The left's mistake

Bill M

The papers here are going crazy. They don't know where to start ripping her apart. They've been grasping for anything the past five days. Most of it is about her daughter, and then about her Down's Syndrome baby and how she won't be a true mother, blah, blah, and so on. The worst of it comes from an opinion columnist in the Philadelphia Daily News who skipped all the above and jumped to this, "If McCain wins, look for a full-fledged race and class war, fueled by a deflated and depressed country, soaring crime, homelessness - and hopelessness!" There's responsible comment. I think a ninth grader could have written a better more mature piece than hers. The columnist's name? Fatimah Ali.

Hysteria

yup - brilliant choice - if she survives the next few weeks she will be a winner - no question.....

Joe

Hooray, a Brit who seems to understand American politics!
Very insightful article.
Mark my words, this is the week that doomed Obama's candidacy.
I'll keep an eye on Melanie Phillips and the Spectator from now on.

Spencer de Vere

Well said Melanie. Decent middle-America won't be put off McCain/Palin because of the Left's smears...but the MSM's drip, drip, drip of poison can be telling. I think that Palin needs to get herself known to America outside the format of liberal/Left Q & A sessions.

ndm

Just one of Melanie Phillips' many posts on Barack Obama:

There’s been nothing like it since Beatlemania. As the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama arrives in Britain tomorrow on the last leg of his world tour, Obamania seems to be sweeping across the Atlantic and carrying all before it.

In giant rallies across the U.S., Obama induces hysteria among his adoring multitude, with women fainting from the effects of his soaring oratory and rock-star charisma.

On both sides of the Atlantic the media are swooning over him. Like Berlin and Paris, he is expected to receive a rapturous reception here.

Labour MPs are urging Gordon Brown to emulate him, while a third of Tory MPs are said to support him rather than his Republican opponent, John McCain.

The U.S. election may not take place until November, but in Europe Obama has already won by a landslide.

Nor does he do anything to disabuse people of the view that he is ‘the One’. He is going to win the war in Iraq. He’s going to break the deadlock in the Middle East.

In the U.S., he declared his presidency would be seen as ‘the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal’.

Doubtless as the water recedes he will walk on it. His tour is supposed to be merely a fact-finding exercise for an election candidate — but it is being treated as a cross between a coronation and the Second Coming.

So at the risk of being a party pooper, may I pose the question: might not a junior senator with less than four years’ experience on Capitol Hill be advised to show just a smidgen of humility?

Significantly, on his first foreign foray he has achieved the feat of upsetting one of his country’s key allies, the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel.

She took a decidedly dim view of his intention to hold an electioneering rally today at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate — traditionally used as a backdrop only for non-partisan speeches of global significance. Faced with this rebuff, Obama chose the city’s Victory Column as an alternative venue.

How darkly ironic that the column was moved to its present position by Adolf Hitler as a symbol of Germany’s superiority and its victories against Denmark, Austria and France. Oh, dear. Is this what Obama means by ‘change we can believe in’?

Of course, in many respects the enthusiasm for this charismatic man is understandable.

Obama preaches a seductive message of change for an America which is terminally disaffected with President Bush — not just over the Iraq war, but over the handling of such catastrophes as Hurricane Katrina and, above all, the dive in the U.S. economy.

All this spells failure, depression and cynicism. Obama by contrast embodies success, optimism and idealism.

Sprinkled with glitter like a latter-day JFK, he is seen as the representative of a new kind of politics that repudiates the sordid failures of the past.

Americans are, after all, the most optimistic of people. They just don’t do doom and gloom. So a politician who tells them ‘Yes we can’, and says he stands for ‘the audacity of hope’ gets them whooping and hollering for more.

But such Obamania should worry us all, for it is based on emotion and, where the Democrat candidate is concerned, the normal faculties of judgment appear to have been suspended.

Important questions about Obama’s judgment, consistency and honesty are not being asked, let alone answered.

He has got away with the fact that for 20 years he belonged to a church which preaches black power racism against white people.

He disavowed his long-time mentor, pastor Jeremiah Wright, only when his extreme views could no longer be ignored — despite the fact that Wright is a supporter of Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the black power Nation of Islam.

The media brush all this aside as ‘personal details’ which are of no interest to voters. But if, say, John McCain’s pastor and mentor had turned out to support the Ku Klux Klan and his church was found to be sympathetic to its philosophy, his candidacy would have been defenestrated and rightly so.

Equally troubling is the way Obama has flip-flopped on issue after issue. From his brief Senate voting record, he appears to be the most Left-wing presidential candidate America has ever had.

Yet once he clinched the nomination, he repositioned himself as a Centrist to win the election.

