Sarah Palin is a bloody 'orrible orator

Everybody is wondering why Sarah Palin chose the words "blood libel" in reference to the Giffords shooting. How could she insult and degrade an entire people at a time like this? Hasn't she read the Wikipedia page devoted to the history of the sanguine slander?

No, probably not, given her history of rhetorical gaffes. "The media," "the journalists and pundits," in a rush to defend themselves against Sarah's accusations of incitement to violence, have made a serious rookie mistake: they have given Palin too much credit by assuming she knew what she was talking about.

If you don't believe me, just say "blood libel" aloud. It stings, doesn't it? It almost feels wrong, like saying the "N-word" when asked to read Huckleberry Finn to your English class (if you were lucky enough to go to school before the 1950s).

And it just sounds deliciously bad. Everybody knows blood. Everybody knows libel. Everybody knows tragedy when they see it. Right?

So in the world according to Palin, it follows that:

If
Shooting => blood
and
Journalists => libel
then
Journalists who caused a man to shoot based on their incendiary column inches ==> BLOOD LIBEL OMG

Politicians have a tendency to sieze a recognizable phrase and distort it for their purposes. (Think "kabuki theatre" and "death panel" --  haven't heard either of those recently, have you? And we're all better for that.)

So don't buy into the story that Palin deliberately chose to throw Jews under the bus with her word choice. I believe she remembered hearing a catchy phrase that seemed appropriate for this especially heinous tragedy.

Never mind that she said killers alone are responsible for their actions, then one sentence later refudiated herself by blaming journalists.

If she can't get words and phrases correct, who really expects her to nail the logical part of her argument?

Regardless of political agendas and the media climate, random horrors like this will unfortunately happen and we should always be aware that we are not immune to violence; but we can all do our part to help minimize the damage.


I just hope all those hateful, venom-spewing, irresponsible left-wing journalists forget this gaffe (at least until the next election cycle -- but by then, they'll have new material to work with). What should matter is that Gabrielle Giffords is alive and recovering, and now that Jared Lee Loughner is locked up, there is one less real danger among us.