Report: Threats To Obama Rose As Palin's Crowds Grew More Frenzied
During the campaign the frenzied crowds at Sarah Palin rallies did seem indicative of something frightening in the air, and it turns out that there was a reason to conclude this, Newsweek reports:
The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that many crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Michelle asked a top campaign aide.
Newsweek also reports that Palin launched an attack on William Ayers before the campaign had finalized their plans. And it turns out Palin's expenditures on clothing were far greater than previously known, infuriating McCain aides.
Relatedly, it's worth noting that the American people really did show great judgment when it came to Palin. Recall that when she first spoke at the GOP convention, at a point when she was barely known, it did look as if she was going to be a compelling asset for McCain: Good looking, forceful, independent-seeming, energetic, etc., etc.
But little by little, the dimensions of the Palin fraud were revealed by the media, and more important, the public caught on. It wasn't just that her unfavorable ratings rose. The key was that the American people correctly concluded that the choice of Palin should raise grave doubts about McCain's judgment.
The media revealed the truth about Palin, and the voters got her right. It's just one other thing about this amazing election that restores one's faith in our political process.
I feel so sorry for Michelle and her family for being put through this. Hopefully with the election being over the number of threats will decrease.
November 5, 2008 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, when do the crazies' last-ditch buzzwords stop being accepted in the mainstream media? Or are the voters leading the Beltway Inbreds yet again?
PS On the main page, does it say "Threats to Obama Ruse" for anyone else?
November 5, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't that what the right wing has been saying all along, that the whole Obama thing is a total fraud, a /ruse/ to trick us into Islamic SocialismTM. In that context, they'd think that threatening the "Obama Ruse" would probably be considered a *good* thing.
November 5, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's a reason McCain would not let go of that "overhead projector" canard.
November 5, 2008 3:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ha! "Islamic Socialism", good call! Kind of amazing how disparate and incompatible many of the attacks employed by the hate n' smear crowd ultimately were. Like trying to tar That One with his association with the Rev. Wright (a pastor at a Christian church), and yet somehow also trying to paint him as Muslim. Who knew mouths had that many sides to speak out of?
November 5, 2008 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
That whole Newsweek report is pretty devastating for Palin. She comes across as a greedy, manipulative and ambitious jerk (wanting to speak at McCain's concession speech? Sarah, you ditz: think back to the last time a veep candidate spoke at a concession. Right).
The uptick in threats against Obama should make every politician pause. And should help McCain get over his shock and grief about what John Lewis said, because it turns out Lewis was right.
November 5, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Innit?
As far as I'm concerned, not one of the Palins is welcome in the lower 48. They can stay the hell as far away from the rest of the country as possible.
November 5, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have a hunch that the information that she trotted around Salter and Schmidt dressed in nothing but a towel might prove to be problematic for the Palin 2012 campaign.
November 5, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
O she's taking the fall - haven't you figured that out yet?
McCain will have his reputation restored, I predict. Sarah is taking the fall.
LOL!!!1 She thought she's so smart - I told someone here a month ago that she was in over her head when it comes to manipulation, which is the name of her game.
heh. I love being right.
November 5, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe next time she'll blink once or twice before taking someone up on an offer.
November 5, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
That would be a first for her!
November 5, 2008 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, absolutely she is. All her shit is gonna hit the fan, courtesy of McCain's staff. She is common and vile and if there's any justice in this world, she would not be named dogcatcher in AK after this.
Speaking of Alaska--what the hell is wrong with the seeming majority there? The more corrupt the pol is, the better? Re-electing Stevens--that arrogant little twit--are they crazy?
But back to that demagogic simpleton, Palin--she knew well what she was doing, very well. I don't feel sorry for McCain's staff, who did not serve him well at all and who unleashed this monster known as Palin, but I hope they run tire tracks all over her.
November 5, 2008 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, today in the Anchorage Daily News Republicans and Dems were quoted as though nothing strange had happened. As though she is a legitimate governor. As though the fact that it has now been revealed she doesn't know what three countries make up North America isn't a problem. These people are apparently nuts. They apparently have no standards. Let's remember that when we have to hear MSM bullshit about how popular a governor she is? So what? Popular in Alaska means nothing. It is a state that wholeheartedly lacks credibility.
