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Echoes (Video): Sarah Palin and Andy Griffith

By Judy Silver on July 8, 2009 at 9:01 AM in Current Affairs

First posted at The New Agenda.

Andy Griffith had a wonderful way of allowing the character of Sheriff Andy Taylor to look foolish in order to teach America lessons. In this case, the lessons were of compassion, humanity, and equality. Sadly, in the wake of Governor Palin’s resignation, it’s clear that those lessons are as relevant today as they were 50 years ago.

In the original show (episode 10 of season one, “Ellie for Council,” in reruns on TVLand), Andy redeems himself. When he hears Opie bashing women, and realizes that the boy is just parroting his father, Andy becomes ashamed of himself. I hope America today will have the courage to be as self-reflective and wise.

  • Texas Playwright

    Thanks for the post, Judy. The New Agenda is doing good work. To quote Hillary Clinton and Harriet Tubman, Keep Going!

    HIllary and Sarah are two feminine models of the 20th/21st Century political/cultural arena. We need them both, and millions more women like them.

    You GO, Girls!

    P.S. That “Don’t worry your pretty little head” insult is uttered so often, sitll, isn’t it? The dominant society–male this time–will and and does resort to violence if it doesn’t get its way. Hence, misogyny around the world. Keep Going, Women, Ladies and Girls!

  • HARP

    Polls are starting to reflect the true picture:

    The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 32% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-seven percent (37%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –5.

    http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

    • I’m a Linda too

      Yes, I just called hubby with the news of HObama’s shrinking numbers. Soon only his HObots will be supporting him and all they need is their daily dose of Koolaid to stay in line.

      Gallup even with their skewed polling has Obama going down, down down…from 65…62…59….58.

      And now Ohio has HObama down to 49. He may end up being exactly like Bush in so many ways…the pres with the highest and lowest approval ratings. lol

      Of course, deserving.

      The man is now known ask they “Say anything to get elected” president.

  • tek

    What a great show. I still watch re-runs. Sheriff Andy Taylor had the qualities a democracy needs in its public officials.

    I’m afraid this county is toast. In our own state, the governor wants to give out IOUs (not CA) and lay off 300 state troopers and other essential services! I read on Monday the economic indicators are now at the same levels as the Great Depression. All Obama cares about is creating new entitlement programs to pay off his key voting constituencies. What a clown.

    • politicalidentitycrisis

      What will it take to wake people up?

    • Rob G in Chicago

      It seems to me that many governors and state legislatures are engaging in fear-mongering and grandstanding at the highest levels, in pursuit of their universal goal to wring more money out of the taxpayers. They (and public employee unions) bus in protestors to the Statehouses to illustrate that the “people” want a tax increase, and the legislators and governors draw up lists of imminent layoffs and cut-backs calculated to unravel the “safety net” and guilt the fiscally responsible legislators into approving tax increases. Meanwhile, the states continue to hand out no-bid contracts to political cronies, approve questionable studies, pile on pension enhancements for double-dipping government workers (like the retired state legislator in Illinois who sweetened his $73,000 annual pension into a $113,000 annual pension throh a 19 day appointment (from Blagojevich) to the position of Acting Director of the Department of Natural Resources), lavish travel expenses, etc. Rarely are the padded payrolls of middle management patronage jobs threatened. It’s all showmanship and game playing at taxpayer expense.

  • helenk

    OT
    http://countusout.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/u-s-may-not-release-acquitted-detainees/

    This is not the America where I grew up.

    WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

    PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

  • Peggy Sue

    There’s something sad in all this, the idea that a TV show from 50 years ago is still relevant to what we see now. The line that popped up for me was smacking a woman in the mouth with a leg of lamb. If she won’t stop, resort to violence. Or tighten the purse strings. In Palin’s case, her detractors have tried to sue her out of existence.

    We’ve Come a Long Way? Not so much.

    As for national self-reflection? That doesn’t appear to be our forte right now.

