Today marks the one-year anniversary of John McCain's introduction of Sarah Palin to the international stage, in Dayton, Ohio, a political battleground that the Republicans desperately needed for another shot at the White House. They lost Ohio big (by more than 300,000 votes), and they lost the election even bigger--mostly thanks to Palin's erratic, if not downright bizarre, performance as the vice-presidential nominee.
In many ways, it seems longer than a year. Much longer. Palin went back to Alaska, where her life turned into a nasty soap opera. There were revelations from McCain's staff about her behavior on the campaign trail; she was hit with a myriad of ethics charges (some of which, contrary to Palin's claims otherwise, stuck); she bailed on her relationship with the state's legislators and played politics with the federal stimulus plan; she got into a dog fight with Levi Johnston; she began a series of odd Twitterings, replete with a four-part ramble on Mama Bear; she resigned amid chaos and deception, only to return as a diva on Facebook.
And through it all she has been obsessed with Barack Obama.
I've just returned from Alaska, where I conducted interviews and archival research for a book on Palin, and many of those I spoke to in the Last Frontier, from across the political spectrum, noted that Palin was fixated on Obama. "It's like she's back in high school and someone is more popular than she is," said someone who worked closely with Palin during her 2006 campaign for governor. "It's unnerved her. She can't let it go."
Recall her recent interview in Runner's World, where she bizarrely bragged about being able to beat Obama in a foot race:
Could you beat the president? I betcha I'd have more endurance. My one claim to fame in my own little internal running circle is a sub-four marathon. It wasn't necessarily a good running time, but it proves I have the endurance within me to at least gut it out and that is something...So if it were a long race that required a lot of endurance, I'd win.
Palin has been obsessed with Obama from Day One. In her convention speech in St. Paul, she declared that being governor was a little like being a "community organizer--except that you have actual responsibilities" (a laughable claim now knowing about her failed and truncated performance in Alaska). As John Heilemann noted in a splendid piece in New York Magazine, Palin "was unafraid to wield the stiletto" and "seemed to delight in plunging it into Obama's kidneys."
Along the campaign trail Palin hyped up crowds by accusing Obama of "pallin' around with terrorists" and not being "a man who sees America like you and I see America." When those in the crowd shouted out physical threats to Obama, Palin was silent.
Her silence says everything--about her lack of integrity and her reckless ambition.
In the aftermath of the inauguration, Palin jammed Obama about the stimulus package and lied about "purse strings" attached to the federal money. By the end, she was calling them "ropes." In a telling post-mortem on her governorship in Alaska earlier this month, a largely Republican State legislature overrode her veto, 45 to 14, with many of the legislators openly chastising Palin for playing politics with the state's economic well being. They knew her veto had everything to do with Obama and nothing to do with Alaska.
Then she completely misrepresented Obama's cap-and-trade energy policy, failing to even mention global warning in her duplicitous WashPo op-ed piece.
More recently, Palin referred to Obama's "death panels" and characterized his proposed health care reforms as "downright evil." It was a typical Big Palin Lie--and even Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski called Palin to task for her characterization. A national labor organization, Americans United For Change, took out an ad on Facebook urging Palin to "Stop Lying."
And now Palin's Obama obsession had taken a particularly dark turn.
In a largely overlooked passage in Time Magazine's cover story on Palin last month, Palin's official spokesperson Meg Stapleton asserted that there is a White House conspiracy behind the anti-Palin groundswell led by none other than Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. "The trail is pretty direct and pretty obvious to us," Stapleton declared.
Not printed in the article, but included in a blog posted by Time reporter Jay Newton-Small, were some additional comments on the alleged conspiracy. "To me," Newton-Small observed, "one of the most interesting aspects of the story is how vehemently the Palin camp blames Barack Obama."
"[Palin] represents the biggest threat to Obama," Stapleton stated. "She's the only one who can get the base excited....I just hope to God Rahm Emanuel isn't using taxpayer money to come after Alaska."
Say what?
Palin's Obama obsession has turned into a paranoid delusion. And like many political hucksters in American history--from the Know Nothings to Huey Long to Joe McCarthy and the Fox TV news clowns--Palin has tapped into the anger and fear of the American electorate. It's the low road to political power in America, and, rest assured, it will only get lower.
This past week, Palin urged her supporters on Facebook to tune into the television show of Glenn Beck, whose paranoid delusions about Obama have come close to topping Palin's own. Beck, of course, made headlines recently by claiming that Obama is a "racist" and that the president "has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."
That there is an underlying racism that fuels Palin's obsession goes quite nearly without saying. But her ardent support of Beck this week, on the anniversary of her being named to the GOP ticket, says oodles about her obsession.
Award-winning writer and filmmaker Geoffrey Dunn is at work on a book about Sarah Palin and American politics, to be published by Macmillan/St. Martin's next year.
