As an approaching-oldster compared to many here, lemme just say to you that

[PCIntern]

when Nixon was running for whatever he was running for at the time, VeePee (as Palin would pronounce it), Governor, President, even congressman in California before he became a national figure, he was the object of so much public scorn and ridicule that you almost couldn't believe it, and he was certainly an intelligent man, fully informed and well-spoken. Maniacal, dirtiest of dirty politics of the time, dark and forboding-looking, but a dangerously clever and well-versed candidate. Those of us who lived thru his campaigns couldn't believe that he was as popular as he was, especially next to those against whom he was running. But he was, and he survived almost all the attacks upon him by the Left. It was the Right which brought him down: the folks inside who wanted him out for a variety of reasons, some of which we shall never ever know. But the daily cartoons, the Nixon jokes, the caricatures were endless and yet he had a remarkable political career, ending after his resignation by becoming one of the most sentient speakers on the former Soviet bloc countries. While everyone was covering them as a win for the West, Nixon was warning of issues which later became extraordinarily important, including, but not limited to, the management of nuclear arms, the economies, racism and anti-Semitism (amazing coming from him - it took one to know one, of course), and instabilities throughout the region.

This Palin-creature is a moron of the first order, but she's a greedy, 'attractive' (don't shoot the messenger, I personally hate that 'look', but WTF do I know?), loudmouth, ignoramus who knows enough to just blabber and lie continuously about everything no matter how trivial, just to keep in shape, as Ambassador Wilson once said to me personally a long time ago in a galaxy far away. We can all blog about her all we want, but never ever let up promoting our candidate, for if she ever senses a real weakness, it shall be that we assume that she can't ascend. And, like Nixon and even Reagan's rise which many of us felt was impossible, it CAN HAPPEN HERE. We have to pepper the media and the individuals with whom we come into contact with legitimate criticisms of her and of course, all the other candidates for all elective offices from President down to Dog Catcher.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. However

does Palin have the brains in her and behind her that Nixon had?

If we are to honestly compare the 2, Nixon could talk intelligently, he was cunning in his own right,
he had Kissinger, Rumsfeld was there, with a fledgling Cheney, he had access to the "Old Guard" and he had a lot of prior political experience.He had paid his dues, he had "political capital" from the entrenched power structure, not the fringe element.

IMHO.

[femrap]

9. I am old as well.....

the citizenry (really consumers) of today are much more stupid now than back in days of Nixon and Raygun. We don't teach Civics in schools anymore. Critical thinking skills are not taught.

Back in those days, if the TV were on between 5 to 7:00 pm, everyone was watching THE NEWS. People were more informed of the political scene. Fair and Balanced was still in existence.

Today the media is pretty much owned by 5 rich white dudes and they provide the propaganda/'news.' People know all about the 'candidates' on American Idol, but couldn't name our Vice President.

We have an apathetic, uneducated population who can get all jazzed over a person like Palin. Raygun, remember, played Bozo the Clown. I have very little faith in my fellow Americans. They are so easily and willingly fooled.

[russspeakeasy]

22. "willingly" is the key word.

It's easier than thinking.

[femrap]

34. I am always telling

my Bible-thumping relatives...'God gave you a brain because he wanted you to use it.'

[oldlib]

25. I am old also.

The first election that I could vote in was for Adlai Stevenson running against Ike. Ike was so popular that the Democratic party centered their criticism on vice president Nixon. I attended a rally for Stevenson at the Hollywood Bowl in 1956 where actress Mercedes McCambridge gave a speech. She played the brutal sister-in-law to Elizabeth Taylor in the movie "Giant." The theme of her speech was that she had a bad dream where Nixon was president. How true this became.

[femrap]

33. Cool story....

I remember when Nixon resigned....I felt that We, The People had won...but I thought he should have spent some time in jail. (I really like Justice). It was a time when we felt we could make a difference.

