Winning!

Look I know we give Trump shit all of the time for not being able to make good on any of his campaign promises, but you have to admit this IS pretty damn impressive.

And remember it has only been six months. Just imagine how many more title he might be able to steal from his predecessors.

Watch out William Howard Taft, you might be the next one to lose your title.

A higher percentage of Americans want Trump impeached than wanted to impeach Richard Nixon.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Impeaching President Trump is more popular now than impeaching President Richard Nixon was at the start of the Watergate scandal, according to a Monmouth University poll. 

The poll, released Monday, found 41 percent of Americans support impeachment for Trump. In comparison, 26 percent supported Nixon’s impeachment six months into his second term, as the Watergate scandal was breaking. 

Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray said the higher percentage of Americans wanting impeachment is caused by “the current epidemic of hyper-partisanship that was simply not prevalent forty years ago.”

Yeah right.

Or it could simply be that Richard Nixon was at least qualified for the job, while more Americans agree that Trump is too unqualified, unprincipled, and undisciplined to carry out the responsibilities of president.  

US intelligence agencies asked the Justice Department to open criminal investigation into leaks, because remember the leaks are much worse than actual collusion with the Russians.

Courtesy of ABC News:  

Looking to stem the tide of bombshell news reports linking Russian operatives with associates of President Donald Trump, U.S. intelligence agencies have taken the significant step of formally referring as many as six recent leaks to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, according to sources familiar with the matter. 

Word of the criminal referrals comes as President Trump tries to use growing hostility toward the press as a means of making money for the Republican National Committee. 

"Do your part to fight back against the media's attacks and deceptions," the president said Friday in a fundraising email blasted out by the RNC and obtained by ABC News. "They don’t care about the truth." 

Meanwhile, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein may issue a private memorandum to his entire workforce in the coming weeks, reinforcing department guidelines that govern when employees can engage with members of the media, according to Justice Department insiders. 

For months, President Trump and key Republican lawmakers have been calling on the Justice Department to investigate who told reporters about classified information uncovered during the U.S. government's ongoing probe of Russian meddling in last year's presidential election. But there's only one voice that can really prompt a Justice Department leak investigation: the U.S. intelligence community.

So I guess now that Trump has his people running the intelligence agencies, the obstructionism can begin in earnest.

Of course this is not without precedent as Richard Nixon once asked his FBI Director to be as ruthless as the Nazis in attempting to find Deep Throat.

And we all know how well THAT worked out.

By the way those leakers might be closer than Donald Trump dares to suspect.

Wow. @JoeNBC says Steve Bannon bragged about having damaging info about Kushner days before Kushner meeting w/ Gorkov leaked to the NYT.

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) June 2, 2017

Oh my God! It's coming from inside the house!

The Simpsons wade into the Trump/Comey controversy.

I swear I am not sure we have needed humor in our lives more since the Great Depression.

Donald Trump has the lowest approval ratings of any other president elected since World War 2.

Courtesy of Gallup:

Donald Trump averaged 41% job approval during his first quarter as president, 14 percentage points lower than any other president in Gallup's polling history. Bill Clinton had the previous low mark of 55%. The average first-quarter rating among post-World War II presidents elected to their first term is 61%, with John Kennedy's 74% the highest.

You know I so want to celebrate this, but the fact is that this asshole represents all of us now so unfortunately this is also a reflection on the entire country. 

God I hate Vladimir Putin right now.

I don't think Sarah Palin knows how long e-mail has existed.

Okay so the above image showed up last night on Palin's Facebook page.

It clearly shows Hillary about to take a pickaxe to a bunch of e-mail servers, thereby destroying them, and of course makes the claim that even Nixon never did that.

Which is true, since the very first sitting President to send an e-mail was Hillary's husband Bill, who sent exactly two of them.

What I find even more bizarre is the fact that the conservatives keep using these comparisons to Nixon in order to smear Hillary, without copping to the fact that he was one of theirs.

In fact constantly bringing up Nixon only allows progressives to point out that the most corrupt president's in recent history have been Republicans. Nixon with Watergate, Ronald Reagan whose administration had 21 convictions, and of course the Bush administration lied to the entire country in order to start a war with Iraq.

