Sarah Palin Pop Culture Celebrity

As we discussed on last night’s edition of OTB Radio, Sarah Palin is a story that simply refuses to go away.  Despite the campaign being long over and her return to Alaska, where she had managed to live without notice in the lower 48 for years, controversies surrounding her continue to crop up.

Has a failed vice presidential nominee ever stayed in the news cycle nine months later?

We had the seemingly-never-ending David Letterman kerfuffle (see “Letterman Palin Jokes Cross the Line” and “Palin Ignored Worse Jokes Than Letterman’s.”)

There was even a mini-scandal over Sarah Palin’s toenails, of all things.

This week, a Vanity Fair piece dusted off stories of infighting inside the McCain-Palin campaign and CBS News is rehashing it as well.  I don’t much care about the story, frankly, but I’m bemused by much of it.  Despite having believed from Minute 1 that the Palin was an awful choice for the VP nomination, the idea that she had some duty to do whatever campaign manager Steve Schmidt instructed because he was “the commanding general” is absurd.  Clearly, though, a lot of people on Team McCain bear a lasting animosity towards Palin, as if they blame her for losing a campaign that was so out of reach that they picked Sarah Palin as running mate.

Palin also managed to garner attention from a recent spread in, of all places, Runner’s World.  First, it was because she looked a little un-governorlike in some of them.

Now, there’s concern in some circles that she used the American flag as a prop:

This one, too, strikes me as rather silly.  But the upshot of all this, I think, is that Palin has crossed the line from politician to pop culture celebrity. A handful have done while retaining their gravitas.  Palin hasn’t. And while she’s had some “help” in this regard, she’s largely done it by her own choices.

UPDATE: Amusingly, I no sooner finish this post than see Jim Geraghty has written a post dubbing Palin “The Angelina Jolie of Politics.”

Today almost everyone faces some sort of challenge in balancing work and family; I don’t know too many people who believe there are sufficient hours in a day. And then along comes this woman who’s made all of these “conservative” choices and now has an amazing career, a supportive husband, a beautiful family, great health and appearance, and she bears it all, including the inevitable hard times, with pluck and a smile, as far as we can tell. (For all we know, perhaps behind closed doors, Sarah Palin screams into a pillow when it all gets to be too much. But what we know about her suggests she relieves her stress by shooting moose.)

A short while back, Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum suggested, only half-jokingly, that actress Angelina Jolie’s “entire Oscar-winning, serial-adopting, Brad Pitt-snagging, plane-piloting, unattainably hot-looking existence makes women around the world feel hopelessly inadequate and therefore unhappy.” Perhaps Sarah Palin is the Angelina Jolie of the political world.

In her opponents’ minds, Palin’s made all the wrong choices, and cannot, they insist, be very bright. Yet she’s happy and successful. She is an anomaly that invalidates their worldview, and for that, they attempt to immiserate her — regardless of whether she wishes to run for national office again.

I think that’s one leap of pop psychology too far.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Eric Florack says:

    Has a failed vice presidential nominee every stayed in the news cycle nine months later?

    Not in my memory, though it should be noted that also to my memory, no vice presidential candidate is outperformed the top of the ticket in such dramatic fashion as Palin out performed McCain. granted, that may be an indication of extraordinarily poor performance on McCain’s part, rather than extraordinary performance on Palin’s part. Still, when you’re running from the lion, one need not be the fastest, one need merely be “not the slowest”.

    But the upshot of all this, I think, is that Palin has crossed the line from politician to pop culture celebrity.

    And Obama is….. what, again?

  2. DL says:

    Pop Celebrity? How about Obama -the man with no experience -a great photoshopper for campaign director -a couple of foam pillars during free rock concerts and a media with individual engraved names on their lap-doggie bowls promised after they put him in.

    Now, after irritating Helen Thomas, things might be changing….

    Sarah – had much more experience and is the much more attraactive candidate (other than her sex appeal) she says it well, she’s smart enough to scare the DC regulars, and without talking with the robot-like head turning ( like a tennis match fan,) that Obama reflects.

