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'Outright Hostility'?

By Robert Stacy McCain on 11.10.08 @ 12:20PM

A colloquy of sorts is developing between myself and fellow Jacksonville (Ala.) State University alumnus James Joyner at Outside the Beltway:

A movement built on know-nothingism - indeed, outright hostility to higher education - is bound to fail.
The Republican Party will be consigned to permanent minority status if it continues down its present course. It is increasingly becoming a white, Southern party. Even though I'm both white and Southern, it's obvious to me that we have to expand our appeal beyond hard-core Evangelicals and anti-elitists that to get back Virginia, North Carolina, the Midwest, and West.

Is Sarah Palin an emblem of "outright hostility to higher education"? How so? Because Palin, a graduate of the University of Idaho, fared poorly in an interview with Katie Couric, a graduate of the University of Virginia?

And let's talk about all those Southern states the McCain-Palin ticket carried -- Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah. My friend James seems to have internalized the transparently bogus liberal propaganda that if it weren't for wool-hats and banjo-picking moonshiners, there wouldn't be a Republican Party. (News flash: Obama won 63% among high-school dropouts.)

James doesn't want the Republican Party identified with redneck opponents of illegal immigration (like that illiterate hillbilly Mark Krikorian) and he doesn't want the GOP identified with dimwitted foes of abortion (like that inbred peckerwood Pope Benedict XVI). And heaven forbid any Republican should side with a knuckle-dragging homophobe like Antonin "Bubba" Scalia in dissenting against the gay-rights agenda.

Krikorian, Scalia, the Pope -- they're all a bunch of disreputable know-nothings in league with that Wasilla hockey mom in a demagogic crusade to destroy the intellectual credibility of the conservative cause.

View all comments (22) | Leave a comment

T the D| 11.10.08 @ 1:00PM

Diet Dr. Pepper just came outta my nose.

Thanks for the wit :)

~T the D
http://thedrunkelephant.blogspot.com/

Alenda Lux| 11.10.08 @ 1:21PM

More on Palin, populism, cultural warfare, etc. here. Plus an argument that those looking to reconcile social cons and libertarian cons could look to Palin - a social con who has governed as a libertarian con.

http://alendalux.blogspot.com/2008/10/in-defense-of-sarah-palin.html

M A Andrews| 11.10.08 @ 1:26PM

Is the USA really moving to a center left,open borders
and one world Nation ? or have the values
of Citizenship and a Nation State been
downplayed or ignored by the left wing
MSM and poisoned by the Bush Administration's
overreaching to the detriment and potential demise
of the USA we grew up in !

numbersusa
capsweb
alipac

Crusader| 11.10.08 @ 2:02PM

Any "conservative" who claims the right needs to move closer to the center is a lib plant. I and many like me will be waiting on the far, far, right for a candidate who is serious about: closing borders, lowering taxes, abolishing welfare, clearing the books of the 20,000 or so unconstitutional gun laws, getting out of the bailout business, etc etc etc. Again, we're here. Knuckle draggers? I don't think so. We are educated critical thinkers, therefore we can not rationalize any lib talking point because they are all irrational.

Larry Linn| 11.10.08 @ 2:31PM

DEMOCRATS FOR PALIN! The fundraisers for the Democratic Party should start immediately provide funding for the Palin Presidential campaign for 2012. If she becomes the next Repugnican nominee, there will be four more years of her ignorant statements that can used to re-elect Obama.

the-gunslinger| 11.10.08 @ 2:38PM

Exactly which "ignorant statements" do you mean?

Have you ever actually heard her speak extemporaneously? She makes Obie look like a dunce. You are living in a fantasy world. Ergo, you must be a Lib.

Bob| 11.10.08 @ 2:44PM

Robert, you make the common error of equating education with intellect. Bush went to Yale and Harvard, yet no one would consider him a mental genius. The only way we can judge whether a politician is an actor or smart is by reading their writings, reading their position papers before they became a major candidate and had them written by someone else, and hearing their responses in combative interviews. Since we can't find any evidence Palin wrote position papers or gave speeches before she was VP on foreign policy, economics, energy, etc., the only measure of her intellect would be her interviews with Gibson and Couric. She failed both miserably -- even worse than George Bush. Now she is a mental midget unless she can prove otherwise.

We had a very smart, successful candidate with executive experience in the primaries named Romney, and Republicans chose someone else who scored 5th from the bottom at Annapolis (not a high academic school) and admitted he knew little about economics. This is prima fascia proof that Republicans/Conservatives eschew intelligence -- especially those social conservatives who value belief over reason.

In addition to Romney, there are smart young Republicans like Jindal. However, I doubt whether Republican ideologues and social conservatives would like his nuanced positions. After all, intelligence begets nuance.

