Michele Bachmann Runs from CNN

Haha. This reminds me of the days of Sharron Angle, here in Las Vegas, trying to outrun the press. Michele Bachmann--crazy eyes herself--made some wacky charges about the president's "lavish" lifestyle (which has been picked up throughout Right Wing World, hello, Dan!), which would seem to demand follow-up questions, like: is President Obama's treatment out of line with other Presidents? But Marcus Bachmann's more butch other half was having none of it, acting as though those kinds of questions are so frivolous because BENGHAZI!

Sarah Palin: Comedienne

Iconic imagery from Twitchy

You know, everyone has to have a special talent, we've just long misjudged what Sarah Palin's is. Her political acumen rather sucks. Her extemporaneous responses are terrible. She's not particularly good at keeping her cool, or managing family scandals. But she is an excellent performer. We made a lot of fun of her mastery of the "pageant answer," the art of responding without exactly answering a question. And her word salad speeches are legendary. But this woman knows how to play to an audience, and more than that, to her specific audience.

In this "greatest hits" montage from Palin's CPAC performance, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell really displays her abilities. Her jokes aren't particularly good, but her delivery is, and her knowledge that these jokes will thrill this crowd. It's really a special kind of talent (though I don't doubt she had help), to wring "humor" out of the tired subjects that right wing world likes to rage about. She even made Mayor Bloomberg's soda ban part of her double-barreled assault on liberals, even though Bloomberg isn't a liberal! Even her sips of soda were well timed. Don't get me wrong, I still think she's a clod and a simpleton, but she does have talent.

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Where right-wing world went wrong in their lionization of Palin is in their misguided notion that what they see in her translates to a general audience. It doesn't. The "sly" reference to Obama's citizenship is only funny to this small slice of the electorate that actually believes there's something to that. The mean-spirited jabs are only comedy gold to the mean-spirited right.

It will be interested to see how much further Sister Sarah can drag out this peculiar and limited brand of celebrity.

Sarah Palin Reads Obama Teleprompter Joke. . .From a Teleprompter

Palin and Teleprompter, from Wonkette

I know that we liberals love to make fun of CPAC and especially Sarah Palin. And I know that Palin is largely a troll who exists (much like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh) to get a rise out of us.  But I simply can't resist this expertly written, fabulous and funny critique of Palin's performance at that conservative confab. Just terrific.

And on a side note, I have to comment on the shallow comedy/commentary "well" conservatives drink from. I've never understood the relevance nor the humor quotient of slamming President Obama for using a Teleprompter, something all modern Presidents use. And the Big Gulp? Isn't Bloomberg a Republican? I'll give Sarah this, she's an expert red-meat thrower, and her audience isn't fussy that much of it is fat and gristle.

[Excerpt]

Wonkette Infiltrates CPAC As Sarah Palin Reads Joke About Obama’s Teleprompter From Teleprompter

. . .The morning was full of how to take America back, but mostly the speechifiers were surprisingly quasi-sorta reasonable, with much in the way of hollow but appreciated gestures suggesting that hey, evil liberal democrats are people too, sort of, and we should maybe all maybe work together sometimes, to do something good for the country. All this was noticeably strange, considering they were all there as part of the the run up to the CPAC crowd favorite, and our favorite frumious bandersnatch ever, Sarah Palin.

Yes, the nastiest of nasty, most vile and reviled, wretched, snarky, winky, full of herself, queen of all idiotic smugness, Sarah Palin was our noon time “speaker. . .”

Read more at: Wonkette

CPAC Attendees React (Badly) to Portman's Pro-Gay Marriage Stance

You know, the freeze frame capture of the tea bagger for this video really says it all to me. Ridiculous, anachronistic, conservative drag. Plain and simple. Emphasis on the "simple."