As you read Ross today, it’s appropriate to play the world’s tiniest violin between your index finger and thumb.
Here are lessons of the Sarah Palin experience, for any aspiring politician who shares her background and her sex. Your children will go through the tabloid wringer. Your religion will be mocked and misrepresented. Your political record will be distorted, to better parody your family and your faith.
What Sarah Palin has been through is simply unprecedented in American politics.
Only Sarah Palin has had her religious beliefs smeared or completely misrepresented. No other politican’s background, personal life, or political record has ever been distorted to the degree that Sarah Palin’s has. Only Sarah Palin and her family have been subjected to vicious tabloid attacks, the nastiest kind of rumors and speculation and cruel jokes.
Why? Because she’s a middle class Christian woman.
All of this had something to do with ordinary partisan politics. But it had everything to do with Palin’s gender and her social class.
For the record, Poor Little Palin is a millionaire.
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Oh, economically, Missy Palin may be an elite in the millionaire club.
But she is trash, through and through, a northern variant of a redneck.
Yet more proof that money does not buy real grace and class.
middle class? maybe.
no class? bingo.
Starbursts for Douchehat
lmao BT -
and just now saw she’s lost Fred Barnes
buh-bye!
BREAKING: Rich White Folks Under Attack in America
DoucheHat has his Lips firmly planted on the Sphincter of NeoCon Inc.
d r i f t g l a s s weighs in.
Everything that has been said about Palin she brought on herself.
She spewed one of the most dirtiest, hate filled, dishonest, attack filled, radical religious right beliefs, division of our America campaigns in the history of our country! There was not a camera or a headline she did not love. And she paraded her children constantly for attention.
She let her ego, ambitions, false beliefs and hypocrasy override any
honor. A person of her intelligence is bound to self destruct.
Do not think we have heard the last of what caused her to abandon the
people of Alaska and her responsibilities.
call the WWW: Wasilla Waaaaaaambulance Works.
These asshats cannot bring themselves to admit that she did not stand a chance in any future election.
Oh, yeah–Jesus would donate to any campaign by this Christian woman. You betcha!
Mika and Joe are right with this!
that said, there is a chance Barnes will walk back his withdrawal of support -
recall the Teabaggers booing Cornyn and Perry this wkd – those people are gonna love her and not see her as an establishment Repub., esp now in light of this
batshit insanebold, courageous move on friday – so I doubt we’ll see too many of the establishment types batter her too hard – they’re gonna need the mouth breathers for 2010 primaries“Even Fox News has started to turn on Sarah Palin. In the midst of a segment about the Alaska Governor’s battle against “liberal” attacks, Liz Trotta went off-message.
Frankly, “the woman is inarticulate, undereducated,” Trotta said, arguing that for once liberal criticism was “well-deserved.”
Fixed it for ya
Of course Douthat loves her. He’s a guy whose column never makes sense, whose facts are never quite true & whose conclusions never follow from the leadup.
The solidarity of the incoherent is a wonderful thing.
Until they start talking to each other. Then it’s just funny.
Pretty bad when FuxGnus throws the neocon darling of 08 under the bus.
Someone mentioned last week that the outing of Ensign & Sanford were linked … I wonder if the Palin’s resignation is also a result of the Xtianists consolidating power for control of the Repug Party.
Hey, Petro
Love to stay and chat but gotta go back to the cesspool.
Namaste
One thing I think we need to remember is that Sarah is the mother of a special needs child. As the father of a child with disabilities, I think she is possibly finally coming to the realization of what that entails.
When you throw in the additional home life complications created by her daughter’s baby it is very possible that the demands placed on her by the national party – coupled with her own lack of self restraint are getting to be too much.
If her actions seem erratic – anyone who has a similar family life will understand. I think – like Saddam pretending to be working on nuclear weapons – she is putting a brave face on a very humbling situation – she has found she can’t do it all.
FYI…. Sharron Moore will be interviewed on Thom Hartman in a few minutes…
Religion – what do you call 24/7 Rev Wright coverage?
Smears – anything related to Hillary & Bill, HOLY shit….. that was more than 24/7…. it was insane…
As my 85 yr old father said last year….. Palin is an insult to all women but especially to his two daughters……
Namaste SD !
hey.. she still has Kristol shilling for her. He’s smitten. ;-P
“For the record, Poor Little Palin is a millionaire.”
