Breathless over Sarah (column version)

By BRAD WARTHEN
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
Poor Joe Biden. He likes attention, and he deserves it. He’s smart, experienced, engaging, witty, and has a smile that, could its brightness be tapped, would give the nation a nice start toward energy independence.
    But he can’t get any. Attention, I mean. He certainly couldn’t when he sought the presidential nomination. And then, even after he got picked for the team, when his big moment came — it was all about Sarah.
    I think I can speak for much of America here when I say Sarah Palin had me breathless Thursday night. I don’t mean “breathless” the way Kathleen Parker meant it when she described the way she felt watching the veep candidate in her earlier interviews, pulling for her “like so many” women (this was before she decided Mrs. Palin was a “problem” and should drop out).
    Nor was I breathless in the sense that David Brooks meant it in The New York Times Friday, when he wrote of “Republicans around the country crouched nervously behind their sofas,” afraid for their gal. First, I’m not a Republican (or a Democrat). Second, as much as I admire and respect John McCain, and have for years, I was not enchanted by his choice. It was like, If I can’t have Joe Lieberman, I don’t care WHO it is; if this is what the base wants, they can have her. Which is not a good way to pick a potential future president.
    Nor was it that she’s a “babe,” as I have learned not to say on my blog. She’s pretty, but not to the point of constricting one’s breath.
    No, I realized Thursday night that I was getting light-headed whenever she spoke for the same reason that some movies and TV shows are painful to watch. You know how you can tell when something’s about to happen that will be enormously embarrassing to the character on the screen, and even if you don’t like the character (although it’s worse if they’re likable, and Gov. Palin is that), you cringe, because you don’t want to see it. You get embarrassed for the human race; you empathize no matter how much you try not to.
    Think of the boss character on “The Office,” in almost any scene.
    Often at such moments, I leave the room. Life is painful enough without having your nose rubbed in contrived discomfort. But I had to keep watching the debate, on account of it being my job.
    Fortunately, it went fine for all concerned. Sarah did fine. There were moments, of course, such as her repeated demonstrations that she learned to pronounce “nuclear” by listening to the current president (he oughta know, right?). And if she had said “maverick” just one more time...
    (I had reached my saturation point on that word during the convention. At least there it had the appeal of being extremely ironic, since the hall was full of people who hated him for being a... you know. Yes, he is one of those, and I like that about him; just don’t say it again. Try “nonconformist,” or even “iconoclast.” Sure, it doesn’t sound as macho, and maybe lots of folks don’t know what it means, and those who do may not like its anti-religious roots. But gosh darn it, if Sarah Palin started saying “iconoclast,” hockey moms all over the lower 48 would start sayin’ it, and first thing ya know it would be as American as snowmobiles.)
    But she did fine. And Joe did fine. And in the end I was fine, because I was breathing again.
    You may say, “of course Joe did fine,” but things could have gone very badly for him. He likes to show how smart he is, and up against an opponent that much of America is worried for, regardless of how they’ll vote (a friend who had described Gov. Palin’s convention speech to me as “venomous” confided Friday morning that he, too, had been breathless,) he was crossing a minefield.
    At this point, you may justly wonder, “Was there substance in this debate, or is it just about how it made you feel?” Suitably chastened, I would admit that there probably was. There was all that talk about Iraq, for instance. And come to think of it, by my lights, Sarah Palin had the right of it, and Joe Biden was wrong. But then, she was just channeling what John McCain has always said — that we can’t afford to lose there. Come to think of it, Sen. Biden was reflecting what Barack Obama, and the folks who swept him to the nomination, believe about Iraq. Joe Biden knows better. Or at least, he used to.
    And I don’t know which was more unsettling — the idea of Sarah Palin suddenly becoming president (as she said, “heaven forbid”), or Joe Biden’s intimation that we didn’t need to worry, he’d be there in the Oval Office at all times keeping an eye on that fine young fellow he’s running with (although he quickly added, “He’s president, not me...”).
    Not that a Palin presidency wouldn’t be interesting. Imagine the State of the Union delivered in the voice of Frances McDormand in “Fargo,” but speaking lines from an Andy Hardy movie: “We’ll reduce the deficit by puttin’ on a show in the barn! You betcha!”
    Forgive me. I get carried away. But I find that we’re in a strange and unexpected place. I had expected to be pretty pumped right about now, because the two guys I wanted to win their respective nominations did so, and I don’t remember that having happened before. But I wasn’t exactly blown away by the first presidential debate; it seemed overshadowed by the Wall Street implosion, which wasn’t the kind of dominant theme I had expected. Nor, apparently, had the nominees.
    So we turned to the vice presidential debate, which actually turned out to be more interesting and engaging, to the credit of Mr. Biden and Mrs. Palin.
    Still, I don’t think it helped anyone make up their minds — even if it did, for a brief time, have some of us breathless.

