Interesting parallels

I know I'm sort of stretching a bit here, but it's a bit of a slow Friday and I'm looking to entertain myself.

Here's an exchange between moderator Gwen Ifill (who was anemic at best, if you ask me) and Palin, from the transcript. It is on a question about the vice-presidency. For the heck of it, I removed all punctuation from Palin's response (you'll see why later):

IFILL: Governor, you mentioned a moment ago the constitution might give the vice president more power than it has in the past. Do you believe as Vice President Cheney does, that the Executive Branch does not hold complete sway over the office of the vice presidency, that it it is also a member of the Legislative Branch?

PALIN: Well our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president and we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position yeah so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation and it is my executive experience that is partly to be attributed to my pick as VP with McCain not only as a governor but earlier on as a mayor as an oil and gas regulator as a business owner it is those years of experience on an executive level that will be put to good use in the White House also.

I had been thinking that most of what she said last night, off index cards and crammed into that multi-tasking, multi-dimensional mind, was sort of a stream of consciousness. Except, with the twist that there was less consciousness there than there was stream.

As illustration, here's a bit of text (same number of words) from the last chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses:

I often asked him atheists or whatever they call themselves go and wash the cobbles off themselves first then they go howling for the priest and they dying and why why because theyre afraid of hell on account of their bad conscience ah yes I know them well who was the first person in the universe before there was anybody that made it all who ah that they dont know neither do I so there you are they might as well try to stop the sun from rising tomorrow the sun shines for you he said the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss

Also, I thought that in a way Palin sounded like a more polished version of VP George Bush in 1984 when he debated Geraldine Ferraro. Here's an answer he gave in that debate (again, punctuation removed):

BOYD: Mr. Vice-President, how can you claim that your home is in Maine for tax purposes and at the same time claim that your home is in Texas for voting purposes? Are you really a Texan or a New Englander.

BUSH: Im really a Texan but I got one house and under the law every taxpayer is allowed when he sells a house and buys another house to get the rollover everybody if it turns out and I may hire I notice she said she has a new good accountant Id like to get his name and phone number because I think Ive paid too much in the way of taxes and residence Mr Boyd legal residence for voting is very different and the domicile they call that very different than the house that they say youre living in the vice-presidents house therefore you dont get what every I've got problems what every other taxpayer gets I got problems with the IRS but so do a lot of people out there I think Ive paid too much nothing ethical I'd like to get some money back.

Eerie.

Let's get Dana Carvey to do an impression of her too. "Get those hand movin'. Just let those words there come out, just kinda come out. Answer the question? Nahgonnadoit! Wouldn't be prudent. Gonna talk straight to the people of America. Ready for change. Reformers team of mav'ricks. That greed on Wall Street messin' up Main Street where Todd 'n I've lived all our lives [btw, that's a lie, too]. North Korea up there -- under Kimmmmm Jongggggg Illlllllll -- gotta lotta nukes there. Rears that head up over Alaska? We can see him there too, just like the Northern Lights."