Images of Sarah Palin from the latest issue of Vanity Fair magazine.Vanity Fair has a big article this month on former Alaska Governor, former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. I'm not a fan of this publicity-seeking, clueless egomaniacal opportunist. I was interested to read the piece and see what the magazine had learned about her that hasn't already been in People magazine.
Unfortunately, author Michael Joseph Gross was unable to get anyone of substance to talk with him on the record and thus has nothing new to say about her.
Well there was one thing new: in addition to all those clothes she charged to the Republican National Committee, she also charged a bunch of Spanx girdles to them. I sat up in my chair when I read that. Sara Palin needs a girdle? Who knew?
Oh, and her husband Todd's emails are peppered with bad grammar and misspellings. Now there's a revelation. Todd Palin a dunce? I'm shocked. Shocked.
Beyond those little nuggets the pickings were pretty lean. Since she's become famous she doesn't go out much in Wasilla, not the way she used to. Wow. A woman who quit her job as governor of Alaska so she could hit the road and make millions of dollars on the speakers circuit is dissing the folks of Wasilla? There's a surprise. She shops incognito at Target right before closing to avoid discussing her Target purchases with fans. Hmm. Sounds pretty logical to me. She has a big No Trespassing sign on the fence around her house. I would do that too if people were reporting on my Spanx girdle purchases. (I'm going to have to try those things!)
What I would have liked to learn was: why does a brilliant conservative like William Kristol support her and apparently play a role in her inner circle? Why does Richard Lowry of the National Review defend her in the pages of William F. Buckley's iconic magazine? Did these guys refuse to talk with Michael Joseph Gross, or didn't he think to call them? That should have been mentioned in the piece.
It really gags me to think that intelligent conservatives can't do better than this ghastly paper doll of a candidate. That's why I would liked to have heard from some leading thinkers about her so-called phenomenon. Personally, I think her time in the sunlight will be very short. She's made out of air and sugar candy and she'll dissolve in the first rain.
Gross justified his lack of quotes by saying everyone was afraid to talk to him. Everyone? Leading thinkers at the Hoover Institute? Pepperdine University political science professors? Everyone? If that's true then "everyone" should be ashamed of themselves.
Buried in the article was the fact that McCain staffers learned during the '08 campaign that she didn't know who Margaret Thatcher was. If that is true, then someone of intelligence needs to write a real piece about her. Just talkin' trash about Sarah only feeds the phenomenon and simply lengthens the painful time in which we must watch this inept woman dance in the spotlight.
8 comments:
I love this post - I'm usually just reduced to stuttering when I try to explain why I think Palin is such a goofball. Thanks! marge
Thanks Marge: the good news is that politics is a dangerous contact sport and she's already shown she can't take it. So I doubt in the long run she'll ever be able to get elected to anything. It still frustrates me, though, that conservative intellectuals seem to be encouraging her. They must think "the people" are just as dumb as she is!
Robin - I think that is it; "They... (being leaders and intellectuals of any political ilk) think 'the people' are just as dumb as she is!", however I believe it extends to both political parties pushing the majority of their candidates. That a person with such an absence of historical political familiarity and insight, and who continuously proves herself to be the opposite of erudite, receives any encouragement or validation at all speaks to how the American populous is viewed, not the spectacle of Sarah Palin.
-Dana
That's pretty sad. Maybe I ought to write an "Open Letter to America's Conservative Intellectuals" and tell them what I think of that concept. Ronald Reagan was the antithesis of this: he succeeded in one of the most competitive fields on earth. And he was president of one of the most powerful unions on earth, and then governor of a state with a GNP larger than that of France. He wrote his own speeches. He was a thinker and a leader. Yet some intellectuals still, I suspect, believe that he was their tool. They will never turn Sara Palin into Ronald Reagan. She couldn't shine his shoes. Especially wearing her Spanx!
Hi Robin ~
I was up your way the past couple of days, dropping my older daughter off at UCSC as she begins her junior year. Such a beautiful part of America!
Well, I am one of "those people" ~ a conservative (I would like to think I'm intelligent!) who really likes Sarah Palin.
I could write from here to the moon about what I admire about her, but the bottom line is this: liberals are scared to death of her, and so will make up lie after lie about her to try to bring her down. Just go to Huffington Post and look up Shannyn Moore and "AKMuckraker", two of the worst offenders. Shannyn is obsessed with Sarah, writing the most awful stuff you can imagine, much of it making fun of Palin's clothing and shoe choices.
McCain's staff has already admitted they lied about Palin's intelligence ... you don't become mayor and governor by being an idiot. Just like people dismiss George W. Bush as stupid (never mind that he got his MBA from Harvard), Palin has erroneously been dismissed as an intellectual lightweight.
So much of the information in the VF article was inane that the online comments vilified the author for being such a complete jerk. And most of these letters were from regular VF readers (i.e. not conservatives).
OK, enough ranting tonight. Just wanted to give you my humble little opinion. : )
I know the Left really dislikes Palin, but that alone doesn't give her enough wattage. The VF article was a trash job, no doubt about that, and that was my point. An article about what intelligent conservative thinkers say about her and why they say they support her, if they do, would have been interesting. Just being the "anti-Left" isn't reason enough, at least for me, to root for her. She's pretty and a good speaker. And what else?
I always thought that she, more than Obama, Biden or McCain, could keep five balls up in the air, charm the pants off any world leader, and by scolding make anyone who has done wrong feel ashamed of their actions. Like a mom. Of five.
This doesn't mean I want to see her as POTUS. But after seeing what Obama is doing to our beloved America, there is absolutely no way she could do worse.
Lastly, I admire her ability to not take things personally. She lets things roll off her back that would kill me!
Have a great day ~
It is America and we do get the leaders we, in a way, deserve. We also forget that the president is not a magic king (or queen) and can't just wave a wand and make bad things go away and good things happen presto change-o. I'm not feeling the way you do about Mrs. Palin, but it is a free country and she can go around giving her opinions as long as she likes.
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