2008 And It’s Titled “Cut, Kill, Dig, Drill”
posted by on October 2 at 11:00 AM
Stranger-certified Genius Jonathan Raban on Sarah Palin in the London Review of Books:
Like Wally the Green Monster, Baxter the Bobcat, the Mariner Moose and other giant furry creatures who accompany major-league baseball teams from game to game, Palin is the adored mascot of the anti-fiscal crowd. Her actual performance as mayor and governor counts for little beside her capacity to keep the fans happy during the intervals between play, which she does in the style she developed as mayor of Wasilla and then perfected in her triumphant gubernatorial campaign in 2006. Transcripts and videos from her time in Alaska show her parlaying the barest minimum of rhetorical and intellectual resources into a formidable electoral weapon. The least one can say of her is that she quickly learned how to make the most of herself.What is most striking about her is that she seems perfectly untroubled by either curiosity or the usual processes of thought.
It’s really a great piece of writing. You should go read it all, right now.
That really is a terrific piece of writing - it's the best analysis of the appeal of Sarah Palin and the facts of her political career that I've read to date.
Raban is the greatest living American. I love his stuff so much.
Great post Paul. The second chapter has Seattle and its realtionship to the rest of Washington down pat. Palin's political rise to prominence is well told. It is saluatary to read how intelligent people in countries other than our own see us. It is not necessarily objective but it provides further matter for introspection. I and most other city dwellers would never have thought that a minor player fromm Alaska could rise to such eminance is so short a time, yet Raban makes it seem almost inevitable.
Elucidatory.
Ooh, PopTart!
poptart's comment is hilariously perfect. that article was great; worth the read.
Makes one wonder how Tony Knowles managed to lose to her in the '06 election. Either he's even worse, or there's an awful lot of stupid, gullible Alaskans, hmmm?
@4 Well said!
Very interesting article. It explains a lot about Gov. Palin and her arrogance about her own ignorance.
I'm cheered by the comments here, but that's not why I'm writing. One nicely ironic blogger says she hasn't actually read the piece, but, to judge by its title ("Cut, Kill, Dig, Drill"), she takes it to be an article about Palin's children--which made me laugh, and I hope makes you laugh too. --JR.
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