Lakeshark!
Posted on 08/01/2010 6:55:12 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Since August 29, 2008, when Sarah Palin was first introduced as John McCain’s Vice Presidential choice of a running mate, reactions to Palin were and continue to be extreme.
The extremity of Palin hatred started within hours of the announcement, as did the hideous rumors (about her son Trig for instance) that were passed from one leftist website to the next without one shred of evidence to back them up.
The goal, simply put, was to destroy Sarah Palin by any means possible. Being as passionate as they always are, progressive bloggers, media pundits, leftist groups and even comedians started their hate campaign instantly.
This top ten list of Palin haters was not hard to compile. All that was difficult was putting the names in the right order. After all, how does one measure levels of hatred and vitriol that many can never imagine feeling?
I divided it up into two separate categories.
1. Hateful comments and actions
2. Obsessive behavior.
Without further ado, we begin…
10. Sandra Bernhard
In September of 2008, one week before Sarah Palin was scheduled for a campaign stop in New York, Sandra Bernhard was performing at Washington, D.C.’s Theater J. During her stand up routine entitled “Without You I’m Nothing”, she made the following controversial remark:
…If Palin ever visited New York, she would be “gang-raped by my big black brothers.
(VIDEO AT LINK)
Bernhard was scheduled to perform at an annual fundraiser for a women’s shelter named Rosie’s Place, which was promptly cancelled after her controversial remarks about Palin. The spokesperson for Rosie explained that “we don’t think violence against women is a laughing matter. That means not including Sandra Bernhard at this time.”
The comedian tried to defend her comments in an interview with NY Daily News. It was, she said, “nuanced” and only a part of her show about “women, racism, freedom and the extreme views of Gov. Sarah Palin.” Besides, it wasn’t meant literally!
Subsequently, Bernhard attempted to deny she used the term ‘gang” or “raped” at all, claiming she could not remember her exact terminology because the show was an “an improvisational act”. Too little, too late, for you, Bernhard, were videotaped.
9. Jessica Grose
Jessica Grose is the managing editor of DoubleX, was previously an editor for Jezebel.com and has written for the New York Times, the Village Voice and Salon. In short, she’s one experienced leftist.
On September 5, 2008, Grose wrote a piece at Jezebel.com called “Why Sarah Palin Incites Near-Violent Rage In Normally Reasonable Women.”
In that piece she shows her extreme hatred for Palin in its full ugliness and tries to explain why ‘progressives’ such as herself hate the former Alaska governor so passionately.
What I’ve written on this site about Palin so far has been pretty restrained, considering what I feel for her privately could be described as violent, nay, murderous, rage. When Palin spoke on Wednesday night, my head almost exploded from the incandescent anger boiling in my skull. And I’m not the only one! I had simultaneous IM conversations with many friends, who said things like, “she seems like a f****ng monster” and “this feminist wants to murk that idiotic c*nt.”
Almost two years after Palin’s entry into the national spotlight, Grose continues to take digs at not only Sarah Palin, but also at her daughter Bristol. If she doesn’t deserve to be on this top ten list, I don’t know who does.
8. Stephen Colbert
The most memorable offensive comment Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report made toward Sarah Palin was when he called her a, you guessed, it “f*****g retard” on his show.
That made headlines in the blogosphere and media. While that alone would not have been enough to add him to this list, he made more derogatory and humiliating comments about the governor that forced me to include him on it nonetheless:
(VIDEO AT LINK)
Colbert has also mocked Palin’s eyeglasses by appearing on his show wearing them and he referred to Sarah Palin’s book Going Rogue as a “steaming pile of sh*t.” I know what you’re thinking, “is that the level of today’s comedians, then?” Well yes, I’m afraid it is.
7. Rhiannon-Marie Volpe
It seems to me that most of you will not have any idea who this fair lady is. Well, she’s the creator of one of the most popular (political) T-shirts among leftists in history. No, no, I’m not talking about those shirts glorifying the mass murderer Ché Guevara, pretending he was some kind of hero. No, I’m referring to the “Sarah Palin Is A C*nt” ones. Yeah, I know, not exactly an enlightening, intelligent text, but that doesn’t matter to our merry friends of the mainstream media. ABC News’ Political Punch, LA Times’ Top of the Ticket, and The Politico were more than happy to give Volpe all the attention she ever craved. They treated her as if she’s some kind of hero.
My internal debate was whether to go with the people wearing the t-shirts or the people who created them, thereby inspiring others to create similarly themed shirts?
I chose the creators because without the supply, there would not have been the demand.
Variations of the same theme were soon on the market, one example being shirts made stating “Sarah Palin: Putting the ‘C*nt’ back in our Country.” Ha-ha, I know, pretty clever. Not.
