T'Aint "Elitist" to Be Anti-Palin
I HATE TO pull rank here. But it seems I am almost the only Republican still standing who can criticize Sarah Palin without being accused by my fellow conservatives of suffering from an "elite education. "
Peggy Noonan, David Brooks, Christopher Buckley, Kathleen Parker and [my husband] David Frum have all had their heads put on pikes by the self-appointed rulers of Conservatism. As Rush Limbaugh said:
These are the people who are embarrassed by Sarah Palin 'cause she's not an intellectual and she didn't go to Harvard or have a college degree from approved universities and she drops her g's from words like morning and says mornin'. She's embarrassing, and I think something else really bothering these people is that they believe that she may become one of the key leaders of the conservative movement beyond 2008 if she and McCain lose this.
Those with degrees from approved universities are capable of mounting their own defense. But what about those of us who did not go to Harvard -- and yet whose eyes still bug out at the prospect of a Palin vice presidency, let alone the prospect of her as a "key leader"in the future?
In fact, not only did I NOT go to Harvard, I have no education to speak of. Not beyond high school anyway (and it was one of those large, urban high schools from which many of the most successful graduates went on to become garage mechanics). To paraphrase Melville, a tabloid newspaper was my Yale and my Harvard (and yes, it is possible to have read Melville without attending Yale and Harvard. It's Sarah Palin's kind of story, too: lots of huntin' and guttin' ).
My lack of post-secondary education isn't something I'm proud of. Certainly I've never been moved to boast about it in public. Honestly, if I'd had more sense at eighteen, I would have gone to college -- preferably, an elite one. But I grew up in a newspaper family and was eager to join the business. So instead of spending my early twenties engaged in discussions of Keynes and Friedman, I found myself knocking on the metal doors of public housing developments, asking residents for recent photos of their murdered children. I never said "Get me rewrite" because, more often than not, I WAS rewrite. And like Palin, I was raised to disdain anyone who thought himself too clever or above everyone else (usually a reporter from the competing broadsheet). In my world, an elite degree marked you as someone with permanently retarded judgment, a reader of The New Yorker -- the sort of person of whom Orwell would write, "Only an intellectual could say something so stupid."
Maybe it's because of my background that I've been wary of Palin from the get-go -- and more than taken aback by those who insist the only reason a conservative could oppose her would be because of intellectual snobbery.
Don't get me wrong: I love the idea of Sarah Palin. She conforms to an early American (and pre-feminist) ideal of womanhood: rifle on one hip, baby on the other. I love her modern incarnation of this ideal, complete with Sex-in-the-Tundra wardrobe and kick-ass Jimmy Choos (even if they are paid for by the RNC). I love the idea she represents "common sense" over fancy-pants theorizing. I love -- and certainly identify with -- her real world, "out there" experience over her opponents' closed-off years in Washington. Truly, there are few women I'd rather share a beer with.
The problem is that the reality of Sarah Palin does not match the idea of Sarah Palin. It's as plain as day -- glaringly obvious! -- that she's unfit for the job she's running for. We wouldn't expect the best darn regional car saleswoman to be appointed the next vice president of General Motors. We wouldn't fly in a commercial plane piloted by someone with a Cessna license because we trusted her gut. We wouldn't follow a woman into battle because she's a crack shot at moose hunting. Why is it unreasonable -- or snobbish! -- to have expected a better choice from our party for the next potential leader of the free world?
And please don't reply with, "The other side doesn't have experience either!" That's an argument you can make without having graduated from elementary school.
Those of us who came of age as Reagan Republicans expected more from ourselves. Leave the left to its demagoguery and name-calling. We'll make the case using facts, reason - -and yes, common sense.
Now it seems my side are the ones circling the wagons, shouting abuse at dissenters -- determined to lose rather than ask ourselves why we aren't winning.
As Orwell once might have said...
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@truthforme
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Well, all us "fake" people are going to vote her sorry behind all the way back to Alaska.
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Isn't it possible to get your point across without denigrating and capping on people who don't deserve it???
