why the fuck would you bring your kids to something that involves hours of standing around with nothing to do, in bad weather? idiots.

I am shocked, shocked to find that Sarah “Fin Tim Lim Bim Whin Bim Lim Bus-stop F’tang F’tang Olè” Palin bailed halfway through a task, duty or commitment. If only there was a way we could have seen this coming!

I never thought I’d quote Independence Day, but isn’t it amazing how quickly they turn against you?

There’s just got to be a reasonable explaination for Sarah ditching her base like this. I’m betting that soon we’ll hear that her water broke and she had to hightail it back to Alaska. Her disgruntled fans are going to feel pretty bad for bitching when she shows up with a new baby in a couple days. Which brings up another question. Has anyone seen Bristol in public the last few months?

“After 8 hours in the cold and rain with my wife and 10 month old baby, I was shocked to watch Sarah get on a bus and leave without signing books for at least 400 people.”

These two fucking idiots should have their baby taken away from them.

I suppose this is part of the problem when you make your entire platform “folksy appeal.” When the folks begin to realize that you could give two shits about them, the mask (and obviously the gloves) come off.

Does her new estate in Alaska have a miniature village where Sarah plays “peasant” and does folksy American things like sift flour, make flapjacks, and churn butter?  She probably has a Holly Hobby outfit to wear.

Dear Teabaggers,

When your entire political philosophy is centered on how you don’t give a rat’s ass about other people, don’t be so surprised when you find out your movement leaders don’t really give a rat’s ass about you, either.

Love,
damnedyankee

why the fuck would you bring your kids to something that involves hours of standing around with nothing to do, in bad weather? idiots.
Comment #2: jadehawk on 11/22 at 05:39 AM

Let’s see, “because they’re unemployed or minimally employed and don’t have money for a babysitter? Because mistaken though they are, they think that maybe they are witnessing someone who will have an historic impact and it’s cool to have kids feel they are/were/ a part of history?”

say the parents who took kids to a few late-night, cold weather, long-wait-time Barack Obama events.

Yeah, but a book signing isn’t, you know, the inauguration of a President.

phylosopher, give me a break.  They have money to buy a piece-of-shit book but not to hire a babysitter?  Also, this was no presidential inauguration, as PM points out.  It was a freaking book-signing at a local chain bookstore by a known-to-be-unreliable grifter with a track record of not showing up and, oh yeah, who’s famous for being one of a tiny handful of governors to quit their positions mid-term.

I could, perhaps, see the appeal for taking along children who are old enough to read and understand a little about politics.  But hauling a 10-month-old baby along for an hours-long wait in the cold rain?  That’s stupidity that borders on reckless.  That’s valuing one’s own ideology, misguided or not, over a baby’s health.  Appalling.

Actually, we could also excoriate Border’s for lousy crowd control.  They could’ve rented a pavilion and passed out warm drinks.

At the time, Obama was only a candidate.  And there’s that appeal of being in on something BEFORE it becomes common knowledge or a certainty.  The “I was RIGHT, see!” wish of the otherwise everyman. (With Palin, my fervent wish that the woman never hold any political office- I despise her as much as anyone does.)
 
What I’m pointing out is that taking a child to an event like this springs from the same motivations, both practical and ideological and it sounds hypocritical to castigate parents acting on them, just because they’re on the politically opposing side.

The book was what $9.00?  Find me a sitter who will work for that for a few hours.  Babies don’t melt - and most strollers have canopies and even covers.  If I remember correctly wasn’t it in the 50’s or even 60’s and intermittently raining that day?  Yeah, it’s a good soundbyte to say “in the cold and rain” but the truth was…..?  Or are you saying that women with young children should confine themselves to their homes?

From the update:

I don’t believe the event at the end was staged at all.  I was there with the same people for many hours and we all assumed we would get to meet Sarah.  There were a few very immature people there at the end.  One girl was ripping pages out of her booka nd throwing them in the air.  several others wanted to return their books to Borders.  The store had closed so some were not let in to do so.

