Posted on by Helen Boyd

The Requisite Sarah Palin Post

The real kicker of Sarah Palin’s talk tonight was the “scary ideas from Europe” idea. I mean, seriously? Scary Europeans? Where there’s national healthcare and maternity leave and no gun crime? That scary place?

I’m still flummoxed by just about everything she said tonight. Astounded, even. Aside from the Big Fat Liar issue – she was for the Bridge to Nowhere until she was nominated, and she raised taxes on Alaskans – I can’t believe her entire talk was about the elites, and scary European ideas, and tiny government. (You know, like the kind that brought you Katrina.) I mean, aren’t culture wars so 90s?

But it’s more than that. The cynicism and sarcasm and meanness she expressed blew my mind. I like people who are clever and clear-thinking, but that’s not what she is. It makes me so sad to think anyone might admire her, or find like-mindedness in her comments. She’s like Dr. Laura, and those platitudes don’t work as advice, and they definitely don’t work as policy.

Please, Dems, don’t rest easy. We need to kick this woman’s ass. She cut funding on a center for pregnant teenagers even though she has one. Talk about elitism. She tried to ban books and she got pork-barrel funding for aerial hunting (which is about the lamest, most shameful thing I’ve ever heard of).

36 Replies to “The Requisite Sarah Palin Post”

  2. It was the most amazingly dishonest speech I’ve seen at a convention in some time. And that says something. It actually made me sick to my stomach. No substance Im used to–there was nothing there there except, surpise surprise, “let’s drill the hell out of the North Slope.”

    Also: last night we learned that, while it is not ok to poke at the families of the republican nominees or get personal (How dare we!), it is evidently just fine for everybody to go after Michelle Obama, or deride Obama. This is precisely why I don’t give a femtoshit when people say that Palin’s personal problems should be “off limits.” O RLY? Bullshit. All week we’re getting the “but she’s just an ordinary hockey mom with a family don’t pick on her oh boo hoo hoo” and then she up and punches you in the face. And the response to any counter attack will be “who, me? Did I mention my son has Down’s? ”

    If this country wants this person in the office, this country absolutely deserves the fucking mess we’re headed toward.

  3. If this country wants this person in the office, this country absolutely deserves the fucking mess we’re headed toward.

    Unfortunately, we get to live with others messes.

  4. I missed the “scary Europeans” part. Her speech was one big sneer. With no due respect to Sarah Palin (she deserves none), she can go Cheney herself – in a big way.

  5. Wow, we must have been watching two different Sarah Palin speeches.
    But I will offer nothing to try to change your minds, as they are decided.
    I love you all!! =)

  7. I have been looking at our choices for president with more and more fear.
    I know many of you all think Obama’s the answer, I’m still thinking about that choice.
    Palin, please oh dear God, don’t let her ever be president. She is a puppet, her speech was written by Bushe’s writers, nasty piece of work, she needs to be tending to her own family, how absurd, her daughter is pregnant out of wedlock and she is touting abstenance ?????
    DJ seems to think that national security issues trump abortion, and human rights as a deciding issue, and that Obama will not be able to lead us in time of war or a huge national disaster.
    I don’t know who is the best of two bad choices, but I am keeping our disaster supplies up to date, and our household able to survive with no government help for a sustained period of time.
    It saddens me, to think that our country has to choose between a no/little experience youngster, and a same old stuff rich get richer, poor get poorer, republican. There is no leadership anymore.
    Sad day,
    Lizzy
    sounding like the old lady that I am.

  8. Wasn’t the complaint by the GOP that Obama was the “anointed one”? I just saw a headline that said: “Reminiscent of Reagan”.
    Thanks, that’s all needed to hear….

  10. Well of course Dr. Laura would blast Palin, Dr. Laura would have all moms at home, barefoot in the kitchen, and servicing their men every night. Didn’t you ever read the Care and Keeping of Husbands? I used to like Dr. L. She’s a nut.

