Even here, even now, even among friends I am reluctant to speak ill of Sarah.
I once quipped that Sarah has a voice more suited to print journalism. I wasn't trying to demean her but I was being candid: her public-speaking voice is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.
I barely made it out alive.
And I ingested the lesson regarding the phenomena of the cult of personality. The cult of personality exists when individuals are raised above the point of criticism. You do so at the expense of objectivity.
So here goes...
Sarah Palin is a nice person. She has a kind heart and good intentions. I've never seen evidence that she had any special acumen at politics. We were all outraged at her treatment at the hands of kate couric, who is not a nice person, doesn't possess a kind heart, and definitely does not have good intentions. Unfortunately many of us began to lose sight of objectivity in our haste to defend her against the boor. We failed to notice that Sarah wasn't well read, wasn't well versed in many critical areas, and probably most critically, wasn't adept enough to prevail in her sparring matches with the lefty press. We provided cover for her because we liked her.
She gave me reason to vote in 2008. Without her I probably wouldn't have bothered. I didn't suddenly discover that McShame was a boob - I've always clearly seen that he is a loon. I knew that I needed to support the party and my country against Øbomination but it would have been too painful to vote for the jackass without a mitigating circumstance. Sarah was that circumstance and I'm thankful for her participation.
Like you, I've been watching the carnival of the damned, er, campaign as it is unfolding. I've read so many editorials that it's hard to keep them all straight. The central message that I've gotten from all this is that everyone is full of crap. All of them. Point me in the direction of a single urnalist who is even passingly objective and I'll kiss his boots.
We are so far down the rabbit-hole that we've lost the ability to recognize up & down, much less left and right. I am so completely, thoroughly, utterly disgusted with all of the candidates that I'm finding myself decidedly in the don't give a shiite camp. None of them have proven themselves worthy of my vote, much less my support. They're all craven, crass, and tin-eared.
WTF happened to Sarah Palin? Nothing special - she's just like everyone else.
