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Sabato on Palin: What's He Drinking?

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Sun May 23, 2010 at 03:10:52 PM EST
Tags: Sarah Palin (all tags)
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Sarah Palin was in Denver last night, speaking to her usual fringe following. Political scientist Larry Sabato seems to be drinking the kool-aid:

"She's avant-garde. She's a feminist. She cuts a dashing figure...Whether you love her or you hate her, you don't go to sleep when Sarah Palin comes on."

No, those of us with brains change the channel or turn off the TV. And just how is a reactionary like Palin considered "avant-garde?" And a Feminist? No, how about just crassly opportunistic.

Now back to regular programming.

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    Sabato on Palin: What's He Drinking? | 35 comments (35 topical)

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    Time for your (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by jondee on Sun May 23, 2010 at 03:24:13 PM EST
    urine test, Mr Sabato..

    Puts me in mind of Peggie Noonan talking about how Palin "hit it completely out of the park" during the debates..

    I thought these people were anti-drug?

    And see mcjoan on this subject at DK. (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by oculus on Sun May 23, 2010 at 03:41:52 PM EST
    Maybe Sabato (Univ. of VA) resents those faculty lounge feminists?

    She's like Dubya. Every time she opens her (5.00 / 2) (#6)
    by Angel on Sun May 23, 2010 at 03:42:09 PM EST
    mouth you know she's going to say something stupid.  It doesn't take repeated viewings to know what she's going to say, except that like Dubya, she'll create some new idiotic way of saying it.  The woman is void of any common sense solutions to today's problems.  Everything with her is of the lock and load variety.    

    I Guess That Perhaps Sabato (5.00 / 1) (#7)
    by The Maven on Sun May 23, 2010 at 03:55:00 PM EST
    comes from the unenlightened school of thought that Palin's simultaneous pursuit of a "career" makes her de facto a feminist, since if she weren't, she simply would have stayed at home raising her children and being supportive of Todd.  Quod erat demonstrandum.

    As for avant garde . . . was Palin wearing her faux-motorcycle jacket?  That could be viewed as being pretty hep, or whatever the kids are calling it these days.

    Sad to think that this is the sort of thing that passes for astute political analysis.

    I hate to think what Sabato is doing (5.00 / 2) (#8)
    by Anne on Sun May 23, 2010 at 04:28:46 PM EST
    when he's "not sleeping."

    But maybe Heidi Klum could ask him to guest judge on Project Runway; he's just described fashion, not a potential national office-holder.

    "She's avant-garde. She's a feminist." (5.00 / 0) (#13)
    by desertswine on Sun May 23, 2010 at 05:25:35 PM EST
    That sounds like the whiskey talking.

    Or his... (5.00 / 0) (#14)
    by szielinski on Sun May 23, 2010 at 05:39:32 PM EST
    ...penis

    Parent
    from some very remote locale.. (none / 0) (#15)
    by jondee on Sun May 23, 2010 at 05:53:33 PM EST


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    Distance...smistance (none / 0) (#21)
    by szielinski on Sun May 23, 2010 at 07:20:33 PM EST


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    Just playing Devil(ette?)'s advocate here... (5.00 / 1) (#16)
    by EL seattle on Sun May 23, 2010 at 06:10:37 PM EST
    "She's a feminist" - The Denver Post: In the past several weeks, she also has taken to boosting conservative women to office -- a role many observers say the Republican Party desperately needs.  "It's certainly been the weakness in the Republican Party, they haven't done that well among women," said Gary Jacobson, a political-science professor at the University of California, San Diego.

    If there can be such a thing as a 'conservative feminist', maybe Palin qualifies?

    "She's avant-garde." - The Denver Post: "In some ways, she seems more party-line than she was before," said Lu Busse, chair of the 9.12 Project Colorado Coalition.  "People are scratching their heads; these endorsements don't seem to match up. . . . She's an enigma, and she's inconsistent. When she doesn't pick the most conservative one in the race, well, then I don't understand."

    What is avant-garde politics anyway?  Is it surrealist or dada?  Is it the power of performace art, magnified by both the new media and the old media?  When words like "enigma" and "inconsistent" are used to describe any successful performer or artist, it's usually not too much of a stretch to apply the phrase 'avant-garde' to the enterprise as well.

    Maybe someone at some point will determine that Palin is actually an artiste of the slightly funny deal.  Then some heads will really start to spin uncontrollably.

     

    There can be conservative feminists (5.00 / 2) (#20)
    by Cream City on Sun May 23, 2010 at 07:10:35 PM EST
    yes -- a good explanation is in Nancy Cott's book, Grounding of Modern Feminism.

    However, Palin is not one.

    A feminist -- radical, liberal, moderate, conservative, social, etc. -- is equally, if you will, a masculinist.  That is, feminism is a belief in equality of the sexes/genders.

    Palin does not support gender equality, based on several counts, but here's the obvious one:  the right to privacy, the basis for Roe v. Wade.  She thinks women should not have the same right to privacy in medical decisions that men do.

    Not a feminist.

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    No, see, you're not allowed (none / 0) (#23)
    by gyrfalcon on Sun May 23, 2010 at 08:56:25 PM EST
    to call yourself a feminist unless you're politically left of center and pro-choice.  In every other respect, as far as I can tell, Palin is by far the strongest feminist we've ever had in a prominent public role.

    But see, she can't be a feminist because all feminists, by definition, must be pro-choice.

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    Well, there are Republican (none / 0) (#27)
    by Cream City on Mon May 24, 2010 at 01:12:58 AM EST
    women and men who are feminists and pro-choice.

    I know some.  I don't know quite how they reconcile it all in their minds, but they do.

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    I have a problem with a so-called feminist (none / 0) (#30)
    by Anne on Mon May 24, 2010 at 08:57:22 AM EST
    who says, essentially, "women can be and do whatever they choose, but they cannot and should not be allowed to choose abortion."

    Because as soon as you make women cede dominion over their bodies to some authority figure, you have placed them in a position where they are not equal.  It says, in effect, that having babies is more important than the women themselves are, and if that's a woman's highest and best function, what does it matter that she can't be paid the same as men, or that she is treated as less competent or not serious about her work?

    Yes, I know what her record as governor is, but this woman is not, now, talking choice, she is rallying the troops to put more laws on the books to end abortion.  

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    I don't agree with her (none / 0) (#34)
    by gyrfalcon on Tue May 25, 2010 at 07:45:35 AM EST
    but that's not what she's saying.  She's saying a new life is more i