What Other People Think
Obviously, people think I’m kidding or out of touch.
Fine, read Joe Trippi: Don’t LOL. Palin Pick Is About Taking On Washington — Not About Gender.
How about Digby’s piece on the Maverick Mom.
At Corrente, Chicago Dyke thinks Palin: A Dangerous and Intelligent Choice.
At Shakeville, Zuzu writes about Doing Karl Rove’s work for him.
When you frame all politics that involve women as somehow being connected to Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic Party, you are being willingly blind. Here’s a news flash – some women vote Republican and McCain wants all the votes he can get.
21 comments
I’ve said repeatedly that the Palin pick may keep some Republican women from defecting.
Other than that, it’s the most boneheaded choice possible and if you aren’t kidding about what a threat she is to Barack Obama being elected, you aren’t really serious either. If she doesn’t withdraw before November, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
…I would never accuse you of being out of touch or kidding because I know better, but I will admit that I was surprised by her selection and wondered on-screen whether this was a play for disaffected Hillary voters. The absurd nonsense that we’ve seen over the last couple of days about who gave birth to whom, however, is totally off the rails and is probably only the latest example of the pure fail nature of ‘diary’-based progressive blogs like Daily Kos, because accountability has been forfeited for the sake of the thrill of seeing a diary or post being up there, at least for a few moments, on the right side of a widely-viewed blog…
A person doesn’t even have to break a sweat coming up with reasons to have a lot of objections to the simple idea of Sarah Palin as the Vice President. None of them have anything to do with her life story or her family situation (and the next person who makes the simplest gratuitous wisecrack about her college degree in journalism from the University of Idaho, from which I graduated and at which I first started as a Journalism major, would do me a great favor by leaving the porch light on so I don’t injure myself getting to your front door). I do think that “Troopergate” deserves exploration, mostly because I;ve been reading about it for some time, and I do think that she needs to explain her sudden philosophical objection to “The Bridge To Nowhere”.
Anything that comes anywhere near “sports reporter” or “beauty pagent contestent” or “an outreach for Hillary voters” (even though I was there myself for a while) misses the point and probably helps the Republican ticket in the long run by taking the focus away from what she actually believes…
[pleaze forgive me while I assume the role of Mr Obvious]
There are plenty of reasons for McCain to pick Palin which, though they do have to do with gender, have nothing to do with Hillary. I am confident that Karl Rove has weighed all the factors.
But none of that means that Palin is even remotely qualified to be President of the United States. I’ve said nothing about Palin on my blog that has anything to do with Palin and Hillary. But I do not intend to allow Rove’s clever pick to stifle my legitimate objections to Palin… and I most certainly have some. Just as McCain’s years as a POW do not shield him from criticism as a potential president, Palin’s gender cannot be allowed to protect her from criticism of her views and policies.
(Aside: this morning, Michael Moore said some things on this subject that needed to be said.)
Bryan,
I think you and some of your readers are talking at cross-purposes. One line of concern is what might be termed the “substantive” one: is Palin on the merits a reasoned, sensible choice for vice president? The other is the “political” (or perhaps “marketing”) question: how should Barack Obama supporters publicly respond to Palin’s selection?
I admire and agree with your anti-misogynist warnings. Honestly, though, I have found very little misogyny among all the blogs and essays and articles and TV talking heads who express deep reservations about Palin’s fitness for the office of vice-president. If anything, what there is by way of stereotypical anti-feminist expressions about Palin seem to be more prevalently coming from the Christian Right than the Left.
On the merits, I cannot see any credible argument that Palin’s resume or accomplishments, such as they are, qualify her for the office. It has nothing to do with her sex; it has everything to do with what is known about her life’s training, education, experience, and achievements. No informed, rational person could support her, in my view, any more than I could vote for Chance the Gardener in Being There.
On the politics of McCain’s pick, I do not disagree with the overall point, made by you and some of the articles you link to, that the GOP will deftly market her as best they can — and likely can sell this bad product to inattentive, insoucient, ideologically prejudiced, or just plain dumb voters. (A marketing Oscar to every talking head who argues that being next to Russia gives every Alaskan international experience!)
But if you mean by what you have written to warn off anyone who has a legitimate criticism of Palin to express, I think you are very mistaken. Indeed, that would be, in its own way, a kind of reverse sexism, one that urges silence because Palin is a woman.
