The folks at the Hebrew language opinion and news site Latma have done it again. A new effort revealing the hypocrisy of the Palestinians and their slavish supporters across the world are skewered in yet another parody video.
Video: ‘The Three Terrors’ Skewers Palestinian Supporters”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Want to hear the latest idiocy against the Arizona anti-illegal immigrant law dreamed up by open-border advocates and illegal alien supporters? Well, try this on for size: Arizona’s SB 1070 helps men beat their wives and girlfriends.
No, really. That is their argument.
A national organization called Legal Momentum has asked a federal court to block implementation of Arizona’s SB 1070 because they feel that immigrant women will be afraid to report abuse for fear of being deported.
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Arizona Illegal Immigrant Law Fosters Wife Beating, or Something…”
-By Warner Todd Huston
OK, excuse me if this sounds a bit like a fan-boy post, but Sarah Palin herself tweeted to her “tweeps” my story on the AP’s constant covering for Democrats.
Now, some may scoff at my claim that it was Sarah herself that did it. But for all the investigating that people have done, we know that Sarah does her own Tweeting and does not have a staffer doing it. So, yes, I feel comfortable saying Sarah herself Tweeted my story.
Check out the screen shot of her Twitter feed…
Like I said, I hate to sound like a fan-boy, and I’m not a fan of hero worshiping, but this is kind cool anyway so I thought I’d share it.
-By Warner Todd Huston
One of the many ways that the Associated Press lends its support to Democrats and leftists in its political reporting is often evident in its stories on political scandals. The most common assist the AP gives to Democrats is to somehow forget to mention that a politician in the news because of criminal activity or other scandals is a Democrat. Yet when any pol in the news for scandal is a Republican his party affiliation often leads the story, if it isn’t in the headline, even. Oh, it’s all accidental I’m sure, but it happens so often as to give the suspicion of a concerted effort. And today we have a great example of the AP’s penchant for covering for Democrats.
The writer is AP’s Colleen Long and on June 14 she penned two stories on separate political scandals, both of them occurring in New York. These criminal cases concern political operatives and how Long treated them is telling.
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AP Bias: Name That Party Blasts Repubs, Leaves Dems Unnamed in Stories”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Well, she’s a former alcoholic, drug addict, washed up actor, shock therapy patient (no, really) and one-time princess to the universe, but now Carrie “Princess Leia” Fisher can add one more calumny to her long list of off-kilter, personality deficits: she’s a “teabagger” hater. So, she’s got that going for her, which is nice.
Hawking another one of those prosaic celebrity tell-alls, Fisher spoke to the folks at the entertainment site PopEater.com and when the subject of Obama and the Tea Party movement came up, the one-time heartthrob of nerds everywhere didn’t hold back. They are all “racists” she said.
PoEater.com asked Fisher if she had met President Obama; she hadn’t but wanted to. And then they asked the leading question of the day: “Do you think Tea Party is just people who are pissed that there is an African American president?”
Warming to the presented theme, Fisher took the bait at warp speed.
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Princess Leia Found Her Darth Vader: It’s You and Me”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Here’s how bad writing is in the media. In a Reuters story about unions making concessions is this amusing line:
“Under Gettelfinger, the UAW agreed to allow new workers to be hired at about $14 per hour — about half of the $28 base rate for existing autoworkers.”
Uh, per my math, 14 IS half of 28. It isn’t “about half.” Nice writing there al Reuters!
Now, a better way to say it would have been:
“Under Gettelfinger, the UAW agreed to allow new workers to be hired at about half the $28 base rate for existing autoworkers.”
More precise, less wordy and makes sense. It was pretty poor work by Reuters. I know I make my share of mistakes, but then again, I’m just blogging here. I don’t have editors!
-By Warner Todd Huston
This is my first vlog (that’s video blog for the uninitiated) using my new HD camera. I see I have to fix my lighting problem in the room I was using to record it in, but anyways… it was my first stab at it, so give me a break will ya?
