The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Blogging About Pathetic Perverts and Also Andrew Sullivan’s Sarah Palin Toe Fetish

Posted on | August 15, 2011 | 84 Comments

Sarah Palin thronged by admirers during her Friday visit to the Iowa State Fair.

HARTSELLE, Alabama
Does the headline seem a tad redundant? Never mind. My travels around Iowa and yesterday’s 700-mile trip with Ladd Ehlinger down here to Alabama have kept me offline so much that I haven’t had much time to keep up with headlines, e-mails and such. (I’m waaaaaay behind on thank-you notes to tip-jar hitters.) So now I’m doing some catch-up blogging, and the first thing I stumbled across was the POH Diaries post about a 56-year-old music teacher who “was caught nude performing sex acts on a childlike doll that police say he had cut holes into.”

Was it a boy doll or a girl doll? The newspaper story doesn’t say:

Officers were called to Allendale Elementary School on Prescott Way in Spring Hill amid reports of a white male with a duffle bag under a bridge on school property. . . .
According to Torroll, he suffers from an attention deficit disorder which he says affects his inability to resist certain sexual impulses, though none of which involve children. . . .
On the Web site DannyTorroll.com, the Web site for the Danny Torroll Skool of Music and Art, Torroll says he teaches “eight very gifted students” ranging in age from seven to 12-years-old.
He describes the school as “an anomaly in the upper education platform for serious students of all instruments,” according to the site.

Is he teaching flute lessons to these “very gifted students”? And if he has the “inability to resist” an impulse to have sex with a doll outside an elementary school, what other impulses does Danny Torroll find irresistible? Again, the article doesn’t tell us. But speaking of twisted freaks with irresistible impulses . . .

Why can’t Andrew Sullivan resist the impulse to mock Sarah Palin?

Really, Sully: Did you have to turn a photo caption of Sarah Palin’s toenails into a post? Is your sadistic compulsion to diminish and ridicule women so overwhelming that you lack the willpower to necessary to fight the urge? Do you lack even the basic self-awareness necessary to recognize that your persistent symptoms of Palin Derangement Syndrome reinforce harmful stereotypes of gay men as vicious weaklings with “mommy issues”? And if not, are you such a reckless misogynist as to disregard how your attacks on Governor Palin foster hostility to women in politics?

Expecting restraint and self-awareness from Andrew Sullivan is a doomed hope, of course, but it is interesting to see that Sully’s PDS has continued long past the point where any serious observer believes Palin will run for president in 2012.

This reality — that the clock has run out on any realistic prospect of a Palin 2012 campaign — is one I hesitate to mention, for fear of offending those of her supporters who continue to hold out hope that Palin will mount a last-minute blitz campaign for the White House. While I don’t doubt that Mama Grizzly could do that, I have seen no indication that she will do that, and have been puzzled by her refusal to say definitively that she won’t do that.

Consider this: With all the assets at his disposal, Texas Gov. Rick Perry spent more than two months building the campaign machinery necessary to officially launch his presidential campaign in mid-August. So if Palin were to begin such an effort tomorrow — and there is no tangible evidence she’s planning anything of the kind — the earliest she could jump into the 2012 race would be mid-October, by which time many of those grassroots volunteers who might have supported her will have already committed to other campaigns.

By continuing to keep alive a tiny glimmering hope of her 2012 candidacy, long after the point when the whole “testing the waters” time-frame has passed its sell-by date, Palin is setting up her True Believers for a bitter disillusionment whenever the time comes for her to officially admit that she’s not running.

And I say that with full knowledge that the governor’s most devoted admirers will excoriate me for saying it, as if speaking the blunt truth makes me “anti-Palin.” Yet I have long defended Palin and her family, and have nothing but sympathy for all that she has endured the past three years.

What really bothers me is this: Last week I met with Peter Singleton and Michelle McCormick of Iowa for Palin, who continue to believe that a Palin 2012 campaign is inevitable. They have both moved to Iowa (Singleton from California, McCormick from Texas) to volunteer full-time as grassroots organizers on Palin’s behalf. When I talked to them about it, though, I was shocked to discover that Singleton and McCormick have done this without having any communications with Palin or Palin’s inner circle of advisers.

That is to say, they have no reason — other than their own True Believer enthusiasm — for thinking that Palin actually will run for president, and yet have upended their lives to lead this grassroots organizing effort.

