Dowd does the diagnosis, plucking a term out of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or rather plucking a term out of Todd Purdum's Vanity Fair hit-piece:
And so it was, Todd Purdum learned, as he traveled Alaska reporting on Palin for Vanity Fair, that the governor’s erratic and egoistic behavior has been a source of concern for people there.Oh! Lord help us! There were people there! There were several. Oh, my lord. Several! Several told Purdum that they were the sort of jackasses that go flipping through the DSM to leverage their displeasure with a powerful person in their vicinity.
“Several told me, independently of one another,” Purdum writes, “that they had consulted the definition of ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — ‘a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy’ — and thought it fit her perfectly.”
Memo to Purdum, Dowd, and the several people there in Alaska: Everybody who runs for high office will have a lot of check marks on the DSM list of symptoms of "narcissistic personality disorder."
I mean, maybe Fred Thompson didn't, but you see, it's a problem if you don't have these things. Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, etc. etc. — who among them lacks a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, blah blah blah? Oh, but they have empathy, you burble. Bullshit! Watch all the Democrats try to claim the empathy loophole to the narcissistic personality disorder diagnosis. Ha! Bullshit! They all have it. And don't throw your money at a prospective candidate who doesn't. He'll poop out, like Fred.
Memo to the good folks who construct the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual: Consider constructing an official disorder definition that will perfectly fit the kind of people who try to understand human individuals in their vicinity by consulting DSM checklists.
***
The link goes, of course, to the NYT, so there's no link to the Vanity Fair article upon which Dowd relies so heavily. Link withholding — a symptom on what DSM disorder checklist?
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223 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 223 of 223some soldiers in Iraq are into being Zoo, based off one of the interviews.
The Zoo guys are totally redneck.
Not gay at all.
Being Zoo...
They videotaped themselves getting fucked by horses.
They castrated the horse that killed the guy because they were afraid other Zoo people would want him.
Sick.
They liked to grab a horse by his warm nuts.
The guy who died was a conservative republican. Interesting.
The main thing I'd point out about Sarah Palin's dazzlingly incoherent farewell is that it's pretty clear she wrote it herself. The proof is in the punctuation. The transcript was posted to her official Web site earlier today. The style is closer to a high schooler's angry diary entry than to an official speech. I've read a lot of speech transcripts. They tend to have fewer words in all capital letters. And fewer things in quotation marks that aren't actually, you know, quotes.
--Ezra Klein
So, on the 4th of July, Sarah Palin is threatening to sue a blogger and newspapers that have published speculations over why she is quitting.
Way to celebrate our freedoms, Sarah!
Was unaware that there was a clause where defamation against conservatives was perfectly acceptable. Can you cite the law stating this?
Hey, Synova, did you rip on Obama for using teleprompters? Whys is it okay for Palin to do so?
Do people often praise Palin's brilliance and ability to provide oratory that can lift the spirit?
No?
Maybe that's why.
Synova, on the Letterman story, she pushed it hard and she also conflated the two daughters where it was pretty clear that Letterman was referring to the one who just had the baby, the elder and adult one.
Question: Was Hillary "Whiny" when she griped about Schuster's comment about her "pimping" out her much older daughter?
I don't remember you ever writing that, but I could've missed it.
Only a liberal would actually take a parent standing up for their child as being the one with "problems"
Cheney's the only one I can think of.
Your preferred candidate for President and VP in 04 thought it was exceptionally interesting and worthy of mention during debates in spite of it not being a topic or anything.
Jackpot! Suggesting once again that Palin is the preeminent troll magnet on the planet, Althouse's post attracts a whole array of mean-spirited asshattery.
Pompous Montanus comes out from behind his cover as poseur-intellectual long enough to regenerate the Obot campaign meme: "Palin's wrongdoings were being pursued by members of her own fucking party!"
This is a law professor's blog, Pompous, peddle the witch hunt to the rubes at Kos.
And Rob't Cook: "[S]he incorrectly sees [criticism leveled at her] as unique in its nastiness and volume."
