>>Erudite bird droppings *PING*.<<
On second reading, you scored on offence and defense and went for 2 on each side and made it.
PDS exists and is a great and huge/slow target for all of us.
But my question hangs out there, nonetheless.
Does ~prediction = derision?
It is defined by the intentions of the speaker, and interpreted / assigned by onlookers, depending on the timing, context, tone, and the rest.
It's not enough to point out flaws -- if one overdoes that, one is either a PDS sufferer, a jerk, or a pedant.
One must show the flaws are
a) of sufficient magnitude
b) of sufficient relevance (i.e. to the campaign or her gaining a mandate once elected) c) of sufficient reliability (you're not just reading your own dislikes onto her, enough other people who will do something about it, feel the same way you do, and feel strongly enough to act on it.
From what I've seen of you, you are a genuine conservative, but a little worried that the swarm of negative press is too much of a hill to climb.
I disagree, simply because she is getting all this free press and drawing crowds, without even having declared.
People are aching for genuine leadership: and true conservatives know Palin was on a leash for the duration of the McCain campaign.
Her openly calling Obama and Pelosi liars the other day (in addition to her flipping off the press in effect, by not giving them a schedule and perks) are just the kind of red meat the conservatives want.
The economy sucks. Obama's base was never that committed, they were mainly mouth breathing Daily Show watchers who wanted to get sex with loose liberal girls, or reassure themselves that they were too "all that" and intelligent to boot (despite relying on a second-rate comic on a cable channel for their understanding of world events).
Now that they're all back to living with Mom and Dad (oh the horror! They have a college degree, it's not FAIR), they feel betrayed not energized.
Obama's base is not turning out, and the wishy washy middle still remembers that under Bush they had cars and jobs and their homes. BUSH didn't take those things away.
Obaama's trying to thread the Cloward-Piven needle by bankrupting the country to make people dependent on him, fomenting unrest and revolution (particularly among Holder's PeopleTM), and then settling in as Thug-in-Chief.
It won't work. And if he tries to suspend elections, it will get VERY ugly, VERY quickly.
But ugliest of all for the liberals.
Revolution is a young man's game -- and Ayers et al are OLD: and the rest of the crew like their posh lifestyles too much to give up any perks for revolution.
Cheers!