Wednesday 17 November 2010

ONLY IN AMERICA...


Sarah Palin, vice presidential candidate in the 2008 election that brought Barack Obama to the presidency, has indicated she very seriously considering seeking the Republican nomination for 2012.

In an interview with the New York Times she said that she was discussing the matter with her family and “engaging in the internal deliberations candidly”, whatever that might mean.

However, already she is whining about the fact that what she calls (perhaps in a joke, perhaps because she doesn’t know the correct term, you can never tell with her) the "lamestream media" for concentrating on her personal life. Other candidates haven’t had that she reckons.

I’ve never understood why John McCain, an otherwise reasonably sensible man, chose Palin who was the unknown governor of Alaska and former mayor of Wasilla (population 10,256) to be his running mate. She seemed to me to damage his campaign more every time she opened her silly mouth.

She demonstrated an incredible lack of political knowledge, of geography, and of even the names of newspapers and periodicals, never mind their content. She was lampooned by every non rightwing publication and tv channel, and at times made the Republican campaign look like a monstrous joke.

She has, nonetheless, boosted her popularity by becoming a leading light in the right wing Tea Party movement and, as something of a celebrity (in many eyes for all the wrong reasons) has had a measured success endorsing dozens of successful Republican candidates in the recent mid-term elections.

Palin is recruiting extra staff for her office. (Having become something of a personality, and made a pot of money from after dinner speaking, she has a staff.) This is taken as a sign that a bid for the nomination is on the cards. She will have to make her intentions clear by early next year.

If she decides to run, she is likely to face competition from people like Mitt Romney, ex-governor of Massachusetts, Tim Pawlenty, governor of Minnesota, and Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House.

From a Scottish, UK or European point of view, it seems incredible that a person of her intellect could even possibly become the President of the United States of America. She makes Hazel Blears look halfway reasonable. But then you look at Ronald Regan, Bush the elder, and most especially George W Bush, and you think... yep it is possible.

As ‘Letter from America’ Danny often says to me... ‘Only in America’.






24 comments:

  1. The Old Dog is just milking it to gain some publicity and make a bit more money for her unreality show...

    In one way the USA deserves the cranky bitch but then a large amount of nice normal people who did not vote at all or voted for the normal tendency in the USA...

    will be left to the whims of the completely lunatic fundamentalist wackos who inhabit the darkest side of American society..

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  2. Well said Tris...and Mr. Mxyzptlk. I don't doubt that she's going to make a run for it. The adoring Tea Party crazies on the Republican right wing will send her tons of campaign money. And in the first instance, in the early state primaries, campaign money is the name of the game. But then I think she'll be surprised that the cutesy winks and simplistic political catch phrases won't work like they once did. She'll have to come out of the right wing echo chamber and answer hard questions from other than the FOX News political operatives. The journey from media celebrity to a serious contender for the White House will be vastly more difficult than she imagines.

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  3. Well Niko, I can't really disagree with any of that.

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  4. You mean Danny, that there will be more interviews like that infamous Katie Couric encounter which left her looking like a complete imbecile?

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  5. Oh yes Tris....and I can't wait to see it. It was during Katie's interview that we discovered that she couldn't even name a major American newspaper....NOT ONE....not even NAME one! Think about that. An American politician who couldn't name the New York Times or the Washington Post. And there are much tougher reporters than Couric who will eat her alive.

    Funny thing. She has a certain media presence which she could use to her great advantage. But she would need to take a time out to study...really STUDY the facts and the issues. But she seems to feel that reality show celebrity and soft ball political interviews on FOX News will take her to the White House. It won't!

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  6. Great news folks. Sophia Pangloss is up and about again and has a new story over at her place.

    http://shootinfaetheshin.blogspot.com/

    Don't miss it... it's a corker.

    Thank goodness... what a mess these stairs are!

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  7. Yes Danny. She'll need to do an awful lot of learning.

    The thing is that she has her convictions and they appeal to an awful lot of people. Ok they won't stand up to hardline questionning from the likes of Rachel Maddox or Keith Olbermann, but a lot of people will just catch her drift and happily go along with it, regardless.

    But as you say, it won't get her all the way. Fortunately there are not enough right wing nut jobs in America to do that.

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  8. Thanks fer the shout tris, awfy kind o ye. Ah'm blushin under ma goonie...

    Mrs Palin's anither yin that should be blushin under her goonie, but somehow ah doot she will be. This is a win-win fer her. If she gets naewhere nearer the White Hoose than the gates, then she'll still hae made a packet an can dine oot oan it fer years. An if, god-forbid, she actually gets past the gates, then she can run the world an aw the fowk in it tae hell in a handcart!

    Surely no...

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  9. Hello Sophia. Don't blush... no wait, it suits you.

    Aye, ever since poor old mr McCain plucked her from the obscurity of the frozen north she has certainly made a packet for herself, so much so that when she could have been putting Alaska on the map with her new found fame, she packed it in half way through her term with some daft excuse, and hit the Tony Blair $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ trail.

    Wretch that she is.

