November 23, 2009

"The apartment was small, with slanting floors and irregular heat and a buzzer downstairs that didn’t work, so that visitors had to call ahead from a pay phone at the corner gas station, where a black Doberman the size of a wolf paced through the night in vigilant patrol, its jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle."

That sentence, written by Sarah Palin, is howlingly awful. Written by Barack Obama? Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Ha ha. That takes me back to last week... a very short snippet, forgive me:



(Click to continue if you want to hear me trash the liberal's self-love over nuance.)

AND: You know, I'll admit it: After I found out Obama wrote that sentence, it started looking better to me. I could feel this happening and I paid attention to the readjustment going on in my brain. Unlike some people, I am not inhibited about revealing it. It's what I'm interested in: how people think, how mental processes work, how opinions take shape. That, and not adhering to an ideology or supporting a party, is what I think about when I write about politics. I'm different from politicos like Goldberg, and I know that this difference can be very disturbing to them. I've got a hypothesis that when I've gotten into fights in the blogosphere and in the real world — like here — it's been because of this different orientation of mine. Oh, why won't liberals celebrate this difference? Just kidding. I know it drives them up a wall. It drives conservatives and libertarians up the wall too. It's disarmingly unpolitical.

87 comments:

Scott M said...

First!!

I saw this yesterday on Insta and laughed my ass off.

Henry said...

That's odd, I thought the first line of Dreams of My Father went like this:

Well, Prince, Genoa and Lucca are now no more than private estates of the Bonaparte family.

tim maguire said...

What I love about this is that the sentence is taken from the very first paragraph of Obama's most famous work.

Every single one of those people cites Obama's writing abilities as one of the things they admire about him and make him qualified to be president. And yet none of them has read his books. Not one.

And yet they think they are the smart ones.

AllenS said...

I remember when really good books started with this: "Once upon a time..."

Scott M said...

Is there a link to the actual thread or was it taken down in horrified embarrassment?

knox said...

Obama wrote that?? And Goldberg said DoMF was great literature. I mean, I knew she was full of partisan shit, but still...

miller said...

Yeah, I thought "dreck" when I first read this from the book.

And yet some continued to read this.

But what a bunch of leftist rubes.

They are easily led sheep who claim to be independent.

And: delicious point: Shaman Drum bookstore (A2) folded last year. It was the place that advertised "where independent minds come together" (or some such nonsense). Everytime I passed the bookstore I always added the codicil: "come together for some groupthink."

chickelit said...

Ha ha. That takes me back to last week... a very short snippet, forgive me:

Michelle Goldberg is fast becoming the poster child for hipster doofus.

miller said...

I'm betting there will not be a sequel to this blogginghead.tv segment.

Michele will probably find that she has "scheduling conflicts" whenever they ask her to go tete-a-test with Althouse.

ricpic said...

You have to have lived in that kind of apartment in that kind of menacing environs and have escaped it and done everything possible not to fall back into that hell to react to that sentence as more than bad writing.

Fred4Pres said...

Very funny. Go check out the Slate comments on it.

Meade said...

Respect the Doberman.

Phil 314 said...

Nuance...I like that word but its been ruined forever.

Henry said...

Meade, you beat me to the rhardin shout out. I want to know what a vigilant doberman does with an empty beer bottle in its jaws? Hit trespassers with it?

rhardin will know.

hdhouse said...

I don't think Goldberg gave us enough options when listing "why people hate her".

Further, I don't think "hate" is the right word. No one hates her, or at least I don't.

I just dislike her politics and purposeful stupidity.

John said...

Michelle Goldberg stands as a monument to the failure of America's elite universities and journalism schools. I bet you ten to one she has never read "Dreams of My Father" and a hundred to one she has never read "War and Peace". What an idiot.

John said...

