The Palins magical history tour |
Sarah Palin decorated a bus to embark on a tour, but doesn't want to disrupt people's vacations. She's playing hide-and-seek with the media, which guarantees maximum coverage, as nobody knows where the circus is going to turn up next. The stupid media fell for it and are all scrambling from one place to another, asking her idiotic questions about her record and her prospects. The media should have done some homework about her record and ask some decent questions instead of letting her frame the narrative.
Yesterday she told reporters that she quit as governor because of all the frivolous ethics complaints:
In 2009 she told Bill O'Reilly something completely different.
The media lets Sarah Palin get away with changing her stories time and time again, as long as they get some face time with her. She stated that a possible campaign will be unconventional and has made it very clear that she won't have a proper interview with a proper journalist. Whether she talks to the media or not, she sells copy, she generates hits and keeps the media bosses happy and their bank accounts healthy.
It's seems easy to dismiss Sarah Palin, she looks ridiculous and talks gibberish, but there's a serious side to all this.
We're all too familiar with Sarah Palin's real story on this blog and can't take her seriously as a candidate for anything. But the US is a big country, there are too many low information people out there who are entitled to vote. There are still too many racist people who can't stomach the idea of having a black president. There are the dreaded Diebold machines and corrupt politicians who will manipulate elections. George W Bush was elected twice... The majority of the media don't take their job seriously anymore and treat a profoundly ignorant celebrity as a serious politician. Sarah Palin as a candidate is a real possibility.
The political discourse in the US has deteriorated quite considerably in the past two years and the deciding factors for who gets chosen to run and who will ultimately win has become a third rate talent show, just the kind of competition the likes of Sarah Palin could win. She created an attractive act, where politics is reduced to slogans and her colourful personality shines through. What people see are her clothes, her hair, her hunting, fishing, climbing and biker stunts, her "Real American" persona, her family, the regular mother and housewife with a fire in her belly. Her opponent is boring in comparison. He's serious and talks in complete sentences, uses too many long words, dresses and behaves appropriately.
The possibility that the election of the president of the most powerful and influential country in the world could be decided in an inane talent show frightens and disgusts me.
A colourful, exciting act |