Heartily agree.

What a false-equivalency, glib/stoopid dork.  “Rick Santorum knows his stuff.”  Jesus, somebody hit Cohen on the head with a salami and put us out of his misery.

Surely, though, there lurks in the Democratic Party potential candidates who have seen Palin and taken note ...

Even if, for the sake of argument, there were, (a) given that the political establishment is inherently conservative (everywhere, not just in the US), they’d be pushing against a shut door, and (b) they wouldn’t have the likes of Fox News and widespread shock jock radio backup to trumpet their personality and message far and wide.

But that’s looking at it through a lefty’s eyes. Of course, the conventional wisdom is that the MSM’s in Obama’s pocket and inherently liberal. I mean, everything changed for you folks after Elizabeth Warren made the startling allegation that no person—or millionaire—is an island, didn’t it? And bombthrower (self-made millionaire) Alan Grayson—who I hesitate to compare to Palin—got returned to office in a resounding victory, didn’t he?

From what I’ve seen, those who in any way resemble Cohen’s fantasy Palins of the Left seem more wedded to OWS, and seem more inclined to walk the walk by shying clear of conventional electoral politics altogether.

And the other insulting insinuation is that there are women in the party who are as dense, as vapid and as intellectually wanting as Palin that are just waiting in the wings to get noticed.

Instead, when you look down the roster of Democratic party women leaders and elected officials you see a slate of extraordinarily accomplished women who have earned not only their positions and immense respect but they did it the motherfucking hard way by having to go through the nutsacks that make up our half of the gender scale.

Hell, one of them took a bullet for her party and lived to tell.

Fuck off, Cohen, just go fuck off.

Former McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt has been making the rounds since “Game Change” debuted, frankly admitting his own complicity in putting forth a “manifestly unprepared” candidate.

And while Schmidt seems, at least, human, whenever I see him on TV, I remain annoyed that he can admit to such complicity and still get taken seriously enough to opine on politics for the big bucks.

I feel obligated to note that Bryan gets a bad rap—the man was a great deal more complicated that the Inherit the Wind caricature most people imagine him to be.

Also, as opposed to Palin, he could string words together in an intelligible manner.

In addition to being anti-science, Bryan avidly supported Prohibition. That’s enough to get him crossed off my Christmas card list right there.

A shame about Edwards, but the “Two Americas” speech is lightyears ahead of anything Romney ever had.  So if he’s the supposed lightweight, half of Congress is about to float away.

Where’s the “Like” button?

Also, too, you forgot entitled, ambitious jerks who are also frighteningly ignorant dangers to the republic, which could also describe certain Republicans.

In addition to being anti-science, Bryan avidly supported Prohibition. That’s enough to get him crossed off my Christmas card list right there

And again, it’s more complicated than that.  Prohibition was a PROGRESSIVE cause, heavily tied into the women’s movement and sufferage—which Bryan also supported.  And again, Bryan wasn’t exactly antiscience.  Honestly, the entire Scopes trial was little more than a sad footnote to his career, and hardly indicative of the man. Frankly, the best way to sum him up is to look to the Cross of Gold speech, which—well, here’s a sample…

But we stand here representing people who are the equals before the law of the largest cities in the state of Massachusetts. When you come before us and tell us that we shall disturb your business interests, we reply that you have disturbed our business interests by your action. We say to you that you have made too limited in its application the definition of a businessman. The man who is employed for wages is as much a businessman as his employer. The attorney in a country town is as much a businessman as the corporation counsel in a great metropolis. The merchant at the crossroads store is as much a businessman as the merchant of New York. The farmer who goes forth in the morning and toils all day, begins in the spring and toils all summer, and by the application of brain and muscle to the natural resources of this country creates wealth, is as much a businessman as the man who goes upon the Board of Trade and bets upon the price of grain. The miners who go 1,000 feet into the earth or climb 2,000 feet upon the cliffs and bring forth from their hiding places the precious metals to be poured in the channels of trade are as much businessmen as the few financial magnates who in a backroom corner the money of the world.

We come to speak for this broader class of businessmen. Ah. my friends, we say not one word against those who live upon the Atlantic Coast; but those hardy pioneers who braved all the dangers of the wilderness, who have made the desert to blossom as the rose—those pioneers away out there, rearing their children near to nature’s heart, where they can mingle their voices with the voices of the birds—out there where they have erected schoolhouses for the education of their children and churches where they praise their Creator, and the cemeteries where sleep the ashes of their dead—are as deserving of the consideration of this party as any people in this country.

It is for these that we speak. We do not come as aggressors. Our war is not a war of conquest. We are fighting in the defense of our homes, our families, and posterity. We have petitioned, and our petitions have been scorned. We have entreated, and our entreaties have been disregarded. We have begged, and they have mocked when our calamity came.

We beg no longer; we entreat no more; we petition no more. We defy them!

Like I said—he’s complicated.

The Beltway typists really are jumping through hoops trying to flog this “both sides do it” narrative.

Christ, John Ball. I was making a wee joke.

What Rick Santorum knows I could stick in my craw and it would roll around there like a BB in a boxcar full of raw nerves—if history is any indication. But he has his finger on the pulse of Big C (tm) Conservatism, the intersection of piety, resentment, and prophetic 1%ism that appeals to people who need to hear that sort of thing. He walked the walk. If he picked Palin for his running mate, I wouldn’t be surprised.

I don’t like the idea that Palin started anything, though. Reagan was an outsider whose apprehension of the various relationships internationally was limited to political ends (Iran-Contra makes no sense today, does it? 30 Years ago, anti-communism via an alliance with mid-east terror-sponsors: what could go wrong?) GHWB picked Dan Quayle for his running mate in ‘88, thereby setting us up (I’ve always believed) for his son, the archetype of the clueless privileged “Senator’s Son” already having passed the Beltway Gantlet.  GWB hiself was apparently apprised of world affairs via flash cards by Condi Rice which got him to about an 8th grade level idea of foreign affairs—even if he was still pondering the difference between Shia/Sunni even as he was laboring towards the Iraq War.

The right wing has always struck me as being so anti-elitist that they ended up shunning competency as well—at least during my lifetime. Democrats, on the other hand, never get to say they are the grown-up in charge—they just have to be them.