Frank Rich: The Palin-Whatshisname Ticket

[n2doc]

By FRANK RICH
Published: September 13, 2008
WITH all due deference to lipstick, let’s advance the story. A week ago the question was: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency? The question today: What kind of president would Sarah Palin be?

It’s an urgent matter, because if we’ve learned anything from the G.O.P. convention and its aftermath, it’s that the 2008 edition of John McCain is too weak to serve as America’s chief executive. This unmentionable truth, more than race, is now the real elephant in the room of this election.

No longer able to remember his principles any better than he can distinguish between Sunnis and Shia, McCain stands revealed as a guy who can be easily rolled by anyone who sells him a plan for “victory,” whether in Iraq or in Michigan. A McCain victory on Election Day will usher in a Palin presidency, with McCain serving as a transitional front man, an even weaker Bush to her Cheney.

The ambitious Palin and the ruthless forces she represents know it, too. You can almost see them smacking their lips in anticipation, whether they’re wearing lipstick or not.

This was made clear in the most chilling passage of Palin’s acceptance speech. Aligning herself with “a young farmer and a haberdasher from Missouri” who “followed an unlikely path to the vice presidency,” she read a quote from an unidentified writer who, she claimed, had praised Truman: “We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity.” Then Palin added a snide observation of her own: Such small-town Americans, she said, “run our factories” and “fight our wars” and are “always proud” of their country. As opposed to those lazy, shiftless, unproud Americans — she didn’t have to name names — who are none of the above.

more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/opinion/14rich.html

[madaboutharry]

1. Frank Rich has a way with words.

I trust Obama is going to take these people down.

[FrenchieCat]

2. yep.....McCain is weak alright.....

and I've been calling him a weakass ever since he nominated this fool.

Here are all threads that I started with the McCain is weak mantra!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=6903236

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=6977044

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=6963819

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=6885374

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=7009902

In fact, I called him emasculated too!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=7024905

[rfranklin]

3. Yep! You're a ballbuster, Frenchie...

Even tiny enasculated balls!

[MindMatter]

12. Which points directly to the big contradiction in Rich's column

All of this points to a necessity to take Palin on directly, but in the middle of the article, Rich incongruously goes back to that bizarre notion that Palin is to be ignored. The other 95% of the is all the reasons why she MUST NOT be ignored.

The good news is that McCain has basically destroyed himself with this choice. He has shown horrible judgment and what used to be called "straight talk" is now being seen as a steady stream of lies. His only path to the White House is by riding Palin's coattails. If we can knock her down, that is the end of McCain.

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. I had a black woman that was gonna vote for her today until I talked to her

she was a huge Hillary fan and said "I don't know that much about Obama"
She was shocked after I told her all the crap I had found out, but she gets her news from Fox and CNN.
I was gonna make a separate thread about it but decided not too. It blew my mind that she
would even think about it.


Anyway more toons...... in response to who the enemy is..... we take her out
we take out McCain.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

4. Finally, someone outside of DU states this obvious truth

Palin and the people around her are batshit insane. That one of the fundymentalpatients would stick an icepick in Grampy's ear six months into his "administration" is a given. The "ruthless forces" Rich mentions (c'mon Frank, call them what they are, religiously psychotic) are foaming at the mouth to start a "nukular" armageddon to bring back their insane Rambo Jeebus. A fundy coup to install Palin would be a lead pipe lock to lead to a global holocaust. You know this, Frank. Say it.

And if Grampy is not in the earlier stages of Alzheimer's or senile dementia, I am Julius-effing-Caesar.

[Davis_X_Machina]

5. The would-be president...

..reduced to an opening act for his would-be vice president.

It would be pitiful, if McCain warranted my pity.

[BeyondGeography]

6. That settles it for me: Rich is the best

Nobody writes this well and sees this well at the same time. Case in point: A number of us have noted Palin's penchant for licking her lips. Rich takes this and uses it to illustrate her taste for power and her excitement at seeing the old man's dependency on her. Even if he wins, she'll be president in her mind because he's lost without her, and the prospect is just lip-licking good for Sarahbelle.

Great stuff.

[Kat45]

9. Please don't call her Sarahbelle; it's an insult to DUer SarahBelle.

You may not know her (or know of her) but she's a sweetheart and I'd hate for InsaneSarah to be associated with her in any way. I'm not meaning to insult, just to inform. :-)

[1corona4u]

7. Spot on.

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

8. K and R

Thanks Frank!

[intheflow]

10. Good article! n/t

[Cha]

11. palin overplayed her

finger and her speech writer overplayed his lies laced with toxic insults that reverberated back to this "cunning stunt".