Palin Embraces North Korea, Bombs Michelle Obama on Turkey Day

Palin Gives Lip Service to N.Korean Allies

We are having a hard time getting ourselves up and organized. We spent the morning halfway sleeping through New York's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, what with Carrie Underwood urging us to "Undue It," and a creeping suspicion that the balloons are getting lower and lower each year. Eventually, they will just be dragged down the street, weighted floats, to prevent any accidental crashing into skyscrapers and the liability that can theoretically be caused when Mickey's head smooshes some family observing from above the streets.

Over on the internet the main news seemed to center around North Korea, and their holiday bashing of South Korean territory, but this little bit of expected hostility was overwhelmed by Palin's take on the matter:

When asked by Beck how she would handle a situation like the one that was developing in North Korea, Palin responded: "This is stemming from, I think, a greater problem when we're all sitting around asking, 'Oh no, what are we going to do,' and we're not having a lot of faith that the White House is going to come out with a strong enough policy to sanction what it is that North Korea is going to do."

It is unclear whether Palin is talking about sanctions against North Korea, or U.S. sanctioning -- i.e. approving or supporting -- its actions.

Palin continued: "Obviously, we gotta stand with our North Korean allies," when Beck interrupted and corrected her to say "South Korea." 

"And we're also bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies, yes," she responded.

(ABC News)

You can search that stack of hay for the needle of a solution, but there is none. The problem is not really the slip of the tongue. Bush did that all the time, and even Obama has had his share of speaking gaffs. The real issue is that Palin has nothing to offer as far as a solution. It's typical of her. She has tried recently to weigh in on things--Fed policy a week or so back, North Korea today-- but she really has no understanding of what she is talking about. It's all very kiddie pool. It would generous to assume her range of thought is dumbed down by design in order to reach the impatient and simplistic expectations of her most ardent supporters, but that would require at least an initial display of intellectual weight. We've yet to see something so hefty. The so called patriots that her support demand so little, liking their turkey without substantial dressing.

Palin didn't limit her criticisms to Obama's foreign policy. She found time to also take issue with Michelle Obama's focus on childhood obesity.  She questioned the idea of government interfering in the better judgment of parents. I would agree that the rights of parents to raise and instruct their children is the noble default position. But that position does not preclude me from understanding that any number of government initiatives have taken place to make up for human irresponsibility. The actual facts on obesity show that enough Americans have struggled with, or ignored making, the correct choices as far as their kids are concerned. And like seat belt laws, or child labor laws, sometimes the government can step in with a few encouraging words or a push in the right direction. The number of private sector initiatives that resulted from government funding is vast, and conservatives often ignore the fact that government can and does take care of things that we often neglect.

On days like this, I have to wonder who is the real turkey.