David Broder is Easily Impressed
A lot of people are gobsmacked by this David Broder column on Sarah Palin’s “pitch-perfect populism,” which praises Palin for some pretty unimpressive blather about her hatred of elites. Count me among the gobsmacked. The conclusion just throws me.
“„When [Chris] Wallace asked her about resigning the governorship with 17 months left in her term and whether she let her opponents drive her from office, she said, “Hell, no.”
“„Those who want to stop her will need more ammunition than deriding her habit of writing on her hand. The lady is good.
Wait, that’s it? What about the ammunition of her quitting the governorship with 17 months to go — something that would give her the skimpiest public service resume of any candidate since Wendell Wilkie — and giving a weak non-answer as to why? Obviously, Palin was driven from office by her opponents. She said as much!
“„Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt. The ethics law I championed became their weapon of choice. Over the past nine months I’ve been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations – such as holding a fish in a photograph, wearing a jacket with a logo on it, and answering reporters’ questions… Life is too short to compromise time and resources… it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: “Sit down and shut up”, but that’s the worthless, easy path; that’s a quitter’s way out. And a problem in our country today is apathy. It would be apathetic to just hunker down and “go with the flow.”
Translation: Political opponents were mean to her, so she decided to quit. If Broder thinks that can be dismissed with a “hell, no,” his political radar is badly damaged. And I’m not even getting into the farce of a columnist obsessed with bi-partisanship who is finding virtue — perhaps heroism — in a candidate who seems to physically recoil at the though of the other political party.
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