Poor Sarah Palin.  She bit off a bit more moose meat than a pitbull can really chew when she accepted John McCain's offer to run as his vice presidential candidate.  Now that the election is over, and John McCain has lost pretty friggin' decisively, Palin is clicking her ruby red slippers just as hard as she can to get back to Wasilla.  Not before Republicans get a piece of her dignity, though.  Check out this clip, where Fox News reveals how little McCain campaign officials thought of Sarah Palin's ability:

It's the kind of thing that gets the "liberal media" to clutch their stomach, laugh until they cry, and then say, "I told you so."  But regardless of the fact that Palin stood by and recited contrived lines and facial expressions she learned in debate camp, and despite the fact that she blew it with Katie Couric, it's not as if Palin nominated herself or anything.  Here's another clip where Palin basically apologizes for screwing everything up:

The New York Times recently did a story on the internal battles between McCain and Palin teams, citing the prank phone call with a fake French President Nicolas Sardozy and the allegation that Palin refused to prepare for the Katie Couric interview as particularly nasty blunders.  Palin definitely seemed to be over her head since being chosen, and we're sure the whole thing was a little much for her, but we digress.

The basic point is this: take it easy on her, GOP! Sure, the media eats her alive.  After all, she's the easiest story since Brittany Spears shaved her head, but this whole thing isn't specifically her fault, only most of it.  She never came running to anyone trying to get in on the whole presidential campaign thing.  They all knew what they were getting into with her.  If student fails a test, it is truly the failure of the teacher.

Rundown from 2006 through 2008:
-- Plays on radio for the first time.
-- Chart-topping sensation!
-- Denounced by hipsters.
-- Becomes ultimate club hit and remixed x20.
-- Receives MTV video music award.
-- Plays on radio for the 31,000th time.
-- AOL's #6 most popular video of the year, eight months later.
-- Becomes the international anthem of Cougars, somehow.
---- Yahoo's #1 viral video of dancing and lip-synching fans.

Post-2008 predictions:
-- Becomes embarrassing wedding party staple nestled between "The Electric Slide," "Shout," and "Last Dance."
-- Beamed into space. And (through freak beaming accident) alien civilizations make the Spanish B-side version a chart-topping sensation.
-- Embraced by hipsters.

No lie, though, it's pretty adorable.  Especially the dancers I'm calling Socialist Dorm-Girl Priya, Betty With the Cute Yellow Skirt, Bongo Dork Jeff, and Manorexic José (just to name a few). They can move!

*cough* There is literally no joke I could've made in the subject line that wouldn't make me feel kinda racist. Luckily I'm post-racial now!

The election news just gets better and better (sorry, Austin, for your Palin pity). If you thought black Americans had a reason to celebrate on November 4th, just wait 'til you see the joy, pride, and long-awaited validation the citizens of Obama, Japan feel.

Obama, Japan. Don't you already feel a warm, glowing, warming glow when you think about it? It probably rains hope. I don't know if it was the quest for fame and tourism dollars, or the mistaken belief that THEY now run the free world, but when a guy who shares the name of their town became our president-elect, they went nuts.

In fact it's too nuts for the Daily Tube, because Yahoo won't even let me embed the awesome. So just this once, I'm begging you: CLICK HERE CLICK HERE CLICK HERE. Open it in a new window if you must!

Are you back? Again, I'm just a culture-shocked American, but wow. It's like there was a J-Pop explosion at the Sanrio factory and Gwen Stefani wasn't even around to make frantic notes and doodles. Next election, these are the Obamians I want to party with.

As an excuse to embed something in this entry, you should know they've been like this since at least February:

And Obama (the future presidential one) has thanked them for their support. That's how classy!

If you're new to this relationship, here's something you should know about me. The following video from Funny Or Die made me giggle harder than anything all week:

I had never even seen the music video for "Head Over Heels" before, but any of the usual stuff I'd say about dated references doesn't apply here. The fact it's taken 23 years for someone to make this parody is inconceivable. It's like a national injustice has finally been made right. The story Tears for Fears wanted to tell was about an awkward guy stalking a weirdly emotionless, beautiful-under-the-glasses librarian while casually defying the laws of gravity. All that "don't take my heart, don't break my heart" stuff was just confusing the heart and soul of the story. Which obviously involved monkeys.

I'm looking forward to more stuff from these guys. In the meantime, one of my good friends pointed out that "Down Under" by Men At Work is perhaps the MOST literal music video ever, with no input from Funny Or Die at all. Judge for yourself.

It's getting pretty close to November, which means there aren't many real "undecided voters" left, and most of them fall into the larger category of "people who would rather jump out a window than hear anything else about the election." But that's the president we're talking about. What about those other, less interesting things on the ballot? Have you made up your mind about your local Propositions 1 through 85? Have you even looked at them? Do you need Leonardo Dicaprio to read them aloud to you or what?

If you still need some encouragement for those OTHER November 4th choices, and you live in California, there's a voter video you should probably see. Look, it's not my state, I know nothing about this law, but I support it. And you know why? Because I would do ANYTHING THIS CRAZY SINGING PIG TELLS ME TO DO.

I know what you're thinking (once your brain is able to form words). Yes, that is a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" with new and exciting lyrics. And yes, that is an unnervingly cheerful pig who wants to set his animal brothers and sisters free. Except not "free" exactly, just... you know, in a slightly bigger cage before they get slaughtered for our food. Oh, animal rights activists. Do you ever cry at night because your position has gone from "don't eat meat" to "could you maybe let them stretch their legs a little first"?

In the interest of providing balance, I searched YouTube for "No on Prop 2" to see if anybody was bastardizing Stevie Wonder on that side on the divide. The only video I found on behalf of tiny-cage farmers was totally boring and non-animated. However, one sentence from the massive YouTube description was surprising and awesome:

HA! You know what? I'm not gonna argue with a girl who spent a year with chickens if she says they suck. But leave the happy cartoon pigs alone, okay?