TheNextReport

Joe the Skinhead This is no Mr. Clean. Joe Wurzelbacher, the bald Ohio plumber who has turned into a mascot for the GOP, is as rabid a rightist as they come. Ever since his accidental ascent to the national stage, the plumber who is not a licensed plumber, has been inching his way forward as an official symbol of an ordinary Joe for a Republican Party that is desperately flailing away. Overnight, he has become another celebrity action figure in the McCain campaign, now appearing at McCain and Palin speeches enthralling crowds of supporters by his very presence. The Republican Party, along with the McCain campaign, appears to be going down the drain, so why not call in a plumber, or reasonable facsimile thereof? JTP is a manufactured common man, an appeal to the blind, nativist element of a party that has used the ignorance of ordinary, working class people to support the interests of its true constituency – the corporate aristocracy. At first refusing to endorse a candidate, the

Palin is Failin Maybe it was the SNL appearance that finally did in Sarah Palin. The VP nominee for the republican party finally appeared on the satire show next to the human caricature played by Tina Fey and was found wanting. Viewers quickly realized that Tina Fey was a better Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin. Time will tell, but it may be that the SNL appeance broke the spell that Caribou Barbie had on the nation. The truth is Sarah Palin was already sledding rapidly downhill. Polls have shown the Alaskan governor is at last clearly seen by voters as being far too inexperienced for the VP and is now among the most unpopular running mates in history. The brilliant creation of a conservative cupie doll for the GOP vice president has proven to be, like most of the McCain campaign, lacking in substance, superficial, nothing but window dressing. And speaking of window dressing: the revelation that republican National Comittee allocated $150,000 dollars to outfit Sarah Palin and her daug

Sarah Fey I remember that when I first saw Sarah Palin I immediately thought of trying to reach Loren Michaels, the producer of Saturday Night Live, to urge him to contact Tina Fey about crafting an on-air skit featuring an impersonation of the Alaska governor. A few weeks later, the powers that be at NBC – or Tina herself – obviously had the same idea. When Ms. Fey’s impersonation became a hit, the nation’s rather unhealthy obsession with the moose hunting mama from the north country reached its zenith. Upon closer examination, the story of the former beauty queen turned vice-presidential candidate yields some amusing insights about the intersection of politics and pop culture in America. From Paris Hilton to Lindsay Lohan to Britney Spears our media-centric culture commonly manufactures celebrities by over-exposing their images in a manner that serves to reinforce their often banal personalities (which we somehow persistently find endearing). It is when a celebrity is deemed worthy o