November 6, 2008 4:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Funny thing, I watched a vid of one the Fox News field guys relating some of this story to Billo.
He said Palin met them in a "bathrobe" :)
Fair and Honest as always. Its not surprising how much "shading" of facts I have seen on Fox during the election. Normally I dont have the stomach to watch it.
November 5, 2008 10:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe that was part of her whole hidden agenda in the first place—to pave the way for Alaska to secede from the Union.
How many of us really want them to stay after her performance (and that of Stevens et al.)?
Note to our Alaskan friends: this is all meant in good fun.
November 5, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
After being labeled Wasilla hillbillies by McCain's staff, I don't think they'll come anywhere near the lower 48 for quite some time.
November 5, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know it's foreign to us blogger types, but to Palin, being a hillbilly is something she takes pride in being. She thought it would get her elected and the Zom-Bushes that flocked to her rallies did too. To me, she just seemed like Bush with lipstick.
November 6, 2008 3:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
But Sarah is the darling of the celebrity press, entertainment gossip tv and the tabloids.
When is Bristol's wedding, by the way? What's she wearing? What's Sarah wearing? Huh? Huh? Huh?
November 5, 2008 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
"She comes across as a greedy, manipulative and ambitious jerk."
Wearing nothing but a towel. Winking at you. Saying "Drill, baby, drill."
November 5, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gross!
November 5, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, that was good :)
November 5, 2008 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
LMAO!!
November 5, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did she still have the towel on when she said that?
November 5, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Um, no one can quite remember what she said.
To be fair, the same would have been true if Johnny Boy was the one in the towel
November 5, 2008 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
This whole thread is making Rich Lowry sit up a little straighter on his couch.
November 5, 2008 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean this?
โI'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me." And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America."
Sounds almost holographic.
November 5, 2008 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. Olbermann ran with that quote for quite a while--he read it in a sort of porn-voiceover tone, and it was pretty funny.
November 5, 2008 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
So is anyone wondering how she got so popular in Alaska, a state overhwlemingly male?!?
November 6, 2008 3:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Last night when I was listening to McCain's concession speech I thought for a minute Palin would speak. I kept saying to myself - please don't let her speak, please don't let her speak. I would have had to kill the TV and I was visiting a friend!!
November 5, 2008 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I had thought that the pounding the dodo was going to take would make her want to stay in the northern lights to lick her wounds forever. She's even more lunkheaded than I thought, though.
She'll be back.
November 5, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
My dearest Greg - the political process in this country is The People.
Basically I see my faith in Americans completely vindicated. We are better than Bush-Cheney-Rove tried to make us - and we're smarter than some on the Left have insisted over and over that we are -
November 5, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes -- especially re. the Left's condescending view.
November 6, 2008 10:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
America owes a debt of gratitude to Tina Fey.
November 5, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Word Up!
The entire internet should fill her dressing room with roses!
November 5, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, she would probably be thrilled if you watched 30 Rock or downloaded the episodes from iTunes :)
November 5, 2008 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
howard dean also deserves many roses, plaudits, kudos, props, etc
November 5, 2008 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
America owes another debt of gratitude to Katie Couric. By asking what should be straight forward, slam-dunk kinds of questions, she inadvertently caused Palin to generate a whole bunch of material for Fey.
November 5, 2008 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Totally co-sign!
But Katie has really done herself proud I hear - all of a sudden she's a real journalist.
She's loving this.
November 5, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
She's earn the respect of her peers and the public with her performance.
November 5, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
by doing her job. It amazing what can happen when a journalist does what they are actually supposed to do. I don't think she's so outstanding--it's just that so many journalists now aren't.
November 5, 2008 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I don't mean to belabor the point, but ...." That was all the rope Palin needed to hang herself. The intellectual Republicans could not flee fast enough after that one.
