Palin's vagina

A spirited discussion about Mrs. Palin erupted here a few posts down. After, having thought I'd write little about Palin going forward, that conversation got me stewing again. The reason my thoughts on Palin had run there course is simple: After resigning the governorship of Alaska it seemed to me that she had removed herself as a viable national player. If she intends to run for President one day it was, in my book, a mistake.

Now she's on a national book tour and making headlines again. For a moment she is as present as she was last Fall. Like the campaign, the critiques of her are rarely evenhanded - and often vicious.

For those who did not want Hillary Clinton to win last year - it's annoying for those of us who did to have to explain our frustration and horror at Palin's treatment. Many of us are again put in the uncomfortable position of calling the elephant in the room...well....an elephant. The tactic of degrading Clinton based on gender was transferred to Palin. There is no denying it. In fact, she was sexualized more easily - making the slutty stewardess jokes easier for late night comics.

If one was an Obama fan the sexist bile directed at Hillary was par for the course, a part of the conversation. It became the context in which many Obama fanatics saw the world. The evil woman was in the way of our beloved man. Even now, suggesting to an Obama supporter that much of the criticism of Clinton sprung from gender fear is met with incredulity - though the evidence is overwhelming. If "Yes, but Hillary is a controlling bitch", isn't spoken - it's right under the surface. That was always their final answer.

Liberals who had nursed resentments about the Clintons since the 90s let loose the full barrage on Hillary. The ease with which this resentment became sexist vulgarity still has me shell shocked. Cunt, Witch, Bitch, Evil, Kill her, Run her over and leave her by the side of the road. Keith Olbermann implied on his show that she ought to be killed.

We all saw the comments on liberal sites. We all know those two 'liberal' kids above thought their shirts were funny. The Huffington Post, the Dailykos, Democratic Underground and Americablog became clubhouses for those hankering to express their most vile, sexist thoughts. And they did. All in the name of supporting Obama. All came from alleged liberals. All from people who claimed the mantel of equality and justice. Palin was hung in effigy as a "joke" last Halloween, a stunt that every feminist in America should have intoned against. Most were silent.

Andrew Sullivan, who's psychology is so muddled and tragic he's been on a year long quest to prove that Palin's last child is not her own, said: Sarah Palin's vagina is the font of all evil in the galaxy.

Not her beliefs. Not her convictions. Not her record. Her VAGINA. Palin's vagina is the font of all evil in the galaxy. God Lord, I wish there was something deeper at play in that remark. Some tiny shard of reality. But there isn't. Men like Sullivan - and we've recently discovered they are still legion - live in terror of any vagina they believe is hell bent on gobbling them up. Sullivan is an extraordinary gasbag - even by the low standards of his readership and clique. Still, he gets to the rub of it for many men. Any woman who does not play by the rules set by men must be stopped. Any woman who questions an adored male figure must be hounded. Burn the witches! Hillary in the spring! Palin in the Fall!

Men from James Howard Kunstler, to Chris Matthews, to Sullivan have let their inner mommy demons run wild for months now.

The hate transition from Clinton to Palin was seamless. Being conservative, Palin gave the Left a little more to work with - but it was hardly relevant. The centering emotion was the adolescent male fear of vaginas with teeth.

My anger about this topic is not based in politics. Palin's are troubling. It's the phenomenon of denial that disturbs. It is the counterpoint to my frustration with the Obama cult last year - a refusal to see reality. The "Obots" - and I include much of the media - refused to see Obama. They excused his massive flop flops, they ignored his financial backing from Wall Street and Soros, they pretended he'd taken principled stances on issues when he had avoided them, they ignored his vapid, almost empty record. This refusal now has consequences. Obama is what many who did look closely at him suspected all along : a weak, indecisive, inexperienced man who is being rolled by everyone from Nancy Pelosi to the Japanese Prime Minister.

Will those who despise Palin, and despised Hillary before her, ever come out of denial about the real basis of their contempt? Maybe. After all, coming out of denial about Obama has been the nation's group project in 2009. It's possible Palin will be judged on her merits and the content of her character at some point.

In the mean time, someone needs to tell Andrew Sullivan that the gnawing on his testicles is something other than a politician's vagina.