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Sarah’s Win … Part Two:
Posted by Joseph Riggio on Wednesday, October 29, 2008“Sarah Palin is smart, really, really smart.” Hey I have your attention now, eh?
I’ve said from the start of this thing ... from the moment that the unknown Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, was selected by the McCain campaign as the Vice Presidential nominee ... that this woman was not to be overlooked (as she so often has been). In fact I’ve said she’s a rare talent in her own right ... as I continue to watch this thing unfold I’m ever more convinced that my position is valid. Well what can I say ... I’m an unabashed fan, and I think Sarah’s a winner even if Obama and Biden wind up as the ones going to Washington this time around.
Now another absolutely unlikely voice has shown up saying very much the same thing and more ... a leftist, liberal, feminist voice at that! But why listen to me ... have look for yourself ...
Howdy all ya’ all,
I got more than a few phone calls and comments after my last blog post about how Sarah Palin won in the Vice Presidential debate. And now here’s something I thought I’d frankly never see ... a true blue, dyed in the wool, Democratic feminist defending Sarah Palin for being really, really smart! You read that absolutely correctly ... “really, really smart!”. Well run me ragged and put me away wet ...
Let’s start here:
“Now by “smart,” I don’t refer to a person who is wily or calculating or nimble in the way of certain talented athletes who we admire but suspect don’t really have serious brains in their skulls. I mean, instead, a mind that is thoughtful, curious, with a discernable pattern of associative thinking and insight. Palin asks questions, and probes linkages and logic that bring to mind a quirky law professor I once had. Palin is more than a “quick study”; I’d heard rumors around the campaign of her photographic memory and, frankly, I watched it in action. She sees. She processes. She questions, and only then, she acts.”
WOW! that’s heavy duty smart and I agree without having spent any time with Governor Palin myself like the author of the statement above has had the privilege of doing herself. So, who’s calling Governor Sarah Palin smart? ... Elaine Lafferty, former editor-in-chief at Ms. Magazine. This is no fluffy hair-brained, right-to-life, religious right Christian nutter ... but a full-blown leftist, liberal Pro-Choice feminist. She worked with Sarah Palin when Palin was crafting her “glass-ceiling” speech. She spent time with her traveling as Palin was on the campaign trail and gives us a very different image then the mainstream media has been blasting us with (to say nothing of the even more extreme liberal media). If nothing else it would be worth seeing what else she has to say, huh? Here’s another example of what Ms. Lafferty has to say about Sarah Palin:
“What is often called her “confidence” is actually a rarity in national politics: I saw a woman who knows exactly who she is.”
I think that most people just aren’t willing to do the homework necessary to get the facts for themselves ... what I call the refusal of doing due diligence. Instead they will take the surface impressions they get from the thirty second sound bites, the criticisms hurled at public figures, and the willingness to be swayed by the endless inundation and indoctrination based on the “facts” as the mainstream media would have you believe them. I just went through an exchange with a friend of mine about the ridiculous claims about Obama’s false birth certificate ... which took all of ten minutes to totally undermine by going to the sources myself. TEN MINUTES! ... just 10 minutes was all it took me to completely undermine a false accusation that has been rampant on the Internet for weeks now. Yet my observation has been that most people would rather accept the pablum their fed than to do what it takes to gather and chew on the facts themselves.
But, back to Sarah Palin, huh? I’m just not surprised to here another smart, credible source calling Governor Palin smart ... smart as hell in fact! It’s really evident to me in watching this women that she’s not the country bumpkin the media has made her out to be. If fact I really do see her as the most honest kind of American politician ... someone who saw something going on that she didn’t abide with and took grass roots action to get into the system, become a part of it and change things from the inside out.
