The Sarah Swoon

My excuse for indulging in my own version of the Sarah Swoon, of course, is my wager with one of the LLWL members* on whither goes Sarah.

Despite the fact that I have a vested interest in her (hopefully) imminent demise (figuratively, not literally, of course), I have to admit that she has provided me with oodles of giggles, especially in the aftermath of the election.

With such an emphasis on the historical nature of the election and a corresponding outpouring of goodwill, a sarcastic smartass girl needs to get her fix somewhere. And, I have to get it while the gettin' is good, since it looks like Sarah may not be long for hearts, minds (and snickers) of the lower 48.

After all, Senator Ted Stevens may well lose his reelection bid, Begich lead over Stevens grows. This would mean that he won't be kicked out of his seat in the Senate, allowing Palin a chance to run to fill his seat. Likewise, Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly reports that Palin's name was absent from the list of the new leadership team of the Republican Governors Association, PALIN LEFT OUT OF RGA LEADERSHIP.

In the meantime, I can get my dose of Sarah Schadenfreude from such luminaries as Dick Cavett and James Wolcott.

Dick Cavett may have penned the ultimate Sarah simile with The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla. As he notes:

Electronic devices dislike me. There is never a day when something isn’t ailing. Three out of these five implements — answering machine, fax machine, printer, phone and electric can-opener — all dropped dead on me in the past few days.

Now something has gone wrong with all three television sets. They will only get Sarah Palin.

I can play a kind of Alaskan roulette. Any random channel clicked on by the remote brings up that eager face, with its continuing assaults on the English Lang.

There she is with Larry and Matt and just about everyone else but Dr. Phil (so far). If she is not yet on “Judge Judy,” I suspect it can’t be for lack of trying.

* * * *

I feel a little sorry for John. He aimed low and missed.

What will ambitious politicos learn from this? That frayed syntax, bungled grammar and run-on sentences that ramble on long after thought has given out completely are a candidate’s valuable traits?

* * * *

At the risk of offending, well, you, for example, I worry about just what it is her hollering fans see in her that makes her the ideal choice to deal with the world’s problems: collapsed economies, global warming, hostile enemies and our current and far-flung twin battlefronts, either of which may prove to be the world’s second “30 Years’ War.”

Has there been a poll to see if the Sarah-ites are numbered among that baffling 26 percent of our population who, despite everything, still maintain that President George has done a heckuva job?

His piece is a must read in its entirety, as is Que Sera, Sarah, James Wolcott's precis on Palin:

I've been making a valiant effort to avoid Sarah Palin's nickel-coated charm offensive on cable news, subjecting myself all day on TCM to some of the most cardboard anti-Nazi Hollywood films ever perpetrated . . . . It isn't that I loathe or fear Sarah Palin. It's that she grates. If she were any more grating, she could cut cheddar. Palin as an entertainment phenomenon might be tolerable and even amusing . . . [but] Sarah Palin isn't pursuing mere transient fame but actual power, a pursuit driven by a brassy assurance shielding an apparent lack of knowledge about nearly everything and a breathtaking complacency about that voluminous lack. She doesn't seem to care about what she doesn't know, it doesn't seem to register that what she doesn't know might matter and might be worth knowing even if it didn't. Her sentences seem to be missing vital ligaments when she speaks, yielding a concrete poetry similar to Rumsfeld's musings but with nil intellectual content (Rumsfeld's known unknowns and unknown unknowns at least had an ontological coherence). Now we're stuck with her twangy shtick and her family soap opera, which makes the former Clinton saga look like Les Sylphides. Just as Al Gore must live with the shame of elevating Joe Lieberman to the national stage, no act of contrition John McCain can perform will be penance enough for foisting Sarah Palin on us, subjecting us to her supreme sense of entitlement.

Although she has been entertaining, I can't say I'll miss her when she's gone (and you betcha I won't be amused if she stays & I'm on the losing side of my bet). However, as SNL suggests, we still will have Joe Biden around:



LLWL = Lady Lawyers Who Lunch, a/k/a my officemates.