Sarah Palin is trying to build a national reputation as a future leader for the Republican Party by creating conflicts with media people about trivia. First there was her highly publicized tussle with David Letterman about a joke about the alleged promiscuity of her daughters. The CW is that Palin won that fight to which I say "ooo....big shot..."
Now, Palin is picking a fight with a blogger up in Alaska for doctoring a photo of Palin holding Trig or whatever his name is. In the doctored photo, Trig's face has been replaced with the face of a conservative radio talk guy in Alaska. The obvious target of the doctored photo is the close relationship between the radio mouth piece and the Governor. So what is Sarah Palin's response? "Recently we learned of a malicious desecration of a photo of the Governor and baby Trig that has become an iconic representation of a mother's love for a special needs child. The mere idea of someone doctoring the photo of a special needs child is appalling."
I'll tell you what is appalling, Palin's shameless willingness to use her special needs child as a prop at political campaign events like the RNC and then try to deflect what is obviously a direct attack at her and her political allies by inventing this BS about the sacredness of photos of special needs children. I use the word "sacredness" intentionally. Notice in Palin's statement, that the "iconic" photo was "desecrated."
I sincerely hope that people will realize that whenever Palin thinks she has a "win" on something like the Letterman tiff, she always takes a step too far. This kind of thing is what I think about when people say that Palin is some genius politician. She's not. This transparent nonsense fight with a blogger in Alaska is case in point. It might play well with people who already like her but anyone who is trying to make up their mind about her will see this for what it is, shameless grand standing.
8 comments:
Palin may be looking to other successful female politicians for inspiration. One might wonder if Palin were trying to adopt the "fighter" persona that Hillary Clinton adopted during the primary campaign. (Of course, one could also argue that it was the "victim" persona that worked best for Hillary Clinton... But in that case Palin should take note that it worked because Hillary remained stoically silent.)
The hollywood adage, that there is no such thing as bad publicity, is not as true in politics. Her publicist should tell her that.
No, make sure her publicist doesn't tell her that! Whilst it's cringeworthy to watch, this kind of image damaging behaviour on her part is essential, for all the fence-sitters to make up their minds: against her.
Oh, you are so quick to judge Palin because she is a conservative. She has been personally attacked many times and remained silent. She has only raised her voice when her children have been attacked. And many quotes of her outrage are her staffers or other politicians. But palin was absolutely right in complaining. Liberals like Clinton and Obama ask that thre media stay away form thier kids are they are respected. their kids are at campaign stops. they are hauled out in fromt of the cameras. But let palin show her family off and she is somehow evil. Why are liberals so upset about her showing her baby Trig to the world? Is it because she chose to have a DS baby and not abort it as liberals would wish? If someone attacks me, i can shrug it off, attack my children and I'll knock your block off. maybe if blogger in question were more talented, she would have used words to attack. But using this picture was pure and simply wrong. Same about letterman. Attack palin as being slutty was just bad, but the comment on her daughter was stupid, but of course since letterman has absolutely no talent, bad jokes are his only hope. and attacking conservatives is the only way that he can keep liberals watching since no one else would watch his boring show.
Bruce,
But how is this picture an attack on her children? The doctored photo was done in a way that you could not tell that the child in the photo was even hers. It could just as easily have been some baby she plucked from the crowd to kiss or something. The obvious target was her and her political ally.
What is offensive is that she tried to turn an attack on her to an attack on her child. She's like Nelson Munce (from the Simpsons), using Milhouse as a shield on the football field.
Palin has also tried to have it both ways. On the one hand she has trotted her family - including her children - out on stage as props for her political image. What's more she makes her family a central feature in her political identity. Then when people start to criticize that she complains about being picked on.
Bruce, Palin is the one who politicized her family. Yes, other politicians have the occasional photo op with their wife and kids. But, Palin based her entire identity on her family. She made a HUGE political deal of the circumstances surrounding her pregnancy with Trig and her teenage daughter's unwed pregnancy.
Also, while we're talking about Liberals. None of the other politicians used their children as anything like as prominent a fixture in their public image as Palin. The one who comes closest is Hillary Clinton who had her adult daughter campaigning for her. And when she did that, Chelsea got a lot of attention from the press.
Finally, ask yourself what Rush Limbaugh - or you, Bruce - would say if one of the Obama girls was pregnant at 16 or 17 by some failed athlete from her high school in Chicago? I shudder to think of what they would say.
Oh, Bruce, not going to leave a comment about Sanford?
Bruce says "but let palin show her family off, and she is somehow evil."
Well, that's the point, isn't it. She was put on the ticket to "show her family off." And she did that every time she could. "Hockey mom, hockey mom, hockey mom." So then we all were entitled to observe that her family is actually a mess. That neither she nor her daughter know anything about birth control. That bristol palin is yet another failure of "abstinence" education. The hypocrisy of celebrating her daughter's out-of-wedlock pregnancy in public because he had allegedly promsied to marry her (we all knew it would never happen, and the 'breakup' was predictably just weeks after the election). If she had tried to run, instead, on her record or ideas, her family would be off limits. But she made them the issue (she has no record or ideas, you see), so she pays the price.
By the way, Amy Carter was treated very badly in the popular media. She was constantly ridiculed for being homely, offensive to foreign guest, not particularly bright etc.
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