Showing posts with label John Mccain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Mccain. Show all posts

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Republican Reckoning: the Rise and Fall of Sarah Palin

Sun Sep 28, 2008 at 09:20:13 AM PST

"She makes George W. Bush sound like Cicero"
-Former Palin cheerleader and Right wing hack, Rod Dreher

The Republican Convention was a magical land where desperate people could say whatever they wanted, where nobody actually believed them but everybody applauded and sheds tears like it was the bestest most truthiest tidbit they ever heard. Why? Because every single person in that hall shared collectively in the Great Desperation. Every single tenant of their ideology they’d held so close to their red, white and blue breasts had had all the opportunity to work out for themselves, in the last eight years more than ever. What more can you ask for than a Red-Meat Holy-Rolling Oil-Man Republican Executive and a Republican dominated Congress? Like never before the Party had all the opportunity in the world to show once and for all the supremacy of their beliefs and leadership, and what’s the status of their America come Election Time, 2008? In the toilet, in so many ways I won’t bother to list them. You’re either paying attention or you’re not.

Anyways, from thence came Palin.

From thence came Palin, and so the Desperate Folk rallied and gathered and slavered and slobbered, gobbling hideous lies by the fist-full and furiously chanting "DRILL, DRILL, DRILL!" until tears poured from their eyes. But their new champion had arrived in the not unpleasing form of a moose-killing, lipstick-wearing pitbull/hockey-mom/Reagen in a skirt/beauty contest winner. And she gave a speech. "Hot damn!" exclaimed many the conservative commentator that night and in the 24 hour media cycles to come, "did she give a barn-burner of a speech!" She gave a barn-burning, game-changing holy hell of a speech that brought back the all the joy and triumph of being a Republican again! Ooooh those Leftie loonies were gonna get it! Ever skinned a polar bear, Hillary? HAH!!!

And how they basked in her genius, the glory that was Wasilla mayor Sarah Palin on that night. How could they not? She was going to change the way Washington worked, while making no mention of the fact that it was those very people in that very room and their peers around the country that are in charge of working Washington, (and Wall Street, it turns out) precisely the way it was! It was like Sassy Sarah had somehow gave them all this huge gift of both assuaging their guilt for their recently toileted America and never hinting anyone oughta take responsibility for it and to certainly not change one bit about the way they do business and make money. As obvious a lie as you’ll ever get but not for these people and not in this magical land. It would be the highlight of her political career, a moment where she didn’t walk nor ran but soared above the heads of all who watched. It would never get that good again.

From thence came Palin. Gave her speech on a Friday and by Monday we’d heard whiff of not one, not two but three different emerging scandals from either her time as mayor of Wasilla or outrageous, demonstrable lies from her slowly moldering speech. "I did a buncha things I didn’t really do," became the real upshot of that speech and by the end of the day Monday all sorts of bets circulated the internet involving the likelihood of Palin having to step down. Certainly there was brief respite when McCain gained a post-convention bounce in the polls from that magnificent speech of hers but from then on things just got worse and worse for Sarah Palin (to say nothing of the McCain campaign). Turned out one hell of a speech was all she had in her.

McCain and his crew were quick enough to spot it. It was opening weekend and she was America’s new darling and didn’t we all tune into our favorite Sunday morning talk shows to get another glimpse of this plucky beauty, another dose of this foxy frontierswoman talking trash inre the Democrats and promising the change the whole Universe seemed to need at that moment? But where was she? No interviews? Reeeeeeally? Not the whole next week, even? Not taking questions from anybody? Ugly thoughts began to rumble through the guts of the Desperate People like bad coffee. And rightfully so.

It was well established that she hadn’t been vetted at all, what if she can’t handle an interview, even a question? What if McCain (who many of them had never liked anyway and was running his campaign like...well...a 72 year-old man) had done the unthinkable and chosen a scandal-ridden, unknown airhead as a running mate? If this were shown to be the case then the Desperate would become something they had arguably always been but never been forced to admit, something somehow even worse than desperate: Reckless. And Foolish.

