The Assignment to Trash Sarah Palin
Lacing higher education with indoctrination is nothing new on U.S. campuses.
On September 18, Metro State College in Denver announced that campus officials would investigate a college professor who assigned an essay in an English composition course which explicitly called for a critique of the Republican vice-presidential candidate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
According to students, their instructor, Andrew Hallam, told them that their assignment was to write an essay to critique the “fairy tale image” of the governor that was presented at the Republican National Convention.
Students in the class who did not agree with the instructor’s views reported that the instructor and students ridiculed them and that they had felt like they were singled out. The college officials will be investigating students’ claims of bias and bullying in the classroom.
One student, Jana Barber, suggested that the professor used the classroom setting as “just an open door for him to discuss politics with us.” She has filed a complaint against the professor.
Another student suggested that the professor allowed other students to bully him and his peers who disagreed with the professor. “I said something to him like, ‘Well, there may be five of us, but we’re ready to debate this,’ and he cussed us out,” said Ben Faurer. “He’s trying to avoid all this, go along like nothing is happening,” Faurer said about the instructor who is in his first semester at the college.
A spokesperson for the college, Cathy Lucas, agreed that the professors need to foster free thinking. “The faculty’s responsibility is to provide opportunity for critical thinking and civic engagement, so bringing something of relevancy into the classroom was the faculty’s goal.”
These scenarios, unfortunately, have become far too common in academia. Consider that the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a non-profit organization which has intervened successfully in defense of liberty-related issues on behalf of students and faculty, often finds itself intervening on behalf of students and faculty who are not part of the “campus left.”
Many of us will remember the “affirmative action bake sales” that were being shut down by campus administrators in 2003 and 2004. Consider that during the last day of “Welcome Week” at UC Irvine in 2003, the College Republicans set up a booth to sell pastries and recruit members, but quickly found that the campus administration was about to shut them down. The College Republicans issued different prices for their bake sale for certain races and genders. For example, a white male would pay $1.00 for a doughnut while a non-white male would pay $0.75. The obvious intention of the event was to satirize affirmative action programs within the University of California. The event at UCI was similar to events on other campuses and was sponsored by UC Regent Ward Connerly. When members of MEChA, the Chicano student group, noticed the bake sale, they contacted administrators and the bake sale was closed down. One MEChA member even ripped down the poster that the College Republicans had hanging at their booth. Sally Peterson, the dean of students at UC Irvine, shut down the event and claimed that selling pastries at different prices for students was a violation of policy and discriminatory.
From 2003 to 2004 bake sales were shut down at Southern Methodist University, William & Mary, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Washington, DePaul, UC Berkeley, University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Northwestern University, University of Michigan, University of Indiana, and others.
Regardless of one’s position on affirmative action, colleges were created with the intention of promoting free thought rather than stifling it. When I was a student at UC Irvine, I supported the right of the College Republicans to host this event and was disturbed by the level of animosity exhibited by other students who attempted to stifle the rights of their peers. The groups who attempt to censor organizations like the College Republicans, however, were often the ones who would ally themselves with groups which supported Islamic terrorists and anti-American movements.
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Reut Cohen graduated from UCI, where she ran a blog to document the anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and anti-American incidents on campus.
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63 Comments
1. Turfmann:I graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1985. You could have very easily been my classmate and written the same essay back then as today. I recall the Celebrate Diversity mantra, the political correctness, the liberal rantings of the faculty. It is a wonder that there are any college educated Republicans/Conservatives at all considering the atmosphere that exists on campus these days. I recently attended an occupationally related recertification workshop that had invited a professor from one of the Boston area colleges to speak on an environmentally oriented subject. He had barely started the introduction to his one hour lecture when he launched into a screed decrying the Bush administration. Never mind the fact that most people in my industry are Republicans and Conservatives, this man was lecturing to a paid audience on a topic that had nothing to do with what he was asked to address. At the end of the lecture, more than just a few of us made mention that we didn’t appreciate his bloviating on our dime nor his point of view, period. It is that basic disrespect for polite and proper discourse and other’s point of view that is the norm for liberals that bothers me so greatly.
Sep 29, 2008 - 1:42 am 2. Ed Wallis:It seems Obama could personally benefit most from some “schooling”…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6-K7JwwV0U
Sep 29, 2008 - 4:11 am 3. Marina:“Students shouldn’t have to avoid certain professors like the plague; nor should they adopt the positions of professors in order to make the grade.”
