The one subject matter that Sarah Palin is the world's foremost expert upon: Sarah Palin.

[yllus]

When I first heard of Governor Palin (and before I had seen her, heard her policy positions or listened to her talk), I was rather enthusiastic. A strong, intelligent, female voice with conservative leaning seems to be something that's always in short supply.

Then I heard Ms. Palin talk and all my initial optimism evaporated. She immediately struck me as not having any strong political opinions, no sharp wit to use to criticize her ideological opponents as needed, no real substance of any kind - just a power seeker for the sake of seeking power. Granted, that's most politicians - but at least most politicians seem to want to effect change of some kind while they're at it. The absence of even that ambition was startling.

I came across this editorial in The Week today and all of these partial thoughts and opinions in my head finally came together. I finally understand why she continues to respond to public criticism and insults of her in the manner that she does. She isn't responding because she takes umbrage at being belittled as she tries to effect policy or get ideas out there. She responds for the sheer attention it begets. How incredibly ridiculous is that?

The prime time of Sarah Palin

David Letterman joined Tina Fey as a member of Sarah Palin's supporting cast last week. The Alaska governor, who is nothing if not resourceful, worked up an Oprah-esque feud with the television host over crude jokes Letterman told at Palin's expense. It was a good deal for both parties. Letterman got cheap laughs and attention; Palin got a fresh supply of umbrage?and attention.

Palin is both comfortable and adept at these tabloid squabbles?certainly more than she seems ever likely to be in a substantive environment. Parrying political opponents about policy, or responding to serious queries about the state of the world is just not what Palin does.

Even her attacks on President Obama have a canned quality, something along the lines of ... "socialism, yadda yadda yadda." She leaves the details to Romney or Huckabee or perhaps next week's guest star.

By contrast, Palin seems genuinely animated by her contests with late-night comedians and she is always well-versed in the subject matter, which is, in order:

1. Sarah Palin;

2. What the cultural elite thinks of Sarah Palin;

3. What her supporters properly understand about what the cultural elite thinks of Sarah Palin;

4. Why Sarah Palin, and people who identify with Sarah Palin, are correct to resent the cultural elite for what it thinks of Sarah Palin.

With other politicians, comedians occasionally connect personality to policy dots: Cheney to "enhanced interrogation," Bush to the War on Terror, Obama to bailouts. The late-night focus on Palin is overwhelmingly personal for a reason: What else is there?

True, Letterman's joke about Palin's "slutty flight attendant" appearance would have been better targeted at John Edwards (who is far easier to imagine peddling "coffee, tea, or me").

But for all his self-destructive philandering and meticulous hair mussing, Edwards is still more than the sum of his narcissism. He mastered a difficult profession?trial law?and made an effort to understand at least one complex issue in American society?poverty.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm shares a more Palinesque profile. But the way their paths diverged is telling. Granholm, like Palin, was once a local beauty queen. She tried her hand at Hollywood and even appeared on The Dating Game in search of celebrity.

But when her Hollywood dream went bust, Granholm attended UC Berkeley, applied herself, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She then went on to graduate with honors from Harvard Law School and build a career in law and politics.

Palin, on the other hand, still wants her celebrity straight, no chaser. After her beauty queen days, she tried television news. When that didn't pan out, there was never a period of buckling down. She just found a different route to the spotlight.

Palin knows she has pizazz, and she's sticking to it. As long as the conventions of television enable it, her skillful deployment of attitude?charm, hurt, outrage, flirtatiousness?can substitute for answers. It's hard to argue with the results: She has become a famous politician without actually mastering anything in particular.

Ronald Reagan said "politics is just like show business." But Reagan used his showbiz shtick and ease before the camera to sell ideas?some of them consequential. Palin's showbiz is an endless, self-referential loop.

Her media bashing?whether she's condemning Katie Couric for her rudimentary queries or extending the sell-by date on Letterman's put-downs?is simply a means to reflect attention back on herself. It's a cost-free way of holding the spotlight a little longer, a chance to say something attention-grabbing without actually saying anything that matters.

Note: I can predict some supporters of Ms. Palin replying with something along the lines of, "Why the rant? She lost, what are you so afraid of that you have to keep bashing her?" Bear in mind I don't think she'll ever come anywhere near a position of real power. This is just me thinking out loud about something that never made sense to me until now.

-------------------------------
See last post

Senior Anandtech Moderator
Common Courtesy

 

[Fear No Evil]

I'd say being a governor is pretty powerful.. she's probably one of a maybe a few dozen women to ever hold such a position?

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: Fear No Evil
I'd say being a governor is pretty powerful.. she's probably one of a maybe a few dozen women to ever hold such a position?

actually Sarah Palin makes Monika lewinski look like Mother Theresa!!

 

[SunSamurai]

Sarah Palin is a superidiot that can answer questions worse than W.


/thread

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda

Originally posted by: Fear No Evil
I'd say being a governor is pretty powerful.. she's probably one of a maybe a few dozen women to ever hold such a position?

actually Sarah Palin makes Monika lewinski look like Mother Theresa!!

