I'm not sure she can. This, more than anything else, might short-circuit her if she presents herself as a national candidate for office again: she honestly appears to be too thin-skinned for that spotlight.

Maybe she's just an opportunistic publicity whore?

Maybe Palin could try an "above the fray" approach sometime?
What? And pass up an opportunity to play the innocent victim of meanie liberals? It's the only card in her deck.

credible national figures don't usually feel the need to launch one feud after another

They do when their entire base consists of pugilistic victim-players whose entire raison d'etre is anger and blame. That group -- that insular tribe -- can't survive without a host of real and imagined enemies to rail against without cease. They are literally addicted to conflict.

Thank someone or something up or out there, that St Sarah doesn't have nuclear armed forces at her command when she becames a bit miffed. She would wipe so many countries, that, she might be left with not being amused by some penquin in Tierra del Fuego.

It's the full quote (that the NY Times did not print) that is the money quote.

Her next sentence was:

"My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes."

Now I wonder why the MSM left out that little gem. Zing!

Bill Maher had this exactly right: There are reasons why the English language needs a word like 'retarded'. And one of those reasons is Sarah Palin, not her son Trig.

Err...woops. I suppose they did. Not had my coffee yet. Some outlets chose not to print the full quote though.

Let's hope it's not too long before perpetual victim Palin decides to fly a plane into a building.

Seth McFarline the creator was on Bill Maher last night and he said that episode was in the can long before the blowup with Rham Emanual . He said no one in this day and age would ever refer to a handicapped person as a retard , but that the word has evolved to describe people with flawed thought processes like former Governor Palin.

Family Guy exists somewhere in between the Simpsons and South Park. I saw the espisode in question and it was hilariously offensive, as most Family Guy episodes are. The Palin reference was a one-line joke, most of the espisode was about how the oldest son (Chris) was in love with a girl at his school who has down syndrome.

I thought it was conservatives who always accused liberals of playing the I'm-so-offended identity politics card. Sarah has her sides mixed up.

"flawed thought processes" - Could that extend to Alexander Haig arriving at the Pearly Gates and telling St Peter, "I am in charge"?

Many a flawed thought process on the right. The list would be and is endless.

Palin has a knack for getting into a few too many feuds.

I've gone along just fine figuring that Sarah Palin lies about everything, and now you have complicated things. For all her faults, she apparently displayed a remarkable sense of self-awareness when she described herself as a "pitbull with lipstick".

Feud? Please, it's what Celebrities do- along with frequently appearing in public, drunk and half dressed. It's how they maintain their celebrityhood.

Is "Hollywood Squares" still on the TeeVee? Because that's where she belongs. . .

zoe,

I saw the episode also, and came away with quite a different take.

I saw a girl who was acting like a social dominatrix to Chris, who then identifies her mother as the half-ass ditz. Sounded perfect.

Then, another slam on the retard Sarah, talking about how she uses her "difficulties" to solicit money, er, compassion, not unlike the stereotype gypsy who cripples themselves to make people feel more sorry for them.

I'd say her kid(s) has a lot more problems than just Down's Syndrome.

As republicans, we are consistently and correctly offended by you progressives asshats who keep insisting upon 'political correctness'.

As republicans, we are consistently and correctly victimized by you progressives asshats who keep insulting our religiousity, our disregard for science, and our indifference to the truth.

Naturally, we do not consider it inconsistent to be offended by political correctness and to portraying ourselves as victims of political incorrectness.

In our world, it is offensive for anyone to think that anything we do is wrong. In our world, it is offensive for anyone to criticize anything we do or say. In our world, we can say or do anything we want and you cannot because we know that you are really Jesus hating socialist.

It is time to get back to the good old days of being able to call a spade a spade and still be able to call out anyone who criticizes our televangelists.

Just remember that when the end of times arrives in 2012, we are going to heaven and you are going to hell.

Generating these feuds feeds all of Palin's needs. As others have stated, it puts the focus on HER where she thinks the focus should always be, AND it allows her to play the poor victim which the right wing has raised to an art form. The Letterman situation was classic--the butts of that joke were (if I remember right) Elliot Spitzer and Derek Jeter because they can't keep their pants zipped. But because he mentioned the Palin girls, Sarah took umbrage, started a fight, and in the process she took all of the focus off of the true targets of the joke. All anyone remembers now is that Sarah got pissy and Letterman had to apologize.

Her arrogance trumps her ignorance

Scholars say Ovid was considered the social arbiter of his times.
Caribou Barbie thinks she is the social arbiter of her times.
Corporate media obliges and empowers.

And so:
This retarded bitch and her furious feuds,
Are go to be with us quite a while....

If she took an "above the fray" approach, it might keep her "above the Fey"

Speaking of "above the fray"....
I read somewhere the other day SNL will bring back Tina and her Palin skits. Whoooopeeeee!!!!! Bring on the Tina Frey! Maybe with a loaf of French bread under her arm?

Algernon wrote (way up at the top):

I'm not sure she can [stay above the fray]. This, more than anything else, might short-circuit her if she presents herself as a national candidate for office again: she honestly appears to be too thin-skinned for that spotlight.

Yes. Which , frankly, is why I don't think she'll run for president, or at least won't make a serious run at it that lasts more than a few weeks.

Has she ever given a real, honest-to-God press conference since being named to the McCain ticket a year and a half ago? She's given a handful of one-on-one interviews which, except for the ones on Fox, didn't go especially well. But I can't remember an actual press conference with lots of people asking questions, one after another, on lots of different topics.

