You know, this hitpiece by Joe Scarborough is so profoundly foolish and so riddled with logical fallacies and factual errors that I had to write something about it. Let's go through the "article" line by line.
Republicans have a problem. The most-talked-about figure in the GOP is a reality show star who cannot be elected. And yet the same leaders who fret that Sarah Palin could devastate their party in 2012 are too scared to say in public what they all complain about in private.
Enough. It’s time for the GOP to man up.
Except she has been elected before as the Governor of Alaska, beating an entrenched Murkowski machine.
Everybody knows that Palin is a busy woman. The former half-term governor of Alaska stays so busy these days that one wonders how this mother of five manages to juggle her new reality show, follow her eldest daughter’s dancing career and launch her latest frenetic book tour while still finding the time to insult a slew of revered presidents and first ladies.
You’ve got to admit hers is a breathtaking high-wire act.
You may call that being a high-wire act. I call it just being a mom.
What man or mouse with a fully functioning human brain and a résumé as thin as Palin’s would flirt with a presidential run? It makes the political biography of Barack Obama look more like Winston Churchill’s, despite the fact that the 44th president breezed into the Oval Office as little more than a glorified state senator.
Still, Palin is undeterred, charging ahead maniacally while declaring her intention to run for the top office in the land if “nobody else will.” Adding audacity to this dopey dream is that Palin can’t stop herself from taking swings at Republican giants. In the past month alone, she has mocked Ronald Reagan’s credentials, dismissed George H.W. and Barbara Bush as arrogant “blue bloods” and blamed George W. Bush for wrecking the economy.
Pretty serious charges Scarborough. Let's delve deeper into them, shall we? And oh, by the way, if you can find a single major piece of legislation Obama sponsored I would be glad to... wait, I forgot, he never sponsored a major piece of legislation when he was Senator.
Wow. That’ll win ’em over in Iowa.
One can only guess what comes next on Palin’s bizarre road show. Maybe the publishing world’s favorite reality star can keep drawing attention and selling billions of books by spitting on John Wayne’s grave or “manning up” by shooting an American bald eagle.
Or how about this? Maybe Palin could show up on Fox News and build her weak résumé by tearing down Reagan’s.
Oh, wait. Been there, done that.
When Sean Hannity asked Palin whether being in a reality show diminished her standing to be president, the former half-term governor mocked Reagan’s biography, dismissing him as “an actor.”
Really? Is that all she said? Is this why you are so upset? Because she simply stated a fact? Ronald Reagan was an actor. That doesn't denigrate him.
Then again, I am using exactly the quotes provided by Morning Joe. So far he has not shown me anything particularly outrageous. Maybe later he goes into all the little details.
Sounding like every left-wing politician and media elitist who ridiculed Reagan for decades, Palin sneered that she could be president if the actor from “Bedtime for Bonzo” managed to do so.
Reagan biographer Peggy Noonan dismissed the remark as “ignorant, even for Sarah Palin.” Noonan reported that Reagan loyalists were outraged that Palin would stoop to using the old left-wing jab. The Gipper's former speechwriter then used her Wall Street Journal column to strike back.
Noonan noted that Reagan walked into the White House as far more than an actor.
The 40th president first led a major American labor union through massive upheaval, toured factories for General Electric for eight years and was California’s governor for two full terms during the Golden State’s most momentous times. Reagan then challenged an incumbent president from his own party and reinvented American conservatism without the help of the GOP establishment or the conservative movement.
Well, I'm not going to dispute Reagan's credentials that were given by Scarborough here, but what does that have to with Palin? How did she make an ignorant statement? Only two words are attributed to her in this piece and those constitute a mere factual statement. Is there a greater context here I'm missing? Did she say something preceding that remark to slam Reagan? Based off what I'm reading, I cannot tell what all the furor is all about.
After Palin mocked Reagan’s credentials, the TLC reality show star took aim at the 41st president and his wife. Borrowing again from old left-wing attacks that Democrats used against GOP presidents, Palin channeled Ann Richards by bashing Bush and his wife as “blue bloods” who had wrecked America.
