(photo: Tom LeGro)
Christopher Hitchens notices a pattern with anti-Palin rumors: their troubling tendency to turn out highly exaggerated or entirely fabricated, in a very short turn.
[A]s often as I have forwarded some alarming e-mail about her from a beavering comrade, I have afterward found myself having the sensation of putting my foot where the last stair ought to have been and wasn’t.
(Slate)
Hitch gets close to what’s happening there by recalling Walter Dean Burnham’s prescient 1960s prediction that Ronald Reagan would one day be president, based on Ron’s inability to exude hostility and thus not attract it. This is slightly misdirected. Reagan attracted as much hostility as any politician in the modern era from the political left, save perhaps Nixon. The trouble consisted in that the product of that hostility, criticism, didn’t seem to stick. Or even worse, seemed to possess a counterproductive property.
By the time Reagan was nominated for the 1980 election, the character attacks from his critics had become so fictional and deranged that all Reagan really had to do was not start a nuclear war, in order to be vindicated. Not that anyone was even paying attention to those critics by late 1980, as their feverish trade in spurious gossip and fragile accusations of everything from racism to insanity, had long ago immunized Reagan from most criticism. It’s this aspect of Reagan’s “Teflon” capacity to survive scandal that is most often overlooked. And in its inspiration and effect, it’s the most salient single similarity between Reagan and Palin.
Two decades of zealous and spurious attacks by critics –and the vindictive credulity on their part those attacks exhibited– had left the public much more than skeptical of almost all criticism of Reagan. It should be noticed that this also induced an acute frustration or the left in the 1980s, given that the more serious their allegations were, the less likely they were to be believed. A dynamic that would probably not have been possible were it not for the exaggerated and/or invented attacks leveled at Reagan earlier on. Over time, a kind of mental resistance to anti-Reagan criticism had been slowly built up by the public, as one by one fantastical allegations had proved false and capricious.
It’s not difficult to imagine that we are re-experiencing this history, when one surveys the increasingly absurd lengths some elements of the left are going to in order to defame Palin.
I’d say unequivocally that from the short bit that we have seen of Sarah Palin, any such claims of Obama oratory “eloquence’ were diminished if not destroyed. In a relatively short amount of time Ms Palin delivers substance, vision, direction, accomplishment, leadership and stature that Mr Obammy has not; in over a years worth of time; been able to exhibit. As I have said for months, Obama is an empty suit, incapable, unworthy, not qualified, not transparent ( and probably more entwined with Chicago thuggery that he wishes to let on) and at three AM, I certainly doubt that Sarah Palin will answer the red phone as “present” And this phantom has had over 130 opportunities to express his opinion on matters ( well at least yea or nay ) but since this proves to be too difficult for Mr Obama, he has chosen to use the “present” strategy.
Well that worked in the past before Sarah Palin came to the fore to demonstrate that she is not interested in present – she is interested in working for us, for you and me, for the future of our great nation and I can seeher willingness to stand tough against the pablum and bromides and baloney that MR Obama is made out of. I never liked him, I gave him several months to convince me and diddnt but I IMMEDIATELY took a liking to Sarah Palin!!
God Bless AMerica and lets get on with running the country by ousting the 110th Less than Do Nothing Pelosi Congress! McCain Palin!!! yaYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!
This woman is corrupt to the core <a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090803088.html?hpid=topnews“>Palin billed State for Nights spent at home</a>
Right Roschelle, how dare she bill the state for what she is entitled to under Alaska’s laws. She was such a swindler that she even managed to outspend the previous governor.
Gov. Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. He traveled often in an executive jet that Palin called an extravagance during her campaign. She sold it after she was sworn into office.
Oh, wait a minute, she didn’t out spend him, she only spent 20% as much… Damn, there goes that meme…
You should try reading beyond the headline. Of course, your marching orders probably only included the headline, and a “tee he”.
Hey, in the interest of fair play, how about a full disclosure of Obama’s and all of Congresses travel patterns. Then we can see who is corrupt and who is not.
Really wish you’d take my advice in the above post Roschelle. Or at least just read it. Given your past remarks on ASHC, it’s very much intended for you as a type of critic. Throwing everything you can get your hands on at Sarah in the hopes that something sticks has dangerous consequences. You forge Teflon. Remember how Reagan was completely immunized from criticism by this tactic. Are you sure you want to do it again?