But this is big news: 59 % of Americans now agree with me that Palin is unfit for VP! Up by 9% in less than a month. This merely confirms what I've been saying for a while - that picking Palin was a huge and stupid gamble for McCain that has not paid off - in fact, all evidence says she has dragged down the ticket. Bob Cesca on HuffPost agrees:
But what's almost as thrilling [as the end of Bush] is the prospect of Sarah Palin finally going away. Next Wednesday at this time, it's entirely possible that we'll see the last of Sarah Palin on the national stage. At least for now.
Sure, she's provided us with a bottomless cup of blogging material and, more importantly, she's a huge drag on the McCain campaign. And this week, with the Conga line of McCain campaign insiders dishing out leak after delicious leak about Palin, the slow-motion McTrain-wreck has been especially entertaining. But ultimately, the schadenfreude and the hilariously inexplicable interviews are merely distractions from the truly awful things that Sarah Palin represents.
I've seriously had enough of the winking, the giant-chinned-smirking, the too-sibilant forks-on-a-chalkboard "s" sounds, the "nookyooler," the "you betchas," and especially her Romper Room-like penchant for naming and labeling everyone in her audiences: "Romper bomper stomper boo, tell me, tell me, tell me, do! I see Joe the Plumber, Roscoe the Racist, Zed the Gimp..." Yeah, she's not unserious enough as it is. Give her something really stupid to do on the stump. Good call, McCain people.
Today, Palin continued to provide evidence of her vast ignorance of the US Constitution and of her unshakeable faith that all laws were written only to serve her whim: she claimed that her "First Amendment rights may be threatened by "attacks" from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama." Constitutional law expert Glenn Greenwald has this to say:
Somehow, in Sarah Palin's brain, it's a threat to the First Amendment when newspapers criticize her negative attacks on Barack Obama. This is actually so dumb that it hurts.
The First Amendment is actually not that complicated. It can be read from start to finish in about 10 seconds. It bars the Government from abridging free speech rights. It doesn't have anything to do with whether you're free to say things without being criticized, or whether you can comment on blogs without being edited, or whether people can bar you from their private planes because they don't like what you've said.
If anything, Palin has this exactly backwards, since one thing that the First Amendment does actually guarantee is a free press. Thus, when the press criticizes a political candidate and a Governor such as Palin, that is a classic example of First Amendment rights being exercised, not abridged.
This isn't only about profound ignorance regarding our basic liberties, though it is obviously that. Palin here is also giving voice to the standard right-wing grievance instinct: that it's inherently unfair when they're criticized. And now, apparently, it's even unconstitutional.
According to Palin, what the Founders intended with the First Amendment was that political candidates for the most powerful offices in the country and Governors of states would be free to say whatever they want without being criticized in the newspapers. In the Palin worldview, the First Amendment was meant to ensure that powerful political officials such as herself would not be "attacked" in the papers. Is it even possible to imagine more breathaking ignorance from someone holding high office and running for even higher office?
UPDATE: The Constitution also guarantees freedom of association. Thus, by Palin's "reasoning," when newspapers -- or Palin herself -- criticize Obama for his associations, they're threatening his constitutional rights.
All I can say is, while Palin has provided a lot of fun for me blogging here, I can't wait to toast her exit from the national stage in less than 4 days! And I hope that the good people of Alaska have the sense to impeach her and make sure she never holds public office again.
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