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Monday, July 06, 2009
Why they hate Sarah PalinHere's the best read today, written by a liberal feminist. My take? For some of them it's nothing more than snobbery; the Mo Dowd, Andrew Sullivan, Tina Fey axis of weasels. She's not one of "us", they sniff. She went to five colleges in four years, whereas we went to Haavaad. She got married to a guy who's not in mergers and acquisitions at Goldman, or even a lawyer. She had five kids and didn't even have the decency to abort the "defective" one. For most, it's that she's a traitor to her sex. Women are all supposed to vote Democrat, so therefore she's not really a woman. You saw similar reactions to Clarence Thomas (or indeed any black who happens to be a Republican). They're race traitors (as is Michelle Malkin; Filipinos are supposed to stick up for the Japanese). And once the treason is revealed, who would feel the need to stick up for the traitor? Indeed at that point it's appropriate to express racism or sexism. Sarah is a bimbo; otherwise she'd been a Democrat, QED. Labels: Feminism, Sarah Palin
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Hatchet Piece on PalinI swear, you'd think she was the President the way the media can't resist kicking her at every opportunity. Todd Purdum slants his article from the word go: Despite her disastrous performance in the 2008 election, Sarah Palin is still the sexiest brand in Republican politics, with a lucrative book contract for her story. If there was a disastrous performance, it was by the mainstream media in 2008, which is part of the reason they're in so much trouble these days financially. The article is tendentious. The most unintentionally hilarious bit comes here: More than once in my travels in Alaska, people brought up, without prompting, the question of Palin’s extravagant self-regard. Several told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of “narcissistic personality disorder” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—“a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy”—and thought it fit her perfectly. Yes, of course, lots of people have the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders lying around for convenient reference, and mention it commonly to traveling reporters. And how about a little pop psychology about the person who's actually the Vice President of the United States, and who's also a bully and an obnoxious jerk? And then there's this: What does it say about the nature of modern American politics that a public official who often seems proud of what she does not know is not only accepted but applauded? What does her prominence say about the importance of having (or lacking) a record of achievement in public life? I dunno, what record of achievement in public life does President Obama have? Purdum's a hack writer and a liberal hired by Graydon Carter; for chrissakes his wife is Dee Dee Myers, former press secretary for Bill Clinton. In fact, since Bill came up, I'll let him have the last word on Purdum: "He's a really dishonest reporter," Clinton said during the tirade that followed, according to Fowler's report. "And I haven't read (the article). There's just five or six blatant lies in there. But he's a real slimy guy."
Reminded that Purdum is married to his former press secretary Dee Dee Myers, Clinton responded in part: "That's all right - he's still a scumbag." The former president added: "He's just a dishonest guy - can't help it." Labels: Sarah Palin, Todd Purdum, Vanity Fair
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The Latest BS From the LeftThey're trying to stir up outrage because Sarah Palin nominated Wayne Anthony Ross to be Attorney General of the State of Alaska. Somebody went through some old columns that Ross had written and found that he (gasp) defended a student who did a statue of a KKK member. I saw this yesterday and was struck that despite the provocative title of the essay (KKK art project gets 'A' for courage), the people who were pushing it seemed unable to come up with any really objectionable pull quotes. Come today, and Sam Stein, the designated smear merchant of the Huffington Post, has the complete article reproduced. And what do you know, there's a lot less to this story than the first breathless accounts indicated. The art project in question was done as part of an assignment on "Nightmares and Monsters", not "people I admire." Ross notes there would have been no controversy if he'd done a statue of a fictional monster like Freddy Krueger: But a KKK figure is a real monster. And the nightmare of racial prejudice is real also. And if we are ever to achieve equality of races in this country, we must be prepared to fight such monsters and end such nightmares, once and for all. So whence come the cries that Ross is a racist? Well, apparently he was insufficiently sympathetic to those who protested the statue, one of whom threatened to take down the statue if the university administrators did not. Shockingly, Ross seemed to feel that there was something wrong with a person threatening university administrators with an illegal act if they did not bow to her demands. And of course none of this is about Ross; it's all about Palin. The kooks are clutching at straws here. Labels: Sarah Palin, Wayne Anthony Ross
Friday, January 02, 2009
Short Palin, Go Long RomneyOddsmakers have installed Sarah Palin as the favorite to win the Republican nomination in 2012. Despite a slew of negative press this fall about Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) running mate, online gaming site Superbook.com puts Palin’s odds at 3.5-1, the best among Republican hopefuls.