And of course we all know the kinds of trouble that Sarah Palin herself got herself into while SHE was Governor of Alaska.

So yes Sarah, President Nixon, the man famous for the missing 18 and half minutes of missing audio tape, did not destroy any of his non-existent e-mails. He also did not murder any non-existent unicorns, so I guess he deserves credit for that as well.

The comparison with Hillary, of course, is simply ridiculous, But hey I guess when you don't have much to work with, you get a little desperate.

P.S. Palin also linked to that Dakota Meyer interview the other day, just to make the fact that he recorded it in her Wasilla studio just that much more obvious.

Sarah Palin really likes to compare President Obama to Nixon. She does realize he's one of theirs right?

From the Hootchie Mama Historian's Facebook page:

Obama Knew of Border "Crisis" Prior to Reelection; Lied About That, Too! 

The Washington Post has a bombshell article out about how “top officials at the White House and the State Department had repeatedly been warned of the potential for a further explosion in the number of migrant children since the crisis began escalating two years ago.” (Palin's ghostwriter does not actually include a link to the article, which is "Blogging 101" but here it is for those who are interested.)

The White House didn’t want to deal with the issue because they were focused on Obama’s 2012 reelection and the push for amnesty, and this burgeoning crisis didn’t look good for the President politically. So they willfully ignored it and in fact actively stoked it when Obama issued his own version of the DREAM Act by executive fiat, which led the illegal immigrants to believe they would be granted amnesty.  (Actually the President was TRYING to deal with the problem but received NO support from the Republicans so he did what he could. If the Republicans are not happy with that, perhaps they should have offered to work with him, instead of against him.  I mean it's not as if he ignored numerous warnings of an impending terrorist attack right before the biggest one in American history or anything.)

Here are the two questions Congress needs to demand answers to: What did the President know and when did he know it? (Oh no, she is not going to go there. Is she?)

You may recall that those questions were asked of another President who was also the subject of a Washington Post expose. 

 - Sarah Palin

Yep she did.

Okay now I know that certain people were too busy shifting the tissue paper in their training bras to make their boobs look bigger to pay much attention in Government class, but the Watergate scandal that Palin is oh so clumsily hinting is like what is happening with Obama, is NOTHING like what is happening with Obama.

THAT scandal was the result of a break in to gather evidence against the DNC by underlings ostensibly working for uber paranoid Richard Nixon, and the coverup that followed.

THIS is nothing like that. And I mean NOTHING like that.

But hey, how would somebody this stupid know that?

Oh that's right, because she pays thousands of dollars each year to consultants who are supposed to explain this kind of thing to her!

Who is a worse President than Nixon? Well to Sarah Palin the answer is obvious, Barack Obama. I know. surprising isn't it?

Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue moron's Facebook page:  

Honest Souls in Media? Prove It. Ask Away. 

Here’s a great article that pins these yahoo reporters to the mat. It could be considered funny, if it weren't so tragic, watching these crackerjack "journalists" still squirm around with their herd mentality to avoid the obvious. Their credibility is long gone. And they waste your time, America. 

As the article's author asks, is there an honest soul among them? Here's a taste: 

"Can any of you news hounds explain how what happened in Watergate was worse than anything this president has done? Work with me, Media Stars…it’s a serious question. Nixon had an enemies list. Obama publicly declared his desire to punish enemies and reward friends. Nixon went after whistleblowers like Ellsworth. Obama has prosecuted more administration personnel and journalists for divulging his secrets than any president in history. Nixon tried to get the IRS to hound his enemies. Obama successfully invited the IRS to persecute his. (No, he didn't. That contention has been disproved to the satisfaction of everybody who is NOT a Right Wing conspiracy theorist.) Nixon covered up the political break-in of a hotel office. Obama covered up the facts of the slaughter of an ambassador and three other Americans to protect his campaign. (Also not even close to accurate.) What did Nixon do that Obama didn’t do better and worse?" (Not even close!)

The article hits just a tip of the iceberg. If you've had enough, tap out. Take control and change the channel. (To what? Somebody's new streaming video app perhaps? Nice try lady.)


