Yes, she actually said that. And yes, this is what happened when she was actually allowed to speak to the press. And this. And this. And this. And... oh, you get the point.

Human Events:

GIZZI: What was the biggest mistake made in the ’08 campaign?

PALIN: The biggest mistake made was that I could have called more shots on this: the opportunities that were not seized to speak to more Americans via media. I was not allowed to do very many interviews, and the interviews that I did were not necessarily those I would have chosen. But I was so thankful to have the opportunity to run with John McCain that I was not going to argue with the strategy decisions that some of his people were making regarding the media contacts.

But if I would have been in charge, I would have wanted to speak to more reporters because that’s how you get your message out to the electorate.

Seriously...what is wrong with these people? Palin thinks McCain lost because he didn't let her embarrass herself enough in the press? I bet the dead-ender wingnuts think she just didn't wink enough.

I'm with John Cole here:

Seriously, the only people more excited about this than the Palin dead-enders are… every single Democrat in the country. Hold her close. Embrace the Palin. Show the country this is your vision for the future GOP.

Pretty please?

From Red State Update:

Merry Christmas from Jackie, Dunlap, and a barroom full of drunken degenerates.

Starring Lisa Ann of "Who's Nailin' Paylin", reprising her famous role!

Download | Play    Download | Play (h/t Dave)

Because what the country can't get enough of is more coverage of Sarah Palin (/snark), George Stephanopoulos asks the question burning brightly in the hearts... minds... crotches of the country... Washington... the punditocracy: Will John McCain endorse former running mate Sarah Palin for the 2012 election?

The answer? Nope.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You said, after the election, that Governor Palin has a bright future in your party. Does that mean that, if she does chooses to run for president, she can count on your support?

MCCAIN: Oh, no. Listen, I have the greatest appreciation for Governor Palin and her family, and it was a great joy to know them. [..]But I can't say something like that.

Ouch. Kind of hard to deny all the rumors of rancor between the two when you get put in that spot (take that, Bill Kristol), but McCain's choice of phrasing to chide Stephanopoulos on this line of questioning was more than a little unfortunate, especially considering how his age and health made Sarah Palin's position that much more critical:

MCCAIN: ... my corpse is still warm, you know?

Download | Play    Download | Play (h/t Heather for the vids)

In an interview that will air this Sunday with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, General Colin Powell sounds off on Sarah Palin and her assertion that "small town values" are somehow better than values gleaned from elsewhere. In Powell's case, the South Bronx.

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN ANCHOR: What do you think is going to happen to the Republican Party? You sounded concerned then, and you always have been concerned about certain aspects of your party. Do you think it's moving in the right direction?

POWELL: We don't know yet. I don't know yet.

I think that in the latter months of the campaign, the party moved further to the right. Governor Palin, to some extent, pushed the party more to the right. And I think she had something of a polarizing effect when she talked about small-town values are good.

Well, most of us don't live in small towns. And I was raised in the South Bronx, and there's nothing wrong with my value system from the South Bronx.

Republicans like to run around complaining about "elitism" and how liberals somehow look down on other non-liberals. Yet, for the majority of the campaign, Sarah Palin hit the stump time after time essentially flipping off large swaths of the country, in some cases even labeling them un-American. Republican hypocrisy is nothing new, of course, but it's pretty interesting how the "elitism" narrative only cuts one way. The GOP noise machine sure has done a good job of advancing these false narratives.

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SF Chronicle:

Nearly four years after the launch of YouTube, it's startling just how much viral videos have come to resemble a highlight reel (or a gag reel) of recent history.

In 2008, the election was constantly reflected on video-sharing sites — and sometimes even influenced by such clips. But the year in viral video was not all politics; there was still plenty of room for a litter of puppies, brawling late-night hosts and a lion with an excellent memory.

Here are the year's top 10 Web videos:

1. Tina Fey As Sarah Palin

2. The Real Palin

3. Christian the Lion

4. "Yes We Can"

5. "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog"

6. Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad

7. Sarah Silverman and Matt Damon

8. Puppy Cam

9. Frozen Grand Central

10. Late-night Hosts Brawl

I know that with the exception of the Dr. Horrible vids, I've seen all of these. What were the most memorable videos that you saw this year? Which of our C&L vids did you send out to family and friends?

