On the surface, I should like her. Sarah Palin is 44, precisely my age. We were born three months apart. And like me, she’s a mom and works full-time.
We should hang out, clink our highball glasses, and salute the kind of kismet that competent women often need to create real achievement. Except, in her case, the kismet catapulted her to the national stage and into history. In my case, it occasionally lands me a first-class upgrade.
Sarah and I could talk about stuff that professional Moms our age talk about: The rush of being in charge; the need to wear seriously rimmed glasses, even if your eyes don’t require it; and techniques for gagging and hogtying that persistent little voice in the back of our heads that suggests our ambition comes at the obvious expense of our kids.
But for some reason, I can’t warm up to her. And last Thursday, when she stood on stage in St. Louis and faced off against Joe Biden in the vice-presidential debate, I studied her face on the small screen and understood why. I know Sarah Palin. I went to school with her. And then, with a small shock of recognition, I saw who she was… and realized: I hated her in junior high.
In school, her name was Pam. When I met her, we were 7th graders. She had feathered brown hair that bounced around her shoulders as she walked down the hall, surveying her domain, left to right, like the felted nodding-dog dashboard ornament my grandfather had in his car. Her eyes were hooded with a shade of azure eyeshadow, and her full lips could reveal her horsey teeth in a sweet smile or condescending sneer with equal ease. Sometimes, her mouth seemed to hold both expressions at once. I thought Pam had real talent, and I practiced her expressions at home before my bedroom mirror.
We had Study Hall in the auditorium together, which allowed me to study technique from afar. We had assigned seats in the auditorium, and prescribed rules about talking, and facing forward, and chewing gum.
All during 7th grade, Pam flouted the rules, changed seats, chewed gum, sat in the back between two boys, whispering and cocking her head close to them with an intimacy I found exciting. When one of the teachers would call her on any of it, she’d fix them with a certain look, widen her eyes, and conjure up that sweet, apologetic, toothy smile. And, somehow, she always got away with it. She had everyone fooled–the teachers, administrators, the janitors who scraped her gum off of the bottom of the folding seats–and it was astonishing. Like them, I was transfixed, in total awe and wonder at her celebrity.
One time, though, she caught me studying her in my absentminded way, and she stared back at me pointedly, narrowing her eyes and raising her clenched fist to her chin, vibrating it in my direction, as if to warn me about getting too close. It took me a few days to peek in her direction again.
That winter, I had a brand new yellow ski parka. The color of a ripe banana, it was hip-length, with a cool belt that fastened snugly at the waist with a brass T-buckle. Unlike most of my clothes–which either came from an older girl who lived in my neighborhood or from a discount store with cheap brands–the coat was new and it was fashionable. In school, it became my anti-anxiety parka: I wore it constantly as a sort of armor as I walked from class to class, sweating through my day.
The only time I took it off, in fact, was when I walked into the auditorium. Miss Dolan, an exacting English teacher who demanded that both the rules of school and the rules of conjugating Latin verbs be followed with the same precision, despised it when kids wore hats or jackets in school. It wasn’t worth protesting, even if I had a voice that spoke above a whisper. It was best just to peel off the offending clothing and park it where she pointed, on one of the last two rows as we entered the auditorium. We could collect them an hour later, on the way out.
One day, I walked into study hall and noticed with a quick rush of pleasure and embarrassment that Pam had the same yellow jacket I did. Since my strategy at that point of my life was to attract as little attention as possible, sharing a wardrobe with a popular girl wasn’t a good way to fly below the radar, I thought. But then I reconsidered: in a way I couldn’t quite pinpoint, it was validating.
A few weeks later, I noticed that Pam’s coat had a huge blue stain on it, as if a pen had leaked in her pocket. And a few days later, when the bell rang in study hall and we filed as usual along the narrow aisles to the door, I paused to collect my coat. But it wasn’t in the usual spot where I’d left it. I cast around, confused that it wasn’t there, a panic beginning to bubble in my gut.
“C’mon,” my friend Denise said, tugging at my arm. And when I didn’t budge, it was Denise who flagged down Miss Dolan and explained what had happened: I couldn’t find my coat, which I always folded in half and placed exactly on the same seat. Miss Dolan set her iron blue eyes on me, “Is that right?” she sniffed, with a slight suspicion. I nodded mutely, and pointed at the backside of the yellow coat in the front of the line: Pam.