I don't feel that anymore. I talk with people and they are PROUD of NOT voting. The system is rotten to the core now. Sometimes, I wish the system would collapse under its own weight so we can start anew.

[hfojvt]

41. I am surprised that you are old

but I also don't know how you can make a serious case that the past is better, when it is the past that produced President Reagan.

[maddiemom]

49. the past is better

I consider the Reagan years as the end of the best of the American past. We'd had some shameful episodes, but had eventually tried to rectify them during the late fifties through early seventies. Some of this came from people waking up and realizing the American past wasn't then as great as we'd been taught: one of our better ages of critical thinking, just unfortunate that some "hippies took it too far in their youthful state. Morning in America was waking up to a false premise of security after a disturbing dream. Not an horrific nightmare, just one of those disturbing dreams in which you couldn't trust anyone or anything around you. Everything was sunny and fine. Many people chose to embrace that and become angry at anyone questioning our country's course. Actually we should be referring to ourselves as the U.S. (of America), since America includes many more countries. The best parents or teachers know that you can love , but still be critical when it's truly for the best.

[pnwmom]

16. Brains aren't necessary, or Reagan wouldn't have been reelected

with early Alzheimers, and Bush wouldn't have come close to being elected.

All the Rethug party ever looks for anymore is puppets. They saw how well that worked with Reagan, so they're keeping with that strategy. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they ended up with Palin.

[kestrel91316]

18. She doesn't need brains behind her. All she needs is MONEY behind her.

And IMHO she's got that. She's the darling of the Koch's and Murdoch, that much is certain. Or the media would be completely ignoring her by now.

[chervilant]

32. And,

if the PTB want Palin in the White House, that's where she'll be.

(I wonder if she's scared of the fact that POTUS is one position from which she cannot resign...)

[Moondog]

43. Not true - a POTUS can resign. Like Nixon did. n/t

[chervilant]

50. Yes, but

Nixon was about to be impeached, and he was our first and ONLY president who resigned. Palin just quit her post as gov of AK, apparently because she had bigger fish to fry, at least in her own mind. I suppose I should have said, "resign for no reason," so I could avoid responses such as yours.

[hfojvt]

40. then why isn't DU ignoring her?

The media covers her because people watch stories about her. That is proven by how much even DUers want to talk about her.

[truthrocks]

47. It is not wise to underestimate the extent of power, money & influence behind this woman.

I'm just sayin' . . . !!!

[Kingofalldems]

2. Nixon would be considered a flaming liberal today

One of the things he did was to give Postal workers collective bargaining rights. He also opened the door to talks with China.

[PCIntern]

3. Yes but the point of my OP was that

we vilified Nixon to the nth degree and he was repeatedly elected anyway even though he was genreally 'hated' by the cognoscenti and the mainstream press.

[Kingofalldems]

4. I don't think she is even close to being electable

In fact I hope she can stir up some trouble in the primaries and weaken whoever gets the nomination.

[femrap]

15. China.....

and look how that has turned out. lol. Who knew that China would become the manufacturing base of the world...and take all of our jobs. And China is our biggest owner of Treasuries.

But I do see your point...he started the EPA, I believe. Who thought that I would someday see Nixon as a teddy bear compared to the likes of W, Ryan, and all the other neo-con psychopathic sadists.

[yardwork]

5. Good point. I'd say that Palin has more similarities with Reagan.

One of the big differences is that Palin is no where near as popular as Reagan and is unlikely to become so.

I remember when Reagan first ran in 1976 I couldn't believe that anybody would even consider voting for an actor with no education, no national or international experience, an unpopular governor of California who was clearly an amiable buffoon. Fooled me once, won't get fooled again, something like that.

yeah who was that moran from Texas?

