Sarah Palin as George Bush

In a polemic penned by George Bush's former speechwriter, Sarah Palin attempted to define Barack Obama as her equal and John McCain as above them both, while avoiding any subject of substance.

Sorry, Sarah, that husky don't hunt.

Palin's (Matthew Scully's) speech revealed a surprising parallel to George Bush -- albeit with phonetic care given to the correct pronunciation of certain words -- in her bid to become vice president to an aging politician with a history of health problems amid a pointed lack of relevance to the issues at hand and a cynical willingness to distort the truth.

The RNC talking points/heads are now questioning the media for pointing out that Palin's speech was written by Bush's former speechwriter (who'd only met her a week before).

What about the Democrats, they charge; are you asking them who writes their speeches?

The answer, in the case of Barack Obama, at least -- as he was the focus of Scully's speech -- is that Barack Obama is the primary writer of his speeches, a point the RNC has made many times in their attempts to denigrate his abilities as both a writer and speaker.

As for Senator Biden, no one can accuse him of not speaking his mind or of not caring about women's issues, given that he was the driving force behind the Violence Against Women Act.

What was missing from Scully's speech for Palin, aside from actual support for women's issues, was any discussion of policy, any mention of current events; no compassionate conservatism about the huge ice sheet -- the size of Manhattan -- that just broke loose in the Arctic; the approach of a hurricane Ike that has already swelled to a Category 4; the wolves she rewards her constituents for shooting; the fact that she does not believe in man-made global warming; her support for the teaching of creationism in schools; her opposition to equal pay, access to health care and those pesky books she wanted removed from libraries.

[Former Wasilla mayor] Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." The librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

Those who question Palin's policies have not received an answer to their questions while any concerns about her qualifications as a future commander-in-chief are dismissed as sexism. That's silly, of course. Especially when the only information her speechwriter has offered constitutes identity politics and divisive attacks on community organizers, parroting a new campaign by Rush Limbaugh to define such community organizers, many of whom are ethnic in background, as "radical activists."

Are we to accuse the RNC and their media allies of racism?

Or perhaps it's simply conservative elitism: We don't need no stinking "radical activists" stirring up disenfranchised ethnic communities and getting them to demand a fair shake.

Translation: Let them eat cake.

If we can't ask for a potential candidate's qualifications, what have we become? Not a democracy, that's for sure. And that leads to the parallel to George Bush; the president who used signing orders to circumvent the constitution while he took his marching orders from his vice president.

Wait a minute.

What would happen if Sarah Palin ended up as president during McCain's term? Would she, with her absolute dearth of foreign policy and supposed lack of Washington experience (supposed because Palin's gubernatorial campaign ads were paid for by the Washington-based Republican Governor's Association funded primarily by Jack Abramoff's company) be allowed to pick just anyone as her vice president?

That's the question I want to ask: Sarah, who would you pick as your vice president?

Would we see an equivalent to Dick Cheney, someone put in there by the powers that be to actually run things according to their agenda, given that the person at the top is woefully unaware of foreign policy, is disengaged from the everyday problems of the electorate and seems to do as she's told?

Sarah Palin as George Bush.

My question is this: Who is her Dick Cheney?

More on this topic at THE ENVIRONMENTALIST

Read more analysis from HuffPost bloggers on Sarah Palin

Follow Janet Ritz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/janetritz

Comments

[Sark]

Where are all those GOP Patriotic Lawmakers?
With all due respect, it beats my imagination to watch how McCain and his running mate wash down fellow GOP Lawmakers with contempt and non of them considers it appropriate to fight against the damage being inflicted on their honourable image by all the ruinous attacks hauled against them by one of them.
Should the American citizens accept that you are all corrupt, agents of Lobbyists and that you are in Washington for your own self interest? Definitely NO, and I say once more, a BIG NO. Surely, the GOP Lawmakers must have made some mistakes in course of their duty. But does mean they are all corrupt? The GOP Lawmakers vehemently support the VEEPEE nominee but have so far failed to tell the electorates McCain and his running mate are not speaking the truth. Tell Americans your success and failure and seek for forgiveness where you failed.
The GOP Lawmakers must not sit down and watch how McCain and his nominee damage their image which will be difficult for them to repair. Come on Honorables; stand up and defend your dignity.

[kingroy]

Sarah Palin as George Bush?
All men and women are created equal but whoever can find Iraq's WMD is Republicans' God.

[Valjean]

Palin says the fertilized egg is a human being from the moment of conception. To support that view she needs to also demand that when a pregnancy is determined a Certificate of Conception of some sort be issued and if a live healthy birth is not forthcoming in a normal amount of time an investigation occur to determine where that person is or why they are injured, with penalties, where appropriate, no different than if it was anyone else. Will she back up her claim?

[DoTheMath]

Scully, Rove & Co. have obviously decided that there's no need to worry about reality interfering with the story they're selling the American public about Palin and McCain, who they are, and what their election would mean for us. They've decided (after thorough research, mind you) that what really matters is not credibility or evidence to support their claims, but providing a narrative for people who WANT to believe.

Of course, thinking people don't believe Palin any more than we believed Bush. Still, Scully has scored a great victory; before now, the McCain campaign didn't even have a Bush. The base was decidedly unexcited about McCain and probably depressed about his chances of defeating the change candidate in a political climate so hostile to the current administration, the current party in power - theirs.

Now suddenly they have a Bush who can speak English with convincing inflection and who is young enough and non-status-quo enough to help them co-opt the change message with a straight face, despite the fact that they've been in power for the past eight years and that the Republican­-McCain-Pa­lin platform promotes the same policies and principles that have brought us where we are today, that have provoked such a rousing cry for change.

[Doofus]

You'd expect that Obama knows that presidential candidates do not
tangle with the VP opponents. It's a clever Repo tactic, to 'change' that
tradition, so expect such challenges to be ignored. They'd better be.

If Palin has a Dick Cheney, he'd look a lot like Karl Rove. Repos make
their own reality. We know that.