Sarah Palin's desperate attempt to prove to the world that she really is a hunter, proves just the opposite. Update!

From th AWL:

While much of the debate around the episode is an ethical one about a millionaire shooting a defenseless animal so as not to have to pay for meat, the real conversation should be about how the episode absolutely exposes Palin as a charade.

In this most recent episode, a woman who has blindly championed the NRA and legitimized her frontier-woman status by claiming to be a "lifelong hunter" comes across as anything but.

While Palin's hunting-for-TV jamboree certainly impressed the hockey moms, it seriously eroded her base of genuine hunters. One online commentor, on Sean Hannity's website no less, grumbled, "I turned on Sarah Palin's Alaska a minute ago and she just shot four maybe even five times at a caribou and missed. Needless to say I'm not impressed with her ability to handle a firearm let alone aim it and hit something."

On Palin's own Facebook page, a viewer wrote, "What a joke. I was a fan before the show. No one who is a true hunter lets others carry their rifle or can't load their own shells. Sarah, you are a phony in this area of your 'skills."

Several others wondered why Palin, an experienced hunter, didn't bring her own rifle, pointing out that familiarity with one's weapon is a core principle of hunting. Another pointed out, regarding Palin's veteran hunter dad, "I was surprised to see him using the gun as a walking stick."

There are many more criticisms and observations by hunters contained in the link and I urge you to read them, they really leave no doubt as to the phoniness of this episode.

However I want to add an observation that I made. 

Now I am not a hunter, but I have been raised around guns all of my life. One of the things that bothered me from the very beginning of the episode is Chuck Heath's choice of a "varmint gun" for Sarah to use to shoot caribou.

Now I am not knowledgeable enough to identify the caliber of the rifle that Papa Heath picks for her, but the very use  of the term "varmint gun" and the fact it is chosen because it does not have much "kick,"  seems to indicate that it is a smaller caliber weapon.  Perhaps a weapon far more suited for shooting rabbits, squirrels, and other "varmints."  NOT caribou.

I did some research and learned that Chuck could have purchased bullets for the gun that could, if you will, have had more bang for the buck.  In other words on impact it would have caused a more grievous wound then the usual choice of ammunition and possibly have brought down a larger animal, like a caribou.

However what was emphasized over and over is that, while using a smaller caliber weapon, in order for it to be a clean kill, the hunter must be able to place the bullet in exactly the right area to ensure that it kills rather than simply wounds the animal.  What we saw, despite the great effort to prove it was the weapons fault, is that Palin is NOT a good shot.  Which means, since surely Sarah's father knew that, Papa Heath brought a weapon that was almost guaranteed to cause their prey the greatest amount of suffering.

We have no idea if the footage showing the caribou falling after Sarah's sixth attempt was actually of HER kill, Becker's earlier kill, or just some random stock footage the TLC crew had available.  However considering how unsteady Sister Sarah looks while aiming Becker's weapon (She keeps adjusting her position from kneeling to lying prone, ALL while holding the trigger.), it seems highly doubtful that IF she actually DID hit the caribou that it died quickly. Obviously there is no way that TLC would broadcast the mewling and suffering that would have come from a wounded caribou, or the footage of Becker walking up to deliver the killshot, but there is a very good chance that is exactly what took place.

In other words, in a desperate effort to put to rest Levi's allegation that Palin is NOT a hunter, she dragged a television crew all the way out into the wilderness of Alaska, either completely missed or only badly wounded a female caribou, and then made the TLC crew edit the footage to make it appear she successfully killed the animal with one bullet, ALL to prove Levi Johnston is a liar. THAT is how thin skinned and spiteful the real Sarah Palin is.

And in fact ALL Palin managed to do was prove to the world that Levi Johnston was telling the truth.

Update: Ooh, it looks like "Sarah Palin Sees Alaska for the Very First Time" is losing viewers faster than contestants on DWTS (except Bristol of course) lose pounds:

The ratings scorecard thus far:

2.8 million viewers on Sunday, which was down from 3.5 million last week, which was up from 3.5 million ( actually that should be 3 million) in the second week, which was down from a record-breaking 5 million for the premiere.

I imagine that next week's episode, where Kate Gosselin and her herd of children show up, will have a larger audience.  However I doubt it will help Palin's show in the long run, because watching how the Grizzled Mama treated her out of state guest actually made me feel sorry for Kate Gosselin, and I would have thought that impossible.  Demonstrating that you are a bigger bitch than freaking Kate Gosselin is not exactly a way of winning new audience members, or support for a Presidential bid by the way.

And the Sarah Palin train wreck keeps right on chug, chug, chugging toward its inevitable destruction.

More popcorn?