Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate, has every right to submit an opinion piece on health care to the Wall Street Journal's op-ed page, and they've got every right to print it.
But Palin's existence in this debate does not (a) lend her voice any credibility and, beyond that, even if you believe that her experience as a state governor does give her at least a modicum of credibility, it does not follow that, because her voice is credible, it ought to be influential. Newt Gingrich is influential by rights; he's done the work, come up with original ideas, and been in the trenches. (Replacing Medicare with vouchers...not new or remotely plausible, even if GOPers do well in the next two elections. Quoting Ronald Reagan talking about that type of proposal...not new. Etc.)
The media -- by which I mean the cable news networks, primarily -- will
determine whether Palin's view on health care becomes influential.
There are many Republican, conservative health care spokespeople who
have earned the right to speak for their party's principals, and, truth
be told, can recite the talking points (complete with Ronald Reagan
quote) better than Palin and her writer can. They're the ones who
should be offended if Palin's op-ed becomes the voice of the opposition
tomorrow, because Palin isn't seen by most Americans as a particularly
trenchent analyst of policy. Indeed, the reason why Palin's team wants
to get her pieces in publications like the Washington Post and the Wall
Street Journal is that, in this next phase of her political career,
Mrs. Palin has to burnish her policy skills. And the Journal is all
too willing to lend some space to this project, because plenty of
people will see the piece.
So here's a challenge to the media:
if you want to do justice to conservative ideas and find some balance
in your coverage tomorrow, book serious Republicans with original ideas
on your programs. If you don't, Palin is giving herself a voice at
your expense and through little effort of her own.
By implying, incidentally, that Palin gets help from a speechwriter, I
mean to make an observation. Barack Obama didn't draft his op-ed,
either. But, reading Obama, it's not a leap to believe that the ideas
are truly his. Palin has no chops and no experience talking about
health care and isn't participating in this debate; the content of her
op-ed piece isn't original, and the points are points that Republicans
make every day.
This is the reality. Palin has policy credibility problems. Big ones.
A few op-eds aren't going to help her. But if the media treats her as
as a legitimate and influential voice today, she won't need to do the
hard work that will result in her learning more about policy and
actually becoming conversant in the issues that she, as a potential
presidential candidate, will deal with.
If Palin were writing about oil and energy, about her experience in
state government on health care, if she were making a new argument --
then my umpiric objections would vanish.
No, no. Take the bait, please, media dudes! Please!
I mean, why not let Sarah Palin speak for the Right? Not to worry about credibilty, who needs it? The conservatives have operated for decades without it, so why start now?
Besides, it's not like there are actually any serious, thoughtful conservatives out there to provide an alternative, anyway, so what's the big deal? I say let her keep opening that big ole' mouth of hers, as much as she wants! She's got the right! She's got the big shoes.
Stop messing things up, Marc.
Which one has to use a teleprompter?
They both use teleprompters. The difference is that Obama has input into that which he speaks, whereas Palin does not. So what's your point?
Keep drinking that koolaid honey!
When I can't respond intelligently
"Keep drinking the koolaid uhhh"
What are you eight years old?
If you can't admit a basic fact that Palin uses a teleprompter as everyone could see during the RNC speech and her resignation speech, how can you function on a daily basis? More importantly, you deserve no airtime in any debate.
All politicians use teleprompters. Trying to turn the method in which someone reads a speech into an attack is beyond lunacy.
Yeah, but how many politicians don't know there are 50 states in the US without a teleprompter?
that's got to be the stupidest criticism ever. seriously.
unless they have total recall and a photographic memory, ever politician uses a teleprompter when giving a speech, and if not a prompter, a written copy they can refer to.
I know it might be a strange idea, but how about focusing on the IDEA's she presents. What's right or wrong about equal tax treatment for indivdual policies? Of allowing interstate competition? For tort reform to reduce non-health costs? etc.
No rebuttal, oh OK then, shoot the messenger.
Okay.
Palin claims that people feel like there would be death panels, which is the same basically as having death panels. This is very stupid.
