Schlemiel, Schlemazel

As I've often noted in these rants, the McCain camp just can't seem to catch a break. And Sarah Palin-- yes she's a conniving opportunist, but Max Gross also makes the case for poor Sarah as the ultimate schlemiel. In case you've forgotten your Yiddish, a schlemiel (made famous in the Laverne and Shirley song, "Schlemiel, schlemazel, Hausenfeffer Incorporated...") is that poor idiot who keeps on screwing things up because she's too dumb not to trip over her own feet. BTW, a schlemazel is the hapless victim who just never seems to have any luck, period.

In a reality check moment, CONSERVATIVE columnist George Will goes after the McCain campaign for its carelessness. Darn. I'm agreeing with George Will again. I hate when that happens. "Palin may be an inveterate simplifier; McCain has a history of reducing controversies to cartoons. A Republican financial expert recalls attending a dinner with McCain for the purpose of discussing with him domestic and international financial complexities that clearly did not fascinate the senator. As the dinner ended, McCain's question for his briefer was: 'So, who is the villain?'"

McCain camp "base member" Robert Draper--interviewed, oddly enough, in Women's Wear Daily--reveals that John McCain doesn't like blogging. Oh, really? I'm devastated. "They've come to be rather disdainful of the hyper-blogging that takes place on the press bus, and they think it has increased this mind-set of 'gotcha' journalism, where every time John McCain would say something, instead of asking a follow-up question, people would go scurry off to their laptops and post to their blogs. And the McCain campaign believes that's not what journalism ought to be....In being there, you can develop relationships with people on the campaign. You can't do that by sitting on your butt at home watching YouTube. If you're out there watching them do their thing, then go out in the evening and have a beer with them and talk to them about what's just transpired, then you set yourself up for what could be a series of interesting interviews.…[And] that sort of proximity isn't earned overnight." Yeah. Color me crazy, but what I get from this is that McCain doesn't like people writing about him whom he can't control. But then, I'm just another "blogger."

And in case you haven't seen it, check out Helen Philpot's fantastic blog. Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Dish pointed to Margaret and Helen, two 80-plus women who started a blog to keep in touch. Helen, who's new to blogging but says she gotten help from the grandkids, apparently received quite a bit of attention for calling Sarah Palin a "bitch." Her reply is fabulous. "I'm old enough to remember the Republican party of Barry Goldwater - when the party stood for fiscal responsibility, small government and personal freedoms. I remember when I could talk with friends about politics and just agree to disagree. And then religious nut cases decided that if you didn't agree with them you were immoral. So they went and elected George Bush President so he could take the Republican Party from being a party full of respectable people to a party filled with asses, jackasses and yes - bitches like Sarah Palin."

If you want a truly side-splitting moment, read her original post that started the Sarah Palin flap on her blog. "When exactly do we all get to call 'bullshit'?"