Sarah Palin not running. I’m disappointed there won’t be a woman in the race for me to vote for. I guess I’ll have to write in Jill P. Smith or something. Palin says she will be “coordinating strategies” during the campaign. Not sure what that means, probably making sure the Republican candidates toe the Tea Party line. Or maybe she’s setting up a campaign consulting career? She doesn’t really strike me as a Karl Rove or David Axelrod type, though. She shares their dead-on sense of the pulse of people in their parties and she’s crazy like a fox, just like them. But unlike them, she oozes charisma and charm. And she’s gorgeous, which silly as it may be, IS a boon to both men and women candidates. She has rock star charisma vibes. What she really should be is a Candidate. Oh well. Anyone else think she may have been promised Perry’s VP spot in exchange for not running?
In truly sad news, Steve Jobs has died. I did really like the line obama’s speechwriter wrote for him last night: “There may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he created.”
Very true. I was putting together a cheap Ikea dresser last night when my iphone beeped me with a Breaking News email from CNN: “Steve Jobs has died.” I called upstairs to my husband (in person, not on the phone) and at the same time started texting my family. Then I jumped on the Macbook to read the tributes for a few minutes. I fee like a lot of people did when Michael Jackson did. Really sad for no really good reason. Here’s one of my fav Apple ads. And this classic made an appearance in the 2008 Dem primary, though not in a good way. (damn, watching that again makes me mad.) Blech, it’s too early to drink.
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
DancesWithPumas 10.06.11 at 9:28 am
Sharing the planet with a contemporary as she / he develops and grows into a legend is an honor, an intrigue, and exciting: Hillary Clinton, Farah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Steve Jobs, so many more, famous and not. Having that person die, especially at such a relatively young age, knowing there was so much more potential is more than enough reason for me to feel sad.
This is my all time favorite Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs commencement address at Stanford, 2005. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA
Delle 10.06.11 at 10:30 am
You forgot Elvis. He certainly became a legend.
I cried for days when Elvis died and I still miss his music.
DancesWithPumas 10.06.11 at 10:34 am
Slide show:
http://www.nytimes.com/?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1317915060-tY5JXGWg5Tz30Ye4AgGUzQ
DancesWithPumas 10.06.11 at 10:49 am
I didn’t forget Elvis, I was listing some recent examples, of people I actually liked, otherwise there are hundreds I could name.
Zee 10.06.11 at 2:41 pm
I remember hearing about John Lennon’s death…the radio newscaster choked up with his own tears and broke down while reporting it.
murphy…it’s too early to start drinking? ruh-roh…
thanks for that 1984 Apple ad…it gave me chills. One of my poet friends described Steve Jobs as “our newest ancestor” and that gave me chills, too.
I also liked Zerobama’s speechwriter’s tribute (yes, I had the same thought as you….attributed to Zero, but who really wrote it?)
In Japan, they gathered in front of the Apple stores and held up their ipads with pictures of a burning candle as their vigil….classic.
Zee 10.06.11 at 2:44 pm
re “coordinating strategies” — Maybe Sarah Palin is positioning herself to be the new Karl Rove…? She will become the media who used to circle her like vultures.
murphy 10.06.11 at 3:08 pm
“positioning herself to be the new Karl Rove…?”
ugh, I hpe not Zee. Palin is a born leader, not a born advisor.
p.s. updated the post w/ dwp’s bittersweet steve jobs image.
Zee 10.06.11 at 3:34 pm
murphy, don’t you think the media wield more power to mold people’s thinking?
Not sure if it was Vanity Fair, but there was one true article written about “the tragedy” of Sarah Palin, and it was so heartbreaking. It described how she rose to power being a reformer…and somehow that got lost.
Suppose that had been the media drumbeat. That would’ve been what she lived up to, that would’ve been people’s perception, their expectation.
You still see people calling her a “quitter” —-without acknowledging that their HOUNDING is what drove her out of her position as Governor because she could no longer do as she had done before, work with the Dems and beat people like Cheney who were trying to screw the people in Alaska.
murphy 10.06.11 at 3:36 pm
I dont want Sarah Palin to have power, I want her to LEAD.
