This One’s for Sarah

The press has a love-hate relationship with fierce-minded politicians. At the same time as we of the liberal media quiver at the idea of, say, George Bush in office, there was a significant span in 2003-2004 where it felt like every newspaper was rooting for Bush to win, just so we’d have four more years of fodder to write about.

Sarah Palin was a good example of this. Now that the sad bits of truth are drizzling out — she didn’t know Africa was a continent; she didn’t know the (three) countries in NAFTA — it looks as though we’ll never know the highs and lows of a White House sitcom with Palin as the annoying next-door neighbor. The Jewish community was nothing if not vocal about her. Early on, Gawker asked (and, in doing so, cited our not-entirely-negative question) “Will Palin Scare the Jews?” And then she was disinvited from the anti-Ahmadinijad rally by Jewish organizations (though, to be fair, the reason probably had a lot more to do with Hillary Clinton stepping down, and without a Democratic speaker, the rally would be pointedly non-politically-impartial).

On the other hand, one victory of this election was that positive press can sell papers — whether it’s Obama launching a campaign of minorities, kids, and random creative people. On the other…well, think of all the Palin headlines we’ll never get a chance to read.

Honestly, though, I prefer to keep my Sarahs Biblical. In this week’s Torah portion, another Sarah and Abraham exercise their monotheistic anarchy and smash up idols…which I’d much rather read about.