Andrew Sullivan's criticism of Sarah Palin during the 2008 election was devastating and continues to be unyielding. As a conservative commentator, he dispels any doubt that her choice as VP was a grotesque political folly and perhaps, to the persistent detriment of the Republicans, the single most important reason why independent and moderate voters thought John McCain was unfit to be President. Sullivan excoriates Palin in his review of the Todd Purdum's Vanity Fair piece, which in itself is an examination of the duplicity, fraud, and freakishness of the candidate of "real Americans."
Sullivan states:
The narcissism, the pathological and incessant lying, the viciousness, the delusions of grandeur, the vindictiveness, the fathomless and proud ignorance, the opportunism, the vanity, the white trash concupiscence and fraudulence in almost every respect: these are now indisputable. How an advanced democracy came that close to having this farce of a candidate running the most powerful country on earth reveals how deep the corruption of our politics and especially our media are.
As an aside, America at the federal level is not a democracy. America is a plutocracy, as it is defined by the "fusion of money and government" and controlled by a small elite of wealthy individuals (including corporations). If one recognizes this fact, it then is not unexpected that the titular (public) leaders of both predominant parties are often populist molded figureheads who espouse so-called average middle-American sensibilities. As an example, in the 2008 elections, Republican candidates McCain, Giuliani, and Romney each were multi-millionaires and portrayed themselves as vanguards of entrepreneurs, middle-class people, and the religiously devout. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton, Edwards, and Obama were all millionaires and equally pledged allegiance to America's poor, minority groups, and middle class values. Earlier this year when Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), Majority Whip, attempted to pass legislation to provide homeowners with the legal option of changing mortgage terms, bank lobbyists assisted in defeating the bill. Durbin stated, "And the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place."
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