# Sarah Palin vs. the Anchorage Daily News, or Palling Around With The Facts? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 14, 2009, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176 "2009-01-14T01:21:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/41 "2009-01-14T18:12:10Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > It’s not Sarah Palin that you hate right? It’s what she _represents_. Yes and no. Personally, I do not _hate_ Sarah Palin, but she does inspire strong negative emotions. For good or for ill, almost everything in this country is democratized. We have a democracy of taste, of quality, of aesthetic, of everything. In theory, the ideas and people with the most merit will inspire us. Naturally this is not always the case. Much of the time, though, the aspirations of millions of average people can result in some great people and great ideas. Sarah Palin represents the worst breakdown of this process that I can recall in my short life. She is not evil, she is not stupid, she is not the embodiment of everthing that is wrong with America. She is ordinary in almost every way. Yet somehow our great marketplace of free enterprise and meritocracy nearly vaulted her to the vice presidency. Her very fame and potential challenge my basic belief that reason conquers all, and that when challenged, democracy produces aspirational outcomes. I know these breakdowns are nothing new. We have elected some real no-talent assclowns to high office before. Palin inspires me the way she does because rather than read about in a book, I have witnessed the collective madness and I had a real stake in the outcome. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/42 "2009-01-14T18:20:53Z")
> [@sqweels](#): > > But in case you weren’t aware, “reality-based” is a phrase coined by conservatives as something that they proudly are not. This is something that was apparent to non-conservatives for a long time–they’re views are predominantly faith-based and conspiracy-theory-based–but it was amazing to hear them so explicity distance themselves from reality. Yeah, I disagree with your stereotypical assertion about conservatives. Conspiratorialism IME is pretty much evenly balanced. > [@](#): > > The phrase “reality has a well-known liberal bias” was used by Stephen Colbert to mock the tendency of conservatives to dismiss unwelcome facts as the product of “liberal bias”. Sure but I think he’s also making fun of the haughtiness of liberals. That’s the brilliance of Stephen Colbert, he can spray everyone with scattershot and still have people laughing with him. 😉 > [@](#): > > Again, it’s not “hate”. Palin is a joke, not a monster. But yes, it’s the tendency of conservatives to support ideological know-nothings who happen to be personable in some way, and “just like us”. Sure, I just think that the bias cuts both ways, both sides have tools that they support as a result of identity rather than merit. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/43 "2009-01-14T18:21:55Z")
Christ, another thread wherein **mswas** can post a million times “look at meeeeee!!!” Give it a fucking rest you sad little man. (sorry **garygnu** , you are probably correct.) ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/44 "2009-01-14T18:22:52Z")
Derleth, I have to agree that this is a pretty lame pitting. She’s the Governor of the 47th most populous state in the US. Is she really all that important to you or the country right now? Your guy won!! He’ll be in office in five days for God’s sake. She tried to defend her family in the press! What a complete bitch she much be! Next thing you know she’ll be feeding her children!! I know she was the Veep candidate. But she lost, and she won’t ever sniff the Presidency again. You know it, we all know it. Isn’t it enough that your guys won? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/45 "2009-01-14T18:24:18Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Face it, making fun of Sarah Palin is a bipartisan political sport Well, more monopartisan than bipartisan (though she certainly has her detractors on the right). What amazes me is that there are still a number of conservatives who look upon her as a bright new promising face for the GOP’s political future. That’s probably a reason (apart from sheer fun) for the continuing commentary on her lapses. You want to make sure that someone who makes Dan Quayle look like Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius doesn’t resurface at some point and make a run for higher office. We can ony imagine the snark and guffawing that would’ve ensued from the Right, had the Democrats been dumb enough to name someone like Palin to the veep slot on their ticket. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/46 "2009-01-14T18:27:00Z")
> [@Maeglin](#): > > Yes and no. Personally, I do not _hate_ Sarah Palin, but she does inspire strong negative emotions. I think she’s hawt. She could hunt my moose, drive my snowmobile or fly my helicopter any time she wants, ifyaknowwhudI’msayin. 😉 > [@](#): > > For good or for ill, almost everything in this country is democratized. We have a democracy of taste, of quality, of aesthetic, of everything. In theory, the ideas and people with the most merit will inspire us. Naturally this is not always the case. Much of the time, though, the aspirations of millions of average people can result in some great people and great ideas. Yeah, the democratization thing is kind of irritating. People don’t give enough thought as to where to draw the limits of their scope of involvement. > [@](#): > > Sarah Palin represents the worst breakdown of this process that I can recall in my short life. She is not evil, she is not stupid, she is not the embodiment of everthing that is wrong with America. She is ordinary in almost every way. Yet somehow our great marketplace of free enterprise and meritocracy nearly vaulted her to the vice presidency. Her very fame and potential challenge my basic belief that reason conquers all, and that when challenged, democracy produces aspirational outcomes. She lost didn’t she? > [@](#): > > I know these breakdowns are nothing new. We have elected some real no-talent assclowns to high office before. Palin inspires me the way she does because rather than read about in a book, I have witnessed the collective madness and I had a real stake in the outcome. Sure, understandable, she’s a great character. That was why I made my joke about what she represents after posting that quote from, ‘La Societe du Spectacle’. So much of our lives are reduced to the process of competing brands, where it is more about the brand than anything else. So Sarah Palin as signifier of the spectacle is more what I was getting at. What’s sort of funny about it is that her fame continues mainly due to her detractors continuing to feed the Troll. The RO displayed here will precisely give her more Gravitas in the future. