Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me - sports... basketball. I use it because you're naïve if you don't see the national full-court press picking away right now: A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket... and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN. And I'm doing that - keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities - smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it's time to pass the ball - for victory.This is not off-the-cuff. It was prepared in advance, and, on video, it actually managed to make it sound worse. I just don't think there's much going on here except a deep-seated pride in a deep-seated ignorance. I don't know what else to say.
« A People's History Of The Civil War | Main | What The Right Means When They Say "America" » The Resignation06 Jul 2009 11:00 am
I wrote a long post on Sarah Palin, and then deleted it. I was overthinking. Here is what must be said-- Sarah Palin is deeply ignorant. She actually sounded worse, unedited and uninterrupted, than when she was under the withering fire of Katie Couric. One need only go to the text:
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Yep, she's a dummy. Like our former prez, she's got a certain cunning that has served her well in her rise to power, but she's comfortably clueless at heart.
BTW, your former colleague Douthat's column on her departure is an abject failure of logic and journalistic integrity.
Reading Douthat's column and his constant reference to "elites" makes me wonder who exactly is an elite to these people. If New Haven Connecticut-born, son-of-an-attorney, private school and Harvard educated Douthat is not one, who exactly is? Anyone that disagrees with his opinion?
I always wonder about Ivy Leaguers who rail against "elites." Is it pervasive cynicism, or a deep and abiding self-loathing? Did Douthat use ALL CAPS for emphasis in his college term papers (Click on the link in the post. It's hilarious)? He doesn't seem to use them now.
Don't forget New York Times Op-Ed Columnist. There's hardly a more elite position and one deep within that awful librul media that was so very very mean to Palin.
This probably isn't the place to say so, but I actually enjoyed Douthat's article very much. It was rare insight into an apologist's need to stand up for Sarah Palin, and the total self-delusion required for it.
I think this was the money quote:
What shocked me was that Douthat, over the course of this op-ed, was actually STANDING UP for the latter principle. And he blames the elite (self-hatred?) for destroying and mocking this American aphorism.
What I find a marvel is that this idea of meritocracy that he is decrying is what was once upon a time a conservative rallying cry: that the only thing that makes the American dream work are people who actually try, work hard, and attempt to know what they are doing. It says so much about how conservatism has changed in this country, that this idea no longer flies with the conservative base, that effing Andrew Jackson is held up as a paragon of better days.
It's like they are clinging desperately to something out of the past, but they have no idea what it is anymore. Just some inchoate need for a world that is fast receding (and I for one, am glad of it). What is so insupportable, so inexcusable, about this desire is just how terrible that world was, for the vast majority of people, and how utterly final the events of the 20th century were in ending certain debates. The fear that could motivate this kind of blind support is something that the uninfected are going to have a hard time, and little patience, dealing with. It's bubbling up everywhere, betrayed by every little political and cultural fissure. This isn't a problem that is going to go away in this generation for sure.
When one of the reasons that Palin is popular is denial of facts (evolution, sex education, etc.), it's a short step to the celebration of ignorance as a virtue instead of something to be corrected.
She's the Ryan Leaf of politics. Balls to the wall at the training combine, unable to perform in the game.
There are other reasons for liking Palin. I'll admit, I liked her, and would have voted for her if McCain died. In 2012, I'd vote for her over most other repubs as well.
The reason is very simple. The one issue she pushed when she was governor/mayor was reducing corruption and waste. I agree with her on that issue, even if she was fairly ineffective. On the rest of it, she is mostly harmless.
I certainly preferred her to Obama. He is ridiculously smart, but also very evil (probably not the place to go into why I think this).
In general, I'll take dumb + good over smart + evil.
Incidentally: TNC, sorry I accused you of deleting my posts in a previous thread. It was a mistake on my part.
No, I think that if you casually throw out the notion that Barack Obama is "evil," then it truly IS incumbent upon you to defend that statement.
Do tell.
I don't really need to defend it, since I'm not trying to persuade you that this is true. I'm simply explaining why a person such as myself might like Palin, taking that person's other views as a given.
Certainly, if you don't oppose Obama's policies, this would not be a good reason for you to support Palin.
Incidentally, some specific reasons why I find Obama evil: he supports forced labor, his SoS supports torture, he sends taxpayer dollars to his cronies and he favors executive power over the rule of law.
I'm sure you disagree with this and that is your right. If you did agree, it would be a perfectly legitimate reason to prefer Palin.
Sorry, Ninja Zombie, You're still talking shite. You give no details or specifics, just broad generalizations that carry no more meaning than Palin's point guard analogy.
If you want to argue a point, do so with a coherent argument. Otherwise, you're a troll setting up straw men.
Karen:
I am going to resist (as hard as it is) the easy assault and simply advise you to engage in more critical thinking and analysis before sharing your views with others. A simple Google search wouldn't hurt either. There is nothing logical or factual in your statement.
No she pushes the issue of other people's corruption and waste.
Her own she is quite happy with (look into the Sports Complex she bankrupted her town to build)
Not to mention the $150,000 clothing bill and charging the State of Alaska for her kids' trips.
