Comments on: Bailin’ Barracuda, Or The Quitah From Wasilla

By: George Arndt

George Arndt — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:55:17 +0000

I can’t believe the way so many Republicans are so ga ga over her. Even well educated ones like Bill Kristal. Are they just oblivious to her utter lack of qualifications? Oh wait, these are the same people who supported Bush..
Is there something in the water in GOP land?

By: Virginia

Virginia — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:23:11 +0000

Once again – I missed the “slamming” of her for campaigning with a special needs child. It certainly wasn’t a common theme – regardless of what one or another bloviator might have said on cable once or twice. The Obama campaign never said anything of the kind – they essentially ignored her. Let’s not have revisionist history that plays into Palin and the right’s sense of victimization.

By: lfo

lfo — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:48:48 +0000

Bernie
I just can’t read the Kristol link so early in the day but I think here he is playing with fire. The Soros mention is not *just* about banking but about the ‘jewish’ hand in the capitalist crisis. This is a very big part of the right wing populists and Kristol is so into riding that tiger he seems totally oblivious that they would trample him over as a jew boy the first chance they get.
And Greg–thanks for the control angle. perfect.

By: B-man

B-man — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:19:40 +0000

@virginia -

Commentators slamming her for campaigning while having a “special needs” child – I witnessed it on msnbc & cnn. The attacks on her family were just nasty.

She is a kook & her beliefs are bizarre – they could have stuck to them, like they did with Biden & Obama…instead they showed their true colors. It was shameful.

By: Bernie Latham

Bernie Latham — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:53:29 +0000

Kristol notes two emails he received from allies re Palin. They are really worth reading… http://www.weeklystandard.com/Weblogs/TWSFP/TWSFPView.asp#12274 … Note the fundamental concentration in both emails on “balls” and maleness vs femininity (the recommendation to paint Obama as feminine and Palin as masculine – this is a constant in Republican propaganda). Note as well the “age of Soros” thing. These people are (I think) smarter than that (Soros has no significant influence on the progressive camp but he is used as a symbol or myth-figure to suggest covert control by big money thus stoking old populist paranoid tendencies AND thus countering the knock on the conservative movement’s support by Scaife, Coors, Bradley, etc) so tossing that in here seems to be a simple propaganda move. And there’s much more in the piece like that, eg “her impressive record”. Oh?

By: Virginia

Virginia — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:40:53 +0000

“attacks on her children and parenting skills” ??

I seem to have missed that part of the 2008 campaign. With the exception of some chuckles about Bristol’s delicate condition, which you could hardly expect the press to ignore, I don’t recall much in the way of attacks on her children or parenting skills.

Most of the criticism of her was for being a ill-informed doofus who then morphed into a violence-inciting demagogue; a person whose history and temperment made her mainfestly unsuited for the Presidency.

By: bill

bill — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:05:39 +0000

as joan walsh notes, she’s “Sarah Barraquitta.”

her demented presser reminded one and all of a four
year old stamping his or her feet and pitching a temper
tantrum because they could not have ice cream for dinner

she’s a quitter. americans do not like quitters.

she loves Alaska so much, she’s quitting. this is
just nuts.

she’s a self absorbed whiner.

By: jzap

jzap — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:44:25 +0000

Joe LieberSchmuck (א-Likud)

By: Bernie Latham

Bernie Latham — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:43:37 +0000

I wake slowly

By: Bernie Latham

Bernie Latham — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:43:01 +0000

Sorry, got ‘first’ ought to be ’second’ in that fourth sentence.

By: Bernie Latham

Bernie Latham — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:40:29 +0000

As with Cheney, the motivation here isn’t clear. Or perhaps most of us have difficulty empathizing with the sort of ambitions (and narcissism) which the two of them seem to be driven by. Frustrated urges toward dominance of others (Greg’s thesis) works for me, but who the hell knows? Douthat in the Times writes on her today. It’s not a bad column, I think, except for the two significant points: his conceptions of “class” and of “meritocracy” as he differentiates it from “democracy”. On the first, it is hardly the case that we wish for or support elected representatives who sit at some mid-point on a bell curve of our population. Better than average intelligence, knowledge, ethics and competence aren’t merely what we wish to see in a rep, it is also what candidates will insist their personal histories display. Douthat’s conception of “class” suffers from the same sort of failure. Douthat’s blind spot here is his apparent inability to honestly assess how intellectually unfit Palin was/is for a set of responsibilities the Presidency (or anything remotely like it) demands. You’d think that the consequences of the conservative movement’s zest for leaders who are so commonly and deeply incurious about the world and so commonly incapable of serious reflection on their ideas would have impinged on Douthat’s thinking.

By: Kathleen Hussein in Maine

Kathleen Hussein in Maine — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:27:28 +0000

Attacks on kids: cheap shots. Attacks on her parenting skills: those choices are part of her package–persona, character. Sexism, yeah, some, but that is a known obstacle in every woman’s path. You either go through it, around it, or over it. She flirts with it, plays the victim and lashes out as the vigilante. The main thing is she’s a master manipulator, BSer and unqualified platitudinizer who has a powerful magnetism. It attracts her base and repels the rest of us. It was nice to think she might fade away, but no. This summer must remind her of what she was up to last summer. And she had to get the hell out of Alaska and back to her adoring audience. Sarah Bernhardtacuda.

By: Jenn D

Jenn D — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:36:49 +0000

Something is off on this whole thing…if this was prep for 2012 or prep to go out and make some big bucks…then why was her father-in-law shocked to hear she was resigning and learned of it through an emailed news alert to his cell phone?? That is way off of the idea of a 2012 run or a move into the “glam side” of punditry! If you were Gov and you were about to resign, wouldn’t you at least inform your in-laws? Along with your own parents and kids of course…it is very strange indeed…

By: KenG

KenG — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:20:10 +0000

I thought the attacks on her children and parenting skills were cheap shots during the campaign. Sexism reared its ugly head – as Biden got a pass, as did Obama.

She’s not cut out for the national stage. McCain knew he was gonna lose the race – picking Palin showed his desperation.

By: Bernie Latham

Bernie Latham — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:07:22 +0000

Given format weirdnesses here, had to post this on my blog instead. With sincere apologies to Tom Waits, my ode to Sarah…
Big With The Base

I got the bark but not the bite
I got the corner but not the fight,
I got the nails I got the smile
I got the teeth, but not the file
full version… http://bernielatham.com/2009/07/05/big-with-the-base-apologies-to-tom-waits/