Go to thestate.com/bradsblog/.

Comments

[Sara withanA]

Well, Brad, of course you were breathless 'cause up here in Alaska, where we can see mooses chasin' russkies from our rooftops and where any hockey mom knows Joe is just a hot drink what needs blowin' on and, gosh darn it all, we have air so clean that you can spot Al Gore's hair from the tuna tower on top of Todd's fishin' boat, well, it's just nat-u-ral that your breath should get caught in yer throat everytime I open my mouth to say nuke-u-ler ... So read my lips: Maverick maverick maverick maverick. Suvivin' is winnin' !

[JERBO]

gov. palin
is a sincere person who has a nice smile but like laura bush said she doesn't have the foreign policy exp. to be president.
she came across as a highschool cheerleader.

[Talk ToTheHand]

Actually, JERBO, Sarah Barracuda is coming across more and more like a bad actor in "The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom"

Check out Frank Rich in the NYTimes this morning: "Pitbull Palin Mauls McCain"

I'm gonna miss the old guy when he's gone, but God help us if she inherits the White House.

[Chris]

Her winks have me bothered. Sure, they could be a stunt designed to get middle aged guys to think that this good looking woman is providing attention, much the same way a waitress might get an extra tip. However, at least in my experience when someone winks while talking, it is usually for one of a few reasons, either they are pulling your leg or lying their little butts off. I suppose a wink could also signify an agreement as in "a wink and a nod" however, she doesn't have a deal with the voter, but I am sure she does with her party...as her response about the powers of the VP attested to.

Please don't put her in a position to EXPAND the powers of the VP as an overseer of the Senate, or as she put it...to ensure that the congress is working on the President's agenda. That would be a gross contradiction of the Constitution and should be treated as heresy

[Mike Cakora]

Huh? Makin’ fun of accents on a Southern blog?

That canine does not pursue game.

[Randy E]

Cak, step out beyond your provincial ideology. This is a blog originated in the South but there are non-southerners blogging and we're dealing with the possible VP of the UNITED STATES.

Here's the image that I get in my nightmares now: Putin threatens Poland. The Polish president asks us if we're going to help protect them. VP Palin responds "you betcha, as a hockey mom I always tell my kids to hand in there when things get tough." (wink).

[Randy E]

I'm sure millions of us will be breathless in November as we await the election results to determine if the McReckless-Hockey Mom ticket will be staring down Putin in 2009.

[p.m.]

You know, Brad, I'd feel a whole lot better about you, or think better of you, to mince words, were you to compare politicians to real people rather than characters from TV and movies.

I'd hate to think you got your job at The State because you read the WSJ and spend a lot of time in front of a video screen.

Yeah, I know you used to cover politics, but if the time you spent doing that and writing opinion for The State has burnt you out to the extent that you could write a column about the VP debate that starts with these words -- "Poor Joe Biden. He likes attention, and he deserves it." -- considering the number of lies Biden told during the context of that debate, you probably need to step down and take a job doing PR for the Democrats.

But, no, like the quintessential chauvinist, you put pictures of Palin's legs on the blog, as though they cast some reflection on Palin, and lament that McCain didn't choose Lieberman, like there was ANY chance that a Republican would think he could choose a Democrat masquerading as an independent as his running mate and get away with it.

It's the real world, Brad, not the movies. There is no Mr. Smith going to Washington, even if Sarah Palin is the closest thing to Mr. Smith since Harry Truman. Superman will not swoop down out of the clouds to save us from the suicide-bombing horde of Muslim misogynists and chauvinists, even if John McCain is a war hero. Oliver Stone and Michael Moore are profiteering practitioners of treason, not patriots, and Al Gore isn't far behind, unless we're counting votes in Florida.

As Mr. Lennon put it, "Gimme Some Truth":

I'm sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

I've had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of Tricky Dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope

I'm sick to death of seeing things
From tight-lipped, condescending, mama's little chauvinists
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth now

I've had enough of watching scenes
Of schizophrenic, egocentric, paranoiac, prima-donnas
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of Tricky Dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
It's money for dope
Money for rope

Ah, I'm sick to death of hearing things
from uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now

I've had enough of reading things
by neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now

All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

[p.m.]

Staring down Putin, Randy?

Palin, maybe. McCain, definitely. Biden, maybe.

But Obama?

He'd just hand Putin the keys.

