If Barack Obama can't handle this dumb hick moose hunter, is he ready to deal with the likes of Vladimir Putin?
Coming into the Republican convention last week, everyone was all worried about Hurricane Gustav ripping things up. But of course it has turned out to be Hurricane Sarah that's doing the damage.…
Article comments
76 - paulbe
This election is looking more and more like an issue free zone, at a time when there's probably never been so many issues. I think the choices on both sides are so poor as to leave one wondering if that was always the intention.
77 - Al Barger
Paulbe- There's plenty of talk about all kinds of issues. There are some pretty clear differences between McCain and Obama, and anybody that's interested would know some of them. It's just that horserace stuff and gaffes like this lipstick business are more fun for casual playground fun.
78 - JOhn Dillon
WHat the hell. There is nothing wrong with this video. What are they going to do? Please, I want to know what McCain and Palin are going to do. Any credentials she has had as a reformer are probably blown by the fact that she is joining the mainline Republican ticket.
79 - Lee Richards
Palin is a perfect fit for Washington: she likes sex, money, and blowing things away. She also can lie through her lipstick regularly and with conviction and a straight face.
At McCain's inaugural, she should slow dance with him until he collapses. She takes over and then appoints Chuck Norris as her VP.
Then we'll get religion, rich, and respect!
When pigs fly.
80 - T-Peters
Sorry I do not see it as an attack on Palin. Not at all.What I do see is politics at its worst from the McCain camp. McCain used the same phrase about Hillary.Let the bloggers keep spinning,, they look silly and the American people have caught on.
81 - Dan
"That whole thing is so Playground Politics to me:"(Obama admitting that the surge has succeeded "beyond our wildest dreams")
" "Ha ha, you admitted that something you didn't think was going to work actually worked. Egg's on your face now, asshole!"
C'mon people. Really?"
I don't know Jordon. Since Obama only admitted the successful outcome of George Bush's heroic leadership a couple of days ago, and since a major plank of his own Iraq policy was retreat, it looks as if this should be a bigger story than childish "lipstick" remarks.
But maybe I'm behind the curve. Maybe this has all been digested and analyzed, and Obama has now decided to "stay the course" on Bush's successful policy. I haven't heard much about it.
82 - jamminsue
Spin doctors note! Here the thing - I just watched the clip above and what I see is taking the lipstick idea that has been bandied about by many, and saying the current administrations policies that McCain seems to want to continue, are a pig in a poke, which you can't pretty up with lipstick. That is not calling Pain a pig, but the Bush administrations' results as a pig.
Anyway, that is what my "progressive" ears heard, and I don't wear lipstick so can't qulify as a pit bull.
83 - Dave Nalle
I thought that as a Muslim Obama wasn't allowed to talk about pigs.
Dave
84 - Al Barger
Jamminsue- You're absolutely right that Obama did not say "Palin is a pig." It has been taken that it was a clever rhetorical ploy, that he was implying it or saying it sideways. His crowd notably perked with special enthusiasm as if that's how THEY took it.
Again though, surely Obama did not MEAN to say it, but considering the recent and famous pitbull remarks anybody that's even half bright would steer WAY clear of that metaphor in this campaign context. Obama's supposed to be the genius from Harvard. [People of Earth - Don't panic. I'm from Harvard, and I'm here to help.] Is he just so dumb as to not know how that would play?
But more sophisticated and edumucated critics like me take it as some kind of Freudian slip, cracking under pressure. I'd find it real easy to believe that the Ivy League guy looks down his nose at the hick, and might well think of her as a pig with lipstick. In their private salons, that'd probably be real funny.
Just remember, I absolutely cannot must not shall not repeat that in public. Must not make shitty cracks about her as a woman. Cannot... Doh! It slipped out.
