Monday, February 2

Somebody make sure Tina Fey's on retainer.



I, for one, think that the nation's Republican-identified voters have a magnificent plan:

Coming off a shellacking at the polls in November, the plurality of GOP voters (43%) say their party has been too moderate over the past eight years, and 55% think it should become more like Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in the future, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just 24% think failed presidential candidate John McCain is the best future model for the party, and 10% are undecided.


Uh-huh. See this chart of the 2008 presidential tracking polls?



See the part where John McCain peaks in early September and begins dropping back down into the low forties? The beginning of that slide occurs within a couple days of Sarah Palin's first unscripted TV interview, the "In what way, Charlie?" interview with ABC's Charles Gibson. The slide in Palin's personal favorability ratings is documented, among other places, here and here. There is no evidence whatsoever that Palin helped the GOP ticket among any group except the conservative evangelicals who weren't going to vote for a Democrat anyway, and while I guess the case can be made that Palin helped turn out ultra-conservative voters who were otherwise sketchy on the prospect of voting for McCain, that still left the Republicans nearly 10 million votes short of retaining the White House, didn't it?

But this is the person that Republicans say their party should be more like. Hey, good luck with that. I was figuring on working for Barack Obama's re-election campaign in 2012, but if the GOP is that determined to become more Palin-like, maybe I can just take a two-month-long vacation in September and October instead. (Season-long Georgia road trip? I think you hear me knockin', and I think I'm comin' in.)

22 comments:

Holly said...

Please. Pleaseohpleaseohplease. I will infiltrate the California Republican party. (I'm not registered here yet; this wouldn't be all that hard to pull off.) I will buy a rhinestoned baseball cap with her simpering mug on it. I will do whatever it takes to get that dopey cunt on the top of the ticket in four years.

Anonymous said...

While we're on the subject of party identity ... as a Republican, I gotta say: I love that it's becoming easier and easier for me to identify the modern Democratic Party with the sort of person who would refer to a complete stranger as a "dopey cunt." Democrats used to get a lot of mileage out of that crazy "tolerance" idea ... but they're quickly establishing themselves as the more closed-minded, intolerant, and hateful half of the American electorate. It'll be hard to continue painting us conservatives as bigoted and divisive when, in the very same breath, you're also calling us "dopey cunts."

Nothing gives me more hope for the future than seeing just how hopelessly bitter and stupid most young Democrats are these days.

Anonymous said...

Doug, read your Sun Tzu.

Never interrupt your opponent when he is making a mistake.

Holly said...

When I say Sarah Palin is a dopey cunt, it's only because she is. A dopey cunt who makes for fantastic television. May she live a hundred years and be involved national politics every minute of it. I haven't been this entertained since Lieberman (also dopey, also cunt).

Anonymous said...

Anon: There are some respectable Republicans out there. Sarah Palin, however, is not one of them.

I have nothing against fiscal conservatives - hell, I liked McCain in 2000 and would have gladly voted for him over Gore or Kerry. Nowadays Republicans hardly even pay lip service to fiscal conservative ideals; the national debt more than tripled under Dubya. They've become the party of the way-out-there religious nutjobs who want the government to police private acts between consenting adults and enshrine their beliefs in law. McCain went way right, maybe because it was the only way to win the primaries, but in doing so he lost the qualities that made him at all appealing to moderates.

Simple arithmetic, folks: Getting a bible-thumper to vote for you instead of staying home or voting for Pat Robertson nets you +1 in the margin. Convincing a moderate to vote for the other guy because they're scared shitless of seeing you (or your VP candidate, in this case) in the White House gets you -2 (you lose a vote and the other guy gains one). And there are a lot more moderates than wackjobs who are far enough out there to stay home in protest.

Anonymous said...

The "c-word" is offensive, regardless of who is writing it and to whom it is referring. And I'm a liberal male.

Anonymous said...

"Conservative" is an offensive word now? At Last!!!!

Anonymous said...

She wasn't calling all Republicans dopey cunts. She was calling a dopey cunt a dopey cunt. And what's up with "Democrats are intolerant! Waah!" mess? There's a different between being generally intolerant and not tolerating dopey cuntitude.

That's like saying, "You said you were tolerant, but when I started to beat up this guy in a wheelchair, you stopped me! You opposed my choices, and that makes you intolerant!"

Anonymous said...

Soooo, what have we learned to-date?

1. We're ready to elect an inexperienced black senator to the presidency.

2. We aren't ready for an experienced white female governor to be even vice-president.

3. The dems have redefined the term "change" to mean Clinton redux.

4. Can 20% of the income earners support the other 80%? I guess we're gonna find out. I thought we were all in this together. Aren't we ALL supposed to be responsible?

5. Obama has brought Chicago ethics to the WH. Tax evasion? No problemo. The cabinet is starting to look like a rogues gallery.

Will said...

How again was Palin experienced? All those years as Mayor of Alaska's meth-lab capital town?

And, given that the top 1% have averaged earning over 200 million and paying only 17% of that in taxes (you know, 1% more than I and my 35K) I think they could pay a little bit more and still get that second ivory back scratcher.

Anonymous said...

"Experienced"? You're joking, right? Two years as governor of The Middle of Nowhere is "experienced"? (As an aside, I consider lack of experience a plus - I have a general dislike of career politicians. My views on Palin have nothing to do with her experience or gender and everything to do with the number of abuse of power scandals she's gotten involved in during her short time in power and her batshit crazy policies.)

