http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/09/17/enough_of_the_palin_feeding_frenzy/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed3
Enough of the Palin feeding frenzy, Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe
IN POLITICS, cheap shots and invective are occupational hazards. But when have we seen anything to match the frenzy of rage and contempt set off by the nomination of Sarah Palin?
Virtually from the moment John McCain selected her, Palin has been under assault. There has been legitimate criticism, of course. But there has also been a gusher of slander, much of it - like the slur that she isn't the real mother of her infant son, Trig - despicable.
For someone who has been in the national spotlight for only three weeks, Palin has been the victim of an astonishing array of falsehoods. Voters have been told that she slashed funding in Alaska for special-needs children. That she tried to ban books from Wasilla's public library. That she was a member of the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party. That she links Saddam Hussein to the attacks of 9/11. That she backed Pat Buchanan for president. That she doesn't want students taught about contraception. That she called the war in Iraq "a task from God." All untrue.
Hillary Clinton's supporters complain that coverage of her campaign was tainted by sexism, such as the Washington Post story that focused on her cleavage, or Mike Barnicle's description of her on MSNBC as "looking like everyone's first wife standing outside a probate court."
Obama too has suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous comment - the Fox News segment that captioned a picture of his wife "Obama's Baby Mama," for example, and the infamous New Yorker cover showing the Obamas as terrorists in the Oval Office.
But the left's onslaught against Palin has been of a different order of magnitude.
"Ideologically, she is their hardcore pornographic centerfold spread," columnist Cintra Wilson wrote in Salon. "She's such a power-mad, backwater beauty-pageant casualty, it's easy to write her off and make fun of her. But in reality I feel as horrified as a ghetto Jew watching the rise of National Socialism."
On the website of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commentator Heather Mallick was even cruder. Palin appeals to "the white trash vote" with her "toned-down version of the porn actress look," she wrote. "Husband Todd looks like a roughneck. . . What normal father would want Levi 'I'm a [bleeping] redneck' Johnson prodding his daughter?"
From radio talk-show host Randi Rhodes came the smutty suggestion that the governor of Alaska has an unhealthy interest in teenage boys: "She's friends with all the teenage boys," Rhodes told her audience last week. "You have to say no when your kids say, 'Can we sleep over at the Palins?' No! NO!"
The smears and sneers have been without end. One liberal congressman likened Obama to Jesus - and Palin to Pontius Pilate. A Democratic state chairman declared scornfully that Palin's "primary qualification seems to be that she hasn't had an abortion." A University of Chicago professor seethed: "Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman."
The national media, meanwhile, have only further eroded what remained of their reputation for objectivity.
For months they refused to mention the infidelity of John Edwards, yet they leaped with relish onto Bristol Palin's pregnancy . Ravenous for any negative morsel on the GOP running mate, they deployed legions of reporters to Alaska, who have produced such journalism as the 3,220-word exposé; in Sunday's New York Times that upon winning office, Palin - gasp! - fired opponents and hired people she trusted.
Yet the more she has been attacked, the more her support has solidified. In the latest Fox News poll, Palin's favorable/unfavorable ratio is a strong 54-27. She is named by 33 percent of respondents as the candidate who "best understands the problems of everyday life in America," more than those naming Obama (32 percent), McCain (17), or Joe Biden (10). Among independent voters, Palin's lead over Obama on this measure widens to 13 points. In a recent Rasmussen poll, 51 percent of voters said the press was trying to hurt Palin through its coverage, versus just 5 percent who thought it was trying to help - a 10-1 disparity.
Millions of Americans, not all of them conservative, instinctively identify with Palin. That is why the left's scorching assault, so ugly and unhinged, is backfiring. The longer it goes on, the more it undermines the Democratic ticket - and the more support it builds for McCain, and his refreshingly normal running mate.
I'll give you this one. The tanning bed thing is going overboard.
She was old news as of yesterday. None of the spin doctors were talking about her last night. Yesterday's frenzy was McCain misspeaking on the economy.
quote:
Originally posted by Townsend
I'll give you this one. The tanning bed thing is going overboard.
That was the issue that told me that she wasn't fully vetted.
I mean, John McCain has had a terrible time with skin cancer. He has had four melanomas removed since 1993.
She goes and has a tanning bed installed in the Alaska governor's mansion.
Seems like a mixed message...
quote:
Originally posted by RecycleMichael
quote:
Originally posted by Townsend
I'll give you this one. The tanning bed thing is going overboard.
