From ABC News:

Sarah Palin waited a day to come out swinging about the State of the Union Address.  In an interview with Greta Van Susteren  Wednesday night, Palin told her “it was a tough speech to sit through and try to stomach.”

Palin then did a play on words with Winning the Future, the President’s slogan. 

She mocked the president’s slogan of “Winning the Future.”

She noted the initials are “WTF” and then observed there were “a lot of WTF moments through that speech.” For the uninitiated, “WTF” is what the kids often use in short-hand to signify, “What the…”

How trendy.  How childish.  What parts did she not like?  She sure didn’t take long to fall off the civility bandwagon.  WTF, who cares.  

51 Thoughts to “WTF, Sarah Palin”

  1. Morris Davis

    Palin is right at home on Fox News.  Today, dozens of rabbis from across the spectrum signed a full page ad in today’s Wall Street Journal calling on Ruppert Murdoch to hold Fox News icons Glenn Beck and Roger Alies accountable for abusing the terms Nazis and Holacaust in attacking those with whom they disagree.  http://www.businessinsider.com/here-is-the-ad-running-in-todays-wsj-demanding-rupert-murdoch-santion-glenn-beck-2011-1. Murdoch and Prince Alwaleed are laughing all the way to the bank with the spoils of their American conquest.

  2. Moe, your comments match the latest thread.

    The Washington Post also featured the story.

  3. Emma

    She doesn’t hold public office, so at least she didn’t disgrace her office by dropping the “BFD” bomb on an open mike the way Biden did last year.

  4. Emma

    But I do agree it was tasteless. I don’t put a lot of stock in the SOTU address, as it’s really just a pageant. This one was actually pretty decent.

  5. Steve Thomas

    Moon,

    Do Palin’s observations rise to the level of many comments made by those on the Left who continue to refer to those in the TEA party as “Teabaggers”? For the uninitiated, “teabagging” is a deviant sexual practice meant to degrade the one getting “Teabagged”.

  6. Morris Davis

    Steve – To be fair, you can’t say that it’s just the left that uses the term “teabagger.” Last April 15th on the conservative blog site Red State, Cargosquid wrote an article entitled “Happy Bag Day!” Cargo said: “I’m a proud TEABAGGER. Join with your fellow Americans. Embrace the word and make it your own. The liberals can only insult you if you let them.” I think you’d agree that Cargo is not on the left. http://www.redstate.com/cargosquid/2010/04/15/happy-bag-day/

  7. The Tea Party people named themselves that unfortunate term, so they carry the burden of that one. It would have never occurred to me to call anyone that until I saw all these folks walking around with tea bag earrings, tea bag hat decorations, tea bag everything.

    Many people, myself included, was not familiar with that term used in a derogatory way. I don’t use that term because it offends some of the readers here but that’s the only reason.

    In the immortal words of Billy Joel, We didn’t start the fire….

  8. marinm

    Don’t retreat Sarah. Reload.

  9. That is just so dead freaking wrong, marin.

  10. Steve, not only did the TPers wear their teabags as a symbol, but there also existed a site called “Let’s Teabag Congress”. I’ll have to wait for my power to return before I can find the link.
    I don’t know why you’d bother bringing up the teabagger reference, when locally we have a great example of name-calling on that wonderful blog which keeps on giving – BVBL. What any of us peons say doesn’t matter nearly as much as what Sarah Palin utters since none of us has sites on higher office. She should set a higher standard.

  11. I think I will go make some tea. Good day for it.

  12. marinm

    The tea bags and decorations we’re a way for the TP to embrace the hatred they were getting from the liberals, progressives, and RINOs. To provide a foci to energize the grassroots effort. To show how the “system” was wanting the TP to fail.

    It was just fuel to be consumed. The more hate by the establishment the larger the TP grew.

    So, I say keep it up. Keep making fun of the teabaggers. Keep calling them racists. Keep saying they’re anti-intellectual. The center is embrassing the message. The center hates being thought of as racist for a simple disagreement with the Administrations policies.

    The TP will continue to turn the hate into progress towards conservative/libertarianistic ideas. And the center is following. 🙂

    Embrace the new change. Hope is on the horizon. — marinm 2012. 😉

  13. “She sure didn’t take long to fall off the civility bandwagon.”

