The Education of Governor Doolittle

I think so far Sarah is more like Billy, than Eliza.


Yes, interesting that you suggest that Sarah Palin needs an Eliza Doolittle transformation, when she has electrified the Republican base much as Billy Doolittle's famous B-25 raid on Tokyo ( 4/18/1942) in WW2 electrified the morale of the American people by attacking Japan so soon after Pearl Harbor.

Good analogy Tony. Yes, she is getting the cram course makeover, but will it be enough to go very far beyond the base ? (yes, we know they love her) Will it hold up through a debate and more than an interview or two? The GOP is hoping to wind down the clock on this pick, which is why they are controlling her access to media - as if the media would hold her feet to the fire anyway.

I'd like to know if she agrees with the pastor of her church--- that homosexuals can be "cured" through the power of prayer! LOL

Electrifying the Republican base is easy. Press the right buttons making fun of the Democrats, attacking the Democrats and making it sound like only the Republicans are real patriots and you've done it. But as JSpencer points out, we're past the point where Palin firing up the base will be enough for the Republicans.

If the Republican base isn't fired up, then they would have no chance at all.

In any case it's likely this election will be decided in just a few swing states, so it doesn't matter if Palin appeals to the liberal elite ( they would never vote for her in any case ), but if she appeals to the deciding swing voter. And it might be that the deciding swing voter in these crucial states is "Joe Sixpack" or "Ellie Mae Clampett". Liberals like to say that Bush stole the 2000 election from Al Gore over the Florida controversy, but Al Gore lost the election because couldn't even carry his home state of Tenn. ( he would have won if he carried Tenn. whatever happened in Florida) probably because of the Joe Sixpack and Clampett voters who cling to their religion and their guns.

Bulldogs:

The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo was led by James "Jimmy" Doolittle. You may have been thinking of Billy Mitchell, the Air Corps Colonel who revolutionized aerial bombing against higher-level opposition.

As for Palin, she has electrified the wingnut base because she's one of their own. She has also displayed gasping ignorance of fundamental political knowledge, context, and history; lied shamelessly and almost continuously about herself, her record, and the opposition; shrugged off her own history of hypocrisy and near-continual abuses of power; and refused to meet with the press for over a week after officially joining the campaign, because of her own admitted unpreparedness. Then, of course, there's the creationism, anti-environmentalism, anti-contraception and pro-forced-pregnancy stances, and the rest of the standard-issue right-wing mishegoss. But none of that matters to "the base", in light of whose political principles factual truth and substantive content are luxuries at best.

Ktkeith,

I’m going to put you in the “undecided – leaning republican” column.

Yeah, i got my Billie, and Jimmy's mixed up, but the story is the same.

As if Biden and Obama haven't been guilty of much of that which you accuse her.

She didn't say she sold the Jet on Ebay, she saidf she put it on Ebay.

Biden has exaggerated ( or is it lied about ) his Law School achievements.

Biden is hardly the agent of change as someone who has accepted millions of dollars in campaign contributions from special interests over the years.

He bleats on and on about the middle class not getting a fair shake from the Republicans but Biden ( Senator MNBA) supported the new bankruptcy bill to make more of the middle class into just plain old poor folk.
I think McCain voted with Biden on this one, with Obama + Clinton(?) voting against..

Back in July, Obama was making political hay (against McCain) on the bankruptcy bill issue, but since Biden(senator MBNA) became his VP pick, hardly a peep from Obama about this abomanation of a law.

Obama's contention that he was a member of his church since 1992, but he didn't notice some of the anti-American diatribes by Reverend Wright ( in the 15 years he attended the church) before he recently disavowed him. Now if Obama is so smart and Harvard educated, does anyone really believe that most people would think that he was at least a little bit disengenous?

Now Sarah Palin may not have fought corruption as much as she claims, but at least she tried to.

Obama's political career sprung from the sewer that is Chicago politics, and he seems to have furthered his career by not fighting ( or maybe he didn't want to notice ) the corruption endemic to the Chicago machine politics culture.