    Thanks for the vid!

    • Diana L. C.

      I grew up watching shows like this, not ones in which young girls get their 15 minutes of fame baring their breasts and going wild. Everyone in the country with a t.v. had only about 3 or 4 channels to watch, so our public conscience and public consciousness were more cohesive. There are about three generations of voters who didn’t get thse messages and took too many things for granted.

  • Tex-Mex Soup

    Thank you so much for posting this. I’m almost in tears from pure sadness/anger of what we are witnessing. Its b*llsh*t and its time to stop this madness, one step at at time but we will get there and I am d*mn good and ready for the fight.

    Viva la Mujer!!

  • o

    Palin’s Lawyer On Greta’s show.

    http://www.thehopeforamerica.com/play.php?id=1414

    I loved the part about the “Left Wing Playbook” and the description about how liberals use the system against conservatives to get headlines and force conservatives to spend their own money to defend themselves. That Playbook is Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. Then at the end he provided a link to Obama (his official blogger) as one source of frivalous ethics complaints from the lower 48 (outside of Alaska). This is going to get good!

  • Ginger

    Wow! Crushing blow to realize we are in the same place where we started.

  • NomNomNom

    Your article’s title is a bit disingenuous since Andy Griffith and Ron Howard both made tv ads in support of BHO. (I’m not saying the ads were a good thing).
    Griffin has also campaigned and raised money for former govs. Hunt & Easley, & our current governor Beverly Perdue; senate leader Basnight; as well as many radio ads including: sens. Kerr, Rand & Odom and senate candidate Kay Carroll. They are all democrats.
    Perhaps you should retitle it: Echoes (Video): Sarah Palin and the Andy Griffith Show or Echoes (Video): Sarah Palin and Sheriff Andy Taylor.
    One can debate whether or not Andy Taylor would have endorsed Palin, but Andy Griffith endorsed her opponent.

    • Diana

      I’d love to know if they still feel the same way. Although, I’ve watched the commercial Ron Howard did, and Andy just gave Ron advice on people and why they’re set against change, told him to stay out of trouble, etc, so someday he can grow up to vote…he never actually endorsed anyone. Henry Wrinkler and Ron Howard did. But, Ron also added that he’s voted for both sides. Or did they do a second one? I only saw the one where he went fishing with Andy and then he went to talk to the Fonz.

      • NomNomNom

        I’m not sure: I believe there was more than one, but it may be I’m remembering pieces from some of the others and conflating them. Griffith runs a lot of ads here come campaign season lol.

        • NomNomNom

          NC paper said he did fundraising for BHO campaign
          http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/profiles/andy_griffith

          • Diana

            Let’s blame it on his age. ;) I’m probably half his age and have CRS half the time. OK, I checked and I’m a little more than half his age.

            Aww Andy…Why? Didn’t you, Ron or Henry bother to research what you were supporting? Or did you just all fall for the hope, yes we can, just words? At your ages…tsk tsk. Working in Hollywood, as if none of you hadn’t heard it all before. As if you have no idea when someone is acting.

            Thank you for the link.

      • http://www.MyAllNaturalWeightLoss.com Suzie Q

        I don’t know a single Obama voter who now wishes they had voted for McCain/Palin. I certainly know some Obama voters who may be somewhat dissapointed with the way things have gone so far (but that’s to be expected from such high expectations and with the economy doing so poorly) but certainly no one is thinking “man, I sure wish McCain/Palin were in the White House instead!” … God No! That’s still considered a nightmare scenario.

        Most of us think President Obama is doing the best he can in difficult circumstances. And many of us believe that by 2012 he will be considered to be a very successful President (if health care reform with the public option happens, don’t ask don’t tell is repealed, and the economy turns around – and I think all 3 of those things will happen.)

        • http://www.MyAllNaturalWeightLoss.com Suzie Q

          And I should mention I know a *LOT* of Obama voters.

          • Seattle Moss

            Well Suzie…I know a lot of people too!

