the rightwing czar

Quick side note: I haven’t updated in a long time. This isn’t out of pure negligence, though. I take the LSAT this Saturday and haven’t really had the time/energy to event think about blogging for the past couple months. Expect the rightwing czar to return post-Sept 26.

I haven’t been up to date on all the good news lately, but a quick browsing of Hot Air caught my eye. It was about Sarah Palin’s recent speech in Hong Kong:

For a speech that some on the left stupidly maintained was an elaborate “prank,” it sure does seem to have been treated pretty seriously by those who were there (seriously enough, in fact, to inspire two Palin-haters to walk out in a huff).

I don’t have much to say about her speech because I didn’t watch the clip (nor do I plan on it), but I do want to say this: Since when are conservatives okay with Americans, particularly famous Americans, dissing America overseas?

This has been a sore point for conservatives and Republicans over the recent years because of the seemingly never-ending amount of America-bashing (Bush-bashing) that liberals have done overseas. From the Dixie Chicks to Barack Obama himself, we have maintained that political dissent on American soil is one thing, but taking the fight overseas is unacceptable.

Is it now okay that we have someone America-bashing (Obama-bashing) overseas because she’s one of us and we agree with her? Absolutely not. As soon as we leave American soil we should all become defenders of our country and leave the bickering at home. It’s the same reason that husbands and wives might be fighting about something but relentlessly defend each other to anyone who might ask about it.  We aren’t perfect and we screw up, but how about we handle our domestic problems, domestically, instead of blathering about it overseas.

Finally, I’m not sure who was in attendance at Palin’s speech, but let me be clear about one last point: I don’t care if she was talking only to Americans or foreigners as well. This speech was billed as her “Hong Kong” speech and it absolutely has the appearance of Palin taking the our domestic spute outside the house.

And I, for one, think that’s unacceptable, which is a viewpoint that many of my conservative friends shared when it was the Dixie Chicks and Obama – will they stick to their standards when it’s Palin? It doesn’t seem likely.

This is shameful character assassination, plain and simple. And it’s what we’d expect when reporting about Sarah Palin.

A story that is so old news to conservatives, but it’s nice to hear from the horse’s mouth:

Sen. Biden, however, was in a place by himself when it came to bogus claims, absurd contentions, and flights of rhetorical fancy. He threw out several assertions that were so preposterous that – had Palin made them – they would have prompted immediate calls for McCain to dump her from the ticket”

I was ready to give Palin a pass if she was resigning from governor because she wanted out of politics. Her family has been put through a lot since McCain plucked her out of Wasilla and it would be understandable if she was just finished with the media scrutiny, legal battles, and harassment that has been coming her way.

But a higher calling? Good grief.

“How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country,” the statement said. “And though it’s honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make.”

Sarah – I’ll be the first one to say that the media was brutally unfair to you in the last election and has continued to be so afterward. But no one leaves their office in order to run for president. It just doesn’t happen.

It’s one thing to run for president, get elected, and therefore have to vacate your seat when that happens. Obama just did that in the Senate, Bush and Clinton did it as governor – it doesn’t bother that many people. But Palin isn’t leaving office because she has been elected to a higher calling, she is leaving office so that she can run for a higher calling. And she is doing it without finishing even one term as governor.

This is pure political ambition putting her duties and responsibilities as governor on the back burner. You were elected to serve your state – not back out early so you can get ready to run for president three years from now.

If you had matured as a candidate over the next 3-8 years I could certainly have seen myself supporting you in a primary, Sarah. I can’t imagine the possibility of that happening now.

Nothing.