  3. One Fine Jay says:

    Ungovernorlike? Certainly when our current president is photographed in boardshorts*, shades and nothing more, how many have crowed about his being unpresidential?

    * – and a great sigh of relief that this is neither the late eighties nor France, else he’d be in a Speedo.

  4. James Joyner says:

    Certainly when our current president is photographed in boardshorts*, shades and nothing more, how many have crowed about his being unpresidential?

    He’s gotten some ribbing for that, yes. But that is pretty much the only acceptable way to dress at the beach. Were he posing like that for Swimmer’s World, he’d raise more eyebrows.

  5. One Fine Jay says:

    Point taken. I’m a little bit on full-on hate the world mode today.

  6. Furhead says:

    She looks fine in those pictures to me. I see people violate the flag rules in far worse ways than that. For example, wearing flag-patterned clothes is not only inappropriate, it’s usually ugly as hell.

    I agree she’s successful and fairly smart, but this quote …

    Sarah – had much more experience

    In wot respekt, Charlie?

  7. Derrick says:

    Pop Celebrity? How about Obama -the man with no experience -a great photoshopper for campaign director -a couple of foam pillars during free rock concerts and a media with individual engraved names on their lap-doggie bowls promised after they put him in.

    Here’s the difference Obama’s a celebrity in the People magazine way, with spreads with the family, stories about his battle with cigarettes and other pretty normal fare. Sarah Palin is perfect for the Life & Style, US weekly set with fuedes with McCain, Levi and others, we get to see posed photos in ridiculous situations like above. All we need is for a story about her gaining weight and losing it again, and the circle will be complete

  8. Janis Gore says:

    That coy shot at the end of the Runner’s Weekly spread doesn’t do anything for her seriousness, attractive as it may be. Cheesecake with American flag.

    Does the magazine ever do action photos of celebrity runners in stride? Something in mid-sprint would be more interesting — as a photo of a runner, I mean, not of a pretty woman.

  9. Janis Gore says:

    Yench. Runner’s World. I don’t run.

  10. Drew says:

    “…Palin has crossed the line from politician to pop culture celebrity…”

    Uh, and our current President??

  11. JKB says:

    How do you create a heroic figure? You have to have good enemies. Sarah Palin has the best ones. Her mere appearance in public brings out the venom from the Left but also from the insiders on the Right. America loves an underdog and they love the outsider irritating the insiders, of both parties. That brings in the eyeballs, which prompts the stories in the MSM as well as the blogworld.

    It helps that she looks like, lives like and talks like the majority of the “unsophisticated” Americans. You know those the inside the beltway crowd consider “subjects.” The kind of people who would find photos of Sarah Palin in running clothes of interest.

  12. Timbet says:

    I think that’s one leap of pop psychology too far.

    I don’t. Our president, who has less experience than Palin in every aspect, is a pop celebrity icon and everyone loves him for it simply because he is a liberal and the press is liberal. They truly hate successful republicans. It’s really that simple.

  13. Wayne says:

    JKB
    Don’t you know that we should bow down to the elites inside the beltway and their superior intelligence? You know the ones who care more about presentation and winning elections above having good morals and doing what is right.

  14. Wayne says:

    Oh yeah, Imagine if Michelle Obama or Hillary look that good. It would be “beautiful and powerful woman” with pictures all over the place. Anyone saying anything negative about their looks would be crucify for being sexist.

  15. TangoMan says:

    A necessary condition for influencing people is to first get their attention.

    The most brilliant policy wonk will be very ineffective if he is unable to get his ideas into play.

    Governor Palin, without a doubt, captures attention. The problem really is not with her, but with the media gatekeepers, who make conscious choices to focus on the trivial and ignore the substantive. She’s a successful governor who has fought corruption, manages a bureaucracy of tens of thousands of employees, manages a budget of $11 billion, etc so we know that the press could focus on her accomplishments and initiatives if they applied to her the same standards that they apply to President Obama.

