[Vision2020] The Cowardly Character Assassination of Sarah Palin

[nickgier at roadrunner.com]

Greetings:

The media is involved in an in-depth post-election investigation, as it should be, and some people on the Vision believe that we ought not to do this.  This, of course, is absurd.

In the aftermath of Democratic defeats in 2000 and 2004 I wrote that Democrats made a huge mistake in being on the wrong side of the values debate.  For example, I said that Democrats should be supporting, not rejecting, character education in our schools. Many Democrats in this election cycle heeded that advice and they were able to defuse values and religion issues on which the GOP had capitalized so successfully.

Dan has posted a screed that praises Palin's character and virtue.  One virtue is truth telling, and on at least two instances, Palin refused to tell the truth.  She claimed that she sent back the "bridge to nowhere" money back to Washington, which of course is false.  She also said that an Alaskan legislative investigation had cleared her in Troopergate, when it fact, by a unanimous vote, the Legislative Council approved a report that concluded that she had violated state ethics rules.

I personally don't see a lot of character in proudly taking on a "pitbull" role and attacking Obama/Biden on a daily basis.  The true test of character was Obama's refusal to return the insults.  A defining moment on character was when Obama was asked in one of debates if Palin were qualified for president, and he said that the American people would decide that question.

The people did indeed decide with polls showing that 60 percent of those polled saying that she was not qualified. which matched exit polls that showed that only 40 percent would support here in 2012.  

A true test of character for GOP leaders will be if they, too, realize, as many of them did privately and many conservatives did publicly, that Palin simply does not have what it takes for a national leadership position.

Roger, early on I remember you apparently agreeing with a conservative spokesman that Palin was the wrong choice.  It seems that you have now changed your mind.  

Roger, you say that Palin is intelligent, but after 40 years in Academe, I'm not so sure how one measures intelligence.  After looking at my IQ number, my high school counselor advised me to take shop classes rather than the advanced AP classes in which I got straight As and graduated 4th in a class of 446.

What is more important for me is how well informed a candidate is.  On this count Palin showed her ignorance in spades.  Not being able to name a single court case other than Roe v. Wade was emblematic of her utter lack of qualification for high office.  My sincere hope is that with Obama's election that all Americans will now realize that ignorance is not a virtue.

Candidates for high office must be open to the full public scrutiny.  The fact that Palin refused to hold a news conference demonstrated that she was not ready for that.  That was the cowardly act, not the questioning that everyone has the full right to do.

I don't get much comment on my columns on the Vision, but the on-line comments from readers of the Idaho State Journal are many and hard hitting. (I get a little tired of the ad hominems against the "professor," as if being one was the lowest on God's great chain of being.) The only time these right-wing critics thought I had crossed the line was when I compared teenage pregnancy rates in Blue States vs. Red States, the latter have the much higher number. My critics charged that this was somehow an attack on Palin's daughter.

In a previous column I had questioned the wisdom of pressing this distinction too hard, because we are mostly purple if you mix all the votes together (and even more so now).  It was McCain/Palin, not Obama, who wanted to divide us along these lines.  In that context I think that my mention of the Red State's relative lack of control of their daughters was a relevant point to make.

I challenge anyone on this list to read all my election columns (www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/Election08.htm) and tell me where I assassinated anyone's character.

