Ouch. That's Gotta Hurt

BarackObama.com blogger weighs in on Heather Mallick

When Heather Mallick wrote her "Mighty Wind" op/ed column -- the very one that so deliberately baited so many of the Republican right's more unbalanced denizens, one has to think that Mallick imagined that the pro-Obama crowd would crystalize around her cause, coming to her stalwart defense.

Not so. As it turns out (unsurprisingly) far too many Barack Obama supporters are too wise to do that. Consider the following comments from BarackObama.com blogger Dr Jeffrey Kargel:

"Heather Mallick, your outrageous commentary about Sarah Palin goes far beyond what decency and political common sense and common purpose would allow. (Readers, if you must, see http://www.heathermallick.ca/cbc.ca-columns/a-mighty-wind-blows-through-republican-convention.html.) Of course you are free to vent your anger, as I and so many others have regarding McCain's inane or downright stupid choice of VP. Sarah Palin, according to probably just about any male or female qualitative assessment, is cute, pretty, or gorgeous: take your pick. By some accounts, and in my judgment (the little I know of her), she is a great hockey Mom and raised her kids well; mistakes happen, and teenagers make more than the per capita annual average number of mistakes.

All this has some bearing on society, like maybe the cover and inside pages of People magazine, but it amounts to noise and fluff with respect to the real debates and decisions being made based on real political positions (and lack thereof) of the candidates. Heather Mallick, your commentary is mere fluff and noise, and is fairly hateful stuff at that. Your commentary detracts from the real issues. You may have intended it as a humorous, satirical piece, but it missed that mark by a long shot. There was nothing funny about it, at least not in my opinion. You treated one vindictive woman's lack of political and personal Presidential-quality character with your own vindictive diatribe; and you exposed your lack of integrity and balance. Sarah Palin needs to be dealt with, but not the way you tried to deal with it. I'd rather have balanced commentary that nobody reads than to seek attention through writing sheer trash and nonsense. You ought to feel quite ashamed."

Unfortunately, Dr Kargel, she doesn't.

As a matter of fact, Mallick has used the outrage and some of the more... unenlightened... responses to her tirade to mentally reinforce her schema of herself as more cultured than the great unwashed of the pro-Palin crowd.

Meanwhile, one may wonder who Dr Jeffrey Kargel is. He's an astronomist at the University of Arizona. If an astronomist -- so very far removed from the beer-swilling redneck Mallick imagines emailing her threats from the monster truck rally -- can see Mallick's invective for what it is, it isn't too hard to think of something to tell Mallick she can do with her sense of self-superiority.

She won't be cozying too closely to the Obama campaign, that's for certain.