[NYC_SKP]

11. Reagan & Palin: They both have that folksy braindead thing down pat.

:P

[Ineeda]

6. As a resident of Florida, I can attest to the adage,

'never underestimate stupid.' Just look at what the stupid, gullible, and ill-informed elected here in Florida. Our new governor, despite his criminal activities and lies, won 2,619,335 votes (48.9%) and is now committing various broad, unbelievable outrages. Though there's tremendous buyers' remorse, there's no recall option here. I can't imagine what damage he can do in the remaining three and a half years of his term. The moran from Alaska is even more dangerous. As ridiculous as she is, I don't underestimate her.

[immoderate]

7. Nixon had policies -- Sarah only has politics.

I remember Nixon down to his stubble. I wasn't old enough to take note of his runs against Vorhees and Douglas or even most of his vice presidency but from the Kennedy-Nixon Debates he was in my sights.

I reveled in his not being a crook, banning whitewash from the White House, sneaking out to China, and praising the best public servants he has ever known, while firing them.

But Sarah plays a different game. No policy. She know there's no return on that. It is only getting her opponents in trouble anyway. No one on the Republican side who mentions any policy has a chance. Sarah runs on pure pizzazz.

She could go all the way...

--imm

[seabeyond]

8. my dad a forever repug, never voted otherwise, voted obama cause palin was too stupid for dirt

adn runnig on repug. the only thing that could make him vote for a dem was soemone so GD stupid, even he couldnt vote with her on the tcket

dont give her too much credit

[PCIntern]

10. I don't give her much credit, but

I give the electorate even less.

[seabeyond]

12. he is part of that electorate.... as are many that feel the same. she has a very low number. nt

[PCIntern]

14. I've heard this before...

I'm not saying that she's electable, but wouldn't a guy like, say, Thune, present better? Now you've got a candidate who's not as big a loser against ours and the electorate is relieved that it isn't Palin or Bachmann, Wasn't that easy??

"And he's well spoken and of course, SO good looking!!"

I can hear it now...

[femrap]

17. Watch out for

Jon Huntman (or is it Huntsman?)....got the looks and speaks Mandarin. He resigned as Ambassador of China....I think he wants to run. He's a Mormon.

[madinmaryland]

28. Huntsman will not get the nomination. He's a Mormon and was in the Obama

Administration.

Kills the deal for him.

[femrap]

35. Hope you're right....nt

[izquierdista]

13. Nixon was a fair-haired boy compared to Palin

They pitched him as the Republican alternative to Kennedy, even going back to who was a rising star in the 1946 Congressional election. As we have seen recently, with Ailes calling her stupid and George Swill calling her unqualified, the moneyed Repubs are not behind her, so the only place Sarah's going is to pass the hat amongst the tea-baggers.

[AndyTiedye]

19. The Republicans Will Have Billions of Secret Corporate Dollars Thanks to "Citizens United"

Citizens United changed everything. We can take nothing for granted.
If the big money gets behind someone, they almost always win,
and now the Republicans have access to unlimited, secret corporate contributions, and even foreign money.

We have lost some of the safest Democratic seats in Congress.

The teabaggers now control state government in 27 states, vastly increasing their ability to influence
elections in those states in their favor by legal means (ID laws, gerrymandering) or by outright fraud.

[Bluenorthwest]

23. Show me evidence that 'big money almost always wins'.

I offer you Meg Whitman in CA, who spent more than anyone ever, and far, far more than Jerry Brown, who beat her handily. Her money did not help her a bit, did it? No it did not.
Here in my State, we had lots of outside funny money buying up ad time. This did not help the Republicans here either, it annoyed the electorate and pointed out the extreme nature of the Republican candidates, or the vapid lack of intellect.
No Democrats here lost their seats, we elected a Democratic Governor as well. So I ask you, if big money equals a win where you live, but not where I live, is that because we are smarter, or just better at politics? When I say 'we' I mean the entire west coast.
Name for me the 'safest seats' we lost. What we lost were not safe seats at all, we lost where Republicans traditionally win. They have always dominated the former slave states. What are these 'safest seats' you refer to?
The idea that unlimited ad budgets mean success is simply false. I reject that bit of propaganda, as it has no basis in fact. Almost always. Safest. Many superlatives but not a shred of proof that they are called for. Almost always, except on the West Coast, expect the largest expenditures. Almost always, or almost never? I say almost never.