- Sarah Palin

Palin then links up to the Right Wing rag Townhall.com, an online magazine that regularly attacks Democrats and liberals while claiming that everything the President does wrong is being covered up by the mainstream media.

Of course Palin likes this article because it contains this nugget: 

Will you all apologize to Sarah Palin for y’all mocking her when she suggested Obama’s weakness might encourage Putin to invade Ukraine? Ya, know, since she was so right and you all were embarrassingly wrong? 

You know the deal, mention Palin in a positive light and she will gladly pimp your article. 

You know as a liberal I certainly have some criticisms of how President Obama has dealt with the issue of drones, domestic spying, and certain progressive policies.

However on his very worst day, President Obama is still head and shoulders above a man who was forced to leave office in disgrace, and almost single-handedly undermined the office of the President for decades to come.

I understand how desperate the Republicans are to replace Nixon with a new worst President ever, but by no measure does President Obama fit the criteria.

In fact that is a very good chance that history will view him as one of the very best.

So put that in your crack pipe and smoke it Sarah Palin.

Robert Reich points out that the health care plan that Republicans are so vehemently against today, was once proposed by one of their own, Richard Nixon.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

In February 1974, Republican President Richard Nixon proposed, in essence, today's Affordable Care Act. Under Nixon's plan all but the smallest employers would provide insurance to their workers or pay a penalty, an expanded Medicaid-type program would insure the poor, and subsidies would be provided to low-income individuals and small employers. Sound familiar? 

Private insurers were delighted with the Nixon plan but Democrats preferred a system based on Social Security and Medicare, and the two sides failed to agree. 

Thirty years later a Republican governor, Mitt Romney, made Nixon's plan the law in Massachusetts. Private insurers couldn't have been happier although many Democrats in the state had hoped for a public system. 

When today's Republicans rage against the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, it's useful to recall this was their idea as well. 

In 1989, Stuart M. Butler of the conservative Heritage Foundation came up with a plan that would "mandate all households to obtain adequate insurance." 

Insurance companies loved Butler's plan so much it found its way into several bills introduced by Republican lawmakers in 1993. Among the supporters were senators Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa (who now oppose the mandate under the Affordable Care Act). Newt Gingrich, who became Speaker of the House in 1995, was also a big proponent. 

Romney's heathcare plan in Massachusetts included the same mandate to purchase private insurance. "We got the idea of an individual mandate from [Newt Gingrich], and [Newt] got it from the Heritage Foundation," said Romney, who thought the mandate "essential for bringing the health care costs down for everyone and getting everyone the health insurance they need." 

So why are today's Republicans so upset with an Act they designed and their patrons adore? Because it's the signature achievement of the Obama administration. 

There's a deep irony to all this. Had Democrats stuck to the original Democratic vision and built comprehensive health insurance on Social Security and Medicare, it would have been cheaper, simpler, and more widely accepted by the public. And Republicans would be hollering anyway.

I think that this is the point where a lot of liberals are yelling at their computer screens and asking why didn't we just go with single payer in the first place if the Republicans were going to freak out anyway?

However, considering how aggressively the Right Wing is working to stop Obamacare now, just imagine how much worse it would have been if the Dems had tried to shove universal health care down their throats. And yes, it COULD be worse.

I think the interesting thing is that the President attempted to offer the Republicans numerous reasons why they should embrace this health care law, essentially including almost all of the compromises that they had demanded in the past, and yet they STILL could not bring themselves to support it.

Sort of deflates that whole, "If only the President had been willing to compromise with us" argument doesn't it?

Former Republican Senate Majority leader Bob Dole says, "They ought to put a sign on the National Committee doors that says 'Closed for repairs.'"

Courtesy of Politico:  

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole says he doesn't believe he could make it in the modern Republican Party. 

"I doubt it," he said in an interview aired on "Fox News Sunday" when asked if his generation of Republican leaders could make it in today's GOP. "Reagan couldn't have made it. Certainly, Nixon couldn't have made it, cause he had ideas. We might've made it, but I doubt it." 

"They ought to put a sign on the National Committee doors that says 'Closed for repairs,' until New Year's Day next year," he said. "And spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas."