Marc, if you want to play the arrogant intellectual twit, at least check your posts for typos. Try "principles" and "trenchant".
And, btw, yes, it is a leap to think that the ideas Obama's pushing are his own. They've been around awhile too. And, as a reminder, he had no chops, no experience, until he won the presidency. (Perhaps it would have been useful.)
On the other hand, Obama is smart---and Palin is not.
Uh huh. So was Karl Marx. And Hitler. And Mao. And Jack the Ripper.
All very smart. Good luck.
And George Washington, and Adam Smith, and Martin Luther King Jr...
This is the most insipid sort of argument I've ever run across.
Smart people are murderers! Also, how smart was Jack the Ripper?
I'm certainly not a fan of Gov. Palin, but let us judge the editorial by the quality of the ideas and not the author's education or professional credentials.
You're right that Gov. Palin brings little to this debate. Her editorial parrots some of the initial objections to parts of the proposed healthcare legislation. However, if John Q. writes an editorial in tomorrow's NYT, the fact that John Q. might be an electrician from Winston-Salem should not prevent it from being influential.
With all due respect Mr. Ambinder, using the logic of your post (I know it's just a knee jerk reaction), I could ask you where you earned your chops.
I wish you had focused on your point that the WSJ was "all too willing." I think that you could add some valuable insight by expanding that idea.
P.S. I'm not sure what qualifies as a "serious Republican." A frowning Dumbo?
Marc,
The consensus of Alaska progressive bloggers and Alaska reporters with whom we regularly communicate is that Sarah Palin is not writing any of the longer or most recent facebook posts. We know her well. I've known her for 19 years.
The fact that her writers are now submitting material from a facebook account in her name as testimony in New York State is hilarious, but the lack of serious scrutiny on the authorship of this and other material attributed to Palin is beginning to be troubling.
I do hope you get around to looking into this.
Yes, someone please find out just WHO is writing these opinions for her. I'd love to see her interviewed by someone other than Greta, and asked about some pertinent point. I'm certain she would revert to the one-issue debate Palin doll, 'I know you want to talk about health care, but let me tell you how I handled the oil companies in Alaska.' She really is a one-trick pony, and I think that even her supporters will tire of reading editorials written by other people eventually. And if this current one is IGNORED by everyone other than Fox, she may soon be as relevant as Paris Hilton again.
I may be wrong, or just overly optimistic. But my guess is Palin never runs for office again. And, if she does by chance run for President, my guess is her campaign will do about as well as Giuliani's did. She can't even respond to invitations, much less organize -- and maintain the discipline to run -- a successful national presidential campaign.
If her party wants vapid, aggressive ignorance in their 2012 standard-bearer, they will have plenty of other options.
Marc, this is good post. Kudos for challenging the other areas to of the media to do their filtering job with a little more rigor than they usually employ.
While I think it would be good for the country if Palin become the voice of the Republican Party - as losing a 60-40 election may finally force the right to fully re-launch its entire enterprise and rejoin the reality-based community - it also feels a little bit selfish on my part...
If Sarah Palin is so concerned, why doesn't Sarah get out and debate the issue or be interviewed by the press? Most Americans know why! She is NOT the writer of these op/eds and most of her facebook posts. Queen makers are attempting to do the Henry Higgin's job and trying to make a silk purse out of sow's ear.
I found her Op-Ed informing. Here is what I learned:
1) Sarah has decided to take her playbook from the Cato Institute. Professional help for a politician with big aspirations. One wonders how writing such nice pieces will effect her down home anti-intellectual image. Will she keep her base and expand to the moderate middle class or succeed in alienating everybody? Time will tell.
2) Her big idea is to have solutions that are "market-oriented, patient-centered, and result-driven". Nice, but I do not know what it means. It is a slogan devoid of meaning.
3) Sarah Palin believes that the federal government should be involved in Tort Reform. I would like her to explain how this would not be a massive expansion of federal power. And if it is such a good idea, was it something she did in Alaska that created massice savings and improved medical care in her state?