Miss Dolan shouted above our heads. “Pam!” she barked. “Are you sure that’s your jacket?”
Pam turned to Miss Dolan and there it was: the sweetest, most dazzling smile you’ll ever see. All her teeth were bared, but she didn’t seem threatening. Instead, she seemed so heartbreakingly cute and friendly, really, that I felt a flicker of something inside, and I tapped at Miss Dolan. “It’s okay…” I started to whisper.
I don’t think she heard me, though, because at that moment Pam piped up loudly. “Oh, this is mine,” she assured our teacher, nodding. “We have the same one.” Then she pointed at a spot behind me, “That must be hers.”
Miss Dolan stooped to retrieve an identical yellow parka from the floor. As she held it up I could see the indigo stain on the right pocket. She shoved it toward me, depositing it into my arms, and waved us through the doors. “All right? All right,” she pronounced, in the manner of someone who was used to seeing issues without nuance, in black and white, good and bad, right and wrong. “Out you go.”
I didn’t mind, really. All I could think was, She noticed we had the same coat. It would be a while before I’d see it otherwise.
In The Nation last week, Linda Hirshman called Sarah Palin a “Mean Girl,” the kind of girl Rosalind Wiseman terms a “Queen Bee” in her chilling 2002 book about tweenagers, Queen Bees & Wannabees. Like the name suggests, the Queen Bee is the royalty of the middle school, a larger-than-life figure who (unlike an actual queen bee) packs a barbed stinger, and wields it at will.
I picked Hirshman’s story out of one of the 358,000 results you get if you Google “Sarah Palin Mean Girl.” Hirshman likened Sarah’s shenanigans onstage at the Vice-Presidential debate to a kind of staged performance art piece of The Rules, Ellen Fein’s and Sherry Schneider’s controversial 1995 book that, as Hirshman put it, had upended 30 years of feminist teaching.
“Forget all that equality and intelligence stuff, ‘The Rules’ advised. Who wants to be Hillary Clinton? Men are simple, attracted to sexual symbols and bright, shiny objects. If you want them, they argued, you must sport long hair and wear sexy, attention-getting clothes,” Hirshman writes. She points out that the suit Palin wore for the debate with Joe Biden was “some amazingly iridescent material, and she sported an eye-popping sparkly rhinestone flag pin. The governor as the It Girl of the ’90s singles scene.”
It wasn’t just her clothes, of course. But her flirty demeanor, her “hey there, Sailor!” wink, as Richard Cohen says, and “all those doggones, references to her working-class status (net worth in excess of $2 million), promiscuous use of the word ‘maverick,’ repeated mentions of ‘greed and corruption on Wall Street’ … and, of course, that manic good cheer. ”
As Amy Poehler said during a recent Saturday’s “Saturday Night Live” sketch, looking over at Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin, “When cornered, you have a tendency to become adorable.”
Adorable, I thought, as I leaned into the screen, scrutinizing her. She was dazzling. Heartbreakingly cute. And friendly.
I hadn’t thought about Pam in a long time. But, suddenly, there she was. Between the relentless smiles, and widened eyes, the winks, I recognized both the Mean Girl and the old familiar sense of being played. I felt the lack of anything close to sincerity, or the truth. And then I recognized her: playing to her spectators to get what she wants, at whatever the cost.
As Hirshman wrote, the real problem is that how a Mean Girl acts “does not have to reflect what she really believes–or even what she knows.” It only has to be effective with the target audience–of 7th grade boys, or junior high Latin teachers, or voters.
I know Sarah Palin because I went to school with her. And, in fact, most women did. Then, the Queen Bees or Mean Girls were just that. Now, they’re really scary.
This post previously appeared in the Huffington Post.
Find more like this: Humor, Politics & Society, Pop Culture, Women , Hillary Clinton, junior high, mean girl, personal history, Sarah Palin, successful women, tweenagers, Women
Ah Ann. How did you put your finger on that with such ease? I too was thinking, I really am impressed with her but there is something about her I couldn’t put my finger on. You did it and as usual with such brilliance in through your writing.
