Barackface

Monday, October 11, 2010

Happy Birthday Amitabh Bachchan

The most recognized face on the planet.

Saturday, October 09, 2010

Is America In Decline? Is It Rome Or FDR?

CHICAGO - NOVEMBER 04: A young child wearing ...

The New Republic: Political Columnists Think America Is In Decline. Big Surprise.: Samuel P. Huntington noted that the theme of “America’s decline” had in fact been a constant in American culture and politics since at least the late 1950s. It had come, he wrote, in several distinct waves: in reaction to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik; to the Vietnam war; to the oil shock of 1973; to Soviet aggression in the late 1970s; and to the general unease that accompanied the end of the Cold War. Since Huntington wrote, we can add at least two more waves: in reaction to 9/11, and to the current “Great Recession.” ..... “By faith and honor, / Our madams mock at us, and plainly say / Our mettle is bred out and they will give / Their bodies to the lust of English youth / To new-store France with bastard warriors.”

There has been relentless talk that America is in decline. Just like the Roman Empire ended and the sun set on the British Empire as World War II concluded, America's number one position is now gone. That is the suggestion. That is one train of thought. (Another Trillion To Buy Real Estate?)

Another train of thought is that Barack Obama is like FDR. His Great Recession is like FDR's Great Depression was. Just like that big crisis, handled well, took America to new heights, Obama will handle this crisis well as well, and America will be taken to heights it has never seen before. (Father Of India Dot Com Craze Gives A Thumbs Up To America)

I belong to that second school of thought. I am a Barack Obama fan. I am an optimist. I have a realistic idea of where India and China stand today. China is still largely a Third World country. Hundreds of millions of Chinese are still Third World poor. And China does not have America's democracy or diversity.

But I am a cautious optimist. They say the proudest title to wear in a democracy is that of a citizen. The proudest hat during Obama 08 was that of a volunteer and I was wearing that hat. Barack Obama has done a good job so far, but he has not yet done everything that needs to be done. The unemployment level has to go down to five or six per cent on his watch, for example. And the political winds might blow in some unforeseen ways, he might lose the House next month. That might complicate matters for him.

The fundamental transformation has not happened. If America were to go back to the same old same old now, if America were to go back to being a country where only white men became president like the Tea Party wants, then yes, America is a power in decline. It is already a multi-polar world as it should be. Attitudes that get alarmed that China is pulling hundreds of millions out of poverty are attitudes that will ensure America's decline.

America could emerge stronger than ever out of this crisis, but that is not a certain outcome. The arc of history bends towards justice, but it does not bend on its own. There is work to be done. America could still see a second industrial revolution driven by clean tech.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Reshma Saujani Is Back

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on June 2, 2007.

Image via WikipediaWell, she is.

Last Friday I went to see the Facebook movie in Murray Hill. Before that I had made a firm decision to not go see the movie. (The Social Network: Before Seeing The Movie) I was going to express solidarity with Mark Zuckerberg. But I was to learn later the entire Facebook team went to see the movie around the same time I did. Fred Wilson and I call it mind meld. There have been three times so far when Fred Wilson and I have talked about the same thing the same day at our respective blogs independent of each other. (I Gave In: Facebook: The Movie, To Make Sense Of The Facebook Movie, Facebook Needs To Revamp Email Next, Facebook's Location Patent)

On my way back, at the train station, on the platform, as I lay sitting, waiting for the train, a Reshma 2010 staffer walked over to me, former Reshma 2010 staffer. Jay Ko. New York is a big city. It is rare to meet people you know when you are out and about town. Happens about once a year for me.

"She is resting," he said. Oh, okay. (ANTA Convention: Emotional Bath)

I never really turned that Google Alerts thing off. For days it was yet another publication breaking news that "the Indian American woman who ran for Congress lost." Okay, I got that. I was at the election returns watch party, and that was like two weeks ago. I snapped out of it within seconds. Or maybe minutes. Definitely by the following day. Carolyn Maloney is mediocre. That is my permanent impression.

Looks like Reshma Saujani's coming out event was some Punjabi dude running for City Council. At some level she never really woke up from the Obama 08 Democrat From Punjab episode. I took a personal hit when that happened. It just felt wrong. I was the only full timer Obama 08 volunteer in the city at the time. And I am Indian, watch out. (There Is An Albert Einstein On The Obama Campaign Staff) I sent out a missive and Barack Obama personally responded. He said that press release was "stupid" and the work of some lowly staffer.