Actually Sarah Palin is Monica Lewinski withou the stained black dress.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Actually Sarah Palin is Monica Lewinski withou the stained black dress.

She leaves that to Triangle, Sprocket and Otter.

 

[techs]

Interestingly Palins approval rating in Alaska has fallen from 89 percent to 54 percent in the last two years.
And when she won election she didn't even recieve 50 percent of the vote.
So there is a decent chance she won't even be in office by the 2012 Presidential election.
At which point I see her on Fox News as a "journalist".

 

[tfcmasta97]

Originally posted by: Fear No Evil
I'd say being a governor is pretty powerful.. she's probably one of a maybe a few dozen women to ever hold such a position?

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

Just when you thought this hick couldn't be any more retarded...

 

[JKing106]

Well, by that time she can at least learn to read, so she'll acutally be able to give an opinion on then current issues. I'm still amazed at that old interview with Couric, where Palin couldn't name one political magazine or journal she read to stay informed. She might as well have said "Oh, Karl, Rush, and Fox tell me what I need to know."

 

[Mr. Lennon]

Originally posted by: Fear No Evil
I'd say being a governor is pretty powerful.. she's probably one of a maybe a few dozen women to ever hold such a position?

Population of Alaska: 686,293

Population of Los Angeles: 9,862,049


Must be a lot of power governing over a state with a population that is not even a fraction of a city in California. :laugh:

Such a joke that Republicans considered her more experienced than Obama solely because she was a governor. She is no more qualified than a damn city mayor...if that.

Lets get real here. Sarah Palin was voted into office by a bunch of perverted hicks sporting nailin palin t-shirts.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Palin's genius is as wide as the Universe ...

and about 32nm deep.

"" Gotcha, common sense and rational thought. ""

 

[Lemon law]

Even as a partisan democrat, I had to be impressed, as I researched Sarah Palin's record right after McCain choose her for VP. She took on powerful oil interests in Alaska and
forced them to do more to benefit the State of Alaska. And took on quite a few corrupt politicians and forced them out of government. So I do not take her lightly.

Fortunately for the democrats, McCain and his handlers helped transform her into the slogan chanting bimbo we all know and detest. And now that her autocratic records has come out, all her good points are now buried under a landslide of mud, with a good deal of the mud self manufactured by Palin herself.

A classic case of a big fish in a small pond being unable to swim with bigger fishes seasoned by swimming in a bigger pond. A smarter politician than Palin would realize they have a lot to learn about National politics, but some folks are insufferable proud of their own ignorance.

 

[0marTheZealot]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
Even as a partisan democrat, I had to be impressed, as I researched Sarah Palin's record right after McCain choose her for VP. She took on powerful oil interests in Alaska and
forced them to do more to benefit the State of Alaska. And took on quite a few corrupt politicians and forced them out of government. So I do not take her lightly.

Fortunately for the democrats, McCain and his handlers helped transform her into the slogan chanting bimbo we all know and detest. And now that her autocratic records has come out, all her good points are now buried under a landslide of mud, with a good deal of the mud self manufactured by Palin herself.

A classic case of a big fish in a small pond being unable to swim with bigger fishes seasoned by swimming in a bigger pond. A smarter politician than Palin would realize they have a lot to learn about National politics, but some folks are insufferable proud of their own ignorance.

Ignorance is practically a virtue among Republicans. It's like knowing anything at a complex level is deemed "ntellectualism and elitism, durrr, that's not the true America!!". To me, the entire party has purged the people who can actually look at both sides of an issue and make an informed opinion. Now, it's all reactionary demagogy. If a Democract proposes it, vote against it. If Rush says something bad about the law/bill/treaty/position, vote against it.

 

[retrospooty]

Originally posted by: 0marTheZealot

Ignorance is practically a virtue among Republicans. .

LOL - there is a portion of truth to that comment - but lets be real and separate the neocon religious nuts like Bush and Palin away from the fiscal conservatives. There is a rift in the party between the 2 factions, because there is a huge difference between the two.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: 0marTheZealot

Originally posted by: Lemon law
Even as a partisan democrat, I had to be impressed, as I researched Sarah Palin's record right after McCain choose her for VP. She took on powerful oil interests in Alaska and
forced them to do more to benefit the State of Alaska. And took on quite a few corrupt politicians and forced them out of government. So I do not take her lightly.

Fortunately for the democrats, McCain and his handlers helped transform her into the slogan chanting bimbo we all know and detest. And now that her autocratic records has come out, all her good points are now buried under a landslide of mud, with a good deal of the mud self manufactured by Palin herself.

A classic case of a big fish in a small pond being unable to swim with bigger fishes seasoned by swimming in a bigger pond. A smarter politician than Palin would realize they have a lot to learn about National politics, but some folks are insufferable proud of their own ignorance.

Ignorance is practically a virtue among Republicans. It's like knowing anything at a complex level is deemed "ntellectualism and elitism, durrr, that's not the true America!!". To me, the entire party has purged the people who can actually look at both sides of an issue and make an informed opinion. Now, it's all reactionary demagogy. If a Democract proposes it, vote against it. If Rush says something bad about the law/bill/treaty/position, vote against it.

