Last one…promise!

"The Tea Party is the future of politics." ~~Sarah Palin

Well, I guess we're in a whole shitload of trouble then, aren't we?

I've been procrastinating on writing this, because I'm just really tired of seeing and hearing this lobotomized drone. But the sooner I get it done, maybe I can put it out of my mind...at least until the next idiotic comments we hear coming out of her mouth. It's only a matter of time, after all.

I watched her speech Saturday night. It was so profoundly disturbing and hurt my brain so terribly that I had to lay down and take a nap to recuperate. First off, she is such a horrible speaker. Her timing and cadence is poor, her voice is grating, and her words seem stilted and unnatural. (I'm sure many will disagree with me and find her a fascinating and compelling speaker. If so, you're hearing something I am not.)

She hit on current topics, leveling plenty of criticism against the Obama administration, but offering few solutions of her own. One of her main topics was national security, saying that the President spent little time in his State of the Union speech addressing that issue. His main focus in that speech was on job creation; I'm certain that if it had mainly been about national security, she would have bitched about how he doesn't care about Americans and job creation. She wished for a strong national defense, despite the fact that defense spending takes up the largest percentage of the President's submitted budget.

New terms used like “overseas contingency operation” instead of the word “war.” That reflects a worldview that is out of touch with the enemy that we face. We can’t spin our way out of this threat.

That's pure bullshit, and everyone knows it. Of course the President speaks of war--his predecessor got us into two of them, after all.

She accused the President of blaming Bush for everything. Well, that's pretty much the reality of things, isn't it? All the shit that is going down was in place and happening before Obama took office. Now he's left with the Herculean task of trying to clean up a shit-tastic Augean stable full of arrogance, jingoism, corporate greed, and international hatred for what Cheney and his minions perpetrated on the rest of the world. The collective amnesia I'm seeing in the teabaggers is perplexing and maddening. While I don't want to hear every other word out of the President's mouth be "Bush did it," apparently people do need a reminder of who got us into this FUBAR'd mess in the first place.

She spoke about how she rejected the stimulus dollars and then mentioned that she was over-ridden and Alaska accepted the money. Now who is passing on the blame, Palin? For someone who never takes responsibility or blame for any of her frequent failures, it's rather amusing that she enjoys accusing the President of doing that.

She ridiculed intelligence by once again talking about "elitists," and those who have a "fat, elite résumé in their back pocket." She said that we need a "Commander in Chief, not a professor of law standing at a lectern." I get the impression that she thinks that being Commander in Chief is all about tough talk and bombing the hell out of anyone who disagrees with you. Again, we know how well that worked.

She harped on Obama's use of a teleprompter--although that particular dig needs to be put to bed, after his stellar performance, sans teleprompter, at the Republican Caucus--all the while looking down for long seconds at a time at her own notes. (More about that in a moment.) She let her snark loose, asking Obama's supporters, "How's that hopey, changey thing workin' for ya?" Well, it's working great for me, you dork. I finally feel like I don't have to be embarrassed by my government when I say I'm an American. And I've been seeing that "hopey, changey" phrase on the Web for at least six months now. Get some new material, or at least stop getting your one-liners and witty bon mots from Zazzle.

After the speech, she took a few questions asked by a moderator. It seemed pretty obvious to me that the questions had been chosen beforehand and given to her; her responses were immediate, with no deliberation or thought...she just immediately started talking. I did read in a couple of places today that the questions were indeed submitted to her prior to being asked. In one of her rambling answers, she said that we need to get back to our roots as a God-fearing nation, and mentioned seeking "divine intervention." This is as scary as anything she has ever said...we are not a theocracy, and praying for "divine intervention" goes against everything I believe (or don't believe) in.

Finally, this brings us to the teleprompter line. By now, I'm sure most of you have seen the video of her glancing at her hand in order to answer one of the questions. (If not, you can see it here.) Now, I'm not one to begrudge anyone a teleprompter or notes for a speech. I know I have always needed notes whenever I've had to speak; I don't think there is anything wrong with that at all. What bothers me about this, though, is that despite looking down frequently and lengthily at her own notes (one of the things that makes her a bad speaker, in my opinion), she still used that tired line about the President being a "charismatic guy with a teleprompter." The worst thing, however, is that the question asked was what should the top three priorities be for conservatives? She managed to get through one, but then had to look at her hand to remember what the other two were. Isn't that a pretty basic question, summing up a personal philosophy of conservatism? Shouldn't you kind of have that ingrained, at least if you're a political figure who talks about common sense conservatism? AND she had the questions beforehand! It wasn't like this came out of left field and surprised her!

Well, she was playing to her audience. They loved her, and I know I won't change any minds here, if anyone supports her. It obviously gave people like me even more reason to despise her (and I do, I do). I've also heard opinions from some independents who said that she did nothing to reach out to them, or give them any reason to support her. So she was essentially preaching to the choir, who lap up her witticisms [exaggerated finger quotes] like they are savoring the taste of the sweet, sweet tears of liberals.

I'll leave you with one final thought from the woman that some people inexplicably think is capable of leading our country:

And around the world, people who are seeking freedom from oppressive regimes, wonder if Alaska is still that beacon of hope for their cause.

Alaska...beacon of hope to the world's downtrodden.