And when you forget you're a Bubblehead [Noonan's term for media people and politicos who live inside the DC-NYC bubble -- RD] you get in trouble, you misjudge things. For one thing, you assume evangelical Christians will be appalled and left agitated by the circumstances of Mrs. Palin's daughter. But modern American evangelicals are among the last people who'd judge her harshly. It is the left that is about to go crazy with Puritan judgments; it is the right that is about to show what mellow looks like. Religious conservatives know something's wrong with us, that man's a mess. They are not left dazed by the latest applications of this fact. "This just in - there's a lot of sinning going on out there" is not a headline they'd understand to be news.So the media's going to wait for the Christian right to rise up and condemn Mrs. Palin, and they're not going to do it because it's not their way, and in any case her problems are their problems. Christians lived through the second half of the 20th century, and the first years of the 21st. They weren't immune from the culture, they just eventually broke from it, or came to hold themselves in some ways apart from it. I think the media will explain the lack of condemnation as "Republican loyalty" and "talking points." But that's not what it will be.
Noonan's advice to the media on how to handle Sarah Palin without imperiling their own future:
Dig deep into Sarah Palin, get all you can, talk to everybody, get every vote, every quote, tell us of her career and life, she may be the next vice president. But don't play games. And leave her kid alone, bitch.
Just so.
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Thank you for the correction, Houghton.
There is another comparison, that between Murphy Brown and Sarah Palin. As I recall, one of the issues with MB was whether the uber-professional MB could successfully have a career and raise a child simultaneously. This comparison goes more to Palin's newborn than the pregnant daughter. At the time, the feminists' answer was a resounding YES, though we got to see Murphy struggle through the difficulties. Ironically, now the feminists have reversed their course. Short-sighted, if you ask me.
If nothing else, Palin pisses off the right people (the people on the left, ironically).
"Actually Kirk, the controversy was over the fact that Murphy Brown chose not to marry the father.
"That's why Dan Quayle criticized the show. Quayle criticized the show's writers for ignoring the importance of fathers. It makes me really wonder, sometimes, when people leave out this important detail, whether they're doing so intentionally."
How about the fact that the father of Murphy Brown's child was her ex-husband--so she had ALREADY tried being married to him and it had not worked. And, for that matter, by Catholic standards, she was STILL married to him, so what was the fuss about anyway?
As far as Peggy Noonan goes, any unabashed admirer of "John Paul the Great" (Fraud, Incompetent, Episcopal Enabler, Theological Revisionist, Fill in the Blank...) deserves whatever she gets in lost credibility.
Peggy Noonan said this is either a big win or a big loss in the WSJ article.
Sometimes I feel that what is said off camera when they assume no one is recording is more important than what is said on camera or in a printed article.
I think what this shows is that the front that all GOP members are thrilled about Palin is false. Even Noonan has reservations and its her job to make it sound great.
I think there were many better choices, but unfortunatly all of those women are pro-choice.
But of course in this day and age you are pro-choice if you make any exception for abortion. I remember back 8 years ago when my position was still pro-life as was McCain of 2000.
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