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?
Posts
223 comments:
1 – 200 of 223 Newer› Newest»It looks like a Palin melt-down to me, not only Dowd.
I'd reference girlfriends rather than mental health manuals, being a guy.
The large market is for somebody who can explain positions. Boilerplate and fan-base don't do that.
Ooo, Ann, you're not handling the public disintigration of Sarah Palin very well at all.
Circular references - Dowd cites Vanity - others will cite Dowd - so it has to be true.
Normal people do not stay in politics very long.
Personally, I am waiting for all those who claim resigning early is a sign of mental illness or makes you forever as a "quitter" to explain why Mark Sanford staying on another 18 months is a "good" idea for South Carolina.
Or why their analysis doesn't also apply to President Obama, VP Biden, or a significant portion of their administration - which, as I recall, at least two other female governors - all of whom resigned prior to the end of their terms.
Palin lost an election 8 months ago. Most of her PR since then has come from those who won't rest until she is destroyed - not from the base who supports her.
Given the long odds of her winning the GOP nomination to start with, the behavior towards Palin seems more indicative a mental illness than Palin's actions do.
I don't think Palin is crazy; if we diagnosed every politician who was narcissistic as "crazy" we'd have to rename Congress the Great American Nuthouse.
I think she's simply a small-time mediocrity who craves, as do most politicians, power and glory and public attention, but who lacks the substance to at least partly justify (or mitigate) her grandiosity. I don't know if she's stupid, but she sure is ignorant, not to mention dishonest. Of course, in this respect, she's all too similar to many other politician.
She's also a crybaby--an aspect of her egotism, I suppose--in that she constantly whines about the criticism directed at her and incorrectly sees it as unique in its nastiness and volume. Criticism, even unfair criticism, even libel and slander, is every politician's daily trial, as much to be expected as the counterbalancing adoration that every politician feeds on.
As one President who was never victim to criticism once said, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!"
Ann's feisty this morning. I love it.
Robert Cook, I'd like to know how being one of only 50 elected governors of these great United States qualifies as either "small-time" or "mediocre." If the governor of Alaska is a small-time mediocrity, what does that make the governor of, say, Rhode Island? At least Alaska has natural resources.
in that she constantly whines about the criticism directed at her and incorrectly sees it as unique in its nastiness and volume
isn't it unique in politics to have the national press and late night comedians continually making jokes about your spouse, both daughters (one a minor), and your infant?
not once, but in a torrent of abuse, an don't use the Chelsea defense, that single joke was ruled in bad taste by the country when it was uttered.
As for the ethics complaints, I understand that there have been many (a number from the same source), all tossed out, but continue to run up her legal fees, and distract from running the state.
Maybe this actually is a case of a level headed woman deciding her family is more important.
time will tell...
Sanford?
He is a joke
The GOP should get the hook and get him off the stage
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."
"Oh-oh! Politicians share personality traits with serial killers: Study"
I think she is crazy smart and if she can get some good advisers may just be what real conservatives need in 2012.
She has now freed herself from all the crap being thrown at her locally (bogus ethics violations) as well as the work needed to govern a state so she can now pay attention to the lower 48 and do what she needs to do to make a run in 2012 (study-up on economics and foreign policy, build support by helping other GOP candidates in 2010, give speeches, write her book to make some money, travel, etc.).
These are things that would be very difficult, if not impossible, to while governing from so far away (and Alaska IS a long way away to the geographically challenged).
It's not like her staying was going to charm those who hate and fear her (nothing ever will) and it's not like her leaving will really damage her with those of us who like her. Yeah, it's a surprise now but the more time that goes by the smarter it will appear.
What matters is if she can win over the Independents and that I think she has a chance at. Especially since Barry is losing them daily and, unless he can turn the economy around will continue to do so. Hell, even his supporters are having second thoughts although they are loath to admit it even in private, much less in public.
Of course, the attacks will continue - especially those about Trig - because they know those hurt her more than anything else and because the left is full of horrid people who cannot stand the fact that she did not abort him and that she loves and is proud of him.
http://tinyurl.com/lj2gkg
But regardless of why the hate her, they also fear her because they know she has a chance of success. Otherwise they would just forget about her. You just don't spend this much time after an election writing stories about someone who is not a threat.
Maybe this actually is a case of a level headed woman deciding her family is more important.
Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
You sure can't tell from her statement on Friday which was full of contradictions (at times she implied she wanted to get out of the spotlight but then in the same breath talked about continuing her work in a different forum), odd sports metaphors and misquotes.
Robert Cook,
Although I disagree with some of your analysis, I find it thoughtfully posted and have no problem with you personally. However, your comment reminded me of a story from that same president. When Truman's only daughter sang professionally, one professional critic's critique caught Truman's attention and he reportedly sent the following letter to the man:
"Mr. Hume:
"I have just read your lousy review of Margaret's concert. I've come to the conclusion that you are an 'eight ulcer man on four ulcer pay.'
"It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful. When you write such poppycock as was in the back section of the paper you work for it shows conclusively that you're off the beam and at least four of your ulcers are at work. Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below.
"Pegler, a guttersnipe, is a gentleman alongside you. I hope you'll accept that statement as a worse insult than a reflection on your ancestry." H.S.T.
My source: http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/billikenman/2008/01/so_long_margie.aspx
General Freder has spoken.
And Cookie knows sanity - he is a Nader man.
Where is Jeremy - a nation turns its eyes to him.
If the governor of Alaska is a small-time mediocrity, what does that make the governor of, say, Rhode Island?
Can you name the governor of RI? BTW, seven states (including AK) have a smaller population than RI. In fact, Alaska's population is about 2/3 that of Rhode Island.
Gov. Palin did a bit of an ugly thing going after Letterman the way she did, even though he was exceedingly ugly himself (at least the claim that the writers didn't know it was the younger daughter that Palin took to the game is credible, making him somewhat less gross). That may be why some are calling her a whiner. But then again Letterman definitely crossed a line that is never crossed w.r.t. politicians' families (but note: that line counts only for Democrats).
The best thing Palin could do is slink away for a while and come back late in 2011 saying that hey, she took time off to be a mother to Trig and get ready for the 2012 season. And she'd better get ready, because she is both, a star and rather ignorant. That's usually great news if you're a Democrat, but in this case that ignorance needs to get fixed ASAP or the repubs will have to find themselves a new star, and 2 years is a tight schedule for that. She has a couple of years in which to get ready, and in 2012, with unemployment likely at 15% people will forget her earlier ignorance if she demonstrates that she understands economics and geopolitics. If she can't manage, and there's no other stars, then it'll be Obama till 2017.
LOL all presidential candidates are crazy - no normal person would want to even think of taking on a job like that - requires an ego as grande as Obama's to just go out and buy his way into the white house - with no prior experience for the job.
But then again Letterman definitely crossed a line that is never crossed w.r.t. politicians' families (but note: that line counts only for Democrats).
And what Letterman said was worse than Rush calling Chelsea (who was about the same age at the time) the "family dog"?
@Freder: got a link to a transcript or recording? From what you say my first thought is that he claimed that she was being used for getting good press in a way not dissimilar from how they used their dog. But that'd be just a guess, Rush might well have been a dog on that, and so what? Quite frankly, even comparing Chelsea to a dog isn't in the same ballpark as the things that have been said of Palin's family -- it betrays partisanship that you'd ignore the distinct, qualitative and quantitative differences in treatment of the Clintons (and Obamas) vs. Palins.
The media sure did a job on her. Despite the fact that the election has been over for months, they still hound her.
They really don't want a woman in the white house.
Maybe it's too soon to call her strategy crazy, when we don't know what her goal is. If it's to get away, then it's perfectly sane. If it's to run for prez in 2012, it's a pretty wild gamble, but time will tell.
BTW, "Caribou Barbie"? Sexist, much?
The only good news to come out of this is that Bill Kristol is still a big fan of Palin. That means his streak of complete fallibility will go unbroken.
I'm not really sure how "all politicians are nutjobs so Sarah fits in perfectly" is much of a defense of her. Sounds more like it confirms Dowd's thesis.
Freder, yeah, I think Letterman's joke was quite a bit worse. The dog joke was tasteless, the rape joke goes a bit farther.
I'm a bit biased in these things because I have a couple of daughters myself. Somebody calls one of them a dog, well, he's a dick. Joke about one of them getting raped? I'd have to go explain some things to that person face-to-face.
“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.....
No one but a physician--and most likely a physician specializing in psychiatry--would have access to or even know about the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Regular people do not refer to the DSM. So I would guess that Todd Purdhum was interviewing other main stream "elite" media types who had decamped to Alaska from the East Coast to dig up dirt on Palin.
And yes, Caribou Barbie is about as sexist as you can get. But then John Edwards was called Ken doll by Maureen Dowd (August 10, 2008) and in Gail Collins' column KEN DOLL IN LUST (August 9, 2008). Dowd also called Edwards narcissistic in that column--oh no --that was Edwards self-diagnosing in that column.
