She's not running for President, cont.

Andrew Sullivan still thinks she's running.

It's a potent argument. But it gives the right-wing echo chamber more credit than it deserves.

Yes the Beck/Limbaugh/Ailes/Murdoch machine is potent in further isolating hardcore conservatives. But that demographic is small and shrinking. It is not the electoral juggernaut it once was.

She might run, or put up the pretense of running. But the GOP isn't stupid enough (yet) to put her out as a legitimate challenger.

Green Tea Party?

Thomas Friedman is right on.

The basic point is fantastic. The Tea Party claims to be non-partisan, but they are essentially Republican. More importantly, they are vehemently anti-Obama -- and by that I mean they base their policy decisions almost on entirely on opposing him.

If the Tea-party movement were really apolitical, they would be open-minded enough to support ideas that appeal to real patriotic conservatives. Energy reform is quintessentially patriotic -- we currently are dependent on other nations for oil, nations that in some cases are actively trying to destroy us. There are few issues as patriotic as new energy, because new energy means a country that is self-reliant and not addicted to the products of other countries.

What's more conservative than that?

Unfortunately, Obama and his administration are in support of alternative energy. So that means the Republicans -- and the Tea Party people -- are against it.

Friedman is right -- the Tea Party needs to live up to its claims that it is independent of party. Right now they're just the angriest Republicans.

She's not running for President, cont.

More evidence here and here.

People forget that, while Sarah Palin earns a lot of personal dough, she isn't nearly the fundraising juggernaut that is President Obama. It's possible the grind involved with a term in office has gotten rid of some of the zeal among his voters, but he annihilated the fundraising records in his 2008 election. Annhilated, I say.

And yeah, a lotta people watch Palin on TV. But when it comes down to voting they won't. There's far too much dirt -- like these campaign receipts -- for even a mediocre political squad to miss. There's too much evidence that she isn't the persona everybody sees, and there's far too much fodder for half a dozen mudslinging ads.

And I think she knows it, too.

The Daily Show nails it.

I couldn't agree more.

John McCain used to be my hero. He was a maverick and proud of it, someone who didn't just occasionally say no to the party establishment, but someone who did it almost out of habit. He voted his conscience. He compromised when it was necessary. He was beholden to no one but his constituents, not beholden to party politics or the extremes. The things he says in those Daily Show clips are inspiring and sublime, and now he's just another bitterly partisan politician-as usual.

He was a radical moderate. Now he's just another Republican.

Maybe our system has deteriorated so badly that centrists like he once was cannot survive. Maybe mavericks really do now mean what Sarah Palin thinks they mean -- people so radical that even party leadership tries to rein them in.

Maybe America no longer wants the real John McCain.

I get the feeling that the old McCain is the real McCain. I'd like to believe that he's dying inside every time he calls Obama a socialist against American values. I'd like to believe that, upon getting re-elected, he will once again be the great man he once was and that he needs to be again.

He is fighting a grueling re-election battle. From my couch I can't conceive the realities and difficulties of such a fight, so maybe this is all a great but unavoidable evil.

If so, it's sad and scary, because that means this new, lock-step angry soldier McCain is what the American people want.

I hope it isn't. I hope he or his advisers have grossly misjudged what his voters are looking for.

For the sake of our process, I hope we haven't turned off the old, great McCain.

This Story Needs to Die

I think I'm going to have a new running term: TSND. This Story Needs to Die.

This story, specifically.

Tiger Woods is a golfer. A golfer.

A gooooooolfer.

At best, he is a sports hero. But we shouldn't give a damn if he cheated on his wife. Even if we did care, we certainly shouldn't be caring about it this damn much.

A sovereign government was overthrown in the Middle East yesterday. People are dead in the streets. And this isn't just any country we're talking about here -- it's the country that gets to determine whether or not we can fly stuff into Afghanistan.

But an athlete cheated on his wife. The story broke months ago. It is patent old news. But the gaping maw that is 24-hour TV news needs feeding, and the army of talking heads needs something to discuss.

It needs to stop. Seriously.

Time's Influential People -- Yikes.

The population of the Internet is a vast, dizzying mystery to me.

Time's Most Influential People online poll results are up. They're -- not encouraging.

Lady Gaga is #1. Yeah. The most influential person in the world is a pop singer. "But she's revolutionized fashion." No she hasn't. Nobody wears her stuff -- it's all stunt stuff. "But she's stood up for women's sexuality." No more so than any other female pop star.

Eh, maybe I'm just an old coot in a young person's body.

Other trends:

-Barack Obama -- the damn President of the United States of America -- is 26th. He is, according to these voters, less influential than:

-Snooki from Jersey Shore

-Neal Patrick Harris

-Jeff Bridges

-Lady Gaga

-Beyonce

-Kim yu-Na

-Sandra Bullock

-Han Han

-David Chang (A chef)

-Dan Coudreaut (McDonald's chef)

-Conan O'Brien

-I know it's just the Internet, but still -- a Jersey Shore character is more influential than the President? Faith in Humanity Meter just dipped.

-Muammar freakin' Gaddafi is number 7. Maybe I grossly underestimate the general knowledge of the American people, but I didn't know this many people knew who Gaddafi is let alone think he's important. By the way, I am convinced that it is physically impossible to take a picture of that guy where he doesn't look like evil incarnate.

-The Penny Arcade guys are #43. Hah.

-Nicholas Sarkozy is #4? Are the French spamming the vote?

-James Cameron is #6. We get it. Avatar had some spectacular visual effects. It was overall very impressive. But Cameron 'ain't that influential.

-Sandra Bullock is #8. Didn't she win a Razzie this year?

-What's sad is I can't argue with Sarah Palin being #9.

-Nicole "Snooki" Pollizi is #16. I literally cannot find words to describe this.

Again, this is an open Internet poll, so the results mean little. It's more a glimpse into the collective Internet consciousness, not humanity in general.

Oh wait -- the Internet demographic skews heavily towards my generation.

Excuse me. I need to go bang my head on the wall for an hour or so.

-

Is Palin for Real?

Andrew Sullivan doesn't think so.

The kicker:

"Her flimsy record of public service has been festooned with so many lies and delusions and fantasies on her part it beggars belief. Her book is self-evidently the product of a dangerously delusional fanatic. She poses as a "real American" from the heartland, yet she has done everything in her power to escape that heartland and find refuge in celebrity."

I dunno. There's a part of me that agrees with him -- or, I guess, would like to agree with him. But I don't think that the "lies and delusions and fantasies" are concocted. I don't know whether she quit her governorship because there was better fame and money elsewhere, although her shady explanations for doing so might point in that direction -- it's possible she honestly thought she could do more good elsewhere. I don't know whether starting the DEATH PANELS debacle was an intentionally (evil) genius move on her part -- I dunno if she or her communication staff are that savvy.

And I don't know if her anti-Washington, anti-intellectual, anti-experience messages are calculated to sway her voting base -- the sentiment that the average man makes the best president, while personally incomprehensible to me, is widely held by others. And it's entirely possible she's exactly that -- an inexperienced average American whose "unconventional" tactics simply show she doesn't know or want to play the game as usual.

But, Sully's grim predictions aside, I'm still convinced she's not running for President.