Okay, well, you asked for it.
cue Hall and Oates:
“And you say
You can rely on the old man’s money
You can rely on the old man’s money
You’re a rich girl, a rich girl
Oh, you’re a rich bitch girl yeah
Say money but it won’t get you too far,
Oh, get ya too far”
Just a pregnancy is considered self inflicted, if not rape, all Palin’s efforts were self inflicted.
you know . . . his blaming all this on her gender and social class . . . he might be right.
We all know that McCain picked her solely because she was a woman. That she is a millionaire certainly didn’t hurt with the GOP. So, yeah, the GOP picked her because of partisan politics (a counter to Hillary) and her gender and social class (they don’t really play well with poor folks – but do like moneyed rednecks).
tell me more! is there a link?
social class and net worth are two different things. The Palins in the Hamptons would make for a good Beverly Hillbillies remake ;-)
Fair or unfair, only dead fish plow through that, prove yourself to a greater degree, and again, also bringing it to yourself.
Here ya go. When I first read the piece toward the bottom I read Reptilian Gov Rick Perry…
Then why didn’t she just say that? If it’s true, which I doubt, no one would’ve questioned her resignation.
thanks for the link, but i am concerned about your subconscious lack of regard for reptiles.
he’s a slestak?
Howie has a great graphic up at DWT.
Ross once again proves himself a clueless Asshat:
Sarah Palin is beloved by millions because her rise suggested, however temporarily, that the old American aphorism about how anyone can grow up to be president might actually be true.
But her unhappy sojourn on the national stage has had a different moral: Don’t even think about it.
Hmmmm, yeah.
Or it may be (for those of us who haven’t succumbed to willful amnesia about the last 8 years) that the lesson about Palin to draw from the last election is that the American voters finally woke up and decided that two consecutive terms of belligerent ignorance in the White House — never mind, for once, any ”class” or ”color” issues — was just about enough, TYVM!
From the linked article under millionaire:
Sarah Palin formed a consulting business called “Rouge Cou” — French for redneck — but didn’t pursue it.
Because she said she was so effing capable and could juggle her marbles with teh baby with teh blackberry, also. I guess she had to drop the blackberry?
I find Douthat’s writing pathetic dribble. He has half David Brooks’ experience and less restraint, and I’m no fan of Mr. Brooks’ writing. Ross finds a trend or a universal truth the way Jesuits used to find angels on the heads of pins.
That the Times should demote itself to the status of an RNC farm team for the likes of Ross Douthat is a striking admission that it has lost its way.
Very interesting and unflattering article on why Palin might’ve quit at Time.. no new scandals, just a fact-filled illustration of what kind of lousy person she is.
http://www.time.com/time/polit…..html?imw=Y
From the Halls of the Wasilla Sports Complex to the Shores of Lake Lucille, we fight our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea… well, at least in our vivid over-heated right-wing imaginations or in a video game or a dream or what the fuck… Let’s hit that ole reset button and quit, you betcha!
Ms. Palin’s “fortune” is based in part on questionable land deals, the questionable construction of her second home, and possibly on her misuse of office. How many friends do you have whose nickname is “barracuda” and who revel in it?
She is certainly no victim of anything but her own excesses, and there’s likely to be nothing special about her fall from grace except the unique way she blames it on others. The path to hell is paved with egos like hers.
Your religion is fine, in spite of your preacher exorcising demons from you and hunting down witches. Just keep your religion off of me and out of our secular government that supposedly appproves of freedom of religion. America is not a Christianist Nation.
But even on its own terms, Douthat’s argument that Sarah Palin’s (and John McCain’s) loss of the Nation’s highest office to the mixed-race son of a single mother is somehow proof that there’s an impenetrable barrier keeping “anyone [from] grow[ing] up to be president” ought to win some Jonah Goldberg Award for Outrageous Bullshittery.
I raised three children with special needs, each had their own learning disability….. what I did is make decisions on my career and home life with the view of my children.
If Palin left because she found how hard it was to raise her youngest child then she should of made those decisions before becoming a VP candidate.
