91 Alpha, Germany, 1972

IF....

We elected George Bush...
...Because we were channelling Paul Newman,Who are we channelling now?

Unleashing The Pit Bulls (One With Lipstick): A Twenty Year Phenomenon? Looking Back To 1968; 1988; And Yesterday, October 4, 2008

Say it ain't so, Bus, there you go again pointing backward. Now, doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. Spiro T. Agnew
Dan Quayle
Sarah Palin

Jay Nixon Meets The Boys On The Bus

That Wink And Little Starbursts In Your Living Room

Rich Lowry:

A very wise TV executive once told me that the key to TV is projecting through the screen. It's one of the keys to the success of, say, a Bill O'Reilly, who comes through the screen and grabs you by the throat. Palin too projects through the screen like crazy. I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me." And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can't be learned; it's either something you have or you don't, and man, she's got it.

You're sure you are not the only male in America who thought "Hey, I think she just winked at me."? But I do think you were the only male in America sitting on his couch ...well Keith Olbermann expressed it best last night...(Do you think Rich was eating Cheetos while he watched the debate?)

Meanwhile, Joe Six-pack, shown below, was so consummated by the thought of Sarah Palin winking at him, he had to rest.

I Was Going To Tell You About My $1,000 Contribution Then This Guy Shows Up With A $1,100,000.00 Contribution. That's $1,100,000.00! DANG!

Gibbons the Republican is running for Attorney General against Koster the Democrat. That's ONE MILLION, ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS!

Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart And The Theme Song From Maverick, The Television Show

Chart courtesy of ph33r and loathing.A couple of more commentaries on last night's debate, first this editorial from the New York Times, money quote:

Ms. Palin’s primary tactic was simply to repeat the same thing over and over: John McCain is a maverick. So is she. To stay on that course, she had to indulge in some wildly circular logic: America does not want another Washington insider. They want Mr. McCain (who has been in Congress for nearly 26 years). Ms. Palin condemned Wall Street greed and said she and Mr. McCain would “demand” strict oversight. In virtually the next breath, she said government should “get out of the way” of American business.

In the end, the debate did not change the essential truth of Ms. Palin’s candidacy: Mr. McCain made a wildly irresponsible choice that shattered the image he created for himself as the honest, seasoned, experienced man of principle and judgment. It was either an act of incredible cynicism or appallingly bad judgment.

And finally, this money quote from David Brooks' op-ed piece from the same place:

Just as the midcentury psychologist Abraham Maslow predicted, Republicans watching the debate had a hierarchy of needs. First, they had a need for survival. Was this woman capable of completing an extemporaneous paragraph — a collection of sentences with subjects, verbs, objects and, if possible, an actual meaning?

By the end of her opening answers, it was clear she would meet the test.

There you have it, she is qualified to be president, she can speak on complete sentences. Oh my. (I wonder if Brooks' piece might be satirical?)

ATTENTION TEACHERS:Save your breath. All this talk about representation, increased salaries, better health benefits, better retirement, elimination of the Social Security Setback, reduced class sizes, etcetera, etcetera, will immediately cease. You will get your reward in heaven.

God bless all the teachers, God bless each and every one of you! I am so happy that Sarah Palin blesses us with her thought that we will get our "reward in heaven".

Gosh, she's so folksy and cute!

Doggone it, don't you just love it when she gets perky!

So cuddly and such a maverick!

Btw, does she really think of herself as a cow? An unbranded cow? That's what a maverick is, an unbranded cow that is motherless, yep, a motherless calf. A bleating motherless calf who lost her teat.

What?

Oh, you think she means that she is a lone dissenter, a rebel, a non-conformist, someone who doesn't follow the crowd.

Oh, that kind of maverick.

Ok, then, Hey! how about a big shout out to all of my fellow 6th grade teachers who taught at Nixa Middle School in the early 1990s. And to my former student Matthew Patterson--who always turned his homework in on time!

Hey, and a big shout out to 3rd grader Austin and 5th grader Trey who watched the debate last night. Trey, the 5th grader, (He's the guy who invented "Alaskan Airspace") said to me, "She isn't answering the questions." The boys will get an extra bowl of Ramon Noodles this afternoon and a dollar for being able to speak in complete sentences and to carry a thought beyond talking points.

Oh, and a big shout out to all the bloggers who showed up last night at the Patton Alley Pub. Kudos to Fat Jack for showing leadership and responsibility by encouraging us all to get together. Yeah, FJ, fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you.

Kudos go to Dr. A. Cline of Rhetorica for continuing to be the go-to person with ethical blogging questions. A Cline has a new blog called Carbon Trace, it's about bicycles. A Cline rides a bicycle, he don't roller skate nor drive no car.

And a special shout out goes to The Libertarian Guy, The Complaint Department Manager who know how to decorate a car and liven up a discussion!

And Kudos and a shout out go to the guy who I think was the Voice of Truth, but he says he isn't, and, of course, our friend, that soccer guy who is amazed that people like Jeff Gordon pray that they win or score more goals than the other team. (Like maybe God isn't going to hear the prayers of the other guys?).

And another special shoutout goes to the bloggerwho bought me a cola last night on the drive-by. He could have been the life of the party if he had stayed. Gosh, You all are special and Dang it, I like each and every one of you!

And then there is this:

OK, now Palin is just getting annoying.

"There you go again, Joe?"

Shout out to teachers in her family and some middle school class?

Ya, ya, ya, ya....it sounds like a scene from Fargo. No offense to Midwesterners, but she is overdoing it a bit, ya think? (You betcha.)

I felt like I was watching the sports segment on the evening news, not a vice presidential debate. Shout outs. Dang. Her answers to the questions she decided to answer and her answers in her own debate (who was the moderator?) I thought they were a little too folksy, a little too perky, a little too cute and a lot too superficial.

If by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good,not talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Truimph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And hold on so when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can ever hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none to much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

His name was George F. Babbitt.

He was 46 years old now, in April 1920, and he made nothing in particular, neither butter nor shoes nor poetry, but he was nimble in the calling of selling houses for more than people could afford to pay. -- "Babbitt" by Sinclair Lewis (1922)Now, read this.

Hugh Hewitt Interviews Sarah Palin

The interview.