Feeding Frenzy 2010
Palin and Fox News make a great couple: Fox gives her an audience and Palin draws more in. Although the first couple weeks have been a success, the relationship is rockier than it may seem.
First of all, she’s back and hasn’t changed. Some had hypothesized that Palin spent her time off preparing herself for the national stage in order to avoid repeating her performance in 2008. They predicted that Palin would come back and be able to make coherent arguments and stay on one issue during a thirty-second response, or at least be able to respond to the question “What do you read?” with a better answer than “All of them.” Palin immediately put these rumors to rest, proving during her first appearance (on the O’Reilly Factor) that she still can’t stay on topic and off buzzwords.
Then, she was interviewed by Glenn Beck. Although Beck fawned over her at first, by the end of the interview, he was a bit disaffected. When he asked Palin about her favorite founding father, she responded with an answer so bad that he had to call “bullcrap” in the middle of it:
Uhmm, you know, well, all of them, because they came collectively together with so much diverse, so much diverse opinion and so much diversity in terms of belief, but collectively they came together to form this union…and they were led by, of course, George Washington, so he’s got to rise to the top. Washington was the consummate statesman, he served, he returned power to the people, he didn’t want to be a king, he returned power to the people, then he went back to Mount Vernon, he went back to his farm…
If a person has trouble with a conception of history as childish as Beck’s, they can’t be trusted to tie their shoes right, much less become President. And guess who’s giving hints…
Perhaps because Palin sounds like a kid in class who wasn’t paying attention when called on, perhaps because he’s just jealous that Palin is now getting all the attention—Beck is starting to turn against Palin. He has started to criticize Palin, likely to assert his position in Fox News—“marking his territory.” Either that, or he just wants an excuse for urinating on the floor of the set during one of his meltdowns.
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In case your blood pressure was too low, here’s a little dose of bigotry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPiJgcV-EFY
That’s New Hampshire State Representative Alfred Baldasaro demanding that the state of New Hampshire repeal its law allowing same-sex marriage. At one point in his rant, he shouts: “What about the Muslims, now? Everybody’s praising the Muslims. They’re killing us. What about them? They want three, four wives.” He goes on to claim that the state sold children to same-sex couples for $10,000.
Of course, this is the man that said in 2007: “I refused to take a shower, eat, drink, and sleep with a gay homosexual. I don’t knock them because I have them in my family. I love them…I as a male…do not want to take a shower with a homosexual. If that’s the case, bring in the women and let me shower with women then because it’s not right. Once again, let me tell you.”
It’s actually reassuring—you know that you’re better than somebody.
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Keith Olbermann came off as pretty desperate the night before the Massachusetts special election, resorting to name-calling and making things up about Scott Brown:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#34927839
He seemed even more desperate, defensive, and, more than anything, pathetic the next night, when he issued this “apology”:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#34945353
What would be a pathetic moment of bitterness was made a lot worse by the flashing “SCOTT BROWN (R) WINS” at the bottom of the screen. Well, it’s official: Keith Olbermann has descended into self-parody.
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Next Sunday: a barbaric journey into the congested heart of the American political divide.