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Enemy of the Week
Choosing Sides
It's so exciting. Colin Powell has made another hasty decision. He likes to be rolled over. Or self-rolled. A profile in courage and all the rest. And it has nothing to do with race -- human, presidential, or otherwise. Rather, it's all those board memberships that threaten to go the way of the insider economy. And he's a man of deep conscience and unrivaled integrity. Just don't try any pro-life stuff on him. He thinks he and Obama deserve each other. You'll hear no argument here.
Among the good general's other honorable excuses is that the Republican Party, at whose conventions he has deigned to speak on several historic occasions -- provided no conservatives were in the building when he did so and all photographs of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater were removed from the walls ahead of time -- has become too right-wing. And then there's that woman Palin. Like a true officer and gentleman, he patronized her, saying she's "very distinguished" and "someone to be admired" -- try saying that about Joe Biden without doubling over in giddy laughter -- yet sniffed she's just not ready to be vice president let along president. I'd say she's no less ready than Powell is, and don't take our word for it. We're relying on Bill Kristol's assessment, and he's someone who in his time has endorsed both Powell and Palin.
Besides, who would you rather see on Saturday Night Live? Palin this past Saturday was a revelation. Simply stunning. So much so that every SNL regular stayed off drugs and couldn't have been nicer or more humble. So good was she she induced Alec Baldwin to turn in a civilized performance. So much for her lack of diplomatic skills. In the normal scheme of things, Alec makes Vladimir Putin seem like a teddy bear. Heck, even Rasputin. Yet Sarah didn't even have to use a taser on him.
If John McCain wants to win, he lets Palin do a nightly show every day from today to November 4. She has already won, and if worse comes to worst she can have Katie Couric's job.
It is interesting that the meanest anti-Palinites have been women, and we're not speaking of the left. Peggy Noonan comes to mind, She disliked Palin at first sight. But she never liked Nancy Reagan either. (In that case she felt inferior.) Kathleen Parker soon followed, and made her name as a result. Whatever her motives, we don't think she has the experience to comment on matters of high politics. But now it's turned out she has connections. One of them is her hero, Christopher Buckley. They have emerged as the smart set conscience of the conservative movement, the Republican Party, and the East Coast's provincials. But after one look at Palin, the question answers itself: Who be they?
There are grungier Palin dismissers. Christopher Hitchens comes to mind. He calls her a "national disgrace." Typically, though, he shies from confronting her directly and instead heaps all blame and abuse on McCain for noticing her in the first place. He agrees with Mr. Obama that McCain is becoming "erratic," though he considers that term a "euphemism" for an increasingly growing and embarrassing "cognitive" deficit on McCain's part. Not bad for someone who's never written a sentence in a sober cognitive state.
A different sort of blackguard is the sculpture-jawed Josh Brolin, the boy actor who is playing George W. Bush in Oliver Stone's latest movie cartoon. Young Brolin hosted Saturday Night Live the other night, yet made sure to avoid any contact with Sarah Palin. It's not so much he was afraid of her as terrified of what his stepmother might do if he did meet her. Better to be an Enemy of the Week than in Barbra Streisand's bad graces, evidently.
Comments
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Becky| 10.20.08 @ 8:41AM
Sometimes us women are mean, hiding behind the stereotype of caring, loving nurturer. I thought Billy Joel pointed that out years ago.
ab| 10.20.08 @ 10:06AM
Wow. Did you really like Palin's SNL performance? They basically made her look like an idiot, and had no problem doing it while she was onstage. It was a mixture of painful and funny. Also, who was this aimed at? It gave further ground to Dems and Indys who already think she's an amateur, and made her base wonder what the heck she was doing onstage with those "liberal devils". So, as a Democrat, I agree with you: keep having her do this kind of stuff.
M. Tobias| 10.20.08 @ 11:00AM
While I agree with your assessment of the anti-Palin hysteria going around, the current trend of politicians to appear or shows that that make their living on satire and comedy is simply stupid. All of these shows present the politician in a frivolous light. This is not something that voters want to see in a candidate for high office in troubled times. It diminishes the candidate, the office and the Country. Not a very bright idea.