Quite frankly, even comparing Chelsea to a dog isn't in the same ballpark as the things that have been said of Palin's family -- it betrays partisanship that you'd ignore the distinct, qualitative and quantitative differences in treatment of the Clintons (and Obamas) vs. Palins.
Quite true. The worst I've heard about the Palins is they are little better than trailer trash and use their influence to try and get ex-relatives fired from state jobs.
It's not like anyone has accused them of over 50 murders, including a Deputy White House Counsel and a Commerce Secretary (the latter by having his plane sabotaged) and running an international drug cartel.
Andrea Mitchell is in Alaska! There to be sure Sarah is dead.
Sheesh.
No one but a physician--and most likely a physician specializing in psychiatry--would have access to or even know about the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
You mean no one but a physician or someone with access to the internet. Of course, considering Ted Stevens' explanation of the internet tubes, maybe they don't have it in Alaska yet.
If we assume the girls heard the jokes, the dog joke was worse, because Chelsea would have felt emotionally wounded by hearing people say that she wasn't pretty enough. But Willow wouldn't take the rape joke to mean anything real about her. It meant something bad about Letterman that he would make a rape joke about about a young woman (that accidentally looked like it was about a kid), but it doesn't play off of any quality of Willow's. It did suggest that Bristol was slutty, however, and that would have hurt Bristol in a way similar to telling Chelsea she was homely.
I don't want to seem lacking in chivalry but bring this up only as a measure of Maureen's psychological insight.
In her book, "Are Men Necessary" she theorizes that she continues to be single because men are attracted by her compelling beauty but repelled by her intimidating intellect.
Again there is the chivalry thing, but I've read her columns and seen her photos. This theory is incorrect.
I don't want to seem lacking in chivalry but bring this up only as a measure of Maureen's psychological insight.
In her book, "Are Men Necessary" she theorizes that she continues to be single because men are attracted by her compelling beauty but repelled by her intimidating intellect.
Again there is the chivalry thing, but I've read her columns and seen her photos. This theory is incorrect.
Good point, Ann. I was thinking from a Dad perspective. Thinking from the daughter's is, alas, one of my great daily challenges.
Of course, I'm a guy, so I can just say, "I forgot" and get back killing the spiders and fixing the infrastructure.
If the governor of Alaska is a small-time mediocrity, what does that make the governor of, say, Rhode Island?
Donald Carcieri, Governor of Rhode Island, started his career as a math teacher. At age 39, he moved his family to Jamaica and worked for Catholic Relief Services for two years in some pretty tough neighborhoods. He's been a banker and a businessman. During his terms in office, he has been a governor (pun intended) on the worst impulses of our legislature, who are now and always have been as corrupt a group as you can find outside of New Jersey, Illinois and Louisiana. A century ago, the muckraker Lincoln Steffens said that Rhode Island was for sale and for sale cheap. Unfortunately, not much has changed. Carcieri and other governors before him have had the task of cleaning the Augean Stables with a teaspoon.
"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."
Or they could consider constructing an official disorder definition that will perfectly fit the kind of people who try to invent new categories in the DSM for the purpose of labeling people who annoy them.
Satire with satire.
I think the broader point here is that we shouldn't go around excusing someone's supposed need to abuse power simply because they are a politician. Palin clearly resented being held to account for her well-documented misdeeds, she resented being questioned about them, (and she even seemed to resent being asked specific questions about anything related to her own job performance and political interests - but I know that's no big deal to you guys). So whether you label that a pathology or mental illness or not is beside the point.
But as a society we get to define someone who has a clear disregard for the legitimately proscribed limits of their own power as a sociopath, as someone with potentially unchecked capacity for criminal intent. And that's something you're just going to have to come to terms with.
Boo Hoo.
And, oh yeah. Palin is a bit crazy. Just a bit.
As the el Rushbo and others have built carrers upon the fact that the USA is right center poltically, the Warrior from Wasila can simply arouse the natural opposition to Marxist style facism that has come deceptively into power while we were sleeping and dreaming visions of a smiling Black Man redeeming our carefully taught racial guilt trip. Suddenly the insignificant Gov. from a tiny in population State is quitting her people and that is bigger news than Michael Jackson's death. That is only news because it represents a new political leadership for the right-center American voters that is NOT running away for fear of slander or for a pot of money like the Ohio Represenative did last week. All that these slander-fiction genre pieces do to her is make Palin stronger.Hang on Super Sarah, hang on, the elections are coming.
There is an awful lot of luck involved in writing the best commentary. Either you have to have a target rich environment and have the wit and wisdom to capture it or you get ultra-lucky and some hapless fool cooks it, wraps it up, and delivers it hot to your desk.
On rare occasions a blithering idiot just shows up in your backyard with a grill, charcoal and a match and asks to be lit on fire. Congrats Maureen for leaving that back gate open. What a nice 4th of July surprise.
Ya'betcha!
I don't get the logic of bringing up Limbaugh's joke about Chelsea. There's a definite notion that if one Republican did something similar, ever, the thing that a Democrat has now done is perfectly okay, forever and in all instances.
This seems crazy to me. Anyone have a DSM handy?
Martha wrote: No one but a physician--and most likely a physician specializing in psychiatry--would have access to or even know about the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Where do I go to get my diploma?
It's claimed that the Chelsea/dog story is not true and was invented by Al Franken.
http://lyingliar.com/?p=17
OhioAnne, I'm pretty sure Mark Sanford is the only person who thinks his staying on for another 18 months is a good idea. I don't think he's publicly criticizing Palin.
In your 6:38 comment, you seem to imply that Palin's resignation is not unlike the resignations of Obama, Biden, and their cabinet appointees.
Really?
I don't get the logic of bringing up Limbaugh's joke about Chelsea. There's a definite notion that if one Republican did something similar, ever, the thing that a Democrat has now done is perfectly okay, forever and in all instances.
I brought it up, because Nico made the following patently absurd claim:
"But then again Letterman definitely crossed a line that is never crossed w.r.t. politicians' families"
The Clintons were accused of multiple murders, including at least two while they were in the White House. Rush made his name insulting the Clintons, including Chelsea.
To claim that the treatment of the Palins is without precedent is simply to ignore facts.
So... Letterman's a Democratic political operative?
FWIW, according to Newsbusters, the Rush Limbaugh thing didn't actually happen: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/06/12/now-bashes-limbaugh-while-putting-letterman-hall-shame
(Maybe it's on YouTube somewhere and we can check it out for sure?) Regardless, if it had, I think Althouse and TZ are both right in a way, but Michael's realy right. Is Rush the left's model now?
BTW, we discussed the DSM in just about every psych course I took in college, including the ones that pretty much everyone had to take. It's far from obscure.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.
Here's a list of ethics complaints filed against Palin from July 08 to April 09 . Eighteen of them, only the last one active and that one complaining about a fund set up by her supporters to defray the half million dollars it has cost her personally to defend against the first 17.
http://www.adn.com/palin/story/838912.html
How many of you could effectively do your jobs while under that sort of assault? It comes out to $40000 per month from your family savings defending an average of two complaints per month. Although the commission put it in more polite terms, their conclusion was that most complaints were bullshit.
Is anyone defending Letterman? It was a lame joke, in very poor taste, made all the worse because his writers were too lazy to get their facts straight.
Let's apply the sniff test: go to your local mall or grocery store and ask a couple dozen people if they've ever heard of "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders."
The Vanity Fair article just confirms the Pavlovian effect Palin has on the left.
It is fascinating to observe the urban left's ongoing fixation with Sarah Palin. Palin enters the national stage last year and the left melts down. Palin purportedly leaves the national stage and the left melts down. What is it about Sarah that makes them feel so inadequate that they need to lash out at her continuously?
As for the always estimable Ms. Dowd, her latest snit is beneath contempt. One has far more reason to question the mental health of a pundit who feels the need to write "Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy" than one does the mental health of the target of her vitriol.
"How many of you could effectively do your jobs while under that sort of assault? It comes out to $40000 per month from your family savings defending an average of two complaints per month. Although the commission put it in more polite terms, their conclusion was that most complaints were bullshit."
Anyone ever hear of Bill Clinton?
"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you."
Quite right, in Palin's case. She is clearly disordered in some capacity and they were after her for her own breaches.
Actually, there is one important difference between Clinton and Palin. Palin's wrongdoings were being pursued by members of her own fucking party!
Why would Purdum and Dowd go all the way to Juneau looking for loonies when Albany is so much closer?
The rigorous way out of circular definitions is a term that confuses use and mention.
This isn't the first or last time a bitter empty vessel of a woman takes a shot at the gorgeous babe with a hot husband and great family.
Happens all the time.
Yes. Were it not for the big evil left no one would have any problem with Governor Avon Lady's incompetence, corruption, idiocy, the way she uses people, etc.
