Mike noted the war between McCain staffers and Bill Kristol over the latest Vanity Fair hit piece on Sarah Palin. Eight months after the election, when Palin has left Alaska a total of four times, she continues to inspire such hatred is a question many on the right would like answered. The frothing her name generates on mention amongst liberals is a strange phenomenom, even to cause Vanity Fair, one of the respected posts of magazine journalism, to jaunt to Alaska to bring back more dirt. CBS is even work on a book.
Jim Geraghty discussed this trend on Hugh Hewitt yesterday, here are some tidbits. The conclusion – Sarah Palin is the absolute antithesis of what a successful human being, especially elite politician should be. Not to mention a happy adult.
Hugh suggested it tied to the contrast between her lifestyle and her critics: “She is the embodiment of the anti-choice, the opposite of every choice that lefty elites have ever made — as to going back home instead of moving to the west coast, having children, having a child with Downs, staying married to one man the whole time, choosing rural or suburban over urban and living a generally conservative lifestyle, working with her hands… That everything she is is the antithesis of everything that liberal urban elites are, so it’s not just enough to say, ‘I disagree with you,’; she has to be repudiated and crushed.”
Which is something those of the moderate-to-left and high-class right are helping with. The one thing Kathleen Parker and Daily Kos have in common is their lifestyle choices. Sarah Palins are thought not to be possible, because in the feminist worldview, strong women don’t exist in this realm. They are meek, they are barefoot and pregnant. They don’t lead, they don’t have success.
Today almost everyone faces some sort of challenge in balancing work and family; I don’t know too many people who believe there are sufficient hours in a day. And then along comes this woman who’s made all of these “conservative” choices and now has an amazing career, a supportive husband, a beautiful family, great health and appearance, and she bears it all, including the inevitable hard times, with pluck and a smile, as far as we can tell.
A simple fact – continue to question her intelligence, her fortitude, or mental stability or even her children’s parentage (lets even say all of the dismissals are true), the truth is most people have a lot more work to do to live up to Sarah Palin’s standards than she does of living to theirs.
A short while back, Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum suggested, only half-jokingly, that actress Angelina Jolie’s “entire Oscar-winning, serial-adopting, Brad Pitt-snagging, plane-piloting, unattainably hot-looking existence makes women around the world feel hopelessly inadequate and therefore unhappy.” Perhaps Sarah Palin is the Angelina Jolie of the political world.In her opponents’ minds, Palin’s made all the wrong choices, and cannot, they insist, be very bright. Yet she’s happy and successful. She is an anomaly that invalidates their worldview, and for that, they attempt to immiserate her — regardless of whether she wishes to run for national office again.
Instead, any and every insult is thrown upon her. Of the shallow Vanity Fair piece, here’s the worst.
More than once in my travels in Alaska, people brought up, without prompting, the question of Palin’s extravagant self-regard. Several told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of “narcissistic personality disorder” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy” — and thought it fit her perfectly.
Nothing says fact-based reporting like a little anecdotal mudslinging. Even Media Matters called this shot ridiculous. It’s also not a smidgen original. From Mark Hemmingway:
To wit, a Google search of the Huffington Post for “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” and Sarah Palin returns some 752 results. Obviously, not all of those results are relevant but in just the first four pages of Google results I found five different comments from the website which reference Sarah Palin having narcissistic personality disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and all were written well before Purdum’s profile.
I’d like to think the press narrative is coming from some Ivory Tower on up from high, not the comments section from the Huffington Post, but hey, let the pajama revolution take hold. Hemmingway comes to the right conclusion.
It appears this is a meme that gained currency among those on the far left who actively despise Palin and posess no special insight into her. Either Purdum is far too credulous and should have investigated the claim, or Purdum deliberately wrote up baseless claims of narcissistic personality disorder to make it sound like the diagnosis came from Alaska insiders and in the process made the claim far more salacious. Either way, I don’t think Purdum’s reporting is to be trusted.
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Really, Sara is a narcissist? Read The Mirror Effect. THe people exhibiting NPD are the ones attacking her. The problem with people suffering from NPD is that deep down they are self loathing. Sara Palin has never come across as someone who suffers from self loathing or poor self image. In fact her whole countenance is that of a very confident, competent human being.
Its the freakish Kathleen Parkers, the Ariana’s, the Peggnacious Noonans who exhibit the classic symptoms of NPD. Read Drew Pinskys book and then relate it to the attacks on Palin. Women tend to tear down other women because certain women be it Sara, Angie, Heidi Klum, Maggie Thatcher because those women tend to make women with lesser lives or who feel they have lesser lives feel bad about themselves.
JohnFN – I don’t think you meant “antithesis.” Epitome?
Mike – I don’t think you meant “epitome.” “Lugubrious?”
Rufus – I don’t hink you meant “Lugubrious”. “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?”