Singleton and McCormick were eager to convince me to attend the “Restoring America” Tea Party rally where Palin will speak Labor Day weekend in Waukee, Iowa. I told them I’d love to be there, if the tip-jar hitters decide to send me, but that’s the point, you see: I’m happy to provide coverage of the event, as a service to readers, but I’d be nuts to go to Iowa at my own expense in order to cover what would appear to be a gigantic publicity stunt by someone who merely pretends to be considering a presidential campaign.

And that’s exactly how it appears, whether Sarah Palin intends it to appear that way or not. As I say, I’m fully aware that I’ll be excoriated for being so blunt about this, but it strikes me as grossly unfair to people like Peter Singleton and Michelle McCormick for me to bite my tongue. While I was at the Iowa State Fair last week to cover speeches by Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann and DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, I accidentally bumped into the gigantic swarm of admirers following Sarah Palin around:

At the 9-second mark, you’ll hear me say, “Hey, Peter” — a greeting to Singleton, the gray-haired guy in sunglasses and an olive green golf shirt standing  about three-deep in the crowd to the left. When I checked the Twitter feed for Iowa for Palin, I noticed that they’d linked an ABC News story:

Palin said she hasn’t decided whether she would run for president, but suggested she was leaning toward a bid, adding: “When we’re ready to announce … you won’t be able to miss the announcement.”

And after sending out that link, Iowa for Palin then Tweeted: “Do you think any of the other candidates who have been confidently telling activists that Gov. Palin isn’t going to run will apologize to those activists for misleading them, once Gov. Palin gets in the race?” 

This scapegoats other Republican candidates, projecting onto them the responsibility for Palin’s own apparent indecision. But I noticed a telling omission: Nothing on Iowa for Palin’s Twitter feed or their blog indicated that Sarah Palin had even spoken to them during her Iowa visit, much less that she had given them any definite insight on her plans for 2012. Instead, Peter Singleton was following her around the state fairgrounds, three-deep in the scrum, no closer than I’d gotten merely by squeezing in to shoot a few pictures and a brief video clip.

If I am proven wrong — if Governor Palin does suddenly decide to jump into the 2012 campaign at the last minute — then I’ll apologize for having been mistaken. But I am not responsible for the fact that Palin doesn’t communicate with me, and in fact only communicates via Fox News, so that I have no more chance to ask her what she’s doing than does Peter Singleton, who appears to be completely in the dark.

Sarah Palin can tell Sean Hannity that she is “still considering” a 2012 campaign, and that’s OK: It’s just show business.

Hannity gets paid to ask her that question, and Palin gets paid to answer it, and News Corp. makes a profit from the ratings boost they get from their exclusive contract with the Make-Believe Presidential Candidate. And I’ve been in the news business too long to lay aside my cynical hunch that this is all there is to it.

My friend Dan Riehl seems to think otherwise — his post “Why Sarah Palin Needs To Run For President In 2012” was also re-Tweeted by Iowa for Palin — and it would be hard to conceive that I (or anyone else) could be more cynical about politics than Dan Riehl. Yet if there is any urge I find irresistible, it is my urge to avoid being a chump, a True Believer living on irrational hopes and dreams. Therefore, unless and until Palin officially declares her 2012 presidential candidacy, I’ll continue to scorn such talk as deluded True-Believer-ism, the naive babblings of chumps who’ve been bamboozled by a show-biz publicity stunt.

The only good thing about this is the knowledge that even the thinnest prospect of a 2012 Palin campaign must be haunting Sully’s nightmares.

Here’s wishing you unpleasant dreams, Andrew!

UPDATE: Well, I was wrong about something: Peter Singleton just called to tell me that, contrary to my impression, he and Michelle McCormick were invited to have lunch with Governor Palin, and then invited to accompany the governor on her walk around the fairgrounds.

My apologies for the mistake, which is entirely my fault. However, if I was wrong about that, could it also mean that I’m wrong about Palin’s plans for 2012? I don’t know. But if I am wrong . . .

Be afraid, Sully — be very afraid!