Now I know this posting may not be making me a whole lot of new friends in some places, but my job has been to “call ‘em like I sees ‘em” and I ain’t about to stop doing that now. Of course I self-selected this job and I love my work. I’ve never set myself up to make friends, even if I do on occasion hope to influence a few people here and there. I think that we will not have seen the last of the smart and clever woman running for the post of Vice-President of the United States of America even if Barrack Obama is successful in his bid with Senator Biden this time around ... in fact I wouldn’t be too surprised if she’s running for the top post next time around ... and wins it hands down! FWIW, while I’m none to happy about her running mate these days, if I remain feeling like I am today ... when she does make that run for President I’ll be working on her campaign ... now put that in your collective pipes and smoke it!!!
In closing I thought it would be interesting to here what Elaine Lafferty had to say about Governor Sarah Palin in closing her article about her on The Daily Beast:
“But here is the good news: women, citizens of America’s high and low culture, the Economist and People magazine readers, will get it. They got it with Hillary even when feminist leaders were not supporting her or doing so half-heartedly. Yes, Palin is a harder sell, she looks and sounds different, and one can rightfully oppose her based on abortion policies. If you only vote on how a person personally feels about abortion, you will never want her to darken your door. If you care about anything else, she will continue to intrigue you. As Time’s Nancy Gibbs noted a few weeks ago, quoting bioethicist Tom Murray, “Sympathy and subtlety are seasonings rarely applied to political red meat.” Will Palin’s time come next week? I don’t know. But her time will come.”
If I’ve captured your interest at all read the full article at The Daily Beast, and have a listen to the YouTube video of Palin giving her “Glass Ceiling Speech” while you’re there. If you tried to get this on YouTube, you’ll find only the preliminary comments that have nothing to do with her actual speech. However, what you’ll most want to attend to is her skill at delivering this speech, her connection with audience and her general style of presentation ... she’s a pro! Use a positive, excitatory bias as your perceptual lens ... listen for her presumptions ... listen to her building “yes sets” ... listen to her logical chaining (she’s especially good at this particular hypnotic skill) ... listen to the social proofs ... listen to the way she connects with a specific audience, calling them out right up front! ... she’s a very skillful hypnotic speaker ... get over the prejudice you might go in with and decide you’ll listen for what she does right first. Then decide on whether you agree or disagree with the content, after you’ve spent the time to listen to her skillset as it manifests in her speaking style.
Not making any new friends in Nuevo California ... or trying to either.
Best regards,
Dr. Joseph Riggio ... social ontology gadfly
Princeton, NJ ... and around the world ...
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(21) Comments • Permalink
Joeseph,
Hopefully you have more reasons to jump on her bandwagon in a run for Pres. in 2012 (assuming that would happen) than the facts that she knows who she is and that she is a gifted hypnotic speaker, all with which I don’t disagree.
Greg,
There would be a couple of reasons I’d considering jumping on her ... “bandwagon” ... as you say.
First of all I think she gets the political thing and isn’t afraid of taking a stand she believes in and running with it. She has a demonstrated record of going after what she holds to be corruption in the system and being successful in rooting it out at some level or another. ... Now I am not so naive as to thing that Sarah Palin is the “Lone Ranger/Eskimo” of Alaska or anything. I’m sure she’s as driven by personal ambition as the next politician, but I like where she directs her attention in this regard.
Second, she’s seems to avoid taking on the airs “required” to be successful as a politician in the U.S. these days ... A) a law school degree (a HUGE PLUS from my point of view, i.e. NOT HAVING A LAW SCHOOL DEGREE), B) speaking only in highly educated terminology and seeming to know everything that you’re supposed to have a grasp of my rote ... as opposed to KNOWING THAT YOU DON’T KNOW AND NEED TO FIND OUT in the moment what’s actually going on, not what you think is going on from what you thought you knew already, C) taking on as “yours” only the popular causes, especially those vetted by professional pollsters as being acceptable political topics ... versus HOLDING ONTO YOUR OWN VALUES AND BELIEFS EVEN WHEN THEY ARE OPPOSED TO THE POLITICALLY EXPEDIENT THING TO DO ... and hopefully being smart enough to recognize the real “will of the people” and move with that in spite of your personal values and beliefs when your role in office demands that you do, D) having only professional image consultants prepare your public presentation so you become “picture perfect” and largely “un-human” compared to the people you’re supposed to be representing ... instead of LIVING IN A WAY THAT’S TRUE TO WHO YOU ARE REGARDLESS OF HOW THAT MIGHT LOOK ON THE SIX O’CLOCK NEWS, like going off as you always have hunting with just about everyone else you’ve know your whole life in the woods of Alaska despite the fact that you know this will become a major talking point on the six o’clock news ...
