Thanks, I can't take credit for the example because I've seen it before, but the analysis was mine.

Like I said, otherwise you were spot on. I'll add that, after I read your posts, I realized that all the weasel words were the reason my mind rebelled, preventing me from finishing the article. I hope Fortini takes it as spirited criticism, and tightens up her language a bit.

I'm impressed by your fortitude. How far have you ever made it through a Paglia article? I've gotten as three-fourths of page 1, before I give up and head to the letters.

"'Readrereader

8. Yes, but won't new polls come out showing a post-resignation fade? That's possible, but she has another ace in her sleeve: the announcement of 1/1 through 6/30 PAC fund raising, which is due by 7/31.'

Maybe Palin can build interest by resigning from that too."

This was the funniest post on this thread!

She's an Ayn Rand heroine for the 21st Century.

Think about it:

1) She has unlimited ambition, no self-doubt, thinks she's an expert at everything and is extremely conservative.

2) She gives long rambling monologues that are short on facts but long on lectures about How The World Should Be.

3) She has an absolutely devoted fan base.

4) She quit her job rather than face folks she considers inferior.

All that's lacking is a dollar sign.

Renegade Iconoclast: "I'll add that, after I read your posts, I realized that all the weasel words were the reason my mind rebelled, preventing me from finishing the article. I hope Fortini takes it as spirited criticism, and tightens up her language a bit."

Me too -- I didn't realize why her writing bothered me until I did a double-take. My guess is that Fortini doesn't even realize what she's doing. I'll bet if she goes back over her work next time and chops out the unnecessary verbiage, she'll be pleasantly surprised at how much more potent her writing becomes.

Renegade Iconoclast: "I'm impressed by your fortitude. How far have you ever made it through a Paglia article? I've gotten as three-fourths of page 1, before I give up and head to the letters."

Paglia's work is dizzying but she can turn a phrase from time to time. It's more the logic, across-the-board know-it-all approach to every subject, and underlying dishonesty that bug me. (I think she's got something coming up any day now!) I tried to read "Sexual Personae" once or twice, but ended up skimming various sections (from Emily Dickinson to Madonna, it's all a blur). I wish I still had that book around as a reference, but this obnoxious woman I dated stole it along with my copy of "Geek Love" (another tough one to get through), the John Waters autobiography (classic) and "Godel, Escher, Bach" (the one I miss most of all).

you hit the Palin extravaganza on the head.. this is all that I was wondering..

about all those (elderly GOP women) who love her.. it her iconic Barbie/maternal dopiness in a skirt suit.. all the she-bears of the world have united to her image..

Absolutely brilliant.. perfect commentary.

So I was reading over Sarah Palin's pre-Independence Day speech, reflecting on the inarticulate manner in which she announced her resignation, trying to decipher the rambling, disjointed reasons that she gave for her decision, basically trying to make sense of it all, and this is what I came up with...

She's not a quitter. Had she remained in office and finished her first gubernatorial term, then she would be a quitter. Huh? That can't be right.

Oh, I know. She's a dead fish swimming upstream. No, that doesn't make sense either.

How about this? She's the starting point guard on her basketball team playing in the championship game. It's midway through the third quarter and her team is down by ten points. She drives down the court, passes the ball to a teammate, and...promptly takes herself out of the game, grabs a couple of pom poms, and spends the rest of the 2nd half on the sidelines hanging out with the cheerleaders. What? Hmmm.

I've got it. She's tired of all of the local ethics investigations and media intrusion into her personal family life, so naturally she has decided to move her act onto the national stage where nobody will bother her. No, huh?

Well, after carefully analyzing her speech, I've finally come to the conclusion that Sarah Palin is simply a rebel without a clue.

Oh, come on now. Who are we kidding? Palin betrayed her constituency and quit her job midterm because she saw the opportunity to cash in and make big bucks on the national lecture circuit and in paid television appearances. Dollars over duty. Cash over constituency.

End of story.

...no doubt was articulated by Trig.

Look, I don't like some of the Palin-bashing I've read because I do think it goes over the top. But when she starts talking about her Mama-bear mode, I find it hard to relate. At some point, Palin told a very convoluted story about Trig's birth -- a month before his due date she flew to TX (something all ob-gyns would encourage you NOT to do, even if you weren't having a high-risk pregnancy & about to give birth to a child that was likely to have heart condition). Per Palin, her amniotic fluid started leaking in TX. She decided to fly from Dallas (which has some world-class neonatal units) to Seattle. Amniotic fluid still leaking, she decided to fly from Seattle (which also has some great neonatologists) to Anchorage. Amniotic fluid still leaking, she supposedly left behind the better hospitals of Anchorage, so she could give birth over an hour away in Wasilla.

My guess is that she was BS-ing about this -- that she was just trying to some political point about wanting her son born in small-town Alaska. If she wasn't -- if she really was in labor & repeatedly decided to fly away from multiple good hospitals to put her son's life at risk -- what kind of protective mother bear is that? That she didn't give birth on a plane & that Trig didn't have some kind of Downs-related, life-threatening heart problem is just her dumb luck -- not a sign of maternal care. Moreover, the bizarre nature of this story led to rumors that she was covering up Bristol giving birth. To quell THAT story (which she could have done by releasing her medical records -- even a much redacted version), she told the world that Bristol was pregnant -- that is, she used her own child to shield her. Again, you call that mother bear behavior?

& there was at least one other time on the campaign trail when Palin was supposed to make an appearance at a Flyers hockey game. She was told the fans would boo her. So she decided to have her youngest daughter go out on the ice first. "They wouldn't dare boo Piper," she said. Again, she used her CHILD -- & a very young one -- to shield HERSELF (& it didn't even work).

Even her recent "defense" of Willow was a bit off. What's likely to make a teenage girl feel better? Her mother explaining that the nasty David Letterman made a mistake & was actually joking about her adult sister (which had the benefit of being true) or essentially telling her daughter -- repeatedly -- that total strangers found funny the idea of the girl being raped? If she had wanted to attack Letterman for being sexist, why not stand up for working women & put the focus on the slutty flight attendant joke? By harping on what Letterman said about her daughter (instead of what he said about her), Palin essentially repeated the insult & drew more attention to it.

Similarly, someone photoshopped a picture of a radio personality onto a picture of Trig. The joke wasn't supposed to be about Trig, but about the radio personality's closeness to Palin. Instead, Palin decided to tell everyone, including her own children, that strangers were attacking their brother -- why is that better for her kids? Why try to emphasize to the kids that if anyone in their family was being attacked, it was her -- presumably a strong adult who can handle such things -- not the baby? What kind of mother wants the kids to be paranoid?

Moreover, what makes you call Palin strong? Physically, no doubt. But mentally? She has neither intellectual strength nor the kind of emotional grit to survive one term in a statewide office. My state's governor (Jennifer Granholm) is far tougher, cooler, more tested, & intellectually rigorous than Palin, & a mother to boot. If my daughter wants to look up to a pol, she doesn't need to look any farther north than Lansing.

Palin is indisputably a mother, but whether she is strongly maternal (or merely manipulative) is not clear.