She had three (but really two) interviews and each was a disaster in its own way. Turned out that when she wandered too far from the talking points she came off as something of an idiot, a hard-trying child that would just barf out unconnected words when answering questions she was supposed to know but didn’t. One Kossack described this phenomena as a ‘word-salad.’ ‘Utter disaster’ probably works just as well.

It got to the point that even the Democrats and the far Left started to feel bad watching the Republican vice-standard-bearer muddle her way in, out and around not just one but nearly any question she got. Sure, it was a hoot at first but there was no joy in Mudville by her third (but really second) outing in the News. There was little sport in it for even the most hardest of bloggers when she launched verbal diarreah all over fellow chowder-head Katie Couric, who I also felt sorry for, for the first time ever.

What a moment. Imagine it: you discover your interviewee is a complete and utter kumquat and it’s kind of your duty as a journalist to expose that to the world, given that she’s one nearly-octagenerian-hearbeat away from the Presidency of the United States of America and thus, the World (well, not anymore but that’s a whole other blog). And in that brief moment you’re enshrined in history alongside the biggest political faceplant ever. Couric, for her part, didn’t test her too heavily because she didn’t have to. You either know how to play the bagpipes or you don’t. For a politician, it was becoming more and more clear to all and sundry, Palin was one hell of a moosegutter.

You wanted her and would-be Emperor McCainus to go down in flames but somehow...not like that? You know? Republicans may get pleasure out of completely crushing the souls of their opponent, stripping them of all dignity and laughing great belly laughs for decades about it but Democrats, it will be shown, have little stomach for such things and would rather look to the future. Politically, it may be their biggest weakness or their greatest strength. History will be the judge of that also. But I digress.

From thence came Palin. She was a shooting star. Now she’s dust. A National joke. Republican roadkill. What will she be remembered for? Her folksy chatter, sass and physical beauty will perhaps be missed by some. She’ll be fodder for the Democrats and other stand-up comedians for years to come. Most Republicans will wince at the mere mention of her name, perhaps reflecting upon their own humiliating moments where they’d desperately defended this muddle-headed chipmunk as the new savior of the Republican party and perfectly able to step up and take the reigns should her ancient crocodile of a ‘running mate’ fall face-first into his presidential cheerios. To the smart ones she’ll be the Republican’s reckoning, that final, undeniable realization that everything they ever knew or thought they knew were necessarily not so. And that they too had to change.

Obama-Biden '08

Tue Aug 19, 2008 at 04:46:37 PM PST

At what point to political speculations go beyond mere amusement and bet-fodder to outright spooky? It’s one thing to have predicted Obama to take the nomination nearly a year before he throws his hat in the ring but that’s nothing next to predicting McCain in early December of ’07 (in the now epic The Republican Candidates are the Most Unelectable Gang of Freaks in American History). But then to go on and nail down Senator Joe Biden as Bama’s Veep in late May of this year? I know what you’re saying: who is this iSenseChange and how is he so dead-on-balls accurate for this election? How can we reward this latter-day NeoNostradamus for the sheer prescience involved in these utterly uncanny picks of his? What glorious accolades can we lay at his freshly oiled feet, what leafy laurels around his surely massive skull? Judging from the lackluster response to my admittedly weird entries thus far, I’m guessing a handful of reads and less than ten comments. Half of which are my own. Fuck it, says I. Ignore me at your peril. I am the Kossack Kreskin. And I have massive nuts.

That’s right, I said it: massive. But enough on that. Couldn’t believe Kos’d choose Kerry over Biden. Why not choose a largish chunk of wood instead? Look Kos, I like Kerry, think he’s a good dude but it’s already very well established that he’s about as exciting to listen to as a largish chunk of wood. Not to mention (yet mentioning) he was a limp dick at defending himself against some of the most obviously trumped up hack charges in history. Former Vietnam war hero gets trashed for being, well...a Vietnam war hero? Next to former cheerleader and just-barely-there-if-there-at-all National Guardsman George ‘Dubya’ Bush? Kerry’s your attack dog, Kos? What on earth for?

And sure, there’s always Hillary. If you’re freakin’ nuts. I believe I might have mentioned this before but it’s my position that Bama’d be smarter to eat his own face off than put that woman in the ol’ one-heartbeat-away-from-the-presidency spot. Do it and your next appointment better be a royal taster. Seriously. A hired geek to taste all your food before you do. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.