  11. she actually has me a mite worried after last night. i think you’re right, serena, that her speech was “one big sneer.” but i also think that she spoke well and was somewhat engaging. she reminded me of bush: lies through his fuckin’ teeth but somehow people lap it up.

    i think she has the potential to appeal to certain repubs. so this makes it super important that the dems rock it out for this election.

  12. “The Obama campaign replied by noting that Palin’s speech was more of the same Republican rhetoric.
    “The speech that Governor Palin gave was well delivered, but it was written by George Bush’s speechwriter and sounds exactly like the same divisive, partisan attacks we’ve heard from George Bush for the last eight years,” spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. ”

    http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/palin-woos-republicans-fiery-speech/story.aspx?guid={DF061D2B-8ABB-4830-AFCA-84036F4FBFA8}&dist=msr_40

  13. I agree with much of what’s been written here, & like Red, I’m worried, too. Palin may not know much, but put a speech in her hands & she can beat the populist drum with the best of them. The speech was well executed — if filled with pure, unadulterated BS.

    The Europe thing bothered me, too. I lived & worked over there for three years; their systems work & governments receive much higher approval ratings than the US government. The problem is, 80% of Americans never travel abroad, & this European “boogey man” BS sells.

    I’m very worried right now. Obama’s fantastic speech was delivered a week ago today — yet it seems like a political lifetime ago. Each news cycle seems to bring another distraction that takes away from the gravity of the problems we face as a nation. The Dems gotta get busy & make something happen.

  14. She delivered a great speech. Despite being nasty and decietful, I think she came off as likable.

    She didn’t say a lick to show that she’d be a good leader, but she’s a good politician. The right is falling in love with Palin.

    I’m with Jerome Armstrong at mydd.com: we’ll be battling her for at least a decade. Our best bet is to crush her now, before her air of confidence and (false) competence sets in.

  15. Well…. Jon Stewart was brilliant on all of this…
    http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=184086

    A few things confuse me, although, honestly she scares the shit out me;she is not to be underestimated. That said, there was lots of “grrr!” and not much grassroots in her speech: what about healthcare, jobs, energy? Peggy Noonan, in an unguarded moment told a colleague “It’s over”, meaning that the GOP base is no longer itypical of mainstreet US values…
    And..knock me over with a feather…Andrew Sullivan said that Obama’s speech was a milestone and that we can’t miss this opportunity with him;then again, he’s an out gay man, and the GOP has nothing for him, at this point
    (note: David Dreyer,Congressman from California and the Parliamentarian for this GOP convention, is as “out” as you can be in the GOP without being out; he was up for Tom DeLay’s job and they passed due to the scrutiny he would get)
    I’m not sure how McCain is going to tie all of this up tonight(I’m sure Rove**SATAN** will come up with something) since he whas to distance himself from Bush, make himself distinct from Obama and try to seem more exciting than his running mate.
    We’ll see.
    Lat thing about Palin; she’s basically taken on the role of attack dog, and attack dogs get attacked back;part of the job.

  17. Don’t worry people. She’s sown the wind. Now Obama can see what she is about.
    She will reap the whirlwind – and I should think in pretty short order too.
    Just watch him zap her….

  18. i’d be interested in reading vivazoya’s dissenting opinion, not so i can attack (i promise i won’t) but because i’m really interested in another perspective.

    i thought palin’s speech was well-delivered and excellent for what it was – a political speech appealing to a particular audience, intended to engage their feelings, not their thoughts.

    it’s interesting to see how the right is responding to palin’s daughters pregnancy. i wonder whether they’d feel that it helps connect to the problems of regular american families if it were obama’s daughter instead. and i wonder whether bristol palin would be getting married, or having the baby, if her mom weren’t in the spotlight.

    it’s really ironic to hear yet another paean to good ole american self-reliance from the governor of the state that receives the highest per-capital federal spending in the nation. that “bridge to nowhere”? they didn’t build it, but they kept the money. and she’s lobbied the feds for handouts as hard as anyone.

    personally, i’d much rather have a former professor of constitutional law as president than a pta “hockey mom” who thinks that creationism should be taught in public schools.

