DebateGate
General Category => 3DHS => Topic started by: Christians4LessGvt on December 19, 2008, 07:17:14 PM
-
December 19, 2008
Cinderella vs. the Barracuda
By Jonah Goldberg
For people who think there's no cultural divide in this country, consider the treatment of two women much in the news in 2008.
The first is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. A woman from very humble roots and with a very blue-collar life story, she worked with her steelworker and professional-fisherman husband to provide a life for their large family. She got involved in the PTA. She became mayor of her small town, then rose, by dint of her dedication and almost naive fearlessness, to the job of governor. In a mainstream, almost romantic sense, it's almost like she was designed by God for a Hallmark movie of the week.
But, when John McCain picked her to be his running mate, the full fury of the liberal establishment -- and sizable swaths of the conservative establishment, some of whom dubbed her a "cancer" on the GOP -- came down on her with a vengeance usually reserved for Klansmen and pedophiles. Don't get me wrong: There were valid criticisms to make. But that is quite a different thing than saying all of the criticism was valid or that the intensity and volume of the criticism was warranted.
Then there's Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy, brother of John Jr., niece of Senators Ted and Robert Kennedy, granddaughter of Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, and the cousin of myriad other Kennedys and Shrivers who've burrowed deep into the timber of the house of liberalism. A multimillionaire from birth, Ms. Kennedy has spent most of her life on the charity-benefit and cotillion circuit. A product of the Brearley School in New York and the Concord Academy in Massachusetts before she attended Harvard and Columbia, Kennedy has made the importance of public education her signature cause.
Sweet Caroline (she was the inspiration for the Neil Diamond song) recently made it known that she would like to be appointed to Hillary Clinton's vacant Senate seat.
One could say without fear of overstating things that the liberal reaction to the inexperienced Caroline has been somewhat more gracious than the reaction to the "inexperienced" Palin. Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post has devoted two columns in as many weeks to this "fairy tale" scenario in which Kennedy, our "tragic national princess," is finally rewarded -- for her years of quiet dignity, selflessly avoiding scandal and the paparazzi -- with the Senate seat that once belonged to her uncle Bobby. What's astounding about the normally sensible Marcus' case for "the Cinderella Kennedy" (New York magazine's phrase) is that she doesn't really make one, at least not on the merits. Marcus doesn't even bother. It's all schoolgirl gushing.
The editors of the New York Times, in a more skeptical editorial, summarized her qualifications thusly: "Ms. Kennedy has much going for her. As a public figure, she carries the glamour and poignancy of her family ..." The editors then went on to describe what great liberals her dad and uncles were. That's it.
This a perfect example of the bowel-stewing self-indulgence of elite liberalism.
Here's a news flash: Not everyone truckles with doe-eyed awe at "America's royal family." Some of us don't even like the idea of American royal families. JFK and RFK had their good points, but they don't deserve the beatification they receive on a daily basis. As a man, Teddy Kennedy is hardly a role model, and as a public servant he's not much better. I, for one, don't think denying poor black kids private-school scholarships (aka vouchers) is heroic. Nor do I think his support for alternative energy, except when it might obstruct his Hyannis Port estate's views with windmills, is admirable.
Simply, the Kennedy clan is no priestly caste, serving as the conscience of the nation, and its progeny do not deserve eternal deference.
Now, I know the comparison between Palin and Caroline Kennedy is not perfect. Each has strengths where the other has weaknesses, and the jobs of senator and vice president aren't identical (the former actually has more responsibility, for starters).
But the comparison is nonetheless revealing. Palin's selection triggered troughs of bile, vomited up from nearly every respectable liberal quarter. A Florida congressman, and Obama surrogate, insinuated that Palin was a "Nazi sympathizer" and anti-Semite (she's not, but Caroline Kennedy's grandfather was). Her by-the-bootstraps story was ridiculed by nearly every ex-debutante newsreader and avowed "feminist" in America.
Meanwhile, Caroline, with a resume perfectly suited to being a Kennedy and little else, is a Cinderella who deserves a Senate seat because, well, she just does.
Whatever Palin's faults, Sarah Barracuda's America has a lot more going for it than Sweet Caroline's.
