Starbursts
Everyone’s already made fun of this from National Review editor Rich Lowry, so I’ll quote it then try to make a slightly non-mocking point:
I’m sure I’m not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, “Hey, I think she just winked at me.” And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can’t be learned; it’s either something you have or you don’t, and man, she’s got it.
Now the simple fact of the matter is that Palin is an unpopular figure. There’s no sense arguing about this. Likewise, the polls show unambiguously that most people who watched her debate performance were unimpressed. And yet among male conservative pundits, this sort of gushing praise was extremely common. But before this loose talk of a Palin 2012 campaign takes off, people need to realize that her appeal seems grounded in the psychosexual hang-ups of conservative men. Her hyper-unpopularity with women makes her an unpopular figure overall, and talk of her mesmerizing qualities doesn’t change that.
101 Responses to “Starbursts”
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October 5th, 2008 at 10:19 am
So she wasn’t winking at me???
October 5th, 2008 at 10:24 am
I thought she must have had something in her eye.
October 5th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Good points. But remember Obama was the candidate of near-orgasmic adulation among some parts of the left when he first appeared. To that charisma he has now added (in the eyes of voters) doggedness and a comfortable calm steadiness.
Palin will never be Obama’s equal in many respects. But perhaps after one or two terms in the governor’s office she will learn some gravitas and come back to voters without all the cutsiness and exaggerated folksiness. It’s possible.
October 5th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Isn’t “psycho sexual hang-ups of conservative men” a bit much? I don’t think it’s psycho sexual at all. It’s just the desperate grab for something, anything, which will allow them support her candidacy and thus maintain their conservative cred. So she’s a particular sort of hottie, but one that can deliver the conservative message successfully they are saying. Another Great Communicator. That’s all.
October 5th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Or more likely she becomes Dan Quayle in December and quickly forgotten as the embarrassment she is.
October 5th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Palin’s main issue is that, for whatever her merits, she is being used as a prop. Palin currently has no national political cred apart from being chosen to be part of the McCain campaign. Further, the McCain campaign doesn’t trust Palin very much, so the chance of Palin inheriting even a majority of McCain staffers after this election is somewhere close to nil. Palin will have to start from zero and work her way up, do lots of fundraising speeches, maybe go after Senator Murkowski or the House seat in 2010. Regardless of what she does, 2012 will be too soon for her.
October 5th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Watching the drooling and panting by doughy, middle-aged, Republican commenters reminded me of something I had seen…
I thought of Seinfeld’s George Costanza who was seduced by a woman on the subway. Next thing we know he is (ugh)half-naked and handcuffed to a motel bed, atwitter with anticipation–until the con artist robs him.
When I rewatch that episode, I fear now I will see the face of Roger Simon, David Brooks, Pat Buchanan, Bill O’Reilly, David Broder, or Rich Lowry as that pathetic male. I fear that when I read or watch their work, I will continue to see them as flabby naked George; squirming, unknowingly vulnerable, chained by their own ignorance and unprepared for consequences beyond their delusional erogenous fantasy.
OK, once again, ugh.
October 5th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Wasn’t Mr. Lowry characterized as a girly boy by Ann Coulter after he fired her (him) at the National Review?
October 5th, 2008 at 10:46 am
I’m interested in how she plans on running against a Bobby Jindal or a Tim Pawlenty come 2012. Ideologically, they’re all on the same page and the right wingnuts were pretty excited about Jindal at least. She can’t run as the culture warrior or the Washington outsider or even as a change agent. The difference between the two men and Sarah is that they are willing to talk to the press and can speak in coherent sentences. 2012 is too soon for us to forget all the silly things she’s said and the Tina Fey parodies. I can see her running in 2016 but will Rush Limbaugh have a problem with a woman aging before his very eyes?
October 5th, 2008 at 11:00 am
You’ve got to remember that these are the same cretins who think the skeletal, idiotic Ann Coulter is sexy and who swooned over Shrub’s parachute harness-created “package.”
Conservatives are just…troubled.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:00 am
lampwick,
Ive been reading a lot of Alaskan blogs lately and I get the sense that Palins toast there.Maybe she can build a base in the national Repubican party but I doubt it.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Er, is it true that Palin is an “unpopular” figure? The last systematic assessment of that question, by the ABC/WaPo poll on the eve of the debate, showed her favorability rating, while sharply lower, still at 51 percent, and at 58 percent among married women [She's only at 41 percent among single women; perhaps that's where you're getting your data?]. Today’s McClatchy poll of undecideds gives her a two-thirds likeability rating. I actually think the public perception is more nuanced; she’s “likeable,” but unqualified; in the ABC/WaPo poll she scores significantly lower on experience and understanding of complex issues than she does on likeability. I think the public is capable of liking someone without thinking her worth voting for.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:03 am
A candidate who is unwilling to be interviewed or hold a press conference is not going to get very far in a primary fight.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:16 am
It’s wonderful to see this faith in our democracy. Gotta remember, though, Palin appeals to the third of the people who are functionally illiterate. If you’ve ever looked at a car or a hamburger or Sarah Palin and wondered “Who in the world would buy that?”, well, those are the people who think Sarah speaks for them.