Michale...
Hey, a snarky post will beget a snarky comment from me. Being told I'm not "real" because I don't "get" Sarah Palin reminds me of when I was accused of being "unpatriotic" for not supporting the war in Iraq even before it started.
I'm STILL angry about that so I guess you'll just have to deal with a little of the poison your kind has been spreading for the past eight years.
The great american disdain for thinking will be the demise not only of the republican party, but also of this nation. When someone aspires to an elite office, then I will be elitist in my expectation. That is only logical.
Having said that, I'm not sure when it became 'elitist' to recognize lack of qualificat
If we wind up with a Palinesque president, we might as well pledge allegiance to mediocrity and ignorance.
I agree. President of the United States was always the most elite position imaginable ( but George Bush tainted that image a little bit ). I don't see how anyone could think that Sarah Palin should be a heartbeat away from being "leader of the free world". I don't know who would be more ridiculous in that job, her or Elisabeth Hasslebeck. I guess she's a little bit more qualified than Elisabeth ...but not much.
Anyone who thinks Palin is qualified for POTUS or VP or even assistant to the assistant of the VP if there was such a thing should check their braincase to make sure its not empty. Period.
So, anyone who doesn't think exactly like you do is an idiot??
How utterly liberal of you..... NOT!!
Michale...
It has nothing to do with being a democrat or republican. The facts are the facts and Sarah Palin's limited knowledge base is evidence enough.
Thinking Pailn is qualified is like thinking the Earth is flat. More power to you but stay out of the way.
I guess in Republican-land, East Coast elites who graduate from Yale are "folksy". Especially if they were male cheerleaders who went AWOL from the military during a time of war.
They're folksy if they only muster C-minus averages, anyway.
The problem with Sarah Palin is: she is not all that up there in terms of smarts. I don't mean it in intellectual elitism. I am far from advocating intellectual elitism. Like most Americans, I have worked, met and become friends with people who have no college degrees but yet displayed a great wealth of intelligence and smartness that makes you wonder if college is just a waste of money. After following this election for the past 2 months or so it is definitely without a doubt that Sarah Palin does not have the smarts to hold any political office not even as mayor of Wasilla.
I may not know much about economics nor international policies but I hope and vote that my politicians know more than I do. There's a lot at stake in this election, whether you are Republican or Democrat it's time to ask yourself (objectively) who has the smarts to lead this country through the troubled waters it is in right now?
" I am far from advocating intellectual elitism."
I get your point, but I for one want the intellecutally elite running my country.
Yes! There's a difference between "elitism" and "elite". We want the best of the best, not the best of the so-so.
You nailed it, thanks for the insight without the Harvard education. They seem to hate formal education from great schools, what does that say about the country if we only want uneducated simple minded folks.
I don't think it's the "elites" who don't "get" Palin.
I think it's the people who don't know, understand or connect with "real" people.
People who are enamored with the 'idea' of Obama ... which is approximately 98% of all Obama supporters ... can't stand the 'reality' of Palin. It's easy to disguise ideas. It's not easy to fake being yourself. Obama fails at being real. Palin does not.
What's the Deal with Palin? -> http://afe
"Real" people? as opposed to all us "fake" people?
Well, all us "fake" people are going to vote her sorry behind all the way back to Alaska.
the fake people are the people Acorn registered that don't exist, just to jam the system
this is a silly argument, it is not difficult to understand "real"peop
NO Palin is the fake- she acts like she is this Woman of the People- contrary to what you might believe- i saw here speaking previously in a debate when she was running for Govenor and she was very articulate and new what she was talking about and she spoke in clear consice sentences and sounded knowledgable about what she was talking about- I watched it unfiltered on C-SPAN- so don't tell me she is not a fake- she is playing a character and if that is what you like then fine, but i have heard her speak "correctly" and she did just fine all by herself- so don't tell be about someone faking to be yourself- I like the fact the Obama is smart because i'm tired of stupid people running the country- look- And I'm sorry that being educated is a crime, but i'm tired of people telling me all my life how important it is to get an education for it to be spit upon as being an elitest because i took the time out and wanted to learn something- that is the problem- I'm a black woman who has a bachelor's Degree in Information technology and i'll be damned if someone looks down upon me because i chose to become educated- Stop hatn'
I partially agree. There have been great number of interviews done with the press people from alaska asking if the sarah palin we see on the the national stage is the same sarah palin who won the gov.'s race. The answer is typcially no. She has been scripted and staged to appear how she does. That's unfortunate. While i don't agree with her views in any capacity and won't be voting for McCain, i think we arne't getting the real picture of her. If that wrestler in minnesota became governor and arnold schwartzenager has proved he has brain and can run the state of california ... so by that standard so could sarah palin.