            Being a leader in industry and active in the community and in my Churches
            I made a point to show my visible and outgoing opposition to Obama and his Anti-American, Anti-Business policies which as predicted are coming to fruition.
            I have people from all walks voicing their opposition to Obama and agreeing that I was correct that Obama is bad for business and a National Security risk.

        • TexasMirth

          I certainly know some Obama voters who may be somewhat dissapointed with the way things have gone so far…

          Well, SuzieQ, get ready to hear a lot more complaints because they are coming – even to those with their eyes covered and their ears plugged. Americans are waking up from the hopey-change dream and seeing the reality of the farce that is Obama.

  • http://thesibylspeaks.wordpress.com/ Anthony

    Great video, pertinent to the topic of the day at the MSM bashfest.

    Just made an animated video of Palin pretty much calling it as it is

  • Benito

    When she accepted the VP nomination, she knew she needed to bring her professional game up to another level, she never did. She knew that her family would get attacked as did Hilary and Chelsea before her (by even her twin maverick brother McCain in 1998), let face it she knew her family affairs would come out. But now she plays the victim card again, a card she played after those comical first extended interviews that we all enjoyed and SNL immortalized. But for the icing on the cake, she quits, because she does not want to be a lame duck governor, because the lawsuits keep coming, because it was the media’s fault, because seeing Russia from her house finally got to her, because its not fair that Alaskan’s paid her salary while she was running for the VP position, take your pick. So what does she tells us? Dear Mr. President, when things get tough, quit. Dear military men and women, if you are not having fun, quit. Dear son or daughter, if things are not going your way, quit. Sure, I agree when she first was introduced and gave a descent speech, sure the polls went up, but after the extended interviews, they went where they ended, down. She showed her true character, I real hope the book deal, Radio/ TV shows and the lecture circuits make up for what her party has lost by her actions. She may go down in history as the quitter that twittered.

  • o

    In short, Palin’s resignation has been misreported and misperceived because of the horrendously biased and incomplete coverage of her over the past ten months. It’s not just that a completely phony narrative has been created by the media which makes it easy for people to think of her as stupid, incompetent, overly ambitious, diva-like, nutty and capable of massive lies (the LA Times and NY Times published rumors she faked the pregnancy of her down syndrome child!!). If possible, it is actually even worse than all of that.

    Even if they were capable of seeing through the obviously grotesquely flawed media created caricature of her, the vast majority of the public simply doesn’t have enough information to connect all the dots themselves and put her move into its proper context. (I must state here that while in a rational world this should have been taken care of by the news media, Palin and her people should have realized this was not going to be the case and made more of an effort to lay the educational foundation for the resignation to be properly interpreted.)

    For instance, how in the world can anyone fully understand why Palin took this action unless they know this is not the first time she’s done something like this? How many people are aware that in 2004 (almost exactly the same amount of time before her election as Governor as there is now before the 2012 primaries) Palin put her political career in jeopardy and resigned out of principle from a cushy government job as the chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission? My guess is very, very few.

    I’m sure most members of the news media know nothing about this basic and relevant fact from Palin’s background because I’ve done my own “poll.” Every time a media inquiry to discuss Palin’s resignation came my way I made a point of asking the reporter if they knew about this episode. So far I have yet to find even one who had a clue, and this sample includes a writer from The New York Times!!

    As maddening as this kind of incompetence is, the most insane element of the reaction to Palin’s resignation is the complete inability of the vast majority of the press — and at least some of the public — to even comprehend the possibility that she just might be telling the truth about how and why she came to this decision.

    This will evidently come as a complete shock to nearly every member of the media elite, but not everyone in public life is a manipulative and cynical liar, and not every person who has a shot at being President must live their lives to pursue that end no matter the costs to the public good, their family and their personal sanity. The Sarah Palin I know is at least one person in that position who is sufficiently well-grounded and secure enough in themselves and their values to not succumb to this illness of hyper-ambition. She is more than capable of putting something else above her own selfish, short-term political self-interest. You would think that a just society might reward that kind of person and not crucify them, but it has been long since clear that we don’t live in that kind of place.

