Posted on 07/23/2010 2:30:03 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Sarah Palin can't expect anyone to take her seriously as a presidential candidate--not after what she said this week.
In recent days, the former Alaska governor and Tea Party fave has been on a tear against Journolist, a listserv for nearly 500 journalists, policy wonks, and academics, most of whom are self-identified liberals working for self-identified liberal outfits. The participants on this off-the-record email chain promoted their work, debated politics and policy (occasionally quite sharply), and traded and tested ideas for articles and columns. Last month, The Daily Caller, a conservative website, began running articles based on Journolist archives it somehow had obtained. Some conservatives immediately denounced Journolist as a secret cabal that established a party line for the dreaded liberal media.
Palin was one such rightwinger. On Tuesday, citing a Daily Caller article that focused on how several liberal opinion journalists in 2008 were pondering how to respond to stories about Jeremiah Wright (Barack Obama's controversial reverend), she contended that Journolist was proof that the mainsteam media--or, as she calls it, the "lamestream" media--is biased, characterizing Journolist members as "'prominent' mainstream media personalities." That was a misrepresentation: writers and bloggers for The Nation, The American Prospect, Mother Jones (my home base), the Center for American Progress, the New American Foundation, and other liberal media organizations and think tanks are not usually considered mainstream media leaders. (The founder of Journolist, Ezra Klein, did move from The American Prospect to The Washington Post, but he was knowingly hired by the newspaper as a liberal blogger.) It's hardly surprising that out-of-the-closet progressives would share progressive ideas with colleagues. Journolist was no conspiracy; it was a community--a virtual bar, without booze. I explain all that here. (Membership declared: I was a mostly nonactive member of Journolist; I haven't used it in years.)
Palin's blast revealed deep ignorance. Journolistas were generally not prominent MSMers. And the few prominent journalists who were part of Journolist were mostly already known as commentators of a liberal bent. Yet Palin was pretending that Journolist was evidence of an MSM cabal. Worst, she tweeted, "forget freedom of speech and freedom of the press if these yahoos ever get their way in America."
During an interview with The Daily Caller, she went further, calling Journolisters "sick puppies"--as she reacted to another article on the now-defunct listserv revealing email messages sent the day John McCain surprisingly picked Palin to be his running mate. In these emails, several participants--including two Mother Jones reporters who worked for me at the time--pondered why McCain had picked Palin and what would be an effective critique of her. That liberal reporters would privately discuss how best to criticize a conservative politician whose policies they oppose does not strike me as shocking. In fact, I am certain that during the 2008 campaign journalists at conservative media outfits talked among themselves about how best to puncture Obama.
But Palin was offended. In responding to The Daily Caller piece, though, she conceded a major point about herself: she does not posses a hardy enough constitution to be president. In that interview, The Daily Caller reports, Palin said the media became a key reason she decided not to finish out her term as governor.
Consider that for a moment. Eight months after the grueling 2008 campaign was over, Palin, by her own admission, was not tough enough to handle the media and had to quit her job as Alaska governor. After confessing that, how can she possibly present herself as presidential timber? If she allowed herself to be hounded out of office in Juneau by the big bad press, could she withstand the slings and arrows of the media while under pressure in the White House?
This part of her reaction to The Daily Caller article is a tell. Looking to scapegoat the media for her decision to quit--a decision widely described at the time on the left and right as bizarre--she displays her own weakness. Does a true commander in chief turn tail when "sick puppies" bark?
I wonder if Palin meant to reveal this much. Possibly, she was lazily exploiting the latest Journolist revelation. Bashing the liberal media is good for Sarah Inc. It sells books and six-figure speeches. And it's good politics, for this theme is an oldie-but-goodie relished by the GOP base and tea partiers--the sort of voters who will dominate the Republican Party's 2012 presidential primaries. Still, saying that she could not do her job in Alaska because of pesky reporters is a true admission of weakness. If you can't stand the heat from reporters (including the ferocious liberals of Journolist), how can you be strong enough to deal with the Russians, the Chinese, the North Koreans, the Iranians, the Taliban, and, oh yes, the terrorists? They're a bit more fierce than Katie Couric.
****** One of my Twitter followers, Greytdog, sent me this tweet on Thursday: "perhaps the question should be why is the media obsessed w/Sarah Palin who hasn't done anything except quit & twit." Good point. But given that there is a chance she will run for president in 2012--and be a credible candidate with a base of supporters and fundraising potential--that means there is a chance she will become president. (I'm not handicapping the odds of either possibility.) Consequently, she deserves to remain under close scrutiny from journalists. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Ronald Reagan was regarded by some as a joke: a Grade B movie actor pitching for GE and then Barry Goldwater. He certainly warranted watching.
