Kathleen Parker, famous here for her frequent and crappy arguments, gripes that she got some hate email–the worst ever–after she wrote a column suggesting Sarah Palin should step down from the Republican ticket. She writes:
WASHINGTON — Allow me to introduce myself. I am a traitor and an idiot. Also, my mother should have aborted me and left me in a Dumpster, but since she didn't, I should "off" myself.
Those are just a few nuggets randomly selected from thousands of e-mails written in response to my column suggesting that Sarah Palin is out of her league and should step down.
Who says public discourse hasn't deteriorated?
Firedoglake, a liberal website, points to a column of Parker's in the non too distant past (2003). She wrote [read the entertaining commentary at the link as well]:
[Zell] Miller is not alone, though some are more sanguine when it comes to evaluating the roster of contenders. Here's a note I got recently from a friend and former Delta Force member, who has been observing American politics from the trenches: "These bastards like Clark and Kerry and that incipient ass, Dean, and Gephardt and Kucinich and that absolute mental midget Sharpton, race baiter, should all be lined up and shot.
When did public discourse start to deteriorate Kathleen?
She didn’t realize how bad public discourse is until she enraged her own kind.
Nice point, Ed.
Relatedly, I am concerned that the new Republican strategy of lowering expectations even among the faithful will pay dividends in rallying them after the VP debates tonight. Palin can’t disappoint tonight (thanks to the self-inflicted wounds she’s incurred in the past days and the worries voiced by Parker and the like), and so she can only do “well” or she, in not forgetting her own name, will be taken to “pass the test.”
Lloyd Bentsen tried to put a similarly intellectually challenged VP candidate out of his misery with his famous JFK line, but I’m quite sure that Biden would not dare take such a shot for fear of recriminations of ‘sexism’ or (gasp) ‘elitism.’
Casey, wondering if you would share some thoughts, perhaps after the debate, on the complicated mire of assessing when one has ‘won’ a debate, and when one has ‘done what was needed.’ For example, Biden can ‘win’ the debate by rubbing Palin’s nose in some stupid gaffe, but in doing so, he’d fail to ‘do what’s needed.’ ….