David Warren of the Ottawa Citizen, admires Sarah Palin for knowing when to call a spade a spade as she did when she referred to those bureaucratic arrangements for deciding who should be entitled to medical treatment as "death panels."
Candour is when you tell a truth that is disturbing, in language so unambiguous that persons in polite company will not want to hear you. It is a way to lose the respect of the genteel -- of those who are "respectable" in the shallowest sense. Rude language is quite unnecessary to this end: the hard truth itself, spoken plainly and publicly, will give sufficient offence.
Thuggery is unrelated to this. It consists not of candid argument but of naked intimidation. It may be done crassly -- for instance, by the union thugs who have begun to appear at U.S. townhall meetings, to confront opponents of the Democrats' health-care agenda. Or it may be done smoothly, with the politically correct gesture, that conveys the threat of later reprisal against anyone who utters the contrary, "incorrect" thought. A good example would be the "[email protected]" e-mail address that was set up on the official White House website, to which Obama supporters across the country were invited to report "fishy" opposition to that health-care agenda.
[...]
It is assumed she will be running for president on the redneck ticket. But as we saw last week, she does not need any office to get results. For after many nice legislators had condemned her for her "unreasonable" criticisms, the U.S. Senate finance committee this week dropped a key provision to which she had referred, from the House health-care bill before them. According to the ranking Republican member, it was dropped "because it could be misinterpreted or implemented incorrectly."
The truth is, Sarah doesn't have to run for office, or even be in office to to have a profound impact on politics and political outcomes.
Via Real Clear Politics.
And I credit the relentless exposure she gets, along with Beck, Limbaugh, and O''Reilly, to the "special operations teams" of Soros, Obama, and Dean.
You just can't BUY for the kind of "Free Air" you get when folks are desperate enough to try to shut you out. I believe Ms. Pelosi proved that with the multi million dollar "petition" fiasco on Mr. Limbaugh. The Duke88 demonstrated their grasp of political prowess in the same way.
Posted by: CaptDMO | August 19, 2009 at 01:23 AM