I could really care less if I never hear from Samuel the unlicensed plumber's apprentice Joe the Plumber ever again -- in fact, I would be much happier if I never did -- but this story from Politico is just too good to pass up. Apparently "Joe" grilled McCain on the Wall St. bailout out and came away, shall we say, dismayed.

Politico:

Joe Wurzelbacher lashed out Tuesday at former GOP presidential nominee John McCain, the man who made Wurzelbacher famous as “Joe the Plumber.”

Wurzelbacher told conservative radio host Glenn Beck that he felt “dirty” after “being on the campaign trail and seeing some of the things that take place.”

Recalling a conversation he had with McCain about the $700 billion financial industry bailout in September, Wurzelbacher said: “When I was on the bus with him, I asked him a lot of questions about the bailout because most Americans did not want that to happen.”

“I asked him some pretty direct questions,” he continued. “Some of the answers you guys are gonna receive — they appalled me, absolutely. I was angry. In fact, I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him.”

Not surprisingly, Joe can't get enough of Sarah Palin.

While Wurzelbacher was critical of McCain during the interview, he had nothing but praise for his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. “Sarah Palin is absolutely the real deal,” he said.

Do I foresee a Palin/Plumber 2012 ticket? This blogger can wish, can't he?

UPDATE: John Amato

Joe the Plumber is a hack and a total fraud. I know you know that already. I just like saying it. He's got his fifteen minutes out of McCain and then throws him under the bus. Without McCain he'd probably be trying to weasel some food stamps for himself. Now, he's working hard to cash in on that wingnut welfare. I will instruct my writers to not mention him again unless he's being frog-marched.

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Sarah Palin reminds me, for some reason, of the late Helen Chenoweth -- the congresswoman from Idaho's 1st District from 1992 to 2000. Well, I actually can think of a lot of reasons: Maybe it's the slightly stilted, doll-like delivery in a red business suit. Or the beauty-queen smile. Or the absurd right-wingnuttery she sells with a distinctly populist style. Watch and judge for yourself.

Chenoweth was perhaps best known for being an avid promoter of the militia movement in Congress (though towards the end of her tenure shee made headlines for her extramarital affairs. Indeed, the above video is one I made from a video sold by the Militia of Montana as part of its New World Order conspiracy promotion, titled "America In Peril." It features Chenoweth speaking before an obviously preselected audience, prior to her election to Congress in 1992, as a "Natural Resources Consultant."

This snippet (the video is nearly an hour long) is from the first five minutes or so, and features Chenoweth holding forth on the causes of global warming:

What is some of the programs that the environmentalists are engaging in? Well, some of the programs are programs of fear -- fear that is so broad and so expansive that you and I can do nothing about it.

What about the idea that the earth is warming? You know, we hear that every day -- that the earth is warming. But when we look back, where are temperatures taken? Well, they’re taken from airports. Weather balloons go up from airports, where heat rises from miles and miles of concrete.

And you see, the satellites that are recording data around the globe will tell us that today, the earth is not warming. But you see, what the pseudoscientists -- who have turned into political scientists and lobbying scientists -- are saying is that these issues are so huge that you and I can do nothing about it.

You can almost envision Sarah Palin sitting at the back of the room taking notes. Indeed, as you can see, the camera irregularly pans to the nodding audience members, and one of these happens to bear a striking resemblance to Palin (she's at about the 5:40 mark of the video; you can see a still here). Not that this actually is Palin, but let's just say the imagery is complete.

Continue reading »

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From The Cafferty File:

So much for that filibuster-proof majority for the Democrats in the Senate. Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss won yesterdays run-off in Georgia. The best the Democrats can do now is 59 seats. The Minnesota race is still undecided. It was a much needed win for beleaguered Republicans coming off the beating they took on Election Day.

But perhaps the bigger story is Sarah Palin. The hockey mom-turned-Alaska governor-turned vice presidential candidate-turned national joke flew down to Georgia on Monday and campaigned for Chambliss to huge crowds at several events.

Chambliss said Palin had a huge impact on his win, She came in on the last day, did a fly-around and, man, she was dynamite.

Palins former runningmate John McCain also campaigned for Chambliss, as did former Republican presidential contenders Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani.

But it was Palin who may have given Chambliss the push he needed to win.

Heres my question to you: What does Saxby Chamblisss win in Georgia mean for Sarah Palin who went there to campaign for him?