This episode I look into the controversial decision of YouTube to pull the Latma parody video of “We Are The World,” which they titled “We Con The World.” The video makes fun of the Palestinian supporters in the aftermath of the IDF raid of several “aid” ships off the coast of Gaza.
In any case, I will be sure to get better at this video deal-i-o, so don’t let this first attempt dissuade you from trying my next one, won’t you?
-By Warner Todd Huston
When someone says “journalist” do you have a picture of a fedora-sporting, cigar chomping, agitator with jaded mien and independent mind, a man stubbornly outside the political establishment looking in and eyeing it all with suspicion? Do you get a flash of a writer that stands in opposition to entrenched powers, one looking out for the little folks ala an Upton Sinclair? If so you’ve been watching too many antiquated, black-and-white moves from the 1940s. Today, “journalist” simply means an extension of the Democrat Party. And now even the book parties held so “journalists” can launch their latest paean to liberalism is bought and paid for by leftists, the Democrat Party, and its operatives.
To disabuse you of that old-fashioned notion, on June 9, Washington Post star reporter Ceci Connolly had to cancel her appearance at her own book party when it became common knowledge that the whole thing was being paid for by a public relations firm run by Democrat operatives. The event was bought and paid for by Blue Line Strategic Communications, a public relations firm run by Democratic communications strategist Michael Meehan and former Senate Democratic official David DiMartino. Most recently DiMartino was a Sen. John Kerry staffer and Meehan worked as a senior staff member in the Senate for years.
So much for the idea of independent journalists.
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American Journalism, Brought to you By The Democrat Party”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In the week following the Israeli boarding of boats piloted by Turkish “peace activists” off the coast of Gaza Caroline Glick and the good folks at the Hebrew language Israeli news site Latma created a parody video skewering the violent actions perpetrated by those “peace activists” against members of the Israeli authorities attempting to enforce the Gaza blockade. The video went up on YouTube and garnered three million views within a matter of days.
Created as a parody of the 1980s activist song “We are the World,” the Latma song was named “We Con the World” and humorously depicted an array of Palestinian supporters singing about how they’d fooled the world into thinking that it was the Israelis that were the bad guys in the Gaza blockade incident.
The video was very clever and hit just the right notes of humor being not too mean spirited yet easily hitting home with its message. The humor of the video was wholly in keeping with western humor and not over-the-top or unduly offensive at all. Naturally, YouTube pulled it anyway.
On her website, Glick reports that the video’s creators were told by YouTube that the use of the original song, “We are the World,” was a copyright violation. But Glick disputes this claim.
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Terrorists Rejoice: YouTube Pulls Pro-Israeli Video”
-By Dan Scott
After Paul McCartney’s classless swipe at former President George W Bush at an award ceremony hosted by Barack Obama, one has to wonder at the maturity of modern liberals. Are they 12 year olds or adults? Was this the behavior of an infantile child or a gentleman? The fact that Paul McCartney believed his comments would be accepted without reservation by his host, Barack Obama speaks to the measure of both so-called men. Why else would McCartney utter such tasteless and irrelevant comments at a ceremony to honor achievement? Did Barack Obama attempt to diffuse the inappropriate comment or otherwise do anything other than condone it with his silence? Not to anyone’s knowledge. The comment in question: “After the last eight years, it’s great to have a President who knows what a library is,” This is in reference to the liberal mythology that George W Bush was dumb. It’s amazing how stupid people can come off by drinking their own Kool-Aid.
Take a long hard look on the internet, use any search engine, do you find one mention listing Barack Obama’s grades? You can find the grades of George W Bush, Al Gore and John Kerry with little trouble. Notice how the The Washington Post and Boston Globe had no problems with obtaining university transcripts of George W Bush, Al Gore and John Kerry . Has there been any serious candidate for president in modern history that sealed their educational records in a deliberate attempt to conceal from the public the educational performance of a person who intends to be the leader of the US? Then why is Barack Obama allowed to conceal his academic performance? It should go without saying that a person who made average or better grades would have nothing to hide in their transcripts and academic life at public universities. What is he ashamed of that the public would find negative or give a less than positive light? Or has Barack Obama and the liberal mythmakers learned their lesson not to reveal actual facts that may undercut their false assertions? John Kerry and Al Gore both found out the hard way that George W Bush was as smart if not smarter than they were according to quantifiable academic performance standards when an actual inspection of grades were allowed. The underlying question is what makes a person smart or are we to be subjected to the immature childish braying of insecure people acting like they are in grade school?