2008 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/12/cinderella_vs_the_barracuda.html (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/12/cinderella_vs_the_barracuda.html)
-
I wonder when they'll start asking Mrs. Schlossberg about New York landmarks.
Liberals are hypocrites. That's not news.
-
The left also apparently swaps "experienced/inexperienced" with various levels of education. One apparently doesn't require much experience, if you've at least gone to some of the best notch liberal-leaning Universities. In fact, that is often substituted for "experience"....see our recent President-elect, as a prime example
-
In a mainstream, almost romantic sense, it's almost like she was designed by God for a Hallmark movie of the week.
No, with Palin, it's like "She was almost designed for a straight-to-video movie by Disney".
Caroline Kennedy would not be my favorite pick, but it's not my call. I would not have voted for Palin, either.
Caroline may be a princess, but Palin is a rube.
There are lots better choices than either of them.
-
Once again we're treated to the true liberal. A rube. One of the great unwashed. Not one of the elite, effeminate liberal elite.
You know, rubes ... the kind of people that made this country great. The kind of people who serve and die for their country.
A liberal princess nor a limp wristed liberal prince would ever be seen with folks like that.
-
Palin is a rube, face it. She is not a bad person, just a hick who does not have the smarts to run the country.
This bit where we elevate servicemen to holy status is a bit silly. Tim McVeigh was a serviceman, but I don't think he was really the leadership sort of guy the country needs, either. I'm all for saying that service experience is just experience. like being a Boy Scout or a member of the Lions, Rotary or Optimist Clubs.
I doubt that Caroline Kennedy does, either, but she would be more likely to get adequate adult supervision to not screw everything up, while Palin would have who? Grover Norquist? Hannity? Limbaugh? Coulter?
Of course, they are unlikely to ever face each other in any contest so the comparison is silly.
-
I guess calling someone stupid is the best liberals can do. They are so superficial. They judge on race, appearance, accent, and of course family name. They miss out on so much.
One things for sure, if a libtard calls you stupid, you know you're better than they are.
-
Rube?
As in rustic ?
Far from the incestuous and intercindine beltway?
That is the kind of change I could believe in.
-
Rube, as in ignorant, uneducated, unable to understand basic economics and sociology.
Rube, as in too damn dumb to pick advisers who are in it for anythig other than money.
-
Seems to me that Sarah got duly lambasted in public for some of the truly stupid things she said, not being able to name a single newspaper or magazine that she read after claiming to read "all of 'em," and numerous gaffes of that nature. Is Goldberg complaining that Caroline said and did equally stupid things and got a pass? No, he wants us to forget that the criticism of Palin was based on specifics, specifics that are totally lacking in Caroline Kennedy. Bottom line, Palin says and does stupid things, Kennedy doesn't. That's where the ridicule comes from. As far as "doe-eyed adulation," grow up! Caroline comes from a good family and people respect that. She's well-bred and well-educated and people respect that too. Palin is all too obviously trailer trash. While trailer trash have equal rights etc., nobody has to hold them in any particular esteem and nobody has to gravitate towards them for leadership. That is just the way the world works. Deal with it. If Palin had any original or even workable ideas for the governance of the U.S.A., she had her chance to articulate them and failed miserably. We "get" that she is a paleoconservative. Well, paleoconservatism had its chance, and you are now dealing with the wreckage that it left in its wake.
-
"Caroline comes from a good family"
Yeah sure....comes from a grandfather that was an anti-semite, that made a fortune selling alcoholism,
a father that was lying & cheating on his wife and young children, a boozing cheating on his wife and kids
Uncle that acted disgracefully when his mistress drowned in his car when he ran off a bridge drunk....
family members convicted of murder....family members with drug and alcohol abuse....family members
accused of rape....family members that are US Congressmen arrested for driving drunk and under the
influence of drugs in 2006........yeah what a "good family" Michael! ::)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13297187/ (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13297187/)
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2002/06/07/skakel_020607.html (http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2002/06/07/skakel_020607.html)
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071119/NEWS11/71119010 (http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071119/NEWS11/71119010)
-
Seems to me that Sarah got duly lambasted in public for some of the truly stupid things she said, not being able to name a single newspaper or magazine that she read after claiming to read "all of 'em," and numerous gaffes of that nature.
