Magnanimous for a Day

I was gracious.

Yesterday.

Today is red meat day.

To the people who are trashing Sarah Palin: We'll find out who you are. Many people already know. Your identity will come out. And you'll be stuck in low level, third tier campaigns for the rest of your natural lives. And did I mention they'll be Democrat campaigns?  We want to inflict you on them.  You'll be happier with them anyway: low-class, undignified, pathetic, craven, ignoble, unprincipled jerk-offs often find their way to the Democrat camp.

From the carnivorous Ann Coulter:

Republicans lost this presidential election, and I don't blame the messenger; I blame the message. How could Republicans go after B. Hussein Obama (as he is now known) on planning to bankrupt the coal companies when McCain supports the exact same cap and trade policies and earnestly believes in global warming?

How could we go after Obama for his illegal alien aunt and for supporting driver's licenses for illegal aliens when McCain fanatically pushed amnesty along with his good friend Teddy Kennedy?

How could we go after Obama for Jeremiah Wright when McCain denounced any Republicans who did so?

How could we go after Obama for planning to hike taxes on the "rich," when McCain was the only Republican to vote against both of Bush's tax cuts on the grounds that they were tax cuts for the rich?

And why should Republican activists slave away working for McCain when he has personally, viciously attacked: John O'Neill and the Swift Boat Veterans, National Right to Life director Doug Johnson, evangelical pastors Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and John Hagee, various conservative talk radio hosts, the Tennessee Republican Party and on and on and on?

[...]
Indeed, the only good thing about McCain is that he gave us a genuine conservative, Sarah Palin. He's like one of those insects that lives just long enough to reproduce so that the species can survive. That's why a lot of us are referring to Sarah as "The One" these days.

Update on Thursday, November 6, 2008 at 07:55PM by bbmoe

Yes, YES, YES!!!

Over at Red State, Erik Erikson has launched Operation Leper.

I don't know about the name. The idea of consigning these people, even figuratively, to a painful, disfiguring hell of disintegrating digits, deciduous noses, and open, oozing sores seems...well, too charitable.

I want Ann Coulter in charge of the punishment.

To open the bidding, Erik suggests that the list begin with

1. Nicolle Wallace
2. Steve Schmidt
3. Mark McKinnon

and of course, emeritus status to Kathleen Parker and Peggy Noonan.

In Response to Heather MacDonald

Gettin' all Mavericky, in City Journal, by Heather MacDonald.

I called into the Laura Ingraham Show this morning because I disagreed with the trajectory of this article.  On re-reading it, I find much to agree with.  But, I bow to a political reality, and that is that John McCain's own weaknesses drove this choice, and it was a good one for this political season.  I think that Sarah Palin has demonstrated executive acumen in a way that no one else on either ticket has.  I think that she is unripe for the national stage, however.  As for her family circumstances, especially her daughter's pregnancy, perhaps it is caving to embrace that as wholeheartedly as the operatives have, but I can tell you from personal experience, my own reaction when a girl takes the baby to term: Thank God.  Then: so, why isn't she married already?

And I think that's the reality "on the ground," as they say.  We are willing to swallow a lot because we see a glimpse of potential, a home-grown conservative,  one not schooled in the academic "principles" but one who simply embodies many of our cherished ideals through her life: hard work, determination, and a record of making her government more "of the people."  And she is self-made, and very liberated for all that.

She's leaning heavily on a certain populism, possibly to deflect attention from her scant background in finance and the economy, for example.  But I look at those other three also running for office, and with all their years, they are more culpable for the current mess, and equally clueless about how to fix it.  That is, clueless about how to fix it while preserving the liberties of the free market, capitalism, and property rights.

It is a part of a great intellectual and political heritage that we can express opposition even within our own party, (and our subset: conservatives.) But it's painful to have someone like you, logical, knowledgeable, and thoughtful, take your shots when The Daily Kos is urging its acolytes to "crush" us and "break our backs."

In the end, that may be Sarah Palin's most winning way: she is indomitable.  A rare commodity among conservatives these days.

The Debate: Quick Takes

• Most over-used adjective: maverick
• Most over-used word: "also"
• Most butchered word (*Blame Bush*): nucular
• Most missed real argument that was never mentioned: Barack Obama is up to his eyebrows in the sub-prime debacle.  His entire career before he entered public life centered on the "community organizing" that put the screws to banks in Chicago to lend to risky borrowers.  His closest political associates and allies are all implicated in this mess.
• 2nd most missed argument: Senator Biden voted against the Alaska pipeline.  'Nuff said.
• Most wretched phony assertion: "greed on Wall Street" with no mention of Congressional corruption.  This is an argument tailor-made for McCain, but it was 100% hands-off.  That omission will lose McCain the election.  This wasn't Palin's fault, she's hamstrung.
  
