Sarah Palin who famously could not recall a single newspaper she read when questioned about her reading habits during the 2008 presidential campaign is now questioning whether a Wall Street Journal reporter she disagreed with reads his newspaper. This latest laughable development in her war with the “lamestream media” is illustrative of just how much her ego has run amok. Not content with all the undeserved attention she’s getting from the very media she claims to disdain yet shamelessly seeks out whenever the glare of their spotlight shines on someone else, she is now picking very public fights with every reporter with whom she disagrees.
She dismissed as “crap” a recent story in Politico alleging that some in the GOP are working behind her back to prevent her from seeking the White House in 2012, and said the two male reporters who wrote the piece were “jokes.” She also criticized the reporters on Twitter and scolded those quoted anonymously badmouthing her in the piece to “Man Up.” How original. Has she not heard the old adage about stick and stones? Her petty attacks only make her seem, well, petty.
On the Sunday before Election Day she referred to reporters at the CBS affiliate in Alaska as “corrupt bastards” in a somewhat strident interview with Chris Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday (Yes, that Fox News, home to Beck, Hannity, and O’Reilly, who like Palin, prefer not to let facts get in the way of a good controversy).
During the interview Palin interrupted Wallace before he could finish a question.
“Let me finish my question,” Wallace said.
“Well hurry up then because I have a lot to say,” Palin retorted.
Her gruffness seemed to surprise Brit Hume, one of the regular panelists on the show, who noted the oddity of a former vice presidential candidate going on national television to call out reporters in a less than president-like manner.
Palin uttered “I” some 23 times during the interview and, most tellingly, said the supposedly shabby treatment that Tea Party candidates received from the liberal media was “Kind of like what I put up with for two years now.” (Does everything have to be about her?) So what we have here is a woman still scorned who is desperate to be taken seriously two years after proving herself woefully lacking in gravitas. And how does she go about this? By calling reporters bastards and challenging them on information they know a whole more about than she does. No wonder members of her own party are working against her.
She has really gotten good at painting herself as a victim of the media and a courageous defender of the truth. That is the truth according to Sarah Palin.
Last week, Peggy Noonan called Palin “a nincompoop” and suggested that Palin brush up on politics 101 perfected by Ronald Reagan.
“You have to earn your way into politics. You should go have a life, build strong accomplishments, then enter public service.” Noonan wrote. “And you need actual talent: You have to be able to bring people in and along. You can’t just bully them, you can just assert and taunt, you have to be able to persuade.”
“It’s not just the message, it’s the messenger.”
I have the feeling that Palin won’t be heeding this advice anytime soon. That she is tone deaf and, how shall we say, um, articulately challenged, is nothing new. That she’s also now becoming meaner by the day is interesting. She has already proven herself unpresidential in so many, many ways and now we can add to the list the fact that she is an immature, self-important, thin-skinned, potty-mouthed wanna-be bully.
Photograph of Sarah Palin by Getty Images.