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Obama’s Encounter With A Library”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Since I wrote and submitted my piece on Helen Thomas comparing the firestorm of condemnation that occurred immediately after entertainer Don Imus made his race-tinged comments about the Rutgers basketball players to the relative kid gloves with which Helen Thomas is being handled over her outrageous anti-Israeli comments a few new things have occurred in the story.
First of all a few left leaning pundits have scolded Thomas, most prominently Clinton era operative Lanny Davis who issued a press release calling Thomas an “anti-Semitic bigot.”
Joe Klein, another left-wing pundit, posted a few short paragraphs saying that he felt Thomas should be moved from the front row to the back of the room, though he is obviously avoiding a call for her to be fired. Apparently her anti-Semitism isn’t bad enough for Klein to want her fired.
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Helen Thomas: The End”
-By Warner Todd Huston
By now if you are a political junkie you know that the Queen of the White House press corps, Helen Thomas, was heard to voice the anti-Semitic sentiment that all the Jews in Israel should “go back to Germany and Poland” where they came from. So far, the tepid response from the oh, so racially sensitive left and the Old Media has been nothing short of breathtaking. But this lack of interest in a racist comment by a high profile member of the media isn’t de rigueur. One must only recall the firestorm that radio/TV guy Don Imus kicked up back in 2007 when he called an African-American basketball player a “nappy-headed ho.” Imus was immediately excoriated and forced off the air. Thomas, however, is being treated with a total lack of concern by the same overly race conscious media that destroyed Imus.
One would think that racism is racism no matter who says it or toward which race, creed, religion or people the evil sentiment is cast. If standing against racism was the goal, one would think that the left and its Old Media buddies would be just as incensed at Helen Thomas wishing a new Holocaust to be reigned down upon the Jews as they all were over Don Imus using a racial slur against some black basketball players. But thus far, Helen Thomas is being given a pass while Imus was at the top of the most shrill news coverage starting only hours after he made his on air comment and lasting for at least a week of condemnation.
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Nappy-Headed Helens: A Tale of Two Racial Slurs”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In another one of those stories that casts ancient civilizations as somehow just as learned as we are today, the Los Angeles Times has pronounced the Ancient Mayans to be the world’s “first polymer scientists” because they knew how to mix sap from the rubber tree to create rubber balls in Mesoamerica.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it is very interesting (even exciting at some level) to realize that the ancient Mayans knew how to create rubber soled sandals, rubber balls for sports competition, and a type of glue from the sap of the rubber tree. No one can belittle that accomplishment and ingenuity. But this discovery does not make of them “polymer scientists.” It makes them clever, yes, but not scientists. This LATimes article wallows in that ridiculous tendency in western society today to mischaracterize ancient civilizations and ascribe modern characteristics or ideals to peoples from the past, ideals that simply don’t make sense.
As it happens the Mayans found that if they mixed the juice of the morning glory plant with the sap from a rubber tree in varying amounts they could get solid rubber balls, glues, and other rubber products. These formulas were a result of trial and error, certainly, but not science.
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Liberal’s Tendency To Laud the Noble Savage Masking Self-Hatred?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Left-wing, hack writer Joe McGinniss is showing signs of instability. Like a wife beater, he’s now blaming Sarah Palin for being alarmed and upset that he — well known as her literary stalker — has suddenly appeared as her new next door neighbor.
McGinnis has, wife-beater-like, been quoted by the Washington Post that HE is the one “offended” by Palin’s portrayal of HIM.
