“She would have been one heart attack away from running the world.”

SMP is meant to provide a place to deal with Missouri’s politics, but every once and awhile I just can’t resist writing a little something about stuff that isn’t specific to Missouri, to wit, Sarah Palin’s comments on President’s Obama sartorial style. Palin wants to paint the President as weak on foreign policy – in particular, the Ukrainian situation – and she seeks to emphasize this opinion by describing his jeans as “mom jeans.” Although I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the President in what I’d call mom jeans, Palin probably should know. After all, she’s not only a mom but such an astute fashionista that she managed to turn her disastrous vice-presidential run into an extended shopping spree, updating her and her family’s wardrobes with pricey designer duds paid for out of campaign funds.

Palin also thinks that Putin is a superior leader, evidently because he wrestles bears. In this opinion she echoes – admittedly in her own inimitably cartoonishly macho way – others of her conservative brethren who think that a pugnacious, shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later, strongman ruler like Putin is just what the doctor ordered. Bear in mind that these folks also gushed over President Dick Cheney … er, George Bush, while he (they?) led us into an expensive and unnecessary war. I think this might be why we also call conservatives reactionary. In Europe I believe that people who swoon in the presence of strongmen leaders are often called fascists, but the term has been so abused by American Tea Partiers that it has lost all currency in the U.S. As Duane Graham of The Erstwhile Conservative observes about conservative Putin worship, ” the fact that a Russian thug is praised by a prominent Republican for acting like a thug, even a decisive one, is enough to turn one’s stomach.”

Personally, I would prefer a leader who outsmarts bears instead of wrestling them, and so far, I think that President Obama might be about to outsmart the Russian bear, Putin, whose bellicose actions may ultimately retain a Crimean sea port for Rusia, but who has imperiled Russia’s already fragile economy in the process, alienated Russians at home and Russian allies, while ensuring that the rest of the Ukraine will remain a stubbornly Westward leaning country on the Russian border. So who cares what kind of jeans President Obama wears as long as he and  his foreign policy team are able to make a palatable hash out of the dog’s breakfast Putin seeks to serve up in the Ukraine?

 

Michael Berson in a recent post quotes a twitter exchange that asks Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-4) to essentially put up or shut up when it comes to Obamacare by specifying how she would replace it. Surprise, surprise – Harzler is prepared for just such querries:

West-Central Missouri Representative Vicky Hartzler admits that the Republican party may have spent too much time battling the Affordable Care Act. But now, she’s cosponsoring an alternative bill. It’s called the American Healthcare Reform Act. [i.e.,H.R 3121 (pdf)].

“Our plan would allow more competition across state lines and more individual control over decisions between doctors and patients. It would also allow for some tort reform, which is a real cost driver. It also supervises ways for people who can’t get insurance to access it through high-risk pools,” she said.

Seems to me that I’ve heard these proposals before. Weren’t these the best ideas that John McCain could manage? And, of course there was the three-page alterntive to Obamacare that Roy Blunt and his GOP working group produced way back when, which might have hit the same high (or low) points if I remember correctly. The points Hartzler specifies are simply those every GOP hack flourishes when put on the spot about an alternative to Obamacare.

The most recent of those hacks to pull out the tried-and-true GOP healthcare wish list is Sarah Palin – or at least I think that was what she was trying to do during a typically incoherent interview with Matt Lauer yesterday:

The plan is to allow those things that had been proposed over many years to reform a health-care system in America that certainly does need more help so that there’s more competition, there’s less tort reform threat, there’s less trajectory of the cost increases, and those plans have been proposed over and over again. And what thwarts those plans? It’s the far left. It’s President Obama and his supporters who will not allow the Republicans to usher in free market, patient-centered, doctor-patient relationship links to reform health care.

Hunh? “Less tort reform threat”? At least we now know how Vicky Harzler differs from Sarah Palin. Both espouse the same silly ideas but one of them speaks English.