  19. “it’s really ironic to hear yet another paean to good ole american self-reliance from the governor of the state that receives the highest per-capital federal spending in the nation. that “bridge to nowhere”? they didn’t build it, but they kept the money. and she’s lobbied the feds for handouts as hard as anyone.”

    People are ignorant. You can parade either Obama or McCain around on a stage, and cover the people in the audience with horse manure, and most are too stupid to realize reality. Both candidates are lying, misrepresenting issues, and manipulating emotions. We essentially have Max Headroom candidates who ascertain what voting blocks will get them elected. The strategists then determine what needs to be said to attract those voters, and the experts craft public presentations to appeal to the target audiences. There’s no honesty, no integrity, and no honor in any of it. Republican or Democrat. It’s all marketing hype.

    That’s why I find it so amusing that people get so attached to a candidate when there’s nothing to be attached to.

  20. “I asked my friend’s little girl what she wanted to be when she “grows up”.

    She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, ‘If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?’

    She replied, ‘I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.’

    ‘Wow… what a worthy goal.’ I told her, ‘You don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I’ll pay you $50. -Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.’

    She thought that over for a few seconds while her Mom glared at me, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, ‘Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?’

    Her folks still will not speak to me.

  21. Christine…
    It must be nice to have such a lofty view of us mere mortals scurrying madly about.

    I’m fifty-f**n-six years old; that’s 55 trips around the sun ball,and I’ve seen some shit. I no longer see any point pretending to agree with people who have thier minds just as made up as I do, like,, for example, Sarah Palin. She likes guns,and I’m cool with that: so did the Black Panthers. She is against my gay friends getting married,or even having partner rights, and I will fight her tooth and claw on that one. I also don’t believe Jesus is coming back soon, or that the faux-Sciennce of creationism bleongs in the schools to make some mouth-breathers happy.
    She brought her brass knuckles, and I say we pull out the clubs….like what she and her freidns do to baby seals…

    Obama pointed to the future, and it’s one I can actually believe in, not one in which more fat cats gorge till they puke. I realize, as I think you are pointing out, that SP is a judas goat to make the poor GOP schnooks happy…
    We agree on that.

  22. I have known I was a tgrl since I was 5 or 6 although I would not have put it that way at the time. I am now 61 and luv my tg life. That said, never have I seen, read, or heard the kind of apparent hate for other people I am reading from you folks. You seem to preach diversity and acceptance but spew such shit on others because they disagree with you. It is OK to laugh at Palins daughter but not at Obama or Michelle. I am a social conservative as well as tg. Your hate talk has made me think about voting for Mc and Pal. I have donated to this website and followed it as long as it has been in existence but I am rethinking my position. I will always be a tggrl but I am no longer sure I can hang with your hate.

  23. OK, HB, you had me with the Dr Laura comparison, until I read this from the good doctor herself: http://www.drlaurablog.com/2008/09/02/sarah-palin-and-motherhood/

    “But really, what kind of role model is a woman whose fifth child was recently born with a serious issue, Down Syndrome, and then goes back to the job of Governor within days of the birth?”

    I’m loving Dr, Laura in a weirdly negative, passive-aggressive, coming out of left field but never giving in on her core values nosireee bob kind of way!

  24. Jamie

    As many will agree here, we don’t hate – we hate hypocrisy. That Palin pulled funding for a home for teenaged moms in Alaska is why I hate her.: because of her policy.

