Patterico's Pontifications

to hear quitty quitty cowardly Palin lecture Team R on courage is … uncomfortable I think

when the going got tough, she bailed and whored herself out to Fox News

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 11:42 am

Under five minutes! Is that a record?

Patterico (c218bd) — 4/17/2011 @ 11:44 am

not even close mister

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 11:45 am

I believe you.

Patterico (c218bd) — 4/17/2011 @ 11:46 am

Although if we run with the “quitty” meme for a second . . .

I love to see someone with Palin’s ostensible spirit. The more the left lies, the more I love to see it.

But when people raise the quitting issue, the defense I keep hearing is: well, they made it difficult for her to govern by raising all these bogus ethics issues and so she had little choice.

OK . . . and they don’t do that with presidential candidates? They don’t do that with presidents?

Honestly, I think the quitting is a dealbreaker for her as a candidate. Which is a shame. Because who else has her fighting and uncompromising spirit — at least in speeches? But her actions just don’t seem to bear it out.

I would LOVE not to be worried about that. Make the argument that will convince me, y’all.

Patterico (c218bd) — 4/17/2011 @ 11:50 am

Patterico, I think the defense is that the repeated ethics charges were intended to bankrupt her, since her opponents had gotten a court ruling she could not fundraise a defense fund.

As for happyfeet, well, Obsession is not just a perfume.

SPQR (26be8b) — 4/17/2011 @ 11:57 am

there’s a huge difference between crafting a persona and leadership

it’s a watch-what-they-do thing

and putting her imprimatur on the revolving door between politics and media was decidedly not leadership either

also I’m not really sure I’m on board with the a-pension-is-a-promise pablum… A lot of those wonderful inviolable pensions were engineered by union thug pansies through corruption and extortion I think.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:00 pm

No, they don’t do it to presidents; they didn’t do it to Bush and we haven’t done it to Obama. There’s are a few reasons: 1) The Special Counsel law expired, and even when it was in force it required the AG to determine that there was substance to the complaint before referring it. 2) Presidents and their staff are allowed to raise money to pay their lawyers. 3) If a president’s entire time were taken up dealing with complaints, so that she was unable to fulfil her duties, perhaps it would be the right thing, the responsible thing, the courageous putting-the-country-first thing, to resign, or to step aside and let the Vice President run the government. And if that means putting her hand-picked VP in the incumbent’s seat approaching a primary, thus entrenching her legacy, so much the better!

Recognising when you’ve become a liability, when you’re no longer doing the job and the state would be better off with someone else in charge, is a leadership quality, not a defect.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:01 pm

since her opponents had gotten a court ruling she could not fundraise a defense fund

sorta kinda not really

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:02 pm

A pension is a promise. It’s a contract, a liability, a debt that must be paid. Which is precisely why it’s important to be careful when making such promises for the future. Yes, the negotiation of these contracts was often not above board; but the beneficiaries, the individual retirees, were not responsible for that. They provided their services on specific terms; to retroactively renege on those terms would be fraud.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:04 pm

sorta kinda not really

Very much really. All the money that was raised by the “official” fund had to be returned.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:06 pm

in the poor blighted broke-ass America we are crafting a promise to keep scads of indolent government flunkies in high cotton while real Americans retire to a frightening subsistence on nothing but their savings and a paltry social security check on which they will be taxed taxed taxed is not just I do not think

There is no honor in keeping such promises.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:10 pm

he revolving door between politics and media

What exactly is wrong with that? You sound like McCain, with his disdain for those who actually earn their keep rather than live off the taxpayer, as he has done for his entire life, and as his father and grandfather did before him. What is so holy about politics that it’s OK to quit a political job to take another one, but not to take a job outside politics? Why is it OK to quit being governor in order to become president or VP or a cabinet secretary or a senator, or even to campaign for such a position (cf Dole, who quit the Senate to campaign full time for the presidency; or Liz Dole who quit Reagan’s cabinet to work on her husband’s 1988 campaign), but not in order to write a book or to campaign for others?

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:11 pm

Happyfeet, do you feel the same way about defaulting on the debt? Should we just stop paying T-bills?

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:11 pm

hmmm. I think I might have been a touch miserly wif the punctuations – it’s the times

do-over!

in the poor blighted broke-ass America we are crafting, a promise to keep scads of indolent government flunkies in high cotton while real Americans retire to a frightening subsistence on nothing but their savings and a paltry social security check on which they will be taxed taxed taxed is not just I do not think

ok that’s better

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:12 pm

Happyfeet and Patterico, are you happy with last year’s election results? Do you enjoy having the GOP control the House, the majority of state legislatures, and the majority of governorships, and be in striking distance of a Senate majority next year? How much of that do you suppose would have happened, had Palin been locked up in Alaska, unable to set foot outside her state to campaign for anybody? Would you have liked that? If not, then you must admit that her resignation was a good thing for America, that she did a huge service to America by leaving a post in which she was no longer doing any good and taking up a public position in which she did a whole mountain of good.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:15 pm

paying union flunkies outrageously lavish pensions is a lot inimical to keeping our promise to pay the T-bills I think Mr. Milhouse

but Palin is not braying about a T-bill-is-a-promise – probably cause so many of the t-bill holders can’t vote in America

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:16 pm

Feets, why is the “paltry social security check” more sacred a promise than the public service pension you suggest we default on?

