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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Without a clue, again

 

 


Next week, when Sarah Palin begins the extended public blitz about her book (13 stops, 11 of them in presidential battleground states), there will be plenty of time to wonder whether the Republican party truly wants or intends to trust its destiny to a former half-term governor whose half-baked assertions are so often at variance with factual reality. But why wait?

While conversing the other day with a Wisconsin anti-abortion group, Palin embarked on a ramble about all the "change" being wrought by the Obama administration, and she cited, as evidence, a decision to tweak the design of the one-dollar coin in a way that discriminated against God.

She and a friend of hers had been lamenting the fact that the phrase "In God We Trust" had been moved from the face of the coin to the rim. She was appalled by this sacrilegious move, wondering: "Who calls a shot like that? Who makes a decision like that? It's a disturbing trend." Clearly, her message was that Obama and the secular liberals, in furtherance of their "trend," had banished God to the periphery.

This is yet another example why so many Democrats dream at night of a Palin nomination in 2012:

1. God was moved from the face to the rim by the Republicans. The new design was vetted by the Republican Congress in 2005, and approved by President Bush.

2. (And this is even better.) The redesign barely saw the light of day. It was reversed two years later, with God moving back to the face of the coin...by the new Democratic Congress.

I learned all this the other night, from Fox News, which put the truth on the air. Good for Fox, but think about that for a moment:

We have now reached the point where even Fox News is fact-checking Sarah Palin.

Yes, even Fox News - the same network that spliced old conservative rally footage into last week's conservative rally footage, in order to swell the size of the latter - now finds it necessary to police the falsities of the GOP's would-be standard-bearer, who apparently has still not learned the value of doing basic homework. That by itself should give Republicans plenty to ponder.
 

 
Posted by Dick Polman @ 12:56 PM  Permalink | 117 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:05 PM, 11/12/2009
    Fox is just hedging their bet.
    — SteveMG
  • Comment removed.
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:27 PM, 11/12/2009
    She gets wackier by the day. She will definetly be the Neocons choice for Pres in 2012. I can't wait. It'll be hilarious.
    — jfeliccia
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:44 PM, 11/12/2009
    ho hum, what a snooze of an article.
    — ModerateMike
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:52 PM, 11/12/2009
    This post is almost verbatim from a Countdown segment last night. Polman slips from an excellent post to copying something from Keith Olberman? Pitiful.
    — tom - wilmington, de
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:56 PM, 11/12/2009
    Note to ModerateMarge from yesterday's blog. Nobody, not Hannity, not Limbaugh, not O'Reilly, nobody is pointing the finger of blame at ALL Muslims because of Hasan. Perhaps if you listened with an open mind you would actually hear what they are saying. Try it sometime.
    — tom - wilmington, de
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:57 PM, 11/12/2009
    Why the reaction when Fox news vets are mentioned ??? I cannot imagine a scenerio where Ms. Palin runs for ANY nationwide office and wins. She is pitiful and belongs as far from the national stage as possible.
    — ModerateMarge
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:59 PM, 11/12/2009
    Given his current trajectory, if BHO runs unopposed in '12 - he'll probably lose.
    — A Friend
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:00 PM, 11/12/2009
    Although I strongly doubt that when the time comes, sometime in the Fall of 2010 when she will need to begin her extreme up-hill challenge of a Presidential campaign, she will back down, as is her pattern. She loves the spot light but none of the responsibility of doing actual hard work. Her dismal record during her short, self-abdicated term as Alaska’s Governor combined with all of the self-made hideous images that are undoubtedly going to be replayed over and over again from the horribly failed 2008 campaign, have already doomed her to political satire and nothing more. If that is not enough, her previous VP candidacy allowed for more than ample post-campaign follow-up investigative reporting (mostly from the people that know her best – her home town and home state newspapers and reporters) that details Palin’s woeful lack of leadership, intellect, honesty, integrity, focus, language skills, etc., and will drown out any message that she may have – and some message it is: a clueless, pretty lip-stick wearing, family-exploiting, anti-American low-intellect, air-headed winker, who incites violent rhetoric from her duped supporters. And this is what is on record today – imagine what is still out there to be revealed if she does try to mount a serious campaign! That “microcosm of American” that she called Alaska is just proof that she is either an adroit liar or total idiot; – statistically, Alaska is nothing like any other of the lower 48 states and she isn’t like most Americans – honest, hard working, respectful people – she is not worthy of representing this nation, and those who support her candidacy will receive their just ridicule as well.
    — St Isadore
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:00 PM, 11/12/2009
    What do Dick's subjects in today's article (Fox News and Sarah Palin) have in common? They have absolutely no power to make laws or have any impact on our lives whatsoever. Guess the excitement about writing and speaking truth to power ended on January 20, 2009.
    — Frito1
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:01 PM, 11/12/2009
    Sorry - typo: Although I strongly doubt that when the time comes, sometime in the Fall of 2010 when she will need to begin her extreme up-hill challenge of a Presidential campaign, she will NOT back down, as is her pattern.
    — St Isadore
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:02 PM, 11/12/2009
    Obama has decided not to decide on the Afghan war, and DP is on the hot story of Sarah Palin and the US Mint. He's like a relentless bloodhound, this guy.
    — jmc
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:30 PM, 11/12/2009
    Is this narrative the media has with Palin really that important to the liberal posters on here? I do agree that Paline shouldn't pick a fight with an entity that buys ink by the barrel but at what point does this constant disparaging of Palin become tiresome? Is this really going to be strategy of the left? To pick on someone because they believe in God and are pro life? If the economy doesn't improve the winning coalition next election will be forged with Independents and Republicans who's main issue are jobs, taxes, and spending. Do you honestly think the voters will go into the voting booth and pull the lever for the Democrats because they are pro choice and never mention religion? I seriously think the left puts way too much stock in thinking the country has lurched far left on god and abortion. While I don't think anyone can win with Religion and abortion as the central theme I think it is highly unlikely that such beliefs would disqaulify them from winning if their views on taxes, jobs, the economy resonates with the electorate.
    — ModerateMike
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About Dick Polman

Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.

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All commentaries posted before April 18, 2008, can be accessed at www.dickpolman.blogspot.com.

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