Unlike you, I wasn’t shy in school. I was the one who called out these girls. If I were your friend in school, I would have grabbed that jacket right out of your hands and marched right over to that toothy witch and forced her to take off that coat. I would have made her see the error of her ways.
For me, I had no patience for the phony. Those who came across as sincere but we all knew really weren’t. I would do whatever it takes to enlighten them. That was just my way.
Thank you for finding what it was that so bothered me about Sarah Palin. Now I get it.
Dana
Ah Ann. How did you put your finger on that with such ease? I too was thinking, I really am impressed with her but there is something about her I couldn’t put my finger on. You did it and as usual with such brilliance in through your writing.
Unlike you, I wasn’t shy in school. I was the one who called out these girls. If I were your friend in school, I would have grabbed that jacket right out of your hands and marched right over to that toothy witch and forced her to take off that coat. I would have made her see the error of her ways.
For me, I had no patience for the phony. Those who came across as sincere but we all knew really weren’t. I would do whatever it takes to enlighten them. That was just my way.
Thank you for finding what it was that so bothered me about Sarah Palin. Now I get it.
Dana
Ann, only one with your command of language & observation could have crafted this piece quite so deftly.
Hirshman’s pigeonholing of men, like all attempts at generalization is inaccurate & disagreeable. I don’t feel Palin is that acronym I won’t reference here, by any stretch of the imagination.
I think Palin has a mean streak & your comparisons to Pam are spot on. At the same time she’s like a robot that is being used by the men running that campaign, a tabula rasa they can write anything on.
She does have a special way of making the attacks written for her, her own though, doesn’t she?!
Ann, only one with your command of language & observation could have crafted this piece quite so deftly.
Hirshman’s pigeonholing of men, like all attempts at generalization is inaccurate & disagreeable. I don’t feel Palin is that acronym I won’t reference here, by any stretch of the imagination.
I think Palin has a mean streak & your comparisons to Pam are spot on. At the same time she’s like a robot that is being used by the men running that campaign, a tabula rasa they can write anything on.
She does have a special way of making the attacks written for her, her own though, doesn’t she?!
Hey Ann – nicely done! I, too, am in my forties and there is something about Palin’s aura and persona that just seems a bit smarmy for lack of a better word. Thank you for writing so precisely what I was unable to put into words about her…
Hey Ann – nicely done! I, too, am in my forties and there is something about Palin’s aura and persona that just seems a bit smarmy for lack of a better word. Thank you for writing so precisely what I was unable to put into words about her…
I held off leaving an immediate comment. Your post, so well-written, so on-target and yet written with kindness and compassion, but clarity, deserved some thought.
In some respects the relentless coverage of her ascent from not knowing what the VP office does (June ’08 interview) to lecturing Joe Biden on the need to look forward (with no understanding of history…) to confessing her desire to out-Cheney Dick Cheney in his claim that the VP office is essentially a 4th, separate and equal body of government like Congress – WH- Supreme Court (when they shoulder their responsibilities, anyway)….is akin to our nation’s own cool yellow coat and Governor Sarah Palin seeing it.
She wants it. She took it. She’s wearing it.
And she thinks no one noticed that her yellow coat of folksy joe-six pack rap isn’t really hers. The one with the stains on it…(the bridge to nowhere, troopergate, her wanting to bank books, needing an administrator to help her run a town of 5000, shooting wildlife from planes, claiming foreign policy expertise for living next door to a foreign country, imaginary trade missions…etc) is hers. But she thinks if she literally snows us with her ‘hey sailor’ wink and her gosh-darn it, stiff upper lip folksy charm like the smile with your teacher…no one will notice she stole our coat.
People like her always need our permission. You were kind and compassionate, seeing her need to have that coat and realizing…you can bear that cost: her wearing your coat. (Hats off to you for being able to do that…)
But now, in this election, we can’t give her our permission to take our country and turn it into something no one recognizes…Honestly, I doubt she’d recognize it one way or another. And we need to make sure (I’m beating this metaphor to death, sorry) she goes home wearing her coat.
Thanks again for the great post. Funny, educational, insightful, well-written…I loved that sentence: “She had feathered brown hair that bounced around her shoulders as she walked down the hall, surveying her domain, left to right, like the felted nodding-dog dashboard ornament my grandfather had in his car.”
