This will not be a great diary. Too much confusion is rattling in my brain due to the horrible inundation of Trance Politics that has been flowing like sewage into our American political culture.
But I gotta try anyway.
Even my title is not great because I'm only going to quote one blog, not "blogs." Please forgive me.
Oyster over at Your Right Hand Thief has a post up entitled New Orleans' Sarah Palin?. It speaks of a Democrat, former TV reporter, Helena Morino, who is running for William Jefferson's seat in the 2nd District.
Oyster says:
Congressional candidate and former TV reporter Helena Moreno recently blundered in a debate when she couldn't answer a policy question about the Stafford Act. But she claimed that her supporters (like former FBI chief Jim Bernazzani) will vouch that she's a quick study.
And then, a question:
Related?
...
"She's going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he'll be around at least that long," said Charlie Black, one of Mr. McCain's top advisers, making light of concerns about Mr. McCain's health, which Mr. McCain's doctors reported as excellent in May.
Of course it wouldn't be a NOLA blog without the NOLA writing style:
Of course, Moreno wants to represent a district that is much different than Palin's Alaska. Southern Louisiana, for example, is hot, flat, and rich in culture. Alaska is cold, mountainous, and rich in moose. Southern Louisiana subsists on oil and gas, fishing, state socialism, and suffers from too many teenage pregnancies. Alaska is ...no doubt much much different.
So, despite the support of uber-Republican kingmakers like Boysie Bollinger, Moreno has to tamp down any hard right views she may have. For example, when she praised the surge in Iraq in her announcement speech, she added an important qualifier:
I do believe the surge has worked, and while I am frustrated by our reason for entering into battle, I am focused on our success against terrorism and tyrants.
See, Moreno didn't know enough about the Stafford Act which is as pertinent to post-Katrina Louisiana as foreign policy knowledge is pertinent to being the Vice President of the United States of America.
I believe there is a pattern here, a very dangerous pattern.
Perhaps there should be a new word in the American lexicon: Palinism. That you don't need either experience or competence to take public office but only ambition. That you needn't represent your constituents but only your financial backers.
For this is going on all around our country. The speech Sarah Palin gave last night does indeed show true representation -- she represents the people all around our nation, of both parties, who have risen to power locally, not just in politics but in leadership positions in business, education, healthcare, you name it, these past eight years.
It's these folks who abetted a corrupt federal government and let New Orleans drown.
It's these folks who through their toxic combination of ambition and incompetence, will continue to grab the power unless we stop them.
When our country has Palinism as a national role model, how can local incompetence be far behind? And their use of Trance Politics, the politics of distraction, enables these incompetent people to rise to power in all the confusion.
So this is my bad diary trying to break through the trance and get to the real issues. New Orleans doesn't need a congresswoman who doesn't have a good understanding of the Stafford Act. And America doesn't need a Vice President who doesn't know foreign policy -- or much else for that matter.
We need qualified representatives. Palinism guarantees only ambitious ones.