Chris Christie,  Debra Saunders

Sarah Palin’s “Blood Libel” and the OFF Button

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

I think Governor Christie is echoing what Charles Krauthammer said yesterday on Fox News that Sarah Palin’s Blood Libel Facebook post and video were unnecessary.

Harsher treatment is given by conservative columnist Debra Saunders.

That is, until Wednesday when Palin released her video, which turned the spotlight back on her and added a new element. Now cable TV news can noodle over whether Palin was deliberately provocative or clueless in using the words “blood libel” – a term coined to describe the spurious and ancient charge that Jews murdered non-Jewish children and then drank their blood in rituals. (And yes, I know a Wall Street Journal opinion piece used the same term Monday.)

The sorry episode confirmed the suspicion that Palin is addicted to getting attention, while her boosters are addicted to defending every thoughtless utterance she releases. And even her boosters know what most Republicans know: Palin is not a serious thinker.

With her Tweets and Facebook pronouncements, she’s become a virtuoso at pressing liberal buttons. It’s too bad that, like the people who live to hate her, she doesn’t know how to stop.

This is fair criticism of Sarah Palin and I think as a defining moment in politics, the Tucson shooting may have directed the GOP away from a Sarah Palin Presidential candidacy.