Sarah Palin may not have much experience with the rest of the world—she didn’t even hold a passport until well after her 40th birthday—but the rest of the world has had enough experience with her to know exactly what it thinks. Those thoughts range from mild bemusement to borderline horror. Much of the world, especially in Europe, has spent the last four years counting down the days until President Bush’s final hours in office, and for them, Palin’s folksy ways carry too many echoes of the sitting president. That sentiment doesn't rule out the possibility of a little satirical fun at Palin's expense, of course.
Take Italy, for example. Ironically for a temperate nation that borders on the Mediterranean, the Italians take special offense at Palin’s stance on polar bears. (As governor, she sued the U.S. Interior Department for listing the polar bear as a threatened species.) “Polar bear killer” is second only to “pitbull” as the nation’s preferred nickname for Palin. Greenreport.it, a web site for Italian environmentalists, started a petition against her, citing her views on polar bears.
But the Italians know how to embrace the lighter side of politics--a talent they honed during years of living under President Silvio Berlusconi, a garish media mogul prone to spectacular gaffes. Paola Cortellesi, the Italian Tina Fey, has followed in the footsteps of her stateside counterpart and launched satirical broadsides against the Palin phenomenon. In one, the faux-Palin smiles and fires a shotgun at the audience. “Sarah Palin is a spectacle,” Cortellesi has said in response to why she chose the American vice-presidential candidate as her latest victim. “The hair, the glasses—and she loves sub-machine guns.”
In France, no need to find a Gallic Fey—they import the real thing. The first Tina Fey parodies hit the net with French subtitles soon after their American debut, leaving viewers with the unique problem of trying to translate “boner-shrinker.” But others in the country take the task of Palin-bashing very seriously. French media outlets have sent reporters to Alaska to glean Wasilla color up close. Le Figaro, the popular daily, said of its foray into “Sarah Palin country” that it wanted to portray the reality of a land in which “the fact that Sarah Palin knows how to slaughter and carve up a moose in no way posed a disadvantage to her electoral chances.”
That doesn’t mean they’re sympathetic, of course. Even French right-wingers feel uneasy about the prospect of a Vice-President Palin. Nadine Morano, who currently serves as State Secretary for Families and is a member of the right-wing UMP party, admits that “she has talent, but on sex education, abortion or the gun lobby, she has convictions that are more than conservative.” Morano added, “I’m as attached to the family as she is, but I don’t have the same vision. That’s the least I can say.”
The sober-minded Brits find a perverse appeal in her plain-spoken ways. "She could never exist in the British political system," says London Times columnist and former political satirist Alice Miles. "Or we don't think she could. We're all men in suits saying very, very safe things." Her exoticism has obsessed many, including tennis coach Jack Garvey, who admits to staying up until two a.m. to catch the vice-presidential debate last week. "I found myself shouting at the screen, imploring someone to push her on a few issues," he says. "But everyone was too polite to challenge her. The idea of her facing off against Putin or being in any way near power is just frightening." Even her fashion choices offend the Isles; the Guardian dedicated an entire column to her Alaska-shaped earrings, which, "with terrifying literal-mindedness...express everything we need to know about her pride in her roots and her people."
Across the Atlantic, optimistic Republicans might have hoped for a bit of favorable coverage in Brazil, where evangelical Christians are the fastest-growing religious group. No luck. Palin's been lampooned in cartoons there, and Sergio Augusto, a columnist for the daily newspaper, O Estado de Sao Paulo, joked that "judging by appearances alone, [Palin] could have swapped politics for synchronized swimming or been singing covers of 'Pink Shoelaces.'" Win or lose, Palin should exercise sound judgment in determining how best to make use of her new passport.
With reporting from Barbie Nadeau in Italy, Tracy McNicoll in Paris, Sophie Grove in London and Mac Margolis in Brazil
Photo: Associated Press
