A Bad Habit
In the immediate aftermath of the election I took great joy in the circular firing squad the Republicans had convened, and had collected a bunch of damning information on Sarah Palin. I eventually decided to leave it alone, but since I actually got a request, let me compile some of the best post-election stuff I encountered.
The first big shocker was this video, via TPM, of Fox News reporter Carl Cameron telling us Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent, not a country, and that she couldn’t name the three countries in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Despite my initial schaudenfreude, I eventually decided not to make too much of this. For one, Carl Cameron is the guy who made up the manicure comments about Kerry four years ago. Additionally, I just found it tough to believe that the governor of Alaska didn’t know Africa was a continent. Part of me wants to believe that this despicable woman didn’t know that, but the democratic idealist in me can’t stand to tolerate the thought that voters could elect someone so idiotic. Add in that this is pretty clearly one part of the Republican party trying to sink a person that sunk their chances this year, and it’s hard to know what’s true and what’s not.
Palin’s response to the report was interesting.
Palin, McCain’s running mate in their unsuccessful White House campaign, told CNN the allegation “is not true.” She said the leaks could have come from people who helped her with preparation for her debate against Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden.
[…]
“I think if there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about NAFTA or about the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context, and that is cruel and mean-spirited, it’s immature, it’s unprofessional, and those guys are jerks,” Palin said.
Most telling to me here is not the “jerks” comment, though that’s pretty amusing, but rather the fact that she claims it’s “not true,” then goes on to pin down the conversation forming the basis of the allegation, distinguishes “the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa there,” and says it was taken out of context. Despite my initial skepticism, that’s pretty damning. First of all, what country? Second, it’s hard for me to imagine the conversation where this could have been taken out of context and still not portray her in a crazy idiotic light. So I think her response here is suspicious, and probably lends the allegation more credence than it would have if she had just denied it…I mean, I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt just a few paragraphs ago…she should have kept her mouth shut.
Then, from Newsweek, via TPM, comes some interesting news that her spending spree was even more egregious than previously reported.
NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin’s shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. …McCain’s top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent “tens of thousands” more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide…said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.
Palin’s response?
She also described accusations that she spent exorbitant amounts of money on clothes for the campaign as “sexist.”
I think these reports, like the Africa thing, are probably half-true, half-hatchet job trying to kill her political career in 2008 and save the Republican party some headaches going forward. Complaining about spending gross amounts of money, which sharply contrasts with that stupid hockey mom image, is not sexist whether it’s true or not (though I’ll be the among the first to say that our media’s coverage of women politicians and their clothes is indeed sexist), and it just shows that she lives in some alternate universe.
Even with all this, and with the seemingly obvious reality that her national political career was dead dead dead, the media just can’t give her up, and she’s coming back to life. The media has a Palin addiction, does not know how to quit her, and will do whatever they can to revive that story for the next four years.
She’s eating it up, too, giving a “press conference” at the Republican Governors’ meeting this week. Via Daily Kos, here’s the video:
Well, if you needed any proof that her inability to talk and think at the same time was the result of her being incompetent and not that of being overly handled by the McCain campaign, I think you’ve got it right there. And we’ve learned one more thing: 2008 = hair up, 2012 = hair down. The new Sarah Palin, ladies and gentlemen, already coiffed for the next campaign.
In the end, though, I still feel bad about putting all of this together. Not because I feel sorry for her, Lord no. You run for office and all of this is fair game. Rather, I’m hesitant because I think her idiocy overshadows her evilness, and I’d much rather have her political career dead due to her abuses of power in office to satisfy personal vendettas than by her inability to talk, think, or do both at the same time.
So let’s never speak of her idiocy again, but wrap up the Palin stuff with this hilarious video, via My Baby via Daily Kos, of Russians singing about seeing Palin from their house.
Finally, in non-Palin post-election news, I went through quite a bit of depression in the four days after the election, figuratively unable to scrape myself off the couch. Just like Red Sox fans finding out their lives were meaningless when not defined by some external, uncontrollable event when their team won their first World Series in 2004, a lot of us Obama supporters found themselves wondering what was next after the election. For me it started even before the polls closed on the West Coast. I knew it would happen, and had prepared myself for it, but it was still a rough period through about that next Saturday. Here’s a funny video from The Onion, via TPM, that sums it up.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Bullshit. Palin is venal, through and through. She has an animal cunning similar to Shrub’s. She is a grifter.
November 18th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Her bumbling, inept defense notwithstanding, the NYT reported over the weekend that the source of the country/continent meme is a fake official at a fake policy institute. You can’t make this stuff up (about making stuff up): http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/arts/television/13hoax.html
November 18th, 2008 at 9:21 am
I’m not at all surprised the original story is bogus; but I believe her response to it is much more telling of her personality, political or otherwise. I’m with MPL in having a hard time believing that high elected officials are idiots, however much I agree/disagree with them, but Palin revels in a culture of anti-intellectualism, and would prefer to be ignorant or Calvinistic than to use reason to reach a position.
November 18th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Gritty, I think you’re missing a key part of that NYT article: “The pranksters behind Eisenstadt acknowledge that he was not, through them, the anonymous source of the Palin leak. He just claimed falsely that he was the leaker–and they say they have no reason to cast doubt on the original story. For its part, Fox News Channel continues to stand behind its story.”
In other words, the leaker, if there really was one and wasn’t just made up by Carl Cameron, is still unknown. This fake Eisenstadt, who claimed to be the leaker, though, is not real, and that character’s creators did not make the original leak.
And I agree Daneel, even if the story is bogus, her response is just weird, claiming that it was “taken out of context” and adding”the continent verus the country when we talk about Africa there….”
And it has become a thing where it’s almost good not to know things, like we’re heading back to the idealized Garden of Eden before Adam ate the apple. I saw a bumper sticker in Spokane this weekend that just about sums it up: “God did it. I believe it. That ends it.” As My Baby said, “Well, thanks for being up front about that.”