Romney 2016: Is the GOP Daft, Demented, or Desperate?

by Sunnyjane

Romney 2012:  I was more liberal than Ted Kennedy!  But later, I was severely conservative!

In a desperate attempt to regain a modicum of political relevancy, Mitt Romney has begun to insert himself into the 2016 Republican mess as its official Elder Statesman.  Since there is, to be sure, a decided leadership void in that party, he may as well give it a go.  At least he won't lose that contest to a black guy, eh?

Officially announced as Mitt Romney's Third Annual Policy Summit and Leadership Retreat, a few of the wannabe-the-candidate crowd went to Utah last weekend to be pimped out to more than three hundred of Mitt's monied pals.  Frankly, I don't understand why the Republican Donor Class is willing to throw their money at this pathetic group of losers -- Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Rob Portman, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, and Susana Martinez -- but maybe they just liked the idea of a three-day picnic paid for by Mitt Romney.  Conspicuously absent was Ted Cruz; perhaps he'll make next year's retreat.  I dunno.

Mitt kicked off the conference with a rousing speech about the lack of leadership in Washington, blah, blah, blah.  So rousing was his speech, in fact, that it immediately prompted Joe Blowhard Scarborough to declare a Draft Romney 2016 movement.  It is particularly odd that MSNBC's Tea Party mouthpiece was even there, given the damning-slamming editorial he wrote for Politico on Romney's, ahem, inadequacies just seven weeks before the 2012 election: Who told Mr. Romney to issue a political broadside against the commander-in-chief the day after a U.S. ambassador was murdered? And who decided that Romney would use his general election campaign to stand for absolutely nothing?  The Wall Street Journal described this ideological listlessness as a “pre-existing decision.”  Scarborough went even further, writing: Laura Ingraham slammed his campaign for its fecklessness. Ingraham argued that if Republicans couldn’t win this year, they should shut the party down.  She's right.  Ouch!  That should have left an indelible mark.

Their host, of course, denied that he had any interest in running for president a third time, but it sounded a bit like Dick Cheney in the Republican 2000 campaign who was put in charge of finding the best running mate for George W.  Of course, he ended up deciding that he was the best man for the vice presidential job.  Let that be a warning, GOP.

Of course, Scarborough was not the only one at the Summit who thought Mitt should run again.  George Schultz, Reagan's secretary of state, said of Romney, I wish we could call him Mr. President!  Jesus.

Other than scoring A+ on his Obama Bashing for Idiots 101 course in the nineteen months since November 2012, Mitt has had no political accomplishments whatsoever.  We are left to assume, therefore, that he obviously did wondrous things during that pathetic campaign that makes Republicans believe he could win in 2016.

The Affordable Care Act, aka, Obamacare

I will repeal and replace Obamacare on Day One of my presidency!

Fortunately for fourteen million Americans, Day One for Mitt Romney never came to pass.  The number of people enrolling in the ACA grows every day.

In addition, insurance companies who initially declined to participate are clamoring to jump in for their piece of the pie.  This is great news, as it enlarges the free-market thingy that conservatives are always running on about, and it will continue to bring down the cost of premiums.  Uninsured rates are falling in many states, and at California State University campuses, the uninsured students rate dropped by over sixty percent.  Remember, the GOP meme was that young people would not sign up for the President's signature healthcare act.  Heh.

Obamacare has also finished Mitt's work for him in Massachusetts, where the uninsured rate in that state is nearly at zero.

Wrong on Obamacare, Mitt.  Ya gonna repeal it on Day One, 2017?  Good luck with that.

Romney's Complete Geopolitical Failure

Everyone in the GOP seems to have a remarkably negative sense of geopolitics.  In 2008, John McCain made reference to the Iraq-Pakistan border.  Well, no, John; there's 750 miles between Iraq and Pakistan.  Then he responded to a question on whether he would meet with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, I have a clear record of working with leaders in the hemisphere that are friends with us, and standing up to those who are not.  And that's judged on the basis of the importance of our relationship with Latin America and the entire region.  Um, Zapatero was the prime minister of Spain at the time. 

So along comes 2012, and Mitt warned that Syria is Iran's route to the sea, as if Iran were a landlocked country.  Actually, they have over a thousand miles of coastline, and there's that little blob called Iraq between the two countries.  And militarily speaking, when Mitt whined in the last debate that our Navy was smaller than it was in 1917, President Obama had to school him on the fact that we no longer had to use bayonets and horses, that today we had aircraft carriers and submarines.

And we all know how disastrous Mitt's A Fool's Trip Abroad was; he came back not upbeat, but beat up.  And everybody knew it.

McCain and Romney sound almost as goofy as Sarah Palin, who thought we should bomb the country of Islam for being so, you know, Islamic.  (OK, I made that up, but it could have happened.)     

Reducing the Deficit, Romney Style

The only thing you have to know about this subject is that Romney actually thought he could reduce the deficit by killing Big Bird cutting funding for PBS.  

Derp.

END NOTE

November 29, 2012: No, Mitt, you may NOT sit at my desk.  Good-bye, now.

The GOP's Only Viable 2016 Presidential Candidate: Ben Ghazi

by Sunnyjane

Americans are able to detect the most subtle forms of Democrat-electaphobia.