And these people believe in props. In 2004 a local here said he would vote for Bush because “Bush reminds me of my cowboy heroes”. It didn’t bother him, or perhaps he never realized, that his “cowboy hero” was entirely fake, an ‘actor’ who couldn’t even make the big step up to commercials or hosting children’s shows.
In a better world Palin would just be the confluence of McCain’s ambition and poor judgement and the totally out-of-touch delusions of the illiterate, her hopeless marginality well illustrated by the extreme isolation of
Alaska.
Unfortunately, I find myself thinking lately of the dynamics of the Hitler-Hindenberg relationship- a situation that very few Germans of the time thought would turn out as bad as it actually did.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:16 am
David,
The R2K tracker now has her at 40 favorable, 51 unfavorable. That’s Lieberman territory (Biden is 57/33). A bit lower than other trackers but she’s approaching a net 0 in all of them, and has steadily declined over the past few weeks. She also consistently scores noticably higher among men than women, though men are also consistently more Republican, and married women more so than single women.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Yikes. See the “Sexy Puritan” Slate article on this, too.
I’ve been visiting my old college this weekend. Conservative girls who wear expensive shoes, but are always smart. They detest Palin. She’s not cute or acceptably feminine, even to these cute, feminine, probably someday homemaking young women.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Isn’t that just another reason that Palin should, contra Ross Douthat, run in 2012? While she’s still got some psycho-sexual oomph in her, um, quiver?
October 5th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Serial Catowner,
Ms. Palin has proved, in her own life, that she embodies a culture of life. She walks the walk as well as talking the talk. About 90% of Americans abort their Down’s syndrome children, but Ms. Palin did not. That strikes me as admirable, whatever you may think of her politics.
I wonder how much of the antipathy towards Ms. Palin stems from a hatred for the fact that she decided to have five children, to raise a child with Down’s syndrome instead of killing him in the womb, and to encourage her own daughter to choose life as well. Ms. Palin embodies an approach to life and fertility which is incomprehensible to too many people today, especially those hipster “seond-wave feminist” liberals who cannot be bothered even to have one child.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Odd. I took Lowry’s “starburst” comment as tongue-in-cheek. Everyone else seems to be reading something more into it.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Im a young, highly-educated woman.
Im also a hereditary republican.
The last thing my grandfater ever said to me was always vote republican.
Palin is a joke.
And soon many more Americans will see that joke, since SNL is going primetime on thursday nights.
I dont hate her though….I pity her.
She is just epically unready.
McCain is cannibalizing her political future for a meaqer bump in the polls.
If I were her I’d go media dark so as not give Tina Fey anymore material.
If SNL can spoof the debate they can spoof a stumpspeech of a rally.
I can visualize the Carl Cameron interview being spoofed right now.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:30 am
lol!
yah, in 2016 Palin will be post-menopausal.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Some of these same commentators used similar praise of Bush when he landed on the aircraft carrier and declared “Missions Accomplished” in Iraq. They talked about how manly the parachute straps made his crotch look. How he he just got every woman’s vote in America. It was frightful.
I think that it symptomatic of the shallow regard they hold for the American public. The idea that people would vote for a candidate who winks at them or has the most manly crotch rather than the candidate who would be the best choice for the job or who would forward their interests once elected.
Actually, the goal of the praise for Bush on the aircraft carrier was to blunt criticism that he looked like an idiot stepping out of a jet fighter within sight of shore while all his aides miraculously arrived before him in boats and helicopters and put up banners.
I don’t think that Sarah Palin’s demeanor rose to the occasion at the debate. The American people are debating serious issues among themselves. The future of health care, the possibility of mortgage trouble, the wisdom of the bailout, what happens when a bank collapses, justifications for war and torture. I believe that Sarah Palin’s folksy performance showed she has a deaf ear for the tenor of the country. The right wing commentators are trying not to analyze that, but instead focus on her sex appeal.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:48 am
I wonder how much of the antipathy towards Ms. Palin stems from a hatred for the fact that she decided to have five children, to raise a child with Down’s syndrome instead of killing him in the womb, and to encourage her own daughter to choose life as well.
Uh…none?
October 5th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Re Hector
It is quite understandable that Mr. Hector is a fanatic on the subject of abortion and certainly Governor Palins’ decision to not abort her Downs afflicted fetus is admirable. However, if we are going to discuss morality, let’s consider the other moral aspects of the lifestyles of Senator McCain and Governor Palin.
