Palin is Nixon circa 1952, but probably without the heft.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Ike didn't want Dick Nixon. Couldn't stand him. But Ike wasn't trusted by the RW... before 1952 nobody was sure whether he would run as a Republican or a Democrat, and he had stopped at the Elbe, letting the Russians take Berlin in WWII. Maybe Ike was soft on communism!!??

Nixon was a loathsome but gifted operator who had grabbed a lot of headlines as a red-hunter, widely credited with bringing down Alger Hiss in one of the great splashy left-right political conflicts of the era.

So the far-right (which was the Douglas MacArthur right in 1952) forced Nixon onto the ticket with Ike. The rest, as they say, is history.

I don't think McCain/Palin will win, but I suspect we will not have heard the last of Sarah Barracuda. The nut-right will adore her in defeat.

[villager]

1. Great analogy, but, of course, look at the damage Nixon caused.

n/t

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

2. Fortunately McCain isn't Eisenhower.

[villager]

15. You mean, "Every thinking American" is going to be in the majority this time?

We'll sure find out shortly!

[JeffR]

3. Very perceptive!

Well done.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

16. thanks

:hi:

[denem]

4. No Checkers speech from Palin on Wednesday.

Pitbull with lipstick? Nothing to humanize her, none of the tearjerking sympathy cards I was expecting. The press would love some zingers, but are getting smug silence instead. Dumb.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

5. I was expecting her convention speech to be Checkers II. I was dumb too.

"We have a pregnant daughter named Bristol. The kids love her, and we're going to keep her."

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

6. I grew up hating Richard Nixon as a matter of faith. Palin is in another league.

I watched Nixon's resignation speech at age 17 with my late dad, a union man for 40 years who, though conservative by nature, forged my political identity in 1964 when he told me "Son, any man who works for someone else and votes Republican is a damned fool." He admired Ike because he served in WWII as a civilian mechanic on the Trans-Alaska Highway, because he believed Ike respected every worker and soldier who contributed to victory. And Ike did.

Let us state RMN's resume:

Graduated Whittier College (to this day a fine liberal arts school) in four years on scholarchip
Graduated from Duke Law School, a prestigious institution even back in the 1930s
Served honorably in the United States Navy during WWII
Passed the bar and, by all accounts, conducted himself completely within the rules of legal ethics as a young lawyer
Was elected to Congress
Was elected to the US Senate in a campaign, while it was dishonorable for the time, pales in comparison to anything KKKarl ever ran.
Was by all accounts, a friend of his fellow veteran JFK while both served in Congress and the Senate
Raised a Quaker, which had to give him some shadow of a conscience
Neither of his daughters got knocked up as a teenager; one of whom (Julie) grew into a conscientious and thoughtful woman

Petty, mean, and paranoid, but smart, and would have made a pretty good SOS in another Republican administration

Palin:

Four nondescript colleges in six years
Never came within a mile of serving in the military until her idiot/vandal son was given a choice of the Army or prison
Wannabe ESPN sportscaster who epically failed
Never elected to a federal office
Mayor of a jerkwater town that is the meth capital of Alaska
Governor of a genuinely socialist state (not that that is a bad thing) who kicks the shit out of everyone below her
"Righteously"dismissive of anyone with different beliefs
Adherent of a "Xtian" denomination so insane that she and her fellow congregants should be locked up as a matter of public safety
Unfit to lead anything other than her high school cheerleading squad
Kids are just as dumb as she is. How the hell can any 17 year old with a basic knowledge of human biology get knocked up accidentally?

Petty, mean and paranoid, but dumber than a sack of hammers. Should peak out as Animal Control Commissioner of Bumfuck, Alaska


How low have the Repigs sunk when a Social Democrat atheist like me feels the compulsion to defend Nixon and Reagan.

I am going to have another drink and go to bed. My brain hurts with the cognitive dissonance.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

7. Palin is certainly a flea compared to Nixon, as an individual.

I was thinking of the nature of the ticket and what it representeed within the party more than her personal qualities.

Nixon was a worthy evil adversary. Palin is a reality-show crack-pot.

I only said "probably" without the heft because I don't have enough experience with her to assess that definitively, but from what I've seen she's certainly no Nixon.

I was raised by big-time Nixon haters. When it turned out in the 1990s that Alger Hiss was actually a Soviet agent it was like finding out there was no Santa Claus!

(Had a near death experience when Agnew resigned. I was in the car with my mother and she started clapping when the news came over the radio. I had to reach over and grab the wheel!)

[Hardrada]

8. RMN was also a writer and his books are still of great interest

to historians and biographers. I don't know how much he wrote as VP but later on he did so.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

9. I think SIX CRISES was probably his first book.

I guess that was published late in his second term as VP.

[Hardrada]

10. I've got that one around here somewhere.

I saw a signed copy for sale in a bookstore not long ago. They had a few hundred on it, I believe.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

11. I was wrong. It is his first book, but it's 1962

It includes stuff about the 1960 election, which I don't remember at all!

I guess it was published during his governor's race.

[Hardrada]

13. I should get around to reading it. I was in high school at the time

when that came out. In what I consider the one genuine Golden Age I remember from 1957 to 11/22/63.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

12. Great post, by the way!

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

14. Big thanks!

:hi:!