    Nevertheless, her celebrity can be a force that can work for her or against her. If she jumps into the primaries in the next election cycle, and her celebrity holds, then she can draw an audience to her events, meetings and debates, and either shine or fail with the audience irrespective of the media spin that is reported. Curious people will come out to see her and may see a candidate who is different from the one portrayed in the media or they may see the media image confirmed.

    Frankly, I’d say the overwhelming majority of her media image is the result of media driven push factors rather than Governor Palin initiated pull factors, for example, she came down to the lower 48 to focus on her shepherding the largest energy infrastructure private investment in American history and instead the media personalities ignored her substantive accomplishment and instead focused on jokes about raping her 14 year old daughter. I can’t find a way to fault Governor Palin for the bigotry held by others for that would be like blaming the victim of rape for the actions of the rapist.

  16. Furhead says:

    Well this subject has certainly brought out some Palin defenders. While I agree that much of the criticism has been unfounded, some of it was perfectly valid.

    The first thing we learned about her, that she said “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere, was false. Instant fodder.

    And then regarding her lack of foreign policy experience, it would have been okay if the campaign had simply said something to the effect of, “other governors without foreign policy experience have done fine as President.” Instead, we hear nonsense about Putin rearing his head. More fodder.

    Personally, I was more concerned with the fact she asked about banning books on three different occasions and possibly fired the librarian because of her answer.

  17. Steve Plunk says:

    James, you are as guilty as anyone for dragging her back into the mix. Geraghty is exactly right. The left hate her so they keep talking and the press can’t leave her alone either.

    As others have said our President is even more of a pop culture phenomenon than Palin.

  18. Sarah Palin marks a new “first.” First Gubernatorial Cameltoe.

  19. TangoMan says:

    The first thing we learned about her, that she said “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere, was false. Instant fodder.

    -On the contrary. Obama and Biden both voted to support that bridge on two separate occasions. Neither of these men took any action to kill funding.

    -Polifact reports:

    In the fall of 2005, Congress removed the language specifically directing the money to the bridge, but it kept the money in place and left it up to Alaska to decide which transportation projects the state would like to spend it on.

    By the time Palin pulled the plug on the Gravina bridge project in September 2007, much of the federal funding for the bridge had already been diverted to other transportation projects. The bridge would cost $398-million, Palin said then, and Alaska was $329-million short.

    So, which decision-maker or governmental authority was responsible for killing the bridge? It wasn’t Senator Obama or Senator Biden, it wasn’t Congress, rather it was Governor Palin. She said that the bridge wasn’t a wise use of capital. Further, 9 months prior to her final decision on the bridge she had removed all engineering studies funding and she diverted all of the congressional funding to other transportation projects.

    She never stated that she had a problem with federal funding for a state’s transportation infrastructure, so her use of the federal funding for other badly needed Alaska transportation requirements was not an act of hypocrisy.

    And then regarding her lack of foreign policy experience, it would have been okay if the campaign had simply said something to the effect of, “other governors without foreign policy experience have done fine as President.” Instead, we hear nonsense about Putin rearing his head. More fodder.

    No different in kind than believing we’re a nation comprised of 57 states or that people in Austria speak Austrian. Notice the double standards being invoked?

    Personally, I was more concerned with the fact she asked about banning books on three different occasions and possibly fired the librarian because of her answer.

    Asking librarians how they deal with censorship issues is no more out of line than asking the city maintenance department how they deal with road side memorials for car accident victims, both controversial topics that could ensnare the office of the mayor when decisions made by department heads may prove unpopular. As to the librarian being fired, the librarian was a supporter of Palin’s opponent, she was also the girlfriend of the Chief of Police (who Palin, as head of government, had issues with,) and Palin asked every department head for a letter of resignation when she assumed office. In the end, the librarian wasn’t fired.

  20. Bystander says:

    Let’s compare the media’s unpopularity of Sarah Palin with that of, say, Rush Limbaugh!

