Sarah Palin? She’s no Thelma Garcia Buchholdt
October 2, 2008
It’s painful to see the rise of Alaska’s Sarah Palin, who this week tries to show she has the eloquence of at least a George W. Bush.
Now if that doesn’t please the general electorate, it should at least make the joke writers over at Saturday Night Live ecstatic.
The debate between Palin and Biden is expected to draw nearly 35 million viewers; that’s more than the American Idol finale. And all because Palin is more watchable than a train-wreck waiting to happen.
What makes Palin’s 15 minutes of fame even more galling is that Alaska has produced some great female political leaders, one of whom is an Asian American of Filipino descent, Thelma Garcia Buchholdt.
So for this first week of October, Filipino American History Month, it’s fitting to remember Thelma, who was the first Filipino American woman legislator not just in Alaska but in all of the lower 48 (49 when you count the island state of Hawai‘i).
Elected to the Alaska Legislature in 1974, Thelma was everything Palin is not. When Palin, in her GOP convention speech, attacked Barack Obama’s community-organizing work, I couldn’t help think of one of the best community organizers in the history of Alaska.
Thelma’s community work went beyond what she did for the large Filipino American community in that state, where she served as president of the Filipino Community of Anchorage. She was also active in the League of Women Voters and helped found the Boys and Girls Clubs of Alaska.
Her political career began as state coordinator of the McGovern campaign in 1972. That led to an appointment to the state’s Human Rights Commission. Ultimately she was elected to the State Legislature in 1974, where she helped the state find an equitable balance between environmentalist, indigenous peoples of Alaska and Big Oil. She was re-elected three times, rising to vice chair of the House Finance Committee.
As a woman, an immigrant Asian American of Filipino descent and a veteran of Alaskan politics, Thelma would have been my go-to person to dissect Palin. But last year on Nov. 5 no less, in what normally would be an election week for politicians, Thelma, god rest her soul, died from pancreatic cancer at age 73.
I’ve missed her wisdom and kindness ever since. But I knew that Thelma’s soulmate and husband Jon would know exactly how Thelma would feel about the Alaskan governor’s moonlighting as a vice-presidential candidate.
An Alaskan’s Opinion about Palin
Jon, a practicing attorney in Anchorage, said in an email that Thelma never met Palin but was disappointed when the governor vetoed an appropriation to the Filipino American National Historical Society that Thelma had arranged to be included in the 2007 budget.
That says a lot about the governor’s lack of sensitivity to Asian American issues. We probably rank lower than the moose she loves to hunt.
In general, Buchholdt said both he and Thelma were surprised to see Palin’s rapid rise, beginning with her appointment to chair Alaska’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, a sinecure post. There she served on the Commission with the chairman of Alaska’s Republican Party, Randy Ruderich, who, having nothing to do, used his computer at work to organize the Republican Party.
“That was our first notice of Sarah’s pronounced righteousness,” wrote Buchholdt. “Palin blew the whistle on Ruderich’s party organizational work on company time, and up and quit her $120,000 a year job to begin running for Governor by questioning everybody else’s ethics. Righteous Sarah.”
Buchholdt said the righteousness of Palin worked for her political base in the Matanuska Valley and the Matanuska-Susitna valleys, a politically conservative area and an Assembly of God stronghold.
Buchholdt did not mince words about his disapproval of Palin’s mixing of religion and politics: “Palin is a hard-right Christian fascist, an Assembly of God zealot who believes that our foreign policy toward Israel and her neighbors should foster the final war to bring on the second coming.”
Hey, I love God too. But I put the exalted above our petty democracy, which is rightfully reserved for us mere mortals.
Many people think Palin will need prayers more than cue cards when she debates Joe Biden this week. But oddly, Buchholdt doesn’t think that will hurt her.
“While there are those who believe her mouth will do her in as she is permitted to use it to betray her lack of political sophistication, and her bias, I take the opposite view,” Buchholdt said. “That she makes us wince with worry is part of her charm. Sarah is fun.”
Now if that’s how even her detractors describe her (mind you Palin has an 80 percent approval rating in Alaska), it indicates just how disarmingly dangerous and alluring Palin can be.
“Thelma often remarked about Palin’s use of very general statements, and how she keeps saying the same things over and over,” Buchholdt said describing Palin’s practically hypnotic appeal. “This will be apparent to you in the up-coming debate.”
Palin certainly invites pop culture comparisons. I’ve likened her to Sally Field’s Gidget, Norma Rae and Sybil rolled into one. Maureen Dowd has compared her to the artless Liza Doolittle of “My Fair Lady.”
Let’s keep it biblical. Palin’s Eve with a wormy apple. She’s definitely no Thelma Garcia Buchholdt.
For updates on Palin/Biden, McCain/Obama, and an easy-to-understand explanation of the financial crisis and bailout, see the daily blog at amok.asianweek.com.
E-mail: emil@amok.com
Comments
3 Responses to “Sarah Palin? She’s no Thelma Garcia Buchholdt”
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Palin’s role model is G W Bush. She is described as Bush-in-skirt and right of Bush. How “right” can you get ?
In tonight’s debate, after intensive “couching” by veteran GOP “strategists” for 3 days in McCain’s secluded villa resort, she tried like hell to show her calm and “confidence”. She is clever, no doubt, but she just
gave others an unmistakeable impression of being not very sincere or trustworthy. This type can lie very well.
In her self-righteous small world, folks like Thelma just simply do not exist and do not matter..
One heart-beat away, she could decide the fate of the good old USA and your insignificant fate, God forbid.
Here’s a clip from a liberal. I frankly think she should have left Biden in shreds with democrats shooting down attempts by Bush and McCain to rein in freddie and fannie, but she did just fine being herself. America will like her just fine, and the more the left tries to destroy her, the more Americans will see who really cares about what’s really important, not just how to beat up democrats.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122300786229301597.html
Palin and Populism The downside of appealing to Joe Six-Pack.By PEGGY NOONAN
She killed. She had him at “Nice to meet you. Hey, can I call you Joe?” She was the star. He was the second male lead, the good-natured best friend of the leading man. She was not petrified but peppy.
The whole debate was about Sarah Palin. She is not a person of thought but of action. Interviews are about thinking, about reflecting, marshaling data and integrating it into an answer. Debates are more active, more propelled—they are thrust and parry. They are for campaigners. She is a campaigner. Her syntax did not hold, but her magnetism did. At one point she literally winked at the nation.
As far as Mrs. Palin was concerned, Gwen Ifill was not there, and Joe Biden was not there. Sarah and the camera were there. This was classic “talk over the heads of the media straight to the people,” and it is a long time since I’ve seen it done so well, though so transparently. There were moments when she seemed to be doing an infomercial pitch for charm in politics. But it was an effective infomercial.
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