That was the issue that told me that she wasn't fully vetted.
I mean, John McCain has had a terrible time with skin cancer. He has had four melanomas removed since 1993.
She goes and has a tanning bed installed in the Alaska governor's mansion.
Seems like a mixed message...
Still though, a tanning bed installed with her own money is not a leadership issue with me. Now if she was cooking little fluffy animals in it...
She better raise her hem line and open some cleavage. The non qualified dim bulb lost 10 points between favorable and unfavorable. People are waking up to this fling. BTW, you do not tan for a tan in Alaska. You do it to adjust to the darkness or for depression. She's both depressing and dark.
But Conan, we know you will be voting for the old, sick, mean, souless white guy over the black guy. Maybe you're hoping she becomes President. Wouldn't put it past you.
The devil bets she can't show too much skin. There's a tat hiding in that MILF somewhere.
Liberal venom spews from their fangs for easily understandable reasons. Mainly, unadulterated fear and desperation. Palin is slightly down in the polls, but she has been falsely maligned, lied about and mischaracterized. It's ugly, nasty, degrading and very short term in effectiveness.
As a matter of fact, it will really come back to bite them, when all these lies filter out in to the remaining public, to be seen for what they really are. Savor the minuscule gains you achieved by these low tactics, while you still can. In the end, they will be the final nail in Obama's "presidential bid" coffin.
You won't make Palin out to be what you are hoping for. She will be seen for who she is and guess what.., who she is far superior to who YOU are. It will all come out in the wash. That's why you hate so much. You know what lies ahead, just as we know what lies are ahead. it wasn't a good move, but it was your only move, other than losing with any shred of dignity. Of course, you're Liberals, what else can we expect.
quote:
Originally posted by FOTD
The devil bets she can't show too much skin. There's a tat hiding in that MILF somewhere.
Ok, that's kinda funny. If she has a tramp stamp I might vote big R this cycle.
Just saying.
quote:
Originally posted by we vs us
quote:
Originally posted by FOTD
The devil bets she can't show too much skin. There's a tat hiding in that MILF somewhere.
Ok, that's kinda funny. If she has a tramp stamp I might vote big R this cycle.
Just saying.
Not a tramp stamp, but she has the Big Dipper tattooed on her ankle. She lost a bet with her husband over whether incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski would run for re-election in 2006.
quote:
Ok, that's kinda funny. If she has a tramp stamp I might vote big R this cycle.
Just saying.
I worked really hard to come up with a gratuitous "Palin has a tattoo and it is of Obama" moment in this post, but I deleted it out of self-respect.
Go, Moore, OK!
[image]http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/2008-09/obama-tattoo.jpg[/image]
Just sayin'.
I thought women were not suppose to whine? What in the world did McCain expect when he chose someone whom no one knew anything about??? When you chose an unknown, and then try to develop a false narrative about her, of course people start spreading rumors.
Most of the smears have been in the blogosphere, and we know how reliable that can be. I am sure it helps the republican party to create this false sense of outrage. Where were they when Obama was accused of being a Muslim? Of not being born in the US? That his wife used the word "whitey"?
It might help if your party stopped sequestering Palin and had her actually anwser some real questions.
quote:
Originally posted by FOTD
The devil bets she can't show too much skin. There's a tat hiding in that MILF somewhere.
Think she's got a tramp-stamp, do you?
"the old, sick, mean, souless white guy"????
No I won't be voting for Senator Biden.
quote:
Originally posted by Crash Daily
Liberal venom spews from their fangs for easily understandable reasons. Mainly, unadulterated fear and desperation. Palin is slightly down in the polls, but she has been falsely maligned, lied about and mischaracterized. It's ugly, nasty, degrading and very short term in effectiveness.
As a matter of fact, it will really come back to bite them, when all these lies filter out in to the remaining public, to be seen for what they really are. Savor the minuscule gains you achieved by these low tactics, while you still can. In the end, they will be the final nail in Obama's "presidential bid" coffin.
You won't make Palin out to be what you are hoping for. She will be seen for who she is and guess what.., who she is far superior to who YOU are. It will all come out in the wash. That's why you hate so much. You know what lies ahead, just as we know what lies are ahead. it wasn't a good move, but it was your only move, other than losing with any shred of dignity. Of course, you're Liberals, what else can we expect.
