Politics

A year and a half ago, a few weeks before the presidential election, Google CEO Eric Schmidt made a bold claim about the impact of the internet on our public life: “We are witnessing the end of Rovian politics,” he declared to Arianna Huffington .

There are at least three reasons the polls show the number of those who consider Sarah Palin unqualified for high office keeps growing. *She’s an acquired taste that hasn’t been acquired yet *She gets a relentless raw deal from the commie-pinko media *She’s unqualified Whichever, Sarah Palin is one of those public personalities who makes everyone’s blood boil. In disgust or adoration. Without a doubt she has become the queen of the mainstream fringe, in fact she’s become perhaps the leading symbol.

Or…as I suppose we should call it tonight, the Political Wrap-Up. Seeing as how there is no new polling tonight (save for a mildly ridiculous Rasmussen poll claiming Ben Nelson would lose by 30 points in he ran for re-election), we will stick to the campaign news. And, surprisingly, there actually is some news from the campaign trail today…. CA-19: In a slight surprise, the GOP lost an incumbent in the final days of 2009, as Class of ‘94 Congressman George Radanovich announced his retirement this morning.

Politifact already named Sarah Palin’s “death panels” claim its lie of the year — prompting an indignant response from the former Alaska governor. Now Factcheck.org has followed suit, calling the claim that health care reform would lead to euthanasia for the elderly and disabled a “whopper of 2009.” The non-partisan group, however, pinned most of the blame on longtime reform foe Betsy McCaughey .

The failure of world leaders in Copenhagen to come to terms with the climate crisis is provoking anger and disappointment. My colleague at YES! Magazine , Brooke Jarvis, reports on the climate deal and some early responses: Even those who brokered it acknowledge that the deal on the table at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is too weak to stop catastrophic climate change.

Recent straw polls show Sarah Palin with a slight edge over Mike Huckabee for the 2012 GOP nomination. If that doesn’t frighten you enough, there is a plausible scenario where she becomes the default candidate of the Republican Party. So when both leading candidates showed up at Books-A-Million in Birmingham, Alabama last week , I took my camera to get a look at their operations. Neither candidate has declared, but what I saw may be a preview of what’s to come in 2012. I want to stress that I had no intentions of “punking” anyone.

One of the Republican Party’s most respected and relied-upon consultants has serious reservations about two the party’s biggest names. Alex Castellanos, a conservative media strategist and regular presence on CNN, raised questions of Sarah Palin’s viability for office and took major swipes at Florida Senate candidate Charlie Crist during an appearance at Bloomberg News’ Washington Summit Thursday. The harshest lines were saved for Crist, who Castellanos said was not really a Republican.

Barack Obama’s campaign manager accused former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on Sunday of co-opting the Republican Party and driving it toward the ideological fringe. In an appearance promoting his book on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” David Plouffe said that Democrats should “thank John McCain for picking [Palin]” as his running mate.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) demurred once again when asked to divine the kind of candidate for president his former running mate, Sarah Palin, could be in 2012. “I have a degree of clairvoyance,” the Arizona Republican said, “but in 2009 to predict what would happen in the 2012 election is — I’m not capable of.” While McCain wouldn’t wade into presidential politics, he did offer a bit of retrospection.

For all the hysteria regarding “death panels” being established in health care legislation, it’s worth noting that under one major private insurance plan consumers are offered end-of-life planning coverage that is similar to that being put forth by House Democrats.