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Politics is about 50 percent plus one. We win. They lose. Simple as that.
Frum's attack on Sarah Palin today, as with his previous attacks on Palin, is written from the perspective of an establishment insider and -- though he cites the usual poll numbers to claim that Sarah Palin is box-office poison -- fails to look at the situation from the standpoint of the Ordinary American. And this, I fear, is because David Frum doesn't know any Ordinary Americans. He's a Canadian, a native of Toronto, whose career in the United States has been spent entirely among the elite.
In 2007, Frum hired on as a "senior policy adviser" to Rudolph Giuliani. Y'know, if Frum had been thinking about pure politics (that 50%+1 formula) his first advice to Giuliani should have been: QUIT. Giuliani spent $59 million to get 597,518 primary votes. The only thing Giuliani accomplished was to suck up a lot of media and prevent the Anybody But McCain vote from consolidating around Mitt Romney. Had Giuliani quit in December 2007 and thrown his support behind Romney, it could have made an important difference in New Hampshire and Florida, and the Republican Party might have nominated an actual Republican.
Frum is obviously trying to position himself to join the 2012 campaign of Anybody But Palin, and his attacks on Palin need to be seen in that light. You can be a professional political operative or you can be a journalist, but you cannot credibly be both.
(H/T: Hot Air Headlines.)
UPDATE: Somewhat related, Ace of Spades goes upside the head of David Shuster. What is it with Palin and guys name David? David Frum, David Brooks, David Shuster -- an Army of Davids, as it were. At Newsbusters, the script where John Ziegler calls Schuster "an alleged news person." Heh.
UPDATE II: Here's the video via Hot Air:
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BTW, Frum's whole point in attacking Palin over the Ziegler interview is that she's supposedly drowning in self-pity. She's not. Ziegler was working on a documentary about media bias and so the questions were about -- surprise! -- media bias. What the hell did you expect her to say? "Oh, yes, I really admire the work of all the 2012 Jeb Bush Campaign staffers who were taking a paycheck to ruin my media rollout! That was brilliant how they set me up with that Katie Couric interview, but wouldn't let me talk to any of the beat reporters who were actually covering the campaign!"
"Y'know, if Frum had been thinking about pure politics (that 50%+1 formula) his first advice to Giuliani should have been: QUIT. Giuliani spent $59 million to get 597,518 primary votes."
ReplyDeleteWe're talking about a guy where who thinks "conservation + gas tax = a sound energy policy" and that Republicans should make a big issue out of prison reform (because you just know the electorate is clamoring for such a thing). Not to mention, with all the low hanging fruit of argument against the Harriet Miers nomination, Frum's first argument was "she didn't go to an elite law school."
All that elite education he received, and still clueless.
Once again, excellent analysis, R. S.! This is why the GOP needs to have a chairman that actually knows how to WIN elections. Hmm, that would be someone like Ken Blackwell. He has won a the local level as mayor of Cincinnati, statewide as the Secretary of State. And he is a C O N S E R V A T I V E! Oh, almost forgot that Mr. Blackwell won in a swing state. He gets Gov. Palin. Mr. Frum needs to get out of the ivory tower and talk to REAL Americans. He might just get what we get about Gov. Palin. One final thought. People like Mr. Frum, et al probably did not think much about Ronald Reagan either!
ReplyDeleteFrum is a scumbag, so is his wife...
ReplyDeleteAdd one more Dave to the 'Pro Palin' column..
ReplyDelete"Had Giuliani quit in December 2007 and thrown his support behind Romney, it could have made an important difference in New Hampshire and Florida, and the Republican Party might have nominated an actual Republican."
ReplyDeleteAre you including RomneyCare in that calculation?
I ask simply because, looking at the election results, I doubt that any Republican could have won. Had Romney been the nominee instead of McCain, I think we'd all be sitting around bemoaning that it was him instead of some other "real Republican."
These are the Daves I know I know, These are the Daves I know...
ReplyDelete"David Frum is a brilliant writer..."
ReplyDeleteNo, RSM. He's not. I will never forgive him for branding conservatives who disagree with him "unpatriotic."
I find him and his wife annoying carpetbagging Canucks.
However, I do find your writing brilliant.
I just read the Frum piece. It reeked of "opinion-monger-wannabe-somebody" disingenuousness. Then I thought, "I bet Robert McCain will eat this for breakfast", and sure enough, you did! Good work, sir.
ReplyDelete