Marc Jeric| 10.20.08 @ 11:16AM
The choice of the by far most popular state governor in history (85% positive) for vice-president by McCain has profoundly hurt the leftist sensibilities of our socialists and revolutionary marxists in the media. They are desperate! How nice!
Mrs. Jackson| 10.20.08 @ 11:16AM
Yes, let us explore Peggy Noonan a tad more. She not only believes Sarah Palin is stupid, she thinks we are too. She got caught on an open mike employing a vulgar word regarding Sarah Palin being picked as VP. Realizing she (Peggy) couldn't escape she does an immediate mea culpa of sorts in her blog and prattles on how perhaps Palin can be a "transformational" politician (remember that word in the days to come because Colin Powell just used it yesterday to describe Obama so it must be one of the talking points being distributed among the disenchanted conservatives). Then less than 2 weeks later we learn Peggy , in the month of July, penned a new book. Her book is on much needed grace needed in American politics. So then Peggy's mea culpa for her vulgar language used when she thought no one was listening comes into a much sharper focus; she did it for largely for personal reasons -the need to sell her book.
This morning Bill Kristol writes in the NYTimes of Peggy after Peggy came out completely against Palin. Again only the stupid could not note Peggy was not only trashing Palin in her column but trying to hype her latest book with the use of vulgarization:
"According to the silver-penned Peggy Noonan, writing in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend, 'In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics.'”
I cannot agree with Kristol more. Peggy in own language, her treatment of Sarah Palin, and being shocked, shocked that total cad Christopher Buckley would be tossed off of NR for his most unprofessional behavior of openly sneering at NR readers who do not think as he, and the horror of the Chanel-clad Kathleen Parker receiving 12,000 negative emails when she had behaved like a Southern snipe towards Palin has most elegantly demonstrated the new vulgarization in American politics.
It among the Peggy Noonans, Christopher Buckleys, and Kathleen Parkers of the Republican Country Club Chic.
Frank Marschino| 10.20.08 @ 11:37AM
Not only is Palin "way hotter" in person, she has an appeal that the medial and liberal elites just can't understand...but the rest of America will respond accordingly on Nov. 4. It will be a repeat of Dewey-Truman.
Lynn Westrich| 10.20.08 @ 2:24PM
Colin Powell could never be trusted. He has always gone where he could benefit himself first. He clearly knows that McCain is the better man and what he said about Obama is false. You can bet he has already been promised a cabinet seat.
megapotamus| 10.20.08 @ 4:11PM
Powell's genius and perspicacity have always been more apparent than real. The half-measures of Desert Storm can be layed at his feet fairly except to say, it was Bush Sr's call and he blew it, if you think, as I do, that the occupation/counter-insurgency was necessary for our own good; the Iraqi democracy, a collateral benefit.
Catherine Windels| 10.20.08 @ 4:49PM
Very good move, running a headline that suggests that conservatives who have doubts about Gov. Palin "need professional help." After the election, the conservative movement certainly won't need the Peggy Noonans, Kathleen Parkers, Rod Drehers, David Frums, Heather MacDonalds, etc., etc., much less their many, many admiring readers. No, it will be a much more effective strategy to denounce them, perhaps even have show trials, and further reduce our numbers and influence. This is no time to reach out, and try to build alliances! Let's make one politician, whom most of us had never heard of a year ago, the single acid test for who is and is not a true conservative. And while we are at it, let's form a circular firing squad. It amounts to the same thing.
OCPatriot| 10.20.08 @ 4:52PM
I read this column about Governor Sarah Palin as grunting and grimacing without one fact in it, just a whole lot of feelings and tangled thoughts. If you look at the fact that Palin has not given one real policy speech, sat down with one neutral interviewer and shared her thoughts with them, and is being used as an attack dog by the McCain campaign and nothing more, what can her credentials for being Presidential be? She has no real domestic experience and never demonstrates it or displays it because Alaska is one of the richest states and not typical of the rust belt, or the West Coast, or the large metropolises where most American live (as opposed to small towns); nor has she ANY foreign policy experience. If you listen to her, she parrots what she's been told, without an original thought. She lies about Troopergate by saying it cleared her of ethical violations, and she seems to take pride in her daughter's out-of-wedlock pregnancy and her husband-to-be dropping out of high school to get a job (that will no doubt be found by Palin and friends) - what kind of role model for V.P. or President is that? She has a flair for performing, when in private she conducts political vendettas against those she dislikes. The Conservatives, and General Powell, who criticize her are right about her lack of experience. By the way, who has amnesia around Here? I seem to recall that the theme song before Palin was that Obama didn't have any experience, remember?