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:16 pm

Okay, I don’t want to fight with Mr. Feet over his very creepy obsession with Ms. Palin. But I just had to laugh at this:

“…there’s a huge difference between crafting a persona and leadership

it’s a watch-what-they-do thing…”

And Mr. Feet wrote that? Honestly? Without a trace of wincing at, ahem, a mirror of his own behavior? Hysterically funny and self revelatory.

Indeed there is a difference between crafting a person and doing something. And indeed people do watch what a person does, repeatedly. Absolutely.

That made my day.

I don’t know if Ms. Pain should run for office. I do know that when people get bizarrely obsessed about a person, and keep going back to personal insults (and she isn’t the only one on the Right onto whom this guy heaps venom), well, that is something in their favor.

Spending time on people you hate seems a little too hatey, I think. How much better to spend time on positive things.

But hey, what do I know? It’s just my opinion.

Seriously, Mr. Feet, for a guy who accuses others of getting all obsessive about things, you are, well, in the whole kettle-calling-the-pot-black category. Without the racisms.

Simon Jester (c8876d) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:17 pm

happyfeet, don’t bother to read the website you linked to, did you? You know which trolls that makes you look more like, don’t you?

SPQR (26be8b) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:19 pm

Retired public servants are hardly “union flunkies”. They’re union members, which is a big difference. Perhaps the promises made them were unwise, just as were the promises made to Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries; but they were made, and they provided the public with their services for many years in reliance on those promises. If you want to renege on the promises now, then give them back their working lives, so that they can devote them to some other job that will pay them more. If you can’t do that, then you’re stuck fulfilling your contract with them, however much you regret having made it.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:20 pm

Mr. Milhouse Palin’s biggest efforts in 2010 were concentrated in places that were low-risk for her Mr. Milhouse – she mostly executed a low-hanging-fruit strategy –

We’re paying particular attention to those House members who voted in favor of Obamacare and represent districts that Senator John McCain and I carried during the 2008 election.

in 2010 she wasn’t exactly a brave little sammin swimming upstream to spawn – she was riding a wave what was created by the horrific spendings and what was completely self-sustaining through the good works and deeds of our tea party friends.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:22 pm

Mr. SPQR I read the website they say the effed up on the first defense fund so here ebbybody give your monies to this one

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:24 pm

they say *they* effed up I mean

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:24 pm

why is the “paltry social security check” more sacred a promise than the public service pension you suggest we default on

social security is not treated as a sacred promise – there is a hugely big and impressive consensus among Team R that it needs to be substantially reformed… which, yay.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:28 pm

Feet, they didn’t eff anything up. There was no way to anticipate that the fund would be ruled illegal. No way in the world. It was set up by the same law firm that set up Bill Clinton’s and John Kerry’s funds, fercryinoutloud.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:28 pm

There is a consensus to reform it for future retirees, not for those who already depend on it.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:28 pm

In any case, pensions and benefits already earned and accrued are a binding contract, which the courts will enforce, whether you like it or not, mister feet. There is nothing that can be done about them. All that can be done is to prevent people from continuing to accrue these benefits at quite the rate they are doing at the moment, and that is what the bill WI passed, and which is awaiting the court’s approval, is about.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:31 pm

Feet, if you think the 2010 victory would have been just as big without Palin, then you live in a strange universe.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:32 pm

Mr. Milhouse that’s not really the point is it? Quitty quitty Palin announced she was quitting before the defense fund was ruled out of bounds did she not? That’s how I remember it.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:32 pm

30 was for 26

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:32 pm

Well, I was kind of right. I predicted that the creepy happyfeet PDS outbreak would start on comment #3. It actually started on #1 and *continued* on #3. My bad.

M. Scott Eiland (27aed4) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:34 pm

Feet, if you think the 2010 victory would have been just as big without Palin, then you live in a strange universe.

Mr. Milhouse to posit that Americans stalwart and true would sit passively and watch helplessly as their little country is molested with horrific debt and obscene regulation and vile spendings but for the efforts of Sarah Palin is to imagine a very very fantastical universe indeed I think

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:36 pm

yeah get it straight Mr. Eiland that was very sloppy of you

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:36 pm

Happyfeet and Patterico, are you happy with last year’s election results? Do you enjoy having the GOP control the House, the majority of state legislatures, and the majority of governorships, and be in striking distance of a Senate majority next year? How much of that do you suppose would have happened, had Palin been locked up in Alaska, unable to set foot outside her state to campaign for anybody?