HDHouse,

I think hate is too strong of a word. I would imagine if you could avoid politics, Michelle would make a passable dinner date. She is a nitwit. She isn't evil.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I love the way the commenter are all

1. OMG what a stupid sentence written by a stupid woman. Palin is so dumb.

2. Oh wait...Obama wrote it? Well other than a possible semi colon error, it is a masterful piece of writing.

LOL

William said...

I think Obama originally ran for President in order to publicize his books and gain material for the next year's memoir. Like so many of his plans, things went horribly awry. Palin just the reverse. I think Sarah Palin hints at running for President in order to pump the sales of her book...Both Obama and Palin sincerely wish to get rich. Palin would make an exercise video and Obama would have written a diet book in order to cash in on their fame. Writing a book is the most dignified and honest way for a polician to make an extra buck, but the overriding concern is to make a buck. Neither Palin nor Obama came from wealth, and I don't knock them for going this route. To paraphrase Houseman, moolah does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man......I don't think these books can fairly be judged as literature or even as historical documents. Their nearest equivalent is an IPO detailing an elaborate business plan for selling gourmet dog food over the internet: only in that genre can one find the same combo of self serving inanities welded with rosy scenarios.

muddimo said...

"Michelle Goldberg is fast becoming the poster child for hipster doofus."


The blindness, the lack of perspective is stunning. She is like a child that has lived all of her life in a bubble.

Triangle Man said...

How about this?

Obama wrote it? He was just being ironic.

Phil 314 said...


I just dislike her politics and purposeful stupidity.


But dammit, I can't also add
and she's ugly too!

LouisAntoine said...

Utter bullshit. Where is the link to this supposed comment thread? Who fell for the trick? We aren't told, we don't know, we're just supposed to accept the word of NRO hack and doughy pantload Jonah Goldberg that "all liberals are dumb and hate Sarah Palin irrationally and love Obama, the idiots."

Jonah Goldberg can go eat a large bag of human penises.

bearbee said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

muddimo: She is like a child that has lived all of her life in a bubble.

s/like //

X said...

a stray boxer and pit bull with beer bottles in their mouths wandered into my yard yesterday. my chow-mix dropped her bottle of Thunderbird and ran them smooth off.

Scott M said...

MM

Fred4pres posted the link to the actual thread. I agree with JG, that the original poster should have left it unnamed longer, but I think he was afraid someone would figure it out before he could have his gotcha moment.

Really good gotcha moments are rare. This one would have been much better if there would have been more oblivious replies.

Lynne said...

"You have to have lived in that kind of apartment in that kind of menacing environs and have escaped it and done everything possible not to fall back into that hell to react to that sentence as more than bad writing."

Well, Ricpic, I have done exactly that and I don't find that sentence anything to get excited about.
I've seen worse sentences- recall the Dan Brown discussion thread here recently- and this one isn't as bad a howler as some. But it's still not War and Peace.
And as someone who matches the standard you suggest for analyzing the sentence, the best it gets from me is a shrug.

bearbee said...

Ahhhhhhhhh

John said...

"Utter bullshit. Where is the link to this supposed comment thread? Who fell for the trick? We aren't told, we don't know, we're just supposed to accept the word of NRO hack and doughy pantload Jonah Goldberg that "all liberals are dumb and hate Sarah Palin irrationally and love Obama, the idiots."

They have taken the thread down in embarassment. I have seen the thread. It is true. It happened. Also, the Goldberg collumn was published in several reputable sources. If Goldberg were lying, the editors would have found it.

He is not. So shut the fuck up Morty.

Unknown said...

Tell me again how smart and educated and intellectual The Zero is.

And how dumb Miss Sarah is.

PS You really love twisting the knife, don't you?

bearbee said...

...where a black Doberman the size of a wolf paced through the night in vigilant patrol, its jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle."

Dogist!

Albireo said...

Hey Montagne, here's your link.

bearbee said...

repost:

Further, I don't think "hate" is the right word. No one hates her, or at least I don't

Google I hate Sarah Palin currently at 10,300,000

LouisAntoine said...

