I admit it; it was me. I wasn't even drunk. I was scrolling through Twitter, minding my own daaaamn business, when Stefan Sirucek's (@sirstefan) article on Sarah Palin's palm notes arrived on HuffPo. http://bit.ly/c9vdPv It was then, that with the support of my late night partners in tweet, I coined the term "telepalmer" and "telepalmter". It spread like a western wildfire! I mean,
you don't get to join Wolf Blitzer (though I can make time for you Wolf) for coining a word on Twitter, but you get to see and hear it proliferated everywhere. I heard rumors about a T-shirt and I at least wanna freakin' free one! The buzz was pretty cool; Sarah isn't!I wanted to like her! Really! I'm an Idahoan. I respect all that colloquial, common man, huntin', shootin', down home, droppin' the 'g' stuff. Sarah and I meet at a pig roast and we're "goin rogue" to the 7-11 for some beef jerky, lotto tickets, and a cold pack. But she wasn't (and isn't) prepared for national politics. She repeats the same canned lines... *Pull the string* "You Betcha!" *Pull the string "Baaack room deals!" *Pull the string* "Weee're gonna cleeean up Washiiington!" She can't name a Supreme Court case (not one!). She can't name a founding father. And while we're on a word roll, she's an "Extempor-anus" and can't carry on an unscripted interview to save her aaaass. She just waves, winks and whines out sound bites. *Pull the string* "World peeeacemakers!" There's a place for that: The Miss Alaska pageant... Although, I'm going to venture that they have enough class not to scribe key words on their hand before their interview. She isn't evil or mean-spirited; she just isn't intelligent, mature or seasoned enough. Most of all, she hasn't been smart enough to surround her with people who know what they're doing at this level. Better people might not have been able to fake her into the White House, but they could have at least slowed down the train to Crazytown. My dad always said it was "ruinous to surround yourself with only people who adore you." She has done exactly that and is believing what they tell her.
Confessional: I don't pick on Sarah because I hate her. I don't pick on her because her politics are to the right of my own. I pick on her because I'm embarrassed for her. I wanted to believe in her. I wanted to believe that there was a real person who could have a common, constructive, and mobilizing conversation with Americans about the things we really care about. I'm angry that she has, ironically, taken herself so seriously as to become a joke. I'm angry that the straight-shootin', bulldog voice rising up from the people may forever be tainted by our trip around the sun with this woman... that every bright western girl who stands up tall with those hard "A"s in her accent will be finished before she ever gets started. And, THAT would be a travesty. Because I believe in everything Sarah Palin wants to be. The only thing I believe more is that she's not it.
