Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Sullivan on Palin

Those of you who read Andrew Sullivan's blog know that he has been relentless in discussing the absurdity that is Sarah Palin, even after the election.

In the last few days, many of his readers have written in to suggest he leave it alone and let it go. He responds here ... brilliantly.

Sullivan is right. He is right that Palin is something bigger than a bad pick or a tacitcal mistake by the McCain campaign. McCain picking her was an absolute affront to basic logic, intelligence, and truth-telling. Sullivan's various posts point out the pathological nature of Palin well enough. But what is most disturbing in the whole episode is the way the media reacted. How did they allow a candidate to run for Vice President without ever holding a press conference and without doing more than a handful of controlled interviews?

My view is that Sullivan is right in all that he says in this piece except for one important thing. His focus seems to be more on McCain than the media. McCain is truly yesterday's news and his reckless decision thankfully will not affect us (at least not in the near term). But the media lives on and they continue to take Palin seriously and give her airtime. That is truly dangerous. And it is necessary to linger on the Palin story if only to point out what a typically catastrophic job today's "journalists" did in covering this mannequin.

1 comment:

Recovering political scientist said...

On CNN last night Jeffrey Toobin said he saw an interview with her where she was asked about the impending bailout/rescue of the auto industry and she didn't have a clue what the questioner was talking about.

Toobin noted that as a national political figure her inability to discuss major current issues remains frightening.

My fear is that over the next 4 years she learns just enough about the world to be a credible candidate in 2012 and we have to go through this all over again.