Sarah Palin's Attack on Twig-like Hollywood Starlets
Sarah Palin's farewell address as Alaska governor contained the standard conservative targets of big government, the media and Hollywood, but it's the latter where Palin forged new ground.
She didn't just attack the industry elite, but the wafer-thin starlet elite who embrace vegetarianism and have age-defying figures.
Her comments came about halfway through her speech, when she warned the state's residents of Hollywood's penchant for targeting Second Amendment gun rights.
"You are going to see anti-hunting, anti-second amendment circuses from Hollywood," she said. "And here's how they do it. They use these delicate, tiny, very talented celebrity starlets. They use Alaska as a fund-raising tool for their anti-Second Amendment causes." The crowd clapped.
Then came the line that got one of her biggest cheers. "By the way, Hollywood needs to know. We eat, therefore we hunt."
Her motivation apparently is Ashley Judd, who in February starred in an ad for the Defenders Action Fund that accused Palin of having an "anti-conservation agenda" for promoting the aerial killing of wolves and bears. (Or it could be the recent doc "Food Inc.," which seems to render most viewers with lost appetites).
That Palin gave "starlets" such attention, in a speech that could be a jumping off point for higher aspirations, showed that Judd's comments still irk the now former Alaska governor, still thin skinned over someone very thin. The message: stick-like figures won't have Sarah Palin to stick around anymore.
Or perhaps Palin's motives were some kind of ingenious populism: the very same checkout counter magazines that have hounded her family also routinely obsess about celebrity weight loss and gain. In other words, stir up the resentment among anyone who's ever tried and failed to obtain unobtainable physiques.
She did spend a greater portion of her speech talking about energy, one of her signature issues, as well as criticisms of the federal stimulus package. But like her pre-Independence Day bombshell announcement that she was resigning, there were parts of this speech that were just incoherent, a stream-of-consciousness recitation of her accomplishments and resentments as if she were posting it on Twitter.
Take this part, in which she addresses the state's tradition of independence and living off the land:
"We would roll up our sleeves and we would diligently sow and reap. And we can still do this, to carve wealth out of the wilderness, and make our living out of the water, with strong hands and innovative minds, now with smarter technology. It is what our first people and our parents did. It worked, because they worked."
Palin thrives on being unpolished, but even that is of little help it you can't understand what you are she is saying. Her persona came through at the Republican National Convention, in what was regarded as her best speech on the national stage, but that was a fully scripted endeavor.
More problematic is the fact that she is leaving office period. Again, she cast her reasons for departing the governorship early as a desire not to play it "politics as usual" and bide her time as a lame duck. It's an argument that can just as easily be twisted the other way, that your very status as a lame duck makes you more valuable, because you are more likely to make decisions without reelection considerations. In a Republican primary, that will be held against her, from Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota in particular. He's a likely presidential candidate in 2012 and also a lame duck governor. But he remains in office.
"We eat, therefore we hunt" was an amusing line --- something you can envision on a bumper sticker. But if it is a higher office she is seeking, campaigns aren't won or lost based on the support or opposition to Hollywood, as much attention as the industry gets when it makes a foray into the political arena.
For Palin, next it is on to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where she is to address the Simi Valley Republican Women's Club on Aug. 8. No media is invited, and, despite the surroundings, I would assume no starlets either.
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I'm afraid that this writer's own intelligence is to be questioned here. That sentence that seemed so elusive to him or here made perfect sense to me. But then again, like Governor Palin, my IQ is higher than the average turnip in California.
Actually it was a rather good restating of Fredrick Jackson Turner's Westward Expansionist theory of history. But since the writer's intellect and education seems to be rather limited, like much of Hollywood, let me explain it in simple terms for you. I promise to try and keep the words small:
"We would roll up our sleeves and we would diligently sow and reap."
In past, people worked hard on family farms, and in other industries. They made plans, worked toward them and profited from that hard work.
" And we can still do this, to carve wealth out of the wilderness, and make our living out of the water, with strong hands and innovative minds, now with smarter technology."
