The One That Won't Go Away

SARAH PALIN: AS BOGUS AS THIS IMAGE


While looking through the pages of some former employers I chanced upon United Press International, across the top of whose pages a huge banner proclaims the question

"Sarah For 2012?"

oops, excuse me. . . I had to take a fast detour my sudden need to vomit took me to the loo but I'm all right now.

What continues to surprise me as I age - sometimes more quickly than I ought to - is that there are people who think this ill-educated person, whose actions appear governed by religious convictions and personal bias, as well as personal enrichment, would be of strong enough character, deep enough education and worldliness, and iron-willed decisiveness, to be a company president, let alone president of the currently most powerful country on the planet. They appear to work themselves into an excited delirium over her - let's hope the RCMP does not misinterpret their actions and taser them.

This person claimed to be a journalist; certainly she emphasized journalism in her college studies. But as a journalist myself I have to say that, to do the job properly, one has to put one's personal biases aside, be unflinching in the face of truth, and stand by one's statements. Which is why - if I were called upon to do so - I would never presume to report on her. There is not much in the person's character or former actions or thoughts that would inspire me. But there is much to challenge.

As an example of her manipulations one can point to the Gravina Island Bridge fiasco.

In 2005, the US Congress passed a spending bill containing an earmark worth nearly half a billion dollars - $442-million - to build two bridges in the state.
The Gravina Island Bridge was to have been longer than the Golden Gate and taller than the Brooklyn Bridge and would have connected fifty residents and Ketchikan International (because it receives flights from Russia) Airport to the mainland. After news reports that it would cost $233-million it was derided as "Bridge to Nowhere".

In the midst of controversy Hurricane Katrina happened. It was suggested to remove the funds and use them instead to rebuild a bridge over Lake Pontchartrain that was destroyed in the hurricane.

The Alaskan senator of the day, Ted Stephens, threatened to quit if the money were reallocated.

Despite the unimaginable deprivation and destruction of Katrina, and the small benefit to an even smaller population, Congress gave the funds to Alaska though the firestorm continued in the media.

The following year, 2006, Palin ran for the governorship with a "build-the-bridge" plank in her platform.

She said she would "not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project ... into something that's so negative."

She was elected, and in September 2007 she cancelled the project in an apparent snit, saying Congress had no interest in accurately portraying the project. And Alaska retained the funds.

Once she was unveiled as vice-presidential candidate Palin claimed that she had always said "thanks, but no thanks, to the bridge".

There are other incidents that show the fluid nature of her recollections, like electricity, always seeking the easiest - for her, the currently most expedient - path.

But that one is sufficient. We won't harp on her other missteps, because everyone, yours truly included, has done stupid things.

If one were to run for high public office, however, one would have to subject oneself to the deepest, closest scrutiny without the resentment she has shown. One should not claim to be penny-wise and array oneself in couturier duds at the expense of one's party committee, claim to have funded it out of one's own pocket, and then not declare it as a taxable income. And one most certainly does not betray one's ignorance before a national audience:


COURIC: Why isn't it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700bn helping middle-class families, who are struggling with healthcare, housing, gas and groceries, allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That's why I say, I, like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the tax payers looking to bail out, but ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping tho— it's got to be all about job creation too, shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track, so healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reigning in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as— competitive— scary thing, but one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.


(Katie Couric of CBS interviewing Palin at the end of September 2008)


While we were rolling around the floor, howling with laughter, commentator Jack Cafferty of CNN was biting in his assessment of Palin. He said if being

"one 72-year-old's heartbeat away from being President of the United States... doesn't scare the hell out of you, it should".
Moreover,
"that was one of the most pathetic pieces of tape I have ever seen from someone aspiring to one of the highest offices in this country".

Nothing that has been seen, heard or read about her since then suggests that she is any wiser or more deeply read, more open or more educated as to the ways of the world. 2012??? Maybe the Mayans had an intimation of her eventual appearance, as their calendar ends then.

Fox has shown its true stripes by hiring her on a multi-year contract as a political commentator. Comedy is not dead, after all.