McGinniss told the Post that Palin should have “offered him a plate of cookies” when he moved in to stalk her instead of scoffing about him on her FaceBook account. He says that he was “deeply offended” at what she wrote and told the Post that he was even nice enough to shoo some tourists from Minnesota off Palin’s lawn after he set up his surveillance operations next door.
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Joe McGinniss Like a Wife Beater Blaming the Wife”
-By Warner Todd Huston
This is the face of tyranny. A Michigan State Senator has introduced an Orwellian bill that would provide for the licensing of journalists. There is no doubt that this thing is aimed squarely at delegitimizing the New Media, silencing bloggers, and creating a protected class of state approved “journalists.”
State Senator Bruce Patterson is the braintrust behind this flouting of the U.S. Constitution and outrageously enough, this Patterson fellow claims to be a “constitutional lawyer.” Pair him with the “constitutional scholar” we have as president and we have a matched set of revisionists out to steal as much power for themselves as one can find in any tinpot dictatorship! Even more ridiculously, this mustachioed villain is a Michigan Republican, proving that this sort of megalomania infests both sides of the aisle.
So what is this licensing deal supposed to do for we, the stupid people not able to figure out what end is up with current events, anyway? According to Patterson we can’t get “good information” any more because of the proliferation of new sources of info. But not to worry, granny Patterson is here to save the day and he’ll selflessly take it upon himself to determine what news source is a “legitimate media source.” What could possibly go wrong, eh?
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Michigan To License Journalists?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
California’s Democrats have forced the upcoming Captain America movie to be filmed in England. Why would that be, Buckey? Because it’s just too expensive to film the movie in California because of the Democrat’s punitive taxes.
For Yahoo Movies, Mike Ryan asks a seminal question: Should We Now Call Him ‘Captain England’? In his lament, Ryan worries over the U.S. film industry as movies and TV shows flee America, specifically California, for the cheaper production rates of Canada and England.
And now Democrats are so concerned with propping up union thugs, forcing themselves on the people at every avenue, and stealing as much money from the rest of us that they can that they’ve even chased Captain America away from America!
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Democrats Force Captain America to Flee America”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The final answer is, “no,” Chicago-based Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. is not endorsing a Republican to take Barack Obama’s old Illinois U.S. Senate seat. But Jackson is making news by seeming to be toying with the idea of abandoning the troubled Democrat candidate, Alexi Giannoulias.
And, in the end, that’s all this is. It’s Jesse Jackson, Jr. employing the ages old Chicago Democrat game of fishing for payoffs.
The game goes like this: Long-time Democrat strong-man wants a pay off of one kind or another so he pretends he might support someone surprising, someone that isn’t the expected pick. Party bigwigs rush to payoff said strong-man so that he will support the usual suspect. Strong-man gets big rewards and ends up supporting the usual suspect anyway.
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Rep. Jesse Jackson Endorsing Republican Mark Kirk?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Comparisons are always a great way to show how differently the Old Media treats conservative and leftist politicians in America today and Obama’s nomination of the Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court gives us another opportunity to see the Old Media’s penchant to excoriate a Republican’s actions while soft peddling and excusing away similar actions by a left-winger.
In this case, it is instructive to see how the Old Media treated the claim that Sarah Palin banned books from the Wasilla library when she was mayor and today how it is treating the recently highlighted Supreme Court arguments made by Elena Kagan that the government could ban books under the McCain-Feingold Act.
After McCain picked Governor Sarah Palin for his number two slot during the 2008 campaign for president the Old Media lit upon a story that said Sarah Palin tried to ban books from the Wasilla library when she was mayor there in 1996. A list of the supposedly banned books was even bandied about by the left-wing blogs causing a ruckus in the media but it turned out the list had books on it published years after Palin had left the Mayor’s office. The list was a fabrication and was lifted from a website that detailed the books that had been banned at one time or another, in one place or another, over the last 100 years.
