A few days ago, I called upon Michele Bachmann to write a thank-you note to Sarah Palin, who went before her, taking unholy heat from the press. Now Jeffrey Lord is saying something similar, portraying Palin as Goldwater to Bachmann’s Reagan:
Have liberals who spent the better part of the last three years scornfully pouring vitriol on Sarah Palin helped Minnesota Congresswoman Bachmann — like Palin an attractive conservative working mother of five (don’t forget the 23 foster kids) from the American working class — to a place on the GOP ticket instead? …
After all this time of insisting Palin was (pick one) “profoundly stupid” (MSNBC’s Chris Matthews), “dumb as a brick” (Young Turk’s Cenk Uygur, now with MSNBC), “ridiculous and dangerous” (Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post) or “ignorant” (Slate) — and this is the printable stuff (the unprintable Bill Maher here) –America is awaking to a vaguely familiar political memory.
He (or she) who goes first — catches all the arrows.
Lord also hits the nail on the head as to why conservative women are such targets for the liberal establishment:
But as liberals have tried furiously to ignore — the term “woman” is in fact not synonymous with “liberal.” So when Alaska’s Governor Palin was the surprise choice for John McCain’s running mate in 2008, the liberal media did what was once done to pathfinders Al Smith, Barry Goldwater, and Jesse Jackson. The idea of a conservative woman in the White House was a danger to liberals on multiples of levels — and the attempt to shred Palin’s reputation was on. The heretofore smart Governor of Alaska quickly was portrayed as dumb, stupid, etc. etc. etc.
With Obama elected and Palin Goldwaterized, there was almost an audible sigh of relief from the left-wing commentariat, particularly those at MSNBC.
Then along came Michele Bachmann.
Whatever you think of Bachmann-and I am still trying to make up my mind-you have to admit this is all so delicious.