Sarah Palin's recent statement that, presumably during her childhood, she and her family used to cross the border from Alaska to take advantage of Canada's health care system is not really a gaffe or a verbal slipup, but offers an interesting insight into Palin. It is not exactly surprising, or even"ironic," to use Palin's words, that somebody who has made a name, and a great deal of money, for herself by linking health care reform to some kind of socialist bogeyman, used to take advantage of socialized medicine.
Speaking to a Canadian audience and reminiscing about traveling to Canada for health care as a child is the kind of thing we might expect from a progressive supporter of health care seeking to stress the need for a better health care reform system in the US. Had, for example, Anthony Weiner made this comment while on the Canadian side of the border near New York, you can be sure that Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and, yes, Sarah Palin would be seeking to red bait him out of the congress. There will, of course, be no such consequence for Palin.
While it is easy to point out the absurdity of somebody who, as a child, was made aware of the shortcomings of the American health care system spending so much energy fighting against the need to change that system, or to mock Palin for seeming to be unaware of just how telling this statement is, it also suggests a few of her political strengths.
From the time she became a national figure slightly more than 18 months ago, Palin has been, political opinions aside, a confounding mix of political positives and negatives. She is clearly an effective communicator who is able to connect with audiences, albeit within a somewhat limited demographic bandwidth. She has been reasonably successful in turning her most glaring political weakness, her seeming lack of knowledge of public policy, into a strength. She has done this by constantly reasserting her identity as an outsider to explain this away. Like former President Bush, Palin is rarely burdened by any doubt or sense of nuance, so is able to appeal to voters seeking clear, concise and accessible explanations, regardless of if they are wrong.
Palin's ability to turn weaknesses into strengths makes her a potentially formidable politician, but she is weakened by an unwillingness to truly prepare, study or learn. She has been able to hide this by challenging her critics, but one wonders how much more effective she would be if she immersed herself in the study of even a small number of issues.
This latest episode plays very well into Palin's strengths. It is easy to imagine that in the unlikely event that she was challenged for her statement, she would reply that she is not a Washington insider who studies everything her opponents say waiting for a gaffe, but is out there talking to real people. She would avoid the question of how she evolved from a young person who left the country due to the weakness of the American health care system to a middle-aged person who believes that changing that system puts us on the road to Stalinism by asserting her outsider status.
The likely lack of fallout around this issue underscores another of Sarah Palin's surprising political strengths. Although she has been surrounded by bad stories and mini-scandals for about thirty months, including: attacks from former aids to John McCain, reports of spending extraordinary amounts of RNC money on clothes and makeup, an unexpected resignation from her position as Alaska's governor punctuated by an almost surreal resignation speech, various issues regarding her family and her one time son-in-law to be and others, none of it has ever really stuck. Palin is a polarizing figure -- and will likely remain that way as long as she is on the national stage -- but she is also something of an unsinkable one.
A key to Palin's resilience may have been revealed in this latest comment. To Palin it was a throwaway line, good for building a folksy rapport with a Canadian audience. Referring to this as "ironic" is sufficiently cryptic that it is not clear what it even means, but it is clear from her lack of effort to distance herself from this remark that Palin is not really aware of how revealing this admission is. Palin is a complicated political figure, but she may be of less off an ideologue than first thought. Clearly, a true right wing ideologue would probably not have made this revelation. The informality of Palin's revelation, and her seeming lack of understanding of what it meant, suggests that for Palin, the right wing populism, while fun and easy, is not really grounded in anything other than the advancement of Sarah Palin.
Huff TV: Sam Stein: Obama Now Practicing What He Preaches On Health Care Reform (VIDEO)
Huffington Post political reporter Sam Stein was a guest on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" today to discuss President Obama's latest effort to rally support for passage...
A rock has more complexity than she does.
or not?
If not, what's the big deal?
I thought someone from COLUMBIA would know how to do their research and present an accurate framing of the story.
Then again I work with academics all day. Intellectual honesty is not the most important of concerns.
