Political Quotes, First week of October

"What's the use of retiring rich on a planet that's being murdered?"
- Derrick Jensen interviewed on Unwelcome Guests (radio show and podcast)

Matt Taibbi on Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention:
"It was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag."
...
"The great insight of the Palin VP choice is that huge chunks of American voters no longer even demand that their candidates actually have policy positions; they simply consume them as media entertainment, rooting for or against them according to the reflexive prejudices of their demographic, as they would for reality-show contestants or sitcom characters. Hicks root for hicks, moms for moms, born-agains for born-agains. Sure, there was politics in the Palin speech, but it was all either silly lies or merely incidental fluffery buttressing the theatrical performance. A classic example of what was at work here came when Palin proudly introduced her Down syndrome baby, Trig, then stared into the camera and somberly promised parents of special-needs kids that they would 'have a friend and advocate in the White House.' This was about a half-hour before she raised her hands in triumph with McCain, a man who voted against increasing funding for special-needs education."

Back to Robbie's opinion here: there seems to be a parallel between the image of Palin and the image of Bush II. The more often they exhibit verbal slip-ups, the more down-homey they seem, the more elite anyone sounds for criticizing them. Our best bet is to ignore the "gaffes" like Palin accidentally saying, "I'm not one to attribute every man -- activity of man to the changes in the climate," when she obviously meant attributing the changes in climate to the activities of man. It'll work better to focus on the substance of what she says, wrong about trickle-down economics, wrong in her characterization of Obama's economic plan, wrong to reject actual diplomacy with Iran and Cuba like McCain and Hilary and Bush have.