TheAgitator.com
Dear God, Please Let This Be the Last Time I Feel Compelled To Post About Sarah Palin…
Monday, July 6th, 2009…but I suspect it won’t.
Here’s all I want to say: It is possible that Sarah Palin was both unfairly mistreated and personally attacked by the media and many on the left, and that her family was rather ruthlessly and mercilessly run through the ringer wringer . . . and that she’s a not particularly bright, not particularly curious, once libertarian-leaning governor who sadly devolved into a predictable, buzzword spouting culture warrior when she was prematurely picked for national office by John McCain.
These two scenarios can coexist.
As for quitting her position as governor 18 months early, her rambling press conference statement was bizarre. If she’s quitting because she’s tired of politics and is ready to return to private life for good, good on her. If she’s quitting the job she ran for and committed to because she thinks she’s now too big for the office and wants a higher profile to position herself for national office, then she deserves all the scorn and derision coming her way.
Im a bit on the other side when it comes to resigning to run for another office. It more than annoys me when elected officials take years off from their elected duty to run for higher office and neglect the position people are counting on them to hold. If you want another position I think you should have to resign from your current position and let someone who actually wants the job do it.
I thought I had been paying attention, but I missed the part where Palin was ever libertarian-leaning.
Maybe she had an affair and knows it will become public soon. Oh, wait. That couldn’t happen. She’s not a teacher.
Any elected official resigning early, minus severe family issues, goes to show that they are only serious about their jobs when it comes to fundraising.
I personally consider it a breach of contract, regardless of how much an idiot they are.
I think it was when she jacked up taxes on the oil industry so she could cut larger checks to the residents of her state to buy votes. Wait, no, because “the means of production belong to the people of Alaska.” Actually I think she specified “the oilfields,” but same diff.
I just don’t get why Alaska was taken as this perfect libertarian microcosm of what America could be. No shit there are low taxes, nobody lives there and they’re sitting on a shitton of natural resource wealth that they all just divvy up. It’s fucking Brunei with guns, not Galt’s Gulch. Sure Palin specifically is an imbecile, but even if she were brilliant running Alaska isn’t exactly comparable to any other political office in the country. It’s like playing a video game with cheat codes on
The sooner the GOP get’s rid of their windbags, the sooner they can start over.
She thought she could have maybe possibly seen Russia once on a clear day.
I believe the term that everyone is dancing around with Palin on is “going Scarborough”. If she doesn’t have a show on Fox News by the end of this year, I will eat my hat.
(A position, I might add, that I will be happy for her to assume. Because it means I will never, ever hear her again.)
Maybe she’ll get her very own talk radio program. Just imagine it! 3 Hours a day, 5 days a week of non-stop babbling bubbly Palin.
(I don’t know if I would creme my jeans or toss my cookies.)
I’m guessing she’s still got plans on higher office, and she realized Alaska is slightly screwed in the next year or two’s budgets because Oil prices aren’t going to bail them out (at least not now). Plus her pipeline she touted as one of her great successes is dying on the vine. Plus the royalty checks aren’t going to be as big for her constituents.
So my guess is that she thinks there’s a lot of downside potential to her career by staying where she was. However her going away the way she choose also has a lot of downside potential.
Ehh… as to whether she was treated unfairly by the press her life was put under the same scrutiny and microscope that any previous person that has run for office. She also took great joy in using her kids as political props and shields when it suited her purposes, but cried foul when anyone else tried to use them in the same way. I have no sympathy for her on that front.
You are a pompus pud…
All you supposed men who complain about S.Palin must be homo,i’d nail that girl in a heartbeat.
Well said, Radley, on the coexistence of “the media/commentators have been ruthless” and “she’s a complete idiot.”
Tokin42, your point would be well taken, but she could easily have avoided the candidate/governor problem by simply announcing that she won’t run for reelection in 2010. Then she would have been free from January 1, 2011 forward to learn how to be a president and run a campaign. That’s a full year before the Iowa caucuses and 22 months prior to the election.