Unfortunatly we haven't seen the last of her ... i fully expect to see her in 2012 or in the senate ... sometime soon. Stevens was found gulity after all.
Jesse Ventura has more intellectual curiosity and a wider world view than Sarah. He was the first Minnesota governor to visit the province of Manitoba to get to know a major economic trading partner. And he decided not to run for a second term because his family was weary of the public life.
" Obama fails at being real. Palin does not."
Palin fails at being brilliant. Obama does not.
The "who would you rather have a beer with" test is so 2000.
I'm so over the "real" comments. "Real America". "Real Americans.
I am a real American living in Real America. A high school graduate who has since become largely self-educated, from a poor family in the midwest, now living as a middle-class American raising children and paying taxes.
I don't personally know any gun-toting mothers with pregnant teenagers and Seccesionist husbands. Sarah Palin is not "real" to me.
If she IS a "real" American, I don't want her running my country. I want the guy with the degree from Harvard running my country. I want to be proud when I read the news reports of my president meeting with foreign dignitaries. I don't want to suffer the embarrasment of knowing the rest of the world is watching news coverage of our president and vice president and hearing the mangled speech and poor vocabulary they have become so accustomed to over the past eight years.
I want the guy in the suit with the degree. Not the 'gal' with the purse that says "Real women hunt moose."
If she is so real and so knowledgeable and qualified to be VP, why was there a ban on any interviews so that the rest of the world could get to know her and not just listen to her read speeches. i for one refuse to vote for someone who i know nothing about. it seems that every claim she's made in how she is a great reformer has been debunked. i'm also freightened by the fact that her husband seems to have unlimited access to the government in Alaska and that would probably flow through to the whitehouse if they won. we know absolutely nothing about him other than that he races snowmobiles.
i do want a president who is smarter than i. i don't want a president handling the economic crises who may have had one or two courses in economics--that won't cut it. i don't want a president who has probably never read or maybe even seen the constitution that they would swear to uphold. i want someone who understands it. i also don't want a president who honestly believes in spite of all reasoning that dinosaurs walked with humans and the earth is 6000 years old even if she has been made free from witchcraft or whatever rite she went through.
It does not take a college education to recognize this woman's glaring unsuitability for high office.
I don't have my degree, I got close and then life happened but I did manage, even before college, to learn that two plus two equals four and to carry a deep mistrust of anyone telling me otherwise.
has she told you otherwise.
Love this article. Thanks!
Excellent article Danielle. One I agree with. You're right, it dosen't take a rocket scientist to figure out Sarah Palin is unfit for the VP position or otherwise. This alone shows you how out of touch John McCain really is!
Very nicely put. Palin does indeed fit the pioneer woman image of a baby on one hip and a rifle on the other, but one wonders who she'd be aiming that rifle at.
Miss Crittenden,
Is it not even more worrying that the Democratic ticket suffers from a similar problem, but in the reverse?
