Barriers to success, in America:
Here are lessons of the Sarah Palin experience, for any aspiring politician who shares her background and her sex. Your children will go through the tabloid wringer. Your religion will be mocked and misrepresented. Your political record will be distorted, to better parody your family and your faith. (And no, gentle reader, Palin did not insist on abstinence-only sex education, slash funds for special-needs children or inject creationism into public schools.)
Male commentators will attack you for parading your children. Female commentators will attack you for not staying home with them. You’ll be sneered at for how you talk and how many colleges you attended. You’ll endure gibes about your “slutty” looks and your “white trash concupiscence,” while a prominent female academic declares that your “greatest hypocrisy” is the “pretense” that you’re a woman. And eight months after the election, the professionals who pressed you into the service of a gimmicky, dreary, idea-free campaign will still be blaming you for their defeat.
All of this had something to do with ordinary partisan politics. But it had everything to do with Palin’s gender and her social class.
Sarah Palin is beloved by millions because her rise suggested, however temporarily, that the old American aphorism about how anyone can grow up to be president might actually be true.
Farewell to all that, for now.
Is it because of the feminists? Or the lawyers?
Or is it because we, as a people, are not who we pretended to be?
Or is it because we, as a people, are not who we pretended to be?
I’d say it’s because our “well-educated,” successful, ideological, “progressive” elites in positions of power are not who THEY pretended to be…
“Here are lessons of the Sarah Palin experience, for any aspiring politician who shares her background and her sex.”
Only if that aspiring politician is a Republican. Did anyone notice how Chelsea Clinton was off-limits while the liberals went after the Bush girls and Bristol Palin with a vengeance?
Hillary had no problem until the Obama thing developed, and that trumped Hillary.
I suspect that any qualified competent Republican woman will have a tough time. Think Sarah is being treated roughly? Observe how Liz Cheney is treated if she states her Presidential intentions. It’s all about the HATE of strong women that will not abort.
Fbl … I am in complete agreement with you about the “well-educated” progressive elites. They are not who they think they are. Even back in the 1940s when I was in college, getting an “elite Eastern college” education that my Middle Western parents saved mightily for, the “eastern elite” students I shared classes with were amazingly ignorant to my Mid-Western eyes. They’re just as ignorant today, and even more conceited.
I think, after 81 years of observing, that our country is filled with wise people, good people. But darn few of these wise, busy people are conceited about it, or feel that they’re entitled to special treatment because they attended this particular university or have a family trust fund.
I’m finding a lot a wisdom on the Internet blogs these days, and some egregious stupidity, which tells me more about the nature of the commenters than about the subjects they comment about. I very much respect and admire Lex, and his commenters here, for their decency and discernment, and their gentleness with those they may not agree with.
Marianne
Marianne- There are days I wish I lived next door to you so I could just have coffee with you in the mornings and learn. Seriously. Today is one.
I’m with Bou. Just one morning with you would be like getting a graduate degree. Wow.
And speaking as someone who grew up in the ivy-covered shadows of the “eastern elite” schools…please don’t hold that against me.
Marianne,
I second your motion as to the caliber of the dialog at Chez Lex. It is a corner of sanity and education in an increasingly insane and ignorant world.
As for the educated elite — I cannot have an honest conversation with my very highly educated colleagues at work. It is sad indeed when higher education results in closed minds. Thus I eat alone in my office rather than partake of a shared lunchtime conversation.
So, Lex and you all provide the open and civilized conversation and exchange of information that I need. I cannot stand the dishonest and ignorant shibboleths that I am confronted with daily in a challenging and otherwise very good work environment.
Marianne/
Speaking of “elite” Eastern schools and Mid-Westerners as you were@#4 yesterday am, I’ve got the greatest cock-tail party “come-back put-down” story EVER IN HISTORY that is the absolute truth because my sainted Mother, (who would be 95 this fall were she still alive) witnessed it all and joyfully related to one and all–including me. You, especially of all people, would probably get a great kick out of it. It’s too complicated and tangential for here, but contact Lex and give permission for him give me your email address (have no fear, I gave up stalking years ago, tho my wife wishes I’d start up again just to get me out from underfoot.
) if you will and I’ll be only too glad to tell you a wonderfully funny tale.
‘Farewell to all that, for now.’