People (that is people in fly-over country who feed the rest of you wastes of oxygen) can and still do this. They find new areas of need, and find a way to fill those needs. They work at sea, and on the land. They work hard, and they work smart, and they use the new technology (I'm hoping this word isn't too big for you) to make the work more profitable.
"It is what our first people and our parents did. It worked, because they worked."
This is what the first pioneers did, and what our past generations did. They were successful because of their hard work and their dedication.
What she is saying is that same spirit is still alive today in the farms and fields, factories, and small business across America. Those people are still working and they are the people that matter, because they are the people who pay the bills for the country- not the brain dead little starlets who spout off at the mouth about subjects they are unqualified to give an opinion on.
I suggest next time you avoid political thought. It is obviously too difficult for you. Next time just drink your kool ade and think of 0bama. You seem incapable of grasping much else.
Posted by: Asatruteacher | July 26, 2009 at 09:56 PM
And this is why many Americans are pissed off. You guys don't get it! When your homes, jobs and family security are in danger WE DON'T NEED FANCY POLISHED SPEECHES-JUST THE FACTS. This whole article was about style not substance. And what was so hard to understand?! WORK! That was the point of her speech. Our country wasn't built on savvy politicians and shiny suits. It was built on the backs of hard workers. This is why I'm ashamed to be a New Yorker. You guys from the two left coasts are elitist snobs and you're the ones out of touch! Keep tring to figure Palin out, all the while your golden President with the perfect teleprompter speeches will keep on tumbling down the polls because of his FAILED POLICIES THAT YOU VOYED FOR. When your energy bills, grocery receipts, taxes, insurance skyrocket, you only have yourself to blame because Palin warned you. OBAMA IS A FAILURE-THAT'S A FACT.
Posted by: LisaBK | July 26, 2009 at 10:27 PM
Asatruteacher - thank you. The paragraph in question was perfectly clear to me as well, but the notion of "working" may be an alien concept to those whose primary occupation is playing make-believe on TV.
Posted by: J R | July 26, 2009 at 10:53 PM
Is this a news piece or a opinion piece, it's hard to tell.
Posted by: John Reid | July 26, 2009 at 10:57 PM
what she is saying is pretty darn clear to me. but when the only "rolling up your sleeves" your used to is when you are purchasing your lattes from starbucks, I can see how you missed the point.
Posted by: sharise parviz | July 27, 2009 at 04:18 AM
The resignation ceremony itself was dignified yet highly emotional.
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/sarah-palin-abdicates-hands-over-regalia/
Posted by: Mike Licht | July 27, 2009 at 06:08 AM
Geez. I would like to address the author of this "article" directly, but I didn't see where he/she had the courage to leave his/her name. Oh well.
If this isn't EXACTLY the same type of snobbish, snarky, pseudo-intelligent hackery that Sarah and most conservatives have been fighting against for years then I don't know what is. It still floors me just how much the majority of people in entertainment and the press just don't get it.
Amazing.
Posted by: Tim Hathaway of NC | July 27, 2009 at 06:12 AM
Theodore Levitt once wrote a business masterpiece, "Marketing Myopia." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_myopia ) It describes how the railroad industry thought it was in the railroad business instead of the broader transportation business.
I suspect that B-school students may now be writing something similar to that about the entertainment/news industry's myopia about most of the rest of America.
Based on polling that shows the entertainment/news industry's credibility declining I would have to say that it is headed for a brick wall obscured by its own brand of marketing myopia.
You people just don't get it. So many twigs in your industry, and I don't just refer to the so-called "talent," seem to think that success in pretending (which is really what acting is all about) and the adulation heaped by limited minds automatically translates into a carte blanche to waltz into the limelight and opine on complex issues.
Enough already. Go back to pretending and leave complex issues to those who have actually spent adequate time to understand and manage them.
Posted by: Maggio | July 27, 2009 at 06:24 AM
It is such hard work being an actor. Equally hard is coming up with new derivatives to trade for actors to invest in. Good thing Goldman Sachs picked up where Enron left off on carbon credits! Dear author, Try working on not breathing because Obama's EPA has ruled CO2 a pollutant. Good luck with that.
