–updated–
Politico has the details, but around 1:10 in the video, when Sarah Palin asks the woman what she does, the woman says she’s a teacher. Mrs. Palin clearly rolls her eyes, then obviously grimaces while saying “Oh…” It’s clearly a derogatory reaction.
The teacher calls Palin a “celebrity” several times, with Sarah trying to make her case, but once she weighs in on what she thinks about the woman’s job as a teacher, it’s all over.
What does Sarah Palin have against teachers? This might sound like snark, but it isn’t. I truly have no idea why any politician or political spokesperson would role his or her eyes at hearing that’s someone’s job.
But that sigh of relief you just heard is from the Republican establishment who want as many of these YouTube moments in the can before the 2012 race begins in earnest.
UPDATE: The right is in a tizzy because the woman who says she’s a teacher sings harmony in a drag queen band, which has their heads exploding, but also is an abortion rights supporter, another point of implode. But is she a teacher? Well, some directors consider themselves teachers and act as such, so if the story at that link offers a point of possible proof that she is (h/t reader Coal Cracker in comments).
In the set up, Palin clearly falls for it by engaging the woman while the camera is rolling, something no one of Sarah Palin’s status and popularity should do if you don’t want to get caught in a trap. The complaints the woman is lodging go to Palin’s “celebrity,” but also that she abandoned Alaska, which certainly is walking Palin right into a buzz saw, with Palin doing exactly that, unfortunately. The woman in the video is now reportedly being identified by some as a “theater tech,” which doesn’t preclude being a teacher, but certainly doesn’t verify it either. As I said in the headline and the post, the woman said she was a teacher, though I couldn’t and didn’t vouch for her veracity. Sarah Palin clearly rolled her eyes when the woman said she was a teacher. Was it because Mrs. Palin thought the woman was lying, instead of showing disrespect for teachers? But as I wrote above, I truly didn’t know why anyone, especially someone like Palin, would show disrespect for teachers, so just maybe the eye roll is because Sarah smelled a rat. You be the judge. But I hope Sarah Palin learns from this episode, because engaging just anyone at anytime when a camera is rolling is a bad idea; with reaction shots, no matter the subject or what you think is happening, fraught with peril. Finally, let’s also not pretend that when Republicans hear the word “teacher” they don’t think union, which is yet another head exploding moment for the right.
I have WAY to many one liners for this story, Taylor, many which have already been uttered, and many inappropriate.
So, let me just say this; we are already a dumbed-down, under stimulated and woefully malinformed society (much of which has to do with the Republican party and their ilk). It just pains me to have so many people I know, many of which are family, continue to treat this “celebrity” as if she is some beacon of light, integrity and moral clarity.
She is the ulitmate opportunist, and this small window we saw today just proves my point that she was never in this business for the right reasons.
She’s nothing more than a mini-Reagan, and even that is giving her too much credit.
Well, well the true Sarah Palin has come out behind her Faux News curtain. Let me explain something about Sarah Palin, she can’t handle anyone disagreeing with her. Actually, I don’t think she can handle it unless people are fawning over her. To me, her I roll said “who are you to judge me, lowly teacher”.
From what I watch and read, Republicans think that teachers especially the ones that are in a union, vote for democrats so there is proberly a mistrust when it comes to some teachers. I am just guessing. Fox News runs stories of some schools or teachers who teach liberal leanings and it has republicans in a uproar !! Paranoia runs in the republican party. Believe me Taylor, Sarah’s base, which is the republican party base will not care about something like this, plus Sarah Palin will make a excuse and get by with it, so the republican elite will do anything to get rid of Sarah but its not going to happen !! I don’t like her views on things because I am a gay-marriage,pro-choice moderate, but I like Sarah Palin on somethings, she seems like a down to earth person who didn’t come from a rich family and had to work hard and she does not seem snobby or think she is smarter or better than anyone else.
I think the simple FACT that the higher your level of education the more likely it is you are a democrat statistically just has the repugs panties all twisted. Thus their anti science/education/teacher blather.
So, according to your “theory” and reading your past intellectually stunted posts, you should be a redneck Republican from the Blue Mountains of Tennessee.
role his or her eyes (from the article)
malinformed society
To me, her I roll said
proberly a mistrust
secularhumanizinevoluter (Yours is the most poorly constructed sentence I believe I’ve seen in a while thus, I call it blather.
Please. Get. An. Education.
Huh?? Did Taylor hire an editor? Or is this your best attempt at dodging the actual substance of the article and the fact that Ms. Palin only wants to deal with people that agree with her and fawn over her? Taylor?
I got nothin’.
Hi Ms Marsh,
In the past, I noticed you have been more balanced regarding Gov Palin as opposed to the typical Palin-Hating site. I suspect you have been whacked as a result by your friends on the left by trying to add a balanced perspective when you post about here.
That is why I’m alerting you to this:
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/08/homer-palin-hater-is-no-teacher-shes-a-singer-in-a-drag-queen-band-photo/
It appears you may have been had. Gov Palin may have been set up. If you are truly fair & nonjudgemental regarding Gov Palin, you may want to confirm that this is really a “teacher” as opposed to the typical Palin hating gawker.
