Foolish Fiore Fouls Up Facts in Silly Sarah Slam

By L.N. Smithee

Mark Fiore, political cartoonist and animator, did his part in furthering the MSM sneers at and about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in this cartoon, which I found on SFGate.com, the website of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Unlike many lampoons of Palin, Fiore holds back on viciousness, cruelty, and obscenities. Still, in his minute-and-a-half long cartoon, there are two grand ironies. The first: Mr. Fiore portrays the Governor as deceptive (yet clueless) on the topic of Afghanistan by suggesting she Bowdlerized (or, as we say in the Cyber Age, “Dowdified”) Barack Obama’s statement about “air raiding villages and killing civilians.” In fact, she did NOT mischaracterize Obama’s words — in the context of the remark, its preamble, and its conclusion, Obama was at that moment suggesting — regardless of his intention — that air-raiding civilians is the war strategy currently in place due to the lack of available troops.

If anyone is the victim of such sins of omission, it is Palin! PDS sufferers have maliciously Dowdified her words from the beginning of public awareness about her, from her request for prayer that God would bless the war effort, to her statements regarding NATO, to her opinions on creationism and its appropriateness for school curricula, to her campaign speeches about Obama’s terrorist connections, to the non-existent “quote” in which she did NOT say “I can see Russia from my house." (Charlie Rangel, the guy in charge of setting tax policy who says he can’t do his own taxes, repeated that lie in the midst of calling Palin “disabled.”) There is no twisting of words too small for Palin-haters to perform and pass along as factual.

The second irony: Mr. Fiore also faults Palin for mistakenly referring to General McKiernan as “General McClellan.” Yet, throughout the cartoon, the actress voicing Palin refers to her stubbly, plaid-wearing, snowmobilemachine-riding hubby as “Pat.”

There may be a Pat Palin somewhere, but the First Dude’s name is “Todd.”

Mr. Fiore, here's a tip: If you're going to be correcting someone on getting names wrong, you darn well better get the names right yourself.