Sarah Palin’s Confrontation With a Teacher
I got around to watching the confrontation between Sarah Palin and an Alaskan teacher who called out Palin on quitting the job she swore to do because the money was just too good to actually live up to that promise.
Dan Amira at NY Mag has this take on the exchange starting just after 1 minutes into the video:
When Palin asks Gustafson what she does for a living, and Gustafson tells Palin she’s a teacher, Palin and her daughter groan and exchange eye rolls as if to say, “Of course, only a teacher would be such a liberal nut.” Belittling teachers? Palin really is a maverick.
I saw something there. To me, it looked like Palin was giving the record-scratching expression of someone who’s trying to make small talk with someone at a party who is then told that the person they’re talking to is a chemist, or accountant, or trader of collateralized debt obligations. She gives the look of not knowing quite how to respond when encountered with such a complex or intimidating sounding career. Then, she turns to her daughter and the two of the bond around a “we’ve got nuthin’, but we’ll pretend that we do while not sayin’ anything” looks.
The teacher was kind enough to let her off the hook by mentioning commercial fishing. I would love to see how long that silence would have gone if the teacher hadn’t broken it.
August 10th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
I hadn’t seen this but oh my! Why do we keep caring what she does. That teacher was very gracious, I don’t think I would have been.
August 11th, 2010 at 10:45 am
You’re failing to mention that Palin’s menfolks were jostling around trying to block the phone camera, and that afterwards the Palin folks tore down the banner.
Rightwing bloggers are currently smearing the teacher, assailing her credentials and badmouthing her in general. There’s is a bubble cult: if they acknowledge any failing by Palin, everything falls apart.
August 11th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
I watched this on Crooks and Liars. It pointed out that either Palin’s or TLC’s security people (private security company) were searching people on the PUBLIC docks, thus violating the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution she claims to be protecting.