Lets Put the "Experience" Argument to Rest, Shall We?

Commenting at Hot Air.Com, 

Ironic how the Palin cult can’t seem to realize they look exactly the Obama cult they fought against in the last election.
TheBlueSite on March 24, 2010 at 3:24 PM

          you fail to recognize that she has actually governed and has lots more experience than dear leader
          cmsinaz on March 24, 2010 at 3:26 PM

and a little more.....

You fail to recognize that she quit said job.
YYZ on March 24, 2010 at 3:32 PM

          She still leads Obama in executive experience:
           2 1/2 years vs. 1 year and 2 months

           Doughboy on March 24, 2010 at 3:34 PM

I'm sorry, but whatever argument there once was for Palin's experience over Obama's during the election, that argument is now effectively destroyed.  1 year and 2 months of running the federal government of the United States of America during a global financial crisis in the midst of two wars while addressing various and sundry natural disasters worldwide trumps running Alaska for 2.5 years.  Period.  I dislike stupid arguments.  This is one.

Drive By Opinion: On Palin

The Tea Party contingent is populist and vocal, but their numbers are not sufficient to elect Palin. She polls badly with independents and many republicans don't have confidence in her either. She has yet to do anything that indicates to me she has a level of political savvy on the same level as displayed by Obama in the crafting of his successful run.  Taking on this talking head gig only solidifies her as a non serious candidate in my mind. I would not consider any of the paid blowhards of the left or right as potential leaders of the free world. Just not what I think of as Presidential resume builder. She left office to make the money and cash in. I'm okay with that, since her cynical selection by McCain brought her a lot of grief, which although she willingly signed up for, was not entirely deserved. I don't begrudge her salvaging a career and some wealth from that mess, which is why I encourage you to follow the link below and pick up her best seller at Amazon.

One Reason To Doubt Palin Will Achieve the Presidency

49 Minutes With Levi Johnston -- New York Magazine

I've never been a fan of unhinged attacks on Palin. I'm also not a fan of unabashed gushing over her. My premise about the woman has always been fairly clear eyed. She's got political ability and intelligence enough to become governor of Alaska and make the cut for a presidential ticket, and the raw ambition to think she can leverage that into her own run for the presidency. What's not clear is whether she has the raw political skill to build a winning run for the White House. I want her to go for it, because watching it will be amazing political theater.

However, she has some anchors around her neck, one in particular named Levi. He and his family have been described as Palin's attendant freakshow. Somedays this seems like an uncharitable description (to her; it may be apt in their case), other days not so much. In any event, his continuing (...and growing?) visibility and minor celebrity status (because we live in a society that is sick that way) detract from taking her seriously. Its probably not fair that this is the case, but I think its true.

If you have a desire to take Palin seriously, that impulse gets stepped on a little bit every time Levi opens his mouth. I dislike the young man, primarily because he is simply young and not particularly smart. I wonder perhaps if I should not dislike more the country we have become, that Levi is now a minor political, and apparently soon to be entertainment celebrity. Here's why Levi makes me think a bit less of Palin's political effectiveness. This silly young 17 year old has managed to get leverage enough on the governor to muscle better visitation and some level of stand down from her camp that permits him to exploit his connection to the Palins in a tabloid sort of a way.

Despite this minor success, a commenter on this article gave what I thought was very good advice:

"A little advice for Levi: You've basically stumbled upon a marketing goldmine simply by failing to wrap it up (B!). Write a book. Get on reality TV. "Act" in some straight-to-DVD movies. Whatever. Trust me, your fame WILL BE fleeting, so bank on it while you can. And, as a consumer who will allow you to do this all that I ask in return is that you don't forget about your kid. Don't cling to celebrity after your time's up and, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, don't drag your son into it with you. Make that money ASAP, move back to Alaska, and spend it on the kid."

Good advice. I hope he takes it.

Maher Backs Letterman: Also a Putz

That Maher would say there was nothing offensive about Letterman's comments at all merely demonstrates the same thing about him as it does about Letterman. They are both very left wing thinkers and for people with whom they politically disagree, they are hard pressed to identify any form of attack as off limits.