Because George W. Bush's two terms were so successful -- and Barack Obama has been a disaster for the country -- the Republican Tea Party is anxious to put a shiny new further-right creep in the White House.  There are plenty of contenders for this assignment, of course; so many that, like 2012, they're stumbling over themselves already.  Thirty months before the general election, there are, by the most conservative count, four governors, four senators, and at least one representative -- their esteemed failed 2012 vice-presidential candidate -- who wish to wear the mantle of President of the United States. 

They're pretty sure they know who the Democratic candidate will be: Hillary Clinton.  If they can get rid of her with Benghazi, and impeach President Obama at the same time, there will be new Batmobiles for all, and the Koch brothers will have a standing invitation to all White House events.

Let's face it, they've got nothing else to let loose on the Democrats.  The economy is improving, the jobless rate is looking much better, the deficit is going down, the stock market has made a dramatic recovery, and Obamacare is kicking ass.  And not one of their supposed Obama Scandals has gained an iota of traction.  So, let's hound BENGHAZI to death!

A New Truth-Virgin for Eighth Benghazi Hearing

Hey man, just a bit of advice: the Daffy Duck look isn't working for you.

Since Darrell Issa failed miserably in his umpteen Benghazi hearings on this issue, John Boehner brought in new, um, talent.  Trey Gowdy, who once called Nancy Pelosi mind-numbingly stupid for suggesting that the GOP was going after Eric Holder in order to advance their voter suppression tactics, is now taking the lead on getting the truth, by God, about who did what in an under-secured U.S. consulate in Libya.  Gowdy has already shown his hand on this by referring to the hearings as a trial where, obviously, he's the prosecutor and the Obama administration is the defendant: If an administration is slow-walking document production, I can’t end a trial simply because the defense won’t cooperate.  I guess Boehner didn't explain to him what a hearing actually is. 

The GOPers' rationale for this new Select Committee on Benghazi is that all the questions have not been answered.  Well, actually they have; not getting the responses you so badly desire doesn't mean the questions haven't been answered. All told, there have been five different congressional reports; seven different congressional investigations; eight different subpoenas  issued; thirteen hearings; twenty-five transcribed interviews conducted; fifty different briefings for staff and members; twenty-five thousand pages of documents produced by the administration; and one partridge in a pear tree.  Believe it or not, even Chuck Todd is saying that it's pretty ridiculous of the House to indulge themselves in this show:  It’s like investigating who cut down one tree in a forest that’s been burned down. 

Gowdy has stacked the committee with seven Republicans and only five Democrats, so it's hardly what one could call bipartisan.  In fact, Nancy Pelosi hasn't yet decided whether her party will even participate; it ends up being a situation where House Democrats are now caught between a rock and a hard place. 

Of course, this is nothing but a Republican Tea Party fundraising exercise, about which the White House is royally pissed.  Why?  Well, you might remember the 2012 squawking from the right on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's demise, during which the GOP accused the Obama campaign of politicizing the anniversary.  Oh, the hypocrisy.

You Want a Scandal?  Take...Your...Pick

 Could you tell us again where those WMDs in Iraq got to?

And speaking of Crazy Uncles...

Let's do a semi-oranges-to-oranges comparison here.  In 2006, four Americans, including diplomat David Foy, were killed at the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.  This consulate had been attacked three times, and it is believed that Foy was the main target: his car was blown to smithereens by a bomb so devastating that the explosion left a huge crater and ten cars parked nearby were also destroyed.  The outcome?  No hearings, no outrage.  And who was the Secretary of State at the time?  Condoleezza Rice.

During her Senate confirmation hearings to become Secretary of State in 2005, Ms. Condi was grilled hard by Democrats who questioned her role in spreading the false intelligence that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction.  John McCain was livid and said, in part, We can disagree on policy and we disagree on a lot of things, but I think it is very clear that Condoleezza Rice is a person of integrity. 
 
So, the Benghazi Consulate was attacked on September 11, 2012, and what happened?  All hell broke loose on the GOP side of the aisle.  Using the only information she had at the time, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice explained on all the following Sunday morning shows what had occurred.  After it was learned this her information was not correct, John McCain raged that Rice was guilty of, at a minimum, not being very bright, and was certainly unfit to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

How many Transfer of Remains ceremonies did President George Bush participate in when the caskets carrying sixty Americans arrived on U.S. soil during his two terms?  ZILCH.  ZERO.  How many did his Secretary(s) of State attend?  DITTO.

President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton at Transfer of Remains Ceremony, September 2012

And so it continues, because they've got nothing else.  Well, if they intend to take on Hillary Clinton again, they'd better be very careful; they'll have to face her during debates leading up to the 2016 election.   We can be sure that Ms. Clinton will, um, remind them that she warned against budget cuts and the effect they would have on safety and security at American embassies and consulates around the world.  Adding insult to injury, the GOP budget gurus have cut another $400 million from the 2014 budget.  Why?  Because Paul Ryan, Darrell Issa, Jason Chaffetz, and other house republicans consider Embassy Security as a non-defense discretionary spending item that isn’t really necessary.

