Sarah Palin’s Politics Of Grievance Are Back!
You’re kidding yourself if you don’t think Sarah Palin is absolutely thrilled to be in a big fight with David Letterman over degrading things he said about her and her daughter.
She’s back in her old element. She’s practicing the politics that launched her national career — the politics of grievance and resentment. She’s an Everymom fighting back against smug coastal elites on behalf of people — and values — supposedly disdained by those elites.
In her response to Letterman’s joke about her daughter, for instance, Palin went out of her way to say that “some Hollywood/New York entertainers” don’t understand “what the rest of America understands.” She added that the target of Letterman’s jokes “could be anyone’s daughter.”
Translation: I’m not afraid to take on morally corrupt elites who disdain ordinary parents for just wanting their children to be safe.
Another example: In her interview today with MSNBC’s Matt Lauer, Palin pointed out the “double standard” between Obama’s family and her own, saying that the media heeded Obama’s warning during the campaign not to attack his family. She called him “the candidate who must be obeyed.”
Translation: He thinks he walks on water. He gets treated like he’s above us.
The parallel with the campaign isn’t perfect — she’s not defending small-town values and simple patriotism as much as defending women and girls from lascivious elites, and she’s got the support of at least one women’s group. But the echoes of her campaign persona are unmistakable. Palin is back!
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Update: Here’s another perfect example, courtesy of Ben Smith: Responding to Letterman’s barb about her “slutty flight attendant” look, Palin defended flight attendants.
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She’s as full of **** as a feed lot.
A yes, because every time the Wasilla hillbilly and McCain’s trashy wife said they were always proud of their country, they weren’t going after Michelle Obama’s patriotism.
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I’m surprised Sarah hasn’t just gone back to her roots and started flinging poo at the T.V. camera’s.
“Palin pointed out the “double standard” between Obama’s family and her own, saying that the media heeded Obama’s warning during the campaign not to attack his family.”
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That strikes me as a pretty damn good point! I’d never vote for her if she ran for President but she’s right to call Letterman out.
PLEASE GO AWAY!!!
I am so tired of seeing her face on TV… She will do any and everything to stay infront of the camera. What has she done for the people of Alaska beside ignoring them for the past year while she tries to advance her career?
Sbj-
are you serious??? Please tell me that was snark…
The media did not head Obama’s warning of not attacking his family during the campaign… FOX news made her out to be some evil, racist, America-hating Black Panther… They didn’t leave her alone. Hannity still brings up her proud of my country comment!
Was Palin NOT attacking Michelle Obama when she kept saying she’s PROUD OF HER COUNTRY???
“That strikes me as a pretty damn good point! I’d never vote for her if she ran for President but she’s right to call Letterman out.”
You are as full of **** as Sarah Palin is.
@LeAnn: Please remind me . . . Michelle was called a ****? Letterman joked about her daughters having *** with Alex Rodriguez? Get real!
it is very disappointing and sad to see democrats defending unsolicited offensive, sexual comments made about young girls and their mother…
when will we stop with the hypocrisy? just take out the name Palin and put in the name Obama and if you still think this was a joke then there is something wrong with you…
Do you think Michelle or Barak are going to stand by and listen to their daughters being attacked and exploited…the Obama girls are in the news constantly and we respect their space to grow…where is our descency?
Is it so important to score political points against a woman you do not like that you will defend a man when he clearly was wrong?
very disappointing, I thought our side was better than that…this whole debacle encourages others now to take shots at other girls…shameful!
@LeAnn: If I say “I’m proud of my country” is that an attack on Michelle? There’s a whole other discussion going on about how only conservatives said that the right-wing erxtremism DHS report was about conservatives. Couldn’t we apply that same reasoning here? Only liberals see someone saying they are proud of their country as an attack on Michelle? Y’all should be mad at Letterman – he’s the gap-toothed unfunny moron who has given her the spotlight to forge a populist appeal.
sdj – let me remind you: Sarah’s daughter got pregnant at 17, unwed, still in school. When Malia or Sasha does that, you might have a point, but the fact is that Sarah Palin is a ****.
No one but a **** would wear those damn red **** shoes with decals on her toenails.
This woman can read that woman perfectly.
“Absolutely, not necessarily.”
-Sarah Palin’s response to Matt Lauer when he asked if she was the future of the Republican Party.