So while once he was for a ban on handguns, he is now against it. Once for safeguards on wiretaps, he is now against them.

Once he was for a fixed timetable for withdrawal from Iraq — but now that the acclaimed U.S. commander General Petraeus has said this would be deeply unwise, Obama claims he proposes no ‘rigid’ adherence to a timetable. This is just more of the same old politics of dissembling.

And yet this is the man — so similar to the early Blair — who is supposed to represent an end to opportunism, replaced by the politics of integrity.

What is even more disturbing, however, is that these matters are being brushed aside or ignored –because so many people want desperately to believe in him.

Such a suspension of disbelief calls to mind someone else closer to home: Princess Diana, who also inspired hysterical adoration because she, too, became an icon of idealism — challenging the established order.

A deeply attractive figure, she seemed to embody hope for a better universe by appealing to emotion rather than reason.

Love, as embodied by ‘the queen of people’s hearts’, was held to be the key to a better, kinder, gentler world. There was even a sense that her mere touch was sufficient to heal the afflicted.

It was, of course, all pure fantasy. People had fallen for a carefully spun image which bore little relation to the manipulative and unstable woman who was the real Diana, but which spoke to something deep inside them.

So it is with Obama. Americans’ natural optimism makes them want to believe that, as a black man with a Muslim background (another thing he has cleverly obfuscated), he can heal all wounds, including the U.S.’s history of racism, and bring peace to the world just by being who he is.

They see in his attractiveness a flattering reflection of themselves. He doesn’t embarrass them; he makes them feel proud.

He is not a Texas oilman who can’t string a sentence together: he has oratorical skills to die for.

He is not old, frail and nondescript like McCain, but young, vigorous and attractive. He is, in short, everything they want America — and themselves — to be.

His very incoherence over policy, the fact we don’t know what he really believes in, enables people to project onto him their hopes and desires. He is the perfect fantasy politician. He is America’s very own Princess Obama.

But, of course, the belief that a handsome prince can magic away the troubles of the world is infantile. The idea that there is a new kind of sanitised politics by which problems can be solved without having to make hard choices is a dangerous delusion.

To be fair, there are signs that light may be beginning to dawn in America. Despite — or perhaps because of — the saturation media coverage of Obama’s world tour, his poll numbers are showing no bounce.

This may be because people are beginning to see the media manipulation, with Obama refusing to answer journalists’ questions and participating only in ‘faked’ interviews by the military in Iraq.

While America may be wising up, however, Britain is about to have its Princess Obama moment. Get out the smelling salts and prepare to swoon.

davod

The pundits, and even Obama, keep comparing Palin's work as a town mayor with Obama's management of his presidential campaign. Even though Palin is the Repubican VP pick.

Even before being elected to the Govenorship Palin had been fighting corruption within her own political party. Compare this to Obama, who when faced with the opportunity to fight the entrenched elite in state politics, sided with them instead.

Palin, as governor, renegotiated the oil royalty contract to the benefit of Alaska. She negotiated to build a $40 billion gas pipeline into Canada to connect to the US grid.*

How does this practical work compare to Biden or Obama.

* A Negotiator Without Preconditions
By James P. Lucier,Published 9/3/2008 12:08:20 AM

Ivor

Welcome back Melanie. Your insights truely brighten my day. Thank you.

Roland

hmmm - and her attempt to get her brother-in-law sacked after he divorced her sister? And her support for the Bridge to Nowhere? And her support for the Alaskan Independence Party? Her hiring of wildly expensive political advisors?

Dominic L-R

Much of what Melanie says on this subject is true and insightful. Indeed the personal insults have been disgraceful.

However, Melanie rather dodges an important point here. Given that John McCain's health is, shall we say, delicate, it is not out of the realms of possibililty that he may die in his first, or perhaps second term of office. The question then becomes: is Sarah Palin remotely qualified to become the President? No. The fact that Barack Obama is equally lacking in experience shouldn’t stop us from questioning Ms Palin’s abilities.

I always thought Melanie Phillips was keen to have the best people for the job. Here, it seems, her reason has been suspended. She waxed lyrical over Peter Whittle’s book “Look at me” which diagnosed, correctly, that the current obsession with celebrity is actually deeply narcissistic – we can imagine ourselves to be the celebrities. There is no longer an ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Is there not the same tendency here with Sarah Palin? As Sam Harris points out in the Los Angeles’ Times :”Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves”

Is Melanie Phillips not falling into the same trap?

GLC

I am centre right and I abhor almost everything that Palin stands for. To assert that Obama and Palin are equally unsuited for the Presidency is a wilful misrepresentation given how much preparation Obama has gone through. I suspect most of the new breed of Cameron supporters, attracted by his social conscience, will disagree with what you have written.

