Why is this even a story at the Note:
There’s the stereotype of the Sarah Palin supporter, and then there’s Sonnie Johnson.
The 30-year-old African-American mother and wife is featured in “The Undefeated” as one of the many people Palin captivated when John McCain thrust her onto the national stage as his vice presidential running mate in 2008. In Pella, Iowa today for the premiere of the film, Johnson said she latched on to Palin when the former Alaska governor took the stage at the Republican National Convention.
“We were watching it on TV and my daughter was like, ‘A girl can be president?,’” Johnson recalled. “And I said, ‘Yes, baby, girls can do anything.’ That was the moment — I saw that look in my daughter’s eye, that anything in possible. The next week, I went to my very first political event, and that was to see Sarah Palin. John McCain and Sarah Palin.”
Whatever. If Sonnie Johnson really wants to help Palin, she should move to Alaska:
A new Hays Research poll shows Barack Obama would beat Sarah Palin among Alaskans if the presidential election was today.
The poll found 42 percent of Alaskan voters would pick or are learning toward Obama in a head to head race against Palin for the presidency, while 36 percent of the voters would choose or are leaning toward Palin over him.
When will this national nightmare end and Snowflake Snooki will just fade into obscurity?
dmsilev
If she doesn’t run for President, sometime between now and the GOP convention in 14ish months.
If she does run, she’ll fade away at roughly the same moment that Dick Cheney develops a soul.
Bailey
So she missed that whole Hillary thing, huh?
Chukwu
It is national news that a Republican “presidential candidate” has a black supporter.
What’s the phrase?
The exception that proves the rule?
Also, where was Johnson was Hilary was in the primaries?
Hunter Gathers
Never. She is the poster child for our tabloid political culture. And besides, if the likes of Tapper,Halperin, and the rest of the stenographers write a few more fawning stories about her, maybe she’ll stop calling them members of the ‘lamesteam media’. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll let them get to second base.
Dennis SGMM
Typical Republican bullshit: if the facts are against you just wave your Johnson.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
You betcha!
Xecky Gilchrist
If Palin convinces even one girl that women can be president, that’s a plus. Though I’d hope they’d have nothing other than that ambition in common with her.
I do totally agree that Hillary Clinton is an infinitely better role model.
Mike Goetz
It won’t be long before America goes all Marvin Udall on Sarah Palin: “Sell crazy somewhere else; we’re all stocked up here.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m guessing Sonnie watches a lot of JesusTV. Did Pat Robertson’s network cover the Dem primary? Or acknowledge that it was taking place in the US?
Chyron HR
MattF
Just imagine how the media would be acting now if any of the Republican wannabes was actually popular and actually had a serious chance of beating Obama. ‘Media blowjob’ would only begin to describe it.
taylormattd
Maybe your new blogger Zandar can write a piece blaming this on democrats.
jl
Who is watching Obama’s press conference?
I think he did a good job describing GOP’s outrageous public position on revenue increases. I don’t think Obama advocated demand side policies enough. Maybe Obama simply agrees more with his new biz buddies than economists like, well, even Summers. If that is so, I think Obama is following a false theory of economics. But he seems open enough to mild demand side policies, or minor demand side policies disguised as supply side policies that maybe he can pull it off, if the GOP is willing to abandon the strategy of economic sabotage.
Obama conveniently dodged answering Toddler’s question on whether the congressional debt limit law is constitutional.
I think he is weak right now on the stupid ‘regulatory uncertainty’ question the. That whole theory of special curse of suffocating Nobama uncertainty is stupid and I think Obama should have said so.
Was the last question about whether his proposed Afghanistan withdrawal could be called ‘victory’? The first three questions were not obviously idiotic, which is better than I hoped for. Maybe that is all I can hope for.
Bulworth
Is this a trick question?
Mike Goetz
It sure seems like every Republican candidate gets his/her moment of excitement, then immediately farts in the church and gets shunned.
Pawlenty, Gingrich, Huntsman, even Barbour way back when. Bachmann’s turn now, she’ll fart and it’ll be over. They are going to get stuck with Romney and they know it.
jl
Apologies for going off topic so soon re press conference, but the Note article is trivial reactionary fluffing, for which they are so infamous, that I don’t think there is much to say about it.