End Note

 

Funny quotes and fascinating revelations about Sarah Palin in Gabriel Sherman's new book about Roger Ailes: Producers at Fox News called Sarah Palin "The Bitch" and Todd Palin "The Eskimo", Roger Ailes said that Sarah Palin "couldn't get elected to anything", believes that she is an "idiot"

By Patrick & Kathleen

Gabriel Sherman's new book "The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News - and Divided a Country" has been highly praised by many reviewers, and rightly so: Never before have we seen a book which so convincingly provides a detailed account of the rise of the right-wing propaganda machine, a network called "Fox News." At the centre of this organization stands Roger Ailes, who was hired by Rupert Murdoch to create the network in 1996 and has been the boss of Fox News ever since. His personality is carefully explored in Gabriel Sherman's book, and it is fascinating to discover how this man achieved his aims by determination, hard work, bullying, smears, threats and manipulation.

However, this book by Gabriel Sherman is much more than a just biography about Roger Ailes. It provides comprehensive background information about the history of Fox News, of other media personalities who became famous through Fox News, and about the people who pull strings in the background, for example Karl Rove and the right-wing billionaires like the Koch Brothers. Ultimately, the subject matter is also the GOP itself - with Fox News as its very own "media wing."

The book is extremely carefully sourced and documented. Gabriel Sherman uses more than 100 pages just for notes about his sources. This is something we would have liked to see in previous books about various other political topics as well. Such extensive documentation significantly increases the credibility of any book which deals with controversial subjects.

Gabriel Sherman's writing is excellent. In our opinion his book provides much higher quality information than for example a successful book like "Game Change."

Among the many incredibly interesting facts which are revealed in Sherman's book is also the rather surprising revelation that Roger Ailes himself was at some point an "anonymous blogger" - he secretly was the mastermind behind a mysterious blog called "The Cable Game" in which enemies of Fox News were being attacked.

From the reviews of Gabriel Sherman's book - "The Globe and Mail" wrote:

Remarkably, The Loudest Voice In The Room doesn’t resort to this same level of cynicism. It’s not the nastiest book about Ailes – that’d be 2012’s The Fox Effect, by David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt of media watchdog Media Matters. But Sherman’s book distinguishes itself in its diligent characterization of Ailes as something more than just some political P.T. Barnum.

Despite the book’s backhandedly praiseful subtitle and constant references to its subject’s “bluster,” Sherman develops an image of Ailes as something more than a showman. Scarier, and more importantly, The Loudest Voice in the Room posits Ailes as a real-deal ideologue: someone who actually believes all the stuff Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck (“Fox News’s id made visible”) spout on his network. (Or most of it, anyway.) This is a man who called the president of Fox-owned cable channel FX and told him not to air a movie about the Pentagon Papers because “It’s bad for America.”

From "SFGate":

By the 1980s, though, Ailes had settled into the role of "the most successful political consultant of his generation," Sherman writes. "Between 1980 and 1986, Ailes propelled thirteen GOP senators and eight congressmen into office." In dealing with clients, his counsel was wide-ranging and often very specific. Ailes, Sherman writes, had particular concerns about George H.W. Bush's clothes, telling the presidential candidate, "Don't ever wear that shirt again! You look like a f- clerk!"

Ailes has presided over Fox News since its inception in 1996. The Clinton-Lewinsky saga, the 2000 court fight over hanging chads and butterfly ballots, the rise of the Tea Party - Sherman carefully chronicles the network's role in shaping these and other developments, but inevitably some of this material reads like a rehash.

On the other hand, his behind-the-scenes anecdotes are enlightening and entertaining. Sherman's Ailes is a gifted media operator who's alternately menacing, catty and suspicious.

One episode concerns a Wall Street Journal staffer who wrote a story that angered Ailes. When they subsequently met at a social function, Sherman reports, Ailes threatened her: "You've had your chance. ... Now I have the rest of my life to get back at you."

Interesting insights are also provided by the review of the book in "The New York Times".

The book provides a lot of facts which are rather alarming, as it is quite terrifying to see how efficiently the American public is being manipulated by Fox News on a daily basis. However, the book also raises an interesting question: Has Roger Ailes and Fox News actually done more harm than good for the Republicans? Before Fox News had been created, when there was only the "mainstream media", Republican candidates were far more successful in presidential elections than they are today.

It is very possible that Fox News, while successfully preaching to the base, was also unwillingly quite successful in driving people away from the Republican Party. More and more US citizens realize that they are being manipulated, and citizens also witness on a daily basis how the GOP becomes more and more extreme - a development which again was supported by Fox News by giving a voice to characters from the "fringe" like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and of course Sarah Palin.

Therefore, let's turn our attention to Sarah Palin, whose rise and fall we have watched so closely over the years. Today, Sarah Palin does not get much air time on Fox News any longer, and when she does, "accidents" can easily happen, like her crazed and widely ridiculed word-salad on Megyn Kelly's show from October 2013. The quitter from Alaska also gets quite a lot of attention in Gabriel Sherman's well-researched book. Sherman also benefited from the fact that he already published a major expose about Sarah Palin in April 2010 in "New York Magazine", with the headline "The Revolution Will Be Commercialized - Sarah Palin is already president of right-wing America—and it’s a position with a very big salary" (click HERE for the full PDF-version of the original print article in "New York Magazine").

However, times have changed. Today Sarah Palin surely isn't the "president of right-wing America" any more. These days, her publicity stunts and her trademark moronic remarks and word-salads only continue to damage the GOP, a party which so badly wants to get rid of "stupid party" label.

The new revelations in Sherman's book about Sarah Palin reveal just why the ex-Governor ultimately became a liability - and why she joined Fox News in the first place.

