Well, this is going to be an interesting election season, though I don’t see any good outcome. Bernie Sanders has moved way ahead of Hillary Clinton in Iowa, so perhaps he has a crack at the Democratic nomination—though I still wouldn’t bet on it. And even if a Democrat is elected in November, be it Clinton or Sanders, not much will happen,for both will be deadlocked with a Republican Congress, though for different reasons. Meanwhile, the GOP camp continues as a source of amazement, with Trump and Cruz going after each other hammer and tong. There’s not a credible leader among them, which speaks very poorly of Republicans (and our country in general).
The latest LOL is Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Donald Trump yesterday in Iowa. I’ve embedded her speech below. If you can watch the first three minutes without gritting your teeth, you’re a better person than I. If you can make it through the whole 21 minutes, you deserve a medal. (I did!)
How could it come to this in America: Sarah Palin is regarded as not only a celebrity, but as someone whose endorsement is worth having? DO NOT MISS her loud claim that Trump will “KICK ISIS’S ASS!” at 5:46, and her misuse of the word “largesse” as a perjorative at 15:48.
Where’s Tina Fey when we need her? Just the sight of Palin and Trump standing side-by-side on a platform, with Trump grinning like a fool and nodding like a bobblehead figure as Palin praises him, is an embarrassment to our country.
Finally, the Daily News headline from today: 
I think that she is just ‘positioning’ herself for a shot at being First Lady.
That’s silly. She is waaaaaaay too old for Trump.
True enough 🙂 Especially since he would chase after his daughter if, ya know, she wasn’t his daughter.
… or running mate?
I saw that Daily News headline earlier and LOL’d. I am not sure what kind of boost either of them thinks this will give Trump. He’s clearly got all the Yahoos out for him already. I don’t think there was anyone on the fence who is going to now say, “Wow! Palin? I wasn’t sure he was enough of a buffoon for me, but now I am!”
Palin could give him a boost with a certain demographic, the Evangelicals. While Trump appeals to racist and xenophobic elements throughout the party, his new-found love for his Bible was obviously fake and shallow. This is precisely why Palin’s support might actually help him in caucuses/primaries, particularly in Iowa. It won’t help any in the general election.
Exactly. Trump, who is running on being a winner, was set to lose the Iowa caucus to Cruz. Palin has saved his bacon.
Also, it was Palin who got Cruz elected in Texas. Now she’s abandoned him. People will be talking about why this is, given that everyone in the GOP who knows Cruz well dislikes him strongly. (The rest of us thought he was a smarmy git from scratch.)
Yeah- Ann Coulter hates Cruz so much that I actually saw her resort to FACTS in an article against him!
I wouldn’t have predicted that (neither the hatred nor the use of facts). Why does Coulter hate him? Just because he’s a totally grating person, or for some ideological reason? If the former, it sort of boggles the mind… like finding the sound that makes the fingernails on the chalkboard itself cringe.
Ha ha! Though if Coulter hates Cruz, you’ve just given me the first reason to like him I’ve ever had … 🙂
I suppose the article in question is
.
By Coulter standards this is an astonishingly temperate piece.
She claims to have been a Cruz supporter in the past.
OK, try again:
We’re all Ruth Bader Ginsburg Now
Exactly. This is a brilliant coup for Trump. His only real primary threat is probably Cruz and a Palin endorsement will do a great deal to contain that threat.
In fact, I think this is a sign of Trumps intelligence rather than, as the paper headline suggests, his stupidity.
Yep. Palin is as stupid as she sounds, Trump isn’t quite.
If you watched the video Jerry linked to, you will have seen Palin referring to Trump’s “largess” as being something different from his generosity. She seemed to think largess referred to the size of his personality.
Yesterday I felt a disturbance in the Force. It was as if dozens of comics and late night talk show hosts suddenly cried out in joy, then went to work revising their next monologue.
I am at the moment concerned about the dark side of the Palin Resurrection b/c this endorsement might sink Trump. I want Trump to be the nominee so that Hillary and/or Bernie can easily win.
It was fun to see her babble away, though, while Trump was making faces and tried to look happy.
For comics, it’s like everybody won the Powerball.
I wonder how Jon Stewart is feeling right now.
Overwhelmed with choice. With a largesse of choice even?
When I put this on my site I asked for predictions – the first was a guest return of Tina Fey to SNL.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were recently on SNL, and one of the best SNL sketches this season was their reunion between Palin and Clinton.