Sorry. My position is that most of 2010 would have happened with or without Sarah Palin — and in fact she may have been counterproductive in at least one race I can think of. Nor do I think that sitting governors are unable to campaign or make endorsements.

In any event, we are not talking about whether her quitting is or was a Good Thing. We are talking about whether it undercuts her appeal as a presidential candidate. I remain convinced it does, perhaps fatally.

Patterico (c218bd) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:41 pm

She tried with the defense fund, I read the ethics code, there was no prohibition against such a fund,but the folks at Perkins & Coie, the lead
counsel to the DNC, members of the Gitmo bar, supporters of Franken’s recount strategy decided
otherwise, as those like Reihardt who refuse to recuse, or Walker, or Brown, who judged ACORN innocent, despite the fact that his tenure was due in part to their efforts.

narciso (8a8b93) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:42 pm

Is there any issue with what she actually said?

JD (318f81) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:42 pm

Feet, if you think the 2010 victory would have been just as big without Palin, then you live in a strange universe.

Comment by Milhouse — 4/17/2011 @ 12:32 pm

Maybe I live in the strange universe. I think it’s possible it would have been even bigger.

Patterico (c218bd) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:43 pm

Consider she backed Walker when he was a little known county exec, she endorsed West, which seems
like a no brainer, except consider the Demographics of the district, deep in Broward and Palm Beach,

narciso (8a8b93) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:45 pm

JD,

Seems like a good speech. happy has kind of sidetracked us — but not really. The speech makes her look like a candidate more than ever — and the quitting is (in my view) her biggest problem on that front.

So I think it’s a relevant discussion.

Patterico (c218bd) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:45 pm

How many of you actually credit this one woman with the size of the 2010 victory??

Patterico (c218bd) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:46 pm

Nor do I think that sitting governors are unable to campaign or make endorsements.

There is if they’re governors of Alaska. Every time she set foot outside the state to campaign, that was another ethics complaint. Including the time she spent campaigning for vice president! Believe it or not, she was investigated for that, and had to pay a lawyer to defend herself for doing that campaigning while drawing a state salary. And her staff had to pay their own lawyers too. And they all had to take time off work to deal with it. If this went on, her staff would all have had to resign, and she’d have been unable to hire anyone new. Would you have gone to work for her, under those circumstances?

In any event, we are not talking about whether her quitting is or was a Good Thing. We are talking about whether it undercuts her appeal as a presidential candidate.

Please explain why it should. If resigning was the right thing to do, then having the courage and initiative to do so should enhance her appeal as a presidential candidate. I want a president who will have the courage to resign if necessary, rather than desperately clinging to office no matter how badly it damages the country.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:47 pm

Really in this world, Whitman, Blumenthal, & Diogardi would have won, sure, I see the Zeppelins
around the statue of liberty, in that universe

narciso (8a8b93) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:47 pm

I can make many commentings about the spendings and about the Libya what people will heartily agree with too Mr. JD – it’s not particularly hard at all – I think the Princess of Duh gets way too much credit for standing up and saying what her sycophants are already thinking. But remember this is a lady what endorsed Meghan’s coward daddy for six more years of rambunctiously whorish senatorings, at a time when our little country so badly needs decidedly fewer Team R senators-for life.

Watch what they do not what they say.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:50 pm

Milhouse,

Quitting the biggest job you ever had because the other side is making things hard for you is not a positive for the biggest job on Earth, where more than half the world is dead set against you.

This is not a subtle or difficult to understand argument.

I hear your argument and understand it. I do not agree nor will most voters, I believe.

Patterico (c218bd) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:53 pm

“I want a president who will have the courage to resign if necessary, rather than desperately clinging to office no matter how badly it damages the country.”

I agree. Resigning is better than committing perjury like bent dick Bill.

daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:56 pm

Describing what she went through as making things hard on her aggressively minimizes what she actually went through.

JD (318f81) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:57 pm

I’m starting to get confused about what exactly is supposed to be appealing about Palin. Originally, she was an accomplished, popular executive in contrast to Obama the community organizer.

But what does Palin do now? Isn’t she essentially a community organizer?

Is there anyone who hasn’t made up their mind about Palin at this point?

And is it really so trivially obvious that her activism in the last election season was a net gain (or loss) for conservatives?

CliveStaples (77f00a) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:58 pm

but by quitting she validated the tactics used against her

that’s not leadership it’s appeasement

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 12:58 pm

Anyway, Feets is just griefing with his hyperbolic misogynistic Palin vagina hate. He is not a big fan of womyn politicians and has nothing substantive to say about yesterday’s speech.

