It's happening again. Regardless of the outcome of this thing, it's clear that half of America is falling for the same superficial trickery that gave us eight years of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney You know the routine. Who do you want to have a beer with? Who is more plainspoken? Who would you like to drive your kids to hockey?
Only this time around, America is exponentially worse off than it was in 2000 or 2004, which only makes the degree to which certain voters are being tricked all the more infuriating and incomprehensible. I'd do the list of Republican Epic Fail, but it's too exhaustively long to enumerate here. So here's a thumbnail. The day after Sarah Palin's historically overrated Edie McClurg With Lying performance at the Republican convention, the Dow tanked 344 points. The day after that, the Republicans got their bounce -- an unemployment rate bounce to 6.1 percent -- the highest level in five years. Two days after that, Secretary Paulson announced the government's "deprivatization" of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. And yesterday, the Dow dropped another 280 points. All of this within the last seven days.
So what are the Republicans and the barbecue media talking about today? A pig metaphor that's older than John McCain. John McCain! A cynical, sell-out politician who chose for his running mate someone who probably thinks Fannie Mae is this and Freddie Mac is this.
It's no wonder why Americans are ignoring issues that are literally right in front of their faces.
Today on MSNBC's Morning Joe, we overheard some accidental truth-telling as to why this is happening. Chris Matthews was on with Scarborough and Andrea Mitchell (sitting in for Mika who, I think, was off updating her Sarah Palin Fansite & Web Shrine) and Matthews was poking Scarborough and Buchanan about their wall-to-wall pig remark coverage.
irritated