Instead, she basically said with 18 months left in her term “I know I am not going to run again, so it is not worth it to be a lame duck.” With that logic, how much of her second presidential term would she serve?
Agreed, the only thing that made me like Palin was many of the left’s attacks against her. It was amazing to see the venom with which they went after a non-Democrat female candidate.
I would say Palin shot herself in the foot if she thinks this kind of stunt is going to put her in a better position to run for President later on. Of course, the Republicans are so directionless, there’s just no telling who or what they’ll hitch their wagon to in the next couple years. Or, a better metaphor might be the slimy creature that jumps out of the giant egg in Alien and latches onto that guys helmet, malting through his plexiglas visor, crawling down his throat, and finally lodging in the victim’s stomach, where it later bursts out like a rabid Rosemary’s Baby and scurries across the floor looking for productive taxpaying humans to feed on…
Katie Couric: And when it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious: what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?
Sarah Palin: I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.
KC: But, like, what ones specifically? I’m curious.
SP: All of ‘em, any of ‘em that have been in front of me over all these years.
KC: Can you name a few?
SP: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where, it’s kind of suggested and it seems like, ‘Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C. may be thinking and doing when you live up there in Alaska?’ Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.
Nuff Said
Exactly. Asshattery is not a zero-sum game. It’s possible for both critics and the criticized to be loathsome.
It’s a vast left wing conspiracy! :-)
Anyone who can’t handle the media ringer in politics should not be in politics. And anyone who constantly says the “look at poor little old me…I’m such a victim! They’re so mean! Poor little, meek, weak me” should NEVER get anywhere CLOSE to public office.
#16
I stopped reading national print and watching the MSM a decade ago. What national magazine could you read, besides “reason” of course, that would actually be worth your time? If she wanted to be honest she should have just told Couric, “your show is a waste of energy”.
I somewhat agree with Tokin42′s point #1. Being Governor of a State is a full time job.
OTOH, I also think Mike Leatherwood’s point #4 is valid. If you take an elected post, you should commit yourself for the full term.
I’m not going to ascribe motive to Ms Palin, other than what she herself has stated, but if she were to seek to run for anything again, people would justifiably question her commitment and ability to take the heats.
I always took SP’s evasion of Couric’s newspaper question to be more about not wanting to name-check anyone specific in the “librul media”. What would the GOP base say if she admitted she read the NY Times, after all?
Which goes to show that not only is she just as much “politics as usual” as everyone else, but also that she isn’t very good at it.
Radley: The family may have been put through a “wringer”, but probably not a “ringer” :-)
Schmince: How did a cretin such as yourself end up reading this blog, anyway? If you do manage to “do” Sarah, please, please tell us that you’re going to use protection…
The phrase is “run through the wringer”, not “run through the ringer”. It is also the “media wringer”. A wringer is a device used to squeeze water out of washed clothes before hanging them to dry.
Why Palin is resigning is pretty obvious to me: She doesn’t have time to govern in between reading all the newspapers and magazines. Think about it: She doesn’t just read Time and Newsweek, but Cat Fancy, Guitar Player, Modern Woodworking… She knows it’s not fair for the people of Alaska for her to be so occupied.
@shmince
Fail Troll is Fail.
I think Palin is sort of like a highly-touted Major League prospect that gets called up and flames out. You hear all these great things about his swing and his power and his athletic abilities and so you get all excited when he makes his debut. He may look horrible at first, but you figure he’s still trying to get comfortable in the Bigs. As he continues to struggle, your brain may say “this guy’s just not Big League material,” but your heart holds out hope that eventually he’ll come around. You figure he’s got the talent, he just needs to fix that hole in his swing, or learn to relax more, or he just needs one good game to get him going. It’s really hard to accept that he’s just not that good because it means letting go of that hope you had when he was called up, and perhaps just as significantly, coming to terms with the fact that you were wrong about him.
