The Republicans have found their new George W. Bush.
Governor Palin, Governor Bush -- what's the difference? They're almost exactly the same. It's as if the Republicans looked at the real Bush and said, "Aw fiddlesticks. We can top it -- drop the Texas, add Alaska and some non-prescription glasses and ta-daaa!"
Like President Bush, the Republicans can feed this vessel -- like a Dutch Harbor crab boat -- with every lie and smear they're able to conjure. They're capable of dumping into the Palin Tank their pots full of veiled racism and knee-jerk sloganeering; their disingenuous trickery and divisive ranting. Their fear-mongering.
Last night, Governor Palin proved herself to be comfortable and capable of repeating her marching orders by rote -- after all, it's well-known that her speech was largely written before she was even selected. Only the proper names, personal pronouns and biographical information were crow-barred in and amongst the far-right rage and exclamatory desperation.
Not unlike President Bush who was often controlled by neocon strategists, the far-right can control Palin's foreign policy views. Put it this way: is there anyone on either side of this who believe that just because Alaska borders Russia that Sarah Palin will assert herself against Dick Cheney's successors? As we speak, she's being schooled by the same failures who both crafted and endorsed eight years the Bush-Cheney approach to war.
Like President Bush, it's very possible, based upon the sermons of her pastor, that she believes God mandated the invasion of Iraq.
Like President Bush and his administration, she's comes pre-packaged with her own syllabus of scandals. Do the list and you'll find that it's a healthy start to her very own "Bushed!" feature on Countdown.
Like President Bush, she's a far-right fundamentalist with out-of-touch social views, and the statements from both her and the McCain campaign prove that she's not afraid to flaunt the contradictions and hypocrisies evident in her public remarks. She's anti-choice and anti-privacy as it pertains to the Fourth Amendment and would work to deny our daughters of their right to choose and to keep private their medical decisions, and yet all week we've been hearing about her choices and her right to privacy.
Ties to Big Oil interests? Check.
Ties to corruption? Check.
Denies that global warming is man-made? Check.
Eight years ago, it was the Bush family name that propelled George W. to the White House, and this year it's the Palin family story that's propelling her -- otherwise lacking substance beyond her familial narrative.
Drop the plainspoken Texas drawl and "armadilla'" pronunciations and replace them with an Edie McClurg-meets-Fargo accent and phrases like "first dude."
Of course, both President Bush and Governor Palin say "nookyooler," and as such, last night's speech required the phonetic spelling "new-clear" on the TelePrompter. And if this video is any indication, so did George W. Bush's 2000 acceptance speech (see timecode 5:02).
I understand that short attention spans and even shorter memories are relatively well-known American character flaws. But, seriously, this is ridiculous. The dark, twisted madness of the last eight years is being entirely ignored in the face of the exact same bogus Republican packaging -- the exact same script. Only this time it's louder, more obnoxious and loaded with the kind of mockery that's more appropriate coming from Malkin's blog commenters than public officials who are seeking to represent our interests and safety on the world stage. I mean, hasn't our national dignity and our moral authority not been damaged enough?
This time, however, I'd like to think that the gimmicks and hackery have become too obvious to suffice as a distraction from the realities of what's really happening. Or perhaps the failures and incompetence of eight years of Republican domination have blunted the agitprop and fist pounding -- revealing the truth beneath the bumper stickers.
Yet based upon the cable news coverage I'm seeing so far today, the usual suspects are falling for it. Again. Collapsing like fainting sheep under the coercion and rage of Republican attacks -- backpedaling as they did for four years until Katrina smacked them out of their collective stupor (more or less).
So the sooner Americans realize that Governor Palin is just the latest floor model representing everything loathsome and menacing about Reaganomics and the failed policies of the Bush administration, the sooner voters will be equipped with the proper evidence to prevent the same disasters from happening all over again.
What's the difference between Sarah L. Palin and George W. Bush?
Lipstick.