Sarah Palin for President

[BlueBallz]

Again I am sorry the thread has gone off topic. It is about Palin and I dont have anymore to add.

[deepthroat]

John F. Kennedy: One more Sarah Palin villain
By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

One was a graduate of Choate and Harvard, a president of eloquence for the ages, while the other is a Wasilla, Alaska, high school dropout who mumbles on morning TV -- but both get dissed in Sarah Palin's new book.

Levi Johnston, father of Bristol Palin's baby, is a predictable target. John F. Kennedy takes the reader by surprise. But Sarah Palin's commentary on JFK helps demonstrate the depth of shallowness in one with possible aspirations to Kennedy's job.

Palin takes out after a defining Kennedy speech, the 1960 appearance where the Catholic presidential nominee discussed separation of church and state before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association.

Kennedy's speech "essentially declared religion to be such a private matter that it was irrelevant to the kind of country we are," declares Palin, and Kennedy "seemed to run away from his religion."

What did Kennedy actually say? In a seminal passage he declared:

"I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end -- where all men and all churches are treated as equal -- where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice -- where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind -- and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their work in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood."

"I do not speak for my church on public matters -- and the church does not speak for me," he added.

Whatever issue came before him, Kennedy argued, he would decide "in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest, and without regard to outside pressures or dictates."

Running away? Nonsense. Kennedy was promising to use the intellect and conscience that God had given him, and to obey his oath of office to uphold the Constitution.

The words ring loud today, when groups define themselves as "Values Voters" -- as if others are not. The appeal for brotherhood resonates in an America where TV talking heads question people's loyalty to country based on the city or region where they live.

Of course, Kennedy defined a president's religious views as private, in the context that faith is "neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office."

We've seen a demagoguery in the air on this front. Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell claimed that church-state separation was nowhere to be found in the U.S. Constitution. In Nevada, there was an ugly hit on the Mormon faith of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Catholic candidates for public office have taken hits right and left, from ultra-orthodox bishops who treat communion wafers as campaign buttons, and from militants who treat advocacy for life as a secular sin.

Palin starts peddling "America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag" this week with a 16-stop book tour. The trip reflects an exclusionary view of America, in geography anyway. She carefully avoids both coasts.

She takes hits at the religious faith of our current president. She uses a campaign remark in which Michelle Obama, swelling with pride at her husband's support, declared: "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country."

"I guess this shouldn't surprise us, since both of them spent almost two decades in the pews of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's church listening to his rants against America and white people."

Has this profiteering politician, who judges the faith of others, ever stopped to ponder a basic commandment of the faith: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor?"

Joining the pantheon of right-wing villains, Kennedy and Obama are in illustrious company.

Glenn Beck has gone after Franklin D. Roosevelt, recently declaring of FDR: "His policies stripped the free-market system and actually prolonged the Depression."

Kelly Emerson, newly elected Island County Commissioner, went further at a Tax Day rally, charging that FDR "threw up into the Great Depression." (Note to Kelly: The Depression began in 1929, Roosevelt took office in 1933.).

Beck has, of course, taken after Woodrow Wilson -- No. 1 in his list of "Top Ten Bastards of All Time" -- and Theodore Roosevelt. Speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Beck read a statement in which TR declared: "We grudge no man a fortune in civil life if it is honorably obtained and well-used . . . so long as the gaining represents benefits to the community."

"Is that what the Republican Party stands for?" Beck asked. "No!" came the response.

The incident accurately reflects a party that would hold hostage the extension of unemployment benefits to millions of Americans in exchange for extending tax cuts to the wealthiest 2 percent of taxpayers.

Frank Rich, the New York Times columnist, suggested last week that such folk as Palin and Republicans in Congress would build a new Gilded Age and are offering "a bridge to the 19th Century."

The demagogues of today evoke Know-Nothings from earlier in the 19th century, but they may be going back further than that.