Part of me still holds out hope for Palin. I tell myself anybody who got that far can’t be that dumb. She listened to her handlers too much instead of being herself. She took on too much before she was ready. She let the media, and the Right, misconstrue her message. For a moment she looked like somebody who could take on Obama’s cult of personality, and that excited me. I guess I just want some of that excitement again…
I wish more politicians would quit.
I liked her libertarian-leaning solution to the “problem” of the market not providing enough wolf-corpses shot from airplanes: use government money to reward people for shooting wolves from airplanes. And, because of the premium Alaskans place on sportsmanship, no napalm.
Considering how much Obama is f*cking this the country up with just 6 months on the job, I’d still rather have had someone like her in charge.
James D,
I can understand that to the extent that maybe someone as “not bright” as Palin might have a difficult time thinking up new ways to ruin the country. Maybe we need a real idiot in charge. It might go along with the idea that sometimes government should really Do Nothing. The bright and curious tend to be a little too adventurous when in power. We need a real idiot like Palin to keep things simple and reign in some of the damage caused by big ideas.
Anyone who trots out their kids as part of a political spectacle gets what they deserve (I feel bad for the kids, but their parent is responsible for subjecting them to this, not the media). If your family is the most important thing to you, the last thing you should do is to go into politics.
She shouldn’t have dragged her family into her campaign. But the media is just as culpable as her. The major news outlets could have decided to show some class and not exposed her family, but choose to be as sensationalist about it as possible.
Palin is just an ignorant hillbilly thrown into national politics as a hail mary to the R’s base of fundy hillbillies.
Was she abused by the press? Sure. Do I feel sorry for her? Not a bit.
The sooner she disappears from politics the better for the Rs. Not that I support them at all.
As the headling on Fark said, “this is good news… for Tina Fey.”
Palin did not trot her family out more than any other politician did. Obama had his girls on the stage at the Democratic convention as well. And he also referenced his girls when discussing abortion policy (he didn’t want them “punished with a baby.”)
The only people who think Palin is using her kids as a prop are loathsome idiots who think that she should’ve aborted Trig rather than bring a downs syndrome baby into the world. And unfortunately, there are plenty of those people who wished murder on that child.
Sydney – of course politicians with families use them in their campaigning, but Palin’s use of Trig was pretty shameless. Did he really need to attend the Vice Presidential debate (which ended after 10:00 p.m. local time) when he was 6 months old?
I just do not buy into the meme she was somehow singled out for mistreatment. Bill, Hillary and Chelsea all dealt with more criticism and hate than she has. Right wing talk and media in the 90 would not just insult him but advertise videos on how he was the biggest coke dealer in the world and murdered everyone that walked around. Hillary was routinely called bitch and every other term and the kid which for the most part they did not use as a political prop (at least during Bills terms) . Gore was killed by the press and well pretty much everyone for alleged lies he actually never told or was basically correct on. Such as he never said he invented the internet, nor did he say he discovered love canal and Love Story. John Kerry was called out on his service to his country and most insulting was told he did not earn his medals. Obama called everything from Hitler to Osama Bin Ladin.
All of this is to say she is not the first politician to have insults directed her way and the insults against her have not really been that bad. More than that she brought most of it onto herself by a) her fanning the flames of hate on the campaign b) making her family her key qualification and using them at almost every occasion c) making it easy on others to insult her. When people do insult her she also whines about it blames others for crossing the line demands apologies or special treatment yet she does not take responsibility for her own actions. She was the one that talked family values and having her kids on stage at every opportunity from her announcement to dropping a puck at a hockey game. Yet she had a minor daughter that was knocked up and has since gone on to have her self a public role from being a spokesperson for abstinence to giving interviews so she is fair game. Palin is the one that gave the worst series of interviews a national politician has ever given. Palin is the one that went on shopping sprees, played a diva etc. She was in control of her image at each step.
Sydney – I hope you don’t actually believe that. What other politician took there school age kids out of school to go on the trail? Its one thing to have kids at a few key stops but holding them out of school to use as full time props is a whole other thing.
