Post by graybeard on Oct 13, 2008 21:22:02 GMT -6
Last updated October 7, 2008 1:41 p.m. PT
Palin's Future, according to Garrison Keillor
seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/382133_keilloronline08.html?source=mypi
GARRISON KEILLOR
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
We are a stalwart and stouthearted people, and never more so than in hard
times. People weep in the dark and arise in the morning and go to work. The
waves crash on your nest egg and a chunk is swept away and you put your
salami sandwich in the brown bag and get on the bus. In Philly, a woman
earns $10.30/hour to care for a man brought down by cystic fibrosis. She
bathes and dresses him in the morning, brings him meals, puts him to bed at
night. It's hard work lifting him and she has suffered a painful hernia
that, because she can't afford health insurance, she can't get fixed, but
she still goes to work because he'd be helpless without her. There are a
lot of people like her. I know because I'm related to some of them.
Low dishonesty and craven cynicism sometimes win the day but not
inevitably. The attempt to link Barack Obama to an old radical in his
neighborhood has desperation and deceit written all over it. Meanwhile,
stunning acts of heroism stand out, such as the fidelity of military
lawyers assigned to defend detainees at Guantanamo Bay -- uniformed
officers faithful to their lawyerly duty to offer a vigorous defense even
though it means exposing the injustice of military justice that is rigged
for conviction and the mendacity of a commander in chief who commits war
crimes. If your law school is looking for a name for its new library,
instead of selling the honor to a fat cat alumnus, you should consider the
names of Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, Lt. Col. Mar k Bridges, Col. Steven David,
Lt. Col. Sharon Shaffer, Lt. Cmdr. Philip Sundel and Maj. Michael Mori.
It was dishonest, cynical men who put forward a clueless young woman for
national office, hoping to juice up the ticket, hoping she could skate
through two months of chaperoned campaigning, but the truth emerges: The
lady is talking freely about matters she has never thought about. The
American people have an ear for B.S. They can tell when someone's mouth is
moving and the clutch is not engaged. When she said, "One thing that
Americans do at this time, also, though, is let's commit ourselves just
every day, American people, Joe Six-Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I
think we need to band together and say never again. Never will we be
exploited and taken advantage of again by those who are managing our money
and loaning us these dollars," people smelled gas.
Some Republicans adore her because they are pranksters at heart and love
the consternation of grown-ups. The ne'er-do-well son of the old Republican
family as president, the idea that you increase government revenue by
cutting taxes, the idea that you cut social services and thereby drive the
needy into the middle class, the idea that you overthrow a dictator with a
show of force and achieve democracy at no cost to yourself -- one stink
bomb after another, and now Governor Palin.
She is a chatty sportscaster who lacks the guile to conceal her vacuity,
and she was Mr. McCain's first major decision as nominee. This troubles
independent voters, and now she is a major drag on his candidacy. She will
get a nice book deal from Regnery and a new career making personal
appearances for forty grand a pop, and she'll become a trivia question,
"What politician claimed foreign-policy expertise based on being able to
see Russia from her house?" And the rest of us will have to pull ourselves
out of the swamp of Republican e conomics.
Your broker kept saying, "Stay with the portfolio, don't jump ship," and
you felt a strong urge to dump the stocks and get into the money market
where at least you're not going to lose your shirt, but you didn't do it
and didn't do it, and now you're holding a big bag of brown bananas. Me,
too. But at least I know enough not to believe desperate people who are
talking trash. Anybody who got whacked last week and still thinks
McCain-Palin is going to lead us out of the swamp and not into a war with
Iran is beyond persuasion in the English language. They'll need to lose
their homes and be out on the street in a cold hard rain before they
connect the dots.
-----------
Garrison Keillor is the author of a new Lake Wobegon novel, "Liberty"
(Viking).
Palin's Future, according to Garrison Keillor
seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/382133_keilloronline08.html?source=mypi
GARRISON KEILLOR
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
We are a stalwart and stouthearted people, and never more so than in hard
times. People weep in the dark and arise in the morning and go to work. The
waves crash on your nest egg and a chunk is swept away and you put your
salami sandwich in the brown bag and get on the bus. In Philly, a woman
earns $10.30/hour to care for a man brought down by cystic fibrosis. She
bathes and dresses him in the morning, brings him meals, puts him to bed at
night. It's hard work lifting him and she has suffered a painful hernia
that, because she can't afford health insurance, she can't get fixed, but
she still goes to work because he'd be helpless without her. There are a
lot of people like her. I know because I'm related to some of them.
Low dishonesty and craven cynicism sometimes win the day but not
inevitably. The attempt to link Barack Obama to an old radical in his
neighborhood has desperation and deceit written all over it. Meanwhile,
stunning acts of heroism stand out, such as the fidelity of military
lawyers assigned to defend detainees at Guantanamo Bay -- uniformed
officers faithful to their lawyerly duty to offer a vigorous defense even
though it means exposing the injustice of military justice that is rigged
for conviction and the mendacity of a commander in chief who commits war
crimes. If your law school is looking for a name for its new library,
instead of selling the honor to a fat cat alumnus, you should consider the
names of Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, Lt. Col. Mar k Bridges, Col. Steven David,
Lt. Col. Sharon Shaffer, Lt. Cmdr. Philip Sundel and Maj. Michael Mori.
It was dishonest, cynical men who put forward a clueless young woman for
national office, hoping to juice up the ticket, hoping she could skate
through two months of chaperoned campaigning, but the truth emerges: The
lady is talking freely about matters she has never thought about. The
American people have an ear for B.S. They can tell when someone's mouth is
moving and the clutch is not engaged. When she said, "One thing that
Americans do at this time, also, though, is let's commit ourselves just
every day, American people, Joe Six-Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I
think we need to band together and say never again. Never will we be
exploited and taken advantage of again by those who are managing our money
and loaning us these dollars," people smelled gas.
Some Republicans adore her because they are pranksters at heart and love
the consternation of grown-ups. The ne'er-do-well son of the old Republican
family as president, the idea that you increase government revenue by
cutting taxes, the idea that you cut social services and thereby drive the
needy into the middle class, the idea that you overthrow a dictator with a
show of force and achieve democracy at no cost to yourself -- one stink
bomb after another, and now Governor Palin.
She is a chatty sportscaster who lacks the guile to conceal her vacuity,
and she was Mr. McCain's first major decision as nominee. This troubles
independent voters, and now she is a major drag on his candidacy. She will
get a nice book deal from Regnery and a new career making personal
appearances for forty grand a pop, and she'll become a trivia question,
"What politician claimed foreign-policy expertise based on being able to
see Russia from her house?" And the rest of us will have to pull ourselves
out of the swamp of Republican e conomics.
Your broker kept saying, "Stay with the portfolio, don't jump ship," and
you felt a strong urge to dump the stocks and get into the money market
where at least you're not going to lose your shirt, but you didn't do it
and didn't do it, and now you're holding a big bag of brown bananas. Me,
too. But at least I know enough not to believe desperate people who are
talking trash. Anybody who got whacked last week and still thinks
McCain-Palin is going to lead us out of the swamp and not into a war with
Iran is beyond persuasion in the English language. They'll need to lose
their homes and be out on the street in a cold hard rain before they
connect the dots.
-----------
Garrison Keillor is the author of a new Lake Wobegon novel, "Liberty"
(Viking).