Democrats: beware the backlash to Palinsanity
I’ve been doing some reading on the blog TalkLeft, which seems to have a large percentage of liberal Democrat commenters (mostly female?) who supported Clinton for the Democratic nomination. At this point they’re not overly enchanted with Obama, but most plan to hold their noses and vote for him anyway because he’s advocating the policies they favor.
How are they reacting to the media frenzy and blogswarm that Ann Althouse has cleverly dubbed Palinsanity?
Exhibit A:
I’m sorry. This whole thing feels to me like the same thing that was done to Hillary. The woman is being subtly…and overtly pressured to drop out of the race. And she’s barely had a chance to speak yet. She’s only been in the race 3 days. It all feels wrong, wrong, wrong.
Exhibit B:
My god, her positions on the issues suck…they don’t reflect mainstream thinking in in this country. Why are so many Dems going so crazy?…Frankly, why do WE care how deeply she was vetted? That will come out without Dems doing the pushing and McCain will look increasingly dotty and foolish…only helpful to Obama…right? Would Giuiliani or Huckabee with all of their baggage on the ticket be any less of an insult to the nation? Please stop with this.
My deep, deep concern is that we have become exactly what we’ve railed about for years…Rove won didn’t he? At this historic moment, I’m not fired up; I’m growing more queasy by the day…I really fear for my party.
Exhibit C:
The focus on her lack of experience is only making her more powerful because we can be seen as hypocrites. I feel bad for her and I am a bleeding heart liberal gay man who should be motivated to hate this person with the heat of a 1000 white hot suns.
This is bad on many levels. I think the only way to deal with this, is to highlight her positions on important policies and give her space to flame out. There are still wounds to heal on the Dem side so matter how wonderful the unity pony show was last week. Attacking her experience is not going to win this, it will smack of sexism. Show her policy positions as not being mainstream will be the only way to win.
Exhibit D:
I don’t know quite what to make of the media storm on Palin, either.
We’re Democrats. Of course we don’t like McCain’s pick. But why such an foaming at the mouth? It sounds, yeah, scared. And very, very defensive.
Is it gender politics again? I’ve grown ultra sensitive to that…and I’m pretty sure that’s part of it, but to me it feels as though there’s something more going on.
Cynical though I am, I thought the Democratic party would have the wisdom to put aside their differences and nominate the Dream Ticket — Obama and Hillary in some order — I’d have taken either one at the top of the ticket. I was wrong.
Seems to me the Democratic Party is still pretty seriously wounded, and this is coming out on the blogs. Sarah Palin is the catalyst fueling the latest round of party dis-unity, and if this turmoil continues, she may end up being viewed by historians as a brilliant Republican VP choice.
And I agree wholeheartedly with this one:
I guarantee the MSM will put more effort into vetting Palin in the next few weeks than they have Obama in almost two years!
One reason for the Democrats’ focusing on Palin’s experience is to deflect attention from Obama’s experience. Here is something to ponder.
There are fifteen Presidents who at one time served as US Senator.
Of those fifteen Senators who later became President, there were only two who were directly elected from the US Senate to the Presidency: Warren Harding and John Kennedy. Of the fifteen Presidents who had served in the US Senate, there is only one whose previous experience involved none of the following: military, US vice-president, US cabinet member, US Congressman, state governor.
That would be Warren Harding. Note that the above “none of the following” also describes Senator Obama.
Not exactly illustrious company for Senator Obama.
Sources: Wikipedia and whitehouse.gov
It’s interesting to me that the one commenter talked about hating SP with the “white-hot heat of 1000 suns.” Now of course I know we are in the season of apocalyptic political hyperbole, and I know we’ve debased our language enough that many people use that kind of rhetoric daily, over trivial matters, and I’ll also cop to having recently become very intolerant (perhaps pathologically so) of political hyperbole. Even so, I can’t help but wonder if that guy saves any of that white-hot hatred for Kim Jong-Il or Robt. Mugabe or the generals in Myanmar or OBL, etc. It never ceases to astonish me that in these days of voluminous information about any number of truly evil, reprehensible people and groups and ideologies on the loose on Earth, that people can be so parochial as to throw this kind of rhetoric around when discussing domestic politics.
Gene, I had a similar thought after reading the comments. I, and many others here, have thought there were deep contradictions in progressive thinking that remained unaddressed. Perhaps this set of events will cause people to rethink their positions. And – as they are coming along at a different time and for different reasons – their insights will be valuable for us as well.
My constant refrain is that so much of liberalism is social and tribal, rather than founded on consistent intellectual premises. Sarah Palin is not of their tribe. But having watched the ostracism taking place within their own tribe, they have a sudden insight into how it has looked to outsiders all these years.
If nothing else, it will be good for the intellectual vigor of the left.
I’m with you, Gene and AVI. I’m just amazed at how people can maintain they “hate” someone of whom they know nothing, and I wonder if they know how off-putting that “hatred” looks to someone from the outside.
AVI, I agree with your observations.
