Sambo-Bitchgate

I first came across this Sarah Palin accusation while reading the Field Negro blog last week. Yesterday, my boy Dabalu sent me an email about it. Curious, I Googled it and realized that this rumor’s gone viral. Even Michelle Malkin has blogged about it. If you haven’t heard, Sarah Palin’s being accused of once calling Obama “Sambo” and Hillary Clinton a “bitch.”

Here’s the email:

Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean”

September 5, 2008
by Charley James –

“So Sambo beat the bitch!”

This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat’s primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.

“It was kind of disgusting,” Lucille, who is part Aboriginal, said in a phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being discovered telling folks in the “lower 48” about life near the North Pole.

Then, almost with a sigh, she added, “But that’s just Alaska.”

Racial and ethnic slurs may be “just Alaska” and, clearly, they are common, everyday chatter for Palin.

Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians
interviewed for this article.

But being openly racist is only the tip of the Palin iceberg. According to Alaskans interviewed for this article, she is also vindictive and mean. We’re talking Rove mean and Nixon vindictive.

No wonder the vast sea of white, cheering faces at the Republican Convention went wild for Sarah: They adore the type, it’s in their genetic code. So much for McCain’s pledge of a “high road” campaign; Palin is incapable of being part of one.

Now, Field (whose blog I seriously love and read every day) decided to treat this internet rumor as true. I have to respectfully disagree. Not because I’m a Palin supporter (quite the opposite) but mainly because it’s way too convenient to be true—like all urban myths.

All too many of us are willing to believe that a Republican can be racist (warranted or not—I mean, “gentic code” was a bit much, don’t you think?). So, of course, the Republican governor would be spitting “Sambo” on the diner floor. It just reinforces what we already think. But for those supposed Hillary voters who are about to jump the fence, look, Palin called your girl a “bitch.” How can you vote for her?

Despite the image the GOP’s trying to mold around the woman, I don’t think Palin’s a saint. I don’t think she’s all that qualified to be VP, but I also find it hard to believe that she’s a complete moron. And it would’ve been completely moronic for a trained politician to say something like that in public. It wouldn’t be the first time—but it’s still unlikely—especially since it dovetails so nicely against her.

Unlike those right-wing bloggers out there, I’m sure this rumor didn’t come from the Obama camp (they aren’t morons either). Just like I’m sure that McCain’s not responsible for the Obama-Anti-Christ-abortionist-jihadi rumors. I’m just tired of all the bullshit.

Look, I’m not some kind of political naïf, singing “Kumbaya,” wondering why we all can’t just get along. Bitter partisan rancor, vicious rumors, baseless accusations have been an intrinsic part of American politics since Washington hung up his spurs. Claims of bastard children, questionable parentage (did you know Warren G. Harding was our first black president?), alcoholism, debauchery. Our politicians have been some of the most evil sons- and daughters-of-bitches on the planet—or so their opponents would have you believe.

It’s just that this campaign has been going on for way too long. People are anxious. I’m anxious. This election is a watershed moment in our nation’s history. Not just race and gender will be affected. Currently, our country’s problems are so vast and numerous, and Obama and McCain see governance fundamentally differently. We have two seriously divergent paths to choose from for our future. And because these paths are so disparate, because so much is at stake, I just wish … just wish … just …

Ah, screw it.

Sarah Palin is a racist, neo-Nazi lesbian dominatrix who killed and ate Cambodian children when she led Khmer Rouge troops back in ’75! That’s right, when she was nine-years-old! All the while selling state secrets to al Qaeda! And John McCain is her love child!!!

Yeah. That’s right. You heard it here first!