Conservative Think Tank scholar:Palin "not qualified to participate in discussion" of economy

Financial Times ^ | 10/8/2009 | FT

[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.

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.

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:

“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.

[Moose4]

It’s one thing for him to say “I think she’s wrong, and here’s why.” But when he starts bringing the “she’s not qualified” crap...these people really don’t understand why the entire Northeastern/Washington establishment, FROM BOTH PARTIES, is so hated right now, do they?

}:-)4

[TruthBeforeAll]

I would hope that FReepers contact this man with many of the same replies posted here. I quite often respond directly to some of these writers and every once in a great while actually get a response.

[ozzymandus]

Norman Ornstein is a bug eyed little nerd, but he’s no conservative.

[rintense]

Once again, America, some elitist snob is tell YOU who should and should not speak.

[F.J. Mitchell]

You are not qualified to judge Sarah Palin’s qualifications, Norrrrrrrrrrrrrrman!

[F.J. Mitchell]

You are not qualified to judge Sarah Palin’s qualifications, Norrrrrrrrrrrrrrman!

[ABQHispConservative]

Norman is one to talk about lacking qualifications, he’s a political scientist, not an economist. He has no idea what the hell he’s talking about. If he did, he might have had a better math background to study economics, rather than poli-sci.

[MinuteGal]

This is Eastern Establishment elitism in its purest form.

I'm glad this guy came out of the closet before the next election campaigns heat up.

The American Enterprise Institute should be emailed on this. A liberal misonogyst now has made me question everything this respected conservative think tank puts out.

The Institute has a rotten apple in its midst who will pull it down.

But that's what liberal moles set out to do, correct?

Leni

[mmichaels1970]

Mr. [Dawg], it was a snide remark and I regret making it. I could say it was taken out of context, but it was still unnecessary. Thanks for writing, Norman Ornstein

Great job Mr. [Dawg]!

[Nevermore]

Just one question for Norm:
Do you, by any chance, have an Ivy-covered degree?
If so, let's look at the record of your elitist ilk: thoroughly "wee-weed", as you high-brows like to say.
So please shut your pie-hole until you get real credentials.

[MinuteGal]

Thanks for the email addy for Ornstein. However, I'd like to email the head of the think tank's organization, .

Emails to Ornstein may just disappear down a black hole somewhere, if you get my drift.

Do you have such an email address?

I will send one of my special blue darts to each.

Thanks,

Leni

[nufsed]

XLNT and his his native tongue.

[sand lake bar]

I got the same reply. Maybe give him a break.

[jagusafr]

Same thing as Ornstein: “They’re not qualified to participate”.

Gimme some o’ that Palin/Bachmann ‘12 action!

Colonel, USAFR

[MrB]

Really, it takes less math than common sense to understand economics.

Read Sowell’s works - not much math, at all, in those works, and they make infinitely more sense than anything the “experts” are saying.

[ABQHispConservative]

It takes math to understand the theoretical framework of the economic models. The fact that Sowell does not show or use much math means that he has excellent intuition, and he can explain the models without the need of the math.

But he has to know the math behind the theory, which is the base of the model. For example, supply and demand are great and easy concepts. But there is a substantial theoretical framework which explain why the behave the way they do. Furthermore, we have to test the theories with data. You can do it one of two ways, through experiments or by gathering data. Either way requires some statistical model to prove whatever hypothesis you are testing, and that requires a mathematical model. So, you need math for economics. Good economists can summarize a complicated model in an easy to understand way.

[Louis Foxwell]

Did he have any comment on a certain Chicago politician with even less experience both in elected office, executive elected office and in running a business?

This, of course, is the central issue regarding credibility. Obama has had no experience of any kind whatsoever in preparation for any job north of clerk's assistant. Palin has accomplished more than any other public official since WWII without becoming beholden to anyone. Obama is bought and paid for. Palin is not for sale.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

“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.”

The new America, I suppose. Some are more equal than others.

There may be a legitimate debate to be had over who is qualified to debate the dollar's reserve status, but Norman Ornstein is not qualified to participate in it.

My ad hominem is just as good as his . . .

[Hawthorn]

>> The RINOs/Beltway Republicans make me sick <<

The headline from the FT is extremely misleading. Norman Ornstein is not, and as far as I know he has never claimed to be, a Republican. Nor can one accurately say he belongs to any sub-species of conservativism.

Ornstein is an open, old-fashioned, unabashed liberal — albeit of the “soft-spoken” rather than the “wild-eyed” variety. I suspect AEI just keeps him on the staff as a token, much in the way Fox News employs a few leftists like Juan Williams.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

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

. . . since your vote touches that issue.