Woody at GM’s Place.Com posts about Sarah Palin resigning as governor of Alaska. Interesting reading, but a response he made in the comments really caught my eye.
What If George W. Bush had …
…made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?
If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent “Austrian language,” would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?
If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current on their income taxes, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to “Cinco de Cuatro” in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the Fifth of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?
If George W. Bush had misspelled the word advice would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potato as “proof” of what a dunce he is?
If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on “Earth Day”, would you have concluded he’s a hypocrite?
If George W. Bush’s administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually “get” what happened on 9-11?
If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how he is inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?
If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?
If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?
So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can’t think of anything? Don’t worry. He’s done all this in 10 weeks — so you’ll have three years and nine-and-a-half months to come up with an answer.
What if?
Of course, the left and the MSM will fail to see their monumental hypocrisy.
“If George W. Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?”
Please learn the difference between debt and deficit. This is factually false.
Wasn’t it Austan Bramwell, former editor at the National Review, who said that conservatives have poor memories? One can generate similar laundry lists for Bush, pretty easily. One should also include a not needed war costing thousands of lives. Kind of trumps everything else. What is it with the teleprompter thing still? Why is it so much worse than having stuff on paper? I know, I know, it’s just politics.
I am not sure what the list has to do with Palin? I hope to see her doing interviews with people who know their area. I would pay to see her being interviewed by Cowen or Kling on economics. James Joyner would be my choice to interview her on foreign policy. That would go a long way towards resolving what she knows and has studied.
Steve
Steve, much as I’d love to join you in this latest “paternal” Palin, er, pile-on, I’ve just been called up for active commenting duty on a front thought all quiet since April: you guessed it – vampires again…
I’m not really sure what the laundry list there has to do with Palin?
I, too, have huge bones to pick with the left and the MSM – they were by virtual definition at least six degrees too soft on Bush – I say by definition because, had they really drawn the blood becoming their supposedly noble callings, rather than serving as stroke fodder for lascivious right-wing fantasy – écrasez l’infâme, mon ass! – the man would never have left the governor’s mansion…
“I’m not really sure what the laundry list there has to do with Palin?”
Check the byline, then the usage examples under the phrase “bait and switch” in any US dictionary printed in the last four months or so…
Palin v. Obama in 2012.
I’d suggest another Celebrity Deathmatch episode for that one, but it’s likely to turn out that way IRL. (In real life.) At least the writers are already working on Palin’s lines for the show.
I think you’ll find the left is equally willing to criticise Obama as they were Bush, and your post is pure bullshit. HTH.
I hope Palin does stand in 2012. She would be crushed by Obama, and he probably does need a legup because his policies are for shit so far.
I like how Jonah Goldberg puts it in his letter to Sarah Palin [edited; tip: Steve]:
…you are not without blame…You do seem to think the best advice is for you to stay just the way you are…every time I see you on TV, you’re whining about unfair press coverage…it’s not presidential. It’s not even gubernatorial. You are constantly taking the bait, taking up the fights your biggest fans want you to take up…Don’t listen to your biggest fans…don’t think that because the Palin4Pres crowd cheers, you’re making progress…you seem entirely uninterested in [persuasion], preferring instead to play the victim. Well, victims don’t get elected president…[Ronald Reagan] didn’t whine or take the bait…peddling a few platitudes and truisms about free markets and limited government is no substitute for really knowing what you’re talking about…beyond your comfort zone, you fall back on bumper-sticker language that sounds fine to the people who already agree with you but is useless in winning over skeptics…If knowing how to describe the situation in Pakistan or explain the “doughnut hole” in health-care coverage was all you needed to get elected, an intern with a subscription to The Economist could be president…Stay home and do your job and your homework…[otherwise] you won’t win the nomination. More important, you won’t deserve to.