The pendulum of partisan politics is swinging far to the left right now, but it wont last forever. Nor is the type of attacks Palin underwent unique in American history. In 1896, the New York Times (I know, you’re shocked) ran a series of articles by medical doctors discussing whether William Jennings Bryan was crazy. One expert wrote: “I don’t think Bryan is ordinarily crazy … but I should like to examine him as a degenerate.”
As always, barriers exist when the “wrong type” tries the conventional way that requires leave from the gatekeepers to pass. That however doesn’t mean the end for the enterprising. They simply find another path, harder, perhaps even needing to be cut from the jungle or dug through the swamp. But not impossible and far more dangerous to the “elite” Since no debt is owed and animosity is usually high. Sarah Palin has withdrawn but I expect her to reemerge from a direction where the ‘elites’ guns can’t bear or are less effective. And with an army of rejects and misfits now organized with a purpose.
Dear Gentle Readers, this is about nothing but “boobs and butts”. With all due apologies to MM- sorry ma’am. Go take a gander at those leftist liberals and think “man, what a hottie”. Can’t do it. Even Skippy probably can’t do it. Female/liberal/educated is just another euphemism for “she has more chest hair than Dick Butkus”. If Sarah was as homely as Bella or Barbara Mikulski or Nancy or Hillary, nobody would even care. Yep, just another hard working woman that while wrong, clearly articulates her views. It is the fact that she is good looking that so clearly sets her apart. What we’ve got to do is go find the homeliest, sharpest female Repub out there and put her on center stage. You haven’t seen any photos taken from below knee level and behind Sotomayor have you? And you won’t either.
Oh, and this revelation was made to me by my daughter (20 year old rising senior journalism major) during one of those “oh Dad, you are sooo naive – you out to hear what my professors say about her” moments. She said they all but foam at the mouth when she declares her support of Sarah. Not quite the education I thought I was paying for.
It is fascinating to me that 8+ months after the election – and countless “we wons” from the Obama Administration – that the media still has such a jones for anything “Palin”. Sarah Palin represents everything feminists and the left have espoused for decades – and yet they shredded her just because she had the brass balls to be the dirtiest of dirty words – a conservative. Nothing these people say about Sarah Palin will shock me anymore; but from a purely anthropological view it’s damned fascinating reading.
I almost feel sorry for them – almost. They are a train wreck that doesn’t know how to stop its forward momentum. I believe that by 2016 they will finally hit the wall – of Sarah Palin.
deleted by author
My, my, how quickly the main subject at hand – Sarah Palin – veers away here to multiple musings about class & gender, feminists or lawyers, progressive elites, misogyny, et al., and conveniently leaves the prime player out of the discussion. Anything but Sarah.
The fact remains that Sarah ‘the martyr’ unexpectedly and suddenly quit in her first elected term, betraying the citizens who elected her. When the going gets tough, the weak quit.
So Sarah is not quite the ‘cuda she proclaimed, is she?
It should be noted that not only those who are “left of Lennin” [h/t, B2] are critical of Palin, but Conservatives are too. Krauthammer said she “wasn’t a serious candidate for the presidency.”
More damning is Conservative Hillyer writing in today’s conservative American Spectator charging Palin with “Dereliction of Duty.”
Somehow it always seems for her that is all about Sarah; from not wanting to live in the State Capital, from extravagant wardrobes, from never straying too far or too long from a camera, etc. Indeed, it was” all about Sarah” that nearly overshadowed our greatest national holiday weekend.
But for her supporters, it is nothing at all about Sarah. It’s all about all those ‘others’. Yes, all “they” are the real problem with Sarah. Yep. That’s it. You betcha!
Finally, if I never hear of Michael Jackson or Sarah Palin again, it will still be too soon. There are far greater issues at hand that too many remain ignorant of in the hype of the moment, and far more important people to follow and respect.
My, my, how quickly the main subject at hand – Sarah Palin – veers away here to multiple musings about class & gender, feminists or lawyers, progressive elites, misogyny, et al., and conveniently leaves the prime player out of the discussion. Anything but Sarah.
The fact remains that Sarah ‘the martyr’ unexpectedly and suddenly quit in her first elected term, betraying the citizens who elected her. When the going gets tough, the weak quit.
So Sarah is not quite the ‘cuda she proclaimed, is she?
It should be noted that not only those who are “left of Lennin” [h/t, B2] are critical of Palin, but Conservatives are too. Krauthammer said she “wasn’t a serious candidate for the presidency.”