I'm surprised to sort of agree with you on reasons Obama is evil- I don't think he's evil, myself, but I do think his stand on torture, etc. is evil. The thing is, he ran on transparency, and now he's all about secrets and executive power. I didn't see that coming- maybe that was dumb of me. But I sure as hell saw Sarah Palin's running on eliminating corruption turning into one big corruption-fest. If you look at her appointments in Alaska, virtually everyone she named to public office was a buddy of hers. The cream of Alaskan public service did not just all happen to go to Wasilla high school. I would not say she was fairly ineffective- she was effectively corrupt and wasteful. It's an extremely common pattern. Campaign against someone who's wasteful and puts their cronies in office- in order to waste money on YOUR pet projects and put YOUR cronies in office.
You can't tell whether a corruption-fighter is for real until they've been in office for a while. And Sarah Palin, in office, showed herself to be no more of a corruption-fighter than Obama is a champion of transparency. And with her penchant for secrecy, imperiousness, and blind hawkishness, I think she wouldn't even have paid lip service to stopping torture and releasing information.
The Ninja Zombie: some specific reasons why I find Obama evil: he supports forced labor, his SoS supports torture, he sends taxpayer dollars to his cronies and he favors executive power over the rule of law.
So you think Obama is evil because he's just like George W. B*sh? And you think that B*sh-with-lipstick Sarah Palin wouldn't be all about enslavin', torturin', spendin', givin' money to her cronies and abusin' power? Have you paid attention to the way the Snow Queen ruled Wasilla and Alaska?
Yes, I do think Obama is a more competent version of Bush's evil. I thought that was clear, maybe I should have spelled it out more.
Congress and the media hated Bush, and he also wasn't particularly competent. That's probably what prevented him from doing too much damage. None of those factors will protect us from Obama.
As for Palin, I don't see much to criticize about her terms in office. She did a small amount of good and very little harm.
That's another benefit of incompetence. Even if I'm wrong about her evilness, her lack of competence and the general hatred washington/the media hold for her will render her mostly harmless.
"Congress and the media hated Bush, and he also wasn't particularly competent. That's probably what prevented him from doing too much damage."
Really?
Well, that's a good campaign message for Sarah: "So incompetent, she can't do too much damage!"
Palin nearly bankrupted Wasilla via the sports complex, one which she had built using a contracting outfit that also built a tidy vacation home for the Palin's. The pending investigation is believed to be a major contributor to her resignation. Naked graft of that sort, translated to the national stage, would beggar anything you see coming out of the Obama camp. She did a great deal of harm actually - it appears to be the only thing at which she actually is competent.
As was said before, its laughable to assume Palin would push back against torture. Also, her political caginess and backroom dealings, as evidenced by the firing probe during the general election, are poor evidence that she would hew to a more limited interpretation of executive power than Obama.
BTW, using loaded language such as 'supports forced labor' to describe Obama's attempts to inculcate civicmindedness does little to convince others that your comments are made in good faith.
Tommy, if you are correct about this sports complex, then perhaps that might tip the balance to a small negative. Note that I never suggested Palin would oppose torture or have a more limited view on executive power.
As for loaded language, I stand by my statement. Obama wishes to force children and adults to serve the state against their will. The original proposal from change.gov (the language was modified after his handlers realized people understood it's meaning):
Requiring people to perform work is forced labor.
I'm not required to couch my language in vague platitudes that disguise the nature of the policy.
Eye on the ball or basket, Sarah? Ball or basket?
I just don't think there's much going on here except a deep-seated pride in a deep-seated ignorance.
Yup. She represents the worst of contemporary conservatism: pride in willful ignorance.
Everyone has overthought it. She's bored with her job and an unprofessional public servant. The rest is broad humor. Douthat and the rest of her apologists are why despite the mediocrity in the Democratic party, no one thinking individual can take the right seriously anymore. Palin's resignation was the one humorous event that occurred all last week, albeit unintentionally so.
You and TNC are right about one thing: overthinking Sarah Palin herself, and this resignation business. But I have a problem with not taking the right seriously. Am I the only one who takes away from their rhetoric a genuine conviction that there is a real element of danger there? Yes, it's funny, yes, it's a freak show, but for real though. Their rhetoric, invective, and antics is just one crazy person or group away from something a lot worse.
When I think of the quickstep of fascism in Germany before WW2, it's not hard to see why it went down the way it did. There was a broad acceptance in the culture of that rhetoric and language, so it was easy to go from generally vile, to Nazi-approved vile. But what happens when a significant and substantial minority in a country like America, feeling marginalized and ignored by the govt. and media, begins to get angrier and angrier? When they are whipped up by demagogues like Limbaugh and Coulter?
I guess my biggest fear is that the Obama administration, and all that it signifies, is not so much a hallmark of change, as it is a brief, oasis-like reprieve from a greater march to hell in American culture and society. But then I remember to laugh and it doesn't seem so bad...
