Governor Palin's Reading List

Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that "some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies."

It might be worth asking Governor Palin for a tally of the other favorites from her reading list.

Comments

[AaronH]

Wow. I'm so sorry Mr. Kennedy. I'm ashamed of all of us, as a people, such hate still lives so deeply in us. God be with us and bless us all.

[Shea4Obama]

The republicans have sunk so low that they would go to this length of disgust to steal an election. I'm so sorry Mr. Kennedy that your family had to see this disgusting dance being performed by the GOP to not only hurt the Kennedy family, but all of us who remember what a great person your father is and what a great legacy he left for the American people. He was a and still is considered a compassionate and hopeful man who thought that some day this country would come together.....it hasn't happened yet, but maybe someday it will.

[shellyamber]

She did not have to quote this disgusting human being's writings to make a call to middle America that good people come from small towns.
Small towns like Hope, Arkansas.
Although, she was just reading from a teleprompter......
Just like Bush.....a puppet....

[iluvsam]

Why is this not in the MSM? Why don't they report on these things? This is absolutely horrific, and Americans need to know about it. It makes me ill that people will not know about this. The fact that she quoted this man in her convention speach should disqualify her immediately. This would deservingly ruin McCain's campaign.

[StormyWeathers]

As I read this and some of comments on here, I can’t help but ask myself when and how did the Republican Party stake their claim and ownership of Values both family and otherwise, Morals, Integrity, Honor and Honesty!

Nothing I see or hear from The Republican Party demonstrates any of those Values or Traits!
It’s crazy.

[evosez]

This is horrible. I am so sorry that someone would use the words of someone so hateful towards RFK. She obviously didn't THINK about it.

[deliriousgod]

she never blinks

[herhonor]

That is exactly what is so scary about her. She moves forward without precognition, with critical reasoning, without her own questioning, without everything she needs to know already in her head...She doesn't seem to mind the collateral damage and long as she moves forward

[Vern58]

Mr. Kennedy:
I was 9 years old when my father took me to the campus of Kansas State University to hear your father speak. It lit a fire that continues unabated to this day. He was the beginning of my political consciousness, and the standard to which i hold all seekers for public office to this very day. In that crowded field house, packed to the rafters, i heard one of the most truthful, eloquent speeches i have ever heard. I can close my eyes and still hear his voice today.
To think that Sarah Palin would use a quote from a person who espoused your father's assassination
would render her, in my mind, incapable of holding any office, national or local.

[uppeopleforobama]

Dear Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and all:

I am honored to post on this blog and I am looking at the cover of Vanity Fair, June issue with the picture of your beloved father on it. Your father was a hero to us and still is.

I stayed up last night with my husband and housemate Dr. Andrew Jeffery a philosophy professor. We are stunned and horrifed by the Palin comment to reference Pegler. We view it as a signal to the conservative right as well as a threat to our nation and its people. It is very sobering and scary and I believe this is why the mainstream t.v. media has not picked it up. I cannot believe we have come to this day and time in history. I urge everyone to work locally to help get out the vote. We can defeat bullies and murders en masse. We will never have peace and justice if we give in to fear.

[tubette]

I have tears in my eyes reading this. She is worse than your worse nightmare.

[DougNTexas]

Nobody on the planet was a bigger fan of your Father then was I. I stayed up that night here in Texas to see your father give that speech. It was very late here when he finally came down to give it. I was so happy. i went to bed right after it thinking RFK was to be the next President. I woke up the next morning to the news. As a 16 year old boy I have never felt the same way about any other person running for office.

[CyrusBeaucephus]

A racist secessionist creationist on the GOP ticket--now that's a shocker

How quickly people forget that in the 60's the GOP vetoed anti-lynching bills. That's some sick stuff there, GOPers. That's kind of what Rev Wright was alluding to in his famous out-of -context quote

GOP=white rule at any cost

[KimberlyKay]

There were many Republicans who were fighting for an end to Jim Crowe-- and many who helped Lyndon Johnson get that legislation passed into law. Please don't paint all Republicans with this brush. Indeed, before President Kennedy, there were very few Democrats who supported an end to the Jim Crowe South and Republicans did for the most part advocate tirelessly for an end to those atrocious practices.

We are now dealing with radicals who want to see government destroyed, not the party first represented in our White House (but not founded by) President Lincoln. These folks have twisted good plain English words to mean what they want them to mean-- and have taken over the Republican Party to a great extent-- every day, it seems like I discover more control that these fringe folks have taken of the GOP.

[justcorbly]

Kimberly, while you paint an essentially accurate picture, it is also accurate to state that the modern GOP and the modern evangelical movement both trace their roots to white opposition to the civil rights legislation of the 1960's. Southern Democrats switched parties en masse, and white people across the country began creating allegedly Christian private schools so they could avoiud sending their kids to integrated public schools. Both trends were racist to the core. The GOP has deliberately fostered and exploited those racist emotions ever since that time.