Any kind of criticism and "catechism" problem you interpret with Palin is worse with Obama. Sorry to burst your balloon (with all that implies for its contents), but that's the truth.

"Electrifying the Republican base is easy"

Not as easy as fooling the lib-Dems and appealing to emotion rather than reason, and in addition, there's the long-standing practice of vote-buying with Other People's Money.

[scowl]

Thank you for proving my point, DLS.

Bulldogs,

Great posts, and I'm right there with you. :)

In my eyes, we haven't had someone as exciting and with such great potential to shake up Washington in who knows how many years. With Sarah, it doesn't appear that it's about her career... but about the American people and making changes based on common sense and what's right for our country. I love that she's confident enough to stand up for what she believes in, regardless of how she'll be cast. I love that she's only been governor for 2 years but has "accomplished" so much in that small time.... even bringing down corruption that had been going on in her own party for "years!"

I don't see much accomplishment from the left. Though I like Obama, I wouldn't completely be comfortable with him as our President, especially since he seems at times to be more concerned with not offending our enemies than he does with keeping our country safe... at least this has been my perspective? He voted against the surge, even though it was necessary and worked, which he admits to. I know he wants diplomacy, but you just can't hope to so quickly be friends with your recent enemies. I'm not crazy about his views on taxes either. I would like to see them go down not up.

Sarah Palin looks to be incredibly bright and a quick study. I think she's going to blow everyone away during the VP debates, and I can't wait to tune in.

I didn't expect anything better from you this time, J-Sat.

* * *

"With Sarah, it doesn't appear that it's about her career... but about the American people and making changes based on common sense and what's right for our country."

She's better qualified than Obama, and nobody questioned Obama's competence among the people I've been around any more than they questioned Clinton, McCain, or any of the other GOP candidates who came and went already. Obviously Biden is qualified, too. As far as her appeal, she appeals to _many_ people, not just the over-hyped Religious Right that's made into a demonic straw "person" (in her case) by the Usual Suspects on the other side (and in fact, those attacks only boost support for the GOP at the Dems' expense among the thoughtful).

"I don't see much accomplishment from the left. Though I like Obama, I wouldn't completely be comfortable with him as our President"

... because he's a stellar representative of the Left and wants to take us back to the past when the Left last did achieve a number of accomplishments to the nation's detriment! At least with Biden the foreign policy concerns are ameliorated; I'm still worried about the tax policy, as what's needed is control and ideally reduction of spending (what the social-spending proponents abhor most of all). Economic interventionism (intrusion and at its worst, command and control behavior) would be awful, especially if we're ailing as much as some say we are currently.

"regardless of how she'll be cast"

Devil in a skirt...for not being PC...

Go ahead, attack her. It'll only tend to shift decent, normal voters her way.

Each and every post you make just proves my point, DLS. You and yours screamed about empty rhetoric and lack of experience when it came to Obama but when McCain nominates as his VP pick someone who's not ready to step in should it become necessary you twist and distort like crazy, trying to inflate her credentials and further denigrate Obama. And I love how you, like the rest of the far right, try to take the mantle as the only normal decent people in the country.

I have a thought about this one hearbeat theory that gets thrown around. When I vote for commander in chief, it is for the president. So Obama is less than a heartbeat away with less experience than Palin. Biden is more qualified than Barrack to be commander in chief and even that is debatable. Palin will make a fine VP in the snse that she will be the potential tie breaker in any Senate vote. As a self professed moderate leaning fiscal conservative, (excuse my early morning spelling gaffes), Ms. Palin and I agree on many issues and also disagree on many (abortion even in cases of incest or rape). Still her core values more closely relate to mine more than Biden's does so if this was a vote for VP she gets it.

Fortunately this is a vote for President. As a moderate leaning Conservative Republican witha strong record of reaching across the isle to broker legislation with his opposing party, Sen McCain has shown the fortitude and integrity that we need in our next president. So much so that the NeoCon's such as Rush, Inghraham, Hannity et al, were actively trying to gut his campaign and Ingraham even stated she was voting Hillary in protest.

This is just my 2 cents.