World News Korner

Stick a fork in her, she's done. The end of Sarah Palin.

Courtesy of The Week:

After this weekend, it's probably safe to say that Sarah Palin is done. Like Jesse Ventura or Ross Perot, she may show up every once in a while to hurl red meat or use stunt cameos to remind us a little of her awkward charms. But recent events seem to confirm that she is an Obama-era novelty politician — and not much else.

First she gave a speech to the NRA in which she joked that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists, offending people who otherwise make up her base. Next, Robert Costa reported on the ever-smaller crowds that have been greeting Palin in Iowa:

"When Palin took the stage at the Hy-Vee Conference Center under a banner that read "Heels On, Gloves Off" on Sunday at an event for Senate candidate Joni Ernst, the ballroom was half-full, with a couple hundred attendees scattered in clumps." [Washington Post]

If the politically engaged seem bored with Obama, they have all but forgotten Sarah Barracuda, the manqué of anti-Obama populism.

Well of course this was what I was saying just this morning. I guess I just did not expect the MSM to agree with me quite so soon.

But are we right?

Well according to The Week, yes:

We may have finally reached a tipping point: Conservatives, it seems, are finally safe to criticize Sarah Palin (without fear of being written out of the movement, that is).

As is the case with tipping points, accretion tends to go mostly unnoticed until the dam finally breaks. And it seems to have broken a bit this week, with two coinciding stories. First, there was the Washington Post story by Robert Costa (formerly of the conservative National Review), which labeled Palin "a diminished figure in the Republican Party." That story included a quote from popular conservative blogger and talk radio host Erick Erickson, who conceded, "She has some pull with the base, but it has fallen a little bit."

That hardly makes her sound like a powerhouse. This is not to suggest conservatives are uniformly turning against Palin, but it is to suggest that she can no longer count on conservative opinion leaders being cowed into silent support of her antics, for fear of angering their (and her) base.

And as if to make that point, here is what a religious writer had to say about her recent brouhaha:

Like many from a similar Christian tradition, Palin sees herself as a warrior for God, engaged in spiritual warfare to save America from evil and to keep America Christian. But in joking that torture was like a baptism, Palin revealed her view of evangelization as an act of force, not love, and her view of salvation as something one imposes on irredeemable enemies, who further prove their lesser worth by protesting and resisting it. Get it? It just shows how the Muslims can't even see how something "so cool" is actually good for them.

No wonder many conservative Christians are aghast. But even setting aside the underlying meaning of Palin's torture "joke," her speech, once again, exposes a rift between traditional or orthodox (and politically active) Christian conservatives and the charismatic and Pentecostal movement of which Palin is a part. (I hesitate to say that Palin "represents" it because she more represents a Palin brand, although by virtue of her public profile she does in a way represent it.) In Palin's mind, she's engaged in spiritual warfare with spiritual enemies. She believes herself to be acting out God's will. She believes her prayer warriors will protect her. She believes in the spiritual gifts of revelation and prophecy, which for many charismatic and Pentecostal believers are real phenomena, but are easily manipulated by religious charlatans, and when translated to the political stage are dangerously inflammatory.

Palin has taken this religious tradition in which she grew up, and manipulated it to maximum effect in political settings. When she used "Allah" in place of "God" to denote her disdain for what she perceives as the savagery of Muslims (a theme repeated in her waterboarding remarks), or when she had hands laid on her to cast out witchcraft, or when she on numerous occasions declared herself to be acting out God's will or plan for her or for the country, Palin is manipulating a religious tradition to draw attention to herself.

For her fellow conservatives, this time she might have gone too far.

There have been a number of times in the past few years where I was all but certain that Palin's career had finally wheezed out its final breath, only to see her pop up again with a new show, or new book, or new support from some other fringe group.

However this time there is definitely something different in the wind.

All I know is that I am getting out my Wizard of Oz soundtrack, just in case the time has finally come to play the song that all of us know will be echoing across the Matanuska Valley on the day that the Wasilla Wendigo finally bites the dust.

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