Who is Sarah Palin?

- An anti-intellectual...
- A spouter of Reich-Wing 'christian' orthodoxy...
- Intellectually uninvolved...
- A tool for the rich...
- A woman...

Question: Other than the last item, what separates her from George Bush?
Answer: Family money.

"...But Sarah Palin represents the democratic ideal -- that anyone can grow up to be a great success story without graduating from Columbia and Harvard..."

Actually, Sarah Palin *could* have been that success story, but she thought she could short-cut her way to the end.

If the idea is that "anyone can grow up to be president," what's wrong with the examples of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama? Raised in single-parent homes and without privilege, they rose through their own abilities to elite schools and the presidency.

A person who notably fails to meet this criterion is George W. Bush, rich son of a president. I think Douthat is talking about the pose of folksiness. Some of us would say that it's really a pose of willful ignorance and contempt for knowledge. Such a person is unfit to lead. It is good for our democracy that a yokel like Palin will soon leave public office.

I can't help but think that Mr. Douthat and a lot of Republicans are secretly heaving a sigh of relief that Sarah Palin's fifteen minutes may be over. While they may outwardly blame the MSM and the elites, they're glad to see her go; it saved them the trouble of having to do it themselves.

But, what will become of those thousands who flocked to Lewiston, Idaho to study journalism at the U of Idaho?

As the "No Mas" Quitta from Wasilla, moves like a butterfly, stings like a butterfly, fades, will they transfer?

So now the RINO elitists like Douthat have joined in.

Everyone likes to kick a governess when she's down.

Douthat, in other words, sees classism and misogyny driving the criticism of Palin.

It sure couldn't be her raging incompetence and mind-numbing ignorance.

Right on, Steve. This is why we read your blog; you cut straight to the heart of the matter here and this is the kind of corrective necessary for easy op-ed logic.

With politicians who lack self-reflection (and I'm tempted to say, shame), it's always everyone else's fault.

If people want Palin to stand for "populism," they are going to have to learn more about what this word means as a concept. Its empty, Palin version is its worst form (remember the "Know Nothings"?).

anyone can grow up to be a great success story without graduating from Columbia and Harvard.

This is true, but the example of Sarah Palin doesn't support it.

Douthat, the democratic ideal is the meritocratic ideal, you ridiculous twit. Suggesting that the desire to elect competent public officials is somehow not fair to underachievers is the height of stupidity.

For fuck's sake, Douthat is ignoring two prime examples of his vaunted aphorism: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama!

But Al, what makes you think she is down? I read her statement to mean that the job of governor was holding her down, and that she's giving it up in order to make a larger contribution to her cause on the national stage. If people are kicking her while she is rising, then they are making a very big mistake, aren't they?

Al, yes, governess is the proper archaeic form. But, perhaps you should use Nanny as the one who watches over the Welfare State of Alaska and doles out the Feds pablum to them.

Regardless of what you think about Palin herself, I do think that the viciousness of politics at all levels does dicourage many people, both good and bad, from running for office at all levels.

Combine the mud-slinging, the loss of privacy, and the need to incessantly fundraise, and running for public office starts to become a rather unattractive proposition.

Heck, here in laid-back Seattle, even our school board elections have become vicious.

What is with the Republican obsession with the bottom of the barrrel. Bush was a C student. McCain was bottom of his class. Having an idiot become president does not prove the free market works.

Nice job of articulating my response to this column.

Gosh, what a surprise that Dootwat has turned out to be the same self-deluded, moralizing, chin-scratching douche that he was at the Atlantic! I imagine that NYT readers are pining for the return of Bill Kristol.

Great shot, Steve! You hit that one out of the park.

Douthat believes that being 'average' is a qualification for political office. Has he offered an explanation for that belief? I mean, besides "I say so, and therefore it's true."

Sarah Palin is beloved by millions because her rise suggested, however temporarily, that the old American aphorism about how anyone can grow up to be president might actually be true.

Codswallop.

Sarah Palin is beloved by millions because her rise pisses off the liberals and stokes conservatives' feelings of resentment and victimization.

Yeah, the RepuGs have been a little hung up on low grades equaling success since Custer barely made it out of West Point.

"Vicious in Seattle" - Geez, after reading all of the bile directed towards the marvelous David Horsey and Joel Connelly, I never would have guessed. And, it never stops - Saw Tim Eyman's guys collecting more signatures in a park in Vancouver, WA - "Stop the bailouts; less government" - Yes, there is still hatred a'blowin'.

And Douthat seems to be factually challenged - much like the rest of the Republicans. Andrew Jackson and Harry Truman both had substantial accomplishments prior to being President that he just seems to conveniently forget.

