Bizarre Palin lie about the flags in her office

On 26 September, Sarah Palin met Shimon Peres, President of Israel. The New York Sun quoted her telling Peres, "The only flag at my office is an Israeli flag."


Time magazine, from the Juneau Empire, via AP (2006). You can tell it's her office, and not a press conference podium, because there's a computer monitor and a picture of her son there. Though the photo is facing outward -- which means she can't see it when she's sitting down working.

I can think of a few explanations for her bizarre lie to Peres. One, perhaps she's being conversational. It sounds like something in the ballpark of the kind of nonsense I might spout at a party held at the house of a friend-of-a-friend, a house I probably won't ever go to again, and a person I probably won't ever see again: "I love the colors in your kitchen! I've been saving up some money to re-do mine, and now I have a better idea of how teal green, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances would look like together"; or maybe, "This is just the type of berber carpet I have in my den, and it's held up well for quite a few years." I'd be able to spin this kind of chatter for five or ten minutes, at least as long as it takes for my drink to kick in or other guests to arrive. Neither statement is remotely true, but I enjoy building home-improvement castles in the air, and these statements are plausible, not condescending, and not easily tested.

The next explanation is that she thinks this is how diplomats talk. She's shown in spades during her Katie Couric interview footage over the past week that she's completely out of her league when she's asked to discuss anything beyond her local or state politics. She's an utter provincial.

I went further into the Time slideshow, because I'm curious. Here's Palin hard at work at another desk:


Time magazine again, via Getty (undated but titled "Governor's Office"). You can tell she's hard at work because she's on the phone. Now, is it just me, or is that a heck of a lot of photos, and not much in the way of books, business machines, and paperwork in that office there? I know she has a near-quiverfull of kids. But it still seems to me that cabinets in the office of the governor should be more than merely curio cases. Or maybe not. Maybe this is the sanctum sanctorum of her office, as opposed to the other photo, and she likes to keep photos of her kids around. Certainly no flags.

So I did some super in-depth googling, in the interest of solid, unimpeachable research. Here's the desk of the Republican governor of Connecticut, where GOP state representative T.R. Rowe, whoever that is, gave some kids a tour apparently recently:


I see two flags. Neither is Israeli. Obviously, Governor Rell is an anti-Semite, unlike Governor Palin.

To continue, and in the spirit of bipartisanship, and to get this back to the Pacific Northwest, here's a photo of the Democratic governor of Washington, signing something terribly liberal and anti-American into law back in 2005:


The blue thing above Mr. Beardy's head is an American flag. The similarly shaped green thing behind Mr. Blueshirt is a Washington state flag. Still no Israeli flags! It's like a conspiracy!

I could go on, but the ice in my whisky has melted and the glass has warmed. I'm not even sure if I remember my original point, but I'm pretty sure it's something along the lines of this: Telling the leader of another country that the only flag in the office you occupy as governor is that other nation's flag is a deeply stupid, pointless, and meaningless lie.