    Sarah holds an elected high office and is a successful player in the practicality of politics. Rush, on the other hand is an entertainer and an established ideologue who admittedly would never enter into running for a political office. Because they are actually dealing with processes in making decisions, players actually make mistakes. Ideologues don’t (unless/until they get elected to an office), because they are only dealing in an abstract world. Thus, a hostile media can focus on, magnify and exploit the (perceived) mistakes a political player makes in order to attempt to make them look like flawed humans. It’s a bit different with an ideologue. Hostile media have to actually attack the person of this ideologue as they cannot seem to focus on and make good arguments against his ideology.

    If the hostile media ever decides to take a more pragmatic approach to the practical politics of Sarah Palin rather than focusing on her minor mistakes and perceived character flaws, they would be forced to either leave her alone or credit her with being a rather successful governor.

    I can only conclude that the hostile media chooses to keep Governor Palin in their ‘Fools Gallery’ because they fear she might indeed run for a higher office in the future, and they really don’t want the public focused on her successes.

  21. Bystander:

    You caught us.

    Because we are terrified of Sarah Palin, we continue to attack her.

    It is absolutely NOT that we know by ridiculing her we will force knee-jerk conservatives to rally around her and elevate her still further in their pantheon of inexplicable heroes.

    She makes me so afraid! Pleeeease don’t make us run against Palin. Pleeeease.

    Signed,
    Br’er Rabbit

  22. TangoMan says:

    It is absolutely NOT that we know by ridiculing her we will force knee-jerk conservatives to rally around her and elevate her still further in their pantheon of inexplicable heroes.

    In most political dialogs there are at least three parties, the initiator, the responder and the observer(s) so while liberals are inclined to initiate unwarranted attacks on Governor Palin in the hopes of getting conservatives to respond to the attacks, the observers, some of them at least, can look beyond the partisanship and evaluate the merits of the attack and will not be making their affiliation decisions based on simple partisanship. Governor Palin’s approval ratings with Democrats and Independents (according to Pew) have been rising.

    She makes me so afraid! Pleeeease don’t make us run against Palin. Pleeeease.

    Palin is still standing despite the barrage of garbage thrown at her. She was a Vice-Presidential candidate and it’s now been 9 months since the election. Why does she remain such a fixation for liberals?

    It would be very interesting to see her pitted against a President with a glass jaw who has to run for reelection by defending his record and his string of broken promises. Palin can target Obama with substantive attacks, as she did with her prophetic convention speech, and Obama can fire back with innuendo.

  23. Why does she remain such a fixation for liberals?

    Dude, seriously? You look at the shot of her with the flag and you don’t know why we love her? She’s funny. She makes us laugh. And I for one enjoy laughing.

    As a matter of fact, something has just occurred to me: none of the people I’ve encountered who love Palin has a sense of humor. Oh, my God, it’s the Rosetta stone of Palin worship: you don’t get that she’s funny.

    It’s like a deaf person asking why people like music.

    Sarah Palin is flat-out the funniest political creature around. Although Mark Sanford gave her a run for her money this last couple weeks.

  24. Jim Treacher says:

    He’s gotten some ribbing for that, yes. But that is pretty much the only acceptable way to dress at the beach. Were he posing like that for Swimmer’s World, he’d raise more eyebrows.

    It’d be kind of tough to go jogging in her usual business attire, wouldn’t you think?

  25. Jim Treacher says:

    Sarah Palin is flat-out the funniest political creature around.

    Not while Joe Biden walks the earth.

  26. TangoMan says:

    Dude, seriously? You look at the shot of her with the flag and you don’t know why we love her? She’s funny. She makes us laugh. And I for one enjoy laughing.

    Good point. Humor is a very idiosyncratic thing, which might explain why the liberals in Hollywood are having such a hard time finding viewers for their television comedy shows, and liberals in Washington are having an even more difficult time in finding viewers for their agitprop. Maybe too many people in TV-Land think that liberalism is another form of comedy, you know, a kind of joke being foisted upon humanity.

