This is the 'dean' of Washington journalists?!

[BurtWorm]

David Broder on Sarah Palin (h/t to Josh Marshall):



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/10/AR2010021002451.html

The snows that obliterated Washington in the past week interfered with many scheduled meetings, but they did not prevent the delivery of one important political message: Take Sarah Palin seriously.

Her lengthy Saturday night keynote address to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville and her debut on the Sunday morning talk show circuit with Fox News' Chris Wallace showed off a public figure at the top of her game -- a politician who knows who she is and how to sell herself, even with notes on her palm.

...

More important, she has locked herself firmly in the populist embrace that every skillful outsider candidate from George Wallace to Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton has utilized when running against "the political establishment."

...

The lady is good.

[Cleita]

I do take her seriously because I remember George W. Bush

got the same scorn in the beginning that she's getting now. Most of us were certain he couldn't be primaried, that John McCain would be the Republican candidate and when George did become the Republican candidate for President, we were sure he couldn't beat Al Gore. The rest is history. Take Sarah seriously.

[bigtree]

3. I don't see how anyone could have watched the last campaign

. . . and conclude that Palin has a wit of a chance in an election against President Obama.

[BurtWorm]

4. Some differences, though.

Bush belonged to the Republican establishment. That is absolutely essential for a Republican to get a nomination and a win. The establishment has to give its blessing, because then they give the money and the lawyers and machine to make up in pure muscle what they lack in numbers.

Right now it's hard to say who or what the GOP establishment is exactly, and how it gibes with the loony-toon base. It's possible Palin will knock out all comers, but she's such a train-wreck!

[Frustratedlady]

10. On difference. Bush manipulated the votes. JMHO

[Cleita]

11. What makes you think Palin won't try?

She has already proved that she operates in that fashion by taking advantage of every opportunity that opens up to her and not always with integrity. How did she become Governor of Alaska? In a state that has a small population and can't believe that there were that many naive or stupid people who didn't have her number.

[BurtWorm]

13. She needs the Republican money to back her.

She needs lawyers, operatives, legislative aides ready to drop everything and work the system to get her in. It's possible that she's working toward that herself, but I think she's a long way from there right now. She's done some incredibly stupid things since the election, number one being she resigned the governorship after just two years in office for absolutely no good reason. She's made some powerful enemies in the GOP rank and file in the brief time she's been on the public stage.

She's got her work cut out for her before she becomes a serious threat.

[Cleita]

14. I still wouldn't turn my back on her and assume she's toast until the

next President is re-elected or elected, whatever the case may be. Those powerful Republicans and their money just might decide she's the right sock puppet that they need to further their agenda.

[BurtWorm]

15. Of course not.

But she's as vulnerable a candidate as I've ever seen. The only thing she has going for her is that canned media Q factor--the anchorwoman factor, you might say. She's totally comfortable on camera. But she's got an anchorwoman's brains, too, if you know what I mean.

[Raven]

1. Glorifying the triumph of form over substance. Broder's been swimming in

the sewer too long. I often think that when you get to his age, with the experiences he's had...wouldn't you have learned something?

[BurtWorm]

2. I'm just nauseated by the banality of his 'thinking.'

This is just stunningly stupid "analysis":


Her invocation of "conservative principles and common-sense solutions" was perfectly conventional. What stood out in the eyes of TV-watching pols of both parties was the skill with which she drew a self-portrait that fit not just the wishes of the immediate audience but the mood of a significant slice of the broader electorate.

Freed of the responsibilities she carried as governor of Alaska, devoid of any official title but armed with regular gigs on Fox News Channel and more speaking invitations than she can fulfill, Palin is perhaps the most visible Republican in the land.

[spanone]

5. well if that's the 'top of her game' we don't have to give her another thought

[gratuitous]

6. "A public figure at the top of her game"

Hoo boy, where to start? Doesn't Broder read his own paper's polling, which is that 70% of the electorate wouldn't vote for Sarah Palin for dogcatcher, much less president? Yes, she knows very well how to sell herself to a self-selected adoring throng. Hell, I'd look good if you could find a crowd of people similarly disposed towards me. Let a hitter bat from second base, and golly look at all the home runs he'll hit.

I thought Broder was a little smarter than this column; I was clearly incorrect.

[Overseas]

7. He has always been too conservative for me. And too elitist.

He has seemed for a long time to believe we rabble are much dumber than we are, and has defended Republicans quite a bit over the years.

[BurtWorm]

9. Eric Alterman pointed out in Sound and Fury that Broder consistently sides with Repubs over Dems

and says he does it in the name of "bipartisanship." He invented that stupid "bipartisan = right wing" meme. And the idiot believes he speaks for average Americans. It's just nauseating that such triviality, such inanity is rewarded so highly in Washington.

[Overseas]

20. I was glad to read that book because of my long-standing dislike for some supposedly distinguished

Washington pundits like Broder.

Also loved "What Liberal Media?" because it showed me how much of a concerted effort it has been to push our national media way over to the right.

I also hadn't thought much about that "playing the ref" technique until Eric Altermann pointed it out to me. Call the media too liberal and they'll bend even further over your way to prove you wrong. That's been very effective.

(Along with billions of dollars right wingers have spent to purchase most of our mass media.)

But I had disliked a lot of those Washington News Chat shows for a long time, and still do, because they dropped false premises into the discussion regularly, especially the pretending that American citizens are far more conservative than they really are, and trying to praise Ronald Reagan, pretend that "the wisdom of the free market" is best, and soft-pedal Bush Cheney abuses. So it was great to see that indeed, I was not mistaken, Broder was another of those who wanted to pretend right wing ideas were not as destructive as we know them to be.

[Zomby Woof]

8. Broder has always had his head up his ass

Even back when Nixon was the president. The beltway cut off the oxygen to his 'brain' long, long ago.

Always a pedantic, boring piece of shit.

[Demoiselle]

12. Well said, Zomby Woof. He has been an appalling idiot for a long time.

Just like most of the Washington mandarins.

[joeybee12]

16. Typo alert...you obviously meant "dick" and not "dean' n/t

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

17. i've never regretted cancelling my wapo subscription.

[Winterblues]

18. Palin is a quiter and for that reason alone she has no chance at all.

Americans may be stupid as hell but they do not like quiters. Can't trust them even the slightest..

[Zomby Woof]

19. Broder's Babe

David Broder got a chubby
Wishes he was Sarah's hubby
He wrote in the Post
She's the one with the most
As he gives his crotch a good rubby