Reshma has a Punjabi roommate.

The Prime Minister of India is a Punjabi. Barack shall soon meet.

I am in America because Nepal is not safe. America is safe, or so I thought. Bobby Kennedy was no longer campaigning in June. (Competing With Hillary Now)

Politics was not safe, I thought, and so I decided I was going to pour myself into tech entrepreneurship. 2009 was my tech year. (The Dumbfuck Immigration Laws) I was a regular at the Science House MeetUp, not to say the NY Tech MeetUp, which is where I met the Science House people in the first place. Late in 2009 the FBI started sniffing around the Science House. A few months later they were still sniffing around. And I lost it. I am thinking, not now, not when my guy is in the White House. (Obama's Got Momentum: He Could Defy History In November)

Tech was not safe either. What to do?

Only later I read somewhere that Carolyn Maloney's husband had died in Nepal late in 2009. And I am thinking, fuck.

Maloney has been of no interest to me in the five years I have been in the city; until Reshma 2010. She was a mere blip on the screen. She was mediocre. She filled a slot. She was part of the landscape. Hakeem Jeffries, on the other hand. (Hakeem Jeffries: Principled Compromise, Hakeem Jeffries Debate, New York Times: Hakeem Jeffries)

Nepal has a Shangrila image, and rightly so, it has been the most popular destination among Peace Corps volunteers for half a century, but that is only half the story. Nepal is also the poorest country outside of Africa. It only a few years back ended a decade long civil war. Nepal saw the rise of the number one ultra left group in the post Cold War era. Compared to the Maoists of Nepal, the Shining Path of Peru was not much. One of the drug routes goes through Nepal. High level people in the country's army get involved for the money.

I have walked in every part of New York City, and at all hours of day and night.

I am a nonviolent person, always have been. I am a political person, always have been. But nonviolent militancy is still nonviolent. (To: The Ayatollah, Newt Gingrich: Monkeyface)

I am too politically gifted to be wowed by a Barack Obama, even when it is my firm judgment he is going to go down in history as a great president. (I Touched Obama: Babel, Barack) I might not have felt the same intimacy if he had been a pastor or a pilot, but politics I know.

A few days back I read a piece where Osama Bin Laden was seeing a connection between global warming and the recent unusual floods in Pakistan. No politician in Pakistan saw that connection, not that I heard of. When random fires erupted all over Greece a few years back, they arrested all sorts of arsonists with records. They did not know to blame global warming. And I am thinking Bin Laden is a smart guy, just like I thought. He is that other butterfly effect dude on the planet.

And here you have two blog posts from Reshma Saujani. The question I have asked - before ever meeting - is what if she is too racist and too sexist by my extremely high standards? Internalized racism and sexism are still racism and sexism.

Reshma Saujani: Want to Break the Glass Ceiling? Give Young Women a Running Start: the outcome of the 2010 midterms could lead to the biggest reduction of female representation in Congress in over three decades...... Women make up 17 percent of the members of Congress, ranking the United States 68th internationally in women’s political representation ...... in the 20th century, twelve of the nineteen presidents were thirty-five years or younger when they were elected to their first office. ...... nurture and mentor young female candidates who lose their first local, state or federal race and empower them not to get discouraged and to continue to strive for elected office. ..... What progressives cannot do is let Sarah Palin’s Mama Grizzlies define what the female politician looks and sounds like in the 21st century. This country is hungry for female leadership, and as women continue to be the majority of voters, we must take the opportunity to paint our nation pink.

Sarah Palin: Palin 2012: Rogue

Reshma Saujani: Bullhorn: Democrats Need to Fire Up the Fed-Up: we need more candidates running insurgent campaigns to engage communities who feel they do not have a voice. ..... the turnout of the South Asian community in the 14th district primary reached historic proportions. On election day, I saw crowds of Bangladeshi Americans come out and vote who have never participated in a primary election before. Young South Asian girls surrounded me holding my campaign materials, telling me that they too can run for higher office. ...... dropout factory schools ...... The ironic outcome of America electing the first black President is that it energized the right but not the left. ..... For many of us who were moved by President Obama’s historic campaign, we are fired up and ready to go – but the question is, where are we headed?

