England for Obama

So, one thing I’m reeeeeeallly happy about is that hopefully, after next Tuesday, we’re not going to see very much of this any more:

Or at least: British people won’t be. Because even if Sarah Palin never runs for office again, you can be sure, dagnammit, that she’ll make it in the world of American television. Doh!

Indeed, it’s impossible not to speculate what Sarah will do next. Here are the thoughts of my close personal journalist chum Jane Murphy:

“Now I’ve never been one to tempt fate, but assuming the Democrats do romp to victory next week, what’s to become of the second biggest celebrity in the world, Sarah Palin?

Andrea and I were discussing this last night - and came up with a few ideas. I’ve got a feeling she’ll ditch full-time politics in favour of a daytime chat-show on Fox, possibly alongside her great mate Elisabeth Hasselbeck. I can see Sarah becoming a kind of ‘anti-Oprah’ - with her whooping audiences shedding tears of joy as she hands out free guns to each of them. (Well, you never know when a pesky moose is gonna come a-knocking do you?)

Alternatively, Sarah could always provide a valuable public service by becoming the world’s top Tina Fey impersonator. Just a thought…”

I think Jane’s onto something with the anti-Oprah thing. In fact, here’s a full list of real - no, really, real - possibilities for Sarah’s next move:

- The GOP throw her under the Straight Talk Express, and she returns to Alaska. Is reduced to being a footnote in history and spends the rest of her days in the wilderness. Literally.

- The GOP throw her under the Straight Talk Express, and she returns to Alaska - where she starts plotting her campaign to run for president in 2012.

- The GOP throw John McCain under the Straight Talk Express, and rally behind Sarah Palin as their presumptive presidential nominee for 2012.

- Sarah quits politics and gets her own daytime TV talk show/reality TV show/talking heads show on Fox. Possibly with the First Dude, Todd. The Palins never leave the limelight. Ever.

The latter option is in many ways the most likely, I think - because while Sarah clearly wants as much power as possible, I don’t think she’s actually that interested in politics (crazy, huh?!) and would much rather have the fame and trappings of vacuous celebdom.

Personally, I’m hoping she runs for president in 2012.

Partly because I don’t want the poor American people to suffer this woman screeching out of their television sets and grinning on the cover of their magazines, day in day out, for the forseeable future.

But mainly because I want the GOP to not get it. I want them to choose Palin and her ilk, because if they do, they will be left in the political wilderness for at least eight years - or as long as it takes for them to realise that the world has become more liberal, goddamit, and that the American people just don’t want nasty, divisive, fearful, hateful, self-serving, right wing governance any more. The Republicans didn’t get it during this election, and you know what? They probably won’t get it in four years’ time, either. And possibly not in eight years…

I’ve written before about the parallels between Obama’s likely victory and Tony Blair’s victory in 1997 - when, overnight, not just an old administration but an old way of thinking, of seeing the world, was swept away. Much blame and pain and bloodletting ensued in the Conservative party as a result, of course - and the Tories had to move to the centre to gain any political force, and real chance of governing, again.

The Republican party in America will have to do the same - plain and simple. But the good news, of course, is that the Republican party’s starting point is far to the right of the Tory’s. Its base - Sarah’s Army, the gun totin’, god lovin’, evangelical conservatives - simply will not move to the centre under any circumstance. Not even to gain power.

The result? Like Sarah herself, that base will have to be left in the wilderness in order for the GOP to win again (barring an all-mighty Obama screw-up). And quite how many years it will take for the Republican party to rip itself apart like this before being able to make itself electable… well, your guess is a good as mine.

But here’s the other piece of good news: it isn’t going to happen any time soon, folks. So in the meantime: just kick back and enjoy The Barack Obama And Joe Biden Show (’So real, it’s like they’re running the country!’) - and spare a thought for our poor American cousins. Because even if she doesn’t get elected Vice President, they’re probably going to have to put up with Sarah Palin on TV every day. If they watch Fox News, at least.

Enjoy:

What’s particularly wonderful about Ken Duberstein’s endorsement of Barack Obama isn’t just that it’s yet another conservative voice saying yes, I may be a Republican but I can’t support the John McCain ticket - but that Duberstein then went on MSNBC to openly criticise John McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin:

Ah, it’s like all our Christmases are coming at once…

Actually, not to put a downer on things, but: I do find it rather annoying when pundits and even Duberstein here use polling results that show that people don’t think Sarah Palin is ready to be Vice President as evidence that Sarah Palin isn’t ready to be Vice President. The fact that people don’t think she is doesn’t mean that she isn’t. If you see my logic. I mean, don’t get me wrong: I’m very happy that people don’t think Palin is ready to lead. But those polls show nothing more than what people think or believe to be true; and you don’t need to use them as some sort of justification when talking about Sarah Palin’s lack of qualifications/readiness. You can do that with, y’know, facts.

