It seems Sarah Palin has had someone reading Hillary Clinton’s book “Hard Choices”, scouring the pages for any mention of her, and lo and behold, they found one. Of course, Palin took to twitter right away to make a comment, lack of knowledge beside the point. Here’s the statement from Hillary’s book she seized upon:
“The morning after Barack addressed the convention, Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, announced that Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska was his choice for running mate. A resounding “Who?” echoed across the nation. We would all get to know her in the coming months, but at that point, she was a near-complete unknown, even to political junkies. The Obama campaign suspected that her nomination was a blatant attempt to scuttle their hope of welcoming the women who had vigorously supported me. They immediately issued a dismissive statement and reached out in the hopes I would follow suit. But I wouldn’t. I was not going to attack Palin just for being a woman appealing for support from other women. I didn’t think that made political sense, and it didn’t feel right. So I said no, telling them there’d be plenty of time for criticism. A few hours later, the Obama campaign reversed itself and congratulated Governor Palin.”
“The morning after Barack addressed the convention, Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, announced that Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska was his choice for running mate. A resounding “Who?” echoed across the nation. We would all get to know her in the coming months, but at that point, she was a near-complete unknown, even to political junkies. The Obama campaign suspected that her nomination was a blatant attempt to scuttle their hope of welcoming the women who had vigorously supported me. They immediately issued a dismissive statement and reached out in the hopes I would follow suit. But I wouldn’t. I was not going to attack Palin just for being a woman appealing for support from other women. I didn’t think that made political sense, and it didn’t feel right. So I said no, telling them there’d be plenty of time for criticism. A few hours later, the Obama campaign reversed itself and congratulated Governor Palin.”And here’s Palin’s tweet:
“Look who fired the 1st shot in the real “war on women”. Hint: it wasn’t the GOP. See this excerpt from Hillary’s book”
Vice Presidential Material?
Before I get to Palin’s signature ignorance regarding most things she comments on, let me remind you: A large part of America was dismissive of her as McCain’s running mate; most women saw it for what it was, blatant pandering, and Conservatives and Liberals alike reacted with one big “WTF?”. The only difference was, many Conservatives would not voice their true opinions of her until McCain lost.
The “gotcha” moment Palin thinks she’s discovered only highlights her lack of insight into her own party, and herself. Sarah’s belief to this day she was Vice Presidential material can only be attributed to her having never watched footage of herself in interviews, but ignorance is bliss as they say.
Seriously?
Her factually challenged take on the evolution of the war on women isn’t all that surprising, either. Katie Couric established that Sarah doesn’t read all that much; and what was there for her to do in Alaska other than watching the folks in Russia going about their business from her back yard?
Truth is, the Republican “war on women” was first brought to the country’s attention by one of their own, almost 20 years ago. As Linda Lowen has reported:
“The Republican War on Women” first surfaced in 1996 as the title of a memoir by Tanya Melich, a Republican loyalist who detailed what she perceived as the transformation of her party from one supporting women to one targeting women. Writing for New York magazine, Frank Rich notes that Melich’s use of this term sixteen years earlier “gives the lie to the notion that a Republican war on women is some Democratic trope, trumped up in recent weeks for political use in 2012. Her history also reminds us that the hostility toward modern women resurfacing in the GOP today was baked into the party before the religious right gained its power and before recriminalizing abortion became a volatile cause.”
Yet true to form, Palin’s foolishness is being trumpeted by her fellow ill-informed Conservatives, who immediately jumped on her droppings. Over at Breitbart, conservative toady Tony Lee writes:
“President Barack Obama and Democrats have shamelessly ginned up the phony “war on women,” but former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin used a passage from Hillary Clinton’s new book to remind Americans that Obama’s campaign actually fired the first shot in the real war on women.”
Over at Newsbusters there’s this:
“Sarah Palin called out her liberal/Democratic critics in a Twitter post on Monday for firing the “1st shot in the real ‘war on women.'”
Conservatives for Palin (They STILL cling to the hope) writes:
“This tweet was sent out earlier and of course, the truth is driving the lefties absolutely batcrap crazy.”
Yes, we all just hang on Sarah Palin’s words. Then there’s “Palin 4 America”:
“Gov. Palin Tweets A Gotcha To Obama”
I’m sure he’s losing sleep over this one.
If it weren’t for Conservatives’ collective ignorance, and their my-party-right-or-wrong mentality, Sarah Palin would have been laughed off the political stage years ago. As Rachel Maddow put it:
“Sarah Palin is now the guy who hangs out in the high school parking lot showing off his car, five years after he graduated.”
Let’s face it, Sarah Palin’s not going away any time soon. At least we can all be thankful that this embarrassment is contained in America as opposed to representing us on the international stage.