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Stephen Schlesinger

Stephen Schlesinger

Posted: November 25, 2010 10:28 AM

I have long brooded over the fact that Sarah Palin still grabs headlines over the most egregious comments. She wangs Michelle Obama for pushing for an end of obesity in the United States. She goes after Barbara Bush for being an elitist "blue-blood" for saying that Palin should stay in Alaska. She slams down moderate Republicans for agreeing to things like the stimulus legislation or the TARP program. She champions the Tea Party movement and supports such loopy candidates as Christine O'Donnell in Delaware and Sharron Angle in Nevada against her own party. She blames Katie Couric for her own interview inanities. She lambastes Senator Murkowski for daring to run against her handpicked candidate, Joe Miller, of Tea Party fame. She attacks Ben Bernacke for trying to reduce unemployment by expanding the money supply through actions by the Federal Reserve. She assails Obama for just about anything he does. But the trick she plays is to express her anger with a smile. Somehow this disguises the ugliness underneath. The trick has worn thin. Below the surface, she is a furious, even, at times, vicious individual, whose beatific expressions or fixed grins or "you betchas" can't disguise the nastiness and ignorance at work. But why does the media give her so much exposure? It bewilders me. Yet one curious result from the vast press coverage is that it has driven her unfavorable rating up to Paris Hilton levels among the American public. If she ever gains the Republican presidential nomination, she will bring ruin to the party. Maybe, after all, the free press is doing us a favor.

 
 
 
 
 
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05:36 PM on 12/30/2010
I'm done wondering why the press have been so indulgent towards this woman. It's right up there with the other equal mystery of why CNN still consider McCain an expert on anything - and continue to fawn over his alleged "heroism". His friend Kerry, who he betrayed in 2004, is the actual hero.

But I digress. I think the press are afraid of Palin's wrath. They are also afraid of the wrath of Beck and Limbaugh which would accompany Palin's if they ever had the temerity to expose her nastiness. But, in time she will be her own undoing. She can't help it, one day she will go too far and (pardon the mixed metaphor) shoot a sacred Republican cow.
06:08 PM on 11/27/2010
I have to admit that the country is now in the debt of Palin. Palin calling to the fore that the Bushes are elitists and that they and others of their stripe seek to control the Republican Party is the equivalent of announcing that day follows night. Palin may have inadvertently done the country a service by pointing out the Republican Party doesn't have, never had and never will have the interests of anyone but the elite at heart. The fact that many who this elite wouldn't let in the front door or the back door unless they were wearing a green jump suit with a name tag have supported the Republican party for so long and so strongly defies logic and may be coming to a head. The Republican party has traditionally blocked any benefit from the have nots and now that this group is growing by leaps and bounds perhaps the Republicans will appear in a more clear light that will not appeal to many of their past supporters. The net result may well leave them in the same flaccid position as the Democrats where the party of FDR represents little but the triangulating that results in so such confusion that no one can say what they represent. The image arises of two headless serpents locked in deadly struggle over the remains of the public purse. Free no log-in editorial cartoons. President Palin: The Whys and Why Nots http://www.saintpeteriii.com
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
amblush617
09:16 PM on 11/26/2010
Excellent article! fits her to a "T"
02:03 PM on 11/26/2010
Short and to the point. You have painted an exact picture of P@lin.
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armywifee
From the Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
11:12 PM on 11/25/2010
Isn't "anger with a smile" just another way of being "passive aggressive"?
07:21 PM on 11/25/2010
Politics is a gladiatorial sport, and Sarah Palin is the heaviest hitter of them all, She doesn't know everything and people respect that and identify with it, They are weary of politicians who pretend to have the solutions to problems. The ecnomy is vital but it's clear that no econmoist in the country has any viable answers. Sarah Palin takes swipes at the weak sisters who offer Americans nothing but platitudes as the US is over taken by Russia, China, India, Brazil and Germany. At least Sarah Palin has the attitude of a fighter,
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
michiganms
08:54 PM on 11/25/2010
"she doesn't know everything" -- she doesn't know anything. Our ally NORTH Korea? She blames Couric (in various interviews and for various reasons) for asking her what she reads? C'mon -- I'm not a politician and if someone asked me what I read, I could reel off 10 different things. She blames Charlie Gibson for being "too professorial" and he asked her soft ball questions including what is the Bush Doctrine -- an answer she tried to fudge like a freshman in h.s. who hadn't done her homework. Sarah cannot accept responsibility for her actions, her gaffes, her lack of intellectual curiosity. She has done more to divide this country with her hatred with a smile than anyone I can remember.
10:00 AM on 11/26/2010
Sorry, Palin is not "the heaviest hitter of them all" but a total lightweight. With regard to her not "knowing everything," people do not "identify with it," but ridicule the entire ignorance underlying the catch phrases she even mangles occasionally. It is not true that "no economist in the country" has solutions to solve our problems. It is more accurate that Palin has offered NOTHING by way of solutions (and if you disagree, I challenge you to provide me the detail of any solution she has offered. "At least Sarah" is a fighter, you say. I guess you could concede that, if you approve of cowardly jibing and snarking from the sidelines and the protection of Fox and friends, rather than the middle of the ring.
05:25 PM on 11/25/2010
You're a rot ter, Mrs Palin,
You're the Queen of sinful sots,
Your heart's a de ad tomato splotched with moldy purple spots, Mrs Palin
Your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of rubbish imaginable, mangled up in tangled up knots!