Sydney,
“The only people who think Palin is using her kids as a prop are loathsome idiots who think that she should’ve aborted Trig rather than bring a downs syndrome baby into the world.”
That is just plain stupid. Who said that? I am about as pro-abortion as you can get and I think it is no one else’s business but her and her husband what to do about her down syndrome kid.
And she most certainly did trot her kids out more than many other politicians. Certainly not less than Obama, whose kids are also fair game in my opinion. If you decide to become a public figure, you expose yourself and your family to all sorts of unpleasant things and there is nothing you can do about it.
If Palin had been a leader who firmly stood for a consistent set of principles and was dedicated to reining in government and promoting free markets I would be sorry to hear that she couldn’t handle the collateral damage that come with holding public office and had decided to quit.
But, she wasn’t a leader and she didn’t stand out. She was just like any other politician. She wasn’t going to evoke any kind of response besides the one she got because she was treated just like all politicians are treated. If she thought she was different and deserved to be treated differently, then she first needed to behave differently.
A car salesman doesn’t quit saying he wasn’t expecting to be around so many cars.
She was just a female Dan Quayle. Ditsy and confused. And she’s in a profession populated with hundreds of people just like her.
Eric,
It’s “shameless” to bring a child to a debate because you think it’s past his bedtime? Do you really have any idea what you’re talking about? Shameless? Meaning, she has no shame at all, and that’s it’s an evil, cynical ploy to bring her child with her?
Please.
A quick google of Trig + Palin + Abortion will show that many people wished her to abort him, and viewed the baby’s mere existence as a direct threat to abortion. Even if you’re very pro-choice, apparently there are MORE rabid pro-choicers out there who think that the mere existence of a downs syndrome baby by a national figure is enough of a statement on abortion to justify merciless personal attacks against the baby and the mother.
Sydney,
Here is what you said: “The only people who think Palin is using her kids as a prop are loathsome idiots who think that she should’ve aborted Trig rather than bring a downs syndrome baby into the world.”
You are clearly dissembling now.
Palin said that instead of being a lame duck governor and traveling around on the public’s dime she was going to quit. Hmmm. Isn’t there a third option? How about doing your job? That could be an option and it would show that she’s not the typical lame duck.
I also agree with jim. The Clintons were under far more scrutiny than Palin. And I believe it was Sen. McCain who in 1998 made a tasteless joke about Chelsea Clinton, and he’s a public official, not a comedian. So I find it difficult to be sympathetic with all the boo-hooing from the Palin camp.
Sydney,
What XI said (#44). You made a ridiculous universal statement that no sane person could believe and I disproved it. You can find assholes saying anything about anything if you search for it with Google. I agree that such sentiments are loathsome. But to link that to anyone who thinks that she used her kids as props is nonsense.
[...] Schwenkler, Radley Balko: Here’s all I want to say: It is possible that Sarah Palin was both unfairly mistreated and [...]
I never felt sorry for Trig.
It was that poor little Piper that always walked out on stage in front of her mother waving and smiling and then ended up having to babysit Trig during the show.
She is the one who got screwed.
Is this a libertarian website, or a liberal one? Sometimes I forget ….
#45, it gets better. In March 2008, or just over a year ago and five months before being picked as McCain’s VP, Palin was at some Newsweek sponsored women in politics panel, and was asked about Hilary and the way she complained about her press coverage. Palin’s response:
Sarah Palin appears incapable of taking her own advice.
Like i said XI,i couldn’t care less about the girls politics.She’s spectacular on many levels.It’s not my problem if you can’t see that.To each his own.It just seems to me your overly upset about Palin who really hasn’t done much of anything good or bad.Maybe your problem is women in general,i don’t know or care.But,your precious little anger seems a tad misplaced as well as misguided.It’s a blast listening to many of you “men” dying for this women to fail.Sounds like mommy issues to me.Does she scare you that much?What are you so afraid of?
James: I’m guessing you ask this because everyone doesn’t share the insane ultra-conservative view that Palin’s the best thing ever?
