sarah palin: the next generation of american stupid

I guess we’ve already seen the Biden/Palin debate. And, for some reason, there are a curious number of people who refuse to admit she is, without a doubt, a person without any business whatsoever running anything, anywhere, for anybody, let alone the most powerful country on earth.

Here are what the headlines at NRO read:

THE EDITORS: Gov. Sarah Palin, once again, confounded her critics with a strong performance. “Palin’s Triumph” 10/03 2:00 AM

LISA SCHIFFREN: She can’t win this for McCain. But from here on out none of the negatives can be ascribed to her. “Straight to the Swing Voters ” 10/02 11:39 PM

ANDY MCCARTHY: She’s the real deal. “Straight to the Swing Voters ”

A strong performance? No negatives can be ascribed to her? Does she create some kind of alternative reality field around her visible only to Republicans? Are they watching the same person I am?

I’ve seen NRO operatives like Kathryn Jean Lopez worship Palin’s lack of credentials up until this moment and thought it odd a quotient of Americans would actually think it’s a good thing not to read stuff. I’ve watched them fawn over the way she shoots wolves from airplanes and kills and dresses moose with her teeth. I’ve thought it curious the way they slavishly forgive the fact she can’t even handle Katie Couric interviews without coming off like a special needs student who got lost in the bathroom. Sometimes I think they’d be happy if the only responses she gave to any question were to light farts or shoot something in the face. But to think Palin came out of this looking like anything other than a terrifyingly unqualified also-ran is disturbing.

atlas shrugged?

So I’m at this Pacific Gateway economic forum downtown yesterday, and this guy in a suit is talking about what I guess we’re gonna call the new-new-new economy, one in which everyone’s either broke or a millionaire, and he’s gearing up for how we’re in for a paradigm shift, which is a fancy way of saying if we haven’t already made it rich, we’re screwed. And then he says “What happened? You could say that Atlas shrugged.”

Funny way of looking at this:

Figure 1: Atlas Shrugged?

I don’t think it’s so much that Atlas shrugged. Atlas spent the last six years or so on a bender, drinking gallons of Middle American hooch, so much so that Atlas got projectile diarrhea all over the world’s financial markets. This ain’t simply a phase in economic development; this is the ultimate result of laissez-faire greed coupled with cronyism–this is what happens when rich assholes get to forget about accountability. And once again, the younger generation’s being handed a crap sandwich and has to take a bite.