As somebody who gets paid to put his opinions in print every day, I've always thought columnists have one, overriding duty to their readers and the profession:
Intellectual and emotional honesty.
Our goal is to channel our convictions, values and perspectives into compelling arguments, respecting facts and contrary views. Even when that means something you normally champion lands in your cross hairs.
Which is why I have found the story of conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks' latest controversy so disappointing. Because, even though Brooks dislikes GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin enough that he told an audience in New York City she was a "fatal cancer" for the Republican party who is "not even close" to being ready for the job she's seeking, he hasn't yet outlined those observations in the biggest venue available to him: his newspaper column.
And Brooks isn't the only conservative pundit choking down disdain for Palin.
Back in September, when Palin was first selected, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan let her true feelings show when she thought the cameras were off after an appearance with GOP strategist Mike Murphy on MSNBC.
"I think they went for this -- excuse me -- political b---s--- about narratives," she tells Murphy, noting later "It's over."
But what did she say after Palin's debate performance Oct. 2 -- an appearance marked by the candidate's early promise that she wouldn't necessarily answer questions she didn't like while showing a marked aversion to responses that weren't finely crafted talking points?
"She killed," Noonan said on NBC after the debate concluded. "It was her evening. She was the star. She had it at 'Hey nice to meet you. Can I call you Joe?'"
Is this the same Noonan who wrote so presciently about the primaries and recently pleaded on Meet the Press for candidates not to descend into a mud-slinging hell?
Surprisingly, the American people have shown clearer judgment, with poll numbers indicating that, although people liked her style, opponent Joe Biden gave better answers.
My question: Why are average voters better at piercing Palin's hypocrisy than pundits who get paid to do so everyday?
Noonan and Brooks aren't the sort of Sean Hannity-style, fire-breathing conservatives who line up at McCain rallies, angry and flabbergasted that a Democrat with a foreign-sounding name is slowly overcoming the GOP machine.
But they're practicing a form of intellectual dishonesty common among this crowd -- which values winning above all, even when championing a candidate like McCain, who can't necessarily be trusted to govern the way many conservatives would support, anyway.
That's why I was heartened to read a recent column by Wick Allison, former publisher of the National Review and editor of D Magazine in Dallas; a conservative who says he now supports Obama because so many politicians claiming to be conservative have failed him.
It's an argument I've made to many conservative friends: Liberals shouldn't be the most upset with the way Bush/Rove-style Republicans have run this country into a ditch. That's a job for true conservatives.
We have the largest expansion of government in history. The largest budget deficits in history. The most costly war in history. And a GOP presidential candidate who still wants to hand out tax cuts in the middle of all this red ink.
As Allison wrote: "This kind of conservatism, which is not conservative at all, has produced financial mismanagement, the waste of human lives, the loss of moral authority, and the wreckage of our economy that McCain now threatens to make worse."
Now that's intellectual honesty. And I think I'd say that, even if Allison wasn't supporting a candidate I also see best equipped to handle the growing chaos.
Wonder why Brooks and Noonan couldn't manage something like that?
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As for Kathleen, she has to date received 12,000 (quite literally) foam-at-the-mouth hate-emails. One correspondent, if that’s quite the right word, suggested that Kathleen’s mother should have aborted her and tossed the fetus into a Dumpster.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-10-10/the-conservative-case-for-obama My guess is that abusive treatment like this deters some conservatives from speaking freely.
I think we all saw Ms. Noonan's honesty when she said one thing into a hot mic and wrote something else in her column on the same day.
This current crop needs to do the same!
Republicans for OBAMA!
Only in this way can they get their Party back to the principles that make for worthy opposition to the method and means the Democrats may be inclined to propose and give a new life and future vitality to the Republican brand.
They need to suffer the losses now so they purge the hate mongering, right-wing nut jobs, and/or religious ideologues from their mist - rebuild on firm intellectually honest real world grounds; only they can really help us all just put the people of this Country and the World first.
We need differing ideas honestly, fairly, and morally competing. Right now the Republican Party has proved itself (as it stands today) to be too close to a weirdly surrealistic and I dare say fascist model to be allowed to have further place at the table. Hope it changes this election and the Jacob Javits and even Chuck Hagel types of the GOP come back to life because competition is a good thing - when all are worthy and the playing field is real, honest and
Sham conservatives are determined not to toss a pebble into the lake that would rock the boat.
The old republican guard are throwing McCain under the straight talk express...the last few days there are more anti MCcain talking heads then, the talking point puppets...
Anyway, Brooks is 2 years behind the more pragmatic Friedman, but Brooks will get there. He just today gave a somewhat abstract, dispassionate objection to Palin. Read it. David Brooks will all but endorse Obama within 2 weeks.
These aformentioned items are real and expose a less than normal thinking group of people who are in dire need of medical help. Sooner or later America is going to have to address their extremist religious cults before they spread their cancer to a degree it can't be treated.
All the commercials, pundits, gaffes, personal attacks, and the MSM will not dictate the outcome of this election. THE GROUND GAME IS WHERE ELECTIONS ARE WON, AND LOST!
Before you go to the next left leaning article to comment on, or right leaning article to start an argument with a repug (which will no doubt end with them calling you an unpatriotic socialist wimp) I suggest that you get in the game.
Please visit my personal fundraising page below:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/craigcubberly
If you cannot afford to donate money there are many other ways to help below :
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/statepages
Take a look. It is a lot of fun, and very satisfying to get involved. You will really feel as though you are making a difference.
Thanks Craig
Now why do you think Peggy Noonan's tongue is bleeding profusely after biting it one too many times?
Sometime, the vultures tend to eat their very own.