New Yorker: Palin on the Ground Zero mosque

An excerpt from the New Yorker's "Zero Grounds" article by Hendrik Hertzberg.

Alternate titles: "Where Palin goes 'elitist' on New Yorkers" or "Republicans: We believe in freedom of religion, and by 'religion' we mean certain sects of Christianity."

Zero Grounds

A couple of weeks before the last election, the Republican nominees for President and Vice-President granted a joint interview to Brian Williams, of NBC. “Governor,” he asked, turning to the distaff half of the ticket, “what is an élite? Who is a member of the élite?” Sarah Palin replied, “Anyone who thinks that they are, I guess, better than anyone else—that’s my definition of élitism.” “It’s not geography?” Williams pursued. “Of course not,” she said. The ticket’s other half blinked and smiled a tight smile. John McCain had something to say.

MCCAIN: I know where a lot of them live.
WILLIAMS: Where’s that?
MCCAIN: Well, in our nation’s capital and New York City. I’ve seen it. I’ve lived there.

These élitists, he went on to explain, “think that they can dictate what they believe to America rather than let Americans decide for themselves.”

It was nice of Palin not to go all geographical on us back then. She has forgotten her patron’s admonition about Americans letting other Americans decide for themselves, but at least she says please, or its Twitter equivalent. In a follow-up to her quickly famous, quickly removed “pls refudiate” tweet, she tweeted, “Peaceful New Yorkers, pls refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real.” Sic, sic, sic.

(Read the remainder of the article)