Maybe the Note’s providing a show of how good they are fluffing reactionary women politicians, and their dupes, for access to Bachmann?
Edit: @14 Bullworth: thanks, you expressed my thoughts in three words.
Dennis SGMM
@MattF
Hell yes! Remember how the press in the ’08 fracas just couldn’t play too many choruses of the Slobber Blues on McCain’s antique organ?
Davis X. Machina
Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin.
It’s familiar, but I just can’t place it. It’s the answer to a trivia question, right?
Villago Delenda Est
Snowflake Snooki will fade into obscurity when not enough people tune in to watch her various misadventures on the Ferengi Controlled Infotainment Networks.
Not a moment sooner.
Joel
A simple Google for “Sonnie Johnson” pulls up a lot of hits. I’m sure those TP speaking appearances snag some decent bread. In that respect, a grifter like Sarah Palin is a great role model…
Han's Solo
To answer this you have to look at what makes her popular.
1) She’s dumb as a bag of hair, as are her supporters. This won’t change unless she, or her supporters, get a brain.
2) She has a vagina and compared to other Republican women is attractive. As she ages she’ll ugly up quite a bit, but she’ll never have Ann Coulter’s man-hands and adam’s apple, nor will she look like she’s just smoked a pound of meth like Michelle Malkin and Michelle Bachmann. In semi-short, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and in this case the beholder looks at a lot of fugly people. Comparatively speaking, Palin will remain the GOPs beauty queen for a good long while.
3) She is the biggest victim ever. Everyone is out to get her, just like everyone is out to take her supporters guns. Being a victim is a central tenant of wingnut psychology and nobody does the poor victim routine better than Sarah. She’ll be the Republican “Victim In Chief” for as long as she wants.
She isn’t going anywhere.
Davis X. Machina
Every Newman needs a Redford.
Chinn Romney
Never mind ‘The Note’. Why is the “Hays Research” organization, whatever that is, wasting time and money on a question like this? The Election is not today, and Ms Palin is not a candidate. Who pays for crap like this poll?
j low
“And I said, ‘Yes, baby, girls can
doquit anything.’Fixed it!
shortstop
OT except in that it deals with token black Republicans, last night I caught the last few minutes of Tweety, much to my chagrin, and he had Ken Blackwell on yapping about how marriage equality is “against American tradition” and “should be put to a referendum among the citizenry” and so forth. I somehow had not realized that George W. Bush’s bestest friend in Ohio was black, and seeing him made his arguments even more ludicrous since they are, of course, the exact same ones employed against racial civil rights not so very long ago. But I suppose that if challenged on this, old Ken would trot out the winger talking point that you can’t help your race but you sure as heck can pick your sexuality, and that’s why he sat down at the age of 14 or 15 or so and, after much weighing of pros and cons, decided he’d go with women.
I am not hauling out the bullshit line that African Americans bear any special responsibility for slowing down marriage equality, but once again I must roll my eyes at any member of a marginalized or dismissed group that can’t make the leap to defending the rights and liberties of another such group. I do not get racist white feminists, misogynist gay men or anti-gay black people. Just do not get them.
JGabriel
John Cole:
More to the point, why are you even reading the Note? Did you have a sudden urge to lower your IQ?
.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
vagina is the new black?
and they accuse liberals of playing identity politics.
Cris (without an H)
This is nonsense. Your examples are especially poorly chosen; Bachmann in particular is well-groomed and photogenic. But setting that aside, it’s a ridiculous conversation. You see the wingers waving this “liberal women are ugly and hairy, conservative women are gorgeous” flag all the time, and it’s not only incorrect on both fronts, it’s insulting.
freelancer
My God.
Two days ago, I wrote this as a joke after Bachmann attempted to praise a movie star but instead lawded a serial killer:
Today, Rumproast posts this Youtube from Pella, IA of Palin talking about The Undefeated.
When I wrote that, I thought at the time I went a little overboard on the jingoistic word salad at the end. Never again.