She’s here, she’s clear, get used to it happyfeet.

daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:01 pm

“but by quitting she validated the tactics used against her”

Yes, because personal bankruptcy and a non-functioning state government would have been better alternatives. Check.

daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:03 pm

I didn’t say nuffin about vaginas Mr. daley but if a man had let himself be run out of office I think he would have a much harder time of it.

And that’s cause he would have failed to live up to his commitment to his office and we’re very comfortable holding guys accountable.

What to make of this I do not know. But I think Palin is getting a pass where a guy would not.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:04 pm

Exactly the only women crappyfeet like are the ones who abort their children because they deem that child inferior.

DohBiden (15aa57) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:04 pm

Mr. Feets – Did you know Palin was a tax and spend liberal? Have you bought one of her rape kits as a souvenir?

daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:05 pm

That was sarcasm right?

DohBiden (15aa57) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:08 pm

Hypothetical:

Palin is president instead of Obama. Would we really be waiting with bated breath for her budget proposal?

She’s great at sloganeering, but she’s a bit short on specifics. I don’t think she’s got a lot of substance to contribute to the debate about the problems facing us. She strikes me as being very much like my Republican friends–long on principle, short on numbers.

CliveStaples (77f00a) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:08 pm

“I didn’t say nuffin about vaginas”

Yet.

We all know you are working up to the Team D baby killing sacrament any minute now.

daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:09 pm

Palin would be better than Obama.

And crappyfeet you’d like romney.

DohBiden (15aa57) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:10 pm

…of course, I don’t have any Democrat friends. A few moderates, maybe.

CliveStaples (77f00a) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:10 pm

I suppose one could focus on the other candidates who have denounced the fraud that is the drilling
moratorium, or those who were far sighted enough
to see the danger that QE 2, would wreak on the world food markets, who pointed out the flaw of
the cap n trade bill, that the likes of Castle
and Kirk, found acceptable, I mean ‘Bueller, Bueller’

narciso (8a8b93) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:12 pm

this is not about abortion I don’t think Mr. daley – in fact my preferred candidate Mr. Daniels is himself a very staunch lifeydoodle – and you know what that’s fine cause of he has his eye on the ball and he’s also very very staunch about the important issues too.

What’s a little pikachu to do? You can’t let perfection be the enemy of the good.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:13 pm

Palin is a lifeydoodle too and has her eyes on the most important issue also.

😆 lifeydoodle

DohBiden (15aa57) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:17 pm

“What’s a little pikachu to do?”

Bring out the ha8, as usual.

daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:18 pm

Mr. daley I only find the Palin creature to be problematic in the context of the bizarre insistence on the part of so many good stalwart and true Americans that she needs must be president

If she simply were to say hey I’m clear I’m here I have no designs on the presidency I think she would be a lot liberated from being such an annoyance.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:25 pm

and then we could all go out for Indian foozle

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:25 pm

“Make the argument that will convince me, y’all.”

You’ll have to decide that one for yourself, but here’s how I feel about it.

It isn’t the job of politicians to hold onto power at any cost, or to refuse to step aside if having them in power is gumming up the works.

The job of those who govern is to work on behalf of those who are governed, and that’s what Sarah Palin did when she handed off the job of governor to Sean Parnell. The nuisance ethics complaints, which were making it impossible for her to do her job, ended immediately, and the new governor, and other state governnment employees, were able to govern, instead of fooling around dealing with bogus complaints, that were being dealt with on the taxpayers time and dime.

Good for her, she’s one in a million. You think an ego-mad pol like Bill Clinton or this putz we have in the White House now would ever give up power for the good of the country?

If you do…you be dreaming.

I’d rather have someone like Sarah Palin, who recognizes that Sean Parnell is probably as competent as she is, and is willing to hand off the job to someone else who can get it done, than have some dickhead who thinks that they’re the only one on planet earth that is fit to hold any particular office, and who would never step aside EXCEPT to take on an office that gives them more power (for which see the dolt in the White House…and zillions of other pols, who never worry about quitting a job as long as quitting means that they personally are moving up the food chain).

Dave Surls (de16bb) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:28 pm

What’s a little pikachu to do?

Get laid by an real woman and not an inflatable girlfriend.

DohBiden (15aa57) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:47 pm

Yes, she said what the tea partiers wanted to hear, but she said it without a teleprompter. And spoke much better than Obama has ever done. She obviously had notes, but there was no hesitation in what she had to say.

Thanks, daley.

Paul Ryan (d09837) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:50 pm

speaking without a teleprompter is a presidential quality now?

speaking without hesitation?

Mr. Ryan our little country is lowering the presidential bar dismayingly fast I think and it’s no excuse that “bumble started it” it just means that Team R has to help raise the bar back or nobody will.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:55 pm

“Mr. daley I only find the Palin creature to be problematic in the context of the bizarre insistence on the part of so many good stalwart and true Americans that she needs must be president”

Mr. Feets – That sounds like exactly what’s going on with your commentary. The irrational fear, or phobia, you have of Palin running for president causes you to make hyperbolic, misogynistic comments about her.