"She is clearly an effective communicator who is able to connect with audiences, albeit within a somewhat limited demographic bandwidth."
Yes and no.
Yes, Palin's greatest strength is that she has this unique type of "magnetism" that attracts followers wherever she goes. I agree with James Carville's assessment of Palin when he told Wolf Blitzer on CNN: "I find her really compelling, and so do a lot of other people... Why else would CNN (and other media) have so much coverage on her?" Her avid supporters know exactly who she is, and who she isn't, and to them this is truly compelling given our current state of affairs in the political arena.
No, I believe that your view of "limited demographic bandwidth" is rather short-sighted, and in fact that the bandwidth may be growing by the hour. Palin is rapidly becoming the iconic figure in the Tea Party movement, and I am sure that she, as well as the movement itself, will be a major factor in the November elections. Contrary to popular belief, the Tea Party movement is not limited strictly to social conservatives, or even the Republican party. In fact, the movement does not support any established Party system, but represent any voter who doesn't think that Congress and our government representatives are not doing the job that they are suppose to be doing. This, I think, covers a lot of "bandwidth."
She said nothing about getting "free " care at the expense of the Canadian System I have some news for you - the Canadian Health care system both public and private follows proper medical protocol and asks for ID from anyone who comes for treatment. they do not now and never did give free medical care to Americans who crossed the border. Non Canadians have to pay and wait their turn. If her family paid for the services , how would that be hypocritical?
I have travelled in Canada and needed medical services . the providers asked for my health care card and ID . Lying about my citizenship was not an option. They were checking IDs. Even people who have dual Canadian american citizenship and who live here cannot get free healthcare unless they move back to Canada and live there for continuously for three months.
The belief that Palin received free medical service from Canada is simply a myth that is perpetuated because it makes a good story.
American's don't just "zip over" to Canada because they enjoy paying medical expenses in another country. During the period she's speaking of, Canada's universal health care was in its infancy, without the monitoring and controls in place today. Further, in the Yukon Territory, citizen registration was very sporadic for some of the more remote settlements so most likely, her parents were not asked for proof of citizenship and neither was it offered. Today it would be different however.
The irony is that she doesn't realize that she benefited during the dawn of Universal Medical coverage in Canada, a concept she now decries as "socialism" when it suits her.
It's too bad Canada's "death panels" weren't fully functioning back then - if they were on the ball, we wouldn't be subject to Lady Blah Blah's daily hypocrisy in America today
As far as Canada's healthcare system, in the 1960's , it was not the fully functioning single payer system in place today. It was a mixture of public and private providers , all of which required some form of payment by the recipients. i refer you an article in the National Post - " Sarah Palin knows her Canadian health care history. Do we?"
The family sought treatment in Whitehorse , not some remote location. It is more probable that the medical facility providing the treatment followed standard medical protocol and asked the family for their name and address. Any other assumption defies common sense and assumes that the Canadian medical facility had sloppy procedures.
Some reporters got this story wrong and now the mistake is being repeated . However that is all it means.
I betcha haven't. wink. You have been to Canada at least have you not? France? the UK? Germany? maybe the Middle East? I'm sure you are an expert on health care in those locales as well, huh?
Additionally, there was no nationalize health care in Canada at the time.
And, they paid, just like every other American does.
So where's the hypocrisy?
In the end, don't let facts get in the way of your myths. Ignorance is bliss after all.
What she admitted was that she went to get care from the "Canadian" system instead of the
American system that she appears to hypocritically claim is the best healthcare system in the
world. So, what happened? Why didn't she use the best healthcare system in the world?
Maybe she did.
This woman is a poorly educated, grasping and manipulative person and she learned her "values" rather early on from what I see. How is the behavior of her family any different from Mexicans who come to the United States and seek health care by showing up in Emergency Rooms, and she throws temper tantrums about that all the time?
Sarah Palin's value system is wharped and is all about she and her family managing to get as much for doing nothing, for lying and getting support and freebies for it, avoiding taxes whenever possible, and slurping up all the government benefits they can while telling her supporters that government is BAD.