It should be pointed out that Obama intended on running for president. He has an intellectual (don't read that to mean "elitist") command of every major issue. Palin has neither of these to claim. She has proven she does not understand the mechanics of the financial meltdown. She did not submit herself to be vetted as vice president, this was a tactical move of the McCain campaign.
excellent point - palin got into local politics for as much of a lark as anything else. and once there she realized the government gravy train could be a good ride; and so her appetite was whetted and ambitions grew.
this is not to say there is anything wrong with having ambition; but her form of government is based on cronyism and vendettas before even thinking about the people she is supposed to represent.
she'll say anything to get elected and then do whatever she wants once in office.
we've had 8 years of that, starting with 'compassionite conservatism', moving to fascism, now ending with socialism for wall street.
there is no way this country could withstand another similar administration, and palin is bush in a skirt (no pun intended lol)
I know this is not pc, to bring up that Obama graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School while Palin bounced around at several community colleges--but I'll do it. I think there are things that cannot be learned by just living life, that a certain disciplined thinking comes from having taken classes and read and thought. I know that Palin is not a fan of soul-searching journeys, but she carries this point to the extreme. Obviously, she does not read, she does not think, she does not reason. Can we at least agree that this type of person is dangerous for our country?
Instead of thinking of humanity as one, who have much greater problems than assigning evil labels to attach to each other, she insists on seeing the devil everywhere--Putin rearing his head from Russia, Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong Il to be tamed...Th
Educated, you point out the obvious. We as a public at large have been so snowed under by the media concerning Obama. When you get right down to it, Obama and Palin are more similar than most folks will admit.
But one has been determined to be the second coming while the other has been branded a bimbo from the tundra.
As that famous line goes, "there was once a gullible people who believed in Santa Claus....;
What's done is done, Obama is in and his coat tails will be long and strong. We are in for a very interesting 4 years.
Yes both Obama and Sarah Palin have charisma and any similarity ENDS there. Sarah couldn't keep the inner workings of Wasilla under control, or keep her personal interests out of the state house. Contrast Obama keeping the message, direction, discipline, staffing, and execution running in the political campaign that excoriated the Rove machine, redefined the electoral map campigning in his own suits, still managed to raise his kids without state per diem.
The greatest interest in the coming four years is to what extent will the Republican Party allow Sarah Palin to rule the mob plank of the "base"? My guess is that Sarah rogue straight shooter Palin is gonna take her peeps and the party with her and become a poster child for secessionists, racial purists, anti-intellectuals, all manner of victimized self-righteous self interests left stranded by any progressive renaissance that may come on Obama's coattails.
This is patently incorrect.
There is no comparison between the two on command of issues, motives or popularity among voters.
If you spend the time paying attention to what both are actually saying, you soon learn that Palin really doesn't have a clue about the nuts and bolts of any issue, she attacks things from a purely dogmatic approach. Obama, approaches issues from a pragmatic point of view while taking intoo consideration completely diverse opinions.
To say O and P are the same is false, simplistic and the talking point of one who can not anchor their candidates to solid positions on the issues (beyond ideological spin).
Read what people who have studied with Obama, educated him, and worked with him going as far back as high school have to say about him. He has always been a serious student, a hard worker, even-tempered, and intellectually curious.
This article asks the key question - is Sarah Palin experienced enough to be vice-president? Answer that question for yourself. Visit The Daily Source at www.dailys
Danielle, I am somewhat sympathetic to conservatives who find themselves on the receiving end of the right wing attack machine. Yet I can not help but question your statement ‘leave the left to its demagoguery and name-calli
I would like to know just what you mean by this, and who you are accusing of demagoguery. No one on the left can be compared to the likes of Limbaugh, Savage, Coulter and Hannity. The hateful invective that has persistently spewed from high profile members of the right completely outweighs anything from the left. It was the Republicans who eagerly joined with Newt Gingrich to demonize Democrats by constantly referring to us as anti American; who have pushed the idea that ‘liberal’ is a dirty word; and that disrespect can be shown by replacing the grammatically correct usage of ‘Democratic’ with ‘Democrat’ in their speech. I can not think of any comparable acts of character assassination during a political campaign, yet this is standard operating procedure from the right. I am proud of the fact that we on the left have no Atwater or Rove.
