It’s all about Sarah
This lady is, as they say, a piece of work. Sarah Palin showed up in Iowa — “Oh, there’s a straw poll going on?!” — and set Republican hearts aflutter. She spoke to David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network:
Sarah Palin on the criticism that her appearance in Iowa is upstaging the presidential candidates that are gathered here:
“Those type of false accusations, I’ll again, ignore them and repeat the truth, and that is as part of our One Nation Tour it’s great to get to be here with grateful acceptance to visit the Iowa State Fair.”
“I think that some folks could, critics could write a story saying that I snubbed Iowa if we didn’t come to the State Fair this year. So, I’m very thankful to accept the invitation extremely happy to be here.”
Sarah Palin on whether she’s going to run for president:
“There is still a lot of contemplation that goes on within a family, deciding whether to engage in such a life-changing venture, putting yourself forward in the name of service, in such a position as President of the United States. So, we’re still thinking about it, and the impact on family. Family comes first in my life, and I just don’t want to adversely affect the family. So, we’re still talking about it, thinking about it. And that’s what I want supporters to understand. At the same time, I want to be very fair to supporters and not keep them hanging on in perpetuity. It’s fair to them to give them an answer here, in short order, so that they can jump on board with someone else. And/or to decide for themselves what they want to do. So, still haven’t made up my mind, haven’t decided when that announcement would be yet.”
David Brody: “Is that short order by the end of September? October?
Sarah Palin: “I think that that is a fair timeline for people, because Fall time, they can start getting engaged with different campaigns, but still thinking about it, and really, really desiring to be a participant in the positive change that needs to happen in this country. Economy getting back on the right track. Jobs created for Americans, I want to be a part of that whether it be as a candidate, or as a supporter of the right candidate. I’m still in that decision making phase.”
David Brody: “The most important question: Are you going to have fried butter on a stick?”
Sarah Palin: “I cannot wait to go get my fried butter on a stick, and fried cheesecake on a stick and…Twinkies, especially in honor of those who would rather just be forced to eat our peas. I cannot wait to go down by the food court.”
The “eat your peas” reference was to President Obama’s line about trying to get Congress to make politically difficult decisions. She’s having none of that, I guess.
So we have her until September or October. Or should I say Republican voters have her. There is something terribly high school about her. Maybe that’ll be perfect for “a time such as this,” as her role model, Queen Esther, put it.
Why do you waste your time making fun of clowns? Oh, I understand – this implies that all Republicans are clowns. Maybe – I couldn’t say. Are you sure?
“The “eat your peas” reference was to President Obama’s line about trying to get Congress to make politically difficult decisions. She’s having none of that, I guess.”
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No, it was not a reference to President Obama’s line about “trying to get Congress to make politically difficult decisions.” It was a reference to President Obama’s typical obnoxious, condescending, and bullying manner of speaking about those he disagrees with. Sarah Palin is having none of that.
I don’t think David thinks all GOPers are “clowns.” Nor do I,
But many who posr here leave that impression by oversimplifying.
First point is that the coy act about running is getting old and tired. Stop already. The media needs to stop getting sucked into her game.
I cannot stand phoniness. Fired butter on a stick, fired cheesecake and a twinkie? Nobody who looks like she does at her age has that kind of diet regularly. Doesn’t happen. It is condescending, phony and false. Don’t get me wrong I am a sweet-aholic too but at the same time it is not something i think should be promoted. And I have about 10 I could lose too so I am not judging.
Plus we do have a health and obesity problem in Canada and the US. I think we should be encouraging healthy lifestyle. I am not talking about Ken and Barbie figures, but healthy lifestyle is important.
Eat your peas is right!!!
Peas are fattening. Better to eat your spinach and broccoli!
Sarah’s one good-looking gal.
But I wouldn’t vote for her.
And if she were to make a habit of eating all that fried butter, I’d stop looking at her!!!
High School was so so long ago..
You’re as old as you eat, Ed. Lay off the fried peas.
