I'm bumping into a lot of critics who do not buy the legitimacy of small town mayorship (Palin had two terms in Wasilla, Alaska, population 9,000 or so) and executive as opposed to legislative experience. But executives, even of small towns, run something. There are 262 cities in this country with a population of 100,000 or more. But there are close to a hundred thousand small towns with ten thousand people or less. "You do the math," the conservative pollster Kellyanne Conway told me. "We are a nation of Wasillas, not Chicagos."America may not be a nation of Chicagos, but neither is it a nation of university grads. So, according to Conway and Noonan, perhaps the best person to lead the USA is a country bumpkin with no foreign policy experience and a high school education. Sound good, Paul?
But the icing on this particular fruitcake is that not only is Noonan's article hilariously stupid, it's also a complete lie. Earlier today, Noonan was caught on a live mic discussing the Palin appointment and letting her true views out. Here's the video, and below is the transcript.
Chuck Todd: Mike Murphy, lots of free advice, we'll see if Steve Schmidt and the boys were watching. We'll find out on your blackberry. Tonight voters will get their chance to hear from Sarah Palin and she will get the chance to show voters she's the right woman for the job Up next, one man who's already convinced and he'll us why Gov. Jon Huntsman.
(cut away)
Peggy Noonan: Yeah.
Mike Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor world: Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. I mean, these guys -- this is how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And it's not gonna work. And --
PN: It's over.
MM: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.
CT: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.
PN: Saw Kay this morning.
CT: Yeah, she's never looked comfortable about this --
MM: They're all bummed out.
CT: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?
PN: The most qualified? No! I think they went for this -- excuse me-- political bullshit about narratives --
CT: Yeah they went to a narrative.
MM: I totally agree.
PN: Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it.
MM: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.
CT: This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.
MM: Yeah.
So my question is, who looks more foolish?
a) Peggy Noonan for writing such garbage, then getting caught calling it "bullshit".
b) Paul for eating it up, hook line & sinker
c) Both of the above
I report, you decide.
11 comments:
Sorry but Palin is a university graduate.
The fact you didn't know that makes the rest of your post irrelevant.
Re: Anonymous at 4:16 - Gotta love these illiterate Con trolls who have difficulty with basic reading skills!
She went to Spud U and received a BA Sc. in "Communications". Hey, their team is the "Vandals"... how appropriate.
Anon @ 4:16 - BWAHAHAHAHA!!! To call you dumb as a bag of hammers would be an insult to bags and hammers everywhere.
Noonan doesn't seem to remember that she is no longer one of Reagan's underlings. Being a professional columnist/commentator is a sweet gig. She gets paid for nothing more than spouting off her opinion without the spin obligations imposed on partisan hacks. The least we can expect is that the opinion is honest.
Interesting to hear what Peggy Noonan really thinks!
Palin was a whacko VP choice, and reveals McCain to be a bit reckless and prone to bad judgment. He really undermined what I thought might be his best argument in November - the inexperience factor. Bad strategy.
Bowler - McCain prior to the Palin selection: "Experience matters, VP's don't". McCain after the Palin selection: "VP's matter, experience...not so much".
McCain is a joke, and his pick an irresponsible one.
According to the CBC, she electrified her base but some of the focus groups were completely turned off by her sarcastic humour.
I watched her speech last night. A lot of it was that weird, tone-deaf humour that seems to appeal only to the hard right. She and a couple of other speakers sneered that Obama was a "community organizer". WTF is so funny about that?
Tojoursdan - I can see why. She spoke in a confident, forthright manner and had that kind of 'toughness' about her that core Republicans have been looking for. I doubt very much if her speech did much for moderates or "independents", as it was basically just a rehash of GOP talking points. In any case, she had a week for teams of speechwriters to compose her speech, and for her to practice it. Her real test will be in the coming weeks and during the debates, when she'll have to think on her feet against Joe Biden.
Bowler - There were a few sneering references to Obama's community organizer position. Personally, I found it a major put-off and another example of right-wing humour just being smarmy, condescending and frankly humourless. What was the joke, anyways? "Look at Hussein, helping all those Negroes...hahahaha" Pathetic...
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