When Palin Thought Wasilla Wasn't Cosmopolitan Enough

When is being cosmopolitan a bad thing? When you're in the bowels for the Republican convention.

One of the many memorable lines from Rudy Giuliani's convention speech Wednesday was the dig he took at Obama for an alleged condescension towards small town America.

Said Hizonner:

"Gov. Palin represents a new generation. She's already one of the most successful governors in America and the most popular. And she's already had more executive experience than the entire Democratic ticket combined. She's been a mayor. I love that. I'm sorry -- I'm sorry that Barack Obama feels that her hometown isn't cosmopolitan enough. I'm sorry, Barack, that it's not flashy enough. Maybe they cling to religion there."

Some Democrats I talked with after the speech drew racist undertones from the remark - the idea being that Obama, as Rudy was hoping to paint him, was the product of the inner city. Others simply noted the irony that the former mayor of New York was ripping the city life. But the most potent rebuttal offered was this email from another source.

Back in April 1996, it seems, Palin (not Obama) was the one bemoaning her hometown's lack of cosmopolitan glitz. From the Anchorage Daily News archives.

"Sarah Palin, a commercial fisherman from Wasilla, told her husband on Tuesday she was driving to Anchorage to shop at Costco. Instead, she headed straight for Ivana. And there, at J.C. Penney's cosmetic department, was Ivana, the former Mrs. Donald Trump, sitting at a table next to a photograph of herself. She wore a light-colored pantsuit and pink fingernail polish. Her blonde hair was coiffed in a bouffant French twist. 'We want to see Ivana,' said Palin, who admittedly smells like salmon for a large part of the summer, 'because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblance of glamour and culture.' Ivana Trump, the former Czechoslovakian Olympic skier who found fame and wealth as the wife of the New York tycoon, came to Anchorage Tuesday to push her line of perfume."

Then there is this from New York Magazine:

After Rudy Giuliani cartoonishly suggested that Wasilla, Alaska, wasn't "cosmopolitan" enough for Barack Obama, we did some digging into his archives. Despite the air quotes and funny voice he used when saying the word, there was a time when a city's "cosmopolitan" nature inspired him. From a 1995 address to the U.N.: "After several days of being confronted with New York City's diversity, any resident or visitor will conclude that our many differences are vastly outweighed by our similarities. That's why New York is not only the world's most diverse city, but also the world's most cosmopolitan and tolerant city."

Comments

[polaris12]

We're not in Wasilla any more, Toto!

[YY2H8]

Nicely done, Sam. We can add this to the compilation of bare-faced duplicity Jon Stewart brought us on TDS last night. Thank you!

[10cats4me]

Right on! Right on! How would Palin present herself to the QE or to PM Merkel. Maybe Putin would pinch her arm and call her cutie!

[SeanGardner]

Rudy Giuliani's remarks weren't suprising (because he's slime) as much as they were revealing. What do Giuliani's words reveal and indicate? That Republicans are going to lose this election in a landslide. This is not supposition, conjecture, or guesswork. This is the declaration of the actual numbers and what they currently say.

And what do they say? The numbers currently say that The Democratic Party is winning the "cosmopolitan vote": Latinos, Asian-Americans, Arab-Americans, Native-Americans, and African-Americans, and multi-racial and multi-ethinic families. Obama is crushing John McCain with all of these groups - BADLY!!! And in an America that EVERYDAY is more diverse than the previous day, a party that is losing the "cosmopolitan vote" will be, well, a losing party.

This is why a Republican U.S. Congressman said this summer that Barack Obama can "destroy" them, especially in the South. As the GOP-maligned "cosmopolitan vote" turns out in force (and they will), the party of old white men (Republicans) will be swiftly defeated and marginalized. And that day is coming in two months when Obama is elected president.

[triplbee]

Certainly if the GOP continues to pull 4% of the African American vote and tries to outlaw Latinos, it will rack up some serious losses. But they've done a pretty effective job of disenfranchising black and Latino voters in places like Florida and Texas and a majority of white Americans---for reasons that escape me---continue to vote for them. So this election is far from over.

[SeanGardner]

I disagree.

Obama is registering African-Americans, latinos, and Asian-Americans in eye-popping numbers. Moreover, he is registering young whites (18 to 35 years old) in record numbers. So when you capture the GOP maligned "cosmopolitan vote" (of which I am apart), you don't need to get most whites. Yes, it is true, as you wrote above, the majority of whites conitune to vote mostly for Republicans. But no Democrat since LBJ won the majority of the white vote. That means Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton won the presidency by creating a strong coalition of voters that included no more than 35% to 40% of the white vote. Obama is poisd to do the same thing, but with a much more dramatic outcome.

