Sarah Heath Palin Has No Diploma, No Courage, No Decency

No matter how often or who has asked, Sarah Palin has never publically displayed Trig’s birth certificate. Makes us all wonder what it really says.  We Truthers also speculate about that other official document she hasn’t produced - a college diploma. She talks about having a degree in journalism, but like her stories about being pregnant in 2007-2008 and giving birth on April 18, 2008, the evidence suggests she’s lying.

How is it possible that a person devote years of college-level study to a profession, frequently lay claim to having said degree, but not one time demonstrate, expound upon, or otherwise apply the learning she claims she acquired? Never has Sarah Palin’s criticism of the press pointed to any knowledge of the profession other than the journalistic cliché the rest of us learned in the fourth grade (who, what, when, where, why, AND HOW. She always forgets that last one). In fact, Sarah in November 2010 claims she learned “Who, what, when, where, why,” in college! Good grief, was that college accredited?

Asked by  Sean Hannity on Fox news if she would ever sit down with Katie Couric for another interview and how it would go if she did, the governor who quit after two years said:

I want to help clean up the state that is so sorry today of journalism. And I have a communications degree. I studied journalism -- who, what, where, when, and why of reporting. I will speak to reporters who still understand that cornerstone of our democracy, that expectation that the public has for truth to be reported. And then we get to decide our own opinion based on the facts reported to us. So a journalist, a reporter who is so biased and will, no doubt, spin and gin up whatever it is that I have to say to create controversy, I swear to you, I will not my waste my time with her. Or him.

If only that first sentence above were true, great  good could be done from Sarah’s bully pulpit.  If only she actually had that combination of education and the desire to use it for the common good.  Her conservative spin notwithstanding, I, for one, would welcome public debate started by a former VP candidate on such topics as the affects of corporate ownership of the news, how the telecommunications act led to the disappearance of locally owned radio stations,  crime as entertainment, how the media stereotypes criminals and victims, crimes against women and how they are portrayed in the news, media censorship as a military strategy, first amendment rights in the age of the internet, or a series of addresses on ethics questions in journalism.  But, as you can see, these  topics are suitable for college theses, and Sarah doesn’t have the depth and breath to contribute on that level. 

When some ignoramus compares Sarah Palin to Barack Obama and concludes she is more accomplished, I only have to look back at two historical moments from the past four years and I know, without  a doubt, that Sarah Palin pales in comparison and that anyone who can’t see that is unwilling to accept the truth. Barack Obama remains cool under pressure, and addresses the big picture, keeping his personal life removed from public issues. Sarah Palin is the opposite. She makes things personal, using cutting words and powder-keg phrases, sometimes even sexual references ie cojones, limp, impotent.  And, by the way, “pales in comparison” is not an ethnic reference, and I purposely avoided describing her as whiney because that is a  gender-packed word. This isn’t about those things.  It’s about accomplishment, education, ability, maturity, and leadership.   

As  evidence to support these statements, I’m including two historically significant speeches, one from then-candidate for nominee for President, Barack Obama and one from former nominee for Vice President Sarah Palin.  Showing them chronologically, the first is the candidate Barack Obama’s  March 2008 response to the Rev. Wright story.  It’s a message that should be studied by school children and college students, historians and parents. It should be remembered by all of us who heard it in real time. Senator Obama gave a carefully prepared and brilliantly delivered speech, holding forth on the subject of race in America, a subject that makes 99% of Americans cringe.  He did so without seething anger. He did so with humility. And yet he was able to do it in a way that should now make all of us proud to call him Mr. President.  Would you like to hear it again?  Gather your children and grandchildren and help them understand this subject. Do this in addition to tuning in to this day’s news coverage of dead teenage boy in Florida.

Sarah Palin’s turn to made an historical address came in early 2011. Like Barack Obama and the Reverend Wright tapes, Sarah Palin was being pulled into a national controversy and being criticized loudly and seemingly everywhere for the actions of someone else and she, too, chose to make a public statement.  When Sarah Palin addressed  the nation following the shooting rampage in Arizona that killed a nine-year-old girl and six others, and wounded 13 including a female member of Congress who took a  bullet in the head, she managed to make  the message about herself. Unbelievably, she made it obvious that  she was  including herself among the victims, scolding “journalists and pundits” for their “manufactur[ing] a Blood Libel”  and complaining about “mindless finger pointing” as if that were the most important issue in the aftermath of that Saturday morning bloodbath in Arizona. 

