Target: Sarah Palin
Posted on November 6, 2008 at 1:55 pmIf you believe Fox News, Sarah Palin is straight-up ignorant. She doesn’t know that Africa is a continent not a country and she cannot name the nations which comprise NAFTA. The state’s liberal bloggers are eating up these off-the-record reports as if they were sent to us on stone tablets.
Say what you like about Sarah Palin, she is a popular politician. She likes the camera and the camera likes her. She appeals to conservatives on a visceral level. They see her not just as someone who can represent them but as someone who, in many senses, is them.
Conservative people, Republican voters, feel a cultural affinity to Palin that no smartly written right-wing column or affected folksy demeanor can match.
Put simply, the woman is dangerous to the Republican establishment.
McCain needed to change the game when he chose his Vice Presidential running-mate. He needed fire and fire is what he got. It was a risky move for John McCain to make. But the pick was even riskier for the Republican elite going forward.
McCain gave an authentic charismatic cultural conservative direct access to a national stage. John McCain created a monster that now the establishment must destroy.
John McCain has a legacy to protect and his acolytes have careers they need to preserve. This historic defeat has to be hung around somebody’s neck. It sure as hell isn’t going to be McCain.
They need her to take the fall for this.
Republicans who have designs on the presidency (Romney, Huckabee and others) also have an interest in taking Plain down a few notches. This woman, after all, was designed to be window dressing, something to gin up the base and add some energy to the ticket.
The Republican elite was willing bump Sarah Palin up several spaces up the career ladder in pursuit of an election victory, in pursuit of power.
But they lost. Now Republican movers and shakers want her to simply fade away and go back to where she came from — literally and figuratively.
Don’t get it twisted, Sarah Plain may very well be the raving idiot she can appear to be. All these stories about her stubborn ignorance may be 100% true. However, it’s naive to simply ignore the reasons why this information is being leaked.
It is not in pursuit of truth, it is in pursuit of a political goal. Cultural conservatives, to the elite, are voters, not leaders.
They are foot solders who live the simple, church going lives that the leader props up an ideal while he leads the deracinated, amoral existence so common in Washington D.C.
Whether Palin is truly intelligent or ignorant, ultimately, is of no consequences. Palin was seen by Republicans as commodity, a means to an end, a product line that now must be discontinued.
As a running-mate, Sarah Palin could be controlled. As an independent political force, she is a loose cannon. She has not “paid her dues.” She has not been jaded and compromised in the way many who have spent years in big league politics have been.
They need her to go away. Again, all this information we have heard and will hear may be very, very true. But let’s not forget who is distrusting the information and what exactly is motivating them to do do.
UPDATE: The smearer revealed.
SEE ALSO:
Roger Abramson
Sean Braisted
KAG
Guerilla Women
55-40
Dan Cleary
GoldnI
Six Meat Buffet
Aunt B.
Phil Klein
Rich Hailey
American Conservative
Comments
25 Responses to “Target: Sarah Palin”
And the Republican civil war begins. Loves it.
Good post Klondike. Very even and fair. Sources have agendas. Political types, left and right, can be ruthless. As for other potential leaders for Republicans, they impress me as being very smart - Mark Sanford, Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal.
The camera loves Matt Damon, perhaps Obama should’ve picked him to be VP.
Seriously, above and beyond her mad skillz at reading a teleprompter (she was a TV Sports Anchor after all), and her recreational habits…why is it that Republicans loved her so much? OK, she didn’t have an abortion, good for her, millions of Americans every year don’t.
Was it her policy views? Please, beyond “drill baby drill” she had none.
She may be photogenic, and the basest of the GOP base might love her, but so far she has shown zero ability to connect with anyone outside the fringe wing of the GOP.
She has not been jaded and compromised in the way many who have spent years in big league politics have been.
If you are referring to Sarah Palin the symbol, the empty receptacle into which social conservatives pour their expectations, then you may be correct.
If you are referring to Sarah Palin the person, you should cite evidence that she is authentic and has integrity. She has benefited from more than a few Washington earmarks at the other end of Ted Steven’s beltway pipeline. Geographical distance does not equal “outsider.”
Gee, it’s just hard to trust anyone. So many sets of “facts” and all.
One fact is clear: the woman outfitted her family for $150,000.
How is Neiman Marcus not elite?
AC-
You should note that some of us “liberal bloggers” have openly doubted the whole “Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent” story. See my blog today.
-Katie
With respect, I don’t think any of you are responding to Klondike’s point. He said that she may be an idiot, that he doesn’t know.
To Sean: She is appealing for some of the same reasons that Obama is appealing (don’t tell me that 100% of Obama’s support was due to his policy positions). He generated boo coo support because he represented something. Palin hunts, fishes, struggled through college, and is the mother of a big family. People who find that compelling are fringe?
I thinks its cool that Obama played Basketball and smoked, wasn’t a definitive factor in my support for him though.
But, right now, based on exit poll numbers, there does seem to be evidence that her support remains locked into a small portion of the GOP. Whatever appeal to moderates or independents she might’ve had was squandered with her launch.
If Obama’s launch onto the national stage were done in a similar fashion, nobody would’ve conceived of him running for President.
Yep, Martin, pretty much. She appeals very strongly to a narrow spectrum of voters who are way off to the right of their own party; she didn’t appeal much, at least not in a way that translated into votes, to the mainstream of the party and she actively drove away independent and swing voters. Democrats had an easy mark. Heck, I fish and paid my way through college and am a mother and I think she’s a greedy opportunistic nitwit who isn’t ready for primetime, politically speaking.