1. Senator McCain, by his own admission, dumped his first wife and traded her in on a younger and richer model.
2. Governor Palin and her husband are participating in a shotgun wedding between her 17 year old daughter and an 18 year old young man who is presumed to be the cause of her daughters’ pregnancy. The overwhelming likelihood is that this marriage will end in divorce at some time in the future. We will, of course, overlook the issue of the governors’ insistence on abstinence only sex education which apparently did not impress said daughter.
3. There is a legitimate question as to the identity of the father of Governor Palins’ latest baby. It is my understanding that the ex-wife of Todd Palins’ former business partner named the governor as a corespondent in the divorce proceedings.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Women of any intelligence recognize Palin as a female archetype we’ve had to deal with for years. In modern vernacular, she’s a “mean girl,” who is ambitious and has no trouble stabbing people in the back to get what she wants. This type of woman is terribly divisive, splitting women between adoring acolytes who want to be “just like them” and women who see clearly what’s going on and can’t believe that no one else (especially males) can see through it. If Rich Lowry has a girlfriend, I bet she’d like to strangle him. Right now, Palin is cocky, self-satisfied and believes she has fooled the world. This is good news. It’s frequently the state of things just before a mean girl gets toppled from her throne. The waiting can be hard, though.
This female archetype knows no generational boundaries. My mom, who is a serious fundy and believes the Bible is a scientific review of creation, had not seen much of Palin prior to the debate. Her only sense was that Palin was being persecuted for believing in the Bible. Even she was appalled by Palin’s performance at the debate and thought the flirty phoniness was totally unbecoming a national political figure. You could almost hear a collective embarrassed groan from educated, non-neoconservative women all over the world who have worked their asses off to be taken seriously only to have this bimbo blatantly and on camera attempt to reduce the role of women to their ability to flirt.
She’s losing the mom vote, too. Traipsing around the country, dragging a 5 month old with Down syndrome through crowds of people with carrying God only knows what germs is not a good idea. Children with Down syndrome are immunocompromised and prone to lung infections because of their anatomical features. This is not a case where ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ Her son simply doesn’t have the components of a healthy immune system that would allow him to fight fairly. She is playing Russian roulette simply to use her child as a set prop. If your choice is to be pro-life, that passion for the sacredness of life needs to extend to post-womb life, as well. On forums with Down syndrome moms, several have pointed out that she is new to this and maybe doesn’t know. That is even less impressive. A five minute Google search is all it takes to learn this basic information about Down syndrome. She either doesn’t know or doesn’t care and neither of those are good options. If, heaven forbid, the baby should get sick on the campaign trail, it will be another McCain campaign photo opportunity for her to display her caring mom skills. Don’t believe it for a minute.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Doesn’t Lowry’s commentary have to be a joke? Can he really be this lame that he feels a TV winking connection to someone on TV?
I suspect Palin will continue to have a few supporters after the election if Obama wins. But in that case, by Nov. 7, there will be an end to this theater of the absurd in which Palin allegedly has what it takes to be President and is really a good pick.
It will take a little longer that it did for Quayle, where you had the conservatives defend him for 10 years and then more recently turning on him with negative comparisons to Palin. For Palin, it will be much faster.
As an Obama supporter, I say let the delusions continue. If they really think that she was a good pick because she took the ridicule and turned in the best possible debate performance just to get herself marginally credible, so be it. I’m just glad it was Palin trying to not dig a deeper hole than people like Romney or Huckabee actually trying to advance McCain’s cause.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
What Princess Leia in a gold bikini was to male sci-fi nerds with pro-Rebel sympathies, Northern Exposure Barbie is to rightwing politics geeks.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I wonder how much of both of your confusion about the world has to do with the fact you’re both out of touch retards.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
A detailed analysis of how much money Rich Lowry typically drops in a strip club.
http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2008/10/speaking-of-internet-tradtions-i.html
October 5th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
SLC,
1. McCain was psychologically traumatized by having been tortured, so I’m willing to give him a pass on the break-up of his first marriage, due to extenuating factors.
2. Life is all about making the best of a bad situation. It is better that Miss Palin and Mr. Johnston get married rather than have an abortion. Anyway, perhaps the young people made this decision themselves.
3. I do not believe the adultery allegations for a moment. Where’s the evidence? Where’s the smoking gun? Or, as it were, the stained blue dress? Until you can produce a stained blue dress, the adultery allegations are groundless slander.
