Palin: The price of pugnacity

If Sarah Palin ever had any chance of becoming president, said Doyle McManus in the Los Angeles Times, it’s now over. After a madman’s recent shooting spree in Tucson, Palin found herself, once again, at the center of controversy—and “rather than rise to the occasion,” she succumbed to bitter partisanship and rancor. Liberal pundits had strongly criticized Palin for putting a gun’s crosshairs on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ district this fall, suggesting that she had created a climate that led to the shooting. In response, a defensive Palin said it was the Left that was fomenting violence, and accused her critics of “a blood libel”—a term usually reserved for the monstrous charge that Jews drank Christian babies’ blood. Her loyal fans undoubtedly loved Palin’s “pugnacity,” but moderate Republicans and independents want confident leaders with stature who can show grace under pressure. Palin should have kept her mouth shut during this very sensitive time, said Debra J. Saunders in the San Francisco Chronicle. But she’s “addicted to attention.”

It’s not Palin’s fault that she was “dragged into the controversy,” said Kathryn Jean Lopez in National Review Online. “Given the promiscuous use of her name in four days of news coverage,” she had to defend herself from the scurrilous attempt to blame her for Giffords’ shooting. When she answered unfair criticism with confrontation, said Patrik Jonsson in The Christian Science Monitor, Palin was simply being consistent. Her campaign motto last fall—“Don’t retreat, reload”—was not a call to violence, but her way of urging fellow conservatives to stand up to the criticism and scorn of the media and blue-state elites. Her critics may find that kind of strength and courage divisive, but “to backers, it sets her apart.”

To most of us, it’s all become very tedious, said Ross Douthat in The New York Times. The media likes to pretend that Palin is “the most important conservative politician in America,” with a viable chance to be president, so they can mock her and stir up controversy. In reality, Palin has no viable path to the nomination, and has little influence outside a small band of loyalists. For her part, Palin responds to any kind of media attention as if it were oxygen, which is why she keeps sending out inflammatory Twitter and Facebook messages. This relationship has become like “a particularly toxic marriage.” If we can’t have a divorce, can we at last have a few blessed weeks of silence?

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