Politics as Unusual
The resignation speech Governor Palin gave earlier today is easily the weirdest I’ve ever seen. Especially striking was her insistence that she’s forthrightly stated the reasons behind her action, whereas actually every political observer I’ve read is utterly baffled as to what she is thinking. Mickey Kaus at least has ten theories, whereas I’m still paralyzed by her basketball analogy.
Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me, and that’s sports — basketball. And I use it because you are naive if you don’t see a full court press from the national level picking away right now. A good point guard, here’s what she does. She drives through a full court press protecting the ball, keeping her head up because she needs to keep her eye on the basket, and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can win, and that is what I’m doing. Keeping our eye on the ball. That represents sound priorities. Remember they include energy independence and smaller government, and national security and freedom. And I know when it’s time to pass the ball for victory. And I’ve given my reasons now, very candidly and truthfully.
This is actually how I felt watching Jason Williams play point guard for the Sacramento Kings. On a certain level he was talented, but most of his choices made no sense, and he seemed to be improvising all the time. Middle of the second quarter, up by 8 points, 19 seconds on the shot clock? Fire up a contested three pointer in transition!
It is tempting to deconstruct the whole analogy, but I’m going to resist. I encourage Matt Taibbi to pick up the slack. This will all make sense if some kind of scandal breaks. If not, I can’t imagine why Gov. Palin would give that speech rather than just forthrightly state whatever it is that she’s planning. Hmmm.
This was quite simply the most bizarre political speech in the modern era, and it quite neatly served as a summation of the Sarah Palin era of the Republican Party: an incoherent compilation of random talking points (the liberal 9th Circuit, Big Government, the troops in Kosovo), nonsensical platitudes (keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities – smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it’s time to pass the ball – for victory) and unintentionally hilarious doublespeak (We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction).
As a partisan Democrat, I laughed.
As someone who cares about his country, I applauded.
Our nation needs a viable, credible and rational opposition party. Sarah Palin is non-viable, non-credible and irrational. Her disappearance from the political stage will, I would hope, help the Republican Party find itself again.
— Travis Mason-Bushman · Jul 4, 10:05 AM · #
“This was quite simply the most bizarre political speech in the modern era,”
In the modern era? Why the hedge?
— Tony Comstock · Jul 4, 10:43 AM · #
You know what would make basketball awesome? They shouldn’t keep score or even have baskets to throw balls at. They don’t even need a ball. Everyone just plays as hard as they can (or not), then at two minute intervals everyone stops, and everyone is given a chance to offer the best verbal boast/defense/apology/excuse/explanation they can for their actions over the past interval, and why they should be allowed to keep playing the game.
I think this is a change we could all believe in, a new Little League that could be played in both red and blue states. Instead of real America, we could have Reality America. Yes, we can! Explain, baby, explain!
— Consumatopia · Jul 4, 12:29 PM · #
I think there’s a lot of traction to those theories which underline her adaptation to and/or withdrawal symptoms from the national fame. And here is where I join Sullivan’s assessment – being a critical regard on McCain’s judgment.
I think that adaptation to fame would be difficult for any average, normal American thrust onto the stage. Palin was thrown onto the stage, and into the lion’s den, at perhaps the most elevated and important level you can find in the US media/entertainment circus. Her wiring wasn’t adapted or programmed for that. I think the most appropriate analogy would be that of Susan Boyle. Everyone was happy and applauded when she literally splashed onto the scene. Turns out she’s a rather odd bird. But it’s not surprizing that a social recluse should have difficulty adapting to 24-hour attention news cycle.
Now with Palin, I find someone who’s less a whacko than simply an average person with more drive than intellect. Nothing in her previous life in the Northwest or Alaska could’ve prepared her for the big splash. She’s been doing a Boyle-style wigging out ever since. She’s not a fundamentally bad person, she just seems to have less than stellar virtue. She’s very mediocre – thus the idea of her as VP (or prez) is all the more frightening.
I’d venture to say that what were once “little white lies” since childhood has become a modus operandi to such a point that she doesnt even distinguish between facts and facts-as-she’d-like-them-to-be.
