Sarah Palin, Yawn

I've got a new piece up at The Guardian's CifA about Sarah Palin's appearance with Oprah earlier today:

Sarah Palin's back in the news again, with a new book ghost-written, erm, co-authored by the virulently anti-gay Lynn Vincent. The patron saint of conservative mavericks, who remains firmly not a maverick, according to the 59% of Republican voters who say Palin shares their values, stopped by Oprah Winfrey's show today to talk about her life as a wild Republican rogue.

The show is a yawn-inducing puff piece. If anyone expected Winfrey to conduct an interview that would force Palin to account for any of the demonstrable untruths she's told about herself, they will certainly be disappointed. We are instead treated to images of Palin working out and taking care of her son Trig, and the conversation turns to trenchant subject matter such as her grandson's father, Levi Johnston. "I hear he goes by the name Ricky Hollywood now," says Palin, which might be a more withering aside had it not been delivered from the set of the Oprah Winfrey show.

It is during this segment, in which Palin discusses Johnston's decision to pose for Playgirl magazine, that Palin takes the opportunity to engage in her infuriating habit of affecting extraordinariness by asserting a totally common position as though it were exceptional. "I call that porn," she says, of Playgirl. Yeah, so does everyone. But Palin deserves special plaudits for taking the controversial – dare I say, mavericky? – stance of calling Playgirl pornography, unlike those disgusting straw-liberals who want it used as a kindergarten textbook. Or something.

Read the whole thing here.