Opinion Forum

Hopey-Changey Stuff

February 8th, 2010

Poor President Obama. He can’t seem to get no respect, kind of like Rodney Dangerfield. Now comes a line that isn’t going to go away. In criticizing Obama at the Tea Party national convention in Nashville, Sarah Palin said, “How’s that hopey-changey stuff working out for ya?”

The perfect mix of zing and snark. We’re going to be hearing “hopey-changey” for a long, long time. Google is already showing 500,000 results for “hopey-changey,” and although there isn’t much from the MSM at this point, they’ll catch up.

However, in response to a question about what her top priorities would be if conservatives gain control of the House and Senate, Palin said the following was one of them:

And then, I think, kinda tougher to, kinda tougher to put our arms around, but, allowing America’s spirit to rise again by not being afraid [applause] not being afraid to kinda go back to some of our roots as a God-fearing nation [applause] where we’re not afraid to say, especially in times of potential trouble in the future here, we’re not afraid to say, “You know, we don’t have all the answers as fallible men and women so it would be wise of us to start seeking some divine intervention again in this country,” so that we can be safe and secure and prosperous again.

Huh?

Don’t get me wrong. I like Sarah. She’s definitely a babe, and her family is swell. But she’s also proven herself to be a vacuous airhead, and I don’t think the time will ever come that I want her to be president. She can keep giving entertaining speeches full of zing and snark, dazzling us with her mangled syntax and funny malapropisms — that will be cool. But president? Please.

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: convention, hopey-changey, Nashville, Palin, Tea Party
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (13) | Home

13 Responses to “Hopey-Changey Stuff”

larry | February 9th, 2010 at 8:13 am

Instead we got what??

Clarissa | February 9th, 2010 at 8:26 am

Palin’s garbled speech is similar to that hilarious and equally confusing speech that a Miss America candidate gave some time ago.

I wonder why anybody would pay $550 to listen to something so pathetically inane.

At least, when Obama speaks, he makes sense. And he can construct a complete sentence without stubmling 15 times and mixing up his verb tenses. He might even know what verb tenses are.

Clarissa | February 9th, 2010 at 8:28 am

“Instead we got what??”

-A house plant would be better than Palin for pretty much any job in the world. At least, a houseplant does no harm and does not give a bad example to children. How am I supposed to teach my students that it is important to speak and write well when they see on television that you can become rich and famous with the verbal skills of a 3-year-old?

Tom | February 9th, 2010 at 10:54 am

The Republicans have a number of very respectable potential candidates for the presidency in 2012. The way things are going now, I think any of them stands at least some chance of beating Obama, particularly if he doesn’t significantly improve. In order, they’re Romney, Pawlenty, and Huckabee. There are others, too, and they’ll emerge as time goes on. Sarah Palin, as either #1 or #2 on the Republican ticket, will hurt more than she’ll help.

The Republicans need a deeply experienced, highly intelligent, successful executive of proven skill to lead them. Palin doesn’t qualify by any of those measures.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I voted for McCain in 2008. I did that not because of Palin’s presence on the ticket but despite her presence because of my serious concerns about Obama’s ability to do the job, despite his obvious personal qualities. I’ve voted in 10 presidential elections in my life, seven times for the Democratic candidate and three times for the Republican. My vote is available to either side in 2012, and Sarah Palin won’t get it. If the Democrats nominate someone I also can’t abide (including Obama without improved performance), I just won’t vote.

d | February 9th, 2010 at 1:12 pm

Real smart,Tom. Then I will get to decide for all you non-voters.L.o.l. Palin is a real doofus and really needs to dye her hair blonde.God help us all if she is elected.She wouldn’t even make a good dog catcher,probably would hunt them down and shoot them all.Remember,though, Bush was a real pro at butchering the english language.Scary.

Lisa | February 9th, 2010 at 3:56 pm

It is humorous though to watch the far left react to Sarah Palin. Andrea Mitchell, a seasoned journalist, lost her professional composure when she chose to ridicule Sarah Palin for having a few words written on her hand when giving the Tea Party speech. No, you won’t find Barack Obama with notes written on his hand. He is connected to his teleprompter and someone else writes his grammatically correct sentences for him. But wait, how does one pronounce the word “corpsman”? I betcha Sarah Palin knows how to pronounce it!!! She can teach Barack Obama how it is correctly pronounced.

Tom | February 9th, 2010 at 5:32 pm

Well, no one, even the most eloquent, speaks extemporaneously in perfectly complete sentences and well-structured paragraphs. Nothing wrong with teleprompters, although Obama’s reliance on them is over the top. Nothing wrong with having notes to refer to during an interview, but writing them on your hand and sneaking peeks like a kid in school is ridiculous. Kind of a pattern here — the first is an airhead with little substance, the second is a very bright guy with little substance. All things considered, I’ll take door #2 — at least he has the potential to improve.

Lisa | February 9th, 2010 at 6:05 pm

I am not sure I see the same potential as you do in Obama. On another note, I do agree with your list of GOP candidate hopefuls: Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Mike Huckabee. Mike Huckabee is a favorite with me because he has the consummate experience necessary to be President and CINC, is intellectually agile and is gifted in communicating directly with the public.

larry | February 9th, 2010 at 6:53 pm

“when they see on television that you can become rich and famous with the verbal skills of a 3-year-old?”
In America such a thing is possible. That Palin speaks without a prepared speech is true but I’m not really interested in pre-packaged none sense. The use of ones hand as a note pad is not so bazaar in the world we live in. Who cares.
Our real problem today is that we have been conditioned to believe a true politician has to be a Barack Obama type with a Phd. Look what it got us

Jason | February 9th, 2010 at 6:59 pm

Let’s admit it… we only react to her ‘hopey changey’ comments because we find her entertaining. Certainly not because we take her serious. She is garnering such fringe support that there is no way that she would be able to turn that into any sort of political success. At the moment only 70% of Americans think she is intellectually capable of becoming President. Those numbers will only increase as she exposes herself to some serious questions in regards to policy. But for now at least it provides us with some political humor.

Brianna | February 9th, 2010 at 7:43 pm

I really think everyone’s being too hard on the woman over this. She wrote 4 words on the back of her hand to make sure she covered all her talking points. I am a fairly good public speaker and I could probably not give a speech without at least that much prompting (that, or a lot of practice, which is something I doubt politicians have much time for with most of their speeches). I also don’t see what the difference is between writing on the back of your hand and writing on a notecard… would people be ridiculing her if she’d brought a couple of index cards on stage? Those would have given her more room for notes, too.

I wouldn’t vote for Palin because I really don’t trust her to not bring her religion into politics. That’s not such a huge deal for a state governor, but it’s not a trait I want to see in the President. But considering her approval rating as Alaskan governor was >90% before McCain brought her onto the national stage, how bad a leader could she have possibly been up there?

Jason – you’re saying the number of people who consider her intellectually qualified to be president will increase as she is forced to face tough policy questions? 🙂

Brianna | February 10th, 2010 at 12:39 am

Hey, look on the bright side. At least Sarah knows how many states there are in the Union without a) a teleprompter, or b) writing the number on the back of her hand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws