Howard Dean Wanders Off The Ranch Again! (Updated)

What could possibly explain Howard Dean crossing over into la la land and actually saying that Sarah Palin could beat President Obama in 2012. That is the craziest political statement I’ve heard all year. His reasoning is as weak as his apparent grasp on reality. The Hill has some details for us…

“I think she could win,” Dean told The Hill in an interview Friday. “She wouldn’t be my first choice if I were a Republican but I think she could win.”

Dean warns the sluggish economy could have more of a political impact than many Washington strategists and pundits assume.

First of all, Howard, would she be your second or third pick? But not your first? If you were a Republican, that is. That’s some qualifier to the crazy statement that followed. Wow!

It is true that the economy will have a lot of impact on the elections, that’s for sure. But leaping from Sarah Palin, who isn’t even running and won’t, to the fact that she could beat President Obama, even if the economy is still struggling – is just off the hook crazy. In order to win an election, you actually have to run in the primary and win. Sarah Palin doesn’t have the work ethic to do what needs to be done to get to that point. Hell, she quit half way through her first term as governor of Alaska. What makes Howard Dean think that she would actually take on the monumental task of running for president. There is absolutely no freakin way that Sarah Palin could possibly handle that. But let’s just suspend that fact for a second and look at Howard Dean’s point. It’s just astounding how large a leap Howard takes in his thinking. More from the Hill piece…(emphasis mine)

“Any time you have a contest — particularly when unemployment is as high as it is — nobody gets a walkover,” Dean said. “Whoever the Republicans nominate, including people like Sarah Palin, whom the inside-the-Beltway crowd dismisses — my view is if you get the nomination of a major party, you can win the presidency, I don’t care what people write about you inside the Beltway,” Dean said.

Well  Howard, there is a good reason why the Beltway crowd dismisses her, have you been in a cave since 2008? The woman has not done anything that would prepare her for consideration as a serious candidate. And that “if” in “if you get the nomination”…well, Howard, you can’t just roll past that “if”, sorry. That’s a 64 pt “if” in a 12 pt world. She has spent the last few years cashing in on her name recognition and it continues to this day. It’s almost laughable even talking about her as a serious candidate, in my opinion. The most obvious evidence that she won’t run is the fact that Fox News has kept her on the payroll. They cut loose New Gingrich and Rick Santorum, terminating their contracts with Fox News as of May 1, 2011, because of their conflicts of interest. Not Sarah, she has no intention and no desire to ever run for office again. That would be way too much work. Just think about how much “gotcha journalism” she would have to endure if she were to run. Blame the inside-the-beltway crowd if you want, but the woman is not running for anything in the near future. I doubt she will ever run for office again. Why would she, she has a compliant media that will cling to her every high-pitched-rising-inflection word salad she utters. She’s got a pretty sweet gig going, if you can get it.

But continuing with the suspension of reality and taking it to Howard’s batshit crazy end. IF she were to actually run and IF she were to actually get the nomination, there is no fucking way she could beat President Obama in a general election. Can you imagine them in a debate? Can you imagine Sarah Palin telling us about “The Palin Doctrine” or her strategy for peace in the Middle East? It’s just so far off the ranch that you have to wonder what could possibly make Howard Dean say such idiotic things. Is it the Obama Derangement Syndrome progressed into a full blow disease which has started eating away at his brain? I’m just asking. Maybe some of you excellent readers can shed some light on that, as you often do.

Update: I just came across this poll at The Raw Story where 2/3 of the people surveyed said they would definitely not vote for Sarah Palin. 42% of Republicans said they definitely wouldn’t vote for her. But of those people who would, she’s taking their money from them. She’s slick!

Cognitive Dissonance On The Left!

Waaaaaa?? You mean Howard Dean thinks that Bill Daley was an excellent choice for Chief of Staff at the White House? How many on the “professional left” started banging their heads on their computer keyboards and saying “does not compute, does not compute.” I saw his interview with Rachel Maddow last night…watch it below. When I saw the first story about it, I thought myself, there has to be a reason why he was picked. Like maybe he would be good at the job or something. But those whiny, poutrage, firebaggers see it as just another betrayal, a slap in the face. Because you know, the whole damn world revolves around them now and anything the Obama administration does has to pass their new found litmus test…if you’ve ever worked for a corporations or Wall Street firm, you are not suitable to them and just have to be sending some mysterious smoke signals by doing it. And they like to demonize anyone who has ever sold their soul to Big Business. Every thing seems to have deeper meanings these days, all symbolic and shit. It wouldn’t possibly be that he is qualified, a good democrat, a good manager and as Howard Deans says, a reasonable man. Check out this exchange and watch as Rachel pouts and tries to make more out of the hiring than it really is…

Chris Matthews Knocks Out Howard Dean Over Massachusetts Spin!

If you haven’t seen this, you must! The good stuff starts around 4 minutes, but the whole thing is worth watching. I have mixed feelings about Chris Matthews in general, but Chris was on fire last night and is for now, my hero. He took on the Dean, Hamsher, Uygur and Marsh crowd and smacked them to the ground. It’s my favorite clip of the year. Here is a portion from Extreme Liberal’s Rush Transcript….

Howard Dean (HD): …Of the Obama voters who either stayed home or voted for Scott Brown, they overwhelmingly wanted to do more on health care, not less.

Chris Matthews (CM): So they were more progressive than the democrat?

HD: That’s correct!

CM: So on all the issues raised in the campaign, debt, taxes, arrogance of power in the Democratic Party in Mass….all those issues, where were the voters?

HD: The voters were upset. They were upset by Washington as usual, dealing with special interests, writing a bill that was great for the insurance industry, not doing much about the bankers.

CM: That’s your position!

HD: That’s not my position, that’s the voters of Massachusetts.

CM: You just said the voters of Massachusetts agree with you but they voted Republican, that makes no sense.

HD: It does make sense.

CM: If you were in the voting booth, would you have voted for Scott Brown? Would you have done this?

HD: Of course not!

CM: Well, well, oh but you rationally would not have voted for the conservative Republican because he’s against health care, but you say the voters are irrational, they somehow send smoke signals in their voting. They vote for the conservative Republican who’s totally against health care reform to tell the country they want a progressive health care program. THAT’S CRAZY!

HD: We know what they did.

CM: Are voters crazy?

HD: Chris, Chris

CM: Are voters crazy?

HD: There’s only one crazy person around here and I may hold up a mirror and you may see him in a minute here…

CM: You mean the voters vote right wing Republican to express progressive values?

Un-fucking-believable. That has to be one of the best take downs of a crooked spin job I’ve ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things I love about Howard Dean but his tactics here are just plain stupid. His crooked spin to reinforce his crazy notion was ripped apart at the seams. Many kudos to Chris Matthews for standing up to this crap.