UPDATE II: When I began this post, I said I’d been “offline so much” that I’d missed a lot of things, among them this L.A Times story that would have cleared up my mistaken impression that Singleton was just randomly following Palin at the fair:

“Each campaign that I have ever run in these 20 years of elective office have been kind of unconventional, right, Todd? We’ve always been outspent, two-to-one, five-to-one, 10-to-one. Never won any polls heading into election night. But usually won the election. So it would be unconventional and very grass roots.”
Palin, who has a small, far-flung staff, some of whom are not experienced in national politics, added, “And I wouldn’t be out there looking for hires out of that political bubble that seemed to result in the same old ideas, the same old talking points, the things that Americans get so sick and tired of hearing and kind of suffering through. We want new energy, we want conviction and passion and candidness.” . . .
If she decided to run, Palin would not be starting from scratch here, where California attorney Peter Singleton, a supporter, has been living virtually full-time, criss-crossing the state meeting Iowans, building a database for Palin should she decide to run for president. He began his work without any coordination with SarahPAC, her political organization, but is now on Palin’s radar.
Singleton was invited to lunch with her in the fair’s VIP tent, and spent the rest of the afternoon at her side, a self-appointed bodyguard of sorts. He had met her last month in Pella, Iowa, at the premiere of filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon’s documentary about her, “The Undefeated.”
Palin also invited Craig Robinson, the founder of the website the Iowa Republican to lunch. Robinson said he had a five-minute chat with Palin.

I’m feeling like a mushroom here. IYKWIMAITYD.

UPDATE III: Dan Riehl rushes to join the Worldwide Universal Association of People Smarter Than Stacy McCain:

Whatever Palin is doing by way of preparation for a run is not what one is accustomed to seeing. Stacy is looking for the expected, not seeing it and concluding it’s too late for her. I’m looking at what I know and don’t know, while leaving a little room for what I don’t know I don’t know and concluding she’s running. Simple, isn’t it?

When I talked to Dan by phone a few minutes ago, he said, “Stacy don’t take it personally.” But when I am insulted — and to be purposefully excluded is to be insulted — it would compound my humiliation not to take notice of the insult.

Bear in mind that the people on Team Sarah have my phone number and e-mail address, and I know they read this blog. It wasn’t exactly a secret that I was in Iowa last week, and it was possible for them to let me know their itinerary. Instead, as always, they allow other news organizations — including liberal news organizations inimicable to their own interests — break exclusive news about their Iowa trip, while purposefully keeping me out of the loop. And when I dare take notice of these unsubtle backhands, I’m accused of being “too sensitive.”

When I want to make a fool out of myself, I don’t usually ask for help in doing so, and appreciate all this volunteer assistance from Team Sarah.


Category: Andrew Sullivan, Election 2012, Sarah Palin

Comments

84 Responses to “Blogging About Pathetic Perverts and Also Andrew Sullivan’s Sarah Palin Toe Fetish”

  1. Bob Belvedere
    August 16th, 2011 @ 12:23 am

    Well…we can agree on the Andrew Sullivan bits.

  2. Rose
    August 16th, 2011 @ 12:36 am

    She will run. And she will win.

  3. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2011 @ 12:46 am

    She will run. And she will win.

    You say that, but the only reason you have for saying it is your own desire that she should run and should win. This involves a distinction between “is” and “ought,” you see: Dan Riehl is arguing about the “ought” when he urges Palin to run. I’m arguing about the “is” when I say that she won’t run. And you see that, as regards future events, it is easier to argue what ought to be (as a hypothetical) than to state as a fact what is. The fact is, she’s not running. She may say she’s “considering” running, but that’s not the same as running, is it?

  4. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2011 @ 12:48 am

    it is “wu wei,” grasshopper. Sarah runs by not running.  *gong*

  5. Bert Spence
    August 16th, 2011 @ 12:51 am

    Can anyone say, “Donald Trump”?  In three years, Mrs. Palin has gone from unknown to queen of a strange sort of media empire.  She stays in the headlines as long as there is a possibility that she might run.  Once she officially says, “no,” a large part of the party is over.  Not all of it, just the part premised on her potential to become a candidate.  She has shown brilliant savvy in those three years.  I strongly suspect she has a concrete plan in place for her post-potential-candidate phase.  Personally, I wish she had thought it worth her time to take the seat now held by Lisa Murkowski, but past is past, and soon the phase during which she scared the American left into fits of trembling and urination that she might set her sights on the presidency will be over.  I have been entertained these last three years, and I think she has mostly used her powers for good, so I will be intrigued to see what comes next, but no one should fault Stacy for stating the obvious.  This flirtation with candidacy has either been a publicity stunt or an amazingly risky campaign strategy.

