Sarah Palin Teabagging Speech Liveblog

10:02: And I guess we're done.

10:00: Talking about her running for president. The crowd is chanting for her to run. Asking her what the 3 things she would tackle as president--didn't he already ask her that question?

9:59: OHHH. She's talking about endorsements & how she'll make some people mad when she gets into the primaries. I hope she comes to Kentucky to see Rand Paul!!! She's going to "assist" in contested primaries.

9:58: More talking about her kids after whining about the liberal elites attacking them. Talking about how her son hates it when she talks about him. Track wants us to thank the troops that came before him.

9:57: "The Palin Plan" is simple & drives the "elitists" crazy b/c it's too simple & easy to follow. "Bottom line: we win. They lose." More platitudes. More cheering from the teabaggers.

9:55: She's pretty ramble-y & awful off the cuff. And she probably had these questions well in advance. No gotcha media for Sarah.

9:53: Plow right on through being harassed when the media is mean to you. Yes, Sarah, people hate you b/c you love your country. But anyway, when the media is mean to you, you should "plow right on through it" & that includes going on Oprah, writing numerous Facebook notes about how mean people are to you & writing a book whining about how the media treats you.

9:53: Our country needs "divine intervention." I guess she wants to follow the Constitution unless it's having to do with the separation of church & state.

9:52: She is hard to follow. She's just rambling on & on. I guess she needs a teleprompter...

9:48: Dammit. There's a Q&A. I guess I'll blog this.

9:48: "Merchant of hate with an 'Oh Gosh' smile." Perfect summation of Palin's speech. Perfection.

9:46: Thank God. She's done. God Bless us all--I'm getting drunk.

9:45: Just referenced Trigg. 2 minutes after she whined about people talking about her children.

9:44: More masturbating to Ronald Reagan. Working for the teabagging ideals is apparently a great tribute to him.

9:43: More whining about people attacking her children. Crowd booed.

9:43: "Liberal intolerance." She's not even talking in sentences, just uttering words like that.

9:42: Freedom is a "God-given right & it is worth fighting for." America should never ever apologize b/c we are always right.

9:41: Still trying to figure out how Palin wants Americans to serve. But all I'm hearing are platitudes & what is obviously a campaign speech.

9:40: Palin just applauded Bart Stupak for trying to enslave women to their wombs.

9:39: Palin is telling us how to serve our country. We don't need a leader--we're not all sheep, everyone is a unique snowflake.

9:37: We should be drilling in America. No more "cap & tax."

9:34: Pro-market agenda. Lower taxes for small businesses. Support competition & innovation. Reward hard work. Make sure the game is fair. Get government out of the way. This speech is all platitudes. Seriously.

9:33: OHH she's giving advice to Barack Obama. Talking about how D.C. should be just like Alaska. She sounds like she's giving a speech to 3rd graders.

9:31: "Freedom lovers" need to realize that we are more beholden to other countries & less free & should be seriously pissed off. Because the democrats HATE freedom.

9:29: The crowd just boo-ed at the idea of "union bosses."

9:28: More bashing of the president.

9:22: "You're probably tired of hearing the talk, talk, talk." Yes, Sarah, please STFU & get off my TV for one day.

9:20: Wait, Alaska is the beacon of hope for democracy for people living in oppressive regimes. Did I just hear that right?

9:19: Again, bashing the president. Is that all this speech is going to be?

Fuck using diplomacy. Let's just invade all the countries who we don't like.

9:18: "We need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern."

9:17: Apparently, the terrorists hate our constitution.

9:15: She claims she's not politicizing national security. The Christmas day bomber not accomplishing his goal was a "Christmas miracle." I wonder how she'd spin this if we had a Republican president.

9:13: Attacking Obama's role in national security. Being able to see Russia from her house makes her worthy of being president. She doesn't need to know the different between North & South Korea or who was behind 9/11.

9:12: Just called Obama a "charismatic guy with a teleprompter."

9:10: Competition=good. Sarah Palin speaks in all platitudes. Seriously. If I were doing Jezebel's drinking game, I'd be vomiting already.

9:09: This sounds like a campaign speech. Jesus Christ. She's going to run for president.

9:08: "Stop blaming everyone else." No, Sarah, you have never blamed anyone else for your problems. Except for in 400+ pages in your book.

9:06: "Real people." Not politicos. "Common sense conservative principles." I just want to drink.

9:05: "Do you love your freedom?" No, Sarah, I fucking hate freedom.

Already the masturbation over Ronald Reagan has begun.

9:04: HA! One of the commentators just slipped & called Palin, "Paris." I can see the similarities.

9:03: "There's a big question about what [Palin] knows." Umm...duh msnbc commentators.

9:02: msnbc commentators are saying that the teabaggers don't want Hispanics voting b/c they cannot read. And these people aren't racist...right.

8:58: Jezebel is apparently liveblogging as well & they have a fun drinking game here.

"Correlations between the current administration & Marxist dictators in Latin America." Apparently, that was a workshop at this teabagging conference. HA! This is going to be way too much fun.

