The country club mothers who’d guffaw “you’re lucky you don’t glow!” having discovered that I was near Chernobyl when the catastrophe occurred.

Holy shit.

oh lovely.

and btw, when the fuck was it consensus decided that these ghastly people were supposed to be “fun to have a beer with?” I’d rather have beer with someone who’s violently allergic to alcohol, as in projectile vomits it all over the place.

“People LIKE HER,” i.e., white folks, was the whole point behind Sarah Palin’s nomination. It’s my own opinion that Palin’s nomination was intended as a covert appeal to white racial anxiety. On National Review Online, at least as of Sept. 1, Palin’s advocates were supporting her almost entirely as a stage prop to attract a voter demographic that is often out of reach for the GOP. Since the GOP loses on the issues in 2008, the GOP has only the race card left to play, and GOP pundits (e.g., Peggy Noonan) who celebrate Palin’s ‘normalcy’ are, in the context of the 2008 election, sending a coded message to vote McCain/Palin because it’s an all-white ticket. Even McCain’s staff admits that McCain/Palin can win not on the issues but on what voters “can take away from the candidates” (i.e., how voters personally identify with candidates), and what the GOP’s target demographic is meant to “take away” from Palin is her race. Palin’s supposed blue-collar background and conservative social outlook here provide a plausible cover for white racist voters to vote against a black candidate. Unfortunately, this strategy might actually win the election for the GOP, and that bodes ill for this country.

Sorry to say something like that – I just didn’t know what to say right then.

Plus, agree with Renee.

Neither do I like how Palin goes on and on about how energy policy = foreign policy. NO. The world stage today is as complex as ever, and saying that supporting drilling in Alaska somehow makes you qualified is like saying that “well, I know all about corn fields in the Midwest, I ought to be VP.”

Her disconnect from the larger American population is actually significant as well, you’re right, Renee. The GOP is busy trying to paint her as this folksy, down-to-earth Every Woman, but no one is Every Woman. It’s an image they’re trying to sell, nothing more.

Ill and tired.

How many times has Sarah Palin actually traveled outside the U.S. again? Uh… You know what, as much as certain people can “relate” to the lack of stamps in her passport, the fact is, if my relative is sick, I don’t want a doctor I can “relate” to – I want a doctor who can do his or her job.

Not traveling is bad enough but I think that what makes it worse is the fact that she has made no attempts to educate herself beyond the needs of people like her who reside in Alaska and that is indeed a myopic world view. She cannot even relate to a large percentage of people who reside in the US never mind people that live outside its borders. She is the perfect example of how dangerous ignorance can be.