[DanaC]

I saw two really interesting political blogs about this. One from the left and one from the right. I'll see if I can find them. They were reproduced in a Guardian article.


[eta] Got it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...ooting-fallout

Andrew Sullivan, the conservative blogger, writing in response to Palin's tanking in Intrade, wrote: "There is no way to understand the politics of this without Palin. She has long been the leader of the movement that drapes itself in military garb, that marinates in violent rhetoric, that worships gun culture, that has particular ferocity in the state of Arizona, and that never ever apologises for anything."

He adds: "My hope is that this horrifying momentary conflation of politics, guns and mental illness will lead responsible figures on the right to eschew the path of Palin."

Steve Clemons, a liberal blogger and a director at the Washington-based think-tank New America Foundation, saw Palin as culpable for "the whole brand of lock and load politics, that frontierswoman mystique and a continuation of the Bush Texas-style swagger".

He said a culture had developed in American politics in which people "yell out … and stomp their feet, and act as if brute force is something to be celebrated". He added: "What used to be celebrated is ability to think through politics. What we are celebrating is ignorance. I think Sarah Palin has had an enormous amount to do with this." He predicted Palin and the Tea Party would be forced to the fringes in the near term, but predicted both would prove resilient.