Maybe he'll pull out of it, but he and Biden have been in something of a meltdown since McCain brought in The Killa from Wasilla. Obama's been openly and unequivocally mocking the "moose hunter." Given his elitist baggage and never connecting with working class whites and all the flap about bitter gun owners - and he still does that and sees that as a clever, cool thing to say in front of television cameras.
Is Obama an idiot, or is he cracking under pressure? Neither option recommends him as commander in chief.
85 - Andy Marsh
The Killa from Wasilla...
I like that!
86 - A human
If Obama was white, the media would not be making a big deal out of him.... He does not have the experience to run the country....
87 - Cliff
You can put lipstick on israel and it will still be a vampire sucking our tax dollars (and blood) dry.
88 - Dr Dreadful
Apparently Sarah Palin is really on a roll with this media interview thing now and has another one lined up with...
...Sean Hannity.
Oooh, that one'll be tough.
89 - LymeBrain
PLEASE vote third party candidate
and pass this message on.
90 - Ginger
The creep Obama is going to lose because he is not a citizen and because he is a bi-sexual faggot.
Also he just thinks he is better then anyone else. Palin has more brains in one finger then that phoney has in his whole head.
91 - Dr Dreadful
...and Appalachia has spoken.
92 - Don Jarrett
"Sarah Palin... with her stellar acceptance speech... you might partly consider this a sign of commander in chief McCain's expertise, his strategic skill in picking just the right weapon for his target."
Hardly.
It shows Karl Rove’s skill in adopting Madison Avenue techniques to politics.
Rove’s adage: No one ever lost by underestimating the intelligence of the American voter.
93 - Don Jarrett
Another “sign of commander in chief McCain's expertise, his strategic skill in picking just the right weapon for his target...”
Let’s see what McCain’s record of expertise and strategic skill shows:
John McCain:
“Because I know that as successful as I believe we will be, and I believe that the success will be fairly easy, we will still lose some American young men or women.” [CNN, 9/24/02]
“We’re not going to get into house-to-house fighting in Baghdad. We may have to take out buildings, but we’re not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies.” [CNN, 9/29/02]
“But the point is that, one, we will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” [MSNBC, 1/22/03]
Epilogue:
It's clear that "commander in chief McCain'‘s" expertise and strategic skill was using the weapon of over 4,000 Americans (now dead) for his little war in Iraq.
94 - Cindy D
I don't know what the hell this woman is doing here.
Palin reeks of not only inexperience, but incompetence. Anyone who cannot see that instantly needs to take remedial thinking classes.
95 - Cindy D
This woman hasn't a fucking clue!
And anyone who seriously allows Palin to sway their vote deserves the misery they will get.
Palin is the turnaround for idiots and others who should be pitied or feared.
To say she has turned the tide against Obama is to call Americans a nation of metal midgets.
If most Americans are that stupid, at this point, I give up on them.
96 - Al Barger
Cindy, a blast of righeous indignation from you does not in fact prove that Palin is inexperienced or incompetent. She is arguably a little green yet - but no more so that the actual presidential candidate of the Democrat party.
What you're really saying is that you INSTANTLY hated her without any idea of caring about what she's actually done or giving her a chance to make a case. Emotions are not legitimate tools of cognition. Anybody who can't see that needs remedial thinking classes.
And on what basis do you say that she's incompetent? You might perhaps reasonably argue that she's not been tried to have had a chance to prove herself on the national stage. But she at minimum seems to have done pretty well in the jobs she's had so far. Her constituents certainly think so. Note that she's got something like 80% approval ratings among Alaskans for her job as governor.
97 - Cannonshop
Hmmm...yeah, letting a "journalist" who's in the bag with the other side edit your interview could be seen as horribly naive, Cindy.
Yup. Horribly naive.
98 - Cindy D
Al,
What you're really saying is that you INSTANTLY hated her without any idea of caring about what she's actually done or giving her a chance to make a case.