Reshma Saujani: Blogger

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Finally A Small Jobs Program

SAVANNAH, GA - MARCH 2: U.S. President Barac...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

New York Times: White House Plans Job Training Partnership: help better align community college curriculums with the demands of local companies. .... The new White House initiative, Skills for America’s Future, will try to foster more of these programs, and to certify a list of best practices for public-private retraining partnerships..... As yet there are no plans to request government money to support these efforts

I have long maintained that the US government has to do for job creation what it did for bank bailouts and what it did with the stimulus bill. It needs to do something big. I don't know if this step is big enough, it probably is not, but it is a step in the right direction.

This needs to be a 50 billion dollar program, not a zero dollar program.

BBC: It's election time again for Obama: At his best he is an electrifying speaker..... wielding power in this country is even harder than winning it. .... This country's election cycles are starting to interlock and overlap...... The media is turning into a psychotic toddler that cannot rest until the obsession of the moment has been assuaged, and then cannot remember it five minutes later. ..... Every day this bruising spin cycle picks up the issue of the moment like a tornado ripping a barn up off the prairie. .... America wants a president who is good in a crisis until there is a crisis ...... Obscure procedural rules dating back to the days when senators used to arrive at Capitol Hill on horseback, are used to block the appointments of relatively minor officials..... a built-in bias towards centrism and pragmatism.

Israel, India, Palestine, Kashmir: Parallels

Image via Wikipedia

New York Times: Pankaj Mishra: Games India Isn’t Ready to Play: “as hard as we try to build a new India ... old India still has the power to humiliate and embarrass us.” ...... Since June, a mass insurrection, resembling the Palestinian intifada, has raged in the Indian-held Valley of Kashmir. .... The contrast to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, in which the Chinese government largely overcame controversy and staked a claim to a dominant place in the world order, is all too depressingly clear..... Beijing faces no political problems as severe as the many insurgencies in central India and Kashmir, or tragedies as great as the waves of suicides of tens of thousands of overburdened farmers over the last two decades ..... the private wealth of the 49 Indians on the Forbes list is nearly 31 percent of India’s gross domestic product ..... there are more poor people in just eight Indian states than in all the 26 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, with the large state of Madhya Pradesh comparable in intensity of deprivation to war-ravaged Congo. ..... the four million Muslims of Kashmir, who every day suffer the brutalities of what’s arguably the world’s largest military occupation ... a minority kept under perpetual siege by a paranoid nation-state.

America is the world's oldest democracy, India its largest, and so the two should see common gorund. Israel is the Middle East's lone democracy. And India is that other democracy across a few states in between, and so Israel and India should see common ground.

Those are valid lines of reasonings, except Israel fails miserably in Palestine as India does in Kashmir. And Israel and India are democracies. Palestine and Kashmir are fault lines that are important to understand and act upon if we are to make progress in terms of spreading democracy across the Arab world.

Muslims in India are like African Americans in America. They are that other people lagging in all socio-economic indicators. There are a few high profile Muslim Indians, but that does not change the fact that the Muslim masses in India lag behind, and often get demonized by the Hindu majority. The periodic Hindu-Muslim riots that flare up are not even fights. There are too many Hindus. They got too much. They control too much. They have too many allies. The Hindus are the state.

Democracies should be capable of introspection and frank debate. Democracies should be able to deal with social wrongs. In that both Israel and India stand challenged.

Saturday, October 02, 2010

Health Care For FDR, Iran For Lincoln

Image via WikipediaLong before the first primary vote was cast, Barack said, for him it was not if he can get elected president, the issue was, once he got elected, could he become a great president. That's my guy. Well, after health care reform, he has hit FDR levels. Destiny put the Great Recession in his lap. That was a recipe for greatness. You need a big crisis to become a great president.

But there is a difference between FDR and Lincoln. FDR is Mars, Lincoln is Jupiter. You need an issue like slavery to hit Lincoln heights. The closest thing to slavery we have today are the women in the Arab world and what the mullahs do to them on a daily basis. The black slaves back in the days did not have to walk around with their heads covered.
That is where Iran comes in. Iran is Barack's chance to attempt Lincoln heights.

The question is not if the mullahs in Iran will go, of course they will go. Of course the democracy movement in Iran will succeed. The question is, can we turn success in Iran into a 1989 moment for the Arab world at large? I want the Saudi king out. I want Mubarak out. I want democracy in Jordan. I want democracy in Syria.