She is unspoofable.
trollhattan
I’d like to take a moment to H/T Rumproast’s, uh, roastiferizing of St. Sarah’s ™ big movee debut yesterday in downtown Pella Iowa. They even unleash weaponized crazy nastyass honey badgers, also, too.
Michele is stealin’ Sarah’s(tm) simulated thunder and I’ll be very surprised if she runs–there’s just not enough room on the dais for those two attention-starved lunatics. I think instead she’ll keep drizzling her graft waffle with sweet rube cash syrup, hinting at ’16.
Ash Can
Sarah Palin will be a shiny object to the corporate media until her first failed plastic surgery, or until she announces that she’s seen the light and denounces her conservative ways and becomes a Dem/progressive (a la John Cole), whichever comes first.
trollhattan
@ 28.freelancer
Just want you to know I applauded my monitor when you first posted that. Don’t despair, there’re still some speechwritin’ job openings at SarahPAC(tm).
Derf
What is with these media mental masturbation pieces.
Obama vs Palin
Palin vs road kill carcass
Road kill vs Mitt Romney…..and how that is good news for John McCain.
I mean seriously.
Chris
That’s odd; in the entire history of the United States, I can’t think of a single time when a matter of national interest was resolved via referendum. (This is a shame, by the way). If the Goopers want to start down that road, I wouldn’t mind, but I didn’t think they would – it’s so tainted by its association with faggy European democracies.
slag
Umm…Intelligent Design? Why do you think The Note exists in the first place?
Chris
Shortstop;
I get it when it comes from a group that’s already more or less integrated – e.g. Irish, Italians, Poles, Jews – then, it’s just IGMFY. Coming from people whose groups are still outliers, it’s even more bizarre. But I suspect prejudice still plays a part – e.g. black men who hate gays, gay people who hate Muslims, Muslims who hate blacks, can all find common ground with the GOP.
Han's Solo
Cris – Do you seriously disagree that a big part of Palin’s appeal is her looks? Seriously?
I suppose I should have said, “Compared to other prominent Republican pundits and politicians.” I didn’t because I thought that was obvious. Sorry.
And Michelle Bachmann looks like she smokes crack before applying makeup with a garden trowel. She could give the Runaway Bride and Calista Gingrich lessons on looking crazy.
Chris
If very revealing of what they expect from women.
PurpleGirl
She’ll be the 21st Century Harold Stassen.
Dr. Loveless
I was hoping Gacygate would be Bachmann’s fart-in-the-church, but it seems to have dissipated too soon.
freelancer
@trollhatten
Seriously. I might consider it. I’d love to grift the grifter.
canuckistani
Palin, if you’ll excuse the Godwinning, is Mussolini to Bachmann’s Hitler. She’s the forerunner, not quite competent, slightly comic but due to be overshadowed by the efficiency, insanity and malignant evil of the real thing.
amk
What a dumb woman. Where the fuck was she when Hillary was running for the president while tundra twit was ‘chosen’ just for the veep job ? What a fucking numbwit of a woman.
Rosalita
@ freelancer #28
Christ, she hurts my ears…who can stand that whiny voice?
amk
@ 12 taylormattd – who the fuck is zandar?
Seanly
I thought we were done with Newt, Rove and Ralph Reed but those fine gentlemen are still stinking up the country. So the answer is never.
Seanly
I thought we were done with Newt, Rove and Ralph Reed but those fine gentlemen are still stinking up the country. So the answer is never.
PurpleGirl
amk @ 44
Zandar is a blogger who is standing in for DougJ and guest blogging. His home blog:
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com
Brachiator
@Han’s Solo:
Yeah, seriously. I don’t know if Palin’s popularity will fade as she gets older. But it is clear that she appeals mightily to a core of Republicans and has helped spawn the wretched Tea Party People. This is more than mere looks.
People keep underestimating Palin. Yeah, she is a grifter, and yet she still flirts with political ambition and gets taken seriously.
And people keep underestimating her appeal with Republican women who, presumably don’t care whether Palin keeps her looks as she gets older.
I don’t think Palin is going anywhere politically, but she is influential, even if it is in the wrong ways and for the wrong reasons.
