Sunday Roundup

Picking Sarah Palin was clearly a Hail Mary pass. But the McCain campaign is tapping into an archetype that resonates deep in the human psyche. That of the unknown innocent plucked from obscurity and magnificently rising to the challenge. Hollywood has long recognized the appeal of this fantasy. Think Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, A Face in the Crowd, Dave, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. So in questioning Palin, it's not enough for Democrats to mock the smallness of Wasilla, Alaska or shout, "it's insulting," "it's ridiculous," "it's pathetic." They must make the case that given the gulf between the crises we face and her capacity to handle them, this is a truly dangerous choice. Forget Dan Quayle. Palin is more Harriet Miers -- chosen for all the wrong reasons, and glaringly not up to the task. Maybe an anxious nation can offer John McCain a do-over.

Read more reaction from HuffPost bloggers to John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate

Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff

Comments

[LewisWalsh]

Following is my comment on Jane Smiley's piece entitled What's He Going to Call Her in Public? seems quite apt here:

"This is the Republican's best choice? This selection seems to me to be an act of desperation. This is a Hail Mary; sometimes it works in football, but most of the time it doesn't."

posted Aug 29, 2008 at 18:02:32

[PacificGatePost]

SARAH PALIN IS MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER STATE GOVERNOR.

She shook up Alaska to its political and financial core.

McCain has made a bold and telling move selecting someone with Chief Executive experience – the only one to have any - of the four running for the White House.

Her EXPERIENCE, as short as it is, speaks volumes for her character. … Something many in Congress would do well to emulate.

[fisharefreinds]

You are right about the foolishness of this choice, Arianna, but it works.
How is it possible, after 8 years of stolen elections, oil crisis, mortgage and banking scandal on the horizon, obsene deficit, and downright horrible leadership from this president and the Republican party, that we are here again fighting to emerge?

[jmols1031]

As a mother, I find it really disturbing that she would be willing to take on such a serious and demanding responsibility with a 4.5 month old with special needs; we're not talking about a school aged child. I am very much in favor of mothers making their way in the world and working hard jobs etc, but what kind of mother would make such a committment. Is she taking the VP lightly, or her obligations as a mother? I guess we are all different. I went back to work and did 50+ hour work weeks while my husband stayed at home with our son and it was so painful I just cannot imagine the possibility of all the travel away and miniscule moments. Even with my success, I have always been jealous of my husband being the one to stay home, but I make more money so it made more sense for me to keep my job...but not by sacrificing motherhood. I was still putting dinners on the table and doing bathtime and reading bedtime stories. On another note, she is wrong on the environment. And I just don't think PTA involvement should be on the resume at all, are they joking?! It's ashame that she will be the one to make history, she just doesn't seem worthy but I guess it is because I don't respect her positions on issues.

[knowBuddhaU]

Good call, O sister my Sister Arianna. "Archetypes of our psyche," the stuff of which dreams are made, are just buttons and dials on a Newtonian machine, to the vast majority of practicing psychologists.

Listen to the way we talk about Being Aware of Our Own Becoming: as if it were a machine, based on the point particle in empty space. When's the last time you ever heard a scientist, other than Jeremy Narby or David Suzuki or Frances Moore Lappé et al., drop the mechanical reduction and say, 'OK, thinking of Being as a machine is one way of looking at life, let's forget that assumption and see what we really are.'

Looking at life as "just a machine," as inert stuff having absolutely no relation to our being unless we're about to consume it in some fashion, has giving us global climate disruption. Shall we now turn to the same improper science for a cure?

Will we "force" wayward nature into the corral we've built for her? Listen to our description of storms as "angry" or many other anthropomorphic misnomers. Is a fetus at war in the womb? You'd think so, the way we talk about life as if it were nothing but war war war.

Can't we think of some other way of being in the world than at perpetual war with everything outside our preciously thin skins?

[kiwijohn]

Monty Python’s Dead Parrot is back
Voter (V): I wish to complain about this VP nominee what was announced not half an hour ago in this very boutique.
Nominee (O): Oh yes, the, uh, the Alaskan Blue. What's wrong with it?
V: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. 'She's dead, that's what's wrong with it!
N: No no she's not dead, she's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Alaskan Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
V: The plumage don't enter into it. (yelling and hitting the cage repeatedly) Testing! Testing! This is your three a.m. phone call!
(Takes parrot out of the cage and thumps its head on the counter. Throws it up in the air and watches it plummet to the floor.)
V: Now that's what I call a dead parrot.
N: No, no.....No, 'she's stunned!
V: STUNNED?!?
N: Yeah! You stunned her, just as she was wakin' up! Alaskan Blues stun easily, major.
V: Now look, mate, I've definitely 'ad enough of this. When she was nominated not 'alf an hour ago, you assured me that her total lack of movement was due to her bein' tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk.
N: Well, she's probably pining for the fjords of Alaska.
V: PININ' for the FJORDS? Look, why did she fall flat on her back the moment I got ‘er home?
N: The Alaskan Blue prefers kippin' on it's back! Remarkable bird, id'nit, squire? Lovely plumage!

[princessofnowt]

brilliant!