Sorry, but I’m having a mantal image of BILL Clinton and Palin. And of why I acquired slightly higher respect for John Major a couple of years ago.
Huh, Palin used to be entertaining, now she’s just boring.
Slate’s headline writers scored an early win with:
“…while Trump was making faces and tried to look happy.”
Yeah, you could tell he disliked not being in the lime light. His ego can’t handle being second to anyone.
I like Bernie, but I’m afraid he would be too vulnerable to the “socialist” slur in a general election. And even Krugman doesn’t like Bernie’s healthcare and financial reform proposals.
That summarizes my thoughts too.
I think it will be, in the end:
Clinton v. Rubio
Rubio is a distant third and trending down. Not looking good for him.
The bottom 7 contenders account for about 26% of the primary vote. If they all drop out and endorse one person, that would be enough to put either Cruz or Rubio in the lead ahead of Trump. The same is true if Rubio drops out and endorses, say, Bush or Christie along with the other droppers – that would put Bush or Christie back in serious contention in that example.
So at this point, endorsements from the candidates who drop out become an important factor, and IMO make it hard to predict a winner. We’ll probably see the race narrow to 2-4 contenders around the end of February or so. Who the droppers endorse could have a big impact on who takes the lead at that point.
It’s like watching the Grand National with one’s money on the knacker.
It’s looking more and more to me like we might have an election between two supposedly “unelectable” candidates. What happens then?
With general “meh” feelings everyone has about Clinton, coupled with the drip drip drip of emailgate (which may be a fake issue, or could explode into a real issue, who knows..), I am starting to actually think that Bernie could be the nominee. And who can doubt that Trump has some GOP momentum and, apparently, political acumen, that might actually land him that nomination.
I’m a little alarmed at a Trump vs Bernie election. I had no fear that Trump could beat Clinton. Even some of my GOP friends have sworn to hold their nose and vote for Clinton over Trump (status quo over crazy shot in the dark). But I don’t know if their nose grip is tight enough to allow them to vote for Bernie over Trump.
Seriously, I never wanted to live in interesting times. But here we are.
“I’m a little alarmed at a Trump vs Bernie election.”
So am I, for the exact same reason.
Heh you are right. In most years people would see Sanders as unelectable because they would say he couldn’t get enough general election votes from the moderate undecideds – he’s too far left. However in this election cycle, the top 3-4 GOP frontrunners may have the same issue, only being too far right (or just unappealing). He might be electable just by comparison.
I think the most dangerous major GOP candidate for Democrats right now is Rubio. Good speaker, not as crazy on most subjects as Cruz or Trump. He could probably grab a fair share of the middle against Sanders. Against Trump or Cruz, I think Bernie’s “unelectability” is certainly no worse than theirs, and could easily be less, allowing him to be the ‘most electable’ in the general election even if he were to be considered too far left in other years.
My boss who has been a Republican Party delegate, has had his picture taken with both Bushes, etc., has said Rubio from the beginning, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it came to pass.
To this day, I have not heard Sarah Palin’s voice. So I am not going to start by watching this video.
Consider yourself lucky. It is one of the most irritating voices I have ever heard. The vocal equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.
+ a very large number
Yes, I cringe to think of Palin & Bachmann on the same stage. It has happened too.
omg, that is amazing. It is chirpy yet grating. Loud and yet vacuous. I can hear it now. Make..it..stop.
If you have ever watched Dum and Dumber you’ll remember the sound that follows Jim Carrey’s character asking “Do you wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?”. Well it’s worse than that! Much worse. For those who are not familiar with said noise: https://youtu.be/KAWoP1kncRE?t=43 .
Today’s article from FFRF points out that mosquitoes are insects with almost no redeeming qualities. I was thinking the same thing reading this post on our politics.
And Palin’s voice is the equivalent of a mosquito in the room while trying to sleep.
An endorsement from Sarah Palin should be received with the same enthusiasm someone would have at French-kissing a black mamba snake, and that may be an insult to the mamba.
Yeah I have to agree. Maybe Trump had no choice but to put a good spin on something he couldn’t control. If I were him, I’d be worried that she may do for him what she did for McCain.
