(1)"She added nothing to the ticket that the Republicans didn't already have sewn up, the white trash vote, the demographic that sullies America's name inside and outside its borders yet has such a curious appeal for the right."
(2)"Palin has a toned-down version of the porn actress look favoured by this decade's woman, the overtreated hair, puffy lips and permanently alarmed expression."
The way we read this commentary, Malick is saying in (1) that Republicans often achieve the vote of the undereducated in America's outhern states, often referred to as 'hillbillies', 'hicks', or 'white trash'. This much is fairly accurate, though by no means a representation of the overall Republican constituency.
In (2), Malick seems to compare Palin's dressing style to an unfortunate trend. Now, we don't see this "porn-style" fashion trend in Palin. We would say Palin dresses more like a modern version of the 1950's. Red Scare and all.
Do we agree with Malick's opinions? No.
Do we think this opinion column has been, typically, blown out of porportion by the Right Wing? Absolutely.
The Right Wing Spin Machine, in their fair-and-balanced way, has no problem repeatedly using the metonymy of Barack Obama's middle name in order to verbally equate him with a bloody middle-eastern extremist dictator. "Hussein" may be Barack Obama's middle name but no one from the Conservative constituency is writing "John Sidney McCain" to compare John McCain to the Old English words meaning "wide well-watered land" or "Sarah Louise Heath Palin" in order to equate Sarah Palin with a popular chocolate bar. They hardly use McCain or Palin's middle names at all because it doesn't give them the spin they need to equate Barack Obama with a Muslim terrorist.
But opinion-based commentary is what it is and as long as one does not pose as a reporter we don't really care what they say.
We also don't care if Sarah Palin can field-strip an elk and change a diaper at the same time. We want to know when Sarah Palin will provide improvised answers to improvised questions from the free press. She can shoot a moose, but can she shoot from the hip?
We want to know how she feels about global economics and America continuing to borrow money from Communist China in lieu of paying taxes.
We want to know if she thinks I should pay the bailout salaries of failed executives who each made more money last month than I will see in my entire lifetime.
We want to know that, our daughters were raped, they wouldn't be forced to pay $1200 for their rape kits or forced to bear the child of their violators... or to seek out back-alley men with coathangers.
We want to know if our children would be taught how their bodies work instead of just being told "don't" (a method so effective Palin's own teenage daughter got pregnant from it).
We want to know if Palin would uproot the privacy rights of our law-abiding friends who happen to be homosexuals.
We want to know how many shady deals she would try to cover up with the "Executive Privilege" excuse (as a servant of We The People).
Would Palin amend the Constitution to make the ideals of her personal religion national law?
Would Palin go to war with Iran or North Korea or Russia when we can barely sustain the war we're already fighting?
We don't care about lipstick and pigs, Saturday Night Live, or independent writers making fun of Palin's hair or McCain's age. We want facts about Sarah Palin's political positions... from a campaign that seems to be avoiding facts at all costs.
Read Heather Malick's entire opinion/satire column in question, instead of the RWSM's version of it, here:
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