Powell Is On Fire, And So is Palin’s Church
On Sundays, I typically try to post something that is uplifting. Not this Sunday.
In the past 24 hours or so, we have learned one thing and possibly two. The one thing we do know is that Colin Powell has his camo briefs in a bunch. Who is the cause of this bunching? Why, Sarah Palin, again, that’s who. Powell continues to present himself as a Republican concerned about the direction of the party caused by Polarizin’ Palin. Apparently, when Palin describes small town values as good, this is polarizing. But when Obama (Democrat, Illinois) describes these same people as clinging to their guns and bibles, this is not polarizing. Nor, apparently, is it polarizing when John Murtha (Doofus, Pennsylvania) refers to these same people as racists and rednecks. Or when Jesse Jackson (Nut Cutter) referred to New York as “Hymietown”. Or when Robert Byrd used the “N-word” on the floor of the Senate. Come on Colin, for the love of God, please think. You have a lot of history to be proud of right there.
Palin is to Powell as Israel is to Jimmy Carter. Some kind of taproot of an evil tree. One gets the impression that Powell is chaffed because Palin is still in the news. Powell is miffed because, after his magnificent articulation of his Obama endorsement, he would have thought that Sarah would return to Wasilla, never to be heard from again.
Powell asserts that the Republicans must do a better job of attracting blacks and hispanics. But, um, Colin, wasn’t the 2000 presidential nomination yours for the taking, from the Republicans? Didn’t GWB appoint black and hispanic members to his cabinet, and weren’t these folks partly responsible for his success as Governor of Texas? In other words, they were in his inner circle before he took the high office. Contrast this with, say, Clinton, who made a point of explaining check-a-box search for a cabinet that “looked like America”. Isn’t Michael Steele being mentioned as a possibility for RNC Chairman? Didn’t the Republicans nominate a relative moderate - who didn’t really excite the base - but who has a history of reaching across the aisle, often to the chagrin of his party leadership (as opposed to someone who said he does, but offered no real evidence)? If, as Obama says, there is no black America and no white America, why does Powell insist that Republicans must do a better job of attracting blacks and hispanics? Shouldn’t Republicans simply do a better job of attracting Americans?
I have heard Powell’s name mentioned as a possible Secretary of Education. Here is a good example of an area where logic would dictate that blacks and hispanics might lean Republican, assuming that they care about education, that is. Democrats prefer to measure inputs, a very government thing to do, as a measure of success. Whereas, output is what really matters. So much in the thrall of the education lobby, Democrats oppose things like vouchers while Republicans and Bush, through efforts like No Child Left Behind, are trying to measure and improve actual educational results. Maybe if Powell spent a little less time worrying about Palin and a little more time drawing important distinctions in areas like education…
Now, I understand that many are concerned with the apparent populism that Palin brings to the Republican party. I have heard that the Republican party needs to recast itself as the party of ideas. Or the party of simple competence. Let us hope that the party is successful in rebuilding. But, frankly, in the current climate, I don’t think the people are listening for ideas; they are pining for utopia where cataclysmic events do not exist. They are understandably drained from the series of events over the past 8 years: terror, war, natural disasters, and financial meltdown.
The second thing we have learned is that Sarah Palin’s church in Wasilla Alaska was victim to suspected arson this past Friday night, so Powell’s timing for this second round of scolding could not have been better. I will stop short of saying that the media’s treatment of Palin - including Powell’s treatment of Palin - would make it easy for a weak-minded individual to justify an act such as church arson. But I’d certainly like to hear Powell weigh in on this event and spread some of his genius. I’m not holding my breath.
Thinking Hard, Or Hardly Thinking?