First, the most hilarious revelation. It will come as no surprise to anyone who followed the career of Sarah and her business associate/husband Todd closely, that some producers at Fox News created their very own nicknames for the illustrious couple from Alaska: "The Bitch" and "The Eskimo".

Excerpt from pages 342 and 343:

In the control room, the Palins entertained producers with their private reality show. Fox staffers, chuckled watching Sarah and husband Todd on the video link Fox had installed in her Wasilla office. “On the internal feed you see everything. Someone should tell her that. Todd does the camerawork. She barks at him big time. ‘Todd, what are you doing!’. It’s embarrassing,” one person explained. Fox producers came up with names for their characters: “The Bitch” and “The Eskimo”.

A very interesting new revelation is also the fact that Sarah Palin rejected the idea to appear in front of a live-audience. Again, not too surprising for anyone who followed the career of the mentally ill, bipolar Sarah Palin, who has the constant need to control the potentially hostile environment around her.

Excerpt from page 342:

Fox was on track to generate a billion dollar profit. (...) But Ailes's biggest stars - Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin - were burning hot – too hot – which posed new problems.

(...)

Palin also ruffled Fox executives’ feathers. In the winter of 2010, tensions between Palin’s camp and Fox arose over a prime-time special that the network wanted her to star in. Nancy Duffy, a senior Fox producer wanted Palin to host the show in front of a live studio audience. Duffy hoped to call the programme Sarah Palin’s Real American Stories. Palin hated the idea. She complained to her advisors that she didn’t want to be a talk show host. She wanted to just do voice overs. More important, she didn’t want Fox to promote her name in the title of the program. Not that it mattered: Palin’s ratings were starting to disappoint Ailes anyway. Fox did not schedule any additional specials.

Already quite well-know from other reports is the reason why Roger Ailes started to distance himself from Sarah Palin - the infamous "blood-libel" response which she published against his advice - from page 343:

Ailes began to doubt Palin’s political instincts. He thought that she was getting bad advice from her kitchen cabinet and saw her erratic behaviour as signs that she was a “loose cannon.” A turning point in their relationship came in the midst of the national debate over the Tucson shooting massacre.

(...)

Palin ignored Ailes's advice and went ahead and released her controversial "blood libel" video the morning Obama traveled to Tucson. For Ailes, her decision was further evidence that she was flailing around off-message. "Why did you call me for advice?" he wondered aloud to colleagues. "He thinks Palin is an idiot", a Republican close to Ailes said. "He thinks she's stupid. He helped boost her up. People like Sarah Palin haven't elevated the conservative movement."

Gabriel Sherman's book also provides a very detailed description how Sarah Palin and Fox News got in touch in the first place - and confirms that Greta Van Susteren's husband John Coale was instrumental in kick-starting Palin's "post-2008-election" career.

From pages 340 and 341:

For Sarah Palin, the months since Election Day had been a letdown even bigger let down than the loss to Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Being governor, she found, was drudgery compared to her media stardom. “Her life was terrible” one advisor said. “She was never home, her (Juneau) office was four hours from her home. You gotta drive an hour from Wasilla to Anchorage. And she was going broke.“ Her sky high approval rating in Alaska – which had topped 80 per cent before McCain picked her – had withered to the low 50s. She faced a hostile legislature, a barrage of ethics complaints, and frothing local bloggers who reveled in her misfortune. All this for a salary of only $125,000? The worst was that she had racked up $500,000 in legal bills to fend off allegations that she had dismissed Alaska’s public safety commissioner because he refused to fire a state trooper who was her ex-brother-in-law. She needed money and worried about it constantly.

Partly because her embarrassing campaign interview with Katie Couric, and partly because of her outlandish family life and moose shooting habits, Palin was a massive American celebrity. In November 2008, John Coale, tagged along with his wife, Greta Van Susteren, on a trip to Alaska to tape an interview with Palin for Fox News. Later, the Fox camera crew, Van Susteren, and Coale, gathered around the Palin’s kitchen table for some moose chili. After dinner Coale and Palin retreated to the pantry and sat on stacks of boxes and talked for the next hour about her Troopergate dilemma. Palin confessed that she didn’t know what to do about her legal bills. Coale assured Palin he would figure something out.

Whatever one thought of her intelligence she was more than shrewd enough to see that there was money to be made from her newfound national profile, and she hadn’t been the one making it. Planning quickly got under way for a book. Conservative pundit Mary Matlin introduced Palin to Washington superlawyer Robert Barnett, who helped Palin land a reported $7 million book contract with HarperCollins. Two former Palin campaign aides were hired to plan a book tour with all the trappings of a national political campaign. But there was a hitch: with Alaska’s strict ethics rules, Palin worried that her day job would get in the way. In March, she petitioned the Alaska attorney general’s office, which responded with a lengthy list of conditions. “There was no way she could go on a book tour while being Governor,” is how one member of her Alaska staff put it.

On the morning of July 3rd, 2009, in front of a throng of national reporters, Palin announced that she was stepping down as governor. To many, it seemed a mysterious move, defying the logic of a potential presidential candidate, and possibly reflecting some hidden scandal – but in fact the choice may have been as simple as balancing a checkbook.

Once she resigned from the governorship in July, the race was on to sign her up on television. Producers had already put out feelers. Weeks after the 2008 election, Mark Burnett, the creator of Survivor, called Palin and pitched her on starring in her own show. Then, in September 2009, Ailes arranged for Palin to fly on a private jet when she needed to travel between San Diego and New York to meet with her editors at HarperCollins. During the visit, Murdoch met Palin at a charity dinner hosted by his wife, Wendi, at Cipriani 42nd street, and that only increased the network appetite. Ailes deputized Bill Shine to land her.

