BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Ron Davies
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 09:54 AM

And that--refusing to think--is a well-known field mark of the common yahoo. Quite common, unfortunately.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Amos
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 09:55 AM

Well, passions rise during times of great uncertainty and decision, Ron, and may be forgiven, no?



A

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 10:09 AM

I can't find any biographies of Sarah Palin that say that she was ever in the National Honor Society. The ONLY reference I found is a paragraph in an article on The Gun Toting Liberal site, and I assume it to be an attempt at sarcasm, not background information:

"We'd all love to be rescued by The Department Of Law from some sort an "injustice" we've suffered over the years, wouldn't we? Too bad there is no such thing as "The Department Of Law Of The White House" — we could always use a new, FOURTH branch of government after all, couldn't we? Combine both the Executive and Judicial branches into one secretive little office called "The White House Department Of Law" to rescue us when we need it and there we go, eh? Or would that be the FIFTH "Superbranch" since The Barracuda seems to have agreed with FORMER (Thank God) Vice President Richard "Dick" "Shotgun" Cheney's observation that a vice president is his or her fourth "Superbranch" of government since he or she sits in the Executive yet breaks Legislative ties in the Senate?

I swear to God, I don't know how this happened. After all, as many of you know, Sarah and I both attended school together in Wasilla, Alaska and I could SWEAR we both sat in the same classroom as we were being taught about the Separation of Powers, the Constitution, and our three equal but separate Branches of government. She was a member of the National Honor Society ("NHS") and always earned straight "A's" while I was mostly a perennial camper on the "2nd Honor Roll" and I remember her being very well spoken at that. I remember her being a very likeable, decent, pretty, approachable and highly intelligent young lady back in those days…

What's up, Sarah? I'm beginning to worry about you."

From Poor, Poor Sarah Palin — Where's The White House's "Department Of Law" When Ya' Need 'Em? on guntotingliberal.com


I found a statement in Palin's bio on the Alaska State Government page of NetState.com which says that she was "recently" inducted into the Sigma Beta Delta Honor Society at Alaska Pacific University. That is not one of the colleges Palin attended, and Palin graduated college in 1987 whereas Sigma Beta Delta was not established until 1994. Her induction appears to be a purely political gesture to give her credit for her achievement in having been elected governor of Alaska, and not to honor any academic achievement.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Ron Davies
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 10:11 AM

As long as the poster makes it clear that he does not support Palin now.   He seems to waffle now--one might think he believes nothing--just likes to run off at the mouth.

Sounds like a sighting of the Garrulous Yahoo.   Perhaps a bird not quite as common as the Common Yahoo.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 10:20 AM

Ummm... Hey, Ron Davies. I think you need to go back and re-read Riginslinger's post. He was kidding Peace about her typo wherein she said, "I wonder how long it will take people to forget SUSAN Palin?" If you were to have taken your own advice to "start thinking before favoring us with gems", you would have noticed that Riginslinger's post says, "I don't think I ever knew SUSAN Palin!"

You misquoted Rig -- ya didn't even have the decency to copy-and-paste his post -- you substituted "Sarah" for "Susan" when quoting him. Looks like it's time to renig on your own vow not to think!

Or at least get yourself a sense of humor.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 10:28 AM

Her typo?

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 10:30 AM

Richard: Oh, sorry, is Peace a "he"? Thought he was a she. Oopsie.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Amos
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 10:55 AM

Peace, baby!

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Amos
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 11:06 AM

Frank Rich remarks:

"The essence of Palinism is emotional, not ideological. Yes, she is of the religious right, even if she winks literally and figuratively at her own daughter's flagrant disregard of abstinence and marriage. But family-values politics, now more devalued than the dollar by the philandering of ostentatiously Christian Republican politicians, can only take her so far. The real wave she's riding is a loud, resonant surge of resentment and victimization that's larger than issues like abortion and gay civil rights.

That resentment is in part about race, of course. When Palin referred to Alaska as "a microcosm of America" during the 2008 campaign, it was in defiance of the statistical reality that her state's tiny black and Hispanic populations are unrepresentative of her nation. She stood for the "real America," she insisted, and the identity of the unreal America didn't have to be stated explicitly for audiences to catch her drift. Her convention speech's signature line was a deftly coded putdown of her presumably shiftless big-city opponent: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities." (Funny how this wisdom has been forgotten by her supporters now that she has abandoned her own actual responsibilities in public office.)