Can she please put together a response that is grammatically correct and makes sense…good lord…I could care less about her politics…she certainly isn’t getting my vote because I am not from her type of “real America”…but for godssake, as one woman to another….PLEASE start speaking in a manner that doesn’t make people go “What did she just say? What was her answer?” Also, if you don’t want your children in the spot light, then don’t drag them all over the campaign trail with you (the Obama girls made a few appearances, but nothing compared to the Palin children) and certainly don’t take your teenage daughter who was a mother before she finished highschool and put her forward as the spokesperson for abstinence…can you say hypocrisy much??? Move on Sarah, if you are trying to rebuild your image, then move on to more pressing issues…take some of the advice from Peggy Noonan…all I know is, I am not usually able to stay up late enough for Letterman, but I will be tonight, just to see what he has to say about it…Note to Palin, this won’t turn out so well for you…comedians are giving a lot of latitude with the general viewing public, politicians-um not so much…
@Tena: I suppose that Palin is also inviting rape because of the provocative way she dresses? Come to think of it – my SiL and my nieces wear those tacky decals. I believe some of them have red shoes. Ohh, personal attacks now way to go. This attempt at ‘humor’ (which I hope to God it was!) is pathetic. As the poster above said: “Is it so important to score political points against a woman you do not like that you will [jettison everything you believe]?”
Sbj,
There was a difference in coverage of Obama’s daughter’s and Palin’s, granted. There was also a major difference in how those daughters involved themselves in the campaign. Bristol was onstage everywhere, her pregnancy was made part of the campaign and spoken about from the podium constantly. Just as right now Bristol is out on the PR trail as an official spokesperson for the abstinence movement. A woman who was taught abstinence only and who got pregnant as a teenager with a high-school dropout father who didn’t stay with her much past having the baby is preaching about her success.
Perhaps the reason you notice a different standard in how the press covers one political family versus the other is that the Obamas protect their daughters. Sarah Palin stage-mothers them into the limelight. David Lettermen didn’t attack Willow, he attacked Bristol (with a tasteless joke that demanded an apology, no problem.) What did Sarah do? Shove Willow into the spotlight, bringing her up again and again in every interview she had. Way to protect her from media scrutiny.
I don’t recall the last time I heard mention of the Wasilla Hillbillies without someone laughing at them or going on about what a MILF Sister Sarah was…they are MADE for comedy!
Please Please Please Republicans…Gingrich/Palin ‘12!
Tena, you do realize that Obama was conceived by his unwed mother when she was barely 18 and then she married his father…in fact, Obama made that clear on the campaign trail…btw…what happened to our so called compassion? we only protect democratic girls these days?
@Bullsmith: I’m not understanding your point. You are saying that because Sarah’s daughter campaigned for her that it is okay for Letterman to say that she was ****** by Alex Rodriguez? You are saying that because they campaigned for her it is okay to call Palin a ****? You obviously haven’t been listening to Bristol as she is out there saying Don’t do what I did! If you think the joke demanded an apology then it would be nice if Letterman actually issued a sincere apology – he hasn’t. Are you even reading/listening to what people are actually saying? It was reasonable to infer that Letterman was talking about Willow because … let’s see, Willow was the one who went to the stadium? The stadium where the steroid abusing ballplayer referred to regularly plays? Here we go again blaming the victim – Palin didn’t ask Letterman to call her a ****, and Bristol/Willow campaigning is not an invitation to make admittedly distasteful ‘jokes’ about one or the other. Put the blame where it lies. Don’t sacrifice your beliefs to score political points.
Apologies – I was assuming that the naughty word would get the **** treatment. I hope that an administrator can remove the offensive/inappropriate word.
SBJ ~ WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU NEED TO TONE IT DOWN JUST A BIT…I DON’T REALLY WANT TO SEE THE WORD F****ED WITOUT THE **** BECAUSE THE SYSTEM DIDN’T SCREEN OUT YOUR NICE CHOICE OF WORDS…I DON’T CARE IF YOU DISAGREE ON HERE, IN FACT, I LIKE GOING BACK AND FORTH WITH YOU…BUT KEEP YOUR “F****ED” TO YOURSELF – AND YES I KNOW MY CAPS ARE ON, I AM YELLING ABOUT YOUR USE OF “F****ED” IN YOUR POST…
sbj,
It’s not that hard to understand. I am not in any way defending Letterman’s bad jokes. But those number in the tens of thousands. I’m pointing out that Sarah Palin thrusts her children in the spotlight very deliberately and then complains when they get negative publicity. I find her actions either cynical or dangerously callous, maybe both. Bad as Letterman’s joke was, I don’t think Sarah Palin’s defending them, I find that instead she’s using both the joke and her children to get into the spotlight. The fact is that both she and Todd keep bringing up Willow and very much seem to be encouraging this feud to continue, instead of doing what Obama did which was try and quash it. They’re looking for opportunities to make political hay out of Letterman’s being an ***. How is that appropriate or good for Willow? Why are they so keen to talk about this on national television for days on end? Why would they, in fact, ratchet up the rhetoric about Willow?
sbj~ Thank you very much for your apology on your F word use…I am now calm again and appreciate you addressing it…
@JennD – perhaps you did not see my followup post? I have already contact Greg separately to fix my boo-boo. It’s far easier to write these thigns using the real word than using the ******. Get over it – it should now be fixed.
