Palin critics suffer from fear factor

By DENNIS MILLER
July 05, 2010 02:10 AM
The last presidential campaign, its election and each and every day since have crystallized the magic and malice of the national media. By working its magic, the media were able to keep Obama hidden in clear sight.

His past was selectively chosen, his present was a manufactured eloquence of hope and change, his future was his transcendent ability to lead us to the land of milk and honey, and his gaffes were editorially retrofitted. The media took a virtual unknown and kept him unknown.

This Camelot euphoria was interrupted by another unknown that stoked the malice of the media. Unexpectedly, a non-elite commoner caused a derangement syndrome with Obama and his media acolytes that came out of the clear blue; the source of their derangement ... Sarah Palin.

The media launched a D-Day scale invasion of Alaska. Its mission was not to report, but to search and destroy. Every nook and cranny of Palin's life and anyone and everyone associated with her was scrutinized. Nothing was off limits: having five children was improper, her children's names were ridiculed, her fifth child was portrayed as her grandchild, and her everyday life was depicted as trailer trash. The universal talking point was the vice presidential candidate is not only barefoot and pregnant, Palin is dumb.

Let's examine Palin's "dumbness." She more than held her own in the vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden. While campaigning, even with the cheap shots from a left-wing media wrapped in straightjackets of unchangeable political ideology, Palin's message and demeanor won the hearts and minds of more and more Americans. With a stronger running mate, the results may have been different. Now as a leader of the tea party movement, the media now suffer from another bout of derangement syndrome. Tea party members are touted as dumb, and Palin is dumb.

Money or more precisely, lack of money is a major problem in all too many states. As governor, Palin had an opposite track record than her counterparts in bastions of liberalism such as New York, New Jersey, California and Massachusetts. These states are financially belly up and will be turning to Washington for, what else, a bailout. Yet Alaska is financially solvent. Its biggest concern is trying to keep Washington away. But the media spin is Alaska is a state of dummies and Palin is dumb.

Palin wrote a book that sold 2.2 million copies and, much to the New York Times' chagrin, was on its Bestseller List for 11 weeks. The Associated Press had eleven fact checkers dissect each word of her book and found nothing to stir up another personal assassination. Nancy Pelosi had a book published; it's sitting on the shelf of your local book store. Regardless of the incredible success of Palin's book, the media decision: Pelosi is smart, Palin's readers are dumb, and Palin is dumb.

Who is Sarah Palin? Wife, mother, grandmother, soldier's mom, soccer mom, working mom, who believes in God, the Constitution, American uniqueness, sanctity of life, family values, school choice and low taxes. And because of this she is dumb. Maybe there just happens to be a whole lot of moms who believe in the same things. Women, who from the time they get up to the time they go to bed, are constantly juggling the multiple roles and responsibilities that define them. How dumb they are? Or do they have to be a conservative, female politician to be dubbed dumb? Tea party moms, you're in the same boat.

Wendy Doniger, a professor at Chicago Divinity School, wrote "Her (Palin) greatest hypocrisy is her pretense that she is a woman." Coming from divinity school that doesn't sound too divine, but it does sound liberal. Maybe her definition of a woman would be Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer or Janet Napolitano. Mothers of Bucks County and beyond, do you align yourselves with these ladies who are proclaimed smart or with Sarah Palin who is ... well, you know?

There's a major disconnect with the media's derangement syndrome. If Sarah Palin is so dumb and inconsequential, why do they go out of their way to castigate her? Why waste the time? It's a one-word answer ... fear.

Philly Burbs