God Bless That Sarah Palin There, or The Summers of Our Discontent
Presidential transitions are always rough for the political news media, and their consumers, especially in the age of 24-hour basic cable news channels. They have to talk about something even if there is nothing to talk about. So we get endless parsing of rumors about who might be appointed to what position and what that might say about the incoming administration. For instance, the liberal end of the blogosphere has been freaking out for a couple of days over rumors that former Harvard President and Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers was being considered for the Obama Administration. (I intend to use that last phrase as often as possible for a while).
The freak-out has produced some useful reminders that the roots of the recent free-market excesses date back to Clinton-era deregulation that Summers championed. (His enablement of Enron seems especially embarrassing.) And yet, the freakout is occurring based no new real information except the names of the transition team members, and given the unusual-for-Democrats tightness of the ship Obama runs, I doubt we will get anything new until the President-elect is ready to tell us for real. It was only natural and appropriate for a new Democratic president to turn to members of the previous Dem administration for advice. Indeed, it would be insulting not to — Clinton made one of his many early mistakes by snubbing the Carter Administration (repeating Carter’s own mistake). So, yes, the immediate previous Democratic Treasury Secretary was brought in, along with Robert Rubin and many others. Not exactly the fulcrum of modern American history, death of a dream, or any of that. If it makes some of the freaked feel better, my reading is that Summers’s presence on the transition advisory board would more strongly suggest that he is NOT in line to be T-Sec again rather than the reverse. Clintonomics has duly been acknowledged, and now Obama will make his own choice. I would go with Paul Krugman myself, but that sort of provocative grandstand play is exactly why Barack Obama is getting ready to move into the White House, rather than John McCain or myself.
So, I say, God bless you Sarah Palin and your clueless post-election media blitz there [read in North Country dialect], apparently designed to remind voters of everything they did not vote for last week by continuing to babble your failed campaign talking points. Matt, Wolf, Greta, and the rest love an empty political celebrity story to flog and you are just the empty political celebrity to give it to them. Sarah, you distract the bloggers for a while, and give Barack Obama a few days catch a breath, organize his adminstration, find a school and dog for the girls, and then you can give back the spotlght you enjoy so much.
[...] God Bless That Sarah Palin There, or The Summers of Our Discontent Presidential transitions are always rough for the political news media, and their consumers, especially in the age of 24-hour basic cable news channels. They have to talk about something even if there is nothing to talk about. So we get endless parsing of rumors about who might be appointed to what position and what that might say about the incoming administration. For instance, the liberal end of the blogosphere has been freaking out for a couple of days over rumors that former Harvard Preside [...]
Pingback by Sarah Palin On Best Political Blogs » Blog Archive » God Bless That Sarah Palin There, or The Summers of Our Discontent — November 13, 2008 @ 1:48 am
Sarah Palin made a number of embarrassing gaffes during the 2008 presidential election campaign. For these mistakes, she was thoroughly and publically punished. Prof. Pasley is not a fan of Sarah Palin, as this particular blog (among many others) makes abundantly clear. What seems to be absent from Prof. Pasley’s endless excoriation of Gov. Palin is any reference to her campaign opposite number and VP-elect, Senator Joe Biden. While Prof. Pasley and his Democratic cohorts have spared Gov. Palin no ridicule, these folks are silent regarding the literally innumerable misques and blunders that have been the hallmark of Biden’s mediocre 3 decade long career. Where would one even begin? At various times Sen. Biden publically misrepresented his law school grades and class rank, plagarized nearly an entire speech, lauded President-elect Obama for being “clean,” complained about the ethnicity of 7-11 clerks, stated that Pres. Roosevelt went “on TV” to console America years before TV was even invented, suggested dividing Iraq into zones based on ethnicity and so on and so on. So while I do not object to holding Gov. Palin accountable for her mistakes, I certainly believe that a fair-minded person should be willing to do the same with Sen. Biden.
Comment by emanuel abodai — November 19, 2008 @ 8:41 am
I think the imbalance had something to do with the fact that the media (and the public) virtually ignored Joe Biden, whereas Sarah Palin became the focus of McCain’s campaign, and all political media coverage, for weeks on end. Also, there is a big difference between Biden’s “gaffes” — verbal flubs, middle-age moments, and occasional inaccurate references — and Palin’s yawning (winking?), oblivious ignorance. Biden came off as more competent in the Veep debate, despite the alleged misstatements, because he made an effort to answer the questions. The Divine Governor P, not so much.
Comment by Jeff Pasley — November 19, 2008 @ 8:24 pm
One wonders what the reaction from liberals would be if Sarah Palin were guilty of “middle-age moments” and “verbal flubs” like mocking Indian 7-11 clerks or prasing the “cleanliness” of a black man? Would such remarks be dismissed as harmless errors or condenmed as proof of racism? The explaination for this apparent double standard seems clear: Joe Biden is a liberal Democrat and is therefore forgiven his mistakes while a conservative Republican, also guilty of “verbal flubs,” must be torn to shreds. This seems a lttle bit hypocritical. But, then again, what should one expect? Democratic Senator Robert Byrd is an admitted former member of the Ku Klux Klan and this unseemly reality is easily digested by the liberal left. So let’s all just be honest: Biden is getting a free pass not because of his great competence or talent but instead because he’s a liberal. I’m Ok with blatant partisan double-standards, but let’s not pretend that that’s not what is going on here.
Comment by f. rudyard hutchinson — November 20, 2008 @ 10:32 am
I admire Sarah Palin because she had also done a lot in the area of Politics specially in Alaska where she was a governor.
Comment by acnetreatmentboy — September 23, 2009 @ 6:03 am
i admire Sarah Palin because she had done a lot in the area of politics. she has also a good track record when she was still the governor of Alaska.
Comment by melatonine — September 27, 2009 @ 7:31 am
Sarah Palin is a good leader. i can say that because she did some projects in alaska that helped lots of people .
Comment by Jeanna — November 23, 2009 @ 11:51 am