    One contrary point:  Simply because she has not built a traditional campaign staff does not mean she can’t still mount a late candidacy.  She has proven that she can transcend the “old media” way of doing things.

  6. Music Teacher Caught Having Sex With A Doll Outside School - The POH Diaries
    August 15th, 2011 @ 8:52 pm

    […] Linked by R.S. McCain, thank you […]

  7. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2011 @ 12:59 am

    She has proven that she can transcend the “old media” way of doing things.

    Et tu, Bert? This has nothing to do with the “old media.” It has to do with the fact that a campaign requires an organization. You don’t win the Iowa caucuses merely by being famous, or otherwise Hillary would have beaten Obama there.

    The notion that Palin is a rule unto herself — that she can win the GOP nomination without bothering to hire a campaign staff — is the kind of True Believer delusion that would die a very hard death were Palin actually to declare herself a candidate. But she’s not going to declare herself a candidate, because she’s not stupid enough to believe the kind of cloud-cuckooland nonsense that some of her True Believers believe.

  8. In or Out? « The Cranky Conservative
    August 15th, 2011 @ 9:00 pm

    […] not the only one who thinks it’s time for Sarah to make a decision.  Robert Stacy McCain suggests that Palin needs to make her move now before it’s too late.  In fact, he thinks it’s […]

  9. John Klepper
    August 16th, 2011 @ 1:17 am

    Bachman and Perry in the POTUS mix-up  means Palin should abscond lest obstreperousness defines her, as it would at this juncture.

  10. John Klepper
    August 16th, 2011 @ 1:21 am

    The sad fact of the matter is, Sarah Palin has the Ace of Spades Trump card:  Barack Obama winning a second term all but guarantees Sarah Palin will become the first female POTUS in 2016.

    Things aren’t about to improve in D.C. anytime soon, so why should Sarah dare get her powder wet now?

  11. DaveO
    August 16th, 2011 @ 1:30 am

    RSM,

      Palin does have an organization. And from the locales she’s visiting, her talking points, and her tactic of playing coy with the newsies – she’s got a plan, too. What she’s lacking is funding.

      Her partnering with Beck, and by extension Bachmann and the TEA Party and the leading lights of right-wing radio, looks to be a good strategic move to control the conservative message for at least the next 18 months.

      She isn’t running for POTUS, and I believe she won’t. She is the queen/king-maker for this election cycle.

      As a reporter, what is your opinion whether Reince Preibus will invest in the Palin Machine; and will he be able to harmonize/ synchronize the messaging and efforts of the TEA Party, Palin’s Machine, and the RNC and its sub-agencies? Or will the RNC consign itself to waging an internecine war throughout the campaign, as it did in Delaware, Arizona, and Nevada?

  12. Beto Ochoa
    August 16th, 2011 @ 1:36 am

    My Dad worked for LBJ, Connelly and John Tower. My Mom worked for Humphrey. What wins elections are the organizations. I remember one of the old guys saying he could get a potato elected with Lyndon’s organization.

  13. Prognostication On Palin Run For President…Will She Or Won’t She « That Mr. G Guy's Blog
    August 15th, 2011 @ 9:47 pm

    […] Blogging About Pathetic Perverts and Also Andrew Sullivan’s Sarah Palin Toe Fetish. […]

  14. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:02 am

    Sarah Palin is what 47? She doesn’t have to run this time to run for president.

  15. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:08 am

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    As the converse to what RSM
    himself has said, just because YOU don’t know what Sarah Palin is doing doesn’t
    mean she dosen’t know what she is doing.  As a blogger (reporter) you may be good at your
    trade but as a clairvoyant you haven’t any known
    credentials.  This 2012 race is going to be different than those in the
    past by any and all yardsticks. 

    Romney as Mr. Smoothie is out of his
    league, Ron Paul is the McGovern of 2012 (wrong party), the Iowans made the
    point of who is weak (Pawlenty) and Bachmann has some intrinsic shortcomings. 
    Nonetheless, RSM is still in his dream world thinking that the mellifluous Cain is going to
    sweet talk regular voters into believing that ‘a problem solver’ can read up on
    foreign policy, while he is apologizing for his last misstatement and just walk
    into the top elected political office in the country (world) with absolutely no
    prior elected experience. 