Lastly, I thought you were a conservative? If you’re interested in Israeli security, McCain might be a better bet. Not that I’m voting for McCain, but just saying.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
My guess is that after the campaign is over,Palin will “author” a series of books on joe sixpack, hockey mom values, make a lot of money doing speaking gigs at rightwing functions, and probably show up on Fox News from time to time as a commentator, but her career in national politics is over.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Sheesh, I suspect the only ones who thought she was winking at them were the ones who had their dicks in their hand.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Hector, not getting an abortion and not getting married aren’t mutually exclusive, you know. If Bristol doesn’t want to get an abortion, I support her decision. But forcing teenagers to get married is a seriously bad idea.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
For what it’s worth, Trig Palin looks adorable.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Dan,
Maybe they love each other and wanted to get married anyway. Do you know for a fact they were forced into it? My grandmother was married at 17….sometimes it does work, you know.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Hector: as TFC so succintly said, none.
These truly ugly ideas are in your brain, not ours.
Try reading the (dangerouly) liberal Michael Berube’s book, Life as We Know It.
The concept of choice is simple, but sometimes life is not. My wife and I are pro-choice even though life’s circumstances limited our own ability to choose. Our position is not inconsistent, it merely reflects our belief that the choices in life can be difficult and that women need to choose the path that is best for them.
I realize you find this hard to believe, but no one who is pro-choice thinks less of Palin for her choice. Notice the word choice in that sentence…
October 5th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I wonder how much of the antipathy towards Ms. Palin stems from a hatred for the fact that she decided to have five children, to raise a child with Down’s syndrome instead of killing him in the womb, and to encourage her own daughter to choose life as well. Ms. Palin embodies an approach to life and fertility which is incomprehensible to too many people today, especially those hipster “seond-wave feminist” liberals who cannot be bothered even to have one child.
LOL–what is it with this kneejerk fertility argument and attack on those who dislike Palin? A “you must be frustrated spinsters with no children approach”?? Very silly argument.
I know lots of women with children who despise Palin–although I have none, I despise her because she’s a demagogue and an opportunist who is obviously focused primarily on her own career at the expense of any political scruples (much less principles) or moral judgment. The fact that most of the well-educated, smart conservatives find her equally appalling proves the point. Bringing up babies and fertility is completely irrelevant.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Reality,
The only one who is ‘out of touch’ with the latest demographic statistics is you.
Check out the total fertility rates in ‘Blue’ states and in countries like Germany and Spain. Too many Western Europeans, and too many Western Europe wannabes in large East Coast cities, are choosing the childless lifestyle.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
“I think that it symptomatic of the shallow regard they hold for the American public.”
Shallow and, let’s face it, justified.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I dont despise Palin as a demagogue.
I despise the partisan hacks like Brooks and Douthat that wont admit theat she is a demagogue.
I had hoped that Palin would cleave my grandfathers party along the IQ faultline.
Alas, that seems not to be.
Tribal partisanship trumps the tribal bellcurve, for republicans at least.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I find it awesome that Tina Fey might be responsible for destroying her national career before it started.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
and…if Palin is interested in salvaging her political career….she should go media dark instead of giving Fey more material for branding her as a moron in primetime for next 4 weeks.
instead of being lashed to mccain’s side as the captain goes down with his ship.
October 5th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Parents who have teenaged kids who say that they want to marry each other have the responsibility as parents to say “I don’t care how much you think you love eacher right now, there is no fucking way you are getting married until you either finish college or get a job.”
October 5th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
but….I dont think poor Palin actually knows what a demagogue is.
she seems sort of stunted, deformed even in her intelligence.
absolutely devoid of intellectual curiousity.
It is like in Blade Runner…..
“…how can it not know what it is?”– Deckard
October 5th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Actually Hector the reason I detest her is because she is ignorant and proud of it.
October 5th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Nat and Kark,
Were you aware that the vice-president of the Canadian Society of OB/GYNs, Andre Lalonde, has said that the Palin nomination disturbs him because it will encourage more women to keep their baby.
This is one of the most prominent medical officials in Canada, and he’s clearly more than pro-choice, he’s pro-abortion.
October 5th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Given that male conservatives have all the power in the Republican party, and they absolutely adore Palin, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Palin run for the nomination in 2012. She can’t possibly win the general, but she has some of the same factors working for her in the primary as Huckabee does.
October 5th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I’ve said in comments elsewhere that Palin represents a Heinleinesque fantasy for right-wing geeks — the Tough But Feminine Chick / Mom who packs guns and fights off invading aliens (Russians? liberals?) in the snow-covered craters of a terraformed Mars — uh, Alaska — in between bearing enough children to repopulate the human race.
We’re already terraforming Alaska, but she won’t admit it.
Send Palin to Mars!
October 5th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Check out the total fertility rates in ‘Blue’ states and in countries like Germany and Spain. Too many Western Europeans, and too many Western Europe wannabes in large East Coast cities, are choosing the childless lifestyle.
