First Dude

Well, you need silk boxers to look good in front of crowds and er...um...
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Right, they soaked the RNC for every penny they could.

That makes me laugh. They bring in Palin only to find her spending all their money on makeup and silk boxers for her snowmobile man. They should have kept the snowmobile outfit from SNL for Todd, at least that made me notice him.

Yep, Joe-Six_Pack, properly accessorized, the perfect choice for higher office.
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Being a decent person, I feel like I should avert my eyes, but just can't. However, as someone noted yesterday, taking everything the McCain loyalists say at face value ain't too smart neither. They are the folks who crafted the most blatantly dishonest presidential campaign the nation has seen in decades. So, we should believe them now?

I've got to avoid thinking about this. It's not only of small importance in the grand scheme of things (see Joe's post below) but it reinforces every negative stereotype I might have had about 'heartland' types and it's not healthy for me to overgeneralize that way!

Sorry to post Newsweek at TIME, but this is my favorite Todd Palin quote:

"So what's the difference between a snowmobile and a snow machine, anyway?" Salter asked. "They're the same thing," Todd replied. "Right, so why not call it a snowmobile?" Salter joshed. "Because it's a snow machine," came the reply.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167905/page/3

In case anyone missed this, Campbell Brown really cut through the bull on the whole "blame Palin" thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9btFMzilwMg
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Brown has really impressed of late.

wvng
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I wanted to point this out yesterday but forgot. Yes the McCain people led a very dishonest campaign, but we shouldnt forget that one of the most dishonest people in the campaign was Sarah Palin. Ultimately I think Sarah Palin will come out of this looking like a victim because so many of these attacks are from unnamed sources. But that shouldn't obscure the fact that weeks after every fact checking website on the net had debunked it she was still on the stump giving her bridge to nowhere spiel. And lets not even get started on "palling around with terrorists" Now I think its scummy that they are st@bbing her in the back after they decided to pick her with little to no vetting in the first place, but that doesnt mean that they are wrong or are lying about her. And remember quite a bit of this stuff isn't information that has been leaked after the election. The stuff Cam Cameron was saying on Fixed Noise was quotes he had gotten earlier in the campaign that he agreed not to release until after the election. All in all I see no reason for them to lie about her expenditures which can be easily checked. I really don't see a need for them to lie about her not knowing who signed on to NAFTA nor that she didn't know that Africa was a continent. Think of it this way, a statement like that almost HAS to be true because the average person is going to think its not. It would serve no purpose if it was a lie because most people would dismiss it out of hand anyway like rose83 did yesterday. So what motivation would they have to lie about something that most people would have a hard time believing in the first place? In my opinion THATS what makes it all the more believable to me.

