Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 30, 2011

Sarah Palin Action Doll has some mighty impressive followers!

Nice rug.

Just went to the site to see if there’s any more bodies behind the door.

Anyone click and find the number of wolf kills?

Maybe Sarah Palin should just cut to the chase and tryout for American Idol.

Co-sign, @pouncingtiger. It would improve both American Idol (by addition) and the 2012 presidential race (by subtraction). Win-win!

surfstuff55 said, “love the icon VistaBill”

Thanks!

Wait - do they mean PALIN, or OBAMA? ‘Cuz it sure sounds like Obama…”“These self-esteem-enhanced but talent-deprived performers eventually learn the truth…”

Pity we have to pay the price.

Orion

see january 18 colbert at comedy central

Don’t they mean mini-half-guv?

Some folks who seem impressive to their neighbors in their small towns aren’t able to cut it in the big city.

No to worry. Just define the city as an aberration and call the small town ‘the real America’ and the whole problem goes away.

I’ve never seen American Idol. Are the winners chosen by an electoral college (panel of experts) or by popular (those who care to) vote?

How can Orion call Obama talentless? He got elected, and has accomplished a lot while in office, and against robust opposition. He’s a talented politician. Given time, he may even become a statesman, though most statesmen are, in the end, only revised and edited politicians.

What Obama is NOT is a prophet, or a martyr to principle. Which many of his followers took him for. Both he and especially his followers started out naive about the world. He actually believed that applying enough benevolence and sympathy would win over any enemy. He didn’t know the GOP it seems.

Prophets exist to speak the truth, and let the chips fall where they may. Such people are not fit to hold public office. The truth is never popular. If it is popular it is probably not the truth. Politicians exist to create consensus and get things done. Truth and principle usually get in the way.

That’s the nice thing about electing the modern brand of conservative to office. Electing them is a sort of sabotage against the country. But as the purpose of electing them is to throw a monkey wrench into the system, and prevent anyone from accomplishing anything, it works pretty well. And there is the added benefit that even folks who want to see things get done will begin to question wanting the government to do them when people like Michelle Bachman are running the government.

Sarah Palin is neither a talented politician nor a prophet, but she Trudeau is unfair to her. She is certainly a talented performer. She has can’t-take-your-eye-off-her, can’t-believe-what-you-are-seeing-and-hearing star quality. She says the things that small-minded people everywhere are longing, thirsting to hear, making their small-mindedness seem good and noble and virtuous.

America is a huge market for that sort of thing.

Self-esteem-enhanced, but talent-deprived performer, could easily describe our last president. Boy, did we ever pay the price for that one!

I so agree with you Doughfoot that I think you should change your name to Chrysostom (goldenmouthed).

Dancing with the Stars, anyone?

Palin’s main value seems to be as a lightning rod for the left. By attracting all the liberal calumny, she is allowing the viable Republican candidates to avoid the loaded “when did you stop beating your wife” questions so loved by the media. Who knows, maybe this respite will allow the Republicans to come up with a candidate not beholden to the Limbaugh-Beck lunatic fringe.

Doughfoot seems to be saying that anyone dedicated to limited government, reduced taxation, and adherance to the Constitution is small-minded.

So which of those things do you with your towering intellect reject? Since you talk about getting “things” done and accomplishing “things” while carefully not specifying what those things might be, I would guess you reject all three since that is necessary to allow the government to do whatever it (and you) wants.

BTW, I intensely dislike religious-nut light-weight Sarah Palin and wouldn’t vote for her for anything but maybe animal control officer, but when she speaks of American principles, she is a real patriot with more understanding of America than any Lefty. If that makes someone small-minded, then so were the Founding Fathers.

Doughfoot, usually doing nothing is better than doing the wrong thing. For the past 10 years, mostly the wrong things have been done. Obama and his party were given the golden key, majority in both houses and the presidency, but instead of trying to truly help America, they acted like spoiled children. As a result, they lost their key.

I believe the doll could just have well been an Obama doll and the story line would still work just as well. All he has done is embarrass himself and the U.S. Obama was & still is less qualified than Palin, but neither should be in the White House. Both are great speakers though.

Great strip today!

DoughFoot, you needn’t defend President Obama. He has already shown himself to be one of our better presidents, even after only two years. Orion is merely willfully ignorant.

The joke of today’s Doonesbury is that Sarah Palin doesn’t realize that her description of American Idol’s performers describes her well.

At the same time, she won’t run for president. (1) She wants to be rich & famous, in that order, and being president would be a pay-cut. (2) She hasn’t taken on a challenge for years. She surrounds herself only w/ sycophants, and a president must take criticism. (3) She can count, and she can see that she won’t win. Almost no one is left w/out an opinion about her, and she has very high negatives.

