Joe Klein Must Read: Palin

[flpoljunkie]

Palin
Posted by JOE KLEIN Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 12:32 pm

As Jay Newton-Small notes below, Sarah Palin inked some crib notes on her hand in preparation for her "big" speech to the Tea Party soiree. This has caused glee and derision in the left-wing blogosphere (as has her rather, well, unsubtle wearing of a joint US-Israeli flag pin). I have no problem with either gesture. Karl Eikenberry, our Ambassador in Kabul, has been known to wear a joint US-Afghanistan pin; Christopher Hitchens, perpetual provocateur, wears a US-Kurdistan pin; I've been known to wear a green tie when discussing Iran on television. As for the crib notes, all politicians use bullet points. Some use teleprompters. It doesn't matter what you crib. It matters what you say.

And that's where I have a problem with Palin: what she said was drivel. No, let me amend that: it was anti-intellectual drivel. Obama is a bad Commander-in-Chief because he's a...law professor. No matter that this bad Commander-in-Chief has taken more concerted and aggressive action against Al Qaeda--more drones, more covert actions in Yemen and Somalia, more support for Pakistani military campaigns agains the Taliban, more troops for Afghanistan--than the baseball team owner who proceeded him in office. He's a law professor. He's a member of the elite. Which has come to be a term of opprobrium among the nitwit populists of the right--unquestioned, increasingly, by would-be conservative intellectuals like Bill Kristol and assorted Podhoretzs. I'm sure there's an aphorism somewhere--readers, please help--about the fate of great nations that celebrate ignorance and denigrate contemplative thought.

Yesterday, a commenter asked if there was any form of populism that I could support. The answer is yes: democracy. But populism, as a movement, has a sorry history--it emanates from anger and often ignorance, and quickly devolves into bigotry and hatred. Occasionally, populism will produce some good ideas: the populist movement of the 1890's gave birth to many of the progressive reforms--the income tax, the federal reserve system, women's suffrage--that were enacted in the first 20 years of the last century. Ross Perot's fiscal hissy-fits led to the balanced budgets that Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress produced in the 1990s. The current populist movement could provoke badly needed financial regulatory adjustments.

more...

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/02/07/palin-2/

[gateley]

1. Preceded. nt

[HughMoran]

2. drivel

the end.

[monmouth]

3. The comments are great and .....gasp....very articulate and intelligent...n/t

[Mz Pip]

4. The comments follow the article

are worth the read.

The fact that Sarah Palin had to write her talking points on her hand is an issue. One would think she would have those down by now or would have at least reviewed them in preparation for her $100,000 speaking gig.

[tanyev]

9. Hey! There's an angle I haven't seen anyone point out yet.

If you are charging ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS as your speaking fee, doesn't your audience have the right to expect someone who doesn't need to scribble jr. high crib notes on a hand?

[Hekate]

5. Anti-intellectual drivel. It puts me in mind of the Cultural Revolution...

... and what happened to the intellectuals in that manufactured uprising. Stalinists, Nazis, Mao, Pol Pot ... all seemed to have a flair for knowing what to do with pointy headed elitist intellectuals, including those who had supported them in the beginning and lent them credibility.

Hekate

[impik]

6. Joe Klein is the best one out there in my book

[spiritual_gunfighter]

20. He is a hack and he doesn't think too highly of people like myself

and maybe you as well.

Glenn Greenwald
Sunday, Aug 23, 2009 08:24 EDT
Bush critics: still evil, crazy extremists
By Glenn Greenwald

(updated below - Update II)

Time's Joe Klein was at a beach party last weekend and was confronted about his recent, vague statement that "there are Democrats who are so solicitous of civil liberties that they would undermine legitimate covert intelligence collection." The person doing the confronting was Aimai of NoMoreMisterNiceBlog -- who also happens to be the granddaughter of I.F. Stone (which ends up being relevant to the confrontation) -- and she masterfully recounts the revealing and hilarious Klein outburst that ensued, during which, among other things, he accused me of being "evil," a "crazy civil liberties absolutist" and "crazily anti-national security."