I held off leaving an immediate comment. Your post, so well-written, so on-target and yet written with kindness and compassion, but clarity, deserved some thought.
In some respects the relentless coverage of her ascent from not knowing what the VP office does (June ’08 interview) to lecturing Joe Biden on the need to look forward (with no understanding of history…) to confessing her desire to out-Cheney Dick Cheney in his claim that the VP office is essentially a 4th, separate and equal body of government like Congress – WH- Supreme Court (when they shoulder their responsibilities, anyway)….is akin to our nation’s own cool yellow coat and Governor Sarah Palin seeing it.
She wants it. She took it. She’s wearing it.
And she thinks no one noticed that her yellow coat of folksy joe-six pack rap isn’t really hers. The one with the stains on it…(the bridge to nowhere, troopergate, her wanting to bank books, needing an administrator to help her run a town of 5000, shooting wildlife from planes, claiming foreign policy expertise for living next door to a foreign country, imaginary trade missions…etc) is hers. But she thinks if she literally snows us with her ‘hey sailor’ wink and her gosh-darn it, stiff upper lip folksy charm like the smile with your teacher…no one will notice she stole our coat.
People like her always need our permission. You were kind and compassionate, seeing her need to have that coat and realizing…you can bear that cost: her wearing your coat. (Hats off to you for being able to do that…)
But now, in this election, we can’t give her our permission to take our country and turn it into something no one recognizes…Honestly, I doubt she’d recognize it one way or another. And we need to make sure (I’m beating this metaphor to death, sorry) she goes home wearing her coat.
Thanks again for the great post. Funny, educational, insightful, well-written…I loved that sentence: “She had feathered brown hair that bounced around her shoulders as she walked down the hall, surveying her domain, left to right, like the felted nodding-dog dashboard ornament my grandfather had in his car.”
This was such a treat to read, thanks for cross posting. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the mean girl reference, please know that I am totally in want of an anti-anxiety parka. It’s this season’s must-have as far as I’m concerned.
This was such a treat to read, thanks for cross posting. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the mean girl reference, please know that I am totally in want of an anti-anxiety parka. It’s this season’s must-have as far as I’m concerned.
Wow, you have a gentle way with words that makes it a joy to read. Thank you for the best read I’ve had in a long time.
Wow, you have a gentle way with words that makes it a joy to read. Thank you for the best read I’ve had in a long time.
Your story was wondeful. I like how you connect the subjects as the same.
Your story was wondeful. I like how you connect the subjects as the same.
Wow, all: Thanks for the thoughtful comments here. I’m a little relieved, too: some literal readers thought I actually went to junior high with Palin. So to set aside any confusion, my “Sarah” was not Sarah. Get it? Got it? Clear as mud? ; )
Special thanks to Zane for that incredible comment.. “But she thinks if she literally snows us with her ‘hey sailor’ wink and her gosh-darn it, stiff upper lip folksy charm like the smile with your teacher…no one will notice she stole our coat.” Love that.
Shannon: Anti-anxiety fashion must-have! (ha!)
And I wish I went to school with Dana. She would have kicked Pam hard for me, I have no doubt….!
Wow, all: Thanks for the thoughtful comments here. I’m a little relieved, too: some literal readers thought I actually went to junior high with Palin. So to set aside any confusion, my “Sarah” was not Sarah. Get it? Got it? Clear as mud? ; )
Special thanks to Zane for that incredible comment.. “But she thinks if she literally snows us with her ‘hey sailor’ wink and her gosh-darn it, stiff upper lip folksy charm like the smile with your teacher…no one will notice she stole our coat.” Love that.
Shannon: Anti-anxiety fashion must-have! (ha!)
And I wish I went to school with Dana. She would have kicked Pam hard for me, I have no doubt….!
O.k. I’m going to be the only dissenting voice. While nicely written, equating Sarah Palin to your “mean girl” without even knowing her is…well, mean.
While there are many women in politics, it is primarily a male-dominated arena. There is no way it is going to be easy to be effective politically and be a good wife and mother – especially with a special-needs child.