Romney faded in 2008. He is doomed to fade again. I expect to see a strong movement to get Jeb Bush to enter the race.
amk
@ 47 Purplegirl – Oh. Thanks. Hearing of him first time today.
Ash Can
@ Dr. Loveless:
By that standard, she’s been pooting nonstop. I guess too many media cretins believe that girls don’t fart. (Or maybe they’ve all just had their noses up GOP asses for so long that they’re no longer capable of smelling a little extra methane.)
Han's Solo
Brachiator – I didn’t say it was “mere looks.” But her physical appearance is a part of it. Look at my earlier post, I lay out three reasons she isn’t going away. 1) Physically she appeals to Republicans 2) Her intellect is on par with her supporters 3) She is a victim, as are her supporters.
Physical appearance is important for politicians of both parties and both sexes; I can’t believe this is even in doubt.
slag
It’s not in doubt. And I will say that Palin relies more on looks than any other pseudo-politician I’ve ever seen. Some of her female supporters even dress and groom themselves like her. If her looks did not meet Republican cultural standards of beauty, she would probably be lucky to be serving fries with them.
Cris (without an H)
I don’t disagree with that at all; sorry for the lack of clarity. What I was taking issue with was the “most conservative women are ugly” line. It’s simply not true (google “Fox News Anchors” plz thx), and the degree that it’s not true really serves your point better (for example, that conservatives like to see a pretty face more than they like to see actual gender equality).
Matt
Nothing shocking about the Note story at all – Ms. Johnson is in one of Caribou Barbie’s primary demographics: voters who don’t have a fucking clue about what’s going on or what the candidates actually stand for…
handsmile
ChyronHQ (#10) and Jim, Foolish Literalist (#9) have precisely identified the key issue. I expect the name of Geraldine Ferraro would be met with Sonnie Johnson’s blank stare.
Han’s Solo’s (#19) assertion that victimization lies at the core of Caribou Barbie’s appeal is onto something important as well.
While she may be nothing more than a disgraceful grifter to most of us, she is a revered spokeswoman for America’s Underclass: undereducated, underinformed, underappreciated, and underwater with bills and diminishing prospects.
Her supporters are those who plaintively wail, “I want my country back!” They ardently believe themselves to be the victims of assault and theft by political, economic, and racial castes who, in all senses, do not represent them. Unencumbered by critical thinking skills, they crave plain-spoken, even misspoken, bromides that reinforce their tightly-held values and sense of their own virtue. In Snowball Snooki, they see themselves and what they imagined they could/would be one day, before it was stolen away.
That well-educated and very well-compensated corporate media employees cynically promote this present-day Aimee Semple McPherson is the unforgivable crime. With such cronies, she may well be despised; she must not be discounted.
IrishGirl
What bothers me about the African American female fan of Palin is that it did seem to be exclusively about gender. Why not point out all the women of various colors and creeds that are in politics to her daughter? Why focus on the most divisive and dumbest example? I think it has a lot to do with Palin’s looks. American women are constantly torn between wanting to the be prettiest woman in the room and being the smartest woman in the room and they often want it both. They never seem to get that pretty shouldn’t matter…at least not how pretty is defined in our culture, that’s for sure. Until women devalue how the beauty standard in the US it will continue to be applied to us.
@Cris (without an H): Actually you’ll find that there is a conservative meme that says all Liberal women are ugly…remember that horrible video put out by conservatards online? Its so mean I won’t link to it. Of course, this isn’t a new theme….derived from Feminists are all ugly women meme started back when the first woman decided she didn’t need a man to survive, probably before we even walked completely upright.
Ella in New Mexico
In general, my African-American friends and acquaintences are pretty damn good at sniffing out liars, con-artists and opportunists–our close friend spotted John Edwards for the sack of poop he is on day one, much to my chagrin.
But there’s always gonna be that 1% who fall into the PT Barnum category we’ll have shoved in our faces at election time…
plasticgoat
Guess Sonnie missed most of the election season because if I recall correctly, and I do, Hillary Clinton, also a woman, was running for President long before Sarah took to the national stage in her run for vp.