Geoff M

Already I have received anti Palin emails from liberal "acquaintances". They do not seem to see how childish their politics are. Calling names and producing insulting jokes/pictures substitutes for rational argument on the Left.

These people haven't evolved as adults but simply cling to student politics.

Fortunately I was able to reply with a few anti-Obama pictures.

This has gotten them in quite a "snit" because they think anything against Obama is racist - but I just don't care.

For years they have sent emails saying Bush has an IQ of 76, that his election was rigged, that the War on Terror is all about money/oil and similar trash.

They lowered the standards of political debate - but they can't handle payment in kind.

I think that after this week I now have fewer "acquaintances" - and am happy for that.

Tiberius

That's a superb articulation, Mel, particularly so soon after returning from a holiday!

McCain does seem to have a sound strategy, and he appears to have chosen the ideal running mate. For the best interests of the West, we have to hope his team make it to the White House.

J. Isaacs

Welcome back. Very interesting and informative article. What prompts US politicians to give their daughters British place names like Bristol (Palin) and Chelsea (Clinton)? Could Bristol possibly keep up the tradition by naming her new baby after a Bristolian suburb? How about Clifton or Temple Meades?

THX1138

Palin just sat in church two weeks ago and listen to this:

Brickner (The Priest) also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.

"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it"

She didn't walk out she sat & listened.

Laurence Boyce

"How anyone continues to take the New York Times seriously beats me."

Yes, they should all switch to the Daily Mail . . .

raymond joseph douglas

All the usual suspects,the BBC,Guardian,Peter Snow,are attacking Palin with a frenzy born of fear.The fear that their chosen one,the divine Obama,may not get the top job he was ordained for!Even sly comments about her sofa from radio 5 shelia fergutty seems par for the course!Bless you sarah!Don't let the B's get you down!

david

So its the left that's full of hate is it?

Listen to this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5HSbjAgnTY

steve

Hey Melanie. So you're not bothered that on 17 August Palin was at a "Jews for Jesus" sermon at her church during which the speaker blamed terrorism against Israelis on the unwillingness of Jews to embrace Christianity?
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/anti-jewish-ter.html

The Palin selection is about McCain's poor judgement. He made a hasty decision to pick someone who had not been properly vetted by his campaign. He did so after it was clear that the person he really wanted, Joe Lieberman, was not acceptable to the religious right that dominates the Republican Party. Now he's stuck with her and having to defend her extreme views. Even some prominent conservatives are doubting the VP choice.

Mladen Andrijasevic

Even some on the Right were not very happy with the choice. Charles Krauthammer
in 'The Palin Puzzle': "To gratuitously undercut the remarkably successful "Is he ready to lead" line of attack seems near suicidal."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2008/08/the_palin_puzzle.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Ted Tedford

The liberal media will really have to try much harder than this thin gruel. If they think this is a Wright moment, they have confirmed their total loss of proportion, and desperation about the threat Mrs Palin poses.

Leave aside for the moment the fact that, outside the cosy little CofE and it's 'God is like a balloon' banalities, priests routinely say things that are 'controversial' to the secular mainstream, who do not accept Christian interpretations of divine activity. If her local minister were routinely fulminating in such a manner, and she had "sat and listened" for years, and had the same minister baptise her children, and had name-checked him in her autobiography as a mentor, then that would be in some way comparable to Mr Obama's problems with the Revd Mr Wright. As it is, a *guest preacher's* comments are hardly evidence of a problem on the scale of a Wright - or an Ayers or a Rezko.

Maybe it will emerge that her church is indeed a hot-bed of white supremacy and Zionist crusading, and all the above turns out to be true. (Not that Mrs Palin has campaigned as an anti-white supramacy, pro-Palestinian candidate - but that I suppose is its own problem to some.) Then let us agree that both Mr Obama and Mrs Palin have equal 'problems' with their churches, and let us compare them instead on their record in office - despite the fact that the inexperienced Mr Obama is running for president, not vice-president. In that case, Mrs Palin wins by a mile.

I sincerely hope she will not descend to the evasions of Mr Obama on this issue, and treat it with the contempt it deserves.

Dave North

So the left don't like Palin because 'they know they are wrong and that they cannot defend their own position'.

Well let me try.

The concept of a woman who thinks creationism is a science and should be taught as such to young children; a woman who would deny the right to abortion for a rape victim; a woman who actually campaigned against saving polar bears despite them being an endangered species; a woman whose political experience is governor for 20 months of a state with less people than Leeds and Mayor of a town of 10,000 people; a woman who is a heartbeat away from a presidency that would be occupied by a 70 year old recovering from cancer; that concept is about as scary as the idea of 4 more years for GW Bush - who is universally hated that he's been kept away from the Repbulican Convention!

