She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It

Frank Rich's Saturday column is must reading too.
Here is my favorite quote:

Her convention speech’s signature line was a deftly coded putdown of her presumably shiftless big-city opponent: “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.” (Funny how this wisdom has been forgotten by her supporters now that she has abandoned her own actual responsibilities in public office.)

The Americanist's rule: the thickness of a politician's skin is directly proportional to the clarity of the political goals that got them into public life in the first place.

Examples: Lincoln ("the ape"), Ted Kennedy (too many to mention), even Reagan ("the amiable dunce").

Funny: she can sling mud with the best of them. She just hasn't figure out how to continue with her program with it clinging to her own face.

alin's "hair-trigger sensitivity was a function of her inexperience.

That's true as far as it goes, but it's not just inexperience, but also temperament and priorities, that keep Palin's skin so thin. Another 20 years on the national stage wouldn't overcome her purposely narrow perspective, self-absorption, tendency to pettiness and total lack of outward-focused goals.

I'm not ready to write her off just yet.

If the Obama administration ends up being perceived as a failure, then the great unwashed masses may turn to someone who is, in large measure, the "anti-Obama -- Sarah the Clueless.

when she becomes the preznit, she'll have people who can handle all these enemies -- just like that other 'neophyte' (hint to the slow: this is a criticism of the storyline) dick nixon...

This has been the history of 'Sarah Barracuda' ever since high school. I volunteered this last September..

Sarah Palin isn't 'a shrinking violet', never has been. There seems precious little introspection. She is a woman of action, not of thought or forbearance. Bush was like that, remember. This will likely be her undoing. Unfortunately, she is thin-skinned and appears to hold grudges.

Your continuous denigration of Sarah Palin is unkind, ungracious, and unfair.

Sarah represents the best qualities of real American women. She is white. She is a religious conservative. She is an economic conservative. For all of these reasons, you continue to cast aspersions in her direction.

We know that you would not be attacking her is she was a liberal, god-hating, hispanic or black female. You should be ashamed of yourself.

As a member of the vacuous beauty-pageant community, Palin learned to smile through all the catty wise-assy things she would've liked to say, whether it was to her fellow contestants or the judges & sponsors borderline dry-humping her, or the equally vacuous interviews she was subjected to as part of the process. Mind off, smile on, keep saying happy things like little Billy Mumy is one tantrum away from wishing you into the cornfield. But in return, she was protected from overly harsh criticism from her opponents. Within the GOP political community, she wanted the best of both worlds - the chance to say whatever popped into her mind, regardless of how poorly-formed a thought it was (brain's a muscle, don't use it, it atrophies, too), while still being protected from criticisn from her opponents. Only now, opponents also include fello Repubs vying for her job in the primary & of course the eeeevil liberl media.

Shorter version, she thought her smile & her tits gave her carte blanche to dish everything out while having to take none of it. It's how she's lived up to now, the GOP believed it too & used her for it, and since the real world now expects more from her, she's taking her smile & tits & moving on.

Disagree if you want. Call me a misogynist if you want, I'm sure Palin would. Of course, she would soon be calling me a misogynist as a private citizen...because she quit...because after years of running her mouth in Alaska & nearly a year on the national stage, she decided she couldn't hack taking it...which sorta helps reinforce my point.

The Sarah Nuke Option

By the way the Frank Rich oped comes with some brilliant line art fans of Slim Pickens will chuckle at. But that jpg is spot on. This Rich quote shows why:

In the aftermath of her decision to drop out and cash in, Palin’s standing in the G.O.P. actually rose in the USA Today/Gallup poll. No less than 71 percent of Republicans said they would vote for her for president. That overwhelming majority isn’t just the “base” of the Republican Party that liberals and conservatives alike tend to ghettoize as a rump backwater minority. It is the party, or pretty much what remains of it in the Barack Obama era.

Whateva !!

She is an idiot, even I wouldn't pick fights with local bloggers. It wasn't inexperience, it small minded vindictiveness, which I might add, is/was the root of most of her ethics violations. Her view was that she was always right and had enough power to crush those who disagreed, after all that attitude had gotten her pretty damn far.