[Lee Muller]

With 4800 BILLION just added to the spending next year, where is Obama going to get the money for his $1.2 TRILLION of promises?

deficit

[Mike Cakora]

FWIW, the "Dean" of the Washington press corps also liked the debate and thinks that Palin will help McCain.

The fetishists appear, attributing the debate’s high viewership to voter curiosity over whether Palin was John McCain's Achilles' high heel.

p.m. - Hah! Regarding Obama’s response to a Putin move on Poland, you wrote: “He'd just hand Putin the keys.”

You betcha! He’d hand Ptutin the Sobieski’s, the Leszczyński’s, the Wiśniowiecki’s, etc.

[Phillip]

Well, Lee will be happy at least...we can see from new ads by the McCain camp and remarks by Sarah Palin over the weekend the direction that they are going to take their campaign in the final few weeks.

Since they seem unable to persuade Americans to pick McCain over Obama on the issues, they will go down that sadly familiar road that has, in many ways, made people so cynical about politics and government. Palin indeed seems very comfortable with old-style politics. If she or her running mate continue to say things like Obama is "palling around with terrorists," yet Obama continues to seem very mainstream, Presidential, in fact more grounded and centered than McCain, this detestable tactic will only continue to make the McCain-Lonesome Rhodes Palin ticket seem more disconnected from reality.

This was and is my prediction, though...that we'll see a sleazy campaign pretty much from here on out from McCain and Palin, less and less on the issues. Wright, Ayers, and Rezko will appear so often onscreen and in speeches that we'll think they are the next 3 Supreme Court picks, or will be Cabinet picks if Obama wins.

Well, I guess that's McCain's last "Hail Mary." It'll either work, or it will backfire and result in an electoral landslide for Obama...I'd bet on the latter. If people are hurting in the wallet, Obama is talking to them about that, but McCain's talking about some guy that Obama served on a board with in an education initiative 15 years ago and lying that Obama is actually still hanging with the guy, then I think most people will go with the guy who seems to a) respect their intelligence, and b) cares about their economic plight.

Palin's a sleazeball who'll say anything, that's obvious...but it will be really sad to see McCain not only lose, but end his political career in such dishonor.

[p.m.]

And the Florida Keys, too, Mike.

Phillip, how can Obama be mainstream with the leftmost voting record in the Senate?

Why is Palin a sleazeball for telling the truth?

Wright, Ayers and Rezko should appear on screen for the next month. They are who Obama is. Let the truth be told. The messiah IS Barabbas.

[Randy E]

Palin staring down Putin? You guys are actually promoting this? Your last presidential candidate looked into Putin's soul and felt he could deal with him. Given this, it appears supporting Hockey Mom to rein in the Bear is par for the course.

Funny how McCain doesn't trust Palin enough to reveal to her their pull out of Michigan or don't trust her enough to face the ruthless media yet you guys want her to confront a ruthless KGB agent - Silly Season.

[Mike Cakora]

C’mon, Randy, Obama’s record of standing up to folks is not that great, with Hillary as the prime example. Both McCain and Palin took on their own party, so at least they have a record.

I’ve mentioned the Ayers & Dohrn / Obama connection before and that I’ve found it both puzzling and offensive, mainly because I would not associate with an admitted, unrepentant terrorist, nor would I associate with anyone who did. I agree with this guy and don’t believe that Obama’s gonna be making bombs in the basement of the White House, but am curious as to why Ayers has not joined Pastor Wright, Obama’s grandmother, and others under Obama’s bus.

Steve Diamond has a pretty good explanation: Because he wants that Ayers/Dohrn camp to help provide him political support and direction on a national level. No, not support in a bombing campaign, but an assault on US education. He started it by whizzing away $50-160M directing grants to his buddies, so one has to wonder what he really has in store during an Obama administration.

[Mike Cakora]

Okay, before you all jump on my back and OSHA makes me install handrails, I know that criticizing Obama makes me a racist and, because she criticized Obama, Palin too is a racist.

With that out of the way, Obama was proud about his work on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and cited it as part of his experience while running for the US Senate; forward to 1:00 in this video.

Left-leaning university professor Steve Diamond notes that Obama and Ayers did in fact have a lot to do with each other over a twenty-year period.

[Mike Cakora]

Maybe I shouldn’t be taking the Obama / Ayers & Dohrn thing personally, but my job used to be killing commies, even thought I never got to do so directly.

But this guy has every right to.