As it turned out the whole story came from another former Wasilla mayor. He claimed that Palin had asked a Wasilla librarian “how she could go about banning books.” No books were banned, no list was made and Palin said she was asked by a constituent to look into how a book might be removed for its “objectionable material.”
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A Tale of Two Book Banners: Palin Ripped, Kagan Excused”
-By Warner Todd Huston
It is interesting to see how the Old Media constantly spins American politics, but one thing underlies the media’s conception about current events. The Old Media’s base assumption is that the left is “moderate” but all on the right are “far right.” This concept serves as the benchmark for almost every single analysis of American politics. It’s the assumption they nearly all start with as they analyze modern politics.
Ron Fournier, Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press, recently penned an analysis of Washington perfectly infused with this benchmark assumption. In early May Fournier wrote a knee slapper that claimed that there is “no place to go for moderates” because the US political scene is headed for “extremes.” And why is it headed for “extremes”? Likely it’s because it looks like the GOP is on the ascendance and the left is in retreat. But according to Fournier it’s because “moderates” are being chased from the parties.
Fournier thinks that “extremes” are befalling American politics because Charlie Crist of Florida was somehow “chased out” of the Florida Republican Party. He also points to Arlen Spector’s ship-jumping move from GOP to Democrat as evidence that the “extremes” are winning. For balance he tries to use the case of former Democrat, now independent, Joe Lieberman as an example of a “moderate” Democrat chased from the Democrat Party. These examples, Fournier posits, is proof that “compromise” is being killed in politics today.
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Old Media: Democrats = Moderate, Republicans = Extremist”
-By Selwyn Duke
Recently, columnist Charles Krauthammer expressed support for amnesty for illegals, while Newt Gingrich advocated a path to what he called “legality.” The two men stipulated that border control must come first, but, still, what makes these two conservatives such weak sisters on this issue? Perhaps part of the answer was provided by Dick Morris, who said that immigration is a losing issue for Republicans.
Morris is no pillar of principle, but he knows political trends. What’s his reasoning? Over the short term, a hard-line immigration stance benefits many politicians; as for the long term, however, there’s something called demographic change.
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Cinco to Midnight: The Great Mexican End Game”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Nice work, SEIU. Service Employee International Union members descended upon the home of a banker to protest the banker’s work. The banker wasn’t home but his teenage son was and he was home alone and the 14 bus loads of union thugs scared the heck out of the poor kid.
This was no political protest, it was an inciting, angry mob of union thugs. The Fortune Magazine piece that reported the incident made a salient point about the whole thing.
Targeting homes and families seems to put SEIU in the ranks of (now jailed) radical animal-rights activists and the Kansas anti-gay fundamentalists harassing the grieving parents of a dead 20-year-old soldier at his funeral (the Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on the latter). But that’s not a conversation that SEIU officials want to have.
Amusingly, Nina Easton makes another great point in the friendly coverage of this outrageous union thuggery. The Old Media didn’t even attend and the whole thing was covered by an activist Huffington Post blogger.
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SEIU Thugs Terrorize Teenage Boy”
-By Warner Todd Huston
On the day after his historic primary win, National Public Radio rabidly went after Rand Paul, newly minted GOP nominee for Kentucky Senator, trying to make him out to be a KKK sympathizer or perhaps a racist that would have agreed to keep Jim Crow alive and well in 1964. This rabid, left-wing attack is uncalled for and, further, is meant only to stir anti-Republican hatred and not to help voters discover anything relevant about nominee Rand Paul.
Nearly at the top of the interview the host of NPR’s All Things Considered tried to paint Mr. Paul as some sort of hater that would have opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Catch this loaded and irrelevant question by NPR:
You’ve said that business should have the right to refuse service to anyone and that the Americans for Disabilities Act, the ADA, was an over reach by the federal government, would you say the same by extension of the 1964 Civil Rights Act?