Where was this critique when dumb-ass Bush Jr. was elected and spent much of his time on vacation trying to prove to all of us that he wasn't from one of the country's elite families and instead was a down-home boy who cleared brush for a living?

Oh, hell - more psycho-sexual muck dredged up from Asshat's twisted subconscious.

Bring back Bill Kristol!

So Ross Douthat thinks that the 'democratic ideal' is the lottery ticket ideal?

Is that because that's how he landed his gig as an NYT opinion piece writer?

Abraham Lincoln

All of these efforts to paint the fall of Palin as a natural consequence of the class prejeduce of media elites misses the mark by a mile. Sarah Palin had all the tendencies we have seen in nationalistic fascism, the anti-intellectualism, the arrogant ignorance, the efforts to brand anyone who disagrees with her as un-patriotic or un-American. If she had not paraded her children, they would less likely be fodder for capitalistic journalism--but she used them as campaign props--rather than choosing to keep them protected in the shadows. Of course someone who champions abstinence with an unmarried pregnant teenager will be mocked. Of course someone who runs on an ethics platform who charges the state for her childrens travel expenses will be mocked. Of course someone who thinks that America is people with Joe-Sixpacks and Hockey Moms who are good Americans and everybody else is mad, bad, and dangerous to know will be mocked. This woman, as laughable as she is, is a sheep in wolf's clothing--how anybody could have confused her delusional self confidence as leadership is simply beyond my ken.

There's some kind of mass of stuff coming out of the Redoubt volcano, but I can't tell if it's melted snow, rock or what,

http://www.avo.alaska.edu/webcam/Redoubt_-_Hut.php

wonder if young boy douthat just watches his hand write that drivel -- like bloody bill did before him.

I think you are a bit hard on Douthit. He in fact has plenty of criticism for Palin in his column. Even in the part you quoted, he admits she did much to tarnish the "democratic ideal" by being a reasonably awful example of it. She should have been the citizen who steps up, but instead turned into an amateurish whiner. He doesn't blame the elites for her failure, but he does complain too much about their criticism of her.
It's not a perfect piece, but it seems less outrageous than it sounds in your posting.
That said, I read you daily — throughout the day — and generally find you about 98% on the money.

"Sarah Palin is beloved by millions because her rise pisses off the liberals and stokes conservatives' feelings of resentment and victimization."--Quaker In A Basement

I often drop in to freerepublic.com just to see what they're frothing about, even though I usually have to shower directly after. I think Quaker has it right---you should see the level of hatred for liberals over there. It isn't disagreement. They think we're evil and one of the commonest memes is that the left is "scared of" Sarah Palin. Of course that's nonsense: I for one would be sorry to see her step off the national stage, she's almost as amusing as Michele Bachmann. But these people need to believe that we're frightened, it reinforces their view that they are once again on the verge of taking over the country.

I may contribute to Bachmann's next campaign. We can't afford to have her leave, too. How I miss Helen Chenoweth.

I agree with mfw13 above. Politics has become so nasty that only incredibly massive egos dare apply. Palin was awful on so many levels but the viciousness of attacks against her, against Obama, against the Clintons, against McCain have been staggering. It's hard even to follow politics without wanting to take a long shower, much less directly participate in it.

I want good conservative punditry. I want there to be a thoughtful debate on issues and events. I want my ideas challenged by the best the other side has to offer. But, alas.

It seems in hiring Douthat, NYT replaced one pompously ignorant ass for another.

Joe Biden came from a non-college-educated family and went to the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law School, and was elected a senator at a very young age basically on the strength of his own energy and charisma, with virtually no support from the establishment, which thought the incumbent sure to win.

He then suffered a horrible personal tragedy, which he eventually overcame to become one of the most prominent and best-known figures in American politics, and got chosen as vice presidential candidate largely due to his knowledge of foreign affairs, which he acquired himself through his decades in the Senate.

Biden surely seems like a "democratic success story" in Douthat's terms. Of course, he's also not an obviously unqualified ignoramus, so perhaps he doesn't count?

I despise this common dream of the everyman president. I know normal people; normal people are stupid. Using Douthat's definition, I want meritocracy, not democracy. Except, wait, Obama beat Palin, so democracy won too.

The simple matter is that I want my leaders to be intelligent people who went to Ivy League schools, not former sportscasters.

Sarah Palin is beloved by millions because her rise suggested, however temporarily, that the old American aphorism about how anyone can grow up to be president might actually be true.

Yeah, too bad that was disproved when we instead elected as president a black man with a foreign-sounding name. That really shattered a lot of dreams.

Douthat - what a douchebag. No, Ross, Sarah Palin represents the really stupid idea that maybe uninspired, incurious people could someday *win a lottery* or be hand-picked by marketing consultants to become President.

