Saviour to scapegoat in 24 hours...

[pyan]

Well, I suppose they had to have to blame someone....

Knives out for Palin: McCain aides tell tales of diva

WASHINGTON -- Sarah Palin wasn't aware that Africa was a continent and she and her brood behaved like a band of "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," aides to Republican John McCain are telling prominent news organizations.

Less than 24 hours after McCain lost the presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama, those close to him apparently wasted no time burning up the phone lines to dish the dirt on Palin, the Alaska governor who portrayed herself as a sensible hockey Mom when she was chosen the Arizona senator's running mate in late August.

If the anonymous McCain insiders are to be believed, Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five, was unaware that Africa was a continent, arguing that South Africa was simply a region of the larger country of Africa.

Despite her self-styled image as a down-home working mother opposed to big government spending, the aides told Newsweek she behaved like anything but: she spent tens of thousands of dollars more than the US$150,000 originally reported on clothing, accessories and luggage for herself and her family.

One senior aide told the magazine that she was told to buy three suits for the Republican National Convention and hire a stylist, but instead, the vice-presidential nominee began amassing costly goods from stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

I wonder just how far up the organisation this comes from? Sounds as if it's a pre-emptive strike against Palin returning in 2012...




CTV.ca | Knives out for Palin: McCain aides tell tales of diva

[Ursa major]

What it is, Pyan, is the back-biting world of the powerful when they've had their toys taken away from them. The words could very well have come from someone who, when looking for ways to keep the core vote on board, had said that she was just the thing to enliven the ticket.

While we should probably be glad that she's not that proverbial heart-beat from the presidency, she isn't to blame for being on the ticket, other than saying yes (which many people - and the vast majority of politicians - would have done in her place).

Palin was found and selected, and McCain agreed to it. This was a far more serious failure than Palin's acceptance, I hope you'll agree.



All we can now hope is that Biden's suitability is never put to the test.

[Durandal]

Originally Posted by Ursa major

What it is, Pyan, is the back-biting world of the powerful when they've had their toys taken away from them. The words could very well have come from someone who, when looking for ways to keep the core vote on board, had said that she was just the thing to enliven the ticket.

While we should probably be glad that she's not that proverbial heart-beat from the presidency, she isn't to blame for being on the ticket, other than saying yes (which many people - and the vast majority of politicians - would have done in her place).

Palin was found and selected, and McCain agreed to it. This was a far more serious failure than Palin's acceptance, I hope you'll agree.



All we can now hope is that Biden's suitability is never put to the test.

This whole drama has been fascinating to watch. It was clear from the outset that Palin and McCain didn't get along or respect one another, but Palin was a strategic choice to patch what was seen by Repulican strategists as a leak in the boat of the campaign, to use a labored metaphor.

The most hard-line conservatives in the US, the evangelicals, were very bitter and disgruntled about the choice of McCain as a candidate -- he was seen as far too moderate -- and the choice of Palin was an effort to win back those voters. (Granted, those people wouldn't have voted for Obama, but many of them were prepared to stay home and not vote, or support a more conservative third-party candidate like Baldwin.)

And, to a degree, it worked. Palin drew a lot of people to the Republican ticket. However, she also drove a lot of people away. And while you can't fault her for accepting the offer to be the VP candidate, you can fault her for being dumb as a rock.

As to these new revelations of infighting being "sour grapes" or some such, I think it's more that these people knew they couldn't speak their minds before the election. Now that it's over, they can be honest. I assure you, there was ill will between the McCain and Palin sides of that ticket long before the ticket lost.

[Culhwch]

I don't want to kick the girl while she's down, but this I couldn't resist...

the mayans were right… « Pundit Kitchen: Lol News and Lol Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden and more

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Durandal

And while you can't fault her for accepting the offer to be the VP candidate, you can fault her for being dumb as a rock.

Not just dumb, though. She was egotistical enough to think she was qualified when she clearly was not.

My husband noticed something right after McCain's concession speech. Palin stepped up to the podium as though she was about to speak, and then someone said something and she stepped back. Then today we heard on the news that she really had arrived with her own speech, apparently unaware, until someone told her, that the VP candidate doesn't get to speak on these occasions.

I'd pay to know what was in that speech. I can't help thinking she had some idea of positioning herself as the head of the party by rallying the troops for 2012.

I assure you, there was ill will between the McCain and Palin sides of that ticket long before the ticket lost.

There's no doubt about that. McCain's people were leaking that kind of information as early as last week, when it still looked like there was a chance he could win the election. And when Palin was asked about it she said something to the effect that there weren't any problems between her camp and his -- and here the rest of us thought they were in the same camp.

[HanaBi]

Makes you wonder who you can really trust anymore

[andrew.v.spencer]

Hana,

I think one can start by a process of reduction: You can't trust politicians.

The Political Animal by Jeremy Paxman, is a well written and amusing insight into the motives of politicians. The motives are often not bad, but end in disastrous results and moral erosion. Worth a read.

[Drachir]

Originally Posted by andrew.v.spencer

Hana,

I think one can start by a process of reduction: You can't trust politicians.

The Political Animal by Jeremy Paxman, is a well written and amusing insight into the motives of politicians. The motives are often not bad, but end in disastrous results and moral erosion. Worth a read.

Before you deficate on all politicians take a look at the life of TC Douglas, the man who was voted by Canadians as the greatest Canadian. Tommy Douglas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are also a couple of brilliant film biographies of Douglas, a speaker who rivaled Obama in his eloquence and who spoke without notes.

[Drachir]

In a way I don't blame Palin for this fiasco. The Republicans chose a woman whose claim to fame was being the governor of Alaska; a somewhat isolated state with a population smaller than that of most medium size cities. Typical of many American political leaders whe is ignorant of basic geography, politics, history, and woefully out of touch with scientific fact. It was entirely predictable that once the novelty of her physical appearance had worn off the media would start ripping her to shreds in the same manner that they attempted to rip Obama to shreds. McCain and his advisors are much more to blame for this than she is; considering that she simply acted true to form - a form they should have been aware of before they selected her.

[andrew.v.spencer]

I think regardless of the odd honourable politician (more common I think historically than in today's professional environment), the general principal of not trusting politicians will not steer you far wrong.

[iansales]

As Teddy Roosevelt once said, don't tell my mother I'm a politician, she thinks I play the piano in a bawdy house.

[HanaBi]

Originally Posted by andrew.v.spencer

Hana,

I think one can start by a process of reduction: You can't trust politicians.

The Political Animal by Jeremy Paxman, is a well written and amusing insight into the motives of politicians. The motives are often not bad, but end in disastrous results and moral erosion. Worth a read.

Oh I know most politician are not to be trusted, but it just amazes me that you can have so much mistrust and intercine back-biting within one's own party.

Talking of mistrust amongst politicians I watched "Hunt for Red October" the other day and was reminded of such when one character said,

"Listen, I'm a politician which means I'm a cheat and a liar, and when I'm not kissing babies I'm stealing their lollipops. But it also means I keep my options open."

And in spite of all this, we still vote for them

[Ursa major]

In the House of Commons, it's been said that your opponents are on the bench opposite, while your enemies are on yours.

[TK-421]

It is indeed a pre-emptive strike against a Palin run in 2012 by certain factions in the GOP. She represents all that is wrong with the party right now and the Democrats have done a very good job at staking out the middle. The Republicans have been handed two defeats, big ones at that, in a row. First the Congressional races in 2006 and now the Presidential and Congressional races in 2008. The Democrats are knocking on the door of a fillibuster-proof Senate. The GOP will need to reinvent itself and do so very quickly to try to regain some of the centre and portray themselves once more as fiscal conservatives, something the Bush administrator certainly was not. The changing demographics in the US will also cause them some trouble for years to come if they do not learn to adapt. Evolve or disappear. Ironic to apply Darwinian principles on a party stocked with Creationists, no?

This leaves the door open to people like Bobby Jingal, the Republican Governor of Louisiana.

Anyways, Palin will go down as a footnote in history and she was fun to watch while it lasted. I mean, South Africa a region of the larger country of Africa...HA! You can't make that stuff up!

As for Biden, I have read up on him and he is a really interesting guy who really has never forgotten where he came from. Some would call it the "real America".

[littlemissattitude]

First of all, I have to say that I don't like Sarah Palin at all. She strikes me as whiny, snotty and a not-very-nice person. And I don't doubt that she isn't as smart as she likes to think she is and likes to present herself as. And it wouldn't surprise me if she wasn't up on her geography...as a rule, many of my brother and sister US citizens can't even find their own state on a map of the US.

However, having said that, I don't like the way the McCain campaign campaign has looked to be rushing to make her a scapegoat for McCain's loss in the election, especially considering that I suspect that her selection as McCain's running mate was essentially a stunt to try to appeal to the conservative Christian Republican base. He - or his advisors - chose her as his running mate, apparently without vetting her comprehensively, when there were many more qualified candidates among Republicans and more especially among Republican women. That choice, I believe, was a cynical move to try to pull disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters into the Republican fold, apparently believing that they would vote for any woman rather than for Mr. Obama, as well as trying to appeal to their base. When that didn't work, and when polls started showing that Ms. Palin was a hindrance to the ticket rather than an asset, apparently it was decided that if the ticket lost, they would blame it all on Ms. Palin.

Which is one of the reasons why I'm not a Republican. They have a history of using people and then throwing them away, or actively throwing them under the train when it suits their purposes. Not that this does not happen in US politics generally, but the Republicans seem to be actively proud of doing it.

I don't think, however, that Ms. Palin is doing herself any favors by publicly whining about her treatment since the election. It just makes her sound more whiny and more like a diva. She chose to accept the nomination and play with the big boys. She needs to put on her big-girl panties and deal with the consequences of her choice. If she didn't see this coming, then she really is kind of stupid.