Sarah’s gams, or, Our nation’s descent into fetishism

Vice_presidential_deb_wart4

The last few weeks, I’ve noticed a kind of image moving on the AP wire that I don’t recall having run across in the annals of photojournalism vis-a-vis presidential campaigns.

Each time I see one of these, I go, Vice_presidential_deb_wart2
"legs!," because, well, that’s the sort of thing I notice. But then, trying to explain what on Earth caused a photo editor to post these (I understand fully why the photographer shot them, but it seems to me more like the sort of thing he would keep to himself, or just share with the guys), I think, "It’s gotta be the shoes." I figure maybe there’s a fashion angle to which I am oblivious. That would be acceptable to women, and therefore the sort of thing an editor might dare to post. I mean, I’ve read that Sarah Palin has had an impact on the eyewear industry; maybe there’s something special about her shoes to which I am oblivious.

But nope; it’s not about the shoes. In fact, no excuse is offered for shooting Sarah Palin in a way that it would never occur to the photog to shoot Joe Biden. Here’s the caption:

Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, stands at the lectern during her vice presidential debate Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008, in St. Louis, Mo. (AP Photo/Don Emmert, Pool)

I guess, despite all these decades of being bludgeoned by the sensitivity crowd, boys will still be boys. I mean, I knew that, but most of us don’t SHOW it show so blatantly.

34 thoughts on “Sarah’s gams, or, Our nation’s descent into fetishism

  1. Brad Warthen

    Then again, maybe AP HAS been moving pictures of Joe Biden’s legs, and I haven’t noticed because my eye wasn’t drawn to those images.
    But I doubt it.

  2. Ralph Hightower

    ZZ Tops’s “She’s Got Legs”:

    She’s got legs, she knows how to use them
    She never begs, she knows how to choose them
    She only lets you wonder how to feel them
    Would you get behind them if you could only find them
    She’s my baby, she’s my baby
    Yeah, it’s all right
    She’s got hair down to her fanny
    She’s got a dress slit right up to her panties
    Every time she’s dancin’ she knows what to do
    Everybody wants to see, see if she can use it
    She’s so fine, she’s all mine
    Girl, you got it right
    She’s got legs, she knows how to use them
    She never begs, she knows how to choose them
    She’s got a dime all of the time
    Stays out at night movin’ through time
    Oh, I want her, said I got to have her
    The girl is all right, she’s all right

  3. slugger

    There are leg men. Then there are upper torso men. Then there are men that go for the eyes. Then there are men that go for the brain. Have you seen a picture that is going around on the net with Sarah undressed. Seems that this lady has it all.

  4. george32

    the way she was winking and flirting with the camera last night almost encourages some sort of sexual fantasy, bu tthis is not cute. boys may be boys, but editors run or block pictures from appearing on web sites or in newspapers unless the photographers are now masters of content decisions. it is as disrespectful of gov palin as constantly running pictures of gov schwarzenegger shirtless would be.

  5. Susan

    Having read many of the posts on several of the topics on here, I had a flash to one of my sophomores who will send me e-mails to ask me something and put a heart next to her name. Sweet girl, but she’s failing.
    Wink.

  6. Susan Quinn

    GAMS! SCHMAMS!
    Do we REALLY need another person in high office who can’t properly pronounce the word “nuclear” for crying out loud?

  7. Brad Warthen

    Susan, we addressed that one back here on an earlier post.

    But since you bring it back up, it’s IS odd, isn’t it? There’s nothing HARD, it would seem, about saying NUKE-lee-er. I mean, in chemistry class, did she speak of the NUKE-ee-luss of an atom, or did she say it right? It’s certainly not the spelling, which is so often the problem in English, because it’s spelled phonetically. It’s especially odd coming from her, because she OVERpronounces so many words.

    I mention it in my column Sunday, speculating that (being young and impressionable as she is) maybe she thinks if the PRESIDENT says it that way, it must be right. I mean, he oughta know, dontcha think?

    Somebody mentioned earlier today that Jimmy Carter had trouble with the word, too. And HE was a nuclear engineer who once worked directly for Hyman Rickover, the Father of the Nuclear Navy. Seems like HE would know. Weird.

  8. p.m.

    Could Abraham Lincoln pronounce aluminum?
    Did George Washington ever misspell separate?
    Can Joe Biden tell the truth?

  9. george32

    how about colin powell or is he not patriotic enough for you-or course he did not dump his first wife for a rich trophy blonde and rose to 4 star rank without daddy/grandaddy legacy points.
    “mindless patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels” you can ask chief drug ditto who said that. he probably will tell you it was a communist raised by muslims who did not draw government checks for over half a century.