The latest flashpoint for this kind of animus is the near-certain elevation to the Supreme Court of Sonia Sotomayor, whose Senate confirmation hearings arrive this week. Prominent Palinists were fast to demean Sotomayor as a dim-witted affirmative-action baby. Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard, the Palinist hymnal, labeled Sotomayor "not the smartest" and suggested that Princeton awards academic honors on a curve. Karl Rove said, "I'm not really certain how intellectually strong she would be." Those maligning the long and accomplished career of an Ivy League-educated judge do believe in affirmative-action — but only for white people like Palin, whom they boosted for vice president despite her minimal achievements and knowledge of policy, the written word or even geography.

The politics of resentment are impervious to facts. Palinists regard their star as an icon of working-class America even though the Palins' combined reported income ($211,000) puts them in the top 3.6 percent of American households. They see her as a champion of conservative fiscal principles even though she said yes to the Bridge to Nowhere and presided over a state that ranks No.1 in federal pork."

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Amos
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 11:11 AM

PEggy Noonan does a fine job of putting Palin in a more accurate perspective and deconsructing some of the silliness around her.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 11:16 AM

Thanks for the blueclickie, Amos. I think my misconception of Peace's (Bruce's) gender had its roots in Mudcat lore: the long-defunct ex-user-name of WYSIWYG (Susan), The Mudcatter Formerly Known as Peace. I realize that the current Peace is not Susan, but the memory of Peace once being a female lingered on in my mind. My apologies to Bruce!

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 11:22 AM

I found this on Ask.com: Menard's collection of Wasilla High School yearbooks contains pictures of Palin on the honor society, student council, cross-country team and, most notably, as co-captain and point guard of the 1982 championship basketball team."

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 11:40 AM

Ebbie: Thanks for the reference. Ask.com linked me to this CNN.com article that contains the quote Ebbie pulled. I'm wondering whether "the honor society" means the National Honor Society or something locally-based or school-based. It still puzzles me that it's so difficult (impossible?) to find a reference that says straight-out that she was a member of the NHS. Why would that not be in every bio -- or at least in every right-wing bio -- if it were true?

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 12:19 PM

Hahahahaha.... someone on Ebay is trying to sell website domain names: "www.sarahpalin2020.com" and "www.palin2020.com" -- only 10 bucks each!!! Funny how he's got no bidders so far...

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 12:46 PM

I agree, Sharon A. Rating inclusion in the National Honor Society is not that difficult - one needs to have a GPA of a certain level - but it is still prestigious enough that in a biography it would likely be mentioned.

I especially doubt it in Palin's case because as a sports jock if she were also in NHS that would be an accomplishment and it would seem very likely to be prominently displayed.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: heric
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 12:56 PM

GPA 3.0 is all it takes (unless school has higher req.)

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 01:10 PM

Heric: Apparently, in the case of Wasilla High, the requirement is a 3.5 GPA -- See this page

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: gnu
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 01:17 PM

So, McCain says she ".. will remain "a major factor" on the national scene..."

Think she'll get the nod as the sacraficial lamb to lose to Obama in the next election? Nice job... good pay... travel... no stress...

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Alice
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 01:20 PM

A 3.5 grade point average in high school is not hard to achieve. You just have to take easy electives.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Alice
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 01:27 PM

As I posted earlier, she quit her job as mayor, she quit her job on the oil and gas board, and now has quit her job as governor. She was put in place as Mayor of Wasilla when she had no ability to run the town. It cost Wasilla more to have her as mayor, because she had to hire a city administrator who actually did have the skills to run the town.

She is a hypocrite. She claims to be a fiscal conservative, but she ended up costing the city of Wasilla far more.

Remodeling the mayor's office, $50,000 that should have been put toward road improvements.... when challenged by the city council, she said, well as mayor she could do what she wanted.
The story of Palin putting Wasilla deep in debt, in the Millions, when the city was not in debt before she became mayor, .. here --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm6SeDXqd-g

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: gnu
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 01:31 PM

Alice... easy electives... cake courses. Cake seems to be appropriate.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Alice
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 01:35 PM

Seriously folks, watch this from the people who have had to live with Palin as their mayor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm6SeDXqd-g

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Riginslinger
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 01:46 PM

"Or at least get yourself a sense of humor."

