Posted on 10/08/2008 12:39:10 AM PDT by T Lady
WASHINGTON -- When Sarah Palin said she was taking off the gloves, she wasn't just whistling "Onward, Christian Soldiers."
Or was she?
In the wake of the vice presidential debate, Palin has trained her moose-hunting sights on bigger trophies -- Barack Obama and the media.
In Colorado a few days ago, she told fans that Obama pals around with terrorists. Later in Clearwater, Fla., resplendent in white against a backdrop of red, white and blue, she said, "This is not a man who sees America the way that you and I see America, as the greatest source for good in this world. I'm afraid this is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country."
"Booooooooooooo."
On Monday, Bill Kristol wrote in his column that Palin thinks Obama's association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright needs to be discussed more. Because hardly anyone ever mentioned it?
Palin also took the opportunity in Clearwater to deflect criticism of her interview with Katie Couric. First she joked that she was only working for Tina Fey's job security. Then she said the reason she did so poorly in the interview was that she was annoyed.
We are to infer that the reason Palin gave answers that ranged from ridiculous to nonsensical was that she was merely withholding her insights to demonstrate her pique? Right.
Nevertheless, "Yaaaaaaaaaaaay."
The real Sarah Palin is free at last. She's not just a hockey mom after all. She's Palin the Impaler. Pit bulls beware.
No one who watched the vice presidential debate should be surprised. Palin's performance, notwithstanding her adorable dodges of questions she didn't like, was essentially a cri de coeur to America's non-elite.
Democrats and other critics distracted by her winks may have missed the message, but Palin's target audience heard it loud and clear. She is like the high-pitched whistle only dogs can hear. While Democrats heard non-answers, superfluous segues and cartoon words -- shout-out, I'll betcha, doggone, extra credit -- Republicans heard God, patriotism, courage, victory.
It's called code, and Republicans are fluent.
It isn't just the "maverick" word, which we now may consign to the Cliche Crematorium. Sprinkled throughout Palin's remarks were phrases that set the free associative mind in motion.
-- "Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again" was Ronald Reagan all over again.
-- "I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and God bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right?" Every evangelical Christian heard her rallying cry -- Onward, Soldiers!
-- "Because here you voted for the war and now you oppose the war." Did anybody hear flip-flop?
A television audience won't remember facts -- and most won't race to FactCheck.org -- but they'll remember impressions. Palin successfully conveyed to those she was targeting that she is a Ronald Reagan-ish outsider who puts God and country first. And The Other is just like that elitist, flip-flopping John Kerry.
That's a plateful of imagery and a buffet of touchstones familiar to those who distrust "elitists" and who recognize in Palin a kindred regularness.
Time magazine examined voting habits and concluded that most people do not vote for issues, but rather for the candidates. Specifically, they vote for people who are most like themselves. Which is why McCain and Palin have amped up their rhetoric of difference.
Neither McCain nor Palin would dare mention Obama's middle name, Hussein, but they can play up Obama's past associations and let others connect the dots. Terrorist. Muslim. Dangerous. Other.
It is legitimate to question character and dubious associations -- and Ayers is certifiably dubious. The truth is, Obama should have avoided Ayers, and his denouncement of Wright was tardy. But this is a dangerous game.
The McCain campaign knows that Obama isn't a Muslim or a terrorist, but they're willing to help a certain kind of voter think he is. Just the way certain South Carolinians in 2000 were allowed to think that McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh was his illegitimate black child.
But words can have more serious consequences than lost votes and we've already had a glimpse of the Palin effect.
Dana Milbank of The Washington Post reported that media representatives in Clearwater were greeted with taunts, thunder sticks and profanity. One Palin supporter shouted an epithet at an African-American soundman and said, "Sit down, boy."
McCain may want to call off his pit bull before this war escalates.
Copyright © 2008 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved.
With friends like these...
Where’s the Barf Alert!
What happened to Parker, did Peggy Noonan bite her in the neck?
Posted halfway down this page.
/thread Nazi
That's why I substituted 'Barf' for 'Faux Conservative'.
If Ms. Parker keeps writing tripe like this, she'll be kicked off Town Hall like Paul Craig Roberts.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Generally it’s good to let the reader know where you’re going at some point in the column. What a crappy piece of writing.
They are scared... on the run... sputtering.. spouting absurdities...
There are trolls entering the rally venues seeking to promote the idea that Sarah and/or McCain are racists.
Parker knows it too and is willing to play that ugly game in order to denigrate Sarah and McCain.
Just seeing kathleen parker's name is already a sufficient barf alert. :)
Extremely frustrating (I was at work so I wasn't able to watch or listen to the debate)...
But - and this is a big But: We still need to support this ticket, with Sarah Palin being the entire reason for doing so. Of course nearly everyone on this forum knows what the GOP gave us when we got McCain as the nominee. So in that respect we have to make lemons into lemonade or face four horrific years of Barack Obama...and I'm sure you know good and darned well, as Mark Levin said on his show tonight, the man was lying through his teeth.
I apologize...I did run a search.
Gee, I wonder who Parker is voting for?
Hey Parker, there is a reason Obama’s so-called denouncement of Wright was “tardy” by 20 years, it’s called racisim. Obama didn’t object to Wright, just like Obama didn’t object to Ayers, because HE DIDN’T FIND THEM OBJECTIONABLE.
Why the ______, they let her continue to spew her daily Kos material on Townhall.com, I don’t understand.
I think she is going to turn out like another David Brock or Andrew Sullivan - from pseudo-conservative to full-fledged moonbat.
That's exactly what I thought when I read it, too.
lol
Yes, Kathleen, you closet liberal, you jealous, bitter old hag, and we like Sarah that way.
Romney supporters are deranged.
Why is this B!tch still call herself conservative and writes for the national review.
This is what happens when you waste your time watching CBS. Surely there was something more informative on the home shopping network or the golf channel at that time?
This is what happens when you waste your time watching CBS. Surely there was something more informative on the home shopping network or the golf channel at that time?
Parker is PATHETIC!!! She’s a LOUSY writer.
What the HELL is this idiot of a person talking about?
I am sick and tired of this crap. Our country is in grave danger of being handed to a Marxist, socialist, anti-American person with less than 200 days of experience at the federal level and who has never held a real job in his entire life.
She says Barack Obama "should" have avoided an association with a KNOWN terrorist, and was "tardy" in denouncing a so-called "clergyman" who is one of the most virulently racist, anti-American public figures I have EVER seen in my entire life, and she says it as if they happened to pass in the street!
It is not like he happened to attend a cocktail party with them, or met them at some kind of seminar. These are people he has known for years and had intimate connections with.
This is unbelievable. What the HELL is wrong with this woman and people like her?
Now the media is afraid of Palin, too, huh? Heheheh! This is too much.
The brown cow moos at the silver moon
LLS
What IS it with this broad? Is she Townhall’s token Lib?
ROTFLMBO!
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