Jim Carr

All true about the left, but I must disgree about Obama bin Biden’s "great assets".
His "articulacy" comes straight from the teleprompter, he is stumbling and adrift when speaking off-the-cuff, and his "political adroitness" is non-existent, to wit the types of people with whom he chooses to associate himself.

Roland

Melanie's crush on Palin another breathlessl post wings its way from her as I write) is the funniest thing yet.

Dominic L-R's post is unusually rational and calm for this site, and puts really well the dangers of our obsession with celebrity - especially strong in the States. Surely the search for salvation from a political messiah generally ends in tears. And it's interesting to muse on why so mnay icons of the far right, from fire and brimstone preachers of hard-line personal morality to far-right blustering state governors, have turned out to be just another corrupt and hypocritical charlatan.Why might that be?

Independence for Alaska anybody? And let's start banning books we don't like from public libraries! - who needs good old American Freedom of Speech?

steve

Ted Tedford--I don't think the Democrats or anyone else see Palin as a "threat." From all accounts McCain wanted Joe Lieberman as his running mate but Lierbman was not acceptable to the social conservatives in the Republican Party. So at the last minute without a proper vetting he went with Palin. This snap decision is now in the process of blowing up in his face as even some conservatives such as David Frum and Charles Krauthammer have recognized.

John B

Great to have you back Melanie, and talking sense. I notice that the BBCs Matt Frei described Mrs Palin as the Mayor of a small town. How convenient to be able to overlook that she is the Governor of Alaska. Notice too, that mentioning Obama's children was taboo but an all-out attack on Mrs Palin's daughter is just fine.

Adam B.

Obama goes on about changing the "old politics." His choice for VP? Biden, who has been in the "old politics" for the past 35 years (a VP choice based on Obama's own lack of experience). McCain has chosen someone who really is a change from the old politics.

Ted Tedford

Dave North: Your comment is proof, amplified by the internet, that a distortion can be half way round the world before context has got its boots on.

Sarah Palin on creationism: "I don’t think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum."

Her first veto as governor: legislaion that would end health benefits for same-sex partners of state employees. Doesn't suggest her scary Christian fundamentalism will intrude on her legislative record.

I find it curious that you think her years of *executive* experience are of no relevance to her suitability as a VP. Whether she ran a town of a hundred or ten thousand, the point is that she made decisions - and those decisions were sufficiently sound to get her re-elected, and to win her the governorship - a post which makes her the C-in-C of the National Guard. Joe Biden has postinificated and led the most scurrilous and impertinent - not to mention long-winded and self-righteous - questioning of supreme court nominations, and pretty much nothing else.

She has negotiated directly with Canada over energy supply. That is worth a hundred of Joe Biden's 'fact-finding' trips.

Obama has run virtually nothing except a campaign, yet he's running for president.

Your point about campaigning against conserving polar bears is highly misleading: she opposed listing them as an endangered species in her state because the polar bear population in her state is stable and healthy, and argued that listing non-threatened species as 'endangered' was wrong, ad diverted resources. FYI, she voted *for* listing the Aleutian Canada Goose, a threatened species, which has subsequently improved. But maybe you don't like geese, because they aren't cuddly and don't sit on mints.

rootie tootie

Odd. All the lefties I know are rubbing their hands in glee. Only one has mentioned his fear that the Republicans will deny her the nomination on grounds of simple goo taste. I advised him that the Republicans are beyond all shame and sent him away happy. God bless you, So Appalling!

steve

Ted Tedford: Could you please post a link to evidence that Palin has "negotiated directly with Canada over energy supply." There's a reference to this in one of Melanie's blogs but I can find no evidence of it beyond Palin passing legislation to build the Alaska portion of a pipeline that would eventually carry Alaskan natural gas through Canada to the continental U.S. However, the pipeline plans has not been finalized in Canada and, as far as I am aware, governors of states do not negotiate treaties with foreign governments.

Robert Camuto

I am not leftie. I voted for McCain in the 2000 primary. But I have never liked George Bush and I am galled by the choice of Palin.
Why? I guess because I lived 16 years in the Bible Belt (Texas) and just got tired of having born againers getting in my face and criticizing the fact that I was born catholic and that I actually consumed wine!
The Christian right makes my skin crawl as much as Obama's ex preacher.
The hypocrisy of the Palins and their supporters is that they support the "decision" of Bristol to have the baby but that this is a decision/choice they want to take away from American women.
Sorry y'all but these folks are just weird.
Robert C

Ted Tedford

steve: I might have taken too much at face value, but here is one:

http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=305247341861451

Key para: "Palin knows energy. She's already figured out how to deliver energy to the U.S. without Congress — by championing state legislation to create a 1,712-mile natural gas pipeline across Canada to the U.S.

