Sarah Palin Gives Herself a Hand Job on National TV

Sarah Palin proudly demonstrated she is a woman of the people in her speech at the Tea Party convention the other day. To make a political point, she rejected the use of a teleprompter as a speech aid and joked about Obama’s use of the device.  Instead Palin used her own left hand as her personal mnemonic device and employed it rather conspicuously, though perhaps not wishing to seem so deliberate about it. Or, maybe her hand job display was her way of emphasizing her rejection of the ‘new’ and all that ‘hope-y change-y’ stuff.

Palin’s supporters love her for her anti-intellectualism and her folksy, red-necky style. Many conservative Republicans, never known for their intellectual rigor or academic savvy in the first place, seem to prefer the proudly ignorant ‘common sense’ candidates - and, apparently, the denser and commoner the better. Else, how can you possibly explain phenomenons like GW Bush, or Sarah Palin? I probably shouldn’t even mention Dan Quayle, as that tends to rile up conservative Republicans too much.

Sarah seems to passionately embrace being proudly ignorant, even though she does admit to reading newspapers - ‘all of ‘em’. And, Sarah shows little desire or motivation to remedy her hopeless ignorance. Like so many conservatives, she seems to prefer things ‘exactly as they are right now’.  In fact, we’re told her advisors are working hard on a new Palin slogan to go something like: “With me, you can  count on no change at all, ever - unless I quit again of course.”  Or, perhaps, “I may be a quitter, but I’m certainly not very literate”. Or, “Rationality is just not my thing.”

The phenomenon of Sarah Palin illuminates a stark political fact:People can and will completely overlook, excuse and forgive behavior and deficiencies in someone they agree with, when the very same things in someone they disagree with will make them go postal. There is no arguing with that kind of conviction because facts and reality are rendered beside the point and simply are not allowed to be part of the equation.Literally anything can be justified with enough conviction.

Maybe it often seems bizarre, but at least Sarah Palin always provides everyone with an entertaining spectacle, complete with the occasional hand job.