"a clear slap in the face"

This is absurd. Apparently, Newsweek this week has a cover story on Sarah Palin and her face is featured on the cover, close-up. Megyn Kelly on Fox News, and Republican media consultant Andrea Tantaros are outraged--outraged!--that it was not photoshopped to look better. They are upset that one can see pores in Gov. Palin's skin. After calling the cover a "clear slap in the face," Tantaros urged viewers to cancel their subscriptions to the "elitist, liberal magazine."

"They retouch you to get rid of the normal flaws that human beings have. That's what they do in the magazine business." It seems like that might be a lot of the problem here, that we are encouraged to have unrealistic expectations of beauty on our magazine covers. But, no, the problem here is clearly that we are insufficiently making our female politicians like our favorite celebrities.

If Gov. Palin were a movie star or a model, and she were in a fashion magazine in which all the other models received the photoshop treatment, perhaps there would be a claim of unfairness. But, she is a politician, and this is a news magazine. We don't photoshop George W. Bush or Barack Obama! You can see wrinkles, moles, pores, etc. on Obama's Newsweek covers. Why is there no expectation that male politicians ought to be photoshopped and airbrushed?

I guess at this point, it has to be about distraction and about the horrible media and the secret Muslim terrorist Obama. Because it can't be about the economy. But it's still distressing. Incidentally, I distinctly remember Fox news personalities discussing how Hillary Clinton looked tired, old, and in need of Botox. A clear slap in the face! Right? Oh well.

Anyway, I think Gov. Palin looks, as usual, beautiful. Here is the picture.