I believe that until the GOP can replace its hateful invective with a positive message for all Americans you are doomed to electoral failure. Under the leadership of George Bush your party’s overreaching has gone too far. Indeed, I think that Orwell might have had some interesting things to say about the modern Republican approach to politics and leadership. Have you read 1984 recently?
Well put, JFB... I think the kind of over-the-top invective you mention here IS a problem. After all, we are AMERICANS first (and I say this as one proudly naturalized as such over 25 years ago), and the President - Democratic or Republican - is President of ALL of us.
While we can have intellectually honest disagreements over policy and strategy, it is inimical to the political process to pour such corrosive and vile language over the body politic. We should ALL insist on a higher standard of political dialogue.
Personally - to Ms. Crittenden's point - I feel Sarah Palin is NOT qualified for the job at hand, yet I do not consider that to be an "elitist" position on my part, just an informed opinion based on what I have come to learn about the woman since her introduction to us at the Republican National Convention.
Very well said..
My "mantra" every since I started posting to HuffPo back in Sep of 2005 is, "I am an American first and foremost". Apparently it was a good enough mantra to be adopted by a well known Dem Pundit who always now says, "I am an American first and a Democrat second"... :D
Anyways, that is why I think is missing from here and all Political blogs.
That regardless of our disagreements, we should ALL be able to at least agree that we are all Americans.
"We must hang together or we will surely hang separately"
-Ben Franklin
Michale...
Amen!
and it is time to take issue with any assertions that "the other side" doesn't have
experience. Get real- he has some, and presidents have cabinets, advisors,
and other necessary and helpful support staff- we are not electing a King here,
we are electing a public servant.
Not only that wasn't george bush a govenor- with no national security experience- and look at where we are now
I'll give you John Stuart Mills instead of Orwell: "Conservatives are not necessarily stupid people, but most stupid people are conservati
@motherforpeace
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The whole argument of Palin has no experience, but neither does Barack isn't even the issue.
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That was kinda my point..
It's NOT an issue, but yet people still bring it up in reference to Palin's unsuitably for the VP position.
Frankly I really can't understand the hub-bub...
I don't think even Dan Quayle rated such attention.
Michale...
The Palin/Obama “experience GOTCHYA!” is joke comparison. A non starter against a proven legislative history,…and don’t you dare resurrect that “voted present” nonsense with me. Look at the strength, organization, discipline, and message of the entirety of the Obama campaign and point me to a single comparable moment in the entirety of Sarah’s public career. The visceral disdain that many (rightly) have against Sarah Palin as second in command of the nation is a reaction to eight years of schizophrenic cronyism that reduced this great nation to third world debtor status in less than eight years and I believe can best be summed up in the words of our great president George W. Bush, (badly paraphrasing The WHO)
“Won’t get fooled again
Possibly the special attention Palin is getting is due to the experience we've had with Cheney, i.e., the push for increasing and centralizing the power of the Presidency and the role of the Vice President. Given Palin's inarticulate remark on SNL that she wanted to increase the power of the VP in the Senate, we have reason to pay her critical attention, especially given the chaos and carelessness of her campaigning and interviewing.
I'll bank anyday on Obama vs Palin!!! Just plain common sense! Open your eyes and ears!!!
Maybe it's because so much of Palin's executive experience is kind of, um, shall we say "disastrous"?
As mayor, she got $27 million in government funding and managed to leave her town of 5,000 people in $23 million debt and with a failing infrastructure.
She tried to make rape victims pay for their own rape kits. That's like declaring open season on all low-income women.
As governor, she cut funding to a program for unwed mothers even though she's firmly against abortion.
She fired Walt Monegan, whose work in getting justice and treatment for mentally ill people is respected by police departments far beyond Alaska, just because he wouldn't fire her ex-brother-in-law.
Her husband works for an oil company (which has a really iffy environmental record because of poor maintenance on their pipelines, though that's not his fault I guess), and yet she still thinks the world was created by God's own hands 6,000-odd years ago.
So on fiscal responsibility, women's issues, ethics, environment and common sense, she's a screw-up.
But on the gut instinct level -- she has the aura of a high school mean girl who never grew out of it.
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