Thanks Mike!

I still don't think the passage is bad writing. Do you?

former law student said...

Very surprising. You would have thought that Obama would have flagged that sentence for editing when Ayers gave him the first draft.

rcocean said...

Edited out of the sentence prior to publication:

"...its jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle, looking for a recycling bin."

Dobermans are environmentally conscious.

former law student said...

I want to know what a vigilant doberman does with an empty beer bottle in its jaws?

Though no rhardin, to me the fairly obvious issue is what does the trespasser do once the vigilant Doberman drops the beer bottle?

As long as there's a beer bottle in its jaws, there's no room for your arm or leg.

Ann Althouse said...

"I still don't think the passage is bad writing. Do you?"

Still? You mean when you first read it and thought Palin had written it, you thought it wasn't bad and then when you found out it was actually Obama's you still thought it wasn't bad?

LOL. You are telling us what you "still" think after you've learned that Obama wrote it.

Even I thought it looked better written after I found out Obama wrote it! I watched my brain readjust to the new information. The difference between me and you is -- among other things -- that I will admit it.

Triangle Man said...

@bearbee

You really need to put quotes around that search. "I hate Sarah Palin" comes in at around 573,000 results. "I love Sarah Palin" clocks in at 381,000, for a hate:love results ratio of 1.5. Barack is at 475,000:230,000 for a ratio of 2.1.

Salamandyr said...

I thought it was a pretty good sentence, but then I've always preferred Faulkner to Hemingway

Henry said...

MM wrote: I still don't think the passage is bad writing. Do you?

I don't think it's long enough.

The apartment was small, with slanting floors and irregular heat and a buzzer downstairs that didn’t work, so that visitors had to call ahead from a pay phone at the corner gas station, where a black Doberman the size of a wolf paced through the night in vigilant patrol, its jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle, a Budweiser, perhaps, though the label was so abraded that only an expert could tell for sure, perhaps a worker at a recycling center, paid little and treated likewise, collecting five cents per bottle in most states, ten cents in Michigan.

אלוהים said...

Isn't there a bloggingheads mercy rule for the occasion of one blogger completely destroying the other? I felt so bad for Michelle after the 13:20 mark i couldn't even keep watching...

There are better conveyors of liberalism.

vbspurs said...

Part 1:

"For the rest of the day and into the next, I thought about Ruby’s eyes. I had handled the moment badly, I told myself, made her feel ashamed for a small vanity in a life that could afford few vanities. I realized that a part of me expected her and the other leaders to possess some sort of immunity from the onslaught of images that feed every American’s insecurities-the slender models in the fashion magazines, the square-jawed men in fast cars-images to which I myself was vulnerable and from which I had sought protection. When I mentioned the incident to a black woman friend of mine, she stated the issue more bluntly.

“What are you surprised about?” my friend said impatiently. “That black people still hate themselves?”

No, I told her, it wasn’t exactly surprise that I was feeling. Since my first frightening discovery of bleaching creams in Life magazine, I’d become familiar with the lexicon of color consciousness within the black community-good hair, bad hair; thick lips or thin; if you’re light, you’re all right, if you’re black, get back. In college, the politics of black fashion, and the questions of self-esteem that fashion signified, had been a frequent, if delicate, topic of conversation for black students, especially among the women, who would smile bitterly at the sight of the militant brother who always seemed to be dating light-skinned girls-and tongue-lash any black man who was foolish enough to make a remark about black women’s hairstyles. [...]

vbspurs said...

Part 2:

"Mostly I had kept quiet when these subjects were broached, privately measuring my own degree of infection. But I noticed that such conversations rarely took place in large groups, and never in front of whites. Later, I would realize that the position of most black students in predominantly white colleges was already too tenuous, our identities too scrambled, to admit to ourselves that our black pride remained incomplete. And to admit our doubt and confusion to whites, to open up our psyches to general examination by those who had caused so much of the damage in the first place, seemed ludicrous, itself an expression of self-hatred-for there seemed no reason to expect that whites would look at our private struggles as a mirror into their own souls, rather than yet more evidence of black pathology.