With respect, I don’t think any of you are responding to Klondike’s point. He said that she may be an idiot, that he doesn’t know.
I thought his point was “Sarah vs. the elite.” I just want to know if it’s Sarah the symbol or Sarah the person he’s referring to.
Sean, I sure you didn’t vote for Obama for superficial reasons. I’m also sure that the vast majority of voters are not as interested or well informed as yourself.
Bridgett, No one claimed that Palin appealed to the broad electorate. Her roll out was very rocky. Then again she was put in a very challenging situation. However, anyone who is ready to write her obituary should remember Dick Nixon who lost to Kennedy, went to California and lost a gubnatorial election before winning the presidency in 1968. Remember too Bill Clinton whose speech to the Dem Convention in 1988 was horrible. When he said “in conclusion” there was roaring applause… from Dem delegates.
Klondike’s basic point is very valid. She’s getting hammered by snipers but it is likely just the beginnings of jockeying for 2012.
My personal opinion: I don’t think she’ll have a national future but find it absurd to imply that her story is not compelling.
Nixon and Clinton had a lot more going for them than Palin. I’m sorry, but I think the comparison is quite weak.
Greedy opportunistic nitwit? Why because she accepted the challenge to run on the national ticket. Could just as easily see that as someone who is gutsy. No she wasn’t ready for primetime but neither was Obama two years ago. Heck of a lot easier to make mistakes and learn in Iowa Diners when no one is watching than to plucked out three months before the election.
Bobby, It is hard to tell how much Palin has “going for her.” Regarding comparisons the point is that Nixon was buried by political watchers at the time. Clinton was buried in 1994 when the Republicans took Congress. He was DONE… but he came back. The sands in the political universe shift quickly and unexpectedly.
You didn’t use the 1994 reference on Clinton in your response that I commented on. You used the DNC speech in 1988. That’s very different. Clinton cured that with a self-deprecating appearance on the Tonight Show among other mea culpas he made soon after that speech to the DNC. And as for Nixon, his defeat came after eight years as VP. He was certainly a comeback kid, but he’d been on the national stage for far longer than Palin. It’s apples to oranges.
The update that Klondike posted is really fascinating… if you like reading about small, ruthless people who manage to achieve a high level of authority and responsibility. It is hard enough to come off the bench when the game is at full throttle but Palin had the worst sort of situation with respect to those who ostensibly were there to help her.
Newsweek’s post-election pieces online include a take on the Rick Davis rift with other staffers and McCain that makes good background reading along with that update.
You know, we have a Tenn. state Rep (in the current headlines) who doesn’t know she should cover her mouth when she yawns in committee. Maybe she could be a candidate in in 2012?
Greedy — spending an ungodly amount of of someone else’s money (not just for herself, but for her entire family) and a track record of spending Alaskan (and more locally, Wasilla’s) funds to keep herself in a style that she is not willing to finance out of her own handsom gubenatorial salary. (See also the $40k or so that the Alaska auditor’s office is asking her for from her unauthorized flying around of her kids when she should have been paying for the tix herself). So yes, greedy. When you belly up to the trough and don’t exercise the same stewardship over public funds that you’d use with your own yankee dollars, that’s greedy. (It is also Alaska politics as usual…same circus, just a different clown.)
Opportunistic — yes again. She ate up the money, the clothes, the limelight, and forgot that she was not supposed to be the center of attention. If you watch her appearances carefully, you’ll see that she used the last three weeks of a losing campaign to stomp all over the candidacy of the top guy on her ticket. She lobbied hard (and lost) to start her campaign on Election Night, before McCain’s political body was cold. Had she gotten her choice (and remember, she had the “I’ll get them next time” speech already in hand and ready to go…), we wouldn’t be thinking “McCain — that’s a classy way to go out” but rather “My God, iIs there any occasion that she can’t try to make all about her” That pretty much defines opportunistic.
And nitwit…well, yes. Obviously, even beyond her lack of formal learning but cutting right to her lack of insight. Anyone who drinks their own koolaid to the degree she has is clearly so gifted with self-esteem as to head on over to self-delusional land. Her opportunism and greed tripped her up in a bad way and led her on a path that exposed all of her unreadiness. That’s not canny or gutsy or being a real game goer. That’s just stupid. And she did it to herself.
To Bridgett:
You are referring to Obama. Right? The made up cardboard cutout with no substance, background, or qualifications. Right? The person that is a product of a glitzy Hollywood, ultra left wing, Democrat populace of the diverse, weird, gay, lesbian and whatever. Right? Your comments are very good and descriptive of the sorry President-elect Obama. You all bought him, hope you can eat him…
I can’t believe you guys are still talking about Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. Let’s see how she does as Governor when the problems of the economy start hitting Alaska and they can’t keep everyone happy with their “government” handouts to each and every citizen, regardless of age. Yes, everyone, including one year olds, get their government subsidy like tobacco and farm subsidies — a gift from the lower 48,a gift from you and me the taxpayer. It really is a different country up there so maybe they should secede.
Sarah Palin-Tonya Harding 2012———-fine.
Speaking of HOW SHE DOES, there are 800 people starving in Emmonak, Alaska. Please google the story and CONTRIBUTE. There is a paypal set up.
Sarah, can you see Bristol Bay from your house????????