Paul, this is the not-at-all funny vision of the heartland that we really and critically need to see and understand right now. In response to Kathleeen Parker's truly stunning op-ed today, this comment:
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"From another southern black woman: I cried twice too. So did my husband and my grown son and grown daughter who were watching with us. But I also wanted to celebrate and talk about it the next day. But the wierdest thing in Alabama is that nobody mentioned politics the whole election season nor did they Wednesday after the election. In Alabama among white people it is if it did not exist. The Universe I read about in the Washington Post does not exist in Alabama. I have two friends who like me voted for Obama and we celebrated in emails to one another. In our office, in restaurants, nothing from other lawyers as we waited to go into our hearings Wednesday,nothing. The only mention of Obama from my office staff came from an email forwarded to me with I think good intentions from one member of my staff, originally from Mr. Blackwell from Ohio who wrote that Obama was a Socialist and most likely the Anti-Christ. I thank you for your column as I search online for people, for words written down about their emotions Tuesday night, because I sure don't hear a word here in Alabama. It was especially meaningful that these words came from a Southern white woman.
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pukadog2 wrote: My comment above should have read from a Southern white woman. It is important to my comment that you understand that I am white and that I voted for Obama"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/06/AR2008110602126.html
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A friend sent a similar note from New Orleans:
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"We were in New Orleans for the election--the Quarter was spooky quiet, with all the shutters closed.
Almost all of the black people were completely straight-faced. Perhaps afraid of reprisals since only 20% of whites in LA voted for Obama. We walked the quarter, which now is mostly white anyway, and only saw one outburst of celebration by a group of 4 young black men. There was an election viewing party by Young Black Professionals, and it was very low-key. I mean black people seemed afraid to show any emotion or even acknowledge what had just happened. I quietly said to one of the women we passed--"We're so excited," and she flashed me a secret smile. A small truck with black sanitation workers riding on the back went by and we shouted "Obama" and they just looked at us stone-faced.
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There was one white gay man shouting "Obama" and we joined him, then he yelled to the air--"shoot my ass, I don't care." There was a group of very vocal white people (4 or 5) on a balcony--possibly tourists, yelling for joy, and a bar full of young white people celebrating. It was the quietest I've ever seen the Quarter. Almost no one on the street.
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The day before, I had overheard a Latino man from Texas talking to a black man in his 70s or 80s about how Obama is not qualified, and the black man said, "He's too young." I felt that it was agreement for the sake of staying out of controversy. I spoke up and said that we had voted for him.
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A gay man we know, who is probably Republican, though he said he voted for Obama, went to vote at a 9th Ward polling place and he said there was a poster at the polling place announcing an Obama victory party. He said that he told them it wasn't allowed there and they ignored him, so he ripped it off the wall.
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There was an election viewing party in the Lower 9th that we wanted to go to and vascillated about for a long time--but we were afraid to go there after dark, thinking we'd have to park some way off and walk in the dark to get to the Lower Ninth Ward Village--a community center of sorts.
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The next morning, we went to get coffee in our hotel coffee shop, where there was a black parking attendant in his 70s and a 50's-ish coffee shop waiter/manager. The older man had the paper with Obama headlines in front of him, hidden by his forearms, and they were both expressionless. We said, "We're so happy and excited that Obama won; we and my 88 year old mother voted for him." Then they began talking about how sincere and beautiful his speech was and how hopeful they are, and how much it means. "Let me get you some coffee, baby," the manager said to us. We all had tears in our eyes. We hugged the manager before we left to head back to Texas."

"An angry [McCain] aide characterized the shopping spree as 'Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast,' and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books."

-- Rolling Stone

wvng -- I might be a bit off-base here, but I think after they got bush elected twice, they figured they could pas5 off a trained chimp onto the American electorate and get it into office. So by that logic, she must have been a very substandard and recalcitrant chimp indeed.
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Its far easier than being accountable for your own actions--which isn't in the Republican DNA anymore; they've (in)bred out the Goldwater genes.

Karen,

(cross-posted)

A record 64.1% of the US voting population voted in 2008, exceeding the 1960 vote of 63.1%. 148,218,161 people cast their vote in 2008, up from 122,294,978 who voted in 2004. It may turn out be the highest turnout of than any presidential election in the 20th century.
Your post downstairs is wrong about voter turnout being flat. That piece was based on *projections* and not actual data. They should be more careful of about trying to make definitive statements with *projected* data, and I hope you will correct your post below. This is exactly the way that misleading narratives get started in the MSM -- someone runs with an erroneous, fact-free story and no amount of facts or truth will shake the reporters from their certainty.
They are called Zombie Lies.

Source: National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960–2008 — Infoplease.com

Spray tan? For a guy who could have possibly been First Dude?? Look, I'm metrosexual in an off-beat redneck sort of way, but spray tan? Sure, it's fitting for some club kid or Jersey-ites, but First Dude?? Doesn't exactly go with hunter/fisher/roughneck/outdoorsman extraordinaire. Someone check Boehner's expense accounts, stat! Although, he probabaly went all-in and just bought the Wolf Tanning System for home and office.

Speaking of trained chimps, Adam at Daily Kos has serious thoughts about Palin's future. A must read:
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The Wilderness Years
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/7/10101/7163/401/655558

BTW, I have a long and substantive comment that may come out of moderation at some point.
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ta

Sarah Palin deserves every [true] grenade lobbed at her for this. I will never, ever, forget or forgive that. Never.

