The Election of Schadenfreude

Does it make me a bad person to gleefully watch the Republican party viciously disembowel itself in a colossal act of self-mutilation?

Between the abysmally-bad drama playing out between Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin, Sen. "Tubez" Stevens's new "all Prison Blues" wardrobe, and Rep. Michelle Bachmann's "American vs. Anti-American" diatribes from Planet Bizarro, I just can't help but relish the Republican party's agony. It couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of rats. I can't even summon up any empathy for them. After all, they are human beings. Aren't they?

I hereby dub the 2008 election "The Election of Schadenfreude".

An interesting scenario

In light of Sen. Stevens' conviction, a scenario comes to mind:

1. Sen, Stevens wins re-election - not as unlikely as one might think. Remember that Alaskans love their pork and the Senator has been bringing home the bacon for 40 years.


2. The Senate gets together and summarily boots his felonious keester out of the Capitol.


3. Alaska holds a special election to dill the empty Senate seat. #1 likely candidate? A certain popular power-hungry Alaska governor.


4. Sarah Palin joins her (no-longer?) best pal John McCain in a Democratically-dominated Senate.

Yeah, yeah. I know there are a lot of "if"s in that, but I don't think it's all that unlikely.

Uncertified teachers?

Apparently Sen. McCain thinks it's all right to have people teaching in our classrooms without certification:

We need to encourage programs such as Teach for America and Troops to Teachers where people, after having served in the military, can go right to teaching and not have to take these examinations which -- or have the certification that some are required in some states.

Say what?!

Our students deserve better. What is so bad about certifying our teachers before sending them into the classroom?

Delusional

Via fivethirtyeight.com

What a pathetic, hateful, delusional man.

I can't decide whether to pity him for living in his hateful little dream-world or despise him for inflicting it upon the rest of us.

I am speechless

Read this brilliant post on racism and facism.

Now. I'll wait.

VP Debate

I'm torn between relief that Gov. Palin didn't embarrass herself in front of the largest audience in her life and disappointment at not getting to see the Republican ticket completely implode spectacularly in prime time.

I am pleased for her as a human being that she did not repeat her humiliating performance from last week on CBS. As much as I despise her politics, it's nice to see the first female candidate in the nationwide general election in 20 years to not come out looking utterly empty-headed on her biggest stage yet. She looked poised and spoke clearly, if a bit too heavy on the folksy colloquialisms.

However, while she spoke clearly she did not speak intelligently. I am thoroughly disgusted at how many times she tried to shoehorn an unrelated talking point script in instead of answering the actual question. "I disagree with that ... and I'd like to talk about energy" is not an answer, it's evasion. She pulled it out far too many times. Not once did I hear her answer with anything but a carefully pre-scripted talking point. That's not a debate, that's one of those pre-recoded robocalls.

In contrast, while Sen. Biden didn't deliver a knockout punch to her ridiculous campaign, he did a very smart thing - he didn't even bother to go after her and risk looking condescending or sexist. Instead he aimed all his attacks at Sen. McCain knowing, probably, that voters don't vote for the VP candidate, they vote for the head of the ticket. He consistently - save one apparently accidental slip where he used her first name - referred to her using her title. I think that was extremely wise. At the same time, he did reasonably well avoiding sticking his foot in his mouth while looking distinguished and charismatic.

While my poor id was deprived of the snarky schadenfreude it so wanted, I think Palin's better-than-expected - if somewhat robotic - performance and Biden's solid - if uninspired - performance balanced each other out. I think the Senator might have had a slight edge over the Governor - especially when he started talking about being a parent - I don't think this debate is going to have much of an effect at all.

Now watch tomorrow's polls prove me wrong! ;-)