Palinophobes Hate First, Ask Questions Later By Jonah Goldberg Slate magazine is just one of the countless media outlets convulsing with St. Vitus' Dance over that demonic succubus Sarah Palin. In its reader forum, The Fray, one supposed Palinophobe took dead aim at the former Alaska governor's writing chops, excerpting the following sentence from her book: "The apartment was small, with slanting floors and irregular heat and a buzzer downstairs that didn't work, so that visitors had to call ahead from a pay phone at the corner gas station, where a black Doberman the size of a wolf paced through the night in vigilant patrol, its jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle." Receive news alerts Sign Up Jonah Goldberg RealClearPolitics Alaska Governor Slate magazine countless media outlets Sarah Palin [+] More Other readers pounced like wolf-sized Dobermans on an intruder. One guffawed, "That sentence by Sarah Palin could be entered into the annual Bulwer-Lytton bad writing contest. It could have a chance at winning a (sic) honorable mention, at any rate." But soon, the original contributor confessed: "I probably should have mentioned that the sentence quoted above was not written by Sarah Palin. It's taken from the first paragraph of âDreams From My Father,' written by Barack Obama." The ruse should have been allowed to fester longer, but the point was made nonetheless: Some people hate Palin first and ask questions later. My all-time favorite response to John McCain's selection of Palin as his running mate was from Wendy Doniger, a feminist professor of religion at the University of Chicago. Professor Doniger wrote of the exceedingly feminine "hockey mom" with five children: "Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman." The best part about that sentence: Doniger uses the pronoun "her" - twice. Just this week, a liberal blogger at The Atlantic who has dedicated an unhealthy amount of his life to proving a one-man birther conspiracy theory about Palin's youngest child (it's both too slanderous and too deranged to detail here) shut down his blog to cope with the epochal, existential crisis that Palin's book presents to all humankind. The un-self-consciously parodic announcement seemed more appropriate for a BBC warning that the German blitz was about to begin, God Help Us All. Indeed, some of us will always be sympathetic to Mrs. Palin if for nothing else than her enemies. The bile she extracts from her critics is almost like a dye marker, illuminating deep pockets of asininity that heretofore were either unnoticed or underappreciated. In fairness, just as there are people who hate Palin for the effrontery she shows in daring to draw breath at all, there are those who love her with a devotion better suited for a religious icon. I hear from both camps, often. And while I don't think both sides are equally wrong (after all, the acolytes of the Doniger school openly reject reality more than any so-called creationist), I don't think either position is laudable or sufficient. Sarah Palin is neither savior (that job has been taken by the current president, or didn't you know?) nor is she satanic. She is a politician, a species of human like the rest of us. I'm fairly certain that if you read many of her public-policy positions but concealed her byline, many of her worst enemies would say "that sounds about right," and some of her biggest fans would say "that sounds crazy." But most people would say that her views are perfectly within the mainstream of American politics. She may be more religious than coastal elites in the lower 48, but that is something some bigots need to get over, anyway. I'm happy about the books she's selling thanks to the controversy over her, but that doesn't mean I think these controversies are justified. Palin holds no public office and, as of yet, is not running for one. But the Associated Press assigned eleven reporters to "fact-check" her book, while doing nothing like that to fact-check then-candidate Obama's or current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's no doubt riveting book. As it stands, my sense is that Palin is good for the Republican party but not necessarily great. She generates enthusiasm among, and donations from, the base. But she also turns off many of the people the GOP needs to persuade and attract. That could change with this book tour, and I hope it does. Whether she's ready or qualified for the presidency is another matter. But the presidency is a long way off, and besides, that's what primaries are for. Copyright 2009, Tribune Media Services Inc. Page Printed from: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ar...bes_hate_first_ask_questions_later_99240.html at November 20, 2009 - 02:18:09 PM CST
"Whether she's ready or qualified for the presidency is another matter" The author's credibility went out the window with this sentence. The idea that Sarah Palin could ever be 'ready or qualified' for the Presidency is so idiotic that anyone who suggests it is either a Kool-Aid drinker or someone like Ann Coulter, who makes a living providing content to a specific audience and doesn't actually believe half the stuff she writes. Any honest commentator would be forced to say 'Sarah Palin will obviously never be ready or qualified for the Presidency'.
I guess the country was lucky that Ronald Reagan had that Phd from Harvard because a guy with a BA and a career as a lifeguard and B movie actor could never have been a good president.
Wisdom is the principal thing. High and mighty <s>thinkers</s> fools give us such things as keynesian economics, which is well on its way to destroying this country. Or maybe the concept of man made global warming. You know, the kind of <s>science</s> scam where they hide, (or destroy) their data and won't allow anyone to attempt to replicate their results. They say "trust me" and call it science. Intellectualism is the bane of society.
FHL's vision of society, the Palin way... <img src=http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/commercials/2006/11/cavemen-cast.jpg>
I've got some news for you lefties. It's not that Palin supporters love her so much, it's that they despise you with a passion. Anyone that stands up and gives a big F U to the radical left will draw strong support. What the radical left really fears are the numbers. They know that they are out numbered, and in a big way. The "unwashed masses" ever get organized, really organized, the left will be thrown out on their collective asses. Anyone, ANYONE that has the potential to do that will be demonized. Palin will never be a presidentail candidate and even the left knows that. She is a community organizer for the right and the left is terrified of that. She will bring out people that have never voted in their life. She will fan the flames of of a nation grown weary with the complete bullshit spewed out by the left. 2010 will be the end of the left if she is allowed to continue, which is why I fully expect the radical left to do what they do best...demonize, and if push comes to shove, they'll do whatever it takes, and you all know what I mean.