Letterman is a Putz

Okay, so I'm trying to whip up some strawberry shortcake and I pull up the TV Guide website to see what supposed to be on TV in this brave new digital world, where everything is crystal clear and there is still nothing worth watching. Anyway, top of the page is a story headlined "Letterman Offers Full Apology to the Palins". I think to myself, hey, thats great. Letterman really made a crappy, cruel, coarse joke about Bristol Palin and he should apologize. The joke sucked, it was beneath him, it was nasty and foul and its taken too long but at least he is finally getting with the program and going to give a full blown apology.

Then I read what he said and now all I can say is that Letterman is a putz. Here's the most relevant bit:

"Well, my responsibility — I take full blame for that. I told a bad joke. I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception. And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke. It's not your fault that it was misunderstood, it's my fault. That it was misunderstood.[emphasis mine]" (Audience applauds.) "Thank you. So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I'm sorry about it and I'll try to do better in the future. Thank you very much."

The man is a putz, I kid you not. I was misunderstood? Are you kidding me? You weren't misunderstood Mr. Letterman, you were understood all too well to be making a foul joke at the expense of variously, a 14 year old and then an 18 year old girl. The girls really are not fair game, not for that kind of coarse joke. His "apology" basically assumes that it was okay to say something so nasty about Bristol, its just that people misunderstood him, didn't get the joke.

We got the joke, we just thought it was a crap joke to make about an 18 year old girl. We thought it was a crap joke to make about the Palin daughters, whichever one you thought you were talking about.

Acccrding to TV Guide, Embassy Suites pulled some ads from the CBS website. I actually think that kind of activity should continue until the guy gives an unqualified apology that clearly acknowledges that it was a foul thing to say, point blank, period.

Bristol Is Not the Example For My Child

The decision to make a virtue of the family issues of the Palins as an example of family values remains I think a very bad one. I'm sorry, but Bristol Palin as a soldier in the ongoing culture wars in my mind spells epic fail.

That was Bristol a few months ago. This is Bristol this past week.

Some people make a lot over the flip flop of opinion about abstinence on her part. I really think its irrelevant. She's a teenage girl (growing up very fast now). She's a kid, and a kid mixed up in the grown up world of bloodsport politics. I'm actually somewhat appalled that she's talking on TV at all, because frankly I really don't see what purpose there is for it, other than some damage control for her own personal image. I guess I could see it on that grounds. Certainly not as some part of a platform to support abstinence. Bristol was no supporter of abstinence before her pregnancy. I'm skeptical, given her prior statements, that she is particularly committed to abstinence now. But it doesn't really matter. Bristol is a kid. We knew her story already.

I shake my head everytime I read fawning commentary by conservatives at HotAir and similar online watering holes for cons about how she is such a tremendous example for abstinence, because she is living firsthand with the consequences of going the other way. Can I let you in on a little secret? Bristol Palin is not the example I'm going to set before my lovely nine year old daughter about what to do. She is perhaps the cautionary tale, the warning, the admonishment that I'll give her about what not to do, about what happens when you make a bad choice about sex outside of marriage.

If I'm going to try to inspire my daughter about making the right choices, I'm not going to couch that argument to her in the negative with an example like Bristol Palin. Rather, I will point her in the direction of someone who is actually making correct decisions and say, "emulate that". Bristol is now famous by dint of her mistake. If she didn't have a child, if she were not a teen unwed mother, she would not be on Matt Lauer program or any other show. She would simply have been Sarah Palin's daughter and would have gone back to a more normal life once the campaign had ended. So what's the example? Have a baby out of wedlock and get on tv? She's not running for anything, her mom is the politician.

The other absurdity on the right is all of this fawning praise for her making a decision for life. I applaud that as well. I think its wonderful that she chose to have her baby and not abort it. But I'm also irked because the same conservative brethren who sing her praises for choosing life are often among those rhetorically ripping apart unwed mothers in the hood who chose life too. How is it that poor, black women choosing life are denigrated, but the Bristol Palins of the world are held up as an example, though they made the same mistake and the same decision?

