Friday, August 29, 2008

Walking around punditry

Ed Rollins, despite being a Republican operative, actually manages a commentary on Sarah Palin that's not blithering. I have to admit that that was unexpected. Usually his species is completely incapable of anything that's not hagiographic spin.

There are some facts in it that I wanted to know, and it's not all about atmospherics and personality like this piece of abject middle school idiocy. Some wingnut pundits would christen a 30-lb. granite boulder the second coming if McCain had picked it to be VP.

Rollins is a bit more realistic, as demonstrated by this shocking candor:

[W]in or lose or draw, she is a future star of a party in desperate need of young people and women role models.
Rollins is a Republican, though, so maybe he profits by the soft bigotry of my low expectations. There's a lot of what he says that's wrong in silly ways.

He hits the vacuous spin points like an old pro, raving about Palin's new celebrity then dissing Obama for his. IOKIYAR!

He offers cheeky bullshit that's already well-known as bullshit:
[L]ike Reagan, Obama's speeches are his own words.
Reagan's speeches included a few words of his own, but no one ever claimed, except in obeying the speechwriter's omertà, that he wrote them. When Peggy Noonan wrote the obligatory self-effacing white lie about her work for Reagan in On Speaking Well, the wink between the lines lingered like a relative of the Cheshire cat's smile.

And, Rollins claims that Obama hasn't put forward a program. Huh? Was he watching with the sound turned off? I suspect that he and the GOP would rather leave the public ignorant so that they can hint darkly and speciously of socialism.

Rollins also lauds McCain's choice as a brilliant Hail Mary pass. Just last week, we were hearing that Obama should be miles ahead. Why is it that McCain needed a desperate move to save his campaign?

Still, all in all, bullshit, but slightly deodorized from the usual conservative majority at CNN. Attaboy!

(Side note: Ramesh Ponnuru provides a rare post on the Corner that's not a gagging mix of sycophancy and saccharine.)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Who is Palin??? Why should she be one heartbeat away from the Presidency??
I do NOT want to hear anyone arguing that Obama is inexperienced… EVER AGAIN!!!
It is clear to me that Mccain is using women as a tool… just to gain votes for him. The Biden choice is a respectful one, because it was to benefit the country… the Palin choice, I’m not so sure about… it seems as though it was carefully crafted to benefit Mccain only, which is rather disingenuous to women and I hope Hillary voters see right through it!
It just goes to show you that you do not have to have political experience anymore - you can be a “hockey mom” and be one heartbeat away from the presidency nowadays.
I can't wait for the debates between Palin and Biden, and she has to explain the difference between Sunni and Shia… she will be looking for Liebermann.
Plus - I listened to conservative talk radio all day, and understand that conservatives only like her because she is "HOT" - that's it! Because she is "hot." This should alarm every American voter, and raise suspicion for anyone who knows a conservative, because this is what they think about. Clearly the wrong head they are thinking with, if they have brains at all.

lovable liberal said...

It doesn't surprise me that the vicious id of talk radio likes Palin because she's attractive. But the truth is that she's already having to ramp way up to manage Alaska, and VP is another huge leap.

Anonymous said...

I’m already tired of the comparison between Obama’s experience and Palin’s. Palin is more qualified than all three of the bureaucrats on either ticket. Having leadership skills is the only qualification to be the leader of America. Being a bureaucrat does NOT count as leadership experience, and it does not develop leadership skills! Leading a 5-person senatorial staff, or a crew of “community organizers” (huh?!), is NOT real leadership experience. Palin is the ONLY person on EITHER ticket with executive leadership experience. When compared to Barack’s leadership experience (none), it’s laughable that people are disparaging Palin’s experience as a mayor and governor. Palin has more leadership experience than McCain, who has more (military) leadership experience than both of the bureaucrats/legislators on the other ticket.

lovable liberal said...

Well, John, you're going to get a lot more tired. By the way, you should probably look up bureaucrat in the dictionary. I don't think it means what you think it means.