    You see, what’s funny to me is a politician who thinks the US has 57 States, or that Austrians speak Austrian, or a politician posturing about his knowledge of the Honduran Constitution as though he knows what is legal and illegal according to that Constitution better than the members of the Honduran Supreme Court. But on second thought those are examples that best describe tragi-comedy, you know, when matters becomes so outlandish that laughing at them is the least soul-crushing alternative available.

    I’m still lost why posing with an American flag is the personification of comedy but pondering flapping man-boobs is the epitome of deep thought.

    The minds of liberals, and their taste in comedy, are very difficult to penetrate, but thanks for your effort in trying to clear the fog that surrounds you. I hope that this doesn’t make you feel like a creature in a zoo with all sorts of folks staring at you and marveling at your idiosyncracies.

  27. Any says:

    Blaming her for a goofy looking photo is like giving credit to VF celebs (anyone come to mind?) for their multi-day photo shoots with Annie Lebowitz.

    The photographer, Brian Adams, shouldn’t have let that one escape, but my guess is it took 30 secs and they all had a schedule to keep.

    BTW Mr Joyner, you’re pop psychology leaps are on the sluggish side. Work on that.

  28. ROB says:

    If Obama can get elected, anyone can. At least Gov. Palin knows that executive responsibility requires more than six pack abs and a teleprompter.

  29. Tango:

    Well, you certainly proved me wrong.

  30. James Joyner says:

    It’d be kind of tough to go jogging in her usual business attire, wouldn’t you think?

    Absolutely. And if she’d been photographed wearing jogging attire whilst jogging, most of us would have merely thought “Man, she’s in great shape.”

    Instead, she’s doing cheesecake poses. Granted, when you look like she does, pretty much anything that shows a lot of leg looks like a cheesecake pose. But she’s not a Miss Alaska contestant anymore; she’s a state governor and an aspiring President of the United States. “PILF” isn’t really a campaign slogan.

  31. As an aside, for those of you who have not been to a photo shoot . . .

    The RW spread was half a dozen shots. Which means they posed at least twice as many. And each set-up involved moving lights, props, etc… Many hours.

    There were of course costume changes. Hair and make-up. And Governor Cameltoe would have had to reproduce her winky-smile again and again to get it just right.

    She’s working with the photog to show off legs, breasts, waist, lips, all the secondary sexual characteristics her many male fans will later salivate over as they . . . um . . . read her policy papers.

    What? She has no policy papers? You say she’s never written anything?

    OKay, then the, um, things her many male fans will later salivate over as they contemplate the many policy papers she will no doubt start writing. Just as soon as she stops with the “look how cute I am!” shots.

  32. floyd says:

    Funny, we’ve got lots of news photos of Blagojevich jogging and we just don’t here the liberals complaining, and who could be more “ungovernorlike”??

    The real laugh is that someone might be appalled at a politician using the flag
    “as a prop”[lol]

    Like it’s not so common as to appear mandatory?

  33. TangoMan says:

    And Governor Cameltoe would have had to reproduce her winky-smile again and again to get it just right.

    You see, now this is comedy. Liberals, those walking personifications of enlightenment, choosing to characterize a female politician by referring to her in sexually crude ways. Why not use the same standards when you refer to President Obama? Would the use of the term “President Nappy Head” be within the realm of acceptable liberal usage?

    In case you missed the comedy aspect, the fact that your self-image as a liberal is in direct contradiction with your actual behavior, and that you apparently are not self-aware enough to realize this, is comedy gold to many of those you interact with.

  34. G.A.Phillips says:

    Harry, your just jealous because her hair is almost as nice as yours……..

  35. TangoMan says:

    What? She has no policy papers? You say she’s never written anything?

    Please put me in the doghouse by linking to Obama’s policy papers on national issues that he wrote 4 years prior to running for President. I’d like to read some of those policy papers.

  36. 4 years prior to running for President

    .

    You do realize she’s already been a national candidate, right? And that if she runs we’re not 4 years out, we’re about 2. And that Obama had written a couple of books.

    But really, dude, I don’t know why you’re going all angry on me. I think you misunderstand. I would totally do her. I mean, if I wasn’t married? (30 years yesterday, thank you, thank you.) But if I was single and she gave me that little winky-smile and did that little twist move, I would absolutely buy her a drink.