Not going to get into the I’m a better parent but parents should make wise choices for your children first and adjust their life and career accordingly
the most recent comment from the statesman article:
Palin and most every other politician, it would appear.
If she ever says anything to that effect, or if she drops out of public life, then I have no doubt the criticism of her will cease. In the meantime, the victim mentality in all of her public statements, combined with her past behavior, does not entitle her to the presumption that there must be a sympathetic explanation for her actions.
hear, hear!
I’m still pissed off at Palin for shooting Bullwinkle but I dont have much of a beef about her being the governor of Alaska. The thing is she is not a viable national political candidate by experience, temperament and really by choice. There is no wider lesson to be learned from her train wreck of a national political career. She is unsuitable because she is not sufficiently politic to be one. For better or for worse but inevitably none the less national candidates have to reliably seek the center most of the time.
In fact she is not much of a politician at all. Only gaining state office by the peculiarities of Alaskan politics including endemic long term corruption.
Besides it isn’t the elitist voters who reject her that is important. It that all our elites, political and policy, economic and cultural think she is a ditz. If Russ doesn’t he’s a ditz.
No fair!
I brought up the Beverly Hillbillies reference first, over the weekend while you people with real lives were away from the computer celebrating the holiday.
I found the comments about how the teabaggers are the only true patriots and they should just go ahead and secede particularly special!
Didn’t Bill Clinton come from a modest background too?
I stand ashamed and apologetic but, alas, you are correct and I was not commenting on blogs this weekend ;-)
Mr. Douthat writes with the same derivative flair as a “B” grade Hollywood scriptwriter:
“It was the chance of a lifetime,” borrowed from Donna Reed’s whispered kiss to Jimmy Stewart.
Ms. Palin was famous for refusing to “bone up” on anything but her moose steaks. McCain’s campaign didn’t assign her the role of Mrs. Spiro Agnew, she chose it and it was all she could manage. That Ross is taking Palin’s side in her tussle with McCain is his claim that SHE is the once and future star of the RNC. Just as Ross is the once and future pundit head and shoulders above Bill Safire and David Brooks.
How long is the Obama “era”, Ross? As for talent, your claim that she is “talented enough” is either a snide remark about today’s GOP, out of its depth in a car park puddle, or drawn using your own talent as a benchmark.
Ross’ claim that Obama represents the “meritocratric ideal” and Ms. Palin is his polar opposite seems true. Except in a Hollywood anti-hero film, that would not make her competent to run the federal government when she bolted for no explained reason from running a modest-sized state government that entails handling a fraction of the problems of running Illinois, New York or California. In RossWorld, though, it makes Ms. Palin appealin’ and thspecial.
i didn’t see those, but that may be because after the first two or three comments, i had to avert my eyes.
i liked it better before you edited it. in fact, i was going to ask you to marry me seeing as how you were so quick and well-trained with your apologies and shame. /s
LOL!
Did you go to the Austin July 3rd event, gw?
I notice our paper describes the Marion event as drawing “two to three thousand, according to event organizers.” [my bold]
My reaction? WTF?
Since when do you trust the organizers’ estimates of attendance? Why would you believe them?
Conservative Feminist Martyr? Don’t they do drug testing at all for the high paying jobs?
cbl2 and oldnslow and i were having a conversation that morning about going together, but in the end we just seemed to be lacking the requisite enthusiasm to go hear joe the not plumber.
She’ll sign a book deal and go on tour.
I so hoped it was a pending indictment so she would go away for good. Alas, no.
Ms. Palin represents the American myth that anyone can grow up to be president the way George Bush represents the “ideal” that anyone who scraped by with a gentleman’s “C” in college could grow up to be president. Even a pundit ought to recognize that other attributes were more influential than the false ones put in print.
In Bush’s case, it was 150 years of family wealth, legacy admissions to the Ivy League (twice), a senatorial grandfather and presidential father, a press willing constantly to look away from his limitations and foibles and a Karl Rove to laud them for it – or punish them for daring to observe that his client wore no clothes.
Ms. Palin is pretty and ruthlessly ambitious. People who love her love the myth of her, which is what Ross is sellin’. She is the classic small comet that shone brightly, then crashed to earth leaving a few cinders in the wheat field.