(Sung to "Your a Mean One Mr.Grinch)
05:08 PM on 11/25/2010
Palin may have done the nation a service, albeit inadvertently. Palin calling to the fore that the Bushes are elitists and that they and others of their stripe seek to control the Republican Party is the equivalent of announcing that day follows night. Palin may have inadvertently done the country a service by pointing out the Republican Party doesn't have, never had and never will have the interests of anyone but the elite at heart. The fact that many who this elite wouldn't let in the front door or the back door unless they were wearing aq green jump suit with a name tag have supported the Republican party for so long and so strongly defies logic and may be coming to a head. The Republican party has traditionally blocked any benefit from the have nots and now that this group is growing by leaps and bounds perhaps the Republicans will appear in a more clear light that will not appeal to many of their past supporters. The net result may well leave them in the same flaccid position as the Democrats where the party of FDR represents little but the triangulating that results in so such confusion that no one can say what they represent. The image arises of two headless serpents locked in deadly struggle over the remains of the public purse. Free no log-in editorial cartoons. President Palin: The Whys and Why Nots http://www.saintpeteriii.com
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Matt Layo
04:33 PM on 11/25/2010
One slight correction. Palin didn't support Sharron Angle against her own party. Palin did not endorse anyone in the NV Republican primary.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Nansue
01:20 PM on 11/25/2010
If you look closely, that smile is a snarl.
01:17 PM on 11/25/2010
Obama is too conservative for me . 50% Bush 50% progressive----------Lousy
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Cleverboots
01:09 PM on 11/25/2010
Look closely at her "accomplishments." Half a governor. Half a failed Presidential campaign. Not all favored Congressional candidates won. Three children with behavior problems. The butt of jokes here and abroad. Her reputation is severely tarnished. She's all about getting even-look at Murkowski's battle with Palin favorite Joe Miller. Perhaps being a beauty queen made her think she deserved "more" than just being a big fish in a small pond like Wasilla. Whatever she believes, I wouldn't turn my back to her. Hunters carry sharp knives.
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MonaLisa65
10:24 AM on 11/26/2010
Why do people keep calling her a 'beauty queen'? She was 2nd runner-up!
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Cleverboots
04:14 PM on 11/26/2010
Probably to show just how superficial she is.
01:05 PM on 11/25/2010
I think she's just mean. Her pasted on smile and perky demeanor are, as I used to say in grammar school, as phony as baloney and I find it very disturbing how many people think that Sarah is "just like them." She isn't.

Palin's vindictiveness and pettiness are beyond belief. She can't let any criticism, real or perceived, go. She just can't and I think this will eventually catch up to her. Really, how many battle fronts can she keep fighting? The list keeps growing. Katie Couric, Barbara Bush. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and on and on. Palin is one nasty woman who never ever forgets.

She keeps bringing up Katie Couric trying to get in the last word. She's angry at Couric, not for asking a tough question, but for asking a softball question, that Palin couldn't answer. Palin flubbed it big time and we all caught a glimpse of the real Palin.
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Freesia2
I'm nicer than I appear in print. :-)
12:51 PM on 11/25/2010
Excellent point Mr. Schlesinger. That's exactly what she does and underneath that smile is nasty crawling like worms under a rotten log.

It makes me think of the southern thing (I'm from the south) wherein someone insults with a blessing. "Sarah Palin is just about the dumbest little baddie I've ever seen. Bless her heart.".

As for the press they may well be doing us a favor by covering her more often than the weather - I'll try looking at it that way if I can - but in truth I have another theory. Main Stream Media are rapidly ceasing to be journalists and are instead just in it for the revenue. (So much for those 1st Amendment protections that they're rapidly ceasing to deserve). And I have this thought when I'm fed up with it all that they actually have a marketing plan that was formulated in 2009. The white woman runs against the black president. How exciting! A real horse race. The Thrilla from Wasilla. Profit projections already drawn up. Advertising already lined up. Surely not, but would you be surprised? They seem determined to keep this con artist in the arena.
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Bubbagray
12:40 PM on 11/25/2010
Uh...get a clue. The Republican Party is ruined without Sarah Palin, and old, ossified, lurching, undead zombies like Karl Rove & the Bushes realize this. That's why you hear their harrowing howls and constant caterwauling on all the "news" & opinion shows. But don't "brood" over Sarah. Just feel fortunate to live in the exciting, exhilarating Palin era. "The times, they are a'changin'."
10:04 AM on 11/26/2010
I agree that Republicans have no future, given this country's demographics. But I'm positive Palin has no future in elected office. Hurray for Dems!
10:31 PM on 11/29/2010
Whenever that woman opens her mouth I get a clue.....