Sarah Palin In Verse

I was wondering what kind of mother, being an avowed evangelical and knowing that her underage daughter is pregnant out of wedlock, would choose to accept the vice presidential nomination and thus subject her daughter to a vicious and unrelenting spotlight for, potentially, the next eight years. And I was wondering what kind of mother would agree to take on the rigors of a presidential campaign and essentially put aside a four-month-old baby with special needs. Sarah Palin's convention speech answered that question: that kind of mother.

Palin was comfortable stepping in and lying through her teeth about her record and her opponent. She was at ease insulting people who selflessly try to give back to their communities--because it helped her politically. She had no qualms about parading her visibly uncomfortable family across a stage and passing her special needs baby down the aisle as a political prop.

The media, taken aback no doubt by Palin's ability to lie and smear with gusto as if it were second nature, mostly lauded the speech, leaving those of us who care about our families and our country--and not our ratings--to hope that the majority of American swing voters, at least, disagreed.

Maybe a night of such dramatically appalling pageantry could only be summed up in poetry, but I noticed that more than a few posts in the blogosphere that night included this excerpt from Macbeth's great soliloquy (later adopted by Faulkner): "it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." We can hope.

It's appropriate that I've been reading Yeats lately, whose life was haunted by a beautiful and fiercely political woman named Maude Gonne (any extension of the comparison would be offensive to Gonne's memory). "Why should I blame her," Yeats wrote in No Second Troy, "that she fills my days with misery." The poem is apropos, considering the culture war Palin is being used to ignite:

Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great...

With beauty...
That is not natural in an age like this...

Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?

I've used excerpts here because Palin doesn't come close to living up to the rest of the poem. And while I wanted to include the final line, I apologize for implying that Palin's beauty might be enough to cause the burning of a capital. We may yet uncover a suspicious arson at the Wasilla Dairy Queen.

A more appropriate Yeats poem might be this excerpt from the lesser-known On a Political Prisoner, which, I would offer, Palin now is:

She that but little patience knew,
From childhood on, had now so much
A grey gull lost its fear and flew
Down to her cell and there alit,
And there endured her fingers' touch
And from her fingers ate its bit.

Did she in touching that lone wing
Recall the years before her mind
Became a bitter, an abstract thing,
Her thought some popular enmity:
Blind and leader of the blind
Drinking the foul ditch where they lie?

She that but little patience knew. We have evidence she was impatient, transferring five times in six years before finally managing to get a Bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho. We don't know that she was ever innocent.

In his apocalyptic vision The Second Coming Yeats wrote, "The best lack all conviction, while the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity."

Thanks to Palin, the worst, as evidenced by the old, white, teeth-gnashing Republican convention crowd, now have that "passionate intensity."

Thankfully for us, so do the best this year.

Comments

[please]

You know until the unthinkable happened, "A Black Man became the democratic nominee" I don't think that some people in this country had a clue that they are prejudice. I am 53 and a life long Democrat, and on numerous occasions I have preferred a candidate in the primary that didn't win, but that in no way made me even consider voting for a Republican candidate. You see, I don't vote as much for the individual as I do the ideology of the party. Not that there is anything wrong with the Republican philosophy, it just doesn't mesh with mine. That said, I hope that this will teach some people that have vowed to not vote for Barack Obama because of “the treatment of Hilary Clinton from the media” to ask themselves “Has the person that I supported in every primary prevailed as the winning candidate?” If that is not the case then ask yourself “Did I at that time support the party whose philosophical beliefs totally clashed with my core values?

Maybe just maybe you are prejudice and just not yet aware of it, and you have convinced yourself that because of the treatment of your preferred candidate (on THIS occasion only) so disturbed you that for the very first time in your life you are justified in not following your heart’s core beliefs. If you can honestly self evaluate in this matter, then maybe, just maybe your true principles that you have shed can be recaptured.

[Old-Surveyor]

I so love the Huffington Post. We have a writter in Arkansas that is so much like those who write in to you with their brilient statesments (duh) and bitter words of hate. It is good to know your enemys and the way they think! JamesCook: Calico Rock, Arkansas

[zoozey]

To PLEASE: that was very well stated.

