Two astute intellectuals sound off on Sarah Palin

CNN's idea of serious stuff
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The lamestream media, in its continuing quest for irrelevancy, wants the public to know the thoughts of two of the most profound thinkers of our time on Sarah Palin. So they are devoting precious airtime, bandwidth, and column inches to the opinions of Meghan McCain and Jesse Ventura.

First we hear from the daughter of McFrankencain, via that bastion of balance, CNN:

"I expect my family and Sarah Palin to be nothing short of crucified," the McCain daughter writes. "Another election is nearing and President Obama has publicly fallen from his stature as an infallible saint. It is in everyone's best interest to exaggerate and manifest things that didn't happen."

Curious how Miz Meghan couldn't be bothered about the forthcoming "Game Change" hit flick when only the part of Sarah Palin had been cast. But now that she realizes that she and her parents will also be subjected to the tender mercies of leftist Hollyweird, suddenly she's all bothered.

It's even more curious that Meghan should express concern that Gov. Palin will be "crucified," considering that if the 2008 vice presidential candidate is to be hoisted on a cross, the self-professed "progressive Republican" hammered in some of the nails herself.

Then there's Jesse Ventura. Again, via CNN:

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura says Sarah Palin will be the GOP nominee for president in 2012, and she'll "be controlled by the status quo."

[...]

"It seems that elections today are more popularity than they are substantial issues and she'd be perfect because she's the type of person that certainly will be controlled by the status quo and the power structure, so she'd make a perfect candidate for them," the WWE wrestling Hall of Famer-turned-politician declared.

Ventura, who has been as critical in the past of Gov. Palin as has Meghan McCain, doesn't have the first clue about what he's saying. Anyone who knows anything about the first woman to serve as governor of Alaska knows that she takes no marching orders from the "power structure." To the contrary, she has fought the status quo and the political establishment at every turn of her career. Could Ventura be that misinformed? Just guessing here, but we suspect too many body slams to his head in the wrestling ring provides the most plausible explanation.

We also don't believe it's any coincidence that both of these CNN "stories" carry the date of April Fool's Day. In both cases -- i.e., with Meghan McCain and Jesse Ventura -- they surely hear bells ringing. Ding, ding, ding...

- JP

Laura Ingraham: Meghan McCain ‘a poor man’s Ron Reagan’

“Is there any indication that she is a Republican?”
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Wednesday, Meghan McCain managed to grab some headlines with her appearance on leftist MSNBC, by calling Rep. Michele Bachmann a “poor man’s Sarah Palin.” Tonight on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News, conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham fired back:


h/t: Jeff Poor

- JP

Lori Ziganto and Jenn Q. Public: Meghan McCain's book, a tale told by a useful idiot

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Lori Ziganto and Jenn Q. Public have teamed up again at NewsReal Blog, where they take apart Meghan McCain and her book in "10 Reasons Meghan McCain’s Dirty Sexy Politics Should Have Been Called Ironic Clueless Narcissist." Excerpts follow:

Meghan McCain is not a big fan of Sarah Palin, as her book clearly indicates even if she tries to cover it up with back-handed compliments. Her Palin dislike started prior to even knowing that Palin was her father’s choice for running mate. You see, his choice was a secret, for obvious reasons. Well, obvious to anyone but Meghan McCain. She wrote:

"I still had no idea who my father’s running mate was. It was mystifying how unplugged-in I was..."

Yeah, no. There is no big mystery there, toots. You aren’t the most clever – hence the need to spell it out for you – nor the most discreet person around, that’s why. Also, you were, in a rare glimmer of good sense, not one of your father’s campaign advisors. Meghan’s dislike escalated further once it became clear that Sarah Palin was garnering a huge amount of attention. That doesn’t suit! Plus, Sarah Palin came from Alaska with JC Penney suits. Double crime.

Meghan reveals that she thought Palin was a ” time bomb” and that Palin “brought drama, stress, complications, panic and loads of uncertainty.” Meghan probably has never heard of that whole pot calling kettle black thing, because it’s Racist ™ and she’s super enlightened. But, even worse, she takes her frustrations out on the Palin children.