    You do have to laugh at her...also.

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  10. Lets face it . She couldn't possibly make a bigger mess of the US than Barry O'Blimey or George Bush. $14 trillion in debt. The banksters still running the economy. Two wars abroad. Millions about to be homeless and starving. And printing more money to try and get out of their problem.
    And not knowing any newspapers is probably a bonus. Who believes anything they read in the papers ? All run by vested interests. Bought and paid for and following their owners agenda.
    Sounds a bit like Scottish papers actually.

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  11. Tris,

    Looking and acting like a "complete imbecile" did not stop George W becoming president. They've had some weird and wonderful presidents in the past and no-one should under-estimate the power of money.

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  12. Tris,

    I'm off to visit Sophia - hope she's got the kettle on and a good head of steam up.

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  13. Ah've aye got steam fer ye Mr Brownlie, an a guid warmed pot...

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  14. An ordinary gal with guts. Could be worse when you consider the mess the intellectuals of the left achieve. Cameron and all the political classes of 2010 are bloody rubbish, time for REAL change.

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  15. Ah Ben... you've got a point I suppose.

    When you look at how things have been recently, it seems that a president can't get what he wants done because even his own side is obstructive in Congress.

    I think not knowing the names of any papers was symbolic of not actually knowing what was going on, or even that you had to be able to do more than see a country from your spare bedroom window on a clear day, to be able to negociate arms and trade agreements...

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  16. You're right there John. I suspect that the real president was Dick, and that George W just signed stuff.

    Apparently he was...well is... a very affable guy, good with his guests (as long as you leave by about 8.30 so he can be in bed by 9).

    Right get the tea brewed, I'll be over, right away... ;¬)

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  17. Sophia, don't start without me...

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  18. OR: Oh how right you are (if you excuse the pun).

    I thought Brown and his bunch of half wits was poor, but every day I hear more ill thought out, badly argued and frankly loopy policies from Cameron and his thick ministers.

    There are times when I could wish for Brown back, and lord knows I detest him.

    I listened to some junior housing minister being mangled by Justin Webb this morning over housing benefit for poor pensioners.

    He was busy telling us that they shouldn't worry. Landlords might well renegotiate rents downward (yeah right); there was a fund which was much increased for special hardship cases and in any case they could always move.

    So he was confronted with a story about a woman who already had to pay £30 a week towards her rent (out of a state pension) and was likely to have to pay up to £12 more under the new regime. She can't afford the heating despite having bronchitis, and he was asked if people like her would definitely be able to get money from the hardship fund, and he refused to answer.

    But he kept on saying that we had to get the costs down. Well yes, we do have to, but not by making old sick people homeless. Pratt.

    Don't worry old people. The government loves you and respects you and your age...really it does. It just has this really weird way of showing it.

    I suspect that it won't be long before there is real change. Have you noticed how China is flexing its muscles? Now that it has more dollars than all the rest of the world put together, it is able to do it.

    The markets have managed to destabilize the Euro, and the knock on effect for us could be catastrophic.

    Ye gads... how cheerful am I?

    Och well, off to Ms Pangloss’s place for a bit of cheering up.

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  19. tris said.....

    " The markets have managed to destabilize the Euro, and the knock on effect for us could be catastrophic."

    No I think you mean banks handed out loans that could never be repaid and govts borrowed billions that they could never repay so the markets had a look and said no thanks, you can keep your bonds and other toxic junk as there's not enough GDP or assets to back it up. Unless we get at least 10% interest on our investment.

    I see O'Blimey has given a 'Freedom Award' to billionaire Warren Buffet. 15 handed out annually to people who have helped America. Helpfully Warren has just written an article in today's 'New York Times' extolling the virtues of the QE printing presses. Print baby Print as non NYT reader and ex governor Sarah Palin might have said.

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  20. Yeah Ben, but it's all imaginary money anyway. It doesn't really exist. These people just play games with it. That's why we have contusion (or whatever it is). The could do the same to sterling tomorrow.

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  21. When the euro is killed off it will automatically affect sterling.
    The debt might be imaginery tris but the govt think we have to pay our $7tr debt back. That's why they're closing Kinloss and Lossie, scrapping the new Nimrod, scrapping the Harriers, scrapping the Ark Royal, scrapping the new planes for the new aircraft carriers, cutting the housing benefit, cutting the Scottish budget by £1.3Bn, stopping some legal aid cases, putting up VAT, putting up taxes etc....

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  22. I thought we were doing all these things becasue this is a wonderful excuse for the Tories to do put into practice all the things they've always wanted to do.

    I bet they are orgasmic over the idea of cutting housing benefit for pensioners, cutting legal aid so that the law becomes the provence of the rich, putting up VAT because it doesn't affect the rich much, reducing the Scottish budget because they pretty well hate us and we didn't vote for them.

    They're loving this bed, make no mistake. Even Thatcher didn't have the excuse to go this far.

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  23. LOL... you think she's moonlighting as Sarah?

    She'd do anything for the money, and she's certainly loopy enough.

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