I'm declaring February a Palin-free month. Join me!
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post wrote recently that he won't be bringing up Sarah Palin during the month of February. (See the article here.) Though I found it amusing, others on the Washington Post site found it horrifying to censor any subject. Is it really censorship? I suppose were Palin to declare her candidacy for office and Milbank refused to cover it, then it would be censorship. However, given that Palin isn't a governor or any other public official any longer, why give her so much credit? Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter say inflammatory things all the time, and aside from FoxNews, no one pays them any mind. I say this isn't censorship but a reevaluation.
Saturday Night Live proved long ago that making light of Palin wasn't difficult. (See the "I can see Russia from my house" video by clicking here.) There are 171,476 words in the Oxford English Dictionary and yet instead of using one of them, she fumbled her way into "refudiate". She's a wealth of great jokes because she takes herself so seriously despite these obvious, painful, public fumbles.
My state's former governor and the former Alaska governor have a lot in common. Both think a lot of themselves, both had ethics problems while in office, and both compared themselves to famous, much better people. Gov. Blagojevich after being impeached compared himself to Gandhi. After the refudiate gaffe, Gov. Palin compared herself to Shakespeare. The main difference between the two is that Palin resigned rather than face continuing ethics hearings and my former governor beat the drum of innocence right into radio and TV talk shows all the while facing federal trial.
Let's be clear. Sarah Palin was probably never going to face federal hearings. Blagojevich hailed from the third largest city in the U.S. while Palin's capital, Juneau is no larger than my hometown and the nearby county seat combined. Had Palin simply been unsuccessful and mannish, she would have disappeared into rural obscurity a long time ago. Unfortunately for those of us on the Left, she's pretty and loves to talk and Tweet. However, she's not head of the Republican Party or the TEA Party and doesn't hold or officially plan to hold any office. She's a shamed former governor and glorified, poorly spoken TV personality.
Given that, it's time I stop talking about her because she really isn't anyone worth talking about anymore anyway. Her power comes from the perpetual motion of people talking about her for whatever reason. If you're familiar with Doug McAdam's work on the Political Process Model of Movement Emergence (see diagram here), you'll understand how effective not talking about Sarah Palin could be.
With that, I'm not going to talk about her anymore. Thanks, Dana.
Saturday Night Live proved long ago that making light of Palin wasn't difficult. (See the "I can see Russia from my house" video by clicking here.) There are 171,476 words in the Oxford English Dictionary and yet instead of using one of them, she fumbled her way into "refudiate". She's a wealth of great jokes because she takes herself so seriously despite these obvious, painful, public fumbles.
My state's former governor and the former Alaska governor have a lot in common. Both think a lot of themselves, both had ethics problems while in office, and both compared themselves to famous, much better people. Gov. Blagojevich after being impeached compared himself to Gandhi. After the refudiate gaffe, Gov. Palin compared herself to Shakespeare. The main difference between the two is that Palin resigned rather than face continuing ethics hearings and my former governor beat the drum of innocence right into radio and TV talk shows all the while facing federal trial.
Let's be clear. Sarah Palin was probably never going to face federal hearings. Blagojevich hailed from the third largest city in the U.S. while Palin's capital, Juneau is no larger than my hometown and the nearby county seat combined. Had Palin simply been unsuccessful and mannish, she would have disappeared into rural obscurity a long time ago. Unfortunately for those of us on the Left, she's pretty and loves to talk and Tweet. However, she's not head of the Republican Party or the TEA Party and doesn't hold or officially plan to hold any office. She's a shamed former governor and glorified, poorly spoken TV personality.
Given that, it's time I stop talking about her because she really isn't anyone worth talking about anymore anyway. Her power comes from the perpetual motion of people talking about her for whatever reason. If you're familiar with Doug McAdam's work on the Political Process Model of Movement Emergence (see diagram here), you'll understand how effective not talking about Sarah Palin could be.
With that, I'm not going to talk about her anymore. Thanks, Dana.
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