I seem to recall that what Obama said was that all candidates’ families were off-limits, including McCain’s and Palin’s. And I certainly don’t remember the Obama campaign or any responsible Democrat bringing Palin’s family situation into the campaign, regardless of what tabloid journalists did. In fact, the Obama attitude toward Palin was essentially to ignore her, which probably explains her current resentment.
sbj~ wow…i thought i just apologized in my last post…thanks for the “get over it” that was a nice touch…
@JennD – the dangers of cross posting. You didn’t see my apology. I didn’t see your reply. Apologies. I thought you were uspet that I used the word at all, counting on it to be bleeped. It’s much easier to just write it out and trust the system to do its job. I still love you – hugs and kisses XXXX0000.
I am frankly getting very tired of the commenters on here attacking each other. Can it please stop. And can we please talk about something other than airhead Palin and irrelevant Letterman? Who gives a s**t about either of them?
Does it really surprise anyone that just as Palin was slipping off the radar screen she finds an excuse for national media attention? We all know Palin’s dumb as a rock. We likely can’t expect more from here. I submit we should be holding the media that perpetuates this sort of triviality up to greater scrutiny.
SBJ-
Seriously.. and I’m going to try and say this as nice as I can… but anyone with common sense knew what Sarah Palin, AND Cindy McCain meant and who they were talking about when they made that comment.. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that. This whole double standard **** is played out.
sbj~ hate it when those systems don’t do the job they are suppose to – hugs back atcha
Of course, I’m reading this drivel, so I’m guilty, also.
wow…who knew c-r-a-p would be bleeped out?? (lol)
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It’s Friday! I want to enjoy the rest of my day so this is my last Sarah Palin post… see you guys on the next thread!
@Bullsmith: You seem to be merely making the point that Greg’s initial post has already made? Of course she is using this (and her daughters) for political gain – that’s what Greg is talking about. (That’s why I said Democrat displeasure was misplaced – Letterman is the bad actor here – he’s the one who has given her a platform). I came on here to say that Palin had a good point about media double standards and you replied to me to say that it was, essentially, warranted because her daughters campaigned, because Palin ‘used’ her daughters more. If the Obama daughters’ appearance at the nominating convention was not a ‘use’ of them then I guess I have never seen a politician kiss a baby. We agree there is a double standard. As far as whether politicans should use their children or which politician is doing a better job at using his daughters or wife, I won’t offer an opinion, but I will point out who occupies the White House.
To me, the bigger picture is stated in Greg’s headline. “the politics of grievance” — that is what I see Governor Palin practicing, and that is what I am sick of. Of course, all the “I am proud of my country” were meant to highlight a perceived difference between the angry bitter black women, and the grateful white ones. And I am not a liberal, I am a moderate independent who has voted more Republican than Democratic but am becoming more and more disgusted at the tactics and echo chamber of the Republican party.
sbj:
Sarah Palin, after suggesting Letterman couldn’t be trusted with Willow and being asked if that wasn’t itself in bad taste.
“No, it’s not in bad taste,” she said. “Hey, maybe he couldn’t be trusted because Willow’s had enough of this type of comments and maybe Willow would want to react to him in a way that maybe would catch him off guard.”
I don’t see how it’s appropriate to say Obama does the same kind of thing with his kids, but the media’s just got kid gloves for him. The latter may be true, but what on earth is Sarah Palin doing? As a parent of daughters this really makes my skin crawl, and nothing Obama has done comes close. So my point was that defining any double standard is difficult because they are not comparable in how they treat their family as political objects. You’re perfectly right to decline to opine on how politicians use their family members if you want to. I couldn’t help myself.
Palin is a joke. The media sure know how to “obey” Obama’s order to stay away from his family. Anyone remember that “angry black woman” and gun-toting-terrorist cover. Nice way to “obey”! Is this not the same lady who was all but insinuating that Obama was a terrorist.