Can you cry me a river, please? So far I'm just seeing a stream. Rivers are prettier.
“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....." were those "several" by any chance named Linda, Jeanne and Shannyn?
Freder Frederson said...
You mean no one but a physician or someone with access to the internet. Of course, considering Ted Stevens' explanation of the internet tubes, maybe they don't have it in Alaska yet.
Ah point well taken. I went to medical school 35 years ago --BEFORE the creation of the INTERNET and retired from practice so long ago that I did not know that the DSM was now onLine.
But I still think that few run-of-the-mill Alaska voters would refer to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to diagnose/understand/catergorize their governor. Wasilla hillbillies certainly never heard of the DSM!
Rivers are also more dramatic.
Rivers have trout and salmon swimming in 'em, and if yer quick, if ya throw some dynamite in the river, you can catch some of those fish before the bears do you betcha.
Crazy, in the liberal lexicon, means Sarah has the chutzpah to fight back. She Actually Fights Back!
Unimaginable that any sane person would oppose ramming SOCIAL JUSTICE down the throats of the great unwashed.
I'm gonna go blast fishing all the way to the White House, you betcha. You're darn tootin'. Once I get done crying me this river of tears regarding how I resent my own accountability, that's just what I'm going to do. It's just so unfair but I don't complain about that, no I don't. I just keep right on truckin all the way like the hard working people of Alaska do (who aren't fed up with me and my bullshit) and show them how we're going to get through this gossipy campground of unfairness and innuendo and get the good people of America to see me for what I really am... blah blah blah.
Maureen Dowd also makes a fish joke, saying that Palin is a "cold fish" that just wants to "blow out of town." She also mentions wolves, moose, ducks, oysters and several other critters. No word about lions and tigers and bears.
(oh my)
Ann, you have probably seen Wicked. Whose story does it remind you of?
I love how Ann goes on the attack against Democrats:
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? .
No Republicans fall prey to this? Really?
And don't make like the Palin criticisms are all from Democrats. They are not. Many Republicans have been cutting in their criticisms. That's a big part of Purdum's article.
Hell, McCain's people basically d called her dishonest in defending Todd's membership in the secessionist party.
If we assume the girls heard the jokes, the dog joke was worse, because Chelsea would have felt emotionally wounded by hearing people say that she wasn't pretty enough.
I'll say that Rush apologized within moments of the joke --- before the first person could complain.
Letterman, it should be noted, did not.
Yes. Were it not for the big evil left no one would have any problem with Governor Avon Lady's incompetence, corruption, idiocy, the way she uses people, etc.
Feel free to name the ethics complaint that wasn't dismissed...
Ann gets hot and bothered over this:
“Several told me..." .
Ann prefers her gossip straight from the Drudge Report, from which she can repeat it.
Everyday FoxNews uses their "some say" construct to push a line. Where is Althouse's alarm then? She's fine with that.
Althouse seems to be clinging to her impression of Sarah Palin instead dealing with the reality of Sarah Palin.
If you go to a basketball, football or baseball game, you go to see the game. You don't go to see the referees.
The government is supposed to be in the background making sure the players, the individuals in the society, are playing the game according to the rules. It only makes sense as a background activity.
Now the government is a foreground activity and everything revolves around it. It even changes the rules and the score at whim - whatever it wants to do, thinking only of itself, not its purpose.
Of course, MDowd is attracted to this reversal. The government is where the bullies hang out. They love it. And bullies are not nice nor fun people. Few like them, not even the other bullies.
By the way, don't you think it weird that on the nation's birthday, O, master manipulator of symbol, and Mrs. went to Russia, well-known as the home of communism? Hmmm!
Who wants to play on any team that gets jerked around in this way? Not me.
"In your 6:38 comment, you seem to imply that Palin's resignation is not unlike the resignations of Obama, Biden, and their cabinet appointees. Really?"
I think Palin's quitting is not terribly different from a newly elected senator who goes straight to the job of running for president... or a senator who does that and then quits to become secretary of state, for that matter.
I'd be more curious to hear how you can say it's completely different.
Really. Sarah spends 4th of July trying to get back at everyone criticizing her.
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!
Nothing narcissistic there.
"So... Letterman's a Democratic political operative?"
He's employed by an active arm of the Democratic party.
One wonders how it is that 'several people' in the great state of Alaska can come up to an east coast journalist, and 'independently' offer that they looked up in some diagnostic manual (obviously a popular book up there) and all independently came to the same conclusion.
AND that the said east coast journalist can get away with stating such with no support?
How about this: That the addlepated members of the media elite are watching their house of cards go up in flames and are frantically running around like chicken little trying to pull anything out of the fire and Sarah Palin happens to be a handy, favorite target.
Since when has ANYONE from New York, or anywhere in the lower 48 for that matter, worried one bit about Alaska?
Dowd states that Palins resignation is further evidence of the G.O.P.'s implosion.
The GOP may have it's problems but in my opinion, it's articles like this that reveal that the real implosion, and that irreversibly, is that of the media as we know it.
one of Dowd's readers comments on her latest column:
“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.”
Funny, I thought the same about Barack Hussein.---end comment.
I suppose that everyone now feels qualified to diagnose mental disorders in politicians.
The real point of a thread like this is not the content but the style-- any mention of Palin (who, as Reihan Salam points out today, was about as redistributionist as Obama with Alaska's oil wealth) brings out a rabid hatred that seems unmistakably class-based (the insecure college-educated elite mocking the comparatively secure working class) and region-based (urbanites mocking flyover country with their unspeakable taste for outdoor fun) and most of all, of course, gender-based; no one dares mock a corporate-seeming power female (Hillary) or a society lady (Pelosi) in similar terms but Palin's beauty queen/mom thing draws instant and extended (see Montana Urban Legend's 347 posts making the same joke) disdain in the crudest sexist terms (shading over into the truly contemptible baby-hatred of sociopathic attention seekers like Letterman and Andrew Sullivan).
The old saying that "all of life is high school" never seems truer than when you see the geeks turn on the cheerleader on a national scale like this.
My personal view of Sarah Palin is that she has poor reasoning abilities. If she isn't dumb she must think we are.
She goes out and attacks people and then when she is attacked in reply, she acts like a poor innocent victim.
Look, if you're going to go out there and stick your thumb in various peoples' eyes, put other people down as unAmerican because they're not from your part of the country, and start fights then you should be the last one to be a Wilma Whiner playing victim.
P.S. Remember, the point of the book and movie Election is that while Tracy Flick may be a born monster, she's also a born leader, and it's Jim McAllister who destroys himself with his hatred of her kind.
Again, it's funny the people who bring up the Mena airport and Clinton murder stuff as if it's a justification for equal Palin-hating-- and not a warning of what madness that path leads to.
a rabid hatred that seems unmistakably class-based ...
Wow. Class-based analysis. Are you a Marxist?
This has nothing to do with all of the other unfortunate people you lumped in with Sarah Palin in your attempt to make class warfare out of this.
This is about an individual, not a class of people. She is being judged for the flaky lightweight that she is. She is quitting her job. She is not up to the job.
Few people of the class you (mistakenly) put her in these days are in a position to quit their jobs because someone is being mean to them.
On consulting the DSM to attack someone you hate: it reminds me of the days when therapy was really big and the final and worst insult you could hurl, when you were out of reasonable ammo, was you're sick!
I guess Dowd is doubling down on bitchiness.
Everyday FoxNews uses their "some say" construct to push a line. Where is Althouse's alarm then? She's fine with that.
"Doctor’s Killer Is Not Alone in the Blame, Some Say" (New York Times, June 2, 2009)
"Bush's Shift Could Doom Air Pact, Some Say" (New York Times, March 17, 2001)
"In Unpredictable District, Some Say Bush Is Politicizing Terrorism" (New York Times, September 12, 2006)
"Some Say Politics Are at Play as Veterans Bill Stalls in the Senate"
(New York Times, October 20, 2002)
"West's focus on Ahmadinejad is misplaced, some say" (New York Times, September 24, 2007)
"After a Year Leading C.I.A., Goss Is Struggling, Some Say" (New York Times, September 23, 2005)
"Some Say Mining Company's Move Could Thwart U.S. Plan for Cleanup" (New York Times, October 2, 1990)
Fox News: "Some say" as attack journalism
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!
Absolutely!! Wonderful that you can see that.
The right to not be libeled and slandered and the ability to use the court system to protect those freedoms. The right to be free to conduct your business, now as a private citizen, without being baselessly attacked by those who mean to damage you.
Alpha..so good to see that you can at least recognize the Bill of Rights and the letter of the law apply to everyone, even those with whom you disagree.
ChuckR,
my favorite Palin ethics complaints were:
9. Nov. 14, 2008: Accused Palin of partisan "post-election damage control" for talking to reporters about the campaign in her state office. Filed by Zane Henning, a North Slope worker from Wasilla, Palin's hometown. Dismissed by state personnel board March 23.
