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

[AZterritory]

You know what they say . . . . "See Wasilla and die."

[Kenji]

Mmmm... she smells like salmon!

[Bongborg]

Kinda looks like one too, if ya ask me...

[stevemarvin]

Wasilla All I Saw.
Now that's a PALINdrome! (plus foreign policy experience).

[Jenlea]

"Wasilla All I Saw.
Now that's a PALINdrome! (plus foreign policy experience­)."

That is very clever, I love clever people.
As far as her "foreign policy experience"? According to Steve Doocey and Cindy McCain AK proximity to Russia is all the experience she needs.

Hey, I leave near the freeway, can I be Secretary of Transportation?

[Bitsko]

I live a few blocks from Wall Street. Can I be Secretary of the Treasury now?

[dpiyjrtmfr]

Hey all,
I spent one unhappy week a few years ago in Wasilla, AK. If I had known that I was that close to future greatness I would have swung by the strip mall and introduced myself.

City hall is in a strip mall.
That sounds like a line from a country song. Sarah Palin, a country song brought to life!

[WhoIsJohnGalt42]

the sad truth is that the republicans are LIE MONGERS ... not just liars. the democrats need to be and the media should be TRUTH MONGERS. i do not understand why each and every time that a republican talking head on tv says that "sarah palin is a real reformer that will shake up washington" they do not stop them right there ... show the following graphic on the screen http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2008/palin_earmarks.htmll) and ask "so, such and such talking head, i know you did not know a thing about Gov. Palin just one week ago so is it that you did not know this information or are you just lying on purpose to get her elected?" if democrats and the media do not do this to the republican surrogate spin talking points (this is just one example, the same truth intervention could be done for "bridge to nowhere", etc.) the mass of america will buy the lies hook line and sinker. now you want to debate the need for and ethicalness of earkmarks and the earmark process that is fine (maybe Palin and McCain can do that since 3 of her earmark projects as mayor ended up on McCain's bad bad wasteful earmark list). but when as mayor of wasilla ak you got 20 TIMES the per capita average for earmarks and then to say you are a refomer against them when you are campaigning for VP makes you a LIAR!

[justobserve]

Exactly!

[RRK70]

McCain is right, the election is about JUDGMENT.

The choice of Palin is McCain's "heckuva job Brownie" moment!

[pqn]

If it wasn't for our Metro areas this country would be broker then Micronesia.

[ex-pat]

If NYC was not as cosmopolitan as it is he would have been just like any other person from Kentucky (sorry) who had married their cousin

[Palemoon]

And to think Ivana Trump probably has a closet bigger than that tiny shack of a City Hall. No disrespect intended, but just look at it. Barber shops in small town America, which is where I live, are bigger than that. In most towns I've lived in, City Hall was the biggest building by far. And was here too, where I'm living now, until the Federal Credit Union upstaged it by being 1 floor taller.

[renatam]

As a born/bred Manhattan resident, I find it fascinating that Sarah Palin believes Ivana Trump represents "glamour and culture."

We have always had fun watching family Trump's antics -- but always felt a tad embarassed at the illusion they somehow represented anything remotely cultured.

Ignorance, ambition and overreaching seems to be the standard for Sarah Palin, who in her quest went to 5 colleges in 6 years.

Sarah, Ivana Trump is fun, but if she is what defines "glamour and culture" to your sensibilities, you have a lot to learn. Travel a bit and expand your knowledge of the world outside of Wasila before you aim too high to represent a people you clearly do not understand.

[renatam]

Culture, by the way -- can be found on "Museum Mile" -- when/if you get to Manhattan, which has a larger population on Fifth Avenue -- North to South, than the entire State of Alaska.

[renatam]

"Community Organizing" and civic action runs New York neighborhoods. We have a population of more than 8 million - in New York City, alone, Sarah. You might run into a few "thousand points of light" lauded by George H. W. Bush -- when you get here.

Thought you should be alerted -- so you don't offend "Meals on Wheels" or "Habitat for Humanity" while you are our guest.

[Venom5809]

What is funny is that she offended community organizers who are in fact funded largely by charitable donations from rich republicans from New York and other places.
I wonder how they felt about that comment.

[plunk]

Trash Glam

"The Matanuska-Susitna area is the methamphetamine capital of Alaska, according to Alaska State Troopers. Officials with the Office of Children's Services in Wasilla said the problem affects children. The office receives about 40 calls a month from people reporting abuse or neglect involving some aspect of the highly addictive drug."

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/030805/sta_20050308002.shtml

[jiml1956]

So that storefront is where one-heartbeat-way Sarah gained her executive experience?

[renatam]

Just goes to show you our Sarah is so blinded by her own light and locals she can clearly BULLY, she totally lacks AWARENESS of how little she knows -- or needs to know -- to fulfill her ambition for POWER for its own sake.

None of her speech was about SERVING the American people. It did, however, mock "Community Organizers" who do SERVE.

Her IGNORANCE of what the job of VP is (per her own statements w/in the last two mos.) -- is only matched by her IGNORANCE of the urban environments who literally fund/drive the Nation's arteries -- and 1/3 of the Alaskan budget coffers, on our dole.

[smallfish]

great fact, but useless unless you can make it apart of the national dialogue.