Posted by: FeFe | July 27, 2009 at 06:37 AM
The article was worthless but the comments are pure gold.
Posted by: Frazetta_girl | July 27, 2009 at 07:36 AM
Is Sarah saying she eats the wolves she "hunts" from the helicopter?
Posted by: Mark R. | July 27, 2009 at 07:45 AM
>>a fully scripted endeavor>>
Yeah, God forbid speeches like that happen ... at least not without a teleprompter present and accounted for, right?
Posted by: EricP | July 27, 2009 at 08:17 AM
Actors and actresses become famous pretending to be things, Sarah Palin is something, no pretending necessary. It's really great that the video of her speech is widely available so people can judge for themselves, instead of having to depend on some morons interpretation of what she said. Just like the announcement of her resignation, I found this speech perfectly understandable.
What I find not to be understandable is the ten and 13 minute non-answers that 0bama gives, plus his total reliance on a teleprompter even for the briefest of announcements or statements. If you'll notice Palin didn't use a teleprompter, and only occasionally looked at her notes. When 0bama's teleprompter goes haywire, he stops dead in his tracks, unable to proceed. That tells me that 1) he doesn't write his own material 2) he doesn't even bother to familiarize himself enough with it before hand so that he can wing it if the teleprompter fails and 3) that he is not even familiar with the subject he's talking about and this is the guy who the media gushes over being the great orator? Give me a break.
By 2012, after 4 years of 0bama's attempt to destroy the economy, and seize control of means of production, and health care, Palin's old fashioned common sense will be the change that everyone will be calling for.
Posted by: greg | July 27, 2009 at 08:28 AM
This Variety column proves one thing: The media still doesn't get it.
Are they really that obtuse, or are they just pushing their own left leaning agenda?
Posted by: Becky McElrath | July 27, 2009 at 08:47 AM
The resignation ceremony itself was dignified yet highly emotional.
It was also nonsensical and highly stupid.
Posted by: Substance McGravitas | July 27, 2009 at 09:10 AM
We like Palin because she is one of us. We understand her perfectly. I'm sorry if ordinary hard working Americans are such an embarrassing enigma to you.
"And we can still do this, to carve wealth out of the wilderness, and make our living out of the water, with strong hands and innovative minds, now with smarter technology."
Really? You honestly didn't understand this?
Do you know where your sushi comes from? The gas in your car?
Egads. What a revealing article.
When you point a finger at someone and call them stupid, there are three more pointing back at you, AND HOW.
Posted by: jen p. | July 27, 2009 at 09:40 AM
So, Palin is an out-of-touch doofus...but not so much as the Hollywood that keeps cranking out movies that nobody will watch.
Posted by: wnaegele | July 27, 2009 at 10:18 AM
So, Sarah resigned yesterday…..
And the MSN covered the event live. Except for MSNBC, which was covering Michael Jackson. You know the network which has the slogan “The place for news”.
The main theme that the liberal media was talking about this week was how Sarah Plain’s numbers have dropped since the 2008 presidential elections. CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, and the liberal blogs like The Huffington Post have been trashing her.
But what weren’t they talking about….
Obama’s poll numbers are crashing, and after the “stupidly” comment they will be dropping more. I wonder why that‘s not a bigger story! Left wing media in the tank!
But it’s not going to work!
The lefties are in for a world of hurt!
As for Sarah Palin… Perfect time, Perfect Place……
Posted by: ira ludwig@ | July 27, 2009 at 11:32 AM
Seems that this is the author of the article/blog:
Variety managing editor Ted Johnson
"Wilshire & Washington highlights the enduring relationship between entertainment and politics. More than a mere curiosity, the intersection of these worlds play out daily in fund raising, celebrity causes, show business lobbying and creative expression. Variety managing editor Ted Johnson provides the daily dose with contributions from reporters in L.A. and D.C.
Winner, Blog of the Year 2008, Southern California Journalism Awards."
Posted by: Weldon Wordsworthy | July 27, 2009 at 11:53 AM
"Palin thrives on being unpolished, but even that is of little help it you can't understand what you are saying."
