Thursday, November 06, 2008

Post-election withdrawal

I realize that with the US election over with, I should stop blogging about it. But I don't think cold turkey is necessarily the best way to go. You've got to ween yourself off these things gradually or the results could be catastrophic. One of my favourite moments from election night was watching the Daily Show reporters freak out once they realized the election was over and what were they going to do now? The best bit being when Samantha Bee was told she gave birth during the campaign and didn't remember it - "I had a baby? Awwwww...."

So I'll be easing back, but forgive me if I still post the odd observation to ease the shakes.

I don't normally like Fox News, but this was report is making the rounds at light speed. The reporter is essentially confirming what everybody feared was true about Sarah Palin. However, the fact that it is Fox News and that they're making her look like an absolute idiot is kind of astonishing.



It'll be interesting to see how many of these stories will come out in the days to come. Newsweek is teasing something similar. And here's a CP story and one from the New York Times.

I said Palin was going to have a shot in 2012 and was roundly mocked. However, this is the first serious attempt to destroy her well before then. Yeah, some of these people are bitter and pissed off. But some are, terrifyingly enough, actually looking ahead to 2012, already have "their guy" lined up and want to destroy Palin now. We'll see how she weathers it. Or if she does.

One other thing...if this report, and others to come, are true and she was a complete idiot, that McCain did virtually no vetting and that once they realized she was an idiot they did their best to cover it up, well, there's a whole wide range of emotions going through me on that revelation.
1. Relief at the bullet was dodged.
2. Disappointment that McCain, the maverick, is just another politician just looking to win, despite all his big talk.
3. Anger that this campaign and the Republicans came so close to putting another complete moron in the Oval Office.

***
The one downside of McCain/Palin losing? No more Tina Fey mocking her. Awwwww....

***
If you're curious about how political cartoonists viewed the evening, here's a sample of them. Sadly, many of them are quite lame. Of the ones there, and I'm sure there are many more, the one below is probably my favourite.




***
There's been a lot of people noticing the eerie similarities between the 6th and 7th seasons of The West Wing and the just concluded presidential campaign. The list is a bit too long to get into, but for those following it, the list just got one more addition to the end. Read this story about Rahm Emanuel who will be Obama's next Chief of Staff. It seems Emanuel was the basis for the character of Josh Lyman on The West Wing.

So to make this clear, Santos was based on Obama, Lyman was based Emanuel. At the end of The West Wing Santos is president and Lyman is his Chief of Staff. And now, Obama is president and Emanuel is his Chief of Staff.

The fates really are just failed, plagiarizing screenwriters, aren't they?

Last Five
1. Hell's half acre - Robbie Robertson
2. Like it too much - Kaiser Chiefs
3. La Ferrassie - Toyko Police Club
4. Crater Lake - Liz Phair
5. Hiroshima - Ben Folds*

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just another Rahm Emanuel factoid: Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven's character on Entourage) is based on Ari Emanuel - Rahm's Hollywood agent brother. Rahm kicks ass- its a great pick.

I'm having serious withdrawl. I did have to post one article today about NE-02. Looks like I actually live in a Blue city! Woot!

towniebastard said...

Dude, I know! Like, seriously...

When I first read about that, I had my doubts. Because it just seemed to unbelievably stupid to be real.

Then I remembered she's done virtually no travelling, doesn't believe in evolution and given that her new son-in-law is dropping out of high school to marry her daughter, doesn't seem to care much about education.

Plus, and this is one of my all-time favourite surveys, there was a study done in the early 90s of Texas high school students. 75% of them couldn't find Mexico on a map.

So do I believe the woman who could have been the next VP of the USA didn't know Africa was a continent? You betcha!

Megan said...

The elite media can't pull the wool over MY eyes. I know that Africa's not a continent. That doesn't even make sense. What's SOUTH Africa if not the southern region of a country called Africa?

You reporters with your gotcha sound bites. That's why I prefer to speak directly to the American people without a filter.

Anonymous said...

Let's face it TB, you are absolutely lusting for the day you can join the staff of a high-ranking politician. C'mon, admit it!


Just remember this lesson, if nothing else, from West Wing. Never, ever, disrespect anyone's executive assistant.

towniebastard said...

I'm fond of a quote I heard in recent days - when you get to that level of politics you need to be either very young or very rich. As I'm neither, I don't think so.

There's a reason why none of the West Wing characters, with the exception of the president, had any kind of solid relationship for most of the show.

So no, I don't think so. Although there are days the idea of sitting in my apartment and getting to write all day sounds really appealing. But I fear it would make me even more anti-social than I already am.

Anonymous said...

Jeepers, not only was Palin ignorant about Africa and NAFTA, but apparently Obama didn't know how many states existed in the USA and Biden was proud to display his complete idiocy when he stated that FDR spoke to the American people on television. I bet you don't address this comment or post it Townie because it doesn't support your political pillar of choice.

towniebastard said...

Believe it or not, my cowardly anonymous friend, I cut a fair amount of slack for candidates who say stupid things in public. Because these folks are on the go for upwards of 18 hours a day and because their every word is scrutinized.

But this was behind the scenes, in private discussions with advisors. If she had said that in public, I might be willing to cut some slack and say she misspoke because of long hours. Because both Obama and Biden knew better. And McCain said some foolish things in public that I know he knows better.

But you get the funny feeling that incident with Palin might have actually happened. And she might have actually believed it. And that's kind of scary.

And yeah, I support Obama. And your point is? I'm fairly open and willing to accept different points of view. But in this election, there was no contest which candidate was more qualified to be president. And everything that's come out since then only back that up.