Palin says no breast implants

Jeff Poor at Newsbusters reports:

Another incredible charge that has surfaced in left-wing media outlets as of late was that Palin had gotten breast implants. Palin responded to host Greta van Sustren [sic], but not without first taking a few shots at those who propagated the rumor.

“Well, first Greta, you know why we love you?” Palin said. “Because you’re not afraid to ask the questions and I got to respect you for asking that question because I know that Boob-gate is all over the Internet right now because there are a lot of, I guess bored idle bloggers and reporters with nothing else to talk about. And I think some of those folks, too—they need to perhaps grab a shovel, go down to the Gulf, volunteer to help cleanup and save a whale or something instead of reporting on such stupid things like that.”

And as for the implants? She cleared that up with very implicit answer [LA replies: He means an explicit answer, not an implicit answer. Also, I don’t believe it’s correct to describe a statement as “very implicit.” Either a statement is implicit, or it isn’t.].

“No, I have not had implants,” she said. “I can’t believe we are even talking this. I think a report like that is about as real and truthful as those reports that Todd and I are divorcing or that I bought a place in the Hamptons or that Trig is not my own child. And we still put up with that kind of garbage, too—even the mainstream media, Greta. It is amazing.”

[end of Newsbusters article]

Palin’s and Poor’s characterizations of what happened are not correct. There was no “report” that Palin had had implants, nor was there a “charge,” incredible or not, that she had had implants. Rather, there were photographs of Palin taken last Sunday at a race track in which her breasts looked so much larger than they had ever looked before that it raised the reasonable question in many people’s minds, including mine, whether she had had breast implants, and they said so. This is a completely different order of thing from, e.g., the blatantly false reports last year that she and her husband were divorcing. But Palin is not intelligent enough to understand the difference between a false and baseless report, and a reasonable impression that people get from a photograph. If she appeared in public with blonde hair, and people said, “Wow, it looks as though Palin has dyed her hair blonde,” would Palin say, “This is another false report about me, people should get a life”?

An appropriate response by Palin to van Susteren would have been: “I understand from those photos that I look as though I have had implants, but in fact it’s not true, I have not,” followed perhaps by a joke about her modest endowments. But Palin’s all-purpose victimology and her lack of intelligence precluded such an answer.

This incident is a small example of Palin’s habitual failure to take responsibility, a failure that at times amounts to pure dishonesty. The most egregious example was when she, having a pregnant unmarried 17 year old daughter, accepted the vice presidential nomination offer from McCain, and then (see Going Rogue) claimed to be shocked and dismayed when her daughter’s pregnancy was reported in the media and her daughter was very upset about this. Palin acted as though the world was doing something terribly unfair to her and her daughter, whereas in reality she had chosen a course of action that made it inevitable that the whole world would be told of her daughter’s embarrassing situation. She has never acknowledged this simple fact. Read the page and a half of Palin’s Going Rogue (that’s all there is on it) that deal with the revelation of Bristol’s pregnancy at the time of the nomination, particularly her account of her phone conversation with Bristol, and you will see what I mean. Palin’s stunningly off-handed treatment of the issue provides support for Nietzsche’s aphorism that “Women are not even superficial.”

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LA writes:

Can you imagine what a Palin presidency would be like? Four years of victimology.

GA writes:

You wrote: “An appropriate response by Palin to van Susteren would have been: ‘I understand from those photos that I look as though I have had implants, but in fact it’s not true, I have not,’ followed perhaps by a joke about her modest endowments.”

So you think it would have been appropriate for Palin to respond by deprecating her “endowments”; to call her “endowments” “modest” (do you find her underendowed?); and to further the vulgar discourse by discussing her breasts?

I am by no means a Palin supporter, but I too can’t believe we are even talking about this.

By the way: Do we now use the plural “endowments” for breasts, the way some people use “bosoms”?

LA replies:

As I said, there are always a few who are offended by discussions of the physical appearance of public figures. You didn’t seem to notice that she did reply to van Susteren and did deny that she had implants, so she evidently didn’t regard the topic as beneath her. As for your shocked response to my suggested possible joke, you sound too squeamish for life on this earth.

Whatever we may think about Palin, one thing that can be said for sure about her is that she is not squeamish but is a regular gal. She could have carried off such a joke with panache.

It’s funny that you have no problem with her absurd victimology over the incident, but you have a huge problem with my suggested joke aimed at lightening things.

LA continues:

Also, you misunderstood me when you thought that “modest” was meant as a put-down. Palin is a very attractive woman with a beautiful, well proportioned form. Her bust is not too small but is just right for her figure. But she doesn’t have (or at least she did not have until recently) large breasts. That’s all I meant by “modest.”

LA continues:

Also, perhaps you didn’t see the recent discussion at VFR on why breast implants are bad and why they matter:

“Breast implants—another aspect of our debased culture that conservatives take for granted and never criticize”

June 13

GA replies:

You say I’m squeamish. I would have said reserved. Whatever.

Here, let me be more of a regular gal. What Palin should have said is “No, Greta, they’re real, and they’re spectacular!”

LA replies:

Good one!

Sorry about the “squeamish,” but I get so tired of being subjected to the same disapproval every time this type of subject comes up that I got a little snappish in reply.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 12, 2010 07:20 AM | Send