Continue reading »

I was looking at that awful video of Sarah Palin babbling cluelessly while that turkey geeker lops off bloody heads in the background, and I realized... I've seen that guy before. So I looked through my photo archives and sure enough, he's ruined several other Republican photo-ops:

Continue reading »

Check out these two videos from Tuesday and tell me with a straight face that the Republican Party isn't a joke. The first is Governor Mark Sanford laughing at the notion of Sarah Palin as the "future of the party", and the second is of John McCain yukking it up when asked by a reporter whether he will be in the 2012 mix. Finally, there's something I can agree with the GOP on: As of now, their 2012 prospects are literally laughable.

From The Late Show with David Letterman, Nov. 24, 2008.

Oh, Sarah. How we will (not) miss you.

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From Countdown Nov. 20, 2008, David Shuster brings us Sarah Palin's extremely creepy turkey pardoning and post-pardoning interview from Wasilla, Alaska. The whole thing plays like something out of the Twilight Zone or the latter stages of Fargo. As a couple of my fellow C&L'ers pointed out after watching this, if Sarah Palin is a "friend to all creatures great and small" someone needs to let the wolves and polar bears know about that change of heart...lol. Images of Palin and "creatures" are more likely to be those of high powered rifles and helicopters than any sort of compassion in my book. And she does seem to use those family members selectively for what's politically convenient at the time doesn't she?

The Week in Cartoons Nov. 15, 2008 from the folks at Headzup.

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On Saturday's Chris Matthews Show, a panel featuring NPR's Michele Norris, Time's Michael Duffy and CNBC's Erin Burnett ponders who's going to be leading the GOP charge against the Obama administration in the coming months. Matthews wonders initially if it will be Sarah Palin, and the guests chew on that briefly, until Howard Fineman sets them all straight:

Matthews: There's a role open right now. It's the Chief Jeerleader. When the new administration takes office, no matter how historically wondrous it is, like Barack Obama's, there's gonna be someone on the other side who leaps to the chance be the person who dumps on the parade every day. Is it gonna be Sarah Palin?

Michele Norris: It's going to be a bit hard for her to do that from Alaska. I mean, some of that depends on -- frankly, it depends on you, you know ... whether you give her the kind of airtime that she needs to do that.

But she's also got to make sure she keeps the people back in Alaska happy. And she's got to improve her favorability ratings there and make sure that she takes care of business. I think perhaps that's a role she sees for herself. But I think that more likely the 'chief jeerleader,' ot use your term, may come out of the Senate, because that's where the real squabbles are going to be as they try to push forward this bailout package.

Matthews: You know, when you look at her, she seems so confident. You wonder whether we keep forgetting that we don't pick the president, they pick themselves, and we choose among them. And as long as she's willing to keep picking herself as a possible candidate for president, she's gonna be in this running.

Michael Duffy: Oh, I think she's done a very smart thing here. She knew that if she was ever gonna come back, she had to put this clothes thing to rest now, this week.

Matthews: Erin, did she put that to bed?

Erin Burnett: Ah, I think that's unclear. I'd like to pause for a second there. I think this speaks to her strengths and her weaknesses. She's incredibly strong in motivating people. She can say quick one-liners, she energizes. But sometimes you say, where's the depth there, where's the substance? There's not really much there behind it. There's not a whole lot of thoughtfulness in her delivery. And sometimes a great politician doesn't really need those things necessarily. So I don't really know the answer to your question, but I don't know that I need to know the answer. Just say that she can be a great politician.

Matthews: You don't need to be that complicated to be a great politician, this is probably true. But that leaves open the big question: Who will be the voice of the opposition for the next couple of months, first year of this administration? Will it be a Pawlenty, a Palin, a Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney? Will it be John McCain?

Norris: Again -- I don't think it's going to be John McCain. I think we learned a lot about McCain after he ran for election last time, he went back and really rolled up his sleeves and worked. I don't think it's gonna be him. I still think it's going to come out of the Senate. I think it's going to be one of the senators.

Howard Fineman: It won't be out of the Hill at all. It's going to be Rush Limbaugh, and what's left of the conservative commentariat. They are going to be in charge of this party until the Republicans begin to get their act together.

Matthews: So the ticked-off voices.

Fineman: The ticked-off voices, and Rush will be the guy.

If he's right that Limbaugh and the Venom Brigade are going to be in charge of the GOP (and he probably is), the main question remains: Will they just drive the Republican bus deeper into their muddy ditch, or careen it off into a bottomless chasm?