Given the fascination with Sarah Palin’s legs and Sarah Palin’s toenails, I suppose this was inevitable: The focus has now shifted to Sarah Palin’s hands. (We’re quickly running out of family-friendly parts of Sarah Palin’s body.)
Stefan Sirucek, in a HuffPo Exclusive:
Closer inspection of a photo of Sarah Palin, during a speech in which she mocked President Obama for his use of a teleprompter, reveals several notes written on her left hand. The words “Energy”, “Tax” and “Lift American Spirits” are clearly visible. There’s also what appears to read as “Budget cuts” with the word Budget crossed out.
Just to be clear: The notes most likely weren’t for her speech, for which she used prepared remarks, but for the Q&A session that followed, during which she glanced at the hand in question.
But in my opinion that’s even worse.
There were no specifics on there, just general concepts and things she supports.
The takeaway is that this presidential contender apparently can’t remember her supposed core principles and needs a cheat-sheet when simply asked about her beliefs.
Andrew Sullivan agrees:
My favorite detail is “[Budget] Cuts”. Which just about sums up the real Tea Party agenda on spending. But it also suggests that she was told in advance of the questions she would be asked, one of which was what would be you priorities if you were elected president? Now think about this: she had to write on her hand her priorities as president.
I stand by my belief that none of this matters to the people who support her, and that she remains a very potent, content-free and destructive force in American politics.
But remember too that even before her Glenn Beck interview, she was furiously Googling the Empire State Building in case she was asked any obvious universally known facts about it, and before her debate with Biden, she was buried in little post-card notes on factual basics that most Americans know – but she, of course, didn’t.
My anti-Palin credentials are undisputed. I’ve alienated countless readers on my side of the aisle by questioning the wisdom behind her nomination, calling her an ignoramus and a pop culture celebrity. I’ve been diagnosed with Palin Derangement Syndrome.
But this seems much ado about nothing. If Sarah Palin likes to write buzz words on her hand, so what?
People — even smart people — have different ways of helping them remember things. Barack Obama famously relies on a teleprompter for even informal speeches, even though he’s generally quite thoughtful off-the-cuff. My guess is that it helps him relax and focus on his audience and delivery rather than stringing together words.
I continue to believe Palin was chosen too soon and too abruptly as the vice presidential nominee and that she was unprepared for the role. She famously bombed the Katie Couric interview and others. But she acquitted herself quite nicely in the “debate” with Biden and has demonstrated that, given preparation, she can do well in other fora. She’s not intellectually curious or a policy wonk, but she’s decidedly not stupid.
She’s unlikely to ever persuade me that she’s presidential timber. She closed that door when she resigned the Alaska governorship to go on a book tour. And, aside from all that, there are likely to be several candidates for the Republican nomination closer to me ideologically.
But, goodness, there are plenty of points of legitimate criticism of Palin the presidential aspirant without focusing on nonsense like this.