Given that she has not announced a run or formed an exploratory committee and is way behind in any polls and that you started trashing her immediately after the 2008 election if I recall, me, I’m not feeling it.

daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:55 pm

Yes I think after the blood libel fiasco her presidential ambitions were a lot eviscerated Mr. daley. Her negatives are simply too high for her to be a plausible candidate anymore.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:57 pm

You’re welcome Paul.

daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:57 pm

Well said Mr.Ryan btw your budget isn’t perfect but it is good enough.

DohBiden (15aa57) — 4/17/2011 @ 1:59 pm

The Dems are truly shameless, after ginning up the
Abu Ghraib matter to “eleven”, they are seriously considering running Gen. Sanchez for the open seat
in Texas.

narciso (8a8b93) — 4/17/2011 @ 2:00 pm

I remember that moment where TPaw acted in the splunge manner, and said ‘well I wouldn’t have used those words’ no that’s true, he would have let the
libel stick.

narciso (8a8b93) — 4/17/2011 @ 2:06 pm

Pawlenty has reeked of desperation from the get-go I think but we already have ickle Romneykins doing a first-rate job in the role of frustrated-to-tears wannabe prom king.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 2:08 pm

For once I agree with you.

DohBiden (15aa57) — 4/17/2011 @ 2:17 pm

Whether or not 2010 would have gone better without Palin’s presence will always remain in question (I agree that at least one candidate would have done better w/out her support), however, I think it’s clear that specifically because of her unique charisma and instinctive ability to capitalize on the public’s frustrations with the status quo, she ended up leading a political move in our country that’s here to stay.

While it may not have originated with her, without a charismatic powerhouse like her to stoke the fires and tenaciously keep it in the public eye, the movement very easily could have waned and not evolved into the serious movement it is.

Who else on the R’s could have rallied the masses with such a renewed purpose, so successful in fact, that even POTUS is very much aware of it’s powerful influence?

Dana (4eca6e) — 4/17/2011 @ 2:33 pm

Remember the comment by some media exec that the media coverage was good for 15% of the vote for the Dem? That is why Palin would have a problem and why any conservative will have a prob in the primaries and any repub in the final.

I think if all of the information about Palin and her resignation were presented through the lens of Patterico’s cross examination, it would look quite reasonable. Not every one would agree with her decisions, but there would be fewer people who see things as feets does.

But we know the chance of a fair presentation of the facts is about as likely as Obama giving a speech that is coherent and meaningful.

This thread is case in point, the given topic of this thread, her speech, was not mentioned until the 10th comment.

Conservatives win when we can pound the facts and the law, not the table. If we get stuck on a table-pounding fight, we lose.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 4/17/2011 @ 2:38 pm

This thread is case in point, the given topic of this thread, her speech, was not mentioned until the 10th comment.

I directly referenced the content of Palin’s speech in comment #1 Mr. Philly and also in #7.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 2:47 pm

I believe Palin’s quitting is an enormous hurdle to overcome, and frankly I don’t believe she will be able to overcome it – but not because I believe her quitting to be insurmountable but because the media has already determined it is.

As polarizing as she remains, this will be a very effective weapon in the left’s arsenal to destroy her possible candidacy. With the media’s help, it will be next to impossible to rise above it.

Her stepping down will be trotted out as a front-page rerun ad nausem, proving she is unfit for office. That, on top of an already politically battle weary public, would easily compel many on the right to look at a less controversial candidate and one with far less baggage.

Dana (4eca6e) — 4/17/2011 @ 2:52 pm

Has anyone ever seen Mr. Feet and Excitable Andy at the same time? Just sayin’

Old Coot (3e86b5) — 4/17/2011 @ 2:53 pm

Happyfeet: While the ruling about Palin’s defense fund did not come in until after she had left office, the first ethics complaint against the fund came two months before she announced her resignation. See this article from May 2009.

Joshua (9ede0e) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:03 pm

feets, either we are operating under different definitions or you aren’t as smart as I thought.

My idea of discussing someone’s speech is when one person goes, “he/she said this, blah, blah, blah, but I disagree because of….”

When you started off with, “to hear quitty quitty cowardly Palin …” and finished with, “when the going got tough, she bailed and whored herself out to Fox News”, I can’t say I was much impressed with the depth of your commentary on this speech.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:07 pm

Yes, it’s very Waldorf and Statler, level commentary

narciso (8a8b93) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:09 pm

Millhouse, you’ve been particularly sharp on this thread.

Dana (4eca6e) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:11 pm

The problem with Palin’s resignation as governor, as I see it, is that if she had stayed in office (and hopefully been reelected), she would have more experience as an executive that would have been helpful to point to in a presidential campaign. But because she left office, she didn’t get that additional experience.

