I would say "brazenness," because Palin certainly is not suffering from some kind of memory deficit (unlike McCain). But she, and her handlers, certainly assumes voters suffer from it.

Of course, we could discuss actual reality and bring up the FACT that the administration is already crossing the border into Pakistan without "permission."

So Tell Pslin " We keep the tapes."

So Tell Pslin " We keep the tapes."

So Tell Pslin " We keep the tapes."

I honestly think she doesn't understand what she is saying. They are just words to her, so she can say whatever she wants and everything is cool. She probably has no idea what she is saying today is the opposite of what she said three weeks ago.

I want to make sure I have this straight: When Palin says something to voters at a pizza joint and it's caught on video which gets distributed, that's shameful "gotcha" journalism. When Obama or Biden say something in a private meeting with volunteers or a fund raiser and their words are recorded and distributed, that's fair game.

I do have that correct, right?

It is shamelessness. The McCain campaign doesn't care about telling the truth to their base because they know their followers are too stupid to know the difference. The people that are showing up for their rallies are little more than a mob. They don't take the time to try to understand any of either candidates real positions. They are such completely incompetent people that they accept anything that any republican tells them at face value. The McCain campaign is leading them straight to hell and they are so foolish, they don't have a clue.

"... we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

Incompetence and shamelessness are not strangers to the Republican Party, either.

It doesn't matter what Palin says, they masses are waiting for appropriate pauses to boo or cheer. She can make up words if she wants and they wouldn't know the difference: "Senator Obama SAYS he wants to fromulate your tax dollars to exstremmulate the economy, but it will only DEstremulate the economy and we have to say enough's enough! He's wurtzeling around with terrorists while good Americans like you have to profilentery your 401K! When will the madness end?" And they will whoop it up and call anyone who says she doesn't make sense a terrorist. My fondest hope is that a few years from now, IF Obama gets elected and we start to move on a right track, away from dependence from foreign oil, away from the messes Bush made in Iraq & Afghanistan, as our world reputation slowly heals, at least SOME of these maniacs on the other side are able to see things are genuinely better and realize they were acting like flaming a-holes.

I won't hold my breath.

If you contort yourself hard enough, you can say that today's statement is actually consistent with the campaign's position all along -- that what she said three weeks ago is illegitimate and doesn't count, as if she never said it, because of the "gotcha journalism." Those words just came flopping out of her mouth and she can't be held accountable for them.

Obama has been wrong all along!

It is in fact as incredible as it is surreal that this fucking creature thinks that it can say anything about foreign policy / ideas/ strategies at all .. i mean what is the difference between training a parrot to say whatever it is trained to say and this evil creature ? what an insult to anyone with a pulse or capacity to think ... of course that leaves out all of the automatons that are McEvil's and Mrs 666 'base' ...

I'm curious, does Palin remember three weeks ago?

Though rhetorical, its still a non-starter.

Palin is the perfect example of pure, unbridled political ambition. Ambition with no goal other than power. Power for the sake of power.

Its all just one big game, with a Bush-like detachment from self-realization of just what consequences her actions hold.

She knows that half of what she says contradicts herself, but who cares, she understands the short lifespan of the news cycle. Say what's needed for the moment and move on.

After watching, listening, reading. I don't think anyone knows what her core values really are. If she wasn't in the political spotlight, I wouldn't be surprised if she would've let her daughter get an abortion if she chose.

Though she does have that perfunctory, delusional, vacant smile that comes with the territory for a lot of fundamentalists. Its that look that something like "I can do anything and justify anything because I'm a person of faith."

Looking in the mirror before bed, she simply says "Rockstar!"

There you go again, looking back a few weeks ago and holding a candidate accountable for what was said JUST A FEW WEEKS AGO; this is no big deal, someone should just ask her to clarify also. I am sure she'd be happy to.

Have you seen Will Ferrell in "Anchorman" ? He's a local TV anchor who reads whatever's on the teleprompter. His rival (played by Christina Applegate) tweaks the teleprompter script to finish the broadcast with "Go f*ck yourself, San Diego".

Anyone with a sense of humor have access to Palin's teleprompter ?

Does anybody realize that the Bush adminstration has ALREADY adopted a policy of attacking across the border into Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistan government.

In fact the Bush adminstration has actually gone FURTHER than Obama's policy would (Obama states he would only act on actionable intelligence to get Bin Laden) by chasing after extremists and targeting their bases.

Palin's entire argument makes no sense given the reality on the ground.