Today's Republican party is nothing like the GOP of old. 

In those days I could, and sometimes did, vote for the Republican candidate.

But to do so today would betray everything I believe, everything the Republicans I knew before believed, and, in my opinion, everything good about this country.

They are now a cancer, and the only hope for our survival is to have them removed from office en masse.

And do you know who else would agree with that? Bob Dole, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan, that's who.

Fortunately for us the country is far more liberal today than it was before, so the Republican scourge should soon be replaced by those who actually understand how to govern.

Sarah Palin thinks the President is vulnerable and in response unleashes her ghostwriter on Facebook. Exaggeration, hyperbole, and Middle school name calling ensue. Update!

"Blood! I smell blood in the water!"

This from the Arizona Snowbird's ghostwritten Facebook page:  

Mr. President, when it rains it pours, but most Americans hold their own umbrellas. Today in the Rose Garden you dismissed the idea of a Special Counsel to investigate the IRS scandal. With that, your galling political hubris shined bright in the midst of today’s dark clouds. 

This, of course, is in reference to the image taken during President Obama's joint press conference alongside Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan in the Rose Garden the other day, during which he asked two Marines to hold umbrellas for them, mostly, it seemed, in deference to the needs of his guest.

Apparently that action has opened up a line of attack, because as we know EVERYTHING the President does becomes an opening for a  Right Wing attack.

Then Palin's ghostwriter goes on to group Benghazi, the IRS kerfuffle, and the obtaining of the AP phone records together in order to accuse the administration of being in violation of the Hatch Act, even though NONE of those qualifies as such.

That not being enough to smear the President, Palin then accuses him of even more outrageous activities.

For more evidence of Hatch Act violations right under your nose, simply consider DOJ’s “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into the free press. Do you think they picked up some political talk when tapping the phones in the House press gallery? 

Not happy with simply going after the President concerning the AP leak investigation which saw the DOJ accessing reporters phone records, (A situation by the way for which I feel actual outrage and not manufactured outrage), she then accuses him of  "tapping the phones in the House press gallery" which is completely ridiculous and undermines any seriousness on her part.

Your team is out of control. Those who cannot remember the past and learn from it are doomed to repeat it, and that is exactly what is happening. Look back exactly 40 years ago this week and apply that disheartening chapter of American history to the team you’ve chosen and lead today.

The ghostwriter is of course referring to Watergate, because the Republicans have determined that it was far enough back that perhaps the American people have forgotten that it was  the result of an out of control REPUBLICAN administration. Which is interesting because if RAM was looking for an example of an administration violating the Hatch Act, she need look no further back than to the LAST administration, that was, here's a shocker, ALSO a Republican administration.

However satisfied that the President has been wounded sufficiently Palin's ghostwriter has her do a victory dance over his "political corpse."

Some of us warned America; we cautioned voters in 2008 that a community organizer with no executive experience and no sense of accountability would be a very poor choice for the nation’s top management position.

Yes because having old man McCain and THIS lunatic would have been SO much better for the country. (Conveniently Palin focuses on these three "scandals." two of which are nothing of the sort, and ignores the rather impressive accomplishments of her President.)

With that Palin's ghostwriter goes in for the kill.

Most Americans see ominous dark clouds looming beyond the White House Rose Garden, Mr. President. They’ll roll away only when light is shined on the Obama administration’s antics, and America will only recover when you cease avoiding responsibility in this mission of yours to fundamentally transform America. For that to happen, the press had better learn from their experiences of being duped and provide a deserving public fairer, more intelligent coverage. 

Of course THIS is exactly the time that Palin has been so impatiently waiting to arrive. A time when the President is under assault from a variety of directions and a time where she can stumble up on her Naughty Monkey pumps and kick him while he is down.

Of course if we have learned anything these last four and a half years it should be that this President is NEVER as badly wounded as his critics would like us to believe that he is, and that ultimately he will shrug off the slings and arrows of his opponents and get right back to doing the work that will, without a doubt, see him listed among the most effective Presidents that we have ever had in this country.

Time for one last parting shot.

