Gary, you mix in several different types of creature in your ragou of "celebrity."

Michael Jackson, as Patricia Williams pointed out at The Nation, represented the insular corporate property. Michael Jackson was property from the time of his early childhood, a commodity, and even his death was a money making venture. Corporations have seen fit to market him and to hype the hype around the hype, as well as hype everything. The consequence was fame for fame, so long as it was profit, and his death was monetarily more beneficial than his farewell tour, meant to rescue him from "poverty." He died, of course, because of what I call Howard Hughes Syndrome: the sycophantic bubble that forms around wealth and celebrity that allows whim to become law.

The other creature is the "famous for being famous." Sarah Palin is the first reality television politician. Like Speidi or other creatures who have no product, no deliverable commodity, people make money covering the reactions to her. The reactions themselves sell advertising. Hence, she remains a celebrity only so long as we continue to revile her celebrity, thereby allowing her to be "relevant." These reality-model celebrities cease only when we act bored with them or when we act more titillated by another. The way to get rid of Sarah Palin is with Michelle Bachman, in other words.

Finally, you bring in the cultural clue. It is true that the United States has tacitly bought late capital formation media as a substitute for cultural constancy, but this is a result of fragmented media. When ten thousand brands of media (not sources; the sources are, of course, two or three) compete for eyes (not readers), then the competition turns into the most transient marker of all -- the weekend box office and the nightly Nielson. No aggregate viewership, no persistent cultural marker can show up in dollars, and so none gets discussed, and so none gets to exist.

Sarah Palin is not the President.

She is not waging war. Obama is.

She is not bailing out Wall Street. Obama is.

She is not trying to overthrow the Iranian government. Obama is.

She did not overthrow the Honduran Government. Obama is being coy and cool about that one.

Palin does lie to protect herself. Obama Lies to protect himself, torturers, murderers, rapists, traitors and thieves.

The MSM hates Palin.

The MSM loves Obama.

The MSM is the mouthpiece for the war industry.

Any questions?

Why do you hate Palin and love War and fascism?

Because the MSM told you to hate her.

You resent what? Palin rallies were largely right wing rabble rousing. And yes, there are dangers there.

If you think Obama can only read off a teleprompter, you have not been paying attention. I disagree with a lot of what he has done, but cannot criticize his intelligence. He is willing to speak without preparation about almost anything and usually does well. Palin, on the other hand, knows little, and it shows whenever she speaks.

Palin was the result of the McCain campaign swallowing hook-line-and-sinker the whole silly media narrative about the PUMAs who were supposedly poised to walk out of the Democrat Party. They were about as real as Bigfoot. And this cynical ploy blew up in McCain's face.

that the visceral and ongoing negative reaction to Palin may be explained by the simple human tendency to not like, in a very deep way, people who are snarky, unkind, petty and seem to be enjoying being that way. Exhibit One: her debut speech at the Republican Convention. I am not the only person whose breath was taken away by the sheer nastiness of her verbal attacks. I turned to my husband and said that she reminded me of every mean girl I ever ran into both in school and in the workplace. Palin has done nothing since to change that all-important first impression.

So, now, why should I be told, by feminists or any other spokespeople for any other group, that I am 'politically incorrect' for just outright disliking Palin? She earned my dislike because of her personal qualities. I would feel the same way about a man or a Democrat or a Martian. I don't have to personally know her to recognize in her a meanness of character that I don't want to support, either by voting for her or tolerating her.

The Empress has no clothes. Doesn't anyone read classic fiary tales anymore? Our culture is so relativistic that people make excuses for the worst mediocrities that are thrust up among us. Palin is a mediocrity. I wish her no ill, but I do wish she would disappear into the fog.

You think Sarah Palin was an anti-war, anti-corporate candidate?

Anyone? Anyone?

'KateTex' is a right wing nutjob who only supported Hillary because she thought she'd be easier to beat.

She is actually much closer to Gov. Palin politically (and from her archive, socially) than to Hillary.

Pres. Obama doesn't have 'celebrity', he has 'majesty' ;-)

Great post. Especially the point about the whining of Palin. If you go into politics, and you dish it out, you have got to learn to take it. You can't slam everyone else and then pretend to be offended when someone slams you. She's an odd combination of attack dog and crybaby with dangerous, rigid, authoritarian ideas. Abstinence didn't work for her own daughter, but she's been unable to adjust her views based on the evidence. You couldn't bring the point any closer to home than that.

It's probably all or part subconscious. The right wingers that want to elect Palin President are dumbasses and they know it. They know she's a dumbass too. Everything reduced to simple platitudes and one liners like "free market" or "socialism". And the preachy horse manure morals. And uber-patriotism.

It's all very juvenile. We voted in the right wingers worst nightmare, a black man. Now they want to give liberals their worst nightmare. A dumbass. The rational, non dumbass part of the republican party is taken aback because they realize there aren't enough dumbass votes to do it.