Sunday, September 28, 2008

more palin

As one person commented on the Palin-Couric interview::
I’m still in shock over how terrible the Palin/Couric interview was. “Train wreck” is being charitable – it was more like a train derailing on a bridge, tumbling a thousand feet into a canyon and landing on a pile of old dynamite and gas drums. And then a jumbo jet crashed into the flaming wreckage. Followed by an earthquake that caused the whole mess to slide off a cliff into the sea, where the few miraculous survivors were eaten by sharks.

With that introduction, here is the latest Saturday Night Live take on the Palin interview:



The incredible thing is that the last bit on the economy was just Tina Fey reenacting the actual transcript of the Palin interview almost verbatim. Can you identify the actual Palin from the Tina Palin from the these two quotes? (Answer at the bottom of this post)

PALIN #1: "Like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this. We're saying, 'Hey, why bail out Fanny and Freddie and not me?' But ultimately what the bailout does is, help those that are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy to help...uh...it's gotta be all about job creation, too. Also, too, shoring up our economy and putting Fannie and Freddy back on the right track and so healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reigning in spending...'cause Barack Obama, y'know...has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans, also, having a dollar value meal at restaurants. That's gonna help. But one in five jobs being created today under the umbrella of job creation. That, you know...Also..."

PALIN #2: That’s why I say, I like every American I’m speaking with were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the tax payers looking to bailout. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy– Helping the — Oh, it’s got to be about job creation too. Shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americas. And trade we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive scary thing. But 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

While we're dealing with Palin, check out the trailer for the new film "Head of Skate":



Here is actual footage of Palin the beauty queen contestant in a Miss Alaska swimsuit competition:




Finally, here is the normally circumspect and soft-spoken Fareed Zakaria (editor of Newsweek International):

Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, "to spend more time with her family"? …

… Some commentators, like CNN's Campbell Brown, have argued that it's sexist to keep Sarah Palin under wraps, as if she were a delicate flower who might wilt under
the bright lights of the modern media. But the more Palin talks, the more we see that it may not be sexism but common sense that's causing the McCain campaign to treat her like a time bomb.

Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be vice president. She is a feisty, charismatic politician who has done some good things in Alaska. But she has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start. The next administration is going to face a set of challenges unlike any in recent memory. There is an ongoing military operation in Iraq that still costs $10 billion a month, a war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan that is not going well and is not easily fixed. Iran, Russia and Venezuela present tough strategic challenges.

Domestically, the bailout and reform of the financial industry will take years and hundreds of billions of dollars. Health-care costs, unless curtailed, will bankrupt the
federal government. Social Security, immigration, collapsing infrastructure and
education are all going to get much worse if they are not handled soon.

And the American government is stretched to the limit. Between the Bush tax cuts,
homeland-security needs, Iraq, Afghanistan and the bailout, the budget is looking bleak. Plus, within a few years, the retirement of the baby boomers begins with its massive and rising costs (in the trillions).

Obviously these are very serious challenges and constraints. In these times, for John McCain to have chosen this person to be his running mate is fundamentally irresponsible. McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, it is simply not true.


[Answer: The actual Palin interview was #2.]

4 comments:

Michael Markman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael Markman said...

We've all been telling the story of the Palin travesty to one another for a while now. Here are two tellers worth reading:

Dave Winer, and Hendrik Herzberg (New Yorker). I urge you to read them both.

For most people the story ends, "we can't have this unprepared woman a heart-beat away from the presidency."

But the more compelling ending is this: "we can't have the arrogant, erratic, exploitative risk-taker who hired this woman in the presidency in the first place."

(reposted to correct typo)

Michael Markman said...

Sorry. In reposting, I lost the links. Here they are:
Dave Winer
Hendrik Herzberg

Anonymous said...

dhaxjhwtIn fairness to Ms. Palin, the burden she's being asked to carry is huge. Added to her clear lack of understanding on many issues is the burden of trying to tiptoe through the minefield of John McCain's shifting and erratic postions on many of these same issues. Her fail-safe resort to "common sense" bromides isn't a reliable refuge, because too often she has to reconcile "common sense" with McCain's already convoluted position. Adding to this difficulty is her inability to resort to McCain's "I was a POW" fortress of unaccountability.