November 6, 2008 3:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
There's a direct line from hate speech to hateful actions. This proves it all over again. Which means, the Secret Service, FBI and local police forces are going to have to be ultra-vigilant from this day forward. Because the Palins of the world are not going to shut up.
November 5, 2008 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
So what happens to TPM EC now that the election is over?
November 5, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Um, it better not be going anywhere. I'm in enough withdrawal as it is.
November 5, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. I hope it (TPM EC) evolves into something useful because it's my electronic home.
November 5, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
No evolving necessary - as long as there is political news to cover - and there always is - surely EC will continue its mission:
That's from Josh's announcement of the EC site back in the summer of 2006. Check out the subject of one of the very first EC posts:
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2006/06/akgov_poll_palin_tops_unpopula.php
November 5, 2008 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Co-sign!
November 5, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Damme if I wasn't asking myself exactly that question this morning. The tone at Cafe is so much more civilized than it is here that I'd feel like the guy who wears overalls to a formal.
November 5, 2008 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here in NH, I figure we've got about a week before the 2012 exploratory visits start. Really.
Immediately after the election the various players (e.g. primary candidates, and politicians from other regions who stumped for candidates) stop by to thank supporters for all their hard work, and to make sure that those supporters think well of them -- particularly outside the context of the reason they were here before. In about a year, give or take, exploratory committees will begin to be at least informally starting.
November 5, 2008 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
The mid-term elections will be held in 24 months, so no reason for it to go away. Gotta give Democrat candidates a soap-box to stand on somewhere.
November 5, 2008 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
we're not going anywhere. we're staying right here.
November 5, 2008 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
{{{{mwaah!}}} or if you prefer {{{{smooch}}}}
doncha hate it when I do that? LOL!!!
I'm so happy!!!!!!
November 5, 2008 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
OT for Greg - could you kindly get rid of the Wright ad in the "Latest Videos" section? I hate seeing it as I scroll down. Time to finally flush the McCain-Palin campaign down the shitter.
November 5, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone else having the best horrible hangover of their lives?!
November 5, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
shh, don't shout...
November 5, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't have any hangover because I don't drink, but I slept only four hours and I'm feeling very subdued today, like tired. It was worth it, though.
November 5, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, yeah. And lovin' every minute of it. . .
November 5, 2008 3:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
It felt like someone was pressing their thumbs into my eyes, from within my eyes.
What sucks is having to do work. Why wasn't this declared a national holiday?
November 5, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
i hope this gets discussed by the pundits to make people aware of what rhetoric does and the quality of the mccain campaign and how unhinged palin really is.
November 5, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dear TPMers, stories about threats against our new president should just reinforce our need to stay vigilant. Obama needs not only our support but our prayers as well. But then again, I'm probably preaching to the choir here.
November 5, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
you are. But no worries.
November 5, 2008 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I bet that over the next 2 years she works to stay in front of the far right as their leader so that when her term is over as Gov she looks for a radio and TV job. Rush Limbaugh makes a lot more than any politican and is just as famous. Sarah will go for the money. Forget the ethical rules for a politican.
November 5, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree that that could be an entirely likely scenario. If she does run in 2012, however, she will go into it knowing that real Americans thoroughly denounced her brand of politics in 2008 and are highly unlikely to change those ideas after four years of Obama. There is also the fact that, during the primaries, she would be forced to participate in debates and interviews, (real "gotcha'" questions), and will not be able to hold her own - she couldn't hold her own in carefully crafted interviews with the republican party running interference for her... I don't see her making it through the primaries if she runs. I can, however, picture her as the female Rush... that takes no stretch of the imagination.
November 5, 2008 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think you're totally right, but can you imagine listening to that voice on a radio show day after day?
November 5, 2008 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Palin is revealed, more and more, as someone who simply does not consider consequences, when embarking on a course of action. She is a person devoid of ethics, in spite of her avowed religious convictions. In just about every arena of her life she has demonstrated short-sighted knee-jerk reactions, based on personal gain on the one hand and vengeance on the other. She seems unable to take into account her responsibilities to children, voters, the law, or common consideration for the needs of others.
