The Divider

She has no office.

She has no official power.

Yet what she wrote is the talk of politics, causing crowds to rise up and shout out loud, with everyone from cable hosts to pundits to the President of the United States answering her "death panels" charge.

She may be a quitter, but it's good to be Sarah Palin.

That's because while the politicians are running around trying to do their job and be heard above the town hall brawlers, she weighed in on the most important issue facing this country and changed the debate with a Facebook post. Proving that dumping the governorship wasn't all madness. Her victory lap on "death panels":

I join millions of Americans in expressing appreciation for the Senate Finance Committee's decision to remove the provision in the pending health care bill that authorizes end-of-life consultations (Section 1233 of HR 3200). It's gratifying that the voice of the people is getting through to Congress; however, that provision was not the only disturbing detail in this legislation; it was just one of the more obvious ones.

As I noted in my statement last week, nationalized health care inevitably leads to rationing. There is simply no way to cover everyone and hold down the costs at the same time. The rationing system proposed by one of President Obama's key health care advisors is particularly disturbing. I'm speaking of the "Complete Lives System" advocated by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the president's chief of staff. ... ..

Making fun of Sarah Palin is political sport, but seriously, how'd the Democrats allow this to happen? We begin a debate about health care reform only to wind up with Sarah Palin, of all people, writing the script. Rick Perlstein has a good point.

In purely political terms, the unleashing of "death panels" is the Republican shot that awoke the right. It also drove Pres. Obama to address it in his town hall, with Democrats repeating the phrase everywhere, laughing at it while trying to rebut it. It stuck anyway.

Keith Olbermann reduced Eugene Robinson to reading the full quote of his article last night on his show, because Palin had truncated it.

Tell me why everyone's running around responding to Palin's Facebook page? Because what she's hoisting into the ether is so potentially damaging they have to. That's how upside down everything is at this point.

In a Rovian turn of political cynicism, Palin blasted on Facebook one of the most divisively offensive statements that could be made in a health care debate, writing about "death panels" and implying that Trig, her son with Down Syndrome", would have to stand before one. The gargantuan nerve it takes to launch a lie so ludicrously unbelievable reveals such heinous disregard for reality and facts you've got to wonder if she's sane.

But then you watch the unraveling, the unleashing of the fury in the town halls we witnessed from Specter to McCaskill and beyond, wondering what spell was weaved over an already agitated American right wing who upon hearing "death panels" with "euthanasia" on top came completely unglued.

She took to Facebook a couple of days ago to push harder on "death panels", taking her argument straight at Pres. Obama.

The New York Times is running a story about who started the rumor and the roots of it. No one should be surprised the same actors were around during the Clinton days, but the fact that American Spectator magazine and Betsy McCaughey, former New York Attorney General, an opponent of Hillarycare as well, is at the center hardly matters amidst the noise. McCaughey's July article "Deadly Doctor", on Rahm Emanuel's father, cynically uses health care cost savings to scare the crap out of seniors. No one ever said Palin was in this alone.

The New York Times scolds critics of Dr. Emanuel saying...

But Dr. Emanuel's paper does not quite say what Ms. Palin claims it does. Rather, it is an exploration of how scarce resources - like organs or vaccines during a pandemic - can be morally allocated when not enough resources are available.

Sober analysis that hardly comforts, which is why Palin's pack sees a target.

The bit player in all this, Chuck Grassley, told an audience that he had to stay involved long enough so that the grass roots could organize, get on TV and make their stand. He said that if he hadn't stayed in the debate in Washington there would have been a health care bill in June. Serving as a double agent while spinning bipartisan baloney, Obama buying in regardless, Grassley now says the end-of-life counseling is out in the Senate, as far as he's concerned, which as is shown in Palin's latest Facebook post, she takes as her win.

Howard Dean made a good case on "Countdown" that Grassley doesn't decide and Republicans are digging themselves a hole, which others also believe. I'm not so sure.