Palin was perturbed that a former president and his wife would dare to answer a question about whom they preferred for president in 2012. Perhaps her anger was understandable. After all, these disconnected “blue bloods” had nothing in their backgrounds that could ever make them understand “real America” like a former governor from Alaska who quit in the middle of her first term and then got rich.
OK, we've got some more Palin quotes. She called the Bush senior and his wife, "blue bloods". Well, to be honest, I don't see Scarborough even debating this. I would think that if he hated this term so much that he would readly deny that the Bushes are blue bloods. He doesn't. Instead old Joe decides to go on a tanget about how much money Sarah Palin now earns.
Maybe Richards and Palin were right. Maybe poor George Herbert Walker Bush was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Indeed, he was so pampered growing up that on his 18th birthday, the young high school graduate enlisted in the armed forces. This spoiled teenager somehow managed to be the youngest pilot in the Navy when he received his wings, flying 58 combat missions over the Pacific during World War II. On Sept. 2, 1944, “Blue Blood” Bush almost lost his life after being shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire.
With his engine shattered and his plane on fire, Bush still refused to turn back, completing his mission by scoring several damaging hits on enemy targets. His plane crashed in the Pacific, where he waited for four hours in enemy waters until he was finally rescued. For his bravery and service to this country, Bush was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, three air medals and the Presidential Unit Citation for bravery while in combat.
What a spoiled brat.
And what has this do with anything? Did anything you quoted from Sarah Palin indicate that she simply dismissed our 41st President's service to this country as irrelevant? No, I looked the article over. He didn't quote her saying anything like that. Morning Joe here needs to do a better job of providing some more relevant facts that can support his argument.
I suppose Palin’s harsh dismissal of this great man is more understandable after one reads her biography and realizes that, like Bush, she accomplished a great deal in her early 20s. Who wouldn’t agree that finishing third in the Miss Alaska beauty contest is every bit as treacherous as risking your life in military combat? Maybe the beauty contestant who would one day be a reality star and former governor didn’t win the Distinguished Flying Cross, but the half-termer was selected as Miss Congeniality by her fellow contestants.
And now a point of personal privilege. I work hard every day to assume the best of Americans who engage in public service. But I am offended by Palin’s attempt to build herself up by tearing down great men like Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
I guess what I said above would apply, again. Scarborough can't even focus long enough to write a cogent article. Where has Governor Palin attacked George H.W. Bush's personal and military accomplishments? Can somebody, anybody, give me one quote that will prove she did so?
Palin is not a stupid woman. But like the current president, she still does not know what she does not know. And she does know how to make millions of dollars, even if she embarrasses herself while doing it.
That reality hardly makes Palin unique, but this is one Republican who would prefer that the former half-term governor promote her reality shows and hawk her books without demeaning the reputations of Presidents Reagan and Bush. These great men dedicated their lives to public service and are too good to be fodder for her gaudy circus sideshow.
If Republicans want to embrace Palin as a cultural icon whose anti-intellectualism fulfills a base political need, then have at it. I suppose it’s cheaper than therapy.
But if the party of Ronald Reagan, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio wants to return to the White House anytime soon, it’s time that Republican leaders started standing up and speaking the truth to Palin.
For once in this article, you're right. Palin is not a stupid woman. But I do feel like a stupid man now that I have not only read this mess of letters and paragraphs but have even written a response to it. I shouldn't have to. Any intelligent reader should know right away you do not support your arguments with the facts and should summarily dismiss what has been written. In fact, this Politico hitpiece represents one of the biggest straw men I have ever seen. You have taken a few words of what Sarah Palin said, distorted them beyond recognition, and claimed they meant something else entirely.
So if you want to convince me that the Governor attacked Reagan and Bush, just show me where she did so. Give me the quotes. But don't lie to me or the American people. You're not smart enough to get away with it, Scarborough.
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