Monday, March 28, 2011

She's Done, She Whines

Yup. She's through whining...right?

Sarah Palin says she's done.

Done with whining about the media, that is.

In an appearance on Fox News, where she serves as a contributor, Palin shrugged off a recent sexual slur directed her way from comedian Bill Maher, saying, "I'm through whining about a liberal press that holds particularly conservative women to a different standard, because it doesn't do any good to whine about it."

"Nobody ever promised life was going to be fair," Palin continued in what appeared to be a departure from her usual pattern of forcefully responding to critics, especially those in the media. "And politics really isn't fair, the scrutiny, the double standards, and all that. I'm dealing with it I guess in a different way than others who want to bring more light to it and demand that Bill Maher apologize."

Now, I don't know about you, but that damned well sounds like whining to me. If you're going to stop doing something, you just stop.

Like, say, being governor. You just up and quit. This isn't like smoking. It's not an addiction. It's not something that requires a Twelve Step Program and a Higher Power. You. Just. Stop. It.

But this speaks to Palin's noticeable inability to self-control. She takes glee in tweaking people's noses, to be sure, and in bullying people (many of whom can at least fight back, to her credit), but in truth, if she wants to be taken seriously as a politician, even as a kingmaker, she will simply have to grow a thicker skin.

One that matches the sheathing around her heart, as an example.

Now, Maher was out of line calling Palin a "twat". I can do that. You can do that. Maher has a slightly higher bar set for himself. His internal censor is set on "barroom" when it needs to be set on "nightclub". And that's OK. He's living his life as he sees fit and if he wants to squander a gift from, errrr, God (his sense of humour and observation), he doesn't need me to lecture him.

But there's also something to be said about being a pee-pantied politician. As we've seen from her own minions, Palin's in for a helluva a difficult ride when or if she decides to run and (GOD HELP US) somehow manages to win. The slurs and invective her supporters have smeared and slandered Obama with will still be worse than what she hears, but damn, she will get distracted way too easily with the petty insults to focus on her job.

If indeed she ever could even that little.