Guest Post: The Smearing of Palin is Politics at its Worst
by Edgard Portela
As I predicted a few days ago, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska is John McCain’s Vice-Presidential running mate. I could not be any more ecstatic and proud of my party - we are tearing away the misconceptions and stereotypes perpetrated by the left and making history all on our own. The American people now have a choice between two historic tickets - picking the first woman Vice-President and picking the first Black President. It’s an exciting time.
Not only that - but Sarah Palin has, in my opinion, more experience than Obama. –What people forget is that being a legislator is immensely different to being a Governor. Has Obama ever been Commander of a state’s National Guard? Sarah Palin is. Has Obama had to work with a legislature to balance the budget TWICE and do it without raising taxes? Sarah Palin has. Who has actively fought corruption within their state party? Taken on oil companies? Once again, Sarah Palin has. In two years, Sarah Palin has easily gained more executive experience than Obama or Biden could even dream of having. Incidentally, Sarah Palin has the same level of experience as Governor Tim Kaine, who nobody was criticisingas inadequately prepared. Of course she still has room for more, but two years as Governor, with actual palpable achievements stand sharply in contrast with Obama’s lack of legislative accomplishments.
The left knows that Sarah Palin is a strong candidate, capable of challenging the whole “change” theme that Obama has been promoting for a while, and offers a stark contrast to his and Senator Biden’s “charisma”…which usually leads to him putting his foot in his mouth.
Since Friday’s announcement, the left has wasted no time throwing about mud in the hope that some of it sticks. For example:
- Daily Kos speculates that Palin’s baby with Down’s Syndrome is actual the child of her eldest daughter and Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover it up. (They’ve been watching too many Desperate Housewives episodes.)
- Wired Magazine claims that Palin wants creationism taught in schools.
- Florida Democrat Robert Wexler accuses Palin of being a Nazi sympathizer.
- House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says Palin is a worse VP pick than Dan Quayle (If he truly believed that, you’d think he’d be happier).
And that’s just for starters.
This is ridiculous. It’s horrendously disappointing to see the left resorting to this kind of politics. They are throwing out their so-called commitment to women by throwing petty lies and false claims at a woman who actually as a chance to become America’s Vice-President. (Come on. Ferraro had no chance. No one could have beat Reagan in ‘84.) If they could provide substantiated criticisms, that would be another story.
Not only is the left displaying their hypocrisy, they are showing how desperate they are to win this election. Sad, isn’t it?
Edgard Portela is a student from Michigan and has been a volunteer on the McCain campaign since mid-2007.
Sphere: Related ContentInexperienced? Come off It.
The accusation that the governor of the largest state in the USA is “inexperienced” compared to the three legislators comprising the rest of the candidacy is somewhat galling. Rather than providing a detailed rebuttal myself I instead present a comparison of Sarah Palin to Barack Obama courtesy of Red State. I have removed some of the irrelevant fields in the table.
Sarah Palin
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Barack Obama
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| Office being sought | Vice President | President of the United States and Leader of the Free World |
| Age | 44 | 48 |
| Children | 5: two sons, three daughters | 2: two daughters |
| Current Job | Governor of Alaska | Junior Senator from Illinois |
| Previous Public Jobs | Mayor of Wasilla, AK (1996-2002); President of Alaska Conference of Mayors;
City Council member (1992-1996) |
State Senator (1997-2004);
Community Organizer |
| Executive Experience | Governor for 2 years;
Mayor for 10 years |
None |
| Foreign Relations experience | Governor of state that borders two foreign countries (Canada and Russia) | Chaired Senate subcommittee on Europe but never called it into session;
once gave a speech to 200,000 screaming Germans |
| Military Affairs experience | Commander in Chief of Alaska National Guard;
Son is enlisted Infantryman in U.S. Army |
None |
| Private Sector Experience | Sports reporter;
Salmon fisherman |
Associate at civil rights law firm |
| Speaking ability | Beautifully executed initial stump speech in Dayton, OH hockey arena without a teleprompter | An enter…wait–did you say without a teleprompter?? |
| Spouse’s name | Todd Mitchell Palin | Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama |
| Spouse’s occupation | Salmon fisherman;
Former North Slope production supervisor for BP Oil |
Vice President for Community and External Affairs at University of Chicago Hospitals;
former Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago; former Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies; former Assistant to the Mayor of Chicago; former associate at Sidley Austin law firm |
| Reaction to spouse’s political success | Quit 17-year BP oil job when BP became involved in natural gas pipeline negotiations with wife’s administration | Promoted and given 160% pay raise by UofC hospitals within months of husband’s election to U.S. Senate;
Employer received $1,000,000.00 federal earmark, requested by husband, after her promotion |
| Coolest thing about Spouse | Tesoro Iron Dog Snowmobile race champion (longest snowmobile race in the world);
In 2008, while defending his championship, was injured when he was thrown 70 feet from his machine. He was sent to the hospital but still finished in fourth place |
Sister of Oregon State University head basketball coach Craig Robinson |
| Most Courageous Moment in Public Service | Resigned in protest from position of Ethics Commissioner of Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in order to expose legal violations and conflicts of interest of Alaska Republican leaders, including the former state Attorney General and the State GOP Chairman (who was also an Oil & Gas Commissioner), who was doing work for the party on public time and supplying a lobbyist with a sensitive e-mail. | Gave an anti-Iraq war speech to a crowd of anti-Iraq war demonstrators in Hyde Park in 2002 |
| In Current Office Because… | Upset sitting Governor in GOP primary due to public support for her efforts to clean up corrupt government establishment | Republican opponent, who was leading in the polls, was forced to leave race after unsealing of divorce records exposed a sex scandal |
| Theme: | Change and Clean Government | Hope and Change;
“Bringing Change from Outside Washington” |
| What they’ve done to live that theme: | Replaced entire Board of Agriculture and Conservation because of conflict of interest;
Resigned from position of Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in order to expose corruption among members of own party |
Selected 36-year incumbent Senator as running mate |
| Family Affairs | May have removed State Public Safety Commissioner as part of effort to protect sister in messy divorce and child custody battle | Often says, “I am my brother’s keeper”;
Brother lives in a hut in Nairobi on $12 per year |
| Union affiliation | Union member, married to Union member | Endorsed by a union |
| Iraq and Troop Support | Formerly (pre-surge) critical of apparent lack of long-term strategy for Iraq;
Visited wounded U.S. soldiers in Germany; visited AK National Guard soldiers deployed to Kuwait; Son deploying to Iraq on 9/11/08 as Army infantryman |
Gave an anti-Iraq war speech to a crowd of anti-Iraq war demonstrators;
almost visited wounded troops in Germany, but decided to go shopping in Berlin instead |
| Bipartisan/”maverick” credentials | Married to a non-Republican;
Exposed corruption within own party; Campaigned for Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell against corrupt GOP congressman Don Young; Called out Sen Ted Stevens (R-AK) to “come clean” about financial dealings that are under fed investigation |
Talks about bipartisanship |
| Legislative Record | Passed a landmark ethics reform bill;
Used veto to cut budgetary spending; Prevented “bridge to nowhere” that would have cost taxpayers $400 million dollars. |
Voted “present” over 100 times as IL state senator |
| How they dealt with corrupt individuals in home city/state | Exposed legal violations and conflicts of interest of Alaska Republican leaders;
Campaigned against corrupt GOP Representative; Ran against and defeated corrupt incumbent governor in GOP primary |
Launched political career in home of unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers (and still refers to him as a part of “mainstream Democratic Chicago”;
Purchased home with help of convicted felon Tony Rezko |
| Earmarks | Opposed “Bridge to Nowhere” project;
Said Alaska should avoid relying on federal money for projects; Campaigned against porker Don Young (R-AK) in 2008 primary |
Secured federal earmarks for wife’s employer and for campaign bundlers |
| Abortion | Pro life;
gave birth to 5th child knowing that he would have Down’s syndrome |
Pro-choice;
only IL state sen. to speak against the Born Alive Infant’s Protection Act, which required medical care to be given to live infants who survived abortions |
| Energy | Believes energy independence is a matter of national security;
For drilling in ANWR, which is in her state |
Says Americans should “get tune-ups” and “check tire pressure”;
Says “we can’t expect the world to be okay with” our use of heating and air conditioning |
| Environment | Chair of Alaska Conservation Commission (2003-4);
Announced plans to create sub-cabinet group of advisors to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in AK |
Talks about the environment a lot |
Hat-tip: Iain Dale
Sphere: Related ContentDeclining Standards?
Maybe we need to make maths GCSEs a bit tougher.
Victory of Sorts
Harry’s Place is back up and Jenna Delich has been removed from the UCU activist list.