After all, what’s more libertarian than reverse taxes?
Guess what? Not just liberals hated Palin. Moderates hated her. Lots of conservatives hated her. She was embarassing to them, and for good reason. She’s dumber than a bag of wet sand.
I’ll dampen the deserts with the tears I shed over the evil liberal media treatment of her. No, really, I will.
Wow Radley!
“It is possible that Sarah Palin was both unfairly mistreated and personally attacked by the media and many on the left, and that her family was rather ruthlessly and mercilessly run through the wringer”?
I’d like see your example of someone who definitely was.
So, Dave #41, Palin gets skewered because she’s a female Dan Quayle? Don’t think so. She got savaged because the MSM knew she gave McCain a shot – a GOOD shot (at least until McCain opened his mouth about the economy a week before the financial crisis exploded). The MSM wasn’t about to let it’s choice be squashed by an upstart like Palin.
And I’m sure all the posters here are REAL glad now that we have the UN-QUALIFIED Obama (“the stimulus has done its job”), and the bozo Biden (“you know, a lot of the stimulus will be wasted” – wasn’t that his job to make sure it wasn’t?) instead of the un-qualified Palin and the clueless McCain?
You all like the sight of Obama supporting the mad mullahs in Iran and the thug in Honduras – rather than the good (or better) people in each case? hmmmm. James (#49) wonders what I do too – where are the libertarian posters on this blog?
ESPECIALLY now – after the first 6 months of Obama, I would have no problem voting for McCain and Palin again.
Most of the people here don’t get it. Obama is after RAW power, hates America, and he intends to change it. He’ll do whatever it takes to give you socialized medicine, cap and trade, and a hugely expanded welfare state. We’ll be lucky if the country is recognizable in 4 years.
But hey, at least we don’t have McCain and Palin.
The MSM wasn’t about to let it’s choice be squashed by an upstart like Palin.
Please don’t be a historical revisionist. Palin was protected by the media, not crucified by it. While every news channel was basically Bill Ayers-Jeremiah Wright, the only one looking into the record of Gov. Palin was the Gay Blogger Who Must Not be Named. (Certainly not the McCain campaign.)
Chet must have slept thru the election.
The media hasn’t been easy on Palin. But then she hasn’t made it easy on herself.
As for why libruls hate her, it’s a bunch of things:
1. Lack of intelligence: really, can anyone defend her farewell speech? I don’t like Republicans like Romney or Newt but they aren’t dumb.
2. The aggressive position she took on the McCain campaign and how much she seemed to enjoy it.
3. Anti-intellectualism/”elitism”: was an effective strategy run by Rove in 2000 and 2004. Gives liberals flashbacks.
4. Poor governing record: her signature moment is… anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Even the Republican half of the state legislature hates her.
5. Demonstrably false statements (as opposed to Clintonian parsing, not that that’s acceptable either). Andrew Sullivan may have Palin Derangement Syndrome, but he’s also got a nice tally of flat-out lies that now runs over 30 in number.
Really I don’t think palin was savaged by lots of people (and she was savaged) b/c they thought she gave McCain a shot or she was the second coming of Reagan. I think she got torn to pieces b/c her first national speech was basically an attack on half the nation for spurious reasons at best. I remember speaking with more than a few folks who were rather intrigued with how she was approaching governance before that speech…then she spoke to the nation.
You’re not going to inspire moderates to follow you by making claims that all your opponents are socialist, terrorist-loving sociopaths bent on killing all America’s babies. Her vision was of what was wrong with America (liberals and us “spineless” moderates) not how she wanted to lead in the America that existed. After coming out saying your a “pitbull” and making such claims, is it really so difficult to believe that she just simply pissed people off on a visceral level? I assure you the comments sections of newspapers and blogs were many times worse than anything I saw in the MSM.
#22:
I was peaking to an Alaskan acquaintance who sad that he thought it was defensiveness becuase som many people from the lower 48 who view Alaska as a backwater filled with rednecks and crab fishermen who communicate with the outside world via telegraph.
