As a simple, handsome Democrat, I was confused about a couple of things Sarah Palin alluded to in the debate last night:
1. Conservativism in its truest sense (and not the Bush sense) is all about small, unintrusive government. That is - deregulation, low taxes and generally little interference from overreaching federal programs and policies. Now, in the wake of the current economic crisis, Republicans like Sarah Palin are placing the blame on...not enough regulation and oversight from the federal government?
SNL actually hit this pretty well last week in a sketch about the Wall Street problems: Kristin Wiig, playing a Russian stripper says something to the effect of: "You Americans are so stupid. When economy is good you say no big government. When economy bad you say 'Help me big government!'"
2. Sarah Palin remarked a few times about how she was taken aback by the rampant greed on Wall Street that led to the current financial climate. She has apparently never heard of this guy:
Come on, Sarah. This movie came out in 1987. There's even a pretty famous scene in which one of the main characters gives a pretty famous speech about greed. And Wall Street. And Sarah - the title of the movie is WALL STREET.
Also, on a related note - please stop (and I mean everyone) with the "we need to get off Wall Street and focus on Main Street." It smacks of pandering and it's stupid because it really whitewashes over the fundamental role that 'Wall Street' plays in the economic situation on 'Main Street.' I'd like to hope (probably foolishly) that most people see how much of a stupid sound-byte oversimplification this is...