It was in observing that division, I think, between what we talked about privately and what we addressed publicly, that I’d learned not to put too much stock in those who trumpeted black self-esteem as a cure for all our ills, whether substance abuse or teen pregnancy or black-on-black crime. By the time I reached Chicago, the phrase self-esteem seemed to be on everyone’s lips: activists, talk show hosts, educators, and sociologists. It was a handy catchall to describe our hurt, a sanitized way of talking about the things we’d been keeping to ourselves. But whenever I tried to pin down this idea of self-esteem, the specific qualities we hoped to inculcate, the specific means by which we might feel good about ourselves, the conversation always seemed to follow a path of infinite regress. Did you dislike yourself because of your color or because you couldn’t read and couldn’t get a job? Or perhaps it was because you were unloved as a child-only, were you unloved because you were too dark? Or too light? Or because your mother shot heroin into her veins…and why did she do that anyway? Was the sense of emptiness you felt a consequence of kinky hair or the fact that your apartment had no heat and no decent furniture? Or was it because deep down you imagined a godless universe?"

vbspurs said...

Part 3:

"Maybe one couldn’t avoid such questions on the road to personal salvation. What I doubted was that all the talk about self-esteem could serve as the centerpiece of an effective black politics. It demanded too much honest self-reckoning from people; without such honesty, it easily degenerated into vague exhortation. Perhaps with more self-esteem fewer blacks would be poor, I thought to myself, but I had no doubt that poverty did nothing for our self-esteem. Better to concentrate on the things we might all agree on. Give that black man some tangible skills and a job. Teach that black child reading and arithmetic in a safe, well-funded school. With the basics taken care of, each of us could search for our own sense of self-worth.""

--

Sorry about the Parts, but it wouldn't let me type the whole quote in one post.

Just to say that when Goldberg and others talk of his nuances, of how reflective he is, this is what they mean.

Frankly, reading of his discovery of skin whiteners in LIFE magazine and then his thoughts on black people's self-tortured behaviour and thoughts about this aspect so little known by white people (except maybe women who use lighter foundation to appear whiter), I walk away feeling a deep deep oppression on my chest.

I feel thankful I never have to go through any of this, and I guess this is Sarah Palin's greatest crime in the eyes of many people, including some white people. She'll never go through any of this either.

Cheers,
Victoria

holdfast said...

Wow. In the still shot Michelle actually looks quite cute. That cuteness certainly fades once she starts moving her head in her spastic fashion. Of course, as soon as she actually let works pour out of her mouth, she was revealed for the horror that she is. Is this why C4 doesn't like Jews ?

Anonymous said...

"Plucky Reginald Vas Deferens is a nuclear scientist in love with mafia boss Enrico Marx, who is himself married to Conchita Macbeth, a lively belly-dancer
at the Belgian disco whose manager, burly Ivan Crabb, has a naked daughter Janice engaged to J.J. Spinman, New York private detective, employed by elegant Laura Herron to trace the missing million-pound bidet that Hitler
gave to Eva Braun as a bar mitzvah present during a state visit to Crufts, and which remained hidden until a World Cup referee, Horst Jenkinson, was found hanged in a New Jersey tenement with the plans of a Russian secret weapon
partially tattooed on his elbow."

--The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Paco Wové said...

So, when MM thought it might not be true, he was squealing "Utter bullshit....trick... hack ... doughy pantload ...penises..." and now that it's confirmed he's all "Thank you" and "I still don't think the passage is bad writing. Do you?" submissiveness.

Feh.

The writing sucked.

It still sucks.

We should just call you "Utter Bullshit" from now on, MM.

holdfast said...

