Posted on 11/20/2009 4:27:33 AM PST by Kaslin
Slate magazine is just one of the countless media outlets convulsing with St. Vitus' Dance over that demonic succubus Sarah Palin. In its reader forum, The Fray, one supposed Palinophobe took dead aim at the former Alaska governor's writing chops, excerpting the following sentence from her book:
"The apartment was small, with slanting floors and irregular heat and a buzzer downstairs that didn't work, so that visitors had to call ahead from a pay phone at the corner gas station, where a black Doberman the size of a wolf paced through the night in vigilant patrol, its jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle."
Other readers pounced like wolf-sized Dobermans on an intruder. One guffawed, "That sentence by Sarah Palin could be entered into the annual Bulwer-Lytton bad writing contest. It could have a chance at winning a (sic) honorable mention, at any rate."
But soon, the original contributor confessed: "I probably should have mentioned that the sentence quoted above was not written by Sarah Palin. It's taken from the first paragraph of 'Dreams From My Father,' written by Barack Obama."
The ruse should have been allowed to fester longer, but the point was made nonetheless: Some people hate Palin first and ask questions later.
My all-time favorite response to John McCain's selection of Palin as his running mate was from Wendy Doniger, a feminist professor of religion at the University of Chicago. Professor Doniger wrote of the exceedingly feminine "hockey mom" with five children: "Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman."
The best part about that sentence: Doniger uses the pronoun "her" -- twice.
Just this week, a liberal blogger at the Atlantic who has dedicated an unhealthy amount of his life to proving a one-man birther conspiracy theory about Palin's youngest child (it's both too slanderous and too deranged to detail here) shut down his blog to cope with the epochal, existential crisis that Palin's book presents to all humankind. The un-self-consciously parodic announcement seemed more appropriate for a BBC warning that the German blitz was about to begin, God Help Us All.
Indeed, some of us will always be sympathetic to Mrs. Palin if for nothing else than her enemies. The bile she extracts from her critics is almost like a dye marker, illuminating deep pockets of asininity that heretofore were either unnoticed or underappreciated.
In fairness, just as there are people who hate Palin for the effrontery she shows in daring to draw breath at all, there are those who love her with a devotion better suited for a religious icon.
I hear from both camps, often. And while I don't think both sides are equally wrong (after all, the acolytes of the Doniger school openly reject reality more than any so-called creationist), I don't think either position is laudable or sufficient.
Sarah Palin is neither savior (that job has been taken by the current president, or didn't you know?) nor is she satanic. She is a politician, a species of human like the rest of us.
I'm fairly certain that if you read many of her public-policy positions but concealed her byline, many of her worst enemies would say "that sounds about right," and some of her biggest fans would say "that sounds crazy." But most people would say that her views are perfectly within the mainstream of American politics. She may be more religious than coastal elites in the lower 48, but that is something some bigots need to get over anyway.
I'm happy about the books she's selling thanks to the controversy over her, but that doesn't mean I think these controversies are justified. Palin holds no public office and, as of yet, is not running for one. But the Associated Press assigned 11 reporters to "fact-check" her book, while doing nothing like that to fact-check then-candidate Obama's or current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's no doubt riveting book.
As it stands, my sense is that Palin is good for the Republican Party but not necessarily great. She generates enthusiasm among, and donations from, the base. But she also turns off many of the people the GOP needs to persuade and attract. That could change with this book tour, and I hope it does. Whether she's ready or qualified for the presidency is another matter. But the presidency is a long way off, and besides, that's what primaries are for.
Great line!
Last night Geraldine Ferraro sent slams Sarah’s way with some of the most ridiculous comments of all time
She said that conservatives won’t like Sarah anymore because she praised Title IX saying that without it she wouldn’t have been able to go to college. Ferraro states that republicans fought mightily against Title IX. Therefore, Sarah isn’t really a conservative.
At the risk of embarrassing Ms. Ferraro.....better Title IX allowing Sarah to go to college, than selling drugs to one’s college classmates to earn spending money. Ferraro’s son was arrested for being the ‘pharmacist’ at his college.
The perfect pwn. It's almost too easy.
an enemy of my enemy is my friend...