[RedWilma]

How dumb are Americans? Voted for GWBush twice.
Maybe, as a group, we're just too dumb to deserve a great leader or a great country.
I'm depressed. Our country is going downhill and dumb people are going to vote for two people who are eager to give it a big push over the bank.

I'm running low on hope today.

[mitch4822]

As a born-again evangelical Christian,others like me are very offended that Ms. Paulin paraded her unmarried pregnant daughter and her "redneck" boyfriend, holding hands on stage in the face of the American people. To us, this glorifies teenage sex out of marriage.... She is supposed to be a born again Chrstian who smeared Sen. Obama without the bat of an eye..?
What kind of person is this?

She is ruthless, and therefore, I believe the Obama camp should attack her policies and her views in such a way as to educate the American people who she is.

The Repubs talk about morality, they are supposed to be the epitome of it.; the Dems have no morals.... Yet we can't say, Ms Paulin was wrong to sugject her family to such torments in that fashion????
in having her daughter and boyfriend there holding hands, plus her new baby as props. If we talk about it "we are attacking a woman...etc." How absurd.

These hypocrites must be swept out of Congress. Sen. McSame is not fit to be president of the US

[quindy]

We did not vote for Bush the first time. He was selected by the Supreme Court. Subsequent count showed that Gore got 500,000 votes more. That was a stolen election and we should worry that this one might be stolen too.

[doodlefarbe]

"Subsequent count showed that Gore got 500,000 votes more. That was a stolen election "

Where do you get this kind of stuff? See the NYT recount, the USA Today recount, the Miami Herald recount.

[JoeBlough]

It would seem that most people prefer the other people around them to be worst off than they. It makes them feel better. McCain/Palin are the perfect enablers of that sentiment. With their help, everyone will be a little bit worse off, yet make us each seem better off than the rest. Misery will increase as we go down the salary scale.

Welcome to the new Repub society.

[Veratruth]

I DO NOT BELIEVE THE POLLS. If the Republicans can CONTROL the media, what would STOP them from controlling the polls. Don't be FOOLED. Think... first Obama had more viewers at the Democratic Convention than McCain; then McCain had 500,000 more viewers; then they were even. FOLKS, they are trying to manipulate every aspect of our lives.

[fedupinfla]

Lets not forget 1 important little detail...It is sad that Brooke Palin's situation is out there for the whole world to discuss/judge and she should be damn glad she lives in a country where she still HAS a choice, but she's only having her dirty laundry aired because her mother decided it'd be cooler to be VP than a govenor and even WAY cooler than being a sportscaster. Simply put, she put her career ahead of her family's privacy. Unless she is hopelessly naive, she had to have KNOWN that her 17yr old daughter being pregant & unwed would cause a media firestorm & intrude on her daughter's right to privacy in a highly personal time in her young life. Ask yourselves as parents....would you put your daughter through what that kid is going through for ANY job??? And don't give me any feminist crap about how she's making history and she'd never get this chance again. I'm a mother and I don't care if they offered me my own dictatorship, I'd NEVER put my daughter through this bull$hit!!! You can only be a VP for 8yrs max. Looking out for your daughter's best interests & well-being is a lifelong job. For that reason above all the many others, I question Caribou Barbie's judgement & values...

[DAE]

As they say, she threw her own daughter under the bus. And why not, based on her self-professed values she must consider her to be trash. The god she believes in is a vindictive bastard so why shouldn't she be as well.

[Mattjoe]

‘Alaskan Independence Party, a political party in Alaska that has the motto “Alaska First, Alaska Always” and wishes to secede from the United States’

Can you imagine Obama or Biden anywhere near a 'separatist' cause?

Whether it's the Republican Party and the neocon ghouls, the RJC, The Catholic Church or it's fanatical Christian hypocrisy all the way to big oil, pharmaceuticals and the Military complex.

They have proven that evil is in fact, self-evident.

[doodlefarbe]

"Can you imagine Obama or Biden anywhere near a 'separatist' cause?"

Um... Yes. See: Ayers, William.

[justobserve]

What kind of woman who forced mother to carry her rapist's baby and take care and love it for the rest of her life?
Vote for issues, not beauty nor lies: AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE, WOMEN'S CHOICE, VETS BENEFITS, EQUAL PAY.

