Call me a depressive realist, but - we all need to stop laughing about Sarah Palin. We need to give up the polls about when she'll drop out, and the lists of sure-fire last straws, and the admittedly very funny commiseration blogs like Mudflat's. Why? because the Republican talking heads are doing a scary good job of rallying behind her and spinning every last one of her problems. She could easily be the next Dick Cheney.
I passed my own personal tipping point last night after watching Michelle Bachman, James Carville, Stephanie Miller, and another Republican woman go at it on CNN. I rarely watch TV, so was horrified by the way that Bachman - a Joker-ish frozen grin - grabbed the conversation and repeated over and over (1) inaccuracies from Palin's acceptance speech, such as that she fights corruption and had opposed the bridge to nowhere, and (2) the PUMA line, here accusing Carville of sexism. Carville (and I'm all for unity, but who chose him as Obama's spokesperson??) did an abysmal job, although he did make it clear that Bristol's story was off limits. He failed to correct any of her misinformation, and countered the sexism charges by pointing out that he was a Hillary supporter. Miller started by saying that she was a comedian, and making a joke of it all. Bachman's line was that Palin was a smart, impressive, ambitious achiever - and Carville should have started his response by admitting that fact.
What we're still missing, even after all these endless years of Bush, is that the Right has nothing but contempt for critical thinking. Now more than ever, they are making their own reality. For public purposese, it is all right-brain, molded to fit, all the time: facts, consistency and implications be damned. Palin is their potentially supremely effective means to the same old end.
With the way that Cheney has paved for future vice-presidents, she could easily continue the damage he has done, taking it to the next level. She is clearly very hungry for power - the stories about Trig's birth, and her putting Bristol in the limelight at this point are relevant to this point, but are not the only evidence of her ruthlessness. And with McCain's whimsical management style, and his vulnerability to a young, pretty woman, Palin would not have to wait for him to have a health crisis to start exercising Cheney-like presidential influence.
What to do? for starters, take this all more seriously, and practice looking at the election through Republican lenses. And for God's sake, put some more effective spokespeople on CNN.