Sept. 4, 2008:
Palin.
We have met someone that we will be doing battle against for a decade or more. Seriously. I've never seen a woman, or a man for that matter, speak that way, prime time, national, convention, live, ever. She blows away Hillary Clinton. Sorry, but that's what it is. Palin's deft speaking style is like watching visceral connective tissue being torn-- with a child in arms [understand that the Clinton comparison is within the context of contra Obama].
OK, so my guess. Come November, and Obama's glorious victory, Palin is who they pronounce as the '12 nominee against Obama. Either that, or Palin is Prez after McCain croaks on a pretzel from 2 years of the WH.
Palin captured the GOP's heart and flag tonight. She hit it 456 ft into deep right field, and way friggin outside the park.
Romney? Huckabee? Giuliani? Amateurs all. Nada comparison (I can't believe I even put Whitman in Palin's league). Anyone that thinks McCain could have chosen better than Palin, among the GOP ranks, is on drugs. Talk about a cultural war that's on again!
The answer is Jerome Armstrong. If you take out the one sentence: We have met someone that we will be doing battle against for a decade or more, then this could have been written by Ann Coulter or Bill Kristol.
From a blogging perspective, I'll always remember 2008 as the year when I lost all respect for the one of, if not <span style="text-decoration: underline;">the</span>, most influential political bloggers in the country. Throughout the year, Armstrong insisted that he was only supporting Hillary Clinton because he thought she was the most electable Democrat. I respect that. Jerome had the numbers to back it up and Obama was probably the riskier of the two. What bugs me isn't that he supported Hillary Clinton, it's that he's full of sh*t.
Armstrong had a number of major problems with Obama that he brought up time and time and time again (even after he became the nominee), not just in comparison to Clinton...but McCain as well. In the summer and fall, after Clinton withdrew from the race, all he wrote was a series of nightmarish election-day scenarios and "I told you so" posts regarding Obama's nomination. Sure Jerome criticized McCain every once in a blue moon, but his only "outrage" came at the expense of Obama and his supporters (which I think Jerome was supposed to be one of by that point).
Jerome constantly decried Obama's post-partisan message, yet in 2005 he went to work for Mark "radical centrist" Warner's presidential campaign. Prior to that, Armstrong worked with Markos Moultisas on Howard Dean's '04 presidential campaign and together they co-authored Crashing the Gates. Four years ago, could you imagine Markos supporting a member of the DLC leadership for President in 2008? Me either. 'Integrity' Mr. Armstrong, look it up. Or, to quote somebody much younger than myself: Sell out much?