    Why not, Trump says he can do it? And its only
    words, right Stacy?  Forget that Cain wasn’t even NOMINATED to represent
    his own state to run for Senate 2004 (he didn’t even make the run-off). 
    He is even weaker than Santorum and no one in their right mind would nominate
    Ricky after he lost by 18% to a moderate Dem.  So Stacy, your viewpoint
    misses what any normal non-political professional would know from the
    headlines alone. 

    As to Palin and her options at this point, I would seek a source with some fundamental
    knowledge of basic politics and I don’t see that in most your presidential
    prognostications. 

  16. Anamika
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:15 am

    Yes, she can even run for the Pope if she so divines.

    Palin fans, clearly, fecked in the head.

  17. Anamika
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:18 am

    Electing a Potato is easier than electing a Palin.

  18. Anamika
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:22 am

    Becuase there will be others like Bobby Jindal who would be more deserving as the GOP nominee in 2016 than the 8 year quitter queen of reality drama.

  19. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:22 am

    Some people are sure that she is running. Others are equally sure that she is not. All we know for sure is that one group will be proven wrong. We do not know when.

    Isn’t it odd that interest in Palin’s plans is as large as interest in any other story about the campaign? Why?

  20. Anamika
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:28 am

    I’m saying she will run knowing full well that she won’t win the nomination. More drama, more publicity, more bucks.

  21. Doug
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:31 am

    Open borders Perry is doomed. Gwb ii with nice hair. Palin 9/3/11.

  22. McGehee
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:34 am

    A blog comment by a potato makes more sense than one by Anamika.

  23. Paul Zummo
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:36 am

    Completely agree on all fronts, especially about stalker Andy.  Palin supporters are quickly turning into slightly less obnoxious versions of Paulbots.  Please Sarah, just make up your mind already.

  24. Anamika
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:42 am

    It is only by losing all things that everything is gained.

    [“Kung Fu TV show mode on]

    Very good, grasshopper!

    [“Kung Fu TV show mode off]

    🙂

  25. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:51 am

    Very true.  But then, what doesn’t?  One would have to get very deep into Dadaism or the Surrealists to find something that makes less sense than Anamika.

  26. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:51 am

    Why do you hate strong women so much?

  27. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:52 am

    Why so much hatred?

  28. ThePaganTemple
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:54 am

    She’s got some big deal scheduled with Glenn Beck for around October 12th. I don’t know whether she’s planning on announcing then, or prior to that, but she’s obviously determined she’s going to be a factor.

  29. Anamika
    August 16th, 2011 @ 2:56 am

    Dear McGehee,

    What a lovely response.

    If you were here I would offer you a cup of the coffee I just made (if you like coffee). Would you like some eggs and potatoes? I have a great recipe for potato tortilla. We could sit out on the patio, and listen to the creek and the birds, and talk. I think we would be talking for a long time. There are ways we are alike and probably many ways we are different; it would be very interesting for us both.

  30. ThePaganTemple
    August 16th, 2011 @ 3:04 am

    You don’t know anything about Sarah Palin other than what you read about her in the liberal blogs.

  31. Anamika
    August 16th, 2011 @ 3:07 am

    RANDY:

    “DADA doubts everything. Dada is an armadillo. Everything is Dada, too. Beware of Dada. Anti-dadaism is a disease: selfkleptomania, man’s normal condition, is DADA. But the real dadas are against DADA.”

    http://althouse.blogspot.com/2007/10/dada-doubts-everything-dada-is.html

  32. ThePaganTemple
    August 16th, 2011 @ 3:13 am

    What would really be fun if Micelle Bachmann won would be to see Sullivan’s reaction to Marcus Bachmann being the first gentleman, seeing as how Marcus believes he can cure da ghey. If you think Sullivan has been ranting and raving about Palin, just wait. Especially if Marcus as “First Gentleman” announces as his “cause” the curing of homosexuality. If there really is any kind of a God in any kind of a heaven, this just has to happen.

  33. The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Dear Governor Palin: Please Call Me
    August 15th, 2011 @ 11:23 pm

    […] it's off the record and I'll even deny we ever talked, if that's what you want. I've kind of been moaning a bit about my own lack of access, and you can chew me out for that, if you want — on the record or off the record, however you […]

  34. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2011 @ 3:32 am

    Glad you updated the post about Singleton meeting with Palin because as I was reading your post I couldn’t help but think how uninformed you were.

    Also, I’m not sure why you are lying and clinging to meme that Palin only communicates through Fox News. I suggest when you get time maybe you can correct that lie as well. Palin might not have talked to RS McCain, but she did speak with CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, local media outlets and anyone else that asked her a question while she strolled the fairgrounds.