    And let me say this: she’s the first presidential hopeful I’ve ever said that about.

    So please, don’t take offense. I would absolutely give her my hotel room key.

  37. floyd says:

    Mike;
    To paraphrase Limbaugh, I guess feminism is only for democrat women.
    Can you name one who would not break the camera along with the budget?
    Your criticism sounds like a jealous old lady.
    I guess her male ANTI-fans still have photos of Barney Frank to salivate over.[lol]
    BTW,Does this look “Senatorlike” to you?…

    http://tinyurl.com/nhhnka

  38. Janis Gore says:

    Floyd, do you see the woman jogging in any of those shots?

    She looks more like a catalog model for jogging attire than a runner in this spread.

  39. BTW,Does this look “Senatorlike” to you?…

    Sadly, yes.

  40. G.A.Phillips says:

    http://tinyurl.com/nhhnka</blockquoteeYUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!! LOL, Floyd, some of us are trying to stop using drugs to block things out…….and I’m damn sure glaad that there was not a red hot poker laying near as I first took glimpse of that…….

  41. Jim Treacher says:

    Instead, she’s doing cheesecake poses.

    Okay.

    She’s working with the photog to show off legs, breasts, waist, lips, all the secondary sexual characteristics her many male fans will later salivate over as they . . . um . . . read her policy papers.

    Well, we wouldn’t want that.

  42. steve says:

    I thought we could have resolved the Palin issue easily enough with a couple of interviews. Sit her down alone for two hours with a non partisan economist like Cowen and a non partisan foreign policy guy like General Jones. Then, see how they grade her level of understanding of the issues.

    She is good on TV. She would have been an ideal candidate to run with Jindal in 2012 or 2016. IMHO, she was so bad that she has no chance with us independents. I just cannot see her getting elected.

    Steve

  43. Pug says:

    “PILF” isn’t really a campaign slogan.

    Never underestimate the power of PILF.

  44. Jim:

    Wow. You thought Obama’s beach photo was so hot you linked to it twice?

    Right on, man: you gotta be yourself.

  45. Jim Treacher says:

    Wow. You thought Obama’s beach photo was so hot you linked to it twice?

    You’re the one going on and on about presidential candidates showing what they’ve got. If Barry’s got the stuff you’d rather see, that’s your business. Nothing wrong with it.

  46. TangoMan says:

    I thought we could have resolved the Palin issue easily enough with a couple of interviews. Sit her down alone for two hours with a non partisan economist like Cowen and a non partisan foreign policy guy like General Jones. Then, see how they grade her level of understanding of the issues.

    Isn’t that the whole point of primaries, townhall meetings and debates?

    If a candidate must have mastery of economics and foreign policy that matches the levels of professionals who practice their craft all day, every day, then why do Presidents need economic and foreign policy advisers?

    Look at all of the errors that President Obama is making in both fields. His little bit of knowledge in both areas seems to have persuaded him that he is indeed knowledgeable in both fields and he’s blundering around like an ox in a China store.

  47. Any says:

    “As an aside” and as a pro photographer, I can tell you that many hours were not spent on this shoot. These are called “editorial shots” and they are always taken quickly. There is one battery run light on a stand with, maybe, an umbrella stuck camera left or right. Blam. Ok lets go outside. Blam.15 minutes and no photoshop post processing. And,yes, running shorts are quite the wardrobe.

    Michael, stick to buying drinks for girls that wink at you.
    And Mr Joyner, what would you, were you a dedicated runner, wear when interviewed by a running magazine? A suit right? Cause you’re a serious guy. Sure.

  48. floyd says:

    Steve ;
    Just how do you think resident Obama would do in an unscripted interview with a hostile press with no strings, no ear plug, and no monitor?

    Surely “KNOT” quite as good as Howdy Doody or Danny O’day!
    They at least “WOOD” remain silent !
    Obama could do no better than simply spouting programmed inanities.

