by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n WASHINGTON (AP)\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014 The first 100 days of the Palin presidency, according to a consensus of media commentators, have proven a near disaster. Perhaps it was Palin\u2019s scant two years\u2019 experience in a major government position that has eroded her gravitas, or maybe it was her flirty reliance on looks and informal chit-chat. In any case, the press has had a field day, and it is hard to see how President Palin can ever recover from the Quayle\/potatoe syndrome. Here is a roundup of this week\u2019s pundit mockery.<\/p>\n LET THEM EAT MOOSE<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cTed Stevens may have gotten off,\u201d wrote Bob Herbert in the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>, \u201cbut he taught our Sarah something first \u2014 like using $100-a-pound beef for her state dinners. And what\u2019s this $50 mil for her inauguration gala? Since when do you fly in your favorite pizza-maker from across the country on our dime? Or send the presidential 747 for a spin over the Big Apple for a third-of-a-million-dollar joyride? Does Palin think she\u2019s still in Alaska and has to have everything flown in from the South 48 by jumbo jet?\u201d<\/p>\n WASILLA CHIC<\/strong><\/p>\n Also in the\u00a0Times<\/em>, Gail Collins weighed in on the already-tired yokelism of the new commander in chief. \u201cWhat we\u2019re getting is Wasilla chic. That\u2019s what we\u2019re getting. She arrives in the Oval Office, and first thing sends back Blair\u2019s gift of the Churchill bust as if it\u2019s a once-worn Penney\u2019s outfit. Then she gives the Brits some unwatchable DVDs as a booby prize \u2014 as if she idled the old Yukon and ran into Target\u2019s sale aisle. Did Sarah send Bristol into Wal-Mart back in Anchorage for that \u2018engraved\u2019 iPod for the queen? And what\u2019s this don\u2019t-bow-to-the-queen stuff, but curtsy for a Saudi sheik? Maybe that explains why she brags to Stephanopoulos about her \u2018Muslim faith.\u2019 So far, the best things going for her are Todd\u2019s biceps.\u201d<\/p>\n IT’S THE MATH, STUPID!<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWell,\u201d lectured Paul Krugman, again in the Times, \u201cwe were worried that they didn\u2019t teach math at Idaho U., and now we know for sure they don\u2019t. Is it $1.6 trillion, $1.7 trillion, or $2 trillion in red ink this year? Are we supposed to be impressed that she offers \u2018fiscal sobriety\u2019 by cutting 0.003 percent of the budget? She gives out money to those who don\u2019t pay taxes and calls it a tax cut. And now Queen Sarah tells us that in four years she\u2019ll \u2018halve\u2019 the deficit, as if she hasn\u2019t borrowed another $5 trillion in the meantime. Does she think we\u2019re morons\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0? How many \u2018Drill, baby, drill!\u2019 oil wells can she tap into up there in Alaska to pay for the extra $11 trillion in debt she\u2019s saddling us with?\u201d<\/p>\n WORSE THAN ‘NUCULAR’<\/strong><\/p>\n ABC\u2019s Katie Couric summed up the general disappointment with the president\u2019s communication skills. \u201cI tried to warn the American people in that interview a few years back what they would get if they voted for her. Let\u2019s face it: She\u2019s a walking embarrassment. I mean just count \u2019em up: The mayor of Wasilla thinks Austrians speak some lingo called \u2018Austrian.\u2019 Then she tries her hand at Spanish and comes up with some concoction, \u2018Cinco de Cuatro.\u2019 Next thing she\u2019ll walk into the window of the Oval Office and expect it to open \u2014 oops, she\u2019s already done that. No wonder that when her Teleprompter stalls, she shuts her mouth until it catches up. I\u2019m surprised she managed to get sworn in. And did she think that tasteless \u2018Special Olympics\u2019 slur was funny? Or making fun of octogenarian Nancy Reagan\u2019s s\u00e9ances? No wonder Wanda Sykes feels at home.\u201d<\/p>\n ANCHORAGE STYLE<\/strong><\/p>\n A \u201cdragon lady in heels\u201d is what President Palin is, according to the NYT\u2019s Frank Rich. \u201cDon\u2019t fall for this pageant nice-girl stuff. Our former beauty queen is a ward hack. Look at her nominations. Can\u2019t Palin find anyone who has paid his taxes \u2014 or do they simply ignore that stuff in no-tax Alaska? Does \u2018No more lobbyists\u2019 mean \u2018More lobbyists than ever\u2019? Her chief performance overseer doesn\u2019t perform too well herself \u2014 and, like Daschle, Geithner, and the rest, skips out on her taxes. When Palin brags about fiscal sobriety, it really means record deficits. In Sarahland, not wanting to take over banks and car companies translates into, \u2018She already has.\u2019 Highest ethical standards equates to \u2018There are none.\u2019 Calling herself the VA president means she\u2019s just told vets to use their own health insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n GUTTER TRASH<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cPretty crude, pretty petty,\u201d Sally Quinn sighed in the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>. \u201cNo manners at all. Does our new mom in chief think it\u2019s neat to laugh when her court jester at the correspondents\u2019 dinner calls Michael Moore a traitor and a terrorist \u2014 and hopes he dies of kidney failure? Is that funny? Ask those on dialysis. Is that what Alaskan hockey moms do \u2014 scream out at every talk-show host who hurts their itty-bitty feelings? Limbaugh, Hannity \u2014 who will it be next? Poor old Jim Cramer?\u201d<\/p>\n NEOCON CON<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s a Bush clone,\u201d the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u2019s Maureen Dowd chimed in. \u201cBush is out, Palin is in \u2014 but we keep getting renditions, military tribunals, wiretaps, e-mail intercepts, Predator drone executions over Pakistan, the same in Iraq, and even more of the same in Afghanistan \u2014 all retrofitted with new \u2018hope and change\u2019 banalities. I mean, who\u2019s putting Mommy Dearest up to this \u2014 Wolfie, Perlie, Cheney?\u201d<\/p>\n TINGLE FOR HUGO?<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no foreign policy,\u201d Chris Matthews said on Hardball, his voice dripping with scorn. \u201cShe just tours the world and nods, as if her good looks and serial apologies are going to win us a collective tingle abroad. I don\u2019t think Hugo Ch\u00e1vez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad care much that she\u2019s got great legs and a nice wink. How many times can Ms. Vapid say, \u2018We\u2019re sorry\u2019 and \u2018Hit that old reset button\u2019 and expect thugs to make nice?