The Palin Watch
Accents and Affects and Their Effects
The first-time double bill of Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman at the recent covered-live-by-Sean-Hannity Tea Party shindig in the Twin Cities released a flurry of excited speculation. How about an all-woman all-teapartyish Republican Presidential ticket in 2012? Palin-Bachman might make Joe Biden look boring, and would certainly remix the relationship between feminism and Civil Rights. But here’s what I noticed: Palin and Bachman have the same accent. And affect.
Others have noted that Alaska was settled by a lot of folks with Minnesota (Scandinavia and bits of Germany) accents. But Palin and Bachman both make it work for them. You betcha. Ya sure. In print the rhetoric might look a little flamboyant. But on YouTube or Fox, Sarah and Michelle sound, well, full of common sense. No southern accents here. No George Wallace, or even the sound of Arizona or Southern California. We are now post-Goldwater, post-Reagan, post-Bush, and post-McCain. The drone of the Northern Plains signifies a new combo: Good Old Boys minus the boys and the Civil War plus bomb Iran plus I Am Woman hockey-mom small business owner. The Prairie Home Companion on Fox News.
Tina Fey is a genius of course, and just like Obama, passed through Chicago. (Saul Alinsky or Bernie Sahlins, it’s all the same). But you can’t parody something that’s weak. Palin is savvy: she embraces Fey in Going Rouge but hasn’t lost that accent. With her focus and intuition, and the right luck she could end up as real and mythological as Reagan. Laugh at Saturday Night Live, but don't smirk.
April 20, 2010
Election Predicitions
With her arrival at Fox News, Paliin has a chance to practice and perfect negotiating the right wing pundit terrain from Hannity to O'Reilly to Beck, while fundraising and making appearances for a clever mix of Republican Party establishment figures and Tea Party rebels. So far, she seems a lot more sure-footed than creepy Ann Coulter, and I suspect her time in front of the camera at Fox will clarify as well as soften her message and image.
For 2012 I predict she will run for the Presidency and lose the Republican primary to Mitt Romney, who can take credit, behind the scenes in Massachusetts for Scott Brown getting elected to the Senate and ending the Democrats super majority. Romney will lose narrowly to Obama, discrediting a move to the center for Republicans, and by the end of Obama's second term, the populace will be tired of the Democrats and vote in Palin for President, running as an untainted, unapologetic conservative, who will by then have lots of practice working in front of the national media. Just like Ronald Reagan.
February 14, 2010
Pop Music References in "Going Rogue"
"Our big trips were drives into Anchorage, and on those rare occasions we'd sing along to "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" on the scratchy AM radio." (page 16)
". . . gave us a whole blueberry pie that we shared with friends after our 800-mile, 40 hour round-trip, driven to the sound of the Black Eyed Peas and an old LLCool J remix we found in the glove box." (page 114)
"Kid Rock, for instance, is very pro-American and has common sense ideas." . . . ."We also welcomed "Redneck Woman" Gretchen Wilson aboard the campaign plane. We knew all her songs, and I loved that she loved to talk about her daughter." (page 300)
"Along with other patriots, Hank Williams Jr., John Rich, Naomi Judd, and Lee Greenwood joined us on the trail" . . . "Meanwhile, other people called. I talked to Bono" (page 301)
"It was a thrill to meet so many courageous Americans on the trail, including well-known patriot Hank Williams Jr." (caption on picture showing Williams at rally on 12th page in photo section following page 370.)
January 14, 2010
© 2010 Tom Smucker