— JB · Jul 4, 01:00 PM · #
I’m with JB on this one. It seems McCain put her in way over her head, she didn’t realize it at first, but the fact she and her family continued to live under the microscope even well after the election prompted her to reach for the ejector seat.
— right · Jul 4, 01:25 PM · #
To me, it only makes sense if
1) There is some sort of scandal or something similar coming
2) Palin is unstable
Given the way this was handled, that it was essentially improvisational, makes all of the other explanations seem ridiculous.
Why wasn’t this handled with some minimum of preparation, getting a writer and advisors to prepare a statement, and taking some time to have everyone get their stories straight?
If she really is quitting to “study” to be president, wouldn’t this all have been done in some way that doesn’t look crazy? Wouldn’t you want this moment to come off really, really well, instead of just plain whack-job insane?
Don’t we need to give serious consideration to the idea that Palin is unstable?
— just some guy with an opinion · Jul 4, 02:08 PM · #
Clearly passing the ball is resigning. The full court press is the Age of Obama. The basket she’s keeping her eye on she says is either the defeat of the entire Obama agenda on behalf of the conservative movement, or winning ANWR drilling on behalf of the people of Alaska (she mentioned this – “energy independence”- first among her priorities.) The huge difficulty is who she is passing to; but metaphors are often used as hints that reveal some bits and obscure others. But she probably should not have boasted of being “candid.”
— Aaron · Jul 4, 02:42 PM · #
On the other hand, the “fed up with politics” was fairly candid.
— Aaron · Jul 4, 02:46 PM · #
Dude, she is done.
She said “I prayed on it”, and that is the kiss of death in national politics.
You might do Jesus Take the Wheel in private, and I’m sure GW did just that….. but announcing it publically is simply the end of your presidential bid.
And I’m truly sry for inflicting the horror of that music video on you, but Reihan the Sarah-Palin-crack-dealer especially deserves it.
— matoko_chan · Jul 4, 03:12 PM · #
Jonah Goldberg:
“You are the “It Girl” of the GOP.”
Hard to believe someone older than 16 wrote that line. Not in his diary. In public.
— just some guy with an opinion · Jul 4, 03:22 PM · #
I have no idea why she resigned. I am intrigued with those left of center who berated her for being on the ticket and on the national scene and now berate her for stepping down.
— c3 · Jul 4, 04:14 PM · #
Just to be clear, c3, I have perfectly stellar republican chops, which I may disclose someday in a bio-post.
But I do not inhabit a euclidean metaverse on any axis.
I am multi-dimensional.
— matoko_chan · Jul 4, 04:25 PM · #
If you think about it, lettin’ Jesus drive is exactly what landed us in Eye-rack.
lol
— matoko_chan · Jul 4, 04:38 PM · #
“In the modern era? Why the hedge?”
Tony makes a fine point. I once visited a monastery where they had stored a lost speech from Pericles in which he made a drunken fool of himself. Few people have been given the privilege of reading that speech, and I am one of them. It has been kept secret for centuries, so as not to sully the reputation of that great orator.
Palin’s speech was even worse.
— Mark in Houston · Jul 4, 04:45 PM · #
“I am intrigued with those left of center who berated her for being on the ticket and on the national scene and now berate her for stepping down.”
Damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t. No wonder she quit – it’s not fair. I don’t know how she lasted as long as she did.
— just some guy with an opinion · Jul 4, 05:19 PM · #
How is this “damned if she does/damned if she doesn’t”? You’re forgetting the middle path between “masthead of the national party” and “complete resignation from politics”: doing the job she was elected by the voters of Alaska to do. “It’s not fair”? Well, all she had to do was decline a job she was manifestly unqualified for.
This isn’t some campaign to persecute some random poor woman. This is the consequence of her arrogance and overreach and crassness. It’s not like we made up that she’s an idiot, like conservatives did with Sonia Sotomayor. She’s the genuine idiotic article.
— Chet · Jul 4, 06:30 PM · #
She’s also gutted her popularity within the state.
Standing in front of the downtown Co-op Building, Lawrence Everette said he had supported Palin as governor and in her unsuccessful for bid for the vice presidency last year, but he said he “lost trust” in the governor after she said she would resign by the end of the month.
