Palin and the Rise of the Tabloid-Celebrity Politician

John and Jackie Kennedy first brought the cult of the celebrity into the White House, but it’s hard to imagine a major national magazine would have published an exposé of them – or of any other politician – quite like the one on the Palin family that’s appearing in the latest Vanity Fair (via Feministing). [...]

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Should Sarah Palin’s Next Job Be “Housewife”?

According to a Fox News Poll (via Salon’s War Room), a plurality of Americans think housewifery should, in fact, be Sarah Palin’s next job:
About a third of Americans think the best job for Palin is homemaker (32 percent), while nearly one in five see her as a television talk show host (17 percent). Vice president [...]

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Best Political Poet Since Rumsfeld

I know I swore off Palinology, so can we book this post as Shatner blogging?

posted with vodpod
(via Alas and Mudflats)
Or, as Jerry used to sing: “The sky was yellow and the sun was blue.”
Also, I don’t think I’m too naive, but if you happen to know what Cheechakos are, would you please let me [...]

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Meritocracy versus Democracy?

One oddity in how Americans talk about class (or not) is that when liberals and lefties do it, we’re accused by the right of class warfare. When the right’s own culture warriors discuss class, they’re just sticking up for ordinary Americans. Or so it seems in Ross Douthat’s op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times, which [...]

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In Defense of Childish Glee upon Palin’s Resignation

I admit to excessive glee at Palin’s departure. It’s not especially mature of me. I remember a similar feeling when Newt Gingrich dropped off the political scene (and I’d feel the same way if he disappeared again). I felt a similar schadenfreude when Bobby Jindal bobbled his big speech after Obama’s State of the Nation [...]

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Ersatz Fireworks, Palin Edition

So the Fourth of July is already somewhat surreal when you’re outside of the U.S. We’d hatched a scheme for viewing fireworks anyway at the German-French friendship fair, which is basically a carnival with good wine and Brie, but yet another thunderstorm washed out that plan.
The kids wept and railed. Me, I’m contenting myself with [...]

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The Sins of the Mother: Can We Just Leave Bristol Alone?

Look. I never thought Sarah Palin should get a free pass on 1) using motherhood as one of her chief qualifications for public office and then 2) telling America we had no right to know anything about her family. I sharply criticized Palin for getting on an airplane while leaking amniotic fluid. I thought it [...]

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A Bear, A Tiger, and an Awesome Inauguration

I watched the inaugural festivities in the university’s grand (i.e., scandalously expensive) new student center, surrounded by dozens of friends and colleagues and happy strangers. (Oh, and my husband, too.) We shared high-fives when Biden supplanted Darth Cheney. We cheered when the clock struck noon and made Barack Hussein Obama our 44th president. And I [...]

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The Thing with Feathers

I know that we’re all still supposed to be jubilant over the election. This is supposedly our honeymoon, these days between Obama’s victory and his inauguration, before he’s had a chance to start disappointing us in earnest. But elation hasn’t been my mood; not at all. Maybe I’m just too tired from the endless campaign, [...]

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A Bearish Birthday, and Nine Years of Parenthood

The Bear turned nine today. We celebrated by going to a concert where his choir performed. (Audio is here for anyone who’s curious; if you’re plugged into a real speaker you can actually hear some decent music behind the audience’s rustling and coughing.)
Afterward, we got together with some dear friends and ate this cake:
Apart from [...]

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Prop 8 and Obama’s Better Angels

If any of us were truly naive enough to believe that Obama’s election would bring all Americans together, walking arm in arm, singing “We Shall Overcome,” the appointment of Rahm Emanuel as Barack’s chief of staff doused any such delusions.
I’m not sure what I think of this pick. Maybe Obama needs a tough enforcer to [...]

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But Can Palin Spell "Potatoe"?

Photo of multicolored potatoes by Flickr user libraryman, used under a Creative Commons license.
Dan Quayle was roundly mocked when he couldn’t spell potato without adding an E, but he had nothin’ on Sarah Palin. Via the HuffPost, Fox News is reporting that Palin was way more clueless than even the Katie Couric interview revealed. She [...]

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My Blue Heaven

Who knew it could be such fun to feel so blue?
In the whole state of Ohio, only one county went more heavily than mine for Barack Obama: Cuyahoga County, at 68.5%. Athens County came in second, with 66.5% for Obama, and that despite our heavily white population. (The New York Times shows county results if [...]

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Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Racism’s Door

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m still worried about whether American racism – overt and latent – might be strong enough to tip this election to McCain? Frank Rich thinks it won’t, according to his last column in the New York Times:
Well, there are racists in western Pennsylvania, as there are in [...]

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In the Belly of the Bellwether

About being the “bellwether” in this election: It’s wonderful and horrible. I’ve been grateful to be in a spot where – in some small way – I might possibly help tip the election toward Barack Obama. Now, on Election Eve, I’m nervous as hell.
Technically, Athens County, where I live, isn’t even the bellwetheriest part of [...]

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Starving the Political Imagination

While canvassing for Barack Obama this afternoon, I visited the poorest, saddest, most hopeless place I’ve ever encountered up close in this country. Sure, I’ve passed urban housing projects … and kept going. Today, I walked willingly into a pocket of grinding rural poverty. What I learned about my poorest neighbors’ lives will keep me [...]

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Close Encounters of the McCain Kind

Long-time readers know that Kittywampus once came to a (rather tepid) defense of Cindy McCain. But that was only because her husband was acting like such a royal douche toward her. We do not harbor some secret affection for her.
And so here’s a very funny (if uncharitable) spoof of her origins, courtesy of the Onion [...]

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Trick or Treat for Change

Since I live in Halloween heaven (or hell?) – a college town where tens of thousands of revelers will cavort in the streets this weekend – my little town schedules trick or treating on the preceding Thursday. I guess the goal is to separate the wee ghosties from the rioters. (Never mind that the actual [...]

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I’ve Been Biden My Time …

… but I think I’d better get this post up before the election’s over.
Joe Biden came to town two weeks ago, and I got to see him before I had to go teach. The timing was tight, so this involved a lot of high-speed bike riding to and from the local fairgrounds. Okay, my definition [...]

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Vlad and Boris Romance the Bering Strait

I’m due to lighten up after the last couple of posts. On top of that, I got my eyes dilated at the ophthalmologist today, so I spent much of the day with lots of trippy visual disturbances. This is not at all the same trippy fun. I had a close encounter with a University Administrator [...]

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