Comment of the Day
Here, from Scott Payne:
I don’t get the craziness going on right in regards to this election. Maybe it’s because I’m Canadian and we just don’t have a strong national identity outside of hockey, beer, and maple syrup. But I feel like people are starting to make a regular habit of losing their heads and calling it political/journalistic integrity.
More time has been spent speculating about whether Sarah Palin’s child is biologically hers or how many houses John McCain forgets he has, whether Barack Obama is secretly muslim and the various stages of Joe Biden’s hair and his penchant for long windedness than on any of the very real and pressing issues that would benefit from hard nosed debate and discussion.
An election is more than just a changing out of people in power, it’s an opportunity for a national dialogue about the state of the country and what directions might be advisable for that country’s future. That barely anyone is taking the time to engage in that dialogue in any serious fashion isn’t just disappointing, it’s down right disturbing.
Y’know, I love you Americans, you’re such a stunningly dynamic people. You’re sense of pride and exceptionalism leads you to amazing feats of existential courage. And yet, the darker flip side of those same characteristics lead to the exact kind of psycho-drama that is currently occurring and leaves me with my head shaking.
Case in point: some one in Washington needs to go smack Andrew Sullivan (I know, not American), his sense of guilt over supporting the people who have perpetrated eight years of disaster and atrocity have him reeling from post-to-post in a shrill hand waving exercise that undermines the incredible intelligence of which I know him to be capable. He’s making the problem worse, not better and I want my breath-takingly intelligent Andrew back – we need all hands on deck right now.
I for one am feeling vaguely sick, and so will let Scott – and also Dan Koffler – carry the water here.
The Sullivanometer for this topic, by the way, currently stands at seven eight posts and 1,017 1,369 words.
Filed under: politics
Okay, I was home in Indiana for ten days prior to Friday, and was remiss in keeping up with the six million web-log feeds in my inbox. Did Sullivan have anything critical to say about Biden, whether serious or, more likely, vacuous? I’ve had a fair amount of respect for the man, disagreements with him notwithstanding, but the Cross-in-the-dirt-plus-Palin-baby obsession is really causing the respect he has earned from humble ol’ me to deteriorate with rapidity. W.t.f.?, right?
To say that I’ve lost respect for Andrew over this episode – and indeed his reaction to Palin (who is worthy of plenty of criticism but surely not his trademark hysteria) more generally – would be a HUGE understatement … he really has shown himself to be what many of his critics call him.
[...] kind nod from John Schwenkler on some thoughts/frustrations over the state of election discussion and [...]