And of course Edwards. Whom I was cheering for to win the whole thing for a little while there due to a populist message that struck a chord within me: it’s going to be a fight to get the corporate greedheads to play something even remotely close to fair! Well, so much for Edwards. Ever. Cheats on his own cancer-ridden wife. But she was in remission! Jesus H. Suffering Christ on Crab Cakes. Decides to run for President anyways. Knowing full well that if it just happened to come out after he was nominated he’d effectively toasted the Democrats chances for what should be the biggest no-brainer election in American history. To say nothing (and yet saying it) of gift-wrapping the presidency for another neocon, the ramifications of which the entire freaking world would have to suffer. What a dick! Elizabeth too. Cancer victims, it turns out, can still be dicks. I’ll never, ever apologize for saying it. Anybody who knew and didn’t tackle him to the ground or hire somebody to tackle him to the ground rather than run for president is a dick or a double agent. Period. I show better judgment every single day I don’t jerk at work. Which, I’m proud to report, is the wide majority of days.

But it’s coming down to the nut of the thing, the Veep sweepstakes are coming to a close and it looks like Biden’s surpassed all comers and will be Bama’s veep. He’s an excellent choice for a host of blatantly obvious reasons but there’s only one reason he’s The Choice: in 2008 it’s less about what states a Veep can deliver and more about how he comes off on mainstream media outlets like CNN and whatnot. Because they shape the dialogue. Plain and simple. And he’s a freaking treat to watch. His comments get play because they’re genuinely funny or extremely well informed. His Giuliani-911 quip goes down in history as the second coolest one-liner of the entire campaign.

And the first thing they always do is ask him about whatever the latest global problem is and here’s the thing: gotcha reporting, obvious propaganda and narrative manipulation temporarily disappear and genuine journalistic curiosity oh-so temporarily takes over for even a twittering half-wit like Chris Matthews and you know why? Because these media hacks are genuinely interested in what he has to say in spite of themselves. Because Biden actually knows what the fuck is really going on. He knows! And then they go and ask him about whatever the Repuggie freaks are trying sling around and Biden comes off as above it, disgusted yet slightly amused by it and then gives them the full low-down in a language everybody can very easily understand.

Biden’s very likable yet he can launch raw fire and reeking brimstone when he feels the need and in this campaign, friends and neighbors? There’s need. Oh yes, there’s need. You need someone who can snicker at the obvious hackery and utterly torch some of the more uglier stuff that’s no doubt coming. Biden is that guy. Period.

Obama-Biden in ’08, Kossacks! Get used to it!

-iSC

p.p. other Kossacks that posted a Biden prediction as their #1 pick for Veep earlier than mine please drop me a line and a link and I’ll come check you out.

"Autocannibalism" or "How to Lose ANOTHER No-Brainer Election to a Neocon"

Mon Mar 31, 2008 at 05:17:11 PM PST

I can believe you guys run elections like this. It’s amazing. I’m utterly agog. What the Christ is all this? How much does all it cost? Are you NUTS?!? They’re eating each other alive out there! McCain’s crew is just laying back, dropping long-range YouTube bombs and laughing their arses off! Hill’s junk is strewed all over the tarmac in Bosnia and the media’ll pump it up like it’s freaking WhiteWater even as it replays the latest and greatest from Obama’s Reverend buddy who just happens to be an angry Black man. Jesus wept! So freaking what?!? After Katrina, I’m an angry Black man and I’m not even Black!!!!

Divide and conquer is back. Except this is subdivide and conquer further. SuperPlusDivision. Politics of Fear melds with race. Throw some religion and politics in there and maybe you can never get together again! The Republicans are, to a man, laughing their asses off right now, I assure you, rightfully freaking so. The Democrats, somehow, are screwing even this one up. You know, fool that I am, I always assumed the first Post Bush election was supposed to be a no-brainer but NOT LIKE THIS! Jesus H. Suffering Christ, GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER. It’s like a little mini version of your Electoral College where once again we find important decisions decided by something other than the popular vote. In this case you’ll find your Democracy subverted by yet another collection of old and mostly white and mostly male and entirely rich SuperDelegates whom, collectively, apparently know better than the voters what is best for...the voters. Am I alone in thinking; just what the blistering fuque is going on here? What’s wrong with most little pieces of paper with the candidate’s name on it wins? Why the extra step? Is there a Doctor Ockham in the house?