For an ideology that talks so much about merit-based this 'n that, they sure like to line up right behind people who have little or no merit whatsoever.

Actually, a number of the comments to Douthat's column where more interesting and better written. He might have a shorter tenure than Kristol.

--Douthat, in other words, sees classism and misogyny driving the criticism of Palin. --

If anything, I think she got off easier due to these things. She was able to take honest criticism of her abilities and knowledge and say that it was due to classism and misogyny. And in general, the press let her get away with that.

If she didn't look like she does and didn't have the cute family to go with it, do we honestly think that she'd have gotten nearly as far? I guess she could be given points for subverting the usual bind of misogyny...

I'm coming to this party a little late, but I have a question. I was just skimming some of the conservative blogs, and I kept seeing references to "attacks on Trig." It has become a meme in Palin defense: "The vicious left is firing hurtful attacks on this poor, defenseless innocent, and as a mother, Palin had to leave to protect her son."

What the hell are they talking about? Have any of you seen any attacks on Trig? I mean, I've seen people making fun of the name, but that's an attack on the parents, really. I've looked and I have not seen any attacks on Trig. Am I missing something?

"Not only have others with more impressive backgrounds faced similar scrutiny, but the criticism is actually the result of Palin's own remarks, beliefs, record, and character."

Seriously?
There wasn't any misogyny, and if there was misogyny she deserved it for being so uppity?
Seriously?

What the hell are they talking about? Have any of you seen any attacks on Trig? I mean, I've seen people making fun of the name, but that's an attack on the parents, really. I've looked and I have not seen any attacks on Trig. Am I missing something?

A couple of weeks ago, some idiot blogger photoshopped the face of some Alaskan guy onto the body of Trig in a shot of Trig being held by Palin. The idea was to criticize the guy for being Palin's little baby or somesuch insult, and of course to make fun of Palin herself. The photo was fairly recognizable because it was from "Trig: The Prop" night at the GOP convention.

It was a stupid choice of photos and jokes, but Palin and her drones naturally decided to pretend that it was Trig, not Herself, who was being attacked. The press statement that Meg Stapleton put out was absolutely hilarious, calling it "desecration" of Sarah's image and, just in case they were being too subtle for the Christian crowd, referring to it as an "iconic photo of a mother's love for her special-needs child." This is Palin all over: take the moral high ground and utterly throw it away via her own ludicrous, mischacterizing, over-the-top reaction.

Let's not pretend that classism doesn't exist, in politics and elsewhere in U.S. society. It exists on two planes, though. For every elitist who looks down on Palin, there are several reverse elitists who sneer at the educated and expert. The Douthat-Pawlenty notion of "Wal-Mart Republicans" is based on class antagonism.

Brendan, they're probably also referring to the insane belief that liberals somehow hate Sarah Palin because she chose to have Trig rather than abort her. It's fascinating that this meme took hold int he right wing, because I haven't seen it expressed by any liberal, anywhere. The "attacks on Trig" ridiculousness also has to do with the conspiracy theory that Trig is actually Bristol's baby, which was pushed most fervently by Andrew Sullivan, who is not and has never claimed to be a liberal Dem.

And for more on the same subject (I assume, but have no intention of reading it to find out) try Douthat's 2005 book: Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class

But, what will become of those thousands who flocked to Lewiston, Idaho to study journalism at the U of Idaho?

They'll be sadly disappointed, wandering around saying "WTF?"--because the U of Idaho is in Moscow, not Lewiston.

But, what will become of those thousands who flocked to Lewiston, Idaho to study journalism at the U of Idaho?

You mean, before or after someone reminds them that the University of Idaho is actually in Moscow?

Still taking donations, no mention of her latest announcement.
http://www.sarahpac.com/

Does anyone else remember the sneering, mean-spirited convention speech that Palin gave. Perhaps there is a simpler explanation for the anti-Palin reaction: She pissed a lot of people off. Remember, she took the first punch.

Palin is getting her own talk show. I am sure she is going to cash in on her fame. Who cares about politics. Its money time. Conservative Oparah? I think so.

"Not only have others with more impressive backgrounds faced similar scrutiny, but the criticism is actually the result of Palin's own remarks, beliefs, record, and character."

Seriously?
There wasn't any misogyny, and if there was misogyny she deserved it for being so uppity?
Seriously?

And how exactly does criticism of her "remarks, beliefs, record, and character" equal misogyny? There is no basis for that in the quote you cite.

Or are you trying to claim that female politicians should be immune from criticism because it's automatically misogyny (which would be incredibly patronizing)?

