House of Eratosthenes

Yup, we’re talkin’ about her again. I’ve half a mind to call a moratorium on Palin-related matters…and I would…but I got a feeling we’re witnessing some kind of thermonuclear meltdown among the Palin haters. No, worse than that. Some X-wing fighter has lobbed a photon torpedo into the small exhaust port in their trench.

William Jacobson:

[A]s I reflect back on the past two plus years since Palin’s nomination, I’m wondering if an all-out, knock-down, drag-out fight with the Palin haters is just what this country needs most, not least.

You really need to go read that one in context. It’s a paradigm shift from another idea, one I happen to find quite reasonable, that when President Obama stands for re-election, the focus of that election needs to be Obama. He’s most likely to lose that way, which would be good for the country; and, it’s fitting and proper.

Some of the Palin-bashers are Republicans, and they make the point that a Palin candidacy would jeopardize this. I think they’re right. I just don’t find the argument convincing, because it’s incomplete. It identifies a problem without identifying a solution. And it allows the enemy to pick the generals. Who ya gonna reject as “unqualified” next…whoever the democrats don’t want to run against? How far you want to take this?

All of life is like this. You can act because you’re tired of the infestation, or you can (not) act because you’re afraid of the insecticide. Determination to solve the problem, or fear of the remedy. Didn’t Yoda say something about this? “Do, or do not; there is no try.”

But the Palin haters, whatever funny jokes they manage to cook up about Palin…

They make up tales about Palin’s childhood health care, whether she had a boob job, make jokes about her giving hand jobs, claim she “rolled her eyes” when told someone was a teacher, examine the color of her bracelet to claim she dishonored war dead, falsely claim she advocated war with Iran, distort polling about her, attack her intelligence, berate her for recommending followers read a Thomas Sowell column, move next door to her to snoop on her, go after a blogger who defends her on MSNBC, claim her success is because men are aroused by her, go nuts because of her (first) book tour including counting the number of non-white people in crowds, blame her for a turkey farmer’s problems, suggest she contributed to a swine flu outbreak in Alaska, turn her into a pin-up girl for a news magazine, misrepresent her comment about “death panels,” claim she is “too sexy” to be a national politician, concoct the hoax that she didn’t know Africa was a continent, and hang her in effigy…

…are a much, much bigger problem than she is.

And you know what? I think that would show. I could be wrong, but at this point I’d bet on it.

Hat tip to The Other McCain.

I read the article, followed by the entire comment thread. Most telling was this comment, and a handful like it:

Skippy-san said…
Clearly you miss the point of both sides obssessions. The left and more importantly the center, where I reside, do not understand why her party does not see her as the fraud that she is. Thus they keep pointing out the lies that she tells, the inconsistency of decrying elites-when she her self is an elite (e.g. she looks down on all those who do not share her view of the world).

On the right-you folks are obsessed at defending her for things you should not have to be defending her for-in that were she a really talented person she would not be making the continual mistakes that she makes. Your list is incomplete because it does not tell the documented times that she has done exactly what you accuse the “liberal” ( its not because if it were they would not have given her as much attention as she has gotten and clearly does not deserve.).

Palin brings on all of the scorn she gets and she deserves to be scorned. She is a dangerous demagogue, primarily because the intelligence level of the average voter has dropped so low that people give her credence when she deserves none.

I hope they continue to beat the stuffing out of her in the months to come and more and more of her lies are exposed. She symbolizes all that is wrong with the GOP today. I voted republican for over 25 years-I shall not do so as long as it turns its back on responsible people to follow her.

People like this are all the assurance I need that Palin is indeed the horse to back in 2012. This tool insists he’s in the “center” (I sure wonder what he thinks is “left,” then)…and doesn’t offer one bit of reasonable or intellectual criticism of the woman whatsoever. His post is dripping with bile, hate, and pent-up frustration…the latter borne of his political allies’ utter inability to do anything to even slow down the Palin Express. If Palin were a freight train, this guy would be a penny on the train tracks. One that’s already run over plenty of other pennies just like him. The fact of the matter is that the Left…er, excuse me, “the center,” doesn’t believe a word of this horse shit. He rants on and on about the undue “attention” being given to Palin….even as he pays more attention to her in this post, than a lot of conservatives do in a week.