    The bottom line is that Sarah Palin resigned simply because she was no longer allowed to do her job in a way that benefited her state and family. She saw that if she stayed on as Governor it would cost the state millions of dollars in wasted time and resources and doom it to gridlock. She knew that it would also continue to cost her family hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend against false and maliciously filed ethics complaints. And she had simply had enough of her children being fodder for inappropriate public attacks.

    That’s it. Those are the facts and I’m positive there’s nothing else. There is ABSOLUTELY no hidden scandal (or as CNN’s hack Rick Sanchez “reported,” an unplanned pregnancy) and this was NOT a poorly executed ploy to ignite a 2012 Presidential run. Sarah Palin simply came to the “remarkable” conclusion that stepping down was the right thing to do for the greater good. How sad is it that so many in media (including a whole lot of “conservatives”) can’t even begin to see this obvious reality.

    I know that whatever I say is discounted because I created a film largely about Sarah Palin, and I have made it clear that I have personal admiration for her (I guess I would be more credible if I was a liberal who didn’t know anything about her), but I have never been more confident in any public declaration I have ever made. The media-created perception of this woman is the most corruptly inaccurate I’ve ever seen, and their attacks on her and her family are the most outrageous and dangerous I’ve ever been aware of.

    http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jziegler/2009/07/09/the-truth-about-sarah-palin%E2%80%99s-resignation/

  • jangles

    I profoundly admire the decision Sarah made to leave the governor’s job. She wanted the freedom to support and do the things politically that are important to her and that she thinks are good for this country. She is not playing “the victim card”; in my view she clearly decided that she was not going to be victimized by the msm and talking heads who talk and talk and talk and accomplish nothing.

  • Paul

    It’s unfortunate that the media lets the personal bias out when reporting on high profile women figures. But it starts in our homes and progresses to our schools and universities, to our work force (Private and Public) and yes, even our religious institutions. The way you look (as crazy as this sounds) does matter (for men and women) and often trump stellar qualifications. Have you seen many heavy set, unattractive CEO’s, running fortune 500 companies? Not many (unless they started their own companies), looks do matter, even when it comes to men. Now let me relate a time when I worked for a company that serviced several mortgage companies. Every time we visited our clients and met a high profile women, who happened to be young, attractive and available, the people who always ran her down were other women in my organization (they would say, she slept around, her blouse shows too much, blah, blah, blah). So its been my experience that women worse enemy are other women (was it not Sarah Palin who said that Hillary Clinton shouldn’t whine about tough media coverage and should just try harder). Our culture has these various bias issues as individuals how can a group of these same individuals not have the same problem, like the media, journalism, schools and universities, work force (Private and Public), religious institutions, etc. Gays, minorities and immigrants also get treated differently in their daily lives as do women (worse if they are not attractive), it is unfortunate but it’s a fact of life.

    My beef is that she reminds of unqualified people like Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, and George “W”. She is just another “W” in heels and she is stringing the religious right along, she will sell you her books, her radio/TV shows and speaking engagements. Let me paint you a picture, in my opinion, for the last eight years where the mantra was no regulation and no oversight and spread to all federal agencies and the justice department was filled by unqualified religious types and the dullard (ex-drunk) religious president started two wars of choice with extreme tax dollar spending, is anyone real surprised with our current economic situation because of those choices. I am so tried of unqualified religious zealots controlling the government and their attempts to make the second coming of Christ a reality, their hatred of women, gays, minorities, and immigrants (even though they use them to reap higher margins for their businesses) disgust me. And if McCain had chosen a “Dan Quayle” type, I would be doing the same thing pointing out his shortcomings. I see your point but don’t be too quick to summarize that yours perspective is the only valid perspective. I think in this specific case she has reaped what she and her party have sowed.