All you numbnuts are missing the point: Sarah may not have a PHD, and she may not use Harvard-smarty Lowell House words like "trenchent," and drink white wine, but she's lived the life the rest of have lived, and she speaks for us.
"Earned her chops"? Yeah, she earned her chops as much as Obama and anyone else has -- she earned them through living, through raising kids, through hunting, through standing up to big government bosses.
So stick it up your nose, Ambinder, trying to say she's not qualified to talk about health care. You're just afraid of what's going to happen to your cushy job when us Real Americans take over in 2012, and we start getting government out of people's lives like we meant to do in 2000 (until Bush screwed it all up).
Great comment, but you used genius Ambinder's incorrect spelling of "trenchant" (which he is not, so I must excuse his unfamiliarity with the word). He also used "principals" when he mean "principles."
Despite his problems handling the English language, I truly can see that Marc is brilliant and an expert on health care, insurance, economics, management and a real people-person (so important in health care) by the way he endlessly recycles the false, crude ad hominem abuse of Sarah Palin. Therefore I'm going to sign my power of attorney for medical purposes to him.
The awesome awesomeness of her executive experience working on health care for Alaskans would be more impressive if she hadn't quit that job to post Facebook updates.
Right. Just be patient. You'll find out why she quit the governorship.
The world awaits with baited breath.
I mean, so far it's been not showing for speaking engagements and posting Facebook updates, but I'm sure that's just the groundwork.
Seriously?
"but she's lived the life the rest of have lived, and she speaks for us."
Except she has not lived the life all of us have lived.
I'm a stay at home mom who has homeschooled for the last 11 years and run a small online business.
We live in Arkansas.
We live in a double-wide.
We should be Sarah's people, but we are not.
She does NOT speak for all the working class and she has not really lived our lives.
I believe Palin does speak for a vast number of everyday Americans. She speaks for those whom are uneducated and spent from toiling tirelessly with nothing to show for it and now hope that if we latch our lips onto the riches rear ends that maybe those outdated Reagonmic ideas of trickle down economics will become a brown noser's American Dream. The problem isn't that she and her ilk don't represent some of our population, it is that she does. And like a bum leg that you can't take to a doctor, we, the rest of the body, are stuck with her.
Dennis The Peasant's rather dim view of your piece may be found here:
http://tiny.cc/N6hFY
For those of you too lazy to go there, allow me to quote:
"[W]here's Barack Obama's cred on this issue? His background is legal, academic, and legislative. He has less executive experience than Palin has. Beyond that, he was for single payer before he was against it, and was for a "robust" public option before it became but a "sliver" of the entirety of reform. And... Barack Obama still hasn't articulated what his plan for health care, er, insurance, er, whatever the fuck is it today reform is actually supposed to be."
Garbage.
Har! Please please PLEASE please don't pay attention to Palin. Please?
It would be interesting to see how influential her words are in comparison with those columnists that are endorsing Obama's proposals. It might indicate how much more 'in touch' she is than others. Of course if she sways opinion by her 'simple' common sense approach that can always be dismissed with a haughty contempt of her academic credentials--of course, Abraham Lincoln exhibited that simple common sense approach and he didn't have any academic credentials to speak of either. Maybe character is sometimes more important than nuance.
It doesn't matter what she thinks or pretends to write. Unless she shows her face and SPEAKS in her own words she has no credibility. She needs to come out of hiding and join the debate and conversation. Anyone can have a ghost writer clean up your words but unless you can back up the conversation in your own words you are not in the conversation. Come on out and join us Sarah.
"The media -- by which I mean the cable news networks, primarily -- will determine whether Palin's view on health care becomes influential."
If you limit "the media" to cable news, you aren't going to get anything that you already don't see.
MSNBC continually slams her.
Fox promotes and loves her.
CNN...I dunno, what are people tweeting about or putting on Facebook?
What we need is for people in both parties to be more intellectually honest. Those that are on the talk shows from the Democratic side are mostly fine with calling her out. It's the Republican's that are not. They punt the Palin questions because they know how popular she is with their base. Add to the fact that she's a woman, going after you doesn't paint you in the best light. It's entirely political.