This is obviously a step in the right direction, but to read some of the responses you start to realise just how ingrained the anti-semitic attitude of some of the boycott campaigners is. Here are some prize picks:
Diarmuid Fogarty
the fact that the link was actually to a webpage whereupon was published an article that was not at all racist
Sue Blackwell
Jenna did not post a racist article nor even a link to one. She posted a link to a perfectly reasonable article
This being an article that insists that Jews control the media and are psychopathic oligarchs who have no qualms killing unarmed women and children. The author himself believe that the Madrid Bombings were a Mossad Plot.
“Yet the Israeli government does a very good job of convincing the whole world that it is the victim in the conflict. How can this be? Israeli control of the press? Could that ubiquitous “conspiracy theory” actually be closer to a conspiracy fact?”
If that statement is “perfectly reasonable” then either you haven’t read it, or you are an anti-Semite. The person on Engage who defended its author started ranting about Jews poisoning wells.
The Right knows perfectly well that we have had to contend with the racists in our ranks, as the likes of UCU and the NUS will never fail to remind us. It is however absolutely galling for the Left to do this while burying its head in the sand about the racism on their side. Racism is not an issue of where you lie on the political spectrum, but your attitudes towards other people. It’s one thing to criticise the policies of the Israeli government, quite another to extrapolate such attitudes to an entire country and the demographic upon which it is based despite having no allegiance.
At least this episode has forced UCU to acknowledge that some of their activists are racists. This is not the last we will hear of this business, and hopefully it will gather enough momentum for UCU to take the issue seriously. I fear however that that may just be wishful thinking.
Sphere: Related ContentUpdate on Harry’s Place
It seems that Jenna Delich has actually admitted to posting the link to David Duke’s website, but denies having any knowledge of what the site was about. Any libel suit she cares to fight will be utterly nuts and counterproductive. If Harry’s Place’s lawyers use disclosure properly, some very nasty things about the UCU could come out. The theory now is that her supporters may have caught Harry’s Place out by pointing out their reporting of the post linked to a far-right site, which is often against a host’s Terms of Service.
For Delich to claim that she had no knowledge of the far-right links in this article, or to have not a shred of anti-semitic tendencies, is beyond belief.
First, she is of an academic background. According to her LinkedIn profile she went to a good university and teaches education management. It ought to follow that she understands the concept of checking a source for authenticity and reliability. A quick perusal of David Duke’s website is more than enough to see that the guy is a racist nutjob. There’s a prominent link to a book called “Jewish Supremacism” in the article, if that was not enough. If you google search him his Wikipedia page appears before his website, where it clearly states in its first sentence that he is a former KKK member. One would think that Delich’s chosen career of teaching how to teach would involve a basic understanding of checking a source. If she claims she did not then she is either incompetent or a liar.
More importantly however is her failure to even question the contents of the article. That she claims “No comment necessary. The facts are speaking for themselves”, means that she would have accepted the contents of the article without demur. That the article repeatedly refers to a Jewish conspiracy to control and manipulate the media ought to set off alarm bells. That it did not suggests that Delich’s supposed “anti-Zionism” is in fact rather closer to anti-Semitism than she has led herself to believe.
In her admittance of linking to the site, she goes on to write that “none are saying that Joe Quinn (the author of the article) is a racist or anti-semitist [sic], and the article is quite interesting”. The only way you can draw that conclusion is if you close your eyes, cover your ears and shout very loudly. In various articles, Joe Quinn claims that Mossad perpetrated 9/11 and that Jews are “psychopaths” with a predisposition to bloodlust. If she does not consider this racist or anti-semitic, then you have that wonderful phrase “I’m not a racist, but….“.
I suppose she’ll claim that some of her best friends are Jews next.
Sphere: Related ContentAcademics Against Free Speech?
The bloggers over at Harry’s Place have been forced offline after a threatened libel lawsuit.
If you don’t know already, Britain has some of the most outmoded and ridiculous libel laws in the world. They apply to anything that could possibly have been read by a British citizen, and work on the presumption of guilt. There isn’t even a protection against public-interest criticism. They have been used for years to silence and intimidate critics, and they’re frequently used against the careless blogger. As a result, Britain has a booming industry in “libel tourism” where non-British citizens use British courts to sue non-British citizens.
You would think that an academic would consider themselves above such methods, but apparently not in the form of Jenna Delich, who posted a link to the website of former KKK leader David Duke, and is now apparently suing Harry’s Place for reporting it.
Here’s what Harry’s Place have to say.