    I haven’t noticed ANYONE getting on that bandwagon. Why should she be all alone on it?

    As for the Tea Bagger thing….I DON’T use the term, I just don’t let anyone insult me when they misconstrue what the Tea Party said and misuse the term as a sexual term. I just remind them that if the Tea Party members are the Tea BAGGERS, who are the Tea BAGGEES? That tends to shut them up…..

    It’s still a rude term when used as an insult. The original use by the Tea Party referred t TEA bags, not the other sort….

    As for the WTF snark? Its accurate. Whoever thought that “Win the Future” would be a good slogan forgot to look at its initials. And that speech was pure pablum. As I’ve said, write it up and send it as a report to Congress. Lets stop all this pageantry with President. The SOTU is supposed to be a REPORT to Congress on how the country has been doing in the last year, and what the executive is thinking of doing. Its been turned into a dog and pony show.

  14. Steve Thomas

    Moon-howler :The Tea Party people named themselves that unfortunate term, so they carry the burden of that one. It would have never occurred to me to call anyone that until I saw all these folks walking around with tea bag earrings, tea bag hat decorations, tea bag everything.
    Many people, myself included, was not familiar with that term used in a derogatory way. I don’t use that term because it offends some of the readers here but that’s the only reason.
    In the immortal words of Billy Joel, We didn’t start the fire….

    Moon,

    Gonna have to disagree with you there. I believe it was James Carvell who let the term slip, tongue-in-cheek, and several in the media picked it up. The TEA party members, such as Cargo, began using the term as a means to combat the slander.

  15. @marin, huh????

    I am not sure how tea bags combat hatred. I disliked people who interrupted town hall meetings, acting like thugs and threatening people., I disliked them long before I realized some of them had a name.

    Everyone says there is no Tea Bag party or central organization. I see that as a way to avoid having to take responsibility for anything.

    No one was making fun of the ‘tea baggers.’ I answered a question posed to me and I answered as honestly as I could.

    I can’t tell if you are saying bring on the hate or being victimized by it. The Tea Party either needs to become an organization rather than a ‘state of mind’ or it needs to stop dodging the we dont really exist bullet.

    The center is not following the Tea Party. Not even close.

  16. Steve, you and I will just have to have different memories of the origins. So who were all those people prancing around with tea bags hanging from their hats and ears and other things? Were they imposters just trying to make the Tea Party People look bad?

    And lastly, why does it matter? They can call themselves anything they want. It isn’t going to change anything or how any of us feel about the movement.

    I stand by my statement: if people don’t want to be called tea baggers, don’t wear tea bags. I feel certain many of those people had no idea that there was an off-color definition. But that’s part of the risk of going political. I have been called many names over the years I don’t particularly care for. Many of them were slanderous. Oh well…That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. No one whined on my behalf, and I am still here. Many of the names were far more offensive than tea bagger.

  17. Steve Thomas

    Also, I think ya’ll are missing my point. To take issue with “name calling” or snarky comments and roll this right into a “They started it” really accomplishes little IMHO. We’ve had a lot of these discussions lately. For every example of a snarky comment made by one side, the other side can point to comments made by the opposition as well. Next we get into a discussion of relativism, trying to justify which one is worse. Lastly, we play the “hypocrite” card and ask where their outrage and condemnation was when one of their own made a comment us. Language is used to communicate ideas, emotions, and a whole In our “Jersey Shore” culture, it’s a game of “shock”, “one-upsmanship” or a race to the bottom. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I believe that somewhere, someone is laughing about all of this. In Rome, they called it “Bread and Circuses”.

  18. @Steve, but no one was calling anyone tea bagger. I thought I was answering a hypothetical question, not leaping head on into a fight.

    Why did the ancestors call whigs ‘whigs?’ Same sort of question. How about ‘flat feet’? I believe the term evolved from so many people wearing tea bags. THEN some wise ass had to go say …well this is what it really means. To this day, a tea bag is something I put in my teapot. That would fall under first definition.

    As I said before, I don’t use the term because I know it is offensive to some of our readers. However, I haven’t told anyone else THEY can’t say it.