Bob| 11.10.08 @ 2:47PM

Gunslinger, I have heard Sarah talk. You can see her in interviews with Gibson and Couric. Have you ever tried to diagram her sentence structure? Have you ever seen any position paper or book written by HER prior to being named VP?

Brittanicus| 11.10.08 @ 3:08PM

TELL CALIFORNIA'S TAXPAYERS TO PASS (H.R.1942), TO TERMINATE ANY FREE WELFARE HANDOUTS TO ILLEGAL ALIENS! The corrupt LIBERAL-politicians and judiciary stole your future away from you by pandering to illegal foreign nationals. READ how PROPOSITION 187 WAS MANIPULATED SO IT NEVER REACHED THE SUPREME COURT. 37 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS LIVING OFF TAXPAYERS IN THE US, according to Tucson sector Border Patrol union local 2544--NOT 13 MILLION, AS THE NUMBERS HAVE BEEN MANIPULATED BY THE LIBERAL NATIONAL PRESS AND SPECIAL INTEREST LOBBY.

An additional half-million coming every year. California is $11 billion dollars in the red, so now they are looking for ways to cut programs. A massive financial impact on our economy by importing the worlds poor. THIS IS NOT JUST CALIFORNIA, THIS PLAGUE HAS SPREAD ACROSS THE COUNTRY!

Don't re-elect Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa he's embraced LOS ANGELES as a SANCTUARY CITY, in a SANCTUARY STATE. REMEMBER! NEW MEXICO'S GOVERNOR BILL RICHARDSON, MAY BE ELECTED BY OBAMA.? HE ISSUED ILLEGAL FOREIGN NATION, DRIVERS LICENSES EVEN AFTER THE DISASTER OF 9/11.

Read the facts at www.numbersusa.com, www.judicialwatch.org, www.americanpatrol.com, www.capsweb.org

Write or e-mail California representative or state senator TODAY! NOW!

Mary| 11.10.08 @ 3:16PM

Have you ever tried to diagram her sentence structure?

LOL!

I don't think Governor Palin is anti-intellectual. That's an unfair charge.

And if you read Michelle Obama's Thesis, you walk away wondering just when Princeton started graduating students who are so mediocre.

Though, obviously, Michelle isn't running for Office. I mention her because no one in the media would dare point out just what an underwhelming read her thesis was.

Wraping your mind around the energy issue can't be that easy, but Palin seems to have accomplished that based on her interview w/Maria Bartiromo.

She must feel under seige now (anyone would), but I'm not sure she realizes that the Couric interview was the disaster that it was.

The Gibson interview was far less damaging, in my view. Some of her answers in the Couric interview cannot be explained away by the usual excuses of editing. She was offered a bunch of opportunities to go on Bill O'Reilly, but the McCain camp and she refused.

Don't forget about the interview following Couric's: McCain acting like a father who had to tag along so that he could check his daughter's tendencies. That was a painful too.

Josh F| 11.10.08 @ 4:23PM

Just because Sarah Palin was an integral part of McCain's complete disaster of a candidacy, doesn't mean we have to sit around a cry about it. Witnessing Palin muddle through those Couric and Gibson interviews was as painful to watch as anything. Republicans will win with candidates that can articulate a message, and who are conversant on the issues -- even while in hostile media territory. A neophyte of moderate to low intelligence like Palin will not suffice.

megapotamus| 11.10.08 @ 4:31PM

Perhaps someone can refer me to Obama's thinking, pre-campaign on.... anything. See, the genius of the Palin pick, if there was any and it was not accidental, is that the inevitable attacks on her slim experience would sully the even LESS experienced candidate... whoever that was. Any comparison with Joe Biden except for a raw chronological one also leaves Palin preferable. Republicans are not and should not be anti-intellectual but the campuses of this nation are fully and quite irrationally hostile territory. Never forget that. The final remedy for this is already in train. Barack promises and now may deliver exactly what our Liberal Superiors have always CLAIMED to want. If you think there is any remote possibility of anything resembling success, anything that could even remotely be portrayed as success springing from this a quick consultation of history ancient or recent will calm your fever. In Hawaii recently they abandoned their single-payer health plan for children as unworkably expensive after a mere seven months. Scale that up. Things happen at a dizzying pace today. No one can be convinced of Obot propaganda if they cannot run their TV.

ruth| 11.10.08 @ 4:40PM

Three nasty comments about Governor Palin on this one little thread! Amazing. Why all the bother, nasty little demoncrat trolls? You fear the power of her charisma, the profound way in which she resonates with ordinary Americans. She's not going away, losers, even if you don't like the grammatical structure of her sentences. Freak.

