Posted on 10/24/2008 6:48:49 AM PDT by Security Mom 08
“Right now, the Conservatives down in the trenches are taking her about as seriously as they are Peggy Noonan.”
Exactly.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Sarah Palin as Rorschach Test
http://theamericancontrarian.blogspot.com/
The fear and loathing, hate and scorn that Sarah Palin has generated since her meteoric appearance in the political firmament is both fascinating and disturbing; a subject for study by psychologists even more than political scientists or party tacticians. And it can’t be chalked up to mere ideology, since some of the most vicious attacks have come from right-leaning pundits like Peggy Noonan, David Brooks and Kathleen Parker.
I tend to write off the sniping from Noonan and Parker as cattiness and envy; there’s a hot new conservative “it” girl in town and they’re old news, as charter members of the conservative cougars club. Parker swung from swooning over Palin to dissing her in a matter of weeks, based, in seems, on Palin’s poor showing in the Katie Couric interview. She seemed like a fickle teen dumping her latest BFF over some perceived slight. Plus, Parker is savvy enough to know that the quickest way to become a “mainstream” media darling, and get invited to the right parties, is to attack someone else on the right. I never saw Parker on the cable news gab shows until she did her hit piece on Palin. You shouldn’t discount the element of self-promotion in her actions.
Sarah Palin was the girl who made cheerleader and got the hunk, while Noonan and Parker headed-up the forensic team and served as president of the School Library Club, determined to prove that they were more than just pretty faces (but secretly hoping they could be as popular as Sarah). And Brooks can only be counted a “conservative” in relative terms — because he appears on an editorial page, and provides analysis on a PBS news show, that skew so far to the left. He’s the sort of conservative liberals are comfortable with, and will tolerate, because he’s really not much of a conservative at all.
That’s a superficial (and somewhat snide) analysis, I know. Obviously, the national reaction to Palin — which swings from adoration to contempt, depending on where in American society one stands — exposes a deeper cultural divide, which Wall Street Journal columnist Dan Henninger takes a laudable stab at explaining, in a piece I’ve pasted below.
I also think Henninger shows a flash of insight with the following observation: “Presidential candidates such as John McCain and Barack Obama have become untethered from the discipline of party institutions, largely because the parties have lost coherence. So we get celebrity candidates made famous, fundable and electable by dint of their access to the Beltway media. For voters, this election is a national Hail Mary.”
But here’s Henninger’s column in its entirety:
Hatin’ Palin
She’s not the reason Americans can’t stand their politicians.
By DANIEL HENNINGER
The abuse being heaped on Sarah Palin is such a cheap shot.
[snip]
This woman’s hatred of Palin has everything to do with class and cultural prejudice. It is time we exposed her for what she is. Palin has proven her competancy with executive experience as a Governor, a mayor and the chair of a state regulatory commission. It is the fact that Sarah did not come from a background of ivy league eastern colleges, corporate boardrooms or Georgetown cocktail parties that is the problem. She succeeded on her own character, ambition and hutzpah and that is so very bourgeoisie. She is not “recogizable” by the cut of her jib as one of “Them,” Sarah is, however, one of us.
I used to enjoy reading this woman’s columns, but now she has gone over to the Dark Side! Kathleen who?
But what would I know---I live in Texas!---west of the Hudson River!
Talk about milking your “fifteen minutes”! I never even heard of this cow Parker until she started stomping her foot and pouting like a two-year old because Sarah Palin is so much younger and prettier than she is.
Exactly! I always reflexively thought "preppie", but your description is perfect.
Noonan is tough to take.
Yeah, funny, isn't it, how fast that got around?
The Houston Chronicle rushed her opinion of Palin to my door. Which told me something, bunch of Wingo Xtian-bashing gaybots that they are over at the Chron.
The Chron regularly features WaPo syndicate writers, and especially the ones who hang "conservative" or "neocon" credentials over their doors. Then they turn around and attack the most conservative candidates, when we get down to the final innings.
The Chron tends not to run their white-hating, straight-baiting, church-bashing ranters during campaign season. Wonder why that is? </sarc>
LOL bump.
Funny how these senior ex-babe opinionatrices, even the "conservative" ones, get the, um, bad tingles when they get a load of Sarah, who just had a baby a few months ago and looks terrific? Mo Dowd just about had a coronary -- she instantly bared claws and went right after Palin's looks, snarking at her "up-do" and her Japanese eyeglass frames.
Real women aren’t threatened by ~other~ real women.
:)
Hmmmm, ya think? Worth bookmarking.
A Romney endorsement would be worth many shekels of fine silver to The One, even very many shekels of gold, from his superabundant pile.
I still want to know where Obama's dough is coming from.
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