[v6scotter]

Arianna I agree Sarah was picked for the wrong reasons. But the GOP is trying to fan the real or preceived sexisim charge. All the domocrats have to do is trun it right back on them. Whever anyone on the GOP side says anything that is questionable, real or preceived, blast them with it. Do not under any circumstance give them a pass.

[christianlefty]

Please use this link to find out what the Alaskans know & are blogging about, get educated America, and let's get our constitution and country back!!

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/what-is-mccain-thinking-one-alaskans-perspective/

God Bless America

[boing007]

pgobrien

If Sarah Palin is qualified, right now, to be Vice-President of the
United States, second in line for leader of the most powerful country
currently on this planet, then SO AM I!

I'm throwing my little cloche hat in the ring.

VOTE PAT V-P 2008!

(I think women all over the country should declare themselves
qualified and ready to serve, and throw their hats in the ring. We
should ALL put ourselves up for election for the Vice-President of
the United States from the Republican Party.)

Flood the MSM with your write-in votes.

[princessofnowt]

What about me?

I don't have kids, but I've babysat.

If that doesnt give me foreign policy and war experience I don't know what does.

I also have an ex who looks like Putin.

Ready on day 1.

[Yasmine]

TH DEMS should not underestimate anyone.
BUT Arianna all THE DEMS and Progeressives should only TALK ABOUT THE DIIFERENCE betweeen the REPUBLICAN RULERS's agenda which McCain/Palin stand for
and THE ............. DEMOCRATIC AGENDA of OBAMA/Biden.
FOCUS LIKE A LASER ON THIS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
KEEP REPEATING IT again and again

[fisharefreinds]

I think she was chosen to make him "look" younger and more appealing--kind of beautify and bring his age down some. Just as I think Obama chose Biden to make him look "older" more experienced--kind of bring his political age and Washington "wise" appeal up some.
Now the Republicans are flooding (no joke to Gustav) the airwaves with mostly beautiful &/or young women talking heads (and some very good looking young men but mostly women) to appeal to this imaginary audience. Is it working? Yes, the democrats need to be unafraid to bring on the mass attack into this untruth of a woman parading as "real."

[beanchihuahua]

The first name to pop into my head was Harriet Meiers when I learned of his pick.

[black leprechaun]

(Part 2)Yes he will inflate government but I am confident he wont get caught with his pants down by increasing our debt for these programs. He will leave aromas around the world that reflect how we do not think we are better than the rest of the world. I am half black half white. When people ask who I am voting for I say Obama. The courageous ones ask me if it is because he is black. I tell them he is not black but yes I am voting with race in mind this year. He is HALF BLACK and HALF WHITE and sits on a controversial fence, I think he is perfect for a divided country AND world. Yes Biden needs to tread lightly at
first debating Palin. I think the republicans are counting on Biden to insult her therefor igniting undecided woman to flock to McCain. Obama needs to do only one thing in his debates with McCain. DO NOT LET McCAIN USE SARCASM TO INFLATE AND PAINT OBAMA AS NIEVE. OBAMA NEEDS TO USE THE JEDI MIND TRICK TO MAKE McCAIN'S SARCASM LOOK IGNORANT AND POST DATED. Given there is no scandal that arises in Obama world, he and Biden will win. Pray for good strong questions from the moderators in both the presidential and vice presidential debates.

[black leprechaun]

(Part 1)You have hit on many true facts surrounding McCain's choice to pick Palin. You obviously see the reasons Obama picked Biden. Behind the Jedi Mind tricks that both candidates use to get elected, how will Obama or McCain truly govern once they can take off the masks? I believe that McCain will be more fiscal then Bush in a big way if he too ends the war within his first term. He may not run for re-election after his first term which would be just what base Republicans would want. The base Republicans need to remember that if Palin attempts to run for president in 2012, she will most likely run head on into the Hillary Clinton machine she has recently commented so kindly of. People should not read to much into McCain's choice to pick Palin. You correctly stated it is only to get the Republican base out to vote since many were ready to just stay home voteless. As far as how Obama would govern if he wins, I think people will be surprised how much he will govern from the center with a cross pollination of Reagan and Clinton policies.

[Giordano Bruno]

I apologize if this is the second post of a similar ilk. I believe the comparison to Harriet Meirs is on target. That said, I think we could regret continuing to rant about the choice of Governor Pale Face. I think she is hot. Maybe even very hot. She appears to affable, and to have deep convictions, of orthodox catholocism, which Giordano does not share, but understands.

What concerns me the most is that she may have been chosen not only for her appeal to the ideological zealots in the Republican Party that Thomas Frank wrote about in his book on Whats the Matter With Kansas, but also because of the kind of folk she might appeal to. Namely those with IQs in the range of 80 to 105, who sometimes rally (as they did in the case of GWB) to support candidates with a marginal intellect, who we intellectuals crucify for their stupidity. They start to identify with them, we are afterall, volvo driving, Latte drinking, Ivy Leaguers, and we tend to speak in ways that marginalize these voters. They rally around candidates like GWB, John McCain (who finished in the bottom 10 of his class and was not promoted in the Navy despite his meritorious conduct as a POW).

I think we should tread carefully and not overstate this. To do so risks galvanizing this group who identify with their fellow simpletons.


Giordy