Other top GOP contenders include former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, whose odds are set at 4-1, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, at 5-1. As I pointed out earlier, VP candidates on losing tickets their first time around are very poor bets to win their party's nomination the next time around. In fact, I went back to the 1930s and couldn't find a time it happened. I like Palin. But as Allah points out, 2012 is likely to favor the Democrats, barring a Jimmuh Carter term for Obama. If that looks like the case, expect the younger players to sit it out, leaving room for Romney or some dark horse candidate like Charlie Crist. Labels: Charlie Crist, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin
Monday, December 15, 2008
Will Palin Be the Nominee in 2012?Personally I doubt it, and that has nothing to do with her. I respect Sarah Palin and thought she got jobbed by the media during the campaign. That said, VP nominees on losing tickets their first go-round have a terrible record when it comes to the next time: 2004 Edwards: Nope 2000 Lieberman: No 1996 Kemp: Negative 1988 Bentsen: No 1984 Ferraro: Nope 1976 Dole: No, but did become the nominee 20 years later 1972 Shriver: No 1968 Muskie: Nope 1964 Miller: No 1960 Lodge: Negative 1956 Kefauver: No 1952 Sparkman: Who? 1948 Warren: No 1944 Bricker: Nope 1940 McNary: Nein 1936 Knox: No Of course, VP nominees who actually became VP have a much better track record, with Gore, Bush Sr., Mondale, Humphrey, LBJ (special case obviously), Nixon and Truman (special case) all getting the endorsement of their respective parties at the next possible convention. Labels: Sarah Palin
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
I Dream of Sarah With the Light Brown Hair....Okay, the media have gone from simple derangement to outright mania. Check out David Plotz: When I mentioned my Palin dreams to Slate colleagues, they volunteered their own. One Obama-supporting colleague dreamed she had urged her young son to kill Palin with a string bean. Another dreamed she was at a fashion show and Palin served her crème fraîche on little scooped corn chips. A third says, "In the Sarah Palin dream I keep having, she has superhuman powers but is not really a person at all. In fact, she is more like the weather with glasses and an up-do, pushing clouds around and pitching lightning bolts." LOL! They go on to urge people to send in their own dreams about Palin. Of course, mine's pretty simple: I dream I see Sarah Palin standing proudly beside John McCain as he recites the oath of office of the Presidency. Update: Matt Yglesias shares his dream: I didn’t want to mention that I had a dream about Sarah Palin (she was driving a piece of farm equipment back and forth on the football field of the high school catty-corner to my house, laughing maniacally and I was trying desperately to install some kind of codec on my laptop so they could capture it on video) because it just seemed to weird and creepy. Freud would be scribbling frantically in his notebook at this point. Update II: I dream of Sarah with the light brown hair, She's driving a tractor, I'm in my underwear... Labels: Palin Derangement Syndrome, Sarah Palin
Friday, August 29, 2008
Democratic Underground Spreading Stupid RumorsI don't know whether I'm helping to spread this crap, but I feel it needs to be confronted. Some posters over at Democratic Underground are spreading a ridiculous rumor that Sarah Palin's last child, the one with Down's Syndrome, is actually her grandchild and that her 16-year-old daughter is really the mother. As evidence, the Palin "Truthers" offered an article published on Google Groups that noted Alaska reporters were caught by surprise by the announcement that Governor Palin was seven months' pregnant. Of course, anybody who knows about pregnancy knows that's about when it starts to show. There are claims in one of the threads that David Sirota pushed this rumor on the Thom Hartmann show; I am working on that angle now. If so, this is more than just a few of the loonier left at DU, but a major blogger and a well-known talk radio show have been caught spreading rumors. Update: I listened to the show and Sirota is blameless in the matter. He was in the studio, but the conversation was between Hartmann and Kerry Kerrigan, a "progressive" talker in Alaska: Hartmann: Kerry, I'm hearing some--now this falls into the category of rumor, Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, whom I know nothing about, is pregnant? Kerrigan: I have heard that as well and I know people who go to her--this is a very small community, when people ask me what Alaska is like I describe as Mayberry where Andy Griffith lived, because Aunt Bea would cook a pie and Barney would smell it and come by for a slice. And that's kind of what we're hearing up here from some of the kids who've gone to school with her at her high school as well, saying the same thing. Hartmann: So her daughter Bristol, the 17-year-old daughter is single? She's not married? Kerrigan: That is correct. No sleaze is apparently too low for Hartmann. Of course, the idea that Governor Palin could get away with this is ridiculous; an army of people would have to have been paid off. And the point is not whether she "showed" at seven months; how about at eight and nine months?  As the reporter observed: The second day of the Alaska Republican Convention had some fireworks - a raging Don Young, a surprise announcement, and a more pregnant-looking Sarah Palin getting multiple standing ovations. Labels: Sarah Palin
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