For that matter neither does Obama's.

Both campaigns are talking in a vacumm like it was still early summer and all the changes that have occurred in Pakistan over the last 6 months have not happened.

It's pure, shameless pandering, that's all. My question is, what are the media doing still covering her speeches and campaign stops even though she stubbornly refuses to hold an open press conference or even let them talk to supporters at her rallies? Speaking of shamelessness...

@ Lifelong Dem

Yes. You are correct.

Do you, Steve B., or any of your associates, have access to interview any of the MSM talking heads? We spew our words of challenge and expose the lies, but it never seems to penetrate the TV world. Get Tom Brokaw or Katie Couric or some lesser name to submit to an interview and ask the questions being asked here. Until it gets into the "mainstream", no one will pay any attention and will buy whatever is being sold, like any good consumer.
peace,
st john

I really liked what Rachel Maddow's guest said last night--the witty guy with the "expertise" on the Daily Show whose name is escaping me now--I love what he said about why he didn't really want to watch Palin on Saturday Night Live. I agreed completely.

Rachel asked him why. He said something to the effect that he wasn't prepared to see Palin attempt to once again "re-invent" herself. That folks keep claiming we haven't yet seen the real Palin and such. (In other words, "Yeah, right--we've seen plenty, and it ain't pretty").

Frankly, I had enough of her after her mocking acceptance speech a couple of months ago. It was so clear right then and there that she is a mean-hearted full of rhetoric/hot air: pit-bull with lipstick. I mean, she told us herself.

Maya Angelou says: 'When people tell you who they are, listen'.

This kind of double back-flip used to work very effectively in the old-style, 2004-type media environment, in which McCain and Palin think they are still operating. The power of positive thinking could virtually erase public awareness of an earlier, contradictory position, or of conflicting evidence. But now, with highly capable audio and video equipment everywhere, and viral warpspeed publication, and creative ways to compile information for publishing, we're finally seeing the beginnings of accountability - it just hasn't sunk in yet for McCain and Palin. And for many of their constituents who still choose to be spoon-fed from sources like Fox.

You silly people. Don't you know today is Opposite Day?

Palin is completely self-centered. Everything in her life is about her breath-taking narcissism. She drags her young children and special needs infant onto the international stage and then complains that the media are "going after" her kids. If SNL wants to do the country a big favor they could hire her as a regular so she will retire from politics and move into improvisational theater. She has already shown she has the aptitude for it by how she campaigns. Palin really just makes it up as she goes along.

Incompetence and shamelessness frequently go together. Incompetent people are much more likely to blame outside circumstances for their failures; competent ones admit mistakes.

I don't buy any of the arguments that she's just reading what's put in front of her. She's perfectly capable of understanding what it means, she just doesn't care whether it's true or not, only whether it "works." Harry Frankfurt's "On Bullshit" remains the definitive reference for understanding modern conservative rhetoric.

Normally I would completely agree with criticism anytime Obama agrees with Palin....

Sure does make life confusin'.

"I don't buy any of the arguments that she's just reading what's put in front of her. She's perfectly capable of understanding what it means,"

She's capable. She just can't be bothered.

And I don't mean this as a way to excuse her. Politics is always a team sport, with a whole lot of staff working behind the scenes. When the results are good, the candidate takes most of the credit; when the results are bad, the candidate takes most of the blame. Gov Palin is responsible for the dishonesty of her public statements whether or not she's thinking about them.

She just reminds me a lot of Ron Burgundy, with the careful hairstyle and the snazzy suits and the practised smile, and I just wonder what happens if one day her teleprompter comes up with "As Ronald Reagan used to say, Go f*ck yourself America" ?

On the other side, Sen Obama can take much of the credit for the excellent performance of his campaign, though he obviously doesn't do all the work himself.

I love the crowd on cue: "Boo!"

I have to assume that the collective intellect at a Sarah Palin campaign event is just above some stucco and a box of Klenex..

"Oooh! Ahhh! ... Shiny!"

Greg Sargent has found a repeating theme: Writing about "Palin Says McCain Will End "Abuses Of Power" -- Despite Report Saying She "Abused Her Power", he said "Whoever didn't cut that line from her speech today is either incompetent or very, very brazen."
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/despite_report_finding_she_abu.php

For Palin, reality is a figment of everyone else's imagination. Its only lying if you get caught. Even then any reason you have to justify it makes it ok.

I like the way Garrison Keillor put it:

"The lady is talking freely about matters she has never thought about."