  10. Mike Cakora

    The old historian turns to cinema — one of the great movies of modern times — for an explanation:

    Much of Palin’s appeal and much of why she apparently grates on others is her accent, colloquialisms, grammar, seeming simplicity, and mannerisms—which are a lot like the wily, sing-songy voiced hero of Fargo, Marge Gunderson. In her methodical, seemingly plodding way, the pregnant Marge systematically figures out the complex criminal labyrinth, and then in courageous fashion wades into the thicket unaware perhaps of the danger from the supposedly more clever involved, but confident that what has worked for her in the past and gotten her this far will see her through just fine as usual.
    Fair or not, Palin is the emblem of underestimated Middle Americans wading in over their heads, not changing with the times, and in the end finishing the job and outsmarting the rest. Six-term Senator, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee Joe Biden, once fervent supporter of an Iraqi war (dating back to the Clinton years), once fervent opponent of the war, once fervent advocate of trisecting Iraq, once fervent critic of Obama on Iraq, once fervent surge won’t//will work, once fervent everything…, apparently didn’t see Fargo.

    So the new gal on the block is a flirt because she’s a looker? How bizarre! Given the context, was that flirting or underscoring a point?
    It really doesn’t matter. Turning Palin into a sex object is more than childish. This was not funny and was just as demeaning as most of the nonsense directed Palin’s way.
    But the point seems to be to demean Palin by any means necessary.

  11. Anonymous

    She is a force to be reckoned with, no doubt. But as a part of John McCain’s Washington, she is neutralized. I almost despise him for this!!!!! He has raped the natural order of things. Sarah was most effective as he found her…kicking boo-hiny in the wild.

  12. Sarah

    Don’t care for her, thought she looked like she was selling cars with all that winking, but I do love her shoes. Since we’re on this mindless thread and all…

  13. Susan

    And the suit was to die for…I wish I could draw a heart on here…
    Yes, Brad, “nuclear” turned out to be a bear she couldn’t shoot, didn’t it? And listening to her I pictured Professor Higgins taking down her language in his linguistic shorthand to try to pronounce it himself later.

  14. Anonymous

    The shoes are swell and all — but shouldn’t she have worn ***STOCKINGS*** for this?!?
    Looks like she has bare feet in those shoes.
    I don’t care if it IS the style. It’s not the style for the White House.

  15. Lee Muller

    Obama supporters are having a hard time naming any of his close associates who are good, patriotic Americans.
    No shortage of terrorists, cop-killers, thieves, swindlers, communists and radical Muslims in Obama’s past, present or future.

  16. Mike Cakora

    Uh oh, Susan, don’t read this:

    Debate analysis: Palin spoke at 10th-grade level, Biden at eighth.
    An analysis carried out by a language monitoring service said Friday that Gov. Sarah Palin spoke at a more than ninth-grade level and Sen. Joseph Biden spoke at a nearly eighth-grade level in Thursday night’s debate between the vice presidential candidates.
    [Snip]
    … (Newspapers are typically written to a sixth-grade reading level.)

    The winks upset a lot of folks.

  17. david

    Great.
    More ridiculous drivel from Brad Warthen.
    I’m clearly not always a B+ student, but I can usually figure things out given enough time. Warthens’ motives for publishing this line of silliness about Palin escape me, I must confess.
    –This stuff isn’t fit to go into the newspaper, it would cause fewer of them to sell than the dismal and dwindling number that do already.
    –It doesn’t make the blog host look good…it is unoriginal, unbecoming and frankly boring.
    –It is the kind of patronizing and sexist bullsh*t that could only be perpetrated by the cowards who do it against a successful Christian woman.
    Way to go Brad.
    David

  18. Lee Muller

    Of course Sarah Palin spoke at a higher level.
    The average education of an Obama supporter is much lower that that of a McCain supporter. Far more of them never finished high school, than hold graduate degrees.

  19. p.m.

    Just drop by your local Democratic headquarters and strike up a conversation, Susan. That should be link enough.

  20. david

    Lee is pretty clearly correct about the relative educational advantage that McCain supporters have over Obama supporters, but I’m not convinced that makes McCain supporters any “brighter.”. The same people who elected W and enabled him to embark on his profligate spending spree and run the country into the ditch have now selected a candidate who has no particular dedication to secure borders or enforcement of immigration laws…other than that he was forced to temporarily abandon his own positions by irate voters.
    Education shmeducation! How bright can we really be?
    Dave

  21. slugger

    The civilized people of the world, the ones that hide behind culture and art and politics, and even the law, they’re the ones to watch out for. They’ve got that perfect disguise going’ for them. But they’re the most vicious. They’re the most dangerous people on earth.
    I read this somewhere and thought it was a perfect example of how things really are.