She belongs in the dustbin of history. And while that is a very sad thing to have to say about anyone, the public deserves to be protected from people like her.
November 5, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well said. 'Nuf said.
November 5, 2008 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Narcissistic Personality Disorder? Borderline?
November 5, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
She is a person devoid of ethics, in spite of her avowed religious convictions.
The key word being avowed, in which we accept magic-thinking in place of reality. Once so much as one foot steps down that road, all ethics are moot.
And this renders her supremely dangerous.
November 5, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know who at HuffPo puts those slide shows together - but I haven't made it through one yet without breaking down -
The pictures from around the world are killer.
I can't believe we did this. I keep getting hit with waves of delayed reaction and I'm probably going to cry all day, off and on.
This is the most incredible thing that's happened in my life - these are the best tears I ever have shed or ever will, I suspect.
November 5, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can barely type. I'm hoarse from screaming, dehydrated from toasting, and still on fire with 1,000 different emotions (like Michelle's dress)!
There was a brief bit on TPM's front page about a reader's "moment of anger," and I knew exactly what this reader meant. Mine was for the evil way in which the GOP tried to deprive history of history, and they knew perfectly well what they were doing.
If I may, not this time...
One ugly task remains in thwarting THIS bit of developing CW:
1. Stevens wins by a squeaker
2. Senate expells Stevens
3. Alaska holds a special election
4. Sara Palin wins in a landslide
5. Sen Palin is now poised to run in 2012
Finally, the MSM is confirming Rahm Emmanuel has taken the job of Obama's CoS.
just...WOW....he actually WON!
November 5, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
You ought to be over here on the other side of the pond. Everyone wants to stop and talk with you just to express their sense of wonderment that America would actually do something of this magnitude.
November 5, 2008 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Our existence literally depended on it.
And we're justing getting started!
November 5, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah. I've had to keep my office door closed. I just don't think people will understand why I keep tearing up.
November 5, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Off topic: My cousin was asking me today about getting an intern position in the White House. Does anyone know how he could apply for this?
November 5, 2008 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Try calling your congressman, things like White House tours are usually arranged through your congressman, they should know.
November 5, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
The towel scene is right out of a movie. Which one? I know she's right outta All About Eve. Did she think we wouldn't find out all these juicy details. She's a bigger fool than I imagined. God forbid she was elected.
November 5, 2008 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
It was just Sarah using her feminine wiles on the good ole boys, something she seems to have done throughout her illustrious career, starting with her beauty pageant endeavor.
November 5, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
And then throwing them overboard Black Widow style when they no longer served her.
November 5, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, this one time in debate camp...
November 5, 2008 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
What the hell else does she have?
That's it. Her brains are smaller than her nipples.
November 5, 2008 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, man, Tena! Now I've got herbal tea all over my keyboard!!!
November 5, 2008 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
:)
November 5, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Think about it. It was let out by the McCain campaign for a reason.
November 5, 2008 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Same thing with the Wasilla hillbilly comment too
November 5, 2008 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
November 5, 2008 2:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm reading these Palin reports with a mixture of amusement and disbelief.
$40K on clothes for the first Dude? Nieman-Marcus for the kids?
Someone from the McCain campaign should head up to Alaska and check for new snowmobiles in the Palin garage, HDTVs in the kids' rooms, large recent bank deposits, stuff like that.
And as for her political future - she has clearly fucked with the wrong people. If we know anything about McCain after this campaign, it's that he has a long memory and can hold a grudge with the best of them. Between McCain and Schmidt (and the money boys who she shook down for all those expensive clothes), she may have signed her own political death warrant. The Backlash is coming.
November 5, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to mention how she made the "strategic geniuses" of the GOPers look like total idiots. You just know they'll be out for blood if she ever shows up again.