Come on, Reut! We all know they “shouldn’t”, but they are students: only yesterday they lived depending on their parents. What would make us think that the only fact of coming to colledge will make independent thinkers of them? C’mon!!!! They are children: disoriented, depending on the others in money AND OPINION issues. We used to treat students like the independent thinking force. In reality they are just another crowd, easy to be manipulated and used by any scum. They have already refused to be like parents, but still cannot find their own way: they NEED mentors. And socialistic scum highjacked American (and European, and Israeli) campuses uses their vulnerability.
Of course, I strongly believe in the FREE WILL. When a student desides to join this or that group and to share this or that ideology, it’s HIS / HER own decision. But the situation on a campus – a bunch of lost children looking for someone to tell them what to think – is cynically used by the brainwashers.
No, not all the students are like that. Some of them are independent thinker (those who has always been, already at school). But, Reut, let’s be honest (although arrogant): how many of such students have you met? I mean the proportions: “inividuals” – “crowd”. How many were there around you? 5? 6? 9? And now all of them are hunted by the “crowd” led by profs, like this poor girl. It was horrible when Hallam told the “republican students” to out themselves and let the rest of the class harass them. His mistake was to underestimate her brother; but what is with the rest of the individuals on campuses? Especially those who cannot hide they’re different: you can be silent about your support of Israel, but looking like a Jew you always will be a target of fanatical “affirmative actions” from certain countries.
Good news is: the majority of students are not interested in politics. They can boo republicans on campuses, but they’ll never go to vote for their beloved Obama. Just because it’s not what they are here for. They just want their own portion of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll (or whatever it may be now). Yes, they adopt profs ideology, and yes, they participate in the manhunt, yes, they believe doing this they change the society to the best. But how many of them really care about this society? On the 4th of November most of them will stay home with a headache after the party the night before.
It was Alinsky who started to “organize” (=brainwash) students. Obama tried to do it. Ayers and the like still do it. If the majority of studets were politically active, we would have the USSRofA now.
I agree, the situation on campuses is getting worse. And there is no other chance to change it except for one: LAWSUIT. You cannot just fire a prof for his ideology. But you can sue him AND THE COLLEDGE for organizing a manhunt on you, for harassing you, for being silent when you were attacked etc. “Personal suffering” requires compensation. Sue the b…ches! And you see how our colledges will become peaceful and quiet temples of science (kidding). Sue them and make them pay! They don’t have so much money? Ohhhh! poor things! Isn’t it time to open some new colledges with new rules?
Sep 29, 2008 - 4:35 am 4. Valerie:I think it is notable that Obama was given enormous amounts of money for the purpose of improving education in Chicago, and had no effect.
His prescription for the country is, more of the same.
Sep 29, 2008 - 5:03 am 5. SAF:Ever wonder why laws aren’t specific enough? So I am sure there are regulations and such which would should prevent such behavior. But there are either loop holes or the judicial system won”t enforce them. So then you need LAWYERS to sue for your rights. Rights they really don’t care about but legal fees which they do.
And the judicial system aids and abets this by never making a decision in a day that they can stretch for a year thereby increasing legal fees. Many judgeships are elected so their lawyer buddies kick back campaign contributions.
Sep 29, 2008 - 5:11 am 6. Rubicon:In the end & based on the longstanding efforts of many in academia to indoctrinate rather than educate, legal actions will be the only way to get the college campus to respond.
Sep 29, 2008 - 5:15 am 7. Mike M:Faculty & administration back professors under the guise they are provoking thought, when in fact they are trying to instill idea’s with no options or threats of grading retaliation if one questions their dogma.
The FIRE group is the beginning of restoring free thoughts to college campus’ & the beginning of a backlash against those whose hubris is pathetic.
If given that assignment I’d cite the speech that liberals refused to allow her to give at the anti-Iran rally last week as published in Israel – by no less than one of their more liberal newspapers – and a speech you will NEVER see printed in the New York Times : http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1023408.html
Sep 29, 2008 - 5:33 am 8. mbi:One of the biggest problems the right has with college campuses is that few conservatives go into teaching at any level but certainly not at the Ph.D. level … why? That would be the pay scale. Money is more important to conservatives (in general) than the opportunity to mentor young people. You bet the campuses are full of liberals … they are the ones who chose to put their convictions before their bank accounts. Too bad this country can’t see education as the top priority and fund it like they do … oh I don’t know … DEFENSE. We’d have such a different world if we did.
I do think that all sides should be respected in University classrooms but I don’t imagine that will change. Liberals would freak if they met the alternative in the classroom. I also have one questions concerning affirmative action … How about we apply it to the NBA and the NFL?
Sep 29, 2008 - 6:15 am 9. Scott:Ok mbi,
Let me see if I got this right,…
Liberal college professors who are imposing their liberal views while squashing free speech and open discourse are actually good guys who became educators to “put their convictions before their bank accounts”.
