Legal Commentary

Palin's Real Soul Mate: George W. Bush

By Jeralyn

Here's a comparison of Gov. Sarah Palin and President George W. Bush, demonstrating their similarities.

In Gov. Palin, the GOP has its new Bush, same as the old Bush, but more polished, more presentable, more user-friendly than the original ever was -- and, they hope, still fresh and unencumbered enough to run as a "maverick" against the legacy of Dubya 1.0's failures.

The examples on the second page of the article are striking:

If there's a common cause for Bush and Palin's less-than-complex worldview -- one that should disturb the security minded of both parties -- it's their profound disinterest in understanding or even experiencing other countries and cultures.

The mastermind behind both: Karl Rove. [more...]

As to Palin's invoking Harry Truman in her convention speech, the writer notes:

But Truman -- a Democrat -- was a thoughtful and voracious consumer of facts and opinions, particularly those related to foreign affairs, and his years as a U.S. senator gave him considerable opportunity to gather them on a global level prior to ascending to the executive -- the same opportunities afforded Sens. John McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

....Palin, meanwhile, is notable for having told the press that she was so focused on her state that she "hadn't focused much on Iraq" -- despite the upcoming deployment to that country of her son, Track, an infantryman based in Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Her parochial mind-set -- Alaska First! Alaska Always! -- and willful ignorance regarding the greatest international issue facing our nation matches Dubya 1.0's famous dismissal of newspaper reading for lack of intellectual curiosity.

Oh, there's one other thing to keep in mind when making Truman comparisons:

Truman became president when Roosevelt died suddenly of a massive cerebral hemorrhage, just 82 days into his final term in office. He was 63 years old -- almost a decade younger than McCain will be if he's elected.

Karl Rove is now masterminding the McCain campaign, according to Salon:

....given the complete takeover of McCain's campaign by Rove and his disciples, it's hard not to think that the selection wasn't a fantastical piece of rope-a-dope on the part of master manipulator Rove, who by pushing Romney, terminating Lieberman and "begrudgingly" accepting Palin, now has the ingredients to reconcoct his Dubya success: a folksy, seemingly harmless outsider with rock-ribbed evangelical credentials, big-money connections and outsize ambitions, ready to be groomed to run for the Oval Office herself, or to stumble in by accident in the event of presidential tragedy.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 06, 2008 (boomark / email).