November 5, 2008 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Considering what we now know - they barely spoke to each other and she was going rogue right from the start - what would John McCain have done if he'd won? I don't think he likes her or her family one damn bit - and she has way more ambition than he realized. What the hell would he have done? She would have slipped into the White House and put pillow over his face. He would have constantly had to watch her and her entire family and keep them from popping off to the media -
Can you imagine? The White House Hillbillies.
November 5, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess "moose hunter" is Alaskan for "trailer trash."
November 5, 2008 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sarah doesn't affirmatively rule out 2012. "If I cost even one vote for Senator McCain, I'm sorry."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27556549#27556549
November 5, 2008 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well I hereby affirmatively rule out any goddamn chance that Sarah Palin is running for president or any other office in 2012.
November 5, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Co-sign!
November 5, 2008 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's no chance (IMO) she'd win the Republican primary, but do you think she won't even make a showing? How certain are you?
November 5, 2008 3:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sarah's smart enough (Tena's hilarious comment aside about her, um, brains) to know not to go there. It would be a complete embarrassment for her and first dude.
November 5, 2008 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sarah has already been contacted by Barack, who is offering her Secretary of Interior ...
Oh, wait ... that was just some prankster from a Canadian radio station.
Disregard.
November 5, 2008 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess "moose hunter" is Alaskan for "trailer trash."
November 5, 2008 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
He needed her to deliver the religious right vote. She did but it was way too short.
November 5, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
If McCain/Palin had been elected, I have a feeling McCain would have hired a professional food taster....
November 5, 2008 3:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
For this (that they would run Palin) and a million other reasons, the first thing Obama must do is get some kind of legal and financial accounting for the last eight years. He has inherited a government well studded with implacable political enemies in career positions. Nothing he can do is more important than finding all (or as many as he can) of the criminals and ideological incompetents left there as time bombs by the Bush administration.
November 5, 2008 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
President Obama needs to move the country forward first. Once he's casted off the mooring lines and sets his sails, he can worry about what to do with the damage caused by the rats in the hold.
November 5, 2008 2:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Schmidt/Davis/Salter are in full scapegoat mode here - lets not forget who pulled Palin out of Alaska and thrust her on the National scene.
November 5, 2008 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought I was out of popcorn after last night, but you just found me another bag!
November 5, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I feel so sorry for Michelle and her family for being put through this
I defy any American not to love and admire that family. And it's his first wife, too!
November 5, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Word!
November 5, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
During the end-game of the campaign, I was reading the politically relevant book All the King's Men, the thinly disguised story of the faux-populist near-dictator Governor Huey Long. Do not underestimate the tendency of a significant segment of population to follow an apparently folksy, deeply authoritarian "populist" figure, who is larger than life in part because of a deeply held belief that ordinary rules apply only to lesser people. A figure like Palin.
The point was often (and correctly) made in the last couple of months that Palin is not qualified (by background, temperament or any other measure) to be a good VP, let alone President. However, for the purposes of McCain and the Republicans, she had to be picked at this moment.
Her image is that of a "maverick" reformer, cleaning out corruption even within her own Party. As we've seen, though, the only reason that image was even possible was because she's only had a couple of years to get her hooks into the State of Alaska. Look at the crimes and near-crimes that have come out even for the short time she's been in public office. Give her even another two years, and what else would she have been up to? As you all know, she's no reformer, merely an opportunist with superiors who were careless enough to leave her an opening.
And so, in the interest of using Palin as an apparent reformer and "fresh face", McCain and the RNC have given her a national base. Be vigilant.
November 5, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can't stop clicking onto the TPM front page, just so I can see that picture of the Obamas and the Bidens and that headline......
God almighty, it really happened!
November 5, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wheeeeeeee!
Are we awake? (pinch, PINCH!)
We ARE!
November 5, 2008 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess "moose hunter" is Alaskan for "trailer trash.
What kind of person would shoot Bullwinkle?
And what of the Moose in the barn at Rowayton? Were it not for him, would we even be typing these words? I doubt it.
But nothing is more painful to the average moose than the glare of publicity, and the resulting disturbance of his usual ruminations. I, and I know I speak for many, will be glad to return to the seclusion and obscurity I have always deserved. Or so they tell me.