"It was a major feat, negotiating with the Canadian government, educating lawmakers and getting the public behind her. In a decade, the $30 billion project will ship 4.5 million cubic feet of gas a day from the North Slope to Houston's air conditioners, Iowa's farm machines and Boston's winter furnaces."

Also:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/aug2008/db20080829_271957.htm

Key para: "After winning the general election in November 2006, Palin pushed for a gas deal of her own. Rather than negotiate with the big three producers, Alaska legislators passed a bill offering inducements to pipeline operators. Initial expenses of up to $500 million would be reimbursed by the state. Late last year, five companies submitted proposals. Palin championed one from TransCanada (TRP), a Calgary-based company that is North America's largest pipeline operator. State legislators officially awarded TransCanada the license on Aug. 1, and Palin formally signed the bill on Aug. 20."

Whether she's negotiating with the Canadian government or 'only' with Canadian companies, that's a lot more foreign policy experience than 'fact-finding missions', think-tank chairs or diplomatic cocktail parties.

Hanoi Paris Hilton

A superb little essay today on how Gov. Palin is driving the left totally
nuts! Mean and heartless, yes, but of course a completely correct analysis.

If you've been following last week's reverse-Swiftboating, double-secret
probation mojo regarding the National Review's eminently respectable
investigative journalist/social scientist Stanley Kurtz (Ph. D.
anthropology, Harvard,) having been Mao Mao-ed: first regarding his efforts
to access the Chicago Annenberg Challenge project files (over which The One
was chair of the board) to see what The One had contributed to a $140M,
sank-without-a-ripple schoolchild radicalization scheme, the brainchild of
the execrable William Ayers; thence appearing on U. Chicago Prof. Milt
Goldberg's 35 year tenure WGN (Chicago) 2 hour weekly radio program covering
various high minded subjects, with an army of programmed Obammatron 'bots
instructed by The One's HQ to bring it all crashing down, you should. Here's
and amazing MP3 of the whole sorry business.

/wgnradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44075&Itemid=
467>

Stunning, just stunning!

Keep up the good work, please...

David McAdam

I'd have an ounce of Christian Right politics over a ton of Leftist atheism anyday. Thanks to the latter we have the morally bankrupt and confused state that the UK finds itself in today. A pity we don't have a prominent Palin type figure (or two) in Parliament to check any further social erosion.
Good choice, Mr McAain.

Miranda

Excellent article. The left think people who oppose them are hateful, because they themselves are hate-filled.

Sarah Palin must now know what's it's like to be attacked by the witch hunters of the 17th century - psudo morals, made up evidence, hysteria, and they are just ready for a witch burning at which they'll jump for joy!!

And they have th gall say she's the loony!!!

Gilbert

Gosh, it's good to have you back Mel.

BJ

My sympathies are with those poor Polar Bears.
I saw one at Dudley Zoo in about 1966. Marvellous animals.

Fran Waddams

Justin Webb was spitting feathers in this evening's PM interview with a republican spokeswoman. He suggested that Mrs Palin was 'irrational' because she was a Creationist (he did a whole From Our Own Correspondent about slyly interrogating the son of some friends about whether the friends were creationists), 'inexperienced', the whole kaboodle. His interviewee quite rightly expressed astonishment at his dismissive and sexist attitudes. Webb was audibly riled - but she trounced him, and he knew it. Beautiful!

Adam B.

Mr Camuto, how arrogant to label people who don't believe it's right to kill foetuses as "weird." In what "weird" universe do you live?

G.

"I am centre right and I abhor almost everything that Palin stands for. To assert that Obama and Palin are equally unsuited for the Presidency is a wilful misrepresentation given how much preparation Obama has gone through. I suspect most of the new breed of Cameron supporters, attracted by his social conscience, will disagree with what you have written."

Cameron can take his plans to funnel yet more money into the bureaucrat class on the laughable pretext of helping the poor and shove it. He can take his "presumption of prison" for law-abiding citizens who want to defend themselves and do the same. People like you are even more responsible for making this country a less free, ordered, just a civilized place to live than the Left.

Though I know that, strictly speaking, a Palin Vice-Presidency will have basically no impact on my life whatsoever, I can't say how happy it makes me to see that a proper Conservative is getting somewhere, anywhere in Western politics for the first time since 1988.

Does it augur anything good for the long-term? Probably not, but it's pretty damn awesome.

