Sarah Palin's been responsible for so much poetry being written in the past two years that it would make romantic poets like William Wordsworth take notice. The awe-inspiring poems written about her have captured the very essence of what makes her tick and appeal to so many Birthers, Wingers, Deathers, and Tea Partiers, however mad they might be in their political orientation.
After her breath-taking performance last weekend at the Tea Party Convention in Nashville, don't be surprised that what we get next is a series of country music hits about Palin from Music City.
Tea Party Ogre in Nashville, TN
Adam Zyglis, Buffalo News, Buy this cartoon
Note: If there are any more editorial cartoons that were published after I posted this diary, I'll try to update as soon as possible.
I'll post a few more in the comments section.
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What is Poetry?
There are as many definitions of poetry as there are poets. Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;" Emily Dickinson said, "If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry;" and Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing."
Poetry is a lot of things to a lot of people. Homer's epic, The Oddysey, described the wanderings of the adventurer, Odysseus, and has been called the greatest story ever told. During the English Renaissance, dramatic poets like John Milton, Christopher Marlowe, and of course Shakespeare gave us enough to fill textbooks, lecture halls, and universities. Poems from the romantic period include Goethe's Faust (1808), Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" and John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn."
So, without further ado, here's a graphic summary of Palin's speech accompanied by Palin-inspired poems, comments by editorial cartoonists, and readers.
Her speech at the convention was one for the ages.
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Clay Bennett, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Chattanooga Times Free Press
Here's a sample comment from one of the paper's readers
There is a God.
Sarah Palin stated just moments before many cameras caught sight of her left hand where several written notes were in plain view, "This is about the people, and it’s bigger than any king or queen of a Tea Party. And it’s a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter."
I'll bet right now, she wishes SHE had used a teleprompter.
I can't speak for President Obama, but I really have to wonder how hard he laughed when this, her latest in a long line of goofs, hit the blogosphere. What a colossal blunder. I wish I could muster up even a little sympathy for what she is going through at the moment.
Username: alprova | On: February 9, 2010 at 1:12 a.m.
Mike Luckovich, Comics.com
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Mike Thompson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Detroit Free Press
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Thompson, the Detroit Free Press's Editorial Cartoonist, writes on his blog
Talk about a cartoonist's dream! Sarah Palin at a tea party convention; it just doesn't get any better than that. Youbetcha!
Steve Benson, Comics.com
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Steve Sack, Comics.com
"Outside"
I am a Washington outsider.
I mean,
Look at where you are.
I'm a Washington outsider.
I do not have those allegiances
To the power brokers,
To the lobbyists.
We need someone like that.
(To C. Gibson, ABC News, Sept. 11, 2008)
Gary Markstein, Comics.com
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Chan Lowe, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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Lowe, the Sun-Sentinel's Editorial Cartoonist, writes in his blog
She also sneeringly alluded to Obama as being someone who could read well from a TelePrompTer. Evidently, this is the mark of a phony, while writing crib notes (as Sarah did) on the palm of one’s hand is much more genuine and American.
But to fault Palin based on logic and consistency is to do the lady a disservice. She does not pretend to fall back on these rhetorical crutches, which are the contrivances of "elites" who would happily sell this great nation of ours out from under us if they could stop saluting the hammer and sickle long enough...
Ultimately, whether she plans to run for president or not isn’t really relevant, nor are her questionable qualifications to hold such an office. She only needs to know how to do one thing (and she does it quite well, thank you very much)--which is to endorse the backside of a check.
Dan Wasserman, Boston Globe
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Taylor Jones, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon
The Poem in Sarah Palin’s Farewell Speech
Soaring through nature’s finest snow.
Denali, the great one, soaring under the midnight sun.
And then, the extremes. In the winter time
it’s the frozen road
that is competing with all of its ice fogged frigid beauty,
the cold though, doesn’t it split
the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs?
And then in the summertime such extreme
summertime
about a hundred and fifty degrees hotter
than just some months ago, and then
just some months from now,
with fireweed blooming
along the frost heaves
and merciless rivers that are rushing
and carving
and reminding us that here,
Mother Nature wins.