  25. Just read the Dr. Laura piece, and I think she hit it right on the head. Perfect analysis.

    C

  26. Why do people here insist on turning what should be an intellectual exercise into a nasty campaign of insults?

    Posters here could be presenting their ideas in an intellectual fashion, without ad hominem attacks, instigating comments, coarse language or personal attack. People could present the idea that Palin is problematic because she has an illegitimate child and cut funding for teen pregnancy programs, or that John McCain is hypocritical for a some stated reasons. Instead, the arguments here take what should be reasonable arguments worthy of discussion and turn them into vitriolic diatribes that undermine the credibility of the posting person, and drive people away who might be willing to consider the arguments. When people include things like “that’s why I hate her”, “redneck”, “mouth breathers”, “Rove Satan” and “fuck this, asshole that” in their posts, they suggest to the world that they prefer to cause an emotional reaction than to encourage people to consider their points in a serious fashion. Don’t trans people face this same problem when we try to talk about our rights to those who oppose us? We ask people why they don’t support civil rights for trans people, and we receive responses like “Freak! You’re an IT. Pervert”. Why haven’t we learned anything from our experiences?

    If people just want to vent their anger, or do the passive aggressive thing, then these kinds of arguments are just fine. If people are trying to convince me to vote for Obama, then the tone of these posts is preventing me from ever taking the ideas seriously. Again, I don’t have any problem with people’s opinions. I have a problem with the way that they’re presented.

  28. i agree that name calling isn’t productive. i try (not always successfully) to avoid criticizing what a person is, and instead to criticize what they do or say. as katha pollitt says (http://tinyurl.com/6e2lro), if sarah palin were my neighbor, i would probably like her. but i do think that expecting a fourteen year old who has been raped by her father to bear and give birth to a child is reprehensible, and palin promotes policies that would have such consequences. i also think that to teach creationism (or its trojan horse, “intelligent design”) in schools is to choose willful ignorance. evolutionary biology provides the foundation for understanding all of the living world and is essential to modern agriculture, animal husbandry, medicine, epidemiology, and more. and as documented elsewhere, palin’s claims of fiscal conservatism are self-serving and misleading, and the pipeline project she mentioned in her speech is corporate welfare, a massive subsidy for the oil companies (but hasn’t — palin’s insinuations aside — been built yet).

    i do think that obama is probably more honest and decent than most politicians, though he’s much further to the right than i’d like to see (e.g., his health care proposal is based on private insurance, while i think that for-profit health insurance is immoral and should be done away with). far more important to me than obama himself, though, is the huge number of people who’ve become politically engaged who previously felt disenfranchised by a system that offered no hope of ever representing them. that’s why i’ll be voting for him, and i hope the people who put him in office will hold him to his promises, and more.

  29. I have to agree. I’m not thrilled about Creationism, religion impacting government policy, a COMPLETE ban against abortion, and other conservative policies. On the other hand, I’m not happy about socialized medicine, income redistribution, gun control, and massive government intervention in people’s lives.

    Either way, both candidates are a let down.

    C

  30. I consider the sources of what I read. I keep a big dose of skepticism in how things may be spun. I look at several different sides. I consider that it’s human nature to see what we want to see, and how our preconceived ideas flavor/color our opinions. I doubt that either side is nearly as bad as the media-crity makes them out to be. I believe the truth usually lies somewhere in between the two extremes. I remember what it feels like to be persecuted by my extremely liberal friends for being a Christian, because they assumed I was anti-choice, anti-gay, et al, just because I went to church. They were wrong, of course, but that’s the perception they had of Christians Republicans, so the fact that I was pro-choice and pro-gay rights meant nothing. I remember what it was like to be a vegetarian ‘feminazi’ in college, and railed against Old Rich White Men, and feel persecuted by anyone who even looked conservative, assuming I was being judged everywhere I went, Chip On My Shoulder.

    I listen to Rush Limbaugh AND NPR, both Feministing AND XX Factor, and I really take the vitriol on both sides with a big fat can of salt. When I’m not sure, I follow my conscience, and it usually believes in the best of human nature. I guess you can say that my burden of proof that someone is a real asshole is Very High. I would certainly hate for people to judge my character and abilities based on something my former pastor said in the 90s, and I would hate for people to judge me harshly for changing my mind about a decision I made back in the 90s. I’m forgiving like that.

