The American Spectator

Political Hay

p> "I believe that the duel between Christianity and atheism is the most important in the world. I further believe that the struggle between individualism and collectivism is the same struggle reproduced on another level." br> -- William F. Buckley /p>

Take a listen.

The lines below from several recent attacks on Sarah Palin are as revealing as they are memorable.

Here's a sample:

* South Carolina Democratic Chairwoman Carol Fowler: John McCain has chosen a running mate "whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn't had an abortion."

* Washington Post reporter Sally Quinn: "My first reaction was shock. Then anger. John McCain chose a running mate simply because she is a woman and one who appealed to the Republican's conservative evangelical base. McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical and calculated move....I find it insulting to women, to the Republican party, and to the country.

* Actor Matt Damon: "I need to know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4000 years ago, that's an important...I want to know that. I really do. Because she's going to have the nuclear codes. I want to know if she thinks dinosaurs were here 4000 years ago. Or if she banned books or tried to ban books. We can't have that."

* Daily Kos blogger: "There are quite a number of extremely troubling links between Sarah Palin and neopentecostal dominionists -- enough that, in truth, she may be ultimately as much of a 'dream candidate' for the dominionist movement as Mike Huckabee was. Even worse, she's running in a manner that has been frighteningly successful for dominionist groups since the early 80's -- specifically, as a 'stealth candidate.'"

* MoveOn.org: "So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She's a global warming denier...xxxx"

* Mark Benjamin, Salon.com: "With a disdain for science that alarms wildlife experts, Sarah Palin continues to promote Alaska's policy to gun down wolves from planes."

* Andrew Sullivan, the Atlantic: John McCain "threw caution to the wind and with no vetting whatsoever, picked a woman who, by her decision to endure her own eight-month pregnancy of a Down Syndrome child in public, that he was going to reignite the culture war as a last stand against Obama. That's all that is happening right now: a massive bump in the enthusiasm of the Christianist base."

* Cindra Wilson, Salon.com: "Sarah Palin is a bit comical, like one of those cutthroat Texas cheerleader stage moms. What her Down syndrome baby and pregnant teenage daughter unequivocally prove, however, is that her most beloved child is the antiabortion platform that ensures her own political ambitions with the conservative right."

topics:
John McCain, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, Business, Abortion, Environment, Global Warming, Books, Hollywood, Movies, Military, Alaska, Oil