Thinking about Palin--

[Jackpine Radical]

People are wondering if she realizes the extent to which she is being used.

Well, I think probably so. Using, being used--that's the way the world works for someone like Sarah. I'm sure it all feels quite natural to her; she's just been launched into the Big Leagues, but she figures she has the basic skill set to handle it.

People like her (and GWB, for that matter) have no concept of any other way of coping than "fakin' it." Because they have never known anything else, they assume that's the way everyone does it. Image is everything; everyone is a beauty queen. They really have no comprehension of underlying realities; they cannot possibly understand or even imagine the integrity and deep competence of someone like Obama.

The real tragedy is that, in our shallow, media-driven society, this is indeed the way the world works, all too often. That's how Reagan stayed in office, and GWB too. Everything is reduced to sound bites. No idea too complex to fit on a bumper sticker ever makes it into public discourse.

I read excerpts from a transcript of Bush's speech last night. I was impressed by how free it was of ideas, and yet how loaded it was with emotional content. None of what he said was intended to engage the frontal lobes of the audience; it was all addressed directly to the emotional centers. He trotted out all the fear buzzwords in a clear attempt to stampede people into demanding Congress protect them by handing over the ransom money immediately.

Won't it be nice to return to a world in which reason rules again? One in which the collective frontal lobes of America are once again oxygenated and functioning again?

[Captain Hilts]

1. Republicans are team players that will do whatever helps their team. We don't do that.

And never have.

[LonelyLRLiberal]

2. yes - but maybe people are wising up to Palin a bit.

Some of us who can think and others who operate on an emotional level may pick up on her total lack of competence just by the way she is being hidden away from the press.

Did you see that jerk, Joe Scarbrough (sp?) say this morning that she is unqualified and she was selected solely as a political strategy? He was okay with that, too; he pretty much said that didn't bother him. Holy Cow!

[Jackpine Radical]

3. No, I didn't see Scarborough, but his attitude sounds typical

for a Republican. Again, substance is not important. And, for Republican politicians, that is probably correct. All they need is a programmable figurehead whom they can run from behind the scenes, like Reagan and Bush2. Come to think of it, I don't see why they look anywhere but Hollywood for candidates. Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone--surely it couldn't be hard to maneuver characters like that into power. Ahnold, if he were American-born, would have been perfect.

[LonelyLRLiberal]

4. It all just makes me crazy!

I seriously want to leave the US if McCain is elected. I don't know where I would try to go (and probably could not sell my house), but if Americans are that stupid, I don't like the idea of being here to see what new disasters McCain (and a likely President Palin :scared: ) could cook up for us.