He wrote a book about himself, titled it DRUNKARD
Posted on 05/26/2011 11:54:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
As if the death of Osama bin Laden weren’t enough good news for one month to offer the once-sagging political fortunes of the Obama administration — the terrorist mastermind was killed May 1, though it already seems like a year ago — when you include the failure of the Republican Medicare overhaul to pass in the Senate, plus indications that Tea Party darling Sarah Palin might actually run for president, the mood at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue must border on unbridled jubilation.
Can’t you see Obama skipping through the halls the White House, swinging his arms wide, perhaps singing a few verses of whatever childish doggerel pops into his swelling heart — “A tisket, a tasket, a green-and-yellow basket . . .” — while staffers tip back in their chairs and grin giddily at one another?
Yes, it still feels reckless to dare hope. Palin is in the business of seeming to run for president, of projecting herself as a significant political force while draining millions of dollars from the credulous tin-foil hat wing of her party. Conventional wisdom insists that Palin won’t actually run because: a) she’s making too much money not running, and b) she can’t possibly win a general election.
Realist that I am, I’m forced to lump a serious Palin candidacy with cold fusion, zero-calorie chocolate and a robust economy in the Things Too Good to Be True file.
But with the Republican presidential field divided between notorious failures — Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney — and nameless nobodies — Jon Huntsman, Herman Cain, et al — you can see how Palin might delude herself into believing this is The Moment.
Unmistakable signs point toward a Palin run — she’s building her staff, finishing a two-hour biographical documentary, beginning a bus “listening” tour and has purchased a $1.7 million home in the nativist mecca of Arizona as a campaign base.
It’s that last detail that you really have to savor, symbolically. Arizona, of course, was the home of that far right ideologue Sen. Barry Goldwater, who ran so disastrously in 1964.
The parallels are thrilling. Then, as now, the far right was concerned with an overreaching federal government — in 1964, the intrusive feds were forcing states to treat black people as American citizens; now, it’s threatening to do something about the 12 million illegal immigrants living in serfdom.
Just as the Tea Party drapes itself in the trappings of revolutionary patriotism, so did Goldwater: “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice” he famously declared.
Just as Palin’s foreign policy is a hash of ignorance and bravado, so Goldwater terrified Americans by suggesting that tactical nuclear bombs be used in Vietnam.
Like Palin, he was flayed by comedians.
“His campaign slogan, ‘In your heart, you know he’s right,’ was transformed by humorists into, ‘In your gut, you know he’s nuts,’ ” wrote historian Charles Peters.
Johnson — who, like Obama, was not a particularly popular president — buried Goldwater in the 1964 election. Palin, of course, while adored by her base, always lags far behind in the general polls, something her supporters can’t grasp because failing to perceive the existence of people who disagree with them is what they’re all about.
If I had to bet, I’d say that Palin will flirt with running, pump her fans into a book-buying, speech-attending frenzy, then pull out, the way she quit being governor of Alaska so she could work the rubber-chicken circuit.
But I could also see her deciding that, gosh darn it, her time is now, and her party would be forced to embrace her. Given that a once-respected Republican stalwart like John McCain jettisoned his love-of-country to pick a dangerous demagogue as his running mate before, it’s easy to imagine the Republicans turning to Palin again, even though the result would be the same in 2012 as it was in 2008.
A Palin candidacy would have a number of good effects. First, it would mobilize every Democrat with a pulse to work feverishly for Obama’s re-election. Second, Palin would end up losing in spectacular fashion, perhaps nudging the Republican lunatic fringe back into their caves for a year or two, which would be blessed relief, and maybe even enough time to finally get some kind of immigration reform passed.
Needless to say, this column will go all-out to support Sarah Palin as the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, no doubt joined by the Onion and “Saturday Night Live” and all the other grateful comedians who delight at the ascendance of this Old Faithful of unintentional humor, our own Niagara Falls of self-mockery. Happy days are here again.
