Advertisement

Opinion: April 18 Buzz: Why Sarah Palin shouldn’t run for president

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Most viewed, commented and shared: Why Sarah Palin doesn’t get what she deserves

For columnist Meghan Daum, there are many reasons why Sarah Palin should not run for president. One reasonis that Daum doesn’t want to walk on eggshells when writing about a woman who’s not very smart.

Advertisement

By casting herself as the less privileged, less polished outsider in the fancy school, she fashions the rest of us into playground bullies (ironic, given her predilection for bullying language) who taunt her with big vocabularies and book learning and obsession with nuance. By playing the victim (ironic, given how closely she associates victimhood with liberal whining), Palin forces her critics to choose between the roles of merciless oppressor and guilt-ridden enabler. And since the merciless oppressor part is already played ably by various screamers on blogs, cable TV and Internet comment boards, writers like me have taken the other route, leaning over so far backward to avoid saying the obvious that we sometimes can’t get enough air in our lungs to say much at all. That’s why I truly hope Palin continues to fight her temptation to run for president. If there was ever a candidate who brought out the worst in people, who encouraged hollow rejoinders but made honest analysis almost impossible, it is she. Besides, if she did run, I’d have to write about her. And all the yoga in the world wouldn’t keep my spine from eventually breaking from those backbends.

ALSO TRENDING:

Obama can cut the cost of gas

The facts: Planned Parenthood

Palestinian refugee speaks up

Japan’s resilience

Advertisement

Personal finance goes awry

France’s burka ban

--Alexandra Le Tellier

Advertisement