Conservative Writers And Pols Dance Around Questions About Palin’s Intellect And Qualifications
One of the more interesting subplots accompanying the rise of Palinmania: Her rock-star status within the GOP has forced leading conservative writers and politicans to tread very carefully around questions about her intellect and qualifications for the presidency.
Very few conservative intellectuals and elected leaders have been willing to be blunt about Sarah Palin’s abilities, as David Brooks recently was when he called her a “joke.” Instead, many have preferred to equivocate about her qualifications and intellectual wattage, fudging their views on the topic. Here’s a partial list:
* In his Times column today, Ross Douthat was very tentative in opining that Palin would “probably” not be able to become “the voice of an intellectually vigorous conservatism.” While he did suggest she’d be unlikely to be seen as presidential anytime soon, he tellingly presented her current public approach as one of profit-driven choice, not ability or qualifications.
* Jonah Goldberg is staunchly defending Palin against critics, but says we should defer judgment on whether she’s qualified, because “the presidency is a long way off, and besides, that’s what primaries are for.”
* Rich Lowry, asked whether Palin is a substantive policy leader or a joke, opined that “there’s plenty of ground in between. While he did tentatively venture that her policy chops need work, he quickly added that she’s “an important leader within conservatism” who would remain one “for a long time.”
* Mississippi governor and former RNC chair Haley Barbour, under intense questioning about Palin from Chris Matthews, repeatedly refused to say whether she’s qualified for the presidency, and was only willing to say this: “I don’t know of anything that disqualifies her from being president.”
Again, a partial list. But it’s a reminder that the intense reaction Palin has triggered from the GOP base is putting not just the GOP political establishment in an awkward spot; it’s also making life a bit uncomfortable for those looking to reestablish conservatism’s intellectual credentials.
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
You know how bad it really is with her when Jonah Goldberg and Rich Lowry are being coy.
Run, Sarah! Run!
A decent 2010 strategy for Dems would be to run against the Palin/Teabagger crowd the same way they did against Bush the last 2 cycles.
Add that to the less inventive (but likely still effective) strategy of running against Bush directly – as in a “do you really want to go back to a Bush-like Republican DC?” platform.
That’s your negative campaign side. You also run positive on the accomplishments they’ve done so far, and what you intend to accomplish if re-elected.
It would make for a good two-pronged campaign.
The funniest part of all this is how transparent this game is between Palin and the media, especially right leaning pundits: namely, I’ll write fuzzy things about you and talk about your tweets so long as you keep moving my column. She is cynically milking the talking point movement created in the wake of Reagan and solidified under Bush for just about everything its “dittoheads” are worth. She quit her last real job so that her real accomplishments are no longer under scrutiny, now she can be outraged when a magazine cover shows a flattering picture of her. What about her absolute failure to secure a pipeline for Alaska? Not important, she’s on a book toor right now.
Dems are praying that Sarah Palin runs for President in 2012-she’ll QUIT 3 months after announcing her candidacy-won’t allow American people to attend her events, book sales receipts will serve as tickets to her $100,000.00 speeches….Run, Sarah, RUN!!!
As I am boycotting Palin here is the antithesis. Obama promoting math and science education today. Anecdotally, my daughter qualified for minority status as a female in Science last year for funding to continue her education.
Sorry, here’s the link.
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/obama-announces-programs-to-boost-math-and-science-education.php?ref=fpb
“A decent 2010 strategy for Dems would be to run against the Palin/Teabagger crowd the same way they did against Bush the last 2 cycles.”
Even better would be to tie Dick Armey, Sarah Palin, et al to the Culture of Corruption (remember that phrase?)… Abramoff, Bush/Cheney, Neoconservatives…
Let’s face it, it’s all the same folks, the 30%ers. We just need to tie the leaders of this “grassroots populism” to the “culture of corruption” (shouldn’t be hard, again, same folks)…
LOL the left continues to obsess over the woman all Americans despise and disrespect.