More damning is Conservative Hillyer writing in the conservative American Spectator charging Palin with “Dereliction of Duty.”
Somehow it always seems for her that is all about Sarah; from not wanting to live in the State Capital, from extravagant wardrobes, from never straying too far or too long from a camera, etc. Indeed, it was” all about Sarah” that nearly overshadowed our greatest national holiday weekend.
But for her supporters, it is nothing at all about Sarah. It’s all about all those ‘others’. Yes, all “they” are the real problem with Sarah. Yep. That’s it. You betcha!
Finally, if I never hear of Michael Jackson or Sarah Palin again, it will still be too soon. There are far greater issues at hand that too many remain ignorant of in the hype of the moment, and far more important people to follow and respect.
fliterman,
Did you actually read the links that Lex provided? Particularly the one tagged “lawyers”?
The Palins can be beggered by the continual legal fees due to the filings by the hate mongers. They are not a rich family, like the Clintons, the Kennedys, the Obamas (where did he get that money so fast?), and others in the established political class.
The power of nuisance suits is beyond calculation.
She is not a poor family either. Her net worth in 2008 was over 1.8 million.
Besides, how hard would it be to raise the estimated $600,000 she says she’ll need to pay when she is supposedly the biggest fundraising draw in the Republican party? I think she has already raised 26% or so of the amount from her PAC. I’d be curious to see how much gets raised in the next few months-thanks to all the free publicity.
Skippy – fundraiser for the party, not for herself. That’s a big leap for a huge dollar amount.
Where did you pull that smelly number out of? Opensecrets.org has her 10/2008 disclosure filing, showing not much more than 1/2 that. And most of that is in her husband’s fishing business leasehold — meaning it isn’t even property that he owns.
But the charges leveled against her have never had a requirement to be true. They are answering to higher calling:
I researched it when I did a blog post at my blog on the issue back during the campaign. The Wall Street Journal valued her at 1.2 million at the time and dependng on how you valued some of their assests it could be be valued higher.
Also I checked and her legal defense fund has raised 26% just as I said. That’s 150,000 dollars. She also had an offer of 100,000 dollars from a fund raiser in Texas back in April after O’Reilly publicized her legal issues. She declined to accept it then. In three weeks she should be free to accept it if she chooses.
There is no shortage of money out there waiting for her to pay these bills-she’s not going on food stamps anytime soon.
For the sake of argument, let’s say her net worth is 1.8 million. So what? That doesn’t mean she has free cash to pay for lawyers. As I see it, her family has a bit of wealth in property and such, but to convert that you cash you have to sell it and thus give up any benefit it might bring you. You’d have to rent a home or apartment, which would be a continual expense, then there’s the fishing business which would no longer provide an income…
One thing that continually torques me off is the wealth envy in this world. If a man owns an airplane he’s automatically rich, though a decent bass boat doesn’t cost much less to buy than a Cessna or a Mooney. Own a nice home or a bit of land and you’re rich, but at 3% property tax you’re effectively paying another 30-year note on the place to the state, and that has to be paid no matter what your income is.
I’ve neighbors with assets north of the $10 million mark who earn perhaps $40K per year on average. They drive quarter-million-dollar combines two weeks out of the year and pay for it 12 months out of the year. They own thousands of acres and see their property taxes go up every year but the price of corn stays stagnant.
I believe it was the 10th Commandment that said (and I paraphrase here), “If you covet your neighbor’s manservant, his maidservant, or her cute little ass, don’t sit around and complain or try to take it from him. Yea, verily, get off *your* lazy ass and get your own.”
Jehova gave his people ten laws to govern their society, and out of those ten a law against wealth envy made the cut. Nothing about running with scissors or failure to buckle up, only the important stuff.
So let’s assume the Palin’s are worth $1.8 million. Can anybody tell me why they should have to sell their house, their business, their sustinence, and transfer it to lawyers just to answer any random ethic complaint filed?
That makes no sense to me. Go with a loser-pays tort system and this problem disappears.
– Max
Flit – you aren’t quite 100% right about Krauthammer. From his editorial at National Review Online today:
Max,
That’s just the point-she doesn’t have to change her lifestyle on bit-or even take a second mortage on her house. She has not disclosed what the fees are for-and the state has exercised its role in defending her, so what is it that she is fighting exactly? The costs of defying a subponea from the state legislature?