10. Dec. 2, 2008: Alleged Palin violated ethics law by campaigning for Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. Filed by Anthony Martin of Talkeetna. Dismissed by state personnel board March 23.
Out of the mouth (or the pen, in Dowd's case) proceeds that from the heart.
Hence, in today's column MoDo is telling us far more about herself than she is about Palin.
In her book, "Are Men Necessary" she [Dowd] theorizes that she continues to be single because men are attracted by her compelling beauty but repelled by her intimidating intellect.
The real men I know would repelled by her twisted, hateful soul, not her intellect. Her intellect just makes it all easier to see.
Anne Althouse: it's not clear to me what you're trying to say with that comment. Is being called ugly worse than being called a slut?
But I'm still not clear on what the Rush joke was -- was he really calling her ugly? Here's a link, though I don't know what to make of it: http://lyingliar.com/?p=17
Anybody got a link to video, including Rush's supposed immediate apology for the "mistake"?
@Freder: talk about conflating things. What do the _kids_ (yes, I wrote "family", but spouses who actually play a role in the office holder's administration must be fair game) have to do with accusations of Clinton mischief? Or was Chelsea actually accused of murder? What you're doing is called moving the goal posts: you get called on one thing, you misdirect. Perhaps I'm just misguided by Andrew Sullivan's nuttiness.
@AlphaLiberal: I agree with that, Palin needs to grow a skin. If she keeps this crap up she'll be worse than useless as a candidate (or very useful, depending on you point of view). You can only play the victim game so much before you piss off your audience, and if the GOP base is anything like what is usually described then she'll be alienating them. My guess: she'll keep it up for a long time and doom herself, and that's because she was either never that tough (hard to believe, given her story) or has no clue how to deal with national politics (very believable) and is surrounded by lame advisers (also very believable). Specifically I don't think she knows how to read the national mood at all (if she had she'd have stayed out of McCain's ticket, or been more of a renegade so as to help it, and boned up on conservative economics, ...).
I personally find Palin's victim game offensive for the same reasons you give, but also because she could really drive her critics nuts (more so than she does now) if only she didn't complain.
Didn't Althouse acknowledge weeping out of some form of joy/happiness/satisfaction when she heard Palin was the VP choice?
It's so sad to see these Palin-maniacs struggle w/ being such piss poor judges of character and ability re Palin.
Just keep repeating that it's the mean media's fault. You were right about Palin!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have the apologists for MJ and SP running at full speed at the same time. Awesome.
Hey, trying to watch some of the whole resignation speech, and guess what? Sarah Palin is using a teleprompter! You can see it at the 6:48 minute mark, here.
And why is there an infant at the press conference, mewling in the background? It makes for an eerie and creepy speech in spots.
This whole long speech is about Sarah Palin; how great she is, how she's a victim, how her kids are victims, yadda yadda.. Nothing especially narcissistic there, no.
It's so uncomfortable watching this, I don't know why anyone wants to keep her in the public limelight.
"He' intimidated" is one of the top lies women tell each other about why they're single. She should read "He's Just Not that Into You"!
You're right, Quayle, what man would entrust his soul to this mean, bitter woman?
@1jpb: Who's more of a maniac about Palin: her supporters, or her critics? I'd say her critics are the nuttiest, but then, perhaps Andrew Sullivan totally tilts the scales all by his lonesome.
Now riddle me this: why can she be thicker-skinned, and why can't the critics be cool?
A-ha! I love it- Althouse going after Dowd brings to mind the late Cathy Seipp's "MoDo Watch" columns on the Independent Women's Forum as well as her pieces at National Review's website.
"Maureen Dowd entered May with a sonic boom of idiocy that was felt as far away as Australia, and exited with a Memorial Day weekend column so patronizing it's still ringing in my ears."
That was 2004. Some things never change.
@Dust Bunny Queen: We could have something more like Singapore, where politicians can be sued for saying things that are false. But that'd be so easy to abuse that the current system, whereby public figures get much less protection from libel and slander than every one else, is clearly superior. AlphaLiberal is right to call Palin on her lawyers lawsuit threats.
The Washington Post recently ran a front page straight news story that was actually written by Pro Publica, a left-wing journalistic advocacy group funded by billionaires with a political agenda. One has to wonder who paid who for that story and its placement.
You know it's a bad press conference when you're getting heckled by loons!
"And why is there an infant at the press conference, mewling in the background? It makes for an eerie and creepy speech in spots."
It was a clever ploy to pull people like AL into exposing their hateful attitudes toward babies.
"This whole long speech is about Sarah Palin; how great she is, how she's a victim, how her kids are victims, yadda yadda.. Nothing especially narcissistic there, no."
I think it would be difficult to make a speech resigning your job without actually, you know, talking about yourself.
And frankly, the insistence that Sarah Palin never mention the inexcusable behavior of others toward her children is self-serving for the people guilty of hateful attacks on her children.
And really, AL, I'd like for us to do a little role play... I'm a reporter and you're a parent in public office...
Me: Mr. AL... could you respond to the remarks made by Silly Pinkson?
AL: What did Ms. Silly Pinkson say?
Me: Ms. Silly Pinkson said your child was "creepy."
AL: .....
AL answers how? What do you say? What *could* you say that the real life AL could not twist into a whine? Please. I seriously would like you to write out a "non whiny" response to that scenario, since your arguments are based on the assumption that such a response is possible.
I don't think Palin is crazy; if we diagnosed every politician who was narcissistic as "crazy" we'd have to rename Congress the Great American Nuthouse.
Sounds good to me. When can we start fitting everyone in there for straitjackets?
@principlex: Your likening of government as sports referees who should remain in the background is outstanding. Under that line of thought, what we're seeing now is a badly-officiated high school basketball game where the refs are so whistle-happy that the players can't even play.
It's chilling that the Democratic party and their media allies no longer believe that defeating their opponents at the ballot box is sufficent. The playbook now calls for total obliteration, ridicule and humiliation of those who dare to oppose.
Kev,
If you like basketball metaphors you should check out the video of Palin's resignation speech that Alpha linked to.
After looking at that video, follow Synova's advocacy for thought experiments and imagine Palin as Pres. Yikes!!!!!!!!
Palin is pretty much always heckled by loons, just check this comment section.
On the flip side of MoDo's schadenfreud, Ace laments the backlash on conservatives who think Palin made a bad move:
And I do think I am taking off the week. You guys only seem to want to talk about sarah palin and furthermore you only want to hear the same thing -- she's running, this is a great move, she's now perfectly poised for the race, etc.
It's nonsense. And I hardly need to blog about it, because you all seem to know the words to the song. So you don't need me as part of the chorus. You can sing the same words well enough without me.
I am really tired of this relentless nonsense and occasional nastiness whenever someone is believed to have departed from the conservativey correct line.
Synova, it's hard to make sense of your reply.
Someone plopped an infant in front of a microphone. By adding the baby's incongruous mewling and gurgling to the soundtrack, they created a pretty weird mix.
It also creates the sense of an adult using her children for a shield. She introduces her kids into the political setting and then she, and her supporters like Synova, attack anyone making the slightest comment on the kids.
Hey, Synova, did you rip on Obama for using teleprompters? Whys is it okay for Palin to do so?
In the broad analysis of all this, I think Palin's behavior is the least of the warped. Is this really what we are about now? Picking at scabs and smelling our fingers? I hope she does leave the scene so the rest of us an regain our dignity. It's like a girl's restroom in 4th grade.
Ya they really have "empathy" for those people in Iran don't they?
The best part of the announcement was watching the MSM whine that Palin made the announcement on such short notice, few reporters had time to get there to cover it.
Well hello! I say to Candy Crowley of CNN and others like her. I believe that was Governor Palin's way of saying FU to the MSM.
What a bunch of dumb condescening fucks we have in the MSM. We should ask to see their college transcripts and SAT scores.
Randy sez:
Pro Publica, a left-wing journalistic advocacy group funded by billionaires with a political agenda. .
Nope. Jeff Gerth is one of their editors. Ant-Clinton reporter.
It's just a new model for journalism where they do the in-depth reporting and syndicate the stories to newspapers.
It's a mix of the old - story syndication - with the new: web based content delivery. Real content, real depth on issues.
They are "committing journalism."
I volunteer are man rhhardin. .
Seconded!
Interesting that on Intrade, shares of "Palin wins 2012 GOP nomination" are actually up since the announcement. They initially plunged from $12 to $6, but they last closed at $10 and this morning are trading at $14.
If you were as put off as I was by Dowd's masturbatory rant make your own statement by making a contribution to palinpac.org
Crap
Alpha did you have to catch my crappy Anglais....
"our" man rhhardin....
Or how about one of the Irish guys around here-MoDo's Irish you're Irish come on you owe us....