She may have had good reason for leaving office, but nevertheless, she hasn’t acquired the additional executive experience that she might otherwise have acquired. So if she runs for president, the main experience she’ll be able to claim is less than three years as a governor. Even Barack Obama spent more time than that as a U.S. senator, and by the time the next election rolls around, he’ll also have almost four years as president under his belt.

Joshua (9ede0e) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:12 pm

so prior to the fund’s legality being adjudicated Palin decided to use the fund’s problems as an excuse to bail on her job, rather than to fight for the ability of future governors to defend themselves against frivolous ethics charges.

in so doing she left the office weaker than she inherited it

It’s her Palin first Alaska second attitude I think what explains why that pitiful Murkowski hoochie is a Senator today rather than the Palin-endorsed candidate.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:12 pm

don’t worry Mr. Philly I’m super-smart for reals! I know for example that diet coke is 4 12 packs for $10 limit 8 per guest at Target today – that’s value!

ok gtg plus also the wurtles need some wurtle chow

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:17 pm

Interestingly, today’s LAT op-ed further reminds us of how she will be presented by the media if she chooses to run. Why would we think it would be otherwise?

Palin lacks the intellectual, analytical and rhetorical skills to have a competent discussion about policy or much else. She is handicapped not only by a lack of education, experience and curiosity about the world (wearing a Star of David in Israel doesn’t count), but by a speaking style that often collapses under the weight of disjointed, undiagrammable sentences. She is, in terms of the political arena, easily outclassed.

And you can bet, quitting her governorship will lead the way.

Dana (4eca6e) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:19 pm

but by quitting she validated the tactics used against her

No, by boldly quitting she neutralised those tactics. It was a fine act of political ju-jitsu; when facing unbeatable enemy fire, don’t be where they’re firing.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:23 pm

No, there would have been a hundred more ethics complaints that would have proven false, but that wouldn’t have mattered, she would have likely been
forced into bankruptcy, there’s another positive headline to consider, (when it is considered unethical, for you to set up a defense fund, against unethical attacks, she knew full well, the gig was up.

narciso (8a8b93) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:24 pm

Palin is president instead of Obama. Would we really be waiting with bated breath for her budget proposal? She’s great at sloganeering, but she’s a bit short on specifics.

It seems you don’t know very much about her. You want attention to detail? Look at her list of line-item vetoes on the Alaskan budget when she was governor. She went through that thing literally line by line, questioning each item and vetoing it if it didn’t add up.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:30 pm

Mr. Daniels is himself a very staunch lifeydoodle – and you know what that’s fine cause of he has his eye on the ball and he’s also very very staunch about the important issues too

So money is more important than people? Tell me, feets, what good a balanced budget will do all those dead foetuses, who’ll be too dead to enjoy them? And how can an economy flourish when it destroys so much of its prime asset — people?

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:34 pm

Yes I think after the blood libel fiasco her presidential ambitions were a lot eviscerated

What fiasco? Do you deny that she was blood libeled? How was it a fiasco for her to say so? Who thought any less of her for saying so? Name names.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:37 pm

==today’s LAT op-ed==

Thank you Dana for posting that snippet from the op-ed. I always appreciate it very much when the LA Times informs me how I should think about an issue or a particular person. It just saves so much time of having to, you know, reason it all out for myself.

elissa (69a286) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:37 pm

Yes, Joshua, she lacks as much executive experience as she might have had. She gave that up for the sake of the state; had she been selfish and thinking only of her presidential ambitions she might have stayed, borrowed to pay her lawyer on the collateral of her future earnings after leaving office, and let both the state and her staff go to Hell. But she’s not that kind of person, thank goodness.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:44 pm

Heh elissa, we’re simply not capable of doing that. You know, that think it out for ourselves thing.

The point being, if Palin announces, the writing is already on the op-ed pages – nothing has changed and in fact, if she announces, I think other candidates will be ignored and shut out by the media. The sharks will circle her from the get-go: how dare she not learn her lesson the first time! But it will be other candidates paying the price.

Dana (4eca6e) — 4/17/2011 @ 3:46 pm

How many of you actually credit this one woman with the size of the 2010 victory??

I give her a fraction of the credit. She helped motivate many. Not all the credit, nor even most of it.

SPQR (26be8b) — 4/17/2011 @ 4:00 pm

I’m sorry, #68 was me, not Paul Ryan I did the unthinkable and forgot to change my name after sockpuppet Friday.

And I was not saying Sarah sounded presidental in her short speech. Only that she spoke well and did not have to use a teleprompter. Unlike the Won who is supposed to be such an outstanding speaker and is unable to speak intelligently without it.