As I understand it the lawsuit (S) has stemmed from two issues: Troopergate and the other being her personal decision not to live in the Governors mansion and charge the state per diem. In the second case she’s actually paid back the state and they have settled with her. So what’s the fight about?
There was a flood of frivolous ethics charges — like this doozy and this fishing expedition. Thirteen in all — every one dismissed. Each consumed Palin family financial resources.
Scott,
Its 18 in all. ( Source is Anchorage Daily News). However just about all but two were adjudicated by the Alaska personnel board-which is not a court, but an arm of the government of Alaska. The state has only spent half as much as she claims to have spent. Why is that? They are under obligation to defend the Governor till 25 July. One of the complaints-was to the FEC, somebody has to explain to me why the RNC would not cover those expenses-she was “on their payroll” so to speak. They should have provided legal coverage.
Interestingly enough, Palin actually filed a complaint against her self in pursuing resolution of the claiming per diem for being Wasilla issue. Her lawyer has not provided any type of breakdown of the remaining expenses-which I would assume would be necessary for someone who wanted to pay her legal bills for her-Like Mr. Clayton from Texas offered to do. There is about 300,000 dollars waiting for her-and, sorry FBL, I can’t think of one reason why she shouldn’t take it.
As long as sunshine laws exist-there are going to be complaints that do not get upheld. Have you not had to answer a Congressional? Or a hot line complaint? I know you have. I have. I don’t know anyone on this thread who is going to make a different leadership decision-or step down, just because they think they might get a Congressional. Furthermore-its still going to cost the state money even after she leaves. This is just the cost of doing business.
She could have turned it into a plus for her-as in proposing a $300,000 offset on some Alaskan politician’s pet project as a result of the complaints. She would have gotten attention to it-and used it to her advantage. Quitting does neither of those things.
One final point-if she hates the MSM so much-why invite them back for yet another beating as she did today? The news was already out there.
Are you implying that not everyone has a shot at President? Can’t be so…. I only have to point to Obama. No where in Lex’s post did I see mention of qualification? The bottom line is that Palin was out of her league when McCain picked her as a running mate. Lex is correct that she was thrown under the bus in this respect. It was a cheesy gimmick by McCain and hopefully was/is apparent to any serious citizen. Be truthful…. Gov of Alaska isn’t that tough….only 686K people (less than Charlotte, NC …. San Diego has 1.2 million) and the state survives off oil revenues and federal subsidies. There is no state income or sales tax (sales tax at the local level). Oh to have to govern with no state taxes to worry about and a steady flow of revenue from oil and the federal government. It seems the only decision is how to spend all that free money…… Not the stuff of a Vice President….
Hey, Flit — I’ll enroll you in the same reading for comprehension classes I lined up for Skippy. The title is “Class and Gender” — how you can make the charge that “the main subject at hand – (is) Sarah Palin” is beyond me.
How your guy can defraud the people of the US, accept a paycheck of $174,000/yr, and do nothing for two years but run for higher office, is the real affront to common decency. Maybe Frau Palin did the honorable thing?
Sarah is an example of the problem that the leftists and their victim culture have with those who refuse to be victims. These individuals must be squashed, otherwise the “truths” upon which the uberliberals build their edifice of hate is shown to be not so.
Here is another inconvenient member of a minority, who refuses to be cast as a victim and await the fodder that the nanny state will provide…
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/nyregion/03firefighter.html?_r=3&hp
Unbeliever! Must be destroyed!
I think a little denial going on here, my friends. I liked Sarah as a VP candidate who complemented McCain, but she was also a flawed candidate. She didn’t have the experience you’d like to see in a VP (not to say that Obama had more, but that should not be the standard). Starting from a blank slate, she doesn’t have the experience you’d want to see in a Republican candidate for national office. And she wasn’t incredibly well prepared for the media gauntlet. Now, quitting as governor of Alaska certainly won’t help her on either of those issues, so I cannot believe that is really her agenda. I guess she’ll probably emerge as a national figure for some causes that are important to her, and hit the speech circuit. In a sense, she’ll be able to go on media offense in a way that she wouldn’t be able to as a sitting governor, where she’d be playing defense for rest of term. But I don’t see it leading to national office, ever.