I'm afraid Sarah Palin will be around for a long time and she won't gain any more intellectual clout during that time either. The only way I can see her fading is to get destroyed in the Republican primary (which won't change her ego one bit) or to have a few credible people completely destroy their careers by going after her and calling her out on everything she says, also not likely to happen.
'Death Panels' are a lie. The government has been encouraging living wills for 20 years and nobody has objected. The provision Ms. Palin is lying about was inserted by two Republicans so she's not even attacking the right party. Sarah Palin is the same monger who told us we were in "end times" and it's curious that she is so obsessed with death. It's a good thing Republicans weren't able to flip the vote electronically and get this political clown in office. But, can we finally flip the switch on her and retire her as lying laughing stock embarassment she really is?
'Death Panels' are a lie. The government has been encouraging living wills for 20 years and nobody has objected. The provision Ms. Palin is lying about was inserted by two Republicans so she's not even attacking the right party. Sarah Palin is the same monger who told us we were in "end times" and it's curious that she is so obsessed with death. It's a good thing Republicans weren't able to flip the vote electronically and get this political clown in office. But, can we finally flip the switch on her and retire her as lying laughing stock embarassment she really is?
I hope you'll excuse me, Marc, I'm just too busy today, having a life, to become a little Obama puppet.
You have the experience to judge a governor? Maybe Eliot Spitzer,
definitely not Sarah Palin. Her WSJ piece was excellent and listed every
major need for genuine American health reform instead of the communist-gulag Obamacare that you prefer. Two stand out and would alone provide all the savings needed: tort reform and competition between insurance companies. Your corrupt Democrat Party and Obama Administration won't touch either.
Obama and the Democrats are financed and controlled by malpractice, personal damage and other liability lawyer/moneygrubbers. Likewise with competitive reform. Campaign contributions throttle it. Why are there 1300 insurance companies but only a handful insuring within each of the 50 states? These are the questions to ask instead of the daily, boring, mean and counterproductive insults directed at Palin.
But all the Republican heroes love to sue people. Look at the most recent examples, Carrie Prejean and Frank Ricci who sue people after they get fired or don't get a promotion. Republicans hate people who sue, except when they want to sue someone. Sarah Palin would be the first in line to sue a doctor if she could. We all know how she loves the dollar dollar bills.
Ambinder in a nutshell: "Don't discuss those ideas! She's too dumb to discuss those ideas! No Ivy degree dumb! Ad hominem, ad hominem, etc., etc." I think she's smarter than you Ambinder... and my personal academic credentials are pretty good. Does that make me a class traitor? Hmmm....
Mr. Ambinder: Your ad hominem arguments slay me.
Unless she once unfairly and nastily dumped your younger brother and sent him into an emotional tailspin from which he never recovered, earning for her your undying contempt, I have to assume that, no matter who wrote her article, you find the ideas within it to be effective, rational, appealing, and refreshing.
But, not being the Proper Ideas as established by your party and your figureheads, they must not be clearly communicated and spread through society, lest the herds of voters get the wrong idea. So, here we are reading your attempt to soil the writer before those damned ideas can get too wide of an audience.
Ironically, your article ends up telling us more about your philosophies and ideas than about Palin's.
Dude, she's back on death panels. The number of people who find that rational and appealing is pretty small.
So, the "hard conversations" with the docs and counselors that Obama said the elderly are supposed to have as they sicken are for . . . what? . . . . signing up for Sunday Bingo? Well, that's certainly rational and appealing!
Arriving at a judgment as to the rationality of an idea or concept or thesis based on herd size gives us global cooling, followed by global warming, followed by, probably, Sudden Climate Stasis!
No, thanks.
In April 2008, when she told Alaskans to have these talks with their doctors on Health Decisions Day, was that rational and appealing or not?
There are no death panels. Not in any of the bills before Congress, not in England where Stephen Hawking is inexplicably still alive, not in Alaska a year and a half ago when talking to your doctor about end of life concerns was worthy of its very own day.