November 5, 2008 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't disagree with the sentiments expressed here about Palin.
She willfully went overboard ostracizing Obama, no question.
But let's not behave toward her the way she did toward Obama.
It's deserved, but it's smaller-minded than we need to be moving forward.
November 5, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I concede to your point. enough said.
November 5, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Boo, look - I say what I say and I enjoy doing it and I like being catty about Sarah and
sorry
I can if I want to.
I'm not in the Obama Administration. I'm not noble. Don't care, either. Let me go to hell in my own way, please. That is every adult's right.
;)
November 5, 2008 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I must respectfully disagree with this sentiment, however well-intended.
Because Gov Palin does not appear to be in any way done with national politics, citizenship calls for us to continue to speak out against this demonstrably dangerous woman.
No presidential election, however sweeping, excuses us from this task.
November 5, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
If we were to behave toward her the way she did towards Obama, we'd be slinging racial slurs toward her, calling her a terrorist, and a couple of us would be threatening her life.
November 5, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Congratulations again everyone.
OT: Isn't it funny how rightwing fuckjobs (Rove, Scarborough, Buchannan) are telling us how great America is and how proud we must feel for electing a Black man?
It's just too funny.
November 5, 2008 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
It appears they understand on which side their bread is buttered. No paid TV gigs for continued vitriol. They are excused for the moment only because they are correct.
But only for an exceedling SHORT moment...
November 5, 2008 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Add this shit to the many reasons Palin is a no-go for 2012 - the Dem Party will eat her alive!
November 5, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
With a trowel!
November 5, 2008 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I saw some Repub spokesperson or other (didn't catch his name) on MSNBC about an hour ago talking about what the McCain campaign had done wrong. Nora O'Donnell asked him whether Palin was the future of the party and a potential leader of the party, and he answered very quickly that she could possibly be a leader of the party but that there were many other potential leaders too.
I was struck by how quick he was to distance the party from her. I'm sure there will be some Repubs who want to push Bible Spice as the front-runner for 2012, but I'm betting they'll be shouted down quickly by those who want to begin forgetting about her as soon as possible. She may have different ideas, but she's done.
November 5, 2008 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've meant to tell you - I love your handle and the avatar.
:)
November 5, 2008 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks! I had Emma Goldman as my avatar briefly, but decided that anarchy wasn't really what I wanted to embrace this election season. :-) Dorothy is more my speed.
November 5, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not sure about the avatar, but this is my favorite 'Red Molly':
"Said Red Molly to James that's a fine motorbike
A girl could feel special on any such like
Said James to Red Molly, my hat's off to you
It's a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952
And I've seen you at the corners and cafes it seems
Red hair and black leather, my favourite colour scheme
And he pulled her on behind
And down to Boxhill they did ride
Said James to Red Molly, here's a ring for your right hand
But I'll tell you in earnest I'm a dangerous man
I've fought with the law since I was seventeen
I robbed many a man to get my Vincent machine
Now I'm 21 years, I might make 22
And I don't mind dying, but for the love of you
And if fate should break my stride
Then I'll give you my Vincent to ride
Come down, come down, Red Molly, called Sergeant McRae
For they've taken young James Adie for armed robbery
Shotgun blast hit his chest, left nothing inside
Oh, come down, Red Molly to his dying bedside
When she came to the hospital, there wasn't much left
He was running out of road, he was running out of breath
But he smiled to see her cry
And said I'll give you my Vincent to ride
Says James, in my opinion, there's nothing in this world
Beats a 52 Vincent and a red headed girl
Now Nortons and Indians and Greeveses won't do
They don't have a soul like a Vincent 52
He reached for her hand and he slipped her the keys
He said I've got no further use for these
I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome
Swooping down from heaven to carry me home
And he gave her one last kiss and died
And he gave her his Vincent to ride"
November 5, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, that's where I got the name. Saw Richard Thompson play that song live at the Guthrie in Minneapolis shortly before it came out on record. It was possibly the only time in my life that I've been moved to tears by a guitar part.
