Can you expound on the Politico analogy from a few weeks ago i.e., what brands of tea best identify the various types of teabaggers? Ed O. In the famous cartoon editorial meeting at the bat-cave/newsroom of The Politico, a story was proposed in which varieties of yuppie tea would be matched to elitist Republican establishment figures Pawlenty is Chamomile because he is sweet and calming, Romney is Earl Grey because he is traditional and dignified.
But what about real Tea Party people, those real pro-American Americans with the tragic costumes and illiterate poster-board signs? Do they enjoy fancy imported tea from those dainty little tins? Of course not. The only thing Teabaggers take out of tins is flavored dip.
The actual tea-related products associated with angry patriotic Teabaggers are a) Sweet tea from McDonalds (corn syrup with a lemon wedge in a paper cup), b) Raspberry-flavored tea at the Cracker Barrel (corn syrup poured over crushed ice in giant plastic cup), and c) Snapple or Snapple-related beverages purchased at the mini-mart (corn syrup in a glass or plastic bottle).
Rather than being soothing, these caloric beverages simply make people bloated and insane. Stick to water. Or alcohol.
Any chance this could happen: Palin bypasses the GOP primary by running as a Libertarian, which would put her on the ballot in nearly all states and be an easy, lazy way out, and solve the GOPs Tea Party problem by separating the tea party people from the GOP? Dan at GMU.
When youre talking about Sarah Palin, there is no shut-off valve on the Crazy and no limit to her financial ambition. If HBO offered her $50 million to wrestle Conan OBrien naked in jacuzzi full of live hamsters, she would at least show up to get the paycheck.
At this point, politics is nothing more than a gimmick to keep her in the news, so she can keep getting ridiculously sweet gigs like a million bucks an episode to stand in front of a camera for two minutes reading some platitude about Alaska scrawled on her hand.
You think she cares about John McCain? Yet there she was in Arizona this week, pretending to support old Walnuts the RINO. Her reward? Adoring teabagger fans who were only there to bask in her hair-sprayed glory, and hundreds of news reports about the adventures of Sarah Palin.
What Sarah Palins very short and very embarrassing career in politics tells us is that she enjoys the show-biz and the green rooms and the celebrity worship and the luxury suites and the free stuff and the fat paychecks and her entourage of snowbilly Wasilla trash and lots of poor sad unemployed desperate people screaming her name. She cannot follow any rules or ethics or whatever, and her only belief is that the people around her at any given time should worship Sarah Palin.
Its wrong to dismiss her as a complete idiot, because she has the cheap, mean, instinctual ambition of a mobster. But will she run a White House campaign as a Libertarian or Independent? As much as America needs this comedy in 2012, its unlikely to happen. Politics is about at least projecting the semblance of public service. Sarah Palin only wants her public to serve Sarah Palin.