Ignorance is a practically a virtue to any person that is willing to say "I'm a x through and through".

You'd have to be pretty ignorant yourself to say that all Democrats are refined and enlightened, and all Republicans are hicks that just want to hold onto their bible, gun, and Rush.

The older I get, the more I realize that both parties are run by nutjobs, and the reason that they are nutjobs is because the majority of the population that patriotically vote in america are somewhat crazed themselves.

But, that's a segway. Palin's career is over. She ensured that.

 

[Lemon law]

Perhaps Cogman is correct and starting a thread that leads from a specific republican and then, somewhere near the end, morphs into a blanket indictment of all republicans
is hardly political fair play. All politicians have their strengths and virtues, that are counterbalanced by certain core possibly dubious beliefs and personal ego.

But then again, "on the subject of this democrat, insert name here, that democrat is the foremost expert", is a thread title any P&N member in good standing is free to post.

 

[0marTheZealot]

Democrats can be just as bad as Repubs, but right now, the Repubs are worse than the Dems ever were when they were the minority. Repubs are acting like they haven't fucked the country over the last 8 years, blind in the face of facts and being ideologues for the sake of being ideologues.

 

[Lemon law]

For what its worth, Letterman is now is the least of Sarah Palin's worries. As various Alaskan critic have filed a pile of ethics complaints against her, and she has had to spend a some 500,000 dollars in legal fees in the process already.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...alin_ethics_complaints

As the link says, some are frivolous and some are not, but it will keep Sarah busy for awhile. As they same tactics she used to smear others are now used against her. And its somewhat danger, she may beat some of the charges off, but if found guilty of even one, she may face future tough sledding in her own home state.

 

[ElFenix]

being governor of a state without much population that is pretty much apart from the rest of the country isn't enough to keep your public mindshare up. all press is good press.

 

[Mani]

Originally posted by: 0marTheZealot

Originally posted by: Lemon law
Even as a partisan democrat, I had to be impressed, as I researched Sarah Palin's record right after McCain choose her for VP. She took on powerful oil interests in Alaska and
forced them to do more to benefit the State of Alaska. And took on quite a few corrupt politicians and forced them out of government. So I do not take her lightly.

Fortunately for the democrats, McCain and his handlers helped transform her into the slogan chanting bimbo we all know and detest. And now that her autocratic records has come out, all her good points are now buried under a landslide of mud, with a good deal of the mud self manufactured by Palin herself.

A classic case of a big fish in a small pond being unable to swim with bigger fishes seasoned by swimming in a bigger pond. A smarter politician than Palin would realize they have a lot to learn about National politics, but some folks are insufferable proud of their own ignorance.

Ignorance is practically a virtue among Republicans. It's like knowing anything at a complex level is deemed "ntellectualism and elitism, durrr, that's not the true America!!". To me, the entire party has purged the people who can actually look at both sides of an issue and make an informed opinion. Now, it's all reactionary demagogy. If a Democract proposes it, vote against it. If Rush says something bad about the law/bill/treaty/position, vote against it.

Sad but true.

 

[jonks]

I'm perfectly happy with her remaining the governor of alaska, youbetcha. Public enough to supply us with the occasional feud gem yet far enough away to be able to do any real damage.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: jonks
I'm perfectly happy with her remaining the governor of alaska, youbetcha. Public enough to supply us with the occasional feud gem yet far enough away to be able to do any real damage.

it's all fun and games till she secedes to Russia and the reds march on Seattle.

 

[Lemon law]

Sad to say for any Sarah Palin fans, she is better off being the low profile Governor of Alaska, and anytime Sarah has ventured back into National eye, she has not shown well and has again proved to be not very astute.

If Palin wants to have a national political career, she has going to have to have to pick her battles better, and somehow become a national leader on finding a new direction for the GOP. Sadly, Palin comes out as a posterchild for all that is same ole same ole wrong with the GOP now.

I think a Palin able to see and articulate all sides of the issues, somewhat like Obama as a role model, would make a far more formidable GOP candidate, but a Palin, even if she is good at using all the nuisances of political sloganeering, still only diminishes herself in the process.

 

[jonks]

No need to start a new thread, but she is featured in Runner's World Magazine this month. Article & photospread. mmmmmmm.

http://www.runnersworld.com/ph...sarahpalin/slide2.html
http://www.runnersworld.com/ph...sarahpalin/slide4.html
http://www.runnersworld.com/ph...sarahpalin/slide7.html

She's like the naughty gym teacher in every teen movie that doesn't really exist.

 

[eleison]

Originally posted by: jonks
No need to start a new thread, but she is featured in Runner's World Magazine this month. Article & photospread. mmmmmmm.

http://www.runnersworld.com/ph...sarahpalin/slide2.html
http://www.runnersworld.com/ph...sarahpalin/slide4.html
http://www.runnersworld.com/ph...sarahpalin/slide7.html

She's like the naughty gym teacher in every teen movie that doesn't really exist.

I would vote for her again