Biting the hand that fed?

As someone who took Sarah Palin’s side against McCain’s thuggish staffers when they smeared her after last year’s election (see this and this), I nevertheless have to concede the wit and justice of Michiko Kakutani’s remark in her New York Times review of Palin’s book:

The most sustained and vehement barbs in this book are directed not at Democrats or liberals or the news media, but at the McCain campaign. The very campaign that plucked her out of Alaska, anointed her the Republican vice-presidential nominee and made her one of the most talked about women on the planet—someone who could command a reported $5 million advance for writing this book.

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November 17

Kilroy M. writes:

I don’t see that as being “wit”. It’s just an observation, and a rather dry one at that. Like you, I also found myself arguing in defence of Palin during the last campaign, mostly because of the unbelievably sexist attacks on her from the left. Like you, I also felt that somebody who legitimises out-of-wedlock sexual relations is a very poor candidate for the right. However, I don’t hold it against Palin of snapping one on her fellow Republicans: yes they picked her, sure, fine, but they didn’t pick her out of love or affection, they picked her because they knew they were screwed, because their wonderful plan of out-liberalising the liberal left turned away the Republican base. And it was Palin, not McCain that took the brunt of the most vicious attacks on conservatism as a result. Like Palin, I too would have nothing but disdain and contempt for this “hand” and “fed” me. I haven’t read her book, but I expect it to be far less shrill and hate-filled than your average liberal “talking truth to power.”

November 18

Bob S. writes:

Palin is a real mom who refused to genuflect to The Sacred Cow of the Day—Woman’s Right To Choose (Yah!).

That said, she should be at home taking care of her family.

But if she wants to play politics in the first place, much more play nice/compromise with Juan Sydney McMussolini’s campaign to be the Leading Puppet of the Western Free World according to Goldman Sachs, we are known by whom we are willing to associate with. And if a companion of fools will not prosper, likewise we suppose, compromisers and hypocrites. She chose her bedfellow freely. Why is she complaining about being shortsheeted?

LA replies:

I didn’t mean to be putting her down completely. In my view, she was badly treated and has a right to complain and tell her side of it if she wants. At the same time, the Times reviewer Kakutani has a point. Without McCain’s staffers having chosen her and made her into a national figure, she would not now be in the position to write a $5 million book complaining about their nasty treatment of her. It would be nice if Palin would at least acknowledge that.

However, Palin could respond to my argument by saying that the McCain people didn’t create her. She was chosen for the VP slot because she was the best person available. She had the qualities that they needed. So she doesn’t doesn’t owe them anything, and if they mistreated her, she has every right to talk about it.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 16, 2009 05:21 PM | Send