          Yes, humor is always nice!

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 02:06 PM

I think it's very telling that the high-school achievement the CNN writer found "most notable" in 2008 was NOT Palin's student-council activity or academic honors, but that she was co-captain and point guard of a high-school-girls' basketball team that won a state championship. Perhaps the writer thought it was of note at the time because that's where Palin got her nickname "Sarah Barracuda" for her competitive spirit. It is of note now, in reference to her resignation speech, which included this snippet:

"Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me -- sports... basketball. I use it because you're naïve if you don't see the national full-court press picking away right now: A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket... and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN. And I'm doing that -- keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities -- smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it's time to pass the ball -- for victory."

Yet, from what I read on the subject, a "good point guard" keeps his eye on the whole court, not just the ball, by developing good peripheral vision, and he doesn't necessarily drive through a full-court press. Additionally, according to the advice on this site about basketball fundamentals, "the point guard must have a close working relationship with the coaches and be very 'coachable'.... The point guard must know his role on the team... You must also be able to communicate with your teammates both on and off the court.... Avoid passing in the direction you are looking, or 'telegraphing' your passes.... A good point guard knows how to control the pace or tempo of the game, and how his coach wants the tempo.... You must try to get along well with all your teammates and be a 'peace-maker'."

So, although in some ways she's been trying to play the political game like a basketball game (funny, I always thought it was a "political football") and imagining herself in the role of point guard for the Republican party, and although she has a couple of attributes that might make that analogy sound somewhat reasonable (feistiness comes to mind), she has played the game poorly and cannot be considered to have been a "good" point guard at all. Her analogy is just more delusional drivel (or would that be "dribble"?) from Sarah the Palin'.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: heric
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 02:21 PM

I want to file a complaint to find out who paid for the tanning bed in the Governor's mansion.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: gnu
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 02:27 PM

A rink instead of sewage treatment? Where it's kinda coolish in the winter? Holy shit!

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Ron Davies
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 02:40 PM

Sorry, Sharon.   You're wrong on this. Look at his Rig's long-term record--supporting Palin and attacking Obama.   My quotes from the campaign were accurate.   And I thought you were one who read carefully.   Perhaps not.

As far as a sense of humor about Palin.

1)    I did point out that she was Tina Fey's understudy.

2)    She is in fact a real possibility for 2012. That's not very funny.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: gnu
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 02:46 PM

Ron... "possibility"? of?

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 02:57 PM

(clarification: "ex-user-name of WYSIWYG (Susan), The Mudcatter Formerly Known as Peace." Susan was formerly known as "Praise".)

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 02:59 PM

Elizabeth Snead, through Ask.com:

"Seems Sarah Palin installed a tanning bed in the governor's mansion in 2007.

"She did. She paid for it with her own money," Roger Wetherell, chief communications officer of Alaska's Department of Transportation and Public Facilities told Us Weekly.

"It was done shortly after she took office [in early 2007] and moved into the mansion," Wetherell told the Narco News, who first reported the story.

"According to Wetherell, it was paid for with her own money and purchased used from a health club"

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:05 PM

Rig wanted Hillary Clinton to get elected, Ron. You keep ignoring that for some reason. He once humorously referred to a hypothetical McCain/Cheney team as the "War and Hate" ticket. ;-) He was against Obama and for Clinton. You are applying selective tunnel vision...that is, only seeing exactly what you wish to see in Rig's past posts and disregarding the rest. You wish to cast Rig as a neo-con Palin supporter.   He is not. He has clearly stated that he is not. You wish to cast him as a hypocrite who supports the religious Right while hating religion. He is not that either.

We've been over this again, and again, and again...but you're just to proud to back down and admit to having been mistaken about something you said, and that's about all there is to it.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:10 PM

Little Hawk, just what in the world would we do if we didn't have you to explain everything?

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:14 PM

Ron: What exactly was I "wrong on"??? I did not say ANYTHING to you about your quotes of Rig's posts from the 2008 campaign in my post of 12 Jul 09 - 10:20 AM. All I said to you was that you misread and misquoted Rig's post of 12 Jul 09 - 07:19 AM. Let's review:

Peace said on 12 Jul 09 - 03:46 AM: "I wonder how long it will take people to forget Susan Palin?" [He said SUSAN, not SARAH.]

