The Beauty Queen Meets Popeye

The New York Times moderators nixed my comments on both Frank Rich's column and Maureen Dowd's. So you get a two-fer today.

"I can see the White House from my house." Art by Barry Blitt in the New York Times.Frank Rich: "Sarah Palin’s amateurism and liabilities are her badges of honor, and Republican leaders who want to stop her, and they are legion, are utterly baffled about how to do so." CW: this doesn't bode well at all. It appears we are going to be subjected to at least two more years of Ponifications on Palin. ...

... Oops. Nate Silver assures me my fears are justified. Based on Palin's Google traffic, Silver concludes, "If and when Ms. Palin declares her candidacy for the White House, it could consume much of the media oxygen literally for months. For that matter, if Ms. Palin declines to run for office, it could also be a huge story. And, of course, until her mind is made up, there will be plenty of articles that attempt to anticipate Ms. Palin’s decision."

The Constant Weader comments:

What no one mentions, because it is so not politically correct to say so, is what a very liberal septuagenarian wrote to me today about Sarah Palin: "I have to tell you that she is a smasher. Her sexiness MUST be a BIG factor in what's going on."

If Sarah Palin didn't look like her generation's Sophia Loren, she would be -- perhaps -- Alaska's sitting governor, a ditzy woman unknown outside her own state. Bristol Palin would not be dancing with the stars and a younger Palin child would not be known for dissing one of her mother's young detractors with homophobic slurs. They would all be part of one big, troubled family in what for us in the Lower 48 is a far-off place. Had a story about the family and its matriarch ever made it in a mainstream media outlet, we would read with amusement, and with gratitude that we weren't quite THAT bad.

A few years ago, I thought the American people were to be congratulated for getting beyond the "Miss America" 1950s mentality. We have pretty much ditched the pageant, which in my childhood was An Event watched by millions on black-and-white TVs & a guaranteed front-page Sunday morning photo of the teary-eyed tiara winner on every American newspaper willing to hold the presses for the finale. But the allure of the pageant is still with us, re-purposed -- thanks to John McCain -- to fit our political landscape. Now a Miss Alaska runner-up is poised to be President of the United States. Instead of a rose-bedecked beauty-queen in tulle whose most political remark is a wish for world peace or an expression of admiration for Eleanor Roosevelt, we will get a thoughtless, gun-toting Neo-con from whom no one in the world, least of all Americans, will be safe.

 It does make a reasonable person long for the fabulous 50s when the President was a sensible older gentleman & the President-in-Waiting, though every bit as good-looking and charismatic as Sarah Palin, came with a brain and a coterie of those dreaded intellectual elites.

Maureen Dowd: President Obama "aims to position himself as a statesman. He wants to come across as the grown-up in the room, disciplining puerile Republicans who would 'mess with nuclear weapons and screw up alliances.' The Republicans may help Obama if they act so vindictive, entitled and puffed up that they turn off the voters who just anointed them." But, Dowd concludes, after failing to take stands against Republicans earlier, Obama represents a case of "Popeye pulling out the spinach too late."

The Constant Weader remarks:

Bad news, Ms. Dowd. Popeye will not eat his spinach. Today in Lisbon, the President ticked off a litany of venerable American statesmen, American military leaders and foreign ministers who were begging Senate Republicans to Pass. the. Damned. Treaty. Then, as the canned spinach began to mold, the President covered for the Defector-in-Chief, Sen. Jon Kyl. As the AP reports,

 Obama suggested he was encouraged that Kyl, the Republican point man on the issue, had not publicly said he wants to see the treaty rejected -- just that there wasn't enough time during the current lame-duck session to get it done. 'I take him at his word,' Obama said.

Therein lies the reason Americans do not trust anyone in Washington. We all know Jon Kyl is lying, that his "concerns" about a time crunch are all about politics. He wants to delay the ratification vote until the next Congress is in session and Republicans have an even larger stranglehold on the Senate. But, the President says, "I take him at his word." If we know Jon Kyl is lying, then we know President Obama is lying, too, and he is lying from his bully pulpit on the world stage.

Ratifying the New START treaty is an imperative, but being straight with the American people is even more important. Dwight Eisenhower could speak the truth. So could Jimmy Carter. But for the last several decades, the White House has been occupied by men who told the American people what they thought the American people wanted to hear, not what they knew. Ronald eagan denied the truth of the Iran-Contra arms deal. Bush Pere promised "Read my lips. No new taxes" (in fairness, it's to his credit he reneged on that promise). Bill Clinton pointed an accusing finger at us & said, "I did not have sex with that woman." And Bush-Cheney. Well. I can't count the lies.

A country in crisis needs a candid, can-do President. We need someone who will fight to the finish and eat all his spinach. So far, it appears Popeye has abandoned ship.