PUGGY'S HILL

I find I cannot bear to listen to any clips from that Tea Party w/Palin. I have a visceral, near-panic response when I hear her voice now, which is unexpected; usually, even when I dislike a politician's stand or persona, I don't take it personally. Even when I was shouting, "I hate you, shuddup you moron!" at W., or shuddering at the gooey earnestness of Reagan in my livingroom, it wasn't like this. My lizard brain knows that Palin is The Enemy. She's mean-spirited and ignorant. She's the girl who made fun of you in the school hallway. She's the woman in the small town that my friends left vowing never to return, because it was run by people like her. And now she's rallying her troops . . . .

Yesterday I got into an interesting discussion with Paul Witcover & Greg Feeley over on Facebook, the cream of which I present here (with Greg's permission):

Paul Witcover [shared]: In a speech slamming Obama for using a TelePrompter, Tea-bagger-in-chief Palin tips her hand . . .
Palin's Cheat-Sheet - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
I was too busy taping away at my laptop to notice this little high-school trick. Having mocked president Obama for using a TelePrompter .... she had to scribble down her priorities as president on her palm.... [photo]

EK: My loathing of Palin knows no bounds. She reminds me of Hitler, and I don't say that lightly.
( Read more... )

EK: Greg, thank you. You nailed it for me. Still hyperventilating when I hear that voice, but at least that makes sense of why.

Well, America survived MacCarthy. And Father Coughlin. And a lot of very nasty movements in the 19c that we've forgotten ever happened. But this is the first time I've ever thought, "If this person & her followers ever come to power, I may have to leave" - this despite my mocking my friends who whinged about the re-election of Bush, crying - like Faisal under the Turkish barrage of his camp, or Mother Jones on the picket lines - "Stand and fight!"

So here I type.

Since I couldn't get the insert to play on my response to rosenhaus' comment in my last post, I'll print it up here:

On the Media
Find Out What It Means To Me
January 16, 2009
President Bush bid his final farewell to the White House press corps on Tuesday. “Through it all,” he told reporters gathered in the briefing room, “I have respected you.” Really? Let’s look at the record.

Yeah, I know, I had the same reaction when I walked into the snappy little boutique in the Marais (where I ended up buying a cute little shirt from the discreetly placed sales basket, and deliasherman bought a very elegant cardigan sweater): "Merde, Obama!"? Was this Frenchwoman telling me she thought my choice for candidate - as evinced by my now-famous Button, worn all over France - was sh*t?

But then I remembered high school - or was it college? - theatre, where we had daringly gone around saying, "Merde!" to one another before a performance, in the belief that it was the way the French said, "Break a leg," i.e., "Good luck!"

Turns out it was true.

I gave her a broad grin, and a thumbs-up.

We flew out of Charles de Gaulle airport (outside Paris) on Tuesday afternoon. The Hindu (I assume; Muslims in India don't wear the red forehead deco, do they? And while "Indian-American" kinda rolls off the tongue, "Indian-French" is a bit of a mouthful) woman checking our passports & asking the ritual security questions before we were allowed to check in asked us if we were heading home to vote. We already voted by absentee ballot, we told her. She fixed us with an intense eye. "And who did you vote for?"

I thought they were only supposed to ask if we'd packed our own bags!

We got home late (good thing we'd voted in advance), and managed to keep our eyes open only long enough to see inconclusive results on TV. Woke up, predictably enough, at 3 a.m., and went to the computer to see the good news. It all felt a bit muzzy and unreal; I took an Ambien, and wasn't at all sure I wouldn't wake up in the morning to find it had all been a dream.

But it's not.

Yesterday, I got a note from my old editor in Paris, from the artsy little Left Bank house, Hoëbeke, that originally translated Thomas the Rhymer into French. I haven't heard from Aline in a couple of years; I didn't even know she knew how to use the e-mail! It was headed "Congratulations!" and I assumed it was going to be about the new review for A la Pointe de l'Epee . . . . but the note read: Just a word to tell you i’m very happy for you and also for the world ! I hope Obama will be a great president !