Rig said on 12 Jul 09 - 07:19 AM: "I don't think I ever knew Susan Palin!" [...and who would know SUSAN Palin? We have been talking about SARAH Palin!]

YOU (Ron Davies) said on 12 Jul 09 - 09:52 AM: " 'I don't think I ever knew Sarah Palin'.   Bingo. Nor did the poster who said this ever do any research to find out...."

Read your own post, Ron -- you substituted the word "Sarah" for Rig's word "Susan", and then you based the rest of your rant on your supposed gotcha moment when, in fact, you didn't get what Rig said in his post of 12 Jul 09 - 07:19 AM. And apparently you still don't get it. Now you're jumping down my throat, claiming I'm "wrong" about something I never even said to you.

Please try to calm down long enough to re-read my post of 12 Jul 09 - 10:20 AM, and you will see that you failed to think about Rig's little pun before jumping down HIS throat at 9:52 AM for something HE never said... and you have failed again at 2:40 PM.

Ah, but according to your post of 9:52 AM, you consider thinking before hitting "send" to be an OPTION. In my opinion, it should be considered more of a necessity in your case! :-)

I guess that what I'm trying to say is, if you're going to be an attack dog, please try not to be a Sarah Palin-style pit bull without the lipstick. In other words, make sense!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:17 PM

Bill D: How right you are, about Susan/Praise/WYSIWYG. My bad. (My bad memory!) Thanks for straightening me out.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:35 PM

Ebbie - WHOA! That's a troubling question to ponder, isn't it?   Gad! The insecurity of just thinking about it gives me the shivers, and I can only hazard a guess at how nervous others may feel at the prospect... ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:57 PM

I hope you sleep tonight. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: gnu
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 04:27 PM

Who can sleep with Sarah on their mind? I pine for her. Maybe, if I ran for PM, and she dumped that separatist dead weight, she and I could lose together and go moosin into the sunset like forbidden lovers.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: robomatic
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 05:58 PM

From the NYT, posted with a cute graphic of Sarah riding a plummeting elephant, a la "Strangelove"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It

By FRANK RICH

SARAH PALIN and Al Sharpton don't ordinarily have much in common, but they achieved a rare harmonic convergence at Michael Jackson's memorial service. When Sharpton told the singer's children it was their daddy's adversaries, not their daddy, who were "strange," he was channeling the pugnacious argument the Alaska governor had made the week before. There was nothing strange about her decision to quit in midterm, Palin told America. What's strange — or "insane," in her lingo — are the critics who dare question her erratic behavior on the national stage.

Sharpton's bashing of Jackson's naysayers received the biggest ovation of the entire show. Palin's combative resignation soliloquy, though much mocked by prognosticators of all political persuasions, has an equally vociferous and more powerful constituency. In the aftermath of her decision to drop out and cash in, Palin's standing in the G.O.P. actually rose in the USA Today/Gallup poll. No less than 71 percent of Republicans said they would vote for her for president. That overwhelming majority isn't just the "base" of the Republican Party that liberals and conservatives alike tend to ghettoize as a rump backwater minority. It is the party, or pretty much what remains of it in the Barack Obama era.

That's why Palin won't go gently into the good night, much as some Republicans in Washington might wish. She is not just the party's biggest star and most charismatic television performer; she is its only star and charismatic performer. Most important, she stands for a genuine movement: a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances and awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves it behind. Palin gives this movement a major party brand and political plausibility that its open-throated media auxiliary, exemplified by Glenn Beck, cannot. She loves the spotlight, can raise millions of dollars and has no discernible reason to go fishing now except for self-promotional photo ops.

The essence of Palinism is emotional, not ideological. Yes, she is of the religious right, even if she winks literally and figuratively at her own daughter's flagrant disregard of abstinence and marriage. But family-values politics, now more devalued than the dollar by the philandering of ostentatiously Christian Republican politicians, can only take her so far. The real wave she's riding is a loud, resonant surge of resentment and victimization that's larger than issues like abortion and gay civil rights.

