Posted on 01/11/2010 5:14:05 PM PST by militanttoby
Is it too early to start speculating about the 2012 GOP presidential primaries? Of course not! The race promises to be a chaotic free-for-all of backbiting and recrimination, flip-flops and opportunistic conversions, feigned outrage and vicious attacks over meaningless non-issues. Throw in the fact that the force within the party with the most energy right now – the teabaggers – are not exactly known for their restraint, and it should be a hoot.
I've long held that if Sarah Palin runs, her campaign will surely be the most entertaining train wreck to hit American politics in decades. But when I read Nate Silver’s case that her chances of winning the nomination are actually pretty good, I was reminded of something fundamental that Palin has going for her. Way back in 2007, I wrote a two-part piece on the importance of narrative to a presidential candidacy. I argued that no one on the Republican side was really telling a story about why they were running, while on the Democratic side, only one candidate – a certain young whippersnapper from Illinois who at the time was a serious longshot – had really thought through what his narrative was.
Looking ahead to 2012, if there's a candidate who has a good story to tell, it's got to be Palin. You might call her story "10 Things They Hate About You (and Me)." It's a well-worn tale of cultural resentment, one saying that those elitist/socialist/godless/coastal/immigrant-loving/not-real-American bastards took over the country and are driving us to ruin as they sneer down their noses at you. It has the three essential parts of the campaign narrative: it says what's wrong with the country; it says where the candidate wants to take the country; and it says why the candidate, and only the candidate, is the person to do it. Palin has always practiced a very personal politics, one that portrays her as a martyr endlessly suffering an onslaught of slings and arrows from the kind of people you just can't stand – if you’re a real American, that is. If it turns out that she doesn't know a thing about policy, well that's because she's just like you – not some soulless policy wonk, but a real person. If it turns out that her teenage daughter got pregnant, it's not because her rhetoric about abstinence is a joke, it's because she’s just like you – she knows what it's like to have family struggles. And all the attention to her soap opera life just confirms that the liberals hate her, which is the best credential a Republican can sport.
This is Palin's story, and she's sticking to it. She's not going to try to reinvent herself as a policy wonk. And why should she? None of the other likely candidates has any story at all.
Mudd asking Kennedy in 1979, not ‘71
Paul Waldman is writer and senior fellow at Media Matters. His most recent book is Free Ride: John McCain and the Media, coauthored with David Brock.
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Paul Waldman, author and Senior Fellow for Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog group. Waldman shares his thoughts on why progressive media criticism is “not about bias.”
Unlike our counterparts on the right, we don’t have one simple answer to every question having to do with the news media. We don’t believe the media are irredeemably “biased,” or that reporters have hidden agendas and we can tell you what they are.
What you won’t find is relentless accusations that reporters, commentators, or news outlets are “biased.” When we do an item on something that appeared in the news media, it’s because we can demonstrate that it was false or misleading, not because we just don’t like it.
We have to grant, however, that the right’s sustained accusation of “bias” is both a powerful organizing tool (sustaining their supporters’ belief that people are out to get them) and an effective way of “working the refs.” Knowing that they face constant charges of bias, reporters respond by bending over backward to show how tough they can be on progressives and Democrats.
But in recent years the right wing has undertaken an assault not only on what they perceive as coverage unfavorable to their cause, but on the very idea of objective news. Conservatives have become the true post-modernists, arguing that any news presentation that reflects badly on Republicans must have a “liberal bias” – that there are no facts, only their (right) opinion and everyone else’s (wrong) opinion.
lots of people – including journalists - don’t watch Bill O’Reilly, listen to Rush Limbaugh, or read Ann Coulter, so they have no idea just what kind of bile issues forth from these and other sources every day. One of the most striking imbalances in American media today is the way extremism and hate from the right are tolerated and even lauded, while there is nothing remotely comparable on the left. Take Coulter, who regularly advocates the murder of people with whom she disagrees. Is there anyone on the left who does the same, and is given the media megaphones she gets?
The North that won the Civil war has regarded itself as the owner of the government since 1865. Those who live there think they are entitled, even though the wealth of the country has shifted away from that North. Long gone are the days when New York was still the Empire State. Thanks to the liberals, and the WWW, Washington is replacing NYC as the financial center of the country.
Waldman is one of those guys who thinks of the center of the country as fly-over country. But that part has a lot of people who are Palin’s “kind,” So as long as she don’t disappoint them, she has an”army” that is willing to follow her lead.
What a wanker. Assuming Palin supports don't know anything about policy is typical elitist drivel.
The "Reverend" Al Sharpton. Not only does he advocate the murder of people with which he disagrees, he's actually incited mobs that have done it. And he gets a pass.
yeah, for ten whole minutes. /sarc
As for the rest, he was being moved out of harm’s way until we knew what the hell was going on. No one knew after the Pentagon strike how many planes were involved or what other targets might be hit. Since we managed to land all the planes with great speed, we still don’t know how many others carried terrorists who were unable to execute.
Ninety percent of journalists vote Democratic. No bias, right?
Ninety percent of journalists vote Democratic. No bias, right?
“the teabaggers”
This guy looks like he would be an authority on teabaggers.
One of these days you’re going to write a column, and start a thread on how you plan to achieve the goal. Something with some nitty gritty.
It may inspire others to attempt the same.
“None of the other likely candidates has any story at all.”
Obama will have one. “I’ve spent four years wrecking the United States of America and I’m asking for your vote to keep doing it for four more years.”
“But the liberals who break windows, burn trash cans, overturn police cars and make the Washington Mall look like post-apocolyptic disaster site... they ARE known for their restraint?”
Well, yes. If you knew how they really feel, you would realize how much they are downplaying their outrage.
Hey leftards: Be afraid. Be very afraid.
The reason Bush was ‘bouncing around the country’ was because THE ENEMY was trying to knock Air Force One out of the sky.
This guy needs Christopher Walkin to drive him to the airport.
It REALLY pi$$es me off when libs call us teabaggers! We’re Tea PARTIERS!
Isn’t it amazing how the party that advocates homosexual privilege uses a homosexual slur to insult a conservative movement? I had never heard of “teabagging” or “teabagger”, had to have it splained to me.
Liberals are frightened to death of Palin. It is similar to what they did when Reagan ran. Regan was characterized as “a fool”, nothing but a movie actor who co-starred with a Chimpanzee, for goodness sakes.
Remember the gleeful exhortations of the liberals then? “Ronald Reagan. lol, lol, sure bring him on”
Classic case of projecting on the partof this liberal.
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