    Also, when I consider that it’s under the Bush Administration that gay marriage has been made legal in two states, I have to ask myself, how important is it that we have a pro-gay-marriage President in the White House?

    Just a few thoughts. I really love people, in general, and I want to respect their viewpoints the way I want them to respect mine, even if we disagree.

  31. Oh, and I wanted to also point out that it was ‘Beloved’ Bill Clinton who started the whole DADT nightmare, but even though it pissed me off, I had to accept that in our country, you can’t have it all one way all the time, we all have to live together, and compromise. He made a compromise, and that was appropriate. Some lambasted him for not having more courage to force the issue, but I see where he was trying to placate both sides, and isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? We can’t have it be all One Way. With a country of several million, that ain’t gonna happen. You have to learn to live with people you don’t like or agree with.

  32. Helen: The current state of the Republican party actually kind of annoys me, so writing a piece advocating for them would be difficult. It’s just that our system only allows for two viable political parties, so you end up voting for the best of two awful choices. I look at the two parties, and choose the one that has the least objectionable tenets.

  33. I’ve been thinking a lot about why McCain and the Repubs would pick Palin. She certainly doesn’t have any federal experience outside petitioning for more and more money from Washington. She’s faced more than one scandal in her short political career. Her indirect anti-feminist rhetoric is not exactly popular with all conservative women. In short, her politics seem nightmarish to me. Actually they lose a lot of rights to the very rhetoric they were using against Obama.

    Really, I was just baffled. Then I started to think about what it was about her and her family that might attract conservatives, privately and publicly. What could they use, either for spin or for their own monetary or legislative gains.

    1. Husband has ties to union, easy enough to, and already started to, spin that the rights of workers are near and dear to her.
    2. Daughter has become pregnant and will marry the father, already spinning this into a position of a strong and faithful family. Later can be used to attack Obama & Biden for any questionable statements. McCain couldn’t paint them as unGodly, misogynyst pigs, but she can.
    3. Husband has ties to oil, can be used to privately increase donations from companies that may not see McCain as a true ally.
    4. She is the governor of Alaska, can be used as above, and also to use her own ties to get rights to drilling in the Alaskan reserve if elected.
    5. She’s a woman, any critical statements made about McCain’s or her, and by association, the party’s stance on abstinence, creationism, and pro-life will have to be worded very carefully by Obama & Biden so as not to create backlash or sound sexist.
    6. She has a special needs child, has already pledged to help, this is a section of the population that is severely negected and all of the teachers, families, medical workers, case workers, etc… know that.

    I actually have more, but I’m sick of typing.

    I guess what I’m saying is often, the strangest bedfellows make the toughest opposition. McCain is seen as a more liberal, old school, tough as nails conservative. She youthens, softens, and de-liberalizes his campaign. It was a canny choice. Jenn and I agree that this will be a very tough campaign race. We are voting for the same side, but disagree who will ultimately win. Life with a pessimist is not always easy for me.

  34. true, VZ, gay marriage became legal in two states. however, way more states than two wrote anti-gay laws into their state constitutions.

  36. It seems that you are all too willing to buy in to every vicious rumor you hear about Palin because it fits in with what you want to believe about her. Many equally vicious rumors are being written about Obama (like he’s a Muslim, etc) but that’s written off as bullshit, right? Intelligent thinkers usually rise above that sort of thing. Those who hate Obama find plenty to hate about him by combing the internet for juicy gossip to support their hatred of him.

    I disagree with her views on abortion, but I don’t think she’s racist, misogynist, homophobic, evil person. She actually voted against a ban on domestic partner benefits for state workers. She actually increased the funding for the pregnant teen shelter (she cut it from 5M to 3.9M, but the previous year it was just a little over 1M, resulting in an increase). Even Obama, at this point doesn’t want to allow gay marriages, does that mean he HATES gay people? Why not reserve a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to partisan rhetoric, on either side?

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