The difference is that Palin was CHOSEN by a roomful of old white rich Republicans.
And the faithful market it as an American success story.
That's a real revelation.
What everybody in America could see was that she didn't fight, struggle, or work her way to the top--the powerful bestowed the status on her like a title of nobility.
The fact that she was blitheringly incompetent is only part of a greater fact--that this was a benefice from the powerful--and the Republicans can't, or don't, distinguish that from WRKING for it.

Contrast Sarah with Mike Huckabee. mumblemouthed, fumbling, not the shiniest apple in thee basket Mike. But he got as faras he did on his efforts--and in large part against the wishes of the Republican leadership. Huckabee did it the right way--and was found wanting.

But after all that, after Huckabee tries honorably and fails, the Republicans CHOOSE someone who makes Huckabee look like Oliver Wendell Holmes. Ant start talking ceaselessly about her (unearned) popular support and anybody-can-make-it corona.

She's no more an American Success Story than are the New Kids on The Block.

Joe Biden came from a non-college-educated family and went to the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law School

In our meritoracy, good enough to be vice president, not good enough to be president (barring the unforeseen). And if someone with similar academic credentials (and comparable judicial experience) were nominated to the Supreme Court, he or she would find it difficult to get passage through the Senate. Legal experts would wonder how this person was selected over the "usual suspects" from Harvard, Yale and Stanford. (Heck, if Obama had remained at Occidental and then, say, got a law degree from UCLA, would anyone have paid any attention to him? Likely not.)

I'm no fan of Sarah Palin by any means, but there is a stultifying quality to the meritocracy, and that's unfortunate.

Sarah Palin is beloved by millions because her rise is perceived as pissing off the liberals and stokes conservatives' feelings of resentment and victimization.

Fixed.

The sad thing about her fandom is that liberals' reaction to Palin has been much more to ridicule her lack of qualifications and political skill than to get angry about her feeble attempts to be insulting. Calling small towns "real America" is probably the closest she came to offering a genuine insult, and the foolishly tarred liberals and non-liberals alike with the same brush.

Here's why older white dudes like Palin. Because she is bossy and hot in a "hot for teacher" kinda way. They wanna be banged by her. It's very simple. You're welcome.

Does the aphorism mean that someday Trig himself can become president? If junior Bush made it why can't he?

"Conservative populism" is an oxymoron. The very essence of true conservative ideology is a love of order, hierarchy, and people knowing and keeping to their place in the Great Chain of Being. It is an inherently elitist worldview.

Occsionally righty pundits forget themselves and allow this way of thinking to slip out in public, for everyone to see. George Will's musings about denim a couple months back are one example; an even blunter one would be this 1996 Florence King piece from the National Review. This Joe Sixpack shit is fundamentally mendacious, and has really gotten old.

The Misanthrope's Corner: Politicians wooing the blue-collar vote

I would have to say that people with no talent or ability do so well as columnists for the NYT that it's just greedy for them to want the White House too.

Contrary to Douthat, it was never the dream that someone who was unqualified and not willing to raise a finger to get the job could be elected. The actual dream is concerned that the best person can get elected, not the worst.

McCain would never have been a candidate- in fact, he would never have been much of anything- if he weren't a member of our curious naval 'aristocracy'. Palin would never have been a candidate if the Republicans had chosen someone who was competent to run.

Douthat is a sad case- too stupid to realize that the people he's sucking up to are too stupid.

Douthat and Palin confuse the comforting aphorism that anyone can run for President, with the ridiculous notion that people will elect just anybody.

"But, what will become of those thousands who flocked to Lewiston, Idaho to study journalism at the U of Idaho?"

***

The University of Idaho is in Moscow.

It seems lost that Senator John McCain-"Duty Honor Country"dishonored himself by choosing , instead of all the competent and capable candidates he has worked with all his career,a deranged, narcissistic , unqualified successor to a 73 year old president.

From the beginning, with the first wink, she proved that McCain was interested only in quick political advantage, not the country's best interest

Shame on McCain. Palin is what she is- she did not choose herself

"Here's why older white dudes like Palin. Because she is bossy and hot in a "hot for teacher" kinda way. They wanna be banged by her. It's very simple. You're welcome."

***

So why do rightwing women like Palin? Secret lesbian fantasies?

I realize that Ross isn't responsible for looking all of 19, but he is responsible for knowing something about the history of the party he's embracing--the one that mocked Truman as a "failed haberdasher" and Carter as a "peanut farmer" and consistantly portrayed Arkansas as Dogpatch during the Clinton years.

As well, he might want to find a Republican Obama--a vastly talented nobody--and see how far that nobody rises compared to someone whose family can make a few phone calls.

Right wing women want to be her- it's a validation of the life these women chooseor have chosen for them. It's like a shout out to all the women who hunt, fish, etc. They just don't look like her.