Nope, not kidding. Not exaggerating either. I am deeply, honestly fearful that if the Dems don't pass a robust public option, which would of course become extremely popular, that Palin will ride a wave of racism, economic upheaval, and ignorance-fueled populism right into the Oval Office in 2012.
Things are getting worse every day. The right wing noise machine/witch hunters dominate the airwaves. The entire month of August was hijacked by ignorant, hard-right, Christian fundamentalist lunatics who shifted the attention to socialism, fascism, and pulling the plug on grandma.
Now, on the eve of Obama's critical speech to Congress, Palin is back with a clearly ghostwritten resurrection of the death panel meme. Why is this so disturbing? Because the historical parallels with the Nixon playbook are so uncanny.
As Rick Perlstein describes in his magisterial history of the 60s, Richard Nixon in his "wilderness years" after the Presidential (1960) and California gubernatorial elections (1962) deliberately engaged President Johnson on the tinderbox issue of the Vietnam war through a series of op-ed pieces in the New York Times and his syndicated column. Noted white supremacist Pat Buchanan was a key originator of this strategy. The idea was to provoke LBJ into a specific dialog with Nixon, thus elevating the later to de facto status as leader of the Republican Party and the emergent conservative backlash against civil rights. LBJ indeed took the bait and engaged Nixon on Vietnam. I get the feeling that Palin's handlers are trying to reproduce this.
Having said all that, there may still be a case for Obama to "name and shame" Palin as the originator of the death panel lie. It will elevate her for sure, but it might help his cause too. What do you think?
Still not convinced? Go to Palin's Facebook live feed if you can stand in and watch the hateful, ignorant, fanatic religious lunatics pledge their loyalty to her at a rate of about one a minute.