Fisking Sullivan
by Hal_10000
Sully has his mainstream article up today about the Palin Pick.
There is one reason the job of vice-president exists. In a system with a single executive, you need someone to fill in if the president is incapacitated or dies. In war time this is especially important. More salient: McCain just turned 72 and would be the oldest first term president in American history with four cancer scares and the awful residue of Vietnamese torture in his bones.
Not true, which is why there is a line of succession and why one cabinet member is left behind when the President gives the State of the Union address. The VP also, in theory, presides over the Senate and becomes the President’s right-hand man on some issues. Neither Algore nor Cheney were just around in case the President croaked. And Palin is more in that mold—McCain intends to place her in charge of energy policy.
In Joe Biden, Obama revealed his core temperamental conservatism. It was a safe choice of someone deeply versed in foreign policy, and with roots that connected to the working class white ethnics he needed. It wasn’t flashy; and was even a little underwhelming; but it was highly professional.
Also a career politician, a devoted Washington insider and a hard-core liberal.
What we have learned about John McCain from his selection of Sarah Palin is that he is as impulsive and reckless a decision-maker as George W. Bush. We know this not because of what we have learned about this Pentecostalist populist since she exploded on the scene last Friday morning (and God knows we have learned more than we ever wanted). We know it because of how McCain made the decision. He wanted his best friend, Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic vice-presidential candidate for Al Gore. That pick would have been remarkable for its bipartisan nature, would have impressed independents, and signaled a centrist presidency centered on foreign policy. It would have been bold while not being rash.
We get to it at last, the core of Sully’s anger: John McCain did not pick a big-government nanny-state liberal whom Sullivan himself declared was reckless on foreign policy. Remember this as you read the rest of the article—Sullivan was against Palin the second she was announced before he knew anything about her. We now know why—he wanted Lieberman.
Look, there is a legitimate point here, as to whether McCain made a political decision and whether Palin has the knowledge, wisdom and temperament to take over should McCain croak. But this very legitimate point is getting buried in six tons of bullshit.
So last week, McCain picked someone he had only met once before. I repeat: he picked someone he had only met once before. His vetting chief sat Palin down for a face-to-face interview the Wednesday before last. It’s very hard to overstate how nutty and irresponsible this is. Would any corporate chieftain pick a number two on those grounds and not be dismissed by his board for recklessness?
Actually, McCain met with her again the day before. And we have little knowledge of what kind of vetting was going on before this. She’d been on Team McCain’s radar for at least a month. And what we’re hearing of the vetting process is coming from disgruntled McCain campaign members who—stop me if you’ve heard this—wanted Lieberman.
WIthin hours, the McCain campaign was under siege, as the vetting process the professionals didn’t do was done by thousands of bloggers and citizen journalists. Palin’s reality show family life, her vendetta against her ex brother-in-law, her endorsement of a mayoral candidate who ran against her own mother-in-law, her attempt to ban books in her local library, her friendship with one of her husband’s former business partners, and on and on: this was the first major campaign event that was covered by the underground media before it reached the mainstream. The American mainstream press spent a large part of last week wondering how much truth the public could bear to hear.
This “vendetta” was against a drunk-driving, child-tasering, death-threatening cop whom the investigators found had done all the things alleged and had given a five-day suspension. The book ban, as I linked yesterday, is overblown. Her friendship with her husband’s business partner was nothing, as The Smoking Gun showed Friday. The underground media made hysterical claims about the Alaska Independence Party, her claims that Iraq was God’s will and the maternity of Trig Palin—all debunked now. And this is ... McCain’s fault? Because he wasn’t ready to respond to a thousand crackpot stories?
You know, Obama wasn’t able to produce his Hawaii birth certificate right away when crackpots claimed it was faked. It takes time to respond to unexpected outlandish nonsense.
McCain’s entire campaign, moreover, was based on his superior experience to Obama, who was allegedly too unknown and risky for the Oval Office, and too jejune on foreign policy. And then McCain turned around and picked a total unknown who had been a mayor of a town in Alaska of a few thousand and then had only just got elected as governor of a very strange state with 700,000 people. More to the point, there is virtually no record anywhere of her views on foreign policy in the public record.
Again, legitimate points buried in bullshit. McCain picked her because she was an outsider, because she wasn’t a Washington person, because she was an unknown. Her lack of foreign policy knowledge is a concern (so was Obama’s once upon a time). Can we talk about that? And not in condescending notes about how she heard about the surge on the news?
Here’s the only really good part.
McCain’s major domestic issue in the election, moreover, is the economy and the rocky time many middle class Americans are having. All the polls show that he needs to offer something tangible to counter Obama’s reconstructed Clintonomics and universal healthcare. By his own admission, he has never been that interested in economic issues. And his vulnerability is the sense that he doesn’t get how distressed many Americans feel. So who does he pick? A governor whose state is essentially an oil company and whose major problem in the two mintes she has been in office has been what to do with a $5 billion oil surplus! She decided to send half a billion dollars’ worth of checks to every Alaskan this summer. And people wonder why she’s popular in her state.
