Sarah and the Caribou

I have, to date, avoided the subject of Sarah Palin. However, when I learned that there was a tape of her shooting a caribou, I was overwhelmed by curiosity and watched it. It was, to say the least, less than I had hoped for. Mrs. Palin missed the creature six times. She apparently doesn’t know how to work the bolt on a rifle, because her guide keeps yanking it away from her to cycle the action. She apparently doesn’t know that you don’t shoot at running game. For reasons that are unclear, the camera is not on her when the fatal shot is fired. Is it possible she was not the one who pulled the trigger?

Mrs. Palin is in great demand as a pro-gun, pro-hunting speaker. Fine. But if you’re going to advertise yourself as a person who is the real thing, an honest-to-goodness taker of big game, not a person who poses for the camera with a rifle, learn how to shoot for heaven’s sake.

People who don’t hunt will see this performance and think it’s typical of all of us, since Palin has been selling herself as a hell of a hunter. Maybe she should take a couple of shooting lessons. Or more than a couple.