“The spotlight is on her, and it’s not going to go away,” he said. “She needs to stick it out and go through the long haul. You don’t go run and hide when the going gets tough.”
http://www.newsminer.com/news/2009/jul/03/fairbanks-residents-shocked-angered-palins-resigna/
— Travis Mason-Bushman · Jul 4, 06:51 PM · #
Sorry, Chet. I was being sarcastic about C3’s comment.
I don’t think the treatment of Palin has been unfair.
And she is manifestly unqualified for any elected office. I wonder about her sanity, to be honest.
I completely agree with your opinion of her.
— just some guy with an opinion · Jul 4, 07:22 PM · #
Sorry for my sarcasm fail.
— Chet · Jul 4, 07:26 PM · #
“There is some sort of scandal or something similar coming.”
I suspect that Andrew Sullivan has finally gotten ahold of Sarah Palin’s gynecological records, and is about to reveal what has gone in and out of her vagina. This is, as all true Oakshottian conservatives know, the most important political issue of our time.
— y81 · Jul 4, 10:15 PM · #
More likely it was my sarcasm fail, Chet.
— just some guy with an opinion · Jul 4, 11:19 PM · #
“Just to be clear, c3, I have perfectly stellar republican chops, which I may disclose someday in a bio-post.
But I do not inhabit a euclidean metaverse on any axis.
I am multi-dimensional.”
Matako,
thanks for your multisyllabic elucidation of my simplistic analysis. Maybe it would have been better for me to say that just as some on the Right saw soon-to-be ex-Governor Palin as a darling who could do no wrong, many others could see little of redeeming virtue in her. Thus, each statement was a confirmation of conviction. The comments above seem to confirm this viewpoint.
And so you understand what “dimensions” I inhabit, I was, at best, lukewarm with Palin. I winced at some, if not many, of her figures of speech. I hoped that she could become more than the ever-more-boxed-in caricature she became as the campaign progressed. But most of all I was blown away by the apoplexy she induced in so many. I can only describe it as a feeding frenzy. I dare say that if you took some of those taking part in that frenzy away from the fray, they would have found much in Gov. Palin’s story to admire. But like an Alzheimer’s patient briefly seeing plain reality and then reverting to dementia, those same folks seemed not able to maintain a distanced, comprehensive view.
I struggle to think of other similar figures in American politics in the last 30 years. Ron Paul? Ross Perot? I don’t know and I still don’t understand the phenomenon. And it still goes on. She either has a great ability to catalyze that process (and not quell it) or she is at a point where whatever she does, the process “self-catalyzes”
Curious.
PS But I dare say there’s an element of “yer not from around these parts are you?” disdain.
Curiouser— C3 · Jul 6, 02:26 AM · #
“But most of all I was blown away by the apoplexy she induced in so many. I can only describe it as a feeding frenzy.”
There was a slight chance that she would be vice president. THe apoplexy was terror-based. It’s like if someone seriously proposes letting a chimpanzee land the passenger jet your traveling in.
Your offended that someone would be so reckless with your safety and terrified that your fellow passengers might somehow be persuaded.
——————————-
Matoko. I actually clicked on that link forgetting what that song was. You will pay.
— cw · Jul 6, 05:21 AM · #
lol
The Sith Lord is correct.
At first we just thought Palin was a hilarious joke.
Let the chimp fly the plane! hahaha
But then a significant amount of people said let her try, it makes sense to us.
Now that is scary.
John McCain is a 72 yearold 4x melanoma survivor….running for president alone was a collossal act of vanity, ego and ambition.
Then to choose a dimbo for backup……incredible.
Palin is by all appearances a pathological liar, intellectually impoverished, badly educated, vain, delusional, and greedy.
We all freaked that the low information base could actually get McCain elected and then he would kick and that a big-hair-and-mall-bangs ex-pageant contestant would get custody of the nuke launch codes.
Jesus take the wheel is the scariest thing about her (sowwy, my Dark Master, but im making a point).
Jesus already drove us into Eye-rack courtesy GW…..what if Jesus decides to tell Sarah to nuke Iran to save Israel?
— matoko_chan · Jul 6, 06:14 AM · #
Matoko;
Do you put thought into what you say or do you just say it and if it sounds “neat” post and submit?
— C3 · Jul 6, 07:13 PM · #