Levi & Bristol: The Young and Stupid Leaking the Air out of the Palin Ballon

Levi Johnston recently went on the Tyra Banks show to talk about his relationship with Bristol Palin. On the show he admitted that he didn't always practice safe sex with Bristol and that he believed Sarah Palin knew they were having sex.

He was accompanied on the show by his mother and sister. As I recall, Mom Johnston is facing several drug related felony counts. So this is just an interesting family.

Right Wing News really took exception to Levi's interview. They said it was evidence of no class and I'm inclined to agree. Though I would cut the kid some slack in that he is young and stupid and his family does not appear to win any awards for great responsibility or intelligence either.

Bristol issued a statement in response to the interview:

"Bristol did not even know Levi was going on the show. We're disappointed that Levi and his family, in a quest for fame, attention, and fortune, are engaging in flat-out lies, gross exaggeration, and even distortion of their relationship," says the statement from the Palin family rep, Meghan Stapleton. "Bristol's focus will remain on raising Tripp, completing her education, and advocating abstinence,"

Advocating abstinence? Uh uh, I don't think so.

VAN SUSTEREN: I don't want to pry to personally, but I mean, actually, contraception is an issue here. Is that something that you were just lazy about or not interested, or do you have a philosophical or religious opposition to it or...


BRISTOL: No. I don't want to get into detail about that. But I think abstinence is, like -- like, the -- I don't know how to put it -- like, the main -- everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it's not realistic at all.

I wouldn't suggest that a teenage unwed mother can't be an advocate for abstinence, though frankly, thats not my first choice to deliver such a message. But just like republicans are questioning whether or not Michael Steele's words of apology to Rush are to be believed after he said that his gaffe was "strategic", similar skepticism can be applied to this statement from Bristol given her interview with Van Susteren.

The continuing tabloid like saga of Bristol Palin is proof positive of the tremendous political mistake it was to use Bristol and her pregnancy to highlight Sarah Palin's conservative values. Because fundamentally, the picture it painted of Palin's family increasingly appears to be a falsehood. Levi suggested that Palin actually let the two of them sleep in the same bedroom on at least one occasion. If thats true, that reflects on Palin's judgment in a way that I dont' see how you can clean it up or square it with conservative moral values. Bristol is young and foolish, so the fact that she has a poorly formed commitment to abstinence is no revelation.

On the right, there is always this spirited defense of Sarah Palin based in part on her representation of superior conservative values, but this tabloid tale lets the wind out of that balloon. Conservative social values and mores are indeed superior, but Palin's family dynamics don't make her a superior example of them. She was put forward by the McCain campaign and now by the conservative movement as an icon of superior family values, but if you do that and the reality is really less than the representation, the man in the street will rightly question if any of the billing is on point.

If You Have to Say Its Not Whining, Its Whining

Governor Palin is a singular political phenomenon. Beloved by the right, practically revered as a pillar of the party and a pristine representative of all that is conservative and good. I've always considered the Palinmania overdone and as much a function of the fact that she's attractive as it is her political skills. Its not lost on me that her most vociferous defenders on the right are the guys. Guys like Sarah Palin the same way they like women in movies who shoot people, blow stuff up and know kung fu. Notwithstanding her position as a governor, I've yet to be convinced that she has the raw leadership capability to lead this nation as President. During the campaign, my fellow brethren to the right were fond of pointing out that Palin has equal if not more experience in public office, and indeed qualitatively superior experience as an executive, in contrast to Obama. In a year, probably less, that argument will be obliterated.

Palin is undeniably a rock star of the right and is always prominently mentioned around the conservative web as a contender for 2012. While I don't subscribe to the Palin hype, she is an intriguing figure and I'm interested in watching how she crafts a potential run for the White House.