Jim| 10.20.08 @ 6:48PM
My friend is voting for Palin. Not for McCain but for Palin. I asked him why? He said she is hot looking and has great legs. Geeeeeeeesh! What kind of a reason is that? I guess some men are still not led by their brains but another part of their body.
mnotaro| 10.20.08 @ 6:51PM
Obama doesn't have any experience! He has missed 45% of his Senate votes! Who in their right mind would then elect him to run our country?! The left wing illuminati are just using Obama for his good looks and personality to get a democrat into the White House and it's working!
Jim| 10.20.08 @ 7:21PM
Evidently experience doesn't mean everything. Look at George W. Bush and the experience he had as a politician and he has this country soooo messed up that the next president is going to have a hard time getting things back to normal.
Jim| 10.20.08 @ 7:45PM
OCPatriot,you are absolutely correct!
Catherine| 10.21.08 @ 1:56AM
Big Media elites like Parker and Noonan are just a peculiar conservative strain that have completely separated from the bourgeousie. I would trust Camille Paglia over them any day in terms of truly seeing Sarah Palin in a cultural and historical sense. Paglia regularly shops at Wal Mart. When's the last time you think Precious Peggy and Katty Kathleen shopped there, if at all?
doug| 10.21.08 @ 3:17AM
lol....Palin relates to so many americans because quite frankly most americans are as dumb as she is. Especially middle america. The facts are clear: She is a redneck moron who doesnt have the experiance to be governer. She is also a christian supremacist who wants to install prayer in school, ban books, believes prayer can cure homosexuals, etc. having her as president would also be a setback on women's rights by about 5 decades. Making rape/incest victims carry their child to term is an unspeakable violation of their rights. She toted her pregnant daughter for making the "Choice" to have her kid.....Roe gave her that choice. anyway, the bottom line is that if Mcain wins, then America will deserve everything it has cooming to it. I hope you all suffer greatly
Brian| 10.21.08 @ 4:42AM
Give me a break doug! Palin will do fine, you Democrats should be worried about Ayers getting a Sec of Education Cabinet spot under Obama. The VP cannot over turn Roe Vs Wade anyway. Leave your spin and talking points for the great unwashed UberLibs at a James Taylor concert. Palin is correct on pointing out Obamas short comings and zero experience. Even though, Obama is going to win this one. I am still going to vote for Palin , just on principle alone. Obama is just a empty suit, he has no creds what so ever.
Tim| 10.21.08 @ 2:34PM
Doug - - it's difficult to take your attacks on Palin as being "dumb" seriously when you've misspelled most of your absurd paragraph. Really, she's out to BAN BOOKS? She's a CHRISTIAN SUPREMACIST?? Boy, you've really been doing your reading lately....on Daily Kos obviously.... The Left is so boring these days, there was a time when you could have a serious policy discussion with people on the Left, now it's all demagoguery and libel...
Catherine| 10.21.08 @ 6:46PM
It really lowers the standard to allow teenagers like "doug" to comment.
If you can't write proper English, you have no business subjecting us to your ignorant and poorly expressed opinions.
Jim| 10.21.08 @ 6:47PM
Reublicans think McCain and Palin are the greatest. McCain is 72 years old. At McCain's age Palin could be president. That is scarey!! I agree with Doug, Palin will try to push her christian ideas on everyone else. I am a registered Republican but I won't be voting for McCain because he chose Palin for VP. There are manyRepublicans who will vote for McCain and Palin. How dumb can you be and still breathe?