Actually, I would have to tape my eyes shut to miss her views. She doesn't have a case but is one. You'll excuse me if I'd like to see a member of Homo Sapiens as a candidate. People who make decisions from a fanatical religious ideology and are clearly anti-science aren't my cup of tea.
99 - Cannonshop
"
Actually, I would have to tape my eyes shut to miss her views. She doesn't have a case but is one. You'll excuse me if I'd like to see a member of Homo Sapiens as a candidate.
So, now you're saying alaskans aren't human, or that being skeptical of wisdom handed down from the ivory tower is anti-science?
What are you living in, Cindy, some mutant version of the 14th century where the Priesthood pronounces and alternate views are sufficient to dehumanize those you don't like, or agree with?
100 - Cindy D
Um, right Cannonshop, that's what I'm saying.
No, what I am saying is, well, actually what I'm really wondering is--why is it that stupid people don't recognize that they're stupid?
101 - Cindy D
Cannonshop,
I just joined "WAP", Women Against Palin. If you truly want to understand what I am talking about you might have a look at the site:
Women Against Palin
102 - Cannonshop
Um, right Cannonshop, that's what I'm saying.
No, what I am saying is, well, actually what I'm really wondering is--why is it that stupid people don't recognize that they're stupid?
I often wonder that myself, having to cope daily with educated idiots incapable of either managing or the technical/engineering job they've been hired to do leaves me a bit exasperated. I mean, getting a degree is supposed to mean you're smart, right? except that when the tool hits the metal, we often see that it doesn't mean that in the slightest.
Often it means having to go around the guy to find the one degreed fellow who actually knows what the fuck he's talking about, or knows how to pay attention to what he's doing. (very annoying, that.)
But you're backing off, I think, from what you really believe-that anyone who differs in opinions or views from your own, must be one of three things:
1. Ignorant-this is your most 'charitable' setting.
2. stupid- your most common setting, and if you can't deny intelligence, you fall back on...
3. Evil/Subhuman. They aren't Wrong or The opposition, they're EEEEVIL in the bogey-man sort of way that lets you adopt an "Any means for the end" attitude, allows you to justify double-standards and permits you to support the unsupportable against them, and embrace tactics you claim to despise.
Unlike yourself, I spent the last eight months trying to find a reason to justify voting for Barack Obama. I found that most of his supporters don't know as much about what he's done in office as I've had to learn on my own, but they're much, much, more impressed with him than I am. and I grow less impressed daily. Meanwhile, I also know what Palin DOES (as opposed to what she would have liked to do) and what she'd like to do (but knows she can't.) The fact is, I'm a bit more impressed with the fact that she appears to know that she can't do what she wants to, but will do what needs to be done, than anything else. I don't care about her family, I don't care what church she attends (or fails to attend), the fact is, she ran a bunch of corrupt bastards from he own party off the state payroll, and told Ted Stevens to piss off.
I'm much more impressed by someone willing to piss off the establishment within their own political party to fulfill their oath, than I am someone uttering the words while going along to get along with known corruption for the sake of their own power.
And know what else? the number of National-Scale enemies she's grown in the last, oh...two weeks? I consider that proof she's effective. It took Obama more than a year to do that, and a contentious Primary with media saturation. Palin made as many enemies among her opponent's party in just two weeks. She scares important people, and that's a plus.
103 - Cindy D
But you're backing off, I think, from what you really believe-that anyone who differs in opinions or views from your own, must be one of three things:
It's not those who "differ(s) in opinions or views" that I feel are stupid or ignorant. It's those who don't inform (or even know how to inform) themselves and yet whose opinions (which they feel entitled to have on every possible subject they know nothing about) affect the rest of us. Those are people I object to. People who believe their own choices should be imposed on others--those are people I object to.
An example: I love the woman who manages my business. She is the best employee anyone could ever have. She is generally kind (when her bigotry doesn't show). She is as honorable and trustworthy a human being as I have ever met. Yet she is as typically ignorant a human being as I have ever met.