    I don’t even care if Palin says WTF. I say WFT. However, I am not contemplating a run for the presidency. It’s trendy. Yawn. My real point was if she didn’t like something the Pres said, what and why? She deflected by being cutesy, as usual. WTF doesn’t exactly explain where you think someone’s policy is flawed.

  19. Steve Thomas

    Moon-howler :Steve, you and I will just have to have different memories of the origins. So who were all those people prancing around with tea bags hanging from their hats and ears and other things? Were they imposters just trying to make the Tea Party People look bad?
    And lastly, why does it matter? They can call themselves anything they want. It isn’t going to change anything or how any of us feel about the movement.
    I stand by my statement: if people don’t want to be called tea baggers, don’t wear tea bags. I feel certain many of those people had no idea that there was an off-color definition. But that’s part of the risk of going political. I have been called many names over the years I don’t particularly care for. Many of them were slanderous. Oh well…That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

    MH,

    TEA: Taxed Enough Already. The Tea Bags were meant to symbolize the Boston Tea Party, as it would be impractical to run around with loose tea, and incorporate the symbolism of the two. Perhaps this did invite the “hip, happening” James Carvell from linking this term to the more vulgar/slang term “Tea Bagging”, and the members “Tea Baggers”. I highly doubt those little old ladies wearing hats festooned with lipton teabags intended to be linked with a deviant sex practice, but I don’t doubt Carvell’s reference was intended to do just that. I saw the clip from Face the Nation, or whichever Sunday talkshow he said it on, and remember the small media storm that resulted. Therefore I don’t doubt where the linkage occurred. Unfortunately, I immediately understood what he was doing when he repeatedly used the terms, because I know what the term means. I became acquainted with the term while conducting an investigation into the practice as a means of hazing in the Marines.

  20. “I can’t tell if you are saying bring on the hate or being victimized by it. The Tea Party either needs to become an organization rather than a ‘state of mind’ or it needs to stop dodging the we dont really exist bullet.
    The center is not following the Tea Party. Not even close.”

    The Tea Party is a movement with many independent chapters. There is no one central authority. The Tea Bagger description is fine when you mean wearing of tea bags. But you know that the original TP members that used the term did NOT mean the sexual one. They didn’t even know about it. Every time we mention the derogatory use, you return to the idea that it was the wearing of Tea bags and that description that the insulter is using. I’m one of the more thick skinned. If you try to insult me, I ignore it or turn it around on you. (And by “you”, of course, I don’t mean YOU, MH.) However, most people do get insulted when someone uses derogatory sexual terms to describe them and won’t drop to that level and turn it back on the insulter. Me, I can go all day with it. I learned that lesson from a black man that never let the “n” word bother him. He taught me that the “n” word was offensive only if you let it be so, since his friends used it all the time. The minute you take away a word’s power, you take away the insulter’s power. “Personally, I say bring on the hate. Don’t hide what you really think. If you hate me, I’d rather have it in the open. I can fight that. Hiding behind polite smiles is a lie.

    However, tea bagger used as sexual insult is still rude and wrong and since its the “mainstream” definition, as opposed to “one who wears tea bags on their hat,” any usage that way tends to be an insult.

    Why does the Tea Party need to become a centralized organization? So its easier to target? It doesn’t need a central spokesman. The idea of smaller, less intrusive government and less spending is simple enough to understand and as long as you are a proponent of that, you can call yourself a Tea Party member.

    As for the “center,” where ever that is, since its relative, not following the TP, there sure was a huge groundswell for Tea Party members, especially at state and local levels during the last election. Unprecedented GOP wins. And it was the Tea Party that made that happen.

  21. Steve Thomas

    MH,

    Remember, incoming fire always hurts more than outgoing fire.

  22. @Steve Thomas
    I think that it was Anderson Cooper that snarkily used it during a broad cast, using it again and again, while smirking. Makes me wonder how HE became so familiar with the term. I didn’t know about it and I’m not a prude. I found out about it because its an “action” done by one game player to a “dead” one in HALO, as an insult.