Bwahaha. This is what happens when you trust a grifter.

She’s not a known-to-be-unreliable grifter!  She’s just been picked on by the mean wiberal media!  And she quit Alaska because it was a lame-duck session and the media kept <strike> covering her grifting</strike> making up mean stories about her that were going to cost Alaska money to fight in lawsuits.  Of course, quitting mid-term cost Alaska a bundle as well, but it freed Sarah! to go do what she’s meant to do.

She’s a fighter, and she’s got street smarts, which are bajillions of times better than any elite ivory tower education!  She’s just like they are.

Maybe poor Trig had a cold and she needed to take him to the doctor!  Maybe Todd needed his dinner on the table!  Maybe poor Sarah!‘s hand was tired and she didn’t want to sign anymore books.  No!  It waas her scheduler who forced her against her better street-smart judgment to leave and stay on schedule.

Just wait for the sequel, Noblesville Hoosiers!  She’ll let those advisors and that Border’s have it.  She won’t let them pick on you any more!  Sarah! loves you all, you real Americans you.

damnedyankee (@9) seems to have hit the nail on the head here.  Their messiah of callousness is callous?  Go figure.

Digby had a great point yesterday—Palin doesn’t seem to realize that she’s being held to celebrity standards now, especially those of country music stars, and your fans will desert you if you blow them off.  “Leave them wanting more” doesn’t apply when you have people who didn’t even get to see the show in the first place.

And I’ll defend the people who brought their kids—a celebrity is in their backwater little town and how often does that happen in Noblesville, Indiana?  If Oprah came to visit, you bet that people would stand in the rain to bring their kids to that, but Oprah would be smart enough not to leave until everyone had their autograph.

@Caren #16:

And she quit Alaska because it was a lame-duck session and

Lame-duck session!
Lame-wabbit session!
Lame-duck session!
Lame-wabbit session!

(Sorry. I read it the first time as “because it was lame-duck season,” and couldn’t help myself.)

Part of overflows that was next in line; group had real camaraderie in cold/rain for >15 hours.

MORE THAN FIFTEEN HOURS??  To get a ghostwritten book signed by a has-been?  You got what you deserved.

I took my niece to see Donny Osmond in Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (oh god, was it really20 years ago? I’m getting old.)

It played in Chicago for about a year, and we were well into the run.  I’d heard that Donny signed things after the show, so I took my then 6 y/o niece (FSM, she’s 24 now!) back in the alley behind the stage after the show.  There was a large crowd of people, some of whom had album covers from the 70s.  Close to a hundred people!

I shoved the cute little moppet up close to the door, figuring she’d get one b/c, well, cute little moppet.  Donny came out, and his assisstants tried to rush him to the car.  He stopped, then turned around (to moans) AND GOT HIS OWN SHARPIE.

He settled into signing anything anyone wanted signed.  After a little bit, I realized he wasn’t leaving, I got one too!  We stayed around for 20 mins and then I took the cute moppet home.  Donny was still signing.  You could tell he wasn’t leaving until everyone had a signature.  This undoubtedly added an hour or so to his work every evening, month after month.

He understood that the show ran for months and months b/c people paid to see it.  He understood respectting his fans.  His dedication and professionalism impressed me more than his performance, which was great.

Yeah, Donny can be a typical homophobic Mormon, but he totally gets what Sarah! doesn’t: it’s not about him/her—it’s about what they engender in their fans.  Treat your fans like crap, and they will leave you without a job.

These sick-fuck teabagger cockwads have the emotional and intellectual maturity of four year-olds.

