No, not the Bristol Palin bump, the Sarah Palin one:
Overall, Obama is leading 53 percent to 43 percent among likely voters, and for the first time in the general-election campaign, voters gave the Democrat a clear edge on tax policy and providing strong leadership.
McCain has made little headway in his attempts to convince voters that Obama is too “risky” or too “liberal.” Rather, recent strategic shifts may have hurt the Republican nominee, who now has higher negative ratings than his rival and is seen as mostly attacking his opponent rather than addressing the issues that voters care about. Even McCain’s supporters are now less enthusiastic about his candidacy, returning to levels not seen since before the Republican National Convention. […]
Nearly two-thirds of voters, 64 percent, now view Obama favorably, up six percentage points from early September. About a third of voters have a better opinion of the senator from Illinois because of his debate performances, while 8 percent have a lower opinion of him. By contrast, more than a quarter said they think worse of McCain as a result of the debates, more than double the proportion saying their opinion had improved. McCain’s overall rating has also dipped seven points, to 52 percent, over the past month.
I guess when the economy is in the dumper as bad as it is now, all the negative manure which worked so well for Republicans in 2000 and 2004 just isn’t the best fertilizer for a political campaign to employ. People want answers and some idea that the people running for office have some clue as to what to do to make things all better again so they can go back to watching WWW Raw or American Idol again. Suddenly wild eyed accusations that your opponent has “terrorist” associations and lacks sufficient love for his country don’t cut the mustard. Instead, they are seen as irrelevant, at best,and as petty, divisive and cynical at worst.
But hey, John McCain is an honorable guy. That’s why he let’s the two most prominent women in his campaign make all the nastiest allegations. Because honorable men don’t stoop to that level. They just let other people do it for them.
Too bad for Johnny Mac not enough folks recognize just how honorable he truly is. What a shame, eh?
So…do you suppose Palin doesn’t give a damn what Mac sez? Is she just running for 2012? Is anyone in charge over there?
Palin’s a diversion. When this election is over, she’ll go back to her hole in Bumf*ck Alaska, and have the pride of being a footnote in history. She will never be a thug presidential candidate. Wall Street can’t stand her, and she won’t get enough money to run. Huckabee can out-Fundie her on the stump, plus he can play the banjo. I don’t know what Ms Palin’s instrument was when she was running for Miss Alaska, probably the spoons or sump’in.
She’ll be back.
Too many of the wingnuts will spend the next couple of years praying for Sarah Palin to run so that she can put an end to the “unbearable Obama Socialism multi-culty era” and get back to good ol’ screwing 95% of us over.
Like Gingrich, Rove, and even Dubya, she’ll be around gosh darnit you betcha.
And so will Bill and Hillary.
What, you don’t think they’ll be after Obama’s job in 2012?
Anyone here really willing to bet against the ambition of Hillary or Sister Sarah in four years, knowing Obama’s going to be up to his neck in quicksand and us right there along with him, looking for somebody to throw America a rope?
I’m not.
I’m actually half expecting Obama to nominate Clinton (Hillary) to the Supreme Court.
It would be a brilliant political move, she’d be no worse than any other centrist who Obama’s actually likely to nominate (better than many, in fact) and it would effectively neutralize the Clintons as a political force within the Democratic Party for the rest of our lives. And it would likely be an offer she couldn’t really refuse.
As an added benefit, it would drive the wingnuts crazy. I’m not normally big on “do something because it pisses off a wingnut”, but if it’s a side benefit and not the ultimate goal, I can roll with it.
I think that once freed of political ambition Clinton has the potential to be a great justice. But would she get past the fiercest filibuster this country has ever witnessed?
As critical as I’ve been toward her this year, I wholeheartedly second that. I really believe she’d be a brilliant justice. And there are a couple of political benefits:
-The Clinton family can claim a president and a Supreme Court Justice; and
-Yes, it would drive the wingnuts absolutely bat shit crazy.
Palin needs to meet another head of state and a REAL kingmaker to further her ambitions to rule Alaska as an independent country.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coup-in-fantasy-kingdom-inside-czech-republic-959310.
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It couldn’t happen to more deserving people.
My question is why in the hell is this only desired by so many Americans in elections where things have become so fucked up that you need a candidate to ride in like the cavalry and save the day???
Maybe if we, as voters, demanded this standard in every damned election we might not have to wait for things to become almost unbearable in the country before we demand competence in our leaders.
Maybe if the citizens and our corporate media didn’t treat the whole democratic process as some kind of macro version of reality TV we wouldn’t be in such a fucked up place all the time. We have certainly gotten what we deserve in the first couple of elections of the new millenium. Here’s to hoping we have learned a very hard lesson from our collective vapidity and lack of seriousness about the consequences of our choices. Elections matter.
Maybe if we, as voters, demanded this standard in every damned election we might not have to wait for things to become almost unbearable in the country before we demand competence in our leaders.
Preach it, Mike, preach.
All true, but let’s not overlook the fact that we have a candidate who knows how to run for office. Much as I heart Gore now, that can’t be said of him or Kerry. The turning tide is at least as much due to a great Dem candidate as to McCain/Palin’s grotesquery. Which will make victory many orders of magnitude sweeter.
Does Johnny Mac know what the hell this campaign is all about? It’s the economy stupid! I can’t wait till tomorrow night and see what the flip-flop meister has planned for the third and final debate.
As to Hillary on the SC, I think this is a brilliant idea. No doubt she will be more than adequate, it’s a politically smart move, and it will drive the wingnuts nuts. It’s like a triple header all in one.