So its disappointing when she fails to meet my expectations for some reason, as she did with these remarks delivered last Friday to the Anchorage Lincoln Day Dinner, a state GOP event :

"Some in the media actually participated in not so much the 'who-what-where-when-why' objective reporting on candidates and positions, those five W's that I learned when I had a journalism degree so many years ago in college, when the world of journalism was quite different than it is today," she said.

"No, things have changed," she continued. "But complaining? Or whining? Absolutely not. But I am going to call it like I see it. It doesn't do any good to whine about any of this. But I can call it like I see it. Sometimes it gets me in a lot of trouble when I speak candidly, and I speak from the heart and I do such a thing. But I am going to."

"And there was that media slant this go round," she said. "And unless things change, the GOP had really better can stand together, 'cause we got that on the battlefield also. I call it like I see it and like I lived it on the campaign trail. Not complaining, but dealing with reality."

"Those are the cards that are dealt us," she said, "and we had better learn to play that hand and do things right and do things better."

It is whining. Palin got a raw deal from the media and she was the subject of a lot of unfair, criticism and some downright nasty attacks, but last time I checked, thats the business of politics. It ain't beanbag and after a campaign that ground on for over 2 years and was bitterly contested with few holds barred and where Palin certainly took the opportunity to land some hard shots of her own, I'm just not very sympathetic to this complaint. If she were a man, would those of us to the right spend so much breath to loudly agree with her that she was treated badly? Or would we simply accept that it comes with the territory and move on?

John Zeigler at Big Hollywood advances the notion that Palin was naive and understandably so:

She declared, “Some in the media actually participated in not so much the ‘who-what-where-when-why’ objective reporting on candidates and positions, those five W’s that I learned when I had a journalism degree so many years ago in college, when the world of journalism was quite different than it is today.”

Who could blame someone who graduated in the 80’s during a year in journalism when there was at least some self restraint on the inherent liberal agenda for being more than a bit shocked that the rules had been completely changed without anyone officially doing so.

Are you kidding me? Thats a defense? She was naive? Thats the argument you want to make on her behalf? That argument is the height of congnitive dissonance for a political rock star nicknamed the "Barracuda" that the men of the right like because she's game for airborne wolf hunting.

How many times does Palin plan to revisit the subject of how the media was unfair to her? How about she take some responsibility too? The political mannerisms and feminine winks that people seemed to find so cute for example, that provided ample ammunition to Tina Fey. The determined avoidance of simple questions like "what do you read?" Were she a man, there would be none of this breathless rushing to her defense. This is the same species of mistake that was made on the campaign trail when the McCain team worked so hard to shelter her from media questioning, ostensibly to "protect" her, which only got them derided as simply trying to hide her flaws from the public. The result? Those flaws, real and imagined, were simply magnified in the mind of the electorate. These comments from her don't help her a whole lot, nor the misguided coddling of Palin from the right.

Palin Target of Relentless Legal Attack

I wonder sometimes if Sarah Palin regrets stepping into the ring with John McCain to run for the White House, if for no other reason than you'd think that with the election over, folks would get on with life. But her political opponents don't seem to be able to put it down.

Redstate reports that Palin is being purposefully hit with frivolous ethics charges in an attempt to bankrupt her.

From just September till now, Sarah Palin has accumulated a personal dept of over $500,000 in legal fees defending herself against fake/false/frivolous ethics charges. That’s Five Hundred Thousand Dollars.

A group of Alaska liberals, with the apparent cooperation of members of the Alaska Democratic Party have been filing ethics charge after ethics charge against Sarah Palin. The aim? Not to get her impeached and booted from office, because every single one of the charges are frivolous, baseless and even fairly deranged - one was even filed in the name of a soap opera character - but something far more personal.

.....no matter how frivolous their charges, no matter how far-fetched, no matter how bone-headed stupid, the Governor would still have to legally defend herself against them - meaning she’ll have to pay attorney fees as she goes before the Personnel Board.

This is pretty despicable behavior and a high price for Palin to pay for her ambition as she tries to chart a course of leadership within the party and its conservative movement.