That resentment is in part about race, of course. When Palin referred to Alaska as "a microcosm of America" during the 2008 campaign, it was in defiance of the statistical reality that her state's tiny black and Hispanic populations are unrepresentative of her nation. She stood for the "real America," she insisted, and the identity of the unreal America didn't have to be stated explicitly for audiences to catch her drift. Her convention speech's signature line was a deftly coded putdown of her presumably shiftless big-city opponent: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities." (Funny how this wisdom has been forgotten by her supporters now that she has abandoned her own actual responsibilities in public office.)

The latest flashpoint for this kind of animus is the near-certain elevation to the Supreme Court of Sonia Sotomayor, whose Senate confirmation hearings arrive this week. Prominent Palinists were fast to demean Sotomayor as a dim-witted affirmative-action baby. Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard, the Palinist hymnal, labeled Sotomayor "not the smartest" and suggested that Princeton awards academic honors on a curve. Karl Rove said, "I'm not really certain how intellectually strong she would be." Those maligning the long and accomplished career of an Ivy League-educated judge do believe in affirmative-action — but only for white people like Palin, whom they boosted for vice president despite her minimal achievements and knowledge of policy, the written word or even geography.

The politics of resentment are impervious to facts. Palinists regard their star as an icon of working-class America even though the Palins' combined reported income ($211,000) puts them in the top 3.6 percent of American households. They see her as a champion of conservative fiscal principles even though she said yes to the Bridge to Nowhere and presided over a state that ranks No.1 in federal pork.

Nowhere is the power of resentment to trump reason more flagrantly illustrated than in the incessant complaint by Palin and her troops that she is victimized by a double standard in the "mainstream media." In truth, the commentators at ABC, NBC and CNN — often the same ones who judged Michelle Obama a drag on her husband — all tried to outdo each other in praise for Palin when she emerged at the Republican convention 10 months ago. Even now, the so-called mainstream media can grade Palin on a curve: at MSNBC's "Morning Joe" last week, Palin's self-proclaimed representation of the "real America" was accepted as a given, as if white rural America actually still was the nation's baseline.

The Palinists' bogus beefs about double standards reached farcical proportions at Fox News on the sleepy pre-Fourth Friday afternoon when word of her abdication hit the East. The fill-in anchor demanded that his token Democratic stooge name another female politician who had suffered such "disgraceful attacks" as Palin. When the obvious answer arrived — Hillary Clinton — the Fox host angrily protested that Clinton had never been attacked in "a sexual way" or "about her children."

Americans have short memories, but it's hardly ancient history that conservative magazines portrayed Hillary Clinton as both a dominatrix cracking a whip and a broomstick-riding witch. Or that Rush Limbaugh held up a picture of Chelsea Clinton on television to identify the "White House dog." Or that Palin's running mate, John McCain, told a sexual joke linking Hillary and Chelsea and Janet Reno. Yet the same conservative commentariat that vilified both Clintons 24/7 now whines that Palin is receiving "the kind of mauling" that the media "always reserve for conservative Republicans." So said The Wall Street Journal editorial page last week. You'd never guess that The Journal had published six innuendo-laden books on real and imagined Clinton scandals, or that the Clintons had been a leading target of both Letterman and Leno monologues, not to mention many liberal editorial pages (including that of The Times), for much of a decade.

Those Republicans who have not drunk the Palin Kool-Aid are apocalyptic for good reason. She could well be their last presidential candidate standing. Such would-be competitors as Mark Sanford, John Ensign and Newt Gingrich are too carnally compromised for the un-Clinton party. Mike Huckabee is Palin-lite. Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal — really? That leaves the charisma-challenged Mitt Romney, precisely the kind of card-carrying Ivy League elitist Palinists loathe, no matter how hard he tries to cosmetically alter his history as a socially liberal fat-cat banker. Palin would crush him like a bug. She has the Teflon-coated stature among Republicans that Romney can only fantasize about.

Were Palin actually to secure the 2012 nomination, the result would be a fiasco for the G.O.P. akin to Goldwater 1964, as the most relentless conservative Palin critic, David Frum, has predicted. Or would it? No one thought Richard Nixon — a far less personable commodity than Palin — would come back either after his sour-grapes "last press conference" of 1962. But Democratic divisions and failures gave him his opportunity in 1968. With unemployment approaching 10 percent and a seemingly bottomless war in Afghanistan, you never know, as Palin likes to say, what doors might open.