OCPatriot| 10.22.08 @ 3:34AM
Now we all know that the real Americans live in small towns, like the one Sarah Palin was mayor of, but what we didn't know was that she isn't really a small town girl and working class. No, according to financial disclosure records, the RNC helped her out with accessorizing that totaled about $150,000 - that figure is not a misprint, repeat $150,000 - which began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74. The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September. So, yes, she believes in the real America, where people can't pay their mortgages and lose their jobs, while she goes shopping for her beautiful clothes because she'd like you to think she's one of those small town, pro-Americans. I'll bet McCain thinks she looks wonderful in those expensive clothes and is proud of how much money she can spend on them.
OCPatriot| 10.22.08 @ 3:47AM
And on TV Governor Palin, in her fourth public attempt to answer the question "What does the Vice President do?" - responded, The V.P. supports the President and "is in charge of the Senate" where the V.P. can change policy. Huh? Either this lady doesn't know, in her fourth attempt to answer the question, or she has dreams of power far beyond that which is written in the Constitution. No, Sarah, the V.P. is NOT in charge of the Senate nor does the V.P. set policy there. I cite this as an example of either how unlearned this woman is or how her fantasies involve being fully in charge of our government far beyond what the Constitution specifies.
Ed| 10.22.08 @ 3:38PM
I'll give Powell credit for this. He and the rest of the Chiefs compelled Schwarzkopf to permit the DESERT STORM air campaign and the amphibious demonstration that drove coalition casualties down; Stormin' Norman had come up with a plan that was all-Army, all the way, and the Joint Staff (which Powell led) put the kibosh on it.
That he said, he hasn't done much for us lately.
Chazman| 10.22.08 @ 7:42PM
Ummm...OCPatriot...you really should crack open your Constitution and quit taking lessons from Joe Biden on it. The Vice-President does, indeed, preside over the Senate. That most veeps have chosen to act in a pro forma role does NOT change what the ACTUAL Constitution says. What is really wearying is listening to some of you smug sobs who don't know anything vent your ignorance while proclaiming that the one who actually got their facts right is the dumb one.
After the veep debate, left-wing columnist E.J. Dionne was tut-tutting on some talking heads-show about how pathetic it was when Palin thought the Taliban was in Iraq - and that she mispronounced it as Talibani - and it just showed she is just not up to the job. The dumbass didn't know that she was talking about the president of Iraq, Jalal Talibani. And the dumbass further didn't seem to know that Iraq has both a Prime Minister and a President. And finally, the dumbass pitied the poor, dumb veep candidate because it never occurred to him to check to make sure he wasn't the ignorant one.
You lefties might try cracking a book or, say a Constitution, once in a while. It won't make you much smarter, but it might keep you from embarrassingly expose your ignorance when you are smugly pitying the limited intellects of those who actually took time to learn something, rather than merely vent.
Jim| 10.22.08 @ 8:08PM
Many families in America are losing their homes because they can't pay their mortgage. Families don't know where they will get extra money to send their children to college. People have lost their jobs because of company layoffs. Then I read about the BIG spending trips cute little Sarah Palin went on buying clothes so she can look good. WHAT A KICK IN THE FACE!!!! It makes me SICK when McCain and Palin say they are going to rescue the middle class and poor in America.
Jim| 10.22.08 @ 8:18PM
Sarah Palin, why didn't you go to Wal-Mart and buy your clothes like my family does?
Jim| 10.22.08 @ 8:26PM
Wow! Sarah Palin you could have sent some of that money to Joe The Plumber and he could have paid his back taxes or maybe bought that plumbing business.
Chazman| 10.22.08 @ 8:40PM
Give me a break, Jim...the evil (genuinely middle-class) Sarah Palin uses $150,000 of campaign money for a wardrobe suited to her new responsibilities and that is proof that she is an uncaring devil. But no doubt, when Obama spent $140,000 so he could give his acceptance speech in front of a Greek Temple that no doubt gave you tingles up and down your wussy leg. Shoot, if he could have got an early jump on sharing Joe the Plumbers money he might have had another $10,000 to add some mermaids and unicorns to his Greek Temple set. Nothing is too good for 'The One', but let Sarah get some clothes that the snooty establishment media won't sniff at as more evidence of her 'rustic vulgarity' and you throw a hissy. You obviously just hate women.