\u201d<\/p>\n RACE, ALL THE TIME<\/strong><\/p>\n Eugene Robinson worried in the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0about Palin\u2019s emphasis on race. \u201cLook, she gets 95 percent of the working-class white vote. She promises next month to talk to the \u2018Christian world\u2019 from Estonia, of all places. Hello? She goes to the Summit of the Americas and immediately puts race on the table \u2014 as if we are supposed to separate those with European heritage from those without. Then she tells Al Arabiyya that she hopes to heal the rift with Europe \u2018because of my own shared European heritage that seems to resonate in ways I hadn\u2019t imagined throughout the E.U.\u2019 I guess we\u2019re learning that those \u2018gaffes\u2019 last year on the campaign trail, like her \u2018typical black person\u2019 remark and Todd\u2019s \u2018I am finally proud of my country again\u2019 nonsense were not gaffes at all.\u201d<\/p>\n WHERE IS THE PRESS?<\/strong><\/p>\n Howard Kurtz summed up the press cynicism the best in his\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>column. \u201cHow long does she think she can keep picking on her right-wing plants in the audience for these softball Q-and-A sessions? I mean, there are only so many pukey \u2018What has surprised you the most about this office? What has enchanted you the most about serving in this office?\u2019 questions you can lob.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A near disaster. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online WASHINGTON (AP)\u00a0\u2014 The first 100 days of the Palin presidency, according to a consensus of media commentators, have proven a near disaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[716],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-IW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3034,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-media-morality-tale\/","url_meta":{"origin":2786,"position":0},"title":"A Media Morality Tale","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner The putative Caroline Kennedy candidacy for senator has had the odd effect of reopening the media can of worms treatment of Gov. Palin. Compared to Sarah Palin's almost immediate immersion into crowds and public speaking, Kennedy seems like a deer in the headlights before\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "January 2009"","block_context":{"text":"January 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/january-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3258,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/an-instructive-candidacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2786,"position":1},"title":"An Instructive Candidacy","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"What Sarah Palin taught us about ourselves. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Soon this depressing campaign will be over, and we can reflect on what we learned from our two-month introduction to Sarah Palin. Clearly, it is more than we would have ever wished to know about ourselves.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2008"","block_context":{"text":"October 2008","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2008\/october-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4082,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-war-against-palin-goes-on-and-on-and\/","url_meta":{"origin":2786,"position":2},"title":"The War Against Palin Goes On and On and . . .","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media We Are Civil Now In emulation of Jonathan Chait\u2019s now infamous 2004\u00a0New Republic\u00a0essay, \u201cThe Case for Bush Hatred\u201d (\u201cI hate George Bush \u2014 there, I said it\u201d),\u00a0Slate\u00a0just published an op-ed, \u201cWhy I Loathe My Connecticut Senator\u201d by one Emily Bazelon, with a detailed description\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Punditry"","block_context":{"text":"Punditry","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/punditry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2661,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/davis-letterman-rev-wright-and-thoughts-on-a-creepy-culture\/","url_meta":{"origin":2786,"position":3},"title":"David Letterman, Rev. Wright, and Thoughts on a Creepy Culture","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media The Demise of David Letterman I had a number of exchanges on the Palin-Letterman controversy (see below). Where to start on David Letterman\u2019s attack on Palin on her visit to New York to do charitable work, accompanied by her 14-year-old daughter Willow? The hypocrisy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2009"","block_context":{"text":"June 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/june-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2145,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/palin-odes\/","url_meta":{"origin":2786,"position":4},"title":"Palin-odes?","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media The Furor The AP supposedly hired 11 fact-checkers to discredit Ms. Palin\u2019s memoir (Did Fox News hire 11 to question the very questionable things found in the two Obama memoirs?) Bloggers post on Palin\u2019s live interviews minute by minute; few, if any, opponents of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2009"","block_context":{"text":"November 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/november-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2607,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-is-wisdom-sarah-palin-and-her-critics\/","url_meta":{"origin":2786,"position":5},"title":"What Is Wisdom?: Sarah Palin and Her Critics","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media They Say\/We Say The debate over Palin is sort of ossified. The Left continues to ridicule her accent, family, and middling roots. The Right enjoys such authenticity \u2014 but enjoys even more the hysteria it incurs in liberals. Will It Be Politics or Money?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2009"","block_context":{"text":"July 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/july-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2787,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions\/2787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}