And the ideas in H.R 3121, which it’s safe to assume Palin would endorse, are silly, especially when presented as an alternative to systematic reform. Some are harmless bits of fiddling that  would have minimal impact on the problems of our healthcare delivery system, others are downright harmful, and some are simply gifts to the insurance industry – purchasing insurance across state lines, for instance. As formulated in HR3121 it seems to me that the point is to permit out-of-state insurers to flout state-based consumer protections in the name of competition.

Consider also the GOP standby, tort reform. HR3121 follows the usual pattern of instituting caps on non-economic and punitive damages. It also allows the court discretion to redirect attorney’s fees to clients in some cases. According to Adam Dawson, who has analysed the results of a similar reform in Texas, “tt’s a terrific plan, except for the fact that it’s a terrible plan.” Some of the most salient results of the Texas experiment:

One of the more optimistic predictions was that doctors would simply stampede to Texas in order to set up practice thanks to Governor Perry’s legal protections. But the latest info from the American Association of Medical Colleges has Texas ranking 42nd in the country in doctors per 100,000 people. […]

Also torpedoed by the facts is the notion that tort reform causes health insurance premiums to drop. Between 2003 and 2010 the average price of a health insurance premium for an individual in Texas went up 46 percent, and the average price of a family health insurance plan in Texas went up 52 percent. As if that wasn’t enough of a sign that tort reform hasn’t helped make health care cheaper, Texas had one of the highest rates of uninsured people in the country in 2010. […]

[…] in McAllen, Texas, Medicare costs per person are actually higher than the median income of the people who live there. While doctors might no longer fear lawsuits, it seems they are also not at all afraid of sending big, fat, test-laden invoices to Uncle Sam or insurance companies. It doesn’t seem to be “defensive medicine” as much as it is an amendment to the Hippocratic Oath: “First, do no harm. Second, daddy needs a new pair of shoes.”

It is absolutely true that medical malpractice cases have dropped drastically in Texas, but doctors and surgeons are making just as many mistakes as they always have. It’s just that now most of the victims have been priced out of the courtroom. […]

HR3121 also, as Hartzler noted, proposes high-risk pools as a way to answer criticisms that our current system leaves those with pre-existing conditions without coverage.  High-risk pools were one of the centerpieces of John McCain’s healthcare proposals and, as I recollect, nobody was too impressed then, nor should they be now, Our experience with high-risk pools in the past has shown that they are not very effective in providing health care; they tend to be prohibitively expensive and often offer inadequate coverage. Many individuals are expected to get better deals by leaving existing state-run high-risk pools and purchasing insurance through the Obamacare exchanges.

All of which brings me back to the difference between Vicky Harzler and Sarah Palin. Their similarities are actually more important than their differences since in GOP circles whether or not one can manipulate English syntax is not so important as being able to get all the buzz words out in public as fast as possible. And when it comes to generating empty noise, both women get a gold star.

*Edited slightly for clarity.

A campaign ad appearance by Sarah Palin (r) for Sarah Steelman (r):

Sarah Palin: Hi, I’m Governor Sarah Palin. We get America back on track by sending true conservatives like Sarah Steelman to Washington. Sarah is an economist who defends our tax dollars like a momma grizzly defends her cubs. Sarah Steelman earned her reputation as a conservative maverick, blocking pork barrel spending. And Sarah will fight for a constitutional amendment that forces Congress to balance the budget.

Sarah Steelman: I’m Sarah Steelman and I approved this message because the staus quo has got to go.

….Hi, I’m former half term Governor Sarah Palin….

…Sarah Steelman really earned her reputation on government transparency…

There, fixed it.

Last week we noticed that GOP senatorial wannabe Sarah Steelman was attempting to ignite some enthusiasm for her candidacy by exploiting her mavricky resemblance to erstwhile rightwing star, Sarah Palin (e.g., they both love to play with guns). It must have paid off because this week she earned Palin’s endorsement. This turn of events has got the worshipful Steelman absolutely, gushingly giddy:

I am deeply honored and humbled to have earned the endorsement of Governor Palin, whose willingness to stand up and fight for what is right, regardless of the political consequences, has blazed a trail for conservatives who believe as we do, that the status quo has got to go. I am ready to join Governor Palin and lead the fight in the Senate to restore fiscal discipline and speak truth to power by putting this country back into the hands of the people!” said Steelman.