People are impressed that the hotels there have HBO *AND* internet access.
Basicially his theory (which makes the most sense to me) is that Palin answered Katie Couric’s question like she would a tourist coming up on a cruise and asking if people in Alaska had up to date news papers and magazines.
Essentially, she got defensive because she was answering the question as the ex-mayor of Wasilla, not as governor or as a VP candidate.
Both sides (D and R) play for the same team. There is some overlap between the two halves of the same coin, with each’s non-overlap a slightly different tactic to destroy ___________ (fill in the blank). You can’t blame just the President, you also have to blame the Legislative and Judicial branches for playing along. They are all on the same team.
When the D label is “in power” in Congress, they say they want to pursue the President’s agenda. When the R label is “in power” in Congress, they say they want to pursue the President’s agenda. It is clearly evident that both sides aren’t representing We The People, but rather bowing to the President’s whims as if it’s a dictatorial position.
You cats are a joke,for all the time you spend bitching about Palin.You’re even bigger losers than you claim she is.At the very least,my conscience doesn’t bother me.I didn’t vote for Obama.How are you all feeling about that right about now? Not very well i’d suppose…
I’ll know Sarah Palin is gone from the political scene when I stop seeing banner ads for SarahPac.
Why don’t I think that is very likely?
I don’t get her decrying the “politics of personal destruction” after being McCain’s attack dog (pardon the phrase) during last year’s election. This is the lady who specifically accused her opponent of “palling around with terrorists”.
I agree that many of the attacks against her have been unfair (and unsavory, and unfunny), but let us not forget that she has trafficked in her own unfair accusations.
shmince:
I didn’t vote for Obama either, and I’ll bet that most of the posters here voted third-party or not at all. But all the cut-’n'-paste “go red team” sputtering and frothing immediately shows you’re no one I want speaking on my behalf.
MM #58 wrote: “Essentially, she got defensive because she was answering the question as the ex-mayor of Wasilla, not as governor or as a VP candidate.”
Maybe, but she ought to have been able to name, say, the Economist, whether she really reads it or not. That’d likely be highbrow enough to impress, potentially relevant to her job as governor thanks to its international coverage, but ideologically safe/neutral – not like citing the NY Times or NBC.
Barring that, the Wall Street Journal and Forbes would have been good GOP-safe answers.
I mean, “what’s on your ipod” is now a standard softball question for candidates (whether they’re from podunk Alaska or Manhattan). Especially from an interviewer like Couric. I’d think minimal interview prep would include going over some answers for musical tastes, favorite TV shows, and reading material.
Rick,don’t generalize,it only makes you sound ignorant.I have no desire to speak for you or anyone else.Why would i when this blog seems to be mostly preaching to the choir anyway.You must feel quite at home.I like the way most of you get off on ganging up on Palin though,it’s very manly.As for the sputtering and frothing,right back at ya skip…
shmince: Funny, someone that defends the ultimate anti-intellectual claiming that someone sounds ignorant. I’m not calling you ignorant, I’m calling the person you’re defending ignorant, by the way.
I also didn’t vote for Obama, but I’d prefer him to Palin.
I’ll take corrupt and bright over corrupt and willfully ignorant.
We can claim we’ve got an intelligent president, even if he does seem to actively work at sucking. At least he seems to have a natural talent for it.
With the sexism the far right projects, it’s pretty iffy for one to use sexism as a defense.
As an added bonus, it wouldn’t be sexism no matter who it was. The people that mock her don’t do it *because* she’s a woman. They do it because she’s utterly ignorant. She just happens to be a woman. The sexism defense also doesn’t work all that well when you’re defending a known bigot.
It’s funny, someone mentioned she was a libertarian. My idea of libertarianism involves, you know, not hating minorities and gay people. It’s weird how that was a major part of her personality, the only real opinion the woman seemed to hold, yet people still claim she was a libertarian. If libertarians aren’t socially moderate/liberal, what seperates them from neocons?