I think this is the thread:

http://www.slate.com/discuss/forums/ShowThread.aspx?PostID=3448257&View=Flat;

Anonymous said...

Plucky Reginald Vas Deferens is a nuclear scientist in love with Mafia boss Enrico Marx, who is himself married to Conchita Macbeth, a lively belly dancer
at the Belgian disco whose manager, burly Ivan Crabb, has a naked daughter Janice engaged to J.J. Spinman, a New York private detective employed by elegant Laura Herron to trace the missing million-pound bidet that Hitler
gave to Eva Braun as a bar mitzvah present during a state visit to Krupp's, and which remained hidden until a World Cup referee, Horst Jenkinson, was found hanged in a New Jersey tenement with the plans of a Russian secret weapon
partially tattooed on his elbow.

--The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail

kent said...

I still don't think the passage is bad writing.

An endorsement by the author of "eat a large bag of human penises" is not, unsurprisingly, without its attendant difficulties.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I still don't think the passage is bad writing. Do you?

It isn't terribly bad. Sort of sophomoric.

The issue is that when it was attributed to Palin the comments were all ZOMG......STUPID!!!

Then suddenly when it is Obama....their opinions change.

The words in the sentence didn't change, just their perceptions according to their biases. Bunch of hypocrites.

themightypuck said...

I think "It was a dark and stormy night..." is pretty good writing. The trick of hoisting people unsure of what to think by their own petards is ancient and knows no politics.

Chip Ahoy said...

… where a black Doberman the size of a wolf, as measured at the shoulders but not by weight, and the wolf being more heavily coated with a much fuller collerette, and of course the wolf's tail would be down-sloping and full whereas the Doberman's tail would be cropped in this imagery as would be its ears in that manner of Doberman ear-cropping that always struck me as unnecessarily painful and inhumane, paced in patrol and not just any ol' nonchalant patrol either but hard core vigilant patrol because any patrol other than vigilant is hardly a patrol worth patrolling, as a matter of fact, that would be just idle nervous pacing, it's jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle, probably a dos Equis, or possibly a Pabst Blue Ribbon, but certainly not a Budweiser longneck, this being an utterly no-class location, you see, because its owners left the dog with no other more suitable chew toy which would have been much better for the dog's teeth, and all that goes to show you how pathetic the neighborhood is, so poor in fact that nobody around even had cell phones with which call ahead, which I probably wouldn't have responded to anyway because I was ashamed of our blown-out sofa and that was the only place to sit.

Chip Ahoy said...

Chris, at the risk of saying what you already know, "It was a dark and stormy night" is acceptable writing, it's what follows that makes it atrocious.

the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

You have to admit that's hilarious.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Frankly, reading of his discovery of skin whiteners in LIFE magazine and then his thoughts on black people's self-tortured behaviour and thoughts about this aspect so little known by white people (except maybe women who use lighter foundation to appear whiter), I walk away feeling a deep deep oppression on my chest.

Yes. But it still doesn't make the writing quality any different: does it?

Having read neither Obama's book or Palin's book, I can make no comparisons to each of them in style or substance. In fact I would hope that they don't share style or substance since each person comes from different life experience backgrounds.

Why should one person's soul searching introspection be more important or 'nuanced' than another's. Because he is black? From a wealthy background? Obama is wonderful and his writing is wonderful?

Or because she is white? From a middle class background? She is stupid and her writing is stupid?

Neither one of them should get a pass.

El Presidente said...

I thought "eat a large bag of human penises" was pretty damned funny.

"NRO hack and doughy pantload Jonah Goldberg" was pretty good too. Jonah will republish quality insults if someone would only let him know of this you might make the corner at NRO.

WV: vagmor -bloggingheads new strategy for increasing viewership.

rhhardin said...

It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand is a nice take-down of the libertarians.

Search inside for "Galambosian."

