Whine Baby Whine! Sarah Palin Goes All Ben Stein on Us

She just can't stay away. Apparently being the biggest political joke in the history of this nation, and singlehandedly dragging down the intellectual level of national political discourse wasn't enough for Sarah Palin. Now she and her delusional followers are pretending that somehow all the idiocy that was the Palin campaign, that was literally too much to keep track of for us mere mortals, was somehow all the fault of a biased media out to get the poor widdle governor. Prepare your irony meters:

"As a public official, I expect criticism and I expect to be held accountable for how I govern,” she said. “But the personal, salacious nature of recent reporting, and often the refusal of the media to correct obvious mistakes, unfortunately discredits too many in journalism today, making it difficult for many Americans to believe what they see in the media.”

Refusal of the media to correct obvious mistakes? You mean like 95% of what came out of Palin's mouth? For someone who accused her opponent of "palling around with terrorists", as well as countless other objectively refutable falsehoods, this goes beyond chutzpa. It is unmitigated gall, the equivalent of a child who murders his parents and then asks for clemency on the grounds that he is an orphan.

However, she's got a whole film crew to do her bidding in a new propaganda piece in the spirit of Expelled called "Media Malpractice - How Obama Got Elected. Never mind the obvious reasons Obama won. Conservative radio host and film maker John Ziegler treats irrelevancies and fictions as facts in an unabashed display of the flaws of right-wing thinking. They took a poll of Obama voters they think reveals something about the media and, well, it has to be seen to be believed:

"71.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing)."

Translation: The mass media didn't treat our paranoid conspiracy theories and irrelevancies as important, therefore the media is unfairly biased. This is denial of the highest order, since in politics, what is and is not important is part of the game. Politicians constantly lose because no one thought the issues they emphasized were important. This is sore loser whining, simple as that. It again, exactly mirrors Expelled, which accuses scientists of a bias for rejecting Intelligent Design according the rules of science.

Also noteworthy was what the polled Obama voters knew about Sarah Palin, and the HowObamaGotElected's crew's reaction to that:

"Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter

And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house," even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!"

Well, when one parades one's knocked-up teen daughter in front of the national media while assuming sanctimonious positions on social issues such as teen pregnancy, sex education, and abortion, one can hardly be surprised if notice is taken and an issue is made of it. If Palin wants to play with the big boys, she's gotta take the hard knocks with the rest of them. As for the Russia/house comment, this is a good example of fixation on minutia while missing the bigger point. Sarah Palin did claim that Alaska being next to Russia somehow gave her foreign policy experience, which is what the Tina Fey skit was mocking. That Palin never actually said the line is completely irrelevant.

Palin mentions the "editing" and "splicing" of the Couric interview, as if that's news. All interviews are edited to make for a more entertaining production. The implication is that somehow the interview was cut (a la the interviews in Expelled) to give a false impression of what Palin actually thought, yet no evidence is ever given to support this.

Palin also speaks as if the controversies over her daughter's pregnancy and Trig's parentage were the focus of the attention on her, when in fact the Trig issue came and went rather quickly in all but the most paranoid corners of the internet. The film completely ignores the myriad errors Palin made, and her clear lack of qualification for the position of Vice President, which were the focus of the election and the reason ultimately she was rejected. The film is one giant red herring.

For additional laughs, watch the excerpts from the Palin interview in the film, where Ziegler's self-described "tough interview" asks her gut-shot questions like:

"How did you feel about the Katy Couric interview? Did you feel it went well, not well?"

After seeing a Tina Fey joke about shotgun weddings, "How did that make you feel?" "Did you know about it before you went on the show?" "Would you have gone on if you did?"

"Do you feel [Couric and Fey were made heroes for what they did to you?]"

"Would you be willing to go through this again?"

Oh yeah John, real tough questions there.

And if you are sitting down, here is the ultimate zinger:

"If by chance you had been chosen as a VP candidate for Barack Obama...how do you think your candidacy would have been treated differently?"

"I think they would have loved me..."

Seriously, she really said that. Words fail me. Denial is not just a river in Egypt. More importantly, this is yet another example of conservatives justifying their theories with speculation rather than facts. Never mind showing that the media actually did treat someone differently, just speculate and make shit up. Perusal of the comments in the WJ article also reveals this mindset in several hilarious instances:

"The reason John McCain did as well as he did was because of Sarah Palin. He ran a lack-luster campaign. She brought life to the ticket. The reason he lost was because of his support of the bailout. Had he come out against bailing out companies like AIG, he would have won."

Uh, no, McCain was well behind in the polls immediately following the revelations (through the Gibson and Couric interviews) of what an ignorant hayseed Sarah Palin was, and well before the economic meltdown occurred.

"Just wait and see there will most likely be a President Palin in 2012 because Obama is already proving to be a terribe president. Just look at the stock market after Obamas speech. It achieved triple digit losses"

Obama's not even sworn in yet and already they are blaming him for Republican screw ups.

"the country is destined to be attacked and destroyed due to the weakling administration we are about to employ.. we are about to enter into another clintonesque administration, which started the economic downfall, not bush, this stuff doesnt happen overnight or in 8 years. look back in 4 years if we are still around, and look at what the socio-communist left has done to us. stockpile your weapons and supplies, pray for gods mercy. because while obama is “negotiating” with hamas and the muslim world iran, china and russia will destroy us. i am ashamed today to be a weak american the rest of the world cant stand. corruption, drugs, laziness, and greed along with this nut you elected king have killed us all."

Methinks someones tinfoil hat is on too tight. More seriously, the amazing thing about people who say things like this is when none of their predictions come true, they don't think once about whether it is because their worldview is flawed. They simply make up another conspiracy and move on.

"The media is an arm of the anti- American, anti-US Military, anti-God Democrat Party."

Ah yes, this is the same media that continually eviscerates atheists on panels about atheism that include no atheists. And isn't Democrat leader Obama having Rick Warren give a prayer at his inauguration? Rightwingers have no concept of what an anti-god party would look like. Don't miss their desperation in clinging to the "Obama's not a citizen" and "Who paid for his Harvard education" conspiracy theories as well.

My GOP, how you have fallen to come to this. Enough about Sarah Palin. She revealed herself to be an ignoramus of the highest order, and a consistent liar, and that is why she lost, and why so much of America thinks ill of her. Get over it already, because if you run her in 2012, you will only get another crushing defeat.