David Harsanyi: Blood Libel? Oy Vey

After all, how dare she?
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Denver Post columnist and author of Nanny State David Harsanyi takes a relatively mild poke at J Street liberals in this Townhall opinion piece on Gov. Palin's use of the term "blood libel":

Jews, well, we can be offended like it's 1257.

If blood libel is really a distasteful parallel, it is only because we have intimately familiarized ourselves with the idea through a History channel documentary about the crusades. And if our institutional memories make us so thin-skinned, there are far more tangible reminders of genocide when we hop into our fancy German cars (which we do a lot, because we're in charge of everything). Or it is certainly as offensive as the heinous deeds of Sarah Palin, which include, among many other transgressions, talking.

And as Jim Geraghty of National Review helpfully noted, the term "blood libel" has been used many times by pundits and journalists from both sides of the ideological divide, including the esteemed Frank Rich of The New York Times, over the years.

[...]

Perhaps if self-proclaimed spokespeople for Jews everywhere like J Street focused on genuine anti-Semitism around the world, their little partisan cabaret would be more plausible.

Blood libel is the fiction-laden, anti-Israel Goldstone Report. Blood libel is the flotilla incident near Gaza. Blood libel is the Egyptian state media's peddling the idea that shark attacks were the handiwork of Jews and other state-run Arab media's blaming AIDS on Zionists.

There are plenty of genuine things to get offended about in the world if you're Jewish.

[More]

- JP

David Harsanyi: Actually, Huck, It's Palin Who Gets It

She is right on the money here
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Gov. Palin's recent mild poke at Michelle Obama and her crusade for a more healthy children's diet has the left predictably all wee-weed up, to borrow the president's terminology. When the left gets its knickers in such a knot over something Sarah said, there is always some Vichy Republican whose undies get similarly and sympathetically twisted. In this case its Mike Huckabee whose drawers are distorted, as he has sided with the first lady.

David Harsanyi, a self-described "conservative with strong libertarian impulses,” suggests that the former governor of Arkansas is either confused "or, judging from his prior work, the kind of guy who dismisses the distinction between convincing someone and coercing someone":

The recently passed nutrition bill (the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, in Washingtonese), a key component to Mrs. Obama's plan to "end childhood obesity," is in fact both "telling people" what they should eat and "trying to force the government's desires on people."

So when Palin claims that the Obamas do not trust people "to make decisions for their own children," she is not unleashing some Bircher hyperbole; she is summing up the driving idea of two years of public policy and paraphrasing the first lady, who recently explained that when it comes to eating, "we can't just leave it up to the parents."

Mrs. Obama might be stating the obvious, but instead of placing the blame on parental incompetence or neglect or genes or whatever the reason is that kids are stuffing their little gullets with junk, she is feeding and creating myths to rationalize "action" -- whether we're talking about the lack of access to food (never have we had more access to food) or prohibitive prices (never has food -- including healthy fare -- been cheaper) or the plague of school lunches.

As for Huckabee, his history of intrusive legislation and alarmism over the crumbling salubriousness of the nation is obviously driven by his own experiences. And if you want to nag us or explain the ramifications of obesity, feel free. Certainly, potential presidents should have the ability to compromise, avoid ideological rigidity and be cognizant of national problems like obesity.

But foundational beliefs like an aversion to federal overreach into local decisions cannot be disposed of because kids happen to be part of the equation. And if Huckabee believes there's nothing wrong with the federal government controlling local school lunches and instituting national smoking bans, how many issues will he believe are more important than federalism?

[More]

David Harsanyi is the author of Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children.

- JP

Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 4

This is the fourth in a series in which TX4P recommends some of the best writing which chronicles the liberation of Sarah Palin from the ball and chain of the Alaska governors office to her new role as a leading American conservative coalition builder.

It is fitting that one of the best pieces written on Sarah Palin's big move should appear in The Weekly Standard. After all, it was TWS which served to introduce the popular Alaska governor to many conservatives, thanks to a profile of her by Fred Barnes two years ago. In, "Out of Alaska" Matthew Continetti explores why Gov. Palin will resign and what the implications are for her future:

Palin says she had been thinking about her decision for a while, and had talked to various people about it. In January, during her state of the state address to the Alaska legislature, she asked lawmakers to put the previous year's election behind them. "I asked them not to allow those distractions that were on the periphery to hamper the state's progress," Palin told me. But her plea went unheeded. "It became obvious in the last months especially that too many people weren't going to ignore those things on the periphery," she said. As the months passed, Palin arrived at the conclusion that she didn't want a second term as Alaska's governor. She had achieved what she had set out to do, so why bother with one more lame-duck legislative session in 2010?

[...]

Palin has a devoted following. No Republican politician energizes GOP crowds as much as she does. When I saw her speak at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life dinner in Evansville, Indiana, in April, Palin was practically mobbed by well-wishers and autograph seekers. The conservative movement is rudderless, and social conservatives in particular would like a powerful spokesman for their cause. The social issues may not have played much of a role during Palin's governorship, but once she is free from office she can emphasize them as much as she likes.

At Real Clear Politics, David Harsanyi uses the examples of the current president and vice president to make his point in "What If Palin Were President?":

Really, where would we be if a bumpkin like Palin were president? With her brainpower, we probably would be stuck with a Cabinet full of tax cheats, retreads and moralizing social engineers.