Paul gave a very good reply but the best thing he said was that he hadn’t read through the entire 1964 legislation because it had been passed 40 years ago and didn’t have any role in today’s campaign. And that is just it, isn’t it? The 1964 Civil Rights Act is ancient history as far as current politics goes. It is fully accepted and is not a law in dispute, nor does it have any part in current political discussion. The law is fact the legitimacy of which no one questions. Talking about the 1964 Civil Rights Act is not relevant alt all to today’s issues.
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NPR Tries to Cast Rand Paul as KKK Sympathizer”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Ahead of multiple ethics violations Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd is retiring from his long-time Democrat held seat. The Conn. Democrat Party is keen to keep that seat and has proffered Conn. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal as the man to do it for them. But, Blumenthal has a tiny little problem: for three decades he’s told fibs and outright untruths about his service in Vietnam.
Blumenthal has for decades said he was a veteran of the war and led constituents to believe he served overseas but the truth is he served only during the last few years of the war, having gotten multiple deferments before 1970, and then served only here in the United States, never overseas.
Kudos to the New York Times for reporting this fact, of course, but the Old Media is not absolved because of this one story. Condemnation for the media is evident in these words in the NYT story: “The Vietnam chapter in Mr. Blumenthal’s biography has received little attention despite his nearly three decades in Connecticut politics.”
Amazing. This man has been prevaricating about his non-existent service in the war for three decades and only NOW he’s getting called on the carpet for it? Where has the Connecticut media been all this time? Where has the national media been for the months that Blumenthal has been running for Senate?
One of the lead paragraphs in the Times story is pretty damning.
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Media Lets Conn. Dem Slide on Vietnam Lies for Three Decades”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Associated Press made an interesting concession — likely without even knowing they did so — in a recent report on the “new normal” of permanent job loss in Obama’s economy. The AP admitted that until the recession, American businesses weren’t firing people simply so improve the bottom line as many anti-business, left-wingers have been for decades claiming.
In the AP piece the headline moans that “Millions of jobs that were cut won’t likely return,” and goes on to say that “millions of jobs lost in the recession could be gone for good.”
It’s all pretty dismal news, but tucked inside the piece was this interesting paragraph:
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Study Shows Businesses Weren’t Cutting Jobs Until…”
-By Warner Todd Huston
It is, as we all know, the year 2010 and the era of Obama has fairly begun. Accordingly the commissars of good art taste in our schools have spoken: no kid’s artwork that makes The Obammessiah out to be a commie will be allowed. Interestingly there was another time, another year when things were different. In 2005, as it happened, another kid’s Bush-is-Hitler artwork received a wonderful award for it’s inventiveness. How times have changed, eh?
Back in those hoary years of 2005 when the evil, evil Bush was destroying the world, our schools were happy to host kid’s art that made Bush out to be one of the worst human beings in history. Bush-is-Hitler was so acceptable to our schools that Jeffery Eden, a 17-year-old student, was celebrated when he created his award-winning Bush diorama that, juxtaposed “Hitler quotes with statements by Mr. Bush, Nazi swastikas with American flags, desert-colored toy soldiers with olive plastic figures.”
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2005 Kid’s Bush/Hitler Art Gets Award, 2010 Kid’s Obama/Commie Art Gets Censored”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Some of my colleagues on the web are saying that Fox News Chicago reporter Tera Williams “revealed her bias” about the relative efficacy of Chicago’s absurd gun buyback program.
In yet another TV report on this meaningless program, reporter Williams was interviewing a Chicago resident on his thoughts about the whole thing. The resident told her, “it’s a good way to start,” to which Williams said “Something’s better than nothing, right?”
Well, no it’s not, Ms Williams. This program has been a complete failure for making a dent in the violence and shootings in the City of Chicago. While other great cities of the nation have seen falling murder rates over the last decade, Chicago has seen its rate rise. Even as this waste of money and time of a program was started in 2006, the murder rate has not been positively affected by the program. In fact, this year the city has already experienced over 100 shooting deaths and we aren’t even at the half way point in the year yet.
But, I am not going to say that Williams’ empty-headed statement is proof of her bias in favor of the program. I’d say it is more like her utter cluelessness of how ineffective it has been.