I can’t help smirking when she talks about “joining” Palin, whose selection as John McCain’s running mate arguably put the final kibosh on his inept presidential campaign, and who is now well on her way to the political dustheap she so deserves. Actually Steelman might get her wish and join Palin among the also-rans since Palin’s endorsements haven’t always delivered the keys to the kingdom in the past.

What’s even more amusing is the way that these fighters against the “status quo” always propose the most status quo GOP non-solutions to our problems: Gutting social programs in order to keep the tax rate low for corporations and the wealthy – check. Cutting public spending and in the process destroying public sector jobs along with our social and physical infrastructure – check. Privatizing successful government programs like Medicare and Social Security that serve the middle class – check. Fighting like hell to take affordable health care away from the uninsured – check.  Opposing government regulations that keep our food and water safe along with financial regulations that would have saved us from the 2008 recession had they been in place – check.

All in all, a strange way to “put the country back into the hands of the people,” but I guess it’s really a matter of which people you’re talking about – not that I expect either Sarah would have a clue.

Narration: In two thousand and eight Mitt Romney gave John McCain over twenty years of tax records. After reviewing the records the McCain campaign decided Romney wasn’t right for the vice presidency. We don’t know what’s in those records. But something made John McCain think that this woman was more qualified.

Talking Points Memo on Sarah Palin’s new add, “Real Missouri“:

Steelman also appears in the ad, touting her pro-life record, while the words “conservative maverick” flash on the screen. […] After Steelman touts her social conservative credentials, she ends the ad by reminding voters that she “loves to hunt” – something Palin is well known for. “Real Missouri” ends with an image of Steelman in camouflage in the woods, a gun beside her.

TPM suggests that Steelman wants to evoke another Sarah who thinks there are “real Americans” and not-so-real Americans -just like Steelman thinks there are “real Missourians” as distinct from folks in St. Louis who don’t know that animals are good for nothing but sport shooting?

Not so, says Steelman’s campaign staff:

Steelman campaign spokesman Patrick Tuohey said any similarities to Palin the ad might evoke “certainly wasn’t anything intentional.”

Yeah right.

But, I can’t help wonderng, is this a wise direction for Steelman? Consider, for instance, another point of comparison between the two women that might not serve Steelman so well. I am alluding to the the low level of esteem accorded to both by right-wing media figures – folks nominally on their side.

Palin was – reputedly – skewered by non other than Fox News’ Chairman Roger Ailes. According to a (subsequently disputed) New York Magazine article, a source “close to Ailes” claimed that “he thinks Palin is an idiot. He thinks she’s stupid.” If true, Ailes isn’t the only one who has a less than flattering opinion of her abilities. Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, for example, is on the record calling Palin, among other things, a nincompoop. Steelman, for her part, was described by conservative Missouri broadcaster Mark Reardon, as not  “the sharpest knife in the drawer“?

I hate to be mean, but somebody has to say it. Is hunting the only thing that Palin and Steelman have in common?

We never get out of junior high school:

A silent sojourn by Palin puzzles KC

By STEVE KRASKE

The Kansas City Star

News flash: Sarah Palin was in town Monday.

You didn’t know that? I didn’t know it until the next day. Turns out, nobody knew it….

We’re not puzzled by the former half term governor, she’s just a grifter pulling a long con.

@RobertaSaidThat Deborah

Redneck-goatee-sporting-whats-his-name-Palin-husband admits his wife quit governorship to make more money, saying she had “bills to pay.” 16 hours ago

From Rachel Maddow – Todd Palin and a self-identified Alaska resident at the Iowa State Fair:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640