Palin & Paglia/Sitting In A TreeK-I-S-S-I-N-G

Cammy2daP answers some mail.

Just wondering. Do you still think Sarah Palin is ready for the big stage?

No, please, please don't answer this. Don't type one word, not one ... We're begging you, please, no ...

What certainly was blameworthy was the chaotic and rushed statement itself. Something so politically consequential needed more careful composition and rehearsal. Why provide more fodder for the vultures and harpies of the Northeastern media?

There's no stopping Paglia, is there? And no stopping Ms. Palin from handing out the harpy chow, because that's what she does. All she does, actually. She says something stupid, or rambling, incoherent & stupid, & then screeches "The vultures & harpies are scratching my eyes out, also!" when she's called on it, which racks up the victim points for Sarah, politics of resentment, blah blah yada ... (Or even if she's not called on it. If the almost-ex Gov.'s flack had not issued a statement of offense being taken, ahem, not one thing about whatever jokes Letterman cracked would have entered what passes for a national consciousness.)

Reminds us of a certain Northeastern media harpy who types all sorts of controversial, contrarian things, & then complains about assaults from the Northeastern media (There are plenty of elitists & "smart people" right here in Hellmouth, by the way. Don't think your precious Northeast is the only place where anything's shaking, you pretentious academic creep.) when she's not complaining that no one is paying attention to her contrarian & controversial pronouncements.

It's why she remains hugely popular with the Republican grass-roots base -- as I know from listening to talk radio. Callers coming fresh from her rallies are always heady with infectious enthusiasm.

Oddly, in the case of Obama events, they've all been hypnotized by that Magic Negro Evil Eye© of his.

Of course you'd never know that from reading hit jobs like Todd Purdum's sepulchral piece on Palin in the current Vanity Fair.

"Sepulchral."

This exercise in faux objectivity is exposed at key points such as Purdum's failure to identify the actual instigator of Palin's extravagant clothing bills (a crazed, credit-card-abusing stylist appointed by the McCain campaign) and his prissy characterization of Palin's performance at the vice-presidential debate as merely "adequate." Hey, wake up -- Palin cleaned Biden's clock! By the end, Biden was sighing and itching to split.

A crazed stylist? And Gov. Palin was simply unable to stop this stylist from hell. "Why do all these stylists keep buying me clothes?" Remember this, future Palin contributors, your money isn't as important as she pretends the Alaskan taxpayer's money is. Do wake yourself up, Camille: It hasn't been 1962 for at least 35, maybe even 40 years. We'd stick around to clean your clock, but we're just itching to make like a tree & leave.

It goes on, but nothing clever can be drawn from any of it. One idle thought though: Palin doesn't have an exemplary history of book-larnin'. Do any of those who've typed something to this effect:

Whether Palin has a national future or not will depend on her willingness to hit the books at some point and absorb more information about international history and politics than she has needed to know in her role as governor

really think that Gov. Palin is going to develop reading habits & start hitting the books at 45? A little honest hating here: Sarah Palin is functionally illiterate. You've heard her speaking off the cuff, or in the resignation rap, from notes & the top of her head. Is that someone who reads, & thinks about what she's read, or someone who is verbally oriented, & responds well to simple slogans but not much else?

We'll assume Paglia typed earlier on the subject of assassination threats on the radio, because this was next in her mail bag:

As to your question "How have we come to this pass in America where the assassination of top government officials is fodder for snide jokes on national radio?" let me outline the path off the top of my head.

His outline consists of Alec Baldwin (in 1998) wanting to stone Henry Hyde:

I remember watching this on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," and I can assure you there was nothing funny about it in tone or substance. Baldwin's rage was chilling, his assassination endorsement grotesque

a Randi Rhodes bit in 2004 referring to taking Bush fishing (Fredo Corleone style) & using the sound of a gunshot, & the film "The Assassination of George W. Bush," which apparently became "joke fodder." Imagine that. Something became joke fodder. That's up there w/ "Dog Bites Man."

To which Paglia replies:

Thank you very much for this chilling survey. Assassination scenarios are outrageous no matter which party indulges in them. This kind of ethical obtuseness has to stop. Our zero tolerance should also extend to jokes threatening rape of public figures -- something that was amazingly directed at Sarah Palin from liberal quarters shortly after she arrived on the national scene last year. Dehumanization is a stealthy process that ultimately destroys everyone.

A "chilling survey," indeed. (The depth of it alone sends the frissons up & down our spine.) We'll resist the urge to call for anyone to be dehumanized, but the only way to do that is not to click to pp. 2-4. So we're going to make like a banana & split.