How’s that for starters???
But even more to the point, my deepest sense of Sarah Palin is that while she’s got all the markings of a natural politician, she’s not a “career politician” ... I think she’s centered in herself enough to get out after she’s been in and have a life after politics ... unlike folks like Ted Kennedy who has a FREAKING BRAIN TUMOR and won’t go!!! ... or Bill Clinton who’ll do anything for another run at the White House despite the fact that he’s barred from doing so, and making a total ass of himself in his post-presidential years so far (see “Vanity Fair - The Comeback Id” for more info as an example).
So as I said I’m keeping my eyes open on this one, not counting her out by any means, and if I continue to see what I expect to see ... a progressive, impressive, aggressive maturation of the candidate Palin ... when then’ll I’ll jump on her ... (bandwagon, of course ... `;~>)
Hey Joseph,
Interesting article!
Over here in the UK there’s it can be said we don’t quite get caught up in the hullaballo of the US election. As such we are neutral observers and that can offer an interesting perspective when ‘looking in’.
Now skill… yep, Palin is awesome.
The conviction and confidence she showed from the off, was amazing.
So I agree… VERY skilled.
But… (and you probably guessed there was one of those coming!)
Skill is not everything. The *USE* of that skill has to be taken into account when deciding if she deserves to be in office.
Throughout history there has been some very unsavoury characters whose skill was never in doubt… In fact, in some cases, their skill just made them even more dangerous!
For example just think of the many dictators in the last 100yrs whose oratory skills and charisma were astonishing…
Social Psychologist Gustav Le Bon wrote a truly great piece of work, The Crowd. (Something so good it is said that Freud ripped him off when writing his papers on the group mind.)
Why do I mention this? Well, one of Le Bon’s main examples of excellence-in-practice was Napoleon… and some of Le Bon’s students included the main players of the Third Reich.
Now - I am NOT comparing Sarah Palin to the Nazis!!!
...I am merely pointing out that there’s more to being in office than just skill or ‘smarts’.
Still. Great post Joseph! :D
Michael,
Thanks for the comments ...
I think I’ve addressed some of your points in my response to Greg above ... you may be thinking about something more specific than that.
Generally I agree with you BTW ... it takes more than skill, it takes what is sometimes referred to as character. A great read on this is William J. Bennett’s The Death of Outrage, an analysis of the presidency of Bill Clinton from the point of view of his character and the impact and implication of his character, and the lack thereof, on the country as a whole.
I believe this issue of character, and the associated issues of virtue and integrity, go directly to you point. And, FWIW, I believe that I see more of that, i.e.: virtue and integrity, in Palin than in many other politicians of our time ... but that alone may also not be saying too much.
Joseph
Thanks for the reply Joseph…
As for the specifics surrounding Palin, I was actually still thinking in broad terms of anyone bidding for office…
Though your question does bring to mind the ‘Trooper-gate’ thing - I don’t how much of an issue that was in the US, but the reporting of that (here in the UK) did cast a shadow on the integrity of Palin.
So I guess the one thing I forgot to say was… Finding someone who has (what you refer to as) ‘character’ is not always that easy!
Particularly as the nature of Power often attracts the wrong characters. But that’s a whole new article!
What I can say for sure is that I (like many people I know here in the UK) are watching this election more closely probably than any before it. For the consequences, which ever way it falls, are potentially HUGE… not just for the US… but for the World.
