In Case You Missed It, Sarah Palin Has Been Famous for 5 Years

Seems like longer somehow, right? Yes, Sarah Palin was inflicted upon the nation at large five years ago yesterday. I happened to be home from work that day, due to a reduction in hours at work (thanks Obama)* and got to see the whole sorry affair, and even sorta live-blogged the event. Let's get in the wayback machine, and see what my first impressions were, shall we?

Originally published August 29, 2008:

"Like many, I woke this morning to the news that John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Who? That was my first thought. Second, I thought, "well he picked one of the only people who can take some buzz away from Barack Obama's speech last night."

This is probably as close as I will ever come to "live blogging," since I have the day off from work, and am watching this unfold on the TV machine. MSNBC is a little wary of the choice. CNN is being very analytical about it, and FOX "News" is bubbling over with enthusiasm, right down on the floor with the chubby cheerleaders in the auditorium."

 

Palin's Wikipedia shot, used
in my original post.

I continued in my next post:

 

". . .OK, Palin is introduced. Crowd goes wild. Music abruptly cuts off. She's pretty. Doesn't have a girly voice, which I frankly expected her to have. Not quite Elle Woods, at least on first impression. I'm always a little suspicious of hard-right younger women. I wonder, what the heck happened to her? She looks like she could be McCain's granddaughter, which she almost could be.

Nice looking husband and family. Palin has a decent amount of charisma, which is something McCain plainly lacks. Now she's talking a little more in depth about personal family stuff. Back on track, talking about her son enlisting in the army on September 11th. What's his name? Tack? Track? Crowd erupts into short burst of "USA! USA!" I guess the Iraq War is still a popular deal in Dayton.

 

She just invoked the POW card for McCain, and committed a little bit of an Ohio sin. . .she praised former Sen. John Glenn. . .a hated figure amongst Ohio Republicans.

She's reminding me a little of Sally Field now, even if she's right-wing. Now, giving a shout-out to Hillary Clinton. She's going for the ever-elusive PUMAs with a "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling" comment. She's wrapping up. Sounds a little like Marge Simpson trying to rally a Springfield audience. My take: Grandpa and Gidget (all right, that's just what they look like, but it's funny!)"

 

So, see, I was sort of giving her a chance. Over the next couple of weeks, the campaign kept her very under wraps outside of heavily scripted appearances. Because of this, some of her Alaska baggage became grist for the national gossip mill, including the stuff about Bristol being pregnant, and some

Palin, GILF? Subject of my most popular
post, oddly enough.

speculation that Sarah's fifth child was really Bristol's first. The right wing confused the blogosphere noise for "the media," and still pretends that Palin was besieged by unfair press treatment.

 

We all know now, that though she can throw red meat at a tea baggin' base, she's a sentence mangler, is about as deep as a kiddie pool, and as bright as a small appliance bulb. But she's a charter member of the oddball Tea Party Heroes™ league, along with Joe the Plumber, Ted Nugent and crazy eyes Michele Bachmann. And, oddly enough, another early post I wrote about Palin became my most-clicked post ever, racking up hundreds and hundreds of views in a day and a half. Its title?

VP Pick Sarah Palin: GILF?