Brachiator
@Han’s Solo:
I see your point, but I think you underestimate Palin’s appeal. Physically she appeals to Republicans. Big Whoop. John Edwards was cute. Bill Clinton had a strong charisma. Palin’s supporters don’t just see a cutie. She sees someone who is “one of them.” The men see a woman who is like their wives. Their wives see someone who is like them or their sister or their friend. I keep seeing Palin detractor’s harp about her looks. But except for the starburst pundits, I don’t see this as a big deal among her actual supporters. Yeah, it’s there, but it is not nearly a big a thing as people think. This is important because I don’t think that Palin’s appeal will fade in step with her looks. Just look at how crazy her supporters are, how they will vandalize a Wikipedia entry to prove her right, how they voted for her daughter on Dancing With the Stars.
As for her intellect being on par with her supporters. One of the biggest things about America, without regard to ideology, is the right to be stupid, to rely merely on “common sense,” to hate eggheads. Palin’s supporters are not stupid, not any more so than anybody else. But they love, love, love Palin’s values, which are overly simplistic and promise that good things will always come to Americans if they are only strong and believe in the Baby Jeebus. This is strongly anti-intellectual. But this is not the same thing as being of limited intelligence. It’s worse. It is actively turning away from science and reason.
Palin as victim? Sorry, that dog won’t hunt. The Palin Galtian fantasy is that they are the last heroes of America, bravely facing the effete elite. In their personal fantasy island, they know how to hunt and shoot and take care of themselves, and are fighting off hordes of welfare moochers.
I think getting a correct take on Palin is important to understand the festering resentment that fuels many of her supporters. And while some (not all progressives) whine about not being loved by Obama, the fear and loathing that Palin stokes lead to the Tea Party fighting for control of the Republican Party.
Bruce S
“I like to say that for the black community, nothing will change until we learn to love our children more than we love the Democratic party.”
This nauseating line is suggestive of the contempt for black folks that is common to characters like Johnson. She’s using her daughter – a la Palin – as a prop at Tea Party rallies and says “I’ll be Palin’s through ’12” but suggests that the rest of the black community has a problem discerning the interest and love for their children vs. petty politics. Pretty sad. But pretty typical GOP loony-toons hubris.
Ruckus
She will fade away when instead of 36% it’s 3.6%. National media is only interested in eyeballs. And they count eyeballs like the phone book industry. Doesn’t matter how many people actually like something it’s how many impressions. That’s why you get two phone books per house/business. That’s twice as many impressions even if most people never open the phone book anymore. National media does the same thing. 36% think (OK not think just respond) to some poll. So 36% of the population likes something. That’s what about 112 million people? Of course they are going to follow and talk about her. The reality is that the poll called and got responses from maybe 1000 people and that’s 360 positive responses. They didn’t call where I live. Did they call where you live? Did they call you? How many people do you know who get cold polled? Ever.
Han's Solo
Brachiator – If you don’t think Sarah Palin plays the victim card all the freaking time then you aren’t paying attention.
shortstop
How can I see this movie without a cent of my money going to Sarah Palin? I guess I could attend some church basement screening, but that seems like a high price to pay, even if I didn’t spontaneously combust upon entering.
Brachiator
@Han’s Solo:
I think I pretty much clearly laid out the reasons for my views. Again, I think that Palin’s critics underestimate her. This stuff about Palin playing the victim card is another example of this, in my view. Palin is a bit of a nasty street fighter, with a vindictive streak. That she smiles and preens while doing this doesn’t hide the political savvy behind her words.
We apparently both pay attention, and come to different conclusions.
Davebo
I for one have lot’s of black friends.
Could you elect me to an office that pays six figures?
Because if so, I’m pretty sure I could make even more black friends.
Han's Solo
Brachiator – I urge you to use the Google. Search for “sarah Palin plays the victim card.”
I could list examples, and lots of them. But I’d be here all day. If you use the Google you will find over 5.3 million links to examples.
lllphd
hm. ya gotta wonder if the note will also highlight this doc by the award-winning film-maker nick broomfield too.
handsmile
@ Brachiator (#60):
Respectfully (as you certainly do pay attention), I must disagree with or suggest inconsistencies with several statements in your post.