I think it is possible if all us play our roles, those of us who are members of the global netroots/grassroots, those who in power in the democracies of the world, the diaspora of those countries. We all have to pitch in and do all we can for the masses in those countries.

The hunger to be free resides in every heart, in every soul. There is a plant in every seed, but the seed does not become a plant on its own. It needs that right environment. We have to creat that environment.

A democracy movement is both art and science.

Criminals Do Not Get To Organize Political Parties

Image via WikipediaAfter the regime in Iran is gone, an interim government will come into power. That interim government will hold elections to a constituent assembly. Iranians will have the right to organize political parties to contest such elections. That would include people who are currently part of the Iran state structure. But that would not include criminals.

People in power directly and indirectly responsible for unleashing brutality upon peaceful protesters are criminals. They have to be tried either in the International Criminal Court or by the interim government domestically.

Criminals don't have the right to vote, let alone the right to organize political parties.

Khomeini is a war criminal. He unleashed war weapons upon peaceful Iranian demonstrators. Khomeini has a right to not accept the demands of peaceful protesters, but he has no right to deal violently with peaceful protesters. But he did, and he is a criminal. That bearded, disheveled dude in Iran is a criminal. He is going to be in handcuffs sooner rather than later.

Monday, September 27, 2010

The Global Netroots/Grassroots Has To Fill In For The President

Image via WikipediaThe presidency of the US is the most powerful political office that was ever designed in the history of humanity, but it also comes with severe constraints. But if you believe in rule of law and the basics of democracy, if you believe in the need of a US president to primarily answer to the American electorate, then those constraints are welcome constraints. I did not volunteer for Obama 08 envisioning a Genghis Khan in the White House.

The netroots/grassroots that put Obama in the White House has to realize its enormous power when it comes to the green revolution in Iran. If that netroots/grassroots can put "a skinny kid with a funny name" into the White House, that netroots/grassroots can get rid of clowns like Khameini and Ahmadinejad. That netroots/grassroots is sufficient upon itself to bring down autocracy after autocracy.

I am for harnessing the power of the global netroots/grassroots for the cause of democracy. All the political work that needs to be done, all the money that needs to be raised, all the exposure that the green movement needs, all that can be provided by the global netroots/grassroots. We are not at the mercy of politicians in power, or at the mercy of old media. We have what it takes.

If the global netroots/grassroots will do all it can do for the cause of democracy in Iran, somebody like the President Of The United States could make just the right moves at just the right times to tilt victory our way. I can't imagine the guy being for the other side. But we the netroots/grassroots do have to exhibit governance literacy, power literacy to be able to tap into the powers of our guy who is the top guy on the planet when it comes to political power.

Image via Wikipedia
He is on our side, he is with us, but he has the constraints of a political office. There are options he has. There are options he does not have. We the netroots/grassroots do not have those constraints. There are things we can do that he can't. There are things he can do that we can't. We have to do the things that we can do to make it possible for him to do the things that he can for the cause of democracy in Iran.

We need to work it for the top guy. But the power was and remains at the grassroots and the netroots.

The Shah Is For Secular Democracy, Not Monarchy

Image via Wikipedia

National Post: Bringing Democracy To Iran: At 50, Mr. Pahlavi dismisses talk of restoring the monarchy in Iran and says his life is now dedicated to creating a non-violent, democratic revolution there.

The Shah of Iran could not make it clearer. He is for a secular democracy in Iran. He is not for restoring monarchy in Iran. We similarly have to reach out to Iranian groups that might have picked up weapons against the current regime in Tehran in the past. If the Shah can ditch monarchy, these groups can ditch violence.

We have to build a broad coalition of Iranian groups for the cause of democracy in Iran.

In The News

BBC: Iranian Court Bans Two Leading Opposition Parties: Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Islamic Revolution Mujahideen Organisation .... Both supported opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi ..... In recent weeks, Iranian security forces have stepped up attacks on opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mr Mousavi, with attacks on their homes and offices..... Scores remain in prison.

New York Observer: Malcolm Gladwell Compares Twitter Activism To Civil Rights: he's wrong to imply that a network of weak ties can't accomplish serious change. One could argue, for example, that social media played a crucial role in electing our first black president, a historic moment in our nation's struggle for equality.

