My Sandbox

Calling Obama a terrorist is not precisely the same as calling Sarah Palin, in the words of “Arrested Development,” a “country-music lover,” or “seaward.”

First of all, nobody thinks C-words are un-American. C-words never killed anyone, except in very specific and unpleasant circumstances. Nobody thinks C-words should be killed, assassinated, imprisoned, tortured, or shorn of their civil rights. FCC rules notwithstanding, it’s much more polite to call someone a C-word than a terrorist. That’s not stopping Fox or hate radio, though.

Perhaps most important - Obama is not a terrorist. Governor Palin, on the other hand….

Look - Sarah Palin is pretty to look at, but very unpleasant to listen to. The things that come out of Sarah Palin are better off kept private. She can be very slippery. She inspires a great deal of irrational emotions. She seems to spend most of her time around dicks and assholes. She doesn’t have a lot to offer the gay community. Children should not be exposed to her. She’s extremely sensitive, and easily manipulated.

It’s not a perfect analogy - Sarah Palin can be seen on Youtube. But in general, I’m pretty sure the Zenger defense works here.

Of course Bill Ayres is an issue. I can understand why Republicans are so outraged about a man who said this:

When the bureaucrats come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion….There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don’t have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we’re ready to die.

Oh, wait.

Reading the Rolling Stone article on McCain right now.

“John has made a pact with the devil,” says Lincoln Chafee, the former GOP senator, who has been appalled at his one-time colleague’s readiness to sacrifice principle for power. Chafee and McCain were the only Republicans to vote against the Bush tax cuts. They locked arms in opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And they worked together in the “Gang of 14,” which blocked some of Bush’s worst judges from the federal bench.

“On all three — sadly, sadly, sadly — McCain has flip-flopped,” Chafee says. And forget all the “Country First” sloganeering, he adds. “McCain is putting himself first. He’s putting himself first in blinking neon lights.”

Maybe in the coming month I should, just for laughs, come up with positive reasons to vote for Barack Obama rather than against the Republicans. But right now, Obama as Great American Undo Button should be enough, n’est-ce pas?

Forgive the angry, partisan title. I thought it was funny.

I find a number of things about Governor Palin and her support disturbing for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it is as deep as the ocean and as fervent as the plague…and as of September 16, thirteen days old. Her supporters, which for want of a more specific (or abusive) term I’ll call the right wing, created this movement literally overnight, on the strength of a speech she didn’t write. Compared to Palin, Chance the gardener from “Being There” was Walter Mondale. Anybody - literally anybody - saying the same things as Palin would have been embraced just as fervently.

Well, anyone running against the Republicans would have been embraced fervently by the Democrats, you might say. Which brings us to the other scary aspect. I probably would still vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden if they were to tour the country saying a series of outright, laughable, easily disproven lies. But I like to think I would at least rationalize that choice, rather than simply pretend that the lies didn’t matter.

The double standards being used in McCain-Palin’s defense are astonishing. The same party that prepared a 527 against Hillary Clinton called “Citizens United Not Timid” (geddit?) is now lecturing us on sexism. The same party that nominated McCain claims Biden is too entrenched; the same party that lauds Palin believes Obama is inexperienced. As far as the idea that Palin is qualified in foreign policy simply because one can see Russia from Alaska, the best response was from Balloon Juice: “I can see the moon from my house, it doesn’t make me an astronaut.” Yet, in chronological order, this same justification has been put forth by Fox News’ Steve Doocy, Cindy McCain, John McCain, and Palin herself. I don’t know what’s more frightening - that they genuinely think Alaska’s geography is a qualification, or that they believe the American people believe it. It seems Palin’s fan club does.

Probably the GOP simply feels that anything, literally anything, would be better than an Obama presidency, and it is worth saying or doing anything, literally anything, to prevent it. Well, fair play to them, I feel the same way about John McCain and Sarah Palin.

But wasn’t there any way to defeat Barack Obama without bringing George Orwell and H.L. Mencken back to life in a shimmering cloud of “I told you so”? There was a time when the Republican Party had the decency to be embarrassed by Dan Quayle.