    “I became acquainted with the term while conducting an investigation into the practice as a means of hazing in the Marines.”\

    As a 25 year veteran of the GREATEST NAVY IN THE WORLD!, AHA! Now, where’s my brain bleach….

    I always knew there was something wrong about Marines….. and they have the gall to make fun of sailors…….well,except for the sub sailors….

  23. But, back to WTF…

    Really? Obama really needs to get better speech writers and PR people.

  24. Steve Thomas

    “As a 25 year veteran of the GREATEST NAVY IN THE WORLD!, AHA! Now, where’s my brain bleach….”

    Cargo, I could’a used some too. You should’s seen the “Findings of Fact” and “Conclusions” section of my report. The CG actually called me to his office to have me explain it, because he was having much difficulty getting his head wrapped around it. Many weren’t Marines much longer…

  25. @Cargo, I thought it was Anderson Cooper also. But I wouldn’t bet the ranch on that. I didn’t know about it either and I know all sorts of filth.

    Why centralize? In unity there is power. Too many groups. No central accountablity. That is probably really a smart idea.

    I feel like I have been keel hauled. I haven’t called anyone a teabagger in a long time, since I discovered it was offensive. Let’s pick on another chump. My only point is, if you don’t want to be called a tea bagger, don’t wear tea bags.

    As for people insulting each other, why not just call each other Mo fos and be done with it.

  26. Steve Thomas

    Well

    Cargosquid :But, back to WTF…
    Really? Obama really needs to get better speech writers and PR people.

    Well, they tried “Living Obama’s Legacy” but that would equal “LOL”. “WTF” was more “hip”.

  27. @Cargosquid

    Many people were pleased with his speech, including non Obama supporters. In trying to please all, we please none.

  28. Steve Thomas

    “I feel like I have been keel hauled. I haven’t called anyone a teabagger in a long time, since I discovered it was offensive. Let’s pick on another chump. My only point is, if you don’t want to be called a tea bagger, don’t wear tea bags.

    As for people insulting each other, why not just call each other Mo fos and be done with it.”

    MH, no need to feel “keel hauled”. I will say, it is taking me a tremendous amount of energy to deal with my fellow man (and the woman out there too), and not resort to the intended or unintended “snarkiness”. I was a Marine DI for a bit and g’ubment school trained in sarcasm and profanity, after all.

  29. WTF! Why are we discussing Teabaggers anyway? I thought this was about Sarah Palin.

  30. Morris Davis

    The Senate Tea Party Caucus had its first meeting today. In addition to the 3 Senators in attendance (Jim DeMint, Ron Paul, and Mike Lee), the Washington Post reports “other speakers at the event included Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer, Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips, FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe, and Virginia Tea Party Patriot Federation Chair (and Virginia Senate candidate) Jamie Radke.” http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/01/at-first-senate-tea-party-cauc.html What do the ATR, TPE, A4P, FW, and VTTPF have in common? Koch brother $$$$$. The invisible hands at work.

  31. Steve Thomas

    So if Jim DeMint is part of the Teaparty caucus, would that make it “DeMint Tea”? Sorry, couldn’t help myself.

  32. marinm

    I agree with a lot of the posts above. I can’t change that I’m latino. If someone calls me a spi* I can’t control what comes out of thier mouths. I can only control my emotion and “own” the word by refusing to let the word have power over me. Same thing with TEA party..TEA bags and teabagger. Take it, own it and refuse to let the hate get to us. 🙂

    DeMint tea.. haha. Nice.

    I hope Ms. Palin fixes bayonets and refuses to give ground.

  33. marin, it seems to me that Ms. Palin is the one on the attack and not anyone else. This is what I didn’t grasp at the beginning of the thread and I still don’t. She goes on Greta and bashes the SOTU Address, but doesn’t really give concrete examples of what she doesn’t like and how she feels it should be done differently.

    Giving ground? How about just not going on the attack. That seems like the simplest solution to me.

  34. Steve,
    “getting his head wrapped around it.” Brain bleach time again, poor choice of words…

    Moon, YOU haven’t called anyone that. We are discussing the “tea bagger” term in general. We know what YOU mean. Just realize that when others that come on here using the term, probably don’t mean it in such an “innocent” way.