Where did Obama get money so fast? Mainly his book sales. But media has been completely silent on the appointment of his wife to a $350K/year job as a hospital administrator (a job for which she had no apparent qualifications) shortly after his election to the Senate. Reality, my friends, is this is the high end version of a patronage job. Nothing illegal about it here in the people’s republic of Chicago. Power attracts cash. It’s just not an issue.
His way below market acquisition of property adjacent to his house from a lobbyist felon has been revealed (he calls it an error of judgement) but it seems to be no big deal to either the people or the media for some reason.
Flat
When the Mrs Obamanator moved on, that particular hospital somehow decided that they were not going to replace that irreplaceable Michelle for $350k per year. Things that make ya go “hmmmmm”.
Still flit may have a point. Sarah may ride off into the permanet sunset and 6 months from now I don’t think too many will really miss her. Oh, except for the press. They’ll have to find another target – Mike or Mitt maybe.
Yes, Sarah Palin had her flaws as a VICE Presidential candidate. But they are motes compared to the 2×4s in the eyes of Obama and Hair Plug. Isn’t it wonderful that “O” is negotiating with Putin? Makes you feel all comfortable inside.
Again, if the media had laid off the sexual sleeze and simply reported and criticized her record and positions, AND DONE THE SAME WITH THE OTHER CANDIDATES, I would have no problem.
But that didn’t happen.
I hope you meant Medvedev?
No, I believe Edward is correct. Why negotiate with the “figurehead” when the “power behind the throne” is available? IIRC, Pres Obama went to visit good ole Vladimir Putin in his “country house” outside Moscow. Didn’t the Politburo members used to have these dachas? I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same…
Kris,Bou and Edward [and dear Lex, of course]… I certainly wish we lived in the same neighborhood, enabling the dropping in for coffee and [sometimes loudly enthusiastic] discussions like the ones we had at our house in my childhood, where Saturday breakfast always lasted at least two hours, and my Dad, a great teacher from a family of teachers, moderated the rowdier discussions gently but firmly. I wonder how many families do that nowadays? It’s a great teaching technique, and always involved hauling out the encyclopedias and dictionaries so we could arm ourselves with facts. Dad’s favorite phrase was “I’m not going to tell you –look it up.” So we did, and were the better for it.
Sadly, you all are far away from us here on the Gulf Coast. But if you ever do get down here, you better call, you hear?
Marianne
Enlightened conversation around the breakfast table? What kind of wierdo family is that?
Seriously— we would be a better nation if many families shared as yours did during your childhood.
And the internet does compress the distances!
Meanwhile, I will keep a sharp lookout over your area this hurricane season. Depending upon favorable geometry of our instrument overpass, from time to time you will see images I create posted at
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/main/index.html
So far, so good—I hope the weak El Nino conditions prevail. That creates wind patterns that suppress the Atlantic/Caribbean tropical storms.
Dear Mariannie, could you possibly add something a bit stronger to the coffee? I both need a bit of stimulis to carry me through an engaging conversation but also a seditive to put me to sleep when interest waines. I think I am getting old. Boss
Xairboss,
Bourbon. helps me out all the time…
Marianne – substitute dinner for breakfast and you pretty much described my childhood as well. My dad wasn’t a teacher – he was a self-made successful business man thru the school of hard knocks and harder work. Conversations at dinner were rich in history, current events, religion and politics. How I miss it still.
What fun! Y’all come, and I’ll make the coffee any way you want it — including with single malt or Guinness!
Marianne
Skippy,
For the sake of discussion I’ll give you that 1.2M in 10/2008.
Then ask rhetorically,
“Whattya think that number is after 6 months of “The One” in office? Think she could liquidate 100% and cover her legal bills?”
The real question is whether that degree of sarcasm is would get me banned from Marianne’s breakfast table…
I’m guessing that Marianne would welcome it and top off your coffee with your “additive” of choice.
You know-that guy in Texas offered to pay the attorney directly. What I don’t understand is why the counsel at the Statehouse could not figure out a legal way for her to accept that.
I don’t know… maybe ethics had something to do with it?
Someone is going to have to explain where it crosses the ethical line. She is entitled to have a lawyer represent her-for that matter as a state official she enjoy’s the protection of the state judicial attorney’s in the process which she set up.
That’s why she has a General Counsel-to show her how to do such things legally. However it probably would require public disclosure of exactly what services the attorney is providing . Ethics rules do work both ways-they are as much as about protecting her and her office as anything else.