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/
Somehow I think this will lose Sarah some votes. And maybe gain her a few. Sigh.
Sarah Palin is not going away as long as there is an African American president in the White House. The right wing needs the foil to support their fund raising.
Remember, most racists left the Democratic party because of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act enacted during the Johnson administration and have been hanging out, thriving all these years in the increasingly reactionary Republican party.
If Hillary suddenly was the Democratic nominee, Palin’s balloon would loose a lot of air. [Besides, we know that Hillary is more than capable of scratching her eyes out if necessary.]
As any marketing executive would tell you, Palin embodies the “white trash” dream of life for too many folks left behind both economically and spiritually out there in fly-over country.
Aretha Franklin, the queen of soul music, once said that country music is just soul music for white people.
Just listen to most of the music on any “country-western” radio station. It’s all about love, betrayal, forgotten dreams and drugs in places very similar to Wasilla, AL.
Would someone please explain to me how Palin can present herself as a defender of family values when her unmarried, teenaged daughter, Bristol, got pregnant while she was shacking-up with her boyfriend right down the hallway from Sarah and Todd’s bedroom?
Love the moralizing pretense of these Republicans!
Well, while you can believe all Republicans are racist, I think the facts on the ground show that the President’s poll ratings are down (at historical lows) because Independents have moved away from him.
Who said all GOPers are racists, Mark?
Do you think some, a few , a good number are?
I know, I know -everyone is well intentioned and only of the highest motives in this best of all possible.
I think a very small and unimportant percentage of all Americans, regardless of political affiliation, are racists.
I strikes me that progressives are far more wrapped up in Sarah Palin and her comings and goings than the average conservative voter. They understand this is about publicity and that if she were running she would have done something more decisive by now. It’s the liberal press who keep promoting the “will-she-won’t-she” story line because it helps keep one more conservative boogieman in play.
Bender is spot on – when I heard the “eat your peas” statement it struck me that this guy is the most tone-deaf politician I have ever seen. Every day people are struggling with paying their bills, many who are successful have worked years and years to acheive that success are seeing it threatened, many have served in the armed forces and have son’s and daughters who have. In short, the vast majority of the people who hear his words have had real struggles, overcome real problems, and understand real sacrifice. When they hear such nonsense from what they see as a privileged, Ivy League, empty suit who has never served in a difiicult way, never started or managed a business, never tasted the bitterness of failure, never eaten his own peas – it offends.
I think you can expect a lot more “eat your peas” references in the coming months because it reminds people of an obnoxious, holier-than-thou attitude that we shouldn’t get from our leaders. It’s good politics.
The NYT public editor had a good discussion yesterday on civility -a topic that keeps showing up here- on Joe Nocera’s piece about the Tea Party being terrorists on teh American people and how Nocera later apologized(because he had urged civility) thoug several news editors thought his piece was fine.
So goes rhetoric.
Sean’s rhetoric, I’d suggest, is uncivil and I wonder if he is an empty suit as well playing the card of not understanding.
At least I’d only say Mark is naive about race today, but Sean’s critique smacks of the kind of facile rhetoric that is ideolgically defensive and divisive.
And we’ve got over a year yet to 2012 November.
Wait til the ads roll out.
If Palin ever had an opportunity this election cycle, I think she’s already too late. The conventional wisdom today seems to be that, after this weekend, Republicans have three choices (Romney, Perry, Bachmann), the latter two of whom are trying to live ideologically where Palin would like to live. If Palin also moves in, I think that room of the house will be really crowded.
The way this shakes out, istm, is that the first burst of primaries will eliminate Bachmann. The rest of the primary season then becomes a two-person race between Romney and Perry. That sounds like a matchup that could be good for the GOP, just as HClinton/Obama was good for the Democratic Party, and whoever emerges victorious from that primary-season tussle will be an opponent with whom President Obama will need to reckon.