Champions of truth and justice answering the call!!!
thanks for the laugh! I needed that!
Sep 29, 2008 - 6:49 am 10. Bloodthirsty Warmonger:M
Sep 29, 2008 - 7:00 am 11. Marina:mbi:
“One of the biggest problems the right has with college campuses is that few conservatives go into teaching at any level but certainly not at the Ph.D. level … why? That would be the pay scale. Money is more important to conservatives (in general) than the opportunity to mentor young people.”
Oh, please! That’s another lie called THE PROFESSOR MYTH. You know who MOSTLY becomes full-time professors? Loosers that had no other opportunities in their lifes. Sorry, but it’s true. Really brilliant people have no such problems. The others become professors, teachers or other type of community organizers (sorry again, but I’m tired of all this mythology around education). There are very very few of the full-time professors who just like their subject and like to share IT with students (not to indoctrinate them in things having nothing to do with it).
And we are talking about America, where the rest of free discussion could still survive anyhow. Western Europe is allready lost to the majority of underqualified, incompetent, ideologically driven socialist professors.
Sep 29, 2008 - 7:09 am 12. kourosh:DemocRats are trying so hard to dish out dirt on Palin. All liberal media are unfairly attacking Palin and trying to discredit her any which way they can. All Hollywood clowns and comedians are attacking her in their daily and nightly shows. Affair of this country are serious issues not comedy.
Here are some tips in regards to Palin/ Biden debate:
1) When Palin mentioned Alaska is the first state to identify Russian Airplanes entering US airspace, she was right. When she said Putin airplane traveled into US using Alaska’s airspace first, she was right. What she meant and said it more or less, was the fact that Alaska is the first line of defense against Russia. That is very accurate and correct. What is so funny about that?
Sep 29, 2008 - 7:13 am 13. ate mely:2) The fact is, unlike most of people in congress, and Hollywood, Palin worked hard all her life and was able to achieve the highest office of her state with no support from lobbyists, and manipulation by media and Hollywood. Palin is a real American story. That is why, Marxist leftover in the media are after her and European socialists can’t stand her. She is a true American.
3) The future of this country is too important to be influenced by comedy. A bunch of clown in late night comedy shows have no clue what is really hard work. The comedian and Hollywood clowns never worked hard in their entire life. What a person who act and make $100M, then moves to other countries to use money earn in America, have anything to contribute to this society. What a comedian who reads from tablets written by the most leftist people who only make fun of US system, has any important thing to contribute to state of economy, foreign policies, education or anything else for that matter. Again, these are serious issue not comedy that can be addressed by SNL, or Daily Show. The left is using comedy to lunch personal attacks against a real American woman who didn’t follow feminist line to become somebody. That is why? Socialists Standards were not used by her, and for that reason alone she is guilty and that is why comedians are used to attack her. If there was a grain of fairness in any of socialist who run the main media, she should be celebrated.
Isn’t that what the institution of higher learning is about? Learn how to discern Truth through ‘open, rich dialogue and free thought’? The real world after college is just as brutal. What better place to experience ‘defending your heritage, defending America,’ and finding your voice!
Sep 29, 2008 - 7:41 am 14. Saltherring:The problem is that the leftist indoctrination normally (abnormally?) begins the moment public schools get their hands on your children, usually at age 4 or 5. What follows is a 12-14 year, union-sponsored course in communist ideology supported by Democrat Party talking points. The mainstream media further reinforces the programming. At 18, the only place a college freshman would have heard countering opinions would have been at home or (over the last few years) the internet. It is no wonder the little robots spew their leftist gibberish virtually unchallenged.
Sep 29, 2008 - 7:51 am 15. frank:Nobody needs to trash Sara Palin. She can do it all by herself.
Sep 29, 2008 - 8:05 am 16. always right:Remember a few years ago, U of Delaware was hugely embarrased by the PC indoctrination every freshman had to participate?
The Board of whatever (similar to Board of Directors in a business) promised to investigate and correct the school board’s behavior.
Well, guess what? “We will get back to you later” turns out “We did not find anything wrong with the indoctrination, the spirit is in compliance to higher education”.
U of Delaware continues to practice its PC indoctrination, minus the spotlight of media attention.
Sep 29, 2008 - 8:13 am 17. geokstr:“Nobody needs to trash Sara Palin. She can do it all by herself.”
OK Frank, so then how about your side lets her do it herself, instead of airdropping armies of leftist lawyers and other slime-merchants into Wasilla to sniff her gargabe cans, looking for miniscule “scandals” to blow out of all proportion to reality, or simply make stuff up and astroturf it all over the internet?