I take the facist fanatic element quite seriously insofar as they are a danger. What I meant was that Douthat's apology and Palin's behavior are not that of serious value. And a large majority of the voting populace, including the working poor and middle classes across America, know it. Palin, like the entire right seems to think that politics is reality show soap operatic entertainment. Much of America know good and well the stakes are a bit higher these days. Elite conservatives such as Douthat perpetrate their ignorance of what the actual working class of America thinks with his fol de rol, a worthy successor it seems to the other faux intellectual William Kristol, whom Douthat has replaced, with the same sounds like something meaningful total innacuracy that is transparently bull.
CitizenE, I hope you are right. You have more faith than I.
I agree that the majority of voters do understand the high-stakes nature of politics, and that it's not in their interests or the country's interests to vote an incompetent person to office.
BUT. When I look at the 7% margin in the popular vote of the 2008 presidential election, I still get a little queasy. Is a 7% victory to be considered a resounding, authoritative win? I personally do not think so. (Sure the electoral college votes were overwhelmingly in favor of Obama, but the validity/necessity of the electoral college is an altogether different matter.) I have to think that there is a significant portion of the population that will vote on the kind of issues, fears, and cultural assumptions that many right-wing figures make their living from endlessly bulling about.
I guess my original fear, foolish as it seems in the daylight of reason and civility, revolves around the question of just how attached are most conservatives to their opinions. Not so much the watery intellectual ilk of Kristol and Douthat, but those that frequently engage the frenzies of Beck, Limbaugh, Coulter, etc...
I can see it's certainly not like the Civil War where a slavery civilization and way of life was at stake. But certainly, something is at stake for them. What it is exactly, and how far some are willing to go, is something I wish there was some genuine engagement about. I think it's important to call them on the degree of the diatribe, and ask them what they are willing to do about it. Instead of the kind of back-and-forth that involves conservatives wigging out, liberals laughing/shaking their heads/getting angry, and conservatives feeling insulted, and rinse/repeat.
I should have added: When God wants you to be President, the details of mundane things like being Governor are clearly a lower priority and it is only the fools who don't see the truth.
@exitr: I think she's actually more ambitious than Dubya, but this speech, and her various interviews, lead me to believe that, well, Dubya's actually smarter. Both are willfully ignorant, but Dubya at least got used to faking his way through life at an early age. Apparently, without the best handlers money can buy, Sarah can't even fake it.
Dubya is definitely more humble, which is saying a lot. He also seems to be less deluded about his limitations and more willing to delegate.
Palin could learn a lot from a dumm--err, a Dubya.
Palin is what W. pretended to be.
Ignorant, but also indifferent. She not only doesn't seem to know the difference between passing the ball and dropping it, she won't condescend to have it explained to her.
"...and a good point guard knows that when you're facing a press, you keep your eyes up and move the ball up the court, until you decide that you're tired of the defensive pressure and you pass the ball to a teammate, wander over to the bench, sulk for a few moments, then walk out of the gym to go see if the field hockey team is still recruiting. Or something."
the fact that this woman very nearly became vp and was/is a front-runner for a presidential run is still hard to absorb and makes me thankful everyday for Obama, even when I disagree with him. She is a living reminder that while there may not be red and blue states there are definitely red and blue states of mind and, as Douthat et al show they are worlds apart. Sadly enough there are limits to conversation and reasoning so please keep active and keep voting.
The NY Times is reporting that it's due to the cost of defending ethics charges. That's probably not all of it, but $500,000 is a lot of money.
Forget intelligence. Palin is whack for dragging us all through this.
Sarah Palin is jerk level status. She should just get of the stage.
It's not like this is the first time she quit an office she was elected to. She quit being mayor of Wasilla so she could run for Lieutenant Governor.
There is nothing else to say. Everyone who supports this woman is woefully ignorant or willfully blind. Every statement I have seen from a conservative supporting this resignation as even possibly a good move is disingenuous at best, a cynical bullshit artist at worst. And the Douthat crap about class and gender being her downfall and her being the American dream moreso than Barack Obama (because he has a brain and worked for his success) is enough to send a black woman who grew up with less into a damn rage. It made me want to buy every copy of the NYT and burn them in a very public display - but I won't because they don't deserve to sell any papers.
I am grateful for her resignation because it provided a break in the NON-STOP Michael Jackson coverage.
And the Douthat crap about class and gender being her downfall and her being the American dream moreso than Barack Obama (because he has a brain and worked for his success) is enough to send a black woman who grew up with less into a damn rage.
I hear you...
I've asked this question..
What if Sarah Palin were BLACK?
An HONEST answer to that question tells you all you need to know about Palin and White Privilege in America.
Pssst,
Rikyrah,
You know that guy from the south side of Chicago who now lives in a big white house in DC?
He's black. I know some people like to emphasize his 1/2 whiteness, but trust me if he was dating one of my relatives no one would mention that.
This "White Privilege" meme you speak of is dated. It doesn't mean there is still not some truth to it, but it can be exaggerated.