The teabaggers *personalize* their relationship with their favorite politicians so much.  ie: GWB would be a great guy to have a beer with!  Or calling Palin “Sarah” like they are on a friendly, first-name basis.  My grandfather has pictures of our republican congressman and of GWB that he got in the mail for donating to their campaigns hanging on a bulletin board… right next to pics of all of his grandkids.  Perhaps that is why they were willing to wait so long.  They extend the same love and understanding to their candidates as they do to their family members and close friends.  And when they suddenly realize that their candidates don’t have that same energy invested in them, it must be devastating.

I like the word “Palienated.” First time I’ve seen it but I hope to see more of it.

I’d have to know more details about this but it’s likely Palin just showed up and departed when her handlers told her to. Unless she was terribly late, or just bailed because she was tired, which is possible, but it sounds like someone just planned this very badly. Which of course still hurts her image, that’s how it works. But it sounds like she needs to hire much more experienced staff because someone of her stature, with those kind of numbers, doesn’t belong at a small town B&N;anyhow. This could have gone off much more effectively at a different venue, and her fans would have gotten the folksy contact they craved.

The ones who actually spoke of expecting to meet the family as if they were going to a backyard barbecue together - they reminded me of how much some of these people buy into the PR BS. It’s kind of heartbreaking. I guess they’re the same ones who make shit wages and think the Republicans want to help them get rich.

. . . in cold/rain for >15 hours.  . . . Jordan Harris I just spent 9 hours of my day, $40 of my hard earned money on two of your books . . . “We gave up our entire workday, stayed in the cold. My kids were crying,” said one man.

You’ve heard of precancerous conditions? These people have pre-Darwin Award conditions.

Guess what?  She’s travelling with her pro-life fetish object who needs diapers and milk and such.  She isn’t going to be hanging around for hours and hours for this, especially if she doesn’t have her conscripted baby holder around anymore.

There’s just got to be a reasonable explaination for Sarah ditching her base like this. I’m betting that soon we’ll hear that her water broke and she had to hightail it back to Alaska. Her disgruntled fans are going to feel pretty bad for bitching when she shows up with a new baby in a couple days. Which brings up another question. Has anyone seen Bristol in public the last few months?

Oh Lord, let’s not go there again.  Of all the negative things surrounding the bizarre phenomenon known as Sarah from Alaska, I think our side is best served by sticking to things that are actually true.  One of those things being the fact that Trig Palin is NOT Bristol Palin’s son.  It’s virtually impossible for her to be the mother of both Trig and Tripp, as the two were born only 8 months apart.

This is exactly the kind of entitlement mentality that causes people to say “we want to take our country back!”  Guess what: It’s not YOUR country!  You share it with 300 million other people!  You just happen to have been born here!

These people feel like they are owed something.  They just bought a book!  That doesn’t entitle anyone to anything!

The book was what $9.00?  Find me a sitter who will work for that for a few hours.

The book was $20 (had to be purchased from B&N;to get a wristband), and virtually everyone in line had two copies, because that’s how many they were allowed to get signed.  $40 is a lot more than $9.

You’re absolutely right DTG, and I apologize for a bad joke. There is enough that is despisable about this woman, and true, that one shouldn’t have to resort to and kid about the rumor stuff to show disdain.

I sorta think this is great. Palin has a persona made for TV, but she can’t sell books without appearing places in person. Le oops.

These two fucking idiots should have their baby taken away from them.

No Angel S,
Don’t you see? That baby is a “Real American” that’s willing to sacrifice to do it’s patriotic duty. Which in wingnut means endangering your life so your parents can give money to Sarah “The Savior of Wingnuttery” Palin.

Also, on the book thing, they’re probably imagining that those books will be valuable someday. Either as a kind of saint’s relic with the social cred that goes along with owning one, or on ebay.

Madavis @23 - while your comment shows a lot of sensitivity and empathy, I really think your point was better stated in the post directly above yours:

“These sick-fuck teabagger cockwads have the emotional and intellectual maturity of four year-olds.”