I have a problem with this sentiment. It is Sarah Palin's image as portrayed in the press that "turns off many people". By accepting this as a truth, Goldberg implicitly cedes the power of self-definition to the lamestream press - which is exactly what they want people to do.
After all, Obama owes everything to the image of him portrayed by a sycophantic media.
I admit I’ve done quite a bit of speed-reading of anti-Palin rants masquerading as ‘reviews’ of her book (despite many of them having failed to even read the damn thing).
99% of them can be boiled down to “We are smart and Sarah Palin isn’t.” None of it true or accurate of course but very consistent.
Plagiarizing myself from earlier:
Palin’s credentials are an open book. Period.
“O” succeeded in winning the WH while HIS background and credentials are a dead letter ...
If that is not appalling enough… HIS character is lastingly and indelibly contaminated by the many, direct, long-standing and unwholesome associations he was careless enough to cultivate throughout his personal and ‘professional’ life AND which he was reckless enough to MAINTAIN even up until his campaign for President. It is telling that “O” did not fully repudiate these associations and was only half-heartedly contrite about them AFTER they were publicized. No one is convinced!
How ANYONE can presume to challenge Palin’s background and fitness for public service when the man in the WH is this political dilettante who has been consistently and indefensibly lionized by the MSM in their long career of lionizing ALL and ANY public figures who hate and humiliate the U.S. by their words, associations and conduct.
America is waking up to the moral and ethical offensiveness of this opera bouffe farce which “O” calls his ‘Presidency’. Consequently, Palin, who looked good to Conservatives during the last national campaign, is looking better all the time!
[The incumbent president's] character is lastingly and indelibly contaminated by the many, direct, long-standing and unwholesome associations he was careless enough to cultivate throughout his personal and ‘professional’ life AND which he was reckless enough to MAINTAIN even up until his campaign for President. It is telling that “O” did not fully repudiate these associations and was only half-heartedly contrite about them AFTER they were publicized.Whether she's ready or qualified for the presidency is another matter. But the presidency is a long way off, and besides, that's what primaries are for.
If the standard for a presidential candidate is to be superior to the incumbent, no one running for the GOP nomination is likely to fall short.The standard for the Republican nomination, over and above that distressingly minimal criterion, are that
If the nominee doesn't win, his/her credentials are moot. The frantic efforts of the propaganda wing of the left to discredit Gov. Palin reflects its calculation that she would be the strongest likely challenger. I agree with that assessment. Notwithstanding that I'm less enthusiastic about Title IX than she is. I'm not aware of any other candidate with executive experience who is more agreeable to my sensibilities - and certainly none who is as charismatic as she is.
- he or she be able to win, and
- he or she be a competent, conservative executive.
If she's on the ballot in '12, I'll be voting for her, not just against Obama. That would be the second candidate, and the third election, In which I could truly say that. And I voted for Nixon three times . . .
Certainly-Palin's experience as GOvernor of Alaska (if she did/does nothing else) more that trumps “O’s” ‘abilities’ and record.
And we KNOW da&^ well that Palin is NOT grinding her guts out with hatred for the US!!
Silly moonbats, attacking what they say is Palin’s writing after they claimed that she didn’t write the book.
Go figure...
- JP
Lame!
Dems like to talk about Social Security and Medicare, too: take the money and shut up! As if Democrats' passing Social Security or Medicare should have silenced conservatives for all time.
Wonder how they feel about having a Defense Department.
You know, the one they've tried to plunder out of existence repeatedly, only to have someone like Ronald Reagan build it up again.
Ferraro went off the reservation when she claimed there was a racist tone to the O campaign.
No doubt she heard plenty from the left after that. Now she’s back on the talking points.
Lame is right.
I also saw Martha Stewart step totally out of character (I think), and badmouth Sarah Palin.
And, of course, who could forget Katie Couric - smiling delicate daggers at poor Sarah Palin, who seemed totally oblivious to the fact?
I only saw a second or two of the Barbara Walters interview, so I can't judge the overall effect.
Sarah Palin needs to stop being so friendly and kissy with these women, who, in all actuality, hate her guts. It makes Palin look stupid. She would be better served to show some reserve.
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