And your party elected a Chicago local politician and community organizer with less than two years as a Senator (and not a single accomplishment) and Joe Biden, the buffoon of the century, who didn’t even know which article of the Constitution establishes the executive branch.
Anyone that thinks this dysfunctional twit is qualified to be president, needs their head examined. She is the head of an Arctic hillbilly clan where Dad doesn’t work, Junior sells methamphetamine, Sissy gets knocked up at age 17 and the little one is retarded (probably due to inbreeding). What a pathetic bunch of losers! Why not just elect Ellie Mae Clampett?
“, my daughter qualified for minority status as a female in Science last year for funding to continue her education.”
I love that for you and your daughter! Kind of hate that for American women in general, but I am part of the female herd who isn’t mathematical. I’m a right-brain person.
Her comments and book make as much sense, reading them backwards, as they do reading them start to finish.
She is:
Sarah Palindrome.
The Democratic party needs to quickly turn this question around. It’s not just “is she qualified?” Anyone with any brains is going to say no. And that’s the key: that Sarah Palin IS EXACTLY where the GOP is heading ought to be the Dem’s response to this kind of thing. She doesn’t know policy, and what she does know she deals with simplistically, short-sightedly, and from an entirely ideological perspective. She quits when the going gets, um, rough(ish) (see Bush, GW). Her “principles” have nothing to do with governing but everything to do with wielding power. And so on.
Are comments disappearing again?
Listen, any candidate who can make Bush appear “cerebral” makes it into my Top Ten Dumbbells of the last century! I personally never thought it could be done but voila, there she is!
They are too afraid to come right out and say that she is stupid on the off chance that there are enough out there in the nation who would actually vote for this “nimrod”. Should that happen they will be busy comparing her to Hillary, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Madame Curie.
She should be ignored like my no nothing sister in law at every family function, but instead the media continues to highlight this idiot and the crowds get larger.
Greg,
My last comment posted right away, and appears to not be disappearing.
I will use this one, as a test case, and post further feedback for you.
Greg,
My test comment posted right away. I hit refresh several times, and the comments stayed constant, and did not toggle back and forth, like they have done for the past few days.
I will send this now, and if it shows at once, then you should consider the problem solved.
Greg,
That worked OK, also. Last trial post, for you.
Ross Douthat? HAHAHAHAHA! Pot, meet kettle.
“Anecdotally, my daughter qualified for minority status as a female in Science last year for funding to continue her education.”
What a great country. Liberals who can obviously pay for their own education getting subsidized by other people on the basis that women are a minority and deserve to be on the dole.
” and the little one is retarded (probably due to inbreeding).”
Sam Simpleton is a wretched excuse for a human being.
” …and the little one is retarded (probably due to inbreeding).”
I’m standing at the front of the “Sarah is an idiot” line, but this comment goes too far. The baby has Down Syndrome which is a chromosomal defect for which the parents are in no way responsible. The only environmental cause of Down Syndrome I know of is the rise of the incidence of Down Syndrome in St. George, Utah following the years they were doing nuclear testing in the Nevada desert. St. George sits on a hill overlooking the desert and people used to go out to the edge to watch. There’s a clear statistical link, but the whys and wherefores are still unknown last I heard.
Sarah’s still an idiot, but innocent of this particular defect.
No qb, she qualified because there were no other minority applicants for an academic scholarship funded by private donations, and there are so few women in her field of research. In the sciences, the best students typically don’t pay for advanced degrees because they work on research grants. We paid for her first degree, she paid for the second.
My larger point which you so conveniently skipped over or simply didn’t get, is that our educational system is so screwed up that we don’t have enough young people even attempting the sciences. Women are not overly encouraged to steer toward the hard sciences, a shame.
As a hard scientist, I say “welcome!” to your daughter (and a well-deserved award, I’m sure), lmsinca.
Sarah Palin cannot even manage a regional bus tour and she seems to be trying to get us all to believe that she could be POTUS? Lowry, Goldberg, Barbour, et al., can’t admit that the conservative pinup girl is an incompetent goober. We’re still waiting for her to extemporaneously utter anything of substance on any topic.
