So she’s the Republican party’s William Jennings Bryan? Sorry, but he was much tougher and INFINITELY more erudite. Even in a world of political soundbites the ability to string more than three words into a conherent soundbite is valuable.
The release of Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. Extended drum solos are bad enough influences, but random noises from a Farfisa have the potential to destroy civilization.
If she has to restrict herself to one-word soundbites (“Maverick!”), so much the better to fit into the news reports. It’s not what she is that matters, it’s what people think she is. Which is true of pretty much all politicians, the current President included. Reality has nothing to do with it.
Ms Palin has “written” an OpEd piece for The Washington Post.
Is there anyone, supporter or hater, that actually thinks this woman wrote those words?
Why do you ask? Does it seem like a professionally written piece to you?
Well, I need to get to bed so I don’t guess I’ll wait for an answer. I think she wrote it. It has grammatical errors and an odd cadence. I do think that she might have written it with the help of an outline prepared by someone else (“the chattering class”? Who the hell came up with that?), but again, I think the finished product was written by her.
Here’s the first paragraph"
Does that ‘voice’ sound like anything Ms Palin has ever said or written before?
I am neither a fan of Palin’s nor a careful student of her written and spoken record, but I think it’s certain that she wrote it, with help from her staff. Just like any other politician would get staff help when writing an Op Ed for the Washington Post. For example, I don’t think Obama’s Wash Post Op Ed this past Sunday on the stimulus was a solo effort. Since Obama has proven writing skills and talent, I suspect he had more of a hand in the words under his name than Palin did the words under her name. I’m sure they both had final approval of their respective texts.
Palin’s Op Ed sounds more like the quotes I’ve heard from her about energy issues than her Katie Couric interview or her resignation speech. Palin knows something when it comes to energy issues.
In my snarky opinion I see no evidence in her Op Ed that she read the Wikipedia page on Emissions trading before she sent her missive to the WaPo. Also IMO, drilling our way out of dependence on foreign oil is like overdosing your way out of heroin addiction. Those are disagreements in opinion, not grammar.
In the Op Ed Palin’s sentences parse, she does not appear to be blithering, and she only has one possibly extraneous exclamation point. The Op Ed is a big improvement over her resignation speech.
It’s amazing what a good copy editor can do with even the cruddiest manuscript: make it comprehensible and readable while not totally obliterating the voice of the original author. I know; I’ve done it; and the persons I cleaned up were happy to claim credit for the final result without at all feeling embarrassed at how radical the surgery had been.
In Palin’s defense, I’ll point out that it’s a whole different thing, writing, from talking. You get to organize what you’re saying, and you aren’t trying to hammer a single “talking point” again and again. You aren’t trying to “fire people up.” Some portions of Obama’s speeches would read pretty silly too.
This doesn’t sound like any of Palin’s speeches, but I’ve never read anything she wrote, so I can’t say she didn’t write this. If she did, she certainly got help, as I just don’t see Palin taking the time to get the cites she mentions, but I have no reason to believe her stupid, anymore than I believe George W. Bush was stupid. They both lack intellectual curiosity, and they strive (or strove) to appeal to a base that doesn’t care as long as they say the right buzz words, so why bother?
So are the noises she makes while sitting on the toilet.
I don’t agree with the op-ed piece but it isn’t badly written. I suspect it was done by committee. I don’t doubt that she gave general direction but I can’t see her writing this well.
And NOW the Republicans don’t think she is qualified for the Big Chair. A day late and a dollar short getting on the wagon yet again.
That’s pretty much how I saw it. It seems she was unable to tell the difference between the stuff you’re “supposed” to ignore in politics and the stuff you need to respond to. So she took all of it personally and wasted a lot of time and energy and ultimately got frustrated with it. This horse is long out of the barn, but there’s no particular reason politicians should put through some of the crap Palin and Obama went through last year. Still it sounds like she was more focused on settling her score with Letterman than governing Alaska. She got a taste of the big stage and suddenly being in charge in Alaska didn’t look so interesting.
As far as taking the political stuff personally, this reminds me a bit of another famous Republican. Are we going to have Sarah Palin to kick around anymore?
I think her political viability is over, at least on a national level. There’s been speculation that she might run for US Senate, but that seems doubtful now. I don’t think she has the belly for a campaign, and even if she got elected, she would not be a big fish anymore, just a back bencher in a minority party. That’s not something that’s likely to satisfy her ego and her need for attention. Plus, she does not work well with others, and she’d have to be subordinate to caucus leaders and more senior Senators. She’d quit after a week.
I still think she’ll end up on Fox News.
I suppose it’s possible she’ll do what McCain and Hillary did and find a spot where she thinks she can win and move there to become a resident, using her noterity to get votes. The WaPo article seems like an attempt to dispell the meme that she doesn’t really understand the issues.
That doesn’t work as well if you’ve previously held elected office somewhere else. And McCain started off as a Congressman. I don’t think that holds any appeal for her. I think she probably did consider a Senate run, but passed instead of challenging Lisa Murkowski.
I don’t think Palin wants to be anything except president. I don’t know if that means she’s running in 2012 - I think so - but I think it’s that or nothing for right now. She probably sees anything else as too much aggravation and too little reward.
With Minnesota’s history of electing oddballs, Palin might succeed against Michelle Bachman. That’d give Sarah a nice base in the lower 48 from which to conspire for the presidency.
I think not. But it’d be a hell of an entertaining primary.
She could try that in Alaska. No, wait, she already did.
And the Department of Law won’t stop people from saying mean stuff about her in the Senate.