As for #4 ... there's a reason 1% of the nation pays 40% of the taxes (or whatever the number is this year, think that's about where it was a couple years ago). They make 40% of the money.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for validating everything we've learned.

This is turning out to be the circus many of us thought it would be.

Anonymous said...

Just for truths sake, the top 10% earn 42% of the income and pay 65% of the taxes.

Anonymous said...

If "people of color" is OK, then why isn't "colored people?"

Anonymous said...

Geez. Are there any honest dems?

Daschle - gone
Killefer - gone
Geithner - should be gone

Are O's lips purple?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps what Republicans mean by being less moderate is that Republicans in power should be more concerned about how much tax money they spend and where they spend it. As opposed to the Bush years, when money was spent helter-skelter with no sort of cost-benefit analysis.

Also, that the neo-conservative Bushian concept of saving the world from itself is perhaps a tad too ambitious and leads to unintended consequences (although Iraq is looking better at the moment, isn't it?).

Granted, Republicans have picked a convenient time to get that "old time religion", when they have no power, but then Democrats have seem to have discovered the virtues of Bush's surveillance and "extraordinary rendition" programs.

As the poet said: America, what a country.

Anonymous said...

Obama = Bush III

Anonymous said...

I don't mean to burst your Palin bashing bubble, but I think the Wall Street meltdown that started September 13 with Lehman Brothers declaring bankruptcy and AIG biting the dust a few days later had more to do with these polling numbers than the Governor's poor interview.

Anonymous said...

Dawg 05: Both were factors, undoubtedly. While I don't think McCain's handling of the financial situation helped him any, the slide actually begins a little sooner than that - McCain's poll numbers peaked on September 10 (immediately before the interview), and Palin's personal numbers (not just the Republican ticket as a whole) dropped pretty severely at the same time, as the two links Doug provided point out.

But by all means, if you want to guarantee that the Democrats keep the White House in 2012, model your party after the candidate that is about as appealing to swing voters as a poke in the eye. Keep driving further to the right, and the Republicans will become a regional party totally unable to win a nationwide election.

Anonymous said...

Sorry libs, but all it will take for Palin or any Republican to win in 2012 is a serious and successful terrorist attack on US soil prior to 2012. I do NOT want this to happen but should a Beslan or Mumbai-style attack happen in the US your Obamessiah will be toast in the next election. Not even Obama's thralls in the media will be able to save him. Between Obuma's naivety towards terrorism, and his dangerously foolish Clinton advisors, I expect this to happen.The reality which Obuma refuses to accept is that no amount of pandering to Muslims(moderate or not) will stop Islamofascists from hating the US. The US could fall into the sea tomorrow and the problems with Islamic supremacism would still have to be sorted out in places like India, Thailand, the Philippines, and Europe.

And that's not the only issue Obuma could screw up.

With meetings and negotiations currently underway to negotiate with Hugo Chavez, Syria, Iran, the Castro's, the OIC as it relates to restricting free speech, Al Qaieda, releasing Guantanamo detainees, abandoning Israel, throwing Poland, and the rest of Central/Eastern Europe under the bus to reach a deal with Russia, authorizing missle strikes in Pakistan, interfering in Kashmiri-Indian-Pakistani relations, there are a lot of issues for Obuma to fumble.

For as much as Obuma reminds me of an XXXL version of Jimmy Carter, he also reminds me of former Brit. and Nu-Labour PM Tony Blair who arrived at 10 Downing with similar promises of change after similarly and thoroughly defeating a tarnished Conservative party. He promised change and what we got was style without substance, obsession with image, the government's embrace of media trivialization, intrusive government, and pandering to multiculturalism at the expense of teaching Western Democratic civic values including free speech.

12 years later my country is severely divided along religious lines, nearly bankrupt, suffered multiple terrorist attacks and threats, with its Nu-lab. leaders willing to sell out our democratic institutions and women's rights just to name a few, in favour of appeasement. The Britain I knew and loved is dead.

Good luck and God bless you America. I hope that after four years of a venal politician like Obuma, there still is an America to bless.

Anonymous said...

Only two weeks and Obuma has lost his glitter. Appointment blunders caused by violations of his own ethics standards. Now there are eight additional lobbyist waivers on the table. He looked so good before the election. Now he looks so bad. From messiah to a common tax and spend, class warfare liberal. How could this happen? How could we be snookered by a smooth talking, black messiah. It all seemed so perfect. But, was it? A young street activist with only 120 days of senate experience or an ancient republican from a party whose politicians started acting like dems and lost their support was our choice is why. We fell in love with his story but it was all fiction. Now we have to listen to Tim Geithner, a tax evader, talk about the "public trust" with a straight face. It's Clinton all over again. "I did not have sex with that woman." "It was just sex" is now Daschle and Geithner's "it was just an honest mistake." Now all the liberal apologists have to say is, "I'm so proud of my president because he admitted he made a mistake. It's so refreshing." We are all dupes.

Der Schatten said...

I will gnaw off my left testicle to see Palin the nominee :) Of course, with a strong incumbent, the challenging party normally nominates a diptard for sacrifice. She is that diptard. Can't WAIT to see that incoherent, slobbering fukn mess of a debate.