As far as ganging up on her goes…She’s a public figure. Mocking public figures is what people do. Especially when the person gives them as much ammunition as Palin does. Doubly so when the person was as willing to attack other people relentlessly to further their own goals. I’m not actually sure what to make of the “very manly” bit. It seems a bit silly. Are you claiming no man should ever comment on anything a woman does? Did you apply the same rule to women you don’t agree with?
I don’t hate Sarah Palin. I found her anti-intellectualism and bigotry insulting, but I don’t wish for anything bad to happen to her.
Hey Jack #5-I’m coming late to the party but I’d like to point out to you that there is a difference between taxes on oil companies and royalties.
The State of Alaska leases land to oil companies and receives a royalty based on whatever deal is negotiated. This is the same thing that happens with private landowners who own the mineral rights.
It’s the same thing that happens in my old home state of Wyoming. They have a mineral trust fund that invests revenues for future needs and to keep taxes in the state low. The only difference is that Wyoming chooses not to distribute money from the fund to the citizens.
I believe that with Alaska they choose to make distributions to the citizens because the prices are so high there.
You shouldn’t let Palinphobia overide good sense.
Chet #54
By mainstream media do you mean Sean Hannity?
Palin (and Cleese x2) on Palin…
It’s official — I’m suffering from a horrible case of Palin fatigue. Andrew Sullivan isn’t ready to let it go; he links to Radley Balko, which is cool; and all roads, of course, lead to memeorandum. The show must go on … but I’m for re-runs….
She is, if you’re honest, still very hot.
JTHOMPSON:Are you honestly going to try say there is no sexism involved when it comes to Ms.Palin? C’mon,you don’t really believe that. It’s nice and all that the reasons you mock Palin are because you percieve her to be an ignorant bigot(i guess) so thats you’re justification.But,you can really only speak for yourself can’t you?As i’m sure i mentioned in an earlier post,i couldn’t care less about the girls politics but the way she’s been F****ED with is pretty disgusting. So,she is a “known bigot”,”hating minorities and gay people”and this is a “major part of her personality” huh? Really? I never got that from Palin.How’d she ever get elected up there in Alaska anyway? When did the relentless attacking happen.I guess i must have missed it. As far as being the “ultimate anti-intellectual” please,let’s not hand her the crown just yet.There are far to many candidates vying for that honor.By the way,you found her anti-intellectualism insulting because of you’re own high intellect or does that go without saying? You know, as much as you,yourself might find Ms.Palin distasteful (i find her quite sexy) there is a very large segment of the populace who love her.You’d do well to remember that. Take care.
You got that right Boyd,amen brother.
I can’t understand why people hate Sarah Palin so much. I see it as this: 1. She was nominated prematurely for VP and accepted. This was most likely to counter the female vote going to Obama, who was also there prematurely. 2. She went on the trail immediately and the GOP bought her clothes, which became an issue. 3. She was accused of posing as the mother of a baby with down’s syndrome to cover for her daughter, which was biologically impossible at the time. 4. She lost the election, though she drew larger crowds than did McCain (not that that says much, truly). 5. She went back to Alaska and the world was still infatuated with her. 6. People attacked her family relentlessly, more so than any other politician I’ve ever witnessed. Please tell me of one whose children took a beating like this. 7. Even when she resigns, her motives are questioned, even though it was costing Alaska millions of dollars what with all the negative lawsuits that she defeated. 8. She can now hit the trail in the lower 48, where the true issue are. She’s the star of the GOP, like it or not. Bring her to your event and butts will hit the seats.
I’m sure you guys will tell me what I’m missing. If it’s her inexperience that causes you to hate her, I challenge you to look at our sitting president and realize he has lowered the bar on experience needed to be elected president.
Just my thoughts…
“She is, if you’re honest, still very hot.”
Eh, not so much. Maybe by contrast with others in the political world, but I could stand on any downtown corner in any major city for five minutes and see many more-attractive women pass by. Not that I’m calling her repulsive or anything–at least she’s better-looking than Coulter or Ingraham, who also generate starbursts for being “hot”–which probably says more about the beholder than anything else. As for shmince, there are probably a lot of sheep farmers who are glad he doesn’t live too close by.