Now, I don’t really take you to intend that. I assume that you would feel free to offer substantive criticisms of Palin’s experience, opinions, campaign proposals, and the like just as you would any other candidate, regardless of sex. Some of your readers may have misunderstood you.
As for me, my largest worry is not Palin herself or the ramblings of her critics. It is the state of the electorate. I fear that after generations of television ‘education’ — and most especially after the last several years of media concentration and the endless striving for higher and higher profits that it has led to — we have as a people become deeply inculcated with an “American Idol” psychology; a manufactured affinity transference that leads far too many people to wind up cheering for the mediocre because it’s so much easier for them to identify with, rather than rooting for the best and brightest because it makes rational sense.
If McCain-Palin beats Obama-Biden, it won’t because bloggers were outspoken about the inadequacies of the Republican ticket. It’s much more likely to be because the average American has been well trained to identify with, and cheer for, substandard folk who make them feel good about themselves.
John B stole my post.
I do want to reiterate that I think your caution about underestimating Palin is completely rational. But, I think its a great line of attack to ask questions about her experience, her foreign policy experience, all leading up to the complete lack of judgement from McCain in picking someone who isn’t ready to be president.
I also think a completely reasonable line of attack is to go after McCain kowtowing to the religious right.
And yes, you can always find house negros to talk about how great slavery is. The bulk of us would like a bit more freedom, thank you very much.
Equal Time for Bryan, who’s too busy to stand up for himself:
Shorter Digby:
And this by Jay Rosen via Digby…
All of it “marketing” issues, as I’ve said above, not substance. But I think it fair to say both of these articles echo Bryan’s concerns.
On the other hand, I could cite in rebuttal to my Reply for Bryan none other than Peggy Noonan, caught off mike actually telling the truth.
I would like to thank the liberal bloggers who have garnered the attention of the legacy media. You have undercut any credibility that many people have been working years to establish.
I have read at several media sites, and just on NPR this afternoon that the Palin family didn’t want to drag their daughter into this in any way, but “liberal bloggers” have been spreading the rumor that Governor Palin’s newest son was actually her daughter’s child. The revelation about the daughter were necessary to counter this slander.
And if you have been reading widely among the so-called liberal bloggers, you know that the claims of the Palin family are true. Members of the pond scum that “liberal blogtopia” [yes, skippy is part of it] are going so far as to become just like Phill Kline, the former whacko attorney general of Kansas, who think that women’s medical records should be open to public inspection.
When was the decision made to be no better than LGF?
When you repeated the story about the Wasilla sports complex, did you make any attempt to verify who was the mayor?
When you complain about “abstinence only” sex education in Alaska, did you make any effort to verify what type of sex education Alaska actually has?
When you quote Alaskan officials, do you check to see who they are and what their relationship is to the Governor?
erk you’ve hit a real low point when you come off looking like little green footballs.
et tu, digby? nobody would even notice if it were MR palin who was campaigning to become vp and had an infant son .
People just don’t get it, Hipparchia. There is no way that this kind of crap can help elect the candidate they have chosen to support, and it gets us all labeled as smear merchants.
They’ve jumped aboard the Swiftboat for “a three hour cruise.”
I think I’ve mentioned before (once or twice, or…) that I see little difference the past couple years between left & right (or Dems & Repugs if you prefer). I rest my case.
The antisocial criminals are in charge, and the wannabe’s who really should know that *fighting fire with fire* may work on bushfires and for the GOP, really doesn’t work for anyone else. Quite apart from the fact that when the lefties try to use the righties tactics, they generally just look very stupid and are really not very good at it. The gang of perverts have had decades to perfect their techniques.
You know, I used to think the right (especially the extreme right) were just complete morons, and the left mostly were intelligent realists. I’ve since revised that opinion based on the last few years performances on both sides. Being morons and blatant crooks and perverts actually seems to work for the right. They still control everything, no matter how badly they screw anything up. *shrug* The left just look ineffectual, powerless and clueless.