Really??? And THAT sentence was supposed to be intelligible, right?
It is of little help IT you can't understand. Maybe you can't understand because you can't speak (or type) the language properly yourself. I'm pretty sure anyone else who heard the speech got it. As for who got this article....only you & your mother.
Posted by: Sage | July 27, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Poor guy's precious Washington sensibilities have been abused on. The rest of us REALLY feel terrible for you.
You don't get plain-spoken truisms for some reason. Maybe that's what's wrong with elitists. I think this guy thinks that people in positions of political power are supposed to talk like they have every word scripted for them like by professional and read off a teleprompter. Now where does that kind of thing take place again? Hollywood and.... oh yeah.....The TOTUS!
This ain't Hollywood! Did you understand that?
Posted by: Steve | July 27, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Ann Nimous, the writer of the would-be opinion piece, probably thinks those of you who have written in favor of Palin are, as Rush Limbaugh often puts it, "a bunch of hayseed hicks." Well, for the record, I have a degree in Enlish and journalism from Indiana University, Bloomington, and I am not only a Palin supporter, but a proud conservative.
As a journalist, the written piece in Variety nauseates me. I must admit, I graduated IU at a time when we were taught to try to maintain an objective stance. The lack of a byline and a lack of any listing of political expertise makes me think the piece is but a space-filler, complete with comment the would-be writer cribbed off discussions among Hollywood-type elites at some party or gathering.
One final note, oh unknown one: If Palin is not a threat to you libs as a conservative female likely to run for president in the next election (hopefully to get Barry voted out), why are all you libs apparently obsessed with her and with writing about her?
Posted by: Confessor | July 27, 2009 at 01:32 PM
Sad small teabaggers/birthers/bushies/rethuglicans.
Can't seem to grasp that the lipstick dipstick just resigned - failed - done.
And they all fall for her hypocrisy, and would follow her off the face of the earth (if only).
Sarah Palin is using our troops to defend her inadequacies and lies. They are not fighting for her right to be a dimwit. And her son was forced to serve - as he sits comfortably out of harms way as the privileged son-of-a-…..pit bull.
The posters here are the worst. As dumb as it gets.
Well done Variety - hope you follow up on Palin's kickbacks and million dollar home when the news breaks. Hard working Americans my ASS.
Posted by: Kelly | July 27, 2009 at 01:56 PM
Just a little further elaboration on that entirely sensible paragraph:
"We would roll up our sleeves and we would diligently sow and reap."
This is a literary allusion -- probably the reason the author didn't know this is because it is an allusion to the Bible. This can also be read as a metaphor -- the toil of sowing, and the toil (but also the reward) of reaping the harvest. I imagine Mrs. Palin might have been referring to the flyover-country custom and culture of working (sowing) for your pay (reaping).
"...to carve wealth out of the wilderness, and make our living out of the water ...
Again, alluding to the strenuous, often physical, but also mental, toil of earning one's living in an unforgiving environment. The author might need an assist here -- think of mining as "carving" and (serious, not just recreational) fishing as making a "living out of the water." Both of those occupations are intimately connected with Alaska.
Let's have a little charity for the unnamed emoter who posted this dreck -- probably s/he was still a little tipsy from the white wine.
Next, I'm pulling up a tab on cafepress to find a "We eat, therefore we hunt" bumper sticker.
Posted by: p | July 27, 2009 at 02:01 PM
To the Palin apologists...the group responsible for bringing us the Bush/Cheney disaster: Obama's poll numbers are not plummeting, your pitbull with lipstick/mama bear's are. She's a quitter and as a politician she's finished. Criticism of Sarah isn't snarky snobbery: she couldn't handle being governor of a state with the population the size of Indianapolis. She's blames all of her problems on everyone else. She dragged her whole family into the public spotlight, put her pregnant teenage daughter and infant son with disabilities in front of the cameras, made a fool of herself and shamed the office of governor of Alaska.
Please quit apologizing for this egomaniacal opportunist
Posted by: Bjesquire | July 27, 2009 at 02:43 PM