Is the Universe that fucked up that I now have to imagine a world in which (urrppp) McCain will be the next American president? After Dubya? The ‘bomb-bomb-Iran’ guy is on deck? The ‘strolling through the streets of Baghdad’ guy gets a shake at it? Must I consider it possible? Yes Virginia, and here’s why; Bush, dufus and moron that he most assuredly be and however it actually went down, managed to seize the office not once but twice. So yeah. It’s possible. And there it be. An idea so hideous that it tastes like rank puke inside my mind as I think it, but there it be. The "100 years is fine with me" guy is actually a threat. And he is. Don’t kid yourself. The value of having a gushing and horny media on your side is not to be debated, at all, in any way. And they fall all over this guy. This is already well-established and admitted by a lot of big-name Media vampires already, vampires like Joey the Scar and that hideous twit Matthews. Are you catching this? They’ve already chosen their sides. Media controls the message, media loves McCain...

Look, maybe this ‘Bama cat’s the real deal. Maybe it always takes just that one person, that archetypal, zeitgeistal hero to step up and name aloud the beasts that lurk in the bushes and slay them where they lay, for once and for all. That one person that starts a movement or maybe just accelerates one, gurgles it to the surface and maybe somehow that one person is able to turn the whole awful mess into something new. Maybe it’s a Renaissance. Maybe it’s his destiny. Maybe it isn’t. I don’t know. I am equal parts Hope and Cynicism at this point, not of him, not at all. But of them. And you. All of you. Some of you.

You.

What will you do, come November? Because you’re one of the players on the stage of a show that the whole world is watching. It’s like football with global implications. It’s the All American Soap Opera, complete with heroes and bad guys and sex and race and violence and hope and...well, you got me. It’s one hell of a show. I hope it turns out alright in the end is all I can say at this point. I’m a little concerned, myself. Have been for some time, to be honest. And I know some of you have too, but the question (and it’s key) is how many of you are concerned? Sure, there’s those amongst you that are entirely switched on and active and know the score but I wonder about that other number, not of those that are lost forever, the "Dubya For Life, Stupid and Proud of It" but the other, possibly far greater number. How many are just switched off and couldn’t be bothered? Can’t get the time off work, gotta watch their favorite shows, get drunk on the weekends and that’s about it. Work, tv, drink, fuck and die. The "Leave Politics for the Assholes" people. How many of those? That’s the real number. In any country. How many just couldn’t give a fuck? It really is the nut of the thing.

Like if this thing drags on to the point that you hate everybody involved and can’t be bothered with any of it? That’s the real cost of this primary season running so long and ugly as it has. Hills should fuckin’ bow out and just about everybody knows it except for the hack punditocracy that want this thing to go on for as long as possible for two, very simple and basic reasons:

1. If it bleeds it leads and Hills and B-Rack are bleedin’ all over the screen, 24-7.

2. It benefits Johnny ‘Bomb Bomb’ McCain, whom they love and will do whatever they can to elect in November. Rich keep getting’ richer and the people that matter live happily ever after. Right? Right. Listen, for the good of America and the entire planet, get this thing together, would you? Because the other side is lining itself up and they're ready to go. One more neocon gets one more gnarled hands on the dice. That's what's at stake here Photobucket and every second there is an undecided Democratic nominee facilitates the previously unthinkable.

Friends, bloggers, Kossacks, let us speak frankly. Never before has the fate of the entire world ever weighed so heavily upon the citizenry of one single nation. This one's for all the marbles. And it's all you, baby.

Peace.

And good luck.


-iSC

Poll: John McCain is...

Not a threat. A hundred years in Iraq? Admittedly knows dick about economics? Older than the Bible? Puh-leeze.
14% 7 votes

A threat so long as Hillary keeps SCREWING THIS THING UP
32% 16 votes

A strong threat because the Media loves him and will do everything in its power to hand him the presidency, for what should now be obvious reasons
54% 27 votes

| 50 votes total