Geez, the thought that millions of metrosexuals can be so frightened by a girl is hilarious.
Sep 29, 2008 - 8:32 am 18. Kurt:Marina, it’s clear you never took academia seriously. It might not be hard to become a teacher, but becoming a professor is a different story. Not only do most positions require a PhD, but the best openings routinely receive hundreds of well-qualified applicants.
A more accurate explanation is that the kinds of people who are inclined to become professors have beliefs which make the long slog to a PhD and an academic job easier to endure. If you believe that corporate America is corrupt and evil, or that most jobs are meaningless and dull and exploitative, or even that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” it’s easier to convince yourself that you’re doing something worthwhile by remaining in graduate school and on the academic path.
Once you stop believing those things–or if you have never believed them–than it’s much harder to remain on the conventional track to an academic job.
Sep 29, 2008 - 9:02 am 19. Bubba:Marina said:
“Oh, please! That’s another lie called THE PROFESSOR MYTH. You know who MOSTLY becomes full-time professors? Loosers that had no other opportunities in their lifes. Sorry, but it’s true. Really brilliant people have no such problems. ”
Marina:
You don’t know any college professors, do you? If you did, you wouldn’t call them “loosers”. I have three college degrees and had many great teachers, many bad teachers, but no “loosers”.
People generalize an issue based upon one person’s one sided account of a situation. College kids complain constantly about the work in school. Do the assignment and learn something about analyzing the other sides argument.
Sep 29, 2008 - 9:04 am 20. mike B:This has a ripple effect you know. Left leaning faculties in colleges is primarily why we have such a liberal media. The best students don’t always rise to the top of the class if the journalism professor doesn’t like what they’ve written. Therefore, those with the highest grades are most likely to share the views of their profs. They go on to the best jobs and write for our TV News, Magazines and Newspapers.
Sep 29, 2008 - 9:16 am 21. John:What I don’t understand is why haven’t we applied the FOX model to colleges? If a set of wealthy college board members could take one ivy league school and push it so that it’s faculty was lopsided conservative. It should, in theory, provide workers for Journalism, the arts, law, etc.. that would appeal to the other 50% of society that has no collegiate outlet for support of their ideals. If somebody important is reading this, GET TO WORK AND MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!
Anyone who thinks this is the least bit important or worth exerting any emotional energy over needs to visit their shrink. Palin is becoming a national joke, and this sort of petty whining about some minor incident just adds fuel to the fire. It was a disastrous pick, every Republican of my acquaintance is appalled by it, and so am I quite honestly. When they come to do the analysis of this election it will be one of the main reasons why John McCain succeeded in turning 2008 from a referendum on Obama which he had some chance of winning, into a referendum on his own judgement and stability.
Sep 29, 2008 - 9:54 am 22. mink/celes:Hey Frank you are the least educated person in the USA today.
Sep 29, 2008 - 10:16 am 23. LosCauz:I work in university settings just about every week and I can honestly say that I think the leftist ideals that I encounter from the professors and teachers is biological. Short of a life changing event such as losing a loved one thru some violent act they are encapable of change.
Sep 29, 2008 - 10:35 am 24. LosCauz:Regardless of what you think of Palin, she is the real deal. I think people are hungry for a politician like her who is untainted.
Sep 29, 2008 - 10:38 am 25. Connie Boyd:Conservatives are such poor little victims. Boo-hoo. Extreme right-wing Republicans controlled the federal government for six years, and look what happened. Everyone else in the nation–and hundreds of thousands of dead and exiled Iraqi civilians–were victimized by you.
Sep 29, 2008 - 10:56 am 26. Marc Malone:Wow, this seems to be a really polarizing article. I guess the title brought a lot of Libs to this more conservative site. Lots of generalized, superficial comments here, although not all are. The article itself cites many facts, but the respondents do not. What a disappointment.
Sep 29, 2008 - 11:27 am 27. Marina:To the trolls, KURT, BUBBA etc.:
OMG!!!!!!!!!! I’VE PRESSED A KEY TWICE AND “CALLED” LOSERS “LOOSERS” – THAT MEANS “I DON’T KNOW ANY COLLEGE PROFESSOR”! – - – -
(Do you have any idea how ridiculous you are? LOLus)
I have two points for you guys, that will FIGURATIVELY kill you:
1. My poor English is the result of the – oh, so much adored by you – EUROPEAN EDUCATION (yeah, I know, I’m a retard and proud of it, but, unlike JEREMIAH WRIGHT, I know that IMMANUEL KANT has nothing to do with the BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY… – lucky me…)
2. Do I know any college professors? Oooooooops! I USED TO BE ONE OF THEM! Not the FULL-TIME, I have a REAL JOB as well. But it was more then one college, and I’ve met more then one of these species. Believe me, most of them are good for nothing in the real life.
