Yes another Palin diary. But I think Paul Begala's take on Palin was brilliant in his new editorial: Sarah Palin Turns Pro. Some may argue that it doesn't take brilliance to take her down. Taking down Palin is like shooting fish in a barrel, before letting 'em float down stream, with the current, because (wink) only dead fish do that... but I digress.
Her statement was incoherent, bizarre and juvenile. The text, as posted on Gov. Palin's official website (here), uses 2,549 words and 18 exclamation points. Lincoln freed the slaves with 719 words and nary an exclamation; Mr. Jefferson declared our independence in 1,322 words and, again, no exclamation points. Nixon resigned the presidency in 1,796 words -- still no exclamation points. Gov. Palin capitalized words at random - whole words, like "TO," "HELP," and "AND," and the first letter of "Troops."
Gov. Palin's official announcement that she is resigning as chief executive of the great state of Alaska had all the depth and gravitas of a 13-year-old's review of the Jonas Brothers' album on Facebook. She even quoted her parents' refrigerator magnet. (Note to self: if one of my kids becomes governor, throw away the refrigerator magnet that says: "Murray's Oyster Bar: We Shuck Em, You Suck Em!") She put her son's name in quotations marks. Why? Who knows. She writes, "I promised efficiencies and effectiveness!?" Was she exclaiming or questioning? I get it: both! And I don't even know what to make of a sentence that reads:
*((Gotta put First Things First))*
Ponder the fact that Rupert Murdoch's Harper Collins publishing house is paying this, umm, writer $11 million for a book. Ponder that and say a prayer for Ms. Palin's editor.
I'm no latter-day Strunk & White, just a guy who was struck by Palin's spectacularly rambling and infantile prose. It bespeaks a rambling and infantile mind. But perhaps not. Perhaps this is all a ruse. Perhaps Gov. Palin wants us to believe she's an intellectual featherweight who is slightly shallower than an actor on High School Musical. Maybe she's trying to throw us off the trail.
Naah. A lot of people thought that about George W. Bush. He couldn't be so block-headed, they said. He couldn't be as childish and churlish as he came off. Oh yes he could. And so, too, might Ms. Palin be as vapid and puerile as her inane statement suggests.
(emphasis mine)
Can't we at a minimum expect our potential next president to do a grammar and a spell check? I'm a bad speller, so I have my wife look over my cover letters, resumes, and reports for work, BEFORE I turn them in. Are we so dumbed down as a country that we no longer expect our elected official to write like grown ups? If this what conservative anti-intellectual populism has lead us to?
My personal take on Sarah Palin's resignation is the following. Remember Sarah Palin was taught (or got her first taste) of how to be a national politician by John McCain. His big move was to suspend his campaign to deal with the financial crisis. Why wouldn't she quit being governor if you factor in that type of thinking?
Remember she was part of McCain's campaign you have to figure he asked her what she thought of his stopping the campaign. We all are giving McCain too much credit and assuming he didn't ask her for advice.
I have never heard that she disagreed with it. Remember we all heard about her disagreement over pulling out of Michigan or not giving a concession speech, so if she objected to his pulling out there should have been some leaking of it out. I mean do you feel she is the type to keep things in?
If Mark Sanford went from sounding like a 13 year old love sick boy crying to the nation, to a 13 year old love sick girl reading her diary out loud to the nation, Palin sounds like a 13 year old texting the nation about her personal life.
As Julie Gulden points out in the comment section Ezra Klein added this.
That was weird.
The main thing I'd point out about Sarah Palin's dazzlingly incoherent farewell is that it's pretty clear she wrote it herself. The proof is in the punctuation. The transcript was posted to her official Web site earlier today. The style is closer to a high schooler's angry diary entry than to an official speech. I've read a lot of speech transcripts. They tend to have fewer words in all capital letters. And fewer things in quotation marks that aren't actually, you know, quotes. And I've never seen an official speech transcript, written by an actual speechwriter, that contains this:
*((Gotta put First Things First))*
*((Gotta put First Things First))* in an official transcript, Lord Jesus please help us! Is this really what this country has come to?
I had to update this diary the ignorance of this woman just set me off again!