Also, on the book thing, they’re probably imagining that those books will be valuable someday. Either as a kind of saint’s relic with the social cred that goes along with owning one, or on ebay.
Comment #33: paul on 11/22 at 03:00 PM

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290371827761&rvr;_id=&crlp=1_263602_263622&UA=WVF?&GUID=1d14bccb1240a0b58f9520c5fffb099b&itemid=290371827761&ff4=263602_263622

Yup.

Not directly related, but Nate Silver seems to believe that Sarah! has at least a decent chance of actually winning the GOP nomination in 2012.

Which I think is absolutely fantabulous.  Because while she may be able to win the hearts and minds of the wingnuts in Republican primaries, she’s almost certain to be an epic failure in the general election, considering that 60% of the country doesn’t believe she’s even qualified to be president (the nicest thing fellow wingnut Republican Gov. Haley Barbour could say about her qualifications was that she was legally old enough and a natural-born citizen).

I was around my wingnut cousins a couple of weeks ago, and they kept harping about how nothing scares us “pansy liberals” (their words) more than the idea of the Wasilla Wonder running for POTUS in 2012.  I chuckled and said, “Yes, by all means, my fellow pansy liberals and I are shitting bricks at the terrifying prospect of an Obama vs. Palin election in 3 years.”  I don’t think they actually get that many on the left agree with them on wanting Palin to be the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, albeit for entirely different reasons.

God I hope these idiots actually nominate her, so Obama can win a Reagan-sized landslide and we can shove pictures of a nearly solid blue electoral map in their faces for four years.

Palin has a persona made for TV, but she can’t sell books without appearing places in person.

This is one reason why Palin will never be a successful vote-getting politician. You actually have to be able to at least pretend to care about people and show them personal attention. That’s how you cultivate long term loyalties.

Palin doesn’t care about that. She is just trying to cash in on her fame as quickly as possible. From a revenue-maximizing perspective, this is probably a good idea.

I think they love her and consider her “one of them” because she is so un-apologetically STUPID. Also, I think a lot of the infatuation with Ma Palin is because she’s pretty.  If she can afford the best quality plastic surgery (like the movie star she thinks she is), she’ll stay pretty for another 10 years or so.  But can she afford it?

I doubt she can afford “good” handlers, or would tolerate a handler “telling her what to do”. She’s too arrogant, vain, conceited.  And Stupid.

DTG in STL @ 36 - I don’t really like the idea of America getting a one-party system, but anyone who’s been watching the last few years could have seen the Republicans circling the drain. And if Palin’s their nominee in ‘12, the GOP is shot. It shall cease to be, will expire and go to meet its Maker. It will be a late party. A stiff.  Bereft of life, it will rest in peace. Pushing up the daisies. It will have spun down the curtain and joined the Choir Invisible. It will be an ex-party. (1)

This is what it must be like to watch a trail of lemmings head off a cliff.

If Lincoln could see his party now, he’d start drinking heavily.

I don’t really like the idea of America getting a one-party system, but anyone who’s been watching the last few years could have seen the Republicans circling the drain.

I don’t think a one-party system would be the end result.

Even if the GOP were to go the way of the Whig Party (which is possible, but still too early to predict for certain), what would most likely happen is that the current Democratic Party would splinter into two separate parties, one that is center-right (represented by the Blue Dog Caucus and Senate Conservadems), and one that is center-left (represented by Progressive Caucus members and the more left-leaning U.S. Senators).

The one and only thing that the Republicans currently have that the Democrats don’t is overall ideological conformity (with a tiny handful of somewhat more moderate exceptions like Olympia Snowe, people who are generally despised by the GOP party base).  60% of Congress may currently be represented by Democrats, but you have to keep in mind that Barney Frank and Bart Stupak both belong to the same political party when interpreting what that means.

My connection sucks today.  Just got cut off for the 3rd time, so 1st sorry if this double posts.

PM,
Wasn’t it Barnes & Nobel, not Borders?  I’m sure Borders can get enough bad press on its own without borrowing B&N;‘s.