Geoffrey Dunn: Sarah, Greta & Scientology--Part II: Van Susteren Doth Protest Too Much
There are some serious journalistic conflicts of interest taking place here, and Van Susteren is either being duplicitous or disingenuous to characterize them as "silly."
Shannyn Moore: Palin's Pavlovian Response to House Health Care Passage
I spent a lot of time in a small Alaskan church. I'm glad I did. It helps me interpret Palin's evangelical dog whistles, such as her typical and predictable response to the House health care bill.
Geoffrey Dunn: Palin Usurped "Concession" Speech
Headlines recently declared "Sarah Palin's Speeches Were Ready but Never Seen -- Until Now." While Palin did not deliver her concession speech on election night, she did deliver most of it eight days later.
The is metaphor is not quite correct. Instead, it should read, "It's like she's back in a beauty contest and someone else won the crown." Everything to Palin is about her next beauty contest and never about doing the work associated with the title. (No wonder she supported Prejean in CA!)
They love her, they are her "faithful". It does not matter to them if she quit as Governor, because in their eyes, she's not a quitter. The video The Daily Show did of her "farewell" speech was priceless. How can people be SO clueless? And yet they are...
Slinging innuendo and having a poor grasp of facts is all you need to get a Wrong Wing following, as Palin has so brilliantly shown. Just tout the Flag, guns, freedom, and freedom of choice...
I like McCain as a person and I admire him. I totally disagree with him about health reform and many other issues, but compared to Palin he's a real genius. Thank god he chose her. With a bona fide running mate, the race for Prez could have been a lot closer.
While I personally am not a republican, they are hardly alone and in fact inferior to the democrats when it comes to "slinging innuendo and having a poor grasp of the facts."
As you tear down those that were and are faithful towards Sarah Palin although you feel she is lacking in substance. You need look no further than your own party to find an equally, if not even blinder group of acolytes backing President Obama.
I wish that our former Lt. Gov. Fran Ulmer (also an accomplished vocalist, i once attended a recital she gave featuring "songs from Alaska's gold rush) had been representing our state on the national stage rather than Miss Sarah. Fran ran for governor in 2002 but lost out to the Republican machine in the form of Frank Murkowski. Then, after going through a huge drawn out search-for-my-replacement on Frank's part to fill his senate seat (it was ridiculous, the papers kept publishing lists of names he released, the first list was 20+ people, then 10, then he was down to the 'final five' or so, including some very credible candidates, and then -- he chose ! his daughter !), Miss Sarah was Optiscanned and Diebolded and Voted into the governorship, ostensibly because people were so disgusted with Murkowski (which they were). But also because certain Murdoch sorts wanted her in that position. There are still very strange discrepencies regarding the vote tallies of that 2006 election. Tony Knowles was 10 points ahead a week or so before the vote.
But he was up against someone being mentored by Teddy Stevens and groomed by Dick Cheney.
Hardly worth responding to you as the lack of intelligence in your post is so startling.
Charles Krauthammer, the conservative Washington Post columnist put it this way when he discussed the health care issues. He said Sarah Palin should leave the room and let others sort things out. That's sound advice that should extend to all issues.
We know Sarah Palin has thoughts and the freedom to express them. But she does more than just talk, she willfully lies or misrepresents. She can talk and we don't have to listen.
And still believes they will work!
http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2009/08/happy-anniversary-crazy-woman.html
He did more to destroy manufacturing in the US than any other president.
I'm looking forward to reading your book. The psychological analysis of Sarah Palin and those who attach themselves to her is fascinating.
Here's my bold prediction: Sarah Palin will divorce, probably within a year or two. Her inability to honor speaking comittments will eventually result in fewer and fewer invitations. She won't be offered jobs in talk radio or Fox cable talk shows. If she gets a job, she'll quit.
After 30 plus years of working with alcohol and drug abusers, I've seen dozens of people just like Sarah Palin, not that she's an addict, but that she has similar psychological issues. My impression is that her behavior is more symptomatic of histrionic personality disorder (HPD).
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histrionic_Personality_Disorder for a description.
The overview section describes behaviors such as her style of speech, her frequent job and school changes (six schools to earn her degree), her inappropriate winking during her VP debate, etc. Yes, I agree that there are indications of paranoid delusional disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder, but I think these are secondary.
I disagree that race has anything to do with her behavior other than times when she panders to racists in her audiences. I believe that her attacks on Obama are motivated by plain old jealousy.
And Sarah Palin is my ninth cousin. For real. Aaack pthpthhhth.
fanned.
Palin's group has close to one million users now.
Mrs. Korn, as a member of Palin's infamous Facebook group, you probably should refrain from criticizing others for joining groups to counter her.