Guest blogging for lunatic Andrew Sullivan, disgraced former WaPo blogger David Weigel tries to talk some sense into Sully:
Trig Palin is Sarah Palin's son and it's irresponsible to suggest otherwise.Gee, Dave, ya' think?
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All of the evidence indicates that Trig Palin is Sarah's son, and none of it suggests otherwise. I paid close enough attention to this in 2008, and realized pretty quickly that the countervailing theories made no sense. Too many people watched Palin announce the pregnancy and saw her come along until she went into labor, prematurely, while attending a National Governors Association event in Texas. Here in Alaska, people tell me that Palin fans (who at one point made up 85-90% of Alaskans) held "baby showers" for her, and she'd drop in to thank them.
The other Trig theories seem to be based on vapor -- that she wasn't "showing" much in some photos, that her campaign was less than 1000% forthcoming when asked about it. I don't generally trust politicians, but I know the difference between a "dodge" and an answer given to ward off annoying tabloid stories. The answers on Trig were in that latter category.
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I do think that he's made a huge mistake by indulging this. Politicians suffer when they're called out on things they've done. They thrive when they're called out for things they haven't done, for stories they can call "conspiracy theories," and for stories they can file under "politics of personal destruction." Obsessing over Trig, as much as it annoys the Palins -- and I see why it does -- is one of the best ways of propping her up. It gives her fan base proof that its hero is constantly battling unfair personal attacks that the media won't debunk. It convinces them that critics focus on this nonsense because they've got nothing else to criticize Palin about. She has taken advantage of this impression.
The Trig obsession has also, I'm sad to say, damaged Andrew Sullivan's reputation.
Weigel is trying real hard to sound like the voice of reason here. But make no mistake -- he cares not one whit for the Palins, Trig or common decency. What has Weigel and others on the left with more than two functioning brain cells to rub together worried is the damage Stuck-On-Stupid Sullivan is doing to their side. And worried they should be.
Liberals are in the political minority in this country, representing only about one-fifth of the electorate. If the left can't persuade significant numbers of moderates and independents to vote with them, they'll be out of power. And the trend we've been seeing for months now is one of independents running away from the left's politics. They gave the Democrats a chance after becoming disgusted with George W. Bush Republicans who called themselves "conservatives" but spent taxpayer money like the most liberal of Democrats. But now the real Democrats have reminded independents and moderates why they bailed on the Dems back in 1980 to send the incompetent Jimmy Carter back to the peanut farm. Democrats are even more under the thumb of their more radical elements now than they were then, and independents want nothing more to do with them.
So David Weigel, who realizes all of this, is trying to reign in Sullivan in hopes of halting the rightward exodus of independents and moderates. But it's difficult to take Weigel seriously when he tells Sully to back off on Sarah Palin and her family. Dirty Dave's words ring hollow when he defended Joe McGinness and was exposed for, among other things, applying to Gov. Palin one of the filthiest of epithets, one which begins with the letters "r-a-t."
Ah, Sully's too far gone to listen to Weigel, anyway. He can't hear anything but his bong singing to him, and the smoke has clouded his vision. Take it back to MSNBC where you belong, Dave.
- JP
You really think President Bush wasn't a conservative, but Sarah Palin is? Gov. Palin's primary legislative accomplishment was the expansion of the rather socialist program that gives energy royalties to every Alaskan. Just because you didn't like how the Bush presidency turned out doesn't mean he wasn't a conservative.
ReplyDeleteWritten in the Alaska constitution is a provision which establishes that the state's resources belong to the people and that they should share in the benefits from the exploitation of such resources. That's not socialism. That's constitutionalism.
ReplyDeleteActually Sarah Palin's greatest legislative accomplishments were getting a natural gas pipeline approved, tougher new ethics rules, and cutting spending in the state’s capital budget.
Palin's conservatism isn't in doubt by anyone familiar with her record. Even the anti-Palin Anchorage newspaper said the spending cuts she imposed in 2007 “may be the biggest single-year line-item veto total in state history.” She is pro-life, pro-gun and pro-business. Even though she raised the oil production tax from 22.5% to 25%, at the same time she increased the tax credit for oil exploration by 10%. Unlike the federal government, Alaska law requires that the state's budget be balanced, and she balanced it the only way she could, given the nature of the legislature she had to work with. Otherwise, she has supported across the board tax cuts. Even Reagan, who cut taxes in 1981, raised them in 1982.
Conservative governing is based on four practical principles -- fiscal restraint, national security, limited government and traditional values. GWB failed on two of the principles, fiscal restraint and limited government. He cut taxes, which is good, but he failed to cut spending and even increased outlays over what Clinton spent, and he allowed the federal leviathan to grow. He teamed up with Ted Kennedy on No Child Behind, and he pushed the federal drug benefit. Even worse, his pro-amnesty immigration policy was disastrous.
Bush is a good man who kept us safe, but he was a right-leaning moderate, not a conservative. But don't take my word for it. Consider what William F. Buckley said of GWB:
"Mr. Bush faces a singular problem best defined, I think, as the absence of effective conservative ideology — with the result that he ended up being very extravagant in domestic spending, extremely tolerant of excesses by Congress. And in respect of foreign policy, incapable of bringing together such forces as apparently were necessary to conclude the Iraq challenge."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/22/eveningnews/main1826838.shtml
- JP
The only politician that we know of who could run for President in 2012 who would say they would cut the budget and lower taxes and have a strong military and secure the border and brag about the United States and defend Israel and our other allies around the world is SARAH PALIN. The only national Republican with the "balls" to do it. (said national because of Chris Christie)
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