We came blessedly early to the insight that has defined our adult political life.

We can even date it: October 28, 1980. The Reagan-Carter debate. Our first presidential election as a voter.

Jimmy was flat that night — “Reagan-Kemp-Roth”? Really? — but his disappointing performance wasn’t notable. Instead, what caught our attention was Ronnie’s manufactured charm — “There you go again,” and all that — and with growing horror, we had the insight phrased before the debate was over:

Americans want to be lied to.

In that moment, we knew Reagan would win. And we knew why. Reagan wasn’t selling Americans anything they didn’t want to buy. Far from it: Americans wanted the Lie. They craved it. They weren’t being fooled — they were being satisfied.

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Rupert Murdoch’s Post has some distressing news about Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News employee, whose book was published by Rupert Murdoch’s HarperCollins:

In Touch Weekly’s gamble on Sarah Palin didn’t pay off. The magazine paid $100,000 for a cover story on the former Alaska governor and her daughter, Bristol, for the current issue. But, despite Palin’s huge book sales and TV ratings, sources said In Touch sold about 500,000 copies on newsstands, about half the number it sold a few weeks ago with the late Brittany Murphy on the cover.

Maybe politics doesn’t sell supermarket tabloids. Or maybe it has something to do with that CBS poll showing a majority of Republicans don’t want Sarah Palin to run for President. Or maybe only Rupert knows how to make money off America’s most celebrated loser and quitter.

Or maybe printing DANGEROUS PREGNANCY next to a photo of Talibunny and Bristol with their babies wasn’t such a great idea.

Palin mag cover doesn’t sell [NY Post]

There is no intrinsic meaning to Tuesday’s election. The better campaign won: from what we can tell at a distance, one candidate was hungry, the other expected to be served dessert.

There’s certainly no meaning to the tally itself: of some two million votes cast, a hundred thousand divided winner from loser. The country has been narrowly split for a long time; if there’s any trend to identify, that’s it.

Teddy’s seat won a by Republican? Senator-elect Happy Trail was introduced by former Governor Mittens. Republicans are no stranger to statewide office in Massachusetts.

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Shit. If we knew it would last this long, we would have brought a change of underwear.

Good Morning, Ladies & Gentlemen [Homofascist’s Army, 1/19/2008]

Stinque We Must [Unbearable Hamster, 9/25/2008]

The Year in Review [Stinque, 12/31/2008]

The Rise of the HFA [Stinque, 1/19/2009]

We’re having a difficult time wrapping our head around the following exchange Sunday:

MR. GREGORY: In some circles, the president’s been criticized for politicizing this disaster. Do you think that’s fair?

FMR. PRES. BUSH: I don’t know what they’re talking about.

Shrub’s response is being played in some circles as a repudiation of Beck and Limbaugh, who are using the occasion of six-figure death tolls to score cheap political points with their audiences. And we guess it is a repudiation — if you want to go there.

But why go there?

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We thought about it, and no, we’re not even going to try.

What Do Sarah Palin and Jesus Christ Have In Common? [RedState]

It’s one thing for Pat Robertson, or even Rush Limbaugh, to be apocalyptically vulgar in their responses to the Haiti earthquake. It’s quite another if their asshatery catches on with other wingnuts. So we thought we’d check in with the Usual Suspects and see whether they’re being usually suspicious.

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