Democratic Congresswoman Among 12 Shot in Arizona

You're right -- in one sense. With a "anybody but you" rating markedly over 50%, Palin's not a viable national candidate . . . just as she wasn't, in '08. She does stir up the base, but the middle recoils from her, for multiple excellent reasons.

 

No shit. Anyone who disagrees with her broad worldview, she cuts out of her inner circle.

 

WSJ article about his posts in an online forum for gamer:

 

Some of this stuff is hysterical.

Bill Clinton tried to ruin his enemies. Ruin. He had a team of people -- Carville and Paul Begala among others -- who worked to destroy his enemies.

It occurs to me that the calls for moderate the tone of our political debate come more often when there is a Democrat in the White House.

Are you looking for an example of a President who endured attacks of the most vile nature with out responding in kind? You don't have to look any further than George W. Bush.

 

Yep. Plausible deniability, and all that. Rove's the modern master of dirty tricks, and Cheney's pond-slime status hasn't changed a bit.

 

George W. Bush was elected in part because of race-baiting rumor mongering about a member of his own damn party. Give me a break.

 

Palin clearly believes in the "you are either with me or against me" style of leadership.

Nuance does not exist.

As for the annals of nutjobbery, it has been interesting to see all the gazing of navels and massive wringing of hands of how it is all about mental illness. Or how the national pundits have managed, again, to make the story about them.

Umm, just for those keeping score, dude has been planning to kill the congresswoman for months going on years. He bought a gun two months ago and was waiting for her first public appearance that was in cab range of his house. After pulling the trigger, he has only said he wanted an attorney. Who was appointed and, by the way, is maybe the best defense attorney in the United States.

Along the way, the county sheriff, who did his job and made the arrest, has become a villain in all of this because he said what was on his mind and it was based on the years his office has been dealing with the shooter and his family.

Because it simply doesn't work as a media narrative to have people going off the reservation and saying what is on their minds when it isn't on cable TV or on a newspaper's editorial page.

All the money in the pocket says the guy believed in the Sovereign Citizen movement and followed the niche media outlets that cater to them.

What no one really wants to say is that some among us are just dangerous, a larger percentage of the population than people want to admit. And that fringe is getting larger and angrier by the moment. For a person already on the edge, it doesn't take much to push them over the edge. So words have meaning but they take on an extra dimension for someone who just needs the right button pushed.

 

. . . employing the same kind of low-rent tricks his old man used. What a reprehensible family.

 

There already seems to be a very great deal of blowback on Ms. Palin's (mis)use of the phrase "blood libel" in this morning's statement.

 

You know kids . . . they like to toss those new phrases around, like new toys . . . not that they know what the hell they're talking about . . .

 

Does "blood libel" have specific.historical meaning? I've never heard the term