I’ve “taken academia seriously” untill I’ve got to know it.
Sep 29, 2008 - 11:32 am 28. Brent:Great article but dude, it’s “Indiana University”, not “the University of Indiana.” Do a little research, eh?
Sep 29, 2008 - 11:54 am 29. abbo:Great article, keep up the good work. I am not Jewish, but I am a Zionist and am pro-Isreal.
Sep 29, 2008 - 12:26 pm 30. Bill:It’s almost comical. I was a student at bucolic UCI in the late ’60s, early ’70s, when the school was a liberal oasis in the conservative “desert” of Orange County. Even back then, the faculty was leftist, though that was a relatively recent phenomenon. But in those counterculture days, of course, everyone who wasn’t a dork was liberal–which wasn’t yet a dirty word, nor did it imply political correctness, another concept that hadn’t yet reared its anti-intellectual, anti-human head. It’s almost impossible to believe that academia, along with the rest of society, can have gone so far off the rails. Woe be unto us, our country, and future generations if this Leftist, increasingly Stalinist, Leninist, Marxist, Maoist, etc.-ist culture isn’t turned around, but soon. Methinks this election, with the far leftist, liberation-theologist, anti-Americanist, anti-whitist Obama likely to take over, will herald the beginning of the downward slide of the great American experiment. And, as usual, Israel and the Jews will likely be the canary in the mine. I was a History major at Irvine, in a small minority. I hope but doubt they’re learning much history nowadays. As I said, woe be unto us….
Sep 29, 2008 - 12:43 pm 31. Kurt:Marina, I’m hardly a troll. I used to be a college faculty member, but the full-time variety, not a part-time adjunct. I was writing from experience, as most of the faculty members I knew and most of the people I went to grad. school had a worldview similar to what I described. It’s part of the reason why academia is so far left. Few people who believe in free markets or being entrepreneurial have any interest in jumping through all of the hoops required to be successful in academia.
Sep 29, 2008 - 1:05 pm 32. Eric:We’re not attacking the Sarah Palin the person, we’re attacking Sarah Palin as the vice-president and potential president.
Like others have said, we don’t need to “dig dirt” on her (that story was a lie, check the facts), just make her specifically answer a question. Or better yet, make her fill in a map of countries in the Middle East. Did you guys see that interview with Couric? Come on, we can do better, and you should be smart enough to realize that.
But hey, people here will just call me an uneducated troll…
Sep 29, 2008 - 2:02 pm 33. Foxy No To Say:Well, but you are an uneducated troll. Education has nothing to do with what degrees you may not have earned, but still possess.
Sep 29, 2008 - 2:31 pm 34. Avi Cohen:Great article. This happens in high school too.
Sep 29, 2008 - 3:36 pm 35. nick:you wanted a moron – Palin
and you got Andrew Hallam a moron
seems fair to me
but she is falling in polls.
subject closed – goodbye
Sep 29, 2008 - 4:05 pm 36. whiterock:A few years ago I went back to school to finish my degree. I picked up on this theme almost immediately. So I just pretended they were a cheap liberal date. Told them what they wanted to hear, and got what I wanted,a Phi Theta Kappa Degree. Nice thing, it seemed like the math and science profs. were closet conservatives. The rest, dishing up the Kool-Aid by the quarts. Always thought you should be able to sue the S.O.B.’s for coercion. If we need a fairness doctrine anywhere, it is in our Universities and Colleges.
Sep 29, 2008 - 5:13 pm 37. RF:I can see the writer’s concern with the realpolitik, asymmetrical type of classrooms that these professors are operating. It’s happening in different states to varying degrees, just reading some of the .org and student blogs will tell you this. Not to coin a phrase or anything, but the MSM has a corner on this market…
Sep 29, 2008 - 5:53 pm 38. Matt Cooper:http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/
http://www.campus-watch.org/
As always great article, Reut. The ratio of liberal to conservative professors is skewed in favor of liberals. Many of those liberals aren’t classic democrats. They are often people who grew up during the 60s and were very radical as youths. Even people who are in the middle like me find that the classroom environment can become really uncomfortable. Someone made the comment here that many professors in math and sciences are closeted conservatives. That is often true. You can tell is a professor is a moderate or conservative. A moderate or conservative professor will not give you their opinion on issues. Instead they will stick to the curriculum. If professors say anything remotely “conservative” sounding they find themselves in hot water.