Hector, unlike a lot of other people here, I like you. I really do, and I think your heart is in the right place. However, in this case, you’re really not understanding a simple thing: a certain issues, just because someone chooses a certain lifestyle for himself doesn’t mean he has a problem with all the other people who make different decisions in life.
Yes, it’s true: we metropolitan liberals have fewer children than our rural conservative counterparts. However, you might note that our antipathy for dull-witted right-wingers like Bush and Palin is independent of the number of children they chose to have. Bush has two children and Palin has five, and liberals dislike them both. At the same time, Obama has two children and Nancy Pelosi has 5, and many liberals are big fans of the two of them. One may logically conclude that the number of children a politician chooses to have is, to liberals, independent of whether one chooses to prefer that politician.
October 5th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
And this has to do with what, exactly? It is completely irrelevant to anything anyone has said in this thread, including you. Talking to the educated moms I know in East Coast metro areas, they hate Sarah Palin because she is a trashy (naming your kid Track because they were conceived on a track is just gross and trashy) moron Bible-thumper who was chosen just because she has boobs despite not being to talk in complete sentences that make sense. She is the pretty idiot who was chosen over more qualified women for stupid reasons. Professional and educated women, including mothers, have a real reason to hate such people. The only people who really like her are white men with bizarre sexual issues.
Who? The number of Americans of any political stripe who care what the VP for the Canadian Society of OB/GYNs thinks is nill.
Also, a guy who writes on his Myspace page that he doesn’t want kids who then ends up having to marry the underage girl he knocked up is definitely a guy being forced into the marriage. Your complete social isolation from the rest of the society you live in and how they live is just outstanding.
October 5th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
“people need to realize that her appeal seems grounded in the psychosexual hang-ups of conservative men.”
Worth noting that it seems that the men with psychosexual hangups in 2008 are folks like Yglesias.
We’ve had two female candidates for national office in 2008, Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, and Matthew has seen fit to demonize both of them in terms he hasn’t used for any male candidates.
(Well, Matthew did employ some serious demonization on Giuliani, but I account for that through Giuliani’s cross-dressing tendencies making him transgendered…)
Basically, Matthew makes Rich Lowry seem well-adjusted.
October 5th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
In this thread, Hector is to trolls as Palin is to VP candidates, slowly defining himself as the “make the women stay home and have children” wing of the troll party.
OTOH, it does appear that the one place where Palin actually delivers on her promises is when she actually delivers.
But whence the moniker ‘Hector’? Hector, do you like gladiators?
October 5th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Serial Catowner,
1) If “troll party” = “Republican”, I’m not a Republican.
2) I post here in order to challenge you guys into re-examining your presuppositions, especially about the value of life. I am not trying to piss you guys off, I’m trying to witness to the value of life.
3) I’m very interested in LA culture and history, and “Hector” is a common name in Hispanophone countries.
4) Actually, I don’t think the problem is with modern women as much as with (most) modern men. In a country like Germany, women would like to have more children than they do. The problem is that too many young men in Western Europe and USA today are irresponsible cads who like to use women for sex.
October 5th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Hector,
Perhaps you were not aware that Nancy Pelosi also has five children.
And we should perhaps balance our praise for Sarah Palin’s choice to have her Down’s syndrome child with recognition that she seriously and needlessly endangered that child’s life by taking a 12 hour flight from Texas to Alaska after her water broke, then by traveling to her home town community hospital to give birth rather than stay at an Anchorage hospital equipped to handle a high-risk newborn, and that she continues to casually tote him down stairs in high heels, hand him off to his six year old sister, and as noted above, drag him through crowds. I don’t know if she just has staggeringly poor judgment, really doesn’t care what happens to him, or believes God will make it turn out fine whatever she does; you can rationalize some of this, but I don’t see any way to admire it.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
The problem is you suck at it and make it seem like you’re depressing to be around.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Ever notice how Sarah Palin’s debate performance relied a lot on phallic words like “drill” and “surge”? The McCain campaign knows exactly what they’re doing by using Palin to jack off the right-wing white male libido.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Yeah, the fact both of them backed the Iraq War probably has nothing to do with it.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hector’s heavy breathing (at 11:24) is provoked by Palin’s child-bearing proclivities. Fine. Hooray. Admire her for it. It’s just not a qualification I consider when judging fitness for the Presidency. Also, it tells us nothing of her tendancies in any other area of life. Explain how your admiration for her character applies to her shooting wolves in open country after a snowfall from an airplane. Pro-life? Family values? Love of nature?
October 5th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
W Action,
Yes, shooting wolves from an airplane is dumb, unsporting, and a poor method of population control, and I don’t think I ever suggested otherwise.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Zing! Your answer missed the point I think.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Goober (Palin) is the kind of ersatz honey who realized she could turn on Lowry-like geeks early on and developed a kind of hinky come-hither sass to twirl them around like pinwheels. I mean - take a look at her - would you fuck her? For a noodniks like Lowry or O’Reilly - the line between sexual arousal and rabies is very thin.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Hector, your assumptions are pretty ridiculous.
