The Personal, The Political, The Palin
As I’ve emphasized before, anyone who talks about Sarah Palin’s future without dwelling on the sheer craziness of her resignation speech is doing a disservice to their readers. How anyone can talk about this paranoid, senseless narcissist having a canny, rational plan to ascend to higher office is beyond me. I think a lot of political reporters are using the “standard politician” model to Palin’s actions, and are refusing to acknowledge all the evidence that she is clearly a strange, possibly even delusional figure.
And this is where Maureen Dowd comes in. Dowd takes a lot of shit for focusing on the personalities of political figures, instead of the actualy policies they promote or implement. But Dowd has, to my mind, one of the best takes on Palin’s resignation. She almost entirely focuses on the craziness and incomprehensibility of the speech and how it’s indicative of Palin’s overall mindset. And the cute, adjective-heavy writing that can be so annoying really works when it comes to describing a figure as shallow as Alaska’s former governor. ”Nutty puppy” “caribou barbie” “exquisite battiness” “solipsistic meltdown” “incoherent, breathless and prickly stream of consciousness” “classic casuistry”…that’s certainly something you’re not seeing in Adam Nagourney’s otherwise smart, if restrained, analysis.
Of course, very few politicians are as driven and defined by their personalities as Palin is, but when they are, someone like Dowd, who takes an almost literary approach to looking at political figures, can be extremely insightful and entertaining.