Ms L Nolland

Melanie, this is a class act if ever there was one! Fabulous psychological analysis here. Of course the left is struggling to demonize her, hence the ad hominum and 'let's-spin-things-out-of-air' (in other words, just lie).
If the Republicans had begun to treat Obama like this, people would be appalled - and rightly so! Who is being 'down-right mean' now?

God bless Sarah!

Bob Latchford

it is with a wry smile, that after reading more than a years worth of personal attacks on every part of Mr Obamas life history by the author of this blog, wildly cheered on by her acolytes, all in the name of free speech of course, that as soon as the flaws in Mrs Palins candidancy are exposed, the hypocritical right are clucking at the 'smears' of the left.

Bob Latchford

Also, we know how big a fan of 'Harrys Place' Ms Phillips is....where are her views on the fact that Mrs Palin and her husband both worked closely with Pat Buchanan on his campaign in the mid 90's? Could you imagine the reaction on here if Obama had worked so closely with someone who's views the ADL call 'anti semitic & virulently Anti Israeli?'

However Ms Phillips chooses to skirt these issues, she knows as well as the rest of us know, Mrs Palin was a short sighted, ill prepared hurried choice, that has backfired, and will continue to backfire in McCains face

Kiwi

J. Isaacs wrote, and I can't imagine why, "What prompts US politicians to give their daughters British place names like Bristol (Palin) and Chelsea (Clinton)? Could Bristol possibly keep up the tradition by naming her new baby after a Bristolian suburb? How about Clifton or Temple Meades?"
Q. Which well-known British soccer 'star' named his son after a suburb in New York?

Kiwi

J. Isaacs wrote, and I can't imagine why, "What prompts US politicians to give their daughters British place names like Bristol (Palin) and Chelsea (Clinton)? Could Bristol possibly keep up the tradition by naming her new baby after a Bristolian suburb? How about Clifton or Temple Meades?"
Q. Which well-known British soccer 'star' named his son after a suburb in New York?

Guy Incognito

Bob Latchford: Good point - but Obama chose to make his personal 'narrative' the issue, and, in the absence of any record of achievements worth the name, what other clues are there to the type of man he is? Ayers, Wright, Rezko... These concerns are of a different order from the allegations about her children and the innuendo about her scary Christian views - none of which intruded on her decisions as mayor or governor. Yes, she has questions to answer, and I'm sure in due course we'll hear her response. But it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that the media don't want to know the answers, they just want to air the allegations. The US media said nothing for months about John Edwards' affair, which actually happened: they wasted no time in repeating nonsensical allegations about Sarah Palin. There's objectivity for you.

kiwi

Bob Latchford, I take it then, with a wry smile of course, that things are not quite going the way you would have hoped for.

John B

I find it amusing that both Ted Tedford and Dave North variously find Creationism and Christianity 'scary'. Why would grown men be scared of concepts which they apparently believe to be rubbish? Perhaps Dave can explain the 'scarier' bits of Creationism and Ted will explain just what is scary about Mrs Palin's 'Christian Fundamentalism'. Just curious.

Ted Tedford

John B: I'd have thought a moderately attentive reading of my posts would reveal that I think her religious beliefs are neither fundamentalist nor scary. Perhaps I should have used quotation marks and emoticons for the 'irony-blind'... ;-)

Mike

As the editor of the L.A. Jewish Journal noted, a search for “Palin” in the AIPAC database produces no matches.

That is because Palin has no record on Israel, one of many countries she has never visited. She didn't have a passport until 2007.

Among Jews and others who take seriously American foreign policy generally, and particularly America's approach to the Middle East and Israel, the choice of Sarah Palin is deeply disturbing. At this moment of international crisis and ongoing instability in the Middle East, why would John McCain choose as his successor and running mate a governor with absolutely no background in this area? With the future of Israel hanging in the balance, can the US take a chance on John McCain, who chose Sarah Palin despite being told by many of his supporters that the choice was a bad idea?

Palin is also a life-long activist of the Christian Right. After eight years of a Bush Administration that at times appeared to exist solely to do the bidding of this powerful voting bloc, many Jews and Chistians shudder at the idea that they could be in for another four years of the same with McCain/Palin. Yet according to the New York Times, McCain felt he had to ask Palin, and not his close friend Sen. Joe Lieberman or former Gov. Tom Ridge, because he feared the wrath of the Christian Right.

This has left some important questions to consider. Will McCain serve out his term and not be forced to turn the White House over to President Palin? Will McCain continue to be controlled by the Christian Right? Will McCain’s decision making change once he is elected to take into account the needs other communities, including the Jewish community?

