Nailin' Palin

Yeah, Sarah Palin's been back in the news lately still singing the same tired old tune about how the media screwed her in the last election. She's said several stupid things that I could point to and make fun of but this one was my favorite:

"You have to let it go," she said. "Even hard news sources, credible news sources — the comment about, you can see Russia from Alaska. You can! You can see Russia from Alaska. Something like that — a factual statement that was taken out of context and mocked — what you have to do is let that go."

On this she and I agree: you can see Russia from Alaska. Granted, it's from one of the sparsely inhabited Aleutian islands way out in the Bering Sea but that is a factual statement. Of course, nobody ever said that it wasn't and yes, it was mocked quite a bit (Tina Fey's "I can see Russia from my house!" comment being the most memorable, of course). So, let's put her statement into context; here's an excerpt from her interview with Charlie Gibson:

And, Charlie, you're in Alaska. We have that very narrow maritime border between the United States, and the 49th state, Alaska, and Russia. They are our next door neighbors.We need to have a good relationship with them. They're very, very important to us and they are our next door neighbor.

GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They're our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

GIBSON: What insight does that give you into what they're doing in Georgia?

PALIN: Well, I'm giving you that perspective of how small our world is and how important it is that we work with our allies to keep good relation with all of these countries, especially Russia. We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it's in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.

Once again she's right: context does make a difference, only the difference just makes her look more foolish. Even if you can see another country from your state that in no way imparts upon you any foreign policy bona fides and that's the reason she took so much shit for that comment during the election. And as I said above and have many times before, her manufactured outrage over this supposed slight by the media just becomes part of the victimology narrative that plays so well with her right wing base.

Personally, I can't decide if I really want her to attempt a run for president in 2012 as I've been saying lately. Yeah, it'd be extremely entertaining watching her implode all over again but that's just me being selfish. If I really love this country as much as I say I do (and I do) then I'd want the best possible candidates on both sides of the aisle running for public office in four years, not some incompetent narcissist distracting from serious policy discussions. But since it's not up to me and I've seen ample evidence that many on the right in this country want her to run I'd say that it's a distinct possibility that it'll happen. And if it does I'll be cringing/laughing the entire time.