Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Poor Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin released a video today in which she said: "But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible."

Maybe within hours you shouldn't remove a picture from your website that shows the victims district with a target over it. Maybe you shouldn't have too.

I'll admit, I had to lookup blood libel, "Blood libel refers to a false accusation or claim that religious minorities, almost always Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays. Historically, these claims have–alongside those of well poisoning and host desecration–been a major theme in European persecution of Jews."

Even Jonah Goldberg (of the National Review) thinks she went too far. "I agree entirely with Glenn’s, and now Palin’s, larger point. But I’m not sure either of them intended to redefine the phrase, or that they should have."

Mathew Yglesias had the funniest take "Indeed, Jews throughout America can join me in remembering when our ancestors fled Eastern Europe in order to live in a land where nobody would ever criticize us on television."

Josh Marshall put it well too: "Today has been set aside to honor the victims of the Tucson massacre. And Sarah Palin has apparently decided she's one of them."

Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn (D-SC) said "You know, Sarah Palin just can't seem to get it, on any front. I think that she's an attractive person, she is articulate, but I think intellectually, she seems not to be able to understand what's going on here." He went on to compare some of the current things to his experiences during the civil rights era.

I also think he's wrong about her being articulate.

So let's turn it back to the victims. The New York Times had this nice interactive graphic about the 6 people killed in Tucson.

Update: Sarah Palin's missed opportunityMethinks Palin, Angle Doth Protest Too Much

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