@Bullsmith: I’m thinking that Willow would probably kick Letterman in his juevos and then we wouldn’t be able to trust what he would do. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing to have your daughters campaign with you – personally I would leave them out of it – the Palins and the Obamas. But I also try not to judge the parenting skills of others – you never win that one. Your opinion as to the comparable use of children is yours to have and we simply disagree there – I have heard quite enough about the cute JCrew clothes, the pleas for certain dogs, the allergies, the first day of school – give me a break, please. I do think the familial exploitations have been comparable. And let’s not forget that Bristol is an adult now – free to make her own decisions about what she speaks – and that righteous loser Levi was also an adult during the campaign. He made some bad decisions but they were his own, not Sarah’s. No one here has yet cited one single reference to a comparable joke made about the Obama’s daughters. That’s the double standard and it’s clear to anyone who is not wearing blinders.
@sbj — I beg to differ. There is no double standard. The Obama girls are the personification of innocence. Bristol Palin is the personification of…not. That doesn’t mean she or Willow deserve these jokes, and Sarah Palin has a good point. And I’m sure Dave is furious that his joke writers or researchers didn’t realize that it was the 14-year-old with her at Yankee Stadium. (I was very proud of my 17-year-old son today when he told me that “Dave’s being a d***.” He knows a pregnant girl in school and he said, “you wouldn’t go up to her and say, hey, when are you going to get knocked up again. She and her boyfriend made a mistake. It’s not a joke.”)
.
The issue is Palin’s graspingness. She turns even truths into a publicity stunt. Her greed for power is naked. So I will judge her as a parent. I think it’s shocking that she accepted the VP nod with a newly pregnant teenage daughter. I’m a Palin Birther–I think her Trig story is BS, and if it’s true, she endangered her child. I think her personal style is inappropriate–GMILF. I get that she’s charismatic, but I think she’s a narcisistic liar who’s way underqualified for anything but talk show host. I dread that it’s summer vacation and she’ll probably be storming around the lower 48 every other week.
@Kathleen: Call me crazy for responding to a “Palin Birther.” The notion that a woman should not seek office because her daughter is pregnant is quite laughable. Talk about Luddite!
sbj,
Who said a woman shouldn’t seek office because her daughter is pregnant? Where did that come from?
To clarify, Bristol Palin’s circumstances were not the norm. Running for VP of the US is not the same as running for any office. Palin’s circumstances were, can we not admit, more complex than simply a woman seeking office while simultaneously a daughter of hers was pregnant.
Not that I think Palin didn’t have every right to seek office. I think the way she treated her family since being nominated, particularly her children, is stunning. A train wreck.
@Bullsmith: You think the way she has treated her family is a train wreck – I think the way her family has been treated is a national disgrace.
Sarah Palin, to my recollection, has not apologized for bringing the “white trash element” into the presidential election process, or for presenting as an idiot and scam artist who sought to bamboozle the American public with B.S., knowingly and enthusiastically taking part in a vacuous, lying, sleazy campaign style that Obama rightly ignored as the vacuous trash it truly was. THAT was A LOT worse than anything David Letterman did; in fact, what David Letterman did was NOTHING compared to the vacuous scam Sarah Palin tried to purvey on the American public. The truth is, she VERY much has that “sleazy stewardess” mien and obviously seeks every opportunity to put it before cameras ad nauseum. Also, after you get that schtick, there is nothing behind it—nothing but a vacuum… Every time Sarah Palin goes camera hunting, she owes the American public an apology. The serious truth is that David Letterman, a comedian and talk show host, is as credible as, and likely more credible than Sarah Palin, who wants you to take her seriously as a national politician. David Letterman SHOULD fire the writer of that joke, if s/he isn’t already fired; however, the offenses of Sarah Palin, a fraud, hippocrite and boob, are infinitely worse than one mistake from a comedian. At least Letterman says right out front that this is entertainment & jokes, unlike Palin, who knowingly and enthusiastically sells you lies/trash/snake oil and tries to get you to buy it as though it were gospel.
@SBJ. Palin Birther has to do with the Trig epic, not the Bristol and Levi story. And more than one thing can be true. Her family can be a train wreck, AND her media treatment can be disgraceful. I think the coverage is a little bit disgraceful. But you can’t be a little bit pregnant. Bristol’s pregnancy didn’t disqualify her from VP (lots of other things did that), but her accepting the bid showed that nothing and no one will get in her way. I know she doesn’t have an exclusive a chutzpah and power hunger, but, sexist though it may be, its was disconcerting to see a MOTHer expose her extremely vulnerable teenage daughter to global scrutiny. Then she adds the out-of-control shopping and other escapades on top, and you wonder why she became an object of ridicule? OTT response, yeah, sure, but she stepped in it by her own actions.
@Bullsmith. Thanks.
@Daniel: Grand slam.
You know what would be awesome?
Giving Palin the free publicity she was looking to get by overreacting to a **** joke.