Negotiations dragged out over the next six months. Palin made it clear to fox that she wouldn’t be willing to move to New York or to Washington. Fox offered to build a remote camera hookup in her Wasilla home. Palin also told Fox that she didn’t want producers hounding her for interviews. She wanted all her interviews to have to go through Shine personally. In January, 2010, Palin finally had her $1 million-a-year deal. Shine was responsible for making sure that the various Fox personalities got equal booking time, to maximise her ratings appeal across the network. “Obviously there needs to be a sense of fairness” Shine explained.

Karl Rove, who is no fool, soon realized that a person like Sarah Palin doesn't help the Republicans. From page 343:

"Why are you letting Palin have the profile?" Karl Rove said to Ailes in one meeting. "Why are you letting her go on your network and say the things she's saying? And Glenn Beck? These are alternative people who will never be elected, and they'll kill us."

Another interesting revelation is the fact that Shushanna Walshe, in 2008 a young producer at Fox News, was sidelined by Roger Ailes after the criticized the Palin-team during the 2008 campaign. From pages 324 and 325:

On September 3, a day after confronting Murdoch, Ailes, watching the Republican convention, was riveted by the appearance of an exotic political creature, Sarah Palin. “She hit a home run,” he told executives the next day. Her gleeful establishment bashing made her a perfect heroine for a new Ailes story line – and Fox’s ratings soared to a cable news record. During Palin’s speech, Fox attracted more than nine million viewers, eclipsing every other news network, cable or broadcast. “At least people care now,” Ailes told his team.

He was intensely interested in the Alaska governor. Palin had some how managed to graft the old western myth of the self-reliant frontiersman onto a beauty pageant face and a counterpunching, don’t tread on me verbal style – a new kind of character, and a remarkably compelling one. A few weeks after her convention speech, Ailes secretly met with Palin during her swing through New York, when she toured the U.N. and had a photo op with Henry Kissinger. That afternoon, Shushannah Walshe, a young Fox producer who was covering Palin's campaign for the network, had gone on-air and criticized McCain's staff, which had prevented reporters from asking Palin questions during her U.N. visit. “There's not one chance that Governor Palin would have to answer a question,” Walshe said on camera. “They're eliminating even the chance of any kind of interaction with the candidate – its just unprecedented.”

Ailes didn't know Walshe, but he was angry when he heard her comments. Liberal media outlets like The Huffington Post were using her words to make it appear that Fox was turning on Palin. He called Suzanne Scott and demanded Walshe be taken off the air. “It's not fair-and-balanced coverage,” an executive later told Walshe. Walshe was allowed to continue covering Palin but was barred from future on-camera appearances. She soon left Fox.

Shushannah Walshe afterwards wrote her own book about Sarah Palin's campaign, titled "Sarah from Alaska."

Finally, quite unexpectedly, in the "Note on Sources" at the end of his book, Gabriel Sherman has another revelation which Sarah Palin and her fans surely won't appreciate very much. On page 404 of his book, Sherman reports about a personal meeting with Roger Ailes, an encounter from April 11, 2012, which took place during a party hosted by The Hollywood Reporter at a restaurant in Manhattan.

Gabriel Sherman quotes from a verbal exchange between him and Roger Ailes which happened during this evening, an exchange which can hardly be disputed by anyone, because as Gabriel Sherman explains, CBS president David Rhodes was present and also took part in this conversation.

Gabriel Sherman writes:

Rhodes's stab at humour did not lift Ailes's mood. Ailes took a step back. It was unclear now who he was addressing. "Let's look at this for a minute: Sarah Palin? She couldn't get elected to anything. Huckabee? He says to me, 'I couldn't raise a nickel.' Santorum? When we hired him, no one, I mean no one, knew who this guy was. And Gingrich has been working here for a long time. So the idea that I'm somehow propping up these candidates is just absurd."

Yes, that's very true. Sarah Palin couldn't get elected to anything indeed. That's why she hasn't been elected to anything since 2006, and why her career now mainly revolves around a pre-taped TV-show at a third rate sports channel. Apart from that, she continues to damage the GOP-brand through public appearances like her upcoming speech at CPAC 2014. Which suits us just fine. Sarah Palin once was a serious political contender, which is almost hard to believe, but due to her own blunders, she has been reduced to a running joke.

Gabriel Sherman's book surely will play a role in how Sarah Palin will be remembered in the future, but other chapters of "Palin history" still have to be written. But there's a lot time left for this - and time does not favour Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin tries to rewrite history, claims she was "banned" from talking about Bill Ayers - The truth: She and John McCain continued to talk about Barack Obama's supposed "association" to Bill Ayers right to the end of the 2008 campaign

The 2008 presidential campaign: Simply unforgettable

By Patrick

"Facts" have never been Sarah Palin's strong point as they tend to collide with Sarah's version of reality. This became apparent during the infamous "2008 McCain/Palin campaign", when millions of voters were severely turned off by Sarah's arrogance, her ignorance as well as her inability to acknowledge facts. Her unwillingness to accept facts for example caused massive infighting within the McCain/Palin campaign when Sarah denied the undeniable: That Todd was a registered member of the secessionist, anti-American Alaska Independence Party (AIP) from 1995 to 2002.

