Posted on 10/08/2009 7:55:15 AM PDT by Jack Black
In a full page article about the falling value of the Dollar in Financial Times the article notes that Sarah Palin posted a comment on her Facebook page on the issue.
The opening paragraphs of the article contained her quote:
The falling US dollar is giving ammunition to the critics of the Obama administration and fuelling broader concerns about the potential erosion of America’s reserve currency status.So far so good, but then we move to the expert analysis and Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, a supposedly conservative think-tank drops this nicely executed character assassination of Palin:Republican politicians have highlighted the dollar’s slide as evidence of waning US power.
Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential Republican candidate, on Wednesday sought to link the dollar decline to rising US indebtedness and dependence on foreign oil. “We can see the effect of this in the price of gold, which hit a record high today in response to fears about the weakened dollar,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
“The dollar has always been a testosterone issue among America’s political classes,” said Norm Ornstein, a veteran analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.“This time there may be a legitimate debate to be had over the dollar’s reserve status, but Sarah Palin is not qualified to participate in it.”
While the article on the dollar in interesting I find Ornstein's comments far more interesting. Palin is really threatening, not just to Obama, Democrats and liberals, but to the entire East Coast establishment.
So here we have a nominal conservative institute 'scholar' going out of his way to tear down one of the leading Conservative figures in America. Why? Perhaps Norman and his fellow travelers understand how truely useless they are to Palin.
Her baptism by fire in the 2008 election seems to have produced a much needed scepticism on her part of the inside-the-beltway experts, right and left.
Norman Ornstein is roommates with Al Franken... and he’s not particularly conservative... he mostly hangs out at brookings...
“Mr. Ornstein led a working group of scholars and practitioners that helped shape the law, known as McCain-Feingold, that reformed the campaign financing system.”
That being said, I agree with him... facebook postings from someone who isn’t going to be in power any time soon is not really being part of the “debate”...
Did you know Alaska has a negative income tax? I rest my case.
McGruff
It may have been "pro-business at the government teat" instead of "conservative". The first often tries to camouflage itself as the second.
Ornstein is an inside-the-Beltway, garden-variety elitist. His views of Palin predominate in DC. She has never lived here, buttered them up, and schmoozed them. She probably doesn’t even know who Ornstein is, and therefore, she is unqualified. This report barely falls under the category of “news,” in that it is exactly what was to be expected from the legions of Ornsteins here.
All you need to know about Mr. Ornstein:
“His greatest political influence may have come in writing substantial portions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as the “McCain-Feingold” campaign finance bill passed in 2002.”
That's the whole crux of it right there. Palin represent the People more so than any other candidate in the past century, and the elite can't stand it. There's not an ounce of difference between the Repubs and Dems at this point, but we have to play the system in order to overturn it.
if that is "good ol boy" to you then you must live in a very effete environment dear...
What has he ever accomplished? Has he ever done any ‘dirty’ work a.k.a. labor; has he ever managed anything? Really....I don’t know, but odds are, that the answer would be a resounding NO! This whole situation has surely been interesting in that, it has brought out some of the ‘true’ problems with the GOP. From what I can see, most of them are cockroaches hiding behind words, false accusations etc and scurrying for cover when the light shines.
If Wikipedia is to be believed, he’s one of AEI’s “token” Liberals:
“Norman J. Ornstein is a political scientist and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative-leaning Washington D.C. thinktank (though Ornstein is generally considered to be a LIBERAL). Ornstein was born in 1948 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.[1] Ornstein is married to Judith L. Harris, a prominent regulation litigation lawyer. He studies American politics and is a frequent contributor to The Washington Post and many magazines. He has written a weekly column in Roll Call since 1993. His greatest political influence may have come in writing substantial portions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as the ‘McCain-Feingold’ campaign finance bill passed in 2002. [1]. He is currently co-director, along with Thomas Mann, of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_J._Ornstein
Well, thay....
Of the candidates involved in the Presidential/VP race, Palin was the ONLY candidate qualified to discuss matters of the economy as she was the ONLY person on the ballot with executive experience...freaking moron...
Our dollar’s falling value does not result from lack of intellectual firepower nor does the cure require massive intellectual firepower. The cause and cure lie in discipline.
Subject: Article Re: Sarah Palin Not Qualified
From: RowdyFFC (sic edited)
Date: Thu, Oct 08, 2009 10:08 am
To: nornstein@aei.org
I an not really impressed with the diatribe coming out of your supposedly conservative ‘think tank’. I don’t need you to tell me what to think, nor whether Sarah Palin is qualified to participate in any discussion regarding the economy.
Your ‘think tank’ BS is part of the reason this country’s economy is in the shape it’s in...because of RINO attacks on real conservatives. You elitist ‘think tanks’ do not have all the answers, you’re too busy thinking and posturizing and never get anything done! You’re useless to me!
Get over yourself! WE get to choose the qualifications of our leaders. Quite frankly that’s NOT your job!
Good one
And what qualifications, pray tell, are required? Anyone can have an opinion. A couple of hours of research makes it an informed opinion. True, there are people who spend years studying the intricacies of economics, but given recent events its obvious they arent particularly “qualified” themselves...
Interesting that the very intellectuals who are so proud of their intellect are the people who got us into this mess.
Anyone who has a different idea is bound to be labeled by them as unqualified.
It is the Harvard intellectuals and their ilk who told us that losing our manufacturing base was a good thing. That we would prosper as a service based nation.
Service what?
They told us that our dollar would never be replaced because the dollar is the only truly safe harbor in the world. The inference being that we can write our own rules and the hell with the fraidy cats.
So much for that idea.
ping Oh dear, I think this man needs an e-mail from you.
Actually there are many here who think this and they say the same thing about wall street and the market.
But a discussion about the economy and a discussion about economics are two different things.
Dear Dr. Ornstein,It’s always a shame when the centripetal social forces of east coast academic circles overcome one’s innate decency and good sense.
Just to help you remember the basics: because I am an adult citizen of the United States, I am not only qualified but morally obliged to participate in discussions about the dollar. I have never governed a state. A fortiori, Governor Palin is qualified to participate in a discussion about the dollar.
When the insidious elitism of academic oligarchs reveals itself even among those on the right, my reaction is to prefer the Palins to the Mandarins. We who tend more to the Palin than the Ornstein side of things are weary of paying the penalties and bearing the burdens with which self-satisfied academicians have persuaded their disciples to saddle us, all the while giving vent to their contempt for us.
Please do consider how unattractive academic snobbery is, and then consider a retraction and an apology.
Sincerely yours.
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