If marrying Terri out of our house made me feel like the Mother of the Bride, well, getting Obama elected makes me feel like we all just had a new baby over here! Between the folks here dancing in the streets, and the congratulations - and genuine hope and joy pouring in from the rest of the world, it reminds me a bit of the old historical novels where the heralds announce that the queen has borne a son and heir (who will, if we're lucky, turn out to be Charles the Good and not Louis XVI). But, to go all 18c on you, this Queen is Liberty, and her son is the son of Reason & Compassion . . . and has been sent to some excellent schools. Even if he isn't the True Prince we've been hoping for, may he do well enough to make us all proud.

On the last day we were in Paris, I lost my Hebrew Obama button somewhere on the streets. I hope whoever finds it picks it up and is happy. And no worries, as it turns out my mom in Cleveland still has the one she's been wearing. Mom!

'Christopher Buckley, of all people, now endorses Obama. (And has resigned from The National Review after the furor resulting from this announcement.)

'Buckley's blog post, "The Conservative Case for Obama," makes interesting reading.' -- personal correspondence from Terri Windling, reprinted here with her permission

Small Beer Press, Gavin Grant & Kelly Link's glorious enterprise - the publisher who brought you the stunning limited edition hardcover of The Privilege of the Sword - are having a
huge sale of all their books
- including TPOTS hc for a mere $17!! . . . the amazing new Geoff Ryman novel, formerly unavailable in the U.S.! . . . and Interfictions: the first anthology of Interstitial writing . . . .free downloads of Kelly Link stories . . . .and . . . wait for it . . . The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories by Joan Aiken!

If the fabulous books on fabulous sale were not enough, SBP adds:
20% of the proceeds of this sale will be donated to Barack Obama's campaign for President of the United States of America. Next month in the USA we get to show the world that the mistakes of the last eight long years will not be repeated . . . .

And it is thanks to their fine blog that I found Chris Rowe's link to hear Ralph Stanley's fine take on Barack , as well. That voice, that voice, that voice! -- oh, and also Ben Rosenbaum's exegesis on Maurice Sendak and the True Meaning of Rosh Hashanah.

Admit it: for the last 8 years you've been wondering, What's going on? Isn't that smart, feisty, articulate Jed Bartlet supposed to be our real president? I have friends who are in complete denial and after the Republican convention simply locked themselves up with all 5 seasons of West Wing and refused to come out.

For all of us, then, there is the joyous news that Barack Obama & Jed Bartlet have had a meeting up in New Hampshire, in which (according to Maureen Dowd in the 9/20/08 NYTimes) "the Democratic ex-president ...offer[ed]...fatherly wisdom" - as transcribed by Aaron Sorkin. (Big thanks to my Cousin Els for alerting me to this!)

And if you don't click on through, I leave you with Sorkin's description of Palin as a Lancôme rep who thinks “The Flintstones” was based on a true story. But really, you don't want to miss the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. . . . or the GET ANGRIER! peroration.

Some good things friends have posted:

Letter to Palin from NYC
She's a Lumberjack . . . .
Kris misses her Mama and leads us to the scintillating passion of Anne Lamott.

There's more, but I can't find it right now. I loved all your comments to my previous Palin post, and cherish p_zeitgeist's referring to her as "the Evita of the North."

Oh, wait - and Mary Doria Russell (and several others) sent this:

PBS has a poll up: Is Sarah Palin ready to be vice president?
YES is way ahead. Vote NO. Vote quick.
It will say something about our ability to get the vote out if we can turn this around!

I know that not everyone reading this is going to be anti-Palin, and appreciate the chance to exercise our glorious freedom to disagree and still share a country with good grace.

Oh, and the wedding was lovely. All the jitters are over, the cake was splendid, and there are smiles everywhere.