Let’s see, “because they’re unemployed or minimally employed and don’t have money for a babysitter? Because mistaken though they are, they think that maybe they are witnessing someone who will have an historic impact and it’s cool to have kids feel they are/were/ a part of history?”

say the parents who took kids to a few late-night, cold weather, long-wait-time Barack Obama events.

and they’re just as stupid for doing it. also, people who “take a workday off” don’t sound very unemployed to me, and their kids were fucking miserable. that sounds like bad parenting to me, ideology notwithstanding.

Noblesville is a suburb of Indianapolis. Outer suburb, might take you 20 minutes to get there, but it’s not exactly far from civilization. It’s not like Palin stopped in rural Montana, where it’s several hours to get to a town of any size. Or lots of parts of Alaska, for that matter. You’re talking about a town full of people who commute to Indianapolis daily or at least go in occasionally for shopping or a basketball tournament. It’s not the backwater people are making it out to be. Basically Palin went to Indianapolis. I’m sure a lot of the people in line came from Indy or Carmel or Fishers or Greenfield, and probably some made the trip from Bloomington, West Lafayette, or Columbus.

I feel for these people, in spite of how stupid I think the focus of their energies is. Who among us hasn’t adored some pop idol of sorts only to later come to terms with how silly that adoration was? Ms. Palin is as much a manufactured pop idol as is the Jonas Brothers, et al and is tailored to attract their specific demographic. (Yes, I realize that Palin is far more toxic for society than your average Disney teen star.) Nevertheless, these people waited for their star to give them their promised autographs, spent their time and money, and were let down. Shame on Palin & company!

What really surprised me, though, was the fact that these some of these people - most likely 99% the Jesusy sort used to writing off terrible disappointment as “God’s will” - actually didn’t accept this as a god’s will and got angry. I suppose this means that they aren’t all insensible to Ms. Palin’s fallibility.

Nitpick: A horde is a group of people, a hoard is a group of valuable but inert objects.  Palin may see her followers as the latter, but there’s no reason we should.

Or are you saying that women with young children should confine themselves to their homes?

@phylosopher—come on.  Neither mothers nor fathers of small children should confine themselves to their homes, but when said small children are babies (not just children, but babies, who may not melt but who also may not have a full complement of natural and assisted immunities under their belts at that point), AND the weather is cold and shitty, well, either mother or father ought to consider the baby’s well-being and stay home.  The decision would seem even more obviously weighted toward baby when the event is a crowded, commercial one (Sarah quit politics, remember?) as opposed to a political one wherein history-in-the-making is on display, albeit usually at a distance. I’m a mother of three, all of whom were babies and young children at one point, and I have as many political heroes as the next person, perhaps more.  Ten months old, though?  Surrounded by crowds of people in the rain and (semi-) cold?  For hours?  Sorry, but no-one would’ve been worth it.

I think that’s what a lot of us are getting at, and it has nothing to do with the attraction being Ex-governor Palin or Candidate Obama.

It does, however, have a lot to do with how potent this form of celebrity/savior worship can be—and how potentially scary things stand to get one of these days—which Pam points out in her opening sentence: Wow—the teabaggers, birthers and know-nothings waited for hours for Bible Spice to sign copies of Going Rogue, and they weren’t happy when her highness basically took the money and ran…  In other words, the worship level is at the point where people will blithely haul infants out into less-than-ideal weather conditions, in crowded venues, and wait for many hours for a chance to touch her hem or something.

I’m just shocked and amazed that the teabaggers are actually blaming Palin, rather than blaming the bookstore.

Also, I completely agree that people shouldn’t bring infants and children to places where they’ll be waiting completely bored for more than 12 hours.  It doesn’t have to be the mom that stays home with the kid; just maybe the father could do it instead while the mom gets the books signed or whatever.  It really sucks for kids to be in a situation like that, and it’s really selfish to put them through it.  It’s also really selfish to expect everyone around you to put up with your kid’s crying and screaming for 15 hours just because it’s some historic thing.  You shouldn’t be confined to your house, but at the same time you should release that when you have a kid, you can’t always have everything you want.