There is a difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. I don’t know if it’s legal or not, but I was referring to the spirit of it.
This whole Leftists unfairly attacking Palin meme is just ridiculous. Let’s see her run for the Republican nomination for President and then see how others in the Republican party treat her who’s own candidates are seeking the nomination.
Any attacks by people on the left will be nothing compared to what she will face from others within the GOP if she does seek the presidential nomination down the track. Ask McCain about the Bush teams tactics for the 2000 nomination.
McCain’s a REPULICAN?!!! Who’d a thunk it.
There. Make your point?
The issue isn’t policy questions — or even the distortion of policy positions (like this one). It isn’t even “attacks” by the small universe of political opponents. It is the feeling, among an influential class in this country, which is overwhelmingly liberal, that any slander about Palin is not only justified, it it certainly factual. And just as it used to be OK to tell (insert your favorite ethnic slur here) jokes, in this class it is still considered the definition of “hip” and “urbane” to observe when it is anything Palin, there are no limits.
Only in this parallel universe, can someone think to tell a joke about the rape of a teenage girl (either Palin daughter fits that bill) by a 30 year old man. That isn’t a “meme” — that is reality, despite any attempt to diminish it.
Dog whistle alert!
Shh. Your pathologies are showing.
You know, the media attacks thing…I think a lot of it is a matter of perception and where you get your news from. My conservative friends say the MSM is wildly leftist, my more liberal friends say the MSM is corporate-owned and therefore overwhelmingly conservative. I think both sides have their points and can (and have) trotted out examples. My own opinion is that journalists are hard-wired for the scoop or the sensational story, and some will sell their own mothers down the river for it. Media in general want to sell ad space or ad time, and will grudgingly or happily wallow in the mud if it’s going to get them readers, viewers, and therefore advertisers. And the standards fall, and fall, and fall.
For me, Palin just didn’t measure up as a vice presidential candidate. Watching her interviews with Gibson and Couric was actually painful. I didn’t have a problem with her because she was a conservative female candidate. I had a problem with her because I felt she was unqualified, however much her politics might have appealed to the base. I think there were much better vice presidential running mate candidates out there, and I thought her selection was a mistake.
And I think a lot of other people did, too.
One other thing. William Jennings Bryan was mentioned earlier because he was being attacked by the NYT, which is always itself attacked by conservatives as being a liberal rag. Well, Bryan was a Democratic Party nominee and nothing if not a populist, so it appears that NYT’s attacks were based more on conservatism than liberalism if there were any politics involved. And as great a speaker as Bryan was, I think he was a little crazy, too.
I don’t disagree in any particular point (although I do thing that WJ Bryan comparisons are, at this point, rather immaterial to the world as currently experienced). And her qualifications would have made excellent items for discussion. And in fact were discussed. Which brought back unpalatable parallels with the qualifications of her political opponents’ qualifications for executive office; essentially nil.
That being not only a dead end but a wrong turn, the conversation changed to her non-elite education. Which is a strangely odd thing for those who claim to represent non-elite masses to take on, so it was quickly relegated to salon-style whispering that the lady “isn’t one of us.” Not the kind of thing to endear you to Joe Sixpack.
Her speaking style with Katie Couric was uncomfortable, but no less so than watching our president, as a candidate, stammer his way through some lawyerly answer to a straightforward question or watch him speak extemporaneously without benefit of the teleprompter. It is to cringe.
The shark was well and fully jumped when the conversation switched to the parentage of her youngest child, the morals of daughter Bristol, the uncritical examination of patently political ethics charges – later dropped, without notice – and the pure, visceral vitriol that has no rational explanation.
That kind of stuff from those who arrogate to themselves the side of angels is just plain ugly and revealing and I believe it deserves the kind of scrutiny we here apply to it.
Ah, so you too have noticed that Skippy et al are just unable to come up with any suitable answer about just what exactly makes Biden or Obama more qualified than Palin for the office of VP or even President. Funny how they always default into some kind of attack on Palin and never get around to drafting an answer from either the ONE or the Plug’s CV and never actually answer the question we asked. What makes them more qualified?
Hey Skippy, focus. What makes Obama more experienced than Palin? Ditto Biden? Try to respond without using the word “her” or “Palin” or “Alaska”. Just kind of focus like a laser beam on answering the question. mKay?
