Can't We Get Rid of this Woman?

You might be wondering if you should read that long Sarah Palin thing in Vanity Fair. Well, don't let me tell you what to do, but if you already know about her vindictiveness and ignorance, then congratulations. You've been paying attention! However, even after writing dozens of posts on the Wasilla Hillbilly last year, I missed something. It was this little gem about the birth of her son with Down syndrome:

More than once in my travels in Alaska, people brought up, without prompting, the question of Palin’s extravagant self-regard. Several told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of “narcissistic personality disorder” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—“a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy”—and thought it fit her perfectly. When Trig was born, Palin wrote an e-mail letter to friends and relatives, describing the belated news of her pregnancy and detailing Trig’s condition; she wrote the e-mail not in her own name but in God’s, and signed it “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.”

Where to begin? Well, you can learn a little more about the "letter from God" in this article. I cannot criticize her for wanting to express that her son will be a joy, and well-meaning friends and family do not need to grieve. In fact, I admire her for that little part.

But there's something weird going on when she writes the words from God. I get annoyed enough at my one strange friend who writes the Christmas brag letter from the point of view of her family's dog. (Everybody has a friend like that... right? Right?) But my concern with Palin is that she's not pretending to write the words from God, but believing she's writing the words from God.

That's grandiosity. Palin recently attacked a blogger who photoshopped a picture of her and Trig with Trig's face replaced with that of Eddie Burke, a conservative talk-show host. It was a lame stunt by a blogger, but Palin's people had to react. They referred to the original photo as an "iconic representation of a mother's love for a special needs child." Iconic? Really? Like Mary and baby Jesus? Come on, Sarah. You can defend your family, but you can't deify yourself!

Where does this end? Hopefully not with a run for president. I don't want any more true believers in the White House. That last one got us into enough messes.