 Speaking of coverage, glad you finally called in the Marines... shame it was just to hold your umbrella. 

- Sarah Palin

And back to the immature attack about the umbrellas. Why we would expect anything else?

However perhaps Palin has forgotten just how effective and impressive this President can be while standing uncovered in the rain.

I don't think the man was afraid of getting a little wet, he was just worried about over shadowing his guest from Turkey, and perhaps blowing a few reporter's minds.

Charisma can be so dangerous if not carefully controlled, don'tcha know?

Update: The Washington Post cannot resist pointing out Palin's hypocrisy either:  

Former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin weighed in Thursday night, blasting Obama and tweeting: 

“Scandalous Hat Trick,” she wrote. 

“Mr. President, when it rains it pours, but most Americans hold their own umbrellas. 

Well, not always.

 She is SUCH an easy target.

Rachel Maddow reports that Richard Nixon prolonged the Vietnam War for political purposes.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As a progressive I am not at all surprised to have it reaffirmed that the Republicans have been killing Americans for political gain for decades.

I only wonder why so many of my fellow citizens are so damn slow in figuring it out as well?

Good morning my friends.

I thought this would be a good way to start the day.

Many president's had tried, but this President succeeded.

And NOTHING the Right Wing can do will ever change that.

Now why wasn't I THIS creative with my headline?

I did my best, but I have to hand it to this guy for creativity.

By the way this kind of makes me wish there had been an internet back in 1972.

Such an innocent time back then. And hardly any fun at all apparently.

Perhaps my all time favorite Christian.

A Presbyterian minister who constantly told everybody, including Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and Atheists, that he liked them "Just the way you are."

I actually discovered Mr. Rogers as a young adult.

I was working with children after I graduated from high school and sometimes there would be time set aside for educational television for those that wanted to watch.

The choices were always PBS which would show Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Reading Rainbow, and the Electric Company back to back.

Since I was still very young and really just entering adulthood, I did not immediately take to Mr. Rogers.  I thought his slow way of speaking and running explanation of everything he was doing was kind of creepy and a little strange. But it did not take long for me to notice that the younger children responded in a very profound way to his show, and I learned to not only respect his message but even to recognize the value of how carefully he explained things so that the children would understand.

And if you think that his methods only worked with children then I invite you to watch Mr. Rogers in 1969, appearing before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications. His goal then was to support funding for PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in response to significant proposed cuts by President Nixon.

Watch how he turns a combative Senator John Pastore into a supporter of PBS, and children's broadcasting, in less than seven minutes.

Fred Rogers did not judge those who did not share his faith, or use his program to proselytize to the innocent children who adored him. He simply lived his life as he felt his faith dictated that he do, and just look at the positive impact he had on us all.

I only wish that when I pictured Christianity today that it was Fred Rogers kind open face that imagined, instead of Franklin Graham's, or James Dobson's, or Rick Santrorum's.

But it's not.

Rolling Stone Magazine reveals the truth about Roger Ailes and the Fox News Fear Factory.

Courtesy of Rolling Stones:

Fear, in fact, is precisely what Ailes is selling: His network has relentlessly hyped phantom menaces like the planned “terror mosque” near Ground Zero, inspiring Florida pastor Terry Jones to torch the Koran. Privately, Murdoch is as impressed by Ailes’ business savvy as he is dismissive of his extremist politics. "You know Roger is crazy," Murdoch recently told a colleague, shaking his head in disbelief. "He really believes that stuff."

To watch even a day of Fox News – the anger, the bombast, the virulent paranoid streak, the unending appeals to white resentment, the reporting that’s held to the same standard of evidence as a late-­October attack ad – is to see a refraction of its founder, one of the most skilled and fearsome operatives in the history of the Republican Party. As a political consultant, Ailes repackaged Richard Nixon for television in 1968, papered over Ronald Reagan’s budding Alzheimer’s in 1984, shamelessly stoked racial fears to elect George H.W. Bush in 1988, and waged a secret campaign on behalf of Big Tobacco to derail health care reform in 1993. "He was the premier guy in the business," says former Reagan campaign manager Ed Rollins. "He was our Michelangelo."

