"As Sarah Palin fans rally around the Alaska governor due to the fact that David Letterman insulted her — it’s the politics of Schadenfreude — I hope they’ll also note, in case they are tempted to back her in a 2012 presidential bid, that she still doesn’t make any sense when she’s talking about policy. That ought to disqualify her from higher office regardless of whether or not she is unfairly attacked."I haven't watched the Letterman thing, but people I usually agree with are saying that it was sexist, so I'll trust them for now. But Friersdorf is right. We Obama progressives figured this out some time ago. We were angry when Chris Matthews started up his nonsense, and it made us more sympathetic toward Clinton, but it largely didn't change our allegiances. Despite the right wing's hatred of every media outlet save Fox News and Newsmax, they seem to allow themselves to be manipulated by their coverage an awful lot. It's the nonconformist conformist complex.
This just made me think of how Rush Limbaugh tried to interfere in the primaries with his whole "Operation Chaos" business. Limbaugh wanted Clinton as a foil, needed Clinton as a foil. A lot of progressives noticed this and it was about this time that Democrats broke for Obama in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries. Don't these right-wingers see that progressives similarly want Sarah Palin as a foil? She'd set conservatism back by decades--someone who can't string words together to form a coherent sentence. Consider this part of her interview with Sean Hannity:
Whoa, Sarah! This is blindingly stupid. Lower oil prices don't mean less government revenues and more to the people of your state, they just mean less money in the economy. I'd just love to hear Palin's explanation of how the stock market works. Palin backers no doubt believe that we liberals oppose her because we're afraid she'll win, which is ironically true, but in reality it's simply because we think she's, in Reihan Salam's words, a "clownish, vindictive amateur" who will almost surely burn out on the campaign trail, right before a 45-state Obama landslide that will make Nixon-McGovern look like Nixon-Kennedy. Ultimately, it is, as Conor notes, the politics of schadenfreude. And considering the ease with which Democrats have elevated Rush Limbaugh as their chief opponent one would figure that rightists would not be quite so keen on being so hamfistedly manipulated.Hannity: …The price of oil is going up again. It’s not quite at $140 a barrel, but it’s on its way up to $70 and $80…
Palin: Yeah, well and I thank God it’s not at $140. You know people say, “Hey, Alaska! 85% of your state budget is based on the price of a barrel of oil. Aren’t you glad the price is going up?” I say, “No!” The fewer dollars that the state of Alaska government has, the fewer dollars we spend. And that’s good for our families and for the private sector.