  49. Steve Plunk says:

    Michael Reynolds,

    It’s time to grow up. The crude sexual stuff is out of place here. Let the adults talk please. Trying to be funny and being funny are two different things.

  50. An Interested Party says:

    Awwwwww…it really is quite adorable to observe the local chapter of the Sarah Palin Cheerleading Society…keep up the good work! Sadly (only for all her boosters), the governor will never get anywhere near the Oval Office except, maybe, as a visitor…the ironic thing is that, should she decide to enter the 2012 GOP presidential primary, the venom that will be unleashed against her by the other Republicans in that race will make anything said about her by liberals and the media seem very very mild by comparison…oh well, she won’t be your president, but at least she can still be your pinup…

  51. hcantrall says:

    Really interesting how many posts are made on the Sarah Palin stories.
    While I’m not big fan of Sarah Palin, I have to say as a woman I find Mr. Reynolds comments about her body offensive. I guess she should get some duct tape and tape her breasts down and try for an angle that doesn’t show that she has hips etc. I suppose to be a woman in politics you have to look like an ugly man in a pants suit. Really ridiculous comments you made up there, being a woman hater won’t get you anywhere.

  52. The crude sexual stuff

    Seriously? That’s your idea of crude sexual stuff?

    I’m going to guess Utah? Nebraska? Here in southern California we set a much higher standard for our crude sexual stuff. Then we make a movie out of it and sell it for a billion dollars.

    Ah hah hah hah.

    Of course we are the epicenter of evil and I imagine God will earthquake us pretty soon.

  53. Franklin says:

    No different in kind than believing we’re a nation comprised of 57 states

    You guys still really think that because of one slip-of-the-tongue, Obama really thought there were 57 states? Then I assume you also think McCain doesn’t know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites, especially since he misspoke about this at least twice.

    To thinking observers, there’s a good bit of difference between the above examples and the foreign policy “credentials” that the McCain campaign repeatedly and seriously trotted out for Palin (the feared commander of the Alaskan National Guard; or, “you can see Russia from some parts of Alaska”). The fact is, they lied and kept lying about it.

    BTW, the conclusion that Palin was the decision maker on the bridge is highly entertaining. It’s like me saying that I decided not to buy the company Microsoft. Nevermind that I’m a few billion short, I was the one who pulled the plug on that deal! But besides that, she spent months cheering on the project, only giving up when there was no money left for it. It was a lie, and again, they kept lying about it, over and over at every campaign stop. Even the faithful stopped cheering when she repeated the lie.

  54. Jim Treacher says:

    You guys still really think that because of one slip-of-the-tongue, Obama really thought there were 57 states?

    You really think Palin said, “I can see Russia from my house”?

  55. JKB says:

    So you’re Sarah Palin. Your family has been abused and slandered all because you were selected for a national ticket. You’ve been betrayed by operatives of your own party and the MSM has closed ranks against you to protect their chosen son. Your won’t ever be accepted by the in crowd although you are very popular with the common man. What do you do to stick it to your enemies? Go back to Alaska and keep your head down? Try to gain acceptance by trying to fit in even though you know you’ll never be accepted?

    No, you get out in public. Spark comments. Draw hatred. Every word written against you improves your standing with the “unsophisticated” and makes you stronger. And your enemies, they can’t stop, they can’t say something nice and take away your power over them.

    Perhaps Sarah Palin hasn’t a chance to win the Presidency but as for gravitas, we’ll see. We’ll see how many candidates invite her rallies next year to draw the crowd.

  56. TangoMan says:

    BTW, the conclusion that Palin was the decision maker on the bridge is highly entertaining.

    You must have a very low threshold for entertainment then. This sure looks like Governor Palin making decisions to me:

    During her inaugural address on December 4, 2006, Governor Palin pledged responsible spending.[22] On January 17, 2007, she sent a revised budget to the president of the Alaska Senate that would restrict capital spending and rescinded the $185M state share of the bridge funding.

