She gave a speech today in which she basically rehashed all her old talking points: Obama is evil and probably not "really" American, lawmakers are all evil bastards, guns are awesome, down-home aw-shucks snowbilly Alaskan proverbs about dogsleds, she is very pretty, she has tits (no, really), she is still bitter about 2008, she still thinks teleprompters are evil (I assume because they involve reading), the Midwest is Jesus-land and Midwesterners are the awesomest people ever, reality TV is evil and politicians shouldn't emulate it and she very much hopes we've all forgotten she left politics to try to have one of her own, and she is willing to TAKE A BRAVE AND NOBLE STAND by drinking a Big Gulp RIGHT THERE on stage, etc. I'm still wondering if it was an SNL skit and the GOP is miffed we all missed the joke.

What really struck me most is that a big part of her speech centered around how the GOP should forget facts, figures, statistics, and consultants and just keep doing what they "know" is right. By that presumably she means the GOP should continue to be anti-civil rights and anti-women's rights, to keep picking at the Separation Clause, to keep pushing gun rights on a society sick of gun crimes, and to keep denying science so the fundies won't feel too threatened, and oh yes, to keep pushing candidates who are too crazy to win elections. No, she thinks it's genuinely shameful that some Republicans are starting to speak out against the GOP's habit of running ultra-fundie candidates and that some think tanks and advisors are advising against it. She thinks think-tanks and DC advisors are evil too, incidentally. Of course, one such advisory council got her to the vice-presidency candidacy, but like her failed TV show, she's hoping we don't remember that either.

She still hasn't figured it out. Hell, the GOP in general still hasn't figured it out.

Subjective feelings do not substitute for objective facts. There's a reason why focus groups, advisors, think-tanks, and pollsters are used. They work--which is why pollsters knew like a year in advance that Obama was going to win. The GOP itself has a tendency to shoot its messengers when the objective facts don't mesh with their subjective wishes. That's why six months after the election they STILL don't really understand why they actually lost!

The GOP lost because people don't want what they're selling. Flinging shit harder at people won't make them open their mouths any more than flinging it gently did. Pandering to the Religious Right doesn't work. The solution is not to pander harder; the solution is to stop pandering. But the GOP hasn't heard the definition of insanity quite yet. They think there's a way to package racism, sexism, and theocracy in a way that will appeal to voters. Give 'em time; they're just now coming around to gay marriage. In 50 years they might be kind of okay with women in high office sometimes... IF they're married with kids, too dimwitted to be a real threat, very fundie, and also very hot.

And: Only an American redneck could ever think that eating and drinking junk food is a noble thing that should be made a point of at a major political rally. Sarah Palin's last big stand involved eating fast-food chicken sandwiches, for chrissakes. I'm all for boycotting businesses whose practices violate my own conscience, but JUNK FOOD? What, is this Nazi Germany and she's scared that if she doesn't stuff her face with sugar and fatty food that next "they" could come for her radishes? Way to go, Sarah Palin. You sure showed us evil lib'ruls by ingesting a sugar bomb on stage.

Her political showboating failed utterly; she just came off as a catty, not terribly bright, passive-aggressive soccer mom/ex-beauty queen type with an axe to grind and a desperate need for attention. It's just so sad that out of all the women in the GOP, *THIS* was what the GOP considers an ideal female politician. I don't think it's possible for the GOP to make clearer to America that they're terrified of women in power. I'm somewhere between absolutely disgusted and totally amused at this display of ignorance and fundie-pandering.

The silver lining: if the GOP still thinks she's a relevant political voice, then women's and gays' rights and the Separation Clause are perfectly safe for another election or so. We ex-Christians can breathe easily.