No matter how dreadful you think Sarah Palin is, she’s far worse. Take half an hour and read “Sarah Palin: The sound and the fury,” Michael Joseph Gross’s entertaining exposé of Palin in the new Vanity Fair. As she gains fame among the morons and miscreants who make up her constituency, her life becomes more constricted and pathetic. Lots of juicy stuff, and this:
Why are you pretending to be something you’re not? That is the question so many Alaskans have asked this year as they’ve watched Sarah Palin travel the nation. According to almost everyone who has ever known her, including those who have seen the darkest of her dark side, Sarah Palin has a great gift for making people feel good about themselves. Her knack for remembering names and faces and the details of her interactions with people—and for seeming to be present to the person in front of her—constitute an extraordinary power of engagement. Now she is using that power in a fundamentally different way. In part she is using it in the service of her own ambitions. But she is also planting the idea with audiences that they might not be good enough, by telling them she thinks they’re plenty good, no matter what anybody else may say. (“They talk down to us… They think that if we were just smart enough … ”) To some, the message sounds like an affirmation. But is it really? Or does it seed self-doubt and rancor among her partisans, and encourage them to see everyone else as malign?
UPDATE: Gross explains a bit more about his piece:
The worst stuff isn’t even in there,” Michael Joseph Gross said on “Morning Joe” Thursday. “I couldn’t believe these stories either when I first heard them, and I started this story with a prejudice in her favor. I have a lot in common with this woman. I’m a small-town person, I’m a Christian, I think that a lot of her criticisms of the media actually have something to them. And I think she got a bum ride, but everybody close to her tells the same story” . . . “I started this with every good intention toward her,” he said. “I was just shocked and appalled at every step at what I found. And I wrote this story sort of against my will. It wasn’t what I wanted to write, it wasn’t what I wanted to find. It was what was forced on me by the facts.”
You have lost me Jerry, YOU come across as a bitter, bitter man.
Gaz xx
Why? Palin is a vindictive, anti-intellectual demagogue, who trades on her sex for mone and power. She’s mor prostitute than politician.
“She’s more prostitute than politician.”
Is there a difference between the two?
Mrs. Palin has an uncanny ability to turn comments just like that to her advantage. Every knothead who has ever been called a knothead smiles when she comes smirking right back. Trust me. I know.
You forgot liar, fabricator, anti-science evangelical who wants a quick end to the world so she can go to an afterlife.
Mrs. Palin retorts: “If you’re a liar for saying ‘God bless America,’ then lie, baby, lie.” See how this goes?
Well played; I’m sorry you must have suffered so much around them.
Oh, they’re okay, when unarmed.
Gary, you look like a clown. Change your avatar.
And you sound like one, too.
That is a good but frightening article. She is indeed worse than I thought, and I thought pretty bad of her before.
It amazes me that there are so many people who would vote for her to be president. She’s not qualified for any public office whatsoever.
The beauty of Sarah Palin is the affect she has on the political left and their feeding frenzy on her every move. Typical leftist activity of identity politics and character assassination. Every day there’s another article in the NY Times, Washington Post, HuffPo, etc.,. It’s clear the left fears her and that she sticks in their craw. Keep it up Sarah, you’re winning!
No; it is more that Palin and her moronic backers are and endless source of amusement. (e. g., think of a circus clown)
The left doesn’t ‘fear’ her – we all know she’s got zero chance of winning a presidential election.(Personally I strongly hope she runs and wins the Republican nomination – she will be crushed in a general election.) We are not afraid, we are mystified and amazed that this ridiculous, idiotic woman has gained a national stage. Have you ever seen her ludicrous political ‘commentaries’ on Fox News? They’re like a 13-year-old’s in-class report. She has no knowledge of any subject and no critical thinking or analytical skills of any kind. This is the person you want to lead America? Wow.
And it’s hilarious that you mention identity politics and character assassination as ‘typical leftist activity’… Beck, Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity – why, they would NEVER engage in such things.
Do you derive your self-insight from an obsidian mirror?
I think you’re mistaken. There actually are a multitude of fools who believe her, and I do worry that they’re not an insignificant minority.
I agree. People misunderestimated some other winning smiles in the last few decades. And they didn’t even have Twitter.
I do agree that there are many people who believe her, but in polls almost 70% of respondents say she is unqualified to be president (including, I believe, 40% of Republicans). Her base is mostly the hardcore religious right. They’re essential to putting Republicans in power, but they can’t elect their own candidate. Look what happened to Huckabee, a much more appealing version of one of their own. He never even made a serious run in the primaries. This demographic never even truly gets what it wants out of the Republican Party, which just uses them for its own ends.
Frightening, no.
Entertaining, yes.
Why would the former “explain” anything better than the latter?
If Palin is elected can nucular war be far behind?
“You betcha”! “Wink”
My favorite part is where Palin said that she was wearing her push-up bra to a meeting so she could get what she wanted.
Was she hoping for sex or sore boobs? Did she say if she got it?
She was hoping some sex-starved guys would be entranced and do what she wanted.
I don’t think it’s worth my time to formulate an opinion that I already held.
I think “bag of hammers” just about covers it — unless you think “mendacious bag of hammers” would do better.
I wonder if the Palin trolls understand “mendacious”.
Consider it my contribution to their ongoing education.
Sarah Palin works right here in Alvin, Texas, at the Beauty Box Hair, Manicure and Tire Repair Center. She’s funny, engaging and calls everybody “Honey.” Everybody likes Sarah because she’s just folks like us.
So, take that Alvin, Texan or Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan or some nameless housewife from New York and follow their every movement, film it, publish it, quote them, interview them and you’ve got Sarah Palin from Alaska.