Her winking flirtation seems to have ensnared many of the most influential men in the GOP. How stupid does she have to appear before they back away from her? How does it benefit conservatism to have a pretty moron as POTUS?
This should be entertaining to read the responses from our resident teabagger Palinistas in defense of their political heartthrob.
Thanks Kelly, I think qb figures if you’re not a lawyer or a financial wizard you just don’t count. She has worked harder then any of the five we’ve put through college, and they all excelled, and to suggest that she is somehow on the dole is ridiculous beyond words.
No, Sarah Palin is a wretched excuse for a human being – I just call ‘em like I see ‘em and her family is garbage.
Imsinca, I apologize to your daughter on QB’s behalf. Congrats to you both.
He may be glad when she’s out there cleaning up his drinking water, if he still has any, that she got that scholarship, although I doubt it.
I am ASTOUNDED although not as much as I could be by the absolute SPINELESS press pundits that write about this smudge every day!
This woman is an IDIOT !! Let me repeat – IDIOT !!! Even the folks in her state think so – ask around….
Yup simple sam you calls ‘em as you se’em. Anybody thats stoopes to your level of name calling shows themselves for what they truely are. Name call all you want toughguy, keyboard Rambo. You really help your cause. I’ll save you the trouble, I’m white trash! Done and done
It isn’t whether or not she is qualified that has her base in an uproar. It’s that she represents them and their problems. They identify with her. For this reason alone she is dangerous.
Now on another tack, to put her in perspective when talking with a tea bagger, especially a high school classmate, bring up the subject of one of your more incompetent teachers and ask if they are capable of being president. Then ask if Sarah is any more competent than that particular teacher is. Obviously don’t pick a complete idiot, but do choose one that is approximately equal to Sarah. Attaching her to some nitwit that a teabagger knows well is one way of knocking her off her pedestal.
“You know how bad it really is with her when Jonah Goldberg and Rich Lowry are being coy.”
heh ;-]
Both Jonah Goldberg and Rich Lowry pretend that they are intellectuals, which while absurd, doesn’t detract from their being smartly manipulative.
Smart right wingers are in a lose/lose position with Palin: Point out the reality that Republican Palin is an ignorant and incurious and anger the right wing’s base OR pretend that she’s informed and lose their facade of credibility.
That right wing con artists like Ross Douthat, Jonah Goldberg, Rich Lowry, and Haley Barbour (and let’s not forget John McCain) have failed to point out that Republican Palin is an ignorant joke means that they shouldn’t be allowed to even pretend to be credible at this point.
Insimca,
You didn’t exactly make your original point very clearly, then. In fact, it still isn’t clear. If it was that it is a sad commentary and a bit of a stretch that your daughter was awarded a minority scholarship in the absence of any other qualified candidates, then I suppose you have a half a point of some kind, although I still don’t know what it is. Our educational system is not very good? In general, true enough. That girls and women aren’t encouraged? Please, give me a break.
Gender, race, and ethnic preferences in education and educational funding are destructive, counterproductive, and wrong, imo. Private donors can do what they want with their money, but they disserve society with such preferences. I’ve seen with my own eyes and in gruesome detail how it works in higher education hiring, too, and it is an ugly sight. There is no credible case to be made that women or minorities are somehow disfavored in this arena, in sciences or any other field.
Ethan,
I realize the paternalistic impulse runs strong in your type, but you actually aren’t my agent for public or interpersonal relations. Thanks so much for thinking of me, though.
Perhaps you would be better suited to apologize on behalf of Sam Simpleton for her ugly remarks, or for the ugly remarks of . . . well, take your pick of the liberal name callers above.
It’s kind of funny (a sick, sad, kind of funny) how right wingers like “quarterback” use the most venomous insults they can think of and then cry like babies if someone turns around and uses much milder insults against them.
The Right Wing’s First Rule: Rules Are For Other People.