I'm sure you can provide a direct quote in unedited context that can prove that urban myth.
Sarah got lambasted because she scares the shit out of coastal liberals. She reminds them that America shops at Walmart, they work their way through college, they know the price of a gallon of milk and are more comfortable in jeans than a tuxedo.
-
Caroline comes from a good family and people respect that. She's well-bred and well-educated and people respect that too. Palin is all too obviously trailer trash. While trailer trash have equal rights etc., nobody has to hold them in any particular esteem and nobody has to gravitate towards them for leadership.
What terrible case of raw prejudgice and bigotree.
You don't know that Sara Palin ever lived in a trailer , and you do not know that some of the worlds finest people might well live in trailerprks and gettos.
Being poor makes education more difficult to find , but it does not impair the development of intelligence and makes the education that one does find more appreaciated.
There are no familys congenatally fit for leadership and no familys unfit for leadership for want of money.
I consider the respect due to aristocrats by right of birth a primitive attitude , a hold over of the middle ages.
-
Plane says, some of the worlds finest people might well live in trailer parks.....
Correct. The most important lessons I've learned in life that came from watching, and listening to, others, came from watching and listening to those who had little, or nothing.
-
Correct. The most important lessons I've learned in life that came from watching, and listening to, others, came from watching and listening to those who had little, or nothing.
The advocates of a noocracy think those without advanced degrees have nothing of matter to contribute.
-
Palin may have a lot to contribute, but not in any national office. Although I am sure that we have far worse than her in the Senate and House, she still does not have the knowledge or the smarts to be president.
-
>>Palin may have a lot to contribute, but not in any national office.<<
And the voters spoke. Try living in the present. Obama is our president elect, lets move on, shall we.
-
And who said I was not moving on?
I just don't want to see Palin elected to anything where her incompetence could bring on the sort of corruption and lunacy that previously elected people like Juniorbush have caused. This could be in 2012 or later.
-
<<I'm sure you can provide a direct quote in unedited context that can prove that urban myth. >>
I don't have to - - I watched the interview, saw it with my own eyes, heard it with my own ears.
As far as trailer trash upgrading themselves, I agree that it can be done and has been done. more power to them when they do. Palin isn't one of them. She was born trailer trash and she remains trailer trash to this day. People saw how unbelievably fucking dumb she was, and wanted no part of her. Except for the morons who felt validated in their own abysmal ignorance when they saw her.
-
The most important lessons I've learned in life that came from watching, and listening to, others, came from watching and listening to those who had little, or nothing.
The advocates of a noocracy think those without advanced degrees have nothing of matter to contribute.
Boy, ain't that the truth
-
Seems to me that Sarah got duly lambasted in public for some of the truly stupid things she said, not being able to name a single newspaper or magazine that she read after claiming to read "all of 'em," and numerous gaffes of that nature.
I'm sure you can provide a direct quote in unedited context that can prove that urban myth.
Sarah got lambasted because she scares the shit out of coastal liberals. She reminds them that America shops at Walmart, they work their way through college, they know the price of a gallon of milk and are more comfortable in jeans than a tuxedo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyoafptEm5c (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyoafptEm5c)
-
Correct. The most important lessons I've learned in life that came from watching, and listening to, others, came from watching and listening to those who had little, or nothing.
The advocates of a noocracy think those without advanced degrees have nothing of matter to contribute.
I am not familiar with that term.
-
I am not familiar with that term.
"Aristocracy of the wise" according to Plato.
Power, a power acquired and maintained according to the laws of competition, would remain in the hands of the political elites but with these elites being professionally trained, making the most of the analysis, the forecasts and the propositions emanating from a vast array of advisory groups made up of experts from all areas of science, and setting up fieldwork experiments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noocracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noocracy)
-
Palin could not recall, or perhaps never knew the names of newsmagazines like Time, Newsweek, US News, or even the National Review, so she accused the interviewer of thinking Alaska is a "foreign country".
She doesn't read anything, it is obvious. We do not need such dummies running this country. I am not referring to Palin as a class of people, just as one particular dummy who has amply demonstrated her abysmal ignorance.