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The Spectacle Blog
I just got through reading Todd Purdum's nearly 10,000-word Vanity Fair piece on Sarah Palin, and the most frustrating thing about it is that it doesn't break any new ground on a woman who has been scrutinized more heavily over the last ten months than any politician other than President Obama. Sure, there are a few gossipy nuggets, such as the fact that candidate Obama "believed Palin would never have time to get up to speed. He told his aides that it had taken him four months to learn how to be a national candidate, and added, 'I don’t care how talented she is, this is really a leap.'" There are also a lot of anonymous complaints from former McCain campaign staffers, the gist of which we've already heard at one time or another.
The rest of the piece is mainly a rehash of everything we've been reading for months:
Whatever her political future, the emergence of Sarah Palin raises questions that will not soon go away. What does it say about the nature of modern American politics that a public official who often seems proud of what she does not know is not only accepted but applauded? What does her prominence say about the importance of having (or lacking) a record of achievement in public life? Why did so many skilled veterans of the Republican Party—long regarded as the more adroit team in presidential politics—keep loyally working for her election even after they privately realized she was casual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency? Perhaps most painful, how could John McCain, one of the cagiest survivors in contemporary politics—with a fine appreciation of life’s injustices and absurdities, a love for the sweep of history, and an overdeveloped sense of his own integrity and honor—ever have picked a person whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job all but disqualified him for his?
I happen to believe Palin deserves neither to be vilified nor made into a heroine. I always thought the instant comparisons to Reagan by conservatives after her convention speech went overboard, as did the demonization of her by the left. Every treatment of her ever since has followed the same sort of pattern -- uncritical adoration by her supporters, followed by vilification, followed by over the top defenses.
Purdum had the time and magazine space to break this cycle and deliver a more nuanced portrait of Palin. At one point of the article, recounting her surprising victory in the Alaska governor's race, Purdum wrote, "Palin’s victory that November was one of the flukiest successes in modern American politics. Rebecca Braun, the publisher of the Alaska Budget Report, a respected nonpartisan newsletter, describes the result as something 'far beyond anything you could explain in terms of intellect or training.'"
Well, it might have made for an interesting article if Purdum explored the mystery of how "the flukiest successes in modern American politics" came to be, or more broadly, described the political talents Palin actually displayed over the course of her apparently inexplicable rise. Instead, we just get a recycled hit piece that is sure to reignite the worst aspects of the Palin wars.
UPDATE: Alex Massie offers some worthwhile thoughts, noting, "The shame of Paln's emergence last year isn't that she blundered so badly, it's that there was something there but that, after her convention speech, that something was lost in the tumult that engulfed her and, in the end, helped destroy the McCain campaign."
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ChrisB| 6.30.09 @ 1:02PM
"Flukiest successes in American politics"? Good grief, Obama's run the greatest streak of flukes in American history, from getting into the state senate unopposed, through having not one, not two, but three US Senate opponnents self-destruct and then his Presidential campaign. Purdum talks about Palin's ego and "excessive self-regard"? How about a President who's entire political philosophy can be summed up in one sentence: "ain't I something?"?
Old Texican| 6.30.09 @ 2:42PM
...Well ChrisB
"remarkable" is a better word than "flukie".
She ran there in Alaska on reform...and Alaskan values.
Alaskans are a sturdy breed, and almost as ungovernorable as we old time Texicans. Heh!
Sarah is simply a fine woman...in a big job...and is pulling it off pretty well.
I would have genuinely enjoyed watching her hit her stride in the VP role.
My goodness, I think Obama hired Joe Biden to make himself bullet-proof...literally.
If Obama could not cotinue in office for any number of reasons...We got Biden first in line...followed by Pelosi.
God help us!
Liberal Reader| 6.30.09 @ 3:02PM
Was there really a "demonization" of Palin by the far left?
Palin, who accused Obama of "paling around with terrorists" (a great example of demonization, if you ask me) was often treated unfairly -- by the media and by the people who surrounded McCain (hardly the "far left").
However, Obama's response to her seems to have been absolutely accurate. No matter what her political talents (which are obviously great), and no matter how smart she is (which is still not completely clear), it is very difficult to understand how anyone expected her to qualify on the national stage with a few weeks' preparation.
General Zod| 6.30.09 @ 3:36PM
Liberal Reader:
On which planet do you reside? Palin's comment about Obama is completely accurate. Bill Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist. Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister, who Obama paused to campaign for during his own New Hampshire primary campaign, is responsible for the killing of thousands of Kenyans in opposition to his campaign, is a terrorist.
As for paling around with terrorists, what would you consider Obama's siding with Chavez, Castro, and other Marxist thugs over the current situation in the Hondorus?
Apparently, some habits, like paling around with terrorists, are hard for Obama to break...kinda like his smoking habit.
sre| 6.30.09 @ 4:13PM
"[C]asual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency"?
I thought this was an article about Palin, not Biden.
tjproudamerican| 6.30.09 @ 4:38PM
I am a liberal and I know you will not believe me, but I think that Governor Palin is a The Clinton-sized disaster for the Republicans and conservatives.