SJ, see the update.
But I will pick one bone with you. First, please note the headline, as well as what I actually wrote. Clearly stated is what the woman said, with no claim of her veracity given. I was completely serious, as I stated in my post, that I didn’t understand why *anyone* would deride someone who says she’s a teacher.
She comes from a family of teachers. You are right, her deriding a woman because she is a teacher makes no sense. There is more behind this. There is much more video that sheds light on this. Where is it?
I think that is just another RW smear job. Here is an article I found published 06.16.2010.
http://homertribune.com/2010/06/%E2%80%98hedwig%E2%80%99-returns-to-pier-one-stage/
Just because a name matches does not mean it is the same person.
A Zabasearch shows there is a Kathleen J. Gustafson born 12/64 & a Kathleen A. Gustason born 09/59 who live in AK.
Correction – misspelled name; should be Kathleen A. Gustafson.
Thanks CoalCracker, I’ve added your link. As for directors being teachers, I knew many, many, many over a 25-year career in performing (including on Broadway) who did consider themselves teachers. Though as you say we still don’t know if that article is about the same person.
Great digging.
Perhaps she reacted that way because this woman is not a teacher.
If Palin had anything against teachers, she would have something against a huge chunk of her own family. Her Dad was a teacher, her brother’s a teacher, her sister works with Special Needs kids in school, her mom worked at the school…
Uffda525, see update.
SmoothJazz: Perhaps you need to find a slightly less biased source than that far-right-wing piece of trash website you linked. The writer (a term which is far too classy to describe whoever posted that garbage at the site) didn’t do a single thing that disproved the woman is a teacher. Oh, she’s a “theater tech.” What? One can’t be a “theater tech” and a teacher? I don’t see why not. After all, that website has someone who thinks he’s a writer.
Uffda, if you have any REAL proof that the woman isn’t a teacher, then post it. I’ve got proof that Sarah Palin can’t govern. After all, Palin quit her job as Governor. I’ve got proof that Palin also can’t handle when things get really tough. After all, she quit her job as Governor. I’ve also got proof that she can’t handle situations when someone challenges her or goes off-script. All you have to do is just watch the video.
Please post your “proof”. Becausze I can post my “proof” of just the opposite.
Getty, can you read? I offered my proofs in my comments.
“Palin can’t govern.” PROOF: She quit her job as Governor. It tends to go without saying that if she’d truly had the ability to govern, she wouldn’t have quit halfway through her term.
“Palin can’t handle when things get really tough.” PROOF: She quit her job as Governor. Part of her reasoning (if it can be so described) was that people were being too unfair to her, especially regarding the accusations being leveled at her in Alaska. Bill Clinton didn’t back down despite the most vicious attacks coming from the GOP in Congress and the right-wing noise machine starring Rush Limbaugh. Sarah is accused of some relatively minor dealings that wouldn’t have toppled her IF she’d had the guts to fight the accusations. But, she took the easy way out and quit.
“She can’t handle situations when someone challenges her or goes off-script.” PROOF: Look at the politically stupid way she behaved in the video.
Now, do you need me to repost this yet again, with words that aren’t so tough to understand? (For what it’s worth, you did miss the touch of sarcasm. Uffda made a claim that has NO real evidence. I wanted hard evidence to support the claim, and something a bit more decisive and definitive than that right-wing nutjob’s website since the “article” posted there failed to prove that the woman who approached Palin was not a teacher. If Uffda can make a statement without any hard evidence, I should be able to as well–even though I did have evidence supporting my claims.)
These are opinions, not examples or facts. You don’t seem to know the difference…which is exactly what the whole problem is.
Moore vs. State of Alaska
Filed in 1994 concerning education funding and oversight, settled in 2009 with a 60 day requirement to assist with struggling rural areas.
…Anchorage Superior Court ruled in the case of Moore vs. Alaska. The plaintiffs–which included NEA-Alaska and several school districts–sued the state, asking the court to order significantly more state funding for Alaska schools–seeking to double Alaska’s education budget.
Instead, the Judge left decisions about the state’s education funding formula to the Legislature, and said the court would not determine educational programs. The judge’s ruling said the evidence shows that Alaska has ‘thorough and appropriate’ educational standards and a ‘finely tuned’ method of testing children.
But the state must be more aggressive in overseeing troubled school districts, the judge ruled, citing the Yupiit School District, one of the plaintiffs, in particular. In those schools, the court also found that students haven’t had sufficient opportunity to prepare for the high school exit exam…
Should note that I am not defending Palin, really don’t care either way. But, with items like this, (Politico can be quite gossipy at times) there is usually something behind it.
Kind of like being a playground monitor. Little Susie comes up complaining that little Billie threw a snowball at her. So you ask why and Susie is adamant that she did absolutely nothing. Press Susie a little further then she mentions that she might have called little Billie a stinky boogerbrain with cooties before he threw the snowball.
Playground monitor roles his/her eyes.
What does Sarah Palin have against teachers?
Even though the video, like most things Palin, is boring that part of the video is actually funny.
