Please pardon the egregious use of this election cycle’s most onerous political cliche, but it’s particularly appropriate here. Fox News is running the following story:
…in which the Republicans give the “inside scoop” on the problems they had with Palin, including her astonishing ignorance about basic geography, to say nothing of geopolitics.
She didn’t know what countries make up NAFTA.
She didn’t know that Africa is a continent.
Shockingly stupid person. Given. Fuck her. Given.
But what’s killing me is that the RNC, less than 24 hours after trying to put her next in succession to the fucking PRESIDENT, is now leaving her out in the cold (and I ain’t talking about Alaska here). They have thrown her to the wolves, probably to make room for another fresh Republican face.
And the gears of politics turn. Heavy, cruel, and crushing, but they turn.
Is this really such a bad thing? Yeah, sucks to be her and her family (wonder if that shotgun wedding’s gonna happen) because of all of this, but she embodied much of the worst of the GOP. If she gets chewed up and shat out, it may well mean the end of the nutter wing as a force in the GOP. That, in and of itself, would be a very good thing, IMHO. And worth the sacrifice.
I fully agree that she needs to go out the airlock. I just find it a little shocking how quickly and how blatantly the Republicans are doing it. It just gives me a glimpse into the inner workings of the party, and even if something changes, I don’t know that anything has changed.
Not that I have any evidence that the Democratic party works differently, but still, sheesh…
I’ll say that I don’t think she was the reason McCain lost (I think she really did help him energize the base, bring his ground game back from the dead and helped tremendously with fundraising), but I also think she brought a lot of this on herself. Never mind the stupidity, she also treated staffers like crap, blamed others for her own failures and disrespected McCain himself. You can’t act like an entitled, egotistical asshole, then expect your underlings to say nice things about you when it’s over.
I think I would also take exception to the statement that the GOP is doing this to her. This information is coming from campaign staffers who endured shabby treatment from her.
I’ve been browsing conservative blogs, and it seems that many conservatives (most of whom at least liked Palin) are angry about this. REALLY angry. After seeing someone they feel was a weak candidate running a weak campaign, capping off years of the President and Republican Congress doing stuff that they think betrayed conservative principles and arguably set up the mess they’re in, this anonymous blaming of someone they could actually support is just the last straw. One prominent blog is promising to find out who the staffers are, and make sure that any candidate they work for in the future gets zero support.
Worse yet was the fact that Fox News was airing this. It adds to the feeling that the Republican establishment in DC has totally lost touch with their core values and constituents, many of whom are agitating for changes in leadership.
If the revelations about how ill-informed she is are true, it bothers me far less that it is now being revealed than that the Republican Party would have backed such an unqualified candidate to begin with.
Most of this stuff comes from an upcoming “Behind-the-scenes” Newsweek story. Their reporters were given access that other reporters didn’t have, but with the promise that they wouldn’t print any of it until after the election.
One of the networks did an interview with him as part of a “family profile” piece. I only watched a few moments of it, and he never said anything like the word nuclear, so I don’t know how his proununciation skills are.
I take this as another sign that the Republican hardcore are determined not to learn anything from this election loss.
Negative campaigns? Lies? Smears? Poor message? No no no no — we’ll dump this at Palin’s feet completely, because that way, we don’t have to accept any responsibility for our own behavior.
So what? Sometimes, people show up when you’re in the shower (or just getting out). It’s not like she did the entire briefing in a towel and then had coffee and dessert served without bothering to get dressed.
But you should not be allowed to be a Governor (much less VP) without being able to name all the countries in North America. (I’m trying to tell myself that that can’t be true. And I’m not sure. It isn’t unbelievable. They did such a bad job in picking and/or handling her that its credible.)
I’m imagining her bustling around in a skimpy towel, while these two McCain staffers with bulging staffers themselves gape at her, waiting for the towel to slip, while silent Todd glares at them closely, sharpening his bowie knife, trying to figure out which one he’s going to gut first…