Now you're correct that a black candidate of Palin's qualifications could never be considered seriously for national office. Part of that is because a large portion of the constituency she appeals to is likely not all that open to the idea of a black person on a national ticket. Hell, I doubt 25 percent of them could spelz "ticket".
I guess one could say that racism will truly be on its last legs in this country when a black politician of the quality of Sarah Palin is spoken of as a serious candidate for national office.
For the sake of the Republic, I hope that racism recedes in the coming centuries, I also hope that any black politicians who strive for national office are of the quality of Barack Obama.
Aye, there's the rub.
irishpirate, do you really think a black candidate with Sarah Palin's resume would've been taken seriously if he were on the left? Really? Have you noticed the crap they've thrown at Sonia Sotomayor and her Ivy League education, just as one example?
@Persia - a black candidate of Palin's qualifications would not succeed on the left or the right.
IP,
I've thought about it. I'll give you a Black equivalent.
Let's say the Democrats nominated Kwame Kilpatrick for VP- pre hoochiegate.
yeah, ok....sure, he'll be taken seriously as a national candiate.
And with Kilpatrick, I'm generous, because the trifling clown has a law degree.
yeah but Kilpatrick at least was well-educated and appeared to be intelligent - and intelligence is an important quality in any manager, especially in a high-level government position, as if that needed to be said. and Kilpatrick didn't proceed *entirely* on identity politics.
Palin and Douthat and others make me wonder - when did this class-warfare meme become the pet theory of the RIGHT? Isn't this exactly what the Right - and they were mostly 'right' for doing so, in my opinion - decried for so long, i.e. Leftist Identity Politics?
What if Sarah Palin were BLACK?
I honestly don't know that answer to that question. I mean, I get the general point you're making, but consider Clarence Thomas. Or Michael Steele for that matter.
It's not impossible to imagine an ultra-conservative black Republican woman winning a small state governorship in a fluke election; hell, even Alan Keyes got 27% in Illinois. Elevate her to the national ticket and how many in the Republican base would turn against her based entirely on the color of her skin? I'm honestly not sure.
Much of Palin's appeal to the base is that they think she drives liberals crazy, a black woman with the exact same viewpoints would serve that purpose even better.
I don't think a black candidate on the LEFT with Palin's lack of qualifications would be taken seriously.
You're point about Sotamayor is valid.
Would the RIGHT take a right wing black candidate with Palin's qualifications seriously?
Perhaps in Bizarro America.
I dunno
She quit being mayor of Wasilla so she could run for Lieutenant Governor.
A mayor of Wasilla cannot serve more than two three-year terms. Sarah Palin served as mayor of Wasilla from October 1996 to October 2002, completing both her terms. She ran in the Republican Primary for Lieutenant Governor in the summer of 2002. Had she won the Primary and gone on to win the election, she would have been able to complete her second term as mayor before assuming office as Lieutenant Governor. It is not uncommon for a person to run for one political office while holding another.
I've never understood why people who oppose Palin feel compelled to fabricate stories about her. (At least her quitting as mayor is one I haven't seen before.) Surely what is actually true about Palin is enough reason for any liberal to oppose her: she is extremely conservative. Why this need to not merely oppose her but to also despise her, a need so desperate every lie about her is believed without a moment's hesitation?
No no, she should get tons of GOP support. They should hype her as The One True Candidate. I can't imagine a better way for them to go down in flames.
Thanks, Eric for that tip about the $500K. I said to a friend yesterday that it was about money. I think Sarah was interested in being mayor and then governor because of the money. I think she may have some other gig lined up, as a television pundit or campaigner or something. Or she thinks she does. Probably she's tired of all the investigations, too, but consider, what's being investigated and what does it say about her. Remember the shopping sprees?
The paranoia and self-aggrandizing narcissism of her resignation statement reminds me of a schizophrenic.
Governing is difficult. It doesn't really fit her skill-set. And now that she's famous, she has much more lucrative (and much easier) opportunities in speaking engagements and, I'm guessing, an eventual Fox News gig.
The woman is cashing in before her popularity fizzles out. As much as I dislike her, I can't really blame her for that. She's got to be looking at those hucksters O'Reilly, Beck, & Hannity and thinking, "I could mop the floor with those jerks."
Carnies and rubes, my friends. It always comes back to carnies and rubes.
She already has the book deal, her speaking fees will be high. There's a lot of money to be made now, and she fears the opportunities might not be there a year and a half from now -- especially now that the Alaska legislature is not cooperating with her agenda.
I just hope she doesn't drop out of the public eye. Hopefully she can get a spot on Fox News where she can blather ignorantly and wink at the camera a lot. I will never forget how I screamed curses at the TV when she winked during the VP debate. I could use that sort of emotional outlet once in a while.
We all knew Obama would win a re-election anyway, so this doesn't even really matter. I don't have a lot to say, other than that I hope she doesn't go away because she's truly hilarious and I'm glad the people of Alaska don't have to deal with her anymore.
There is something that bothers me about this though, tangentially. Her and Huckabee were/are the front runners for the GOP (ok, maybe Romney too). Clearly, they don't have a lot of power with swing voters, or even moderate Republicans. So as long as no one steps forward, Obama can continue to shore up support there for the next few years, leaving liberals out of the lurch. Hopefully the second term will be different.
