Posted by
Furious on Thursday, September 04, 2008 8:52:40 AM
I’m sorry, but I honestly can not tell the difference between a news piece, a news analysis or even your standard op/ed..Papers and television commentators today seem to shift between these so often that the boundaries are all but indistinguishable.
This claims to be a news analysis piece…
Easiest Task for Palin May Have Been Speech
By Adam Nagourney of the New York Times
“…after three days in seclusion with some of the country’s most skilled political counselors to write, hone and practice her speech.”
I am not exactly sure how Nagourney knows the process used by Mrs. Palin to write her speech, since it was done in seclusion. The implication is, by the words chosen here, it was in large measure scripted and (horrors) rehearsed. I mean, everyone knows how stupid conservatives are. They are not capable of writing their own speeches. They are unable to form a cogent message without the aid of “skilled political counselors”. They require seclusion (a la Dick Cheney) since they are by nature, secretive. Everything conservatives do necessarily involves stealth and deception and dishonesty (like ol tricky Dick Nixon).
Liberals have this fantasized notion of what the right believes and how the right operates. This is because it is the left who actually practices this type of politics.
And Ms. Palin ignited a loud round of approving boos as she denounced the news media and “Washington elite” that she suggested had ganged up against her since Mr. McCain announced Friday that she would be the Republican vice-presidential nominee.
First off, Adam baby, it is not Ms. Palin! It is Mrs. Palin. She is a married woman. That is how married women have been identified for as long as our language has been written. Have you ever referred to Hillary as Ms. Clinton? No? Why the inconsistency?
And she did not “suggest” that the media had ganged up on her since Friday; she stated that as fact; probably because it is a fact. With your own front page jammed with innuendos, half-truths, and outright lies since Mrs. Palin’s introduction, can you explain where she has mischaracterized your paper’s intentions?
Oh and why the scare quotes over the words: Washington elite? Are you somehow attempting to claim there is no such thing?
Facts are stubborn things, there Adam… try checking a few the next time you write a “news analysis”.
From here, Ms. Palin moves into a national campaign where she will have to appeal to audiences that are not necessarily primed to adore her.
Really? How is it that this man actually draws a paycheck? Is stating the obvious part of the man’s job description? Are Obama and “Plugs” Biden inoculated from non-adoring crowds? They do avoid the hell out of them, but here, again the inference is that Gov. Palin is perhaps incapable of dealing with criticism.
Nonsense.
She will have to navigate far less controlled campaign settings that will test not only her political skills but also her knowledge of foreign and domestic policy.
No. You’re kidding. Gee, I thought she could just read speeches off teleprompters, avoid the Fox News Network, avoid community forums, avoid as many face to face debates as possible, write a couple of memoirs, stake out the “victim card” as one of our oppressed minorities, and skirt as many concrete answers to reporters questions as a slippery politician can. Ooops, that would be an apt decription of Barack's m.o. Mrs. Palin and her senior partner, McCain, do not do that. Once again, liberals project upon others that which they refuse to see in themselves.
“Now the question for her and for McCain and for everybody who is inside the hall is how to clarify their message to the American people.” John Dansforth-former GOP Senator
No, there is no need to “clarify” any message. You would have to have been living under a rock for 50 years not to know the conservative message. Conservatives do not need to hide who they are in order to get elected; they need to tell us that they are conservative. Unlike the liberals, who seem to morph in to whatever the hell they need to, when they need to, conservatives ask for less. Fewer taxes lead to less government, which lead to less interference in our day-today lives, which leads to more personal control. That is precisely the legacy our founders left us and it worth fighting for. Perhaps it is time conservatives stopped being so conservative and begin defending the assaults of the left.
But what is that message?
If you are that stupid, there Ms. Nagourney, I give up.
Her speech left no doubt that she would take on the traditional role of a ticket’s No. 2, attacking the top of the other ticket, which she did repeatedly and with gusto.
It isn’t like Barack is perfect. Is it? Is he? Why should he be so protected? Oh, that’s right. I forgot. He is a liberal, just like you there Adam.