[thrawtsom]

I actually think the media would do us all a favor by essentially ignoring her and return focus on McCain and Obama. She has momentarily stolen the show, much like when one drives by a horrible traffic incident its in one's nature to slow down and look, distracting the driver from the other traffic and effectively becomes a hazard as a result.

Lets get past the wreck, and place our attention back on the road. Every time we speak (or peck) her name, she gains more power. If she isn't talking to the press, stop talking about her. If she isn't willing to take any risks, then she does not deserve our attention - she does not deserve the White house. She is this weeks headline, until she comes out of the media closet her story is over.

Next.

[Artfulvision]

OMG! Lets talk about family values. What type of mother would subject her family to this type of scrutiny and schedule for her own ambition. The Republicans are such bloody hypocrites. HELP!!!

[jeanrenoir]

Isn't it pretty to think so? In a democracy, alas, it doesn't matter whether the "best" are full of as much passionate intensity as the worst, if the worst clearly outnumber them. And according to the latest Gallup Poll Palin has now moved McCain from 8 points behind Obama last week to 3 ahead now. The Achilles Heel of the Democrats is democracy itself and the fact that most American voters are so dumb that the Republicans manipulate their bitter anger like so much silly putty.

[wisequeen]

Can a woman lead a country or anything else? Go to wisequeen dot com and leave your opinion on the women attacking Palin

[AutismNewsBeat]

A governor named Sarah was chosen
From a state perpetually frozen
To stand in for a man
Who lacked any plan
To manage the party he rose in

[BannedInBoston]

Great limerick! (More apt than the Yeats, actually.)

[cnick]

The trouble with Yeats is you really have to be able to think, I'm afraid that is way above a lot of Republican's "Pay Grade".

[elbzee]

Applause, applause, applause! Nice work!!!!!

[cnick]

Excellent, get it out there, it will catch on fast!!!!!

[Zoidie]

Very nice. LOL.

[libratine]

Then again there is my alteration from As Good As It Get's:

When I think of a Republican, I picture a Democrat and then take away all reason and accountability.

[walkthewalk]

Republicans hold Democratic candidates to entirely different standards than they do their own. Forget Sarah Pallin's positions on women's rights for a moment. Just imagine if a Democratic female candidate for VP were living Palin's personal life (5 children, including an infant with Downe Syndrome; an unwed, pregnant 17-year-old daughter; an investigation into possible abuse of power in her role as governor to settle a family score). Do you think Republicans would be so understanding and compassionate and believe that women all over America could identify with her life?

We have plenty of other substantive issues on which to attack Palin, but the hypocrisy of the Republican party is beyond astonishing.

[sdbsingle1]

Well put walkthewalk, and as for Palin, and her obvious "I'm the Woman so take it easy on me" shield that is around her, please don't fall for that people because this lady is not to be in the spotlight for her family issues, but as far as what she's done, and her so-called Maverick status, I don't see it at all.

She is a sarcasm machine, that will be eaten alive by Biden in a few weeks, so just sit back and enjoy the show people, because the exposing is about to begin.

[jjmcrare]

Read all about Palin here:

http://www.thepresidentialcandidates.us/about-sarah-palin-a-letter-from-anne-kilkenny/741/

[Artfulvision]

Thanks for sharing this information. Hopefully more people is Alaska will speak up.

[cnick]

So, we can expect her to turn on John McCain when she is trying to step over him.

[HarryTichbaum]

Captain McCain and his first-mate Palin
Are in for two months of really rough sailin':
They keep on lying so they won't hear the roar
Of the Obama Tsunami that will wash them ashore
On November 4.

[buckbuck11]

....or new last line...

...leaving Rove and his minions a-wailing.

[Zoidie]

Yep, that's better.

[musePalin]

SOUND HEART BYTES

Palin vs Putin--
some shootin'!
She'll gut that Russian bear
with small town flair!

And Amadinejad--
that tongue-twister--
watch her take him on,
Sarah, our sister.

Hope is a thing
with feathers, the poet said.
She'll pluck 'em one by one
until we're dead.