“The combination of Palin’s attractiveness as a candidate and her ability to expose liberals made her a celebrity among Republicans. The only thing I have against her is that she threatens to surpass me in attracting the left’s hatred.”

– Ann Coulter on Sarah Pallin’s heavy influence on the Republicans over the past year.

I gotta admit, I usually don’t fall for rich blond Republicans — country clubs make me uneasy. I’m much more attracted to people with darker features and a pocket full of liberal conspiracies. But there’s something about a certain GOP daughter that makes me want to be BFFs…who cuddle on occasion. I’ve broken down the reasons, so that if I run off to Arizona, or wherever she lives, my boyfriend will know what happened to me.

1. Meghan McCain is the 2009 version of 2000 John McCain — the straight-talking rogue. Sure, she’s down with the GOP, but she isn’t scared to break from her new party (she’s a former Dem) every once in a while to assert her own core beliefs. Take her recent appearance at the Log Cabin Republican’s annual event, and her ardent support of marriage equality. She’s even declared that her party really needs to abandon the party line on divisive issues like abortion and gay rights and really get to the matters at hand like the economy, which should be a Republican strong hold.

2. The woman has a body. A real body — she’s curvy — and damn proud. Let’s take the Mean Girls-esque exchange between her and Laura Ingraham. The commentator called Meghan “too plus-sized to be a cast member on the Real World” and some more crap about her weight. You know, instead of making a jab on something political or news-worthy. McCain gracefully Tweeted, “To all the curvy girls out there, don’t let anyone make you feel bad about your body. I love my curves and you should love yours too.” She also told Ingraham to kiss her fat ass — feisty!

3. Speaking of radical-right darlings, McCain has some level of beef with conservatives’ biggest nut bags: Karl Rove, Ann Coulter, Ingraham, etc. On Coulter:

…if figureheads like Ann Coulter are turning me off, then they are definitely turning off other members of my generation as well. She does appeal to the most extreme members of the Republican Party—but they are dying off, becoming less and less relevant to the party structure as a whole…controversy sells and Coulter is nothing if not controversial. Everything about her is extreme: her voice, her interview tactics, and especially the public statements she makes about liberals. Maybe her popularity stems from the fact that watching her is sometimes like watching a train wreck.

4. She has interesting, eclectic, musical taste. While she doesn’t update them really anymore,  take a peep at the playlists that she posts over at her blog. In September, she was listening to Lady GaGa, Run-DMC, and Spoon.

5. Just her Twitter feed alone is enough to make me swoon. A few recent Tweets:

• I am not saying to Christian conservatives, There is no place for you. I am saying, Please stop saying there is no place for us.
• my fav line in any Biggy song is in “Juicy” when he talks about Sega Genesis, ok that was my childhood, remember when Sega was the shit?
• in my hotel room, in my sweats, watching my fav reese witherspoon in “4 christmases”, who doesn’t love her?
• Do we think its as big of a deal when Shepard Smith drops an F bomb or only when it comes from a 24 year old blonde?
• Don’t worry about me! I am a strong woman and it threatens a lot of people who aren’t comfortable in their own skin.

6. Meghan has embraces social networking better than most GOP establishment who probably view the web and its capabilities as the 55-year-old balding middle manager at your job:

(Walking into your cubicle with his arms crossed across his button-down short sleeve shirt, squinting at you) Should our company be on MySpace? What the hell is a poke!!? Just do it. We have to be relevant!!!

Looking back, especially on her blog, she really tried to embrace as many younger voters as possible, but even she couldn’t single handedly deliver the miracle that would be a GOP win in November. I mean, she’s even taught her dad, who was notoriously computer-deficient, the first step to social networking.

Do she and I agree on everything? Of course not. No couple is perfect, right? But this blatina journalist from Queens and the daughter of a GOP Senator/Presidential hopeful can make it work — we’re not really all that different. We’re smart and sassy. And we both have a pair of awesome boobs. Follow me, McCain Blogette, and together we’ll face the world, blackberries and crazy moderate ideals in hand.

Just when the GOP couldn’t look any worse, Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania’s Republican Senator is, well, no longer a Republican. Now, whenever Al Franken is affirmed for the Senate (God knows when that’ll happen), the Democrats will have a filibuster-proof majority, thus, possibly an even more rigorously progressive agenda in Congress.

Specter’s statement this morning:

“I have been a Republican since 1966. I have been working extremely hard for the party, for its candidates and for the ideals of a Republican Party whose tent is big enough to welcome diverse points of view. While I have been comfortable being a Republican, my party has not defined who I am. I have taken each issue one at a time and have exercised independent judgment to do what I thought was best for Pennsylvania and the nation. Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.”

Wowza! This will be interesting, since Obama likes to tout Specter’s moderate bipartisanship on pivotal issues.

According to some Rasmussen poll, a majority of Republicans believe the party needs to be more conservative, like thier new icon and former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Fourty three percent say the party’s been too moderate since Bush stepped into office (WHAT?! Can those people read?!). Another 55 % say they should follow the doctrine of Alaska’s governor.

Here’s what the Democrats had to say:

Nearly two-thirds of Democrats (64%), however, say the Republican Party has been too conservative, and 42% think it should look to McCain for the future. Twelve percent (12%) of Democratic voters see Palin as a future role model, and 40% aren’t sure what’s best for their rivals.

And I think there’s a reason that 6 percent of Democrats think the Republicans should be more emblematic of George Bush’s leadership…perhaps it’s the same reason for the 11 percent of Republicans who agree.

Sarah Palin, extending her 15 minutes, is already looking forward (possibly to 2012), with a political action committee based in Arlington, Virginia. Ironic because it’s not part of the real Virginia.

According to HuffPo, a Palin surrogate says SarahPAC is “dedicated to building America’s future, supporting fresh ideas and candidates who share our vision for reform and innovation.”
I wonder if the “candidate” above refers to a certain groundbreaking, heel-wearing, gun-toting GOP candidate for 2012…?

The GOP’s 2 favorite topics…

“I think that the pro-life position is one of the important aspects or fundamentals of the Republican Party. And I also feel that — and I’m not trying to equivocate here — that Americans want us to work together. You know, [former Pennsylvania Governor] Tom Ridge is one of the great leaders and he happens to be pro-choice. And I don’t think that that would necessarily rule Tom Ridge out … I think it’s a fundamental tenet of our party to be pro-life but that does not mean we exclude people from our party that are pro-choice. We just have a — albeit strong — but just it’s a disagreement. And I think Ridge is a great example of that. Far more so than [New York City Mayor Michael] Bloomberg, because Bloomberg is pro-gay rights, pro, you know, a number of other issues.”

Well, at least he’s not hating on those who prefer to let women and their doctors decide whether they want an abortion, but is he really taken aback by Bloomberg who is “pro-gay rights, pro, you know, a number of issues”? I find it interesting that McCain is alright with allowing pro-choicers into the Republican mix, but gays? Hell-to-the-no, as Maya Rudolph as Whitney Houston would say.

Wapo via Sullivan

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