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    #76
    Sarah Palin

    Wow, Bruno, truly hysterical (in every sense of the word) stuff.

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      #77
      Sarah Palin

      Vanity Fair had their executive literary editor, and research and copy departments edit the text of Palin's resignation speech. The results.

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        #78
        Sarah Palin

        Access denied by WebWasher DynaBLocator content category. The requested URL belongs to the following category: Swimwear, Lingerie, and Nudity.

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          #79
          Sarah Palin

          Strangely appropriate

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            #80
            Sarah Palin

            That's inspired.

            As is this gawker takedown;

            Actually, this is our favorite line:

            "In the winter time it's the frozen road that is competing with the view of ice fogged frigid beauty, the cold though, doesn't it split the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs?"

            It's like Peggy Noonan, Jack London, and William Faulkner wandered into the woods with three buttons of peyote and one typewriter, and only this speech emerged.

            And she wrote this speech! In advance, on paper! What does any of it mean? It is amazing. Twenty years ago she could competently descibe a dog race, three years ago she could articulate a position on the abortion issue, and this weekend she composed a resignation speech by throwing culture war stock phrases into a hat and dumping it upside down on a copy of The Paranoid Style in American Politics.

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              #81
              Sarah Palin

              hold on, that shatner speech is a direct quote? I thought it was actually a beat poem/

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                #82
                Sarah Palin

                yeah, re the qu of could anyone take her seriously, ever, how much do you reckon the religion aspect of it matters? Will right wing fundamentalist Christianity continue to grow to an extent that will matter? Because I reckon if the message becomes 'vote for me or you're anti-Christian' that could be dangerous.

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                  #83
                  Sarah Palin

                  Shatner is a genius, the living incarnation of a Platonic ideal of a thespian. Easily the hippest 78 year-old alive. All must worship him and revere his works.

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                    #84
                    Sarah Palin

                    Even the way he shouts for Mr Tambourine Man at the end of his bizarre version?

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                      #85
                      Sarah Palin

                      Lyra wrote:
                      yeah, re the qu of could anyone take her seriously, ever, how much do you reckon the religion aspect of it matters? Will right wing fundamentalist Christianity continue to grow to an extent that will matter? Because I reckon if the message becomes 'vote for me or you're anti-Christian' that could be dangerous.
                      My understanding is that fundamentalism has been a fast-growing movement among Christians, but not among the population as a whole. We've basically got an increasingly more deranged and worrisome rump over here. Palin undoubtedly derives most of her support from identification with her "faith" of course, and the above message is well in place.

                      Master number cruncher Nate Silver at 538 doesn't expect her to ultimately get anywhere based on her favorability rating, if you're needing reassurance.

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                        #86
                        Sarah Palin

                        Palin undoubtedly derives most of her support from identification with her "faith" of course, and the above message is well in place.
                        I don't know about that. I mean, it's certainly a factor, and I think the walking the talk thing is a big reason why certain people support her so fervently. But I think the main reason Republicans in general like her is that she embodies the politics of resentment that's driving the conservative movement at the moment. She's constantly harping on about the media and Hollywood and guns and all that bollocks. All these more or less irrelevant rural vs urban/culture war issues.

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                          #87
                          Sarah Palin

                          Well it's a bit difficult to get inside the heads of Sarah Palin worshipers, but in a word I think the distinction you make, between a purely religious stance and a cultural resentment stance, isn't really a distinction for them.

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                            #88
                            Sarah Palin

                            There's considerable overlap, to be sure, but they are pretty distinct conceptually. Plenty of non-religiously fundie conservatives hate the media, or think Obama wants to take their guns away and force them to marry gay people. Most Republican politicians (at least ones with overt presidential ambitions) either disavow that sort of rhetoric entirely or adopt only portions of it. Palin, on the other hand, does nothing but spout it, and in the most paranoid "the libs are out to get me" style. It's a perfect match for the Republican base, especially after the humiliation of having to vote for McCain to stop the black man from getting in and still losing.

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                              #89
                              Sarah Palin

                              Bruno wrote:
                              Well it's a bit difficult to get inside the heads of Sarah Palin worshipers.
                              No it isn't. She's fit, for her age, and if you don't read into her politics too closely, which most people don't, then she seems to be talking sense. She was the USA's UKIP equivalent.