A person everyone has judged isn't national office material managed to cause a ruckus and change the dynamics of debate, getting Pres. Obama to respond to what she'd unleashed in writing that ricocheted across America. Palin forcing the President to answer her, because she's backed by thousands and thousands of the furious loaded for bear with grievances.

All of this because of what was written by a woman who doesn't hold office or any spot of power and doesn't care about dividing America, because in the world from where she hails Sarah Palin already sees America divided. It's also in her interest to keep it that way.

For that matter, the only hope Republicans have is division and defeating anything Obama that now is symbolized, at least for them, by "death panels," which has less to do with health care and actual "death panels" than it does the intrusion of government in our lives, that old standard of the right rising from the ashes.

All this started by a woman who can't be president. Of course, she doesn't know she can't be president. But for now it doesn't really matter. She's the star of her own "death panel" realty show. And it's a huge hit.

- Taylor Marsh, with podcasts available on ITunes.

Follow Taylor Marsh on Twitter: www.twitter.com/taylormarsh

Comments

[daninkansas]

Yes, Sarah Palin fascinates us. She is a Rorschach test of our political, social, and cultural sensibilities. I like her, as does my favorite pagan feminist iconoclast, Camille Paglia. I also trust Sarah Palin and I generally agree with her. I thought she was the most qualified person on either ticket last fall. I still think so. That's not saying much. But I wish her well. Others wish her ill, but we'll all be watching.

Palin as "a person everyone has judged is not national office material" , is like the famous reaction to Nixon's 1972 landslide win, "How did he win when no one I know voted for him?" Almost 47% of voters said she was qualified. Next time, who knows? She must make the case? Will she try? She's a big girl. She'll figure it out.

Could it possibly be that she resigned her governorship for sound and selfless reasons, out of concern for the best interests of Alaska? Another test.

We are a divided country. We shouldn't pretend otherwise. So we have to fight it out. Now the left has the ball, but is losing yardage. Thank goodness.

[nicole473]

Wow. I was looking forward to a good Palin-ba$hing article, but instead I wound up bemused, annoyed, and wanting to complain.

The piece reads as though you just couldn't get your thoughts focused, and sort of mindlessly rambled. Not well written at all.

Additionally, you left out a lot of relevant info such as the controversy over Palin's Facebook pages is now about whether or not they were actually written by her.

Another point you left out is that Palin backed off the d- panel claims on Facebook.

Finally, I think you give this woman more importance than is needed. The hullabaloo had died down a week ago where Palin was concerned. Why continue to bring it up?

[AmericanWarrior]

Some Americans are dumb.

[sippewissett]

I'm sure "The Divider" was purposely chosen as a title for this article to remind us of how much Palin resembles Bush-in-a-skirt. Like Bush, Palin has the capacity to separate Americans instead of reminding us of our common love of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". Her rants about "real Americans", by which she means "Joe Six Pack", serve to remind us of her anti-intellectual approach to everything she touches.

Palin is dangerous most of all because, narcissist that she is, she does not recognize that she is a completely inappropriate choice for national office. She has already been the embodiment of The Peter Principle as governor of AK. The notion that she has the intellect to be president is ludicrous, but this ambition is nursed by the cynical RNC that knows she can incite the basest of the "base".

We need vision and strategy to achieve that vision. She has neither and is ethically challenged as well so where she'd take the country is scary. Can you imagine some of her Wasilla buddies in national office? They couldn't manage agencies and state responsibilities in a 700,000-person state. Imagine the damage they'd inflict in D.C.

[csavage]

Sarah Palin is still beloved by many of the wingnuts. They already see a divided America-the "real" Americans and those who "hate" America. She appeals to people who own guns, her own militia, as it were. Her ideas get a lot of traction with people that are not sorry they voted for her, even though she quit and cannot formulate a coherent sentence in a press conference.

[Steven Katz]

I used to think that Palin had absolutely no chance of winning any national general election, although she was a definite threat to win the Republican party's nomination for President. But now, if Obama continues to alienate his base by never doing anything without sufficient compromise with the Republican­s,...well, maybe I should start shopping for that condo in Vancouver (or Trondheim) after all.