PatAZ (d09837) — 4/17/2011 @ 4:31 pm

Mr. Feets – Were you in Madison yesterday or is this person related to you? Just askin’.

daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/17/2011 @ 4:50 pm

I am not an anti Palin person at all, but I am kind of tired of hearing her go after people like Boehner. If she was really that interested in cutting that deficit she could have run for the US Senate when Alaska needed a new Senator..that way she could have been up front and center during the fight rather than taking cheap shots at people like Boehner and Ryan. After all, fighting is not all that is necessary, it also helps to have the votes.

In Wisconsin Walker was able to accomplish what he did because Republicans controlled the legislature and the Governor’s mansion too. Boehner had to deal with Obama and Reid. He did not just give a speech about it.

Terrye (2e6779) — 4/17/2011 @ 5:48 pm

Milhouse:

Palin did not just give up power for the sake of her state, she gave up power for herself and her family…there is nothing wrong with that, but it does not make her a martyr either. The problem for her is that it shows she can be pushed out of office..no matter what they were doing to harass her in Alaska, it pales in comparison to the kind of pressure she would face in the Oval Office. I don’t think Sarah Palin will get past that as far as most voters are concerned.

Terrye (2e6779) — 4/17/2011 @ 5:51 pm

I was not in Madison yesterday it was my friend P’s birfday! Mostly all day I worked on my new place I guess and then we did birfday things. I got home late and then watched some of season two of the true blood. That Maryann sure is bent on causing all kinds of trouble.

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 7:54 pm

Is True Blood any good? I just read the first book in the series, and liked it; I won’t even try seeing any of the TV series until I’ve read all the books.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 8:02 pm

I’m very impresssed I avoided all this time cause it’s Alan Ball and I hated hated hated American Beauty but this is wonderful and it makes me a little homesick at one point they sit down at the kitchen table cause Sookie and her vampire friend are babysitting and the kids dig into Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla and I wanted to go home right then and there to south texas and smell how the magnolia trees smell on a hot night and hear the cicadas and go to HEB and get me some ice cream

happyfeet (a3410c) — 4/17/2011 @ 8:07 pm

Comment by Terrye — 4/17/2011 @ 5:51 pm

AK has a unique set of ethics laws that put the cost of defense on the office-holder, personally.

She had a choice, to continue working for the people of Alaska, and becoming bankrupt;
or, looking to the financial well-being, and future, of her immediate family.

Now, if she had stayed, and been forced into bankruptcy, then the martyr designation might have some relevance to the discussion.
Otherwise, she was just another Momma-Grizzley protecting her clan.

AD-RtR/OS! (0d97a0) — 4/17/2011 @ 8:10 pm

The series is deeply twisted, I only saw the first episode, it makes Anne Rice’s work sedate by comparison.

narciso (8a8b93) — 4/17/2011 @ 8:22 pm

“If she was really that interested in cutting that deficit she could have run for the US Senate when Alaska needed a new Senator”

Terrye – Sure, then leave herself open to charges of leaving another job early if she ran for president. Just a perfect solution!

daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/17/2011 @ 8:29 pm

“The sharks will circle her from the get-go:”

Whatever.

They spent years circling Ron Reagan. Final score: Reagan 2 terms as POTUS, Sharks 0.

Dave Surls (94a3c6) — 4/17/2011 @ 10:28 pm

Well, based on the one book I just read last week, it’s a lot lighter than Rice, but also a lot more explicit. Remember that for all that Rice’s vampires ooze sex, they don’t actually have any. Their genitals are non-operative; the only working sex organ they’ve got is the most important one: the brain. Harris’s vampires, OTOH, have all parts in working order, and make sure you know it.

In part this is simply an artifact of the different times in which Rice and Harris are writing. When Rice was inventing the vampire genre, explicit sex was still, well, risqué; nowadays it’s de rigeur. Rice was writing for middle-aged women; Harris for teenagers. And of course Rice was pioneering a new genre, while Harris has conventions she needs to either obey or explicitly disobey, reader expectations she must either fulfill or redirect.

I’ll probably start the second book next week; this week’s reading is already spoken for.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/17/2011 @ 10:29 pm

I don’t know, Milhouse. To me, vampires are just animate corpses with mind control powers. Not very sexy. Which reminds me of my favorite “Twilight” spoof:

http://youtu.be/lu_PY405f40

Simon Jester (491b9e) — 4/17/2011 @ 10:50 pm

AD:

I am not saying Palin should have stayed..I am saying that in the eyes of most voters she quit. You can explain it all you want, you can talk about the unfairness of it all etc, but as far as they are concerned, she quit.

And Palin herself had to know that, just like she had to know that those GOP officials she so merrily attacks were faced with a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate and very little time to really do the kind of cutting she is demanding they do. She did not care about realities they faced anymore than the general public cares about the unfairness of the persecution she faced back in Alaska.