In the fable Ailes tells about his own life, he made a clean break with his dirty political past long before 1996, when he joined forces with Murdoch to launch Fox News. "I quit politics," he has claimed, "because I hated it." But an examination of his career reveals that Ailes has used Fox News to pioneer a new form of political campaign – one that enables the GOP to bypass skeptical reporters and wage an around-the-clock, partisan assault on public opinion. The network, at its core, is a giant soundstage created to mimic the look and feel of a news operation, cleverly camouflaging political propaganda as independent journalism.

This is article delves deeply into what makes Ailes tick, and also, perhaps accidentally, reveals where Sarah Palin got her inspiration for circumventing the mainstream media. And manufacturing news about her family to appeal to a wider demographic.

To bypass journalists, Ailes made Nixon the star of his own traveling roadshow – a series of contrived, newslike events that the campaign paid to broadcast in local markets across the country. Nixon would appear on camera in theaters packed with GOP partisans – "an applause machine," Ailes said, "that’s all that they are." Then he would field questions from six voters, hand-­selected by the campaign, who could be counted on to lob softball queries that played to Nixon’s talking points. At the time, Nixon was consciously stoking the anger of white voters aggrieved by the advances of the civil rights movement, and Ailes proved eager to play the race card. To balance an obligatory "Negro" on a panel in Philadelphia, Ailes dreamed of adding a "good, mean Wallacite cab driver. Wouldn’t that be great? Some guy to sit there and say, 'Awright, Mac, what about these niggers?'"

Now do you understand what Palin is up to?  And why THIS is most likely being fed to the media?

New RNC Chairman has fabulous idea for paying down their 23 million dollar debt. Whore out the memory of their deceased icon, Ronald Reagan.

From Think Progress:

Under the mismanagement of former chairman Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee racked up a staggering $23 million debt thanks to lavish spending and poor fundraising. But new chairman Reince Priebus has a brilliant idea to save his ailing party: sell the Gipper. Capitalizing on the 100th anniversary of President Reagan’s birth, the RNC launched a website that looks like it was designed in the Great Communicator’s era, which offers red-blooded conservatives a chance to fork over $400 for a framed photo of Reagan’s inauguration, $25 for a Reagan bobble head, or $25 for some jelly beans.

Well I for one think it is an amazing likeness of the "Gipper."  Seriously, it looks just as human like and conscious as the real thing.

Now look I know what the "haters" are going to say.  They are going to cry that this is reducing the Reagan legacy to a bunch of spring headed dolls and "Made in China" bumper stickers. That this is nothing more than capitalistic necrophilia. And that objectifying their Republican icon will diminish him in the eyes of history.

Obviously all of that is true.

However what else is the GOP to do? They are stone cold broke, they don't believe in asking for government handouts, and they don't have any marketable skills to offer this new millennium. (After all imagine how hard it is to sell sleazy dirty tricks, fear mongering, and suppression of minorities in President Obama's America?) So what real choice do they have but to prostitute themselves?

However I don't think that they realize how to fully take advantage of this tactic.

Why stop at pimping out Reagan's image and memory?

There are so many GOP or Right Wing icons they could also exploit.  Such as the Richard Nixon lie detector test to separate your friends from your enemies (And then of course put them on a list). Or the John Boehner signature handkerchiefs for leaky eyes, or wiping away excess "Spray on Tan."

How about the Glenn Beck safety helmet for that "special" someone who sometimes falls down the stairs or wanders out into oncoming traffic. And, of course, the Sarah Palin sex doll.  (Now with a sexual mood modulator so you can adjust her receptiveness anywhere from "bitterly cold scrotum shriveling banshee "all the way up to "frigid emasculating bitch." )

Just imagine how much money could be made if the GOP simply followed their natural instincts and marketed themselves, and their idols, like common flea market commodities?

Remember it only makes you feel cheap for a little while, and then you get used to it.  Just ask any common street walker.

I bet Todd Palin could help you find one to ask.

Former White House Counsel John Dean compares Sarah Palin to his old boss, Richard Nixon, and not in the good way. Wait, there was a good way?