    I guess you’re still upset that Palin shot down your little rumor a few weeks ago. Get over it. The fact that Palin has proven people like you wrong throughout her political career leaves me to believe that she will do it again.

    For someone that says they have no contact with Palin then how do you know what kind of organization that she is building or not building? The fact is that you don’t and this is just your guess or more likely wishful thinking.

    My guess and wishful thinking is that she is preparing a run, does end up runnning and wins the GOP nomination.

    If I’m wrong then I’ll apologize.

  35. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2011 @ 3:55 am

    Dungbat.

  36. Anamika
    August 16th, 2011 @ 4:02 am

    If I’m wrong then I’ll apologize.

    You know RSM has a habit of getting it all wrong and is too humble to flaunt his ubiquitous record.  Yet, if at all RSM is ‘right’, don’t expect him to apologise for tainting his image though.

  37. Roderic Deane
    August 16th, 2011 @ 4:14 am

    Stacy, Stacy, Stacy!

    I know how hard it must be that you’re not “in the loop”. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to sit there with the rest of the media and wait for something to happen, putting your spin and respected logic to bear in trying to explain it.

    Personally, I have long ago cast aside expectations that I will be granted an “inside” scoop regarding her true intentions. I’m kept waiting as you are, but I’m not whining about it. I’m taking heart in my personal belief that she WILL run. There is absolutely nothing out there to suggest that she HAS to announce anything soon. She can play the waiting game for quite a while, as the other announced candidates throw each other to the wolves and are devoured by the mainstream media in the process.

    She doesn’t need to worry about name recognition. She’s a household name, for good or bad. It’s kind of like the old Hollywood maxim: There’s no such thing as bad publicity as long as you’re getting publicity. In Sarah’s case, it’s now becoming good publicity.

    Check out my blog at http://rodericdeane.blogspot.com. I’ve got some eye-openers for you, including a video from CNN. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever embed a video from CNN, but I did.

  38. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2011 @ 4:33 am

    No I think he would. I think this post was just an emotional release for RSM. He’s a good guy and a very good blogger. I enjoy his work, but disagree with him on this subject.

    I think that the rumor smackdown by Palin and RSM’s strong support for Cain played into this post. Hey, it’s his opinion and he did correct a few errors. I would like to see the ‘only’ Fox News meme corrected with an update as well since it’s a pure establishment and leftist talking point.

    I hate to see conservatives join in with the talking points developed by GOP insiders and leftist bloggers and repeat them as fact. I watched video of Palin talking to ‘everyone’ that asked her a question. It was the same on the NE leg of the bus tour and to claim she only communicates through Fox News is a lie. I expected more from a real journalist turned blogger.

    Oh well, like I said, I think this could be more personal with RSM for reasons mentioned above. His support for Herman Cain and Palin popping his hand with a ruler for his anonymous sourced false rumor.

    I expect by the time the Iowa vote rolls around RSM will be supporting Palin as hard as he would have if he had been with her from the start. It’s no biggie. We all have opinions. Sometimes they are wrong, sometimes they are right.

  39. Norman Invasion
    August 16th, 2011 @ 4:46 am

    If anyone here was alive in 1992, you’ll recall that the eventual winner wasn’t even on the popular-media’s radar in mid-1991.

  40. Adjoran
    August 16th, 2011 @ 4:59 am

    It’s really cute how people think Palin can win with “a different sort of grassroots campaign.”  All I can say is, her supporters are especially dedicated, loyal, and enthusiastic.

    And by “especially dedicated, loyal, and enthusiastic,” I mean “borderline psychotic stalkers obsessed with her and just one more fan letter written in their own blood away from a restraining order.”

    Dispersed grassroots supporters cannot comprise a competitive national campaign.  Those who believe it possible are playing a wishing game.  Even McCarthy’s “Children’s Crusade” and McGovern’s dirty hippy crusade were well organized nationally.  Facebook won’t do it.

    I think Palin is keeping the field on their toes and having fun with the media in her flirtation with a run.  But Fox gave Santorum and Gingrich the boot the minute they admitted seriously considering a run, and forced Huckabee to decide way early, yet Palin is left alone . . . either she is getting favored treatment, or has given someone high on the food chain assurances she won’t run this cycle.