What a pompous (bleep) writer.
Careful what you wish for there, Neil.
I'm a realist however.
It would raise my spirits and give me hope that the gates to our Shining City on a Hill will once again be thrown open for all.
Well, mostly for me.
Let’s see. I’m sure Obummer would love running against someone knowledgeable on oil issues when gas is rolling over $4 a gallon. This idiot writer is so giddy with all the cheap jokes Jon Liebowitz will be making instead of looking how weak the Teleprompter in Chief really is.
You know, this may be the beginning of a change of tactic among the left. They’ve been viciously attacking Palin for years, and we’ve been making the point that this shows that they’re terrified of her. Now we have an article claiming to really want her to run because she’d be so beatable. This is just their way of trying to convince us that we shouldn’t nominate her; they realize that we know full well how completely afraid of a Palin campaign they are and they think maybe they can do a “don’t throw me in that briar patch” rope-a-dope on us. It won’t work, of course.
I just gave the idiot a nice email.
Wow, they are in for a surprise.
Mr. Liebowitz’s primary audience has to live in Mom & Dad’s basement because that sheepskin won’t even get them a job flipping hamburgers or stocking shelves. Will they be laughing or crying?
Psalm 121
It was Ronald Reagan's favorite passage in the Bible. The picture of Sarah is on the Ronald Reagan Ranch.
>>> They’ve been viciously attacking Palin for years, and we’ve been making the point that this shows that they’re terrified of her.
That was pretty much the reply in defense last year to every suggestion Christine o’Donnell was a trainwreck in progress. As it turned out, they weren’t afraid of Christine at all. From start to finish they actually WERE loudly laughing at her and anybody who bought in to the fantasy she had a snowball’s chance. And anybody who watched that race objectively had no problem seeing this.
Like o’Donnell, Sarah has a fervent band of followers. But as things are shaping up they are not enough to translate into much more then a Goldwater-level loss, assuming she actually could get the nomination in the first place. Personally I think she will make a deal to support one of the others.
I skipped the email and sent a letter to their editor. Doubt it will get printed since I skewered the j@ck@ss on his comparison of black US citizens to 12 million crimnals and his lack of understanding of the definition of “serf.”
Given that a once-respected Republican stalwart like John McCain jettisoned his love-of-country to pick a dangerous demagogue as his running mate before, it’s easy to imagine the Republicans turning to Palin again,."Republican stalwart." As if.
even though the result would be the same in 2012 as it was in 2008Make that because the result - a sharp, immediate increase in Republican prospects for the election - would be the same in 2012 as it was in 2008.It wasn't Palin who banned truthful campaigning against Hussein Obama, admitted he didn't know anything about economics, suspended his campaign to help pass TARP, and announced during the campaign that Obama would make an OK president. That "once-respected Republican stalwart" did it all by himself. Sarah, OTOH, knows that if the problem is high gas prices the solution isn't smothering the oil companies but "Drill, baby, drill!" And she knows that the country must have a return to Reaganomics:
Now, I knew I was in for it when the hostile critics dubbed our economic plan Reaganomics. They said we couldn't do it. But while the naysayers complained, we went to work.Today inflation has fallen from more than 12 percent to 1.8 percent for the last 12 months. Interest rates are down. Mortgage rates are down. And we've seen the creation of almost 11.7 million jobs in less than the last 4 years -- more jobs than Western Europe and Japan put together have created in the past 10 years. You know, I really, though, found out our economic plan was working when they stopped calling it Reaganomics.
Prombem is...those chairs are on the Titanic.
Remind me which offices Miss O’Donnell has held in the past and how she beat incumbent members of her own party as well as Democrats to get there, and then we’ll talk. Until then, you’re comparing apples to oranges.
Yeah, right. Suuuure Neil. Although I’d buy the Obama skipping bit, but not because of Sarah.
This is called projecting...
The guy just threw AN ENTIRE STATE under the bus! What’s wrong with these people?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.