No politician and family in recent history has been as deluged with vitriol as Sarah Palin and her family. It is an act of unabashed dishonesty to deny it.
Here's AL commenting with typical lefty acumen: "Palin seeks out conflict where she can be seen as fighting for her kids."
Sure. Palin "sought out" Letterman's nasty remark about her daughter. She urged people to ridicule Trig. And rape victims bring it on themselves, right?
Etc. Etc.
Asshattery that boggles the mind.
Speaking of asshattery: "Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy?"
In the New York Times? Especially coming from a painted up old virago like Dowd, it's just too much -- even for the left.
Poor taste bred by envy.
Rush did make a joke about Chelsea, and he regretted it. I don't know when he first apologized about it, but he apologized to the Clintons the first time he met them. (at least according to him, and there would be no reason to bring it up otherwise) I heard him tell the story on the radio.
I think Sarah is just after a level playing field - which she won't get. Republicans just need to realize they can't expect fair treatment from the MSM - with 75% of journalists supporting Dems.
John said...
The more the beltway media and establishment hate Palin, the better off she is. Obama is a disaster and come 2012 there are people as they say who are going to be held responsible. Those people are the media who shoved Obama down everyone's throat without vetting him and ignoring what a nasty leftist he really is. By 2012, anyone associated with the Washington media establishment is going to be dead meat politically. The more the media attacks her the better off she will be.
Your theory only works if you think what is thrown at Palin slides off her like Teflon. But the evidence is that a lot of it is sticking.
1. Not well-informed on issues. Questions about her fitness to address challenges of High Office.
2. She is all about her charisma, and her canned right-wing slogans to true believers.
3. She can be nearly incoherent speaking ad lib.
4. She comes with a long string of incidents that seem to point to erratic behavior.
5. She is accumulating "baggage" on a pace that Hillary did. Summary firings, lots of toes stepped on for no reason in her home state, family "issues" and more drama.
6. From Alaska Republicans to fellow Govs to the McCain campaign..a growing reputation of "not working well with others."
What you have now is a Cult of Sarah Palin remarkably similar to her fellow Charismatic on the Left, who had his "Cult of Jesse Jackson" back when.
*Both speak in slogans their ideological base wanted to hear, not of substance.
*Both were perceived when they started out as seeking representing people of their tribe and their tribe only, not all Americans. Jesse never broadened his appeal, and Palin seems to be limiting herself as well, to avoid "disappointing" her Goddess of the "white, Right" Cult.
*Both near instantly got a visceral love of a small but strong base of "cult" followers.
*Both nearly instantly got a visceral antipathy of the majority of Americans outside their Cult. Jesse was loathed by moderates, independents, the opposite Party, but also by wide swaths within the Democrat Party. Palin is similar, and it remains to be seen if she can transcend "her Real Americans" tribe and appeal more broadly. But her numbers are very bad outside rural conservatives and the Religious Right.
*Both Jesse Jackson and Palin believed holding elective office was an impediment to their "Higher Ambition". Jesse went the self-enrichment, power-broker route as an "unelected Leader". Always with a whiff of some scandal clinging to him.
It remains to be seen if Palin will follow Jacksons route...which went on so long he became a parody of himself...a thoroughly venal, corrupted mouth-runner by the time Obama came along and showed how a black could win..
No, you're not ..LOL
I don't know when he first apologized about it
I can give the answer since I watched the episode where it happened.
He apologized within a minute. Before anybody could even gripe. He said he didn't know that picture would be up there and he was sorry about it.
@Cedarford: Your analysis is pretty good. I think you underestimate the breadth of her support and overestimate the damage the media has done to her.
She needs a national forum (if she is interested) and couldn't get it while doing her job in Alaska. "The media lied," repeated regularly will rehab her to a far greater extent that the media or the left imagine -- particularly since the media has lied about her.
Well, Professor, if you want to go over 200 comments, it seems as though all you have to do is post something, anything about Sarah Palin.
It helps if Titus is commenting.
Titus, are you still here on this thread? Condolonces on the loss of your pet. You have my sincere sympathy.