I think most of us would take advise from seasoned political advisers, yet she even fought with them because she knew better. That has nothing to do with experience, it has everything to do with intelligence, or lack of.

when she becomes the preznit, she'll have people who can handle all these enemies

According to the Quitter Queen, that would be the Dept. of Law. (sic)

She is hypersensitive to criticism because she has narcissistic personality disorder. And I'm not saying that to snicker, but I think the diagnosis fits her personality and her history rather well. And this, in turn, explains a lot of her behavior. If you see her as someone with a disease, things make a lot more sense. This is Occam's razor.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder, from Wikipedia:

1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance
2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty or ideal love (megalomania)
3. Believes they are "special" and can only be understood by, or should associate with, people (or institutions) who are also "special" or of high status
4. Requires excessive admiration
5. Has a sense of entitlement
6. Is interpersonally exploitative
7. Lacks empathy
8. Is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

People who are overly narcissistic commonly feel rejected, humiliated and threatened when criticised. To protect themselves from these dangers, they often react with disdain, rage, and/or defiance to any slight criticism, real or imagined [11]. To avoid such situations, some narcissistic people withdraw socially and may feign modesty or humility. In the case of feeling the lack of admiration, adulation, attention and affirmation the person can also manifest wishes to be feared and to be notorious (narcissistic supply).

Though individuals with NPD are often ambitious and capable, the inability to tolerate setbacks, disagreements or criticism, along with lack of empathy, make it difficult for such individuals to work cooperatively with others or to maintain long-term professional achievements [12]. With narcissistic personality disorder, the person's perceived fantastic grandiosity, often coupled with a hypomanic mood, is typically not commensurate with his or her real accomplishments.

I'd like to see that " 71 percent of Republicans said they would vote for her for president" line put to bed. That figure is from a poll of 1,000 adults, 316 of which were Repubs. It means nothing.

I agree with others above who point out that inexperience is really a poor explanation for her behavior. If you have the seriousness and temperament to do the job, then you don't get into public feuds with your daughter's teenage boyfriend. You don't do that on day 1 and you don't do it on day 1000. It may be true that serious politicians develop thicker skins as they become more experienced but what they develop first is a set of goals and ambitions and a serious attitude toward achieving those goals that inhibits them from descending into petty squabbles and being derailed by arguments with television comics. One either has such goals or they don't.

The only public servant I know of in America who could deal with all the details of his job while responding to all criticism, no matter how small or how perceived, was Alexander Hamilton. Eventually the obsession caught up with him, long after he left the Treasury though, but I suspect the obsession will consume Palin as well if she can't move beyond her high school cheerleader mentality.
She'll just become an even bigger tabloid/reality tv joke than she already is.

p.s. I also assume it goes without saying, Palin is no Hamilton. I kinda doubt she'll be mapping out a new economic system for the next 100 years in her spare time.

Is RepublicanPointOfView a parody? I mean, this is just too much: "Sarah represents the best qualities of real American women. She is white."

The pressure, it seems, became overwhelming, and contributed to the governor's decision to quit.

Yeah, but perhaps unique among politicians, no one was putting that pressure on Palin but herself.

Thank God it was such a Democratic year. Imagine if she'd won. The republicans can never be trusted again for trying to put her in one heartbeat away. It was criminal negligence and willfully endangering the country...maybe even treasonous. Or they were trying to bring their fucking rapture that the crazier among them want to usher in.

The woman thinks she's still in high school, for God's sake.

Only difference, she now a bigger clique. . .

I'd like to see that " 71 percent of Republicans said they would vote for her for president" line put to bed. That figure is from a poll of 1,000 adults, 316 of which were Repubs. It means nothing.
Posted by: Hoyt Pollard on July 13, 2009 at 10:17 AM | PERMALINK
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No, it means something. It means most of the rational adults who still considered themselves Republicans to some degree are abandoning the party, leaving behind only the "real murcans" who luuuuuvs them their Sarree. The problem for the GOP is that, if their numbers are shrinking, 71% of their numbers isn't enough to win an election, and if Sarah keeps turning off mods and Dems as she has, then she'll be nothing more than a martyr for their cause. I'd say she's nothing more than a sacrifice for their cause, but we know the truly devout only use virgins for their sacrifices, and I ain't going there. She might get a dozen people to picket where I work or something drastic like that. Also.

Weak effort, RepuiblicanPointOfView. You forgot to mention the Right's bizarre notion that liberals hate her for not aborting her baby.

