Deference, Please

During tonight's vice presidential debate, it really started to unnerve me the fifth or sixth time that Sarah Palin referred to the Democratic presidential nominee as "Barack." Not that the woman has a shred of historical context, but the echoes of the eras of slavery and Jim Crow made me wince. Until relatively recently, American newspapers reserved the use of first names for children, dogs, and black people. During the time of slavery, dogs actually received higher billing in colloquial speech: a man's dog would be graced with his last name (Barack Compton), while his slave would be referred to in possessive terms (Compton's Barack). The man is very close to being our next president. I don't expect her to call him Mr. Obama; simply Obama will do. Oh, the nerve. And the McCain campain demands that the press show her deference? Before she will even do a simple press conference? They must know it would be at least twice as hard as tonight's debate, in which she was allowed to ignore the questions and just stick to her talking-point cue cards. At least Biden eventualy realized that this gave him an opening to take shots at McCain; if she didn't have a cue card to rebut it, she just let it go by and tried to use the word maverick twelve times in one run-on sentence.

Deep Thoughts by Sarah Palin

I haven't written for quite a while. I've continued to read excessively, though my dismay at the Palin trainwreck has not resolved itself any for it. I've read too many erroneous and misrepresentative statements about the beautiful state I call home to succumb to the pity I've almost started to feel for the Miss Alaska runner-up. Tonight I stumbled across this lovely little piece in Slate, however, and it restored some sense of order to the absurdity. Hart Seeley threw in some line breaks and titles and introduces us to the profundity of The Poetry of Sarah Palin. Read them all over at Slate. Here are three of my favorites:

"On Good and Evil"

It is obvious to me
Who the good guys are in this one
And who the bad guys are.
The bad guys are the ones
Who say Israel is a stinking corpse,
And should be wiped off
The face of the earth.

That's not a good guy.

(To K. Couric, CBS News, Sept. 25, 2008)

"Haiku"

These corporations.
Today it was AIG,
Important call, there.

(To S. Hannity, Fox News, Sept. 18, 2008)

Last, but not least:

"On the Bailout"

Ultimately,
What the bailout does
Is help those who are concerned
About the health care reform
That is needed
To help shore up our economy,
Helping the—
It's got to be all about job creation, too.

Shoring up our economy
And putting it back on the right track.
So health care reform
And reducing taxes
And reining in spending
Has got to accompany tax reductions
And tax relief for Americans.
And trade.

We've got to see trade
As opportunity
Not as a competitive, scary thing.
But one in five jobs
Being created in the trade sector today,
We've got to look at that
As more opportunity.
All those things.

(To K. Couric, CBS News, Sept. 25, 2008)