Nah. I think it was a deliberate strategy to court her to help shore up voters who might be attracted to Cruz. While Trump is no rocket scientist, I think he has good political instincts and knows that this is a smart move in the primary season. He loses literally no primary votes over this and does a fair bit of damage to Cruz. I suspect he will manage his association with her carefully, he certainly won’t permanently tar his campaign like McCain by offering her a position in his administration (a saavy debate moderator could try to force his hand on this). By the time of the general election he will be acting as though he is unaware of any person by the name Sara Palin. “I have a lot of supporters… I can’t remember them all.”
I think it would pay to take Trumps political intelligence seriously (just as it pays to realize that Cruz isn’t stupid… he’s just opposed to everything you hold dear and willing to say stupid things if it is calculated to advance his cause). I don’t think all of his success so far is purely luck. Attributing it all to luck is a good way to help him win.
Trump has figured that Palin may still have some sway with the evangelicals and low-IQ voters. In the bizarre world of right politics, her endorsement will not hurt him and may get him a few votes at the expense of his closest competitor, Ted Cruz, a person as dangerous as Trump.
I still shudder at the thought that she could have been vice-president and potentially president. Her endorsement should be reason enough for liberals to vote for Hillary should she get the Democratic nomination. Many liberals do not like Hillary. I am certainly not a great fan. But, there are those liberals, such as Walker Bragman, who think a Republican victory would be better than a win by Hillary. People such as Bragman are total fools and could be the reason for a disaster if the election is close. Perhaps when he grows up he will think differently. Here is the link to his absurd article in Salon.
http://www.salon.com/2016/01/17/fine_give_the_gop_four_years_the_liberal_case_for_either_bernie_sanders_or_electing_a_republican_president/
This is amazing and yet true. I saw an interview with an Iowan who thought that she was the best thing ever, and was mad at how the media has treated her. This helps Trump with the evangelicals & Tea Partiers, but its gotta hurt outside of that.
Interesting article. Some of his statements on Hillary are probably correct but it is hard to make sense of his ideas on results.
I think the biggest problem the democrats have is that they end up with such a shortage of possible candidates. When Clinton and Bernie are all there is, one has to wonder where is the future. It is always the lesser of evils when looking at the disgusting republican party but the bigger question is why the Demos do not have more than this. I thought maybe that guy who is the vice or deputy governor out there in California looked like a possibility but maybe he need to be governor first.
I’m sure there are many other Dem contenders who simply calculated that it was better to wait 4-8 years than to try and beat Clinton. Of all the problems in US politics “not enough people from a major party want to be president” is not one I worry about.
Maybe so but the only party that has been kicking ass at all levels in recent years are the republicans. That is the facts.
So even if you get a Democrat in the executive office, they cannot do anything. That is also the facts.
You are thinking of Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, who is also a former mayor of San Francisco.
Yes, I happened to see him on some interview and the guy seems pretty sharp. The Demos need to get someone more in this age group. Not just ones on the way to the nursing home.
He’s always impressed me as well. Intelligent, has a good sense of what people want, seems more pragmatic than ideological, and very good looking to top it off. If Newsom’s not a presidential candidate in a decade, I’ll be very surprised.
I remember well listening to NPR just a few weeks back.
They were interviewing a woman in West Nowhere, Kentucky (forget the name of the town). She was talking about how under Obama Care, she finally got health insurance (that she could afford, that was subsidized!) after losing a previous job.
And the very next thing she said was, more or less: But I’m voting for the governor candidate [need I note GOP?] who promises to dismantle it. Because: Big Gummint yucky.
As I’ve said ad nauseum, the most salient political fact in the US of the last third of the 20th century is how the GOP has convinced the US “working class” and lower “middle class” to vote against their own economic interests, using: God, guns, gays, and blacks.
I think Bragman can be refuted in four word/number pairs:
Scalia, 80
Kennedy, 80
Ginsburg, 83
Breyer, 78
Everyone, of all political persuasions, should write this on their palm before they go into the booth to vote, just to keep things grounded.
Take it from me, the Bragmans of the world don’t listen to SCOTUS arguments. I have been there, done that, e.g. refusing to vote for Humphrey in 1968. If the next president is a Rethuglican, there is little question that he will replace Ginsberg with a Scalia clone (I find it difficult to believe that she will still be around in 2020).
Republicans taking the white house would be very, very bad for anyone who can reason, and anyone who is middle of the road or left.
There is an excellent chance the next president will appoint at least one person to the supreme court, perhaps two.
This will give the supreme court to Republicans for decades to come.