6. Jon Stewart
The Daily Show host, Jon Stewart, often uses Sarah Palin to practice his own brand of humor, usually commenting or insulting her whenever she is in the news.
One of Stewart’s most memorable performances was in reaction to Palin when she spoke at a North Carolina fund-raiser, saying: “We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe…that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation.”
Stewart’s reaction was given at Northeastern University to a college audience in Boston. Palin, Stewart said, “said that small towns, that’s the part of the country she really likes going to because that’s the pro-America part of the country. You know, I just want to say to her, just very quickly: F**k you.”
(VIDEO AT LINK)
The above quote in combination with his propensity for making Palin one of his favorite targets is why Stewart earns his spot on this – soon to be infamous! – top ten list.
Lowlights from Stewart on Palin, starting from when she was first introduced, include but are not limited to:
“Sarah Palin may be the ideological opposite of Hillary Clinton, but she’s her gynecological twin”.
“They found Sarah Palin in the wild, taught her everything, and set her loose, but they forgot one thing: she couldn’t be contained”.
“Sarah Palin doesn’t need to know what the Bush Doctrine is — she is the Bush Doctrine.”
“Sarah Palin launches a PR blitz to show voters all they missed by not electing her queen of America.”
Those quotes all stem from the period August to November 2008. It just goes to show how deep the hatred for Palin runs in Stewart. The examples are too many to list fully, but he continued to use Palin as comedy fodder throughout 2009 and well into 2010.
Places such as Zazzle.com continues to sell Anti-Palin “Sarah Palin is a c*nt” t-shirts to this day. CafePress seems to have taken theirs off the site although the header for the page the shirts used to be found on still states “Palin c*nt T-shirts, Shirts, Tees & Clothing.”
5. David Letterman
The Late Show with David Letterman has been using Sarah Palin as comedic fodder ever since she first hit the national stage. Letterman has used his stand up monologues to crack jokes about the former governor. In September 2008, for instance, he created a rather lame, but insulting “Top Ten Facts about Sarah Palin“-list.
Letterman makes the Top 10 Palin Haters list because in June of 2009 he decided to add Palin’s daughter(s) to his anti-Palin routine.
“One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game,” Letterman said, “during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.”
(VIDEO AT LINK)
Palin responded vehemently in public, defending her cub as a momma bear would. A few days later Letterman apologized and claimed his joke was not in reference to her 14 year old daughter that was with her at the Yankees game. Instead, he said, he was referring to her oldest 18 year old pregnant daughter. Right.
In Letterman’s mind, sexual comments from a 62 year old man aimed at an 18 year old politician’s daughter is much less offensive and hateful than against a 14 year old. It goes to show just how sick Letterman is – at least when it comes to the Palins.
4. Keith Olbermann
What would a Palin hate list be without Keith Olbermann, the man who can miraculously hold his breath long enough to go off on the following idiotic rant?
Sanctimonious, holier than thou, exploitative, undignified, pedantic, childish, self-inflicting, insipid, backwards, embarrassing, over-reactive, overreaching, or as Peggy Noonan summed it up, with the succinctness I have obviously long since abandoned — yammering.
That was in reference to the Palin/Letterman controversy listed above.
Other memorable Countdown with Keith Olbermann rants against Palin include his asking “Is she smarter than a third grader”; calling her a “socialist”; saying she is “dangerous to national security“; stating she is an “idiot“, and mocking what he calls her “imbecility” and “stupidity“.
All those came from different Countdown shows and only represent one page of the search on Olbermann/Palin keywords.
Olbermann is also known for referring to Palin as “fanatically anti-abortion,” “hard right,” “global warming denying,” a “rabid conservative,” a “red meat conservative,” and a “fire-breather.”
Olbermann’s hate filled rants about Palin and other issues could be the reason that from 06/28/10 to 07/25/10 his show had the lowest viewing average since April of 2008.
3. Maureen Dowd
Dowd writes an op-ed column for the New York Times. Nobody knows why - her writing is droll and sarcastic, but hey, apparently there’s a place for such columnists as well.
Because of the low quality of her writing, I hesitated to add Dowd to the Top 10 Sarah Palin haters list… until I conducted a search of her columns and found that since August 31, 2008 (2 days after Palin was introduced), she has either written whole pieces about Palin or at least mentioned her in 37 different columns.
I figure that qualifies as obsessive. Additionally, the tone of the columns, the sarcasm and snark aimed at Palin does, indeed, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that doesn’t merely dislike Palin, but really – and passionately - hates her.
Dowd’s very first column on Palin was called “Vice in Go-Go Boots?” It set the tone for all future columns or mentions of Palin as she describes her appearance on the political world stage as a “sassy chick flick”, purely for Dowd’s (and other haters’) entertainment.
