Campaigning Saturday in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a city once represented in Congress by another vice presidential candidate named Dan Quayle, Sarah Palin delivered one of her longest stump speeches to date and revealed that she was “annoyed” with the line of questioning presented by Katie Couric in her now-infamous interview with CBS.
Palin reprised a story she last told a week ago in Noblesville, Indiana about her sit-down with Couric, which was widely panned.
“Last time I was here I got to tell a crowd that I had to give a national interview that didn’t go so well,” she said. “And it was because I was kind of annoyed with the questions that I was being asked because I thought they were kind of irrelevant to, you know, national security issues and getting our economy back on track, so I kind of showed some of that annoyance.”
The governor continued to press the campaign’s message of the day: that Barack Obama and congressional Democrats will, if elected, expand government and redistribute the hard-earned dollars of regular Americans, criticisms that brought on accusatory shouts of “socialist!,” “Communist!” and, at one point, “Hussein the socialist!”
I think they're assuming (maybe wrongly) that it wasn't another Obama supporter that stole their sign. I went to get one the other day and there's a waiting list you have to sign for those things.
I think the Republicans are a long way from moving to the center. The sort of Republicans I think you all are wishing for are so-called Rockefeller Republicans, who I wouldn't call "conservatives." Conservatives (like Hannity and his ilk) call those people RINOS. (R's in name only). All the passion, PR (talk radio), and grassroots strength comes from the conservative wing of the party. When you're a candidate like McCain, I imagine it's hard to look all that in the eye and say no thanks. We saw what happened when he got the nomination.
I resist labels, but for the sake of summary I've come close to calling myself Republican before, but I haven't because I'm not a conservative or even right wing. Given the way the Republican party has gone, and the things I'd like to see happen, I have to think I'm now more of a centrist Democrat. I think the country has moved that way.
I'm not the first to say it, but Bush screwed his own party with his arrogance and belligerence. He got a lot of praise on the right for saying thinks like " if you're not for us, you're against us" and "bring it on." I'll admit I may even have enjoyed it a little at the time, but it was a mistake and he's made it repeatedly. It's like that scene in the Mad Men pilot where Pete Campbell treats Peggy like a sex object, and Don has to pull him aside and tell him he's not going to get very far with that behavior. It makes Pete feel powerful in the short term, but will lose him friends and assistance in the long term.