“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities,” Ms. Palin said
Seems about right to me.
The remark capped three days in which Republicans have sought to say it is Mr. Obama, and not this first-term governor from a small-population state, who does not have the experience to be president.
Obama doesn’t. And wasn’t Clinton a Governor from a small population state, as well. How about McGovern? How about “Plugs” Biden? Is Delaware a metropolis? Is North Dakota teeming with people? And isn’t Obama a first termer himself?
Why is it ok for one side and a detriment to the other, there Adam?
It is also unclear if the sharp and often mocking tone of her attacks — combined with her general avoidance of such key issues as the economy — might turn off swing voters across the country.
If memory serves, there was scant mention of the economy at the Democrat convention, as well. Unless you cons cider proposing scores of new programs and jacking up taxes by billions and laying the entire blame for every ill on Bush, some kind of economic plan.
Oh, and as far as the “mocking” tone you complain about…there is much to mock and sarcasm is an effective and humorous tool. Unfortunately for many on the left, a sense of humor and a little bit of self-deprecation is required to pull off such a tactic. That is usually missing from the zealots who live on the left; including you, Adam.
The problem for Ms. Palin is that that story has been tripped up by disclosures about her professional and personal life, enough so that at least until Wednesday, she had become a bigger figure at this convention than Mr. McCain.
No. The problem for her is not that her story has been “tripped up”. The problem for the liberal media is that these stories are so absurd. They have nothing to do with Mrs. Palin and whether or not she can handle her responsibilities. She is not the one who is “tripped up.” You are.
In her speech, she tried to address that by belittling what she disparaged as the Washington elite and the news media — a sure-fire applause line at these kinds of events — and invoking her own experience as a reformer. Yet she made no effort to say what she might do as a vice president, no small question when her lack of a national or international portfolio suggests she would not slide easily into the kind of full partner role enjoyed by Mr. Cheney and Al Gore.
Can we review exactly what Gore’s duties were in the Clinton administrations? Besides raising illegal campaign funds and inventing the internet, what was Al’s job?
And what’s the matter Adam? Can’t you address the issue of liberal bias without just dismissing it? Is there no truth to her words?
“But we don’t live in that kind of world anymore,” Mr. Hart said. And, he said, that is a particularly relevant question given Mr. McCain’s age — 72 — and health problems. “I’m sure John thinks he can live forever or at least for eight years,” Mr. Hart said.
Yep, Gary Hart, a disgraced (or should be) former Democratic Senator…that would be who I would turn to critique a Republican convention.
Health problems? 72 is now too old? He thinks he can live forever?
Has Nagourney or anyone at The Times ever said Bader-Ginsberg was too old? How about 89 year old Justice Stevens? How about the virtually comatose Senators Byrd or Lautenberg? Or why hasn’t the editorial board called for the soon-to-die Kennedy to step down or the indisposed (by a stroke) senior Senator from S.D.?
And why is it that McCain must serve 8 years? Maybe he wants only 4? The second term only turns into 3 years of being a lame-duck anyway.
The one role she is going to play — and one that Mr. Cheney played — is helping to motivate the right wing of her party. The uproarious applause that capped her speech left little doubt that she had already moved easily into the job — a big lift for Mr. McCain, who has always had difficulty persuading social conservatives to trust him.
McCain has shown distain for conservatives in many instances. Therefore we show distain for him. Not his personal story or his integrity or even many of his policies, but mainly for his pandering to our political adversaries. Maybe he has learned not to trust the left as much since his campaign began. But we’d like to see it firsthand, before we bury our hatchet. Nominating Palin does help.
“...the job isn’t worth a warm pitcher of spit…”
Originally attributed to a V.P. in one of the (too) many FDR administrations, but here it can apply to this ridiculous, boilerplate, and contemptuous “news analysis” by Adam Nagourney of The New York Times.
This article is not worth a warm pitcher of spit either, but the pitcher is now a bedpan and the word: spit -in the original quote- had a different second letter.