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PrintOctober 9, 2008
Palinphobia
What is it with the legacy media? Don't they know when to let up? It's like a pit-bull with a rabbit. Anything that can possibly be portrayed as scandalous or even questionable (that is, anything having to do with the GOP) gets shaken, mauled, torn to shreds, and scattered all over the landscape, and then has to go through the entire process all over again until every single reporter, pundit, commentator, janitor, and maintenance man has wrung out the last possible ounce of value.
The latest example is Maureen Dowd's Wednesday, October 8th column on Sarah Palin, "Call Off the Pit Bull". This is a reprise of the cartoon Sarah Palin, the Diana of the Backwoods, the goddess of snaggletoothed hillbillies everywhere. The one who doesn't know how many ‘o's ‘ are needed to spell "moose". The one that thinks that Russia is right across the water. The one whose heels are just a tad too high. The one with all the kids, including... well, you know. The one who believes that the Bible actually means something. That Sarah Palin.
The editorial begins with the standard pseudo-sophisticated slap at Palin's Christianity: "When Sarah Palin said she was taking off the gloves, she wasn't just whistling "Onward, Christian Soldiers.""
We then get a series of arched-eyebrow comments on Palin's attacks against the media, including one belated reference to the Couric interview, which no one else has bothered to bring up since the vice-presidential debate.
And what about the debate? Dowd, of course, was not impressed. It was "...a cri de coeur to America's non-elite". A stand-up performance full of "non-answers, superfluous segues and cartoon words". Palin, Dowd wants us to know, is like "the high-pitched whistle only dogs can hear". (No more of that, young lady, or you'll have to clean the blackboards.)
Next, Palin gets it for identifying herself with that man Ronald Reagan. That's followed with a brief foray into pop multiculturalism: we learn that Palin's antipathy for Barack Obama is not due to his heading the opposing ticket, but her inability to comprehend and accept "The Other". (Does this mean that Obama actually is a Muslim?)
In an aside, we're informed that William Ayers is "dubious". (Sorry ma'am - I grew up during the Weathermen era. Ayers is lethal.)
Finally, we're treated to a thick slice of guilt by association -- what Dowd would call "McCarthyism" under other circumstances. According to reportage by Dana Milbank, of all unimpeachable sources, someone at a Palin rally shouted "boy" at a black sound technician. Presumably, Palin should vet every last individual showing up at her rallies, in the same spirit in which Obama rebukes all those calling for riots if he's not elected.
All in all, a typical product – a bracing mix of innuendo, hyperbole, veiled (and not so veiled) insults, laced with plenty of contempt for the working and middle classes, and topped of with nice blast of anti-religious hatred. It’s exactly what we’ve become used to getting from the contemporary liberal media, and Dowd ought to be ashamed.
Except... I lied: it wasn’t written by Maureen Dowd. Or by Susan Estrich. Or Margery Eagen, or Cynthia Tucker, or any other left-liberal media commentator. It was written by that well-known, widely-read, and highly-respected conservative figure, Kathleen Parker.
Sarah Palin has brought to light a cultural divide as much as a political divide. She has the potential to shake up poltiical alignments if she remains on the national political scene as either a sitting vice president or a presidential candidate in waiting for 2012.
All in all, a typical product – a bracing mix of innuendo, hyperbole, veiled (and not so veiled) insults, laced with plenty of contempt for the working and middle classes, and topped of with nice blast of anti-religious hatred. It’s exactly what we’ve become used to getting from the contemporary liberal media, and Dowd ought to be ashamed.
Except... I lied: it wasn’t written by Maureen Dowd. Or by Susan Estrich. Or Margery Eagen, or Cynthia Tucker, or any other left-liberal media commentator. It was written by that well-known, widely-read, and highly-respected conservative figure, Kathleen Parker.
Sarah Palin has brought to light a cultural divide as much as a political divide. She has the potential to shake up poltiical alignments if she remains on the national political scene as either a sitting vice president or a presidential candidate in waiting for 2012.