You sound honest and honorable. It's up to people like you to reclaim your party and redeem its integrity/

[lw1899]

I'm a Democrat and would have to agree with KimberlyK and KevinM. I know some very decent GOPers who aren't racists. The ruling neocon branch of the party have hijacked the Republican brand and remade it in their own twisted image. I have little doubt the extreme right-wingers would like to preserve "white rule at any cost".

[evolution1223]

From Wikipedia:
Interest in Pegler was recently revived when Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin quoted him in her acceptance speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity", she said, a Pegler quote that also appeared in the book "Right From the Beginning" by Pat Buchanan. She did not acknowledge Pegler by name, merely citing 'a writer'.[4] The speech was written by Matthew Scully, a senior speech writer for George W. Bush.[5]

Following the Palin acceptance speech New York Times columnist Frank Rich provided an analysis of the political significance of quoting Pegler. Mr. Rich noted that "Pegler was a rabid Joe McCarthyite who loathed F.D.R. and Ike and tirelessly advanced the theory that American Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe ("geese", he called them) were all likely Communists."[6] He suggested that Palin's use of a quote from "once powerful right-wing Hearst columnist Westbrook Pegler" was intended to send a subtle but unmistakable signal to far right wing supporters. [7]
============

I've already heard Pat Buc hanan say that he mentored Pa lin. And now they're both using the same quote, apparently to send up a signal to the far right: All White Sup remacists we're with you! And we'll do anything to keep our White House pure and as white as the driven snow.

[mistlesuede]

Thanks for opening my eyes to something I did not know. I am really horrified by this.Can anyone tell me if all this "do not or will not blink" talk was some kind of code for this also? I noticed it seemed very odd and then Jon Stewart showed Shrub saying it over and over in clips. Or is that some evangelical code word?

[applebutter]

Sarah Palin will not ‘blink’ in America’s ‘righteous’ cause.

I think the key word here is "righteous". Mission from God.

And yes, people are finally waking up to the Dominionist movement. Hope it's not too late. The overturning of Roe v. Wade ain't nuthin' compared to the Christofascism you'll see when they have amassed enough power through their takeover of a major political party - the Republican Party. McBush is a pawn. Palin is the real thing - one of them - who is being set up as the next POTUS when McCain dies, or in 2012.

[sdlittle]

I was just thinking this weekend about how the death of your father probably influenced the times we are living in more than most other events, including the death of your uncle. Those of us who long for a leader like your father like to believe he would've won in '68. Had he won in '68, Nixon wouldn't have been able to lay the neocon foundation, including jump starting the political careers of Don Rumsfield and Dick Cheney.
It would have been a very different world, indeed.

[JDHART]

Great point! Hadn't thought of that.

[AaronH]

... and HRC wouldn't have gotten her start working on the Watergate case.

[freedomthrutruth]

The direction the Kennedys would have taken us has only been delayed, not completely destroyed. The assassins succeeded in killing the Kennedys, but they failed to destroy their souls which longed for fairness, equality, justice, and peace. I don't know how much longer the delay will last, but I do know that it can't last forever, simply because the ideals of peace and justice and equality reside in an increasing number of earth beings and fairly well represent what most of us truly wish to see and experience in the world. If Obama wins, let's see if he ushers in the beginning of the end of the four-decades-old delay. Let's see if he takes the relay baton from RFK and moves us forward or takes it from Bush and moves us backward.

[criticalthinkingTRYIT]

The quote from Gov. Palin's speech must be the most vile and surely facist sentence I have ever read!
Liberals need to get behind some real issues. Perhaps how Mr. O will go about reducing taxes for 95% of Americans and then paying for all the programs he is promising. Perhaps Mr. O didn't attend any basic econ classes while in school. We are in a deficit condition now and historically when you raise taxes you decrease income to the government. Mr. O need to explain his math in detail before the election. Perhaps he coud add a chalk board to the other aids he uses at speeches - teleprompters.

[Comedian1968]

First off, someone who supports a candidate who stands in front of green screens and can't even string sentences together when they /are/ on a teleprompter, should certainly not cast stones at a man who writes his own speeches.

On the larger issue of "raise taxes you decrease income to the government," I point you to the findings of the Tax Policy Center, which concludes that McCain costs nearly a trillion dollars more to the government than your "Mr. O."

Both Obama and McCain have, by this time, been very specific about their spending. The sole exception is war funding. Rather than make snide comments as above, I would recommend you better spend the time by doing your homework.