    As for the SOTU, I haven’t heard or read one that l’ve liked since Reagan. I just feel that THIS one was one of the weaker ones. Other peoples mileage may vary.

    As for the Koch Bros……even if they are linked to those organizations, money spent in the decentralization of fed’l power and a return to a more Constitutionally restricted gov’t, resulting in more freedom, is a bad thing? If the Koch Bros. are supporting groups advocating for LESS power, this is supposed to give them more….what?

    Soros advocates more control. From your examples, the Koch Bros. are advocating less.

    Hmm, which do I want……choices, choices…?

    LOL, DeMint Tea.

  35. marinm

    Focusing on a defensive battle gives ground to those that want to take from us. So I say fight. Fight to get things done in a more conservative manner. Even if we’re only successful 5% of the time that’s 5% better than we were before.

    Goes back to the TP.. People got pushed to the point where they said, “The line must be drawn here. This far, no further.” Now they’re pushing back. 😉

  36. Wolverine

    LOL! I am old enough to remember the Ford administration. The country was having a bit of a problem then with inflation. We were all called upon to help “win” the battle against inflation. Somebody came up with the idea of wearing campaign-style buttons with the acronym “WIN.” It became somewhat of a national joke. So, now, in honor of the President’s call for us to “win the future” we should perhaps go around wearing “WTF” buttons?

  37. Elena

    I have a novel idea, how about we stay on topic. Palin just proved how unprepared she is for any higher public office. What she did was so childish and unproductive, I am actually embarrassed for her. This is her calling for Americans to figure out how to move into the future? To say what the f&^ck and think it sounds like a real message. She is the joke. We have serious issues facing this country and I do believe there are other countries passing us by, in technology, business, and caring for its citizens. Some of our best innovations were spurned on by government infusion of money. Do people think WWII was something other than a huge stimulus package? Was Kennedy’s investment in the “race to the moon” not government intervention? I think we need to take something from both parties, get serious on our deficit AND invest in the 21st century, cause this country is stagnating.

  38. Steve Thomas

    Ok, clearly over the top. for discussion purposes only and not meant to pin this on new, more moderate friends:

    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/liberal-wis-radio-host-under-fire-for-mocking-lt-gov-with-sex-cancer-jokes/

  39. Elena

    Oh, and Barak Obama did not use the term teabagger and who cares if James Carville did, he isn’t leading a conservative “third” party and certainly has never intimated he was thinking about running for President in 2012. Lots of people say stupid stuff, I only care if they are running for president and say stupid soundbites in lieu of serious policy suggestions.

  40. Steve Thomas

    Elena :Oh, and Barak Obama did not use the term teabagger and who cares if James Carville did, he isn’t leading a conservative “third” party and certainly has never intimated he was thinking about running for President in 2012. Lots of people say stupid stuff, I only care if they are running for president and say stupid soundbites in lieu of serious policy suggestions.

    Elena, no need to bring VP Joe Biden into the discussion. That was just “Joe being Joe”…just kidding!

  41. Emma

    Maybe she literally meant “whiskey-tango-foxtrot”?

  42. Elena

    Steve,
    Maybe you could address the point I was making. Sarah Palin should have, to be taken even remotely like a serious policy leader, addressed what she though the failings were, in her opinion, of the Presidents points.

    What part was hard for her to sit through? The parts where he talked about the greatness of American creativity and willingness to work hard? The parts where he suggested that teachers were nation builders? T

    here are differences to approaches in how to solve our problems, and Obama reached out a hand, and said, yes, we will argue, but lets figure out how to solve them together, even though it will be difficult.

    Palin, on the other hand, feeds on insults and division, NOT what I see as qualities in a good leader, much less, the President of the United States.

  43. If Palin was going to take a swing at the SOTU address, she should have given an example of what she didn’t like and how SHE would do it differently, even if in general terms.

    She didn’t do that. Even Bachmann addressed specific issues. I don’t agree with them but that is neither here nor there. IN her world, she was productive.

    Palin was only productive in the world of the 16 year old. WTF.

    Joe at least cusses. I swear Palin would get up and swear on a stack of bibles she doesn’t cuss.