My favorite cocktail meeting dialogue:

"There are five legitimate functions of government," said the Galambosian.

"No kidding. What are they?"

rcocean said...

All hail Chip, King of the Run on Sentence.

Shanna said...

I still don't think the passage is bad writing. Do you?
Aside from being a giant run on sentence? It goes wrong at the Doberman part.

That wasn’t really the first line in the book, was it?

traditionalguy said...

The Professor is noting the existence of the Noble Black Man is Always Genuine and Worthy default position we all take to avoid Racism Charges and Guilt. I blame Atlanta native MLK for programing us too well. The truth is that some black man are noble and some black men are impossible jerks. Just ask a black man that is not inside the club, and they will tell you the difference.

rcocean said...

Another discarded version:

"The apartment was small, with slanting floors and irregular heat and a whore downstairs that didn’t work, so that visitors had to call ahead from a pay phone at the corner gas station, where a black pimp the size of a werewolf paced through the night in vigilant patrol, his jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle."

Just a few changes make it much more interesting.

traditionalguy said...

I love the easy adoption of the language is class position (See, Pygmalion)to discriminate.

John said...

And I don't see how you could conclude that Goldberg is anything but homely. She doesn't even have semetic charm. She is just plain.

Gahrie said...

appropos of nothing:

Huge Bag of Penises would make a great name for a punk rock band....

kent said...

Huge Bag of Penises would make a great name for a punk rock band....

There actually was, late 70s/early 80s, a Hispanic punk band by the name of "Juan Foot 'N' the Grave." Hand to God. ;)

LouisAntoine said...

One commenter who, despite the fact that he/she doesn't like Palin, does not stand in for every "liberal" in the universe, thought the writing was bad when it was Palin's. So, great. Honestly, there is no way to say whether I would have fallen for it, although Ann and others seem to think, of course you would, you're a liberal. Like a blind taste test for a wine critic who is shown to be a charlatan because he can't tell the difference between red and white wine, my opinion about all writing is informed solely by the political label attached to it. I would never be able to think Sarah Palin could write something good (does it matter that Palin had a ghostwriter and Obama didn't, by the way?) just like I could never, never think Obama was anything short of brilliant.

Does this whole line of argument appear as pointless to anyone else as it does to me?

If you cared to know, I thought Obama's books were pretty good-- "Audacity" has a lot of political pablum, "Dreams" is overwritten at times, but don't forget-- Obama is not a professional writer. He is a politician. There aren't many who can write very well-- I think Jim Webb is pretty good. Obama writes really well for a politician. Sarah Palin didn't write her book, so it's hard to say, but I doubt she's a very good writer. Her spoken expression is piss poor.

And Jonah Goldberg's opinion piece was utter bullshit. I want to get paid to write columns extrapolating about things that are said on comment threads. Does it ever occur to Palinophiles that you can think Palin is a terrible leader for America without "hating" her irrationally? I don't hate her. I think she's not terribly competent or interesting as a leader, though.

Henry said...

I want to get paid to write columns extrapolating about things that are said on comment threads.

You want to be Roy Edroso!

Scott M said...

@MM

Does it ever occur to Palinophiles that you can think Palin is a terrible leader for America without "hating" her irrationally? I don't hate her. I think she's not terribly competent or interesting as a leader, though.

It's a fair question.

No "Palinophile", I, but I wonder how many Obama supports would allow the same latitude from me if I don't hate Obama, but think he's a terrible leader. So far, not too many. I'm either a closet racist or too stupid to see the good he's already done.

avwh said...

"I think she's not terribly competent or interesting as a leader, though."

You must be in the minority on the latter point though, or why would AP have 11 fact checkers combing through her book? Why did every left-leaning MSM (sorry for the redundancy) send hordes of staff to Alaska to dig dirt on her last fall - scrutiny they STILL have never expended on The Zero?

She's either interesting or a real threat, or everyone would just ignore her.

Palladian said...

