The missed point(s)

I'm not sure anyone is surprised that Sarah Palin made a sporting effort to turn today, a national day of mourning for the victims of the Tucson shootings, into a day about her. (Note that she--or rather, her staff-- released the video at 4 a.m. AK time, which is perfect to dominate the morning news in the rest of the country.)

The media has been focusing on the "blood libel" statement. And rightly so, as it was a ridiculous gaffe. (Note that the phrase has been batted around right-wing web sites for a short time, notably Andrew Breitbart, who apparently started the meme. I will speculate here, but I think a lazy speechwriter simply spent too much time reading the echo chamber web sites and simply used the same verbage in Ms Palin's speech.)

I think the buried lede is twofold. First, she spent less than 45 seconds talking about her sorrow and feelings for the victims, and seven minutes talking about how she is the victim, ticking off talking points, and various other canards. Almost all of those points are either irrelevant or easily disprovable.

More importantly, her logic is (to paraphrase) as follows:

• The rhetoric that's been tossed around did not cause this one lone wolf; we should not give up rights; words cannot hurt people in a vibrant debate.
• If people continue to disagree with me, that will only foment the folks on the right to violence.
• Therefore, it's fine when the right uses incendiary language, but evil when the left uses the rhetorical technique of "criticism".

Pretty thin skin for a presidential aspirant.