From Findlaw:

I don't believe that Sarah Palin has a clue what she is doing -- other than making easy money, and more of it than she ever dreamed she might, by cashing in on her celebrity. She keeps those dollars coming her way by flirting with a presidential bid, for she is very savvy, and she knows that by playing this game, she keeps herself relevant, as well as in the news. I reached this conclusion just before the Thanksgiving holiday, when the New York Times Magazine did about as favorable a profile of Palin as she has received from any mainstream news outlet that is not owned by Rupert Murdoch.

The author of the Times piece, Robert Draper, a Texas-raised freelance writer who had done a largely favorable history of the Bush II presidency, appears to have had good access to Palin. Draper's kindly look at Palin, however, actually reveals that she is no more prepared (or qualified) to run a presidential race now than she was to run her vice- presidential race two years ago. While Palin clearly has the outsized personality and ego that are necessary for a person to want to attain the highest office in the land, she is conspicuously lacking in presidential skills. If she could get the GOP nomination without a fight, or with just a little fracas, she would take it. But she has yet to show the stuff that is truly needed to win a nomination.

More importantly, too, Palin has shown -- as several Nixon biographers have mentioned to me since she entered the political arena in 2008 -- a decidedly Nixonian nature. But as one historian, who understands Nixon well, noted, Palin has "all Nixon's downsides without his upside, because she lacks his knowledge and intellect." I agree.

I strongly suggest that you click the link provided and read ALL of what John Dean wrote.  He is essentially bemoaning the dumbing down of the Presidency which allows a nitwit like Sarah Palin to believe she has a shot at the job.

He makes a lot of very valid points, including that this is a trend which began with Ronald Reagan and was dramatically accelerated by George Bush to the point that it makes the job appear so simple that even a caveman could do it.  (Which I guess is ALMOST simple enough for the Grizzled Mama to take on as well. But not quite.)

You know first Palin gets verbally spanked for comparing herself to Ronald Reagan, and now she is compared unfavorably to Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon, whose left?

Warren G. Harding perhaps?

RIP Wally Hickel.

From the AP:

Former Alaska Gov. Walter J. Hickel, who served as Interior secretary under President Nixon until he was dismissed for objecting to the treatment of Vietnam War protesters, has died at age 90.

Wally Hickel was a complex guy, a REAL Alaskan with a boatload of idiosyncrasies and novel ideas about the state, the government, and the future of Alaska .

Just get a load of just some of what he did in his long life.

Hickel was fired from his Interior post in late 1970 after sending Nixon a letter critical of the president's handling of student protests following the National Guard shootings at Kent State and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

The letter helped to stir national debate about the growing generational rift over the Vietnam War.

"I believe this administration finds itself today embracing a philosophy which appears to lack appropriate concern for the attitude of a great mass of Americans — our young people," Hickel wrote. (You have to love a guy who takes on Richard Nixon on behalf of the hippies.)

Hickel had never held elected office when he upset two-term Democratic Gov. William Egan in 1966.

Hickel resigned in 1969 to become Interior secretary and quickly made national headlines as the environmental movement began to take root in America.

Hickel imposed stringent cleanup regulations on oil companies and water polluters after an oil rig explosion off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif. He also fought to save the Everglades from being destroyed by developers and advocated for making Earth Day a national holiday.

An "Alaska boomer" with complex views on environmentalism and developing the state's oil-rich resources, Hickel railed against "locking up" the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling and used settlement money from the Exxon Valdez oil spill lawsuit to help repair Prince William Sound.

He frequently described Alaska as an "owner state" and advocated that the state's wild frontier should be developed responsibly to preserve its value.

Though I believe Governor Hickel and I are probably, for the most part, on opposite sides of the political fence I have still always been kind of impressed with the guy.  I mean whether it was jumping from the Republican party to the Alaska Independence Party to win the Governor's seat in 1990, to the bizarre story of the "little man" that he claimed whispered advice into his ear, Hickel was as colorful and complicated as the state that he clearly loved above all else.

I have been trying to think of which past politician Sarah Palin reminds me of and then it hit me.

The resemblance is striking isn't it?

(Thanks to Phil Munger for posting this image over at Progressive Alaska.)