The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

Has Palin miscalculated?

Palin may regret her decision to politicise the issue of race.

By George Eaton Published 20 November 2010 11:24

Extracts from Sarah Palin's new book America by Heart: Reflections on Faith, Family and Flag have already started leaking online and its her comments on race that are attracting most attention.

Palin writes:

The second reason the charge of racism is leveled at patriotic Americans so often is that the people making the charge actually believe it. They think America -- at least America as it currently exists -- is a fundamentally unjust and unequal country. Barack Obama seems to believe this, too. Certainly his wife expressed this view when she said during the 2008 campaign that she had never felt proud of her country until her husband started winning elections. In retrospect, I guess this shouldn't surprise us, since both of them spent almost two decades in the pews of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's church listening to his rants against America and white people.

Her decision to revive the Wright issue, nearly two years after Barack Obama responded with his famous Philadelphia speech on race, is a risky one. It's notable that in the 2008 campaign, John McCain forbade anyone on his team from mentioning Wright because he feared he would be called a racist (a stance Palin lobbied against).

If, as seems increasingly likely, Palin runs for president in 2012, she will need to build bridges with the moderates and centrists who determine US elections. Her decision to attack the First Lady and to politicise the subject of race will not aid her cause.

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Tags: Sarah Palin

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47 comments

Tue, 2010-11-23 04:15 — JP (not verified)

'Conservative' and 'US Republican' are two different things.
There's nothing 'conservative' about today's Republican Party in the States. They are Reactionary with a capital 'R'.
Full stop.

Wed, 2010-11-24 16:45 — Floatsam (not verified)

Mediocrity & shit have a tendency to float, as the saying goes. A living specimen.

Fri, 2010-11-26 00:22 — andyp (not verified)

Let's hope some future British government doesn't allow a President Palin to drag us into some nasty ill advised war somewhere.

Tue, 2010-11-23 08:06 — Barny

Luddite - You knob. Provide a supporting argument for your statement that the Obama's are racist and then it can be debated. Your suggestion that someone should prove you wrong is lazy and infantile as if you'd like someone else to do all the cognitive work. That couldn't be the case could it? Or maybe you just don't have a supporting argument.

Sun, 2010-11-21 14:50 — RK (not verified)

wait leftists. you gave us obama dummy. We will give you palin dummer. Next!

Sun, 2010-11-21 17:46 — Allanladd

Oh, please. "Politicize the issue of race"? All the Left ever gives us is race-baiting, all day, every day. Sarah has a right to speak her mind, and she will.

Sat, 2010-11-20 11:42 — Dave C (not verified)

George, "The second reason the charge of racism is leveled at patriotic Americans ..."

What does she say the first reason is?

Sat, 2010-11-20 11:48 — Jared Gaites (not verified)

Race is an issue that many people want a debate about. I don't understand why people like you want to continue to brush it under the carpet. I say that if you can't take the heat, then stay out of the kitchen matey.

Sun, 2010-11-21 20:15 — RK (not verified)

@The usual leftist dishonesty

Strange. In India they tell us we came from Europe. They fit history to their theory and not write the theory as the observed history I guess.

Sat, 2010-11-20 12:03 — Mr Magoo (not verified)

Why would people want to 'debate' race?? Immigration possibly, but race?
Oh, you mean they simply don't like dark-skinned people, don't you?

Fri, 2010-11-26 03:26 — john verticchio (not verified)

What a buffoon Sarah Palin is! But then so are most of the leaders of the religious right in America. What do you expect from people whose religious beliefs are in the same class as those of astrology, palmistry and numerology. Think for a moment! This is the reality in the country which is supposed to be the world leader in science and technology. Oh! The shame of it! If any aliens are looking down at us from outer space our species most be the laughing stock of the entire universe.

Sun, 2010-11-21 22:20 — Thomas Devine

Warning to those trying to make sense of the rantings of prominant Republicans (American sort, the English republicans are nice[DOWN WITH MONARCHY!!!). Few Republicans could find their way out of thier own sentances with the aid of three sherpas, six scouts, and a map.

Sat, 2010-11-20 12:52 — crabstix (not verified)

So, Jared Gaites, what is your issue with 'race'? Come on matey, debate it!

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Mon, 2010-11-22 01:43 — shufflebox (not verified)

Dunno if you read the New York Times Mag essay on Palin this week, George? Seems as if she couldn't give a damn about building bridges with anyone, she just does her thing, follows her instinct. As much as I find the content of what she says completely uninteresting, her style of doing things is something to behold; a constant two fingers to all those professionally involved in politics offering advice like "she will need to build bridges with the moderates and centrists who determine US elections". Not that you're necessarily wrong, of course.

Sat, 2010-11-20 13:09 — swatantra nandanwar

If Palin runs, Obama will be returned with a convincing majority for a 2nd term. The Right always play the race card wherever they run. It makes you sick sometimes.

Sat, 2010-11-20 13:20 — Freeman2

The only chance Palin has got is to make it a black-white contest, and to hope to garner as many white votes as she can. The woman is absolute scum.

