2011 To John Dickerson: Thanks, Dude, But 2008 Already Told Us.

John Dickerson, "GOP to Palin: It's Over. Why a Sarah Palin presidential campaign is hopeless." June 8

REALLY, now: at this point, isn't it clear to everyone that 25% of the American public will never believe anything it hears via "the news" unless "FOX" is appended to it, that another 25% now has no choice but to see the game for what it is, another quarter doesn't give a shit about anything other than itself, and the remaining 25% just tuned in to get a look at the latest celebrity scandal, or ball gown?

There's no fucking OFF switch. Okay. But th' fuck makes John Dickerson write something like this? It's not like there's going to be a page-sized hole in the internets if he misses a deadline.

And in case you're too young to've experienced this, the reason anyone in the mass-market media takes Sarah Palin seriously is that Richard Nixon was a paranoid scumsucker.

That's it. Because Nixon's hit squad decided to get even with his old enemy, The Press, there's an entire generation of Baby Dickersons who imagine instinctive rightward genuflection is part of their job description. It's curious to consider, for a moment, exactly how these people would react to a concerted White House effort to brand them as commie dupes and leftist sympathizers. But the fact that someone once accused Edward R. Murrow, now, that's something which requires corrective action so it never happens again.

DES MOINES—Sarah Palin says George Washington is her favorite founder because he was reluctant to serve but answered the call of duty. She likes to think of herself this way, answering the needs of a clamoring electorate. That is part of the cinematic beauty of her bus tour: The crowds that greet her can represent that call to take up their standard and head into presidential battle on their behalf.


There's only one problem: The call isn't coming. That's the clear message in a new CBS News poll of the Republican field. Taken after the Palin bus tour started rolling, it asked Republicans whether Palin should run. By a 20-point margin (54 percent to 34 percent), Republicans said she should not run. Among Tea Party supporters, where Palin has her strongest following, she is also waved off against a run. Half say she should not run; 38 percent say she should. That isn't so much a referendum on her bus tour as it is a sign that the entire months-long Palin flirtation with the presidency is not creating an appetite.

And it isn't so much a time-marker as it is a restatement of simple fucking fact that's been clear from the day McCain announced her as his running mate, and Chuck Todd and Nooners announced what they really thought of her when they thought the mics were off. Palin's a goddam embarrassment. She's also has the same favorable rating among Republicans as Mitt Romney. That poll doesn't have anything to do with anything, except what people who tell CBS they're Republicans think the Republican party should do about 2012. And those people see Sarah Palin as a loser. Because she is.

But the curious thing there is, they haven't really admitted it in public, now have they? They don't want the half-term Governor/ half-brain dead Reality Show Grifter representing the party, but they have no problem harvesting the votes of like-minded idiots. And they've never been called on that, have they Mr. Dickerson?

I understand why pollsters would ask the question. I'm less clear as to why CBS would see fit to promote the thing as a referendum on Palin--she's hardly any more unpopular than Newt--though I suspect the urgent burning sensation resulting from seeing their party nominate someone who most resembles it is a big part of the answer. And I have no idea why this should be the basis for "analysis"; if you ask me the real question is how you can have a major political party in a country bristling with wealth and international menace which managed to nominate a brain-damaged Wal*Mart shopper for Vice President. The fact that some people eventually caught on is small beer by comparison. It's just curious how this gets portrayed--now--as Republicans opposing Palin, but doesn't seem to apply to how Republicans embraced the aphasia she stands for, so long as it promised to deliver votes or derail Barack Obama. Much the same way that Donald Trump became the face of Republican embarrassment over Birtherism.

Once it passed its shelf life.