Remember when Al Franken challenged National Review's Rich Lowry to a fight out in the parking lot? Or was it the other way around? Anyway, Franken told the story to mock Lowry, whom Franken found ridiculous.
Now Lowry has mocked himself. Here's what he said after the vice presidential debate:
A very wise TV executive once told me that the key to TV is projecting through the screen. It's one of the keys to the success of, say, a Bill O'Reilly, who comes through the screen and grabs you by the throat. Palin too projects through the screen like crazy. I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me." And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America.
Now I've been trying to think of a psychological explanation for Lowry's reaction. Sure, it could be pure lust. It seems there are a number of men, including John McCain, who are turned on by this woman - being a woman myself I don't really get that - but do men act this way towards every pretty woman who is supposed to be a serious person? Maybe. But there might be something else that triggered the response in certain groups of men.
Maybe my reaction as a woman will help explain. After about a half hour, not being able to make any sense out of Palin's manic and disjointed words (held together by a record 53 times saying "also"), I no longer tried to understand what she was saying. In fact, my mind started freezing up whenever Palin's mouth moved. I found myself simply blanking out. Looking back, I think what was happening is that I was going into a trance.
When I was taking a class on hypnosis, one of the first exercises we did was one in which a trance was induced by confusing the subject. One student would be the subject, and one student would sit on each side of the subject, whispering into the ear of the subject. Thus, the listener was hearing two different things at the same time and, unable to make any sense of the two conflicting messages, simply tuned out by going into a trance.
That's what happened to me in listening to Palin. I think that's what happened to Lowry, too. Only in addition to his mind going into a trance, his body went to its apparent default position - sex. His brain turned off leaving another part of his anatomy to think for him. The next morning, his brain tried to make sense out of a sexual response. And that's why his column is a joke and everyone is mocking him.
Do you suppose this is what happens when John McCain is around his running mate? He has been acting awfully wierd lately. Here's another reaction to Lowry's behavior. Can we finally admit that this male behavior is sexist, and that Palin is actually promoting it?