In February 1970, my father, a New York State Supreme Court justice, was presiding over the trial of the so-called “Panther 21,” members of the Black Panther Party indicted in a plot to bomb New York landmarks and department stores. Early on the morning of February 21, as my family slept, three gasoline-filled firebombs exploded at our home on the northern tip of Manhattan, two at the front door and the third tucked neatly under the gas tank of the family car. (Today, of course, we’d call that a car bomb.) A neighbor heard the first two blasts and, with the remains of a snowman I had built a few days earlier, managed to douse the flames beneath the car. That was an act whose courage I fully appreciated only as an adult, an act that doubtless saved multiple lives that night.

I still recall, as though it were a dream, thinking that someone was lifting and dropping my bed as the explosions jolted me awake, and I remember my mother’s pulling me from the tangle of sheets and running to the kitchen where my father stood. Through the large windows overlooking the yard, all we could see was the bright glow of flames below. We didn’t leave our burning house for fear of who might be waiting outside. The same night, bombs were thrown at a police car in Manhattan and two military recruiting stations in Brooklyn. Sunlight, the next morning, revealed three sentences of blood-red graffiti on our sidewalk: FREE THE PANTHER 21; THE VIET CONG HAVE WON; KILL THE PIGS.

For the next 18 months, I went to school in an unmarked police car. My mother, a schoolteacher, had plainclothes detectives waiting in the faculty lounge all day. My brother saved a few bucks because he didn’t have to rent a limo for the senior prom: the NYPD did the driving. We all made the best of the odd new life that had been thrust upon us, but for years, the sound of a fire truck’s siren made my stomach knot and my heart race. In many ways, the enormity of the attempt to kill my entire family didn’t fully hit me until years later, when, a father myself, I was tucking my own nine-year-old John Murtagh into bed.

Though no one was ever caught or tried for the attempt on my family’s life, there was never any doubt who was behind it. Only a few weeks after the attack, the New York contingent of the Weathermen blew themselves up making more bombs in a Greenwich Village townhouse. The same cell had bombed my house, writes Ron Jacobs in The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground. And in late November that year, a letter to the Associated Press signed by Bernardine Dohrn, Ayers’s wife, promised more bombings.
As the association between Obama and Ayers came to light, it would have helped the senator a little if his friend had at least shown some remorse. But listen to Ayers interviewed in the New York Times on September 11, 2001, of all days: “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” Translation: “We meant to kill that judge and his family, not just damage the porch.” When asked by the Times if he would do it all again, Ayers responded: “I don’t want to discount the possibility.”

Though never a supporter of Obama, I admired him for a time for his ability to engage our imaginations, and especially for his ability to inspire the young once again to embrace the political system. Yet his myopia in the last few months has cast a new light on his “politics of change.” Nobody should hold the junior senator from Illinois responsible for his friends’ and supporters’ violent terrorist acts. But it is fair to hold him responsible for a startling lack of judgment in his choice of mentors, associates, and friends, and for showing a callous disregard for the lives they damaged and the hatred they have demonstrated for this country. It is fair, too, to ask what those choices say about Obama’s own beliefs, his philosophy, and the direction he would take our nation.

At the conclusion of his 2001 Times interview, Ayers said of his upbringing and subsequent radicalization: “I was a child of privilege and I woke up to a world on fire.”

Funny thing, Bill: one night, so did I.

Sorry to take up so much space, but this is important and one more reason why the Geezer has to prevail.

[Sarah]

No, not supporting Obama does not make you a racist, anymore than not supporting Palin makes me a sexist, or an impostering feminist, as so many have said in opeds.

[JimT]

I do not agree that Palin did just fine. She clearly had about five answers so no matter what the question, she had to use one of those answers whether it fit the question or not.

And yeah, that winking thing really bothered me. Did it mean "wink-wink I'm just kidding", did it mean "wink-wink see what an adorable little chick I can be." What a slap in the face to women who have always tried to work harder to make it in a man's world to see this woman act like she can get ahead by winking.

[Lee Muller]

Barack Obama's apologists for his close friendship with accessory to murder, Bill Ayers, try to get away with dismissing it in one sentence, usually a falsehood.

They'll say, "Obama only met Ayers once or twice", or insert a clause such as, "Bill Ayers, with whom Obama served on a board years ago..". Again, it is a lie.

Bill Ayers got Barack Obama appointed to the board of ACORN and other radical groups in 1994. Correspondence between Obama and Ayers references their knowing each other as early as 1987.

Bill Ayers has played a major role in directing all of Barack Obama's political campaigns. The two of them are photographed together at a dinner honoring former Black Panther turned radical Muslim, Kahlid Monsour, in 2005.

[Randy E]

Cak, your support of Palin amounts to "Oh ya, what about Obama?"