She's down to "well people feel like there are death panels, so there are death panels." Calling that rational and appealing badly misses what the sane majority of the country would consider "rational."
Dennis the Peasant hit the nail on the head.
However qualified (or unqualified) you feel Palin may be, her qualifications exceed those of Obama by a large margin. So if you have these issues with her, then you need to address them to Obama first. Otherwise, it is nothing more than political posturing.
Obama has no track record, no accomplishments while he was a legislator, no achievements while he was a legal lecturer (he was not a professor as many claim), and the only executive position he has held, as Exec Director of the Annenburg Foundation, was a total failure as they reported in their final report. He has accomplished nothing as president but to greatly increase the national debt, give unions ownership of GM & Chrysler, be totally wrong on Iraq, Afghanistan, and GITMO; be totally rejected by every world leader he has made overtures (read "apologies") to, and his bailout program is a dismal failure. This is what happens when you elect a leader with no leadership qualifications, no experience, and no idea on how to gain either.
Anyone who knocks Palin without doing doubly so for Obama is nothing but a hypocrite.
Using Marc Ambinder's logic, the person with the least amount of credibility to talk about health care reform would be The One, himself.
Sarah Palin has shown herself unable and unwilling to engage in a structure debate forum as she did with Joe Biden. As a Journalism graduate she should be able to put together an idea with a single thread. I have never seen anything she's said or written the indicates she's capable of this. She instantly lost the entire moderate and liberal intelligentsia with her campaign interview answers about the vague reading material ramble and the "When Putin rears his head" reply.
She does know how to push emotional buttons and use "hockey mom" phraseology. I think most hockey mom's are smart enough to get their girls on birth control if their hockey-playing boyfriends are staying overnight. She isn't.
Ivy League degrees or not she just doesn't seem to have the ability to put forth an idea point-by-point and arrive at a conclusion that logically derives from and supports her initial supposition. Her education was start, stop, sputter at several schools before she "finally" graduated and her public speaking almost does that but never finally ends up anywhere near the point we think she's trying to make.
Wisdom, insurance companies push tort reform now because they want everyone to forget they aren't making as good a return on their investments in bonds right now hence lower ROI on bonds.
Yeah, but who really needs a diploma? That's just so elitist.
Try as I might, I see nothing in Armbinder's piece that says anything about what Palin wrote. He is only challenging her standing to comment, as if that challenge had any merit at all. In fact, the strange part is Armbinder claiming Gingrich has standing because he proposed ideas Armbinder thinks have no chance of passing. Is that not turning even the minimal logic of Armbinder on its head?
I continued to be amused at how the mere mention of Palin can bring out the pitchforks of left. Such a knee jerk reaction says more about the emptiness of the left than it does about Palin. Carry on the diatribes, folks. Get back to us when you are able to actually engage the substance rather than your ugly visions of the form.
Rick
It is wonderful to me how Mr. Ambinder and most democrat commentators seem to be concerned only with the politics of a statement, never with its content.
Mrs. Palin suggests three ways to reform health care. Can we read Ambinder's position on these?
1. reforming medical liability to limit awards for pain and suffering in order to reduce costs of malpractice insurance, and reduce the incentive for physicians to be ultra cautious in ordering tests.
2. allowing competition between insurance companies across state lines, so that healthy young men can gain access to cheap major medical coverage that protects them only from medical disasters.
3. allowing people whose jobs don't provide health benefits to get the same tax benefits as those whose positions do so.
Apparently Mr. Ambinder opposes these so fervently that he advocates that the press suppress reference to them, ostensibly to keep down Mrs. Palin's potential career.
If letting the unwashed public see these would benefit her career so much, perhaps Mr. Armbinder might jump on the bandwagon, and put these forward himself! I would be happy to cheer him on.
Honey child, you wish they wouldn't pay attention to her. Whether or not you think Palin is a credible voice on health care, the more important point is, the President is not. The Emperor in Chief has no clothes. More and more people are noticing. The more he contradicts himself on the unformed monstrosity he is trying to shove down the American gullet, the more we see it makes no sense and will not deliver what is promised.