Even as I am irritated by some of his decisions and/or apparent policies, I will say that I certainly hope Obama will be re-elected, because I still, so far, believe him to be the most talented politician -- with the potential to be the best President -- I have ever seen in action.
But I, for one, don't know that he'll win a re-election. A) This world is a crazy, crazy place, and you can never tell what's going to happen, politically, B) he still has a goodly amount of time in which to fail, and C) I'm still scared about the people who were buying up rifles in the lead-up to the inauguration....
In short, please stop jinxing everything!
Don't worry about folks jinxing everything; worry about Obama running for reelection with an unemployment rate as high as it is now, or higher. In 2012, blaming the economy on Bush won't be as promising a political strategy.
Frankly -- and I said this at the time elsewhere, e.g., on Yglesias's site -- I think Obama screwed up with his stimulus package. He didn't take the economic problems seriously enough to enact a stimulus that would actually stimulate this year (e.g., 50% tax credits for businesses buying new equipment, with the credits set to expire by the end of the year; more loans to the states; more increases in unemployment assistance and food stamps; etc.), and instead used the sense of urgency to sign into law a wish-list of Democratic priorities. On top of that, Obama screwed up by discouraging some forms of economic activity, e.g., by chastening companies that spend money on corporate retreats, without thinking about how the subsequent decline in that business would hurt hotel and restaurant workers, pilots, jet mechanics, aviation companies, etc. Now unemployment is at 9.5% and rising, with no end in sight.
It will take more than smooth talk and job-killing proposals like Cap & Trade to improve the economy. Here's to hoping that Obama comes around on this issue and starts proposing some pro-growth policies, if only out of the realization that without a strong economy, there's no way to pay for any liberal policy priorities.
Very sensible post. Excellent.
I'd also like to add that Obama is less likely to successfully push through the more progressive parts of his agenda in a hypothetical second term, since most 2nd term politicians are essentially lame ducks.
Also, Romney is smelling like roses right now, just by keeping himself out of lame controversies and positioning himself as an economic expert in case the economy blows up in Obama's face.
I don't mean to jinx, but I'm sorry, I don't see how they have a chance. We all remember how Romney did in Evangelical territory. Obama's approval ratings may not be as high, and I actually agree with Dave that the stimulus wasn't ideal (however, I don't think anything close to ideal would have passed).
Unemployment is certainly a problem, however, if I know our media, there will be something else they pick up as a story; simply put, as with Iraq, the coverage can't last forever. I don't like that, but it just seems to be the pattern.
The only person I see with a shot now is Pawlenty, he's the only one who isn't completely toxic at this point.
I wrote a long post on Sarah Palin, and then deleted it. I was overthinking. Here is what must be said-- Sarah Palin is deeply ignorant.
Coates,
this cracked me up, and I just had to stop and LMAO at its simple truth. that rambling, incoherent mess of an announcement was vintage Palin.
Most Americans never have any real shot at serious money. Palin is staring into a multi-million payday in the next few years, possibly 10s of millions. The governor's terms doesn't end until almost 2011, at that point she needs to form an exploratory committee if she's still in politics, so it's at least 2013 before she can really cash in, and who knows what the market will be like then?
I laughed when she said she asked her family. Think about it: either spend the next few years under the media spotlight and worrying about legal debt, or have her go make enough money so that nobody in the family will ever have to work again. I would have been the one who said "hell yeah".
That's exactly right. I think she looked into the future she has in politics, knew that there was no real chance that she was going to get much farther than Governor of Alaska, and that her chances at becoming president were somewhere in the Ross Perot realm, so she decided to cut her losses and make her name as a talking head. Of course, this all may be scuppered by something crawling out of the woodwork, but as of now, there's not really any better explanation.
You libruls are just jealous of Sarah Palin and her down home American values. She is from the most American of America. Not from some swishy city with your fine universities and museums that deal in FACTS and your rampaging homosexuals and their paint chips and color swashes.
Sarah Palin is all about BELIEF. Belief in God, Sarah Palin and America in that order. Or perhaps a slightly different order.
God wants her to be President. Perhaps HE called her to tell her that. Maybe an email. Could have been a twitter. I even leave open the possibility that while snow mobiling somewhere the Lord appeared to her as a burning igloo and gave her the Ten Commandments.
Sarah's 10 Commandments:
1. Thou Shall Honor No Other Politician But Me
2. Wink often
3. Ignorance is bliss
4. Knock me down and fuck me pumps are not optional. They are required.
5. Use your children as a political prop then criticize others when they mention your children.
5. Counting and mathematics is the work of Satan and "six" is an evil number.
7. Always thrust your boobs out in public.
8. Education is bad. Jesus tells us all we need to know.
9. Silk underwear is good.
10. Worship me, Sarah Palin. I'm not one of those pansy educated people who actually let facts get in the way of their opinions.
