I know that many women consider John McCain's having chosen Sarah Palin as a running mate to be an insult to women. You know, throw any woman at them, and they'll vote for her ticket. And if you read my Palin Fatigue piece, published here not long ago, you'll know that I see an inherent insult to women in that very sentiment. But let's set that aside for the moment.
What I am certain of now is that whether or not Sarah Palin is an insult to women, she is clearly an insult to celebrities.
From what I have been reading lately, it seems to me that McCain's choice of Palin was as much about picking a media-ready, photo-friendly moldable piece of political clay as anything else, if not more so. He saw Barack Obama's celebrity as a threat and set out to find his own. Celebrity that is. Since he knew that he had no chance of ever rising to such heights of celebrity, he found a running mate who could.
And did she, has she, ever. Sarah (last name unnecessary) must be the biggest celebrity out there at the moment. Bigger than Paris (Hilton), Nicole (Kidman) , Madonna (come on, you remember, Guy Ritchie's soon to be ex?) or even the kids from High School Musical (what ARE their names anyway?). Even I'm writing about her. And that makes twice now.
But now, more and more it seems, the creation has begun to peel away from the creator's mold and take on its own agenda. Like Galatea to Pygmalion. Like Dr. Frankenstein's monster. Like Mariah Carey on TRL back in the crazy days of her being, well, crazy, like Janet Jackson and the infamous wardrobe malfunction, like a Twilght Zone episode involving a ventriloquist whose dummy comes alive....Sarah Palin is on the loose.
Most notably of late, we've seen Sarah steering from the talking points, and instead offering bon mots and impromptu riffs on Fashiongate, telling us that she doesn't get to take the designer duds home, that the bills for all the clothing were essentially bills for props in the political theater (like the stuff they put on the human mannequins that grace the cover of Vogue).
Wink, wink, shout out to the "Native Americans for Palin" sign.
Yep, she's a celebrity, alright. No wonder so many of them are getting the word out for Obama.