I was absolutely not going to write about this, even though its comedic value is priceless.
Then the title came to me, and… well… I succumbed to my lesser instincts.
Sad, isn’t it?
I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I am not a Sarah Palin fan. She has the ability to capture media’s attention due to her camera-friendly face – that’s it. Past that, old proverbs come to mind: “Beauty’s only skin-deep.” “Never judge a book by its cover.” “You are the company you keep.” (My grandmother loved the last one.)
And so it goes with her latest attention-grabbing stunt, which did what it was intended to do: put her back in the spotlight for yet another few days. This is where any level-headed person realizes media is not motivated by liberal or conservative agendas. It’s profit-driven, owned by large corporations, competing for the same thing – advertiser dollars. Real news has not been the motivation for nearly two decades, which, sadly, is why all three cable “news” networks covered this event.
On February 6th, addressing the Tea Party’s Convention at Nashville’s Opryland Hotel – which I can attest first-hand, is a stunning venue – in one of the smaller banquet rooms, to a crowd of about 650 people, Palin gave a speech that was obviously not written by a professional speech writer, such as Matthew Scully (George W. Bush’s speech writer) who wrote her debut speech for the 2008 Republican Convention. And, unlike the week she spent at John McCain’s home practicing the delivery of that speech, she obviously spent very little time going over this one. To say the content was less than substantive, is being very generous.
But the Q and A that followed was the highlight of the evening – not for the substance – but for the grade school level competency she displayed answering questions. Not trusting her intellect – which oddly, was the right move – she created her version of a Palm Pilot. She wrote seven “key” words on the palm of her left hand. Deciding that was too many, she crossed one off the list, leaving six words she needed “on hand” to “pilot” her through a “handful” of pre-planned questions for half an hour.
Wasn’t that considered cheating in school? Could this be why it took her attending five different colleges over nearly a decade to receive a Bachelor’s degree? Did she get caught cheating on tests?
Enough digression.
Sarah Palin may be meat and potatoes for the Tea Party movement, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s nothing more than spoiled milk.
Sincerely,
Rants and Observations by Michael Kontras 