You did the same thing to Hillary last year -- suppress any voice that contradicts your chosen messiah. Sh was the far better candidate. You didn't care. You made your bed. Now lie in it without complaint.
She's nuts and an ongoing reality show, so no conservatives might want to distance themselves and not pay any attention to her.
Please, oh please Republicans keep paying attention to her and puhllleeezzzeeee let her a Michelle Bachman run in the primaries.
That will be a crazytrain full of uber crazy just ripe for the mocking....
Good times.
Whenever a Palin supporter joins a thread I feel like I've been transported back to middle school recess.
What a sexist statement. Plus, was it in the 57th or 58th State when Pres. Obama was speaking Austrian and joking with the Russians about selling the USA Alaska. Oh wait, someone as smart as Pres. Obama would never say such things. I guess Pres. Obama really does not need the teleprompter and can speak without it. By the way, are the police still acting stupidily? If Pres. Obama is so smart why won't he release his grades from the elite universities he attended?
Seriously?
Sexist.
Please, please save the charge of sexism for real sexists attacks on women. On can find Ma Palin lacking without it be because she is a woman.
and please.
The President is, sigh, do you really want to get into a pissing match over who is smarter?
President Bush used a teleprompter, Palin used/uses a teleprompter (and still sounded nuts) they all use teleprompters. I'd like to see her do what the President did at the beginning of August and go from town hall to town hall answering off the cuff questions from American citizens. If she can do that and make sense then I will stop viewing her as completely unqualified to run Alaska, let alone the United States.
Jules, the teleprompter reference has gone way over your head. Obama is a human Rorschach Test for sycophants like you who have spent the last year pretending that he is a genius and unparalleled orator. That fantasy is the context for pointing out that when Obama speaks extemporaneously he says some really stupid things. For example, he addressed a crowd in New Mexico on Memorial Day 2008, and said"On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today...". Since you are a liberal, let me help you out; Memorial Day is a day on which we honor the people who have died in the military service of our country. You might not believe it, but Obama can't actually see dead people, he's just an idiot.
Obama also said he had campaigned in 57 states, he claimed that his American uncle had liberated Auschwitz, he claimed that Emperor Hirohito had signed the Japanese surrender on the U.S.S. Missouri, etc. Obama even screwed up with his teleprompter when he read the Irish Prime Minister's speech on St. Patrick's Day. That is why his dependence on the teleprompter is relevant. People like you have dishonestly created an imaginary figure in Obama. The guy with the superior intellect and eloquence is a figment of your imagination and his reliance on the teleprompter directly contradicts your fantasy. He merely says what other people tell him to say; he reads words that other people have written for him. Off the cuff, he speaks in contradictory, generalities. He does exactly what Marc and other liberals accuse Sarah Palin of doing. It is yet another example in a long line of liberal projection.
More substantively, this was shown when he idiotically tried to support his claim that we spend "too much" on health care by singling out non-existent unnecessary tonsillectomies and diabetics receiving unnecessary amputations. See, those things aren't happening and have nothing to do with the cost of health care. They are pretend anecdotes. He has tried to sell Obamacare by saying that the status quo is unsustainable and too expensive but everyone can keep his or her doctor and insurance plan. How do you change the status quo if everyone can keep their part of the status quo? When he regaled us with his wisdom about choosing a blue pill that would cost half as much as a red pill and work just as well, he was alluding to "The Matrix" and he directly contradicted his previous assurances that that Obamacare would not lead to rationing and that it would never intrude upon the doctor patient relationship. Obama is an idiot. You can try to deflect scrutiny by fixating on Palin, but she is an intellectual Titan compared to the real person occupying the Oval Office (as opposed to the figment of your imagination).
Clearly you missed Saddleback.
Obama is a gifted writer and orator. You don't get to be president of Harvard Law Review playing the flute in a bikini.
Sarah Palin studied teleprompter and fancy pageant walking in college and still couldn't land a local tv news job.
