreck and her policies are non sensical. How anyone could describe Todd Palin as having "rock Star good looks" instead of being more or less "trailer hillbilly" is beyond me. John has clearly never seen any rockstars, or has only seen the kind that play at whole in the wall country western bars in Louisiana.
I have to have confidence that America isn't stupid enough to elect a want to be beauty queen to the presidency, comparing her intellect to Reagan is profoundly unfair to Reagan, who I am no fan of.
Sarah Palin has announced she will resign her governoship. WTF?
I find it interesting that those who have no respect for Palin spend so much time trying to discredit her.
Women have a different take in politics and all of them take shots that most men would not. Those who have love for Hillary Clinton should know that by now.
When we're done with the slander and name callilng, lets take a fair look at the records of all politicians, and the results they participate in, good and bad. At the end of the day, results matter.
I'm more concerned with the total disregard for the Constitution in our Congress and the bloated budgets of the Senators and Congressmens personal departments than I am about Alaska. In the big picture, Washington DC is where we have to worry, and big states like New York and California. A closer look at those two states, how they have been run, who is spending the money, and asking the question, why have they gone down the toilet? "Feel good" politics doesn't pay the bills, and if we don't have representation that can make the tough calls on our behalf, then those "employees" should be fired.
Personally, I would fire all 535 elected employees and start over, they have all misused their positions and put us where we are now. Remember, Presidents create budgets, but Congress passes them and spends the money!!!
She appeals to the anti-authoritarian crowd? Who are you kidding? Her cult-like followers are as authoritarian as you can get! They want a theocracy, they think we're fighting a religious war in Iraq and at home, all hail Palin, and they regularly warn anyone who dares to speak against her. If they're anti-authoritarian, why do they tolerate no dissent? You are as dishonest as they are.
Please, please, please let it be Palin in 2012!
Palin Vs. Obama could be the biggest Democratic landslide ever.
Even the red states would not put that knucklehead in the White House.
At this point, the argument is no longer about the essential Sarah Palin.
It matters not what she is, or is not.
She is a convenient target/excuse.
Could we talk about something else now?
Please?
"as celebrated by the GOP right wing as she is reviled by the Democratic left wing" doesn't mean anything. What matters is how she plays to independent voters, and the truth of that is that she does not play very well with them. The GOP is probably hoping to fool some people next time around by nominating a woman, but it doesn't change anything. Palin is a stereotypical loose-with-the-truth Republican, and America knows it.
Forgot to add the good news in Batchelor's article, summed up in this quote: "Palin does not need to prove anything at all about wise government, because she appeals directly to the anti-authoritarian crowd that has been with us since Shay's Rebellion in 1787".
Mercifully her base of "anti-authoritarian" "real Americans" is sufficiently small that it cannot place someone in the White House. She may want "Joe Six Pack" represented in a high federal office (http://townhall.com/MediaPlayer/AudioPlayer.aspx?ContentGuid=9c930bbd-2571 -4987-bd47-d1862ba390eb), but mercifully the majority of our society aspires to have the president be higher in the food chain.
Sarah will never..... I repeat, never.... live down those Katie Couric interviews. They are wallpaper on the rest of her career.
Her inane ramblings today were a fond throwback to Katie Couric's tough hard hitting interview (lol).
I saw a Larry King interview with Judge Judy. When asked what she thought of Palin, she hesitated a moment and, apparently trying to polite, said, "Well, she was not very well informed."
I think you are right, Sparklers; those Couric interviews will never go away. I think Palin can be forgiven in some ways (not being able to name a Supreme Court case, for example) but some are just too ridiculous: Palin could not name a single magazine that she reads.
...and asking her what mags she reads is "gotcha!" journalism. absurd.
"Eight months after the election, the governor is as natural and gifted a presidential candidate as anyone since Huey Long."
How eerie is this comparison to a populist Democrat who aspired to the presidency, but was stopped at the pass by someone much brighter than he: F.D.R.
Both Long and Palin taxed oil as a source of revenue and the spirit of his "Share the Wealth" program resembles the (socialist?) dividend Alaskans get annually from oil revenues. Unlike, Palin, all of the LA roads Long built went "somewhere."
Sorry, John. I think the darkest revelation about Palin from the Vanity Fair article was that she does not tell the truth, and has no problem in fudging/exaggerating any story if it is to her advantage. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al, were that way, too.
