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The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

Palin Channels Beck

By The Daily Dish
Nov 7 2009, 5:38 AM ET

Jonathan Martin snuck into the Palinfest in Wisconsin and reports that the crowd was not so wowed:

While she drew applause during her remarks, Palin’s extemporaneous and frequently discursive style was such that she never truly roused a true-believing crowd as passionate about the issue at hand as she. Not once during her address did they rise to their feet. In a closing exhortation, she urged the audience, “Don't ever let anyone to tell you to sit down and shut up.” She then got a standing ovation from most of the crowd, but a few had begun to leave before she even finished and within seconds of her concluding, scores more got up and put on their jackets as they walked away.

But they were half a mile long in line to see the Immaculate Misconception beforehand. It seems to me like a Mass. Her very divine presence is all that matters; what she says is largely irrelevant. There's some small news in her re-telling of her fifth pregnancy story (more on the latest version tomorrow), but what strikes me from Jonathan's report is that she has been watching Glenn Beck closely. To wit:



Noting that there had been a lot of “change” of late, Palin recalled a recent conversation with a friend about how the phrase “In God We Trust” had been moved to the edge of the new coins. “Who calls a shot like that?” she demanded. “Who makes a decision like that?” She added: “It’s a disturbing trend.” Unsaid but implied was that the new Democratic White House was behind such a move to secularize the nation’s currency. But the new coins – concerns over which apparently stemmed from an email chain letter widely circulated among conservatives – were commissioned by the Republican-led Congress in 2005 and approved by President Bush.

The whole technique of mentioning strange events or codes or numbers and implying that there is some sinister force behind them is classic Beck. And since the anti-Christ is now in the White House, we are all left to wonder what is next. Of course: it's euthanasia of the elderly and state-mandated abortion of disabled or special need kids. Next up: the ritual killing of white new-borns or some such. 

I can't wait for the "book".

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