It was obvious that when Barack Obama selected Joe Biden to be Vice President, he placed the interests of the United States and its allies first. Unfortunately, when John McCain selected Sarah Palin to be Vice President, he placed the interests of the Christian Right and their allies first.

A McCain/Palin administration would combine the recklessness of McCain with the inexperience of Palin. It is now very clear that the US and the Free World need the steady hand of Obama/Biden during these challenging times for America, for Israel, and the Middle East generally.

Andy Gill

The left berated society for years about discrimination against single mothers. Yet when the daughter of one of their political opponents has a child out of wedlock, they revert to moralistic outrage.

The left have raised cognitive dissonance to a new art form.

Ted Tedford

Mike: What an incoherent post. Would you have been happier if such a trawl of AIPAC databases returned thousands of hits for 'Palin'? Surely that would have been evidence of her support for 'the Christian right and its allies', and you would be insensed about her fundamentalist Christian views intruding into US policy.

Your criticism would hold more water if a Vice President Palin were the foreign policy chief. But she wouldn't be. That's why Presidents have Secretaries of State, and National Security Advisors.

I would suggest you reflect on what 'experience' actually means. Joe Biden might well be worth a pitcher of warm piss: certainly he has sat on committees and asked a lot of long-winded and pompous questions. But he scrutinises decisions, he doesn't *make* them. His experience, such as it is, is no indicator of his decision-making abilities - not that, as VP, Gov Palin would be making the decisions. Sen Biden might have a Rolodex full of ambassadors and foreign ministers and attaches and charges d'affaires, but that is no evidence of his instincts or his suitability for the job.

And the idea that 'the Religious Right' is a "powerful voting bloc" as opposed to a lazy media short-hand is laughable. So, how do I join this bloc? Where do I get my membership card? Where is its head office? Who's the chairman? Sure, there are groups that co-ordinate votes - but this is true of most 'lobbies', including Big Labour or the environmentalist movement. They have no power to whip people to the booths or to tell them which handles to pull once there.

Guy Incognito

@Mike: "according to the New York Times..." Not a phrase to inspire confidence in the truth of the assertion.

Mike

Ted Tedford: Sorry about the 'incoherence'.

Try this. Biden's knowledge of Middle East affairs and his decades of strong support for Israel are well documented.

Sen. McCain chose Gov. Sarah Palin as his Vice President, cabinet member, and possible successor. Gov. Palin has no foreign policy experience whatsoever. Presumably none of the foregoing is of any concern to you whatsoever?

She got her start in politics as an ardent anti-choice activist and member of the Alaska Independence Party, which advocates voting on Alaska’s secession from the United States.

In 1999 she attended a fundraiser for Pat Buchanan who was running for President.

The same Pat Buchanan who praised Hitler and blames Jews for turning Congress into "Israeli occupied territory;" the same Pat Buchanan who merits seven separate pages on the Anti-Defamation League's website.

Anything else?

logdon

"My brothers loves Sarah, all 10 of them, 3 of them are my husbands, and my cousins love her, and my ma and pa and everyone one who lives in my cabin in the woods with the bears and the mooses.
mary lou, manchester, uk"

Here's a classic, indoctrinated UK reaction from the Times. The bile just oozes from this woman's smart arse comment. And she's from Manchester, where gun crime and mindless violence soars! Not exactly the city of enlightenment itself, yet this ignoramous pontificates on high about a woman who has lifted herself by bootstraps and dares to succeed in the land of hypocritical Hilary and B. Hussein Obama.

Phillip Reece

If the Lefty's hate her know How will they feel in 2012 when she is elected President?, It's only four year's away.

Lefty's have massively over invested in obama, Mark Steyn referred to him as a "Weak novelty candidate", I predict he will go the way of Kerry, Dukakis and Mondale.

The left love Obama because they share all the same phobias and conceit's, The left think they are considerably smarter than everybody else this lead's them to massively over rate their own "messiah's" and hugely underestimate their opponents.

Their defeat in November will be a joy to behold.

steve

Andy Gill: Could you supply a single example of a mainstream individual on the left who has criticized Palin over her daughter's pregnancy? The only criticism I've come across is from Dr Laura, hardly a leftie, who thinks it is inappropriate for a mother of five, including a young baby, to be pursuing a political career at the moment.

Phillip Reece: I hope you put your money where your mouth is. Obama is the odds on favorite with all of the bookies so you can get really good odds on McCain at the moment.

Verity

ndm's posts get longer and ever more turgid.

Dominic L-R McCain's health gets ever-more fragile? What? He had skin cancer a few years back. What's this creeping fragility deal?