JK,at least try not to sound like a complete tool.Challenge though that must be.
I’m not trying to denigrate the effect Palin has had on many Americans. Nor am I trying to say Palin and her family weren’t harshly treated. I agree she had more experience than Obama in an executive position. I agree she can draw a lot of people to just about any GOP event.
Although her interviews with Gibson and Couric were awful…it didn’t much matter to me. My family was really pulling for her, so naturally I was too. But after awhile the far fetched attacks were just too much for me. I need something more and she never provided anything for my inner policy wonk (it ain’t very wonkish, but it’s there). I don’t need a lot on that, but I need something, anything to show me a candidate has thought about the pros and cons of their positions.
As a small “l” libertarian, I view the culture war as one of the lowest forms of political dialogue…and Palin swims in that stuff. I view the drug war as absurd and the PATRIOT Act as intrusive on liberty. I think both sides of the abortion debate are creepy. I don’t trust folks who want to mix their religion with my govt. And I certainly don’t trust those who wrap themselves in the flag when they’ve never bled or lost a personal treasure for it no matter how genuine they may be about it. In my view, Palin loves all of that stuff and makes absurd arguments and statements which includes the above issues.
And she’s not the only one making arguments like that. Limbaugh, hannity, et al make those arguments, but there’s one difference. They’re not running for a leadership position in the United States government.
Now that’s my reason for not liking her, others may have different reasons, but I really can’t speak to those.
I can’t believe I’m the first to write this here, but…
…does this mean we won’t have Sarah Palin to kick around anymore?
Please tell me of one whose children took a beating like this.
Bill and Hillary Clinton. Let me ask you this – did the Presidential candidate of a major political party ever crack a joke about how ugly any of Sarah Palin’s children were? Because I don’t remember that happening. Of course, Democratic families are all fake anyway, since they’re not the Family Values party, therefore I suppose it never counts when John McCain is making Chelsea Clinton jokes.
Chet
Wow, a couple of Chelsea jokes-that’s comperable.
Don’t mistake me-any cheap shots at kids is wrong and stupid.
But really-equivalency?
Also, the Palin kids aren’t ugly or akward looking so it would make no sense to try and make that kind of a joke.
During the campaign an MSNBC reporter who made a comment about Hillary pimping out Chelsea had a ton of shit come down on him-and Chelsea is in her 20′s.
Sarah and Piper went to a ballgame in NYC recently-no campaign going on mind you- and, well, you know the rest. Only a groundswell of complaints got Lettermen to apologize. I suppose that will teach Palin to display her kids like that.
Check out http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/2009/06/13/stop-the-lies/ for a list of the shit that Palin has to deal with. People saying sees anti-contraception when shes said exactly the opposite.
“Jokes” about raping her daughter? “Jokes” about photo-shopping heads onto her disabled son?
18 ethics cases files in a year? For stuff like wearing clothes with a logo? The FBI (for goodness sake) having to state on the record that they have no investigation into her? Half a million in legal fees in a year? She couldn’t afford to stay governor. She’d have been bankrupt.
And as regards Obama and terrorists, he served on a board with Ayers (a bomb-maker), and Ayers wrote in the 90s that Obama was writing a book in his house. That’s not politics of personal destruction, that’s calling attention to gross errors of judgement.
I used to think theagitator.com had really quite thoughtful commenters. Like me, they’d be anti-drugs-war, pro small government, anti police abuse. And I’m way to the right on this one. Either you’ve changed, or I’ve changed.
[...] was a bad candidate and is/was unfairly treated by the media (and not the media, I would add), as Radley Balko notes, isn’t a mutually exclusive [...]
[...] any case, when it all shakes out I pretty much agree 100% with Radley Balko: It is possible that Sarah Palin was both unfairly mistreated and personally attacked by the media [...]