It is hard for Sarah Palin to let go. It seems virtually impossible for her. The 2008 campaign seems to have been the defining moment of her life. She is the victim. She has to set the record straight. She should have won, not that black man. Because the victory was taken from her, in her view unfairly, she still has to be regarded as "undefeated."

We had the "pleasure" to receive insights into Sarah Palin's muddled mind over and over again, during the years that followed after her fateful campaign in 2008. The recent interview on Fox News with Greta Van Susteren is now another insight into the mind of a woman who is only concerned about herself, and who desperately wants reality to fit her own version of events, the version she needs to justify the claim that she is a victim. Unfortunately for Sarah, it does not work.

In the interview with Greta on Friday night, Sarah Palin claimed that she had been "banned" by the McCain campaign from talking about Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright. Apparently Sarah truly believes that her 2008 trainwreck campaign could have been salvaged if she only had been talking more about Obama's "associations."

Watch:



The problem with Sarah Palin's version of events is this: In reality Sarah Palin repeatedly talked Bill Ayers right up until the end of the campaign, and in doing so had the approval of John McCain, as can easily be proven from video clips from 2008. Not that this would stop Sarah Palin to create her own version of reality, of course.

One of the most striking clips in this respect is an interview that Palin and McCain together gave to Sean Hannity on Fox News, the day after the vice-presidential debate. Here Sarah Palin again talks extensively about Bill Ayers, as she had done numerous times during the campaign, and John McCain during the interview with Hannity fully supports her, and actually says in the interview that "this needs to be talked about more" and "needs to be vetted out."

Watch:

A short while later in October 2008, John McCain appeared on Letterman and he again discusses with Letterman Palin's claim that Obama "pals around with terrorists", and John McCain seems to be very happy to talk about Bill Ayers. Letterman then confronts John McCain with his own connection to convicted Watergate-burglar, Nixon's "plumber" and extreme right-winger Gordon Liddy, which makes John McCain wonderfully uncomfortable for a moment. A real highlight of the 2008 campaign in my opinion.

Watch:

There are a number videos of Sarah Palin available in which she talks about Bill Ayers during the 2008 campaign, they all can be found with a simple youtube-search.

One of the most infamous clips is this one, in which Palin claims that Barack Obama is "paling around with terrorists", and says about Obama: "This is not a man who sees America as you and I see America."

Well, Sarah, the voters heard you. As a result, they rejected you. Get over it.

While watching videos from the 2008 campaign, it is amazing to see yet again how incredibly arrogant Sarah Palin came across back then. It is more than apparent that she felt far superior to the black man they were running against, and therefore it should probably come as no surprise that Sarah Palin is unable to cope with her "trauma." Her lack of self-awareness and her disconnect from reality is staggering. She truly is insane.

Furthermore, Sarah Palin also has no business lecturing anyone about his or her "associations." She herself just recently proved that she is not picky regarding who she is dealing with, when she was a keynote speaker for the "Faith and Freedom Coalition." This group was founded in 2009 by disgraced "Christian" leader Ralph E. Reed, who several years ago scammed an Indian tribe with convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, accepting millions of dollars for his "services." It was like a little miracle that Reed himself escaped prosecution. Sarah Palin was of course very happy to accept her usual hefty speaking fee from Reed, and also gave him a personal interview, in which she praised his group.

But most importantly for Sarah, (some) people are now talking about Bill Ayers again. Revenge is sweet, isn't it. SHE should have won this election! God wanted HER to be the winner!

As far as Palin's eternal "lust for revenge" is concerned, I often have to come back to the stunningly accurate and frank article by Alaska Conservative Dan Fagan, who in 2009 explained what really drives the crazy mind of Sarah Palin:

Yes I do believe Sarah Palin has a dark soul. A soul obsessed with her image. A soul focused on hurting others. Sarah Palin’s book reveals her as someone unwilling, unable, incapable of living a life of forgiveness. She is a grudge carrier. Settling scores drive her and she is hell bent on revenge, payback, getting even. (...)

She has no self-control when it comes to letting things go. She must settle the score. She must. She Will! Revenge has become the work and calling of her life. Maybe it always has been. It’s clearly what drives her now. Her cutthroat attacks on others will be her downfall. Her inability to control her desire to hurt those who hurt her will end up in the end discrediting her as a leader, as a person.

Wise words. Sarah Palin will never stop in her quest to become the eternal victim, ever. After all, she is "undefeated."

+++

UPDATE:

I even found another clip of Sarah Palin talking together with John McCain about Bill Ayers, this time together in an interview on NBC, from October 23, 2008!

The selective memory of Sarah Palin just is beyond belief.

Watch:

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UPDATE 2:

Why do I even bother with this mentally insane woman, who doesn't need a TV-contract, but a very, very good psychiatrist?

Believe it or not, but the McCain/Palin campaign even created a TV-advert about the supposed Obama-Bill Ayers connection!

Watch:

+++

UPDATE 3: 

Just because we have so much fun today, here is the full McCain-campaign advert about Bill Ayers, which is still available on his youtube-channel:

Oh the irony: Senator John McCain says that Susan Rice is "not qualified" to become the next US Secretary of State, and receives a forceful reply by an angry President Obama - BONUS: A "Spiegel" cover picture you surely will like!