Seriously, Palin is deeply appealing to around 40 percent of the populace. These folks comprise, but are not limited to the non evolution believers, the Christianists
Something tells me you would get banned for writing something similarly vile about a liberal female politician or a black politician, but perhaps Ta-Nehisi can weigh in on that.
Vile?
Muah?
There may be aspects of Sarah's Commandments that are "vile", but unfortunately they all ring true. At least to me.
I can also be nasty to liberal politicians of any gender or race. I'm an equal opportunity asshole.
I wasn't particularly kind to Hillary Clinton and she is certainly female and liberal. I liked her hubby even less.
I can't stand Roland Burris and last time I checked he is black.
Hell in some ways he strikes me as Palin-like. Except for the quitting part. Burris would never quit. There is still plenty of room on his tombstone for his accomplishments.
Irish,
Please, please go after liberal politicians just as hard and as well. The thing I need most in the world is a good alarm system for when people I agree with on substance are lunatics who can't make that substance work.
Dave,
Please, please, nominate the liberal politicians you think are as whacked as Palin so I can go refresh my memory. We've certainly had some doozies--but I can't remember anyone that strange that we've given a pedestal that high.
"Most Americans never have any real shot at serious money. Palin is staring into a multi-million payday in the next few years, possibly 10s of millions."
Yeah, I've been surprised by how many sufferers of Palin derangement syndrome have been applauding this turn of events. If she's too stupid to be elected president, as they claim, then the only real effect the resignation has on her trajectory is that she's now very likely to get massively, massively rich. Not a fate I usually wish on people I dislike.
Perhaps then, you might take this information and reconsider your premise regarding Palin Derangement Syndrome. Perhaps, you are surprised because you have had it wrong all along and most people don't dislike Sarah Palin because they are deranged but because they think her particular personal characteristics make her a very negative political influence and does significant damage to the public discourse in substantive ways. Perhaps, those same people are happy with this development because they don't really care about what she does with her personal life as long as her political influence is diminished. Or, on the other hand, perhaps you were right all along and the millions of people who dislike Palin are just mentally ill individuals that like it when the objects of their derision do well financially. Either way.
Um...yeah, what Brent said. What a ridiculous post.
One of the things that came to me out of this was how tired I am of assuming that people aren't telling the truth, or, alternatively, are only telling that part of the truth that is convenient for them to tell.
Palin's statement, such as it was, was such an extreme example of the dissembling that we see/read/hear every.single.day, that I kind of felt it attacked my brain. But how much time do we as a nation spend trying to divine the truth behind something we have just been told by some influential muckity-muck? And then, when we are told the truth (about, say, the lives of our President and his wife, just as an off-the-top-of-my-head example!), many remain convinced that THAT CAN'T BE THE TRUTH! WHO ARE THEY, REALLY?
I don't believe that this is a new development, nor do I believe that it is a solveable problem -- humans being what they are, and all -- but I sure am tired of it. It hurts my head.
I totally agree, however in this case I can't help but feel that Palin herself is unaware of her true intentions. As a charismatic leader her conviction is appealing to the intelligent(who dwell in doubt) and the unintelligent(easily deceived). However, upon examination her conviction is simply that, a emotion with little substance. Perhaps the stress of the public life has rendered her incapable of discerning reality, or perhaps she has always had difficulty expressing her inner thoughts and motives. I think it is more likely than not the former.
I'm sorry. I just got exasperated.......
Palin is deeply appealing to around 40 percent of the American public.
That is enough people to make her wealthy. It is not enough for her to ever be President...............I hope.
I thought GW Bush was bad. She would be "the end times" kinda bad.
I thought GW Bush was bad. She would be "the end times" kinda bad.
This is still funny as I read it a third time.
I don't find this funny. It's scary. Conservatives like to say that we're "scared" of Sarah Palin. We are, but not in the way they seem to believe. We're not scared about her beating a Democratic candidate. We have too much faith in the intelligence of the American people to do that. We're scared of the possibility that someone that stupid could become President. Dubya is nearly that stupid, and he caused massive death and destruction. Palin would be far, far worse. And if Dubya became President through fraud and happenstance, we should be conmcerned that someone like Palin could accidentally become President, too.
"End times" - exactly! I picture her getting her own tee-vee show now and building that 40% to 51%, and before I know it I'll be surrounded by empty shoes and clothing.
If he runs against Palin, he'll win.
I'm actually able to be much calmer about Palin now, because I've decided she'll never be a serious candidate for President. She's simply incapable of standing the scrutiny that comes with the territory. She'll either quit before Iowa because the press and the other candidates are being too mean, or after New Hampshire because those flinty New Englanders refuse to buy into her schtick.
Grumble.... "He" = Obama, and this was meant to be upthread in reply to ellaesther.
That's ok! I found it!
I guess I just don't think Palin's going to run, and, if she complete surprises me and does, I don't think she'd get nominated. I really don't. Look at all the crazy coots who ran this last time, and the GOP chose the one guy who had some sanity-cred (who then blew it by getting talked into picking Palin for VP, but when McCain is the sanest in the bunch, you have to be ready to make an exception or two).