  44. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Sarah Palin fell off the civility bandwagon??? You wanna hear the 100 examples of Demoncrats doing it after Tuscon and before the SOTU address? Puh-lease!

  45. No, Slowpoke. Not going to play the ‘well he did it first game.’ I don’t care if she is civil or not. In my mind, she was never on the civility bandwagon.

    My point, again, is that she is taking cheap shots without specifying what she dislikes and how she would do things differently. Instead she chose to act like she was 16 and say WTF. Typical. No substance.

  46. WTF was my reaction to this speech.

    The entire speech was disingenuous.

    The debates have been contentious; we have fought fiercely for our beliefs. And that’s a good thing. That’s what a robust democracy demands. That’s what helps set us apart as a nation. (Congress held no debates. The Democrats refused and locked the GOP out. The TEA Party was defamed.)

    But there’s a reason the tragedy in Tucson gave us pause…something more consequential than party or political preference. (Except that the Democrats libeled their political enemies, blaming THEM for the shootings. So, yeah, not so much.)

    At stake right now is not who wins the next election – after all, we just had an election…
    (The entire speech is about 2012)

    We are poised for progress. Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again. (Well, except for that whole housing market crash, real unemployment around 18%, no loans, ….. Of course we’re poised for progress. We’re just not making progress. And I thought corporate profits were supposed to be evil?)

    These steps, taken by Democrats and Republicans, will grow the economy and add to the more than one million private sector jobs created last year. (And ObamaCare and the EPA, and the moratorium will then take them away. Oh? And those tax cuts? Yeah, they were passed 10 years ago and you continued them. But you were willing to raise taxes on the job producers.)

    Every time he spoke about education, I remembered how the voucher program for minorities was gutted in DC. He talked about the need for jobs, but HCR was more important and he’s bankrupting the energy industry. He talked about NATO and defense, but HE’s the one that pulled missile defense in Europe and killed the development program. He’s the one that said that he’ll freeze spending, but then added spending in the next paragraph.

    “We’ll fund the Apollo projects of our time.” With WHAT money? A) He’s already said that the budgets are frozen B) WE HAVE NO MORE MONEY.

    He talks about rebuilding our infrastructure, improving transportation, building airports, etc. Really? Where? I thought the stimulus money was supposed to do that? Isn’t it done yet? And how does he explain that its his administration that refuses to build more nuclear power plants and just killed an EXISTING coal mine operation in WV? Even Massachusetts won’t build offshore wind turbines. NIMBY.

    “Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80% of Americans access to high-speed rail”
    This is a SOTU address. How in the hell does he expect to do this when they can’t even decide on the definition of “high speed?” Have you seen the Charlie-Foxtrot that is “high speed rail” in Virginia?

    He spoke of competition, but puts union big shots in charge of labor boards. He spoke of competition but wants to “bankrupt the coal industry” and “energy rates would necessarily go sky high.”

    The whole speech was full of “Win The Future” moments. WTF!

    Again, the speech SOUNDED nice. Just like his other speeches. And it was just the same. This was his “return to center” speech, just like his cover on TIME where he’s supposed to be Reaganesque now.

    So, WTF?

  47. Bankrupting the coal industry over one mine? Spruce mine has serious environmental issues. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/26/AR2010032603080.html

    His administration refuses to build more nuclear plants? Name me one nuclear plant built in the past 30 years.

    Yup, Obama is to blame for sure.

  48. Bankrupting the coal industry comes from:

    “So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”

    His administration shut down the Yucca Mountain waste site. Until we have a place to put waste, no more plants will be built. Plans to build more plants had to be scrapped.

    That’s why I said what I did. And closing Spruce mine is the FIRST time that an existing, approved permit has been pulled.

  49. Juturna

    Emma :But I do agree it was tasteless. I don’t put a lot of stock in the SOTU address, as it’s really just a pageant. This one was actually pretty decent.

    I completely agree.

  50. @Cargo,

    Would you want Spruce Mine is your back yard? Strip mining destroys the environment. 7 streams were due to bit the dust from that one.

    As for the waste dump, people opposed it and were not given a chance for input from what I can gather. I would think that state and local folks having input would be a good thing.

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