No one hates Palin because she had 5 kids. Sorry, that’s the truth. People hate her because she’s an inexperienced Barbie doll who thinks she can pull a fast one on the American people.
Yes, we hate her because she’s a moron.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
My mom is as pro-life as they come — she voted for Bush in 2004 because the big “Keep Abortion Legal” signs at the local Kerry headquarters offended her — and even she thinks Palin is a moron and that picking her for the VP slot was a stupid stunt. I’m pro-life, too, as are several members of my family, and not a single one of us is voting McCain/Palin.
Yes, she’s walked the walk on abortion, but that’s pretty much it. There is no other reason to admire her or her candidacy. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Governor Palin is attractive. This has helped her in her career to data (TV sportscaster, for example). It hasn’t hurt her in her political career. I don’t have a problem with it.
Governor Palin has five children. Fine with me. She made a choice to have a child identified in the womb as having Downs syndrome. To the (very small) extent that I care about this, it’s a slight positive (walking the walk), but it’s a private decision for a family.
Her daughter has become pregnant: this is very little concern of mine. Rushing any two seventeen year olds into marriage is something I’d be nervous about doing, but it has no bearing on a person’s ability to carry out the duties of their office, IMV.
None of the above move the needle for me.
Governor Palin appears to have a very limited track record as an executive, and what she does have isn’t all that promising. That counts.
Governor Palin appears to have a very thin knowledge of topics outside her personal experience which she’d have to deal with as president. That counts.
Governor Palin appears to have acquired, in her time as candidate, a very limited understanding of the job she’s been nominated for. That counts.
Governor Palin does not appear to be consulted by John McCain’s campaign about key strategic choices (pulling out of Michigan). That counts.
Governor Palin does not appear to have had a second’s thought about whether now was the right time to be put forward as a potential President of the United States. Someone with her limited preparation for the office could have been forgiven for requiring a healthy amount of convincing that she was ready to go on the ticket. Not her, apparently. That counts.
The situation the US finds itself in (two wars, deepening financial crisis, immense strains on the international system, sharply dwindling options) calls for the most skillful men and women we have to make hard choices. A bright smile probably won’t cut it.
To me, that counts.
October 5th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
The model Republican presidential candidate is a likeable, attractive, charismatic no-nothing who can be relied upon to repeat empty talking points and campaign slogans for months on end. With a willing media has proven to be a successful business model.
October 5th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Sorry. I reviewed the Rolling Stone article and I misstated when McCain ran up his horndog score in Brazil. It in fact was after, not before, his torture experience that he ran up the score while separated from his (soon ex-) wife. So, yes, maybe it WAS torture that has permanently warped his morality. As with Palin, I’m not sure how that qualifies him by to be President. Sounds like an argument for his need to go into therapy. On the other hand, can anyone change who doesn’t want to change…?
October 5th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Good for you, Andrew (at 2:56). Well put.
Re Palin and 2012 — I tried to think of a single unsuccessful candidate for VP who went on to be president, and came up empty. (Mondale and Dole were nominated, but lost badly.)
So, I wouldn’t lose much sleep over the prospect of a President Palin if she doesn’t win this race.
October 5th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
they’re grabbing for something, all right.
October 5th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
“And yet among male conservative pundits, this sort of gushing praise was extremely common.”
Gosh darn it Matt, I call it the “Diana Prince/Wonder Woman” Fantasy. Sex seems to have everything to do with her candidacy, but I’m wondering how many people will want to watch her winking at them when she gives an Address to the Nation?
October 5th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I tried to think of a single unsuccessful candidate for VP who went on to be president, and came up empty.
Here’s one you might have heard of, where the losing VP candidate went on to make a name for himself.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Re Hector
Lastly, I thought you were a conservative? If you’re interested in Israeli security, McCain might be a better bet. Not that I’m voting for McCain, but just saying.
I am afraid that Mr. Hector is seriously in error. I am a liberal Democrat and always have been. Contrary to the impression one might get from some of the liberals who comment on this blog, not all liberals are Israel bashers. Some of us are strong supporters of the State of Israel. And that includs the aforementioned Nancy Pelosi for example. The notion that liberals are supposed to be anti-Israel is piffle.
McCain was psychologically traumatized by having been tortured, so I’m willing to give him a pass on the break-up of his first marriage, due to extenuating factors.
Shorter Hector, McCain was mentally deranged when he dumped his first wife and traded her in on a younger and richer model. How do we know if he isn’t still deranged?
