The Lyin', the Witch and the Wardrobe
Watching the fruit fly speech, I wasn't sure if I was seeing the real Sarah Palin, Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, or Sarah Palin as Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. It's all starting to blur. She was so absurd, so off-the-rails embarrassing, so staggeringly dumb, that it left me thinking that maybe Sarah Palin is a special needs child.
If you missed it, this candidate for vice president of the United States of America made a so-called "policy speech" on special needs children. In that speech she took on earmarks (naturally), and said that money "goes to projects having little or nothing to do with the public good -- things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not."
Sorry, but everyone knows -- and I mean EVERYONE -- that fruit fly research is not about fruit flies! What I didn't know specifically, but I love knowing now, is that fruit fly research has led to the discovery of a protein that is apparently critical in treatment of autism in children, the very kind of "special needs child" the candidate was speaking about. Just when you think she couldn't get any more embarrassing.
Palin's supporters are outraged, wondering how we could expect her to know that. Um, when the candidate for vice president of the United States chooses to give a policy speech on a topic that she claims to be an expert on, shouldn't we expect her to actually be an expert? She claims in her speech that she is the one in the McCain/Palin administration who will "lead the reforms" necessary in the area of special needs children. She's not asking us to put her in charge of the church bake sale. She wants us to put her in charge of our most vulnerable children. And, no, it doesn't matter that she is the mother of such a child. Just like it doesn't make her a foreign policy expert because she can see Russia from her house, it doesn't make her an energy expert because she lives near an oil pipeline, and it doesn't make her knowledgeable on the job of vice president because she plays one on TV (she thinks the VP is in charge of the senate!).
For the few people left who continue to stubbornly love this woman, I know it feels great to see someone on the national stage who reminds you of yourself and your own $150,000 wardrobe. I know you felt the same kind of familiarity with George W. Bush, when his brush clearing reminded you of your own 1500 acre estate, er, ranch. I get it. We all suffer from a touch of the narcissist from time to time. But how about we all stop looking in the mirror and start looking out the window? The world is big, complicated, messy, and very dangerous. The problems are deep and the problem solvers need to be deeper. We don't need more superficially familiar, intellectually vacuous, and insecurely arrogant people running the country into oblivion.
What we desperately need are smart, educated, curious, intellectually honest, and genuinely confident leaders. We can't afford to keep voting for ordinary because yet another snake oil salesman (or saleswoman) sold us on the idea that we should somehow be terrified of the extraordinary.
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When she returns her daughter's Luis Vuitton (SP?) bag, I hope she can find a cheaper knock-off at Wall-mart to replace it. You know how cruel elementary school children can be---particularly children of real Americans.
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!
Mr. Seitzman,
You aresoooo right! I think even the GOP could have done better than the 2 candidates currently representing them. If Palin really is what Americans see when they look in the mirror then we need some serious therapy as a country - actually, I think we do anyway.
Great writing!
Chuck Heath, Sarah Palin's father, is a retired teacher. A retired Science teacher.
She could have used one of her life lines and called her dad, BEFORE she gave this speech.
What kind of science did he teach?
Thank you for writing this article; I've been waiting a long time to here someone make the point that you have made. How arrogant does a person have to be to choose a president mainly based on who reminds him/her of themselves (i.e. the appeal of George Bush and also Sarah Palin)? I consider myself smart to the point of being a bit egotistical but I still don't want someone just like ME to run the country; I want someone BETTER than me to run the country. Instead of choosing the person that I would enjoy having a beer with with why not choose the person that has the intelligence to solve issues that I would not be capable of solving? Instead of just choosing someone that reminds us of ourselves, why not choose someone that reminds us of what people capable of being?
first sentence of this post is hilarious, sad, oh so true and absolutely surreal. come on! don't people have to take any high school biology anymore and remember mendel and his fruit fly experiments?
It's populism gone mad. Now they boast about being ignorant and wear it like a badge. Evangelise to the point of believing disease is god's will. Lying so much they make people believe it is the truth. Use fascist tactics with robocalls. You can only hope enough people in the US don't swallow this sewage like they did the last 8 years. If not? Even if the end up being the minority this time, aren't you ashamed that the US has bred such creatures. you 've got to live with them as they seem like lost causes.
Yes. This was an excellent title. Very very funny. Best of class.
Absolutely loved the title. Very good writing. Pithy and to the point. Keep up the good work. I hope people actually vote on substance rather than fear.
It does not surprise me one bit the ignorance shown by Sarah Palin speech on fruit fly research; why should it? One of the true wonders of the world is life and the DNA that is the underpinning of life. The truly wondrous thing about DNA is that every single creature ever discovered, from the most obscure bacteria to man, uses the exactly the same mechanism to build all its living functions. Palin may not believe in evolution but as we look at life we see that it is all the same. Take a strand of DNA from any creature and splice it into the DNA of another and it starts to function. Be it the code to create a protein or to build and eye.
It is a mind blowing thing to discover is that each one of us is the head of an unbroken chain going from daughter to mother ... to the very first living thing that used DNA. That is a 4 billion year unbroken chain – astonishing, we are survivors! How can anybody that thinks God created man in his own image some 4 thousand years ago grasp the true wonder of life?
