Great explanation of Palin on Slate

[Hamlette]

hat's why the strangest part of the Sarah Palin saga will always be her loathing of the media. She never failed to remind us that she didn't like being "filtered." She only wanted to talk directly to us, her listeners. Yet the reason Sarah Palin continues to have any kind of political force at all in this country is because of the media "filter." The media helped refine and define her Dada statements and arguments into something that briefly sounded like a coherent worldview. Yesterday morning, Gov. Palin excoriated Andrea Mitchell for "not listening to me" in an NBC interview. You have to go back and watch the clip before you can apprehend that Mitchell was indeed listening. It was Palin who was speaking in half-expressed thoughts and internal contradictions.

It's too easy to characterize Sarah Palin as an irrational bundle of bristling grievance. But I think it's more complicated than her simple love for playing the victim all the time. If you think of Palin as someone who never felt herself to be fully heard or understood, not truly politically realized in the eyes of the American public, her rage toward the country, the media, and those of us who fail to love and understand her is easier to comprehend. Think of an American visiting France who believes that if he just speaks louder, he will be speaking French. Palin has done everything in her power to explain herself to us, and still we fail to appreciate what she is all about. I'd be frustrated, too, if I thought I was offering up straight talk and nobody was getting the message. Especially if I held a degree in communications.

Once you understand that Palin's only actual message is the importance of loving and understanding Palin, it becomes easier to understand why she quit. The more Palin tries to explain herself, the more we all fail to get her. Every time she goes off script, she makes less sense. No wonder she didn't want to do debate prep or be coached by the McCain communications team. Instead of thanking those who packaged, explained, and spun her, Palin resents them. And because she believes she has been crystal clear all along, she's come to resent us, too. The enduring political lesson of Sarah Palin may simply be that for most of her political career she's been lost in translation, without fully appreciating that only in translation was she ever, briefly found.

http://www.slate.com/id/2222523/

[grantcart]

1. The great irony is that Palin was a Journalism Major lol

[LiberalFighter]

4. Doesn't say much about the college's journalism program where she got her degree.

[northernlights]

6. I think you mean colleges'

there were 5 of them, as I recall. 5 colleges, 6 years. Or was it 6 years, 5 colleges? Oh, well. Whatever. :D

[LiberalFighter]

7. But she only got a degree from one of the colleges.

[grantcart]

9. University of Idaho is not well known academically

Ironically Washington State University, just 30 miles away has one of the nation's best known journalism schools with the Edward R Murrow school.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_R._Murrow_College_of_Communication

If she was interested in Journalism, or if any out of state U of I student had any serious interest in journalism they would have transferred there.

[livetohike]

2. She screeched "You're not listening" at Andrea Mitchell

out her frustration that Mitchell wanted her to clarify something. Palin is a jerk. I'm surprised the media keeps her out in front of us. Palin is tiresome.

[ElboRuum]

3. Interessting observation...

"Dada statements"

You know, I've been searching for the word to describe her expressions because it did so smack of something of some familiarity that I just couldn't place. THAT'S what it was. Dadaist.

[Cha]

5. And, now Time mag has given her a bigger

pulpit to whine about the Obama admin.

This is a good analysis..thank you. I Rec'd and now it has 0 so somebody on here likes palin.

[Hamlette]

8. yes, I think it was the Time article that put me over the edge and made finding this so soothing

Palin is nothing if the media doesn't tell us what she is. Time tells us she might be ahead of her time.

The same was true of Bush, although the press has yet to acknowledge. Bush couldn't sting two words together and the press had to tell us what he meant and that it was brilliant.

I'm afraid "real Americans" are the ones who don't have any critical thinking skills.

[Cha]

10. Yeah, the world always did love whiners and quuitters and

blaming their shit on other people.

Something tells me Time needs to be boycotted for that suggestion.