Sarah Palin, The Anti-Poet

Watching Sarah Palin resign the other week, I remembered how frustrating it is to listen to her speak. She uses simple words, but combines them into a fog that's hard to penetrate, out of which a few political clichés like "freedom" and "reform" appear. Most politicians, of course, obfuscate to some degree, but Palin is a master, and she does it constantly. Look at how she turns a simple statement into a mind-numbing puzzle (this is from Hart Seely's terrific collection of found poems taken from actual Sarah Palin quotes):

You know,
Small mayors,
Mayors of small towns--
Quote, unquote--
They're on the front lines.

A quick analysis reveals why understanding Palin can be such a challenge. She follows a folksy "you know" with a clear misstatement--"small mayors"--which she follows with a clarification, which she then amends with the inexplicable "quote, unquote." By the time she gets to her point--that small town mayors are on the front lines (which she could have simply said)--one is too bogged down in misstatements, repetitions, poor syntax and folksiness to know what to think. This is, no doubt, why her interviewers often look a bit stunned, jaw slightly agape, when Palin finishes answering a question: they don't have a clear idea of what she said.

When you extend Palin's speaking style (if it's even a style) to a more complex issue like the bailout, it becomes a sort of verbal Armageddon. Here's another found poem by Seely called "On the Bailout":

Ultimately,
What the bailout does
Is help those who are concerned
About the health care reform
That is needed
To help shore up our economy,
Helping the--
It's got to be all about job creation, too.

Shoring up our economy
And putting it back on the right track.
So health care reform
And reducing taxes
And reining in spending
Has got to accompany tax reductions
And tax relief for Americans.
And trade.

We've got to see trade
As opportunity
Not as a competitive, scary thing.
But one in five jobs
Being created in the trade sector today,
We've got to look at that
As more opportunity.
All those things.

Your head should be spinning at this point.

Julian Gough of the UK's Prospect Magazine opined facetiously this past December that "Palin is a poet, and a fine one at that. What the philistine media take for incoherence is, in fact, the fruitful ambiguity of verse." His example of this "fruitful ambiguity" is a found poem he termed "The Relevance of Africa:"

And the relevance to me
With that issue,
As we spoke
About Africa and some
Of the countries
There that were
Kind of the people succumbing
To the dictators
And the corruption
Of some collapsed governments
On the
Continent,
The relevance
Was Alaska's.

Gough elaborated on his tongue-in-cheek theory: "A great poet needs to leave open the door between the conscious and unconscious; Sarah Palin has removed her door from its hinges. A great poet does not self-censor; Sarah Palin seems authentically innocent of what she is saying. She could be the most natural, visionary poet since William Blake." Great poets, of course, do self-censor (even the Beats), at least during the editing process.

Gough's editorial got me wondering if there's any legitimacy to viewing Palin's peculiar speech as a sort of poetry, but I can't think of a poetic movement with which Palin has much in common. Almost all poetry--regardless of its aims-- strives for clarity, precision and some sort of communication. Even if a good poem is difficult, or even surreal, it's carefully crafted to be that way, in order to facilitate a type of understanding. Palin's speech, intentionally or not, works against understanding. Her tangle of folksy obfuscation is the antithesis of poetry, and perhaps more than any other public figure today, she's something of an antipoet.

I do think there are similarities between Palin's statements and a Buddhist ko-an--a deliberately provocative and unanswerable question like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" But whereas the ko-an aims at enlightenment, Palin offers delightenment--if that were like, you know, a word. Quote unquote. All those things. (Sigh)

Comments

[Allocator2008]

I prefer the poetry of Jay Billington Bulworth.

[grailknight]

The verses kind of remind me of the lyrics from the classic Yes era!

[jeaninejames]

Sarah Palin is an interesting individual. I dont understand why she has to use big words, that aren't important. People need to understand what she's talking about when she's speaking.

[CommonSenseMom]

This is hysterical. Don't read this article with a full bladder. Really.

[stick458]

Why does HuffPo strike any comment that criticizes the messiah or the libs in congress?

