[NEohioPAL] So much for thoughtful opinions.

Thu Sep 18 09:14:43 PDT 2008

An interesting reading of the posted op-ed. I think it says, without  
question, that Palin is unqualified, that we all need to proceed with  
respect for one another, and that the current crisis in our culture  
requires that elect we people who are prepared for their jobs. I am  
personally horrified by the notion that because Palin "is just like  
us" for an apparently large portion of the population, that she would  
be deemed a qualified candidate. After all, how many of us would  
actually consider ourselves prepared to take on the job of President?  
The arrogance of the populist notion that, because we're  a citizen  
of the US, we're immediately qualified to govern this country is  
dangerous...as MR. BROOKS HIMSELF STATES is evidenced by the last  
eight years. Folks, REALLY read what's in front of you before you  
dismiss it out of hand as a conservative "passive-aggresive" rant.  
Read the opinion again. I think you might find it speaks to the  
cause, in which I believe so strongly, that Obama-Biden is the ticket  
that makes sense for our times.

Cheers-

Matthew Wright
On Sep 18, 2008, at 2:10 AM, Ensemble Theatre wrote:

> It does not need to be repeated as often, but the slogan, "Change  
> we can believe"
> has captivated everyone who has a brain left in their head. After  
> the catastrophes that have engulfed Wall Street and soon the rest  
> of us, the mandate to the American electorate is crystal clear -  
> this country needs one Democrat in the White House, and a majority  
> of them in the US Congress. Only then will the pendulum be able to  
> swing to the other side of the
> case, and we can set our watches again, to tell what time the food  
> stores open, and feed ourselves.
>
> If the article quoted in the NYT is a thoughtful opinion, then  
> someone should wash
> Mr. Brooks mouth out with soap. Not that I would abridge his First  
> Amendment
> prerogatives, but just point his segue in the right direction so he  
> can keep his balance.
> That piece of writing is a blatant passive-aggressive attempt at  
> sheer support for the
> governor of Alaska cloaked in an adolescent attempt to discredit  
> 'that community organizer." from Illinois.
>
> Get over it, elephant riders, the jackass is going down Pennsylania  
> Avenue straight
> to 1600, and nothing any of you THINK, SAY, or DO can change it.  
> Now get yourself
> off to your moose stew cooking class before the chef devours the  
> lesson.
>
>
>
>
> --- On Wed, 9/17/08, Brooke Willis <bwillis at rightupmedia.com> wrote:
> From: Brooke Willis <bwillis at rightupmedia.com>
> Subject: Re: [NEohioPAL] A thoughtful opinion written by a  
> Republican pundit, NY TIMES Op-Ed 9/15/08
> To: neohiopal at listserve.com
> Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2008, 4:47 PM
>
> Please please please let's not start this....
> We get plenty of political opinions in our regular e-mail these days.
> Thank you.
>
>
> On Sep 17, 2008, at 3:56 PM, Matthew Wright wrote:
>
> By DAVID BROOKS
> Published: September 15, 2008
>
> Philosophical debates arise at the oddest times, and in the heat of
> this election season, one is now rising in Republican ranks. The  
> narrow
> question is this: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be vice president? Most
> conservatives say yes, on the grounds that something that feels so  
> good
> could not possibly be wrong. But a few commentators, like George Will,
> Charles Krauthammer, David Frum and Ross Douthat demur, suggesting in
> different ways that she is unready.
> The issue starts with an evaluation of Palin, but does not end there.
> This argument also is over what qualities the country needs in a  
> leader
> and what are the ultimate sources of wisdom.There was a time when
> conservatives did not argue about this. Conservatism was once a  
> frankly
> elitist movement. Conservatives stood against radical egalitarianism
> and the destruction of rigorous standards. They stood up for classical
> education, hard-earned knowledge, experience and prudence. Wisdom was
> acquired through immersion in the best that has been thought and said.
>
> But, especially in America, there has always been a separate,  
> populist,
> strain. For those in this school, book knowledge is suspect but
> practical knowledge is respected. The city is corrupting and the
> universities are kindergartens for overeducated fools.
>
> The elitists favor sophistication, but the common-sense folk favor
> simplicity. The elitists favor deliberation, but the populists favor
> instinct.
>
> This populist tendency produced the term-limits movement based on the
> belief that time in government destroys character but contact with
> grass-roots America gives one grounding in real life. And now it has
> produced Sarah Palin.
>
> Palin is the ultimate small-town renegade rising from the frontier to
> do battle with the corrupt establishment. Her followers take pride in
> the way she has aroused fear, hatred and panic in the minds of the
> liberal elite. The feminists declare that she’s not a real woman
> because she doesn’t hew to their rigid categories. People who’ve never
> been in a Wal-Mart think she is parochial because she has never
> summered in Tuscany.
>
> Look at the condescension and snobbery oozing from elite quarters, her
> backers say. Look at the endless string of vicious, one-sided attacks
> in the news media. This is what elites produce. This is why regular
> people need to take control.
>
> And there’s a serious argument here. In the current Weekly Standard,
> Steven Hayward argues that the nation’s founders wanted uncertified
> citizens to hold the highest offices in the land. They did not believe
> in a separate class of professional executives. They wanted rough and
> rooted people like Palin.
>
> I would have more sympathy for this view if I hadn’t just lived  
> through
> the last eight years. For if the Bush administration was anything, it
> was the anti-establishment attitude put into executive practice.
>
> And the problem with this attitude is that, especially in his first
> term, it made Bush inept at governance. It turns out that governance,
> the creation and execution of policy, is hard. It requires acquired
> skills. Most of all, it requires prudence.
>
> What is prudence? It is the ability to grasp the unique pattern of a
> specific situation. It is the ability to absorb the vast flow of
> information and still discern the essential current of events — the
> things that go together and the things that will never go together. It
> is the ability to engage in complex deliberations and feel which
> arguments have the most weight.
>
> How is prudence acquired? Through experience. The prudent leader
> possesses a repertoire of events, through personal involvement or the
> study of history, and can apply those models to current circumstances
> to judge what is important and what is not, who can be persuaded and
> who can’t, what has worked and what hasn’t.
>
> Experienced leaders can certainly blunder if their minds have
> rigidified (see: Rumsfeld, Donald), but the records of leaders without
> long experience and prudence is not good. As George Will pointed out,
> the founders used the word “experience” 91 times in the Federalist
> Papers. Democracy is not average people selecting average leaders. It
> is average people with the wisdom to select the best prepared.
>
> Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a
> corrupt establishment, she’d be your woman. But the constructive  
> act of
> governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national
> issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like
> President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience  
> with
> brashness and excessive decisiveness.
>
> The idea that “the people” will take on and destroy “the  
> establishment”
>
> is a utopian fantasy that corrupted the left before it corrupted the
> right. Surely the response to the current crisis of authority is  
> not to
> throw away standards of experience and prudence, but to select leaders
> who have those qualities but not the smug condescension that has so
> marked the reaction to the Palin nomination in the first place.
>
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