Sep 29, 2008 - 7:02 pm 39. Christine:Sarah Palin is the biggest moron that has ever been vetted. “I know Russia because I can see it from my coast” idiotic references of a moron. Please spare us, Cinderella. Thanks but absolutely, positively no thanks.
Sep 29, 2008 - 7:06 pm 40. Dave:I remember my first year at college, at the University of Houston. I distinctly recall wondering why every single professor in my first semester (and all but one in my second) were dressed badly, had unkempt greasy hair and actually smelled bad, like they didn’t bathe regularly.
But I was young, and I felt compelled to respect them for their arcane knowledge of awful things like calculus and psych.
Now that I’m old enough to know, I know these people are “loosers”, which is spelled in our language as “losers”. They have no social skills and would never be accepted in a corporate environment. They are unkempt, ungroomed and generally uninterested in people.
The leftism is the icing on the cake.
Sep 29, 2008 - 7:45 pm 41. Bloodthirsty Warmonger:This is my second attempt to write a comment on this thread. When I was an undergraduate student at the University of Hawaii majoring in history, some of my professors wanted me to go for a Ph.D. I thank the providence of God that I didn’t educate myself to a higher level of unemployability, as my conservative views would have made it far more difficult to become a tenured full professor, no matter how hard I worked.
Sep 29, 2008 - 8:31 pm 42. Jeff:We all need to really look at this election objectively. Since the completion of the vetting process of both VP candidates, Biden has gone on to accommodate roughly about 84 interviews with the press while Palin has done less than 4 interviews with the press. That is a MAJOR unbalance in the two comparisons and it truly shows McCain’s apprehensiveness about her ability to speak on her own accord, without his physical presence. What does this portray, first and foremost? It portrays that this Presidential ticket does not have the full and utmost confidence in his VP ticket to fend for herself and answer any questions that the American public needs to know. It truly shows that his vetting process was not done in a wise manner but more so in a political manner. Here is a woman that exudes family values; taking care of 5 kids while being the Governor of Alaska, maintaining a healthy marriage, having decent morals and values, and is completely a Washington outsider. This is a classic profile of a candidate that has never been tainted, in the eyes of the American public that has lost faith in the judicial system. This pick was merely done to appeal to the American families with values and tradition but what else could be said about this VP ticket? Does it show the American public anything about her ability to make all the necessary decisions in regards to foreign affairs, national defense, economic legislation, and the overall ability to govern the most powerful country in the world?
We must keep in mind that McCain IS in fact 72 years old and if elected, he WILL be the oldest President to ever be elected. The last oldest elected President was Ronald Reagan at 69 years old, when he was elected in 1980, but he was in fairly good health. McCain, on the other hand, will be 3 years Reagan’s senior, if elected. He also does have a history of skin cancers which are not completely cured, among other ailments that he suffered during his years as a POW in Vietnam. Can we, as the American public, be completely confident that if anything happens to McCain while in office, that Palin will in fact be fully ready to tackle anything and everything that this country will have to face? America MUST search deep down and answer this question, honestly.
Sep 30, 2008 - 2:06 am 43. Marina:Now in our language:
Reut, Shana Tovah!
Sep 30, 2008 - 3:39 am 44. Eric:Foxy No To Say:
Well, but you are an uneducated troll. Education has nothing to do with what degrees you may not have earned, but still possess.
WTF? I didn’t even say anything about degrees. I would agree that someone can be educated without a degree. Why are you calling me uneducated? Is is b/c I don’t suppport Palin? If so, your response appears to be lacking in intelligence…
I come here to try to understand the other side, but I keep getting dismissed b/c I’m not a dittohead.
Sep 30, 2008 - 8:52 am 45. Jeannette:“Sarah Palin is the biggest moron that has ever been vetted. “I know Russia because I can see it from my coast” idiotic references of a moron.
Sep 29, 2008 – 7:06 pm”
Christine,
Are you too stupid to remember the rest of her statement, or are you being misleading about taking her comment out of context? I understood Gov Palin to be pointing out that since Alaskan borders two other countries, and no other US states, they deal with international situations like other states deal with neighboring states. So she actually has more international experience than most other governors.
And since she’s so often misquoted when she speaks, it isn’t unreasonable for her to limit her speaking engagements. (see above, and “I want to know what the vice-president does…”. Now, what was the rest of her sentence, there? Didn’t think so.)
No, she’s not among the more qualified VP nominees we’ve ever seen, but since Obama’s approximately as qualified as she is, what does that say about the Democrat ticket?
Sep 30, 2008 - 11:07 am 46. jane:I always wonder why the people who worry about McCain dropping dead due to age and Palin ending up President aren’t expressing even more concern over the possibility of Biden having another brain aneurysm. After all he’s already had two.