On the other hand, as long as people think that she might run then she receives much more attention–and speaking fees &c.–than she will once she announces that she won’t run, so she will milk a potential run as long as possible.

BrianCrook: Obama “has already shown himself to be one of our better presidents”? Amazing. And you call someone else “willfully ignorant”? I wonder what your standard of “better” could possibly be. It’s certainly not mine.

Gary and the other left-wingers spend endless time and resources trashing Sarah Palin because they are TERRIFIED of her ability to energize the independents and conservatives! She will not be the Republican candidate for Pres in 2012 if they could only realize that. If they keep her in the public eye she will contribute to a Repub victory with her ability to get ordinary people to vote the conservative way.

… well, she DID get it that someone was talking about HER!

DoughFoot: “Prophets exist to speak the truth, and let the chips fall where they may. Such people are not fit to hold public office. The truth is never popular. If it is popular it is probably not the truth. Politicians exist to create consensus and get things done. Truth and principle usually get in the way.” An excellent post.

pschearer: “Doughfoot seems to be saying that anyone dedicated to limited government, reduced taxation, and adherance to the Constitution is small-minded.” How wonderfully you missed the point. What Doughfoot said was, “She says the things that small-minded people everywhere are longing, thirsting to hear, making their small-mindedness seem good and noble and virtuous.” But what small-minded people want is not limited government, reduced taxation, and adherence to the Constitution — those are concerns of statesmen (and by the way, not all of the Founding Fathers would have agreed with you). Most of Palin’s fans are not thoughtful conservatives, but simple reactionaries; conservatives merely use her as a living, breathing bumper sticker.

What the Tea Party members want is to get the 1950s back, when they fantasize that all was well and happy in the country, foreigners and anyone who didn’t look and live just like them knew their place, and no one challenged the premises of society. Of course, they can’t have the 1950s back, but they can’t deal with living in the century they’re in. So they rally around a pretty, platitudinous oaf who sounds just like what they want to hear.

None of this has to do with “limited government, reduced taxation, and adherence to the Constitution” — it’s a red herring even to introduce those ideas into this. Rather it has everything to do with a simple-minded fantasy that wasn’t even real in the time they think they want to return to.

@JosephBidenJr99: And what you don’t seem to realize is that Gary’s job is to satirize the subversive foibles of the independents and conservatives whom others might mislabel as “patriotic.”

@BrianCrook: Your point is interesting, because it’s very difficult to see beyond the clamor and look at the steps that have been quietly accomplished while everyone’s attention was elsewhere. It may be up to the historians to reduce Obama’s term to its essentials and give a clear perspective. But I would suggest you consider what MIGHT have been accomplished with a true spirit of bipartisan cooperation toward common goals, rather than the conservative attitude echoed this past week that “We are in a war.” Neither side can claim to be “without sin” in that regard, but the right has been obstructive to the point of idiocy.

Might I add the same is true of “Dancing With the Stars?”

pschearer - if Sarah actually talked about limited government, reduced taxation and adherence to the constitution, I could respect her, just as I respect, say, Ron Paul. But she doesn’t. Her main schtick is the aggrieved, long-suffering Us against the evil, insiduous Them. Her entire raison d’etre is to allow people to delude themselves that actively hating thirty or forty percent of the voting public is somehow a patriotic virtue. She’s the most willfully devisive political figure in America since Joe McCarthy.

Is this the same Sarah Palin Tea Party that GT scorned as a bunch of politically impotent selfish old rednecks and kooks?

But then, that was before the 2010 elections.

Brian’s analysis is essentially correct. Palin won’t run for president, I believe that she would run again for vice president, depending on who she was paired with. Politically, she got lackluster McCain within 3 points on the popular vote last time, hardly “embarrassing herself”, and she’s probably worth 10% of the total next time around. Besides, she’s got plenty of money now that she doesn’t have to fight all those frivolous lawsuits filed by Alaskan liberal democrats, and long-term, it’s a good move.

If Biden can do the job, even Bristol Palin could.

Billdog, are you as racist as you are sexist? And if so, do you represent many others who align politically with your views?

Well said, Doctor Dan.

As for Pschearer’s rejection of the comment that Obama is a better president than many, I would mention that a recent survey of scholars of the the Presidency rated all the presidents to date (including Obama). President Obama ranked fairly high although I don’t remember his exact place. I am pretty sure it was in the top 10 or 15. Meanwhile George W. Bush was rated somewhere down in the low thirties out of 46.