The aura Palin carries is not so much about being mean as it is strength, grit and a bulldog (couldn’t help it) tenacity to do both – to be “mommy” and face down the “good ol’ boys”, to protect the privacy of your family and battle the incessant prying and harassment from a biased media, to be a supportive wife and face the hatred of those who are angry with anyone who does what they only wish they could do.
Sarah wasn’t “anointed” with positions and fame because she was cute, a great orator, charming or conniving – she fought great odds at each level to get where she is at. That is why she is celebrated.
O.k. I’m going to be the only dissenting voice. While nicely written, equating Sarah Palin to your “mean girl” without even knowing her is…well, mean.
While there are many women in politics, it is primarily a male-dominated arena. There is no way it is going to be easy to be effective politically and be a good wife and mother – especially with a special-needs child.
The aura Palin carries is not so much about being mean as it is strength, grit and a bulldog (couldn’t help it) tenacity to do both – to be “mommy” and face down the “good ol’ boys”, to protect the privacy of your family and battle the incessant prying and harassment from a biased media, to be a supportive wife and face the hatred of those who are angry with anyone who does what they only wish they could do.
Sarah wasn’t “anointed” with positions and fame because she was cute, a great orator, charming or conniving – she fought great odds at each level to get where she is at. That is why she is celebrated.
Ann,
What a great piece of work! I love the way you wrote that. Very clever and certainly remarkable.
Nice work!
Ed
Ann,
What a great piece of work! I love the way you wrote that. Very clever and certainly remarkable.
Nice work!
Ed
Ann, thanks for stopping by.
And because you did, I was fortunate enough to catch this blog post. Well said!
I am with you – I keep wanting to like Sarah Palin, but just don’t, time and again. Maybe it’s recognition of a Queen Bee or maybe it’s because she’s just not ready for the role she has situated herself for.
Whatever it is, your post put me back in 7th grade, with all of the angst and thrill of it. I remember thinking back then that I was the ONLY person who felt odd and socially inept. I wish I knew then what I know now – that MOST of my peers felt the same way, and that it gets infinitely better!
Ann, thanks for stopping by.
And because you did, I was fortunate enough to catch this blog post. Well said!
I am with you – I keep wanting to like Sarah Palin, but just don’t, time and again. Maybe it’s recognition of a Queen Bee or maybe it’s because she’s just not ready for the role she has situated herself for.
Whatever it is, your post put me back in 7th grade, with all of the angst and thrill of it. I remember thinking back then that I was the ONLY person who felt odd and socially inept. I wish I knew then what I know now – that MOST of my peers felt the same way, and that it gets infinitely better!
I’ve almost always tolerated the Pams and the Sarahs of the world. They get away with far too much, sure, but the utter transparency of their clumsy machinations can be highly entertaining.
And that’s all fine and well in high school, at the mall or, perhaps, in the mayoral office of Wasilla. But when we’re choosing world leaders, marginally wily manipulation loses all its charm. I’m frankly terrified by the prospect of a charismatic troglodyte like Sarah Palin in the White House.
I’ve almost always tolerated the Pams and the Sarahs of the world. They get away with far too much, sure, but the utter transparency of their clumsy machinations can be highly entertaining.
And that’s all fine and well in high school, at the mall or, perhaps, in the mayoral office of Wasilla. But when we’re choosing world leaders, marginally wily manipulation loses all its charm. I’m frankly terrified by the prospect of a charismatic troglodyte like Sarah Palin in the White House.
This is a “shout out” to “Janeile”–is that you Pam?
Hey Pam, since you were mean & a thief when you were young, your response to Ann’s story is exactly what I would expect. 30 years later & you are still being nasty to Ann. Go away! Nobody here is buying your lies anymore.
Once a bully, always a bully — and bullies never admit they are bullies. They are very adept at lying to themselves & whatever part of the rest of the world they can scam.
There is plenty of evidence that Sarah Palin is a bully. One does not get nicknamed “Baracuda” when one is a teen for strength of character. It’s an aspersion not a compliment. There are people from Alaska who went to school with Sarah in Wasilla who have said she was already vindictive when young. There are multiple first person stories attesting to her abusiveness toward city employees when she was mayor of Wasilla. People who know her well from Wasilla say she lacks intellectual curiosity & she has always been ambitious.