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/47 "2009-01-14T18:28:16Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Christ, another thread wherein **mswas** can post a million times “look at meeeeee!!!” _looks at yooooou!!!_ I assume the other thread you are referring to is the one that I started. ;p ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/48 "2009-01-14T18:33:12Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > We can ony imagine the snark and guffawing that would’ve ensued from the Right, had the Democrats been dumb enough to name someone like Palin to the veep slot on their ticket. Nah. Palin thinks the media would have loved her. From the Jan. 8 Huffington Post: "How about a bizarre contra-historical thought exercise: How would Palin have been treated if she’d ended up as Barack Obama’s running mate? Palin says, “I think they would have loved me as a candidate … we would have seen an absolutely different and a … much prettier profile of Sarah Palin and the Palin family and my administration.” [Link which includes a recent video interview where Palin compares her treatment by the media to Caroline Kennedy’s](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/08/palin-caroline-kennedy-ge_n_156335.html) ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/49 "2009-01-14T18:40:49Z")
> [@Ca3799](#): > > I’d like to see this graded by her Comp I instructor and returned to the author. All I see is some missing punctuation. It’s clear and pretty well phrased otherwise. Not bad at all. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/50 "2009-01-14T18:53:56Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > She lost didn’t she? Obvously. But that does not change my feelings about her. I am just deeply relieved that she did lose. > [@](#): > > Sure, understandable, she’s a great character. No, she is not a great character. She is mediocrity in every way. That is why this is not such a good spectacle. Wacky politicians _can_ be good spectacle, but Palin is all too serious. Mike Huckabee, Dennis Kucinich, and of course Ron Paul are all characters. Palin is barely an entity at all. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/51 "2009-01-14T18:54:58Z")
> [@Maeglin](#): > > No, she is not a great character. She is mediocrity in every way. That is why this is not such a good spectacle. Wacky politicians _can_ be good spectacle, but Palin is all too serious. Mike Huckabee, Dennis Kucinich, and of course Ron Paul are all characters. Palin is barely an entity at all. Remind me why we’re talking about her again then? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/52 "2009-01-14T18:59:46Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > _looks at yooooou!!!_ > > I assume the other thread you are referring to is the one that I started. ;p In true **mswas** debating style, I will simply reply: You are clearly too stupid to see my point. I will now cease talking to you. That is all. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/53 "2009-01-14T19:02:17Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > In true **mswas** debating style, I will simply reply: > > You are clearly too stupid to see my point. I will now cease talking to you. That is all. lol, I’m sorry I offended you in the other thread by not appropriately responding to your out of context stereotypes. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/54 "2009-01-14T19:04:40Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Remind me why we’re talking about her again then? Nonentities appear on the headlines of newspapers all the time. Our society would probably be better off if we never discussed them all. But that’s democracy for you. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/55 "2009-01-14T19:28:27Z")
> [@Maeglin](#): > > Nonentities appear on the headlines of newspapers all the time. Our society would probably be better off if we never discussed them all. But that’s democracy for you. Well I for one think she’s wickedly entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/56 "2009-01-14T19:40:39Z")
For the record, here is the origin of “reality-based-community”: [ > [@](#): > > The aide said that guys like me were ‘‘in what we call the reality-based community,’’ which he defined as people who ‘‘believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.’’ I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ‘‘That’s not the way the world really works anymore,’’ he continued. ‘‘We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.’’ ]([http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html?ex=1255665600&en=890a96189e162076&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html?ex=1255665600&en=890a96189e162076&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland)) …a philosophy which almost immediately and in tragi-comic fashion, crumbled into dust. If you think “RBC” is anything other than a mocking of these idiots, well… it doesn’t say much about your own thinking skills. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/57 "2009-01-14T19:53:15Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Well I for one think she’s wickedly entertaining. Me too … in much the same way that I found Junior Samples entertaining in his _Hee Haw_ days. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/58 "2009-01-14T20:35:03Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Well I for one think she’s wickedly entertaining. That’s your opinion. Democracy in action. Just like people who think they live in the reality-based community have self-affirming opinions. Quel surprise. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/59 "2009-01-14T21:26:20Z")
> [@Raygun99](#): > > For the record, here is the origin of “reality-based-community”: > > …a philosophy which almost immediately and in tragi-comic fashion, crumbled into dust. If you think “RBC” is anything other than a mocking of these idiots, well… it doesn’t say much about your own thinking skills. The “aide” is widely understood to have been Rove. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/60 "2009-01-14T21:53:53Z")
> [@Maeglin](#): > > That’s your opinion. Democracy in action. Just like people who think they live in the reality-based community have self-affirming opinions. Quel surprise. Well I am definitely confirming my bias by thinking that you are deriving some entertainment from it. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176.md?page=4)