This is not my opinion of “better.” This is the opinion of learned men and women who have studied the life, times, and work of all the presidents. They have looked at the foreign policy decisions, their domestic stance and the laws passed while in office. This was not just some flip, gut instinct rating. And please, don’t give me a bunch of garbage about these being a bunch of “ivory tower liberals” or some such nonsense.

The bit about self esteem is a direct quote from SP from her book. And yes, let’s hope she runs!

She could always be a stunt double for whatshername………….

I hope she does get nominated. I still have faith in the “thinking” American public that can see how shallow she really is

The thinking American public knows that we are off course in some serious ways. They are trying to find their way by swinging from the left to right & back, searching. There is some bad road through questionable neighborhoods either way, but if we stick with either for a while we might find our way out of here. The way we’re going everyone spends all their time tearing down the opposition’s accomplishments.

TexTech, we didn’t call them “Ivory Tower liberals”, but your description of them certainly does.

In any event, it’s very premature for these ivor… I mean, learned men and women to pronounce judgement when only half of his term is over, so I’m thinking they came to their conclusions on the day before his inauguration. Their decision is just as valid as those of the Nobel prize committee, who awarded Obama before he even had a chance to do anything to earn it. Don’t they and their supporters realize how these types of premature pronouncements erode any credibility that they themselves might have had? They’ve proved that whatever they have to say is worthless.

It is a concern that the empty-headed plaything (Palin doll) still gets so much attention, when FAR WORSE have been placed in Congress over the years. My “local” Republican generally makes Palin look “bright”- and after several terms STILL doesn’t have a clue about the Constitution, or the job he’s supposed to be doing. As to the constant attack that “liberals” don’t support or understand “patriotism”- This 100% disabled veteran with a son soon to receive a disability discharge after 13 years of service, and multiple injuries, would like to tell those who’ve never served but to serve up their opinion– stuff it!

Following last week’s arc on gun violence, GT has decided to resurrect his SP golem. At the time of the Tuscon murders, I noted that GT’s fantasized violence had become reality: “the Sarah Palin doll managed to off Sam after all, just as she and the other dolls schemed to do half a year ago. ”

Thanks to GT’s signature irony, Doonesbury readers are more sophisticated than ordinary comic strip readers who are looking for diversion from the actual world. We appreciate the way GT helps us to view reality, provided he keeps it at a safe, satirical distance.

Last week’s arc on gun violence and murder tested the limits of Doonesbury’s ability to contain reality by satire. Many readers responded with violent fantasies of their own, thereby proving Trudeau’s satirical point that Americans, especially, harbor violent thoughts.

The golem is a traditional literary symbol of violence unleashed on society by its homicidal creator. Palin and Trudeau between them created the SP doll. Our troubled American psyche has turned an Arizona psychopath into a far more lethal golem.

Humm, could Sarah-doll be talking about her namesake’s daughter–someone with no talent who insists upon demonstrating that fact on national TV?

pouncingtiger - etc

Sarah on American Idol? … Re-think that one, please. She would win and then they would bring back ELEVATOR MUSIC.

Which best-selling book is the sarah palin doll reading from?

Yeah, a bowling pin!!

Doughfoot’s analysis is excellent! I never understood Palin’s appeal, but Doughfoot explains it. Thanks, D

Palin’s resigning as Governor of Alaska was just her proving she wanted ……. SMALLER government.

The “best-selling book,” I believe, is “Going Rogue.” by Twinkiebell herself – Although I can’t be certain from direct experience.

Thanks, Doughfoot! “Nobody ever went broke underestim­ating the stupidity of the American people” – H.L. Mencken.

FriscoLou said Anyone click and find the number of wolf kills?

Yes but unsure if she means 11 or 12. Does Palin even know what tally marks mean or did she just forget? I suspect the former.

Self-esteemed enhanced and talent deprived: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOF9WAlfOzA

Right you are Skulker, but it looks like Trig’s hand writing

So yeah, she played the flute. But, actually not all that well. Good enough to play in public but so-so tonality. After ten years of practice I would have expected better.

No one dares to question.

SCAATY_423 – your points about the 50s are absolutely true – read “The Way We Never Were” by Stephanie Coontz

And jmerm – imagine that – Uncle Ronnie saved us from all that while he was in an Alzheimer’s coma

So yeah, she played the flute. But, actually not all that well. Good enough to play in public but so-so tonality. After ten years of practice I would have expected better.

So yeah countoftowergrove, she played the flute.

But, actually not all that well. Good enough to play an easy song in public but with only so-so tonality. After ten years of practice I would have expected better.