Her maverick status is a myth. She served as chairwoman for the crook Stevens' 527. Her state accepts more earmarks than any other state. She supported the "bridge to now where" until public sentiment undermined the project but she still took the money earmarked for it. She received a special exception that allowed her to sell her house despite a violation she was supposed to correct but did not. She billed the state to stay in her own house. She's as much of a maverick as Robert Byrd.

As far as standing up to others, Obama went toe to toe with McCain on foreign policy in the last debate and was widely acclaimed for holding his own. Obama's not the one who has had trouble pronouncing names, distinguishing between Sunni and Shia, and identifying the president of Spain.

Cak, try to offer a post in support of Palin that doesn't invoke Obama. You won't and can't so I expect you to offer up more GOP script which is all Palin can muster (she even blew that by misidentifying the general in Afghanistan whose position she distorted as well).

[bud]

It looks like round 2 of the Wright/Ayers/Rezko assault by the failed Republican smear machine. Really guys, can't you just stick with the issues. Well, that would be a huge mistake given the calamity McCain's Senate record has brought us. So I guess if you want McCain as POTUS you're forced to invent character nonsense and hope it sticks.

Funny how off-base all these attacks are though. Clearly, Obama is a patriotic American with a wonderful life story. He's associated with thousands of people in his life and 99% of what he's done shows him to be a brilliant, safe choice for POTUS. As with everyone he's had a handful of youthful indescretions but his heart has always been in the right place. He's no radical. That's just silly nonsense.

No human could ever stand up to the intense scrutiny of the media spotlight. Certainly not McCain. Frankly, on the character issues this is really no contest at all. McCain has shown himself far more dangerous with his temper, philandering and associations with sordid characters like Phil Gramm and Mr. Keating. Obama represents the American dream and his election will make America proud and great again following the disasterous tenure of George W. Bush. The McCain supporters are desperate to win and they'll pull out all the stops to make sure their guy wins. They're not used to losing but damn it McCain needs to go down, he's just not right for the America of the 21st century. It's time to send the old codger back to Arizona to enjoy his life of leisure in his 13 homes.

[Mike Cakora]

Randy E – Okay, no Obama.

This October 2006 article (the second of two - it has a link to the first) from the Anchorage Daily News recounts Palin's battle with the GOP establishment in Alaska, how she took corruption on, and ended up prevailing. Such political courage is rate in any era and seemed unlikely in a state represented at the federal level by the likes of porkers Murkowski, Stevens, and Young. She had to fight the GOP to get elected, and she won. That's admirable whatever one's political beliefs may be, no?

[Mike Cakora]

bud -

Here’s Bill Clinton’s take on the Glass-Steagall rollback.

You know, Phil Gramm and I disagreed on a lot of things, but he can't possibly be wrong about everything. On the Glass-Steagall thing, like I said, if you could demonstrate to me that it was a mistake, I'd be glad to look at the evidence. But I can't blame [the Republicans]. This wasn't something they forced me into. I really believed that given the level of oversight of banks and their ability to have more patient capital, if you made it possible for [commercial banks] to go into the investment banking business as Continental European investment banks could always do, that it might give us a more stable source of long-term investment.

That was from last week. I know the Lefties refuse to accept that it was the combo of the CRA, 1994 Jihad against redlining, 1999 Fannie and Fred welcoming of subprime mortgages, etc., that let to the proliferation of bad paper and encouraged idiots to create paper that F&F would buy, but, unfortunately, that’s what got us into passing a bill on Friday that extends tax breaks for rum and wooden arrows.

[Mike Cakora]

bud – You wrote:

He's associated with thousands of people in his life and 99% of what he's done shows him to be a brilliant, safe choice for POTUS. As with everyone he's had a handful of youthful indescretions but his heart has always been in the right place. He's no radical. That's just silly nonsense.

Sure, he has lots of motivated fans -- the Obama jugend are impressive, thank goodness the guy’s color is blue, not brown -- but what has he done?

Well, he’s collected loads of loot for his campaign, but some of his regulars like Doodad Pro and Good Will have unfortunately exceeded the limits; according to other reports, the campaign has not been real prompt in returning the excesses. We don’t know how many of the other $25-and-under contributors have exceeded the limits because, unlike the Geezer’s, Obama’s campaign won’t release the records; that’s one thing he hasn’t done. What else has he done?

Heck, I recommend that you, Randy, and others be a little more skeptical when money, politics, or personal relationships are involved, but that’s just me. The MSM has given Obama / Biden a pass: they are in the tank for him. In one sense that’s distressing because freedom of speech and the strength of our media has always been one of the real plusses of this American Experiment. It’s a real shame that they’re taking sides in political battles.