Considering some of the truly terrible rulings from the Republican judges, any liberal who thinks giving Republicans the white house is a good idea is simply not thinking clearly. Not at all.
Republicans have shown they are willing to do anything to gain power. Two different Republicans have committed treason to gain the white house. Republican judges have swung an election. They gerrymander like no one else. They have electronic voting machines with no paper trail and no ability to check for fraud.
Does anyone believe Roe vs Wade would survive a supreme court with one or two more Republican judges? Republicans have tried to stop anti gerrymander by citizen referendum in at least one state and had to be over ruled by judges.
It would be a very bad idea for Republicans to gain the white house so they can stack all the appointments they would not let president Obama fill. I think there is very little they wouldn’t do to get and keep power.
Pity Sara Palin does not read print!!
Is this some insane Palinism that I missed, or is it just that she can’t read.
No, it must be the Palinism – she can obviously use an AutoCue … unless there is an in-the-ear version these days?
Sorry for the implication that there might be a sane Palinism.
But Ted Cruz got Duck Dynasty’s endorsement. I wonder which is more important?
Can’t wait to see which Republican Kim Davis and Honey Boo-Boo’s parents endorse.
Cruz picked up an anti-endorsement from Iowa gov Branstad. That will probably hurt.
Hard to tell. In today’s climate it might hurt Branstad.
sub
Well, here in the UK we have Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition – not merely a candidate but actually holding a post of some importance.
His latest piece of deep thinking? The UK can keep its Trident ballistic missile nuclear submarines, but without putting missiles on them.
Asked by a BBC interviewer what, in that case, was the point of having at least one submarine on constant patrol, he said: “They don’t have to have warheads on them.”
The Royal Navy could try to use the submarines as submersible rams, much like the Greek navy used naval rams on ships during the battle of Salamis in 480 B.C.
Very effective against an inland target! 🙂
Perhaps we could mount them on roller-skates so they could ashore after their targets, and then… hmmm… play “Rule Britannia” at the target through a big loudspeaker?
I agree, but I would change “Rule Britannia” to a random song by One Direction. That will make the enemy go full Vincent van Gogh.
Well, we’ll soon have aircraft carriers without any aircraft, so he’s well in line with standard UK military practice.
I seem to remember a war being launched because a Middle East leader had (allegedly) missiles that could be launched in 45 minutes, and from a country that was alleged to have a nuclear development programme (with no successful detonations). Some hundreds of thousands of people died directly as a result of those lies, and there’s a lovely bunch of people called Daesh/ ISIS whose growth can be laid at the doors of that little escapade.
The capability to drop a ton or several of high explosives into essentially any location within 6000 miles of an ocean is clearly no threat to anyone. It’s of so little threat that I was slightly surprised to find that “Conventional Trident” wasn’t an idea fresh out of Jeremy Corbyn’s mind, but came from some bunch of deranged millennial bunny-huggers called “The Pentagon” (sounds like some Wiccan fanboys ; probably have a quiddich broomstick in development).
As an non-American, I cannot understand the obsession with how America is perceived in other countries? Why not take care of the internal issues that plagues the country rather than worrying about Iran deal?
And isn’t it ironic about a Republican talking about “crony capitalism” and talking against outsourcing?
“I cannot understand the obsession with how America is perceived in other countries? ”
Isn’t that embarrassing?
It’s actually a bit worse. When confronted with how America is actually perceived, conservatives don’t give a damn, because everyone else is a bunch of wimpy socialists. So they appear to be concerned about how some imaginary audience perceives us.
I think it’s worse still. When confronted with how America is really perceived, conservatives think “Mission Accomplished”. They just want people to be terrified of us. They consider anything else a show of weakness. So if people in other countries think we are loud, boorish, stupid, AND frightening… well, they don’t see that as any kind of negative. Just so long as people fear us, the rest is irrelevant.
I speak here of the Id of the GOP. There are saner voices… but they are being destroyed apace.
“The Borowitz Report” (Andy Borowitz writing for the New Yorker – http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report) has a lovely piece on this yesterday: “Palin endorsement widens Trump’s lead among idiots”.
Following-up on yesterday’s discussion on satire, I submit that Andy Borowitz is a great satirist, working in print rather than cartoons. His work is always funny, cutting, and with a germ (or maybe more than a germ) of truth. Also, his satire stands alone. That is, you don’t need to know who he is or that he is published in the New Yorker to “get” that his work is satire. This piece on Palin is particularly brilliant.