I dreamt we held a funeral service for your dog. A very large crowd of about 500 people attended. Following the service the whole crowd paraded to a nearby restaurant completely overwhelming it.
Please forgive me, but you know how dreams are weird. Now please don't be angry, it's just a dream. In the dream you were about 4.5 feet tall. You were physically a bit malformed with little suckers on the tips of elongated fingers. There were too many fingers on each hand. But this deformity of birth was overcome by the power and draw of your personality, thus the large number of supporters.
During the walk to the restaurant you were walking in tandem with somebody else slightly behind me. I overheard you say to your companion, "I think he's one of us," as you casually and rudely flipped up the rear flap of my American style suit jacket to more fully display to your friend my boyish bubble butt. I reached behind and whacked your sucker-fingers off my jacket which unexpectedly sent you reeling. I didn't realize you were so light and delicate. Causing you to tumble like that evoked consternation among the witnesses within the parade of people. But you rolled with the hit, and see, even in your grief you were still being fully Titus. I appologized effusively and we proceeded to the restaurant where the crowd was collecting. Somehow by that hitting and tumbling and appologizing we had reached an understanding.
Conversationally, we became more attached through the dinner. After the reception dinner where oddly no food was actually served, we separated from the crowd to visit a pair of designers. When we arrived at the shop the creative public face of the pair told us upstairs that the business oriented member was downstairs and wouldn't be bothered. I said, "Nonsense. Look here at Titus. Who would not care to miss this impeccable tailoring and style-sense?" I focused on the stitching of your layering which was unusual, precise, and immaculate and we proceeded down the steep narrow steps to a lighted room whereupon I introduced you to the other designer and you two hit it off easily and splendidly.
I'd bet a fairly large sum that, as in the case of Europeans calling GWB a "cowboy", "Caribou Barbie" might be meant as in insult, but doesn't feel that way to the recipient.
Seriously, a good-looking woman who hunts big game? What's not to like???
Alpha Liberal I think you are seeing things.
I found no teleprompter in that clip. All I saw was a mike stand. That is even if I pause the video and blow it up.
There is no teleprompter, no matter how much you might wish there to be one.
John Henry
Checking in late for the party.
Synova, on the Letterman story, she pushed it hard and she also conflated the two daughters where it was pretty clear that Letterman was referring to the one who just had the baby, the elder and adult one.
Errrmmm... I watched (and heard) heard the clip numerous times. It was pretty clear Letterman was referring to a daughter at the ballgame. Of which there was one.
Remember -- ball game? Palin was attending in NY which is why she was mentioned to start with?
And next time you fly, thank those slutty flight attendants.
And you still don't get that a teen who gets pregnant by her boyfriend in high school is not an appropriate target for promiscuity and rape jokes, do you?
Fauxgressive.
Cedarford...Do you even know what the word "cult" means? You throw that label around as if everybody who supports Palin is really the victim of being tricked because they do not know the secret doctrines held by their prophetic leader. So what are Palin's secret doctrines that she will one day spring on her now decieved followers? If you have that inside information, please share it. If you are only abusing language for scare value, then you need to ask yourself why you compelled to do that.
JAL -
Admitting the truth would require that they either condemn Letterman or admit that they think jokes about raping 14-year old girls is funny and that Palin was right.
So they opt for (d) None of the above which only requires a smidgen less honesty by claiming that it was obvious Letterman was talking about a girl was thousands of miles away at the time. It didn't wash then. It's not going to wash now. But it's not going to stop the lies. Like little children who lie even when they're presented with evidence of their lies, they think that if they close their eyes tightly and keep repeating the lie they can avoid the consequences.
Just more evidence of the level of immaturity you're dealing with.
Um, seriously, who cares what that airhead Dowd thinks?
There's a reason why the idea of making you pay for NYT opinion columns failed: because no one cared about their opinions.
There are plenty of questions about Palin's decision to resign and valid reasons to criticize her for doing so, but when I read Dowd, the only thing that I can think of is how on earth does the New York Times allow her to write her adolescent nonsense on the editorial page?
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