Newness wore off. Let her go head-to-head with Biden, it will come back up.
Every morning I log on to this forum the preponderence of topics in the political forum are posted by the McCain folks and especially the Palin defenders.
And you ask to leave her alone? Who's kidding who?
The title of this thread certainly caught my eye. I wasn't sure where Conan was going with this one....
"Freudian slip of the year" award?
A Freudian slip is when you say one thing and mean your mother.
quote:
Originally posted by waterboy
Every morning I log on to this forum the preponderence of topics in the political forum are posted by the McCain folks and especially the Palin defenders.
And you ask to leave her alone? Who's kidding who?
Have you missed Pmcalk's 3-a-day Palin catfight threads?
Leave Britney Sarah Alone!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-kNaLQ65HY
*NSFW
quote:
Originally posted by iplaw
quote:
Originally posted by waterboy
Every morning I log on to this forum the preponderence of topics in the political forum are posted by the McCain folks and especially the Palin defenders.
And you ask to leave her alone? Who's kidding who?
Have you missed Pmcalk's 3-a-day Palin catfight threads?
Someone's a sore loser.
Sore loser? Dream on. Neither you nor I can help the fact that pmcalk has a schoolyard crush on Palin.
quote:
Originally posted by waterboy
Every morning I log on to this forum the preponderence of topics in the political forum are posted by the McCain folks and especially the Palin defenders.
And you ask to leave her alone? Who's kidding who?
Are you kidding? Leave her alone? No way. Attack, lie, distort and mischaraterize away, to your hearts content. Please, keep up the good work.
When she rips Biden a new one and all the charges are seen as overblown or flat out lies, which is beginning to happen already, she'll get the permanent bounce in the polls.
quote:
Originally posted by waterboy
Every morning I log on to this forum the preponderence of topics in the political forum are posted by the McCain folks and especially the Palin defenders.
And you ask to leave her alone? Who's kidding who?
That's because we all PWI around midnight.
quote:
Originally posted by iplaw
Sore loser? Dream on. Neither you nor I can help the fact that pmcalk has a schoolyard crush on Palin.
PM needs a body condom when it comes to Palin.
As Dick Morris said yesterday in a forum. She is a trap, and the Democrats walked right into it. And they are still walking into it over and over again.
We need them to continue, because only through her are they showing their true colors.
You're a darksider, Gasping. The old angry guy will die. She'll be in charge. Don't think so. Handlers and puppet masters....but she wouln't know jack if she got in there.
Sent from my BlackBerry -
another miracle from the mind of John McCain!
When it is all over I fully expect Palin to put on a short skirt and go to work for Fox. Just like The Gretch and all the rest of their beauties. The shorter the skirt the more air time they get.
'Chuck Norris wishes he were Sarah Pailin trapped in a man's body.'
quote:
Originally posted by FOTD
You're a darksider, Gasping. The old angry guy will die. She'll be in charge. Don't think so. Handlers and puppet masters....but she wouln't know jack if she got in there.
Sent from my BlackBerry -
another miracle from the mind of John McCain!
Interesting.
You want change and want experience so you select a guy with no experience that never stuck around enough to make a change.
For a vice president you select a guy who has experience, and who has never changed anything over the past 30 years.
On the other side you see someone who has made massive changes to government going against even his own party. You also see lots of experience working with prominent democrats and independents to pass sweeping and for the most part positive legislation.
As his running mate you see a candidate who basically shattered the old-boy network in Alaska. Became the most popular governor in the country among Democrats and Republicans. Balanced and managed 40 billion dollars worth of state budget. Ousted and convicted several corrupt politicians, both Republican and Democrat.
Interesting that you talk about change and experience. I am curious as to how you measure it?
You see I remember an governor that managed a state with only a 2 billion dollar budget, swarming with corruption, the second worst school system in the country, roads that were no better than gravel, and almost the highest unemployment in the country. Airports that functioned as smugglers paradises. Family members, business associates and friends turning up weekly in a court room, prison, or a grave under odd circumstances.
But for some reason he was experienced enough to be president, and his life-partner was experienced enough to be a senator but not a presidential candidate.
So when I boil it down what I get is that you are seeking this:
McCain & Palin- 1 penis.
Obama & Biden- 2 penises.
Now I understand how the devil thinks.
P.S. I know you probably don't hear this enough. I'm glad you are here to represent your party. I enjoy reading your thoughtful posts every day. Thank you for your service to your fellow Democrats. Continue to represent.