    In August 2007, Alaska’s Department of Transportation stated that it was “leaning” toward alternative ferry options, citing bridge costs and the reluctance of Governor Palin to pay the state’s match to the appropriated federal funds. A month later, in September 2007, Palin formally canceled the project.

    Here’s a hint: relying on facts and evidence will lead most people to a different conclusion than what you get when you rely on liberal agitprop. Governor Palin takes office and 6 weeks later cuts funding for the bridge and then 9 months later formally brings the project to an end. She could have directed the Federal funding towards that bridge, but she didn’t.

  57. TangoMan says:

    You guys still really think that because of one slip-of-the-tongue, Obama really thought there were 57 states? Then I assume you also think McCain doesn’t know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites, especially since he misspoke about this at least twice.

    Victor Davis Hanson chronicled President Palin’s First 100 Days:

    Let’s face it: She’s a walking embarrassment. I mean just count ’em up: The mayor of Wasilla thinks Austrians speak some lingo called ‘Austrian.’ Then she tries her hand at Spanish and comes up with some concoction, ‘Cinco de Cuatro.’ Next thing she’ll walk into the window of the Oval Office and expect it to open — oops, she’s already done that. No wonder that when her Teleprompter stalls, she shuts her mouth until it catches up. I’m surprised she managed to get sworn in. And did she think that tasteless ‘Special Olympics’ slur was funny? Or making fun of octogenarian Nancy Reagan’s séances? No wonder Wanda Sykes feels at home.” . . .

    Our former beauty queen is a ward hack. Look at her nominations. Can’t Palin find anyone who has paid his taxes — or do they simply ignore that stuff in no-tax Alaska? Does ‘No more lobbyists’ mean ‘More lobbyists than ever’? Her chief performance overseer doesn’t perform too well herself — and, like Daschle, Geithner, and the rest, skips out on her taxes. When Palin brags about fiscal sobriety, it really means record deficits. In Sarahland, not wanting to take over banks and car companies translates into, ‘She already has.’ Highest ethical standards equates to ‘There are none.’ Calling herself the VA president means she’s just told vets to use their own health insurance.” . . . .

    “Bush is out, Palin is in — but we keep getting renditions, military tribunals, wiretaps, e-mail intercepts, Predator drone executions over Pakistan, the same in Iraq, and even more of the same in Afghanistan — all retrofitted with new ‘hope and change’ banalities. I mean, who’s putting Mommy Dearest up to this — Wolfie, Perlie, Cheney?”

    The vapidity of President Obama far exceeds the one example cited above, where he believes that we’re a union of 57 States. He’s a gaffe machine that never turns off.

  58. DL says:

    Sorry, anti Palin folks, but things don’t occur in a vaccuum. We’ve had enough with the standard GOP leader; Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt(Obamahealthcare)Romney, George(open the compassionate borders) Bush, and the Huckster.

    The dems don’t worry about experience -just ideology and marketing an image – and they succeed, because they do that better. In this democracy the masses are ignorant of what is needed in leadership and few understand economics,most want badly to be lied to(Obama’s best trait-they still love him)

    Reason loses to faux imaging and clever marketing everytime,I’m afraid. When we stop thinking that the masses vote with their brains, we might start winning again.

  59. Furhead says:

    You really think Palin said, “I can see Russia from my house”?

    Nope, everybody knows that quote was an exaggeration by Tina Fey.

    Palin’s quote to Gibson was “You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.”

    Pretty similar. Look it up on YouTube if you don’t believe me.

  60. mark says:

    Furhead …

    You can see Russia from Alaska.

    Look it up (lat:65.77,lon:-168.99)

  61. Furhead says:

    markm, you’re missing my point. Nobody’s doubting that you can.

    The point is that nobody in the McCain campaign could be honest about her foreign policy experience, which was zip. And again, as I said higher up in this thread, this shortcoming is perfectly fine if you’re truthful about it. Instead we repeatedly got the nonsense about Putin, etc.

    /Besides, Jim Treacher challenged whether she really said that …

  62. An Interested Party says:

    re: DL July 3, 2009 08:16

    So, uh, that is an argument for Palin? Heh…good luck with that…