I’m wondering if the couple that brought the 10-month-old baby out in the shitty weather are related to the asshats in my region I have seen with their infants out in the 95-100+ degree weather, on the cement sidewalks in full sun, for anti-choice protests in front of the PP clinic.

Apparently the UNBORN BAYBEEZ!11! are more important than the one they have.

@ AnglScarlett - lol we must have been posting at the same time

I’m just shocked and amazed that the teabaggers are actually blaming Palin, rather than blaming the bookstore.

Good call.

Off topic, but is there evidence outside of his religion that Donny Osmond is homophobic? Because on Dancing With the Stars, he’s been having a joke passion with Bruno, the judge. I mean, it was just silly, but I don’t think a true homophobe would smooch another man on live TV. I interpreted it as him thumbing his nose at his religion’s attitude, rather like a jazz-playing Mormon might have done to the religion’s official racism in the 20th century—if you’re in show biz, you tend to have a more liberal attitude as you work with people and learn they are human, no matter how your culture tries to Other them.
If I’m wrong—if he’s made homophobic statements—then I’m wrong. But I know Catholics at odds with the Vatican on all kinds of issues, and I am sure some Mormons are also not assholes. (One of the least sexist boys in my high school was Mormon.)

The issue isn’t with Palin so much as B&N;but if they’re willing to turn on her and complain because she is human and doesn’t want to sign a thousand plus copies, who really cares?  She doesn’t owe them anything according to their own mantra and frankly it’s just ironic that they complain.

Oh Xeranar, there you are.  I predicted your coming and you have fulfilled my prophecy.  No, I’m not divine; people are just really predictable.

I get the impression that this bookstore was not accustomed to handling large crowds?  Too bad.

I think they are all just whinging because they WANTED something and did not get it and damnit they should get what they want!

Yep, Ms Kate hits the nail on the head.  Schedule your book tour in the middle of nowhere, and it’s going to be a shit show because A) the bookstores have never dealt with these kinds of events before, and B) there’s nothing much else to do so you’re likely to get a larger than normal crowd simply due to curiosity and boredom.

I remember when Bill Clinton’s memoir came out and he did an appearance at one of the big B&N;outlets here in New York - it was a similar deal with crowd control, wrist-bands, and a predetermined number of people who they had guaranteed signed copies to based on lining up all day and the like.  It didn’t end up in near the uproar described here, mainly because the big bookstore chains around here are used to dealing with A-list celebrity/public figure appearances.  As well as the fact that people around here are used to dealing with crowd control situations.  You know well in advance that you’ll be waiting in line all day for that Bill Clinton autograph, which means it’s pretty easy to gauge how much it really means to you and what else you could be doing with your time.

To all the whiny teabaggers complaining about how Sarah! is omgsomeeen and only in it for the money, I have just this to say:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Argh.  If one is a celebrity, with a bunch of adoring fans, and one wishes to keep those adoring fans, one must be kind to them.  End of story.  A month or so ago, I went to a reading by Neil Gaiman (who is far more awesome than Sarah Palin), at one of Cleveland’s public libraries, the turnout was huge, far bigger than expected, and spilled into an overflow room (where my friend and I ended up having to sit), but Gaiman greeted us in there before the reading, took a few of our questions during the Q&A;, and stayed several hours later than he had originally said he would in order to sign everyone’s stuff.  That is a man who is good to his fans. 

Palin needs to learn that, much like any other media-created celebrity, she is nothing without the people who adore her. And they adore her because the image she has portrayed is one of a humble folksy woman who cares about people.  Now, some of us know this is mostly a pack of lies.  But for those who believe it, it’s going to be pretty hard to take to see that it’s just a facade.