[KimberlyKay]

If you are o.k. with quotes from American fascists, you and I have very little about which we agree. Fascism was, and still is, one of the greatest threats to our freedoms, our liberties and our very way of life. Perhaps you should google search fascism and see if you do not agree with me. Senator McCain should look long and hard at his speech writers-- this did not happen by accident. One of them purposefully put that quote into that speech for a reason. Senator McCain needs to route out that person and fire them fast.

Please talk some more about how decreasing taxes for 95% of Americans is a bad thing, while at the same time telling me that Senator Obama should not raise taxes on anyone and then claiming your entire argument is based on economics 101. That is one incoherent argument that I would like to see coming more from Senator McCain. Thank you for the laugh it gave me too-- I can always use another laugh.

Also, simply because Senator McCain cannot use a teleprompter does not make a teleprompter some sort of evil. Senator Obama's ability to communicate is remarkable and will help bring this Country together. Senator McCain has no such ability.

[RedWilma]

It is true that Obama's economic plan does not include enough money coming in to cover his spending, but McCain's is even more out of whack. There is more spending and less taxes coming in under McCain but the middle class (less than $250,000 income earners) will be taxed less under Obama than McCain. McCain will tax the middle class while he keeps the tax cuts for the wealthy. Obama will roll back the tax cuts for the wealthy and reduce taxes for the 92% of us who make less than $250,000. I think Obama's got the better plan here.

[trubbyboy]

Maybe we could use some of that 10 BILLION every month that goes to IRAQ!!!....eh?

[woodwakr]

Dude... forget critical thinking. Shoot for just "thinking."

1) How the hell can increasing taxes cause the government revenue take to go DOWN? Besides, your argument is absurd, given that you followed condemning Obama's plan to lower taxes for 95% of American by criticising his plan to RAISE TAXES!!?? Yeesh. This is too easy.
2) Obama plans to increase revenues mainly by closing loopholes for 'foreign' corporations who use a shell office in Aruba or somewhere to avoid paying taxes in the US. For starters.
3) Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law. McCain graduated 5th from the bottom in his Naval Academy class of nearly 900. He also destroyed 5 American planes, earning the nickname "Reverse Ace McCain." Look it up.
4) Everybody uses teleprompters, except at debates, where they need to answer off the top of their heads. Except for Bush, of course, who wore a wire so Cheney could feed him his answers.

Keep it coming, pal. We're ready for ya. And we don't have to resort to preposterous lies like McCain and Caribou Barbie do, either.

[odoreida]

"The quote from Gov. Palin's speech must be the most vile and surely facist sentence I have ever read!"

Explain, please, how the actual quote is vile or fascist.

The quote -- in case you never heard it or read it -- reads: “We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty, sincerity and dignity."

When he wrote this, Pegler was describing Harry Truman, who turned out to be one of our best Presidents.

[mshazen]

I think the point is who she is quoting. Did you read the article to the post.

[olegunny]

Looks like you haven't read much. I would say that Adolph and Benito made speechs that may have been more vile. Good Lord..

[herhonor]

Didn't your mother ever tell you to "consider the source" ? Regardless of who (his name chokes in my throat) Pegler was referring to; is irrelevant. Hitler liked a lot of people also. Besides, history doesn't agree with you on President Truman, though he beloved by his home state. Scholars agree he had one of the most corrupt administrations in modern history, not tha Truman was corrupt, but he wasn't prepared for office.

[Biffmeister]

For those of you still undecided or reconsidering, the current senior senator from Massachusetts endorses Senator Obama. He literally got off his sick bed to do so. He is known for reaching across the aisle to obtain results. He is so respected on both sides of the aisle that he is able to do this time and again. Whenever a piece of legislation that benefits the common man, comes out of Congress, more often than not you will find Senator Kennedy's name on it, as sponsor if not author. This would have been part of the legacy of Jack and Bobby too (they were Jack and Bobby to us) had they not been taken from us. "The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die." -- Edward Kennedy. Let's get things back on course, vote Obama.

"What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents."

-- Robert Francis Kennedy

[olegunny]

Did her swim over?

[herhonor]

I can only imagine how outrageous, offensive, and painful it must be to have a United States (vIce) Presidential candidate quote a "person" that wished your father (a great man) death. We have truly lost our moral compass and this type of leadership will only make us stray further. Palin owes the Kennedy's a public apology.

[darcy]

I totally agaree, herhonor.

[trubbyboy]

Why would she apologize when she may not have a clue who this guy is?

One of Bush's speech writers wrote this for her....she just read the prompters.

She's clueless on a lot more than this!

[herhonor]

Ok now she knows, is the public apology forthcoming? If no apology is offered can we beleive that she stands by her author?

[olegunny]

Hey I bet she and several million other don't care who he is.