Life is all about making the best of a bad situation. It is better that Miss Palin and Mr. Johnston get married rather than have an abortion. Anyway, perhaps the young people made this decision themselves.
The best of a bad situation in this case is to put the child up for adoption. This is not 1940 anymore. In todays’ world, teenagers are unfit to marry and raise children.
I do not believe the adultery allegations for a moment. Where’s the evidence? Where’s the smoking gun? Or, as it were, the stained blue dress? Until you can produce a stained blue dress, the adultery allegations are groundless slander.
As I stated, the accusations were apparently made by the ex-wife of Todd Palins’ former business partner. I don’t know if they are accurate but I do know that the former business partner precipitously charged into court to have the details of the divorce sealed. As I understand it, the judge denied the request but his ruling is being appealed.
As for the issue of abortion, I have no opinion yea or nay. IMHO, as a male, I don’t think it’s any of my business. This is a womans’ decision and I think that men should stay the fuck out of it. And that includes Mr. Hector.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Sorry for the double post. The first one didn’t show up right away.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Re Hector
Mr. Hector is seriously in error in assuming that I am a conservative. I am a liberal Democrat and always have been. The notion that one has to be anti-Israel in order to be a liberal is piffle. For instance, the aforementioned Nancy Pelosi is pro-Israel and would certainly be considered a liberal, if not ultra liberal.
Mr. Hector apparently gives Senator McCain a pass on his dumping his first wife and trading her in for a younger and richer model because he was deranged at the time. How do we know that he isn’t still deranged?
Mr. Hector thinks that the best solution to the problem of Governor Palins daughter out of wedlock pregnancy is a shotgun marriage. How about puting the child up for adootion after it is born? This is no longer 1940. Teenagers these days are not prepared to marry and raise children.
Mr. Hector doesn’t believe for a moment the adultery allegations against Governor Palin. These allegations were apparently made not by me but by the ex-wife of Todd Palins’ former business partner as a part of her divorce proceedings. I don’t know if there is anything behind them but I do know that her ex-husband charged into court to have the divorce papers sealed. The judge turned down his request but apparently he is appealing the ruling.
As for the subject of abortion, I have no opinion yea or nay on that issue. IMHO, this is a decision to be made by women and men should keep the fuck out of it. In other words, it’s none of my or Mr. Hectors’ business.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Tyro, thanks for setting me straight! I guess I’m weak on my pre-war VP nominees.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Palin won’t linger in memory like the taste of a fine wine or like the fist time you heard Coltrane play “In a Sentimental Mood”. She’ll be remembered (grid willing) like Pee Wee Herman’s bar top dance in “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure”.
October 5th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
I believe this is the epitome of what conservatives think of women, they seem to have an oedipal belief of women, or should I say an over sexed opinion of women. She is a pretty woman except for some reason my own husband doesn’t think so, but he never really liked cheerleaders and he has told me so many times. But Republicans are flush in qualified women, but for some reason McCain couldn’t bring himself to pick an accomplished Republican woman, not Olympia Snowe, not Linda Lingle, not Kay Bailey Hutcheson, or Susan Collins, Christine Todd Whitman? What is that about, they are strong women, they know a thing or two about governing, and yet what is it about John McCain who seemingly only picks women who look a part, and nothing more.
It is strange as well that Palin herself has taken to acting the part of the Beauty Queen VP or Trophy VP, exactly what type of respect does a woman get from these titles? I don’t get it, but it seems that John McCain himself cannot deal with women who have thought of their own, who can make deicisions and don’t simply try to act a part, but they’ve attempted to govern. I just think this pick is a greater indication of McCain’s overall attitude about women and it shows he thinks little of women, he certainly does not respect accomplished women. The question remains though, and it is why? Why does John McCain not respect women? I don’t know but it ought to be an indication to all women he thinks we are dumb, dumb as rocks and I think the blow back of this behavior will result more than likely in an electoral landslide for Barack Obama.
October 5th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Harry Reid also has 5 children.
Marty O’Malley has 4 children.
Tip O’Neill had 5 children.
John Edwards has four children.
Al Gore has 4 children.
Bill Ritter has 4 children.
October 5th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Palin has had a taste of bigger things than an office in Juneau, and it’s hard to imagine that she won’t want to go national again. Within Republican circles some actually like her, but it’s doubtful that she has enough support to go very far, and even four years of intense cramming may not be enough to make her sound like she knows what she’s talking about.
So she’s going to flame out. The only question is how long it takes her to realize her natural position will be as host of her own show on Fox News. In fact she could even be moderating a future debate before the Republican primary in New Hampshire. She seems to like to ask the questions anyway.
October 5th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Matt, let me put it to you this way:
Palin has pics of her posted on Superiorpics.com, the celebrity pic forum. (Some) guys like her looks. This may surprise you, but it’s true. Go look. Read the comments in the threads.