It's more likely that she will never get anywhere near the White House, and not just because of her own limitations. The Palinist "real America" is demographically doomed to keep shrinking. But the emotion it represents is disproportionately powerful for its numbers. It's an anger that Palin enjoyed stoking during her "palling around with terrorists" crusade against Obama on the campaign trail. It's an anger that's curdled into self-martyrdom since Inauguration Day.

Its voice can be found in the postings at a Web site maintained by the fans of Mark Levin, the Obama hater who is, at this writing, the No.2 best-selling hardcover nonfiction writer in America. (Glenn Beck is No.1 in paperback nonfiction.) Politico surveyed them last week. "Bottomline, do you know of any way we can remove these idiots before this country goes down the crapper?" wrote one Levin fan. "I WILL HELP!!! Should I buy a gun?" Another called for a new American revolution, promising "there will be blood."

These are the cries of a constituency that feels disenfranchised — by the powerful and the well-educated who gamed the housing bubble, by a news media it keeps being told is hateful, by the immigrants who have taken some of their jobs, by the African-American who has ended a white monopoly on the White House. Palin is their born avatar. She puts a happy, sexy face on ugly emotions, and she can solidify her followers' hold on a G.O.P. that has no leaders with the guts or alternative vision to stand up to them or to her.

For a week now, critics in both parties have had a blast railing at Palin. It's good sport. But just as the media muttering about those unseemly "controversies" rallied the fans of the King of Pop, so are Palin's political obituaries likely to jump-start her lucrative afterlife.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 06:49 PM

gnu - I keep having those fantasies about Sarah too! I know there's a forbidden volcano of passion lurking behing her saucy wink. And...what happens when the glasses come off? OOOO-wee! The Sarah Palin fantasies momentarily interrupt my more or less fulltime Winona Ryder fantasies, rather like jaywalkers crossing the busy street of my mind against the light... (grin)

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: heric
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 08:55 PM

Well, thanks, Ebbie, but what I really want to do is file one of those complaints. I'll just add Wetherell as a conspirator.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Peace
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 09:33 PM

No problem at all, SharonA. I was posting from my feminine side. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: The Sandman
Date: 13 Jul 09 - 04:50 AM

I have never heard of her,is she related to Micheal Palin

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: SharonA
Date: 13 Jul 09 - 04:57 PM

Peace (Bruce), thanks for understanding and smiling. :) :) :)

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Barry Finn
Date: 13 Jul 09 - 05:08 PM

Last night's news claimed that Shara is planning on making a run for a national office. Was this a joke, it wasn't aired on Saturday night live?
Anyone else catch this?

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Ebbie
Date: 13 Jul 09 - 05:16 PM

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said she's not only staying involved in national politics, but she plans to jump back into the national scrum when she leaves office at the end of the month.

"The former Republican vice presidential nominee said she plans to write a book, campaign for political candidates from coast to coast - even Democrats who share her views on limited government, national defense and energy independence - and build a right-of-center coalition.

"I will go around the country on behalf of candidates who believe in the right things, regardless of their party label or affiliation," she said during an interview published Sunday in The Washington Times.

Here, as Reported

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: gnu
Date: 13 Jul 09 - 05:28 PM

GEORGE! Back off ya frigger! Yoooo stick with yer Winona fantasies and leave Sarah alone. I saw her first. She's my fantasy. Ya wanna jaywalk with Sarah? I gotta jacked 4X4 F150 with 36" mudders that will run yer ass inta the crosswalk where ya belong and then back over ya and spin on toppa ya. Yer mind'll be all over busy street if'n ya mess with my gal fantasy again.

I mean, sorry, man, but those glasses make the little fellah spasm eh. Like you and Nonnie, eh? Ya know eh? Can't help myself.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jul 09 - 05:33 PM

I feel your pain, gnu. I really do. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Ebbie
Date: 14 Jul 09 - 11:28 AM

It'd be cheaper and more sure-fire to buy the glasses, gnu.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Jul 09 - 12:52 PM

The "naughty librarian" look is pretty devastating, no doubt about it. And the glasses are an important part of that look. Sarah should consider the alternative career possiblities if the political thing doesn't work out.

Subject: RE: BS: Sarah Palin will resign on July 26!
From: SharonA
Date: 14 Jul 09 - 01:15 PM

Little Hawk: Whaddaya mean, "if"???