Of all her many gaffes, the gaffe-iest was her release--on the day of the memorial service for the Tucson shooting victims--of a video statement attacking others for blaming her, and then using a leaden phrase like "blood libel" in her discourse.
In the first place, if she wants to play in the big leagues, she is going to have to go to the ballpark. Phoning in the game on Skype won't cut it.
In the second place, and I must address Sarah directly here: Sarah--it isn't always about you. Especially not on the day of a memorial service devoted to the victims of a mass shooting that include a nine-year old child.
A good day to say nothing.
So far, there has been no such day for Ms. Palin.
When she accidentally created the new word "refudiate," she then called further attention to herself with a Tweet that read: "Refudiate,' 'misunderestimate,' 'wee-wee'd up.' English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!"
I don't got to. If I don't want to. You wee-wee up. I've just gone.
The good news? Palin is so ill-informed and, at the same time, so egotistical, I think she will last a very short time in a presidential race. She'll flame out faster than Gary Hart with Donna Rice on his lap on the yacht Monkey Business in Bimini.
Faster than Dan Quayle at the chalkboard teaching children to misspell potato.
Faster than John Edwards getting a $300 haircut.
Faster than an escort service with Eliot Spitzer on the speed dial.
Faster than Governor Mark Sanford finding his soul mate in Argentina.
Sarah Palin knowing next to nothing about American foreign policy--nor having much interest in it! That will be a problem. Not caring about the English language. That could trip her up. Having the experience of being Governor of Alaska for just two years and then quitting to be a Fox News contributor. Everything she has said in her Fox job is on the record and will revisit Sarah like a bad meatloaf dinner.
Would you like me to go on? No. Neither would I like me to go on.
Her own words will be enough of an anchor for her to carry around, like those chains Marley's ghost had to drag through eternity in A Christmas Carol.
This is my opinion. And since I can see my opinion from my backyard, I'm entitled to it.
I don't want to compare her to a shooting star, because a shooting star is brief--but it is a joy.
Sarah Palin is more like a rash. Annoying but temporary. We hope.
10 comments:
Wow, Robin, I completely disagree with you. You mention nothing in this post or your previous post about the fact that the left has been banging their drums, insisting the deaths in Tucson leave "blood on the hands of Sarah Palin."
The situation was getting out of control. Paul Krugman in the NYT pretty much tried, convicted and hanged her in one OpEd. MSNBC and other left-leaning news organizations have been having a field day, even AFTER Loughner's best friend told the world that Loughner never read a book or listened to talk radio, and in fact his political leanings were extremely left of center.
Death threats towards her are, this week, at an "unprecedented level". I think she did the right thing, speaking up now. Let's get over blaming her for the murders committed by a mentally ill man.
My husband used to work with Sean Hannity, and Sean once told me that if he wasn't getting his usual number of weekly death threats, he wasn't doing his job. Weird, huh?
Part II:
I'm not sure if you were joking, but SP never said she could see Russia from her backyard.
As much as I admire SP (which is a lot) I do agree that she has to step back a bit now, let situations settle down and get some rest.
Oh, and Rabbi Schmuley Boteach wrote this in the WSJ:
"Despite the strong association of the term with collective Jewish guilt and concomitant slaughter, Sarah Palin has every right to use it. The expression may be used whenever an amorphous mass is collectively accused of being murderers or accessories to murder.
The abominable element of the blood libel is not that it was used to accuse Jews, but that it was used to accuse innocent Jews—their innocence, rather than their Jewishness, being the operative point. Had the Jews been guilty of any of these heinous acts, the charge would not have been a libel."
So I think SP was right in using that term in her video.
Someday I'll write and tell you why I think she quit the Governership of Alaska.
Okay ... goodnight!
Wow, Ms. Palin really got you upset! I do love your references to past political gaffes and indescretions. Boy, they take me back. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in 2012.
I agree with you about her "phoning in on Skype".
Laura has several good points: I suppose Palin has been attacked enough and I could be accused of "piling on." That having been said, I think Palin, like others in the public eye--you cite Sean Hannity--is going to have to learn to take the rough with the smooth, develop a thicker skin, and be more careful about picking her battles.
By the time she came to her own defense, her defenders had already made the needed points.
Oh and to Perry: the reference to old political scandals did get my brain synapses working a bit. Though I think Sarah Palin buying Spanx girdles with donated Republican money isn't quite up there with the Governor of South Carolina sneaking off to Argentina to find illicit love ... Life in the public eye can be more than challenging. However; hiding behind a video tape release isn't a positive response to that. Oh there I go, piling on again. Sorry!
It's a shame there have to be sides on an issue like this; that said, I'm with you, Robin. Since Ms. Palin was not responsible for the violence in Arizona in any way, shape, or form - why did she have to comment on it at all on a day that was obviously Not About Her?
Absolutely the point. Thanks for stating it so clearly.
I think it was "Monkey Business" and I share your loathing of Ms. Palin. She is political opportunist with limited credentials. Small time; small mind.
Thank you for catching the missing "k" in "Monkey." I wondered where I had lost it.
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