Live it. Learn it.
Jules, the teleprompter reference has gone way over your head. Obama is a human Rorschach Test for sycophants like you who have spent the last year pretending that he is a genius and unparalleled orator. That fantasy is the context for pointing out that when Obama speaks extemporaneously he says some really stupid things. For example, he addressed a crowd in New Mexico on Memorial Day 2008, and said"On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today...". Since you are a liberal, let me help you out; Memorial Day is a day on which we honor the people who have died in the military service of our country. You might not believe it, but Obama can't actually see dead people, he's just an idiot.
Obama also said he had campaigned in 57 states, he claimed that his American uncle had liberated Auschwitz, he claimed that Emperor Hirohito had signed the Japanese surrender on the U.S.S. Missouri, etc. Obama even screwed up with his teleprompter when he read the Irish Prime Minister's speech on St. Patrick's Day. That is why his dependence on the teleprompter is relevant. People like you have dishonestly created an imaginary figure in Obama. The guy with the superior intellect and eloquence is a figment of your imagination and his reliance on the teleprompter directly contradicts your fantasy. He merely says what other people tell him to say; he reads words that other people have written for him. Off the cuff, he speaks in contradictory, generalities. He does exactly what Marc and other liberals accuse Sarah Palin of doing. It is yet another example in a long line of liberal projection.
More substantively, this was shown when he idiotically tried to support his claim that we spend "too much" on health care by singling out non-existent unnecessary tonsillectomies and diabetics receiving unnecessary amputations. See, those things aren't happening and have nothing to do with the cost of health care. They are pretend anecdotes. He has tried to sell Obamacare by saying that the status quo is unsustainable and too expensive but everyone can keep his or her doctor and insurance plan. How do you change the status quo if everyone can keep their part of the status quo? When he regaled us with his wisdom about choosing a blue pill that would cost half as much as a red pill and work just as well, he was alluding to "The Matrix" and he directly contradicted his previous assurances that that Obamacare would not lead to rationing and that it would never intrude upon the doctor patient relationship. Obama is an idiot. You can try to deflect scrutiny by fixating on Palin, but she is an intellectual Titan compared to the real person occupying the Oval Office (as opposed to the figment of your imagination).
I'm new here so please excuse me if I am repeating anyone's statements or posts.
What is Mr. Ambinder’s problem with Sarah Palin?
If she is unknowing, uneducated and just a joke, Then why address her at all?
I get bitten by gnats and mosquitoes all the time, they are not smart or educated. Other than this post, I have never written a letter complaining about them. But, if I thought they were an actual threat I would be ranting and raving like a liberal minded columnist writes about Sarah Palin. On second thought, maybe I do understand Mr. Ambinder's problem.
Steve
"But, reading Obama, it's not a leap to believe that the ideas are truly his."
Based on what exactly? His constant strawmanning of opposing arguments? His reliance on mindless platitudes and slogans ("the time for talking is through", "this is not about me" etc.) in place of a clear and specific defense of his agenda? His ridiculous non-sequiturs linking healthcare costs to the current economic crisis? His willingness to outsource policy details to a partisan hack like Pelosi?
Obama may be less offensive to your elitist sensibilities than Palin but there is more substance in that single op-ed than anything President TelePrompTer has contributed in the last 4 months.
I am not sure Obama has contributed anything at all. I mean, he has gotten free passes his entire life, there's never been any need for him to actually do any work or make any contributions. There is a reason why Obama has so many czars, he needs people to actually do the work while he gets up and read from the teleprompter every other week.
What is it that you fear the most? That she may say something that will make more sense than 1000 pages of DC gobbldy goop? Try to think about what you are asking. Let me say something but NOT HER! Get a grip and think about where you and your world will be in six months without opposition.
Love the pushback to Mr. Ambinder on a blog that had been just another liberal echo chamber. You now have to go to Daily Kos to get mindless agreement on his ad hominem arguments.
