Who is Sarah? Ceci n'est pas une Mama Grizzly

"Unpleasant taste in mouth, dry mouth, morning drowsiness, dizziness, headache, symptoms of the common cold." The eerie incantations of "possible side effects" in TV ads for "sleep aid" Lunesta are enough to give you insomnia. Beyond fear of lawsuits should something go wrong, could it be the manufacturers' intent to trouble our sleep so we'll go out and purchase their product? The snake-oil spin continues at their website: "How Lunesta may work."

Here we go again. "Speaking for a large number of Republicans … let me suggest a career move that better utilizes your talents and abundant charisma" than running for President, suggests storyteller Myra Adams in "Why Palin should run for Oprah's Couch instead of Obama's Chair in 2010" at PJM. Channeling her inner Karl "gravitas" Rove, the author spins a frothy concoction, apparently unaware that Palin is disintermediating her and the rest of the "credentialed gentry" on both sides of the aisle.

That Lunesta image above called to mind Magritte's "The Treachery of Images," an illustration of a pipe captioned "This is not a pipe." Wikipedia's interpretation resonates in today's epic battle for the narrative that answers the question "Who is Sarah?": "No matter how closely, through realism-art, we come to depicting an item accurately, we never do catch the item itself." In the case of the Mama Grizzly, few even come close.

First a couple of examples of the Adams schtick to get the flavor — tasty, but it doesn't stick to the ribs — and then a bit of analysis:

PRO: You [Sarah] can continue Oprah’s book club and make unknown authors famous.

CON: You will be forced to read big boring briefing books by unknown policy wonks …

 PRO: Your only economic stimulus will be boosting ad revenue on Sarah!

CON: Dealing with trillions of debt and a slumping dollar reminds you of that boring econ class.

Two tired Palin "narratives" — she's illiterate and don't know nothin' 'bout policy, economic or otherwise — are trotted out one more time to display the writer's bona fides as a member of the Northeast Corridor fuddy-duddy tribe. But while Ruling Class effetes navel gaze, Country Class warrior Sarah Palin herself has been doing her homework, and she's dancing circles around those who would accuse her of being just another pretty face. Yesterday she caught the seasoned eye of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board, who praised her critique of the Fed's latest round of quantitative easing. Oblivious to Palin's deft [Elizabeth Scalia's felicitous word choice] embrace of the panoply of media old and new, Myra Adams wraps up her "argument" for Sarah as talk-show host with self-satisfaction at her own cleverness:

Every day you can positively influence our nation and the world.

But Palin has been "positively influencing our nation and the world" as a standard bearer of constitutional conservatism for some time now. Oprah may have been a kingmaker among the politically unsophisticated when she endorsed Barack Obama four years back, but kingmaker or Leader of the Free World, Palin's message of American exceptionalism has the potential of reaching a far broader and deeper demographic.

Crossposted at Riehl World View, Cloven Not Crested and Liberty Pundits.

Comments

[Gayle Miller]

The most reassuring thing about the East Coast ossified "intelligentsia" is their abundant lack of originality! Myra Adams is proof of that.

[CGHill]

If they didn't see Sarah as a threat, they wouldn't be so desperately trying to neutralize her. You don't see them whining about Mitt Romney.

[goomp]

Sarah has them running scared.

[Michael_Haz]

This is not crappy spam. Just so you know.

[FeFe]

So according to Ms Adams, feminists should only try to get what profit they can even to the detriment of their nation?