travis i didn't know you had a sense of humor On Dec 5, 7:58 am, Travis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > She will be a refreshing and intelligent change from the deadwood there > now. > > On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 6:16 AM, Liberal mike 532 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > > Is Sarah Palin Being Christened as De Facto Leader of the GOP? > >http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/109942/ > > Sarah Palin is a walking, talking psychobomb -- and she's on the > > verge > > of becoming the face of the Republican party. A > > standup comic once joked about his inner monologue while > > rubbernecking > > through the scene of a car accident. First the serious reaction: "Oh! > > How horrifying! How awful!" Then the morbidly gleeful: "Cool! Is that > > an arm?" > > > Watching the Republican Party implosion and subsequent bloody > > flailing > > has become my favorite spectator sport. "Wow, the Republican Party is > > really, really horribly mangled," then, "Cool! Palin's making an ass > > of herself on TV again!" > > > Why the excitement? Well, it appears as if she's being christened as > > the de facto leader of the Republican Party. Wednesday, for example, > > instead of attributing his victory to the well-known Republican > > majority in Georgia, Saxby Chambliss credited his expected victory to > > Sarah Palin's stump speeches: > > > "...when she walks in a room, folks just explode." > > Explode? Smart choice of words, Senator. Sarah Palin makes > > Republicans > > explode. Perfect. > > > If Palin, in fact, becomes the leader of the Republican Party, > > exploding is precisely what will happen -- and not in the weirdly > > excited-slash-sexual way Chambliss seemed to imply. Specifically, > > Sarah Palin is a walking, talking psychobomb, and elevating her to > > anything beyond a near-term novelty will be disastrous -- in a word, > > "explosive" -- for the Republican Party. > > > And it'll be almost too much fun to watch. > > > As of right now, we have several contenders for this post. There's > > "Sister Sarah" (a nickname I don't quite understand). There's the > > twice divorced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. There's Bobby > > Jindal, the far-right governor of Louisiana. And Tuesday, we learned > > that Jeb Bush might be running for Senate and thus throwing his > > gigantic hat into the fight for the future of the party. > > > How screwed are the Republicans right now? Put it this way: the > > sanest > > contender in the above list is named "Bush." Yes, Bush: a name that > > proved to be even less popular this year than the name "Hussein." Yet > > there he is front and center. > > > Now, it's important to clarify the schadenfreude and why the > > aforementioned Republican contenders are so much fun, and, more > > importantly, why many fellow liberals are rooting for them to keep > > talking. > > > Simply put, Palin and the others, will serve to more or less confine > > the Republican Party to the deep South where there are enough white > > fundamentalist hoopleheads to provide the GOP with a respectable > > electoral showing, but not enough support to seriously compete > > nationally. In other words, the Republicans are inexplicably pushing > > names that will do much more harm than good. And that's just fine and > > dandy. > > > For instance, apart from her unserious pageant walking and clueless > > turkey geeking, it's practically impossible for Sarah Palin, with her > > far-right ideology and divisive politics, to expand a Republican > > electorate that's already suffering from, well, shrinkage. Her appeal > > is so laser-focused on a rabidly fanboy-ish chunk of the GOP base > > that > > many more Americans who would otherwise vote Republican will surely > > continue to snap to other options. Meanwhile, the Palin base -- the > > fanboys who are "exploding" over Sarah Palin -- are a mélange of Bush > > dead-enders, disgruntled former Bush loyalists who haven't yet > > realized that the only difference between Palin and Bush is, well, > > lipstick, and, of course, way too many disturbingly pervy older men. > > Outside of this narrow demographic, everyone else thinks she's more > > or > > less an earnest yet embarrassing joke. > > > Anecdotally speaking, while working the polls on Election Day, I > > overheard more than one relatively uninformed, uneducated Republican > > -- I mean, guys who probably think "peeance freeance" is an actual > > foreign policy term -- turn to their buddy and say (paraphrasing), > > "Palin's kind of an idiot. And she probably don't know what peeance > > freeance means neither." > > > The only possibilities for the resuscitation of the Republican Party > > are either, 1) a failed Obama presidency or, 2) an as-of-yet > > unannounced transformative and inspirational Republican figure. > > > There's nothing to really indicate the former, but there's always the > > freak possibility that a random cascade of uncontrollable events > > could > > swing the White House into turmoil. It happened to President Carter. > > > As for the latter, I really can't think of a Republican answer to > > Barack Obama. Once again, however, the Republicans are betting on > > either Sarah Palin or Bobby Jindal to be the knock-off Bizarro Obama. > > Palin aside, the notion that Jindal is the "Republican Obama" > > amplifies how truly ridiculous and desperate the Republicans are. > > > They're making a huge mistake in assuming that just because Jindal is > > young and of unusual ethnic origins that he's the equivalent of > > Barack > > Obama -- in the same way they mistakenly calculated that Sarah Palin > > would attract female voters just because she's a woman, even though > > she possessed none of the positive qualities of Senator Clinton. It's > > totally shallow and vaguely racist. A party which has so often dealt > > in identity politics and racial divisiveness to suddenly go, "Hey, > > look over here! We have an ethnic, too!" seems weird and awful to me. > > > Additionally, Jindal's religious extremism won't manufacture any new > > Republican voters from the middle -- he's anti-choice without > > exceptions, he supports teaching creationism as a science in public > > schools and, yes, he once performed an exorcism on a friend who he > > believed was possessed by a demon. Yeah, if there's one thing the > > Republican Party needs more of, it's religious zealotry. > > > So we have an exorcist, a Bush, a turkey geeker who makes people > > explode, and Newt, who, by the way, wrote a book imagining if the > > South had won the Civil War. If these cable reality show misfits > > represent the future of the Republican Party, it's going to be a > > seriously entertaining four years. > > > BobCesca.com > > -- > *~@):~{>- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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