Over her left shoulder, a picture of baby Trig sits on the mantle near the American flag. She, like our president, uses phrases like “sacred freedoms” and “Founding Fathers” and calls for God’s guidance and the peace that He provides. For the sake of educating your children and grandchildren, you may want to review Sarah’s failed attempt to look presidential and to deliver an appropriate message to the American people after a national tragedy and explain to them why this speech brought about bi-partisan disapproval :

Sarah isn't much of a student. 

She didn't learn a thing from Barack Obama's reaction when under fire. Not everyone can be a Harvard educated lawyer, and no one is asking Sarah Palin to match the presentation of a Constitutional Law professor, but sheeesh, where is her decency? All that time she spent in church and she didn't even learn common decency.

On the one hand, Senator Obama presented a history lesson. He spoke of the willingness of people in successive generations to continue the march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous  America. He appealed to the goodness within us;  "We may not look the same, we may not come from the same place, but we all want move in the same direction. – toward a better future for our children and our grandchildren."  And on the other hand, Sarah Palin's speech resulted in a history lesson of the origins of the words  "Blood Libel" and a civics lesson on not using those words because they can be deeply offensive.

The Huffington Post printed a release from  Jeremy Ben-Ami, leader of Jewish advocacy group:

The country's attention is rightfully focused on the memorial service for the victims of Saturday's shooting. Our prayers continue to be with those who are still fighting to recover and the families of the victims. The last thing the country needs now is for the rhetoric in the wake of this tragedy to return to where it was before.

We hope that Governor Palin will recognize, when it is brought to her attention, that the term "blood libel" brings back painful echoes of a very dark time in our communal history when Jews were falsely accused of committing heinous deeds. When Governor Palin learns that many Jews are pained by and take offense at the use of the term, we are sure that she will choose to retract her comment, apologize and make a less inflammatory choice of words.

I never heard about an apology, but what I did find in my look backwards, was that on the Conservatives4Palin (C4P) website four days after Sarah's speech, during a time when her speech was  being called a big political mistake , there was a post titled

What Happened to the Who, What, When, Where and Why of Journalism?

Not only does the "author" Sheya, write suspiciously like Sarah herself she even leaves the "HOW" off of "the Who, What, When, Where, and Why."  This person, whom I believe was Sarah, stresses the point that there is "no supporting evidence to suggest any connection" between Sarah and the shootings.  Isn't that what we hear over and over about the fake pregnancy?  No evidence. Chuck Heath said it like this, "You can't prove that." 

Shaya on C4P, finished in a very Sarah-like manner. " Come on cut me some slack, I didn’t even go to Journalism school."  Who talks like that - "Journalism school"?  Wouldn't most people say "go to college and study journalism" or say "I didn't study journalism in school" or maybe say "major in journalism."  Who says "go to Journalism school?" except Sarah Palin.  Is journalism school like hair school? (The quote below is from Fox news Feb.17, 2012, I hope my computer didn't pick up a nasty virus looking this up.)

 Willow’s doing awesome. She’s going to graduate high school a year early, and then she’s going off to hair school, and she’s so excited about that. She’s 17, and she was in New York and D.C. with me at the beginning of the week, and Willow got a little taste of real life because she was telling some folks that she was proud that she was getting to graduate a year early and that she’d gotten everything lined up and then she got accepted to hair school. Then it occurred to her, she was like, “I think they looked at me, mom, like, ‘well if you’re willing to pay the tuition, doesn’t everybody get accepted to hair school?’” But she’s still real excited, and I’m excited for her.

Maybe Sheya was Willow. 

 And that's as funny as today's message is going to get. Because this really isn't funny at all. It's stomach-turning. When I compare the actions of Barack Obama to Sarah Palin in these two videos, what I see is the difference between day and night.  One shedding light to dispel darkness, one exposing the darkness within herself and spreading it to others.

Meanwhile, there is a public that still follows Sarah Palin's interviews, tweets, and the C4P website. She could have made strong statements about the tragic shooting in Florida.  She could have offered condolences to the parents of a dead child. She could have, but she didn't. She doesn't have the words, the class, or the courage.

Sarah, where’s your diploma?   

Sarah, where’s your heart?

Sarah, why haven’t you spoken out about Trayvon Martin? About guns killing people?  Or about police drug testing an unarmed dead black kid but not the armed adult who  disobeyed the 911 operator, tracked the kid down and shot him?

Sarah, sit down and shut up.