It really wouldn’t surprise me at all to see McCain as Prez. Perhaps deservedly so.
swiftboat as ss minnow, one of those’it would be funny if it weren’t true’ things.
i didn’t watch her speech, but she’s been slaying them, looks like.
let me help you out with your editing there, kryten…
Being
moronsrealists and blatant crooks and perverts actuallyseems to workworks for the right. They still control everything, no matter how badly they appear to screw anything up. *shrug* The leftjust lookare intelligent but ineffectual, powerless and clueless.I think it is a matter of expectations, Kryten, i.e. people accept that the right is the way they are, because they have always been that way, but the left is supposed to be different.
The expectations are different, and as long as you stay within the stereotype of your group, people don’t react. As soon as someone breaks away, it makes people uncomfortable because you are asking them to actually think, and they don’t like it.
Vicious attacks by Republicans is what they do [dog bites man], but when Democrats do it, it is automatically wrong because Democrats don’t do that [man bites dog].
I’ve heard that Palin is going to attack Obama’s experience in her speech, comparing being mayor of Wasilla with being a community organizer in Chicago.
If I were in charge I would have had General Wes Clark come out and rephrase that as being mayor of a small town must be more executive experience than being the commander of a fighter squadron in the peace time Navy. You have to have a senior military person to make the comparison, and it isn’t attacking if it is done correctly. You use Palin’s definition of executive experience and imply she seems to think that she has more experience that McCain. You smile a lot when doing it, which helps to trivialize the issue and it goes away. Angry reaction will backfire.
Reagan avoided all kinds of questions during debates with Walter Mondale by smiling and saying “There he goes again.” Trivialization works.
Hipparchia, he’s in a different country and doesn’t absorb the problem through daily life like we do, although I’ve read a lot that leads be to accept that John Howard was every bit the jerk that the Shrubbery is, but it’s a lot easy to get rid of governments in Australia than the US when the voters get angry about government policies.
i know. and he’s just about convinced me to emigrate to that different country. got to be warmer than canada, at least.
It’s OK. 🙂 I didn’t take any offense, and I like hipparchia and you Bryan. Hence why I spend what little precious spare time I have here. 😉 LOL I didn’t intend my comments above to be wholly inclusive of all *lefties*. I was speaking generally, and from my distant POV (and that of many outside of the USA). 🙂 I also realize h can be as snarky as I! LOL 😉
And yes, thanks to Howard, I (and my saner compatriots) DO understand very well. And sympathize. But things are So much more complicated in the USA. I have lived there you know. 😉 And spent time on quite a bit of *official* research into the *American Way*(tm) I know for a fact that that complexity there is by design, not accident. The GOP and organised criminals operate well in the chaos of the complex systems within the USA. If things were simple, the Bushmoron Cartel wouldn’t have lasted very long at all. All they really have to do is have one or two more SC judges appointed, and it’s *game over, player one*! And you KNOW that’s the plan.
If the Repugs win the next election hipparchia, you’d be more than welcome here. Since Howard has been banished, things are a little saner, though still have some way to go. 😉 You too Bryan, and any other sane person. 😉 😀
Also, never for get that the GOP are not only masters of deception, but masters at distraction too. If they are trying to force you to look one way, you BETTER be looking behind you back, because you know they have a knife with your name on it! But hey… It’s the *American Way*(tm) LOL
The complexity was designed to prevent exactly this type of thing from happening. Breaking the government into three independent branches with an “apolitical” judiciary was supposed to prevent any one group from taking over, but, when there’s a “national emergency” the lemmings all cluster and follow a leader no matter where that leader is going.
Getting rid of the draft was a terrible idea because people no longer have a stake in the stupidity, it is someone else’s family that will be affected, not theirs, when wars get started. National service should be instituted so that people, especially young people, understand that government can screw over their lives so they had better start voting.
masters of deception and distraction, that they are, kryten. and i only edited your comment because i thought you were being a little nicer [ok, i thought you were way too nice] than your targets deserved 😀 not because i thought you were off-base [but you knew that 😉 ]
i dunno, probably you’d have to count the fact that i’m still living here as evidence that maybe i’m not quite sane [not to mention there’s that whole crazee cat lady thing i’ve got going too].
sadly, the real national emergency that we can’t get the lemmings to notice is what the plundering plutocrats have done to the rest of us.
It might help if people were writing about the problems and possible solutions, instead of indulging is tabloid garbage.
Where are the stories about health care, jobs, the economy, etc. that really affect people. There are more stories about Governor Palin not caring about polar bears, than the Bush administration not caring about the health care of children.