read more: Boston Herald
[password]Sarah Palin has officially “jumped the shark.”
Last night’s premier of “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” will be remembered as the moment the once-promising, conservative darling crossed over into the absurd.
Part Alaska tourism promo, part window into the family Palin, TLC’s eight-part series features clips of the former governor at home in gym shorts and shots of the family enjoying the great outdoors while she calls out folksy comments like, “this is flippin’ fun!”
If that’s not enough, Palin takes Kate Gosselin (of “Jon & Kate Plus 8” fame) camping in the Alaska wilderness – the two women reportedly didn’t get along (Kate, it seems, is a bit of an indoor cat).
Conduct unbecoming a former governor and vice presidential candidate? You betcha!
Now that’s not an easy thing for me to say. Believe it or not, in 2008 I was one of Sarah Palin’s biggest fans – “pitbull” bumper sticker and all.
When John McCain selected Palin as his running mate, the decision seemed brilliant. Palin was a conservative, a reformer and an outsider. But her appeal was more than political.
She was “cool,” yet grounded; tough, but feminine. Palin was a game-changer.
Right on cue, liberals set out to destroy the plain-spoken populist, whose candidacy undermined their tired portrayal of Republicans as a cabal of rich, out-of-touch white men.
They called her unqualified – although she was more experienced than John Edwards in 2004, and arguably more experienced than Barack Obama himself in 2008.
The attacks on Palin reeked of a pernicious double standard and an intellectual elitism that made the mama grizzly in me roar.
I defended her everywhere – in the media, in board meetings and on the sidelines of my children’s soccer games.
Even after the election, my support remained steadfast. Palin had carried herself with dignity in the face of vicious personal attacks, and she had more than held her own against career politicians like Joe Biden and “gotcha” journalists like Charlie Gibson.
I looked forward to watching her star continue to rise. I expected big things from her – serious things from her – in the future.
What a difference two years make.
Today Palin is a social-media maven, tweeting away and employing all the computer shorthand, multiple exclamation marks and cutesy smiley-faces of a teenager – :).
There was, of course, her now famous “refudiate” tweet and her awkward attempt to justify the blooper. (“Refudiate, misunderestimate, wee-wee’d up. English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!”)
But her most embarrassing tweets are often personal ones, like this little gem: “Bristol’s life lesson she reminded us before DWTS. ‘They’re going to criticize anyway, so I might as well DANCE!’ 🙂 now that is a take away!”
Is it any wonder this woman now has her own reality show?
Meanwhile daughter Bristol is so busy with her important work on “Dancing with the Stars” that she didn’t even have time to submit an absentee ballot this past election. Ooops! And she and her baby-daddy Levi Johnston can’t stop dishing to the tabloids – one minute planning their “camouflage-theme” wedding, the next announcing their breakup to all of America.
Isn’t such low-brow, exhibitionism beneath the dignity of a former governor and potential presidential candidate?
Don’t get me wrong. As a conservative, I still support many of Palin’s policy views. And as a celebrity gossip hound, I might just keep watching her show.
But vote for her? At this point, I might as well vote for Snooki.
Now that would be “flippin’ fun!”[/password]