By Patrick

After the election is before the election, and the first voices of the shellshocked Republicans start to emerge again. Well, they could not be quiet forever, could they, those funny Republicans!

Senator John McCain got himself back in the spotlight while trying to make a stand against the possible nomination of Susan Rice for US Secretary of State - and proves that he has no sense for irony whatsoever. Susan Rice is supremely qualified for the position of US Secretary of State, as we already discussed in the comments of the previous post - excerpt from Wikipedia:

Rice was born in Washington, D.C. to Emmett J. Rice (1919–2011), Cornell University economics professor and the second black governor of the Federal Reserve System[2] and education policy scholar Lois Dickson Fitt, currently at the Brookings Institution. Her parents divorced during her youth. Her brother, John Rice, received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and is the founder of Management Leadership for Tomorrow, an organization which develops top minority talent for leadership roles in the business and non-profit sector. She is not related to Condoleezza Rice.

Rice was a three-sport athlete, student council president, and valedictorian at National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C., a private day girls' school. She played point guard in basketball and directed the offense, acquiring the nickname "Spo", short for "Sportin'".

Rice said that her parents taught her to "never use race as an excuse or advantage", and as a young girl she "dreamed of becoming the first U.S. Senator from the District of Columbia". She also held "lingering fears" that her accomplishments would be diminished by people who attributed them to affirmative action. After her father's death in 2011, she said, “He believed segregation had constrained him from being all he could be. The psychological hangover of that took him decades to overcome. His most fervent wish was that we not have that psychological baggage.”

Rice attended Stanford University, where she received a Truman Scholarship, and graduated with a B.A. in history in 1986. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, Rice attended New College, Oxford, where she earned a M.Phil. in 1988 and D.Phil. in 1990. The Chatham House-British International Studies Association honored her dissertation titled "Commonwealth Initiative in Zimbabwe, 1979-1980: Implication for International Peacekeeping" as the UK's most distinguished in international relations.

In addition, she had various roles within the Clinton administration and currently serves as the US Ambassador to the United Nations.

But the old maverick John McCain tries to shoot from hip and declares that Susan Rice is "not qualified":

The "Democratic Underground" gave the appropriate reply to John McCain:

Yes, that's John McCain with Sarah Palin - whose name became a synonym for a "hopelessly dumb politician."

President Barack Obama was not happy about John McCain's remarks. You could even say that became very angry, and minced no words in his forceful reply to John McCain:

My impression is that the "new Barack Obama" will be much tougher than the "old" one.

After all, America's patience with the obstructive, irrational and plainly dumb Republicans has run out.

My prediction is that Susan Rice will become the next Secretary of State.

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BONUS:

Recently I reported about a rather depressing cover story by the German magazine "Der Spiegel" about the "decline" of America. This week also has a rather interesting cover story - and I am sure you will like this cover much better:

"Charisma - The Secret of the Special Aura"

Inside, there is a great picture of Michelle Obama:

"The Fire From Within

Barack Obama found it again, Angela Merkel will probably never have it: Charisma, the power to move others, to form our world and not only to administer it. Can the magic be learned? By Matthias Matussek"

So Barack and Michelle Obama will be able to "radiate" for four more years - good news for America!

And somebody really should explain to John McCain the meaning of the word "irony!"

+++

UPDATE:

Already an update! It turns out that there is somebody else who does not know irony: Sarah Palin, arguably the most unbearable woman in America. She and John McCain should get together again - I think they really have something in common.

Sarah, the clueless housewife from Alaska, just released the following statement on facebook:

Who is running our country? We've got a CIA Director sharing security info with his mistress using an unsecure gmail account. We've got the delusional Susan Rice blaming the death of an ambassador on a Youtube video. We've got Iran firing on one of our drones a week before the election. We've got the White House either ignorant of or covering up all of this. Who is minding the store? Everywhere we look we see the rank incompetence or corruption of the people who are supposedly running our country and our major institutions. Let's hope that responsible reporters at Obama's press conference today ask the right questions Americans deserve answers to.

Here's my question for the president: As our nation's chief executive you claim to be unaware of the most important and tragic situations we're facing; so, as a former chief executive, I'd like to know how long it takes for your staff to tell you things like: "Sir, your CIA Director is under investigation"?

- Sarah Palin

"We've got a CIA Director sharing security info with his mistress using an unsecure gmail account."

Says the woman who "routinely" used private email accounts, especially several yahoo email accounts, for state business while being Governor of Alaska.

See also here, here and here.

Oh the irony!

Why did the Republicans lose the election again...?

Countdown to Election 2012: Week Eight in Review

By Sunnyjane

The left-wing media is taking Obama's side again!
What? It's not just the left-wing media?   Oh.

Mitt Romney should be thankful for the Affordable Healthcare Act because his pre-existing condition -- Stupidity -- will be covered.  No, there is no cure for that ailment as yet, but affected persons are advised an extended treatment of Sit Down and Shut Up.  Unfortunately, this advice is rarely taken by former governors and all other Republicans running for high national office.  As Albert Einstein said, The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

A no-morning-after-bounce convention where the American electorate and the media only remember Chris Christie announcing his 2016 presidential run and a has-been actor debating an empty chair, combined with President Obama's twelve-point lead in the polls on foreign policy, have made the Republicans  desperate to counteract the President's remark that Romney might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can’t visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally.   An international crisis would have been just the thing to demonstrate Mitt's global statesmanship, severely solidify his  geopolitical expertise, and ridicule President Obama's leadership capabilities. It is significant to note that less than twenty-four hours before the situation in Libya exploded, a Romney campaign spokesman had mocked the Democratic campaign, calling foreign policy issues a distraction: It doesn't surprise me that they're raising foreign policy because it's another distraction from the Administration's terrible economic record.  They're going from one shiny object to the next.   