The endless ping-pong game of shouting, belligerence, and lack of reason and respect between people on either side of the political spectrum in this country is starting to feel like the interminable fighting in the Middle East. As a professional communications consultant to executives, I believe the quality of political rhetoric in this country is disappointing, to say the least -- and both sides share equally in the blame. My recent blog, "Chicken Little as Speechwriter?" explores this phenomenon.
http://timhayesconsulting.myupsite.com/2009/08/16/chicken-little-as-speechwriter/
The endless ping-pong game of shouting, belligerence, and lack of reason and respect between people on either side of the political spectrum in this country is starting to feel like the interminable fighting in the Middle East. As a professional communications consultant to executives, I believe the quality of political rhetoric in this country is disappointing, to say the least -- and both sides share equally in the blame. My recent blog, "Chicken Little as Speechwriter?" explores this phenomenon.
http://timhayesconsulting.myupsite.com/2009/08/16/chicken-little-as-speechwriter/
I'll take Palin over any moron you socialist commies have in your camp.
So long as you keep her, I'm in.
response to Jules...
I'd like to see her do what the President did at the beginning of August and go from town hall to town hall answering off the cuff questions from American citizens.
Give me a break. Those townhall meeting for Obama were "ALL" staged questions. I'd like to see him be in a Real Townhall Meeting.
reply to Jules...
I'd like to see her do what the President did at the beginning of August and go from town hall to town hall answering off the cuff questions from American citizens.
Give me a break. All those Questions presented to Barry Obama were all Staged. I'd like to see him in a REAL townhall meeting.
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE WOMAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!
I have never been a Dem or Rep. I vote for the person with the Ideas and not the party. Either party has not delivered squat in the past 50 yrs. Just taking turns screwing us.
For the Great One's speech tonight. It will be just a repeat of what he has already said.
With what Barry has said in the past regarding many different talking points, his credibility is now gone. (60%+ of the people will just laugh tonight of his speech) He is on TV everyday putting his influence on the American public, which has no merit anymore, (especially with his selection of radical CZARS he is using to by-pass the Congress) He is done, the Public had enough of him. My status quo for all politicians is >> Once a Liar, always a Liar. We need Truth and Ethics back in this country.
Yes, BUSH I and II were both bad for our country also.
The real message in this essay is that the intellectual elite doesn't think anyone but themselves deserves to be heard on healthcare, or any other issue.
Since Palin is not a member of their exclusive club, she is obviously too stupid to have a valid opinion on any of the Really Big Ideas the intellectual elites are entertaining to "improve" our lives. They feel that way about Palin, and they feel that way about any other American who has the unmitigated gall to question their superior intellect.
The sad part is that the intellectual elites harbor that same contempt for the millions and millions of useful idiots now supporting them, useful idiots who will continue deluding themselves that they're part of the in-crowd -- right up until it's too late to matter.
The real message in this essay is that the intellectual elite doesn't think anyone but themselves deserves to be heard on healthcare, or any other issue.
Since Palin is not a member of their exclusive club, she is obviously too stupid to have a valid opinion on any of the Really Big Ideas the intellectual elites are entertaining to "improve" our lives. They feel that way about Palin, and they feel that way about any other American who has the unmitigated gall to question their superior intellect.
The sad part is that the intellectual elites harbor that same contempt for the millions and millions of useful idiots now supporting them, useful idiots who will continue deluding themselves that they're part of the in-crowd -- right up until it's too late to matter.
UInderCoverinLA... you hit the nail on the head...so true...
If your a minority (illegal, poor, different color,etc) or brought up thru the past 30 years of Democratic controlled socialistic school system being brainwashed thru college... they got this idiot in power.
You know the old saying... "YOU are who the Friends you Keep with."
Death panels.
(hums softly)
Explain them away. Explain why an essay in which she claims that if people feel like there are death panels there are death panels qualifies her as someone to be taken seriously.
she is obviously too stupid
BINGO!
Newt Gingrich is influential
Only because the Villagers and FAUX News give him the time of day.
book serious Republicans with original ideas
== NULL SET
Sarah Palin is a parasite.