The next time I say something negative about Sarah Palin and her Baghdad Bobs tell me to “go back to the Huffington Post,” please consider that they’re warming up to her over there:
Indeed, at times in her speech at the Tea Party Convention, Palin sounded like the second coming of Huey Long. “While people on Main Street look for jobs, people on Wall Street — they’re collecting billions and billions in your bailout bonuses,” she said. “And everyday Americans are wondering: Where are the consequences? They helped to get us into this worst economic situation since the Great Depression. Where are the consequences?” I was within an inch of singing along: “Yeah, where are the consequences!? You tell ‘em, Sarah!”
Well, it’s no wonder Arianna Huffington’s on board with Palin’s economic rhetoric. Game Change revealed that, during a McCain conference call about the financial collapse, Palin spouted “populist, anti-Wall Street cliches.” During her vice-presidential debate, she insisted that the ‘predator lenders’ were solely at fault for the problems we face. She absolutely loves the fact that “the people” own Alaska’s oil, as a “collective” resource — that’s why she supported a “windfall profits” tax against “Big Oil” and inspired a tome called “Sarah Takes On Big Oil,” after all. And now, she has decided to side with Martha Coakley and Barack Obama against the idea that banks ought to be profitable again — which is even more baffling, in light of the fact that she supported the bailout in the first place! (What for, may I ask, if she doesn’t want the banks to make money?)
How much longer can this woman get a free pass from economic conservatives?
9 responses so far
1 balconesfault // Feb 9, 2010 at 11:15 am
she has decided to side with Martha Coakley and Barack Obama against the idea that banks ought to be profitable again
Strawman argument.
2 JKiljok // Feb 9, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Alaska is the land of Republican Socialists; living off ridiculous earmarks, state owned oil, paying their citizens to live there. Palin was exposed for wasteful spending in her little stint as a small town mayor (20 million in long term debt for 6500 people), and her early exit as Governor by her own choosing allowed her to bail out before being exposed as a failure there too. Her zero results from trying to bully so-called Big Oil up there is becoming by now obvious. You could call her a hypocrite in her attacks on Obama but she is so incoherent in her message that no one is sure what she really thinks or why it should matter.
3 blowtorch_bob // Feb 9, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Sarah is right. What are the consequences? American democracy has been hijacked by Wall Street and the gang at Goldman Sachs and their get rich quick schemes. Bring back the Glass-Stegal Act!
4 mike farmer // Feb 9, 2010 at 12:36 pm
If you asked her if banks that are competing in a fair market should be able to make as much money as they can, she would likely say yes. What she is against is the government/big bank enmeshment — using our money for cronyistic protection.
All the twisting, spinning and mental gymnastics to smear Palin comes across as weak and petty. This is becoming a mass attack. I hate this type of piling on and ganging up and refuse to participate in it, and I lose respect for people who do. I don’t agree with Palin on every issue, but this constant smear campaign is pathetic.
5 jjv // Feb 9, 2010 at 2:48 pm
What has been done for an by Goldman Sachs, the enormous bailouts and bonuses and the fact that the people who make the decisions all seem to come from Wall Street and not Main Street is an issue for conservatives and not just wild eyed socialists. The various schemes pushed under both Clinton and the Bush administration and now the Obama administration that have completely eliminated moral hazard in the banking system for insiders is exactly what Adam Smith warned against as to the collusion by business against the consumer.
As for Alaska it gets the revenues from oil into the hands of the people who own the resources, not just into that of Government. Compare it ot Venezuala or any of the oil powers that use control of oil to centralize power. The Alaska model is so good it was going to be a “clean” model for Iraq. The Alaska resources are owned by the people of Alaska should they just give there oil away with no benefit?
6 Danny_K // Feb 9, 2010 at 3:10 pm
What kind of a Western populist doesn’t take on banks?
7 Mandos // Feb 10, 2010 at 1:30 pm
If there’s anything Sarah Palin—and the Tea Party movement—is a smidgen right about, it’s the bailouts. It’s what they want in place of the bailouts that is the problem.
8 mlloyd // Feb 10, 2010 at 4:08 pm
There are no fiscal conservatives in the GOP.
People like Bruce Bartlett were forced out of the party during the Bush Jr. era, when the GOP-controlled Congress ran up the largest debt in the nation’s history.
9 Republicans United. » Fred Kaplan’s Republican Party // Feb 10, 2010 at 10:43 pm
[...] Palin. Let’s start with the team at FrumForum (né New Majority) who have been such frequent critics that Alex Knepper has taken to anticipating backlash in his posts (“The next time I say [...]
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