The Smirk Jerk: An Inept Political Opportunist

Mitt Romney, with nothing but a clumsy propensity to shoot from the lip, an imaginary grasp of the intricacies of foreign relations issues, and a fanatical desire to grab our turn in the White House, simply flubbed his rub on the magic genie bottle. Such is the fate of rank amateurs and out-of-touch businessmen with all the political savvy of a  crab cake. 

A brief review of Mitt Romney's geopolitical astuteness consists of three other recent campaign bumblings:  

1.  In March, he called Russia our Number One geopolitical foe and doubled down on that theme during the Republican National Convention. Guess he's never heard of al-Qaeda, eh?

2.  In June, he warned that Syria is Iran's route to the sea.  Wellll...no.  Mitt obviously doesn't understand that Iran and Syria are not only separated by Iraq, but that Iran has two routes to the sea, the Caspian to the north and that big ole Persian Gulf thingy to the south.  Get a map and read some history, Mitt.  Or better yet, get out of U.S. politics altogether.  

3.  In July, Mitt took a little trip to Europe and the Middle East, which his campaign felt was   very successful.   If being called devoid of charm, warmth, humour or sincerity  is what Romney's people refer to as very successful, it would be absolutely frightening to know what they would call a complete disaster.

Perhaps Romney was a bit chafed when Laura Ingraham blasted him for the ineptitude of his   campaign consultants and advisers: Election after election, we hire people who have lost previous campaigns; who've run campaigns that have failed...You have one shot, man. This is going to be the first line of your obituary: you won or you lost. It's all on the line for the country, and it's all on the line for you.

Whatever the reasoning for redeeming his Carpe diem coupon by responding too quickly to the volatile situation in Libya about which he knew absolutely nothing, Romney and his staff chose the wrong time, the wrong circumstance, and the wrong president to mess about with.

Mitt Romney can be easily summed up by comparing him to a computer without software:  a dumb box taking up valuable space. 

Paul Ryan Goes Rogue

I'm pullin' a Palin on ya, Mitt.  Good luck 
with that Libya shit you just stepped in.

Throughout recent history, Republican presidential candidates have  had a propensity for choosing the dumbest nominees for the Number Two spot on their ticket.  Remember Spiro Agnew?  Dan Quayle? John McCain started a new trend in 2008 when he selected not only the dumbest and most unqualified person in the GOP as a running mate, but the most disloyal.  And so did Mitt Romney.

Where was Paul Ryan when the media, the Democrats, and most of the Republican party were bashing Mitt upside the head last week?  Such was the well deserved clamor surrounding the top of the ticket that the deafening sound of silence from Number Two hardly registered a ping on the media's radar screen.  So it's up to Politicalgates to ask: Where was the passionate defense of Mitt Romney?  Where was the campaign's well coordinated message with which Ryan could crisscross the country to counter these attacks at well staged GOP rallies?  Where were the strongly worded talking points to refute the criticism that was being heaped upon Romney?

With the campaign in tatters and fewer than fifty-six days left to get their right-wing message out to the American electorate, Paul Ryan was hunkered down in Wisconsin's 1st District, trying to save his ass congressional seat by using two million dollars of his campaign funds to buy ads that will only be shown in Wisconsin.  It appears that he has glommed on to the fact that he probably will not be able to demonstrate his questionable running skills by taking a victory lap around Washington on November 7.

Speaking to his constituents in coffee shops and other small venues, Ryan merely repeats the tired old Tea Party rhetoric. But when asked by one town hall attendant how the Romney/Ryan administration would have handled the Libyan situation, he gave a response that was so full of lies, hypocrisy, and ambiguities that it was utterly stupefying:

First of all, he began, peace through strength works.  It’s important that people around the world know who we are, what we believe, and the values we  stand up for.  We believe in women’s rights…we believe in plurality...we believe in tolerance and religious freedom...  He then went on to blame the situation on President Obama's proposed defense budget cuts.  Mitt Romney was never mentioned.

[Do not attempt to adjust your computer speakers, dear readers.  That sound you hear is this writer banging her head on the desk, which by the end of this campaign will have more dents in it than Sarah Palin’s refrigerator.]

Of course, Ryan did take time out to spew his filth with Michelle Bachmann at the Value Voters Summit, that despicable right-wing group that takes great joy in mocking diplomacy with Middle East countries.  As Right Wing Watch reported,  the video that sparked the unrest in Egypt and Libya was created and promoted by anti-Muslim activists who have worked with backers of Bachmann’s effort to purge the U.S. government of Muslim Americans and key players in the effort to block the so-called Ground Zero mosque.

I'm sick of these anti-American fools.

End Note

The Transfer of Remains:  Honoring the Four Who Fell in Service to Their Country

"The President has courage in his soul, compassion in his heart, and a spine of steel."

Vice President Joe Biden, Democratic National Convention, September 6, 2012

UPDATE

More media response to Romney's Libya fiasco. 

Courtesy of The Obama Diary

UPDATE 2

H/T Sleuth1