I meant what I wrote as a characterization of the reason Palin continues to have the dung flung her way.
Mighty Skip – I don’t think you meant “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” “Quesadilla?”
Rufus-
I don’t think you meant “Quesadilla”. “Case of Beaha”?
Mark Hemingway and Bill Kristol both attempt unsuccessfully to dismiss strong suspicions that Governor Palin suffers from NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder).
Specifics about the McCain-Palin campaign must see the light if Republicans and the country are to avoid the danger and inevitable crises were an NPD to achieve high office. See: John Edwards, Bill Clinton.
Palin’s documented behavior fits the description of an NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) to a tee. Palin is very probably NPD, and possibly ASPD as well. You need a shrink for an official diagnosis, but you don’t need a shrink to compare Palin to the DSM-IV’s NPD traits to make your own conclusion. A “pervasive pattern” of behavior for 5 of 9 traits is required for an NPD diagnosis — I count 8 out of 9.
Humorously, Hemingway attempts to disprove Palin’s screaming NPD with a Google search for +Palin +”Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” on HuffPo (bit.ly/AxUr2, bit.ly/Rbg0N), rather than the much more specific and direct +Palin +npd or +Palin +narcissist, which would reveal many, many people who have reached the same conclusion: Palin suffers from NPD. Here’s just one HuffPo example Hemingway misses with his (intentionally?) poorly framed search: “Diagnosing Sarah Palin” (bit.ly/dlk3J)
“Two therapists responded to my request to diagnose Sarah Palin, independently identifying her condition as Narcissistic Personality Disorder”
Based on his poorly targeted search, Hemingway concludes “a meme that gained currency among those on the far left who actively despise Palin”. More likely, nearly everyone with even a little knowledge about NPD comes to the same conclusion: Sarah Palin suffers from NPD.
Please, shine a lot more light into the campaign.
Ted, as co-owner (har-har) of this site, I’m going to have to see some credentials or call bullshit on your DSM-IV and a bag of weed diagnosis.
Ted are you sure you’re not talking about “Himself”, our leader?
Ted darlin..hate to burst your bubble but the people with the NPD issues are the people who are pointing fingers at the Gov. Its funny she is so well loved in Alaska and poses a threat for what? What exactly does she threaten you with? Or is it she is merely a woman who really does quite frankly HAVE IT ALL!
THe problem with all of this is the fact that narcissism as exhibited in the above post is a disorder of someone who is so full of self loathing (Thatd be Ted, Katherine Parker, Pegnacious Noonan, McCains fat daughter etc. etc.) Sorry you all feel so threatened and the grandiose ideas you all have of yourselves really is merely to cover up your true feelings of self loathing but don’t project it onto Sara Palin, or me, or Ronald Reagan or whomever else might come along to ruin your carefully crafted self protective little fantasy about who you want people to think you are.
And Ted if you read any actual scholary books about narcissism you might find out that some tendencies are good things, confidence, ambition. Where would we be without the confidence of people like Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Patton, Grant, Sherman, Fremont, Louis, Clarke etc.?
Just read The Mirror Effect. I believe Ted’s issues are discussed in the book.
The left wing liberals are afraid of Sarah, and that is why they are constantly criticizing her. She has class (unlike big foot Michelle, loud mouth Hillary, etc). She could possibly be on the ticket in 2012, and that upsets a lot of people who want uncontrolled abortions, and the right to do whatever they want, regardless of how many people it adversely affects. They only think of themselves and to hell with anybody else. At least she has a conscience. Take David Letterman for example. It was horrible that Bristol Palin got pregnant out of wedlock, but it was OK for Dave to “knock up” his girlfriend out of wedlock. Double standards? of course – that is the liberal way of life. Just stating facts…….
Welcome Madalyn! Have a look-see and make yourself at home!
Ted-
Give me yor name, state and license number. I’ll be sure to get it revoked.
Asshole.
G-Man,
I was at the regular, Friday night classic car get together in Escondido, California last week. Very cool! They were featuring Fords, too. I literally saw about 2 dozen Panteras and about a dozen after kit Shelbies. Got to drive one of my buddies restored MOPARs there.
Rufus-
I AM SO JEALOUS!!!!!
But Hot August Nights is fast approaching. I’ve been asked to judge for the Fords. My head is getting large. Like Mike’s.
It was really, really cool. My buddy is teamed with a group of about 5 guys who buy and restore cars in the area. He’s got 15 cars on his property, in various degrees of restoration. They mainly focus on MOPARs, so it wouldn’t quite be heaven for you, but it’s very, very cool. That deal in Escondido is amazing! I can’t believe they get that huge of a turnout every Friday!
Nothing wrong with that.
I like any old car. My next project is to finish a 1930 Packard like the one I have, and a 1935 Ford Pickup. Both belong to friends.