Imagine if Biden dropped dead from one, we’d end up with Obama and his lack of foreign policy experience. You know, the same shortfall the left faults Palin for having.
Sep 30, 2008 - 11:36 am 47. Fallon:“The fix is in, and it’s working…”
Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.com has this from a media newsroom:
“A READER AT A MAJOR NEWSROOM EMAILS:
‘Off the record, every suspicion you have about MSM being in the tank for O is true.
We have a team of 4 people going thru dumpsters in Alaska and 4 in arizona.
Not a single one looking into Acorn, Ayers or Freddiemae.
Editor refuses to publish anything that would jeopardize election for O, and betting you dollars to donuts same is true at NYT, others.
People cheer when CNN or NBC run another Palin-mocking but raising any reasonable inquiry into Obama is derided or flat out ignored.
The fix is in, and its working.’
I asked permission to reprint without attribution and it was granted.”
Sep 30, 2008 - 12:00 pm 48. proud elitist:Aww…how neat.
You gave us a lemon – Sarah.
We make lemonade.
Boo frakkin hoo.
Once again, it is so easy to make this a personal attack about her versus a professional attack about what she brings to the ticket. And I’m not talking about “rallying up the base.”
She has yet to say anything credible regarding her qualifications. She has given two embarassing interviews, one Sean Hannity interview (probably has a stain on her dress a la Lewinsky from Sean), and a follow-up interviw with JohnnySuspendSaveWorld where she doesn’t elevate her credibility and standing.
Despite what Jeff above reasonably states, you want to make it personal or elitist or edumacation-like, etc.
The point is that she’s not out there answering the tough questions. Biden is.
It’s not hard to trash trash, btw.
Sep 30, 2008 - 12:48 pm 49. Dumb democrat:For all you brilliant leftist, it must really irk you that Palin is this close to being the vp.. All you can do is dream about that kind of status.. Sit back in you’re lazy chair and complaint, that’s all you have left. LOL…But lets be real, more embarrasing than Biden, theres no one. Has the man ever being right on any foreign policy issue. I dont think so.. If you’re best is Biden, this country is in big trouble. But I guess the community organizer will save us all..lol..
Sep 30, 2008 - 3:51 pm 50. Donna V.:Yes, the brilliant Joe Biden, who thought President Roosevelt addressed the nation on TV in 1929. An intellectual powerhouse.
The reason most profs are liberal is because you have to suck up and kiss butt to get tenure. Yes, you often have to do that in the corporate world as well, but in academia, part of sucking up means displaying the correct political attitudes. Even the mighty can fall if they show insufficient respect for leftist conventional wisdom, as Larry Summers discovered. And intellectuals generally are not famous for bravery. German universities were once considered the best in the world, but how many German profs spoke out against Nazism in the ’30’s, or defended their Jewish collegues? Indeed, some of them probably welcomed the removal of so much Jewish talent from the universities, since many teaching positions opened up.
If you have to mouth certain opinions to get ahead, the only way you can keep yourself from feeling like a craven jerk is to convince yourself that they are the correct – in fact, the only correct- opinions an educated person can hold. Nobody around you will disagree with that.
Things are different in the hard sciences and engineering and math, or so I am told. But the humanities and soft sciences profs? They’re sheep with PhDs.
Sep 30, 2008 - 5:45 pm 51. maya peck:I don’t understand why the Republican congress is not standing up for Sen. McCain, in terms of the way he suspended his campaign to use his influence to protect the American people, as it pertains to the rescue Bill. I also find it amazing how the Republicans have allowed the media to taint Sarah Palin. I’m a democrat and I don’t believe in some of Gov. Palin’s political points. Yet, I can not tolerate the way the Democrats and the media have treatedher.
Oct 1, 2008 - 12:34 am 52. Bill:I also find Obama to be an empty suit.He rattles a lot but doesn’t do much.
He seems to be very fake.
I wish my party vetted him better! I wish Hillary was the nominee!
It appears that he is on a path to destroy anyone who stands in his way. That really bothers me.I think that he doesn’t care who he hurts.
Maya.
What is wrong with colleges nowadays. You’d think they’d a least set assignments that tested their students.
Oct 1, 2008 - 3:05 am 53. RE:Universities were founded as bastions of free and open inquiry. It’s quite tragic to see them become quite the opposite. The ‘March through the institutions’ has done a very effective job of destroying that founding principle. College ‘education’ (or should I say ‘indoctrination’) has become a very expensive bad value – even the hard sciences have become tainted with political correctness.
Oct 1, 2008 - 4:39 am 54. Walter S:The liberal media is rushing to trash Sarah Palin. I also believe they’re directly behind the checkout stand journalistic (??) garbage papers saying virtually every nasty thing they can about Governor Palin. These tatics are straight from the Communist Manifesto.
