Many on the left frequently express an extremely vitriolic hatred of Sarah Palin. On one hand they are always telling you how stupid she is and on the other hand they always seem to express a kind of outrage that isn’t appropriate if she can be simply dismissed as unintelligent.
Jonah Goldberg pointed out a funny example of this bizarre outrage in a forum on Slate.com. Slate is a liberal media site with elitist tendencies, people go there expecting a condescending take on nonliberal, non-ivy league educated politicians. There is forum on this site where contributers were commenting on Palin’s recent book and someone pointed out this sentence:
“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.”
Other contributors responded with the typical snarky and smarmy disgust that is unfortunately all too common. They were snickering at the sentence structure and sneering at the idea that Palin would actually attempt literature.
Then the original contributor writes: “I probably should have mentioned that the sentence quoted above was not written by Sarah Palin. It’s taken from the first paragraph of Dreams From My Father, written by Barack Obama.”
Now that’s funny!
Now, even a couple of days later many of those on the thread still don’t get it. Long after the trick was pointed out, someone on the forum still wrote:
“Wow! I recognize it now, but I DID think upon reading it that it was pretty damned literary to have come from the brain of Sarah Palin. Thanks for sharing (although I think we probably have different points of view!).”
The lesson here is: If you happen to be both arrogant and stupid at least don’t be public about it!
With the assumption that neither Palin or Obama would write a book without holding fast hands with a party rep. Shouldn’t the political media be more concerned about the talent of Washington’s ghost writers?
John Favreau (Obama speech writer not screen writer of ELF or I love you man) has a very compelling life story worth exploring on wikipedia if not further. Obama’s great heart touching speeches were written by a 27 year old playboy (make sure to look up the writers love interests as well).
RE: Palin,
I would like a considered conservative answer about Palin and the Republican party. Please pre-suppose that I respect the person and realize I haven’t personally met her and cannot judge her. Just the same it seems strange that the conservative media is creating this team of conservative idealists as made up of Michelle Bachman, Sara Palin, and the fear/ ideals of Glenn Beck (no need to pre-suppose respect for him, just staying honest). In the political world I see Bachman and Beck as fulfilling a fear monger role, the conservative counter parts of Al Gore’s conservation efforts and Micheal Moore’s what ever the hell he thinks he is doing. Their role is to rally the standing troops, remind the dedicated memebers that unless their party wins there is no doubt that all civil liberties will be erased and ultimate the world will fall into chaos until it stops existing all together. I understand their roles, I don’t respect them, for both sides mind you.
I feel Palin is being molded to be a front runner for 2012. KTLK has held a uniform front of gunning down any caller that feels she is a poor choice as a presidential candidate, even if they are a standing conservative and feel Pawlenty or Romney would make a better choice. KTLK also seems to front her book as the flag of all things conservative to a point where they will not compromise or support anything moderate. The idealistic qualities and voice that Palin has doesn’t seem fit for a forerunner but rather a King maker. A person who can take a little abuse, say more controversial things, test the moderate waters and then put her weight behind somebody. A king maker typically has also exhausted (even if temporarily) their political career and yet found a secure nich to continue being a presence. The most classic king maker being Ted Kennedy with Newt coming in a close second. This is different from the fear monger front as it lends itself to the ideals but bleeds into a moderate section. The fear mongers are caricatures of real people and realistic concerns who draw in the far 20%, King makers seem to appeal more to 60%-80% of the american political spectrum because people can relate with them, connect and admire their ability to speak the words but to also make the mistakes that people make. However, they are not capable of standing against the scrutiny of the opposing side and are not super human enough to fill an office where mixed ideals can be found during a typical election. There are of course historical exceptions, but those typically are the result of a split party vote (Wilson better have written Teddy a thank you note).
That all being said, I feel that the Conservative front is creating a weak and losing team with the hopes that all of America will feel a need to swing to the extreme left. Within my voting life time this was the Democratic mistake of the 2000 election when Al Gore and Ralph Nader were unleashed. It was unrealistic that the country desired to bring in the ideals of Al Gore, even if the majority of the liberal arena respected his message.
Doesn’t it seem that Palin would suffer the same fate? Isn’t there a senatorial seat she could occupy, I’m sure she is in a position that she could hold one for life (Ted Kennedy)? Am I not seeing the full picture on this one (well I know I’m not of course)?
Ultimately I feel that the conservative front is creating
Thanks for the responses Bull Moose, keep it up.
I will add a couple more posts and then send out a general email about this site. It’s more work to write up this stuff than I thought. Though I’m sure that it will become easier with time.
Bull Moose,
In response to your comment- I neither see Palin as a fool despite what the Democrats and the general media tell us, nor do I see her as an elected leader in the near term. She is bright and charismatic but also inexperienced and gives vague responses to hard questions. But despite the vitriol against her, she is also a media star who can attract a crowd with ease.
Now that I think about it; the US just elected another bright, charismatic, inexperienced media star who can attract a crowd with ease. Hopefully we won’t make that same mistake in 2012.
As for Glen Beck- He is an entertainer with political leanings he can fire up the conservative base and make the independents laugh, just like Olbermann, Matthews or John Stewart on the left. Except, he’s funny.
As for Bachman- Think Gerrymandering. Is McCollum, Bachmann and Ellison the best that the Twin Cities can do? Would any of them be elected if they can from a District with a recognizable geographic shape? Gerrymandering causes some of the worst problems in the national political dialogue and will be the subject of a future post. In a perfect world, Congressional Districts would be reshaped into areas that would allow for more competitive races.
As for future Republican Leadership- No one has emerged yet, and no one needs to emerge yet. The future leaders will show up when they become necessary. Hopefully, whoever emerges will have a skill so rare among Republicans- the ability to communicate.
Once a flow of communication is established the work will be more for the comments than the initial post. Topics on talk radio are really minimum when the host introduces them and then the callers bring it to life. Then again you are doing something more constructive than talk radio.