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Maynard says:

Tammy makes some interesting notes about prominent Republicans that pointedly failed to stand up for Palin, or even joined in the chorus of disapproval against her, when she was accused of complicity in murder. These would be members of the political elite, who are taken care of no matter who is in power, either feeding directly at the government trough or “advising” and lobbying and otherwise wheeling and dealing on the government periphery when their team isn’t at bat. Such people that populate the party machines find more in common with their supposed political opposition than they do with an outsider. This is the obstacle that Sarah Palin must overcome, and it’s a big one.

I try to be pragmatic. Machine politics are an inevitable phenomenon. I’d like to smash the machines, but it’s not going to happen. The practical problem we have isn’t that the machines exist, but that they’ve become dysfunctional to a toxic degree. Our government is on track to destroy us through a debt bomb. As our economic infrastructure creaks and fails, our politicians tell us the only solution is to put more and more power in their hands. We just can’t keep going the way we’re going. Something’s got to give.

The attacks on Sarah Palin are obscene. Her name has been linked to mass murder. Any decent person who understands what’s going on would stand in solidarity with her on this point. This has nothing to do with whether she should be president.

It’s a big problem that too much of the nation is confused on these basic facts. Far too many people, hearing the drone of the media reports, scratch their heads and say, yeah, maybe Palin shouldn’t have made that target map. It’s sad, but the endless repetition of the lies tends to obfuscate the truth. Everybody in politics knows this, and most of them use it to their advantage.

I don’t know where all this leads. I support Sarah Palin and all those who aspire to shake up the party machines and bring government back in touch with the people. But I can’t see Sarah Palin herself ascending to the presidency. I know that’s what Tammy and most other TAMs would like, and I don’t want to argue with you. History will settle these questions. And if Palin isn’t the candidate, then who? The others in line are machine men. Maybe someone else will come on the scene.

Make no mistake. Obama will be very, very hard to beat. He’s got a strong coalition of racists and cronies and special interests that will vote for him no matter what. He’ll have a billion dollar war chest. He’ll have the slanted media reports, which is probably worth another billion dollars of publicity. And his strategy has been made clear. After two years of raping the nation, he’s going to take it easy for a couple years. After his next victory, he can do four more years of non-stop raping. But the next two years will be seductive. In two years, if nothing absolutely catastrophic has struck us, he’ll tell us we’re slogging forward and turning the corner, and it’s a bad time to change horses. You won’t be fooled and I won’t be fooled, but Obama doesn’t have to fool all the people all the time. He just has to fool 50% of the people for one day. And very few of us pay enough attention to understand what’s going on. The man or woman that beats Obama will have to be more popular and more Teflon™-coated than Sarah Palin.