"Word went out that we weren’t supposed to swear in front of the Palins, or at least, all the little Palins. … But, at the same time, I had to wonder why there was a seven-year old girl riding on a campaign bus, whether staff was swearing around her or not"

Sigh. She then goes onto say that she was never urged to join Dad on the campaign trail. Meggie was all ticked that she couldn’t say the F word (she’s so edgy!) on the bus because Piper Palin was on it. So, she slammed Palin for having her kids travel with the campaign. After she begged to come along on the campaign trail herself. Plus, Piper was 7 years old at the time and Sarah is her Mama. Is she saying that moms should choose between career and children? Can’t a woman run for office and still mother and nurture her 7-year-old child by bringing her along whenever and wherever possible? I think you can, you know, control your cursing for a couple of hours on a darn bus, oh enlightened one.

The most ironic Palin bash, however, was this bit, in Chapter 13:

"I longed for a simpler scene and a simpler running mate; a straight ahead and experienced politician like good, old Joe Lieberman, who always kept it real and didn’t make himself the center of drama or chaos..."

[...]

"...when they arrived from Alaska and unpacked their bags, they brought drama, stress, complications, panic, and loads of uncertainty. And they brought a tabloid-attention-getting quality that my family has never had – and, God willing, never will."

Excuse me whilst we pick ourselves up from the floor, where we’ve collapsed in a fit of hysterics. The center of drama or chaos? Does she not own any mirrors? Oh, my. Bless her tabloid-attention-getting – by choice – heart.

Ouch! That's gonna leave a scar. You can read the full evisceration here.

- JP

Meghan McCain: 'I am team Romney'

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It will come as no big surprise to anyone that Meghan McCain is a Mitt Romney supporter. The self-described "progressive Republican" recently told "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno:

"I just want a candidate that's going to stop being so versus them. So right now I am team Romney."

She sure is. One of the requirements of being in the pit for Mitt is that you have to trash talk Sarah Palin, and Ms. McCain has done more than her unfair share of that. She slams Gov. Palin repeatedly in her recently-released book, while Sarah Palin has never, ever, said one unkind word about young Meghan's father. The elder McCain, while not criticizing Gov. Palin directly, has never lifted a finger to prevent first his campaign aides and later his daughter from smearing his former running mate. Loyalty and Respect are two-way streets, Senator.

John McCain's daughter has made two appearances on Palin-hating MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show, which leads us to wonder if the 25-year-old Vichy Republican plans to start a pro-Mitt, anti-Palin website anytime soon. She could call it "Moonbats for Mitt."

- JP

Meghan McCain: Sarah Palin has the "panache" to win in 2012

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Progressive Republican Meghan McCain, fielding questions from the audience at a speaking engagement at the University of Florida last night, remarked that she "liked" her father's former running mate Sarah Palin despite the differences in the two women's respective politics:

“I liked Sarah,” McCain said, “To me she represents a lot of feminist ideals. Our politics differ.”

She added, “I can’t stand here and say I hate her…I think anybody that underestimates her at any point is very foolish.”

McCain said she couldn’t comment any further because she plans to go into great detail about her experiences and conversations with Palin in her new book, Dirty Sexy Politics: A True Story, due to be released in August. The book is about life on her father’s campaign.

When asked if she thought former Gov. Palin could win the presidential election if she decides to run in 2012...

“Oh sure,” McCain answered, “I honestly haven’t seen another candidate so far that I believe has the panache.”

- JP

Liz Cheney or Meghan McCain?

The daughters of two famous Republican politicians have been getting some serious face time in the media lately. Meghan McCain has a head start, thanks to her blog, her father's campaign for the presidency last year and a set of beliefs which the Obama-loving drive-by media finds very close to their own. So she has been given a wealth of video footage and column inches to get out her message that even her father's GOP is still not sufficiently Democrat Lite to successfully suck up to the generation she assumes to speak for.

McCain The Daughter has gotten so much media exposure that she's starting to wear thin, even on the mellow nerves of crunchy cons, conservatives who are okay with some of the ways of liberalism. Meghan's ways, especially her attitudes about sex, are not those aspects of liberalism that the crunchies are comfortable with. Rod Dreher, in his latest BeliefNet blog post, calls her "moronic" and "a useful idiot for the media left."

On the other side of the Republican coin, there is Liz Cheney, whom Washington Whispers blogger Paul Bedard calls "the hottest Republican property out there." A growing number of conservatives including her close friends are pushing Liz Cheney to run for public office.

Bedard doesn't hold back on the praise for the elder Cheney daughter:

A forceful defender of the [Bush] administration and her dad, Liz Cheney has been appearing on TV with greater regularity. She brings to the screen a combination of her dad's steely focus and her mom's softer touch. "It's a two-fer. She comes off a bit better than he does sometimes," a conservative consultant said.

