...That seems to be the contention in Judith Warner's op-ed in today's Times...A mostly fair characterization.
As I'm sure my readers well know, the classic definition of a schlemile (going by the great Leo Rosten in The Joys of Yiddish) goes something like this:
1) A foolish person; a simpleton. "He has the brains of a shlemile." [MPG: Rosten very rarely uses the "c" in his "sch" Yiddish words.]
2) A consistently unlucky or unfortunate person....
3) A clumsy, butterfingered, all-thumbs, gauche type...
4) A social misfit, congenitally maladjusted...
5) A pipsqueak, a Caspar Milquetoast...
6) A naive, trusting, gullible customer...
7) Anyone who makes a foolish bargain, or wagers a foolish bet....
Obviously, not all of these things fit precisely with Sarah Palin. I would be hard pressed to think that someone who has come so far on so little is in any way "unlucky" or "unfortunate." Quite the opposite.
Nor is Palin a social misfit -- if anything, her social status is her greatest strength. (Her only strength, when you get right down to it.)
But she certainly fits in with the first definition. And the third definition. And I think definitions five, six and seven are all debatable, but probably fair. (Certainly if you watch Tina Fey's portrayal.)
For a while, I was starting to feel somewhat sorry for the GOP veep nominee. She was clearly in way over her head -- and it made you wonder if she woke up every morning praying that this non-ending parade of ridicule and media scrutiny were just some dreadful nightmare.
Moreover, I thought that the worst you could say about her was that she didn't quite appreciate how unqualified she was. It's not easy being self-aware -- most people aren't -- and Palin clearly was not. That's not her fault, exactly. It's a reason to vote against her -- not to hate her.
That sympathy disappeared (as far as I was concerned) once she started winking at the cameras during the debates -- which made me want to vomit.
But I might have been more inclined to think of Palin as more schlemile like before her little "sunbursts" of love to the television audience.
From Rosten: "It is important to observe that shlemile, like nebech [nebbish], carries a distinctive note of pity. In fact, a shlemile is often a nebech's twin brother. The classic definition goes: 'A shlemile is always knocking things off a table; the nebech always picks them up.'"