Mary| 11.10.08 @ 5:02PM

See, the genius of the Palin pick, if there was any and it was not accidental, is that the inevitable attacks on her slim experience would sully the even LESS experienced candidate... whoever that was.

This genius was met with a reward that sent a veteran Senator and a neophyte Governor packing.

McCain is the one who was all tactics and no strategy, not Obama.

I'm wishing PE Obama well, even though I voted for McCain. I'm willing to give Obama a fair hearing; one that was never given to President Bush (who I have a certain affection for) by the deranged left. It's the responsible thing to do.

If Obama is as smart as everyone thinks he is (I found his speeches vapid -all of them) he has a chance to make History and not end-up as a footnote.

Bob| 11.10.08 @ 6:25PM

Mary, as usual, the biased people on this board don't do adequate research. Let me set the record straight on your misstatements.

Palin hasn't shown knowledge about "energy", she has shown knowledge about "oil". We've heard nothing that she understands wind, solar, ethanol, etc. Besides, she thought that Alaska produced 20% of the energy for the U.S. and, in reality, it was 3%.

Regarding Obama's speeches and writings. Go to Wikipedia and check all of Obama's writings. Early on, he also wrote his own speeches and this has been documented. The earliest recorded speech on U.S. policy occurred in 1991 when he was a third year law student. He has written two books himself.

Palin is a shell. We don't know if she is smart because we've not seen much of her being challenged, has never had a press conference, refused to answer questions in her debate, and has no writings to speak of. In fact, the more we heard of her with her Gibson and Couric interviews, the more we found lacking. The fact that McCain HAD to accompany her to later interviews says that her own campaign staff could not trust her.

Besides, Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and that requires significant intelligence. Don't you want your children to excel in school? Shouldn't the President be an example for your children of what can occur if you are successful in school?

ruth| 11.10.08 @ 6:43PM

Bob, that's a new one. Prove Obama graduated MCL from Harvard Law. Also, I don't want my kids to be Marxists like Obama.

BD57| 11.10.08 @ 7:06PM

It's amazing to see how stupid some of you think the voters of Alaska are - yep, they elected an empty-headed, bible-thumping, anti-intellectual bimbo as governor.

And the Republican establishment of Alaska must be even stupider - - - - she did, after all, win despite them, not because of them ....

Such arrogant conceit ....

Mary| 11.10.08 @ 7:55PM

Bob -

Oil is a big part of the energy equation. Maybe I spoke too broadly. I apologize for that.

I never wrote that Obama didn't write his speeches or that he didn't write his books. I wrote that I found his speeches vapid. And I did, and that probably won't change unless his vacuousness disappears.

I've already stipulated to the problems of the Governor and her interviews, your just repeating yourself. And, the Gibson interview did her a lot less damage than the Couric interview because of Gibson's condescending , if avuncular, demeanor.

I would prefer my kids get a good, solid liberal arts education as a foundation, and then pursue a career in something they love or are gifted at.

Magna cum-laude is wonderful accomplishment, it's not a guarantee of wisdom or statesmanship.

If I were advising Governor Palin I'd recommend she hire a tutor or two over these next four years: history, economics and literature. I'd keep her far away from navel gazing, anile "intellectuals." They'd be kryptonite to her. She's the exact opposite of Obama. She's a doer. As are all women of pioneer stock.

I'm neither in her corner nor against her. She has one thing going for her right now, and that's the fiasco of this most recent piling on. Americans don't like to see a cowardly gang-up like this. The piling on is very anti-American

Palin doesn't need the votes of all independents, just some. I'm guessing, but I'd bet that being an Alaskan, and taking into consideration the toughness that entails, she's a live and let live kind of person, and I think she has a chance of making a comeback if she's willing to fill out her resume a little.

Palin being an underdog right now, taps into that part of the American in me that roots for someone in her position.

Mary| 11.10.08 @ 7:59PM

your just repeating yourself.

Should read you're.

Mary| 11.10.08 @ 8:24PM

From Peter Hitchens who is every bit as good as his brother:

The swooning frenzy over the choice of Barack Obama as President of the United States must be one of the most absurd waves of self-deception and swirling fantasy ever to sweep through an advanced civilisation. At least Mandela-worship – its nearest equivalent – is focused on a man who actually did something.

I really don’t see how the Obama devotees can ever in future mock the Moonies, the Scientologists or people who claim to have been abducted in flying saucers. This is a cult like the one which grew up around Princess Diana, bereft of reason and hostile to facts.

The rest is here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1084111/PETER-HITCHENS-The-night-waved-goodbye-America--best-hope-Earth.html