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Aren't they donating it all to charity? I can imagine that a pair of Todd Palin's used silk boxers would fetch a high price at some wingnut auction, like the Bill Bennett Charity Auction for Gambler's Anonymous or something like that...
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Yes, that's not a real auction but it should be.

I would like to know from Mark Salter who on the campaign, if anyone, wrote the line "doesn't see America the way that you and I see America." Would someone please get the author of that statement on the record? All of this gossip - fine. Who on the McCain campaign was dividing up America? Please get this on the record. If it's Salter, shame on him. Who wrote it?

What's really interesting and forgive me if this is something that has already been mentioned but I think its odd that everyone is so focused on blaming Palin or the McCain operatives for this loss. Is it possible that it is in their best interest to find a scapegoat because they don't want to admit they got beat by the black guy? I mean all I am hearing lately is that McCain lost because of the economic meltdown, the bad Bushies or rock'em-sock'em Sarah -- is it possible that they lost because they got beat badly by a guy with a superior intellect, who used superor judgement to pick a superior campaign team that ran the best darn campaign in American history.

Holy moly.
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13 suitcases?? 13??!!!????
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So is the republican lawyer gonna repossess the first dude's duds too? The sheer hutzpah of it all is just astonishing. Did they think this would not come out?

Dee. Yes.

Few things.
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yes, the shopping claims have to be true, because they can be checked. But you won't see Palin's name signed to any of them. She'll be able to play the victim to her supporters on this one, too.
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As a TPMer emailed, why should you believe any anonymous McCain staffer on the "she was ignorant" claims? They lied, unceasingly, on the record and off in the interests of the campaign and their own futures. Why believe them now? And if this stuff was true, and they left her on the ticket, isn't this sorta tantamount to treason?
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Palin's gonna be in a lot of legal trouble over this. Taking that stuff from campaign funds is against the law. It's income as well, that has to be reported, and, like the very worst kind of game show prize, has a proportionately small cash value.
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Now legal trouble, especially legal trouble with the IRS, is not the kind of thing that endangers one's standing if the fans involved believe "Drill baby drill" is an energy and "Obama is a secret Muslim terrorist" is a reason to oppose his candidacy.
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I say again, if she hires the right handler, she can at least get rich offa this, and may be able to continue to lead the know-nothing base. (I have to say that I came to this because of earlier commentary here. The idea that anyone could take her seriously was incomprehensible.)

I know I know it's more fun to diss Sarah the secret shopper -- and I can't say that I feel keeping the clothes is like a consolation prize. But did they realy send a lawyer up there to take back the clothes from the kids? Gee whiz I always knew the GOP were mostly heartless SOB's but aren't these people supposed to be the comp@ssionate conservatives? Yes you can go after Sarah and her husband but leave the kids stuff out of it. At least let Levi keep his suit he might need it to get married in.

So is the republican lawyer gonna repossess the first dude's duds too? The sheer hutzpah of it all is just astonishing. Did they think this would not come out?
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I think this is kinda revelatory about the nature of politics in AK. It seems clear that they these were the normal perqs that come with moving up in class.
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Stevens' win or close loss was also revelatory in a similar way.

wvng, thanks for calling attention to the Daily Kos diary. I wonder if she is disciplined enough and intelligent enough to do the required self education. She can do a lot of fund raising for the base, but at some point she is going to have to respond to questions from the press and no matter how good the prep, you can't anticipate every one. Plus I think there will be a very bad taste left after this.
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Anything that isn't repoed by the RNC including the silk boxers (yuck), will be taxable income for them. As I recall learning that was what prompted her to originally say that she wasn't keeping them. I trust the IRS is on top of this.
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kathy, thanks for the link (in another thread) to Mudflats about the Alaska vote. One explanation is that the earlier vote counts were wrong - note the over 100% of voters in many areas, but then the question is why?

hammerlock: I don't think your trained chimp comment is too off-base. When Palin was first announced I started researching her and the way I perceived the dots connecting is that her so called "energy" experience (basically being pro oil and drilling), made her a useful replacement for Bush as a pawn for big oil interests - lack of intelligence included.