The Texas Board of Education, revising schoolbooks, recently cut Thomas Jefferson from a selection of individuals whose writings inspired revolutionary change in the 18th and 19th centuries, and deleted a reference to "the impact of Enlightment ideas."

It's worth asking: If Sarah Palin (or Texas Gov. Rick Perry) ever gets to the White House, will quotations about separation of religion from government be sand-blasted off walls of the Jefferson Memorial?

[Road Runner]

I find that Joel Connelly piece hard going DT  -  boredom by quotation!      
One thing it does remind me of is how much religion gets mentioned with regard to politics in the US.
If UK politicians made statements like that the public would be out with the eggs and rotten tomatos.


Watching some of the Sarah Palin interviews that you featured in the posts above I'm also reminded how kind interviewers are in the US to political figures.
Maybe we should send you Jeremy Paxman  -  I'd give Palin about 2 minutes with him before she stormed off in tears.
He would have hammered her for her lack of knowledge of Middle East politics in the CBC Evening News video.

That is what worries most of the world outside the US.   Has Sarah Palin actually travelled outside the American Continent and seen anywhere other than maybe Canada or Mexico?
Does she have any idea what is going on outside the borders of the USA other than the 90 second news slots she sees on her TV?

RR.

[reflections]

Hey DT and Js etc just cause you dont agree with my views you dont have to treat my like a jerk. I dont treat you like a jerk and I respect your liberal views even though I disagree with them. I have been on this board a while and I deserve more respect then being "ignored" by you cause you dont like conservatives. Please give me a break and stop trashing me it isnot very nice.

[smuttleydfs]

It is tough seeing a neo-con cry

[alan1chef]

There really isn't much more to say about Palin...honestly....she is NOT QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT....she lacks in every important category....brains...tact...you name it...she hasn't got it....end of story. It's too obvious, even for this conservative...there are infinitely better Republican candidates than her.

As for the digression...regarding taxes...there is a very simple solution....a tax structure that is completely fair to everyone...does not allow loopholes for the rich, promotes business investment by it's very nature, and one that will reduce the bloated IRS payroll....yes, that's right...Flat Tax. It will, by it's very nature, create billions in investment capital...and...get rid of the federal deficit entirely.

[Rick Shaw]

Every time I read how such and such politician is too stupid or naive to get elected, I have to remind myself that half the population of any country is below average intelligence.....

I also am a firm believer that we get the politicians that we deserve.

For myself, when I think of President Palin, I think of copyrighting a book title "America, 2013 - 2017; the Fuckwit Years"

[Torurot]

We haven't had "Fucktard" on here for a while, but Fucktard, and "Dumb as a rock" seem to fit nicely in this thread. Teabaggers/Teaparty (facts don't matter).

Remember one unassailable statistic, as explained by the late, great George Carlin: "Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realise half of them are even stupider!"

http://thinkexist.com/quotati....28.html

[Torurot]

Sarah Palin calls for US to stand by North Korea
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11...n_north_korea/
Seoul and YouTube wobble over mama grizzly's defection
Joe Fay €¢ Posted in Bootnotes, 25th November 2010 10:41 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/v/aDesYJiZuXw?fs=1&hl=en_US

Sarah Palin has redefined US foreign policy and put YouTube under a little bit of strain by telling right wing radio host Glenn Beck that America must stand by its North Korean allies.

Palin, sometime Alaska governor and current reality TV star, was responding to a question from Beck about how she would respond to a developing situation like that in North Korea.

The Tea Party's favourite cupcake showed exactly what she'd do, ie, engage mouth and let rip before taking her foot off the brain brake.

After rubbishing the current White House for showing a complete lack of backbone, she declared: "Obviously, we've got to stand with our North Korean allies."

Beck subtly corrected her - it's South Korea that is the US client - and Palin appears to have managed to make it to the end of the interview without further rewriting the US's 60-year commitment to protect South Korea - a commitment that cost it some 34,000 troops.

