Below is a letter to the editor I sent our local fish wrap in response to this column:
Pam Platt, in her September 23rd column, was quick in her summation of Governor Palin, calling her "this year's cynical choice to play the role of woman of the people". It is indeed the gullible liberal who does not realize that the same accusations made against Palin's history and purpose can be made, and justly so, against Senator Obabma.
While the Alaska Governor's rise to statewide executive office is seen as meteoric and, thus, dubious to the chattering classes, the Senator from Illinois' hazy work record as a "community organizer" is seen as an experience which somehow contributes to his worthiness to hold the most powerful elected office on the planet. Palin's service as a small town mayor is the punchline of liberal jokes, but Obama's rank-and-file socialist voting record in the Illinois statehouse is seen as giving him that most sought after of characteristics, gravitas. Alaska's overblown "troopergate" scandal attempts to become another Iran-Contra on the front page of countless newspapers, while Obama's association with unrepentant terrorists goes little noticed amidst the noise of adulation afforded him at every turn by the mainstream media.
The smear campaign against Governor Palin would be laughable if it did not serve as such a strong indictment of what the Fourth Estate (and this newspaper) has become: another thoughtless but useful tool of the Left.
I'm posting it here because I doubt it will see the light of day in the pages of the Courier-Journal. As my friend Carmine says, it's hard to trust even the page numbers in that rag.
Posted by Matthew at September 23, 2008 02:23 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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Well, fortunately for you, you can choose to delete comments just as the paper can choose not to publish your letter. I hope you don't, though I'm sure you'll be tempted to. What I'm sure you fail to realize about your letter is how it does nothing to directly combat the cynicism us "bleeding hearts" are shooting at Palin. Rather, it tries to turn the cynicism onto Obama. The whole "he's just as bad, if not worse" argument is dumb, and the conservative flock of head-nodders are dumb for buying it.
Obama has actual "Washington experience" (a phrase I'm sure you'll relish and will have you giggling the next time he utters the word "change"). He represents a state of 12,831,970 people, according to a 2006 census. In case you were curious about the math, that's 20 times the population of Alaska. Oh yeah, but she has actual experience "governing", so I guess there's some kind of multiplier for that. Oh, and let's not forget that she can see parts of Russia from parts of Alaska, so that makes her a foreign policy mastermind. I'm sure the only reason she didn't hop into a kayak made only from moose bones and hide and row over there to solve the whole Georgia conflict was because she was being tapped to run for the second highest office in the land.
If Palin were such a capable candidate, the McCain campaign wouldn't be sheltering her from the press and pulling her from the majority of her scheduled tasks so that they could spend every waking moment helping her cram for the VP debates, pausing only for a few photo ops with world leaders and such. "Oh look, here's a picture of Sarah with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, do you buy her foreign policy experience now?"
The answer is no. And before you accuse me of doing what I'm accusing you of, let me remind you that, not only has Obama actually lived abroad, but HIS VP pick actually strengthens his foreign policy credentials rather than weakens it. And no, I don't need to be reminded that Biden is a walking gaffe machine. His mouth may move a little faster than his brain, but at least he has some semblance of a brain, unlike a certain president who shall remain nameless.
As for Obama's supposed association with admitted domestic terrorist William Ayers, a bunch of right wing propagandists screaming it as loudly and as often as they can does not make it so. I've read all the "evidence" of their relationship, but there's not one shred of documented proof to show that the relationship extends to the level they suggest. Forgive my skepticism, but you'll have to produce the YouTube video of Obama and Ayers dancing arm-in-arm singing "Best Friends Forever" for me to by that load of tripe.
Well, that's my rant. I'm sure I've either greatly amused or angered you. Honestly, I would prefer the former over the latter. The truth is, things get pretty crazy during the campaign season and there's a lot of "stuff" that comes from the campaigns and their supporters. As supporters ourselves, I think we find it hard to hear all this "stuff" and not strongly agree with the people we support and disagree with the ones we don't. It's partisanship at its worst. Your guilty of it, I'm guilty of it and the candidates are guilty of it. I'm not sure what the solution is, but it would be awfully nice if we could all figure it out. Then you wouldn't have to get pissed at the rest of the media's bias and I wouldn't have to get pissed at you and Fox News. Whatever happens, I think the next 4-8 years are going to be very telling. I hope they tell us good things.
Posted by: Jeff G at September 25, 2008 09:52 AMexcellent
Posted by: damon at September 26, 2008 10:10 PMObama a self proclaimed protestant says it ok to kill unborn humans. The rest of his views are moot. Choose life!
Posted by: Erik at October 1, 2008 12:25 PM