[stick458]

Palin, Palin, Palin. If she is irrelevant, why do so many of you spend so much time trying to trash her? Jealous, scared? And on the subject of speaking, who has perfected the art of speaking eloquently without saying anything concrete or meaningful, or for that matter true? Hmmmm.....

[jimbeaux1961]

Because it's FUN. You guys put a woman with the IQ of a soda can up for VP; of COURSE we laugh at her!

[stick458]

You know her IQ? Of course you don't. So do you laugh at mentally handicapped chldren? At least we did not vote for a communist and a clown ("Stand up Chuck!." "We'll spend our way out of bankruptcy.") Unfortunately, we all are feeling the pain of their corruption.

[ikeyboy]

We don't have to spend any time trying to trash Palin, she does it to herself when she speaks. It's as simple as that.

[SCboy]

Obfuscation, to me, implies an intent. The way Palin talks is merely a reflection of her thought processes which is a reflection of...dare I say it...her brain.

[majorcynic]

"but I can't think of a poetic movement with which Palin has much in common..." I'm thinking maybe ... Dadaism?

I ran the Small Town Mayor "poem" through a Dada Poetry Generator, and it came through pretty much unchanged.

Where is Tristan Tzara when you need him?

[lonecrone]

I was thinking more of stream-of-­consciousn­ess writing and random word association. The disturbing thing is the way her audience cheers, as if it all made sense.

[Mummyscurse]

You know, she strikes one as being kind of feathers... quote, unquote... in the head, but not too much to bother complaining about, really often, unless you want to compare apples and orange seeds, but even that is less of a challenge than maintaining the Democracy of Alaska, or any of the states, even if the Eskimos didn't fight in the Civil War... on a daily basis... quote, unquote...

[6925thCobras]

Even if I could, I couldn't have said it better.

[Saratropic123]

Remember Steve Martin's "Wild and Crazy Guy" comedy routine?:

"If you want to have fun with your children, teach them to TALK WRONG....
That way, next time they're in school and the teacher calls on them: 'May I mambo dog-face in the banana patch?"

I have a theory that Steve Martin taught the beauty queens how to speak: Sarah Palin, Carrie Prejean, and Miss S. Carolina's Lauren Katlin.

[PNOGUY]

I wonder what drives the obsession with Palin here on HP.

If she's such an insignificant piece of fluff, why so many stories about her? If she has no chance of a political future, just let her disappear.

It's some kind of sickness. Or maybe Palinophobia.

[whitehawk]

She has perpetuated such a blunt strike on the American, foreign country's psyche, and got away with so much harm done to the political and economical scene of Alaska and America. Bizarre peronality and supported by many, is strange to many who look at conformity to show integrity, intelligence, insight, foresight, temperament, knowledge. all of these things are important to the ordinary candidate, except Sarah Palin. She escaped all her flaws being scrutinized until it was almost too late. What a devasting blow if McCain / Palin was now in office.

Disaster and Death of the American dream was that close.

[stick458]

Huh? What did you just say, or attempt to say? And by the way, where is the integrity in the current administration and congress. Palin is like Reagan - says what she means and means what she says. We need more like her.

[oldjerseygirl]

I came here to the Living section to get away from this broad. How silly of me. What I don't understand is what on earth makes her SO fascinating??!!

[wpinmac]

It's Mad Libs. She gets her speeches from Mad Libs. All the kids gather around, explain to her what a verb is and suggest one for. Then, when they are all done, viola! A resignation speech. All courtesey of Mad Libs.

[oldjerseygirl]

good one

[SOLERSO68]

yeah...um the "poetry of donald rumsfeld" was funny, becuase rumsfeld WAS obfuscatin­g...delibe­rtaely, palin dosent know what obfuscate means..she is merely semi literate. she cant speak because in order to speak you have to have a thought in your head . this is not only someone elses ( 7 year old ) idea, it dosent work for sarah palin, and its not funny. sorry

[tx]

Wyoming cowgirl
in all fairness
If you can't understand Obama
it's George Bush's fault

[Zengeist]

No
it's a lack
of consciousness