8:56: 4 minutes to go & msnbc's still showing a program on Michael Jackson.

Going Rogue Part One

Okay folks. After a month plus long break I am back. I am determined to finish this book if it kills me.

We are opening with chapter 4, in which Palin & McCain “go rogue” together. It opens with Palin going to Arizona to be vetted for the vice presidential gig. About John McCain, Palin writes:

I had always admired the Republican Senator for his independent spirit and passion for keeping our homeland safe. I sincerely respected him. Both Todd and I found him a kind, respectful man. (210)

Kind & respectful? How about the time he called his wife a cunt & trollop in front of various members of the press & the joke he made about Janet Reno being Chelsea Clinton’s father? If that is what he says in public, I can only imagine what a raging asshole this man is in private.

There is also an odd anecdote about Steve Schmidt saying they were “going to ram ‘global test right up John Kerry’s ass.” (213) Schmidt apparently is good at employing the “gotcha media” that Palin likes to bemoan saying that “he was very good at setting traps for his opposition.” (213) I would think that Palin would be morally above such trickery, but apparently, when it’s her side that’s doing it, it’s all good.

When asked about the rivalry between the Sunni and the Shia, Palin “knew the history of the conflict to the extent that most Americans do.” (214) That’s all fine for an average American, but I want my vice president to be smarter than me and a lot more knowledgeable about foreign policy issues. I don’t want someone who doesn’t know why there are two Koreas or thinks that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11. Our potential vice president should be smarter and shouldn’t be bragging about her lack of knowledge in her book.

Scientist Palin comes out and explains her views of evolution, saying:

I believed in the evidence for microevolution—that geologic and species change occurs incrementally over time. But I didn’t believe in the theory that human beings—thinking, loving beings—originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea. Or that human beings began as single-cell organisms that developed into monkeys who eventually swung down from the trees. I believed we cam about through a random process, but were created by God. (17)

I don’t even really know what to say. Palin’s views make absolutely no sense. So we came about through a “random process” but we did not evolve from single-celled organisms? So how exactly does Palin think we evolved? She never really gave a logical explanation in her book but I guess it’s silly of me to expect logic from someone like Sarah Palin. Palin does think that we should be teaching a religiously motivated theory of creation, saying “I saw nothing wrong with students debating the merits of evolution in the classroom.” (219) Of course Palin doesn’t see anything wrong with forcing her religious beliefs on others and debating the merits of a theory that has been refuted over & over again.

Writing more about John McCain, Palin writes, “John believed in change, the power of independent and committed individuals, the power of women. He thought it was time to shake things up.” (223) I am rolling my eyes. The power of women? This is a man who is anti-choice & called his wife a cunt IN PUBLIC. And she’s trying to tout him as a great feminist.

Palin whines more about Barack Obama stealing her campaign them, saying “it struck me as ironic that the Obama campaign had captured the theme of change. I’d always run on a platform of change, and I quickly wondered how I could start interjecting that ‘We were change when change wasn’t cool’ theme.” (225) Poor Palin. That mean black Muslim stole your campaign theme. She also wrote that “Obama wasn’t saying much in his speeches, but his oratorical skills were absolutely captivating.” (227)

Palin also blasts Obama & Biden for having less foreign policy experience than her. “They reminded me that Obama didn’t have foreign policy experience. As a governor, I had gained such experience as it related to Alaska’s international commerce and energy issues, as well as our strategic national security position.” (229) Wait, is she referring to the fact that she can see Russia from her house?

Palin next gets into Bristol’s pregnancy, being shocked at the way in which the news was broken, saying that she didn’t get to announce it herself. “It surprised me that the campaign, which had the information in the first place, had had no plans to raise it in a constructive way. After all, it is an issue that affects far too many American teenagers.” (233) Yes, it is an issue which affects many American teenagers especially since we have been living under the Republican idea that abstinence is the only thing we should be teaching our teenagers and that if they know about how to safely use condoms (and protect themselves from pregnancy and STDs), they will be encouraged to have sex. Instead of bragging about her pro-abstinence viewpoints, Palin should have conceded that that is a simply unrealistic point of view. This would be an easy way for her to gain a lot of respect from some of her detractors.

She also whines that other candidates children’s were left alone but hers weren’t. Well, maybe if she didn’t trot out her children and her baby at every turn, the press wouldn’t feel the need to “use” her children.

Palin whines about how the McCain team won’t let her “speak [her] heart and mind even after an intimate issue affecting [her] own family.” (235) Of course, Palin is always the victim of a vast conspiracy and this time it’s one that is headed by John McCain’s staff.

Palin further writes, “Bristol could barely stand to look at the television as commentators started suggesting that her pregnancy might change the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.” (239) You know, Sarah Palin is really idiotic and naïve if she doesn’t realize that her daughter’s pregnancy is something which people are going to scrutinize. From the beginning, I thought that Palin should not have ran and not have put her daughter through that kind of scrutiny.

We are done with the first section of Chapter 4. Up next: the convention.