Friday's Rant: Sarah Palin and Other Bitter Clingers

A piece of a conversation I recently overheard...

"Can you believe her?"

"I KNOW! Who does she think she is? She is sooo unqualified."

I'm so embarrassed of her...you should have heard my mom going off about her last night. It was funny. She is sooo dumb."

Earlier this week, I was at the Direct Marketing Association's annual conference in Las Vegas. As they do every year, they were inducting a few people into the "Hall of Fame" and they awarded it to this woman, I can't even remember her name - she use to be a big deal at AOL, I guess. Anyway, she's up there accepting this award and rambling on and on and on about how thankful she was for it. She offered all of us mere marketing mortals a few piece of advice:

"Don't ever laugh at your customers. Which reminds me, I shouldn't get political, but we should seek to understand the people who are supporting Palin. We need to realize that there a lot of people in this country that think she represents them."

For a group of people that are so confident of victory, liberals sure seem scared of some dumb hick from Alaska. Why? To liberals, Democrats, elites on the coasts, etc., Conservative Republicans (especially women) like Sarah Palin are a spectacle. A freak show. A circus exhibit. You see, Sarah Palin is what Obama would call, a "bitter clinger":

"You got into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

This pretty much describes how liberals perceive Palin and her views - How is it possible that any enlightened person could be from Alaska? Or, have gone to the University of Idaho? Or believe in Jesus? Or hunt (Abort babies, not moose)? Or want to take away the "right" to abort babies? Talk about a hillbilly...But I have a question. I would like one of the mind-numb drones who are going to vote for Obama to tell me...what experience does Obama have that Palin does not? Oh, wait. I guess I can answer that myself.

The point is this - why is she such a threat? They've attacked her daughter, her daughter's boyfriend, her husband, her baby, her state, her faith, her decision to not abort her baby, her education, her hometown, her experience as a mayor, her experience as governor, her hobbies, her looks and the rest of her family. Why?

They love attacking her, but somehow, she's popular. She's good for ratings. They love to put her on TV every chance they get. She's saved Saturday Night Live's ratings. They love making money off of her. But still, the attacks don't stop:

When asked about Tina Fey's portrayal of Palin on SNL, Chevy Chase responded, "I want her to decimate this woman. This woman is, I can't believe there hasn't been more about it. . . . It's just unbelievable to me this woman is actually running for vice president." Tell me, Chevy - why is this unbeliveable?

Friends and neighbors, it's one thing to attack her based on policy. If her husband became actively involved in the campaign, he'd be fair game. If she wanted to convert everyone in the U.S. to some snake-handling evangelical church at the point of a gun, that's fair game. But the current liberal attacks on Sarah Palin are a result of their own fear and realization of the fact they are - desperately - out of touch with ordinary Americans. You know, bitter clingers like us.

Whether it's Sarah Palin or today Joe the Plumber, the liberals attack what they don't understand and threatens their power. And if you don't fit into one of their many well established victim groups, you're fair game. Your religion gets attacked. Your profession gets attacked. Your values get attacked. All by people who don't understand that there is a country outside of the east and west coast (or Chicago)...Alaska certainly not included.

Breathe in, breathe out...this week's rant is over.