Sarah Palin, As Described By Her Enemies

The Obama campaign has a long article about Sarah Palin in today’s New York Times. Jo Becker, Peter S. Goodman and Michael Powell wrote it for them. The Times reporters evidently scoured Alaska, looking for people who don’t like Governor Palin, and pieced together every negative quote they could come up with in the form–more or less–of a newspaper article.

Remarkably enough, the reporters/Obama campaign staff couldn’t find room for a single good word about Governor Palin. Thus, while they acknowledge that Palin currently has an approval rating of 80% (86%, actually), making her perhaps the most popular politician in the country, the reader is left to puzzle as to what her constituents could possibly like about her.

Every person who engages in public life has opponents and enemies, and if you talk exclusively to those people, and write an article solely from their perspective, you can easily make the subject look bad. (Imagine, say, an article on Abraham Lincoln that consisted entirely of quotes from Copperhead Democrats.) If the Times wanted to test that proposition, they could send a team of reporters to Chicago to search out and interview people who don’t like Barack Obama. Somehow, though, I don’t think that’s on their agenda.

PAUL adds: Obama probably has fewer enemies back home. Palin has attacked corruption and attempted reform at the state and local levels. Obama has not. As John likes to say, his approach is “go along to get along.” You don’t make many enemies by voting “present.”

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