She may want power, but that’s selfish, imho.
Hell, I want ANYone capable to lead, but I really want a capable WOMAN to lead.
Zee 10.06.11 at 4:06 pm
Well…it’s not looking good for us for any leader/s.
Maybe that’s why people are looking back…artists celebrate Bill Clinton’s charitable influence:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/the-difference/exclusive-artists-join-decade-difference-concert-062451963.html
yttik 10.06.11 at 4:07 pm
Palin is going to lead, just like Hillary has been leading. Anybody can play golf and read words off a teleprompter, but it takes an extraordinary person to lead from the bottom up.
Progress in this country has never come from politicians, it’s come in spite of them.
DancesWithPumas 10.06.11 at 4:11 pm
Zee
In Japan, they gathered in front of the Apple stores and held up their ipads with pictures of a burning candle as their vigil….classic.
———————
Photo of the iPad candlelight vigil in the slideshow linked at #3.
murphy 10.06.11 at 4:15 pm
Thanks Zee and Yttik, you’re cheering me up like crazy!
DancesWithPumas 10.06.11 at 4:31 pm
“Barkeep!! Drinks all ’round!”
yttik 10.06.11 at 4:35 pm
“….I’m a United States Senator because in 1848 a group of courageous women and a few brave men gathered in Seneca Falls, New York, many traveling for days and nights, to participate in the first convention on women’s rights in our history. And so dawned a struggle for the right to vote that would last 72 years, handed down by mother to daughter to granddaughter – and a few sons and grandsons along the way.These women and men looked into their daughters’ eyes, imagined a fairer and freer world, and found the strength to fight. To rally and picket. To endure ridicule and harassment. To brave violence and jail. And after so many decades – 88 years ago on this very day – the 19th amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote would be forever enshrined in our Constitution. My mother was born before women could vote. But in this election my daughter got to vote for her mother for President.
This is the story of America. Of women and men who defy the odds and never give up….”
-Hillary Clinton
Both Sarah and Hillary have had their political obits written so many times, I’ve lost count. I really think we need to redefine what “success” means, what “winning” is. Both of these women are having an incredible influence on the country, actually on the whole world. President Obama who “won,” the presidency, well, what an empty victory that was. Maybe it really isn’t about winning or losing, but about how you play the game.
Things could get really interesting with Palin. Now she truly is a rogue with no party leaders to answer to, no crony capitalists to serve. I bet some people are just crapping their pants.
PumaRhythm 10.06.11 at 7:22 pm
Thank you for the post Murphy…
and thank you yttik and Zee for your comments!!
#15 yttik
“Both Sarah and Hillary have had their political obits written so many times, I’ve lost count. I really think we need to redefine what “success” means, what “winning” is. Both of these women are having an incredible influence on the country, actually on the whole world. President Obama who “won,” the presidency, well, what an empty victory that was. Maybe it really isn’t about winning or losing, but about how you play the game.
Things could get really interesting with Palin. Now she truly is a rogue with no party leaders to answer to, no crony capitalists to serve. I bet some people are just crapping their pants.”
********************************
Thank you Hillary and Sarah..
we fight on!
also..
lol..the ‘corrupt bastards club’ might think Sarah is riding off into the sunset..when in fact ..she is headed straight for them!!
http://tammybruce.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/sprrhorse.jpg
(I totally stole that pix from tammy bruce site….ssssshhhh!! don’t tell.)
as for our Hillary..she continues the good fight…she ain’t finished by along shot..and Zero knows that..probably gives him cold sweats at night..
RIP Steve Jobs
and thank you.
# 1 Dances
“This is my all time favorite Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs commencement address at Stanford, 2005. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA”
thank you Dances..i’m going to watch now.
sorry (((Pumas )))for the long post.
PumaRhythm 10.06.11 at 7:36 pm
just want to add…yttik’s post at #15..pulled me out of a deep funk today..thanks again!
