Taibbi gets it right about Lebron and ESPN

In what other state in what other country could that guy be a Senator and this guy be a Governor?

 

Wouldn't call it "complete" hyperbole and no need for the future tense, we've already been headed that direction for years.

Is there any chance that 50 years ago a candidate with the lightweight credentials of Sarah Palin could carry such clout? And then she abruptly quits the only truly important job she's ever had before she's even finished her first term and, instead of it logically destroying her political credibility, she becomes even MORE popular amongst her base. Nobody there seems to give the slightest shit about how she's performed in her actual job as long as the camera still loves her. I know we're not supposed to be talking politics, but the Palin phenomenon just baffles the hell out of me.

No way she's taken seriously as a candidate in bygone eras. And many of our greatest past leaders would be considered too unfriendly to the camera to be viable candidates today (Lincoln--too ugly and awkward, FDR--too crippled, etc.). Can't help but fear where this trend toward "celeb-itician" leaders will take us.

 

How many terms as Senator did Obama finish before becoming president?

 

Obama's got a some celeb-itician to him, also, don't get me wrong, it was his image as much as substance that got him elected. Didn't mean to turn this into a D v. R pissing match, please don't take it there. I used Palin because she is the most visible and egregious example of the phenomenon, but it happens on both ends.

 

There's nothing new under the political sun. People haven't changed.

 

Double J, you're kinda missing the point. I didn't say we'd never had bad leaders or demagogues before now. The fact that Harding was a weak president does not change the fact that he did NOT have lightweight credentials when he ran. He'd seved many years in the U.S. Senate, the Ohio Senate, been Ohio Lt. Governor and had a succesful career as a newspaper publisher. Harding was nominated primarily because of legitimate credentials and experience worthy of the office, not because of how his visual image could be sold on camera.

There's a gigantic frickin leap from that to a beauty queen who took six years and five colleges to finally get a degree and went from being a small town mayor to Governor of Alaska where she served for ONLY A YEAR AND A HALF before she's tapped to be the Republican Vice Presidential candidate and then quits her job that she's barely started, and in which accomplished nothing of real significance, to become a national leader of the conservative movement and position herself for a presidential run.

Yeah, we had plenty of shitty leaders and demagogue assholes in the past. But not with as lightweight and unproven a resume as Palin has. Or who rose up quite the same way or for quite the same reason she did. Same principles undoubtedly apply to Dan Quayle and a lot of other recently elected leaders, but Palin is taking that image over substance trend to new uncharted levels.

 

I haven't missed the point; Harding may not necessarily have been a lightweight (although you could argue that he was). But he was all but unknown outside Ohio prior to 1920. And the other major contenders for the Republican nomination were more prominent, either in terms of their political experience or their war records.

Harding had served only one term in the U.S. Senate, four years in the state senate and two years as lieutenant governor. He held no political office at all between 1905 and 1915. In 1920, he was in sixth place out of 12 candidates after the first ballot and was still doing no better than fifth after five ballots. He finally got the nod on the 10th ballot - a compromise candidate. Plainly put, Harding was the first choice of almost nobody, because he himself was little more than a nobody.

The real point I was trying to make, though, was with Joseph McCarthy. You had asked if, 50 years ago, someone with credentials as miniscule as that of Sarah Palin could carry such clout. I gave you McCarthy, who was totally unqualified to sit in the Senate on the basis of character and benevolent intelligence, if nothing else, and who of course was far more dangerous than Palin has proved to be so far.

Hell, I could have cited McCarthy's buddy, John Kennedy. What were his qualifications in 1960? Six years in the House of Representatives and eight years in the Senate, during which time he did fuck all of note. Whoops, sorry, that's not quite true. He glad-handed, used his father's money to make important friends, and rose to prominence via the lies of PT 109 and "Profiles in Courage."

 

Much like Grant, Harding was a nice guy who was done in by his friends
elbowing each other for maximum access to the Trough . . . a GOP hallmark,
for decades and decades.