Sarah Palin drives goo-goo's nuts

July 7, 1:38 PMCook County Buzz ExaminerMike Houlihan

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2 out of 3 Goo-Goo's (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Sarah Palin is nails on a blackboard for David Letterman, Vanity Fair, and NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd. And after last week’s sudden resignation as Governor of Alaska it would seem that she has had enough of them and all the other wanks who’ve been trying to drive a stake through her heart ever since the election.

Palin is anathema to the progressives, lefties, bomb-throwers, and radical chic of the media world. In Chicago we call these people goo-goo’s.

To understand what it is about Palin’s persona that gives goose bumps to the Goo-Goo Nation, we must first get a grasp of what makes one a goo-goo.

Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn (the dean of Chicago goo-goo’s) called for an end to the use of the word in his column earlier this year. Zorn rightly credited “good government” as the antecedent for the term goo-goo, but in present usage it means quite a bit more than reformer or even liberal.

Yes, your politics are part of being a goo-goo, but more importantly your personality. The goo-goo always employs a self-righteous and sanctimonious spin to the presentation of their politics. A perfect example of a goo-gooism was uttered by then presidential candidate Barack Obama during the election when he said this about folks in Pennsylvania, “So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

You see the goo-goo always knows what’s best for the rest of us because, of course, the goo-goo is so much smarter and compassionate than the rest of us.

Many goo-goo’s in Cook County are Democrats, but they chafe at the reputation of their party. They elected Blago, but won’t admit it. They love Governor Pat Quinn for his record as a goo-goo, but they reserve disdain for Daley.

Goo-goo’s are so much more than simple good government people; they are patronizing peddlers of pabulum. Like Zorn in the Tribune, Carol Marin in the Sun-Times, or that brilliant seasoned journalist Katie Couric who so intellectually took Sarah Palin to task on what magazines she read during the campaign.

Goo-goo’s belong to Planned Parenthood and PETA and the “Society for the Prevention of Jimmy Pushing Johnny Out of Line”.

Goo-goo’s believe that our new President walks on water and if we don’t see it we are racist luddites.

Goo-goo’s fear Palin more than Putin, Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il, and the Pope. She’s the antithesis of the goo-goo worldview, and she just might get elected President someday. That’s what scares them more than anything.