PumaRhythm 10.06.11 at 8:02 pm
# 1 Dances
OMG (((Dances))) that was so beautiful…I cried.
((((Steve Jobs))))
bbl.
goofsmom 10.06.11 at 8:33 pm
I want to join PumaRythm in thanking both Dances and Yttik for their posts today!
Both have helped me today too. I don’t know what I would do without the PUMAs.
Murphy another excellent post!
::waves:: (((IR))
DancesWithPumas 10.06.11 at 9:29 pm
I think I grokked the Apple/Jobs zen gestalt when, oddly enough, I was at Puma headquarters in Denver, and MamaPuma and I were trying to open an app on Murphy’s laptop. I haved worked on the Mac and G3 but I couldn’t figure out how to open the damn thing. We summoned Murphy and she touched the bottom of the screen and this rotary selection menu appeared. It was magnificent! Ingenious! So simply elegant in the marriage of design, utility, and simplicity. I’m reminded at this moment that it was similar to an experience I had at the Van Gogh exhibit of Vincent’s paintings in L.A. I stepped in real close, within a few inches of The Potato Eaters painting, to look at a daubed muted highligh on a potato and this jolt of something went through me. Maybe that’s the way we recognize genius?
freddiebrown 10.06.11 at 11:42 pm
Hello Murphy and all.
Let me apologize before hand for copying everything here : I wanted to share CNN’s article from yesterday. (I found it again, using Zee’s “type in a few phrases” into Google. ) I thought it was very interesting but wasn’t sure if anyone here would be interested until Murphy’s post above. It is a very interesting take by the leftist LZ Granderson(black guy who I think is gay).
***********
Sarah Palin proves she’s no fool
Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) — Almost as soon as it was announced that Barack Obama had defeated John McCain in the 2008 general election, most pundits — and voters, for that matter — assumed Sarah Palin would be the president’s opponent in 2012.
And why not?
She didn’t just breathe life into McCain’s campaign but into the entire Republican Party. Up until then, the GOP was about as hip as a dot matrix printer. Palin represented a brand of conservative politics that was Twitterable and has since been instrumental in the rise of the tea party.
She is charismatic.
She is beautiful.
She is a leader.
And in the view of many people, particularly liberals, she’s also a bit of an idiot.
A botched Katie Couric interview here, a “Saturday Night Live” skit there, and since breaking into the national scene, countless gaffes and misstatements.
Palin ‘thankful’ not to be running
Reasons why Sarah Palin isn’t running
Author: Family factor in Palin decision
And yet despite it all, her popularity remains relatively high, particularly among conservatives. Recent polls all show the majority in her party do not want her to run, but those surveys do not mean people, her people, do not love her.
So when she announced Wednesday she was not running for the 2012 presidency, I’m sure quite a few of her supporters were extremely disappointed.
That wasn’t my reaction. I smiled, thinking Palin isn’t dumb at all.
In fact, she’s pretty smart.
“My decision is based upon a review of what common-sense conservatives and independents have accomplished, especially over the last year,” her official statement read. “I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office — from the nation’s governors to congressional seats and the presidency.”
In other words, she can continue to influence national politics without having to be responsible for actually making a decision. She can criticize with a broad brush without the burden of contextualizing her statements with detailed, alternate solutions. She’s like a performance artist whose opinions are rarely second-guessed, whose tongue is rarely censored. She’s rich and famous and essentially has no one to answer to. Her persona is so mesmerizing that her daughter Bristol, a mother at 18, gets paid to talk about abstinence.
We should all be as dumb as Sarah Palin.
Seriously, why would she stop doing what she is doing to seek a thankless job, that pays poorly for the work that it requires? Why turn her back on a public life with little accountability to campaign for a public life in which every decision will be scrutinized.
Politicized.
Criticized.
Obama swatted a fly on television one day back in 2009. The next day, PETA issued a statement asking him to be more humane to animals.
Why would anyone leave a world of hunting moose to enter a world in which killing a fly is worthy of a press release?