Anyone who has ever been a victim of a bully recognizes Sarah Palin is not strong; she’s a bully.
This is a “shout out” to “Janeile”–is that you Pam?
Hey Pam, since you were mean & a thief when you were young, your response to Ann’s story is exactly what I would expect. 30 years later & you are still being nasty to Ann. Go away! Nobody here is buying your lies anymore.
Once a bully, always a bully — and bullies never admit they are bullies. They are very adept at lying to themselves & whatever part of the rest of the world they can scam.
There is plenty of evidence that Sarah Palin is a bully. One does not get nicknamed “Baracuda” when one is a teen for strength of character. It’s an aspersion not a compliment. There are people from Alaska who went to school with Sarah in Wasilla who have said she was already vindictive when young. There are multiple first person stories attesting to her abusiveness toward city employees when she was mayor of Wasilla. People who know her well from Wasilla say she lacks intellectual curiosity & she has always been ambitious.
Anyone who has ever been a victim of a bully recognizes Sarah Palin is not strong; she’s a bully.
Carol2, what specific language in Janeile’s post constitutes “being nasty to Ann”? It looked to me like Janeile expressed a dissenting viewpoint in a respectful manner.
Ann, my wife said “high school mean girl” within minutes of the end of Palin’s convention speech — and I could see her point, even though as a McCain supporter, I was in the mode of trying to make the best of what I thought from the start was a bad choice for VP. I was wowed by Palin’s convention speech (typical man that I am, I suppose), and my wife and I discussed the his-and-her candidates phenomenon in the wake of that speech, in the comments at http://kirkpete.blogspot.com/2008/09/so-thats-why-he-picked-her-what-speaker.html
Carol2, what specific language in Janeile’s post constitutes “being nasty to Ann”? It looked to me like Janeile expressed a dissenting viewpoint in a respectful manner.
Ann, my wife said “high school mean girl” within minutes of the end of Palin’s convention speech — and I could see her point, even though as a McCain supporter, I was in the mode of trying to make the best of what I thought from the start was a bad choice for VP. I was wowed by Palin’s convention speech (typical man that I am, I suppose), and my wife and I discussed the his-and-her candidates phenomenon in the wake of that speech, in the comments at http://kirkpete.blogspot.com/2008/09/so-thats-why-he-picked-her-what-speaker.html
Ann, this potentially sensitive topic was deftly handled. The magnitude of your talent and the depth of your compassionate nature made you the perfect person to write this piece. You took a potentially polarizing topic and humanized it – no small feat in this highly charged election season. There is no doubt in my mind that we shall soon be prefacing your name with Award Winning Writer.
Ann, this potentially sensitive topic was deftly handled. The magnitude of your talent and the depth of your compassionate nature made you the perfect person to write this piece. You took a potentially polarizing topic and humanized it – no small feat in this highly charged election season. There is no doubt in my mind that we shall soon be prefacing your name with Award Winning Writer.
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Ann, I didn’t know Sarah Palin in high school, but I don’t like her either. She does seem to be very much a “mean girl.” She seems to love sniping at her opponents in a nasty way — getting off on name-calling.
I don’t want her as a friend and I certainly don’t want her as our VP or — heaven forbid — our President. We’ve had enough nastiness in the White House these past 8 years.
Ann, I didn’t know Sarah Palin in high school, but I don’t like her either. She does seem to be very much a “mean girl.” She seems to love sniping at her opponents in a nasty way — getting off on name-calling.
I don’t want her as a friend and I certainly don’t want her as our VP or — heaven forbid — our President. We’ve had enough nastiness in the White House these past 8 years.
Carol2, your comment is the perfect example of why I don’t discuss politics on my blog.
Carol2, your comment is the perfect example of why I don’t discuss politics on my blog.
I guess this story is the sort that inspires a certain defensiveness — on my behalf, maybe. I appreciate those who are watching my back, but at the same time know it takes a certain amount of courage to offer a dissenting voice here. So thanks, Janeile. And thanks, Carol. I appreciate both of your voices here.
For the record, though, I do think Palin fought hard to get where she is. Setting aside her positions on the issues for a minute, what I’m objecting to in this post is the manipulation I noticed — of the voters. As Richard Cohen said, can you imagine if Bill Clinton — or any man, really — stood up there and winked at the camera?