In my life, I have had to make some painful decisions. My reasoning in reaching those decisions was as muddled and confusing as Sarah's. Life is not reducible to logic. A first rate education helps one to hide their confusion behind rhetorical flourishes, the way a trained magician distracts the audience with a hand gesture. I found Sarah's speech to be contradictory and confused. For just that reason I found it to be normal....She wants to lead a comfortable, happy life. She wants to be a leader. One option excludes the other. She has made her choice and is unsure how to justify it.......It is true that Democrats come in for their share of unfair and exagerrated criticism. But with the exception of Limbaugh their critics are amateurs. The people who make a lot of money making fun of people have devoted their best efforts to ridiculing Palin and her family. The offense that Palin took at this is a symptom of sanity and not of narcissism.
"17. April 22: Alleged that work with Palin's political action committee violated two provisions of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act by misusing her official position and accepting outside employment. Filed by Anchorage resident Sondra Tompkins. Dismissed as lacking merit by state personnel board May 8."
I like this one...
It appears to try to hit Palin for "speaking while governor" as well as attempting to operate separately from her governorship.
Alpha:
Pro Publica is very far left IMO. So they may have hired one (former?) righty.
Follow the money. Who funds it? What have they been writing about?
Why are you so ashamed to admit to the vast power of your far left minions?
The "Caribou Barbie" and "nutty puppy" phrases in one sentence provide an image of a person absolutely choking on bile. I believe that Sarah Palin's existence on planet Earth is unbearable to Maureen Dowd.
Disagree that politicians shouldn't have the same rights regarding libel and slander that the rest of us have. For one thing, this would discourage most reasonable people from ever entering politics, leaving us with those DSM-described people running our government. For another, if some of the blatant lying would shut down, maybe the noise would decrease and we'd get some actual substance in our news instead of 14,593 articles about how Trig was Bristol's baby.
Ann, I disagree about not being pretty being a worse joke than rape/knocked up. I disagree heartily. Even if Willow believed the joke to be about Bristol (and I don't, myself) maybe she loves her sister.
"She introduces her kids into the political setting and then she, and her supporters like Synova, attack anyone making the slightest comment on the kids."
Every politician introduces his children to the political setting. Every. Last. One.
Only in Sarah Palin's case is this seen as an excuse to attack her children directly on account of she asked for it.
"Hey, Synova, did you rip on Obama for using teleprompters? Whys is it okay for Palin to do so?"
Why is it wrong for Obama to do so?
I do notice that you're avoiding any sort of answer to your constant demand that Palin not *whine* about attacks on her children.
I gave you a hypothetical scenario so that you can show how she *ought* to answer a reporter's question.
Please present a non-whiny response so you can show us how it is done.
And what did the troops have to do with it? More shields for Sarah.
Yes, AJ, our power and playbooks are awesome, as I learn to my surprise here.
Look, Pro Publica has up on their front page right now a story on Dem Senator Inouye intervening for a bank where has an interest, Obama flipping on detentions, etc.
It's journalism and investigative reporting. And we need it.
http://www.propublica.org/
Well put William.
Who really is embarrassing themselves? Public sniping is really a low endeavor, and nobody should be proud of doing it for a living.
Palin is better looking, has a better looking husband, and is more successful than every female beltway jounalist. Here is Palin with a family a husband and a real career. Then there is Dowd, no kids and can't even get a date. The beltway women journalist club hate Palin because she is everything they want to be but can't.
If Palin thought resigning would get the media to stop attacking her and her family-she might be sadly mistaken.
In fact she might have rewarded the very behavior she was trying to stop, and motivate them to go after others.
Finally someone like Andrew Sullivan or Maureen Dowd can actually point to a "real" accomplishment!
Another weird thing this has brought out-this PalinDome-is the contradiction of-
Feminist Democrat talking heads saying that there was no way in hell Palin could handle it all-
Career.
Family.
It brings up the fact that they know something better than most-they've been lying to America for awhile now-haven't they?
And, the women in Iran a speed bump in their way-hardly a concern.
It's been revealing...
And the Dave Letterman comment that was about-
violence to a minor....
The issue wasn't a "feminist" issue-but they trivialized it to that level.
Feminism has reduced itself to the smallest of issues and even Palin is guilty of indulging in that.
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.
The real answer is... that Sarah Palin goes out of her way not to whine or act like a victim, but isn't willing to give the extreme bad behavior of others a pass.
I'm sure that it would be far more comfortable for those who constantly aim personal attacks at her and her children if she never mentioned it at all.
Synova clarifies her point:
I do notice that you're avoiding any sort of answer to your constant demand that Palin not *whine* about attacks on her children. .
Oh, is that what you were talking about.
Palin seeks out conflict where she can be seen as fighting for her kids. She picked a fight with Letterman after leaving an equal or worse joke from Leno slide.
In so doing, she amplified one daughter's embarrassment and expanded it also to the youngest. That was a seldom seen spectacle.
Then, last week, she accused a blogger of mocking her son Trigg when a photo was obviously photoshopped to show her cuddling a baby with an Alaska pols face. You have to be trying to make such a stretch.
Among pols, Palin is in a class of her own with using her kids as props. She injects them constantly and picks all these fights over them.
If AL doesn't want to give an example of a "non-whiny" answer to a direct question by a reporter asking about an attack on one's children, someone else feel free to step up and give it a shot.
Maureen Dowd admits fucking her way to the top. She only needed one vote to gain her position--her powerful paramour's.
She has no cred to criticize any other high achieving woman who didn't fuck her way to success.
She should stick to other female success fuckers like Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama.
Alpha:
Pro Publica's seed money of $10 Million was provided by Herb & Marilyn Sander. They are a very far left multi-billionaire couple who sold Golden West Finance Co. for billions after the company had made them millions in the subprime mortgage business (how about that? Bet they are fans of Barney Frank too).
The Sanders are bigtime contributors to all kinds of lib causes and Dem candidates. I estimate they rank in the Top Ten
among all political donors.
Did I mention Golden West aas a big player in the subprime mortgage business. Heh.
Actually calling the joke about "violence" to a minor might be a little extreme but I still don't think the "joke" was funny or something that was purely an a front to women or feminist.
It was stupid and gross on more levels than that.
One of these women will be luxuriating in the love of her husband and children, and the other will be rooting aroung her Manhattan apartment for batteries.
Once this is understood, the column makes perfect sense.
It tells you how big Sarah Palin is on the national scene when you consider this: no one is paying any more attention to Michael Jackson’s death.
Sarah Palin is being written off by all of the Left and parts of the Right. They may be right, but I doubt it. After all the hatred and vitriol that she and her children have been subjected to, I believe that it’s payback time. And there would be no bigger payback than the Presidency.
So I have begun to advise Sarah Palin.
It’s all right that she doesn’t know me, has never heard of me and probably never will, but that will not stop me (or millions of others) from offering her advice. I have already begun by telling her that she should come out as the ENERGY candidate.
Outside of glaciers and polar bears, it's what Alaska is known for. It's also the area of Palin's greatest expertise. It also happens to be topic number one for most Americans. Every time they fill their gas tank, every time they pay their electric bills, every time they discuss "cap and trade," every time they see windmills on the horizon and know - in their hearts - that these ugly machines are not going to be the solution, they will think about Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin can become the spokesman for abundance while the left preaches the politics if scarcity. The Left’s solution to the issue of energy is to try to cope with scarcity. Every “solution” they propose is build on the assumption that energy is going to be less available and more expensive. Even their technological fixes - wind and solar power – are no one’s idea of the source of abundant energy.
The Left has brought a child-like faith to the religion of man-made global warming and demand that Americans wear hair shirts as penance for our sins as we developed a society that relies on the ready accessibility of abundant energy. Rather than finding new, economical and reliable sources of energy, they have demonized the use of energy and are working to force Americans to use less. By making energy more and more expensive via regulations that reduce the availability of natural resources, by taxes on the use of energy, buy hectoring and nagging when nothing else works.
Michelle Obama’s White House garden is the concept that the Left has of an American future. A sort of a genteel Unabomber vision of a proper America with the people growing 21st Century Victory Gardens. America as a rural Kenya outside of Nairobi; peaceful, happy rural and poor. Exceptions will be made for the leadership.
To this Leftist dystopia, Palin can bring the politics of abundance. The development of our own natural resources including oil, natural gas and coal. The re-vitalization of the nuclear power industry. Research can be funded to develop new power sources, but ones that are at least as efficient as current sources without requiring taxpayer subsidies to compete.
If given a choice between a vision of scarcity and a vision of plenty, a people will choose the path of plenty every time.
Sarah, are you listening?
Somehow, I suspect that she has it figured out already.
