2008 “She doesn’t seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts.”
posted by on October 20 at 8:00 AM
That’s Peggy Noonan writing about Sarah Palin in The Wall Street Journal, and of all the recent sanity/heresy from the right, it’s the most eloquent about the fatal failure of leadership that was the selection of would-be Vice President Palin:
Her supporters accuse her critics of snobbery: Maybe she’s not a big “egghead” but she has brilliant instincts and inner toughness. But what instincts? “I’m Joe Six-Pack”? She does not speak seriously but attempts to excite sensation—”palling around with terrorists.” If the Ayers case is a serious issue, treat it seriously.
In the past two weeks she has spent her time throwing out tinny lines to crowds she doesn’t, really, understand. This is not a leader, this is a follower, and she follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine. She could reinspire and reinspirit; she chooses merely to excite. She doesn’t seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts.
No news conferences? Interviews now only with friendly journalists? You can’t be president or vice president and govern in that style, as a sequestered figure. This has been Mr. Bush’s style the past few years, and see where it got us. You must address America in its entirety, not as a sliver or a series of slivers but as a full and whole entity, a great nation trying to hold together. When you don’t, when you play only to your little piece, you contribute to its fracturing.
But the Chicago Tribune gets points for bluntness:
McCain failed in his most important executive decision….Having called Obama not ready to lead, McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. His campaign has tried to stage-manage Palin’s exposure to the public. But it’s clear she is not prepared to step in at a moment’s notice and serve as president. McCain put his campaign before his country.
"McCain put his campaign before his country". Of course he did. That's what Republicans always do. It's any means to an end. That is why they run as moderates and then govern as extreme right wingers.
McCain has always been a selfish little bitch. I've yet to see any evidence that anything he's done in his life wasn't a selfish act. Even his military service was all about his own aggrandizement and ambition and had nothing to do with service to his country.
What's the pendant representing?
I hate it when that happens. Damn thought patterns!
The Noonan piece is another example of the lengths to which the "conservative intelligentsia" will contort reality until they appear, if only superficially, to be winning this contest. In the same article, she:
- Claims that McCain won the final debate, despite the fact that, by any metric except FOX News polling, the exact opposite is true.
- Derides Obama's eloquence as a supposed character flaw, yet later claims none of the candidates "speak like an adult in politics now."
- Lauds theoretical candidates who "come from nowhere, with modest backgrounds and short résumés" and, in failing to apply these traits to Gov. Sarah Palin as a positive, fails to acknowledge that these are the qualities the Right has used to ridicule Obama.
Peggy Noonan is a credulous fucking hack.
I thought it was a very thoughtful, introspective essay on why Palin is a problem for the intelligent conservative.
Yo, Republicans. Less rabid frothing, more smart people like this.
Sigh. Noonan is correct. Sigh again.
This piece was certainly tempered with BS, as 5 points out, but I did like the Palin bits, particularly this sentence: "This is not a leader, this is a follower, and she follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine."
"McCain has always been a selfish little bitch. I've yet to see any evidence that anything he's done in his life wasn't a selfish act. Even his military service was all about his own aggrandizement and ambition and had nothing to do with service to his country."
Of course. I'm sure that every day Mr McCain spent in the Hanoi Hilton, he congratulated himself on building brownie points for the day when he'd be running for President. It's only when Democrats like John Kerry serve in a war that it's patriotic and unselfish, right?
i have to admit seajay has a point here. it's not right to attack mccain for his service. there once was decency in the man, might still be somewhere if you train a microscope on him. the candidate as he stands before us NOW is the one we need to address.
Isn't Peggy Noonan the one who once loved everything about G.W.?
Peggy Noonan is a fucking cow. She made Palin possible by being Reagan's cheerleader and convincing millions to drink the Republican Kool-Aid.
That she should now turn on her creation, along with everyone else who now regrets ever voting for Bush, is just fucking pathetic. See a better takedown of Noonan at Brad DeLong's blog:
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2008/10/peggy-noonan-te.html#comment-135376947
You know you're in good hands with an article that starts: "After twenty years of stupidity and cowardice, Peggy Noonan finally tells the truth about something:"
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