Screwball Sarah

I'm sure it's no surprise that the subject matter of my first return post is Sarah Palin. Like me -- she's back! A few friends & blogging buddies have emailed me, wondering why I haven't written about her Palinness.

I have to admit that I can't believe I'm still writing about Sarah Palin. It's amazing to me that she still manages to make the news with her royal rants on nothing. In fact, if our Palin-Be-Gone Wager hadn't ended in mid-March, I would have surely lost. Rather than a Palin Barbie, they should have made a Sarah Energizer Bunny.

Her Royal Governor, Sarah Palin, first made the news last week over her comments accusing the Obama Administration of trying to "control the people."




As she said (via Gort42), Palin blasts Obama administration: Government wants to "control the people":

In a speech introducing Michael Reagan — the son of former President Ronald Reagan — to an audience in Anchorage, Palin warned that the government is planning to "bail out debt ridden states" so it can "get in there and control the people."

"Since when can you get out of huge national debt by creating trillions of dollars of new debt?" Palin asked. "It all really is so backwards and skewed as to sound like absolute nonsense when some of this economic policy is explained."

"We need to be aware of the creation of a fearful population, and fearful lawmakers, being led to believe that big government is the answer, to bail out the private sector, because then government gets to get in there and control it," she said. "And mark my words, this is going to be next, I fear, bail out next debt-ridden states. Then government gets to get in there and control the people."

"Some in Washington would approach our economic woes in ways that absolutely defy Economics 101, and they fly in the face of principles, providing opportunity for industrious Americans to succeed or to fail on their own accord," she said. "Those principles it makes you wonder what the heck some in Washington are trying to accomplish here."

As Crooks & Liars notes, "[t]here's something pretty weird hearing the term 'Economics 101,' being uttered by Sarah because she showed little knowledge of economics on the campaign trail." Even stranger is the thought that the Democrats are out to "control the people." Really? Does the Obama Administration want to dictate who people can legally marry? Are the Democrats the party interested in restricting contraceptives? Banning abortion? And remind me -- which political party has been wiretapping citizens? Infiltrating the ranks of war protesters to spy on legitimate activities? Let's talk control. Really.

Palin's Anchorage speech has provided much fodder, well beyond the usual Malaprops. She also applauded Michael Regan, son of Ronny, for his ability to "screw political correctness." See "Screw Political Correctness" -- Sarah Palin in Her Own Words.

And then, of course, was the kerfuffle over the fact that she plagerized several remarks in the speech. As Geoffrey Dunn at Huffington Post notes, Palin Lifts From Gingrich in Anchorage Speech, along with a side-by-side comparison of the offending lines:

Sarah Palin's speech delivered in Anchorage on Wednesday -- the one in which she declared "screw political correctness" and wondered why "we have to pussyfoot around our troublesome foes" -- repeatedly lifted from an article written four years ago by Newt Gingrich and Craig Shirley without attribution.

While Palin twice mentioned Gingrich in the speech (she never acknowledged Shirley), she frequently mixed her own remarks about Reagan with passages that appear to be pulled directly from the Gingrich-Shirley article.

And finally, in one of her famous "will she or won't she" moves, last night Sarah Palin deigned to put in an appearance at a GOP fundraiser after playing coy for a while. Dana Milbank reports, in Keynoter or Not, Palin Steals Spotlight at GOP Fundraiser:

First the Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee was invited to be the keynote speaker at the party's annual congressional fundraising dinner.

Then she was not the keynoter, replaced by former House speaker Newt Gingrich.

Then she was invited to speak, again. Then that invitation was rescinded.

Then she let word slip out that she was unhappy about the whole state of events and was thinking of not attending at all.

Then -- after much public bickering between Palin loyalists and party officials -- she finally agreed to come, speaking slot or no.

As with everything Sarah, even her mere appearance at the event is the subject of controversy. Milbank says she was the center of attention at the event, while Politico says she was hardly noticed, Sarah Palin makes little splash at dinner:

Ending weeks of she-said, they-said drama, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin turned in a cameo appearance at the gala fundraising dinner for her party's House and Senate candidates in Washington Monday night.

But in spite of all the back-and-forth between her camp and dinner organizers leading up to the event, Palin's presence went little-noticed.

* * * *

If she hadn't walked quickly across the stage the outset and if her presence hadn’t been mentioned briefly in the remarks of some of the evening's speakers, it would have been hard to know that she had, in fact, shown up.

Oh Sarah, I'm so glad you're back.

(Video via Crooks and Liars)