This is a thoughtful piece by John Dean, well worth reading -- but the Readers' Opinions that follow the article are even better. Sarah Palin has a good chance of being president because of the dumbing down of the American electorate. Much of the population get their faux news from FOX, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, O'Reilly and the like. They admire candidates like Duhmbya Bush and Sarah Palin. They don't want intelligence in their president; they want to have a beer with him or her. Following are two readers' opinions that hit the nail on the head (you can read more of them by clicking on the link above):
It would be hard to disagree with Mr. Dean on any of this, but I think he's failed to address the state of the American voter, who has definitely been dumbed down, particularly during the Bush II years.
Sarah Palin and her family have truly become celebrities, but only because that's what Americans want nowadays. The popularity of Palin's books and her daughter's questionable dancing talents are due to America's shallow preoccupation with celebrity and money, and as a direct result we have a populace that really has no clue about or interest in national governance.
Mr. Dean rightly points out that only 25% of Americans would rush out and vote for Palin, but we should remember what the GOP did with its minority rating in recent years. It did, in fact, call the shots and, with the GOP now in charge of the House, the remainder of Obama's first term will likely be an even greater disaster.
There still remains the attitude in the minds of many right-wing Americans that a dumb person you can belly-up to the bar and have a beer with is worth voting for. "Real" to these Americans means a president who is as dumb and clueless as they are. At the same time, informed but discouraged Democrats and disappointed Independents may decide to bail on the 2012 election, or even cross over, especially those that still have no jobs.
For these reasons, I not only think that Palin will run in 2012, but she has a real chance of winning.
God help us. (INDEED!)
The very fact that we are talking about Sarah Palin is proof that something is seriously wrong in the country. Forty years ago, she would have been a five-minute joke and would not have been heard from again.
She is a semi-literate, underachieving, grifter from a hick town. Her ignorance of history, geopolitics, current events, whatever is abysmal. She couldn't pass a high-school civics exam.
You may say she has only 25 percent support, but don't forget that what people say to pollsters and what they do in the voting booth are two completely different things. Remember that 59,000,000 Americans thought she was the perfect person to be one 73-year-old heartbeat away from the nuclear codes. Many people on the other side vote the same way we do. They hold their nose and vote for what they see as the "least worst" candidate.
And last, but not least, trying times, especially economic trying times, pave the way for pseudo-populist demagogues no matter how ill-prepared or bad they are. This is how Hitler came to power. No, I'm not saying Palin is Hitler -- for one thing, she's not as smart as he was -- but the mechanism is the same. The people were downtrodden and desperate and followed someone who wasn't one of the same old cast of characters and who promised them some kind of new glory.
I wouldn't write Sarah off at all. The only fly in the ointment for her is Romney. he has been quietly amassing cash and support since November 2008. With his acquired cash, his personal fortune, and the good graces of the leaders of the Mormon cult and their swarm of drones, he would be a formidable opponent for her.
_______Do something constructive today. Go to your local bookstore, find a copy of George Bush's memoirs, and move it to the "Crime" section. Repeat as often as possible.
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