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Throughout this presidential race the temperament and personality of each presidential candidate has been subject to microscopic scrutiny, and for good reason: The president is America's diplomat-in-chief, and for the past eight years we have seen all too well how ill-served America's diplomatic interests may be with a narrow-minded and mean-spirited individual occupying the Oval Office. While Republicans have attempted to paint Barack Obama as an aloof, arugula-eating elitist, Democrats have observed that John McCain's hotheaded temperament and spotty memory may well bring us even more problems than Bush. Enter Republican vice-presidential running mate Sarah Palin, who brings a new list of negatives to the national conversation.
Since Palin's introduction last week at the Republican National Convention, one word more than any other seems to sum up most negative reactions to her: Snarky. As borrowed from the Brits, "snarky" can mean rudely sarcastic or disrespectful, snide, snotty, contemptuous, irritable or short-tempered, snappish; critical in an annoying, sarcastic, grumpy, wisecracking, or cynical sort of way. Snarky is derived from "snark," meaning "to nag" or "to find fault with," but is also related to "snort" and "snore," likely owing to the derisive snorting sound of someone who is always finding fault. For Palin "snarky" seems a perfect fit not only in terms of content but also in terms of style; not only her snarky words but also the snarky tone in which they are delivered, and even the snarky sound of her voice. In the photo here, even her face looks snarky.
I think "snarky" is a perfect word to describe Sarah Palin, and I hope it sticks. To this, however, I would also add "petulant" (as above), "smug," and "self-righteous," as John Seery wrote in the Huffington Post shortly following Palin's appearance in St. Paul: "What I saw on that stage was the personification of small-minded smugness, an utter lack of humility, a kind of self-righteous entitlement based on little more than puffed-up narrowness.... a sanctified, self-satisfied presumptuousness that flows from sheer naivete about oneself and the world and manifests itself in giddy ambition."
No wonder the Republican base likes her so much.
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