Instead of going home and watching “Miss Congeniality” with Sandra Bullock, I get to stay here and watch “Miss Congeniality” with Sarah Palin.
In that piece alone she refers to Palin as McCain’s “hail Mary” pass, refers to her hair as a “beehive,” and says “the day she’s named she goes shopping with McCain in Ohio for a cheerleader outfit for her daughter.”
The imaginary movie continues in the same vein.
Two days later, Dowd is at it again, referring to Palin’s life as a soap opera and referring to her pregnant daughter Bristol as “tabloid roadkill”.
Every three to four days after that for over a month, Dowd sharpens her claws. She went all out, obsessively going after Palin whenever the opportunity arises. Her pace slowed in October, 2008. Yet there were still, at least, seven columns in that month alone where she wrote about Palin and/or her family.
In 2009 Dowd used Palin as a prop mostly with only periodical whole columns about her, just throwing Palin’s name in articles about other people for the fun of it. Oh, and undoubtedly for the hits (mention “Palin” and you’ll get tons of readers through Google Search).
Dowd’s one redeeming quality is that she is just as unfailingly snarky about anyone else she sets her hateful sights on; so while I list her as a Palin hater, she could just as easily be called a people hater.
2. Chris Matthews
Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball, is an almost perfect example of an obsessive Palin hater. Starting from 2008, when Palin was highlighted on the national scene, Matthews consistently, obsessively focused on her.
To list each and every example would take pages upon pages, considering Matthews has his own show to freely indulge in his rather unhealthy hatred for Palin. So let’s just take a quick glance at a few of Matthews’ most egregious displays of open hostility.
The Media Research Center provides the following questions that Matthews asked Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz on his Hardball show on October 2, 2008, in reference to Palin’s intelligence going into the vice presidential debate against Joe Biden:
“Well do you think cute will beat brains? ” and “Do you think she’d do better on the questions on ‘Jeopardy’ or the interview they do during a halftime?”
Following the debate Matthews called Palin a “dolt” for looking into the cameras while answering questions.
Examples from 2009 show Matthews questioning Palin’s ability to read and write, in reference to her upcoming book. “If she can read, if she can write, she’ll make some money,” the progressive talk show host said. He went on to say that “the question is who actually will write the Palin book. The only politician I know who can write is Barack Obama.” In May of the same year he expanded on that theme by, apparently believing he was pretty funny, saying “Sarah Palin — now, don’t laugh — is writing a book. Not just reading a book, writing a book.”
I will end Matthews’ 2009 examples with his August question: “Is Sarah Palin a Poster Girl for Racism?”
In 2010 Matthews’ rhetoric hit a fever pitch when he spent 12 minutes attacking Palin on one segment of Hardball, with quotes like “can a palm reader be president?” (referring to crib notes on Palin’s hand with talking points) and “is she a balloon head?” He also said that Palin had an “attack dog persona,” whatever that may mean. Other rants from Matthews call Palin, “frightening”, “an empty vessel”, and, like his colleague at MSNBC Keith Olbermann, he says she “has nothing going on mentally.”
The reason Matthews seems to be reaching this extreme tipping point towards Palin obsession in 2010 is that he believes Palin could very well become the GOP nominee for president in 2010. (He also mentioned in that show that the media would try to destroy her.)
All this and much more has earned Chris Matthews the number two spot of the Top 10 Palin haters.
And now it’s time for the number one. Of all the Palin-haters out there, who’s the worst of them all? Who’s so blinded by his hatred that he doesn’t even realize he’s making an ass out of himself? Which pundit is so obsessed with the former Alaska governor that even his friends fear he’s losing his sanity?
It can only be one man, namely…
1. Andrew Sullivan
When the words Sarah Palin, Trig Palin, obsession and hate are thought of in conjunction with each other, no specific name comes to mind faster than Andrew Sullivan from The Atlantic’s Daily Dish.
To understand how Sullivan’s obsessive behavior began, one must know the circumstances behind the vicious rumors that the leftist website Daily Kos instigated within days of Sarah Palin being announced as John McCain’s running mate. The Daily Kos diary that questioned whether Trig Palin, Sarah’s fifth child who was born with Down Syndrome, was actually Sarah’s or her daughter Bristols’ has since been deleted, but the comment count shown was over 1900.
And so a rumor began… one that spread fast and furiously throughout the Internet, despite other members of Daily Kos providing sufficient evidence to dispel the rumor in a separate diary.
That initial Kos diary is what prompted Andrew Sullivan to first begin questioning the parentage of Trig Palin. On August 31, 2008, the conservative-turned-Obama-propagandist was requesting the McCain campaign to “provide medical records for Sarah Palin’s pregnancy – and put this to rest.”
The very next day Sullivan wrote about the second Kos diary, saying “This seems to put the kibbosh on this, although it would still be good to have official confirmation from the McCain campaign, which should be easy enough to do. Just a simple confirmation from the doctor who was present at the birth.”
