What’s the catch, they ask? Why would the Republican governor of Florida do this when early voters so far are for Obama 60-40? This is the state of the 2000 election and hanging chads and Katherine Harris. This can’t possibly be good for Democrats, right?

Wrong. It’s possible he thinks this will somehow improve Republican turnout. But in reality, the point is to strengthen his approval with independents and Democrats in Florida by looking non-partisan and using it as a base to launch his 2012 presidential campaign.

It’s also a giant “FUCK YOU” to John McCain for not picking Crist, who like Tom Ridge and even Joe Liebermann, have started making public statements that seem to show that they understand reality and thought the Sarah Palin pick was a disaster.

Let’s just think about the map with Florida solid red. Does Obama still win? Probably, but Florida is an expensive state to defend, and with McCain’s limited funds, he could have used that money to do a better job in Colorado, Ohio, AND Indiana. Let’s say he picked Ridge and made Pennsylvania at least competitive. Same deal with the cash. What about the electoral votes? It would have forced Obama to control Virginia, Colorado, and Nevada (or Florida). Liebermann also probably would have sealed up Florida (but probably not Connecticut, given his current standing there). 

Am I reading too much into this? Maybe, possibly. But it’s starting to look to me like Crist is going to try the “fresh face” popular governor moderate approach and be the Bill Clinton of 2012, against the Paul Tsongas (i.e. old line liberal) of 2012, Sarah Palin.

That means Democrats need to start fucking this guy up on Nov. 5.

Also, Alaska court refuses to stop Troopergate.

Having said that, this will be the last Palin Deathwatch unless, like a zombie, I revive it yet again. If they didn’t off her by now, it’s just too late.

But will it change the polls? I doubt it. Her negatives might go down, but it wont have a lasting effect past the next presidential debate.

The McCain people have shown themselves predictably unpredictable. Pushing hard from all sides to remove Sarah Palin under normal circumstances would be a superb attack on McCain. The problem is, he might do it. I understand all the arguments for why he wouldn’t do that.

But I only want to hear that from people who successfully predicted he would pick her in the first place, and/or that predicted that he would “suspend” his campaign to try and wriggle out of a debate and then go to the debate anyway.

There are two basic scenarios, basically flip-sides of each other, that would make this occur. One: the upside becomes greater than the downside politically. Two: McCain starts falling behind significantly and calls an audible just to shake things up, again.

I don’t see anyway for it to work at all if it’s not done in time for the debate next week. That means that it has to be soon. 

But we’re not quite there yet. She needs one or two more major gaffes, or a scandal. Say, Trig is really Bristol’s after all, or the affair rumors get proved. Barring that, I don’t see her leaving. But, again, I didn’t predict many of McCain’s stunts, and these “scandals” could be fabricated to get her out.

It would also let McCain pick Liebermann, who he wanted in the first place. He would do this, I think, because the Rove-base based strategy isn’t working for him. This is not a base election—it’s a swing voter election, and Liebermann would fix that deficiency, even if he is just as unpopular among Dems as Palin.

Oh, and Liebermann would have a chance in a debate against Biden.

Just because he might do it doesn’t mean I think it will work. It probably won’t.

At this point, it’s time to drop her and bring in Vinegar Joe Liebermann. Of course, that might actually help him, so never mind. Lol.

This is becoming hilarious.

This pretty much scares the shit out of me.

Cell-phone anointing? I mean, come on.  Either these people are taking something stronger than I ever saw in college (by a few orders or magnitude) or they are just nucking futs.  This is what we want to be a heartbeat away, Caribou Barbie Possessed By the “Spirit”?

UPDATE: Kevin Nealon to the rescue:

But I have always been an equal opportunity attack dog, and here the case is no different.  But what is the question of sexism really about? Is it about perfect point-by-point sameness for everything women do, or is it about the societal structures that prevent women from being autonomous as much as men?

I would bet that most women wouldn’t want, even if it were realistic, to deny their femininity—a dig made at Hillary in praise of Palin.  It’s not about wearing ties or playing golf.  It’s about can I pursue my dreams.

Biology has a lot to say about that.  And women pressed into involuntary servitude as vessels for blastocysts they do not wish to bear, children they do not wish to have or raise can never have a chance of being equal in any meaningful sense.  

I don’t dispute that, at least at some point, when the fetus becomes viable, it gains its own rights.  But when its still part of mom, mom has a say.  Because if mom doesn’t, mom either has to become an asexual being or give up on being a lawyer, or a doctor, or a soccer player.  But remember, Palin’s not just about reversing Roe v. Wade or changing the date of viability, or banning d&x (“partial birth”), or limiting it to risks to the mother.  She’s about none, ever.  And also these same folks aren’t just about the relatively pathos-infused realities of abortion.  They want to stop people from having sex that doesn’t make kids, period, forever.  A sizeable minority may oppose abortion, but how many people would ban themselves from ever being allowed to have non-procreative sex?  Proof is in the pudding: if abortion were the real issue, then why on earth would “conservatives” block RU486?! Having a dispenser of that in every bathroom in the world would eliminate abortion!

But asskicking careers isn’t what all women want.  Some are stoked to be moms. I’m glad mine was. But I wouldn’t want a mom who had no choice (say because she was the daughter of a politician and also a minor) but to bear me, or but to be a child bearer and home maker, without any other choice, not in my existence, but in hers.

But men face none of these problems.  So, until we come to grips with this stuff, we’ll never start figuring out whether it really matters if women can play golf at Augusta. Nancy Pelosi and Sandra Day O’Connor and Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin mean jack shit if they got in those positions while still locked into 18th century gender roles.  

So, to the extent that we’re supposed to think that Palin’s nomination or even (God forbid) election is some kind of victory for women just because she’s a woman is the sexist thought, not the criticism based on the fact that she wants to make the choice for all women, not just about abortion, but about limiting the scope of their entire potential being to that of a Norman Rockwell painting and nothing else.

Hillary, on the other hand, who this sexist supported in the primaries, well, Hillary as president or vice president or senator or majority leader—well, that means something. Why? Because she didn’t do it by being the church’s model of a perfect woman.  She did it by kicking ass and working twice as hard for half the reward for years and years, and still basically had to be married to a powerful man to get a chance to shine on her own.

No one picked Hillary because she’s a piece of ass.

Don’t forget that she was also Field Marshall of the Alaska Police and routinely sent them on raids against Canadian communists.

Field Marshall Palin started her career at (1) Hawaii Pacific University, then to (2) North Idaho College, near where Mark Fuhrman lives, then to (3) the University of Idaho, then to (4) Matanuska-Susitna College in Alaska (which I hear is the Harvard of the North), then back to (5) Idaho.

Umm. I think that’s really four. 

Something tells me that her shitty education is only going to make her more popular.  It worked for W.

But according to St. McCain this makes her more qualified than Obama who’s never “been south of the border.”

Is the media going to call bullshit on this, or let the Republicans say anything they want as usual?