This is a legitimate point. Alaska’s tax revenues are based almost entirely on fossil fuels. This is not necessarily useful experience when applied to a federal government dependent on income taxes and with tens of trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities (including $2 trillion more today, thanks to the bank takeover). This is one the reason why I was seeing more a Senate seat for Palin in the future—where she could get her feet wet in national politics before jumping to the head of the line.
Now here is the quote that really got my brain burning.
There are other obvious liabilities with Palin. To say the very least, her private life and family are colorful. The rumors about them do not stop coming
Because bloggers like you give credence to crackpot theories.
and the tabloid press has only just arrived in what can only be called Arkansas with penguins. Palin, moreover, currently has two ethics investigations into her conduct in the 18 months she has been in office - and one report is scheduled to go public days before the election.
An ethics investigation that Palin called on herself to end the speculation and rumors. One that supposedly has been moved up weeks in the finish date so that it will be done before the election.
And Palin’s edcuation? Six colleges in five years ending in a degree in sports journalism from the University of Idaho. That’s the background of someone who could be president of the United States at any moment after next January.
OMG! OMG! Next you’ll be telling me that she went to a tiny liberal arts college! She doesn’t have an Ivy League degree!
If you thought a president who went to war on flawed intelligence with no plan for the aftermath was reckless, then I have news for you. You haven’t seen anything yet. Imagine the kind of decision-making McCain has just demonstrated applied to ife-and-death decisions with respect to Iran and Russia.
Here’s the thing. I don’t entirely disagree with this. There is reason to believe that this pick wasn’t well thought out—however fortuitous it may turn out to be. And I’m really puzzled as to why McCain—who has never been afraid to speak his mind—hasn’t come out swinging. He could end this “was she vetted?” talk in eight seconds. That he’s maintaining radio silence indicates either that (a) she wasn’t properly vetted; or (b) he’s buying into the worst tendency of the Bush Administration—never admitting that anyone else’s concerns are legitimate.
But you don’t make that point by having what amounts to a hissy fit because he didn’t pick your guy. You don’t make that point by buying into every crackpot rumor and every screed by a political enemy. You are patient. You wait. You let the truth come out, as it always does.
And then you freak out.
Comments
But this very legitimate point is getting buried in six tons of bullshit.
Excellent post. Sullivan himself is a chief amplifier of these rumors. He has a link on drudge, which gives him massive traffic. Then the rest of the MSM sees him as reputable enough to repeat.
Palin’s lack of obvious book smarts bothers me a little.
One of my favorite Presidents, and one who is generally regarded by historians as a good President, was Harry S. Truman. President Truman only had a high school diploma, and was pretty inexperienced when elevated to the Vice-Presidency. Despite being a good President, he would never have been elected if he initially ran at the top of the ticket.
In Truman’s day, college was something that the rich did (only 6% of the population went on to higher education at the turn of the last century), so his having a high school diploma isn’t that unusual. And a high school diploma back then had a lot more weight than it does now.
More telling is that he went from a grunt in the army to the rank of colonel, which meant he impressed people enough to get into OCS, which at the time was more difficult than getting into college, where connections or money would do the trick. Truman was a self-made man, and as such had a lot more strength of character and resolve than many of our “better educated” politicians.
I completely agree with you, Seattle.
I think many of the same things can be said about Palin. She has a pretty unimpressive educational background, but has proven herself in other arenas to be a woman of character and resolve.
Nothing brings out hypocrisy in political commentators like an election year. I lost much of my respect for Sullivan after reading his shitty reasons for supporting Obama. The last bits of that respect have been wiped away by this whole Palin mess.
McCain’s entire campaign, moreover, was based on his superior experience to Obama, who was allegedly too unknown and risky for the Oval Office, and too jejune on foreign policy.
Did this suddenly stop being true?
Leftists and their enablers absolutely love to give advice to republicans. It is one of their favorite pass times. Why do you think so many in the media were “worried” that McCain would drop Palin? The reason why Sullivan thinks Lieberman was the right pick is because Lieberman would have guaranteed an Obama victory. The handful of moderates McCain would have picked up would be outweighed by the conservatives who would stay home.
A conventional choice, some 30-year+ douchebag in the senate would not have gotten anyone excited. Such a choice would allow Obama to use Biden to diffuse the experience criticism. With Palin suddenly getting people excited and interested in McCain, Obama has to match his experience to hers, and the result is not favorable. She has a “colorful” family according to Sullivan, but Obama’s shady associations are far worse. She has a record you can admire or criticize. Obama has not one meaningful accomplishment in his resume. However “irresponsible” McCain may have been for picking Palin as VP, the democrats are obviously more reckless for picking Obama to be president. Why are the standards for these two historic candidates so different in Sullivan’s mind, and in the minds of Palin’s critics?
