America the Strange--the Continuing Saga

It is looking like Sarah Palin may be making a run for the presidency. She commissioned a two-hour documentary extolling her virtues as Queen Esther, her Christianist persona. Frank Bailey's Blind Allegiance is out and gives an insider's look at Palin's gubernatorial campaign and her short-days at Governor of Alaska. If you forget your attitudes toward Sarah Palin, this is a fun book about the mayhem of political campaigns when your candidate is disorganized,vindictive, lacking any policy aptitude and corrupt in her own ways. Bailey does convey the freshness of Palin's persona and how she resonated with an electorate tired of dynastic and corrupt rule.

In a way, this memoir is about the first teabagger candidate and all the troubles that come with campaigns based on simple sloganeering. The book is based on her general factotum's e-mails back and forth with Sarah and Todd Palin and his years first as a volunteer and then later as a player in her inner circle. There will be more anti-Palin books coming out like Joe McGinness' and others. But this one is from a self-described Fox conservative and a person who gravitated to Palin as a self-proclaimed Christian.

Why would one think at this late day that Palin might make a go of it. Look at today's Gallup poll for the Republican nomination: Mitt Romney 17%, Palin at 15%, Ron Paul 10%, Newt 9% and Herman Cain 8%.

Or the more interesting Sachs/ Mason Dixon Poll on "Who would you rather have lunch with?"
All respondents: Obama 53%, Palin 16% and Romney 9%.
Democrats: Obama 85%, Palin 5%, and Romney 2%
Republicans: Palin 27%, Obama 25%, and Romney 19%
Independents: Obama 48%, Palin 16% . and Romney 8%

What is fascinating in Bailey's memoir is all the union support Palin had during her run for governor and her husband, who is a union member, canvassing the Alaskan union scene.

Then consider her recent purchase of a home in Scottsdale, Arizona. Local gossip suggested it was for a run for Jon Kyl's seat when he retires this year, but others suggest it would be the headquarters for a presidential run.

Then factor in that Freedomworks, teabag central, has announced its commitment to destroy Mitt Romney suggesting he is like Charlie Crist. Add in that Michele Bachmann's recent fizzle in her effort to create a Money bomb for her candidacy and there is a large opening for a teabag candidate that would woo Huckabee's Christian Right base.

And over a dozen potential candidates have dropped by the wayside. As I've written so many times before, Palin is the BASE incarnate and the forerunner of governors like Scott Walker in Wisconsin. Her lackluster ability to pick winning candidates in 2010 is not a downside. Remember she did back Nikki Haley in South Carolina and is identified with the new Christian Right women candidates.

These is a smoldering question in the Republican Party. The emergence of the teabaggers is a phenomenon of extreme discontent with the Republican establishment and also a delayed reaction to the George W. Bush years and its expansion both of federal government powers and the national debt. In this scenario, all of Palin's vices become virtues and she is genuinely and emtoionally hostile to the party establishment and Newt Gingrich to her is a giant red flag. The situation is too tempting. She has already salted away more money in the last two years than her family will ever need the rest of her life. And there has to be some strong feelings that others are trying to coopt her appeal.

David Frum writes that while he expected Palin to be the Goldwater of 2012, he was actually wrong and it is none other than Paul Ryan. I happen to agree with him. Ryan has appeared after the defeat of Jane Corwin in NY26, Jack Kemp's old district, to double down on his Medicare position. He now says that all seniors should have to pay for their healthcare themselves. He even went on the airwaves and got his power point out to attack Democrats for misrepresenting his plan, which he then went on to explain exactly the details of the plan everyone objects to.

While Drudge reports that Obama's budget went down to defeat in the Senate, most of us watched the vote called by Harry Reid on the Ryan budget. 40 Senate Republicans, including Dick Lugar, voted for it, while five Republicans voted against it. Rand Paul opposed it because it did not go far enough. Only Scott Brown, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Lisa Murkowski voted against it. Olympia Snowe called Ryan's Plan " a recipe for the race to the bottom."

Dick Cheney says that he worships the ground Paul Ryan walks on. Apparently Ryan himself knows that the people of Wisconsin do not. The negative response to his Medicare plans at his townhall meetings persuaded him not to run for the Senate.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the new head of the DNC, managed a wonderful maneuver. She accused the leading Republican presidential candidates for not being sufficiently committed to American exceptionalism. Her argument was based on their reluctance to close tax loopholes for corporations who export jobs,loopholes for the oil companies and their refusal to tax the wealthiest, while hurting America's competitiveness in the world. Bravo! She did say,"I do not question their patriotism..at all." Nice thrust given that the Republicans have been yelling even since Obama took office he didn't believe in American exceptionalism and that he wasn't suffient appreciative of American reality. If I were in her position I would refer to the "Hate America Firsters".

I hope this was not a one off because Republicans have wrapped themselves in the flag for so long that they pretend to be patriots. It's time the Democrats turned the tables for a while.

Meanwhile I distinctly recall Mitt Romney going on network television to lambast President Obama for bailing out the auto industry. He didn't just do this once, he did it multiple times. I wondered at the time what the son of the head of American Motors was doing, especially when he needs Michigan. Hey, no problem. Mitt said the Obama plan was his idea but it would have worked better if he had done it. This is incredible! I hope the DNC runs the YouTube videos of Romney saying the bailout was a waste of money.

Let us remember that if the auto industry had gone under--17% of the American economy would have vanished overnight and America would have been plunged into a Depression greater than the last one. It would have ended American manufacturing ability.

Bob Corker of Tennessee, who was the most vocal opponent of the plan because he had coaxed BMW into his state with subsidies, actually came out this week and claimed credit. This goes beyond Republican congressmen claiming credit for stimulus programs in their districts when they voted against the stimulus bill en masse.

Wisconsin Dane County Court Judge Maryann Sim ruled that yes the Wisconsin legislature did violate the open meetings law when they jammed through the labor law. She did not decide the case on the merits of the law itself.

Meanwhile in Wisconsin, three Republicans now face recall elections and no Democrats. Petition drives have begun to recall Gov. Snyder in Michigan and Ohio is finishing up a petition drive to get the Kasich labor busting laws up for a state-wide referendum.

Yesterday President Obama hit a 53% approval rating , the highest in a year. Perhaps, more importantly, he hit 50% in Florida, while the very strange and very criminal Governor Rick Scott hit a low of 29%.

Sharron Angle decided not to run for the House in Nevada.

Crazywoman Virginia Foxx managed to get the House to pass a law that prohibits all medical schools who receive federal funding to teach abortion procedures.

Oh and by the way, these actions have brought the Pro-Choice Americans back up to 49%, compared to anti-abortion supporters who are at 42%. The Gallup poll reversed a previous finding of the other year that showed anti-abortion people had assumed the top position for the first time. I would suggest that occurred because everyone thought that this issue had been resolved in the courts so people who might dislike the procedure felt they could say so without it having any implications. I would also suggest that the number of pro-Choice Americans will increase as more attention is paid on the GOP war against the Uteri.