Yours for lively and necessary post-election analysis,

Nick Gier
---- keely emerinemix <kjajmix1 at msn.com> wrote: 
> 
> Before I read Dan's post, before I read the other off-list post blasting me for my Sarah Palin comments, I came to the conclusion that I had, indeed, crossed the line in some of what I've said about Sarah Palin.  
> 
> Let me put it another way:  I've said things that make some other people believe I've been hypocritical in my testimony for the Gospel, specifically in my criticism of the Religious Right's treatment of the Barack Obama.  It doesn't matter if they're right, it doesn't matter if my comments about Palin are right.  There is one thing that matters to me, and that's that I not malign the Gospel.  If I give reason -- valid reason -- for someone to question the sincerity of my faith, or to call me up on hypocrisy or inconsistency in living it out, any other political point I make has to become secondary.  
> 
> It's clear that I have fallen short in at least a couple of my neighbors' expectations of me, and I'm sorry.  My prayers is that when I get it right, the glory goes to God, and when I don't, it reflects only on me.
> 
> Keely
> http://keely-prevailingwinds.blogspot.com/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > From: areaman at moscow.com
> > To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> > Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 08:09:02 -0800
> > Subject: [Vision2020] The Cowardly Character Assassination of Sarah Palin
> > 
> > Perhaps some of our own on the Vizzz could take it down a notch as well,
> > eh?  
> > 
> > DC
> > -----------------------
> > 
> > The Cowardly Character Assassination Of Sarah Palin 
> > By Michelle Malkin
> > November 7, 2008
> > 
> > Sunken ships loosen bitter lips. The failed McCain campaign, for all its
> > high-minded talk of honor, duty and courage, is now teeming with
> > unscrupulous gossipmongers. Seems the dishy staffers forgot to crack
> > open their copies of Sen. McCain's bestseller, "Character Is Destiny:
> > Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should
> > Remember." 
> > 
> > Rest assured: Their cowardly character assassination of Sarah Palin
> > won't be forgotten.
> > 
> > The finks turned to Newsweek and Fox News to spread petty rumors about
> > Palin's intellect and character. The magazine peddled anecdotes from
> > sources horrified that Palin greeted top advisers at her hotel room --
> > gasp! -- "wearing nothing but a towel" and "wet hair." Fox News reporter
> > Carl Cameron breathlessly reported that his unnamed McCain sources told
> > him Palin lacked "a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running
> > mate" because, they claimed, she didn't know which countries were
> > parties to the North American Free Trade Agreement and "didn't
> > understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series, a country
> > just in itself."
> > 
> > Let's assume for a moment that the McCain rumormongers are telling the
> > truth about Palin (and I don't believe they are). Who would it damn
> > more: Palin, or McCain and his vetters, who greenlighted her for the
> > vice presidential nomination? Don't need a fancy Ivy League degree to
> > figure that one out.
> > 
> > In introducing her to America, McCain praised her independence and
> > backbone: She "stands up for what's right, and she doesn't let anyone
> > tell her to sit down." The inside snipers are now roasting her for that
> > very attribute -- redefined as "going rogue" -- because she had the
> > nerve to try to schedule media interviews on her own. The nerve of her!
> > Palin's response to the campaign fragging? At a late Wednesday night
> > airport press conference in Anchorage, immediately upon landing home
> > after the election defeat, she smiled cheerfully. The Alaska governor
> > shrugged off the "foolish things" said by the McCain saboteurs, and
> > simply said, "It's politics. ... It's rough and tumble and you've got to
> > have a thick skin just like I've got." 
> > 
> > Hollywood savaged Palin. Journalists mocked her. Liberal blogs slimed
> > her. Opponents cursed her, Photoshopped her, hacked her e-mail, hanged
> > her in effigy, called her bigot, Bible-thumper and bimbo, and attacked
> > her husband and children. But nothing Palin endured during the election
> > season compares to the treatment she's receiving from these backstabbing
> > blabbermouths who worked on the same campaign she poured herself into
> > over the last three months.
> > 
> > Sarah Palin worked her heart out. She energized tens of thousands to
> > come out when they would have otherwise stayed home. She touched
> > countless families. I didn't agree with everything she said on the
> > campaign trail. But she vigorously defended the Second Amendment and the
> > sanctity of life more eloquently in practice than any of the educated
> > conservative aristocracy. And she did it all with a tirelessness and an
> > infectious optimism that defied the shameless, bottomless attempts by
> > elites in both parties to bring her and her family down.
> > 
> > Liberty needs a virtuous people to survive; self-governance requires
> > virtuous leaders. "Knowledgeability" is a necessary trait in political
> > life, but it is not sufficient. The elitist critics of Palin, so blindly
> > enamored of Barack Obama's ability to hold forth for hours on theologian
> > Reinhold Niebuhr, ignored the Founding Fathers' counsel: Character
> > counts. In times of adversity and crisis, it counts more than IQ points,
> > instant trivia recall and bloviation skills.
> > 
> > "The most important thing I have learned, from my parents, from
> > teachers, from my faith, from many good people I have been blessed to
> > know, and from the lives of people whose stories we have included in
> > this book," John McCain wrote in "Character Is Destiny," "is to want
> > what they had, integrity, and to feel the sting of my conscience when I
> > have risked it for some selfish reason."
> > 
> > John McCain not only failed to make that message stick with the
> > electorate, he apparently couldn't persuade his own staff to heed his
> > advice and practice what he preached.
> > 
> > 
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