The bizarre audience, watching Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's speech, begged for a whole sheaf of drawings done on-the-spot by Ralph Steadman, the political caricaturist made popular by his relationship with the books and articles of Hunter S. Thompson. Progressive blogger Howie Klein gives his description:The Republican convention, which was overwhelmingly male and overwhelmingly white (93%), was a horrible scene of self-righteous anger, greed and self-entitlement. It was a dark place filled with ignorance, fear, empty bravado and hatred, That came alive only when red meat dripping with blood was tossed their way.
They snoozed through speeches about helping people and went apeshit when something was mentioned about cutting their taxes. When Huckabee said something about the disgrace of racism, you could have heard a pin drop-- or maybe people waiting for a punchline. But he saved himself by turning on the internal hate machine and going after Obama, having made sure in advance everyone knew he wasn't attacking him for his race. But why not? This was a crowd that accepted at face value Mitt Romney-- a man who has pocketed at least $400 million as a predatory vulture capitalist and serial outsourcer-- denouncing "eastern elites."
This was the worst of what America has to offer-- and they're damn proud of it. And they were just waitin' for their gal Sarah, or at least for whatever the speechwriters had put in her mouth. No one in the hall was disappointed.
The National and Alaska pushback on Palin's meretricious speech, and its exaggerations and outright lies is going to be assisted by the increasingly focused products of the legion of local, national and international reporters looking into Palin's record, and the Palins' past. The Alaska press, already on overload trying to cover the continually unfolding and expanding saga of the Corrupt Bastards' Club, are going to be confronted with fielding the results of investigative journalism that refuses to go softball, and is unattenuated by editors and publishers, who just want to get along with the still-healthy core of Alaska's corrupt political paradigm.
The pushback is concentrating on six areas:
Palin's history on "integrity."
Palin's history on "earmarks."
Questions about the couple's family life and "family values."
Palin and "science and the environment."
Palin and her role as "Commander-in-Chief" of the Alaska National Guard.
Palin and the corrupt bastards themselves, especially Wasilla Rep. Vic Kohring, and Palmer Sen. Scott Ogan. (no links yet, and I've been asked not to discuss the reporters working on this explosive story)
Oh, yeah - number seven - Palin and her religious views.
Oh, Yeah - number eight - Palin and assistance to women and children...
image - Dennis Zaki