That said, my brain is still too open to the likelihood of human foibles, political insanity, and/or disaster to be willing to say that anything is a lock for 2012 just yet!
There seems to be a double standard where it's OK to judge Palin as ignorant by her poor speaking ability, when making such assumptions about non-white politicians who speak poorly isn't done. Just an observation.
Dave, it's the soft bigotry of low expectations. The flip of your comment is how delighted and surprised people were that Obama is "articulate."
For my part, I think people who butcher the English language so thoroughly and cannot put together coherent sentences should not be elected to any off - local or national - no matter what color they are.
Dave,
can you name any other politician of note who speaks as badly as Palin?
Even Mayor Daley in Chicago seems like a Shakespearian actor compared to her. "Whether tis nobber to sufferr da slings and arrowz of outrageous fortune cookies or to take da arms against the semens of troublez."
I've seen some local minority politicians who mangle the language, but none of national stature.
Methinks thou are playing the aggrieved white guy card.
Palin is mocked because she is an idiot. Moreover, she is proud to be an idiot. Like her pumps she wears it as an accoutrement to her political armor. In fact her lack of knowledge is what makes her so appealing to many on the right.
Somewhere Barry Goldwater, William F Buckley and perhaps even Ronnie Reagan are not happy.
"can you name any other politician of note who speaks as badly as Palin?"
Sure, Maxine Waters, for one, speaks worse than Palin, although, to be fair, Waters would never be a candidate for a national ticket.
"Palin is mocked because she is an idiot."
I doubt that she is an idiot, but you are proving my point by calling her one based on her speaking ability. Similarly, Maxine Waters is not an idiot, as I've noted elsewhere. The way people speak isn't always an accurate indication of their intelligence. Obama, for example, is clearly an intelligent guy, but I think he sounds smarter than he is because he speaks so well.
There are plenty of doofus Congress people in both parties, but they are side shows, For every Waters on our side you get to raise us a Bachman:-)
But they never rise above side show from a safe seat, I think you;d have to go back decades to find someone as clueless and inept as Palin with her national prominence in either party
Dave,
Obama brings coherent substance, using words people can understand, over and over and over, on issue after issue after issue.
The only way to do that is to understand the whole subject and the whole audience.
The only way to sound that smart is to be that smart.
Sporcupine,
Obama had his share of gaffs. The difference is, since Obama speaks well, people are more likely to assume that the gaffs were the result of a simple mistake, rather than of ignorance. If he didn't speak as well, he wouldn't get that benefit of the doubt. Also, because he speaks well, interviewers were less tempted to pop quiz him the way they did Palin. It's not hard to make someone look bad in such an interview, e.g., by asking them the name of the PM of some foreign country that even most well-read folks can't think of off the top of their heads.
Also, if Obama were as knowledgeable as you and others think he is, he would have made shoring up the economy is first, second, and third priorities this year, rather than pursuing policies that either won't help the economy or will actively hinder it. You've got to make sure that the engine is running well before you worry about giving everyone A.C., cup holders, and leather seats. As I mentioned up thread, Obama apparently didn't grasp the severity of the recession and instead used the sense of urgency to enact other priorities.
Here, I think, Obama shares a blind spot with many liberals, many of whom have spent their years more concerned with how to divvy up the bounty of the American economy and less concerned with how to keep that economy growing. What does Obama know about doing that? We seem to be in the process of finding out. Let's hope he can move quickly along the learning curve.
Popped quiz her?
She failed at writing her name on the top of the test. She wasn't given a series of questions like name leader of obsucre country X. The what do you read question was legit given that Palin had been makign the point that she learned a lot about the world from reading, when you put that out there the obvious follow-up question is "what have you read and what have you learned from it" She was the one who brought it up int he first place, she should have had somethign prepared.
When a smart person who knows what they are talkign about says teh wrogn word when speaking extemporously they get the benefit of the doubt because everyone knows what they meant. Palin rambles on with strings of incoherent thoughts. The analogy to the beauty contestant was right on. She is throwing out a few cliches hoping one sticks.
One, Maxine Waters is a grassroots level Representative who as you say would never be a candidate for a national ticket. Not sure she counts as being a "politician of note" though its for sure a flexible category. Two, Im not sure that Maxine is as incoherent and rambling and cliched and defensive as Palin but again, its a subjective argument at that point.
I dunno that Palin or Waters are idiots, but I do think one of the two is intellectually incurious, though they both may be dogmatists.
I find that the way Palin speaks shows her to be an idiot, not because she throws some "you Betcha"s in there, or her accent, but that she's incoherent.
I do think Joe Biden is incoherent sometimes, too, which makes him sound like an idiot- but I find Biden that way about 10% of the time, and Palin that way 90%. Yeah, if I could have gotten a nice smart, young, healthy president without a buffoon for a VP, that would have been cool. But better than an unhealthy president who I disagree with, with a VP who's a buffoon on roller skates.
Oh, and Alan Keyes. Totally incoherent. But he seems like he's got quite a bit of academic-style "intelligence"- he's just insane. There are so many different kinds of incoherence, it seems...
