{"id":1224,"date":"2008-09-04T11:50:10","date_gmt":"2008-09-04T15:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/?p=1224"},"modified":"2008-09-04T11:50:10","modified_gmt":"2008-09-04T15:50:10","slug":"taking-in-the-palin-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2008\/09\/04\/taking-in-the-palin-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking In the Palin Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obviously the speech wasn’t aimed at me, and it isn’t exactly something an undecided<\/em> would listen to and say “You know, what?\u00c2\u00a0 That there’s a smart woman who’s really going to get things done.”\u00c2\u00a0 Nor was it really aimed at any (of those few, those proud, those lonely) principled Republicans who are concerned about government spending, foreign policy, etc (If you have two brain cells to rub together, you already know she’s lying about her earmark opposition – certainly you’re not dumb enough to believe that she’ll be any more honest once in office).\u00c2\u00a0 So what was that all about, then?\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been exchanging notes with a smart friend about this morning, and she boiled it down:<\/p>\n

The culture wars are back.<\/p>\n

Nothing much to say about that, really, other than that I believe she’s dead on.<\/p>\n

Other takes worth perusing include James Fallows’ deconstruction of the speech<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 I think Andrew Sullivan’s observation<\/a> that:<\/p>\n

the GOP reflects some of the most ADD elements in the culture. There is no sense of accountability, no real pretense that anything is for much more than the present, and reality is constantly shaped to fit the demands of the micro-news-cycle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

is really quite important.\u00c2\u00a0 If that’s what wins political races, we’re really screwed.\u00c2\u00a0 Personally, I just can’t go down that path.\u00c2\u00a0 But we have a major political party that seems to exist for little more than paving it.\u00c2\u00a0 Sullivan also tips us off to this example<\/a> of it:<\/p>\n

So you have Mitt Romney — one of the wealthiest men ever to run for office — critiquing east-coast elitism, and Mike Huckabee — who is an economic populist in disguise — critiquing big government, and Sarah Palin — who voters don’t know one iota about — critiquing Barack Obama’s biography.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We can point and yell about hypocrisy and intellectual bankruptcy all we want – but it doesn’t matter to them.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t win people over with concepts that are meaningless to them.\u00c2\u00a0 There are vast swaths of Virginia, right now, where people went nuts over this speech.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, someone just like us!\u00c2\u00a0 Yup.\u00c2\u00a0 Just *like* you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obviously the speech wasn’t aimed at me, and it isn’t exactly something an undecided would listen to and say “You know, what?\u00c2\u00a0 That there’s a smart woman who’s really going to get things done.”\u00c2\u00a0 Nor was it really aimed at any (of those few, those proud, those lonely) principled Republicans who are concerned about government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-virginia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t