And frankly, I think this "feuding" business is necessarily part and parcel of her peculiar prominence. As many others have observed, Palin attracts a large following of people who are devoted to her personally -- not to her policies (which are vague and sometimes contradictory) or her actual record in government (which is thin and spotty at best), but devoted to the persona of Sarah Palin (and Trig, and Todd, and. . . .) Sarah Palin's celebrity is all about her, so yeah -- any criticism of her personally gets taken way too seriously, because that's all there is to her and her "movement."

From the Republicans generally there is not an optimistic, uplifting, inspiring vision of the American future.

Republicans cannot tell you what they are for, just what they are against. There is a dark negativity about Republicans in general that people will soon enough tire of and reject.

Palin won't feel the need to do press conferences. She will have a podium at FOX, and continue to speak to receptive audiences. This is about being a political celebrity. Press conferences are for serious people and other losers.

Hey, feudin's what hillbillies do.

I'm just amused that it's a show on Fox that she's angry about... Careful, Sarah! Don't bite the hand that feeds.

Ms Palin's closest associate is her mirror.

Leave Sarah alooooooone!

Dan Quayle v. Murphy Brown

Nevertheless, the media eats up everything she does. Palin is on the front page the New York Times today. No other GOP candidate is. As the old Hollywood saying goes: Just make sure you spell the name right.

As has been seen of GOP officials time and again, nothing they say and little they do discredits them. Elliott Spitzer is driven from office in weeks after running the whores; David Vitter is heading for a landslide re-election after doing the same thing.

mudflats has more on this here: http://www.themudflats.net/2010/02/18/actor-who-played-down-syndrome-character-slams-palin/

Steve,

You have to watch Family Guy........its hilarious!

I understand Palin's son Trig is getting socialized health care from an organization that gives health care to Native Alaskan children and is also trying to collect from Levi - for health insurance!

Also rumors that she has been trying to get a pastor in Ireland to find an Irish connection for her family!

Palin is a major hypocrite about this Faux stuff. One one hand, she is heavily involved with them, being paid, being promoted, pimping for psychotic traitorous slanderers like Glenn Beck. OTOH she wants to complain, PC style, about the same Network's soulless, exploitative raunchy humor trash that is there to make money and to Hell with so called conservative values. What a muddled twit.

McFarlane also pointed out Palin let Limbaugh's "retarded" crack slide, because Rush is a satirist. Presumably, she doesn't believe that McFarlane fits that bill.

Hold on there! The actress who voiced the character has Down syndrome?

Why does Sarah Palin want to denigrate the success of an actress with a disability?

And most of the feuds you mention are with a comedian, a cartoon, a known potty mouth, a teenage boy, another air headed cross bearing beauty queen, and NOW which supports exactly what Palin claims she did - choose or whether to continue a pregnancy or not.

And denyig climate change as governor of a state whose glaciers are melting faster than any other in the world, who ancient fishing communities are being washed away by the rising sea, whose massive salmon runs are all be gone, whose majestic polor bears are vanishing, whose vast herds of caribou are deminishing alost as fast as the glaciers, and polarbears, demonstrates a kind of intellectual dumb assness and mental denial that is breathtaking.

Unfortunately, Palin's religious beliefs apparently do not extend to giveing proper support and training for the child she "chose" to to have so that that child can develop to his full potential.

Seem to me that pretty well sums Sarah up.

I understand Palin's son Trig is getting socialized health care from an organization that gives health care to Native Alaskan children and is also trying to collect from Levi - for health insurance!

Also rumors that she has been trying to get a pastor in Ireland to find an Irish connection for her family!

Posted by: Joan

Her Irish cousin has disowned her.

All the Palins including Bristol and Tripp are on socialized health care through Todd who is part Indian.
This has been an around in the Alaskan blogs for a good while concerning Sarah, because it is so hypocritical to not want anyone else to have socialized freebee health care.

It was brought out (see ImmoralMinority’s blog) in a legal response from Levi's lawyer. Bristol is demanding $1700+ per month as child support from a guy who is mostly unemployed, thanks to the almost Step Mother from Hell sabotaging his electrician trainee job.

The legal filed by Levi’s lawyer pointed out that Tripp is covered by the native socialist insurance and Levi doesn't have any insurance himself , so should not have to pay support for what he doesn't support for himself. That also means that Bristol and all the Palin children are on freebee tax payer paid health care.

It probably won't suprise anyone one but Palin's commenters have savaged Andrea.

Just shows how Christian and Compassionate these conservtives.

I am encouraging everyone to use the internet to demand an apology from Sarah for her own insulting comment about Andrea and to apologize to Andrea for her, Palin's, fans appalingly vicious attacks on Andrea.

If Sarah is a true child of Christ she can do nothing less, and can do a whole lot more, like use her time in the spotlight to truly stand up for those who fall within the guidelines of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Incidentally, that will very soon include her parents and then herself and the Dud.

thanks to the almost Step Mother from Hell sabotaging his electrician trainee job.

Which he only got, not being a high-school graduate and thus not legally qualifying for the program, via the stepmother from hell's intervention.

There are a million reasons to dislike and disrespect Sarah Palin, and I eagerly embrace all of them, but I don't think this is one of them.

If she wants a decent shot at the presidency Sarah Palin needs to rise above the fray, but since her main product is resentment it is hard to imagine how she would do it.

Politicians do make similar transitions. Nixon came onto the scene in the 50's as a not terribly smart apparatchik and he built himself into a figure who, however disliked, was uniformly considered very intelligent, even brilliant.

Sarah Palin has yet to show that sort of transformative genius. So far she has not found a talent beyond working a crowd to a fever pitch of anti-intellectual resentment. That is quite a talent and it can take her far. Relying up feuds is playing her strength and also displaying her weakness. It is likely not enough if she really wants the big prize.

If what she really wants is TV gigs, book sales, speaking fees, and celebrity status she is playing her cards masterfully.