Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Palin-Mania: How Goldman Sachs Robbed Us While We Obsessed About Sarah Palin

I don’t post with the aim of being contrarian, but lately I’ve found myself swimming against the tide of Democratic/progressive conventional wisdom. I questioned the strategy of elevating Rush Limbaugh’s profile and engaging him from the White House podium; I criticized President Obama’s Cairo speech for being tepid on women’s rights; and I argued that two decades of unmitigated attacks against Hillary Clinton - some clearly sexist - should compel us to treat Sarah Palin like a human being, not a human piñata. Not surprisingly, I’ve encountered resistance to those posts in some quarters, ranging from well-reasoned arguments to the typical quota of mindless insults from online trolls. But the reaction to my Clinton/Palin piece was the most heated I’ve seen since early 2008, when I represented Hillary Clinton online and defended her on pro-Obama sites…

Topics: obama, palin, goldman-sachs, clinton

Monday, July 06, 2009

Palin-Bashing and Hillary-Bashing: The Same Thing?

The explosion of Palin-bashing (and yes, it’s bashing, justified or not) across the political spectrum reminds me of a campaign that happened a lifetime ago. Back then, Hillary Clinton reprised her role as the political world’s favorite target. Attacking her was elevated to an art form; participants of all stripes joined in. It was the pinnacle of bipartisanship; right and left hammering away at her in an all-out assault that ultimately cost her the nomination.

Topics: palin, clinton, hillary

She’s Pregnant, She’s under Investigation, She’s Crazy, She’s having an Affair …

Let us hope that when the dust settles in the case of Sarah Palin’s resignation as Governor of Alaska that the people who openly speculated about her departure are held to account. I’m thinking specifically of CNN’s Rick Sanchez who speculated that she is pregnant as well as the gang at MSNBC, who openly speculated that she is under criminal investigation.

Topics: cnn, palin, rick-sanchez, msnbd, paul-begala

More “Circus” Talk from MSM

Not quite a week after the Politico’s Mike Allen called Sarah Palin a “circus act” – and later attempted to claim he had not done so – CNN’s Tom Forman takes to Anderson Cooper’s blog to celebrate “the final act of Cirque Du Sarah.” Forman even doles out advice to Democrats: “simply sit back and let the GOP burn.”

Topics: palin, msm

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Palin Steps Down

Topics: palin, alaska

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

A Line is Finally Drawn in the Media’s Ongoing Palin-Bash

It may be of little consolation to the supporters of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin but we can now say there is an uncrossable line in the media’s ongoing Palin-bash: Jokes about her daughters getting “knocked up” at baseball games go too far. Some of us would have drawn the line months ago and for less offensive “jokes,” but at least the media now have a metric against which to judge their skits, sketches, and news segments.

Topics: cnn, palin, huffington, campbell-brown, toobin, letterman

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Ya See, Conservatives are Funny

There’s nothing funny about Barack Obama, we’re told. But conservatives? That’s another story. Just ask David Letterman.  Or Anderson Cooper. Cooper has discovered a nifty workaround for that pesky “objective journalist” thing—photo caption contests.

Photo caption contests that belittle Republicans, of course.

Topics: anderson-cooper, palin, conservatives, humor

Kurtz: A Different Standard for Palin?

Howard Kurtz on Saturday morning: “Most major newspapers haven’t covered the Letterman/Palin imbroglio, and it does make me wonder whether there’s a different standard for Palin.” Kurtz has been consistent in his criticism of David Letterman—specifically Letterman’s crack about Gov. Palin’s daughter (whether he was talking about 18-year old Bristol or 14-year old Willow is immaterial to Kurtz) getting “knocked up” at a Yankees game—so the major newspaper for which he works deserves a pass, perhaps. But as for the rest of them? Yeah, the silence is deafening.

Topics: palin, letterman, kurtz