    If I’m wrong, I’ll apologize, too.  But I’m not wrong.

    ~~~~~~~~~

    I don’t read Sully, and if those with enough time on their hands to waste doing so would only keep it to themselves, I could live out my years never hearing that jerk’s name.

  41. rae4palin
    August 16th, 2011 @ 5:21 am

    Are you related to Zigler?

  42. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2011 @ 6:19 am

    Oh gee whiz sweetie. I missed your little post. Are those awful Palin supporters bothering you? Sorry about that Paul.

    How do you know Palin hasn’t already made up her mind? Perhaps she was waithing for the other scrubs to implode and fade (Pawlenty, Gingrich and Cain), and for the others to have the spotlight long enough to be vetted (Romney, Bachmann and Perry).

    I figure Palin will give the media and the other campaigns long enough to expose Perry and all of his faults and then jump in the race and never look back.

    I will take Palin’s political instincts and past victories on the campaign trail over the impatience of Paul Zummo.

  43. McGehee
    August 16th, 2011 @ 11:15 am

    Anamika, I do like coffee, but I prefer to keep company with people for whom I have some measure of respect.

  44. Lady Liberty 1885
    August 16th, 2011 @ 11:24 am

    If Palin got in the race, she would be the only candidate for me. She is who I voted for in 2008 – not that bloated codfish McRino.

    I can’t make up my mind if she will step in or if she’s going to play Kingmaker.

  45. Lady Liberty 1885
    August 16th, 2011 @ 11:26 am

    To the contrary, Spuds are bigger terrorists than Tea Partiers….

    errr something.

  46. Bob Belvedere
    August 16th, 2011 @ 11:50 am

    Stacy does have a deep knowledge of how campaign politics  works, especially in the Republican Party.  His theory is quite valid — I happen to disagree with it [I have reached a different conclusion], but it is well thought out and reasonable.

  47. Bob Belvedere
    August 16th, 2011 @ 11:59 am

    Richard: As a Palin booster I am embarrassed by the behavior of  some of her die-hard supporters.  The cult of personality they’ve built up around her is as disturbing as the one that still surrounds BHO. 

    I think Mrs. Palin is the best person to go up against Obama [she’ll take the fight to the Leftists like Patton against the Hun], but I do not think she is a goddess.

    And I do not think it helps her cause to demonize anyone that makes a reasonable argument that is not favorable to her.  The Paulistas do this and no one in their right [pun intended] minds takes them seriously.

  48. ThePaganTemple
    August 16th, 2011 @ 12:53 pm

    She’s still got plenty of time. The Iowa caucus isn’t until what, five, six months away? Why should she jump in now? She could easily wait until South Carolina to get in, though I think if she does get in she’ll do it before the Iowa caucus.

    Just look at all the time, energy and resources all these people have been using up, and in some cases wasting, for the last year. Shit, Newt Gingrich has been going back and forth to Iowa for the last two years, giving speeches, meeting people, attending events. You saw what good it did him. Look at Tim “Snooze Button” Pawlenty. I could see the money he flushed down the toilet circling the bowl from way over hyar. It’s too bad I didn’t know him. He could have given me that money in exchange for advising him to stop the madness. It would have been money damn well spent. At least he wouldn’t have looked like the booger eating idiot he looks like now.

    If Palin does get in she’ll be fresh and ready to rock. Everybody else might as well make way for her. Bachmann and Perry both will just fade into the woodwork, and memo to Stacy McCain-sorry bud, but Herman might as well go back to work for Godfathers. Sara’s going to need somebody to feed that army she’s going to have as her staff.

    As for the Romneylan, once all is said and done he might pull between thirty and forty percent of the vote once Sarah gets in. If he really works hard he might be able to find himself seven or eight new wives out of that batch of voters and head to new Jerusalem, somewhere just west of the Mississippi.

  49. Paul Zummo
    August 16th, 2011 @ 1:07 pm

    Wow, you really showed me Richard.  I made a very minor critique of Palin (whom I have defended and still like)  and obviously I kicked too much sand in your vagina while doing so.  It kind of proves my point about Palinistas being as thin-skinned as Paulbots.

  50. William_Teach
    August 16th, 2011 @ 1:18 pm

    Wait, Sullivan is still blogging?

    Kinda interesting that since he left The Atlantic, he’s been almost a non-entity in the blogosphere. Perhaps The Daily Beast has a bit more control of the lunatic.

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