• Best word fluff: Palin calling Biden "Senator Obiden"
• Worst personal testimonial: when Biden started pulling out the story about how his wife and daughter were killed, and his son was in critical condition after a car accident.  He started to choke up.  All I could think of was, "Does he do this every speech?" Then I thought about John Edwards and his creepy, oft-retold about climbing onto the mortuary slab with his dead son.
• Most substantive comments about experience: Palin won this one hands down, because she has executive experience that she can take credit for, that she doesn't have to share around or qualify by saying "I brought this legislation [but it didn't pass]"
• Also, best one up:  Biden kept referring to "the commanding general" in Afghanistan, and how he said that the "surge strategy" wouldn't work there (John McCain " favors" a surge for Afghanistan).  Palin said, very specifically, that McClellan (close, really McKiernan, is the commanding general) had never ruled out a surge strategy, then ennumerated the specific characteristics of said strategy, and then modified for geography, and the specific differences between Iraq and Afghanistan.  It really shows she's been boning up, and she really did better in Biden's so-called area of expertise.  He was, after all, forced down in Afghanistan.
  

Overall, Biden was Biden, same ol', same ol'.  Sounds like a senator, and is a drab wash out.  Even though Palin called him out on some of his record, all he had to do was weasel out of it by saying, "That was a procedural vote," or something.  Typical senatorial blah blah.

Palin struggled in a couple of areas, getting the stumbles and repeating herself.  One was particularly bad-  she seemed to lose her train of thought and it began to sound like the staircase scene in "Tootsie": we were just sitting here wanting to do the Heimlich maneuver on her to get that answer out.  Otherwise, I would say, she acquitted herself rather well.  When she's strong, she's pretty strong, and she appears to be doing a remarkable job

And, the all important camera shot: Palin, of course, wins the camera shots totally.  Biden, on the other hand, not only had the plug issues (they really aren't that noticeable anymore) but it's clear that he has been botoxed.  He couldn't raise his eyebrows and the folds of his eyelids just slopped down over his eyes.  And the acres of plain, flat forehead simply calls attention to the receding hairline that the ugly plugs were meant to remedy... it's just a vicious cycle.  Get of the vanity train, Joe,  It's unbecoming.

Nightmares

I had a terrible case of indigestion last night and that always leads to nightmares.  Not that one has to go to sleep to have nightmares.  For some reason, we are now subscribing to the Atlantic Monthly.  Why didn't we ever subscribe to it when it was a good magazine? So we got the latest issue in the mail, and the cover is the most unflattering portrait of John McCain imaginable, and that's saying something.  I couldn't even bear to look at it.  So it turns out that the photographer, Jill Greenberg, is a complete whack job, was embroiled in a huge scandal in which she tormented children for art, and incidentally, to make a political statement, and she's posted a bunch of photoshopped pictures of John McCain on her personal website.  Read it at Michelle Malkin (h/t The View from Alexandria).

Andrew Sullivan is mentioned prominently in that MM post.  I guess I'm not the only one to think that he has declined seriously in his emotional stability, his ethics, and his accuity in the last decade.  I think he was the first high-profile professional journalist to speculate that Trig Palin was Bristol Palin's son, not Sarah's.  To borrow from Churchill, he's become the sort of person who gives sodomy a bad name.

really has nothing to do with the written content, but I like the pic.

Enough about everyone else, let's talk about my digestive tract.  I was munching on Marcona almonds all afternoon, which was probably a bad idea- almonds are a bit rough on the tum-tum- but I felt no ill-effects until I decided to whip up some cold strawberry soup.  I had a vast quantity of strawberries that I had bought from the Costco that were all on the verge of going the way of all compost, when I remembered in a sort of Proustian moment (yup, bought madeleines at the Costco, too) the wonderful chilled strawberry soup that was my favorite dish at a Polish restaurant in Normal Heights (San Diego) circa 1974.  So I googled it and found a Polish Strawberry Soup recipe that looks great but dirties up way too many dishes and takes too long.  You have no idea how many strawberry soup recipes there are.  There are two major variations: fruit-based and wine-based.  Most also use sour cream, yogurt, or half-and-half.  The variation I finally settled on was this:

• 1 quart hulled & sliced strawberries
• 2 Tbsp. dry white wine (I use vermouth)
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Cups plain yogurt (I used thick Greek yogurt thinned with some milk)
  

Whiz it all up 'til smooth in your blender, put it in the fridge for a bit, and voilá!  Chilled Strawberry Soup, or a very adult smoothie.

It was very, very, very good.  And then I curled up in a little ball, clutching my stomach and moaning unintelligibly.   I think it was the almond-strawberry seed one-two punch that did it.  Apart from the pain factor, however, this concoction is ridiculously good for you.  Don't throw those strawberries out!  But maybe the Poles have the right idea about cooking and straining...

BTW, I get my Marcona Almonds at Costco for $7.99/lb.  Everywhere else around here they are $18/lb.  I much prefer to save money while I'm poisoning myself.

And another thing...I had no beer.  Many years ago, I became convinced of the miracle healing powers of Negra Modelo while on a trip to Mexico.  In an effort to ward off incipient Montezuma's revenge, I ordered a bottle, and it fixed me right up.  This morning I went to the grocery store and got a case (on sale!) along with some Pepto.