'Sarah Palin has given Joe Biden a cheat sheet for their debate with instructions on how to get out of a Kung Fu death grip.'
quote:
Originally posted by Gaspar
QuoteOriginally posted by FOTD
You're a darksider, Gasping. The old angry guy will die. She'll be in charge. Don't think so. Handlers and puppet masters....but she wouln't know jack if she got in there.
Sent from my BlackBerry -
another miracle from the mind of John McCain!
[/quote
Interesting.
You want change and want experience so you select a guy with no experience that never stuck around enough to make a change.
For a vice president you select a guy who has experience, and who has never changed anything over the past 30 years.
On the other side you see someone who has made massive changes to government going against even his own party. You also see lots of experience working with prominent democrats and independents to pass sweeping and for the most part positive legislation.
As his running mate you see a candidate who basically shattered the old-boy network in Alaska. Became the most popular governor in the country among Democrats and Republicans. Balanced and managed 40 billion dollars worth of state budget. Ousted and convicted several corrupt politicians, both Republican and Democrat.
Interesting that you talk about change and experience. I am curious as to how you measure it?
You see I remember an governor that managed a state with only a 2 billion dollar budget, swarming with corruption, the second worst school system in the country, roads that were no better than gravel, and almost the highest unemployment in the country. Airports that functioned as smugglers paradises. Family members, business associates and friends turning up weekly in a court room, prison, or a grave under odd circumstances.
But for some reason he was experienced enough to be president, and his life-partner was experienced enough to be a senator but not a presidential candidate.
So when I boil it down what I get is that you are seeking this:
McCain & Palin- 1 penis.
Obama & Biden- 2 penises.
Now I understand how the devil thinks.
P.S. I know you probably don't hear this enough. I'm glad you are here to represent your party. I enjoy reading your thoughtful posts every day. Thank you for your service to your fellow Democrats. Continue to represent.
Yes, and Bell's was clean, neat, well run and a good neighbor. Spain is in the Southern hemi-sphere and Republicans are anti-regulation. Alaska is the proto-type for reform of earmarking and conservatives believe government should not intervene in business or personal lives. Oh, yeah, Fox News is fair and balanced.
Warm and cozy in there?
What's the story on Palin being un-invited to the rally in WI?
Gosh I hope I get my throat ripped out by a loon.
From what I understood in the CNN blurb H. Clinton dropped out when she found out Palin would be there.
I'm not finding the story online yet.
quote:
Originally posted by Townsend
What's the story on Palin being un-invited to the rally in WI?
Gosh I hope I get my throat ripped out by a loon.
From what I understood in the CNN blurb H. Clinton dropped out when she found out Palin would be there.
I'm not finding the story online yet.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2008/09/19/sarah-palin-disinvited-from-anti-iran-rally-after-hillary-clinton-backs-out.html
quote:
Originally posted by Hoss
quote:
Originally posted by Townsend
What's the story on Palin being un-invited to the rally in WI?
Gosh I hope I get my throat ripped out by a loon.
From what I understood in the CNN blurb H. Clinton dropped out when she found out Palin would be there.
I'm not finding the story online yet.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2008/09/19/sarah-palin-disinvited-from-anti-iran-rally-after-hillary-clinton-backs-out.html
Ah, thanks. It was nothing.
Sounds like a turf war...
"She can't address the New York Jews. They are all ours! If she does, I won't be there!!!"
quote:
Originally posted by joiei
When it is all over I fully expect Palin to put on a short skirt and go to work for Fox. Just like The Gretch and all the rest of their beauties. The shorter the skirt the more air time they get.
You certainly paint an accurate picture of Fox.
quote:
Originally posted by marc
quote:
Originally posted by joiei
When it is all over I fully expect Palin to put on a short skirt and go to work for Fox. Just like The Gretch and all the rest of their beauties. The shorter the skirt the more air time they get.
You certainly paint an accurate picture of Fox.
I have to admit to watching ABC/NBC/CBS. Buy stock in Maalox, it's bound to go up.
I find CNN much closer to fair and balanced than Fox News.
quote:
Originally posted by marc
I find CNN much closer to fair and balanced than Fox News.
RRRR in 3...2...1
(That's 'Radical Right Repub Retort')
quote:
Originally posted by marc
I find CNN much closer to fair and balanced than Fox News.