Obama has done more for presidential politics than any candidate in recent memory. His pioneering online strategy, social networking and web fund-raising has swelled Democratic voters rolls, and allowed him to have the edge in EARLY VOTING because of the number of field offices he has opened compared to McCain.

I disagree. This race IS over. The OLD MEDIA just hasn't caught up to that fact yet. The actual numbers state by state - bear out what I am posting.

[Promise]

Maybe Guiliani can run for mayor of Wasilla now.

[SeanGardner]

He wouldn't win.

The only thing he can run for is Dog Catcher, and I am not even sure he would win that.

[SupremeIdiot]

mental

[firewmn]

*
Sarah Palin is the 21st century = Wasilla De Shrill..

**

[AbTomp]

hahahahahaha that was funny, wait, not it's not, its actually a really lame joke

[SolEdge]

Actually, "Cruella Di Wasilla" better defines her disregard for an animal's life.

[Vote For America]

McCain chocked when the protester appeared.

Obama 297, McCain 241:
http://voteforamerica.net/electoral.aspx

[FatherWolf]

I drove thru Wasilla twice on a vacation in Alaska. I don't remember it at all, but I know I did because it's on the only road from Anchorage to Faibanks.

[Igglesbee]

I've driven through Wasilla about 200 times and I barely remember it.
It's nothing more than a truckstop with a new Walmart.

I was shocked to learn they even HAD a mayor.

[GerryS]

and a city manager, hired by SP when "mayor"

[Tallllama]

Haha, from our friends at Wikipedia:
Charles Wohlforth, in a Frommer's travel guidebook on Alaska, described Wasilla as "the worst kind of suburban sprawl of highway-fronting shopping malls and gravel lots".

[NYCMami]

Guiliani is a s c u m b a g of the highest order.

[Venom5809]

He is. He has never been a very diverse person if you know what I mean.

[polaris12]

You give him way too much credit.

[grata2ude]

So the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull is lipstick? Ms Paliar even with lipstick the pitbull is better lookin and has more heart.

[PacoPup]

Anyone else notice in the post that she lied to her husband about where she was going - shopping at Costco?! What's up with that? Why would he care if she went to see Ivana Trump? That's just weird.

[Venom5809]

It matters if you are going there with your husband's business partner.

[Promise]

That's a good point. In the fundamentalist brand of Christianity that Ms. Palin advertizes, women are supposed to submit to the authority of their husbands. Just another indication of her basic shallowness, selfishness and lack of integrity.

[Ladyteguesian]

I get my best news from the blogs and Real Time

[firewmn]

me 2..

[MJJM]

What is the point of pointing out all of this stuff when it does not make it to TV or get repeated over and over again???????

[Ladyteguesian]

Oh it gets well known.. the left wing radio picks it all up.. then there is cutting and pasting and sending out to people.

[queotic]

The point of pointing this out is exactly *because* it does not make it to TV.

[firewmn]

I feel better knowing..

[Ladyteguesian]

Well I was shocked tonight.. Billo actually had an intelligent conversation with Obama.. He did try to rattle our man.. But Obama held firm and gave honest intelligent answers.

[grata2ude]

I knew he would. But Faux news is NEVER on any TV in my house. I won't give them any ratings from my house. They make me ill.

[MsYellowDog]

Wish I'd said that.I feel exactly the same!Disgusting TV!!!Worse than pornography!!

[Venom5809]

Its not Faux News, lol.
It is Fixed News.

[youngsenior]

This is just getting so sickening. Obama being elitist. He is intelligent, uses good judgment, has some class (something Republicans know nothing about) , is generous and know how to treat other people. I really believe the Republicans have shown their true feelings and inner thinking. What a group of losers. I want a President who is not a cowboy or a maverick but a true human being.

[realtalk]

Conservatives are trully con artists!!

[jcsophie]

"'because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblance of glamour and culture."

Is this the best that you can come up with? You obviously have never lived in a small town and had to drive fifty miles to the nearest grocery store or one hundred miles to the Doctor. When you have to be organized enough to buy enough groceries to last until the next time you can get to "town" you tend to dream of a little "glamour and culture".

[queotic]

The writer is not criticizing Palin for wanting "glamour and culture." They are pointing out the hypocrisy of the Republicans criticizing Barack for being "cosmopolitan" when they themselves have stated their admiration and desire for "cosmopoli­tan-ism."

[breh]

Rudy G. will say anything or do anything to get a seat at the table with McBush should he win...and when will he stop profitting off of 911? No matter how you spin it this woman is just not qualified.­..nuff' said.

[GeoLee]

Attorney
Gneral?

Can you say Alberto Gonzales, II