Allahpundit captured a fine example of that combination showing Liz Cheney easily pushing Lawrence O'Donnell into meltdown. In all fairness, however, O'Donnell has repeatedly proven that it's not that difficult a feat to accomplish.

Dick Cheney's daughter also did a fine job of pwning another O'Donnell - MSDNC's Nora - in a televised appearance late last month. On the same network's Morning Joe program, Liz reduced the Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning liberal columnist Eugene Robinson to sputtering, stuttering ineffectiveness.

Without question, Liz Cheney has inherited her father's ability to drive the Left into derangement mode, a characteristic both share with Alaska's Sarah Palin. On Gov. Palin, Megahn McCain has consistently said, "No comment," when the question inevitably comes up in interviews. She has obviously been admonished by her father not to directly attack his former running mate. But that hasn't stopped Megahn from going after the governor's daughter Bristol. Liz Cheney, on the other hand, says Sarah Palin is "terrific."

So the answer to the question posed by the title of this post is "Liz Cheney." It's a no-brainer. Liz Cheney, like the grown-up she is, calmly and effectively makes her argument, while Meghan McCain, in Rod Dreher's words, is "making a national fool of herself." The future of the GOP is found not in the valley girl foolishness of Meghan McCain, but rather in the clear-headed reasoning of Liz Cheney. 

Update: More on Liz Cheney from Rush here. Meanwhile, Carlos Echevarria suggests an interesting ticket for 2012.

- JP

Meghan hearts Eminem's Palin-mocking video

Via NRO's Jim Geraghty, the latest tweet from the McCain twit:

"I used to have the hugest crush on Eminem when I was in high school and he still looks hot in his new music video!!"

The puke rapper's latest video is none other than the sleazeball "We Made You," in which he fantasizes about Alaska's governor, portrays himself in bed with a porn star made up to vaguely resemble Palin and includes these lyrics:

Well I can be as gentle and as smooth as a gentleman
Give me my venom, an inhaler, and two Xenadrine,
And I'll invite Sarah Palin out to dinner, then
Nail her. Baby, say hello to my little friend.

Geraghty:

Good to know she thinks Eminem still looks "hot" while pretending to have sex with dad's running mate.

What the McCainette thinks is "hot" leaves conservatives cold. Mush-for-brains Meghan wants the Republican Party to change:

She thinks the Republican Party gives too much attention to Ann Coulter, whom she described as “offensive, radical, insulting, and confusing.” Rush Limbaugh is also unacceptable to Meghan, because he is the “extreme right-wing” and “dangerous” for the party — perhaps an unsurprising description in view of Rush’s hesitant and belated endorsement of her father in 2008. So whom does Ms. McCain think Republicans should turn to for political and cultural advice? None other than Russell Brand. A British “comedian,” Brand took time out of his MTV Music Awards hosting duties in September of last year to beg Americans to vote for Barack Obama. He also decided to insult and malign not just Sarah Palin, but her entire family.

And now I can only assume she wants the GOP to embrace the "culture" of misogynistic mayhem disguised as music and delivered by a disturbed and disgusting rapper. No thanks, Meghan. I, for one, will stick with my Floyd, Skynyrd, 3 Doors Down, Alison Krauss and Brad Paisley.

Meghan McCain is the face the drive-by media wants to put on the GOP. Republicans should say, "Face off!" Or, to borrow an old phrase recently heard from Governor Palin, "Over my dead body!"

Update: Dr. Melissa Clothier adds this:

Since the election, Meghan McCain has made quite the splash. Because she’s young, vapid and, like her father, hates her own, she’s a media darling. She is the perfect embodiment of what it means to be a moderate.

And Ace muses:

"For some strange reason, I have my doubts about Meghan McCain's claim that she wishes to help the Republican Party succeed."

- JP

Cross-posted at RedState.com

The Sleeper Must Awaken

The slow blade penetrates the shield.

The Hope for America caught Sen. John McCain's recent appearance on Jay Leno's show:

Leno: Who is running the Republican Party? Is it Rush Limbaugh? I mean...

McCain: We have, I'm happy to say, a lot of voices out there: Bobby Jindal, T... Pawlenty, Huntsman, Romney, uh... Charlie Crist. There's a lot of governors out there who are young and dynamic. Uh... Mitt Romney did a great job and continues to. There's a lot of good people out there, and I've left out somebody's name and I'm going to hear about it (laughs).