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                                #90
                                Sarah Palin

                                But (a) that doesn't explain the sheer mentalist fervour she inspires, and (b) it's not easy getting into the heads of those "keep the pound" autists, either.

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                                  #91
                                  Sarah Palin

                                  The Economist did a pretty good job of this a few weeks ago:
                                  On A trip to Alaska three years ago, Lexington watched a former small-town mayor perform in a Republican primary debate. One of her rivals was the sitting governor, a man of far greater political experience. She trounced him. Granted, he was so dull that even his campaign song admitted it. Still, it was an arresting performance.

                                  Strange to recall, when John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running-mate last year, almost no one had heard of her. Now she is the most divisive figure in America. To mention her name at a dinner party in the highly educated liberal suburb where Lexington lives is to ask for trouble. "Moron", "idiot" and "megalomaniac" are some of the gentler epithets that will be used. Some will admit to hating her. Many will guffaw at her trashy family. Yet half the country loves her.

                                  A Pew poll last month found that Americans' opinions of Mrs Palin were evenly balanced. A hefty 44% took a dim view of her, while 45% took a rosy one. Among Republicans, she scored a whopping 73% approval rating, far outpacing any other plausible contender for the party's presidential nomination in 2012. Of course, that poll was taken before she announced, on July 3rd, that she would step down as governor of Alaska without finishing her term. This bombshell was unexpected, and makes it highly unlikely that she will ever be president. Asked what they seek in a commander-in-chief, few Americans cite a tendency to cut and run when the going gets tough.

                                  Mrs Palin may know this. She may have decided that the hazing of a presidential campaign is simply not worth the uncertain reward. Her resignation speech was rambling and often incoherent, but she made it clear that she has not had much fun of late. Before she was thrust under the national spotlight, she was an extremely popular governor who got on well with Democrats and worked with them on practical projects such as a gas pipeline. Now, she complains, the Democrats in Alaska won't work with her any more. "Political operatives" have descended on the state to dig up dirt and file ethics complaints against her. This has saddled her with half a million dollars in legal bills and made her job impossible. She also mentioned not liking some of the press coverage she and her family have endured.

                                  To half the country, this sounds like pathetic whining. Politics is a tough business. If you can't cope with harsh criticism, perhaps you should find a less demanding line of work, such as making lucrative speeches to friendly audiences. To the other half of the country, however, Mrs Palin's complaints ring true. And the divide is largely a cultural one. Many liberal or well-educated Americans feel it their patriotic duty to point out that the Caribou Barbie is far too ignorant to be allowed anywhere near the White House. But many rural and working-class whites adore her, and resent the way she has been ridiculed.

                                  This divide matters. Many Americans want as president someone who is exceptionally well-informed about public policy, who surrounds himself with experts, who weighs the evidence and then does what is best for the country. But few people are policy experts, so they often follow their hearts rather than their heads when deciding whom to vote for. Often, they assume that someone culturally similar to themselves will be more likely to look out for their interests. And that is why Mrs Palin is still so popular. There are an awful lot of Americans who see her as one of their own. She talks like them. She guts her own fish. She wears her faith on her sleeve. She obviously didn't go to Harvard. And when people who did call her stupid or mock her faith or her family, her fans take it personally.

                                  The kind of people who support Mrs Palin have several grievances. They are less well-educated than the American average, so the labour market has been unkind to them for years. They are often white and male, but they do not feel privileged and they often chafe at the way affirmative-action policies discriminate against them. In short, they are the Republican Party's base. There are not enough of them to decide a general election, but more than enough to decide a primary. And that leaves the Republicans in a bind. Party bigwigs do not want Mrs Palin to be their nominee, not least because they think she would be sure to lose to Barack Obama. They hope that her resignation has opened a space for a less polarising and more competent candidate.