Jim| 10.22.08 @ 9:50PM
Chazman you big wuz. Don't come at me with your Republican rhetoric. I have been married 30 years. I am a registered Republican. I have voted Reblican since I was old enough to vote. I voted for George W. Bush twice. Answer me one question. Who has screwed this country up for the last 8 years? Republicans or Democrats? If you say Democrats it will show what an IDIOT you really are.
Jim| 10.22.08 @ 9:50PM
Chazman you big wuz. Don't come at me with your Republican rhetoric. I have been married 30 years. I am a registered Republican. I have voted Reblican since I was old enough to vote. I voted for George W. Bush twice. Answer me one question. Who has screwed this country up for the last 8 years? Republicans or Democrats? If you say Democrats it will show what an IDIOT you really are.
Chazman| 10.22.08 @ 10:02PM
Ah...a seminar caller. Got your talking points in front of you, do you? Don't tell me you voted Republican. If you had, you would express Republican sentiments and criticize Bush for where he PARTED from them, not from where he carried them out.
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the CRA was a scandal brewing that Republicans warned about having the capacity to tank our economy 17 times over the last decade. Democrats stood united. They brough on this mess by insisting on over-regulating the economy for political ends. The Republicans carry blame primarily for one reason: We kept ceding ground on the economy to Democrats on policies we knew to be a timebomb in order to seem reasonable and not be called cruel or racist. We were candy-asses and that's a fact. But the Dems were the ones actively and ignorantly pushing through policies guranteed to tank the economy.
As for the war and our struggle with jihadists, enjoy your Bush-bashing. He won't be gone six months before you and most Americans will wish to God you had him back because, my friend, we are about to find the meaning of terror.
So call me an idiot and have your fun...but the darkness you are conjuring is coming for you, too.
Jim| 10.23.08 @ 12:05AM
Wait a minute, are you telling me the Republicans were scared of the Democrats and had no backbone to stand up to them? I think there is a word for people like that....it's whimps. We all know why we are in Iraq. Bush claimed there were Weapons Of Mass Destruction. I have never heard anyone say Weapons Of Mass Destruction were found. I don't think many Americans will want Bush back, He has the lowest popularity ratiing of any president in history. What a legacy to leave.
I apoligize for calling you an idiot.
Chazman| 10.23.08 @ 12:34AM
Wimps, candy-asses, either way I can't argue that. We bear our share of responsibility for not more vigorously standing for the economic principles that would have kept the economy sound. We knew - and tried to seem reasonable to the New York Times.
As for the WMDs, we dithered long enough for Saddam to ship a Ft. Knox worth of warheads to Syria. The most telling independent report was the Duelfer Report. The establishment media trumpeted its finding that there were no significant WMDs in Iraq at the time of invasion. But what the media did not speak of at all was the further finding in the same report about the plan Saddam had in place to reconstitute his WMD program within 30 days after sanctions were lifted. And what really got lost in the media was the report's conclusion - that Iraq did indeed constitute an imminent threat and we needed to act. Don't google the New York Times to check me - you'll have to find a copy of the Duelfer Report.
And thanks for the apology. It was a classy thing to say. (I'd apologize for the 'wussy leg' comment in an earlier reply and tell you I'm sure you have a very manly leg, but I don't want to go all Larry Craig or Mark Foley here. If we get a Republican who has a heterosexual sex scandal, I wouldn't try to hide it. Think I'd call a dam press conference to brag on it.)
Ms. Know| 10.30.08 @ 12:32AM
There was never any doubt to me where he was going to go. He was leaning left for awhile, but didn't want to come out immediately, because everyone would know it was due to race. Now were are the liberal illuminati at now, not screaming racism I see.
Carlos Navarro| 10.30.08 @ 8:46AM
Sarah Palin, the First Dude, Joe the Plumber, Keith Olbermann, Lou Dobbs, Carl Rove, Sean Hannity, Randi Rhodes, Rush Limbaugh, David Letterman, George W. Bush, Saturday Night Live, celebrity endorsements—Peggy Noonan’s comment about the “vulgarization of American politics” was right on the money. For a philosophical perspective on what is happening in America today, I refer you the prophetic 1930 classic by José Ortega y Gasset, The Rebellion of the Masses.
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