[AndyTiedye]

37. We Can Still Win, But We Must Not be Complacent

Safest = Ted Kennedy's old seat in Massachusetts. Runner-up = Russ Feingold in Wisconsin.

This in spite of the Democrats focusing most of our limited resources on the Senate.

We got routed in the House and in the state houses and state legislatures.

All of this within 2 years of Republican leadership comparing their own party to defective dog food.
Money talks. A few billion talks loudly enough to drown out everybody else.

Money doesn't always win — I also live in California, and we did hold off the red tide as you pointed out.
I think that is in no small measure because our Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, has gone to great lengths
to keep our elections honest.

Sadly, this may not be the case in many of the 27 states whose state governments are controlled by Teabaggers.

We can still win, but we must not be complacent. Even if they are running an idiot like Sarah Palin,
we cannot write her off as "unelectable" if the money and the vote-stealing machines are behind her.
We are in uncharted territory here.

[Stevenmarc]

20. Marshall McLuhan said it best

Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be.

[oldlib]

21. I agree.

The specter of Nixon's rise to power demonstrates that a Palin presidency is possible. She must be stopped and not allowed to dominate the media attention.

[Le Taz Hot]

24. After Nixon we repeated that nightmare scenario

two more times with Reagan and Baby Doc Bush. Nixon was at least smart and had experience in government, evil though he was. Reagan and Shrub were stupid, incompetent sock puppets and wholly without remorse for any action they took no matter how heinous. HOWEVER, I have to question a current Democratic President who seems fine with the Republican slash and burn agenda. You can use Sara Palin as a boogyman all you want but when I have a "choice" between a Democrat who supports the Patriot Act and torture and a Republican who supports the Patriot Act and torture, I have to begin to question the entire system. My vote has to be earned.

[NNN0LHI]

26. He won an election for a second term by landslide right before he was forced to resign

After that I couldn't find one person who admitted voting for him. My mother quit participating in Republican primaries because she didn't want to declare she was a Republican.

Don

[Gman]

27. Very wise

and there are others like Perry in Texas that are as much a joke and who runs a fantastic smoke screen hiding Texas' problems, but could do the same things as Nixon and Reagan. There's much danger out there these days.

[livetohike]

29. Sooner or later, if Palin runs, she will have to debate. That

winky, blinky, shout out thing she did won't work this time with so many other Republican candidates. She'll look like the fool she is.

I have e-mailed MSNBC and CNN numerous times over the past few years. This past week is just ridiculous with their coverage of this loser. The best thing I heard was this morning when Joe Scarborough said, "That's enough. When she announces she is running, then we should cover her." The media and photographers chase her around like a lovesick puppy.

I agree on her looks...she has always reminded me of the Ivory Snow commercials (I'm that old). Her librarian look is something right out of the 1950's, as are her "ideas". John Birch's best friend.

[Marr]

30. Palin isn't a politician and, in reality, has no political ambitions.

She's got more in common with Donald Trump or Snookie. She's a sort of tabloid celebrity who needs to keep her mug in the papers, and that's all.

I think Palin is a the perfect summary of our political landscape today. Policy has nothing to do with politics, as that is dictated by big business interests no matter which party is in power. Instead, we have this phoney little stage show called elections, and they've become so profoundly fake that reality TV stars are treated as viable candidates. It's all a big joke.

[Javaman]

31. Nixon lost in '60 because people wanted change. That and

the fact that Powers was shot down over the USSR, didn't help things for the repukes.

The race was tight, but one thing for sure, nixon wasn't anywhere the public speaker nor as personable as Kennedy.