So like skippy, this is so not me asking you to explain once again why you think Palin is not qualified. This is your chance to expound on the superior qualifications of our president and vice president. I know you’re busy and all that so feel free to use any handy reference material like GPA’s from College or high school, SAT scores, LSATs, Harvard Law Review Articles and non-existent crap like that. If you want you can toss in some unicorns too.
They were better salesmen-they won. You can raise this argument again in three years.
Skippy-One-Note gets tiresome. Pathologies indeed. If blog entries could be discerned to be spittle flecked, mentioning Palin to you and the froth begins. With the right meds you can again be a normal relatively happy functioning human being.
Rule 1): Never challenge a Palinite-ever.
Rule 2): When in doubt-see Rule 1).
Got it.
It will be very difficult to explain to later generations what it was that the Palinites saw in her that made them so fervent and enthusiastic. The Palin enthusiasm of 2008 will not end up making much sense a few years from now. -Daniel Larison
Just because you sound like a broken record every time her name is brought up doesn’t create the nexus that someone who is tired of your ceaseless, almost pathological, bitching about her is a supporter of hers.
It only means that they are tired of your bitching for almost a year. Your behavior pattern is what was addressed. Keep your rules. Labling others isn’t up to your normal standard of intellectual effort.
Ya gotta remember Skippy-san has a galloping allergy to female politicians. Sarah Palin could demonstrate the combined virtues of Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt, and the Skipmeister would still dog her out.
I think Curtis is correct when he points out that Skippy tends to blast Palin’s resume, while ignoring the far weaker CV of either Barry Obama or Joe “I’m smarter than you” Biden.
I’ll even cede him the point that the Democrats were better salesmen. But when does that make them qualified, much less right?
Me -given the Democrats would win- I’d prefer to see (say) Clinton/Bayh or Bredesen/Strickland.
Bottom line: Palin was treated horribly, and even some liberal feminists have been taking note that women are getting the short end of the stick at the national level, no matter which party to which they belong. I’m not saying that the PUMAs should (or will) vote for Palin, but they have an innate comprehension of how Palin was treated.
You guys miss the point about the experience argument. John McCain negated it when he picked her. He basically made a sublimnal statement that experience does not matter-because the need to cater to the base was stronger. Why so called “real Republicans” so despise him is a mystery. He’s very experienced and ahead of most of the rest of the party.
However he’s 72. Actuarially he is more likely to die than Obama. ( Of natural causes-not from an assasin’s bullet, in which case the odds are reversed). That made Sarah Palin a factor.
Plus you are ignoring the circumstances of the election. Obama found a message that resonated. It resonated because of the events of the previous eight years and in particular the events of the last two months of the campaign. Whatever traction that McCain had about Obama’s experience-evaporated because he had to campaign on two fronts. Defending her and also countering Obama. Had he had another running mate who did not bring so much antagonism-e.g. Romney or Ridge, they could have focused more like a laser beam on Obama.
Since I am going to get tagged with the mysoginist label anyway, let me ask you a question. If Palin were a man-do you think people would have forgiven her all of erractic behavior so easily? Not a chance.
Palin has become important for only one reason-the crowd she has brought with her. And watching the vehemence of support here, I think David Frum is right:
No national candidacy has ever collapsed so rapidly and totally as Sarah Palin’s in 2008. The evidence is strong that she is the only vice presidential nominee in history to have had a significant impact on voting preferences – and negatively so. Since voting day, she has only continued to lose ground. Yet no matter how ill-considered her statements and actions, her core group of supporters excuse everything on the grounds that she is a social conservative martyr, scorned by her cultural betters. Those excuses are exactly the wrong formula to win back the voters the GOP lost in 2008 and needs to recover to win again.
I feel strongly on the issue because its just astonishing to me, that people who should know better, will cast all that caution to the wind simply to be on the right side of party purity. If people really believe that Republicans have the better ideas-they cannot allow her to drag that effort down-especially when there is better talent out there.
You forget that it was “Hail Mary” time, Skippy. McCain pulled her out of a hat because it was clear that all of the conventional choices would lead to defeat. And in the final weeks of August it looked like the plan could work… polls showed McCain pulling even with Obama for the first time.. until the bottom fell out of the economy… and McCain’s “everything is fundamentally sound” statement. Sure, she didn’t help herself with her unpolished media skills, but that had little to do with the outcome.