The “oooh…” and knowing look she exchanges with her family. Whatever that meant they all got it. Her supporters seem to get it. The funny part is that many of us clearly don’t.
Even more interesting her “oooh…” put the teacher on the defensive, she felt the need to add that she also does other jobs, like being a teacher is just “oooh….” not good enough. What is the right answer for someone like Palin, fisherman? That’s the beauty of the Palins, the ease with which they discredit education.
I love hearing everybody swear they know what she was thinking and why she did what she did. It is like turning the volume off the TV and adding one’s own words.
Discrediting teachers is a Republican talking point. It was so nice to see Luke Russert repeating the talking point this morning on Chuck Todd’s show. He repeated the meme that Obma and Congress were taking care of their base when they do emergency funding to keep teachers from being fired. No thought waht so ever was given to the impact on our country’s future if class sizes go to 50!.
Point to Lake Lady.
Let’s also remember that when Republicans hear the word “teacher” they also think UNION.
Luke is doing a great job isn’t he. I don’t get to watch much — but when I see him, I’m impressed..
sorry whitepaw! I was being sarcastic. I was no fan of his father’s for doing the Republicans work for them by perpetuating their talking points and I see that the legacy apple does not fall far from the tree.
Amen, LLady. Luke Russert may be a nice kid, but he has no idea what he’s doing and when he’s doing it he’s always smearing the Left.
Rotten apples still fall close to the tree.
Who cares if she really is a teacher? What got me was what Sarah said. She said she is working to “elect candidates who understand the Constitution [and will] protect our military interests so that we can keep on fighting for our Constitution that will protect some of the freedoms that evidently are important to you, too.”
I understand why someone would fight for free speech. I also understand why someone would fight to protect our military interests. I do not understand the link she is making between the two. She is fighting to protect our military interests, so that they can protect our free speech??? The military is the bulwark against the infringment of our fundamental right to speak out?!?!?!? That’s a new one on Marcus, as Eddie Murphy would say.
This woman does not speak English; she speaks bumper sticker. She could not muster a coherent argument if her life depended on it. She is profoundly incurious. And I’m sick of people inverting the charge, and saying that the criticisms leveled against her are classist and elitist. It is not elitist to require our leaders to read books and newspapers. It is not elitist to require our leaders to opine — often extemporaneously — on burning issues of the day.
THIS is the woman who’s going to fill the supposed Hillary vacuum, or whatever it’s called? Get the f**k out.
I so agree with you on this Ogenec. I caught that too. Does she want to defend the right to stay in perpetual wars?
According to legend Abe Lincoln managed to educate himself by firelight.I know it benefits retugs to have an ignorant,gullible public but Palin takes it too far.Her response to the teacher was giberish!
Her responses alwyas are. I’m no big fan of Hillary, but I respect her immensely. And the notion of Palin as successor to Hillary is stupefying. She is the anti-Hillary: vapid, vacuous, venal, and vile.
Oh for God’s sake. Another person with PDS.
Are you kidding? I don’t have time to be deranged about Palin. I don’t have any animus towards her; I simply recognize her for the anti-intellectual (but very cunning) twit she is. As I’ve said numerous times, the countown to her implosion — and that of the Tea Party — is proceeding right on schedule. Prediction: She will be taken out by her Republican peeps, and it will make the Ides of March look like Massa-type horseplay. I’ve merely to sit back, grab some popcorn and watch the woman dissolve into political oblivion.
If Sarah believes in free speech so much, then why did members of her entourage tear down Ms. Gustafson’s sign after the camera stopped filming?
Because it never happened.
yeah,union like liberal= bad word. The repubs are so very good a demonizing things that work for the everyday guy.They can even get progressives believing them.
I would the first to say that some unions need reform just like other long term institutions but they are not evil. I wish someone would do a study corralating the union busting that Reagan started and the stagnent wages we have had since then(with a rise during the Clinton years and a thud since then) and the huge disparity between the pay of the heads of corporations and their workers.
The photo in Jim Hoft’s erroneous column is of a performance of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” a rock musical whose main character is a transgender singer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedwig_and_the_Angry_Inch_(musical) Kathleen Gustafson was the director of the performance. She is also a teacher of Theater Tech at Homer High School, not “a theater tech.” If you look at page 28 of this Kenai Peninsula Borough School District personnel directory, you’ll find her name clearly listed:
http://www.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/assets/Personnel_Directory.pdf?docid=0/16/56/66CCEC2E-A5DB-4ACF-B38B-E85E52182FCF.pdf
It’s amazing the depths to which the Palinbots will sink to defend their pet idiot from the criticism of an actual working Alaskan who knows her much better than they do. And how they’ll never bother to retract theirs lies and smears when they’re proven wrong. But then, they do follow the same playbook that their queen bee does.
Just saw this, as I’ve been slammed all day. Great stuff, Spambalaya. Thanks for posting it.
Somebody has done some factchecking on those two sites that are spreading this disinformation:
http://tinyurl.com/2aahkhe
Facts are just such a nuisance to some people.
Great stuff @ that link, CoalCracker. Glad you all are on it!