If you don’t like her looks or her personality or the fact that she’s a dumb bitch from Alaska, well, I suspect you’re in a minority - certainly among crackers and other idiots. Not a bad minority to be in, but still, it says nothing about the election - particularly since Palin is just a distraction from how bad McCain is - which is why McCain picked her. Against her, he looks good.
Personally, I think she’s reasonably attractive. But that’s about it. I don’t have any pics of her on my hard drive, and don’t plan on having any.
If Tina Fey with classes can mimic Palin accurately, well, do you think Tiny Fey is attractive? I don’t think I have any Tina Fey pics on my hard drive, either, come to think of it.
Trevor: “take a look at her - would you fuck her?”
Yes - but I’m desperate. OTOH, that doesn’t mean I’d vote for her, even if I wasn’t an anarchist.
OTOH, she violates several of my rules on women. There are five kinds of women I won’t have anything to do with:
1) Religious fundamentalists. She qualifies.
2) Man-hating feminist Nazis. I don’t think she qualifies, but I’m not sure.
3) Political Nazis. Along with Ann Coulter, she qualifies.
4) Airheads. Qualifies.
5) Neurotic/psychotic “crazy bitches”. She qualifies.
So actually, no, I wouldn’t fuck her on that basis. Physically, however, sure, why not? She ain’t ugly.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Re Richard Steven Hack
Mr. Hack is probably desperate enough to boink Ann Coulter, even though she is quite possibly a he.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
SLC,
So you think abortion is a woman’s business, and men should ’stay the f– out of it.’ Very good. I then propose that the conflict between Israel and Iran is strictly a Middle Eastern affair, and that third parties should ’stay the f— out of it.’
Do you see the illogic in your position?
Regarding Bristol and Levi, marriage is one legitimate choice. Adoption is another. I am not going to tell them to choose on path over another, as long as they respect the basic moral precept of preserving the child’s life and not aborting it. I think that Bristol and Levi should have the _freedom_ to choose between adoption and raising the child themselves. Funny that some liberals do not feel the same way.
By the way, if Mr. Yglesias doesn’t think that Sarah Palin is one hot lady then I don’t know what he is smoking.
Teri M.,
Sarah Palin was picked because she would appeal to culture-of-life people. She fits that role admirably. The obvious reason that McCain didn’t pick Snowe, Collins, Whitman or any of those people is b/c they favor legal abortion. Don’t knock Sarah because she is attractive, and don’t knock McCain for choosing her.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
“psycho sexual hang-ups of conservative men”
also know as Andy and I love us some Barack
October 5th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Hot,Hector? I dunno. She’s OK, sure, but I wouldn’t quite call her hot. Then again, that might be because of the voice, which I find super-annoying.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:20 am
Nobody is saying the state should step in to prevent their marriage. What liberals are saying is that, looking at the statistics and Levi’s general social retardation, they aren’t going to stay together and will likely divorce. The nearest thing liberals have done is point out that in some states, Levi would be going to jail for statutory rape for sleeping with an underage girl (17 years) while he was 18. Unless Hector supports those states lowering the age of consent to allow adults to more freely sleep with teens, he’s just blowing hot air.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:47 am
It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America.
Anyone else thinking of the alien sex scene from Cocoon.
October 6th, 2008 at 1:14 am
Don’t be silly, Reality Man. Hector could just back “Romeo and Juliet” exceptions to the law without advocating changing the age of consent anywhere. Alaska already has such an exception, actually, though it’s irrelevant in this case since she was already of age under AK law.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:50 am
So, breaking the glass ceiling for women means having a woman VP that conservative men want to bang.
EWW.
October 6th, 2008 at 3:43 am
I hope the Republicans run Palin for President in 2012. And 2016. And 2020. And 2024. After that, they’ll need a new clown.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:01 am
SLC clearly didn’t read the part of my post which said explicitly that I don’t screw political Nazis like Coulter.
I also don’t screw ex-Mossad Zionist freaks like Tzipi Livni - but I would happily screw Winona Ryder (Horowitz), Rachel Weisz, and Natalie Portman (Hershlag), or any other nice Jewish girl with big brown eyes and nice boobs and preferably some smarts. Although I might have to make allowances for Natalie being a protege of that scumbag Alan Dershowitz.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Talk of her “mesmerizing qualities” seems itself to be mere hyperbole. While conservative males may indeed be mesmerized by Palin, I would only credit her with part of that and the rest is down to 2 factors. 1. The dearth of high-profile, attractive female conservatives or of any political persuasion, come to think of it). 2. The particular gullibility of male conservatives to be entranced by a woman espousing conservative values. (Palin strikes me as a plastic conservative, i.e. she takes conservative positions to gain status and fame.
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