Ross, Don’t Dou-me-like-that:
I’ll be more careful with my choice of words next time. I do wonder if that is the marriagibility standard for Wassila though.
what makes you think it’s not a pending indictment? did i miss something?
Someone spike the punch at Fox with Truth Serum?
a pending indictment increases book sales, doesn’t it? ’sides, she probably has at least a radio and quite possibly a Faux-news bubblehead’s job waiting for her should she want it. If Jeb wins in 2012 or 2016, goodness forbid, she might even have a WH press secretary’s job prospect. That is the career path isn’t it?
maybe for our girl in wassila.
et? maybe not so much.
Why is it that anyone “could” be President? Fergawd’s sake, not everyone Should be President. Palin: exhibit A
Someone spike the punch at Fox with Truth Serum?
pheno(m)-Barbie-doll or sodium pentecostal?
that is great!
Prolly best to take that with a grain of salt.
Exceptionally modest and full of heart-ache and loss. His reaction and his luck was to be an over-achiever.
Mr. Clinton, unlike Mr. Bush, earned his admission to G’town, Oxford and Yale. He was a longtime governor of a small and resource deprived southern state. His foibles were as great as his talents, but they didn’t affect his policies or competence in office.
Apart from how frequently they use their zippers, he and Obama have much in common, including being too conservative for their country’s needs.
Amen. Do you really want your drinkin’ buddy or the mom in the next office to run the White House? Ross is raising one myth to praise another.
Elly May was much kinder to animals.
Actually I like reptiles. It’s just that their brains don’t normally get issued to humans, as seems to be the case with so many of these uberreichwingnuts.
Now you’ve got
me thinkin’
’bout Rich Lowery
and Palin’s winkin’
Excellent point. Obama’s rise demonstrates the emptiness of Douthat’s claim that “anyone” can grow up to be president. What he leaves out is that they have to have the requisite talent, though Bush, McKinley and others demonstrate that Ross’ party adores front men without it.
you mean shooting them from helicopters isn’t killing them with kindness? *ducks*
AND THE KILLIN GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Blue Texan and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
The fact that this ignorant, cheap streetwalker is a millionaire leads one to an understanding of the reason(s) that she resigned and will never serve in elected office in any capacity again. It is my belief that the entire structure of corporate ownership of the State of Alaska is gunna be exposed over the course of the next few years and the Stevens investigation and conviction is the starting point for what will be a longer list of federal charges to be brought by a Justice Department not disposed to deliberately screw up the prosecution so as to let the appeals court throw out the conviction(s).
Sarah Palin and Don Young are the make-up test for the Obama DOJ…Obama’s gotta prove he’s not completely in the pocket of the oil oligarchy.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, FASCISTS WON’T GO AWAY BY THEMSELVES!!
Gee, I can’t imagine why!
It is telling that she calls that “sport”, isn’t it?
in oregon, the hunters i saw were out with guns or bows and arrows depending on the season. they were in the woods walking around quietly stalking their prey.
here in texas, they are behind a blind which gives them a good view of the place where they put out food for the deer. this activity is called hunting.
Many states call that baiting and illegal.
Define your terms, buddy:
Sarah attended college(s), but the likelihood *any* of her children will do so looks slim. That downward trajectory is not a hallmark of the middle class.
Most of our politicians purport to be christians. If your issue is the flavor of her christianity, say that.
The women train has already left the station, courtesy of hardworking, educated, determined women – most from the middle class.
This is not clueless. It’s dishonest.
I remember bow hunters from the Imnaha area of the Wallawas. Mostly a bunch of city slickers tryin’ to be all Indian an’ shit. With compound bows, no less. We ended up having to chase down the deer they wounded. More than a few bitten by rattlers cuz they didn’t know any better than to lean on a fallen tree.
He’s PATHETIC!
Also: you will be made to look stupid (by quoting your own words in context) even though you’re really not.
What is it with this weird Republican urge to declare Palin a conservative feminist? First off, those last two words, whenever put together, are an oxymoron, at least in today’s America.
Secondly, Palin’s a damn idiot!
So what’s with all these people who love her? Trying to understand wingnuts makes me brain hurt.
D-Ross Douche-helmet is as coocoo for crazy puffs as Satrap Palin, yechhhhh…the thangs that give some boys boners bedazzles.