After watching the new Sarah Palin interview clip from the not-yet-released movie Media Malpractice, I recognized another thing about Palin.
While I’m betting she was a Tracy Flick kind of gal in high school, that teenage girl also had insecurities. And a girl with political ambition and underlying self-esteem issues about who she is and how she climbed the ladder of success can be a troublesome thing for the rest of us.
Even with a certain amount of accomplishment, anyone with a Tracy Flick persona also endured her share of being picked on — that’s just what happens in high school when you’re not quite as popular as the “in” crowd as you’d like to be. Most of us have lived that and understand that and, sooner or later, we get over it.
But there are those who suffered those adolescent cruelties who vow that when they’ve “made it” they’ll show the rest of us! They won’t take it and they’ll give it right back! That can be very self-satisfying, but it’s not really a good move if you want to be something like, say, a Governor.
That’s tone and attitude I heard from Palin when I watched this clip. Poor Sarah, the eternal victim –
When you get to be one of 50 governors and have political ambitions to get to Washington, D.C., one way or another, then it’s time to lose the victim thing. Yes, it’s keeping Palin in the media spotlight, but not in a good way.
For better or worse, to move beyond being a first-term governor, you can’t whine about bloggers and reporters who don’t like you. If the media covers your family in a way you don’t like, then you need to find a way to handle it without complaining about being picked on or talking about your mother bear tendencies. You need skin thick enough so that even if you think you’ve been treated unfairly, you can find a way to manage it gracefully, yet forcefully, without sounding petty. And, Sarah, you just aren’t even close.
As for the whole Katie-Couric-what-newspapers-do-you-read-thing? It’s time to let that one go unless you’re going to do more than talk generally about reading “publications” and then quickly mentioning USA Today and the New York Times. It’s OK to quip to your friends that Katie shouldn’t expect that the world revolves around her and her words, but you have to keep that thought bubble pretty private if you expect to be taken seriously as a political player.
If Palin, as the first Republican woman vie presidential candidate, keeps whining about how unfairly she was treated and how mean the media is, she can kiss her political future goodbye. That’s OK by me, but I have a feeling that’s not what’s she’s planning on for herself.
While I’m no fan of Palin, I have defended her in the past (to the chagrin of some of my progressive pals!) for having the chutzpah to try to make the most of the political lottery she won by being John McCain’s running mate. But besides damaging her own political future, Palin is doing a huge disservice to all women, especially those who want to run for political office, when she uses her high profile platform for a Wendy Whiner routine.
Palin says she didn’t know what the McCain campaign was thinking when they had her do multiple interviews Katie Couric because the first one went so poorly. I don’t know what Palin was thinking when she agreed to be interviewed for this movie. It’s not really a sign of good judgment. That’s ten minutes I’d wish I could take back if I was in her shoes.
January 9th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
You know, it’s funny…you don’t see John McCain going around boo hoo hooing about this stuff. He gave as good as he got and so did Palin. That’s politics and I don’t feel one bit sorry for her. She didn’t take nearly as much heat as HRC took for lesser things so IMO opinion she needs to buck up or be quiet.
January 9th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
You know, in some ways I agree with you, and in other ways I do think she was hung out to dry by the media and the McCain campaign. But, I also think she really, really needs to stop talking. Because she just digs herself into deeper and deeper holes.
January 9th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
I don’t know. Isn’t “whining” defined as something women do even when when the treatment they are pointing out was actually unfair and gender-biased more often than not?
God knows, I would like nothing better than for her to put her feet all over her political career and stomp it into the ground, but I wonder about something. When we stifle are natural tendency to take umbrage when the media goes at us through our kids or the sense of fairness that girls have as opposed to boys does this help us? Playing by rules that were invented to prove masculinity and how stiff your upper lip was?
I think until we are allowed to be women when we run for politics – and sometimes this will mean taking issue with what is accepted current practice – you won’t see too many more women of consequence (Palin isn’t the best representative of this) stepping up. jmo.
January 9th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
The problem with my governor is that she does want a double standard. She wants media coverage of herself, but she never wants it to be remotely critical. Anyone who suggests she’s anything less than infallible is a “hater” (as she characterizes them when she makes her regular calls to a local morning radio show hosted by two guys who were fired from their old station a decade ago after they got a listener to cut off his finger on the air in exchange for concert tickets). We’re getting ready to start a legislative session up here and she’s issuing press releases like this one. Even the editor of the Anchorage Daily News is starting to lose patience with her. She may say she “expect[s] to be held accountable,” but since she became a player on the national scene, I’ve seen little evidence of that.
January 10th, 2009 at 8:54 am
I’m impatient with her. I have been from the very beginning, but I’m more impatient now. If I were her, I’d be expecting the media to pick apart everything I say because that is the base they are coming from. If she could just hold her tongue for a bit, someone else will do something to take the heat off her, then she can go about the business of *learning* her business. If she took the time to learn her business, she would display the characteristics that would make the media flock to her as charasmatic rather than look for ways to dig at her. It’s an adult concept I am not holding my breath to see from her.
January 10th, 2009 at 10:39 am
All of her behavior during and after the campaign suggests a serious lack of political savvy and judgment. Instead of using her position as a “Washington outsider” to build an image as someone who might challenge the system, it’s working against her to make her look like she doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. If she’s serious about being a national political figure, she’d admit she needs some help and find some serious political and media advisers.
I agree with you. Right now she’s not doing any favors for women on the political scene.
January 18th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Excellent commentary and analysis. I sensed there was some deeper reason that Sarah could “give it” (negative campaign comments to rally the Rovepublican yokels alienated other groups of voters – maybe she avoided articles saying people were getting turned off by the mudslinging), but gets upset when people QUOTE her ditzy comments – she basically WROTE the SNL scripts. I don’t think Sarah has what is needed to be a good leader – if she’d just do her job and leave the emotion out of it, she could rise, but her personality type seems unable to do that. She’s proven the Peter Principle and will likely go no further.