The Adorable, Preposterous Vice Presidential Candidate Meets Clear Channel (brought to you by Time Warner)

by Donna Jo Thorndale and Shira Piven.

Daysix: stop ranting! Give up the fight. Accept that you want totalk about Palin. Make Internet date with fans off site. Breathe, tryto be peppier. Fortoday: meditate on week thus far. Six blogs down, one to go. Let goof feelings of despair/sadness! Compare and contrast.

As citizens on Palin we said it like this:

5things Sarah Palin will never hunt for:

–The Constitution
–ASmart Pants Suit
–Her Library Card (oh, wait….she doesn’t HAVEone)
–Condoms
–The Wasilla branch of Planned Parenthood (oh,wait…there ISN’T one)

AnEnglish journalist, The Guardian ‘s Michelle Goldberg said itlike this:

“SarahPalin’s farcical debate performance lowered the standards for bothfemale candidates and US political discourse. It was an appallingdisplay. At least three timeslast night, Sarah Palin, the adorable, preposterous vice-presidentialcandidate, winkedat the audience. Had a male candidate with a similar reputation for attractive vapiditymade such a brazen attempt to flirt his way into the good graces of thevoting public, it would have universally noted, discussed and mocked.”

On day five we said it like this:

Alaska:lagging, but rape is up by 3 times that of national average. Highestin the country!! Also high in percentage of: hermits, militia,misguided college students, salmon fishers, survivalists, oilworkers, wolf-hunters.

AndEnglish journalist Michelle Goldberg said it like this:

“Asked what her Achilles heel is – a question she either didn’tunderstand or chose to ignore – she started in on how McCain chose herbecause of her “connection to the heartland of America. Being a mom,one very concerned about a son in the war, about a special needs child,about kids heading off to college, how are we going to pay thosetuition bills?” None of Palin’s children, it should be noted, areheading off to college. Her son is on the way to Iraq, and her pregnant17-year-old daughter is engaged to be married to a high-school dropoutand self-described “fuckin’ redneck.”

Ascitizens befuddled by the American media we were thinking just today:

Whyis it so hard to get hard-core information from the media? Reportingis couched in a pretend effort to be “fair and balanced”and we don’t just mean FOX News. It’s no secret that Time Warner andClear Channel (cha-ching) own a massive percentage of the public’sinformation media. Important, relevant and, dare we say, unacceptablefacts can be easily suppressed if they aren’t good for business.(Remember when CBS would not air the Regan mini-series ‘TheReagans ‘) Let ‘s get real: No one on TV/in majorpublications could be brutally honest about Sarah Palin, lestMcCain ‘s camp refuse to let him/her on the magic bus.

Asa journalist pondering the same, The Guardian ‘s MichelleGoldberg said it like this:

Toomany American pundits don’t even try to judge the truth, wisdom orreasonableness of the political rhetoric they are paid to pronounceupon. Instead, they imagine themselves as interpreters of a mythicalmass of “average Americans” who they both venerate anddespise.

Ascitizens looking at the collapse of our economy we said it like this :

Howwill truths trump lies
Five corporationsown us
Rummagecouch for change

Uponexamining the same, slipping presidential hopeful Sen. John McCainsaid it like this :

‘Thefundamentals of our economy are strong. ‘

Asthe next president of the United States, Sen. Barack Obama said itlike this:

‘In1980, Ronald Reagan said, ‘Ask yourself: Are you better off nowthan you were four years ago?’, at this rate we have to ask ourselvesare we better off now than we were four weeks ago! ‘

Thegood news: just over two (OK, make that three) weeks to go!