November 4th will see the end of many things. Eight years of George W Bush. Hopefully, eight years of Republicans in the White House, eight years of self-serving politics, and eight years of hawkish, neocon philosophy.

But it will also mark the end of a very important phenomenon.

Truthiness.

‘Truthiness’ was coined by Stephen Colbert on his show The Colbert Report back in 2005. It was a stroke of genius - quickly becoming the buzzword of the year and even gaining its own Wikipedia entry.

Colbert came up with the term following George Bush’s remarks that he nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court based on how he felt about her. As opposed to the actual reality of, say, facts. Or experience. ‘Truthiness’ is, in short, the feeling of something to be right - and in Stephen and Dubya’s world, that’s enough. In fact, it’s better than facts. Because you have more nerve endings in your gut than in your head.

Watch him introducing the word for the first time:

‘Truthiness’ has, in all truth(iness), never really left Republican politics since 2005 - and in fact, it’s been all-too visible during the current election campaign.

From introducing us to Sarah Palin as “exactly who this country needs” despite barely knowing her, and telling us that we would all be just as “impressed” as he was by her (because who cares about little things like the facts of her record?), to trying to tell Americans why they should feel afraid of Barack Obama (he’s a terrorist! He’s a socialist! He’s, erm, not like you and me!), John McCain has shown time and again that he, his campaign and his party are still driven by Rovian, Bushian ‘truthiness’.

But you know what? The American people aren’t buying it any more. You can put lipstick on the truth and call it truthiness, John - but people will still see the truth. Both of you and your running mate, and of your opposition candidate.

An Obama victory marks the victory of truth over truthiness. And that’s The Word.

Not actually a line from The Colbert Report last night, but these segments did make me think of it. Great stuff:

Nice one, son… Ah. No. Back to the wrong type of football again.

Anyway: my name is Andrea Mann, and I approved approve of this latest TV ad from Obama. And I do believe it’s the first one ever to feature a certain Sarah Palin:

Sorry to go slightly off (Obama) topic, but I just saw this headline and it surely wins this week’s Duh-hurrr! Award For Slow Realisation (also known as the Hell-oh-ohhh! Award For Stating The Obvious):

Top McCain Aides: ‘Palin Simply Knew Nothing About National And International Issues’

Well done, fellas. *Slow hand clap*. Now perhaps you and all the right wing pundits could take back the slating you’ve been doing of people like us? You know: the awful, sexist, liberal elitists who have been saying out loud, since late August, that Sarah Palin knows nothing about national and international issues? Just a thought…

As anyone who follows Mudflats knows - this big news. Big news. Alaska is a firmly red state, and the Anchorage Daily News has always been in the Palin camp.

No longer, it seems:

“Gov. Palin has shown the country why she has been so successful in her young political career. Passionate, charismatic and indefatigable, she draws huge crowds and sows excitement in her wake. She has made it clear she’s a force to be reckoned with, and you can be sure politicians and political professionals across the country have taken note. Her future, in Alaska and on the national stage, seems certain to be played out in the limelight.

Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.”

Read the whole editorial here.

Meanwhile, over on Planet America…

Seriously. This is the sort of talk that makes one think Americans are living in a parallel universe. One in which Barack Obama is a ’socialist’; in which giving a tax break to normal people, as opposed to millionaires, is ’spreading the wealth’; and one in which the notions of socialism and spreading the wealth are horrifying/disgusting/unpatriotic/insert derogatory adjective of your choice here.

And one in which no one would ever want to live in Sweden or England. I know I don’t. No, wait, that’s not right…

I’ll write a post soon about Sarah Palin’s possible future plans - but for now, I’ll just say: if Palin ever runs for President, she and Michele Bachmann would be a campaigning match made in heaven. And Barbara West should clearly be their media strategist.

Tip o’ the hat to AK Muckraker for posting the second segment below from Chris Matthews’ show Hardball, from earlier this year.

AKM did so on the back of this interview this week, in which Matthews wiped the floor with Nancy Pfotenhauer when she tried to defend Sarah Palin’s ignorance about the Vice President’s job:

Anyway, back to the segment from earlier this year. In AKM’s words:

“There was one other time Chris Matthews approached this type of brilliance. There may have been others, but this is the one that springs to mind. It was back in June of this year, when Kevin James made a reference to Neville Chamberlain as an appeaser….and had no idea who Neville Chamberlain was, or what he did, and Chris Matthews would not let him off the hook. Since we’re all enjoying this Chris Matthews love-fest, here’s that classic for you to enjoy.”