Gail-T's Nobamarama, continued.

Jonathan and I have both argued that it's a red herring to say that Obama is scary because he's liberal by the standards of the stodgy, conservative U.S. Senate.

By contrast, Gail-Tzipporah says here that "It doesn't matter how many leftist bills get passed through Senate, Rob. What matters and what scares the bejeezus out of me most is that we may be on the verge of electing a leftist President who will then pass leftist bills. If I wanted a leftist regime, I would have moved to Russia when it was in the throes of communism or Cuba long ago."

My initial reaction involves wondering whether Gail-Tzipporah had strong feelings against the hoarding of executive power by Bush and Cheney over the past eight years - an accumulation of power that seemed to negate the Founding Fathers' intent on checks and balances.

During those years, I've asked my Republican friends if they could hold to a Golden Rule about executive power: "Will you still support a strong executive concept once Hillary is in power?" Their disingenuous answer was, "Sure, especially if she uses it for the noble purposes that Bush and Cheney for which intend to use it."

Well... Now the American public is on the verge of electing someone that many Republicans are convinced is a commie. Looks like you'll have to live with communism, then, because you set up the rules this way.

For my part, I just don't buy the idea that Obama is a communist or even a hard leftist, or that he has the ability to push through a radical agenda, even through a 62-member Democratic majority.

***

A Republican friend of mine quibbled a few years ago with how so many liberals were complaining about how Bush would suspend the Constitution and impose wartime emergency rule that crushed all civil liberties. This friend argued that this was a psychological projection on the part of liberals, who he felt were quite inclined to using coercive power (think of PC rules, for example).

Maybe. But the shoe's now on the other foot. Staunch Republicans are writing on message boards that "you're going to need to hold on to your guns, gold and ammo if Obama is elected." It's a similar, overreacting psychological projection

As for Obama's associations, apparently nothing I can say will convince you that he's a sane person, and I imagine that nothing you can say will make me take seriously that he's a commie pacifist rat.

And I'm not sure whether Gail-T is as prone as I to quibble with Palin's church crowd or with her husband's associations.

What could be more "un-American" than a substantial public association by both of them with an AIP group that is split between die-hard secessionists and subtle secessionists? I guess this conversation is a non-starter, though, because some people will always see Apple Pie Sarah as all-American, even if she has publicly, on video, supported those who want "out" of America.