Palin Blows It (Not the Post I'd Planned This Title For, btw)

I tried to advise Sarah Palin the other day:

If I'm one of Palin's advisers, I'd tell her to come out and, while rightfully denying any direct responsibility, use this as an opportunity to take the lead in saying "hey, maybe we're using the wrong kind of language here, and we need to change it." People would feel for her, they'd be impressed with her being an adult, and it would put her at the head of the Beck/Limbaugh/whothefuckever pack.

Of course she hasn't heeded my advice, which David Frum points out:

Of course, Palin has yet to give the answer called for by events. Instead, her rapid response operation has focused on pounding home the message that Palin is innocent, that she has been unfairly maligned by hostile critics. Which in this case happened to be a perfectly credible message. And also perfectly inadequate. Palin’s post-shooting message was about Palin, not about Giffords. It was defensive, not inspiring. And it was petty at a moment when Palin had been handed perhaps her last clear chance to show herself presidentially magnanimous.

Ironically, this was in fact Palin's best chance to appear presidential, and "above" it all. And a fellow young, female politician to boot?  She could hardly have scripted it better herself. But of course Palin only lives in a world that is strictly black and white, any shades of gray are too much for her to handle or even question, and so the only thing she can wrap her head around is that SHE is the victim. To keep banging away on that seems to be all she knows. Which is too bad.