He lost on a tide of a new era.

in '68, he ran as a repuke and anyone that was against Viet Nam and not a Dem would have won.

failin quitter certainly doesn't have the personality, nor the speaking ability to be a winner. And the times are as such that she isn't promising anything about ending the wars or bringing the troops home.

On top of that, failin quitter has done more to destroy her own chances than anything else.

but at the end of the day, I will be very surprised if she runs for office again. She makes more money as a grifter of fools than a servant to the people.

she's nothing more than a self aggrandizing egotist out to fleece the public.

[yellowcanine]

36. Difference is that Nixon actually knew stuff. Back then people didn't get elected if they didn't.

Reagan broke the mold. After him it was possible to get win nominations and get elected even if you were clueless about much of the world and how it worked.

[Taverner]

38. I keep telling this to people, and I am sick of the smartest people telling me "never gonna happen"

Some very smart people, very well versed in Economics, History, Politics, Policy and what not keep saying "it's never gonna happen"

Well I may not be the smartest, I don't know a whole lot of about Economics, but I do understand history, and I understand Americans

And let me say you laugh at Palin at your peril

YES Americans are that stupid

I keep thinking Reagan as a better example

Nixon had one thing going for him, and it was his nickname: 'Tricky Dick.'

He could outmaneuver anyone, and a lot of Americans said "Yeah he's an asshole, but he's our asshole"

Reagan, on the other hand was dim. Dubya Dim. The man thought all trees looked the same. He thought he was the Gipper, from The Knute Rockney Story.

And they laughed at him all the way to the White House.

[Wind Dancer]

39. Excellent post!

Kick and recommended!

[defendandprotect]

42. The rise of the right has only come thru 50 years of rw political violence ...

which took not only our president but our people's government --

Well, they couldn't kill everyone -- so add to that their electronic voting computers

which began coming in during the late 1960's --

Two journalists in Florida began immediately to investigate the strange election outcomes

which were unverifiable.

If you're interested, "Votescam -- The Stealing of America" --

http://www.constitution.org/vote/votescam__.htm


Also keep in mind that the LARGE computers used by our corporate-press began to be used

during the mid-1960's --

They provided new powers to PREDICT and CALL elections --

for candicates -- for Electroral College Votes -- and even to call states for presidential

candidates. What we saw in 2000 was merely a reversal of those new powers.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

44. Placing my tinfoil hat securely in place. Who did the GOP run against Obama

in Illinois for Senate? Alan Keyes. Another crackpot and how much did Obama win by? About 75%. That's about the same percent of the people that would consider the Chillbilly. The fix is already in. Kabuki theater. There is absolutely no reason why the GOP has to run a viable candidate against Obama when he is already carrying out their agenda.

Even the idiot Elisabeth Hasselbeck from The View has said that the GOP should save all their money for 2016. Now this is a person who gets all of her talking points from the GOP every morning.

[spanone]

45. watching every Gore/bu$h* debate, i realized intelligence plays a small role

with the obvious complicity of the media she can be made to appear all things she is not

these are frightening times and the media has never had the power they possess today.

when we had literally three news sources you were forced to hear both sides of a story...we even had a fairness doctrine that forced broadcasters to present both sides.

today you can go through life and only hear one side of the story....frightening times.

[nichomachus]

46. Don't write Sarah off

Times like this open the way for demagogues to take over, if they can harness the feeling that people have of victimhood, which is what she seems to be doing.

This is how Hitler came to power. (I'm not saying Palin is a Hitler, but just showing the same type of political trajectory).

If the economy continues to stagger -- it may even fall further -- more people lose their jobs, their homes, their schools, and no one in either party can do anything to stop it, a snappy, tough-talking bonehead could be elected.

[GeorgeGist]

48. Sarah knows when to quit.

Until then she'll milk it.

[The Wizard]

51. Said many years ago

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
H. L. Mencken
US editor (1880 - 1956)

[xocet]

52. Question: "sentient" or prescient? n/t