We manufacture these “personalities.” We do it to ourselves. We deserve Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck and Limbaugh because we are their patrons. They entertain us and we let them, pay them and encourage them.
I’m with Hawking, get me off this planet!
Palin can see the Big Bang singularity from her house.
WE are their patrons?
How about the millions who watch their shows and buy their books?
PT Barnum would be SOOOO proud.
Who’s “we”? I don’t!
We is the general “we.” “We” who watch and promote Beck and all the sponsors who promote Palin.
Not you and me, per se, because I don’t watch, promote nor buy products from any of those guys, but enough of society’s “we’s” do. And that’s the point.
Without the attention these people without anything to sell disappear into the woodwork.
Sarah the Impaler (circa 1431).
Painting everyone else as evil is an old thing which seems to be common to many if not most humans.
Religions paint all other religions as “false religions” and evil hell-bound cults, but some religions are backing off a tiny bit and making hilarious statements such as how both christianity and mohammedanism can be “true” – whatever the hell that means. I just have to howl with laughter at christians who make such statements because the mohammedans certainly don’t seem to agree with that notion.
When I was young I was told not to associate with those evil god-killing Jews. So I never mentioned my Jewish friends in conversations. Then there were those abominations – the homosexuals. So I never spoke of my homosexual friends. Going back to a younger age again, if I didn’t eat my vegetables I’d be kidnapped by that smelly black guy who wore rags and carried all his worldly possessions in a little dilapidated bag and who spent most of his day sitting by the post office asking folks who walked by for a little change to help buy some food.
The world is full of lies, and if told repeatedly to kids the lies will be believed and very likely told to the next generation. Religion has been extremely successful with this throughout known history.
I laughed pretty hard when I saw the section titled “Fist of the North Star“, an anime and manga series centered around punching people so hard the explode.
Oh wow I totally didn’t realize that someone used that name on purpose. I thought it was just the journalist making a little joke.
That’s a funny cartoon, in a gross sort of way. After a fight with the hero, the opponent would just swell up and explode.
If only that worked in debate!
Why are some subjects unworthy of the application of the scientific method, and others are? Or is it that Sarah Palin pushes your buttons?
Uh, read her book. You’ll see that we are not exaggerating.
I consider myself a pretty dyed-in-the-wool conservative, and I hate Sarah Palin. To me, it’s been clear for a while now that she’s only an embarrassment to conservatives. She’s no Reagan; he had a clear vision of what conservatism is and a lyrical ability to present it well, which she totally lacks. But here’s what I don’t get: Why are you and so many of your fellow liberals obsessed with her? She’s not remotely serious about governing; it’s been pretty obvious in the past year or so that she has neither the education, the smarts, nor the wherewithal to actually put in place any sort of conservative policies. She can only endorse and pretend to play the kingmaker, and it isn’t at all clear she’s been very successful at that. But many liberals have weirdly chosen to exaggerate her power and potential, using her as a tool to forge a sort of paranoid ingroup loyalty amongst themselves in quite the same manner that she uses her fake “folksiness” to manipulate her own followers. I think both behaviors are uncouth; her prominence is an indictment of both conservative and liberal alike. Sarah Palin is trolling America, and certain people are all too eager to profit from the ensuing flame war.
Indeed, Sarah Palin is yesterday’s lunch, and from my perspective is just a place-holder to remind people that there’s a Republican party. Real conservatives and real Republicans ought to hate her for the direction she’s taking things (imagine what pithy comments Wm F Buckley might have). I think what pisses us off here is the constant attention she seems to get in the face of her smart-assed comments relative to anything on an intellectual plane. I don’t think we’re guilty of exaggerating her potential, tho.
I only know enough about him to think that this might be a valid comparison, but is SP perhaps somewhat analogous to Huey Long vs. FDR? Both qualify as gadflies, altho I read recently that Huey had more actual smarts. But Huey’s danger to FDR would have been as a 3rd party candidate. SP would only hurt the Republicans in ’12 if that happened, so in that sense perhaps if liberals are helping to promote her as a serious threat that is exactly the reason why.
I’m not American but I should say the left loves her for the same reason you hate her, she makes the Republicans look bad. Sarah Palin must be good for millions of swinging voters voting Democrat in any election where she’s visible. The only people who would vote for her were always going to vote Republican anyway I would surmise, so she’s all gravy for the left wing!
TBH, I think you guys are seriously underestimating the power of large numbers of stupid people.
Speaking of which, I posted this article on Facebook, and some of my FB friends are squealing in indignation and countered with allegations about Obama’s birth certificate. ***Sigh***
” Why are you and so many of your fellow liberals obsessed with her?”
Don’t you think that is the question you should ask her fan base?
But here’s what I don’t get: Why are you and so many of your fellow liberals obsessed with her?
You ought to ask yourself, why do so many really really stoopid conservatives take her seriously? If they stopped doing that, Palin would drop right out of the news, and no one would pay her for her dimwitted “commentary.” Do not blame the left for a phenomenon of the right.
Well cheer up then! She’s got that one positive thing going for her.
I do wonder whether the promotion of the likes of Palin and Beck is being encouraged by the US ‘left’ as a means of destroying any credible alternative to Obama in the next presidential election cycle. There seems to be a steady core of about half the traditional republican constituency that really goes for the sort of loony policies that Palin and Beck advocate (health care reform = death camps, Obama is a Kenyan muslim communist – and the antichrist etc. This support is consolidating amongst this group but isn’t gaining support in the rest of the electorate. It might result in the teaparty candidates winning a few seats in the red states but it would be electoral disaster for the GOP in the US as a whole.