Sat, 2010-11-20 13:58 — Luddite (not verified)

Mr Obama and his wife are both deeply racist.

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Sat, 2010-11-20 14:47 — jeremiah

Bloody hell! Surely even Republicans cannot be so stupid to nominate this crazy bitch as their candidate in 2012.

The idea of this woman in the oval office makes me shudder! :{

Sat, 2010-11-20 14:48 — Freeman2

Luddite - 'Mr Obama and his wife are both deeply racist.'

What, as in dressing up in white sheets, carrying burning crosses, bringing in Jim Crow laws, killing civil rights workers 'racist' do you mean?

Sat, 2010-11-20 16:05 — Benedict (not verified)

It gets worse. "In it [the book], Palin praises Simon Cowell..."

http://bit.ly/cCSTxE

Sat, 2010-11-20 16:49 — south pacific

The thought of this woman being next to the atomic weapon button makes you run to build an atomic shelter in your back yard.

Judging from the way the US promotes imbeciles for public office, nothing will surprise me.

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Sat, 2010-11-20 18:30 — grinningjohnson (not verified)

She hasn't miscalculated, she's misunderestimated.

Mon, 2010-11-22 15:39 — Beast Of No Nation (not verified)

We need to reassess the 80/20 rule, the Pareto principle, The Law Of The Vital Few; with a view to changing the ratios to reflect the aggregate change in human intelligence due to long term exposure to 21st Century Junk.

If you go back to the year 2000 and think through what has happened between 2000 and 2010, you will notice the "Vital Few" percentage is lower than 20%. It's now 11%, a 9% drop.

What used to be the 80/20 Rule is now the 89/11 rule.

Sat, 2010-11-20 18:47 — Luddite (not verified)

Obama is a racist prove me wrong?

Mon, 2010-11-22 15:48 — Trevor (not verified)

"Faith, Family and Flag"? Sounds suspiciously like the motto of Vichy France (Work, Family, Fatherland).

Sat, 2010-11-20 18:56 — stuart (not verified)

if anybody is guilty of politicising race, barack obama gets top marks,this man makes george bush look intelligent,in fact barack obama is just the black version of gordon brown,a complete failure.

Sat, 2010-11-20 19:02 — Luddite (not verified)

come on have other sites to go just post what i fucking said

Sat, 2010-11-20 19:09 — Luddite (not verified)

you are losing

Thu, 2010-11-25 02:33 — Mark (not verified)

Nice to see there is continuity in American politics , another blockhead comes to the fore ! along with the others : Bush , Schwarzenegger . Just think she might be president in the near future along with other morons that make up the Republican ' tea party ' movement ! Some of these people need to get out more and get involved in the real world ! Or in the near future someone like Palin will be holding her carefully manicured finger over that red button , ready to send in the missiles on a country like South Korea !

Sat, 2010-11-20 19:24 — Ashwin Ravikumar (not verified)

Balls to that, the burden of proof's on you to show that he IS a racist.

Sat, 2010-11-20 19:25 — Ashwin Ravikumar (not verified)

John Boehner has a foot fetish prove me wrong

Sat, 2010-11-20 20:14 — cobaka1

I have frequent encounters with Republicans. They are foolish enough to nominate this air head. Her message essentially: you're dumb and I'm dumb too.

Sat, 2010-11-20 20:24 — Ian M (not verified)

Palin is trying to climb on the Fox/Glenn Beck bandwagon, which has ceaselessly promoted the idea that Obama is 'racist', and have attempted to give him a false past to justify it. Pretty pathetic, except that America is full of gungho racists who want to believe it. Calling victims of racism racists, as if desperate housewife Palin and her xenophobic little band of propagandists even understood the term, or the implications of what it means, is the last resort of lame, feeble, reactionary rightwing gobshites who use fear and prejudice as their weapon of choice.

Sun, 2010-11-21 21:28 — Alcord (not verified)

There is a choice to be made. Either say "we are colour blind, and will from now on operate solely on this premise". OR say "there is a lack of colour blindness and as such we will operate within this context and see colour", OR best of all say "there is a lack of colour blindness, so we must operate in this context, until such a time where colour blindness becomes appropriate in the form of relevant (whatever that means) colour equality". What Palin appears to be saying is she believes in the first and the Obamas the second. However Obama generally operates on the third and Palin's views generally seem to stem from a fourth which is "I see colour but it serves me little purpose politically so I'll pretend not to until it's handy".

Sun, 2010-11-21 00:00 — The usual leftist dishonesty (not verified)

The fundamental racism of the left generally is its refusal to extend to people of European descent the right to living space. This refusal takes obviously racist forms such as denying the existence of European genetic particularity, claiming that Europeans, even in their ancestral homelands, are "immigrants" and "mongrels", and so on. If any of this was said of other peoples they would be the first to roll out the r-word.

Leftism is profoundly racist. It's just that the racism is against Europeans.