By the way, Governor Palin outranks the other three people running, don't forget. And don't forget she is the only one of the three with executive experience, including managing a vast budget. (And she likes to save the taxpayer money.

Dave North - How many times does she have to say she doesn't think creationism, whatever the hell that is, should be taught in schools? How many times?

And are you aware, Dave North, that it is absolutely nothing to do with the governor of a state what gets taught in schools? You are thinking of the British cabinet.

Mike

'With the cheerfully vicious speeches from Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin, the Republicans did what they always do in order to win elections: they exploited raw cultural divides while mocking, belittling and demonizing Democratic leaders. Yet again, they delivered brutally effective and deeply personal blows to the Democratic presidential candidate grounded in the same manipulative and deceitful yet very potent themes they've been using for the last three decades.

Ever since Ronald Reagan's election, this is what the Republicans do every four years. They render issues irrelevant and convert campaigns into cultural wars and personality referenda. They converted elections into tawdry reality shows long before networks realized their entertainment value. And every four years, Democrats seems shocked and paralysed by all of this and desperately delude themselves into believing that mean-spirited "negativity" and nastiness will alienate voters, while the media swoons at the potency of these attacks'.

Thank you Glenn Greenwald.... so very true.

LKJ

Replyt to "GLC September 3rd, 2008 9:14am comment: To assert that Obama and Palin are equally unsuited for the Presidency is a wilful misrepresentation given how much preparation Obama has gone through."

Obama was groomed. In fact, Emil Jones said to alderman Cliff Kelly, " 'Cliff, I'm gonna make me a U.S. Senator.'"

"Oh, you are? Who might that be?"

"Barack Obama."

Yes, that explains Obama's quick rise. In fact. Emil turned over legislation others had slaved over to Obama to sign -- and get the credit. A lot of sore people about that.

Now, if the Dems can groom a president, can't the Republicans? And I suspect the same thing that happened to Obama -- a clear path and a big push to the top -- might be what Palin has got as well. THe party leaders are learning how to "raise up" the populist leaders. Yeah, I like McCain and Palin, and you like Obama and (less so) Biden, but we're both getting played, don't you know?

Paul

"This is because the left is always correct, everyone else is a conservative and therefore if they are wrong about anything they will also be -- a conservative!"

Yes: perhaps the Left's greatest success in this regard is the widespread acceptance that Hitler was a right-winger --- yes, indeed, a conservative! Nazism is only "right wing" if you're a Communist. Hitler *hated* conservatism.

"Which is why they are so vicious: instead of reasoned argument with their opponents they resort to demonisation, intimidating and browbeating any opposition or dissent to shut them up altogether."

...Just like Hitler did.

"Central to this aggressive defensiveness is their feverish characterisation of all dissent as conservatism, of conservatism as evil, fossilised, stupid and selfish, and all conservatives as hateful, decaying, cretinous and corrupt."

Precisely as Hitler portrayed it. And it's no coincidence that echoes of Der Stuermer can still be found throughout the left-wing press.

...But they'll still argue furiously that Left is Right.

Verity

Paul 2:23 p.m. A very interesting post. Thank you.

Ted Tedford

Mike: No. I have no *intrinsic* concern that Gov Palin, who has a record of making decisions that have led to an 80% approval rating, might be VP instead of Sen Biden, who has a reputation for making long-winded contributions to foreign policy debates. Sen Biden has never made a foreign policy decision in his life: he has made recommendations, and then carried no responsibility for implementing them.

More media slurs: she was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party.

You are fond of induction, accusing her of at best indifference - if not active hostility - to Israel on the grounds of her lack of support for AIPAC and her alleged support for Pat Buchanan. But then you worry about her Christian fundamentalism. Well, those of the 'religious right' are more likely to be pro-Israel. Which is it to be?

For the record, anyone concerned about GOP corruption and its distance from its principles would likely have been attracted to Buchanan's message in the 90s; just as an Alaskan with an interest in libertarianism might be supportive of the AIP's stand on libertarian issues.

Mike

Ted Tedford: Until the election November 04 no doubt you will read and interpret your sources of news, as indeed so shall I. No doubt we and millions of others will watch and listen to Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin and arrive at conclusions which hopefully will be right for America and the rest of us on this planet.

It's going to be a truly fascinating period......we await the outcome with great interest.

Colonial

The reason for the left's "...vicious reaction to John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin...." are, I believe, quite simple.

Fifty years of control of the media and a dominance in opinion forming positions has left them with an implicit belief that they own, totally and completely, the moral high ground.

Argue and labels such as "racist" or "fascist" accompany sneering and contempt. Carry on the attack and you will get tears and exasperation that anyone could be so awful as to challenge what they implicitly believe to be absolute facts.