We study fruit flies because at the deepest level we are the same. We can perform generational experiments on these amazing creatures in a matter of days, 20 to be precise. Yet 60% of human diseases have a recognizable matching DNA in the fruit fly.
Remember Obama warned us:
"I don't know how they could be making fun of something that experts agree is a good idea. I mean it's like these guys take pride in ignorance! It's like they like being ignorant."
True words .
Thank you for that quote----it brought up my story below:
I have a close friend who is the polar opposite from me
politically. Myself the liberal, she the non-religious
yet very conservative one. We are both critical care
nurses with inquisitive, intuitive approaches to life, and
it's safe to say we both have our fair share of "smarts".
Though we try to steer away from politics, this
time round is hard. I see my friend---this bright educated woman,
digging in her heels with stubborn support for Ms.Palin and her hate-talk
express. No amount of reality jolts from me in regard to the outrageous
goings on with Sarah Palin seem to get thru. She sometimes literally puts
her fingers in both ears and hums when I try, gently, to bring her back
to planet Earth. This friend detests John McCain, but loves this born-again
"informati
duds. With all the lyin' and dirt-throwing and the audience-shouted
racial slurs and threats---WHEW. I shutter to think what it would take for such
an "ultra conservative" as my friend to hit bottom. Do they HAVE a bottom?!?
My friend is a magpie who has focused her gaze on a
"bright, twinkly object" in the road, and even though it has been revealed
to be just an old bottle cap, she doesn't care.
"My friend is a magpie who has focused her gaze on a
"bright, twinkly object" in the road, and even though it has been revealed
to be just an old bottle cap, she doesn't care."
Love this line - beautiful enCAPsulation of the Palin effect - thanks for the insight!!
Thank you for this post, Michael. You make so many good points. When I heard the other day about the fruit fly comment by Palin, I thought it was just another sarcastic line at a stump speech. A policy speech?Don't they pay people in the campaign to check on these things? Unbelievably ignorant, and downright scary to think that republicans want to put her in charge of anything more serious than a bake sale.
The Lyin' the Witch and the Wardrobe..
I loved it too.
Maybe when she auctions off her $150K wardrobe, the money could be used to fund some of the fruit fly research Palin and the RNC find so laughable?!?!
Sorry, but the people in her campaign don't seem to have any more intellectual curiosity than Palin herself. I have to wonder if any of them know what a VP's duties are. All these people are, are glorified advertising executives and public relations managers.
Is anywho else here concerned that the great masses of American people, especially those who are not likely to open a textbook anytime soon, may not know much about fruit fly research, may not be intellectually curious, may actually despise or may actually fear academic knowledge, and may not see the link between the effective medical treatment they need and the years of disciplined work that must be done to bring about a cure for disease?
Those people may not have enough going on to understand how remarkable it is that a VP candidate would undermine the top guy's views on spending, and would advocate the end of a singificant source of the advances of 100 years, in her first major policy speech on a topic that she is supposedly informed of and that is supposedly of singular interest to her?
If she is saying what they want to hear, it does not matter to these folks how surreal her remarks are. It sounds good to them and they applaud her efforts. Can it really be that existence within a comfort zone does beat analysis and intellectualism in American life?
What you are suggesting, in effect, is that only smart, educated, informed people should be allowed to vote. Arguments have been made throughout human history for such a position, and in fact our beloved Founding Fathers believed that only people who owned property should be eligible to vote. But we live in a democracy where everyone over the age of 18 is allowed to participate. So we are stuck with the decisions "we" make, no matter how ignorant "we" and our decisions may be.
No, you have me wrong. I am not suggesting that at all.
I only ask that in THIS election we might see, in addition to all the other things going on, that it truly does not matter to many ordinary Joes that a mis-speaking or misinformed candidate for high office recommends a course that is contrary to the position espoused.
If you are a leader of the free world trying to get to 12, you might do well with 6 + 6, or 4 x 3, or 18 - 6 or 10% of 120 but to tell folks the way is 1 + 1 and not have them mind at all is quite another.
I have taught on the undergraduate level. I am glad we all can vote. You don't have to be rich (i'm not) to have a brain. I am just hoping that many of the "undecided" in swing states are thinking folks, and not angry folks that carve Bs on their faces..
The woman is a trainwreck and the only thing we can do is watch incredulously at the spectacle of it all. Here is one more thing that she knows nothing about and her supporters rush to her defense that she is not expected to know this. Is she expected to do some research? Consult with advisers and experts before going in front of the cameras to deliver a major policy speech? Is the campaign trying to embarrass her on purpose?
As for me, I couldn't be more thrilled that she is simply one debacle after another. It couldn't happen to a nicer person.
With a title this good, I knew I was going to enjoy your post - and you more than met my expectations!
In addition, as a trained geneticist, I appreciate your column even more for alerting me to Palin's incredibly uninformed and dismissive comments about basic research. Fruit flies may not be particularly glamorous, but Palin came across as completely arrogant and foolish for belittling projects that might eventually lead to treatments/cures for the very special needs children she purports to represent.
You would think that, with a special needs child in her own family, she might be a bit more cognizant and appreciative of all the work being done by dedicated scientists who truly are interested in translating successes in the research lab into healthcare advances for the "public good".
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