In the end, Palin will have been a safety valve, showing the GOP where it's overheating.

But imagine if a Palin came along who wasn't hypersensitive, had better judgment, and could actually articulate a couple basic principles that apply to the Federal government?

Reagan got a loooong way with charm and confidence and the theme that government isn't the solution, it's the problem: so let's not repeat the mistake that Rove, et al, were making just five years ago, talking about a permanent Republican majority. Palin's shortcomings aren't the future of the GOP.

In the end, what Palin was missing (and for which she substituted hypersensitivity) is a set of genuine goals. the Bush economy which is failing on Obama's watch may well provide that for the GOP in 2012.

Watch Paul Ryan, cuz he's got more of a future than Sara Palin.

Slappy, the point is that 1000 people, of whom little more than a third are Republican, is nothing remotely resembling a statistically significant sample. Any social scientist could tell you that a "poll" like that proves nothing. I'd like to hope there were enough outliers among those members of the group who identified as "Republican" to skew the results drastically. But I'd need to see more and better polls of larger groups in order to know for sure.

Jon, like you I hope that Republicanpointofview is a parody poster. But if he's for real, I believe that the list of qualities he attributes to Sarah Palin, including "[She] represents the best qualities of real American women" and "She is white," as well as "She is a religious conservative" and "She is an economic conservative" are supposed to explain why the eee-ville librul press persecutes her so unfairly. Her vindictiveness, erratic behavior, and constant displays of ignorance about the things she needs to know couldn't possibly have anything to do with it. Only conservatives, of course, are persecuted, as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh could explain to you. No one would dream, for example, of misrepresenting President Obama's religious views, trying to smear him with guilt-by-association, implying that he's a terrorist or a "Manchurian candidate" trying to destroy the U.S. from within, sneer at him for not being a member of the eastern establishment, or insult members of his family (for example, by trying to claim on the basis of a college paper from years ago that his wife is a dangerous radical). Nope, no, no, wouldn't happen. Racism today is "all against whites," all against the poor, poor persecuted majority.

I laugh at the buffoonery of the Red Stater's and their cohorts who see criticism of Palin as a derangement syndrome...Chris Crocker style "Leave Sarah Alone"...the criticism is warranted! She is what we called poor candidates in my fraternity, a "donut". All sugar outside nothing inside.

Posted by: Jon Is RepublicanPointOfView a parody?
One of our resident parody trolls.
We all laugh HYuck, HYuck,HYuck.

Posted by: RepublicanPointOfView

Your continuous denigration of Sarah Palin is unkind, ungracious, and unfair.

Sarah represents the best qualities of real American women. She is white. She is a religious conservative. She is an economic conservative. For all of these reasons, you continue to cast aspersions in her direction.

We know that you would not be attacking her is she was a liberal, god-hating, hispanic or black female. You should be ashamed of yourself.
__________________________________________________
Steve did not denigrate Palin. He only wrote about a NYT article. The truth is the truth. Palin does have a thin skin when it comes to criticism.
Your assessment of Palin as the "perfect American woman" because she is a white, fiscal and religious conservative is a crock of sh!t. It ignores all of the women of color and the other white women who have accomplished much more in their lives than Palin has. These womens' success comes from hardwork, perseverance, and the pursuit of excellence in whatever they do. Palin has none of these qualities, and YOU should be ASHAMED of YOURSELF for holding her up as the "ideal American woman" on the basis of these flimsy qualifications. To say that Palin is the "ideal American woman," indicates that you don't think much of women in general. It also seems to indicate that you've had little contact with women who have successful careers, or you discount their achievements. The fact that you cannot accept criticism of Palin on her merits also places you soundly in the thin skin category.

shortstop @ 9:54 AM and inkadu @ 10:15 AM has it pegged correctly, Sarah Palin is George W. Bush with a vagina. Their similarities are a natural draw for the Judas-Rich and delusional saps that make up the base of Republican Right-wing. Thank the stars that she doesn't have the Bush-Walker political machine backing her.

Personally, I believe that she's a distraction. The real next serious candidate will be Jeb Bush, and he DOES have the backing of that formidable political machine. Florida is held in the vice grip of it, and they are treated very well by the Corporate Media.