Foreign Policy: Obama's Freedom Agenda: The freedom section of President Obama's address to the United Nations General Assembly .... the most extensive, fulsome, and compelling defense of human rights and democracy of his presidency, and it strategically placed political freedom in the context of economic freedom and development. ...... s a number of nations that are in tyranny's crucible, and whose citizens may find the possibility of freedom within their grasp. Sometimes this grasp can be aided by presidential attention or even a few strategic gestures that tip the scales...... and perhaps even recapture some of the charismatic appeal that has since his inauguration been strangely absent.

Towards More Robust Iranian Diaspora Organizations

Image via Wikipedia
I have been calling people up, I attended one rally, I have been emailing people, I have been building up a mailing list, I have been calling people up. I had a long chat with an Iran democracy activist out there in California last night.

Some of my suspicions have been confirmed. The general hostility to the ideas of raising money and creating an umbrella organization tell me there is much work that remains to be done before the Iranian diaspora organizations can provide concrete help to the next wave of democracy movement work right there in Iran.

The first wave of democracy protests in Iran tried to reform the existing system. Hopefully by now people are convinced that that is not an option. This system can not be reformed, it has to be ditched. A new system has to be built.

Could we build 1,000 Iranian democracy organizations in the diaspora? Could we build a few umbrella organizations? Could we have people meeting in person on a regular basis and using social media as well? Could we raise meaningful sums of money? I am for raising millions of dollars eventually.

I am not a member of the Iranian diaspora. I am a member of the global netroots/grassroots. My interaction with the Iranian diaspora organizations will be as a member of the netroots/grassroots.

I might adopt a few Iranian diaspora organizations to work more closely with. That might also allow me to stay in better tune with the other organizations like them.

Basic organizational work is what is needed.

I am for building "cells" among the Iranian Americans. These would be small groups of perhaps 10 people who have the option to meet each other in person. The leader of each such cell would be networked with one or the other organization all of which would be members of an umbrella organization. All raising and spending money would be transparent within the organization. All members would have a right to know.

Organizations need to prove by raising and spending small sums of money that they can be accountable. The first few rounds of fundraising might have to happen among members before we can approach foundations for big sums of money.

We have to do all necessary homework in the diaspora before we summon people to the streets in Iran again.

New Yorker: Small Change: Why The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted.: High-risk activism, McAdam concluded, is a “strong-tie” phenomenon...... Even revolutionary actions that look spontaneous, like the demonstrations in East Germany that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, are, at core, strong-tie phenomena. The opposition movement in East Germany consisted of several hundred groups, each with roughly a dozen members. Each group was in limited contact with the others: at the time, only thirteen per cent of East Germans even had a phone. All they knew was that on Monday nights, outside St. Nicholas Church in downtown Leipzig, people gathered to voice their anger at the state. And the primary determinant of who showed up was “critical friends”—the more friends you had who were critical of the regime the more likely you were to join the protest. ....... There is strength in weak ties ... Our acquaintances—not our friends—are our greatest source of new ideas and information. The Internet lets us exploit the power of these kinds of distant connections with marvellous efficiency........ “The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change” ...... Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice. We are a long way from the lunch counters of Greensboro........ the civil-rights movement was more like a military campaign than like a contagion ...... Possible locations for activism were scouted. Plans were drawn up. Movement activists held training sessions and retreats for would-be protesters...... When the sit-in movement spread from Greensboro throughout the South, it did not spread indiscriminately. It spread to those cities which had preëxisting “movement centers”—a core of dedicated and trained activists ready to turn the “fever” into action. ...... a challenge to the establishment mounted with precision and discipline...... a carefully demarcated division of labor, with various standing committees and disciplined groups. ...... Facebook and the like are tools for building networks, which are the opposite, in structure and character, of hierarchies. Unlike hierarchies, with their rules and procedures, networks aren’t controlled by a single central authority. Decisions are made through consensus, and the ties that bind people to the group are loose....... Wikipedia is a perfect example. It doesn’t have an editor, sitting in New York, who directs and corrects each entry. The effort of putting together each entry is self-organized. ...... Car companies sensibly use a network to organize their hundreds of suppliers, but not to design their cars. ...... establish central leadership, trust, and camaraderie through regular, face-to-face meetings....... if you’re taking on a powerful and organized establishment you have to be a hierarchy ....... Even the White Citizens Council, King later said, conceded that the carpool system moved with “military precision.” By the time King came to Birmingham, for the climactic showdown with Police Commissioner Eugene (Bull) Connor, he had a budget of a million dollars, and a hundred full-time staff members on the ground, divided into operational units. The operation itself was divided into steadily escalating phases, mapped out in advance. Support was maintained through consecutive mass meetings rotating from church to church around the city....... The moment even one protester deviates from the script and responds to provocation, the moral legitimacy of the entire protest is compromised....... a town where ninety-eight per cent of the black community could be reached every Sunday morning at church? The things that King needed in Birmingham—discipline and strategy—were things that online social media cannot provide