Much of this is just standard Klein. He's been "accusing" me for years of being what he calls a "civil liberties extremist" or "monomaniacal on the subject of civil liberties" -- as though that's some type of insult, when I view it as being exactly the opposite. For reasons I recently explained -- in response to to Michael Massing's Chuck-Todd-echoing accusation in The New York Review of Books that I fail to take into account "practical considerations" when advocating various views -- it's impossible to believe in constitutional principles and the rule of law without being "extremist" and even "absolute" because that is the nature of those guarantees.

But the more significant aspect of Klein's outburst is its relationship to the lesson revealed by Marc Ambinder's similar outburst earlier this week, in which Ambinder insisted that those who were right about Bush extremism and criminality nonetheless deserved to be ignored and marginalized because they were such hate-driven extremists (Politico's Mike Allen, on right-wing radio, similarly called such people "left-wing haters"). Paul Krugman aptly summarized the meaning of the Ambinder episode:

It was clear from any serious analysis of that record that the Bush people consistently relied on lies and misinformation to sell their policies, consistently abused power for political gain. . . . It’s really sad that those who missed the obvious, who failed to see what was right in front of their noses, still consider themselves superior to those who got it right.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/23/joe_klein/

[bvar22]

7. I agree with Klein here,

though after the last two years I'm not surprised that so many at DU are obsessed with appearance, and ignore the REAL issue...CONTENT.

1/2 of America is "below average".
Most Americans have written things on their hands from time to time.
This minor detail will actually endear Palin to many Americans.
It "humanizes" the monster.
I wouldn't be surprised to find that it was scripted by her handlers to make her appear more human and closer to her target audience.

Attacking it IS counter-productive.

[Zomby Woof]

16. You're confusing 'average' with 'median'.

[BlueIdaho]

8. Populism = Electrolytes

Please watch Idiocracy for a better understanding of populism.

[Cha]

10. Blithering Drivel but the bar is set very low

for ms moose jaw, 1/2 term governor of Alaska.

[JBoy]

11. K&R. Good reading.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

12. Obama's a bad CinC because he's a law professor?

Sarah?

Are you listening, sweetie?

I'd like to point something out...

YOU HAVE A FUCKING BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN COMMUNICATIONS!

[Doctor_J]

23. Yes, and she would be a good one because she was a sportscaster

:rofl:

[olegramps]

13. The so called Tea Party Convention was a reenactment of the Mad Hater's Tea Party.

It was a celebration of anti-intellectualism and tribute to ignorance. Their embracing racism as they wildly applauded Tancrado's condemnation of Blacks and Hispanics by call for a return to the days of Jim Crow laws should leave no doubt in anyone's mind that they are evil to the core. I suppose that he left out lynching when he ran out of room for crib notes on his "hillbilly palm pilot." Yes, I am alarmed by these people. They ferment hatred and division and should not be taken too lightly. I am convinced that Sara Palin would gleefully welcome the assassination of President Obama. She is an evil opportunist without a shred of decency.

[polichick]

25. "She is an evil opportunist without a shred of decency." Well said. nt

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jenmito]

17. Ummm, why are you defending Palin, posting a pic of her, and calling OTHERS "DUers" as if you're NOT

one? I smell pizza...

[flpoljunkie]

18. Why, indeed

[jenmito]

19. He's gone.

TSed.

[flpoljunkie]

21. Am not surprised. Kudos, Jenmito!

[jenmito]

22. Thanks, flpoljunkie! I just did my DUty! :)

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

26. I hope it wasn't one of these.

[tammywammy]

15. Very interesting

I'd recommend if I could, but the time limit is up. :)

[jenmito]

24. Although I agree with almost all of the article, I can't believe he didn't "get it" when he said,

"As for the crib notes, all politicians use bullet points. Some use teleprompters." Why does he (and so many others) think her notes on her hand were for her SPEECH? She walked onto the stage with PAGES of notes for her speech which she had on the podium. The notes on her hand were for her pre-screened questions during her Q&A session. THAT'S where she looked at her hand. And nobody uses a teleprompter for questions.