Sliming Sarah

It is almost too much. The blogosphere is abuzz with the made up mystery of the true parentage of baby Trig. In a goofy spoof in Vanity Fair, after reviewing the putative “evidence,” 15,000 of their readers, or just random blog hounds, voted 70 percent that Trig is Bristol’s baby even though the time line shows that she would have had to have had the baby while already pregnant with the one she admits to.

People just want to believe what they already believe and no amount of evidence that Obama is not a Muslim will convince them other wise. I remember a friend’s grand father up in Maine who was asked, “Well grandpa, what do you think of them landing on the moon?” And he replied, “They say they did.”

People believe in creationism to the extent that they refuse to acknowledge that the world is older than 7,000 years. A hundred years ago, the President of South Africa refused to let it be said in his country that the world was anything but flat, even though he cheerfully entertained Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail around it by himself. Many bright people say they believe in Adam and Eve and are serving in the congress and courts making life and death decisions. Our president believes, he says, that every life is precious, but has signed the official death warrant of many of his fellow Texans when he was their governor. He also started a war that has killed over a million “precious” lives.

Many Catholics say they believe the Pope is infallible. He may have impeccable taste, because the first thing he did after getting sworn in was to design his own Pope hat and then order up a new Mercedes Pope mobile made to his demanding specs. Obviously John Paul II’s taste was not good enough for him, making the former Holy See seem just the teeniest bit fallible. Maybe they just mean living Popes.

The thing about conspiratheorists is that they really have no interest in being proven wrong. They want to think that Sarah Palin is an early grandmother for whatever odd ball reason. They care not what it does to the hapless Bristol who has quite enough shit to deal with that is actually true. We news-nerds want the worst to come out almost whether it’s true or not. But keeping an eye out the way I do, I am not finding the kind of wrongdoing here that has risen to the level of John Edwards’ new baby. Now there is a clear case, if a grainy photo, of someone who looked awfully like Pretty Boy, visiting the hotel that we are pretty sure Reille Hunter lives in, so it must be so.

I’m not terribly turned off by Sarah’s political politics. I would expect the Republican nominee to pick some one with solid conservative credentials. But her ethical politics give me an eye ache. If she has a hand in the next Supreme Court nominee, I am going to have one upset wife and I feel more than a little queasy my damn self thinking of that happening. With all the Bush backward steps of the past eight years, I think that any more blows to the more sane of personal beliefs would be the tipping point in how America is perceived in terms of its once flaunted fairness. We are walking such a thin line.

My oldest brother, who is almost pope-like in his perspicacity, opines that Sarah is a very popular governor. He’s been up there since Nixon was in office and was mayor of a small Alaskan town too. He believes that she did a creditable job in Wasilla. But what we read and hear is the niggling of the nabobs of negativity, nitpicking how big the population of her town is or even that of the State. In fact, she has unprecedented approval ratings of 80 percent and higher. As Mike says, whatever her faults she’s a lot better than her predecessor. I wonder if people thought that Batista made Castro look good?

In bloggo-land we like to try to get the jump on any story. Palin’s popularity right now will have to answer to the premise that what goes up must come down, and, my guess is, the Peter principle. This may be her best show. A consummate performer on the campaign trail. But what happens in the debates with Biden, and how well will she respond to red meat questions the press is salivating to throw at her. She looks tough but she’s in for a tough slog and the self description of a “pit-bull with lipstick” may just come around to bite her in the ass.