Friday, September 24, 2010

Sarah Palin: Palin 2012: Rogue

Palin is gearing to run for president. That part is obvious. This is going to be the first serious run by a woman not a former president's wife, although Hillary is a big talent in her own right. I hope more women - in political size - like Palin emerge on the progressive side as well.

I have a feeling it might be Barack versus Palin in 2012. I am on Barack's side, of course. Barack will win by a Reagan landslide.

The word for McCain was maverick, the word for Palin is rogue. It was not mere coincidence Palin ended up on the ticket. Maverick-Rogue is a ticket.

If she runs for president in 2012 - I am certain she will - and loses - I am certain she will - she is over. She can't run for president again in 2016. She can't not run in 2012. There will have been too much build up.

At the end of the day, Palin will have made her mark not as a politician, but an an entrepreneur. I find her inspiring. I want to make a few millions doing political work myself. (Selling 5% Of Nobel For 50K)

Palin's political rise and shine shows the pro anti choice life thing no longer defines the gender debate in America. That is settled. Abortion is legal. And it will stay that way. Palin is running on the fulcrums of faith, family, work, small government. Progressive women have to run on faith, family, work, agile government. Gender talk is now co-opting the men of their very non gender specific issues. That is Palin's contribution to gender.

Time
How Sarah Palin Is Winning the War With(in) the GOP: mirror-still Lake Lucille ..... what she terms the "lamestream media" ...... Her "rambling resignation speech should take her off the political map for the duration of the Obama era," wrote conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat .... "It is not clear what her strategy here is by exiting the governorship 2½ years through the term," Karl Rove said on one of its shows. He pronounced himself "perplexed" by her rush for "the national stage that she may not yet be prepared to operate in." ...... She has earned an estimated $9 million by talking and writing ..... she has just wrapped a reality show about Alaska (pocketing $2 million for the effort) ...... the most famous and charismatic Republican in America ..... Palin denounced the "old boys' club" ...... like a hunter knowing where the bear is — without knowing precisely how she knows — her gut veered further right a year ago. After flirting with Washington, she retreated to Alaska and became more involved with, and a de facto leader of, the Tea Party movement..... She cyber-brandishes her power directly to her followers via a stream of Facebook posts and tweets ..... he likes being unpredictable: in many cases, her endorsements take even the candidates themselves by surprise ..... she seems politically sure-footed, riding the Tea Party wave like a skilled surfer

After Alaska: Sarah Palin's Year of Living Large: Knee deep in financial troubles, embroiled in ethics complaints and in the middle of a nasty, public he-said-she-said fallout with team McCain, the Thrilla from Wasilla traded in a modestly paid government spot for the chance to "fight for what's right" without any fancy title. One year later, Palin finds herself $12 million richer, the "Mama Grizzly" of America's Tea Party movement, a buzzed-about 2012 presidential hopeful and front and center in the nation's political stage. ....She taunts Obama supporters, asking, "How is that hopey-changey stuff working out for you?" .... Obama's days of "big government ... big debt" are over. "We're not going to sit down and shut up," she cries, adding, "It's time to reload!" ....... backing a host of Tea Party candidates, including Nikki Haley (for South Carolina governor) ..... 55% of the nation views Palin unfavorably and 71% still think she is unqualified to be President.

How Palin Is like Clinton
Attn. Media and Politicians: It's All About Palin: she can dominate the news cycle with a single tweet and generate three days of coverage with a single speech ..... the mistake you are making is to assume that Palin needs or wants to play by the standard rules of American politics. Or that it even occurs to her to do so. ..... The past 22 months have been replete with situations in which Palin has refused to adhere to the conventional playbook of presidential contenders and party honchos. ...... All of you are certain she can't win the presidency — and as of today you are right. But the nomination is another kettle of salmon