Btw, based on the treatment Palin received in 2008, and continues to receive, and that Bachmann is now receiving, I wouldn’t recommend that the Republican nominee choose a woman as a running mate. It’s clear to me that the United States isn’t ready for a woman in high office. And it’s damning, to say the least, that the ill-treatment originates from progressives. Ironically, conservatives seem more okay with it than progressives. Strange and unfair.
Bob – seriously. Conservatives are routinely cast as ignorant racisists (I guess part of the “white trash”) on these pages and I am uncivil for calling the President and empty suit?
What is uncivil is taking a person’s words – as the media is doing with Romney and you seem ready to go along with – and putting a clearly dishonest spin on them.
Sean, where did I put spin on Romney’s words?
I do think racism is more prevalent in our society than we care to admit.
My critique of your post was that it was an easy slap from someone who may well be a (empty) suit himself.
FWIW, here is Elizabeth Scalia, aka “the Anchoress”, on perceptions that opponents of the President are racist:
“A pal of mine, whose political views are to the left of my own, is not very happy with President Obama. He dislikes Obama’s continuation of many of President Bush’s policies and he is disillusioned with Obama’s meager leadership skills, but his criticism is fairly low-key, characterized by a sense of quiet restlessness.
“Nevertheless, if I dare to criticize the president—on the policies, the passivity, the professorial condescension, the pea-eating lectures or on the general over-ratedness that I and many others counted, in 2008, as weaknesses rendering him unsuited to the Oval Office—my friend becomes “concerned” about me; my complaints “trouble” him in unspecified ways, but he no longer flings the cheap, easy and inaccurate epithet of “racist” my way, because he has learned that one can legitimately find Barack Obama underwhelming in the extreme, without any underlying motive.”
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/08/a-president-at-a-loss
I think the GOP will slowly abandon Bachmann, Romney as unelectable. Perry may not stand the scrutiny in the next 3 weeks. He too has that weird factor… [Talking about empty suits.]
Watch for a ‘White Hope’ to be looked for again.. emerge. Jeb Bush, back to Christie?
Jim. P. As for the Anchoress, she can’t get over the ND award/paper for Obama. Someone should tell her it’s in a presidential trash storage in West Virginia. [a senator Byrd's stimulus pork]
“I strikes me that progressives are far more wrapped up in Sarah Palin and her comings and goings than the average conservative voter. They understand this is about publicity and that if she were running she would have done something more decisive by now. It’s the liberal press who keep promoting the “will-she-won’t-she” story line because it helps keep one more conservative boogieman in play.”
This is exactly it; the only time I read anything about Palin it’s on a liberal website (Michael Winters is STILL convinced she’s going to be the nominee). Well, Except when Will, Krauthammer, Douthat, and Brooks (just to name a few) take her to the woodshed for being unserious and unelectable.
As for conservatives being racists, here’s something interesting: http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/274583/demonology-part-i-reihan-salam
The thing I like most about Palin is the way she drives the media crazy. I have issues with Romney, but I certainly do not see him as unelectable. Unless there’s a significant anti-Mormon contingent in the country–I doubt that but, of course, I am naïve.
That’s an interesting piece from the Anchoress. Assuming we all extrapolate from our own experiences, if a person thinks there are still a substantial number of racists in America, I wonder what that says about his circle of friends.
Another Mark “priceless”.
It has nothing to fdo wit hfriends, bnut listening to guys in the locker room, weightroom, etc. sounding off(‘when no one’s around.”)
I’m sorry, Mark, but I think your comments are weay off in defensiveness!
Bob–
It seems we hang out in different locker rooms–and I’m ok with that.
Political Must-Read – Warren Buffet on taxing everyone
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html?_r=1
For anyone interested in in-depth analysis of my decidedly unbold and unoriginal prediction of a Romney-Perry race can check out this piece by the aptly-named Sean Trende. One takeaway is that the quirks of the GOP primary schedule seem to favor Romney. Exacerbating this are states that insist on trying to jump ahead of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada in the primary queue, and get punished by having half their delegates unrecognized by the party.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/08/16/romney_vs_perry_how_the_numbers_and_the_calendar_stack_up_110953.html