Roll on next week!
Michael
Hey there,
Joseph: Fundamentally, I consider Palin a great actress, perhaps even a natural one. Whether being a good/great actor makes someone fit for office, is not necessarily a question you address, directly, in your post. In your comments, you speak to the question of character associated with virtue and integrity… Nietzsche, has a one-liner on this.. A man with character is someone whose experiences keep repeating. Does that alone make someone fit for office? Or even combined with public charisma? Is that who you’d like to see in office? Then, again, you haven’t written about this in the above, as well.. And let’s say, N had a flair for living through the diversity of experiences the world provides.
Bourdie (a French Sociologist) wrote a book titled _distinction_… Where he works out in characteristically French style, what the social and political function of taste and judgments are; perhaps this speaks to his take on ‘aesthetic’ considerations. To paraphrase a very long book… Judgments (whether they are individually made, or socially implied) serve one or two major functions… to locate the individual within a social group or to isolate them as something ‘special,’ not necessarily even unique, but definitely of power over others unable to engage with that judgment of taste. For Bourdies, this was a matter of classes negotiating where they stand to each other in the social sphere and individuals choosing (sometimes inadvertently) how they demarcate themselves as individuals in a group.
I will not speak to Palin’s place in politics and the potential consequences of that (I’ve done that elsewhere). However, your choice of highlighting the unlikely candidate’s virtues in your blog post, speaks to how much of a gadfly you can be, sometimes…
I would like to thank you for this good read you shared here !!
This is how Govern-er Palin takes a prank call. May lead you to rethink how real a candidate is. I wondered, listening to this, how much cross-cultural communication mastery is necessary for a world leader. Especially in a time when foreign affairs is taking even more inertia on the global political scene.
Leo,
And you point is???
I so pleased to see that Governor Palin has demonstrated about the same level of response that the dozens of politicos, scientists, business folks ... and economists ... have when spoofed. If nothing else she demonstrated more grace.
I expect that should the unexpected occur and the McCain ticket win that late night TV here in the US of A will continue to enjoy the same remarkable level of erudite entertainment as it has during the Bush-Cheney years.
The only outstanding question I have is whether or not Marc-Antoine Audette is as clever and skillful as Sacha Cohen.
It’s good to see that American politics has gotten under your skin.
Enjoy the season while it is upon us ... in two more days it will all be just Monday morning quarterbacking ...
Joseph
Joseph,
You could say… I am as into American Politics, as the largest international organ of humanitarian concern (let’s call it the UN) is about humanitarian concerns. And yet there is much to be learned in both that applies elsewhere.
To speak about politics as one does about football (and let’s just say I prefer the original kind, what you guys across the Atlantic call soccer)… Sure, late Night TV tidbits make it a lot more accessible and entertaining if that’s your preferred style… Personally I support Fenerbahce, but in all frankness Arsenal plays better football. All the more reason I am waiting to watch the whole game between them later this week.
The point about candidacy remains as I had written it about my wonders above. What to expect of a candidate about cross-cultural communication in a time of global interest in global affairs or “Foreign affairs"- (as it is referred to in the sterile lingo of American politics).
In a few days, the christening (ehrm, pardon the pun) may be had of the new American president. That’s when the fuss is going to go the way of Kazakhstan, and the real games will begin.
And so I invite the Americans among you to consider voting in two days, it’s the most chance you have of having your voice count for the next four years or so, unless you want someone else to speak on your behalf.
May you enjoy the interesting entertainment of Tuesday night. I’ll glance that way, as I’m watching Roma play Chelsea..
leo.
Whilst there are a lot of other factors, the main thing I look for in politicians is their willingness to serve the country (and, ideally, the world as a whole).
I think McCain is willing. However, rather than confident, Palin has a superiority complex as far as I can tell.
My guess is that it’s a Christian thing but for somebody to decide policy on the basis of some unhinged people’s interpretation of a book of riddles would be an extraordinarily bad thing for America and the World.
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