Maureen Dowd is the aging ingénue of the NY Times who has been abandoned by more men than the Titanic. She is the well known reject of Michael Douglas and any number of other “celebrities.” The difference between Maureen and the anonymous groupies who brag about being bagged by the Beatles or Mick Jagger is her column. From her upcoming column on Sarah Palin we can conclude that it is highly likely that she is being shagged by David Letterman.
The face this hag displays is unlovely, hiding an even uglier spirit inside.
Accusing Palin of using her kids as props is a cheap shot. It proves you have an irrational hatred towards Palin and perhaps large families as well.
See, this is what you don't get, AL.
You say she picked a fight with Letterman and ignored Leno.
How did she even know what Letterman said? She wasn't even aware of most of what SNL said during the campaign (*most* of which was very funny but some of which was mean). This idea that Palin is orchestrating the public upsets ignores the very real evidence that until someone informs her of something like what Letterman said she *is* ignoring it.
But the media loves it. Are they going to pass up asking her for a statement? And when they do that, how should she respond? Even saying that children should be off limits, in your mind, is whining about it. There is nothing at all that she could say that would be good enough for you, non-whiny enough for you.
Synova fumbles basic distraction:
If AL doesn't want to give an example of a "non-whiny" answer to a direct question by a reporter asking about an attack on one's children, someone else feel free to step up and give it a shot. .
WTF are you talking about? She gave a resignation speech, it was not a Q&A. I was talking about the very clearly audible baby background noise while she was giving her speech (before the teleprompter).
Hey, maybe Sanford will do that when he resigns.
Synova and AJ, maybe you can provide a list of other politically momentous speeches that included baby noise in the foreground.
Bizarre to be attacked over such a simple observation.
p.s. AJ, I don't know who "Herb & Marilyn Sander" are and doubt you do, either. "Far left" means like the Socialist Worker Party, not a Democratic donor. Yeesh.
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.
Palin and the Palinites then ran around saying that Letterman was a pedophile (Palin insinuated as much) going after a 13-year-old. It was dishonest, disingenuous and bombastic.
Palin's behavior in the Letterman affair was UnChristian in the sense that it was "bearing false witness."
So don't play the poor innocent under attack schtick. She tosses gasoline on the sparks.
(It was still a stupid and inappropriate joke).
Alpha
Dude those were the damn ducks in the lake....
oy.
That wasn't some "crafty" baby gurgling noises-honestly too funny.
AL... are you suggesting that this is the ONLY and FIRST time in your opinion that Sarah Palin has whined about the attacks on her and her children? Just this speech?
You refuse to admit that she has to mention it. She *has* to. She's going to be asked about it. She *is* asked about it. She *was* asked about Letterman.
So please let us know what you consider a non-whiny statement in response to getting asked about what someone has said about her or her children.
The only real target of opportunity that I can think of that she took was when Obama was making short bus jokes like it was funny.
"it was pretty clear that Letterman was referring to the one who just had the baby, the elder and adult one."
You can pretend it was clear because it suits your purposes to do so.
It was not.
The only thing that was clear was that it was a joke at the expense of the unnamed daughter at the ball game.
If one knew which daughter was at the ball game it was absolutely clear that it was a joke about the daughter at the ball game... BECAUSE it was a joke about a daughter getting knocked up at the... get this... ball game.
Synova, yes, I stated above I think there are other cases where she has injected her kids more than most.
Ha ha. That would be funny if those were birds. But I'm not convinced (can't play it much more in my house).
The whine of the Wasilla loon perhaps?
Actually to be quite honest about it those birds might not have been ducks-I'm not a water fowl expert...
Ya could be which is rather "unfortunate"...
So please let us know what you consider a non-whiny statement in response to getting asked about what someone has said about her or her children.
How about something like: "I don't appreciate David Letterman and others making jokes or statements about children. They can say things about me but politician's children should be off limits."
I've heard all manner of politicians and celebrities say something similar, but instead we got accusations that David wanted her children raped. As some Republican said the other day, she's "Sarah Barracuda" for a reason. She seems to revel in the harsh back and forth of politics, but only when she's the one feeding.
If you're a Palin supporter and you have a website, if you want to do something effective (discussing a Maureen Dowd opinion column isn't really that effective), there are some tips here.
Instead of just whining, let me suggest trying to do things that work.
Those are ducks. (Or coots or loons, grebes or cormorants -- birds.)
I did go back and listen.
Even garage knew they were birds...
"You know it's a bad press conference when you're getting heckled by loons!"
I'm a bit late on this subject, but comparing Chelsea to the family dog was a horrid, despicable act. My dog, a female herself, was enraged and upset for weeks after learning of the comment. She found the comparison to Chelsea quite demeaning.
The vile liberal hatred shown toward Palin for almost 10 months is based one thing - fear.
The Lefties know that Palin is (1) Popular and (2) a real conservative. Someone who isn't part of the "establishment" - who might actually change things if elected POTUS.
They don't care about Romney because he won't change anything. Like most Republicans all he'll do is spend a little more on Defense & a little less on social programs. IOW, a safe little lap dog - all bark and no bite.
Of course, that why Goldberg, Hewitt, "Captain Ed" et al don't like her either.
"I've heard all manner of politicians and celebrities say something similar,"
And that's pretty much exactly what she said, including that he's got free speech, and including some statements about how we treat girls and women in this culture.
"but instead we got accusations that David wanted her children raped."
From her? Quote or link please.
Theo-
Well now there is the six million dollar question.
I never liked the "pick" of Palin for VP and it had very little to do with her personally I felt she had not been fully vetted -mostly by the adversarial press-something that McCain seemed to view as "friendlies"-and her experience was thin....
but-
the way Liberals react to her is beyond... amazing and I think inexplicable.
I can see republicans wanting to "defend" her just based on that.
Unfortunately-someone you want to defend I don't think in history often translates to someone who leads-it would be unique.
Synova-
Ha! those damn birds I cry-
Fowl!
Princess Sarah: "How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country. And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make."
A "higher calling" translated: Book deal for $$$$, speeches for $$$$, appearances on Fox for $$$$...you know, really important "higher calling" kinds of things.
Youuuuuuu Betcha!!!
rcocean-
The reason they aren't worried about Romney is that they know his Mormonism is a huge handicap in the Republican primary system.
Ha ha. Crooks and Liars has video of Sarah Barracuda telling Hillary Clinton to just toughen up:
"Fair or unfair, I think she does herself a disservice to even mention it...When I hear a statement like that coming from a woman candidate with any kind of perceived whine about that excess criticism or, you know, maybe a sharper microscope put on her, I think, man, that doesn't do us any good. Women in politics, women in general wanting to progress this country. I don't think it's, it bodes well for her -- a statement like that...It bothers me a little bit hearing her bring that attention to herself on that level." .
No whining, Hillary. That's Sarah's job!
Plus in the general their friends in the press-all they would have to do is run two hour "specials" on Mormon underwear and polygamy...
The prejudice cuts both ways...
Princess Sarah would fit right in here, considering the whining and bitching she's throwing out. I'm amazed she hasn't tried to blame Obama for this latest bizarre exercise in narcissistic behavior.
The woman walks away from the last 18 months of her responsibilities as Governor, then tells the world she's just misunderstood and has bigger things on her little mind.
I wonder if, when she was that rough and tumble point guard, she ever heard the expression; "Winners never quit and quitters never win."
I bet there are plenty of voters out there that have.
Brian Hancock said..."Normal people do not stay in politics very long."
You consider Princess Sarah "normal?"
And you think she's out of politics?
Right.
Palin must scare the crap out of the Libs, from Alpha right on up the food chain. Why else would they spend such a inordinate amount of time thinking and writing about their perception of her utter uselessness? If they actually thought she was no threat they would, in their words, "move on". But they cannot because they fear she will speak truth to Obama and strike a chord within the vast middle of the country which is starting to understand the King has no clothes.
"The reason they aren't worried about Romney is that they know his Mormonism is a huge handicap in the Republican primary system."
I suppose it's a handicap but I don't think it's as big of one as people think. IMO, Romney's biggest problem is his looks. He's got the "can't tell them apart because they all look alike" problem. I come to this very scientific conclusion on account of seeing pictures of the Republican front runners last fall and being able to name all of them by sight except Romney. "Who is that?" is not a reaction that wins elections.
"Plus in the general their friends in the press-all they would have to do is run two hour "specials" on Mormon underwear and polygamy..."
This is true enough. BTW, *nudge*, *wink*, did you know that Cheney's daughter is gay?
When I lived in the Bay Area in CA the "tolerant" and inclusive liberals launched a campaign against vouchers/charter schools/homeschools, by producing political ads warning that Wiccans might form day schools to teach witchcraft. In response to a move to end affirmative action in the University system some pro-AA student group invited David Duke to speak.
"The prejudice cuts both ways..."
What does more harm?
How many conservatives are worried about Romney's Mormonism *really*?
How many conservatives cared that Obama didn't look like the guys pictured on money?
How many would pull David Duke back from in front of a bus?
