Best News for Obama: Kristol and Pals Remain Delusional on Palin

Three nights after the big debate, Bill Kristol and his GOP colleagues remain delusional. Nothing new in that, but for once this is a very good thing.

You might understand Republicans immediately claiming victory for Sarah Palin in last Thursday's debate. It's the thing to do nowadays and, really, what else do they have to hope for? So: Why not. Good try, and all that.

Now, sane partisans and operatives, you would think, would sober up when all of the post-debate polls found that not only had Palin lost, in the minds of viewers/voters, she had lost badly. Yet still they kept pushing the line that she had produced, maybe, a game-changer (as I blogged here a few days ago).

That's fine for argument's sake: Again, what's to lose? This: Carried away by their enthused (and why not?) base, top GOP pundits and strategists have gone on to advise Team McCain, Let Sarah be Sarah! She did so great in the debate, unleash her! Give her more rope! Hell, turn it into a Palin/McCain ticket, as Stephen Colbert advised weeks ago.

That's where it gets humorous for us, and dangerous for the GOP: Team McCain seems to be taking that advice.

Yet, it gets even more insane. Bill Kristol, besides goading Palin into going even MORE negative, ends his column today with: "Hockey Mom knows best." This in the face of all the evidence that virtually from the end of her post-convention bounce (which was purely base- and media-driven), her ticket has lost points in national and most state polls almost by the day -- seemingly by the hour in some cases. Palin's favorable ratings have sunk like a stone, with no Arctic ice underneath.

Of course, Kristol is the same "fella" (as Palin might say) who proposed Clarence Thomas for the McCain veep spot, calling him "the most impressive conservative in American public life." You betcha!

Now there are new polls just out tonight, showing an ever-widening margin for Obama in CNN and NBC surveys, and almost unfathomable leads in states like Virginia and Minnesota. Palin is in Florida today. Watch for Obama to get a five-point bounce there tomorrow.

In other words, the public has disliked her more and more the more and more she is being Palin. The more they see and hear, the less they like. Yet the call goes forth: Give the voters more of her! Starbursts to the rescue!

To which I say to Kristol and the others, in the immortal words of former hero George W. Bush: Bring her on! Que Sarah, Sarah.

Comments

[DivideSam]

The neocons need Palin. Anyone with more brain power would be hard for them to potentially control.

[Charmed]

Nice Article...­..

[Ironquill]

In Florida Palin will appear only in Republican strongholds like the "Villages" a hot bed of Reagan Democrats and conservative Republicans. A family member once suggested that I look at property there. Town squares there are still owned by the founding family. Loud speakers blast through the morning heat into the sqaure. On the Saturday morning I visited, they played George Bush's Saturday address, followed by Paul Harvey, over loud speakers, I kid you not. Do you remember the T.V. show, "The Prisoners"?
As we were listening to W, I jokingly asked my Sarah Palin look alike real estate greeter if anyone other than Republicans were allowed to buy property there. Without hesitation or humor she said, "This is Bush Country". She wasn't kidding. My relative gave me a stare and we decided to go play golf rather than look at houses.
Sarah Palin will get a reception in the Villages that will stagger the imagination--or maybe not.

[Arithrianos]

the show was The Prisoner, not prisoners.
Be seeing you.

[PastorAgnostic]

If you are # 6, that makes Sarah #2 . . . .

coincidence?

[pizzmoe]

It seems like the office of the President of The United States means less and less all the time.

[bandithappy]

Does anyone know why the NY Times has given valuable op ed real estate to Bill Kristol? This public intellectual's grandiose ideas actually had an effect on policy. A tragic effect. His ideas gave intellectual legitimacy to the push for war. And, those ideas were wrong, deadly dead wrong. Like Bush, and unlike some other neo-cons, Kristol has never acknowledged his mistakes.

Why is this discredited pundit rewarded with a NY Times column? Who knows? But, I have a theory! And, if I'm wrong, I hope I'll get a column in the Times, too.

I wonder if this is the tabloidization of the Times. Hiring columnists not for their merit but for their shock value. I've looked into my own eyes and seen my soul and I truly believe I wouldn't react this way to just any conservative pundit. It's the injustice that offends, not the politics, when the Times adopts the Bush administration's policy of FAIL UP for Kristol.

I shouldn't care this much but I kind of love the New York Times. And, this morning, reading Kristol's column, I wanted to throw up. It isn't analysis. It isn't smart. It's the cringe inducing boast of a narcissistic Dad prompting his child to recite ALL the ways they thought of to slime Obama. Not just some of them.

Kristol's column belongs in a parody of the NY Times. Not in the newspaper itself. Say it ain't so, Joe.

[Steve Kettmann - Huffpost Blogger]

Great post, Greg, and I couldn't agree more. (I still remember belly-laughing my way through that howler of a Kristol column talking up Clarence Thomas for the Veep slot.) Please, please, please, McCain campaign: Keep Palin talking!

[biguslibowski]

I, too, think we oughta second guess electing someone who reminds me of one the waitresses at the local Beefaroo. She can spout with the best of them. But I'm not sure I'd want her in charge of the free world. I thought "the greatest generation" had higher standards than that. I really think she ought return to the vast frozen tundra from whence she came. Let her commiserate once again with the many moose and elk she has come to know and love so well.

[HypocrisyAlarm]

Actually, it's the vast frighteningly thawing, methane-releasing tundra, yes?

[jeanrenoir]

When have Kristol and pals NOT been delusional since they declared World War III on Islam on 9/11? First, they and their henchmen within the Bush administration destroy Bush AND the Republican Party with their fool proxy war for Likud in Iraq. Then, in their utter desperation to elect McCain to "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" for Likud, and finish off the American economy with $10 gas, they fall in behind their dream goy Palin, to these kooks the perfect pom-pom girl for whooping up support for the Iran War with the mob. Too bad that a critical mass of the mob is now so terrified by the economy the neocons' adventures abroad, and the financial high jinks of their financial backers on Wall St., have visited on Main St., that Obama is now pulling away from McCain in every single swing state in the country, as Depression drowns out the cheers for the neocons' heroine speaking in tongues in lipstick.

[Subtle]

jeanrenoir, were Kristol and his pals right about something before 9/11 ? Sorry, I must have missed it.

[USA1776]

What I found very interesting in the CNN coverage of the debate with the maile and female responses at the bottom of the screen is ... Joe Biden played very well with the women and Sarah Palin played very badly. Alice above is right, she is the mean girl ... not who I want representing America in the world.

[Alice A.N.]

I think people underestimate powerful stereotypes. Except, the big misstep in Palin's case is that while she thinks she's projecting Ms. Hockey Mum, a lot of people (women especially) are seeing the pretty cutesy mean girl on the block being egged on by the boys.

Yes the wink, hair toss and smile dazzled the men watching the debate but, as such things are wont to do, it alienated women. Problem is, the starbursts only last until the next woman winks. Which was probably the weather girl. End result, polls tanking.

[Sparky]

Hello Alice A. N., in response to your comment: " smile dazzled the men. " I am male ( one of " the men",) and she did not dazzle me! Not only that, but sitting in my TV room, I could not even look at her, before the debates and not during the debates. Whatever physical attractiveness she may have is immediately over ridden once she begins to speak. That she has gained the positions she has been elected to and chosen for, is beyond my understanding. I am embarassed for her' and ashamed as a U. S. citizen, that she represents me and this country, especially to the other nations of the world. Is she really the best we have to offer, coming after 8 years of George W. Bush? I think not. She can wink, toss her hair and smile to her hearts content; dazzled I'm not; repulsed I am!