November 5, 2008 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
In the same newsweek piece:
-- McCain was dumbfounded when Congressman John Lewis, a civil-rights hero, issued a press release comparing McCain with former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a segregationist infamous for stirring racial fears. McCain had devoted a chapter to Lewis in one of his books, "Why Courage Matters" and had so admired Lewis that he had once taken his children to meet him.
Huh, think they might be related?
November 5, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
The thing about Palin, it seems to me, is that ultimately she has no national constituency. She was "used" by the campaign as "bait" to the evangelicals. But what real political power does that group now possess? And yes she "used" the pundits whom she entertained in Alaska in 2007, but won't those pundits ultimately view her as "used goods" and just leave her to her political fate in Alaska?
Personally, I just can't see her surviving debates with other candidates in a primary, no matter how much she might try to bone up on things. And they're bound to bring up all the juicy scandals in those debates.
November 5, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
And the conservative "media elites" and the strategists behind the scenes would do everything to undermine the "whack job" and "cancer" on the GOP from being a serious contender.
November 5, 2008 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
What I would like to see are some details (numbers, whatever) of the reports from the Secret Service.
November 5, 2008 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dream on. Since when has the Secret Service released details of anything?
They aren't called the Secret Service for nuthin.
Imean - LOLOLOLOL!!!!! Details.
November 5, 2008 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I, for one, hopes she stays on the scene and the idiots who are the "bosses" of the party arrange to have her run for president in 2012. I don't believe they'd be that stupid, but how do you account for her being put on the ticket this time. Imagine the field day we "good guys" will have with her campaign.
BTW, be ready for the "news" about her wardrobe buys. I think it will be in the new NEWSWEEK coming out tomorrow or Friday. Supposedly it will be brutal.
November 5, 2008 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Driving my daughter home from school yesterday, in front of a house with several McCain/Palin signs, this crude, hand-lettered sign had been added:
"We are at WAR with terrorists! Don't elect one to the White House!"
Now, how are we to expect that person to get behind this administration?
For shame. For shame.
November 5, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is the Satanic Witch of the North back in Alaska yet, along with her hillbilly brood?
Any word on whether all those clothes went to Goodwill today?
I see a Senator Palin in the future. God, I really hope not. I've had quite enough of her for a lifetime.
President-Elect Obama, say it loud, say it proud.
November 5, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, I get it. This thread is about The Schadenfreude, not about the results of hate speech directed at candidate for National (and, effectively, Global) office by a sock puppet.
I guess the people who enjoy that sort of thing have to eat also; so here, enjoy this: frighteningprospect.com
The woman is not satanic, nor a witch, nor trailer trash, and her brain is larger than her nipples. She's only a hillbilly to her *OWN* party. (Notice how Republicans use poor whites as a slur, and thereby insult poor white people, with the same sort of cavalier attitude as when they pit white people against black people by playing the race card? And, not to mention, how you joined in? You must be so proud!)
Why on earth anyone with "liberal" values would want to join Republicans beginning to eat their own is beyond me. Just stand back, and insofar as they toss one another under the bus, let them.
The issue here is the result of the behavior of Sarah Palin in not denouncing the cries calling for the assassination of Barack Obama. That, in and of itself, is a profound moral failure. The more *fact* which is revealed about that, the better.
So in closing I denounce those of you I have quoted from this thread as engaging, effectively, in hate speech directed at her personality; as misguided individuals speaking from a moral vacuum, and as completely missing the point of the post to which you have replied. Stop it.
It's the least I can do to raise myself out of the muck spewed into the area for discourse over the last eight years. Why, yes! I do like the moral high ground, thank you so very much for asking!
You should be ashamed, and you know who you are.
November 5, 2008 8:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Original question: "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Michelle asked a top campaign aide.
With a little massaging:
"Why dey try to make people hate us?" Michelle asked a top campaign aide.
Final Republican version:
"Whitey try to make people hate us!" an angry Michelle screamed at a top campaign aide.
November 6, 2008 10:11 AM | Reply | Permalink