sort of a combination of ebola and influenza, apparently
I suspect that the editorial decision was that they had to come out explicitly and unambiguously against Palin as a way of balancing, at least in the minds of their dwindling liberal readership, the recognition of her profile and her sales, not to mention the inherently, ravishingly complimentary quality of the image (one of several from an issue of Runner’s World that was a big hit among Palinistas months ago).
Makes for an already well-tested formula: Bash Palin while exploiting her, garner attention from both sides. I would expect that this issue will be one of the better-selling ones. I find myself looking forward to reading – or at any rate skimming – the feature story. Viewing a title and subtitle like that, in such starkly dreary and inhumane contrast to the picture of pure vitality they accompany, I anticipate a rich confection of conventional confusion and right-thinking left-of-center unwisdom, the anti-Palinist playbook version 2.0.
h/t Hot Air Headlines » Newsweek declares war on Palin [PDF]
Comments 25
Oh, the vitality!
November 14th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Indeed.
November 14th, 2009 at 11:45 am
The running shoes!
November 14th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I bet they’re subtly perfumed.
November 14th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Very subtly, I suppose, as I have no idea what you’re trying to suggest.
I guess there’s an aspect of the “she’s running” nightmare. The other Runner’s World, you might say.
November 14th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
@ CK MacLeod:
I suggest merely that she’s an athletic woman, but that she has that certain something extra that makes us all want to wink right back.
She bubbling up with vitality.
November 14th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Quite.
November 14th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
OMG. Must immediately reread Althouse as antidote. Or think about baseball. Or wear much baggier pants..
November 14th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
@ Seth Halpern:
Sounds like you might want to see a doctor first if you’re thinking about looking up the Runner’s World pictorial.
November 14th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
CKM, at least I’ll die happy.
November 14th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
And it’ll be a week before they can close the coffin?
November 14th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Boys! Mind your manners. If Barbara wasn’t distracted, JED wasn’t busy, or Margo had made an appearance on this thread, you’d mind your manners, I think.
Seriously, I suspect that Newsweek didn’t mind at all the thought that focusing on Palin’s physique and sex appeal would encourage a trivializing reaction to her – and give fuel to those opponents of hers, within and without the conservative movement, who won’t hesitate to depict her attractiveness or rather the common reaction to it as a drawback. MSNBC was much more crudely obvious in its efforts, even going so far as to put up a guns-&-bikini photoshop of her on their web site (possibly on-air, too, I’m not sure) without identifying it as a fake.
November 14th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
It’s called integrity and honesty, qualities in short supply nowadays in public life. Now I’m not blind, of course she’s attractive, but that wasn’t the only reason that she drew crowds from Carson City to Portsmouth, NH. One of the many reasons I take issue with the portrayal by Tina Fey, which was a poor caricature, it captured very little of her personality. I figure she will recalibrate this
time around starting next week
November 14th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
One enterprising blogger did some clever reworking of the cover :
http://serr8d.blogspot.com/2009/11/newsweek-bad-bad-newsweak-disses-sarah.html?showComment=1258294210939#c1991877516777188070
November 15th, 2009 at 7:32 am
Actually I also happened to notice that she has a large cranium. That wasn’t lost on me as I worked my way down.
November 15th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Here’s something to think about.
Try this mental exercise. Imagine John Kerry posing in this manner — in running shorts, slightly turned with his left leg gracefully bent, arms akimbo, cheerleader smile on his face.
Grotesque, huh?
Imagine Al Gore doing it. Bill Clinton. Michael Dukakis. Walter Mondale. Jimmy Carter.
OK, now imagine Barack Obama in this pose. Scary, right? Because it works. He’d be more of a natural at it than Michelle.
And there you have it. The Democratic Party, 2009.
November 15th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Maybe it works just for you, Dyer.
November 15th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
@ J.E. Dyer:
That is a very acute observation. And it may explain part of why I’m uneasy with Sarah Palin as presidential material.
As vice presidential candidate she was, as all are, an ornament to and cheerleader for the presidential candidate. As a result I could accept her in that role as a sexy woman who was also a reasonably astute up and coming politician.
If she wants to be a presidential candidate she has to portray as a serious politician with gravitas who happens to be a woman. But she’s still portraying herself more as a cheerleader than as a serious politician. It’s not that she can’t be sexy, but rather that she must be serious first and she must guard her gravitas, which she did not do when she posed for Runners World.
You’re also right on the money that President Obama could pose like that and make it work even today based on the way he presented himself even in his last speech to congress. Maybe gravitas is simply no longer a requirement up at the top of the presidential job description along with “Physical and mental ability to maintain calm and push whatever buttons are necessary even while being hustled about by security people.”
November 15th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
@ Sully:
Sounds like Margaret Thatcher is your idea of a woman with gravitas, Sully.
She certainly has far more of it than OSlash.
Interestingly, the pose for Runners World is the main thing I’ve seen Palin do that I wouldn’t consider a wise political move. There was a way to do it that didn’t invoke images inappropriate to a governor’s gravitas: a candid snap with Todd, the two of them in workout gear getting ready to run… a candid during a run… etc. The pose with the props comes off just a shade on the “lightweight” side though.
I remember seeing workout photos of Condi Rice in the first months of Bush’s presidency. Very toned, trim, attractive lady, but you didn’t see her striking poses with her long legs — you saw her pounding the weights on a Nautilus machine or in mid-run on a treadmill.
Don’t worry, CKM, it hasn’t soured me on Palin. But all the attention given the photo, and the license people derive from it to get silly, are good reasons not to have done it quite that way. Palin’s smart and cool, though; I don’t think it will hold her back, whatever she wants to do.
November 16th, 2009 at 8:46 am
@ J.E. Dyer:
Here. I’ve found the pose that’s confusing you about 25seconds into the clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu13EONrjSQ&feature=related
It seems that there’s an idea of Obama to fit every loon.
November 16th, 2009 at 8:46 am
@ fuster:
Congratulations – that may have been the very worst YouTube posted on this site so far.
Don’t worry about worrying me! I’m not campaigning or organizing for her. I just honestly find what she represents far preferable to what her competitors and opponents represent.
As I’ve said before, I think we may need Basil the First (the dourly passionless, much unloved leader who, at least in Norwich’s telling, re-organized the empire’s finances and administration and extended its life by a couple of centuries) more than we need Joan of Arc, but our political culture seems to require that we seek both in the same person.
Of course, most people (possibly not including Sully) would put in our favor the fact that we rely more on elections and peaceful transfer of power than on conspiracy and assassination – so there’s that!
November 16th, 2009 at 9:07 am
It’s interesting that the Runner’s World pictorial was published during the brief period when Palin seemed to be aiming for a return to normalcy – perhaps hoping that she could go back to simply being governor again, mend fences with political opponents, build quietly to any future campaigns, and so on. The pictorial said “don’t worry, look at me, I’m fine, I’m better than fine.”
Months later, we can read different things into it, but it clearly wasn’t part of the “radio silence/TV invisibility” that has helped set us all up for Palinmania 2: The Return of Sarah!!!
November 16th, 2009 at 9:12 am
The Mother and Child Re-union Tour ?
November 16th, 2009 at 9:15 am
@ CK MacLeod:
Numbingly stupid as this one was, what of the Barry White vid ?
November 16th, 2009 at 9:19 am
@ fuster:
…you may have a point… the answer could depend on whether you consider numbingly stupid stupider than munificently stupid.
November 16th, 2009 at 9:42 am