While the McCain speech percolates through the neocortex of the punditocracy, I will respond to Cory's recent notes. In an earlier post, Cory took Governor Palin to task for the following ( I am quoting myself here):
During a interview, Governor Palin giggled as the interviewer called Lyda Green (Republican State President) a "cancer" and a bitch.
Far from disagreeing with Cory, I emphatically supported his point.
Governor Palin should have taken them to task in the sternest way possible. Her failure to do so was a lapse in political and moral judgment.
But I drew a comparison with this episode, and Barack Obama's association with the good Revered Wright.
It's kinda like listening to someone say that the U.S. invented the AIDS virus in order to kill Blacks and keeping quiet instead of raising an objection.
In response, Cory produces Governor Palin's greeting to the Alaskan Independence Party.
The difference, my dear Dr. Blanchard, between Governor Palin's wacky friends and Senator Obama's erstwhile pastor Jeremiah Wright is that we have Senator Obama on record disavowing Rev. Wright's "damning" of America (although, as you'll recall from April, I'm not convinced Wright said anything that needed disavowing). Governor Palin, meanwhile, explicitly welcomes a party that disavows America and slaps America's institutions with the d-word.
The weakness of this reply suggests that Governor Palin has nothing to worry about on this front. I don't know why the Governor of Alaska thought it necessary to welcome the Alaskan Independence Party, but I note that, contrary to the New York Times, she was never a member of that party, nor did she attend the convention. And in the clip Cory links to, she is very careful not to endorse any of that party's bizarre ideas. She points out the few things that she and the AIP agree on. That is "reaching across the aisle." And I note again: this is one brief address.
Barack Obama sat before Jeremiah Wright for twenty years. Does Cory really believe or imagine that in all that time, the good Reverend said nothing that needed disavowing? That the U.S. government created the AIDs virus? That the U.S., not Japan, was responsible for the war in the Pacific? Yes, Obama finally did get around to disavowing Reverend Wright (why, if there was no need?). But he did so only when Wright had become a political liability. For twenty years, Obama went along to get along. Palin's sins pale in comparison.
But Cory makes a second, watery charge:
Pretty soon all McCain-Palin will have left to run on is moose burgers and creationism. And at this point, nothing could be more ironic than a McCain campaign touting "intelligent design."
The claim here is that Governor Palin is an advocate of teaching creationism in public schools. Now this is a matter of some importance to me. I am opposed to creationism in the public curriculum, and likewise I oppose intelligent design theory. On the other hand, I know from experience that students who favor the Biblical creation story over Darwinian evolution get much more interested in the discussion of evolution when the two stories are brought together in the classroom. Governor Palin suggested in a debate that there was no reason the two "theories" could not be taught together. I think that was a risky suggestion. It needs to be made clear that evolution is what is being taught in science classes, because evolution is science and the Biblical story is not.
However, Governor Palin pledged not to push for teaching creationism in public schools. Is there any evidence that she did push for that? Did she encourage legislation to put intelligent design on the curriculum? Has Governor Palin said anything at all about "intelligent design theory"? I have seen no evidence of anything like this. If you have to put words in your opponents mouth, that's a pretty good indication that you haven't got the goods.
My friend and favorite nemesis, BB, says this:
Palin may have "aroused" something "primal" but I fear it is not fear! … What an excellent pick. No value added and extensive liabilities. She even believes that creationism should be taught in schools! That should "energize" the base! In a democracy you get the kind of government you deserve..
I think the spectacle of Sally Quinn arguing that Palin is unfit to be president because has a pregnant daughter and a Downs Syndrome child is evidence enough that Palin is driving some Democrats off the rails. But if they aren't afraid of Palin, then they are stupid. Maybe there is a genuine skeleton in her closet, as opposed to the cardboard ones they have been cutting out. But if not, she is someone to be reckoned with.
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