She comes to me (at least she's trying to inform herself) to ask me what I think about the latest e-mail she's gotten claiming that Obama is a Muslim or Obama won't salute the flag, etc.
She thinks I'm "smart" and should start and e-mail campaign to refute all this stuff. I think she's "limited in intellect" and am appalled that people even read this trash.
I ask her why the hell she is basing her judgments on stupid e-mails, why doesn't she go and find out how the candidates voted on issues, etc?
The truth is she doesn't know how. So, she turns on whatever garbage anyone throws at her.
In questioning people about the election (or most any subject, for that matter), I find this is what most people I speak to are doing. They are acting on ignorance.
The fact is when I took Research Methods in college and learned how to research information, tear apart studies for flaws, and find facts to inform my decisions (whether I like those facts or not), I also began to bump up against a lot of people whom I learned NEVER look at facts. They simply pass bullshit down from tongue to tongue and generation to generation.
Being a rebellious child, in an emotion driven family, I became a rational thinker who challenged the grown-ups with reason. It's just who I am.
1. Ignorant-this is your most 'charitable' setting.
I don't have a lot of charity in me when I see how stupid some people are.
2. stupid- your most common setting, and if you can't deny intelligence, you fall back on...
Yes, my most common setting is claiming people are stupid unless they back up what they say with something worthy of scholarship.
By the way, some people are evil. Our culture promotes the creation of selfish bastards and others who think they should force everyone to live by their values.
3. Evil/Subhuman.
Actually, my subhuman (non-Homo Sapiens) reference doesn't mean "evil" it also means stupid as is meant to imply a neanderthal mentality.
Anyway, I think some people are stupid even if they do agree with me. Others I think are intelligent despite their disagreement.
104 - Cannonshop
The fact is when I took Research Methods in college and learned how to research information, tear apart studies for flaws, and find facts to inform my decisions (whether I like those facts or not), I also began to bump up against a lot of people whom I learned NEVER look at facts. They simply pass bullshit down from tongue to tongue and generation to generation.
Hmmmm...so did I. I also grew up in a family that argued about politics and religion at the kitchen table, and was taught to argue both sides of an issue before making a decision, rather than trusting someone because they have a title.
I'm very suspicious of dogmatic repetition and the fallacy of authority, and I don't hold truck with echo-chambers. I told you, I dug into Obama's record. Initially to see if I wanted to vote him or Hillary, but continuing in order to determine how much of what he was saying was likely to be what he would be doing.
I found him to be very unimpressive once the sound is turned off and you're not looking at his gestures.
This will be the third time in as many elections that I will be voting against my heart, and with my head. Wish I could believe in Obama, but I Know that I can not. Understand?
105 - Cindy D
An example of stupidity:
"...Mayor Stein and Laura Chase, campaign manager during Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s first run for mayor of Wasilla in 1996, recalled that as a city council member in 1995, Ms. Palin told colleagues that she saw "Daddy’s Roommate" on the library shelf and said it didn't belong there. Ms. Chase says she read the book, found it to be inoffensive, and suggested that Ms. Palin read it. 'Sarah said she didn't need to read that stuff,' [emphasis mine] Ms. Chase said. "It was disturbing that someone would be willing to remove a book from the library, and she didn't even read it." [disturbing indeed]
106 - Cindy D
...and was taught to argue both sides of an issue before making a decision, rather than trusting someone because they have a title...
Investigating (by examining arguments and/or evidence) all sides of a question is the hallmark of critical thinking and the best way to make an informed decision. Trusting anyone, with a title or not (even one's own self), is basing decisions on emotion. We are all human, we have an innate tendency to associate cause and effect for survival reasons (even when cause and effect are unrelated). Which is, as you know, why we require scientific analysis in the first place. We are simply, as humans, unable to see, let alone remove our biases in many cases and we are always subject to errors of wrong associations--i.e. we perceive causation that is nonexistent.