An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, but individual, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory—this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me, it was myself. I had ceased now to feel mediocre, accidental, mortal. Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I was conscious that it was connected with the taste of hope and change, but that it infinitely transcended those savours, could not, indeed, be of the same nature as theirs. Whence did it come? What did it signify? How could I seize upon and define it?

From the first volume of Barack Hussein Obama's upcoming third memoir In Search of Lost Change: Rahm's Way

Chase said...

does it matter that Palin had a ghostwriter and Obama didn't, by the way?

Is it even possible to write a statement more full of bullshit than that one?

section9 said...

Here's the fascinating thing-I like the notion of dropping young Sarah into the middle of the Indonesian Coup as a science experiment, just to see what would happen and how she would react.

Methinks she would definitely get along with the Black Doberman.

How she would get along with Sukarno is another thing altogher.

Too bad Billy Kwan had to get pushed out of the hotel in the movie. Maybe Sarah did it?

Lynne said...

"Huge Bag of Penises would make a great name for a punk rock band...."

Ok, ladies and gentlemen, let's give a warm welcome to Loren Bobbit and the Huge Bag of Penises!

Chase said...

Indeed, some of us will always be sympathetic to Mrs. Palin if for nothing else than her enemies. The bile she extracts from her critics is almost like a dye marker, illuminating deep pockets of asininity that heretofore were either unnoticed or underappreciated.

Put me in that category. The pleasure of seeing the unhinged, hate-filled Christian-phobic left become exposed as not just existing on the FAR left, but actually representing the heart of the MAINSTREAM American left - and yes, that includes Democrats, to break it down for those of you who have names beginning with "M" - is beyond joy. I am having the best time watching hatred and bigotry exposed over and over from those who feel above such things, as they trip over themselves continually to explain why such terms cannot apply to them.

Delicious!

LouisAntoine said...

Chase, do you have anything to back your assertion up with?

Sarah Palin's ghostwriter is Lynn Vincent.

Obama's is?

So, does it matter that when you're comparing the writing abilities of each, that only one actually wrote something?

former law student said...

why would AP have 11 fact checkers combing through her book?

So many facts, so little time.

vbspurs said...

I've seen Ann's addendum, and I have to say that I myself know what she's talking about.

When I first read these lines:

"She walks in beauty, like the night"

I laughed out loud. Then I found out they were written by Lord Byron, and suddenly, my mind began racing to find it silkily descriptive.

Fine, I was a teenager, but I understand about being influenced by reputation and fame.

Cheers,
Victoria

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Ask a partisan about abortion or the Iraq War and see how nuanced their answer is.

Both parties are very principled on certain things, and refuse to examine their beliefs.

Nuance, phooey. Not on anything important.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

On writing, your writing sucks until enough people decide to like it. People are so susceptible to suggestion.

rcocean said...

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Pretty good, no matter who wrote it.

BJM said...

@Henry 1:31

Snorfle.

knox said...

Does this whole line of argument appear as pointless to anyone else as it does to me?

Oh please. It's only pointless when it's critical of Obama. Then it's all: Come on everyone!! "Move On!! Dot Org!!"

Rob said...

Apologies I couldn't get in here sooner, and the comment will probably go unread now, but I thought it was worth mentioning. If you believe, ala Kant, that categorization is the true power of man and of reason - then all of what you described made sense.

Until you categorize the author of those words they are just that. Providing the categorization "Obama wrote that" or "Palin wrote that" provides the power and the thought process that you went through.

Just my 2 cents.

AllenS said...

After I found out that Palin didn't write it, I immediately figured that Jesus wrote it.

AF said...

It's a perfectly good sentence. Anybody who would criticize Palin or Obama for writing it is wrong.

Of course, Palin DIDN'T WRITE IT so I don't see what this proves, other than that some Internet commenters are unfair to Palin. It certainly doesn't prove that Palin's bad sentences are not bad.