And it is as throughout all Alaska
that big wild, good life
teeming along the road that is
north to the future.
Transcribed from William Shatner’s performance on the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, July 27, 2009
John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Buy this cartoon
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Sarah Palins Palm
Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Buy this cartoon
SARAH PALIN: SOLDIER FOR THE LORD by Tom Zart
She's a soldier for the Lord
Who’s been up and who's been down
Though while on the battlefield
She has never turned around.
She'll face more than flesh and blood
With the devil's evil hoard.
But they shall not steal her soul
For she swings our Lord's swift sword.
She wears all of God's armor
With helmet, breastplate and shield.
As Satan’s arrows fly by
From his archers of the field.
The devil casts his dark net
Over any he may charm.
He’ll lead them from salvation
With his hands upon their arm.
She battles evil daily
And prays that you’ll join her.
She gives new hope for this world
To be better then we were.
Hand-Written Speech
John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Buy this cartoon
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Nate Beeler, Washington Examiner, Buy this cartoon
Martin Sutovec, Freelance Cartoonist (Slovakia), Buy this cartoon
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David Fitzsimmons, Arizona Star, Buy this cartoon
Little Sairy Palin by Brian Foley
LITTLE Sairy Palin's come to the Lower Forty-eight,
An' teach us fambly values, an' denyin' Troopergate.,
An' shoo the lib'ruls outta Washington and say who's patriotic,
An stoke the rage of racist swine, an' other things psychotic :
An' all us other citizens, when the debatin' stuff is done,
We set around the YouTube, where we have the mostest fun
An' list'nin' to the witch-hunt, 'at Sairy tells about
An' there be libuh-ruls, you betcha'!
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
Read the rest of the poem
Jeff Danziger, New York Times Syndicate
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Sarah Palin In Wonderland
RJ Matson, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Buy this cartoon
Tom Toles, Washington Post
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Dana Summers, cartoonbox.slate.com
Sarah Palin for Poet Laureate by Julian Gough, Prospect Magazine (U.K.)
Reading Sarah Palin’s anguished interview with Greta van Susteren of Fox News just after the election, I had an epiphany: Palin is a poet, and a fine one at that. What the philistine media take for incoherence is, in fact, the fruitful ambiguity of verse.
Pat Oliphant, Universal Press Syndicate
Chris Britt, Comics.com, see reader comments in the State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL)
A sample comment
Naughtius Maximus 6 hours ago
Amazing how the fringe right continues to promote and defend this woman. She had CRIB NOTES on her hand! If any other politician had been caught doing that, they would be a laughingstock!
Palin Cheat Sheet
Jimmy Margulies, New Jersey Record, Buy this cartoon
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Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon
Matt Wuerker, Politico
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Bruce Plante, Tulsa World, Buy this cartoon, see the large number of reader comments in the newspaper
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A reader writes in response to Plante's editorial cartoon
OK Critic, (2/10/2010 6:17:11 AM)
Sarah Palin seems to have an odd characteristic for a politician, i.e. obliviousness. While running for the second highest office, she was oblivious about the need for a vice-presidential candidate to know something about the U.S. Constitution and foreign affairs. So she looked like a fool during the Katie Couric interview during the 2008 campaign. Then Palin was oblivious about the negative fallout from her quitting as governor of Alaska. Then she was oblivious about the need to say something insightful about national and world affairs in her book "Going Rogue." Instead, she just cataloged all the real and imagined injustices done to her by the media and the McCain campaign.
Now, Palin was oblivious about how it would look if she were seen looking at her hand for the notes she had written there. It's getting to the point that anyone who still supports her for president would have to be even more oblivious than she is.
Ed Cohen, main.nc.us/cartoons
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Mike Keefe, Denver Post, Buy this cartoon
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As Jim Morrison and the Doors sang many moons ago
This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand
In a...desperate land.
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Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Houston Chronicle
A reader in the Houston Chronicle notes
Chouteau wrote:
The average American knows that Palin is all attitude and no ideas.
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Crossposted at Docodharma