How many are scared that some Wiccan might homeschool her child?
How many care that Cheney has a lesbian daughter?
What does more harm? I think it's certainly those who fan the fires of prejudice in order to win elections and referendums.
rcocean said..."The vile liberal hatred shown toward Palin for almost 10 months is based one thing - fear."
You're dreaming, Dude.
Democrats would pay to see Princess Sarah as the nominee in 2012.
And if she can somehow drag Michelle Bachmann along for the ride you'd see contributions through the roof.
The "NUTTY BUDDY" tandem.
"How many care that Cheney has a lesbian daughter?"
Cheney's the only one I can think of.
Synova-
Ya you could be right-I saw Conservatives that were worried about Romney's being Mormon swing his way-and that *concern* could be just projection from the Liberal media....
I do still think though that the Republican primary system has to be changed to model the voter distribution of general elections.
For me, Sarah Palin is simply a small state governor without any substantive qualifications to serve in national office.
She's not evil, she's not a monster, she's just what she is.
It is just amazing to me the adoration from some on the right; but even more bizarre is the vilification and hysteria from many on the left.
What is it?
Boy, the haters are out in force on this one. Axelrod must have authorized a lot of weekend/holiday overtime.
Bottom line on Palin in '12: if she can deliver votes for House and Senate candidates in '10, she has a legitimate shot. If she can't deliver, she doesn't.
Plus the economy might become such a front page issue that the Mormonism of Romney gets nullified by the fact that Romney does have an unrivaled depth of experience in business that is unique to him of all the talked about potential Presidential candidates.
If you just turn off the TV and don't read newspapers, what happens to the country?
Not much. Really. Not much at all.
My experience as a party delegate taught me the most important lesson in politics:
Power isn't opinion. Power isn't prediction. Power isn't position.
Votes are all that matter.
That's why the Democrats keep spending public money on ACORN, and why ACORN is running the census and the Executive office is taking over from Commerce.
2010 is the last chance to put a brake on the criminalization of national elections. The essential start will mean getting people to understand that the Congress (both parties) incumbency culture must be defeated. Vote whoever you like - but vote OUT incumbents.
Palin is running in 2012, and she's going to run Reagan. Dowd et al desperately assert their right - nay, their entititlement - to frame the social/political reality for the country.
The punditocracy reaction to Palin is natural and could be no other script. They hate most that which they fear. What the self-appointed best and brightest don't understand - or that they refuse to understand - must be ridiculed.
In two years we'll be laboring under inflation and unemployment at double-digit levels and a sub- 5000 DOW. Compounding those economic stresses, if the solar minima continues we will MAY see winters as severe as those of the early seventies and energy demands running smack into cap and trade's unintended consequences... which will only be packaged as unintended by the dishonest or the ignorant.
The only reason I bothered voting in 2008 was because Palin was on the ticket. It will take her, or someone like her, to get me to the national polls again.
I'm all done voting for the lesser evil. I think a lot of other people are in the same boat, too.
Wow, AL... Sarah Palin making a statement that any comment about treatment from a woman politician about unfair treatment will be made to look like whining...
You prove her right, don't you.
What that video does (and I saw it a long time ago) is show that Sarah Palin is completely aware that no matter what she does, if she so much as mentions something, she's going to be accused of whining.
Would a man who mentioned that his children heard adults say cruel things about their baby brother be perceived as whining?
Sarah Palin is completely aware that no matter what she does, if she so much as mentions something, she's going to be accused of whining.
Sure. If she ignored the comments she'd be accused of being weak or not being able to fight back.
Palin represents, to the left, that evil force in America that they must fight at every chance. That force, the anti-progressive, small town Babbitts, that they abhor and have been at battle with in particular since the sixties.
To be sure, there's a similar "force" that the right abhors. The secular, urban over-educated types.
I'd like to see a video of Sarah Palin telling Hillary that it's whining to demand that Chelsea be treated decently.
Obama was horrible to Hillary, and no one called him on it. No one held him accountable for it. And yes, the one time Hillary remarked on it the press and spin was negative toward *her* and not *him*.
As Palin said... it's unfair, but it is what it is.
It shouldn't have been Hillary getting bad press, it should have been Obama getting very bad press so Hillary could go on not mentioning it.
At some point, if no one else will, you've got to defend yourself.
You know it might be that she is not afraid to talk-religion-something that might have also driven them crazy about Bush.
Clinton seemed to do it as a Southern Governor and they seemed OK with it.
And I think there seems to be a bit of a conflict between freedom of religion vs. freedom from religion.
"It is just amazing to me the adoration from some on the right; but even more bizarre is the vilification and hysteria from many on the left."
The same thing that drove the left nuts about Reagan: Charisma. She's got it. She took the stage at the Republican Convention and floored everyone. She drew huge crowds during the campaign. Even now, when she should be fading into obscurity, even her enemies can't let go.
That's a quality that simply can't be manufactured, and her enemies (on both sides of the political divide - think about all those McCain staffers with daggers in hand) find it deeply disturbing.
(For what it's worth, charisma is also really the only thing Obama has going for him, so anyone who diminishes The One's one advantage has to be threatening to his sycophants.)
The same thing that drove the left nuts about Reagan: Charisma
That may be part of it. But they view it as arrogance and a sort of anti-intellectualism more than charisma or personality.
It seems to me where she came from is critical. Small town, humble background; for the left, that smacks of Babbitry and intolerance and "anti-progressive" views.
For me, she is simply unqualified to be President or to serve in high office. She's simply not ready.
She's not evil or an idiot or a monster or, on the flip side, a brilliant candidate who represents the "real" American. She is what she is; nothing more, nothing less.
In your 6:38 comment, you seem to imply that Palin's resignation is not unlike the resignations of Obama, Biden, and their cabinet appointees.
Really?
7/5/09 8:45 AM
Obama resigned in-place -- he quit doing his job while running for Prez.
I was just trying to think of some democrats I respect. There are some, but what I realize is that I know much better the ones I dislike. I need to work on that. I suspect you lefties are the same and I would respectfully ask you to do the same. Just give it a try.
TmjUtah-
I think you contradict yourself.
"The lesser evil"-that's what comes of politics.
Politics should not be conflated with religion-it isn't a purity contest and politicians by definition will never meet those "tests".
In fact Conservatives who sat on their hands waiting to vote for "perfect" are just as responsible for where we are today as anyone.
Politics and government especially in a pluralist society is about compromise and I know that is in direct conflict with what a lot of Conservatives want.
As soon as you say you aren't willing to vote for the lesser evil-what you are really saying is that you are not willing to compromise-and that is not politics that is more like religion.
Some Conservatives do conflate the two-possibly to the point of the unviability of the Republican party and by extension the demise of the two party system and worse the end of an effective opposition-or the very freedom to choose-to even have a voice in our destiny.
Obama resigned in-place -- he quit doing his job while running for Prez.
Good point; but Obama also told his constituents a year into his term (January 2006) that he wasn't going to run for the Presidency.
Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10909406/
McCainiancs saw the base of the Republican party as an obstacle.
By the time the McCain campaign got close to convention time, they knew that they were in danger of getting beat by twenty points, so they went to Palin to make the defeat less traumatic.
But those losers packaged a loser for months, and then deflected their failure onto Palin, which was the only way they could continue to be mentioned in the news.
Nobody mentioned McCain two weeks after the election. But Palin knocks Jackson completely off the news cycle by simply announcing she is resigning and possibly HINTING she's going national.
The punditocracy is acting like a boxer facing an opponent that they were told is going to take a dive... but shows absolutely no sign of backing down, and keeps pummeling them harder and harder.
Obama doesn't have charisma unless he's on script; as for abilities, even less. He's like the guy in the Next Tel commercial: just a douche wandering around the playground being followed around by four thousand networked enablers.
Palin must scare the crap out of the Libs, from Alpha right on up the food chain. .
Why? They already beat her by close to 10 million votes.
This isn't the first or last time a bitter empty vessel of a woman takes a shot at the gorgeous babe with a hot husband and great family.
Drudge has pictures of the two of them side by side right now, and my thoughts were that Palin is the one I would want to be married to, but MoDo, the one I would try to score with for a one night stand. I might even pay for dinner.
I should add that Palin is the one who I would take to firm functions, having taken someone dressed like Dowd to a Christmas party awhile back (but much better looking) - she got propositions from at least two of the lawyers, one who was probably too old to do anything about it, and another who took the opportunity when his wife, sitting to the other side of him, went for desert.
Madawaskan -
Politics is the art of the compromise, of course, but compromise means meeting half way to a common goal.
If there is no commonality, there is no need to negotiate, or compromise.
Elections are a primary mechanism for defending our liberty. The constitutional basis for our government defines government's duties and restrictions - but those both have become largely ignored by the current culture of incumbency and the ill-edecuted electorate. When the mechanism ceases to be effective, it is time to find other ways. Not participating is just one step toward "a different way".