And yes, I do understand.
107 - Cannonshop
WAS the book removed? Separate what a person says, from what they do, Cindy.
108 - Cindy D
WAS the book removed? Separate what a person says, from what they do, Cindy.
The book didn't have to be removed. The example says something about the way she thinks.
People who think like that are dangerous. Banning the book wasn't her decision to make. Yet, this ignorant way of thinking she displayed makes me wonder what biases will she be basing decisions on where she does have authority?
109 - Cannonshop
Then look at the decisions she has Made when she had the power to make them. (there ARE examples.)
Veto'ed a bill that would have denied benefits to partners in same-sex relationships after said bill passed the Legislature. Mind you, Palin's a fundie, and it was a Fundie's dream-bill, and concurred with her personal views. If she makes her decisions based on her social/religious viewpoints, that bill should have been a slam-dunk-sign. She vetoed it. How does that fit into your analysis, Cindy?
110 - Jo Ann Brown
These facts were reported in New York Times.
When Ms. Palin had to cut her first state budget, she avoided the legion of frustrated legislators and mayors. Instead, she huddled with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker who is not a state employee, and vetoed millions of dollars of legislative projects.
Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Ms. Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block the listing of the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Mr. Steiner that his request would cost $468,784 to process.
When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages -- through a federal records request -- he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show.
Daily we get larger and larger doses of Sarah Palin's abilities. I am glad this article is highlighting additional lies told and gross negligence. The reporters are gathering their facts and helping the American people understand and see Sarah Palin's level of incompetence.
111 - Lisa Solod Warren
Cannon, re above post. Superb piece in todays NYT on Palin's bizarre cronyism.
112 - Cindy D
RE # 109
Cannonshop,
You are misguided. In 2005, the Alaska Supreme Court said that denying benefits to partners of gay state employees was unconstitutional.
Therefore, in 2006, her attorney general told Palin the bill that would deny benefits was unconstitutional. After much time and consideration (because she was expected to and wanted to support it), she vetoed it.
That said, here is what Palin said:
Elected officials can't defy the court when it comes to how rights are applied, she said, but she would support a ballot question that would deny benefits to homosexual couples. "I believe that honoring the family structure is that important," Palin said. She said she doesn't know if people choose to be gay.
Source: Anchorage Daily News, "Little play," by K. Hopkins Aug 6, 2006
Palin believes there should be:
No spousal benefits for same-sex couples
Q: Do you support the Alaska Supreme Court's ruling that spousal benefits for state employees should be given to same-sex couples?
A: No, I believe spousal benefits are reserved for married citizens as defined in our constitution.
Source: Eagle Forum 2006 Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire Jul 31, 2006
She is opposed to gay rights and given the opportunity she would deny them. I am surprised you wouldn't know this. It shows up on just about everywhere I've read about the issue. Do you or don't you know where Palin stands? In other words, what are you basing your opinions about her on?
Here is a link to Palin's stance on the issues.
Note: My quotes above come from this link found at the issues on that page.