So maybe there really is something to the Book of Revelation. Wasilla meets Wharton.
If Snowbunny Sarah weren’t too old for a man of the Donald’s known tastes, I’d be trying veryu hard to work a salacious angle here.
Please be careful. It’s almost lunch time and I’d like to keep it down.
Ack! Salacious? The image that flashed momentarily into my mind was so profoundly unsalacious, not even the entire staff of the Playboy Mansion, working overtime, could restore my salacity. 🙁
cr
LUNCH SPOILER ALERT
==================
Even given Trump’s declared tastes, the salacious angle is still there. After all, it seems that she used to play the flute. Fnarr. Fnarr.
Meanwhile, back in Wasilla AK, not 24 hrs prior, Track Palin is arrested outside Sarah’s house, where he lives, for domestic violence, and reportedly threatened to shoot himself in the head with an AR-15 during the incident when his girlfriend decided to call the cops.
Just another day in the life of Klondike Barbie… and to think a third of the country looks up to these people…jeebus crabst!
That implies that she’s a mere 16% below average. Actually, given the shape of the Gaussian distribution, somewhat less than 16% below average.
Sorry, I think that needed another lunch spoiler, didn’t it?
But that was all Obama’s fault, doncha know.
“If you can make it through the whole 21 minutes, you deserve a medal. (I did!)”
Way to pat yourself on the back for having more intestinal fortitude than us!
I am starting to suspect biologist intestines are wired differently from the rest of us.
– Oh, *that* looks different!
– Yes. Yes, it does. [hurls]
Here is a link to the text of her speech. It’s a little easier to read than to listen to.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/kyleblaine/so-uh-heres-the-full-text-of-sarah-palins-bizarre-trump-spee?utm_term=.htyKQjlLP#.mx7g9ndNq
PCC must have an iron constitution. I tried to listen and I heard Trumps voice, I scrolled forward and heard Palin’s voice, srolled forward again then felt nauseous and gave up. I would say it took only about eight words before I raised the white flag.
Perhaps instead of threatening to water board bad guys, Trump could threaten to have Sarah harangue them!
Sarah seems to be becoming even less coherent in the last couple of years. I suspect it’s because she no longer has people writing her speeches for her. When left on her own, all she can do is string together vague catchphrases in a nonsensical string.
And you think this is a problem for getting someone through an election?
I managed to make it through to the end, but only with the help of a couple of glasses of wine. I salute PCC(E)’s intestinal fortitude for doing so sober. Palin is as annoying as she is stupid. Please listen to the 10 seconds from 11:05, it’s ridiculous: “Right wing and bitter cling and proud clingers, of our guns and gods and our religions and our constitutions”. Er….. What? It’s frightening that someone so clueless, with such an unsophisticated view of how the world works could hold a responsible position in any democracy. And Trump is no better, the bit where he starts making “you’re fired” gestures with his hands is toe curlingly bad. The state of US politics makes exasperates me, and I’m not even American.
Hmmm… Maybe the wine is showing in that last sentence 🙂
Palin is the one who had the wine.
Hokay, Silly Season has officially started.
Guy Rundle has an excellent take on this in Crikey.
http://www.crikey.com.au/2016/01/21/hey-mama-welcome-to-the-60s-palins-freestyle-jazz-endorsement
Gaulieter Fart has found his Eva Braun.
– I understand that Palin is a joke.
– You and most of the people who visit your site are not going to vote Republican. This is simply a chance for you to laugh at people you do not understand and call them stupid (or racists or xenophobes).
– In turn, everyone can pat each other on the back and admire their own intelligence compared to the simpletons (Republicans).
– No mention of Hillary and Obama’s disasters in the Middle East. These very intelligent Democrats are directly responsible for the rise of the Islamic State.
– With all the nonsense about diversity and multiculturalism that comes out of the Progressive camp, all they have to offer are two old doddering White candidates. And one of them belongs in prison.
I am getting a bit tired of claims that “Sanders has moved way out in front of Clinton in Iowa.” This is simply not true. As Media Matters noted, two out of three recent polls put Clinton comfortably ahead of Sanders in Iowa, while only one had it the other way. Yet the media largely ignored those two polls, because “Sanders is way ahead” is more newsworthy story, irrespective of truth. Never mind that there is zero evidence it’s true, and more evidence that it isn’t.