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From last night's debate, the following exchange was possibly the single most important thing that has been said in this entire election:
Gwen Ifill: Governor, you mentioned a moment ago the constitution might give the vice president more power than it has in the past. Do you believe as Vice President Cheney does, that the Executive Branch does not hold complete sway over the office of the vice presidency, that it is also a member of the Legislative Branch?
Sarah Palin: Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation.
The Constitution very clearly set apart the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches as a way of having checks and balances against corruption or severe wingnuttery in any one branch. As we have seen, Bush as President (Executive Branch) has managed to subvert the Supreme Court (Judicial Branch) by putting on the court hand-picked cronies who are more interested in furthering Bush's agenda than in serving in that high office with integrity. The problem is that, while Bush and the neo-cons can pick judges, they can't pick members of congress. Sure, they can throw lots of money at their candidate of choice and put the large chunks of the mass-media that they control onto undermining opponents ("Swiftboating") but sometimes the voters fail to be the docile sheeple the neo-cons want them to be and go vote for the other guy anyhow. Hence Cheney's attempts to shift powers from the Legislative to the Executive Branch, all of which is why Biden said:
Joe Biden: Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous Vice president we've had probably in American history.
So, what Palin is telling us, directly and to our faces, is that she and McCain fully intend to continue and expand the disempowerment of the Legislative Branch, disenfranchise every voter who thinks they should have a voice in our government, and to intentionally undermine and destroy the system of checks and balances laid out by those same founding fathers she invokes, because they know what's right for America and they don't see any reason they shouldn't be able to implement their own policies as they see fit.
Most of what Palin said in the debate was clearly scripted in advance, and she gave her memorized answers even when it didn't quite fit the question. She's vapid, crazily narcissistic, dishonest and deceptive, condescending, woefully uninformed about the issues, and disinterested in the difficulties of anyone other than the wealthy neo-con elite. You can pretty much ignore every single thing that came out of her mouth over the entire debate, except this. She just voiced out loud an obvious but unstated truth about the agenda of the neo-cons, and if a shiver didn't go down your spine like someone was walking on the grave of this country when she said it, you weren't paying attention.
Gwen Ifill: Governor, you mentioned a moment ago the constitution might give the vice president more power than it has in the past. Do you believe as Vice President Cheney does, that the Executive Branch does not hold complete sway over the office of the vice presidency, that it is also a member of the Legislative Branch?
Sarah Palin: Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation.
The Constitution very clearly set apart the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches as a way of having checks and balances against corruption or severe wingnuttery in any one branch. As we have seen, Bush as President (Executive Branch) has managed to subvert the Supreme Court (Judicial Branch) by putting on the court hand-picked cronies who are more interested in furthering Bush's agenda than in serving in that high office with integrity. The problem is that, while Bush and the neo-cons can pick judges, they can't pick members of congress. Sure, they can throw lots of money at their candidate of choice and put the large chunks of the mass-media that they control onto undermining opponents ("Swiftboating") but sometimes the voters fail to be the docile sheeple the neo-cons want them to be and go vote for the other guy anyhow. Hence Cheney's attempts to shift powers from the Legislative to the Executive Branch, all of which is why Biden said:
Joe Biden: Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous Vice president we've had probably in American history.
So, what Palin is telling us, directly and to our faces, is that she and McCain fully intend to continue and expand the disempowerment of the Legislative Branch, disenfranchise every voter who thinks they should have a voice in our government, and to intentionally undermine and destroy the system of checks and balances laid out by those same founding fathers she invokes, because they know what's right for America and they don't see any reason they shouldn't be able to implement their own policies as they see fit.
Most of what Palin said in the debate was clearly scripted in advance, and she gave her memorized answers even when it didn't quite fit the question. She's vapid, crazily narcissistic, dishonest and deceptive, condescending, woefully uninformed about the issues, and disinterested in the difficulties of anyone other than the wealthy neo-con elite. You can pretty much ignore every single thing that came out of her mouth over the entire debate, except this. She just voiced out loud an obvious but unstated truth about the agenda of the neo-cons, and if a shiver didn't go down your spine like someone was walking on the grave of this country when she said it, you weren't paying attention.