Leno: Right.

Yes, the Senator is hearing about it. Not only did he omit the name of Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina from that list of young and dynamic governors, but McCain somehow managed to "forget" the name of the running mate of his own choosing, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. I'm sure the three months that she tirelessly campaigned with him and for him are just a blur to Maverick now, but the election was less than six months ago. This was either a thinly-veiled snub of two conservative Republican governors, or the onset of senility. You decide.

The video of this exchange is here.

Meanwhile, I have to ask. Am I the only one who sees the drive-by media as perhaps a bit, just maybe, trying to build the perfect beast here? All of a sudden it's like she's the sweetheart of Sigma Delta Chi or something.

Politico seems smitten:

Cable news shows want her. More than 18,000 people follow her on Twitter. And now, as The New York Observer reported Thursday, McCain has lined up a six-figure book deal with Hyperion.

While swearing she has no interest in public office, McCain says she hopes to usher in a new era of modernity and moderation for the GOP.

-snip-

In the last month, she’s appeared on Larry King, Rachel Maddow and Roland Martin. In her latest sit-down with King, on March 24, McCain made headlines by confirming her “support” for President Barack Obama.

In a feature story on Ms. McCain last year, GQ gushed:

Charming and self-deprecating, McCain Blogette often makes Meghan’s 71-year-old father seem less old, which is surely one of the reasons it exists, even if Meghan occasionally does something like refer to Barack Obama as “sexy,” which she did right before the New Hampshire primary.

Today Meghan doesn’t back off that observation at all. “He’s a rock star,” she says of the Illinois senator. “Everybody flipped out, but I think universally women find him attractive. Whatever.”

Just yesterday in her blog on The Daily Beast, she advised the Republican Party to "go gay," and the nutroots left has gone all... well, nutty over her. There's a silver lining to their crush on the McCain kid, however. Thanks to Megahn McCain, the leftist bloggers can catch a deep collective breath, take a break from spitting their venom at the Palin clan, and say something positive about someone other than the Obamas (On half-brother Samson Obama, they are understandably silent, preferring to just vote "present").

So what are they promoting Megahn McCain to? Will she be the next generation of a new American political dynasty, a change agent to save the GOP from the evill wingnuts or just another gossip page rock star?

Of course, the usual suspects will spin this as just another vast rightwing conspiracy theory. Sorry, I have never questioned the president's citizenship, nor have I ever claimed that Howard Dean is the love child of Jimmy Carter and Helen Thomas. I do confess to being open to the notion that Dennis Kucinch is the congressman from the planet Gufi Prime, but I also have a lot of company on that one.

Spin cycle:

Know then that it is the year 2009. The FreeMan Universe is ruled by the Padishah Pundit, Shazzam IV. In this time, the most precious substance in the universe is the spin. The spin extends political careers, the spin expands voter bases, the spin is vital to air time. The Talking Guild and its navigators, who the spin has mutated over 200 years, use the spin, which gives them the ability to fold speech. Oh, yes. I forgot to tell you. The spim exists on only one planet in the entire universe. A blue, lush planet with vast forests. Hidden away underneath the rocks of these forests are a people known as the Omen, who have long held a prophecy that a man would come, a messiah, who would lead them to true utopia. The planet is Dukakis, also known as Goon.

Gildmaster MahaRushdie: "We foresee a slight problem within House McCain. Megahn, Megahn McCain."

Padishah Emperor Shazzam IV: "You mean of course Senator McCain, her father?"

Gildmaster MahaRushdie: "I mean Megahn McCain. We want her kitched. I did not say this. I am not here."

Padishah Emperor Shazzam IV: "I understand."

Muad'Dweeb: "Father, the sleeper has awakened!"

- JP

Cross-posted at RedState.com

Just who does CNN think it's fooling?

In an item on CNN's Political Ticker blog by Alexander Mooney:

"...there's one question Meghan McCain refuses to answer: whether she sees herself supporting Sarah Palin should the Alaska governor run for president."

Well, duh!

Anyone with even as damaged a brain as Joe Biden's knows that John McCain's daughter thinks the Republican Party should be Democrat Lite. Of course she wouldn't support Gov. Palin for president.

Who does CNN think it's fooling anyway? Judging by how fast the cable outlet's ratings are sliding like the cheese off of Biden's cracker, not very many folks at all.

- JP