She is fascinating, that's right. The same way a car accident is.
Didn't Stephen Colbert say something once (aside from coining the word "truthiness") that reality has a well known liberal bias?
It never ceases to amaze me how stupid these conservative commentators are. Fame and notoriety are not the path to electoral office, especially the presidency. In 2008 Hillary Clinton, John McCain, John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson all ran for president and lost while a little-known first term Senator won.
2012 is light years away in politics. One can only hope, from a Democratic point of view, that Sarah Palin is still the Republican's presumptive nominee at that time, for a number of reasons. First, she is wholely unqualified and has been rejected by the American populace already, and second, she is so inherently negative and thin-skinned that she will cut down and attack any potential primary challenger so relentlessly that if she loses, the survivor will be so damaged that they will be unelectable.
Exactly! I especially like your point about her thin skinned and incredibly petty nature. She can't resist rising to the bait and boy, if she tries to run, she will be baited and dirtied ruthlessly by the Republican field before slamming into the incumbent.
Not just for this reason, I pray that the country has pulled out of the nose dive fundamentally stronger - with a far reaching environmental policy that will keep on being a catalyst for the economy besides reducing/starting to reverse the US reliance on carbon based energy; a health care policy that though not perfect is profoundly fairer, cheaper and more inclusive than the teetering disaster that is heath care today; a sounder financial system with better oversight etc...
The problem for Sarah Palin going forward is that no matter how many articles are written by people like Mr. Batchelor (a republican/libertarian/conservative independent/whatever) most of the American public (THANK GOD) are wise to the fact that she is a total idiot. All of this talk about her being this "natural political talent" is all hype. She has absolutely no substance to her at all. She's all style and looks. Period. She appeals to women who would never vote for liberal any way (unless it was HRC) and she appeals to GOP men who weren't going to vote for a Democrat anyway. Palin will never win over liberals in the same way that Obama was able to excite young people, indies and moderate conservatives. The Republican party's best (and ONLY) hope is former Sen. Chuck Hagel. And they are too dimwitted, close minded, bitter, bigoted and dopey to pick him because he did the right thing (when it was unpopular to do so) in going against many of Bush's insane extremist decisions where foreign policy is concerned. Take it from a mixed race (black and white) 'brotha'...
....Sen. Hagel is the WHITE Barack Obama.
And after a second term of President Obama (who I couldn't be happier with right now - he's doing everything a true indie/centrist like me could want) I'll be pleased to support Chuck Hagel and his campaign 150% if he chooses to run just as proudly as I did for Obama. But Obama will DEFINITELY have my vote in 2012....No question about that. He's doing a fantastic job. He is doing everything he said he would when he ran. Obama is doing such a terrific job in fact that he has even caused me to begin respecting Hillary a little more. That's a feat!
call her good, call her bad. call her smart, call her stupid. doesn't matter, through the public's fascination with her she's been raised to the level of a legit political player and i for one sincerely doubt she has what it takes to get there. we have given it to her. all you have to do is check the posts on anything palin. nothing else comes close.
nycwerewolf: good points about how Palin would only get the votes who are solid Republican votes anyway. They just might be a little more eager to vote her, but the same votes nonetheless.
I would be interested to see some polling data on how minorities view her in general--not compared to Obama--just general attitude toward her. I seriously doubt her ratings would be high.
I think her willingness to immeadiately respond to her attackers is exactly what the Clinton/ Carville team did. Gov. Palin's campaign handlers wanted her to do what Michael Dukakus did. Ignore the attacks, hoping no one would notice them. I kind of like how she hits back.
You kind of like how she hits back?? To compare Palin and her team with Clinton / Carville is truly laughable! Palin lacks the simple intelligence let alone command of the English language and ability to string a sentence together on the fly! Look at her press conference this afternoon - truly incoherent rambling nonsense. The thought of her as president is absolutely dreadful dreadful dreadful.
Elizabeth, Catherine, Maggie and now... Palin.
That's precisely the problem with GOPers: they think Palin is a political woman of substance, intelligence, vision. Good luck with that thought!
Definitely, being a MILF is her only positive and this attribute is suppressed by her disgusting narcissism. Substance, intelligence and vision are truely missing.
Well said, well said! But what can you expect from a party where it is an advantage to be so ignorant of science as to disbelieve in evolution?