I guess this story is the sort that inspires a certain defensiveness — on my behalf, maybe. I appreciate those who are watching my back, but at the same time know it takes a certain amount of courage to offer a dissenting voice here. So thanks, Janeile. And thanks, Carol. I appreciate both of your voices here.
For the record, though, I do think Palin fought hard to get where she is. Setting aside her positions on the issues for a minute, what I’m objecting to in this post is the manipulation I noticed — of the voters. As Richard Cohen said, can you imagine if Bill Clinton — or any man, really — stood up there and winked at the camera?
BTW, Ann, whose pix are shown in your post? Don’t take this the wrong way, but the one on the left looks like it could be either you or… Sarah Palin. Is that the real Pam on the right?
BTW, Ann, whose pix are shown in your post? Don’t take this the wrong way, but the one on the left looks like it could be either you or… Sarah Palin. Is that the real Pam on the right?
Hey Ann – love the picts! what a crack up…
Great insight into the Palin problem. I recently came across a brilliant essay on Sarah Palin by Eve Ensler and thought you might appreciate it (if you haven’t already seen it):
http://tinyurl.com/6n8fve
Drill, baby, drill.
-Jo
Hey Ann – love the picts! what a crack up…
Great insight into the Palin problem. I recently came across a brilliant essay on Sarah Palin by Eve Ensler and thought you might appreciate it (if you haven’t already seen it):
http://tinyurl.com/6n8fve
Drill, baby, drill.
-Jo
Kirk: Actually, that’s Sarah Palin’s face on a random head/body (left) and my face (right) on a random head/body, courtesy of YearbookYourself (http://www.yearbookyourself.com). (Go ahead — you know you want to try it!)
Kirk: Actually, that’s Sarah Palin’s face on a random head/body (left) and my face (right) on a random head/body, courtesy of YearbookYourself (http://www.yearbookyourself.com). (Go ahead — you know you want to try it!)
I have been saying the EXACT same thing. At the Republican Convention I felt I was watching a group of “regular kids” bask in the glow of the popular girl taking the time to smile at them in the hall.
I never feared McCain as much as I do now that I know his VP pick. My husband and I decided we had to do something to help the cause and so created this for undecided voters. It’s funny, but informative if you follow the links:
http://www.areyouundecided.com/Movie_2.html
Also, a friend of mine, who is convinced people aren’t REALLY taking the possibility of a President Palin seriously made this: http://mypresidentpalin.com/
I think you’ll find it interesting.
I love your writing.
Amy
I have been saying the EXACT same thing. At the Republican Convention I felt I was watching a group of “regular kids” bask in the glow of the popular girl taking the time to smile at them in the hall.
I never feared McCain as much as I do now that I know his VP pick. My husband and I decided we had to do something to help the cause and so created this for undecided voters. It’s funny, but informative if you follow the links:
http://www.areyouundecided.com/Movie_2.html
Also, a friend of mine, who is convinced people aren’t REALLY taking the possibility of a President Palin seriously made this: http://mypresidentpalin.com/
I think you’ll find it interesting.
I love your writing.
Amy
I just came over from ProBlogger to check out your blog. Lots of interesting reading here! I’m going to pour another cup of tea and go through your older entries.
I just came over from ProBlogger to check out your blog. Lots of interesting reading here! I’m going to pour another cup of tea and go through your older entries.
You hit the nail Ann. Great writing. (And I’m sure Polar Bears and Carabo would agree with you) It just occurred to me that Tina Fey, who so brilliantly impersonates Palin on SNL, also wrote the screenplay for the movie Mean Girls (and acted in it as well) I bet she’s known a few Pams too.
You hit the nail Ann. Great writing. (And I’m sure Polar Bears and Carabo would agree with you) It just occurred to me that Tina Fey, who so brilliantly impersonates Palin on SNL, also wrote the screenplay for the movie Mean Girls (and acted in it as well) I bet she’s known a few Pams too.
Brilliantly said. Palin definitely appears to be a Very Mean Girl. I’m sorry about your jacket…what a great story, and what memories of insecurities it brings back! Cheers to nice girls.