Robert Fisk: Mangling everything in its path, Typhoon Sarah blows in to Asia
Our writer is there to witness the carnage as Alaska's former mom-in-chief touches down in Hong Kong
Grotesque, unprecedented, bizarre, unbelievable. Sarah Palin was all of that in Hong Kong yesterday. And more. Dressed in a cutesy virgin-white blouse and black skirt with the infamous bee-hive hairdo, she was a blessing to every predicting spectator.
"There'll be one or two self-deprecating remarks, a reference to healthcare, taxation, out-of-control spending and a poorly told joke," my investor companion muttered when the lady walked on to the stage of the Hyatt conference room. All he forgot was the bit about Islamic terror. Alas, she did not fail us. "No recording, no photography, no video tapes, no mobile phones," they kept shouting over the public address system. And you could see why.
It was Sarah's trip to Asia and her first appearance since her resignation as Alaska's top Mum. In her state capital, she told us, you could see a moose in the middle of the city. It was not a common sight in Hong Kong. Why, in Alaska, where 20,000 square miles of the state was glacial and with only two humans per square mile, "it seems to me that God just chucked this bucketful of resources there". It was then we realised that whoever wrote the Palin sermon for her, they had – mercilessly – allowed some of the real Sarah to show through. Even husband Todd got a mention. He had flown with her into Hong Kong. And – here was a reference to the Alaska fish and caviar consumed in this "beautiful", "magnificent" and "libertarian" part of China – "some of the fruits of our labour, mine and Todd's, ended up on tables here". The caviar at the Hyatt, it should be added, comes from Iran.
But Alaska was more than just a fish market. It was "the air-crossroads to the world" where "Main Street, for me, it's a small town tucked between two mountain ranges". It went on and on. Alaska was "the last frontier", a "place where you can still feel that pioneering mountain spirit... It has shaped me." We sat there, mystified. Was she trying for the presidency next time round? Or re-election to the governorship of that wretched glacial state?
To prove her shining Republicanism, Sarah quoted Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. She quoted Lincoln. She quoted Thomas Jefferson. History and common sense were not on the side of liberalism and "utopian pipe dreams". But there'd been progress. In the past, we had the "horse and buggy business", she said, then Ford came along with the motor car and the kids sat singing in the back, but now the kids have headsets. And what happened to the Reagan legacy? "Many Republicans in Washington gambled it away."
She talked, of course, about the infamous "death panels" – a big smirk here from Sarah – and "market-friendly responsible ideas" (this must have been the speech-writer) and offered slippery advice: "We can responsibly develop our resources without damaging the environment."
She spoke too fast. She gabbled her words. Scatty was the word for it. We slalomed between the fall of the Berlin Wall, the break-up of Yugoslavia and 9/11. Then it started. The war on "vicious terrorism", the war against "violent fanatics who wished to end our way of life", our battle against "radical Islamic extremists" with "twisted vision". This was not a clash of civilisations but "a war within Islam". We slalomed again. Asia – "what an amazing place!" – was at its best "when it was not dominated by a single power".
What on earth was happening? Had Sarah just looked up from her podium and seen China? Addressing what was surely the neo-conservative wing of the Republican party, she could not "turn a blind eye" to Chinese policies that created "uncertainty", which supported "questionable regimes" and "made a lot of people nervous". America wasn't going to impose its values on other countries, but America was going to have to "ramp up" its defence spending.
Then family again. "I have a husband," she said. "I think I could have used a wife. He's awesome." This really floored the Chinese. Poor Todd.
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Comments
So here comes the ever-reliable Fisk with the ghastly details. Her attendance says more about the organization that invited/paid la Palin to speak than anything new about her. But, really, isn't she teachable? Or do her promoters like her just as she is?
Just goes to show, everyone sees the same event differently (ask any cop at the scene of an accident).
The New York Times and Wall St Journal were surprisingly positive about it.
Still, it's Fisk after all.
Keep us posted!
She's the Typhoid Mary of US politics: small, dangerous--and quite unfortunately for us--contagious.
Goto:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/09/2
Why do you think all the full transcripts have been pulled ?
Chris
Sarah Palin plays to this gallery and she may be more successful that we would care to contemplate. Fortunately, I can't see her beating Obama in 2012 but she nevertheless will pull in a powerful constituency.
I'm not a great fan of the "special relationship" and the likes of Sarah Palin, and of course George W Bush are two good reasons why. Britain and the US are indeed two countries separated by a different language. The same could be said up to a point about Australia and NZ as anyone who has lived Down Under will tell you. But at least they play cricket rather than rounders for grown-ups, so there is hope for them yet.
But as for Sarah Palin, the thought of her or someone like her in the White House is scary.
Europe is just so hip and with it...
those Americans are just so couth...
except when we have to help your sorry asses.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
what you say and what I read from the transcript are not the same.
Is it because your head never made it out of your liberal, biased ^^^??
You actually work for a newspaper and they pay you? It must be the women's clothing section
because your comments sound like a jilted gay talking about his cheating partner....
very bitchy and not too intelligent.
How about reading this part of speech....
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_i
The Wall Street Journal put up the text of Sarracuda's speech and then yanked it offline in a few hours. Some further details about this are at http://nailinpalinnow.blogspot.com
Quote:"I am sure she did a fine job.She has more common sense in the toenail of small toe than Obama has in his whole body. Obama is about the most incompetent and ignorant person ever elected to high office in this country".
I love clowns like this;I must have a masochistic streak inside me as to my desire to respond to this rubbish.
I believe,from his diatribe of nonsense that "Johnnywi" has a huge crush on Mrs Palin.In other words, the small brain below the belt has taken over from the Lim-Beck brain in the skull.
I'm sure "Johnnywi's" dream is to salivate over the idea that Mrs Palin and Mr Glenn Beck form a political union,(I know first dude Todd might be sad and tearful),and run for the oval office in 2012.
This would be the perfect ticket to be sponsored by the following friends of the American working family:
The Health Insurance industry,Pharrmaceutical Industry,the US Military Industrial Complex,Wall St,The Major US Banks,and of course "Big Tobacco",and the NRA.
The nightmare is that TV packaged correctly, and with some added Botox,Mrs Palin could just pull it off.(No pun intended!).
Engchina!
Claudine Ferland-Muirhead, Oxfordshire, England
She's so fem. Didn't we all know it? I heard she had been asked out by Ellen!
2) that a country where organised crime is endemic (and has been for over a century) can be so worried about "terrorism". If there's one thing bin Laden and his ilk should realise, it's that the US is slowly killing itself from within.
3) that a country with so many intelligent people in it can somehow elect dumb people like Palin and Dubya.
It's a mystery.
What shone through Fisk's writing is an understanding of what he was talking about. He understood the conflict, the layers of animosities and relationships, the emotions on the different sides and was capabale of digesting this into something more nuanced than just black and white. Anybody who is capable of seeing the world that way to me is worth reading.
"Grotesque, unprecedented, bizarre, unbelievable" is well known in political reportage circles and has come to be shorthand for something politically awful. Intelligent readers would have known that.
Now you know, too, isn't that nice?
"Parkerville Revisited"
-- Danzr Von Thai