Is Sarah Palin sinking her presidential hopes with ‘blood libel’ remark?

How a public figure handles themselves in a crisis is often an indication of what kind of leader they will make. Sarah Palin, with her eyes on the White House in 2012, may be taking the ultimate test in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

On January 8, 2011, Jared Loughner, 22, opened fired in a Safeway parking lot in Tucson, Arizona. He killed six people and wounded 14, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a democrat.

In the days following the shooting, Sarah Palin was criticized for having a map of democratic candidates on her website with a gun targets on specific states. Individual candidates were listed as targets. Gabrielle Giffords was one of them.

The map was taken down after the shooting.

On Wednesday, Palin wrote on her Facebook page, “…After this shocking tragedy, I listened at first puzzled, then with concern, and now with sadness, to the irresponsible statements from people attempting to apportion blame for this terrible event.”

A Palin staff member told Alaska radio Sunday that there was "nothing irresponsible" about the images of crosshairs used in a map of the 20 congressional districts targeted by Palin's PAC,” according to the Washington Post.

Palin went on to defend herself against media attacks, calling them, "blood libel," which is an anti-Semitic term that refers to Jewish rituals that involve killing, according to MSNBC.

Political pundits claim George W. Bush used his popularity during the September 11 World Trade Center attacks to will re-election. His widely criticized handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster contributed to his  extraordinary unfavorable ratings when he left office.

The Palin controversy over the Arizona shootings may leave a scar on the Palin political machine that the former Alaska governor may not recover from.

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Arizona shooting: There is no such thing as an ordinary American

When Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in an Arizona parking lot, it wasn’t the CEO of a corporation who immediately came to her aid. When the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed by Timothy McVeigh, and when the World Trade Center was attacked by terrorists on September 11^th, the first responders were not high-ranking government officials. They were not part of an elite group of highly trained professionals. They were what our lawmakers often refer to as ordinary Americans. Yet there is nothing ordinary about them.

On January 8, 2011, Daniel Hernandez said, "When I heard gunshots, my first instinct was to head toward the congresswoman to make sure that she was okay." He added, "Once I saw that she was down, and there were more than one victim, I went ahead and started doing the limited triage that I could with what I had…. It was probably not the best idea to run toward the gunshots," he told the Arizona Republic, "But people needed help."

The 20 year old Junior at Arizona University had only limited medical training, but is still being credited with saving Congresswoman Giffords life.

Six people were killed by Jared Loughner, 22, when he sprayed the Safeway parking lot with bullets at Congresswoman Giffords Saturday morning rally. Their names are: Judge John Roll, 63; Dorothy Morris, 76; Dorwin Stoddard, 76; Christina Greene, 9; Phyllis Scheck, 79; and Gabriel Zimmerman, 30. Sixteen others were wounded.

Over time, we sometimes forget the names of the victims and heroes of tragedies. But as it has been proven time and again, there is no such thing as an ordinary American.

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