The truth of the matter is that they are terrified of Palin, especially after the showing that authentic conservatives gave on Nov 2. Palin, dismiss-able in 2008 as an incompetent hick from Wasilla, has already brought to reality some of her critics’ worst fears. That resigning the governorship of Alaska was the beginning, not the end of her political career; that she becomes richer, more powerful, and better-known by the day; that more and more of the Right’s voters are arriving at the conclusion that she’s our best chance against O’bummer….not the mealy-mouthed RINO blueblood Democrat-Lite squish kind of candidate they’re hoping we will nominate in 2012.

Contrary to what the critics say, they aren’t laughing at Palin. They’re frightened, and with good reason. How do I know? Because they only mount campaigns like this of someone who’s a threat to their power. They don’t waste resources going after people who aren’t threats. Notice there is no massive campaign underway to convince the entire American conservative base of what a “dimbulb” Huck, Romney, Newt are, or any of the other names being batted around for 2012 alongside Palin’s.

Garbage like Skippy writes above, is just a smokescreen to try and trick her base into reconsidering our support for Palin. It’s not gonna happen. We aren’t as stupid as they think we are.
- cylarz | 11/29/2010 @ 00:14
The strength of any political entity is measured by its opponents’ efforts to defeat it. This was true of the money spent to defeat many a tenured Democrat. We put our money behind the best candidate to defeat our opponent. Just look at the amount of money being spent to defeat Palin (on both sides).
- JoanOfArgghh | 11/29/2010 @ 05:27
The strength of any political entity is measured by its opponents’ efforts to defeat it. This was true of the money spent to defeat many a tenured Democrat. We put our money behind the best candidate to defeat our opponent. Just look at the amount of money being spent to defeat Palin (on both sides).
- JoanOfArgghh | 11/29/2010 @ 05:27
It seems to me the liberals who despise Palin are different from the conservatives who despise Palin. The former seek to appease the latter.

I’ve made reference before to the situation where a woman is being mugged or raped, and the passer-by chooses, for whatever reason, not to help. If yet another person enters the scene and starts to interfere, the guy who made the decision not to help becomes suddenly enraged. The point to this simple off-the-top-of-my-head parable is that dysfunctional behavior looks reasonable as long as there’s no contrast provided against it. Therefore, people who show dysfunctional behavior have this seething resentment, of sorts, against people who don’t show the same behavior.

The situation to which they’re responding, is a message from the Palin-hating liberals: “Maybe she’ll be a terrible President and maybe she’ll be a great one, but you’re never gonna know, because we’ve already slimed her so badly she’ll never make it.” And so they respond with dysfunctional behavior — appeasement. Give them what they want, maybe they’ll start being nice to us. This is what they mean by “unqualified”; they really mean “should be dis-qualified.” Eliminate her before the first straw poll even starts. They know they can’t answer my questions, “Where, then, do we end up? What, then, are we trying to pick? Where does it stop? What will you appease next? What, besides being 35, qualifies a President?”

All I get back, is that there’s something wrong with me if I don’t share the dysfunctional behavior. And some rage. Just like the guy, in the alley, defending the victim from the mugger, after some other guy chose not to.

Leaping to a defensive position, is just like choosing to let a mugging go unchallenged. Deep down, people know it’s wrong. You should stay on the offensive as long as it’s possible, and away from the defensive.
- mkfreeberg | 11/29/2010 @ 09:01
Guys, if this were merely about calmly, soberly pointing out the myriad lies and incompetencies of Sarah Palin…how come damned near the first thing they started squawking about was Bristol being pregnant by Levi Johnston? Very shortly thereafter (and I’m talking about hours at most) followed by Andrew Sullivan asking the musical question “Is Trig really Sarah’s kid?” I remember that weekend. As enthusiastic as a lot of folks on our side were and still are about her, it wasn’t our side that pushed the media frenzy from zero to “WTF?” over Labor Day weekend ’08, and have, to some extent, kept it there ever since.
- Rich Fader | 11/29/2010 @ 12:09

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