By Patrick
...because reality and satire are hard to separate these days!
This post deals with satire, but let's be serious first. We should not kid ourselves: Sarah Palin will run for President, and she still has a serious chance - despite all the gaffes, scandals, and despite all the grifting and shrieking. One reason has been beautifully exposed in Leadfoot's recent post titled "A Slice of America", and it's pretty simple: A significant amount of people are apparently not interested in sound and rational arguments and facts, but instead they see Sarah Palin as their saviour, she-who-should-not-be-questioned.
From Sarah Palin's already legendary, hilarious (and equally painful) facebook-page, we do know that individuals like Leadfoot's relative Amanda, who wrote on facebook "Sarah Palin for president! That's all I got 2 say" and "War is necessary" are numerous. Sarah, save us from the black man, he looks so strange and muslim, and he loves illegal immigrants!
Another reason is that Sarah Palin still has by far the highest name recognition among the potential Republican candidates, as Mark Blumenthal just recently pointed out in the Huffington Post.
The poll by Gallup he presented speaks for itself (click to enlarge):
Andrew Sullivan quoted Mark Blumenthal, who said:
It means that should Palin choose to run, she begins with a relatively large and enthusiastic base of fans who can contribute funds, attend rallies and -- perhaps most importantly -- might be motivated to vote in a low-turnout caucus or primary. The fact some Republicans strongly dislike Palin does not negate that potential.
Andrew Sullivan commented:
My feelings entirely.
Andrew Sullivan is one of the few people who have fully understand what a Palin-presidency would mean: An age of darkness, as we have probably never encountered before in our lifetimes. But despite that, a significant amount of people are apparently hell-bent on voting for her - people who are not moved by rational arguments or facts.
If anyone can save America, it will be the independents.
Meanwhile the Palinbots do what they do best: Rig every online poll available in favour of Sarah Palin. On the conservative blog Hot Air, Sarah Palin again won the monthly "online primary" by a wide margin - but the comments of this post show a different picture, one of deep division amongst conservatives: Many commenters for example point out that it's very unlikely that independents will be swayed by "blood libel Sarah."
OK, let's finally get to the satire: LA-based actor D.C. Douglas turned the secret wish of some teabaggers, a Palin/Bachmann ticket, into a spot-on and extremely well executed video clip. He also published a post about it on his blog.
Please show this clip to a right-winger. Will they spot the satire? I bet some of them won't! "Reality 2011", it's not a pretty picture, it's a bad dream which doesn't go away even after waking up.
Here is the clip - don't miss it, it's hilarious:
