In 2 words, Palin's effort to address furor stokes it.

The presidential-quality
stagecraft was there: an
American flag over Sarah
Palin's left shoulder and
another over her heart. So
was the rhetorical polish, with
its invocations of the Founding
Fathers and the Constitution,
God and Ronald Reagan.
And after four days of near-
silence from Palin, the timing
guaranteed that she would be
written into the story line of
President Obama's visit to
comfort grief-stricken Tucson
after a massacre there.
But if the statement that Palin
put out Wednesday was
designed to tamp down the
criticism of her incendiary
style of politics, it turned out
to have the opposite effect.
Within minutes of the video
and its accompanying
Facebook post going viral on
the Internet, all of that was
subsumed by a new furor over
Palin's choice of two words to
describe her critics in the
media: "blood libel."
Her choice of that provocative
phrase underscored the
challenge and the
contradiction that confront
the Republican former Alaska
governor as she undertakes a
new strategy to retool her
image and elevate her stature
in preparation for a possible
presidential run in 2012.
A presidential campaign would
pit Palin's ambition against her
impulses and test her ability
to expand her reach beyond
the narrow slice of the
population that rallies behind
her.
Palin has often invited
controversy and helped to
shape the national debate by
using words as blunt
instruments - such as her
memorable accusation that
Obama has made a practice of
"palling around with
terrorists" and her contention
that his health-care law would
include "death panels. " It has
been a hallmark of her rise
and source of her political
star power.
Her statement Wednesday
brought yet another visceral
response, though this time, it
was one Palin did not
necessarily intend or expect.
"Journalists and pundits should
not manufacture a blood libel
that serves only to incite the
very hatred and violence they
purport to condemn," Palin
said in the video. "That is
reprehensible."
Blood libel - a phrase that
other conservatives have also
used in recent days - was her
way of decrying liberal critics
who had tried to draw a
connection between Palin's
campaign rhetoric and the
Tucson shootings.
But it also has a specific, ugly
historical context. Blood libel
is the centuries-old anti-
Semitic myth that Jews use the
blood of Christian children for
rituals such as baking
unleavened bread during
Passover. It was used to justify
persecution of Jews.
Her choice of words
immediately overshadowed
the point she was trying to
make.


Source: Http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/12/AR2011011206633.html