I don’t see the necessity of bringing Obama’s family into her grievance. That’s the point to me. If she has a problem with a comedian then protest it. But leave Obama’s family out of it. She comes off as a very unprepared for the harshness of the national stage–if she had been maybe she would have done a better job of keeping her family in the background rather than bringing them so much into the limelight with her. She’s very much a Kathy Gifford in that way.
It’s funny- all this bickering yet agreement. We all seem to agree that Letterman’s jokes were tasteless and offensive. He said it himself. What everyone gets hung up on is Palin’s response. It is honest outrage? Is she truly defending girls and women? Or is she using her children and this contrived outrage to prop herself up in the limelight? I would think if were the former, she’d make much less inflamatory and exaggerated statements against Letterman, and rather give her disapproval in a dignified and less personal way, and quietly go back to what is important here which is her children and her service to the state of AK. But no. Instead it’s like the Trump-Rosie fight. She’s a divisive, opportunistic person and I wish she’d go away.
In her interview with Lauer, Palin initially acted as though she did not want to discuss the topic (”if we must”). However, as the discussion proceeded, she had an e-mail ready to read. She not only planned to discuss the topic, but wanted to.
Susan: Spot on.
What Palin forgot – or lied about – in her disparagement of “he who must be obeyed” instructing people to leave families alone, was that he was talking about HER family:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/01/obama.palin/
I think Letterman should say in his monologue that he no longer wishes to engage Sarah Palin in her publicity seeking campaign, and that if she continues to insist that a bad taste joke about her 18 year daughter is a statutory rape joke about a 14 year old, that is her choice, but he clearly has a greater respect for children.
Zuzu: Thanks for the link. Hopefully the people here trying to say that Obama was only trying to protect his own family will read it too.
Willow is 15 so even the disgusting ’statutory rape’ charge is (legallly) bogus. Palin lies about anything. Even her kids.
DAVID LETTERMAN’S HATE, ETC. !
David Letterman’s hate is as old as some ancient Hebrew prophets.
Speaking of anti-Semitism, it’s Jerry Falwell and other fundy leaders who’ve gleefully predicted that in the future EVERY nation will be against Israel (an international first?) and that TWO-THIRDS of all Jews will be killed, right?
Wrong! It’s the ancient Hebrew prophet Zechariah who predicted all this in the 13th and 14th chapters of his book! The last prophet, Malachi, explains the reason for this future Holocaust that’ll outdo even Hitler’s by stating that “Judah hath dealt treacherously” and “the Lord will cut off the man that doeth this” and asks “Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?”
Haven’t evangelicals generally been the best friends of Israel and Jewish persons? Then please explain the recent filthy, hate-filled, back-stabbing tirades by David Letterman (and Sandra Bernhard) against a leading evangelical named Sarah Palin, and explain why most Jewish leaders have seemingly condoned Palin’s continuing “crucifixion”!
While David and Sandra are tragically turning comedy into tragedy, they are also helping to speed up and fulfill the Final Holocaust a la Zechariah and Malachi, thus helping to make the Bible even more believable!
(For even more stunning information, visit MSN and type in “Separation of Raunch and State” and “Bible Verses Obama Avoids.”)
Governor Sarah Palin was already in the spotlight as over 20,000 people showed up to see her in the parade in New York. But this was great publicity. Someone could not stand it. So here comes the negative spotlight!! I do not think she was thrilled about lettermans comments. I am glad she spoke up for herself and her daughters. I am sure CBS received a lot of calls on this also.
I he was serious, I think Stanley needs to get a life.
“Palin pointed out the “double standard” between Obama’s family and her own, saying that the media heeded Obama’s warning during the campaign not to attack his family.”
The disconnect here is that in blatant contrast to Palin’s family from her husband to her daughters and prospective ex-son-in-law who have so much about them to attack, the Obama’s haven’t done anything that the rightwing could possibly complain about without looking bad. So it isn’t that the MSM has given them a free ride, but rather there wasn’t anything they could say. Do you really think that they wouldn’t have if there were something to make a splash about? After all, part of the media seems to have done some rather vicious attacks on Michelle Obama recently.
I agree the Letterman joke was bad taste. I also think we should leave family out of politics. That joke was distasteful even for the 18 year old. However, when Obama said in the election to leave family out, he was referring to Palin’s daughter being pregnant. He said it in her defense then she turns it against him.
The GOP is now the counter culture so Palin is leader because she is all fight and no substance. She does have a bit of bull dog in her. This is why Palin is popular with those who believe no is a valid response to a crises, you can complain that your tax cut is an increase and we should thump our chest at Iran because we don’t like their election.
Good luck with that bunch Palin…