* “The men see a woman who is like their wives.” While I can’t discern the lust in their hearts, I suspect that many Palin-supporting men project unto her the wish fulfillment of their actual wives, in which the maintenance of physical/sexual appeal into middle age is no small matter. Until the GOP and their media enablers anoint an ideological Valkyrie who resembles Roseanne Barr, I will continue to insist that conventional notions of pulchritude are deliberately employed.
* “[A]ctively turning away from science and reason” would I think be a workable definition of stupidity. “Strongly anti-intellectual” would be synonymous as well.
Also, I have absolutely no idea of Palin’s values, other than her demonstrable megalomaniacal self-regard and a recurrent vigilance of perceived enemies. The recent cache of gubernatorial emails buttresses this assertion.
* I would submit that the Venn diagram of Palin devotees and readers of Ayn Rand is actually quite small. “Atlas Shrugged”, The Fountainhead” and other Objectivist tomes are long, narratively turgid books. John Galt is the fictional hero, worthy of emulation, of a particular group of individuals fortunate in education and economic opportunities, not the disenfranchised.
* Victimization, the burning sense that the entitlements deserved by virtue or affiliation have been denied through deception or malevolent interference, has been a political trope cultivated by the radical wing of the Republican Party long predating the benighted Tea Party. Palin knows all the words to those songs. As I wrote above #56), such a diva is not to be underestimated.
AxelFoley
Every plantation has at least one.
AxelFoley
@ amk:
Zartan’s brother.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zandar
boss bitch
So Hillary wasn’t good enough?!
Brachiator
@Han’s Solo:
Some things are not either/or. I noted your points, and suggested that there was another way of looking at things.
And I could search and find millions of hits for “Terry Schiavo is alive.” Numeric results do not establish the validity of a proposition.
@handsmile:
People always like to harp on Palin-supporting men and link this to some physical appeal argument. This is a running thread on Balloon Juice.
The odd thing is that these posters, some of them women, simply ignore other women who admire Palin. And they ignore the actual reasons that these people give for liking Palin.
For example, a woman producer of Palin clearly and fiercely identifies with her. She thinks that a strong woman with common sense and little other intellectual achievement could be president. After all, she would have expert advisers to rely on. In this she reminds me of other women who admire Palin, women who are the office managers in law firms and medical offices, who make big decisions and run things even though they don’t have the glittering degrees and certifications of the attorneys and doctors they work for.
But let’s get back to the main point. That Palin is perceived to be attractive adds to her appeal. This is both obvious and trivial. People who think that this is the sole or primary source of her political allure seem to be barking up the wrong tree.
Palin was in the right place at the right time. She hits the sweet spot of American anti-intellectualism, the fantasy that you can be VP or even president with a mediocre intellect and not be a member of the elite (like Dubya) as long as you have the right values and believe in the Baby Jebus. And she appeals to a core of Americans who seethe with resentment that a black man is president, and who would happily replace him with a mediocre white woman.
The GOP would happily return the country to some whites only medieval times. The last thing that I care about is that they prove that they are not sexist by anointing “an ideological Valkyrie who resembles Roseanne Barr.”
handsmile
@ Brachiator (#73):
I appreciate your response. Yes, we both agree “[t]hat Palin is perceived to be attractive adds to her appeal. This is both obvious and trivial.”
But that is not my main point, nor the principal argument of my two posts. I suspect that our respective analyses of the Palin phenomenon are essentially consonant (word for word, in fact, in your penultimate paragraph).
My emphasis, however, would be upon the role of victimization, keenly identified among her supporters and masterfully exploited by the Half-Term Governor. “Seeth[ing] with resentment” is a common expression to describe those who believe themselves to be unfairly denied their due, i.e., victimized, by forces beyond their ability to control. Seizing upon and manipulating that emotion is a well-documented tactic of GOP ultras. Robert Welch, however, could never bring himself to wink at his audience.
Nellcote
Palin is a graduate of Newt’s old GOPAC. She learned from the master, literally.
russell
News flash for Sonnie.
PALIN WASN’T RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT.
jeebus harry christmas.