The level of hate and vitriol I’ve read these last few days reminds me a great deal of what I’ve learned of the rhetoric that preceded the election of 1860. I am very afraid that there will inevitably be some violence if nothing is done to check this trend.
You know, I think Sarah Palin was put forth to the Obama campaign as a koan. I think she is working. I expect that numerous democrats heads will explode within the next few weeks.
Ha! I find it very telling that immediately after Obama’s speech there was no bounce, but once all of this stuff about Palin comes out, the Gallup Poll has him up by eight points, actually hitting 50% for the first time in what has been a very conservative survey. No matter how much you try to spin it, Sarah Palin has been a gift to us Democrats. We don’t even have to discredit her in anyway, she has done that for us already. So enjoy the fall so-cons, hope you have a few bottles of gin by your side as head toward November, because I’ve got a feeling that you’re going to need it.
Another thing which struck me about those comments: despite the obvious distress and even disgust at the way their own party is behaving . . . none of them seemed even slightly tempted to not vote for Obama. Given the choice between their last remaining shreds of decency and the sweet taste of power, they’re sadly putting their decency down the toilet.
Nick, step carefully into the trap, these poll results are before anyone has really seen her, or seen her debate etc, all they have heard is that she is some dumb hick.
I have a suspicion that things might shift quickly once she hits the media full time, If she handles this well a lot of people are going to look very foolish, she has a proven record of doing this. I took note of her 2006 debates where her opponents made the same arguments we are hearing today.
The media onslaught is really causing a lot of people to shake their heads as the post implies, laugh if you want, I saw this morning Liz Trotta arguing that she shouldnt have a career outside the home with all those kids, she did it real slick, saying this is just what I am hearing, that argument is radioactive for the democrats, They are going to piss off women and moms in general and that is not good. Not good at all.
I really think you guys are blowing it big time, time will tell and I could be wrong but I don’t think I am.
They are trying to make her quit, why? If it was such a bad pick you would think everyone would just quietly laugh and keep it to themselves, letting Mccain step on his you know what, the exact opposite is happening, why?
Overall theme of the call in shows today is that “she is me” this could turn ugly for obama. It aint over.
Keep whistling in that graveyard, Nick.
Six months ago I thought this would be a disastrous year for the Republicans.
Three months ago I thought McCain had a slim chance, and that the Democrats would gain a few seats in the senate and house.
This week I put $1000 on McCain. Or, perhaps I should say, McCain/Palin.
I have a side comment. In exhibit B “…they don’t reflect mainstream thinking in in this country.” Huh? What?
Democrat positions are mainstream? Their stream only goes from one bank to the middle they are not in possession of both banks! Their current contender is not even close to the middle! This is not the first time I’ve seen that comment just slide out as if it’s was obvious to all. Grrrr. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed I guess.
I don’t have the budget to put $1000 on McCain. Frankly, I don’t have the budget to put $10 on McCain until after I’ve paid off the credit card.
So what’ll I do? Now that Sarah Palin’s the running mate?
Make it $100! No, $150!
She may yet still crumble and stumble; she may crash and burn. There may be another skeleton out there ready to leap from the closet. (Let’s hope it isn’t her *husband* leaping from the closet….)
In short, she may not be up to the pressure of a national election.
But if she IS up to it, then, Lord, may she fly high and far.
‘Cause her policies and attitudes are, in my view, far better than those of McCain, for whom my support was lukewarm to the point of indolence, previously.
I’m tired of being sneered at by cultural elites. Usually Republicans aren’t half so bad about that as Democrats, but McCain comes off as awfully dismissive of me and mine, nearly as much as Biden and ‘Bama.
But not Palin. Apparently, I’m not “the little people” to her.
And wouldn’t it be nice to have the first female president of the United States to be a conservative, gun-toting, intelligent, confident, nice-looking, optimistic, God-fearing, independent type? In other words…the kind of girl we fellows all hoped we could find and take home to Mom…and whom our friends would admire and envy us for managing to get?
Rather than, you know…some ex-leftist-radical chick with a “decent brain and a pair that clang” but also a vicious streak, apparently minimal ethics, and an attitude of contempt or dismissal for most of what we value and hold dear?
When Americans think Mom & Apple Pie, they don’t have Hillary Clinton in mind. When they think first woman president, they want a cross between Margaret Thatcher and Kathy Ireland.
So who knows? Maybe Palin has the chops.
(I shouldn’t have to specify, but: My above post was with 2012 or 2016 in mind. Yes, I’m perfectly aware that McCain is the Presidential Candidate, and Palin the Veep, on the current ticket. *sigh*)
At first I couldn’t understand the apparently irrational hyper-reaction to Palin from the left. Then it hit me- It’s Clarence Thomas all over again. The envy they feel as the republicans yet again ‘steal’ from them the honor of running the first minority (in this case, female VP). We stepped on their toes, and they are wailing. To my ears, it’s a sweet song indeed.
slight correction- not running the first, but the possibility of having the first Female VP. They seek to kill the infant in it’s crib- if they cannot have the baby, no one gets the baby. How civilized.