U.S. Media's Many Memes of Sarah Palin

Also at "American Thinker"  LINK

Defining a politicians personality, whether positively to build them up, or negatively to tear them down, is a basic rule of politics.Themes can define an image e.g. "Roosevelt's categorization of Al Smith as "The Happy Warrior" or Democrat folklore depicting William Jennings Bryan as "the Great Commoner" are two classic positive examples. On the negative side Mitt Romney never recovered from being defined as "Mr 1 percent" nor did

John Kerry from being "Mr.Flip Flop."

Once a politician is defined (fairly or unfairly doesn't enter into the picture) as say, Rick Perry as a forgetful ditherer, it becomes extremely difficult to shake off the perception-even though in his case it was based on one, admittedly, important, debate moment. 

Such is the power of media defining, that a whole career as a successful Governor of a major state can have that whole positive history shrouded in the fog of a slip of the tongue or a moments forgetfulness.

This eternal and unshakable truism seems to have one, and perhaps the only one exception to the rule, and that is Governor Palin. Once the media got over their initially stunned shock at her 2008 convention address, the entire subsequent campaign was involved in a Liberal media/Blog attempt to stick a permanent,negative, label on her.

That a flow of constant new Palin memes continues to this day (and into the foreseeable future) shows that for all their efforts nothing has stuck irrevocably and fatally detrimentally.

Before Palin's convention address there was some flailing about by a confused media and a number of memes were tried out."Palin's a bad parent neglecting her children, especially the special needs one for a campaign." That such nonsense has never been used against a man, and the anger of many women at such a ridiculous concept, put paid to that quickly.

 Next was "Palin's a hypocrite because her daughter is pregnant" which quickly died after Palin describe her family as "having the same up's and downs like all families which, rightly received an understanding and warm reception. There was even a despicable campaign from the likes of "Daily Kos" and the even wilder "progressive" fringes, which suggested Trig might not even be Sarah's child.

After the Gibson interview the left crowed "Palin doesn't even know what the Bush doctrine is". As it turned out neither did 90% of the population either-it being unlikely that if the question was put to those crowing they could have answered it, so that quickly died the death. 

What did have legs, and is only 6 years later fading from the arsenal of even the lowest information voters, was the"I can see Russia from my window" statement.This line of course was not even said by Palin but had a life of its own which is a sad reflection on some segments of the population.

After the Couric interviews, the media thought they could hang "she's dumb" on Palin but the debate with Biden, where she more than held her own, took the edge off that. 

The silly idea that "Palin can't name a newspaper she has read" still has some life amongst the indefatigable haters, but anyone with half a brain could see that Palin answered with "all of them" because was frustrated in being perceived by Couric as some sort of backwoods woman with no media awareness when of course she has a degree in journalism and is hugely media aware.

After the 2008 campaign the meme "Palin cost McCain the election" had a run only to be definitely destroyed by a number of academic studies, fair minded bloggers, and common sense.

All these various themes bobbed about but in reality did next to nothing to permanently define and disable Palin. That she had,for all the media's efforts, a remarkably powerful effect on the 2010 mid-terms proved her enormous power with the rank and file, especially the Tea Party element.

This was shown when candidates she endorsed in primary battles went from obscurity to winning not only the primaries, but the general elections. It is this aspect of Palin which keeps the leftist media and blogs constantly attacking her as, for all their claims that she is 'irrelevant' they well know she is not.

When it appeared that Palin might run for president in 2012 media obsession and attacks reached a fever pitch with her every word and action scrutinized for a "defining" element. Such nothings as Palin's description of Paul Revere's action against the British were mercilessly lampooned only to suffer the ignominy of her being said to be correct by academics. 

A similar fate befell her attacks on President Obama's health law plans which she described as including"death panels" as even incontrovertible leftists such as Paul Krugman lent weight to her concept.

As the 2014 mid-terms approached so did the volume of attempted defining attacks on Palin. It seems ridiculous that Palin could still be called "irrelevant" when clearly she isn't, so the likes of Robert Costa took to calling her "diminished" This "diminishment" is hard to discern given her astounding endorsement success of 21 out of 23 with, again, a number of senate candidates owing all or most of their success to her endorsement earl in the piece.

So after 6 years plus we can see that Palin is not a "bad mother"  (and is a mother of five not four). Her family is, I daresay, still experiencing the ups and downs as all families do which fact continues to endear her to her supporters.

She is clearly not "dumb" and is well read and informed. And whilst she can't see Russia from her house, she can see it from Little Diomede Island in Alaska. She could also see that Putin would invade the Ukraine if Obama was elected as he "reared his head" in the form of Russian planes entering Alaskan airspace.

Academic studies prove that Palin enhanced McCain's campaign, Academics agree with her view of American history, and President Obama's health car law. We can see that not only is he not "irrelevant or diminished but is still a powerful as she ever was.

As the media turns its attention to the 2016 presidential election one can only guess at what they will try and trot out to negatively define Palin should she run. The "quitter" meme is losing whatever steam it originally had as time is shrouding it in memory and the true facts of the vicious and costly campaign to bankrupt her whilst governor have come out. 

Astonishingly, some elements on the "Kossite" fringes push "Palin will never run because she is lazy." Anyone who saw her book tour when she spoke to tens of thousands on a grueling cross country schedule would be stunned anyone could hold that view

Since her moral character is irreproachable, and she is sincere in her faith the new meme of "she's a religious extremist" is getting a run, but it is fanciful that such an obvious nonsense will stick. Dredging the bottom of the barrel "she's a drunk" is also being tried out by it is so preposterous even the haters hesitate with it.

The media has pretty much run out of ideas (the lunacy of their coverage of a harmless picture of Palin's son Trig and his dog exemplifies this perfectly) of how to make the categorically negative definition of Palin, but one thing can be counted on-they will parse her every sentence to try and find it if she runs. 

Their success rate is pretty bad until now but their obsession will drive them on whilst fair minded people look in wonder, and "Teflon Palin" addresses the great mass of ordinary folk who see through it all.