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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Maureen Dowd's Trip to Alaska

Maureen Dowd of the NY Times was in town last week taking notes. Here's a brief excerpt:

I wandered through the Wal-Mart, which seemed almost as large as Wasilla, a town that is a soulless strip mall without sidewalks set beside a soulful mountain and lake.

Wal-Mart has all the doodads that Sarah must need in her career as a sportsman — Remingtons and “torture tested” riflescopes, game bags for caribou, machines that imitate rabbits and young deer and coyotes to draw your quarry in so you can shoot it, and machines to squish cows into beef jerky.

I talked to a Wal-Mart mom, Betty Necas, 39, wearing sweatpants and tattoos on her wrists.

She said she’s never voted, and was a teenage mom “like Bristol.” She likes Sarah because she’s “down home” but said Obama “gives me the creeps. Nothing to do with the fact that he’s black. He just seems snotty, and he looks weaselly.”


She also went to the James Dobson's focus on the family gay curing session and the women against Palin demonstration at Loussac Library.

Here's a link to the whole Dowd column.

7 comments:

  1. Yup, this is why I tell folks here in Britain that I'm from Minnesota! Gee, am I not proud of where I come from?

    Guess.

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  2. I would love it if anyone got pictures of Dowd talking to the unwashed masses. Not that people in Alaska don't bathe. It's just that Maureen is a little condescending.

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  3. The fundementalists are stuck in the pre 20th century world. If you go into the South, you'll see a lot of these people look like they fell off the back of a Conestoga wagon. They're absolutely crazy, small minded and xenophobic as hell. click on my name and check out my blog, I sent years in the same types of churches Palin attendscurrently, and I am thankful to be ut with a semblance of sanity...

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  4. The first thing I thought when I read her column was, did she actually set foot in Alaska or did she just send an assistant? It wouldn't be the first time:
    http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2008/01/dowds.php

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  5. Just wait til she goes to South Anchorage and says she found women hysterical over the effects of Starbucks with their Valium.

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  6. Jay, no comment.

    Mo MoDo - I first titled this post Maureen Dowd Goes Slumming in Alaska, but decided to let her piece speak for itself. I thought about the condescension, but then thought about the controversy Ben Stevens (Ted's son) caused when, as State Senate President, he talked about "Valley Trash." (Wasilla is in the MatSu* Valley.) While many Anchorage people acted indignant and used that to attack Ben Stevens, I think a lot of them secretly agreed.
    Sorry, I didn't get a picture at the rally. Does she look like the picture? Joel's comment, though, may explain why, with all the pictures taken and blogged at the rally, no one seems to have caught Ms. Dowd.

    Tea, you still living north of Chicago? Otherwise I'd point out your expertise on this.

    *MatSu is short for Matanuska-Susitna, the name of the Borough Wasilla is in, and of two rivers.

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  7. Wanda Seamster was interviewed by MoDo, in person, at the rally. (Per my Aunt Donna.)

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