Fox "newscasts" are balanced. Fox "commentators" are not. I think everyone with half a brain knows Hannity is the house organ for the RNC and O'Reilly is pretty much in the tank for them as well. No mystery there, and neither pretends to be a news cast.
If anyone listened to Meredith Viera grill Bob Bennett last week on Today, it's not too hard to figure out that the majors are in the tank for Obama. Pay careful attention to the story structure and emphasis on Katie Couric and you can see and hear her bias. Charlie Gibson? Sheesh.
That's where lines get blurry- when a newscaster does interviews of candidates or slips in commentary. I know what I'm getting if I tune into a Fox commentary program, same as I know what I'm getting if I tune in Matthews or J.O. on MSNBC.
quote:
Originally posted by Conan71
quote:
Originally posted by marc
I find CNN much closer to fair and balanced than Fox News.
Fox "newscasts" are balanced. Fox "commentators" are not. I think everyone with half a brain knows Hannity is the house organ for the RNC and O'Reilly is pretty much in the tank for them as well. No mystery there, and neither pretends to be a news cast.
If anyone listened to Meredith Viera grill Bob Bennett last week on Today, it's not too hard to figure out that the majors are in the tank for Obama. Pay careful attention to the story structure and emphasis on Katie Couric and you can see and hear her bias. Charlie Gibson? Sheesh.
That's where lines get blurry- when a newscaster does interviews of candidates or slips in commentary. I know what I'm getting if I tune into a Fox commentary program, same as I know what I'm getting if I tune in Matthews or J.O. on MSNBC.
Such judgements are purely situational. You just can't accurately assess their bias if you have committed to a political view. I think the whole bias issue is pointless anyway. Humans defend their own positions as intelligent and others as moronic.
Whereas I see Chris Matthews as equally critical of each candidate when deserved, you obviously do not. The key is I identify closely with Matthews views so he seems...brilliant!
My mom just told me yesterday of an interview Couric did of Obama and McCain where she detected obvious bias towards McCain. She even described her as sneering at Obama. McCain and Couric have both been victims of cancer (Couric's husband died from it).
I continue to believe that the real and objectionable, detectable bias is in the filmed segments that run practically without comment but are always planned, produced and editted with a thesis in mind. A live interview is hard to control but film is easy and it takes forever to track the producers down and hold them accountable. The networks need content and especially content whose liability rests mostly with the producers.
quote:
Originally posted by waterboy
quote:
Originally posted by Conan71
quote:
Originally posted by marc
I find CNN much closer to fair and balanced than Fox News.
Fox "newscasts" are balanced. Fox "commentators" are not. I think everyone with half a brain knows Hannity is the house organ for the RNC and O'Reilly is pretty much in the tank for them as well. No mystery there, and neither pretends to be a news cast.
If anyone listened to Meredith Viera grill Bob Bennett last week on Today, it's not too hard to figure out that the majors are in the tank for Obama. Pay careful attention to the story structure and emphasis on Katie Couric and you can see and hear her bias. Charlie Gibson? Sheesh.
That's where lines get blurry- when a newscaster does interviews of candidates or slips in commentary. I know what I'm getting if I tune into a Fox commentary program, same as I know what I'm getting if I tune in Matthews or J.O. on MSNBC.
Such judgements are purely situational. You just can't accurately assess their bias if you have committed to a political view. I think the whole bias issue is pointless anyway. Humans defend their own positions as intelligent and others as moronic.
Whereas I see Chris Matthews as equally critical of each candidate when deserved, you obviously do not. The key is I identify closely with Matthews views so he seems...brilliant!
My mom just told me yesterday of an interview Couric did of Obama and McCain where she detected obvious bias towards McCain. She even described her as sneering at Obama. McCain and Couric have both been victims of cancer (Couric's husband died from it).
I continue to believe that the real and objectionable, detectable bias is in the filmed segments that run practically without comment but are always planned, produced and editted with a thesis in mind. A live interview is hard to control but film is easy and it takes forever to track the producers down and hold them accountable. The networks need content and especially content whose liability rests mostly with the producers.
It's times like this that I absolutely miss Tim Russert and his ability to be so neutral on everything when interviewing his subjects. He was equally brutal to both sides. They knew if an answer was given to him, if you said something to contradict it previously, he'd have it on tape and ready to roll. Most politicians would say that theirmost nerve racking interview would have to be Sunday morning MTP with Tim.