Harry’s Place may be removed (or rather have it’s DNS disabled) after a ‘complaint’ to the company that our domain name is registered with.
We assume after threats were made on the weekend that this ‘complaint’ originates from Jenna Delich or her supporters.
Though we have not yet seen the complaint submitted, we assume it runs along the lines that pointing out that Ms Delich linked to the website of a known neo-Nazi figure and former Ku Klux Klan leader is defamatory.
This is extraordinary since Ms Delich has not denied that she circulated links to David Dukes website. There would be no point since the evidence is in the public domain.
Nevertheless, a malicious complaint has been made to the company hosting our DNS.
We would like to assure readers of Harry’s Place that we are doing everything we can to prevent a disruption, but that - of course - we will not concede any ground. We have posted nothing defamatory, and we stand by the information we have supplied.
ISPs often run scared of UK libel law and malicious complaints are thus common. Sadly, it is a well known - and usually successful - way of censoring websites which publish truths that they’d rather not be generally known.
We ask our readers and supporters in the meantime to publish this information as widely as possible. The disgraceful tactic of dishonest and malicious complaining should not be allowed to succeed.
Those on the UCU list, please also make this know there.
Please spread the word.
If we go down, email us at harryblog at gee mail dot com for updates.
I haven’t linked to the material myself as I don’t have the inclination to fight a libel case. You can find the original post here.
Sphere: Related ContentBoris Johnson’s Olympic Speech
Eccentric, witty and insistent that all sport originated in Britain. An excellent encapsulation of the national character. Well done Boris.
Sphere: Related ContentCartoon of the Week
Courtesy of The Rut.
I Like the Number 10 Redesign
Dizzy has been ruling the roost with a series of scoops on the redesign of the Number 10 website. The launch of the website has descended into the realm of the absurd. To list them in full:
- The launch was bungled (the site is still in Beta);
- It’s filled with errors;
- It allegedly violated intellectual property laws (see also: HERE);
- It’s downright ugly;
- It revealed the identity of an undercover policeman;
- It cost £100,000 for a free software package;
- It failed to meet its own accessibility guidelines;
- It failed to remove test pages and glitches;
- It released a bizarre video about Jeremy Clarkson’s bid for Prime Minister.
There has been some controversy over this last point, with the Guardian, bastion of humour that it is, describing people like Dizzy and Guido as “joyless”. I disagree: it was an utterly feeble joke with no imagination or wit whatsoever. Admittedly it is probably the funniest joke the present occupant of Number 10 has made, but that really is not saying much. Compared to Tony Blair’s sketch with Catherine Tate it is downright awful. It is also completely off-message: the Prime Minister is supposed to be “getting on with the job”, not getting distracted. Had an MP asked a similar question at PMQs, Brown would have savaged them for wasting the government’s time with trivial jokes. “No flash, just Gordon” is dead, long live New Media Gordon.
Despite all this I actually quite like the website. I think it is a great work not in spite of its flaws, but because of them. The design of a website should reflect who you are and what you are about. In this sense Number 10 have surpassed themselves. The new website reflects perfectly the type of government we are currently living under. Massively overpriced, inefficient, inaccessible, irrelevant, prone to error, incompetent and gimmick obsessed. New Media Maze have surpassed themselves.
Sphere: Related ContentNow It’s Our Turn
Wow. What an Olympics.
My personal highlight was Usain Bolt’s sprinting performances. Absolutely amazing.
Britain has done fantastically well. Best results in over a hundred years and we’ve finished a respectable fourth on the medals table. Those who are dismissing our achievements here should remember that it doesn’t matter how good your kit is or whether or not you’re sitting down or standing up. To win an Olympic medal is a phenomenal achievement.
The ceremonies have been stunning. Beautifully-choreographed, amazing visuals and excellent presentation.
Now, of course, it’s our turn. Hopefully the last two weeks have reminded people why we bid for 2012 in the first place. The naysayers who predict ever-rising costs and an inability to match the Chinese effort are in many ways missing the point. The next Olympics will be very different, but that does not mean that it will not be better. The vibrancy of London, with its long history and strong culture will provide for an Olympic experience unlike any other. Where there is waste and inefficiency we should complain, but we should do so in a manner that sounds a bit less like we want the Olympics to fail.
We have the talent, we have the ability, we have the resources, we have the city. Let’s put them to good use and not only match, but exceed the world’s expectations in 2012.
Sphere: Related Content