Dave,
How do you know how smart Obama is? Just curious how you assess that he sounds smarter than he really is.
She was going on about how "The Department Of Law" would protect a Vice President from ethics charges by calling them invalid, so if she was VP, she would have stood up under what presumably would have been even more pressure.
There *is* no "Department Of Law". And the DOJ can't prohibit things from going to court without involving the Judiciary. So yes, she really is stupid and ignorant. It's not just that she speaks poorly, it's that she speaks with self assured authority on topics she has no frigging clue about, and is frequently just wrong.
She's charismatic to a certain group of people, many of whom are militant anti-intellectuals, but she, like them, is actually pretty stupid.
Your pityparty, err observation would be more effective if you cited examples.
Right now, thats basically a tossaway line from Fox until you beef it up with substance.
Thats assuming substance is something you are interested in?
Juba,
You turned on my so quickly, I barely had time to see the knife glint in your hand. ;-) See above for an example.
Long time Boston Mayor Tom Menino (who is white) is routinely mocked for his poor speaking ability. He grew up working class and didn't attend college until his 30s, IIRC. But no one ever concludes he is ignorant--he's actually very smart and shrewd.
OTOH, people view Clarence Thomas as ignorant but not inarticulate. People view Bobby Jindal in a similar way as Menino--smart, but not a good speaker. As for Michael Steele, he is neither ignorant nor inarticulate, just foolish.
So I don't think there is an automatic link in most people's minds between speaking ability and ignorance or intelligence. I think people can make the distinction. People are judging Palin because of her ignorance itself, of which her poor speaking ability is just a symptom.
Yes, exactly. Let's face it. Neither Dukakis, Gore, nor Kerry exactly reaches Kennedyesque rhetorical heights. They were mostly coherent -- which Palin is not -- but all three of them together didn't have as much charisma and stage presence as Palin, much less Obama. But none of them was perceived as ignorant. Boring, stiff, and elitist, certainly, but not ignorant.
Immediately after her speech I searched your blog. I knew you had the perfect phrase from the Letterman dust up: "Sarah Palin is in tenacious possession of a small mind."
I think you can recycle that comment for quite some time.
The best explanation for Sarah Palin, (and "dubya"), and a frightening amount of people and upper-management in America, was posted at,
http://blurbiage.blogspot.com/2008/10/sarah-palin-and-dunning-kruger-effect.html
It's called the "Dunning-Kruger effect". I suspect it may have something to do with our financial institutions melting down as well.
Money quotes, "ignorance more frequently begets confidence than knowledge." and,
"This effect almost perfectly describes Sarah Palin, for she clearly revels in her incompetence and lack of knowledge. As we witnessed in the VP debate, she spoke strongly and confidently while speaking in a completely incomprehensible tangle of mangled words and sentences.
She stood tall and gave the American people a stunning display of stupidity and lack of intellect, all the while winking like she was letting the folks at home in on her brilliance, as though her rubbish act was a ploy to fool the witless liberals."
Yeah. Sure. The "White Privilege meme is overrated". Except if a videotape had surfaced during the election of Barack Obama praying with an African minister who had chased "witches" out of a Nairobi slum - as there was with Palin - the whole right wing slander industry would have had collective psychic explosion that would still be going on. And don't get me started on the whole 'Georgia-South Ossetia-Randy Scheuneman-almost starting a war with Russia' scandal -which was an absolute disgrace that could have been extremely dangerous.
As is it is I guess I'm just an elitist as Sarah Palin drives me bonkers.
Pride in Ignorance. Perfect.
Good Riddance.
That's right! Her speech was not off the cuff. Palin wrote it herself and posted it word for word on her website just as the press conference was starting. She read the speech into a portable, mobile teleprompter. Greta's show posted enough video that it included pan back shots showing the teleprompter with a camera on either side of the teleprompter. Paul Begala's take at HuffPo on her posted text is priceless, with all of its various ALL CAPS and exclamation points and odd punctuation. Her rambling syntax was planned, and all the more frightening.
www.gov.state.ak.us/exec-column.php
www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/sarah-palin-turns-pro_b_225633.html
Also, Sarah Palin is a quitter. It's a pattern of hers. She is a free-lancer. She is not a team player.
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/07/05/the-sarah-palin-i-quit-arod/
Yes, please, anyone who has not actually read the text of her speech really needs to do so to get the true picture. And, as has been mentioned upthread -- seriously -- a black candidate could never publish something like this and expect to be taken seriously. I mean, come on. I get Repubs wanting a hero, but at least cop to why you like her. Do we have to join in the delusion that she is crazy like a fox?
I don't see how you can read that text and be able to defend Sarah Palin as having anything other than a below average intellect. This is cheerleader stuff with random caps and exclamation points.
I've heard a saying, "Making lots of money is the best revenge." Probably in 2 years she'll be laughing at all her critics (and I'm one of them).
Best quote from the interview: "She has no plans for anything in particular at this time."
Ya' don't say?