  22. Sarah

    So, which is it – Joe Sixpack or Educated Elite? How come educated liberals are ‘elitists’ and uneducated conservatives are ‘populists’? Why is Sarah Palin’s bachelor’s degree in journalism condsidered less significant than her ‘core morals’, yet we’re having this discussion over which party is more highly educated? I guess the inconsistencies of these debates highlights the extreme partisanship of this country right now – defend party on any issue. I’m not even saying this in defense of anyone inparticular, but just find this thread interesting.

  23. Lee Muller

    Joe Sixpack or Educated Elite? Neither.
    Obama’s appeal is not intellectual, but to the greed, ignorance and hatred of people who think they are owed a living off the sweat of others.
    david or anyone else who acts concerned about the deficit spending under President Bush should remember that he had to stop the Democrats from running deficits twice as large. Just last week, Democrats rammed through $810 BILLION more debt.
    Obama acts oblivious, and keeps promising his greedy supporters $1,200 BILLION more spending increases.

  24. slugger

    I remember where I read the above post. It was from a novel by Michael Connelly titled The Last Coyote.
    Many of us will take the quote negative or positive.
    The bottom line is you must evaluate the known enemy from those that would use you the voter and taxpayer for their personal use. Do you think that the average person that will vote for Obama has a clue as to what they will wind up with if they elect Obama? They are being told that he is a modern day Robin Hood or Hitler. Obama is promising to take from the rich to give to the poor. Everyone will have a home and a car in the garage. Obama is not promising jobs. He is not promising bringing jobs back to the USA. He is promising healthcare and all that would elevate the poor to the middle class without saying that the poor will have to pay for any of the promised. He is not promising that the uneducated poor will eventually have to have an education in order to keep sucking at the tit of the government.
    This nation is in a world of trouble if the people that are not informed of events that will destroy our nation financially by voting for Obama succeed. The poor may think that Obama is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but that is far from the truth.
    Financial reponsibility must be attained in order for our country to remain a world leader. Those that vote for personal reasons and personal gain will live to regret their vote. The future of this country is not about being smart enough to vote but dumb enough to vote for Obama.

  25. david

    I’m not really completely satisfied that Lee was correct about the education levels of McCain supporters versus Obamanoids…even though I initially agreed with him. And as I said above, I don’t think education levels matter much if we aren’t bright enough to avoid candidates with fatal flaws anyway.
    I don’t think the best republican primary candidate won, education levels notwithstanding.
    David

  26. Lee Muller

    I agree, David. The GOP again went with an old insider, just as they did with GHW Bush and Bob Dole. So far, he has been to much the gentleman to really attack the slimy character of Obama, because his handlers don’t appreciate how serious an issue it is.
    I know lots of PhDs who support Obama. They are not dumb, but they are quite ignorant about Obama and a lot of the issues. And many of them liked Obama early for emotional reasons, mostly his being an unknown, new face, and are now emotionally invested in him. They refuse to look at the facts about him, and his obvious lack of ability to understand or discuss any issue outside of a rehearsed sound bite.
    The Boomers on campus don’t even count. Their minds are still mired in justifying their 1960s politics, which were wrong then. They handed Vietnam and Cambodia over to a communist holocaust, and are ready today to hand over Israel and moderate Muslims to the Taliban.

  27. Sarah

    Lee, I wasn’t talking about the Obama supporters. I’ve just noticed that with the republican campaign, when populism is the appeal, Joe Sixpack comes out. When the highly educated are touted, republicans are better educated. It looks like republicans want both images and democrats can’t have either, hence when the dems are uneducated, they are stupid; when it’s the republicans it’s populism. When the dems are educated, they’re elitists; when the republicans are educated, it’s that they are intellectual. Surely no one from either party actually buys this from anyone…
    I’ve known intelligent people and morons from both parties, as I’m sure everyone has.

  28. Lee Muller

    Education seems to go out the window with Obama supporters who refuse to face the facts, that he is a mystery man you left no record, claims to have done things at Columbia and Harvard but left no record, and has been a student of radical Islam his entire life.
    In addition, his close friends and campaign managers include murderers Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn, communist Mike Klonsky, Alice Rivlin, Laura Tyson, racists and Jew-haters like Jeremiah Wright, Father Hagee, Louis Farakan, and Khalid Monsour.
    His entire law practice consisted of work for real estate swindler Rezko and ACORN.
    He has been endorsed and illegally financed by over 30 Muslim leaders, no under investigation by the FEC.

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