If Palin were president, chances are we'd have a gaffe-generating motormouth for a vice president. That's the kind of decision-making one expects from Miss Congeniality.

The job of building generational debt is not for the unsophisticated. Enriching political donors with taxpayer dollars takes intellectual prowess, not the skills of a moose-hunting point guard.

The talent to print money we don't have to pay for programs we can't afford is the work of a finely tuned imagination, soaring gravitas and endless policy know-how.

Palin is so clueless she probably would have rushed through some colossal stimulus plan that ended up stimulating nothing.

[...]

Does anyone believe that Palin possesses the competence to nationalize entire industries without the consent of the people? A housewife from Wasilla isn't equipped with political brawn to shake down banks and bondholders.

Palin never would be able to convince Americans that a trillion-dollar government-run health care plan would save taxpayers money or have the rhetorical ability to convince even a single person that a European-style cap-and-trade scheme has any benefit at all.

Palin is such a goofball that she probably believes oil will continue to be a vital American energy source.

On his blog Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, clinical law professor William Jacobson takes a similar approach, sans the sarcasm:

Despite the criticism of Palin and assertions that she is unfit for the presidency, it is hard to imagine that Palin could do any worse as President than Barack Obama is doing right now. For all Obama's smarts and syntax, he is driving this country off a cliff, with the pedal down to the floor while he reads the drivers' manual on how the brakes work.

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An administration spinning out of control because of the same disease which characterizes all central planners; the false sense that central government is best suited to make decisions for individuals. And add to it the hubris of the political classes, the people who cannot fathom that anyone without the proper degrees or who isn't articulate lacks intelligence or common sense. By the time Obama figures out how to use the brakes, it will not matter.

Say what you want about Sarah Palin, she does not suffer from the Master of the Universe complex which drives this administration to push hard on the gas pedal as we approach the cliff. At least Palin understands how to put the brakes on government power. So who is the fool?

Much has been written on why the Left hates Sarah Palin. Various pundits have made the argument that out of pure jealousy, some hate her because she is beautiful. Others say it is her strong defense of the unborn and the fact that she gave birth to a child she knew would be a Down baby. Still others say it is because Sarah got where she is without having to ride on her husband's coat tails. Or it's is because she is a hunter and a strong defender of gun rights. Or simply because she is a happy warrior. These and other reasons are probably all valid. But we believe that one major reason the Left so hates Sarah Palin is because of her abiding faith in God. And her God is not their cafeteria Christian god who allows them to tailor their faith to their lifestyles. At American Thinker, Stuart Schwartz explores Sarah Palin's faith and how it drives the Left right up a wall in "God and Sarah Palin":

She looks at Washington and knows, instinctively and with gut-wrenching clarity, that what is happening is not just wrong...it is immoral. Following her resignation as governor, she told Time magazine -- to the amusement of its editors -- that the growing of government "outrageously" by President Obama is "immoral." She deliberately chose a God word that suggests evil, a word that belongs -- in the words of journalist Christopher Hitchens, the atheist darling of both elite right and left -- to "the superstitious, fearful childhood of the race" because she has a visceral reaction to the mountains of debt being piled on future generations.

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She prays -- an act that prompted the digital venture of the Washington Post to label her "A Little Shop of Horrors," Palin, described by Christianity Today magazine as "unabashed about her faith," prayed continuously during the presidential campaign as she has for all of her life. In this she mirrors the sixty percent of the country that prays at least once a day. Her prayer is a heartfelt effort to prepare for trials and challenges, the stuff of life. In doing so, she connects with the source of wisdom, unashamedly asking her Creator for patience, clarity, and the ability to love in and through all circumstances. And with her prayer she, in the words of Christian writer Philip Yancey, "stands at a place where God and human beings meet," a humbling experience that allows her to remain -- through it all -- just plain Sarah.

Other posts in this series:

Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 1
Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 2
Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 3

- JP

If Palin Were President...

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David Harsanyi serves up some satire at RCP. A few choice tidbits:

But running government is no longer a suitable vocation for the bumbling proletariat. It's for folks with schoolin' and such. It's a job for herculean thinkers with degrees from Ivy League schools. In other words, no one from Alaska need apply.

Former sports reporters certainly won't do. We need former constitutional scholars. Who else, after all, has a better understanding of how to undermine the document?

Really, where would we be if a bumpkin like Palin were president? With her brainpower, we probably would be stuck with a Cabinet full of tax cheats, retreads and moralizing social engineers.

If Palin were president, chances are we'd have a gaffe-generating motormouth for a vice president. That's the kind of decision-making one expects from Miss Congeniality.

The job of building generational debt is not for the unsophisticated. Enriching political donors with taxpayer dollars takes intellectual prowess, not the skills of a moose-hunting point guard.

The talent to print money we don't have to pay for programs we can't afford is the work of a finely tuned imagination, soaring gravitas and endless policy know-how.

Palin is so clueless she probably would have rushed through some colossal stimulus plan that ended up stimulating nothing.

After four years of Obo the Clown -- assuming this republic can survive four years of his circus act -- Americans will be begging for someone like Sarah Palin to put the nation back on Ronald Reagan's clearly-defined path to that shining city on a hill. Right now, we're headed off the cliff on the outskirts of town.

- JP