Why doesn’t this post have a projectile vomit warning?
David Corn? Learning to look at the author first saves me from wasting time on the content of the article...
What I find interesting is that there are people here at FR that fell for the Journolista lines hook line and sinker and spout off the anti-Palin talking points (and believe they are being proportional and smart)! Weak minded children if they keep doing it if you ask me.
Another hit piece ‘disguised’ as fair minded analysis. They must be absolutely terrified of Gov. Palin, especially with Obama’s disappearing poll numbers. No doubt Hillary will be their white knight. (Oops, is that a racist remark? Sorry.) But the Clintons haven’t bought that multimillion dollar property in upstate? New York without a run for the White House in mind. (A little country cottage with plenty of room for the Secret Service and elitist pals.)
I kind of agree in the sense, that I think she went a little too much with the poor me thing. Reagan..would have let this roll down his back. She should let others do the complaining for her. When she does, she sounds petty and weak...
So in summary, I agree essentially with the article. Let’s hope she learns from this experience,and know when to keep quiet....and appear presidential.
Think Margaret Thatcher...I doubt she too, would be whining...
Palin stepped down because she was literally going bankrupt defending herself against the lawsuits they kept bringing against her. She won every one of them, but she simply could no longer afford it; there was no end in sight. She also believed that they were too much of a distraction and were having a negative effect on Alaska. It had nothing to do her not being able to handle the stress. That doesn’t even make sense...she thrives on that negative crap they throw at her in the press.
That’s all well and good, but is all of that going to stop if she becomes president?
Any Thatcher -Palin comparison died the day Palin quit. There has been zero risk and zero personal cost in anything she has done since.
So, Korn-hole here was just a lurker and nothing else? Yeah right. And whatever his posting history there, he admits that he knew about the list serv and approved of it as well as the planning and coordination of lib MSM attacks there. And of course he said nothing about it. Nada. Nothing.
The President does not have to pay out of his own pocket to deal with baseless, spammed ethics charges. Also, legal attacks on the President are not essentially free to the plaintiff (paid for by the Alaskan taxpayer).
So, now you know.
Mrs. Palin, you will have my vote in the next election, even if I have to pencil it in on the ballot. Keep up the good work and protect us from these commies in power right now.
At least Cornhole is telling what they are going to use should Palin run. No surprise here.
However, now is the time for Palin to change the dynamics of her resignation from a weak position to a positive position. It can be done you know.
Yo do that will require an end to the non stop meme that the media was harrassing and breaking her.
“Palin’s blast revealed deep ignorance.”
This from someone who actually admits he writes for Mother Jones????
If you feel the need to compare her to a historical figure, try Churchill. He changed parties - twice!
You don't think there was any political or personal risk in abdicating the Governorship of Alaska?. Was that like a speed-bump to you?
History will record Palin's abdication like Napoleon's deliberate abandonment of a strong central position at the Battle of Austerlitz - one of the most sublime battle-winning manoeuvres in history.
And what is your name on the journolist?
Not shocking. She has never been presidential material. She is good for getting normal people all fired up and motivated to go out and vote. President, no.
Corn. Corn. I have been told that that was the last word spoken by Elvis Presley.
Enough said.
There is no bigger, more repulsive, more morally bankrupt, Lib-retarded anal douche alive than David Corn(hole). He's a walking, breathing assh*le who goes around wasting otherwise perfectly good oxygen.
I am not, by nature, a violent individual. David Corn(hole) can thank Almighty God for that fact, for if I were a violent person, little, tiny, miserable microcephalic "Davey The Hole" would be in really, extremely, terribly bad trouble.
He is such a pathetic caricature of a vapid Liberal sphincter, however, that he's actually good for a laugh. He makes Liberals look so bad, that he almost comes close to serving a useful purpose.
David Corn(hole) is a poster-child for why no one should ever even consider being a Liberal.
He's one of those wretchedly tortured souls who is so perpetually overwrought with angst that his face is screwed up in an extremely concerned grimace with dark patches under his too-close eyes... a kind-of crosseyed ratboy look. His eyes are way too close together, making him look semi retarded. He displays at least seven of the physical characteristics of Mongloidism, and obviously walks around in what he righly perceives to be a living hell.
Little of his writings are disingenuous; he sincerely believes the world is as brutal and disfigured as he is himself; a common trait within many of the truly most-tortured among us.
IMHO.
;-/
Thank you, David Corn.
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