You know...I'm not buying this argument. YES you develop a thick skin if you are in politics long enough, BUT my mama taught me not to respond to idiots...I believe that's where the saying came from 'consider the source'. Sarah Palin brings stuff up, the media responds (or the victim of one of her MANY attacks), then SHE responds with 'it's not FAIR, nobody attacked fill-in-the-blank kids, oh THAT person? Well they were always slime. Sarah Palin has no personal or professional limits and she learned NOTHING at home, in school or in her various jobs. Continued exposure to politics will not 'polish' her. She is a quitter pure and simple.

I'm with those who see her thin skin as apart from longevity in the trenches. She's demonstrated time and again that indictiveness is part of her personality.

More than that, she's clueless. She has her talking points and platitudes and cute Alaskan anecdotes, but that's all. Challenge her and she has very little substance with which to back up her positions, so it's threatening.

Only when she's in control can she function.

Bottom line: from the Mayor of Wasilla to the present, she's been in over her head.

Palin's drawbacks certainly do include inexperience, temperament, a narrow perspective, self-absorption,
a tendency to pettiness, and a total lack of outward-focused goals. Ultimately, though, her most fundamental problem is that she's a dumbshit. Somebody with innate intelligence can overcome a lot of shortcomings, but a dimbulb is always going to be at the mercy of them.

Of course, that means that she's the perfect embodiment of today's GOP.

It's time to move on. Leave Gov Balin and her tweets to TMZ and Entertainment Weekly.

I cannot believe that anyone would think that I am thin-skinned because of the extreme regards that I have for Sarah and because I reject these spurilous attacks on her.

I have my 'Sarah in 2012' button! Where is yours?

p.s. RepublicanPointOfView is a parody. I do have a 'Sarah in 2012' button that I wear on selected occasions with selected audiences. I enjoy the range of reactions it draws - from the incredulous to the 'way to go' buffoons.

Palin resigned? I heard the straight-shooter McCain say she didn't quit.

I find Gov. Palin a little creepy and I agree with an earlier poster - I would not write her off yet. No one knows how long and bad the downturn is going to be. If you read Peggy Noonan's column in the Wall Street Journal with any regularity, you know that for months she has been giving cryptic hints about America's imminent dark future - from an unnamed Wall Street uber bigwig saying that all Americans need to learn how to grow food, to this past Saturday's column in the last two paragraphs in which she states that America in the next ten years will face deep social unrest; probably two weapons of mass destruction events in American cities; glimmerings of secessionist movements; and the downturn being more profund and deep than currently being admitted to in the media.
When I see Gov. Palin's "hair-trigger sensitivity", I am eerily reminded of Stephen King's novel and movie "The Dead Zone", where Christopher Walken plays a character recovering from an accident who suddenly has the ability to see glimpses of the future if he touches someone. He shakes the hand of an up and coming political candidate (Senator?) played by Martin Sheen. The glimpse of the future Walken sees is that Martin Sheen is now the President and he forces the initiation of a nuclear war.

My god man, she has a personality disorder which years of therapy would not help. She can not remain above the fray because she is the fray. She was exposed for the fraud she really is by all the national attention. Alaskans were spun by her phony image but the reality of Palin was exposed by Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson and the debates quite unintentionally.

Palin craved the spotlight but too much light was the last thing she needed. In MO its's obvious...only assholes and the willfully ignorant and uninformed supported McCain/Palin.

@ BuzzMom Has it correct . Ol' Jeb Bush is lying low..just wait until summer 2011..he will slowly creep on to the radar screen. Be afraid !, very afraid! he is the "smart " version of Shrub , only sleazier and more two faced.

This article is likely similar, but maybe worth a read:
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12826215?source=most_viewed

Why is this skank still getting all this attention when she has lost her 'street cred'

Levi has more character and street cred than she'll ever have.

***Note, he said Palin quit as to cash in on her popularity last week. Over the weekend it was announced that Palin will be coming to Cali - Simi Valley for a public speaking engagement.

Seems everything Levi said is true. Yet, she assassinates his character everytime he gives us a preview of whats to come or what happened.

Speaking as someone from a state that used to have a similarly mercurial governor with notoriously thin skin (Jesse Ventura), this is a classic sign of an extreme narcissist. Even the least criticism is viewed as a threat to their view of themselves as superior to everyone else. The result is they have to viciously counter attack.

The fun part is, knowing this makes it a cinch to push their buttons.