[sippewissett]

Cut out the whining about what Obama and compromise with the Republicans. We're only six months into his administration and we'd all do better you channeled your whining into support instead of caving into the possibility that Wingnut Palin could be on the ticket in 2012.

We have 3+ years before that could happen...and it won't because the Big Boys in the party will shove her aside. Before then she's useful for stirring up the base, but they will not let her near the throne. (And before that she'd be so winking-you-betcha absurd in a primary campaign that it will be clear there are other GOP choices that would have a better shot.) So you have 3+ years to get behind Obama and reform instead of talking about moving elsewhere.

[Wallysmom]

As I said before, Palin is like an accident...you drive by, you see the mess and you just can't help but look.

[DLBinPDX]

I want to know who her Facebook ghost writer is, and how much that person is being paid, and if payment is being made out of Sarah's personal funds.

[brt929]

I think you have it wrong. Someone is paying Palin to put her name on it. She wouldn't do this for free.

I still think it is Betsey McCaughey. I think there are computer programs that can figure it out.

[Hammerofthor]

Sarah inspires love, loyalty, and devotion among her legions of fans and supporters. Who can deny this, or ignore it?

[BlueFloyd]

who cares to deny it or ignore it? it is nothing, however, compared to the haight, division, and negative destruction caused by that devotion.

[libster4]

Yes, by LYING. Ya know, makin' stuff up. Bad stuff. She inspires her legions of witless fans and supporters who believe her phony crap. I'm not denying that.

[brt929]

Well she isn't exactly "lying," she is just telling them what they want to hear. Whether it is true or not, is inconsequential.

The problem is the caliber of human being she appeals to. They are evangelical, uneducated, uninformed, white rac ists. 50 years ago, these people would be wearing hoods and burning crosses in the name of God.

Remember the 2008 campaign? Those were the people showing up to her rallies.

She is the female version of George Bush, except I think GWB has more scruples than she.

[Luv2Purple]

many people were loyal to bobby knight too - even as he was CHOKING his players - wiping his butt and throwing the soiled toilet paper at the kids he was coaching.....both palin and knight were bullies! some people would follow a rat down a hole - doesn't make the rat a good leader!

[a3w]

Lots of evil people throughout history have inspired love, loyalty, and devotion. If they couldn't do that, they wouldn't have made history. It makes them no less evil.

[awclark]

So true!

[Healthwatch2010]

Please! Sarah Palin is NO star she's at best a conservative pawn and a first-rate agitator. There's NO doubt that Palin is a joke and will go down in history as **the** leader of the unlearned. Many of her followers depend on her to speak for them, because they can't think for themselves. Let's be honest ANYONE can mobilize the ignorant far right even MIckey Mouse!

[truth4power]

i have a solution:

boycott sarah palin.

[Alila]

She's a brilliant politician, just like Obama. They both have that killer instinct, but Sarah isn't afraid to get nasty. Obama only has race to use as a shield. Sarah has more cards to play in order to protect herself and deflect criticism and she uses them shamelessly. Attacks on her only make her stronger. It's really something to witness.

[Iwouldprefernotto]

except that Obama is smart and Palin is not.

[Gladys1963]

and Obama posts his thoughts coherently in the New York Times, and Palin uses a ghost writer to post on Facebook.

[SheilaMarie]

Taylor,
Love your point of view. Could you please investigate who is writing Palin's Facebook entries - it clearly is not her word salad. Exposing the ghost writer should debunk anything that comes 'from Palin' in the future. Thanks.

[Nina28]

The same type that follows Palin is the same type that would give their money to Jim or Tammy Fay Bakers of the nation.

[write2bheard]

SP puts us on the defensive with outrageous lies. Palin needs to be put on the defensive and kept there. God knows she has done enough stuff to be defensive about, so we won't have to write outrageous lies to do it with. I think there is a story in the way she discriminated against Native Alaskans during her administration, her secessionist and John Birch society ties, the pork-barrel she gorged on while mayor of Wasilla, her violence inciting tendency and the beat goes on. The truth is the light and SP needs that light shining on her full force.