The Clintons and Governor Palin manage to arouse amazing self-pity in themselves and their followers. I think Sarah Palin has shown herself to be a Bill Clinton-class liar and self server, but maybe Governor Palin could still right herself.
However, self-pity of the kind that The Clintons and Governor Palin possess is good for fund-raising, circling the wagons, and feeling righteous. It is a disatster for a national party.
We Liberals lost 16 years with The Clintons and it is a miracle that Barack Obama won.
I find Governor Palin a sure victory for Obama because deep down Americans hate feeling sorry for themselves.
Anna Keppa| 6.30.09 @ 6:11PM
Poor tjproduamerican: he thinks that listing a string of unsupported assertions is "making a case".
Eric Damon| 6.30.09 @ 7:53PM
tjprudamerican,
What self pity are you talking about from Palin? She did not attack those who slammed her from within her own camp during the campaign, she has dealt with the people who oppose her in her own state, and she has carried herself well when attacked by certain voices on the left. I see no self pity in either her words or her actions; yet I do see the left totally fixated on her and an attempt to destroy her as a viable national politician. Maybe if the left would let go of their obsession with Palin and her family, you folks could get a good nights sleep; instead you sit around trying to find things to keep her in the news, because you need someone to demonize to make your party look sane.
ambro| 6.30.09 @ 7:58PM
Massie's comment that she engulfed McCain's campaign in a disaster = clearest example of living in an alternate universe. McCain is responsible for engulfing the McCain campaign in disaster. All the Repubs I know here in LA that actually got off their Stoopid Party butts and actually got involved in the campaign were out there to vote & work for Palin, not McCain. Senator John, Gawd, bless 'im, had one of the Stoopid Party's most tone deaf and ineptly administered and supervised campaigns in recent history.
Ivan| 6.30.09 @ 8:48PM
This Palin Derangement Syndrome will be fun to witness as it plays out over the next twelve years.
Can you say, "President Palin?"
Dan Calabria| 6.30.09 @ 10:00PM
It's amazing that we on the right seem to get so exercised over stool samples like this one from Purdum (emphasis on the second syllable).
Purdum's dump follows on the heels of a similar dropping by a forgettable author that appeared in the LAST issue of "Portfolio Magazine" after which it folded.
Hey, maybe we'll get lucky and lightning will strike again?? Now that would be poetic justice.
Basil Plumley| 6.30.09 @ 10:58PM
Hey ambro,
I totally agree with your statement. I am also sure Massie will explain to us how Palin made the decision to suspend the McCain campaign in September. Forgive me if I don't hold my breath.
Ahh ...... the willing suspension of disbelief.
ted| 7.1.09 @ 7:22AM
One observation about Sarah Palin that sticks deep inside like a dagger: Palin fits the description of an NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) to a tee. This fact, which should frighten the bejesus out of everyone, is also the one that Kristol fears most, as its the first one he trots out and dismisses not at all convincingly:
"Is there any real chance that "several" Alaskans independently told Purdum that they had consulted the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders? I don’t believe it for a moment. I’ve (for better or worse) moved in pretty well-educated circles in my life, and I’ve gone decades without “several” people telling me they had consulted the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders."
Anyone with enough experience in life has encountered dangerous people like NPD narcissists and ASPD sociopaths -- Palin's documented behavior closely fits both diagnoses, which often run in tandem.
For a partisan Democratic example, just look at Jonathan Edwards, another pol who fits NPD traits to a tee (http://www.slate.com/id/2213740):
"John Edwards outed himself as one when forced to confess an adulterous affair. (Given his comical vanity, the deceitful way he used his marriage for his advancement, and his self-elevation as an embodiment of the common man while living in a house the size of an arena, it sounds like a pretty good diagnosis.)"
Palin is very probably NPD, and maybe ASPD too (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASPD). Based on this alone, her political career should be dead, no matter what people think of her actual politics.
Bill in NJ| 7.1.09 @ 8:58AM
So....who reads Vanity Fair???
And....who do you know that runs in politics isn't narcissistic???
Bo Willis| 7.1.09 @ 10:38AM
Palin would have been a great Vice-President.
You are aginmst her like others because she's a Christian. You know nothing.
Heather Robinson| 7.1.09 @ 11:47AM
Whatever their disagreements with her politically, it was the height of hypocrisy for so-called "feminists" to do all they could to cast one of our only female governors as a moronic beauty queen rather than offer substantive arguments. On the other hand, she did deserve tough scrutiny as a candidate for the second highest office in the land, and her supporters may have been starstruck. Thanks for this rare balanced analysis, Mr. Klein.
nedwilliams| 7.1.09 @ 1:58PM
ted,
Ha! Thanks for the armchair diagnoses (though I don't see a lot of similarities between Edwards and Palin) . . . my wife and I laugh (re. our friends who are clinical psychologists) that they are the only people we know who truly need psychologists.