The clip was instantly all over YouTube, leading to apparent download delays as worried Americans try to work out exactly whose side Palin is on.

It nicely rounds off a week that saw Palin slapped down by former first lady Barbara Bush, who described Palin as very beautiful while hoping "she stays there (in Alaska)". Palin also got a sound bludgeoning from animal lovers after she clubbed a fish in her TLC programme about her Alaska. ®
Read more

* Sarah Palin
* Glenn Beck

*
* 71 comments
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/foru...n_north_korea/

One of the better comments in the piece.

Anonymous Coward
The inevitable #

Posted Thursday 25th November 2010 14:14 GMT

Palin's complete stupidity is almost certainly the reason she'll win. Like watching anyone make an idiot of themselves very, very publicly, it has a certain fascination value; you cringe, but you can't help yourself watching out of morbid curiosity, which will generate her a lot of headlines, column inches and airtime her rivals won't get . Much of it may be utterly dreadful and even scary, but she's going to be so ubiquitous everyone will feel they know her, love or hate. This being the age of the amateur, a lot will vote for her because she's "just like us" - a sort of bizarre extension of reality TV in which you get to vicariously see yourself as President through the vehicle of someone identifiably as ignorant, prejudiced and shallow as you are.

Then there'll be the more educated on the right, who'll vote for her because she comes out with the fantasy, lunatic stuff that appeals to the visceral instincts, but which people know in their hearts is a bad, bad idea - things the McCains of the world are too adult and responsible to say.

She'll get plenty of big money backing, because the money will recognise that she'll be thoroughly pliant to their cause with little thought to the consequences - an empty vessel waiting to be filled and that will buy her even more media time.

The Democrats hate her, but they'll talk about her endlessly and the constant derision and negativity will push any fence sitters to the right out of sheer spite - my enemy's enemy etc.

US elections are no longer about policy, reality or common sense - if they ever were. Americans just cannot live with the reality that their star is waning and the New American will turn out to be no such thing. Palin offers a fantasy vision of an America restored to greatness in terms that are a closer match for 19th century frontier rhetoric that 21st century pragmatism, and people will bite because it will make them feel better about their declining nation, if only till the day after the count is done.

Ultimately she will win because she is folksy, venal and vacuous - not in spite of those qualities.

[pacman]

That is SOOO depressing & SOOO true.        

Palin can win the Presidency because the more the intelligensia of the country denounce her, the more the public will side with her to teach big brother a lesson.

It's utterly scary & the despots around the world can hardly wait to test her mettle. Poor dumb Sarah has not a clue what awaits her.

[Road Runner]

I find this quote somewhat telling;-

The Selling Of The Next Presidency....is going splendidly; now only 24 months until Election Day 2012.

She's now being funneled $12M/year for her blabbering on Murdoch's Fox News and "lectures" to business groups and a couple million dollars more for fake book sales with platitudes. Her daughter got to the finals for "Dancing With The Stars", so nice family propaganda & exposure there.

Sassy Sarah, also, has her TLC "reality TV" show for a few million dollars more, to pump up more "tough & patriotic" faux-credentials that all "momma grizzlies" need to possess.

Since only 45% of americans vote, she only has to convince 23% to push in the hanging chad on the ballot of her name...and if it's only 22% that can be fixed just as well by GOP operatives, as was done for Georgie Porgy in Florida in 2000, and Ohio in 2004.

Just like selling soap.

As one of the other quotes stated  -  She'll do well as a puppet president.  -  and it looks like someone agrees enough to finance her.

RR.

[guydesavoy]

I did like her take on the Korean situation.

Breathtaking

[deepthroat]

I guess the only surprising thing is that Glenn Beck didn't try to correct her that it's EAST Korea that the US supports....

[guydesavoy]

I think he gave up after the 2nd take

[Jake_Sully]

LOL. Sigh.

Makes you love W. and I never thought that would happen.