113 - True America
You all should be ashamed of yourselves. As a True American you should be a True Liberal at all times. You should be capable of loving others who are unlike you, even if they might come from countries that do not like us very much. You should be a true Christian! Beleiving that life is sacred and that abortion is a direct violation from a commandment from our GOD. So is killing our fellow animals on this earth as a sport (hunting). It is an unnecessary sacrifice of life given to this earth by our creator and sinful. You should honor an individual’s choice, and realize that the only job of the government is to support that individual's choice, as long as it does not affect the choice of others. Provide us with unlimited options, ultimate choice to assist us in finding our God, or what we love and consider being our purpose. Therefore you may choose to hunt or have an abortion if that is your wish. It is not the government’s job to prevent people from sinning but it is their job to make sure no one’s actions or sins affect a citizen of who they are put there to govern. I am a True American and I am aware that The True USA will and has always been visible within the minds and hearts of those from the original 13 colonies of this great nation. And those true Americans outside of these 13 colonies acknowledge this. We need to do something quick to our electoral system which will correctly reflect their seniority. We are losing our country to the dumb and uneducated, new territories which haven’t fully matured and are filled with ignorant and irrational concepts. They have yet to embrace the ideologies left behind by our forefathers. I will pray for my country because I love her unconditionally. I never supported Barack Obama and was waiting for McCain to pick Romney or someone who can help with our economy; instead he picks someone who disagrees with him on just about everything as a sleazy political stunt. And in my opinion it was a bigger insult to women than Mr. Obama not selecting Hillary. Women are more than capable of becoming president or VP, but they must become president or VP, equally. I would expect her to be well educated, preferably law school and well versed w/ different people of different cultures since that is what America is. She should take the same road as the boys do, much like Hillary did, earned her respect. McCain said he’d rather lose an election than lose a war, well I’m thinking he may have to do just that. As a Man I lost respect for him and will now take my chances with the Harvard Grad and 30 yr Senator.
-True American
114 - alessandro
Hundreds of comments yet no one ever asked one simple question:
Who puts lipstick on a pig anyway?
Sounds like an Appalachian love story to me.
Harper should have worn a different sweater. And used a sock puppet.
115 - bliffle
Has anyone figured out what True Americans point is?
I nodded off 1/4 of the way through and I haven't attempted that jungle again for fear of being totally swallowed up in it's swampy darkness.
116 - Clavos
Not me. You lasted longer than I did, bliffle.
117 - Cindy D
Frank
I was shocked to see your vulgar use of negro ghetto slang in your headline. In English, there is no such word as "beyatch." Surely your vocabulary is not so poor that you really could not think of a real word to express your thought instead of parroting Ebonics in a headline.
That is utterly undignified, inappropriate, and downright illiterate. Apart from that, it expresses a sub-intellectual tone unworthy of serious reading.
What's really undignified, inappropriate, and downright illiterate is the gall of some pompous-ass white folk who think the language they speak is the only one that should count. Beyatch.
118 - alessandro
Isn't it technically "beeyotch?"
119 - Andy
I just need to point out that at this moment in time, Palin has made a joke out of herself...
I like her, but she shouldn't be Veep.
120 - Al Barger
Andy- Sarah Palin would WAY be my pick absolutely for president among the four. She has not in any point of reason made a joke of herself. That is at least 99% just a determined creation of the media. The worst reasonable point would be that jumping straight into the lion's den she stumbled a bit handling a couple of big-time hostile interviews.
But even at that, she hasn't said anything just stupid and absolutely untrue, like Joe Biden or Obama. Based on the actual CONTENT of what they say, she's more honest, straightforward, knowledgeable and sensible overall certainly than Obama or Biden.
For just a hint of the balance there, what do you think the reaction would have been had Palin talked about President FDR going on television after the stock market crash to reassure the nation - as Biden did a couple of weeks ago? Note that we didn't have tv then, and FDR wasn't president.
If she was saying ludicrous stuff like that, then I'd be dismissing her. But the biggest knock on her was that she didn't automatically know which of four distinctly different meanings of "Bush Doctrine" Gibson was referring to in his disrespectful and condescending interview. Personally, I consider it much preferable for someone to ask a question when they're not sure, rather than bluffing like they know all and see all - as Biden and Obama do.
The reaction to Palin reminds me of my dim teenage memories of reactions to pre-presidential Ron Reagan 1976 to 1980. Why, he's just a dumb, crazy old crank - a joke. Whatever happens in this election, I suspect that she's going to be president one day.
I also suspect that many of her pinko haters see it coming, too. This would certainly be a threat to their world domination and world view. They're anxious to nip it in the bud. But that didn't work with Reagan. We'll see if they do any better at destroying Palin. They haven't so far.