The very same day Sullivan writes on the matter again in a piece titled “Rebuttal” where he once again states his desire to see proof of Trig’s parentage. “Why not kill this rumor with Palin’s medical records?” he asked. “A 43 year old woman’s pregnancy with a Downs Syndrome child would have been intensely monitored, and the records must be a mile long. Just release them, ok?”
A search of Sullivan’s Daily Dish website, keywords Sullivan, Trig Palin, brings up a piece where it appeared Sullivan admitted the rumors were false and saying he was moving past the Trig issue. Page three of the search, results 17-24 of about 1860, shows “Why Trig Matters – The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan”.
…. But I do respect someone who walks the walk of their ideals – even if their career is in full swing, even if there are dangers to the pregnancy, even if her own family is unfortunately lit up by the klieg-light of attention. In this decision, Palin was both pro-choice and pro-life, which is where I come down on this issue. She didn’t force anyone else to have this child by law. She made the choice herself – with all the possible consequences.
My hat is off to her. I this respect, if on nothing else, I think both pro-choice and pro-life people can agree.
Those that believed Sullivan was done with the issue were, however, sorely mistaken. Behind the scenes, you see, he was emailing the McCain campaign about her and Trig nonetheless. Howard Kurtz published these emails in an article for the Washington Post.
Last week, Sullivan, a British conservative who became disgusted with the Bush administration and is a passionate advocate for Barack Obama, sent an e-mail query to the McCain campaign:
“I’m very sorry to say, it’s come to this: can you confirm on the record that Trig Palin is Sarah Palin’s biological son? . . . Since this is a crazy idea, it should be easy for you or someone to let me know, the most popular one-man political blog site in the world, what the truth is.”
A day later, he followed up with a second note: “I asked a simple question akin to asking whether you can confirm that the sky is blue. Here’s the question in case it got lost: can you confirm on the record that Trig Palin is Sarah Palin’s biological son? Can I please get a response of some sort, even if it is that you will not respond?” The McCain camp, which provided the messages to The Washington Post, did not reply.
In that same article Kurtz reports Sullivan’s reply to him by email where Sullivan says: “Like any human being. I assume that this baby is hers. Of course I do. But as a journalist, my job is also to ask for confirmation or for evidence. And that is all I have done. By e-mail. Not on my blog. I would be remiss if I did not ask them to confirm it. At least that’s my view of my responsibility. And I have published every single piece of evidence we have that he is. What else can I do?”
That, ladies and gentlemen, was just the beginning of the Sullivan obsession into Sarah Palin and her fifth child.
While the search of Sullivan’s site for his articles using keywords Sullivan, Trig Palin, shows “Results 1-8 of about 1870“, a search on Sullivan using Sarah Palin instead of Trig, shows “Results 1-8 of about 5740.”
This indicates that rather Sullivan’s obsessive hatred for Palin hasn’t dwindled down, but grown over the last two years and then months. It has truly become uncontrolled. Heck, another writer for the Daily Dish, Dave Weigel, even called his colleague’s behavior “obsessive” as well in a July, 2010 piece. You know you’ve gone too far when your colleagues and fellow leftist Palin-haters turn against you.
Note: Although the searches all say “By Andrew Sullivan”, some seem to have been written by others as is the case of the one mentioned above where under the headline it states “by Dave Weigel”. By going through them, the majority of those search results were written by Andrew Sullivan.
As of July 26, 2010, Sullivan still speaks about Palin and feels vindicated by the knowledge that leaked emails from Journolist, a list-serv of approximately 400 members, showed page after page of other Liberal journalists and/or media personalities, expressing the same type of questions when the rumors first started. Only they didn’t publicize their questions for fear of it harming the Obama campaign.
Sullivan accuses them of being “devoid of any balls whatsoever.”
Thank you for that. I like the way Palin is thinking outside the box in communicating with America. Republicans have to be cutting edge to circumvent media interference and to refute the image of a bunch of old, out of touch white guys.
The more innovative she is, the better.
Yes, but, I will still answer (most of) your posts, 'shark. I think I will ping the merry band, too.
'sharkie, to which "bitter ping list" are you referring?
FR has its fair share of beta males...when they post about Sarah you can smell their estrogen levels rising through the ether.
Hey little monkey, don’t you have something else you could be doing?
Thanks, MKJ!
8^) Thanks!
;-)
Congrats. Enjoy the fleas (and worse).
A high calling for sure.
” LAKESNARK “
L
O
L
Lakeshark!
LOL, that’s the first thing I thought of.
No, pissant and Bob_J didn’t make the list.
After reading that list, all I can say is that Sarah may want to add more bodyguards. Those people are frightening.
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