                                  But who? Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina and a prominent fiscal conservative, disqualified himself last month by giving a news conference to explain how much he loved his mistress. Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota, is young, moderate and evangelical but has yet to set national pulses racing. Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, is doing well in the polls. As a successful businessman and the architect of his state's universal health-insurance system, he passes the competence test. But he lacks the common touch. Jon Huntsman, a former governor of Utah and soon-to-be ambassador to China, is impressive but little known. Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and Baptist preacher, is charismatic but too preachy for some. None of these candidates has Mrs Palin's star power.

                                  The primaries are nearly three years away, so much could change. If the economy recovers, Mr Obama will be hard to beat. But if unemployment stays high and the debt looks terrible he is in trouble. The same goes for the Democrats in Congress. Their majorities are so large that the Republicans will probably fail to recapture either the House or the Senate in 2010. But they could well make gains. The key test will be whether the party can find a leader who will enthuse its Palin wing without pandering to it. And that will be harder than a frozen moose. You betcha.

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                                    #92
                                    Sarah Palin

                                    Has anyone posted this?



                                    Watch it to the end.

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                                      #93
                                      Sarah Palin

                                      The Shatner clip seems to have been removed by NBC. Is there anywhere I can watch it?

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                                        #94
                                        Sarah Palin

                                        If it's a clip from an NBC show, probably on Hulu. But then again, Hulu blocks anyone from outside of the US, right?

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                                          #95
                                          Sarah Palin

                                          Being an outsider is clearly part of her appeal. She was (a popular) governor of Alaska, and her apparent ignorance actually helps in a way though there's a limit to that obviously, and she went way beyond it with her lack of preparedness in the election. She has the air of an independent who at the same time is within an established party. Her fans also have a lot of faith in her determination to cut spending.

                                          I don't in the least believe that resigning as governor of Alaska is some terminal blow to 2012. She is not to be underestimated.

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                                            #96
                                            Sarah Palin

                                            GY, if we're talking about the core Republican base, it is almost entirely, unapologetically anti-secular. They may not all be fundamentalist evangelicals per se, but they overwhelmingly want God in the foreground of political debate, and more to the point see liberals as a direct threat to the Christian Nation and their way of life. (And it's pretty natural to want to cling to your guns when your God is under siege.)

                                            Palin taps into that, and it's important, I think, to recognize that for her and for them all roads lead back to God, and America as the (however vague or unexamined) expression of God's will. I don't see non-fundie conservatives who happen to agree with Palin about the media and Hollywood amounting to a very significant portion of her support at all.

                                            The Republican politicians who publicly hedge on such things are of course trying to win independents, as we all well know.

                                            Tubby- I think there was more cause for concern about Palin immediately following the election than there is presently. She's shown herself to be incapable of taking good political advice, shown no interest in mastering public policy whatsoever, she's getting absolutely hammered by the media, and she reportedly is alienating everyone close to her by being such an impossible diva.

                                            She's literally mentally unstable I think, as well as a pathological liar; that, and not her ostensible political positions, is what will undo her in any national campaign. Until we see solid evidence that she's learning some discipline and significantly upping her wonk factor, we can safely assume she's bound either to implode utterly or run a distant second to a more serious contender.

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                                              #97
                                              Sarah Palin

                                              Heh, I said that for Palin all roads lead back to God, but of course 'back to Palin' would be much more accurate. She's a vessel, you understand.

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                                                #98
                                                Sarah Palin

                                                G.Man wants a hyphen wrote:
                                                Even the way he shouts for Mr Tambourine Man at the end of his bizarre version?
                                                Yea, even as thou shalt worship him while he is banging alien babes half his age and kicking ass with Ben Folds, thou shalt also worship him when he is murdering Dylan and playing opposite Heather Locklear and Yul Brynner.

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                                                  #99
                                                  Sarah Palin

                                                  I don't see non-fundie conservatives who happen to agree with Palin about the media and Hollywood amounting to a very significant portion of her support at all.
                                                  We may have to agree to disagree on this, but it's not a question of "happening" to agree with her on those issues. I think it's more a rural/urban, South and Appalachia vs North and coasts thing.

                                                  The Republican politicians who publicly hedge on such things are of course trying to win independents, as we all well know.
                                                  Of course, and it's the fact that Palin doesn't even try to appeal to independents that inspires such "mentalist fervour" in her supporters. She's viscerally "one of them".

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