Terrye (84455a) — 4/18/2011 @ 3:30 am

daleyrocks:

I don’t think Palin would have been accused of leaving her job early, after all Bachmann is trying to do the same thing. I just think that Palin prefers not being accountable, there is a certain freedom in giving speeches. She is good at it and her base loves her. But her negatives are very high and Independents don’t trust Palin. I am not saying this because I dislike the woman or anything like that, I have just noticed that her most avid followers seem to be blind to certain realities where she is concerned.

Terrye (84455a) — 4/18/2011 @ 3:33 am

They spent years circling Ron Reagan. Final score: Reagan 2 terms as POTUS, Sharks 0.

Comment by Dave Surls — 4/17/2011 @ 10:28 pm

Palin is not Reagan.

Terrye (84455a) — 4/18/2011 @ 3:36 am

Not as stupid as her usual speeches. I think she must have had help with her punctuation — I detected a full stop every 50 or 60 words or so.

Still the same sort of whiny victim-speak that she specializes in, and a presumption that only she (and a few teabaggers, presumably) speak for the whole of the American people. Lies, snark, more lies, a dollop of resentment, a little projection of her own dark vision.

Same-old, same-old.

However, the rubes still lap it up (as outnumbered as they are) and I’m fine with that. Her formless ambition to do . . . something . . . is going to a massive drag on the ‘Licans come November 2012.

kritz (030b70) — 4/18/2011 @ 4:11 am

Sarah Palin, the cretin’s Pasionaria.

That woman has a zygote’s brain. No wonder pro-lifers love her so much.

Zoubida (0692b1) — 4/18/2011 @ 4:55 am

Thank you, kritz and zoubida, for the drooling vegetable perspective.

JD (306f5d) — 4/18/2011 @ 5:37 am

I was speaking of the Tv series, the books are something else again, now the Alaskan legislature which in the last session she was in, did no piece of legislature, either on the AGIA pipeline, or the Raibelt electricity line to the interior, which was characterized this term, by trying to cut the revenue stream from ACES, and ratifying Murkowski’s theft of the election, by changing the terms for voter eligibility,

narciso (8a8b93) — 4/18/2011 @ 6:00 am

She is speaking particularly of how the GOP handled itself from 2002-2006, when they had the majority when Rodgers, Bacchus, Camp, et al were in charge,
and they still are, as if we’ve learned nothing

narciso (8a8b93) — 4/18/2011 @ 6:03 am

he had to know that those GOP officials she so merrily attacks were faced with a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate and very little time to really do the kind of cutting she is demanding they do.

There was plenty of time to come up with more than 350 million in cuts. Especially when they’d promised 100 billion

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/18/2011 @ 7:00 am

That woman has a zygote’s brain.

Speaking as a zygote, she does, and a very good one too. Shall I take it that your species reproduces asexually?

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/18/2011 @ 7:04 am

Palin did not just give up power for the sake of her state, she gave up power for herself and her family…there is nothing wrong with that, but it does not make her a martyr either. The problem for her is that it shows she can be pushed out of office..no matter what they were doing to harass her in Alaska, it pales in comparison to the kind of pressure she would face in the Oval Office. I don’t think Sarah Palin will get past that as far as most voters are concerned.

What I do not udnerstand is why, if filing frivilous ethics complaints was so successful, the Right does not do that with leftist politicians. I mean, who cares if it is unethical? It works, people. And in politics, that is the only thing that matters.

Michael Ejercito (64388b) — 4/18/2011 @ 9:37 am

Michael, because it’s scummy. Or, if you like, because we like our reputation for ethical behaviour (see the thread about Watts Up).

BTW, Alaska is a particularly egregious example because its ethics law was seriously flawed. But the Dems used the same tactic against Newt Gingrich, which is how they eventually brought him down. Out of hundreds of complaints filed at random, the overwhelming majority of which were frivolous, eventually one stuck, sort of. Of course, they claimed that this was only justice, since Gingrich had brought down Jim Wright on an ethics charge; except that that was a serious case of corruption, not a charge flung at random in the hopes of it leaving a sticky residue.

Milhouse (ea66e3) — 4/18/2011 @ 9:42 am

Michael, because it’s scummy. Or, if you like, because we like our reputation for ethical behaviour (see the thread about Watts Up).

And where does ethical behavior get us?

BTW, Alaska is a particularly egregious example because its ethics law was seriously flawed. But the Dems used the same tactic against Newt Gingrich, which is how they eventually brought him down. Out of hundreds of complaints filed at random, the overwhelming majority of which were frivolous, eventually one stuck, sort of. Of course, they claimed that this was only justice, since Gingrich had brought down Jim Wright on an ethics charge; except that that was a serious case of corruption, not a charge flung at random in the hopes of it leaving a sticky residue.

It is time to use these same tactics against those who would destroy our country. Our country is at stake so these tactics are justified.

Michael Ejercito (64388b) — 4/18/2011 @ 12:46 pm

4/17/2011

Palin’s Wisconsin Speech

125 Responses to “Palin’s Wisconsin Speech”

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