It just doesn’t make sense.
Palin’s critics will say she didn’t run because she knew she would lose.
I say she didn’t run because of the chance she would win. Palin has been around the political scene enough to know it’s a whole lot easier flirting with running for president of the United States than it is being president of the United States.
That’s especially true today, thanks in part to her.
You have a better chance of seeing a herd of unicorns grazing in front of the Washington Monument than drama-free bipartisanship in the halls of Congress.
Obama’s under fire for a slumping U.S. economy as if he pointed it south or as if the rest of the planet is on solid financial footing. But Palin, who prides herself on being in touch with the heartland, knows Americans are typically not interested in those kind of sausage-making details.
They just want to eat.
So despite the fact it took decades for the country to create the environment that allowed millions of jobs to be ushered out the door, the honeymoon for a new face to turn everything around will be extremely short. In fact, whoever is elected president in the fall of 2012 will probably be raked across the coals for the high unemployment rate by spring of 2013.
This is why Palin probably decided not to run for president months ago — she was smart enough to know that while she can move the needle and copies of her book, the economy is a whole other beast. And dumping Alaska under the guise of “not putting Alaskans through that” — as she said in her resignation speech as governor — worked on the state level, Palin would certainly lose every supporter she has if she tried to walk away from the White House in similar fashion.
When you’re loved by so many unconditionally, why risk being hated by everyone for no reason at all? It just doesn’t make sense.
Bashing Palin’s intellect may be a hobby for some people, but in saying no to the White House, she showed once and for all, she’s no fool.
Britton 10.07.11 at 1:01 am
Congratulations Skipper!! Very proud of you! Way to Go!!!
turndownobama 10.07.11 at 3:02 am
Hey, Dances!
Just saw your comment downstairs. {{{{{ you! }}}}}
Delle 10.07.11 at 6:05 am
Chelsea Clinton Steps Into The Spotlight:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65367.html
The next Clinton has arrived!
Zee 10.07.11 at 7:11 am
lol, freddiebrown! Next step: just post the link instead!
Interesting take on Palin’s decision…especially considering the media pile-on that would’ve occurred had she run.
It is demoralizing that more women aren’t running, but I won’t miss the sickening sexist attacks on her we’d have had to deal with multiple times daily.
Even Elizabeth Warren, as “uncontroversial” as she is, gets them. Did anyone hear how she was baited with the story of how Scott Brown posed as a centerfold and she made some comment about keeping her clothes on, which of course was immediately quoted back to Brown, who quipped “thank god” while everyone chortled? That’s the metric no matter who the woman: her fvckability.
Zee 10.07.11 at 7:13 am
Well, more women in the news:
(no link here because the news is everywhere) Liberian leader Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has just won the Nobel Peace Prize, along with two other women!
I’m thrilled, and she so much more deserves the honor that Obama tainted, but is anyone else bothered that three women are just lumped together?
The headlines all just say “Liberian and Yemeni women share Nobel Peace Prize” or “three women share peace prize” — they do mention they’re all women’s rights activists, so that’s a good thing, and occasionally “groups” do win, but usually actual groups that are an organization. I don’t know, I would prefer individual women, especially from different countries, to be named individually instead of grouped together, as if that takes care of the fight for women’s rights for a while.
This is the third time in the past dozen years that any women have won —the late Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai was one of them.
murphy 10.07.11 at 7:29 am
Peace posted,
take it upstairs!
(Zee # 25, ugh! #26, yay!)
DancesWithPumas 10.07.11 at 3:02 pm
turndownobama 10.07.11 at 3:02 am
Hey, Dances!
Just saw your comment downstairs. {{{{{ you! }}}}}
————————
No problem. I just think those two dudes, smith and basil, degrade that blog with their constant gossipy attacks on you and open the doorway for a few others, who otherwise might not pile on. I admire your perserverence in attempting to maintain some semblance of a liberal / democratic presence over there. I know you’re not alone, but the shrillest side seems to be the majority over there. Sure do wish “Hillary” wasn’t in the title of that blog.
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