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Chicago TV Reporter Clueless On Gun Buyback Program”
-By Warner Todd Huston
On May 6 the Bloomington Pantagraph took an odd swipe at GOP candidate for the 11th Congressional District Adam Kinzinger’s military service in a brief story that reported that he’d been called to active duty.
Kinzinger, a Captain in the U.S. Air Force, was called to active duty and the paper duly reported that fact in a short report. But an odd thing happened between the editor and printer. First of all the paper didn’t detail Kinzinger’s rank, bad enough I know. But the 6 short paragraph story ended with this line:
He often touts his military experience on the campaign trail in the once reliably Republican district.
Just what the heck is all that supposed to mean? Kinzinger “touts” his military experience? Does he not really have any such military experience, Pantagraph? Are you claim he is lying or making more of it than it is? Do you have any examples of Kinzinger making light of his service or using it unduly? Why the negative connotations here? Unless, of course, you have an ulterior motive of place doubt in the reader’s mind?
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Bloomington Paper Takes Odd Swipe At Kinzinger’s Military Service”
The latest podcast discusses the recent interview with the director of the 1987 movie Robocop who said that he envisioned the Robocop character as an “American Jesus” because he shoots and kills his enemies.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Americans love to be led by what they feel are ordinary folks. They want to assume that their sons or daughters could become a representative, senator, or even a president. It’s a can-do nation filled with folks that feel they are just as good as the next citizen in line. This is why Sarah Palin is so successful.
The reason for this goes back even before the American Revolution. Americans built this nation by the sweat of their brows, the brawn of their backs and their God-given abilities, a veritable natural aristocracy among men. They looked to leaders from their own strata and looked askance at any that claimed a noblesse oblige.
In fact, it was seen as so untoward for America’s early leaders to appear ambitious of position that politicians did not directly campaign for office nor did they often publish policy discussions under their own names. This is the reason why the Federalist Papers were published under the name “Publius” instead of under the names of Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, its actual authors. It wasn’t even widely known who wrote our most famous political treatise until a decade after its publication.
This desire to appear un-ambitious and “regular” didn’t stop with the founders either. When President Andrew Jackson ushered in the “era of the common man” in the 1830s this idea that just anyone could become president reached new heights. Famed visitor Alexis de Tocqueville, who noted that the common man in America enjoyed an unprecedented level of dignity and success, made this a central theme of his famous book “Democracy in America.”
Many presidents were presented as the fellow next door. William Henry Harrison was a “log cabin” candidate (even though he was born to a well-to-do family), Lincoln was “Honest Abe” the “Rail Splitter,” Grant was the hard-fighting general that struggled his way up by his own efforts with no family help, Truman was just a regular guy. On the other hand, many presidential candidates that lost did so in part because they could not shake the accusation that they were “elitists.”
John Quincy Adams, for instance, lost his second run in small part due to this perceived elitism. Closer to our own day it was widely thought that Democrat Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson was too brainy and high class to appeal to the average American and he went down to defeat to the regular guy Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower. Not long ago both Al Gore and John Kerry were denigrated as too upper crusty to appeal to most Americans. They didn’t seem like regular folk to the regular folks. Heck, even with his Hollywood pedigree, Ronald Reagan stressed his hardscrabble upbringing as a common man in Illinois.
It’s a long, long tradition of the upper crust trying to take on the mantle of the lower classes and losing elections if they fail.
Then came Barack Obama. Mr. Obama is one of the few American presidents easily able to overcome the appearance of the nose-in-the-air, scion of the university that he is and get elected anyway and he didn’t do it by appearing as if he was a commoner. So, Obama is one of the exceptions to the usual American political practice of putting on the cloak of the common man. The American public decided that his upper crustiness wasn’t disqualifying but since he’s been in office his arrogance has come to grate on more and more Americans. This sneaking suspicion that Barack Obama doesn’t like us lowly Americans very much only adds to Palin’s appeal.
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Obama and the Media is Why Palin is so Successful”