We had a hockey game Saturday night and so we DVR’d “Game Change” and I’m just now watching it.
Lots has been written about it, mostly of the “I never thought I’d feel sorry for Sarah Palin” variety. I don’t feel sorry for her. I’m appalled, outraged and pissed off all over again! What the hell? The absolutelast emotion I feel for anyone involved in this debacle is sympathy. Holy shit, this woman didn’t know the basics of contemporary history, let alone the nuances of American foreign policy.
What really gets me is not that the McCain campaign foisted someome so unfamiliar with basic current affairs onto the national stage, but that she was made governor of the state of Alaska in the first place. How the hell did that even happen? I can see the McCain campaign deciding, “well, she’s governor of Alaska, so surely she’seducated, right? She can add two plus two, right?” They completely underestimated the vast dumbing-down of America that has occurred over the past 30 years.
And therein lies our problem. I look at the idiots in Tennessee’s state government and I see crackpots like Rep. Rick Womick, last seen peddlingJohn Birch Society black helicopter conspiracy theories in our state legislature. Somehow these clueless, uninformed blockheads become mayors and then state representatives and state senators and then governors, and before you know it, some desperate fuck decides to put them on a national ticket because it needs some sex appeal. And God help us if next time they get elected. That scares the crap out of me.
I realize this isn’t any earth-shattering revelation, but I feel like until we start expecting better from ourselves we’re not going to get anything better from our political leadership. This fish is rotting from the tail up.
I had to keep pausing the movie so Mr. A and I could argue about this but: I didn’t actually have a problem at all with a somewhat sympathetic portrayal of Sarah Palin, with a movie that humanized her. She is, after all, a human. One whose every policy utterance makes me want to punch myself in the face, but a human being nonetheless.
Whereas the political advisors who put her in the place she was in, and John McCain himself, were relentlessly portrayed in the press after the campaign as having been victimized by this crazy bitch, when it was their fault all along. And anytime Saint McCain wanted to stop running a nasty, divisive, horrific campaign (which started well before the film said it did, like, he didn’t turn to racist bigoted horseshit out of desperation, for fuck’s sake, his people did that because they wanted to with his tacit approval) he could have picked up a phone and stopped it.
A.
Yeah there was a line early on before Palin was picked to the effect of, “you’re the candidate who never panders but speaks the truth, whether it’s popular or not …” And geez he was the original Pander Bear, moving so hard right during the campaign and telling everyone exactly what they wanted to hear.
Which was entirely the point of a calculated pick like Palin in the first place. Inasmuch as there’s any truth to this film, the fact that her “vetting” was just looking for the usual skeletons shows that even the campaign underestimated how truly stupid this nation has become. They wanted to know about scandals and TrooperGate and that stuff. They just sorta assumed she knew the difference between the Axis and Allies in World War II. Like, don’t all governors have that basic knowledge?
Apparently after 30 years of dumbing down the American public the answer is: no.
And no, I didn’t find the Palin portrayed in this film sympathetic or humanized in the least. She was every horrible thing I saw during the campaign. They even downplayed the truly vindictive, sarcastic crap she said in her convention speech — I mean, that’s in the public record. That was the most bitter, hateful public speech I’ve ever seen from a national politician.
Ugh. I guess I just really despise that woman and everything she says about our country.
Our local commercial radio liberal on the Friday before Labor Day wondering, seriously, if selecting Palin was the coup de grace. Someone that plugged in to politics didn’t know enough about her to predict how disastrously unready she was; who could? She was a governor; how ignorant, petty and tone-deaf could she possibly be?
Turns out she set a new limbo bar to clear.
If only she could have been announced the Friday before Election Day rather than the Friday before Labor Day. But about three weeks was all that even our blind pig “liberal media” needed to start uncovering acorns.
PS Being a long-suffering Quebec Nordiques fan, are the Preds solidly in Nashville? Is there a chance they’re going anywhere, or should I pin my hopes on (whatever’s left of) the Phoenix Coyotes?
I had the exact same thought this morning in the shower, about how Palin got elected as governor of Alaska in the first place. Sadly, this seems to be the rule, not the exception (e.g., Perry in Texas, Brewer in Arizona). Sigh.
Didn’t Palin get elected governor with just a plurality, or was that the primary? I vaguely recall something about institutional corruption in the Alaska Republiclown party she being an alternative…I also recall catching a clip from a televised debate where Palin grabbed the soundbite headline, saying she’d appoint one of the other candidates to chief chef at the Governor’s Mansion, or something like that…
i didn’t need to see a movie to tell me mccant played with fire in 08. america 1st my ass.
The Old Guard republicans? Who are THEY? Tolerated Reagan and Palin?!?! C’mon what does THAT mean? Old Guards rinnung Independents? Isn’t that a bit of an oxymoron? What have They Given Us?? Who is US??? Frankly, the Old Guard allowed us to Tolerate a biased and non productive system that costs taxpayers huge amounts of money.. .money that They are not willing to take the responsability to pay. You really need to find some better way to express yourself. Baiting with meaningless rhetoric is not very productive, and frankly, its getting old.
I don’t care who you criticize . meeerbmr, I am NON PARTISAN. Lets get productive, and conduct dialog that if someone who actually cares joins us will actually find useful. This means dropping the empty rhetoric, and analyzing real issues. I don’t care to hack at the Republicans any more than I care to hack at Democrats.
The half term governor is a e2€œDan Quaylee2€9d in heels. Since we earaldy had an idiot e2€œWe2€9d that caused our current economic debacle, America knows not to trust in fools who think they are brilliant. One of the reason for e2€œWe2€9d failure was his drinking, Palin just has bad genes.
Lord, I ask that You’d pour out Your Spirit on Sarah. That she’d be a voice for the voiceless and stand fmrily for the issues that are on Your heart! God, I ask that You would open doors that no man can shut and close doors that no man can open in regards to her political pursuits. Lead her and use her according to Your perfect will.