Thomas Jefferson had some pretty clear thoughts on the subject.
Ann Coulter calls Dowd's work the "Nobody wants my Vagina Monologue".
Nasty, nasty...
I agree with SMGalbraith, especially his 1:33pm comment, though I would take small issue with his statement that Palin is simply unqualified for office. Objectively, I agree, but based on the new Obama-standard, she is more than qualified.
True.
There's an old adage-
Bad news is better than no news and at least Republicans have that going for them lately.
I'll admit I was no fan of McCain's but I still voted for him-and he is the one that picked Palin.
I think that was a mistake just simply for starters one reason-the timing of it.
It's hard to introduce a new candidate who's supposed faults will be new on the 24/7 cycle and not be fully known or resolved with the public by election time. That will always be true when picking someone who has not done their time.
I know it sounds archaic but sometimes things are the way they are -people earning things due to time put in-for a reason.
The whole Romney lost in 2008 because he's Mormon is just an excuse.
Romney lost because (1) He's boring (2) he's flipped-flopped on almost every issue (3) He had no popular message (4) he has the generic white businessman in a suit look (5) his only political success was winning one term as Mass Gov in 2003.
I don't Romney doing anything conservative as Governor from 2003-2007.
"For me, she is simply unqualified to be President or to serve in high office. She's simply not ready."
I can respect that reasoning, but by the same logic there's no way Obama should be President today.
If she does what I think she's going to do, she should have a lot more depth for '12. I think she's going to spend the next 18 months campaigning for candidates for the '10 elections. She's going to meet a lot of people, get familiar with a lot of local and national issues, and be ready to build a competent Administration from what she learns and who she meets during those campaigns.
Which I think is a damned smart strategy. Obama's biggest mistakes have been in the area personnel. It would be nice to think our next President actually has a plan in place on how to actually govern beyond pointing out "we won".
"Why? They already beat her by close to 10 million votes."
HA ha. There was this guy named McCain at the top of that ticket. Amusing how many people on the Left seem to have forgotten that...
TmjUtah-
Well I do agree with you about the electorate and that is probably a large function of our media which has taken- freedom of the press and squandered it on squalor but I don't get the non-participation as an option argument-especially when that has created Obama with a majority House and Senate that can cement their incumbency-the very thing you seem to want to fight.
rcocean-
Good point about his Massachusett's record-I don't see how NRO managed not to address that.
One argument would be-I guess that it was Massachusetts, and like it or not republicans in the general do have to find a way to appeal to the big cities and other members of the electorate.
A certain element of the base always wants to eschew politicans that won in those other places-Guiliani in New York for example.
I have a friend who is a stats nut for elections and he noticed that we lost all of the areas and states that Lincoln had won.
the NorthEast is gone, the Upper Midwest-I don't remember all the details but it was an interesting observation.
I have to go for awhile but it's been an interesting thread.
"It's hard to introduce a new candidate who's supposed faults will be new on the 24/7 cycle and not be fully known or resolved with the public by election time. That will always be true when picking someone who has not done their time."
With respect, the only fatally disqualifying factor that mattered against Palin was her party affiliation. Everything else was just lines on the script - guns, God, family... all foreign to the Left, and all worthy of the most shameless and dishonest ridicule.
What was there to "discover"? She ran for office on an important local issue, and won. She was appointed to an important state agency, obviously to shut her up. She resigned that position (say, is that a precedent???) in order to devote her energy full time to achieving the office necessary to address the corruption. Along the way she had to overturn the entrenched Republican machine in her state, and that made her some enemies from "her" side.
She's got a big loving family and doesn't play East Coast PC media games.
Flip the coin, sir. Imagine if she'd been a Democrat and how her arrival on Obama's ticket would have been packaged. Of course, she would have been hailed as a much needed infusion of executive experience for the campaign as well a mighty step for women's rights. Plus, her successful electoral track record and anti-corruption achievements would have been used to drive a stake through Hillarys! PUMA camp. She's won more contested elections that the Won has, after all...
BTW, what I call the "base" and what the punditocracy packages as the base are about as close to each other as is Salt Lake City is to San Francisco.
That word does not mean what they think it means. Which will become much more clear by 2010.
Why? They already beat her by close to 10 million votes.
No, they beat McCain by that many votes. Some will suggest that she dragged down the ticket, but that doesn't make sense if you plot polling versus time and events last fall. Rather, the Republican ticket didn't really fall behind until the banking problem blew up, McCain rushed in and accomplished nothing, while Obama just looked intelligent and reserved.
What I think scares the Democrats so much about her is that she speaks so strongly to one of the Democrats' critical voting blocks - white blue collar workers and their families. They didn't go to Harvard law school, and many didn't even go to college. They are, by and large, culturally conservative, both Protestants and Roman Catholic. The Palins speak their language, like no other politician on the national scene. Biden tried, pushing his working class roots. But he still comes across as a well dressed attorney, who may have started where they did, but now lives in the big house on the other side of town.
This is the demographic for which she was the rock star in the last election. And that demographic is especially critical for the Democrats in the rust belt. Imagine a presidential election where PA, WV, IN, OH, and maybe even MI (despite the UAW bailout) lean right. Winning is very possible if not probable, if she just gives up the NE the West Coast, Obama's home state of IL, and maybe WI, MN, etc.
A lot of states would be in play that really weren't last time around. And the problem for the Democrats is that they are stuck with the top of their ticket (unless they can coax Biden into retirement for health reasons). The voters throughout much of the center of the country would be faced with voting for someone like them, or a bunch of high class, mostly Ivy League, lawyers. But they gave the Ivy League lawyers their chance last time (2008), and that went disastrously wrong, so maybe it is time to trust someone much more down to earth like themselves.
Remember, the Democrats at the top, including MoDo and much of the MSM know what happened at those rallies where Palin spoke. They just didn't bother to report it in any depth, as it went contrary to their programmed storyline. (Something akin to what is going on right now with the TEA parties).
"Perhaps the best part of Palin's announcement July 3:
Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: "Sit down and shut up", but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out.
Quitters stick to it. Winners quit."
--David Kurtz
Garage: Ask the venom spitters why they keep up the whack-a-mole routine. I have my suspicions but either they keep trying to knock her down from fear or for sport - your choice.
"For me, she is simply unqualified to be President or to serve in high office. She's simply not ready."
"I can respect that reasoning, but by the same logic there's no way Obama should be President today."
More to the point, please explain how John Edwards was ready in some way she was not.
Happy Holidays!
Normally I hate it when politicians claim to be victims-i.e. Hilary Clinton.
But in this case Sarah is a victim and as a result I am harmed and outraged.
On a side not I watched the movie Zoo last night and I was seriously grossed out. No one should be doing a horse.
When Bill and Hilary Clinton were accused of killing some 50 people I was totally supportive of that. It needed to be investigated. They got off scott free.
But when Dave joked about her kid I was totally outraged.
Also, I would much rather be called slutty than ugly. At least be slutty means you are getting it. Ugly you are fucked.
Zoo, the movie is on my mind. It is so fucked up. I can't understand why anyone would want to get fucked by a horse. It is just so weird.
@Bruce, the most intelligent analysis I've seen yet.
I think you're on to something.
FYI-Maureen Dowd does not live in NYC. She lives in DC.
Ann, these are the people you threw in with back in November, when you fell for Barack's Potempkin "temperament" and vague assurances of "moderate" policies and "post-racial" bipartisanship and la-la-la brotherhood and fiscal restraint. Do you still stand with your vote, or would you take it back if you could?
I really appreciated and respected Dowd's analysis of the Clinton marriage for 8 years.
But now she is totally over the top. And single. And not living in NYC.
Why would someone do a horse?
There were horse meetings at a house in the movie Zoo.
With horse pictures.
So fucked up.
A man was killed getting fucked by a horse.
A law was passed after a man was killed getting fucked by a horse.
So wrong.
I didn't know Sidney Blumenthal commented here.
Or is that Sully?
Learn something new every day!
I wonder how the marxist cabal and their friends in the American Media Control Department of Obama's Administration are reporting on the brave Honduran government's acting Contra to the attacks upon them by the latest elected Dictator-forever and Chavez wannabe? We could learn some lessons that we will need when Palin pulls ahead in the polls in September 2012. How many international groups and self proclaimed authorities will intervene to save Obama?
The horses hog was 35 inches long.
Where in the human body did that hog go?
Another man helped the horses hog into the dead man's ass.
So fucked up. I am seriously creeped out by that. I consider myself fairly libertine as far as sex but sex with animals is just so weird.
I think this an adequate response to MoDo's diagnosis of Palin: DSM-IV 301.95 PERSONALITY DISORDER OF PROGRESSIVES. Dowd would seem to fall under a number of the indicia.
They call it being "Zoo". I never knew.
Hey, I rhymed.
God, I feel normal.
Post a Comment