The truth is, Sullivan cannot bring himself to admit that he has given Obama a pass because of his skin color.
And the stuff about her college or family or whatever is just fucking sad.
I lost much of my respect for Sullivan after reading his shitty reasons for supporting Obama. The last bits of that respect have been wiped away by this whole Palin mess.
I’ve read Sullivan for years, and his site now seems like it’s written by a completely different person. Read Sullivan’s essay My America, which is one of the most thoughtful, beautiful pieces I’ve ever read about this country, and then compare it with the near insane ramblings on his site now. Just bizarre.
So last week, McCain picked someone he had only met once before. I repeat: he picked someone he had only met once before.
Big fucking deal Sullivan. I used to think this guy had some good things to say, but now he’s just an idiot. Did he freak out when this happened? Clinton’s scrutiny and due diligance? No one gave a shit about how many times you met someone until now.
Two Rivals Who Meshed
A lifetime ago, as Ms. Schiff says, way back in 1992, Governor Bill Clinton and Senator Al Gore didn’t know one another terribly well.
Though they came from the same part of the country, the two men had only met once, at Little Rock’s Excelsior Hotel in 1987, when Mr. Gore was running for president and went to Mr. Clinton to ask for his endorsement.
Their identical aspirations made them natural competitors—and Mr. Gore seemed to have jumped ahead—said Mr. Gore’s cousin, Ark Monroe, who escorted him to the meeting.
But Mr. Gore told the governor that they should consider one another natural allies, two southern moderates who could help hold their party together. If he was elected, Mr. Gore said, it wouldn’t hurt Mr. Clinton’s chances but would bolster them. He’d be paving the way, see?
The meeting went fine, said Mr. Monroe, a longtime friend of Mr. Clinton. ‘’I always kind of thought they’d be rivals, but they seemed to get along.’’ Mr. Gore did not get the endorsement, though.
And the next time the two met, it was Mr. Clinton who was paving the way. Mr. Gore had just written his environmental book, ‘’Earth in the Balance,’’ which had greatly impressed the governor. On the June night in 1992 that Mr. Clinton interviewed Senator Gore about joining him on the Democratic ticket, they talked for three hours and got pretty wonky, according to a former Gore aide. Before long, they were comparing favorite economists, and were soon telling friends that this partnership was not only going to work, but was going to be great.
---
A meeting years ago when Clinton didn’t even endorse him, and then a 3 hour meeting? Well you don’t say.
The MAJOR thing that bugs me about the arguments that Palin does not have much expierence, is that be biggest crash course in world politics is to shadow the President. As a VP, she’s going to know more, and faster, than Obama ever has. A VP w/o much expierence does not bother me. A President w/o does.
I’m getting scandal fatigue. Even the stuff that’s kind of true isn’t interesting anymore.
The bottom line is Obama’s energy plan is asinine. His very aggressive tax increases will obliterate jobs created by rich people who employ workers. Listen to him speak and you can tell he doesn’t even know that.
and the tabloid press has only just arrived in what can only be called Arkansas with penguins.
I’m sorry, but I can’t resist being the jackass who points out that penguins live only in the southern hemisphere. “Arkansas with polar bears” would have been more appropriate… Except that Alaska is much prettier than Arkansas.
Bogus list of books banned by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/bannedbooks.asp
I’ve been having this Leiberman debate with a friend of mine, and I think I know why the Obama fans are not happy with the Palin pick. They have to do research to come up with things to attack her with. With this pick, McCain took away their biggest attack point, that McCain will just be 4 more years of Bush. McCain couldn’t pick ANYONE with ties to the current administration. I think a lifelong Democrat who was basically thrown out of his party for his support of the Iraq war would fit that bill.
Palin may have been a nod to the fundies, but McCain had to pick someone with no ties to Washington to help distance himself from Bush administration. I think that’s why they’re unhappy with the pick. Lieberman would have given them unlimited ammo to attack McCain on Iraq.
They are also unhappy because women should know their place-as abortion advocating, democrat voting, gun grabing activists. Any time any of the dems constituents leaves the reservation then all sorts of vile crap is thrown. Look at how they attack Clarence Thomas or Condoleeza Rice-them Black folks just don’t know they are supposed to be libruls. Same shit different identity.
A nice safe consrevative white guy falls into their paradigm. A right wing working mom who hunts-Jesus that’s scary.
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Most politicians are lawyers, which means they have a degree in something worthless like political science, journalism, literature, underwater basket weaving, etc. Then they go to law school and become a burden on society. I’d like to hear what an “acceptable” degree is to these people - Al Gore has a degree in Journalism and the left just loves his ignorant ass.
Likewise, I fail to see what the problem is with not attending an ivy league college. Most of them are rampant with grade inflation and generally appear to amount to little more than an expensive place to make connections and later brag about how “tough” the classes were when in reality they are the same as any other accredited college. Getting in is tougher, staying there is far easier.