Right on cue, Sarah Palin released an internet video response today to those laying blame at her door for the "crosshairs" and rhetoric and general partisan atmospherics surrounding the Giffords shooting.
Palin blamed the media:
“Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence that they purport to condemn,” she said. “That is reprehensible.”
The media is always a convenient scapegoat. But putting that aside -- "blood libel"? Really, Sarah Palin? While these besmirched journalists and pundits commence bloviating while noting she probably got that line from a recent Wall Street Journal piece and doesn't understand the history of the phrase, we're left wondering (again), who does Palin get her advice from?
A big part of being a leader depends on the team you surround yourself with, how you measure your own instincts against the advice you get and how you proceed. Little doubt, most politicians left to their own devices would probably be pretty nuts most of the time.
Washington Post editorialist Jonathan Capehart, looking pained on MSNBC, said if Palin wanted a good example of how to sound and behave right now, she should have looked to House Speaker John Boehner, who delivered a poignant speech on the floor of the House.
"She should have been more careful," Capehart allowed, saying no one is calling Palin an anti-Semite, but she certainly came off as insensitive. "Sarah Palin missed an incredible opportunity to go from being someone who hides behind Twitter and Facebook to get her message out to being an actual statesperson," Capehart said. "They weren't the right words."