One has to wonder why are they not pressing Obama for some substantive answers to some real questions. Instead, they’re practically laying palm leaves before him as he’s pressing toward the presidential election. The liberal media is in the tank for Obama. Anyone who doesn’t see that is a bald-faced liar. And I’d call’em that to their face. It’s time to stand up and let the liberal media know that we’re tired of their ongoing trashing of America and its people. People like Katie Couric, Charlie Gibson, the CBS Morning News crew, Bob Scheiffer, and virtually every assignment reporter to every major network news program, most newspapers, and most radio stations are spewing vitriole like so much treasonous poison hour after hour after hour.
Most major universities are hotbeds of Socialism, Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism, and Communism. Tenured professors, for the most part, are nothing more than extensions of their Communist heroes. That makes them traitors in my book.
Our school system has been tasked with the formation of young minds in the Socialistic/Communist mold.
Seeing how Governor Palin is being unfairly attacked and the Commie loving Obama goes scot free should enrage every Conservative. Our Founding Fathers would gauge the likes of Obama, Biden, Dodd, Rangel, Reid, Pelosi, Byrd, Frank, Kennedy, and the rest of the Democratic garbage heap and declare them unfit to clean the Congressional restrooms. I honestly believe that they’d also judge every one of them guilty of high treason and sentence them to the gallows.
Wake up, Conservatives. Wake up. We’re fighting for our lives. And we thought it was bad before during the Bush elections.
Oct 1, 2008 - 6:55 am 55. The drudge of all work: the promotion of female stereotypes in English composition classes run by those inscribed by patriarchal cliches:[...] Reut Cohen, PJM: On September 18, Metro State College in Denver announced that campus officials would [...]
Oct 1, 2008 - 9:28 am 56. Javelin:Sounds like someone dusted off the typical culture war critique of colleges and added anti-Palinism to the list of evil heresies. Red meat for the plebes!
Oct 1, 2008 - 9:45 pm 57. qwfwq:The media are campaigning for Obama–thus, we no longer need them.
mbi: Your cartoon views of Republicans are hilarious. Obviously, you know nothing of professors’ salaries; they aren’t exactly living in poverty, chum. And they’re paying for their latte’s on the taxpayer’s dime.
I dated a marxist in college; upon graduation he was amazed to discover that he could actually be hired for his talents and make quite a good living. Marxist no more. Plus, a major reason few conservatives are on campus is that the Left chases them out at every possible opportunity. It’s called ‘fascism’. Go back to your intellectual basket weaving at your humble garret at Starbuck’s and leave us alone.
Oct 2, 2008 - 5:55 am 58. Marc Malone:Javelin – Complaints about Media and Academia bias is not culture warring. It’s about the assault on our freedoms.
Please quit being a party shill just for a minute. Doesn’t the idea of these institutions, that are supposed to be neutral and about openness, being so clearly biased bother you even a little bit? It’s your freedom, too.
Should a teacher be giving such a clearly partisan assignment? Why wasn’t the assignment 3 things you like and 3 things you don’t like about Gov. Palin? Or even, 3 things you like or don’t like about Gov. Palin?
Oct 2, 2008 - 1:43 pm 59. Someone75:So . . . we’re not allowed to ask legitimate policy questions? Or any questions at all? Being a patriot and a conservative doesn’t mean blindly, unquestioningly following everything the party says or does. My vote is not decided yet, but I’m deeply suspicious of Sarah Palin. I want to know more, but apparently, that’s not acceptable.
Oct 2, 2008 - 1:44 pm 60. khirareq:Jeff,
You are correct in that Biden has done numerous interview while Palin has not. The inference you take from the disparity however is incorrect. I do not believe the issue is that McCain is afraid of what she’ll say, but rather what the media will SAY that she said. You can largely thank Charles Gibson for that. His pre-interview “Palin Will Declare War on Russia!” headline along with his judicious editing (mid-sentence!) made it clear that she wasn’t going to get a fair shake in that format. On the other hand, in spite of his numerous interviews you would have no idea what Biden had actually said if you did not follow it in non-traditional media. So, she is adapting different formats – such as tonight’s debate.
I do think there is a thirst for knowledge about her, and that she does have questions to answer. I’d love to see an unmoderated call-in type interview format for her, to see if she can answer the questions the public wants to know.
Oct 2, 2008 - 3:28 pm 61. Ted Bleiweis:The Orange County Independent Task Force web site can be found at:
http://octaskforce.wordpress.com/
Oct 3, 2008 - 6:34 pm 62. Marc Malone:Someone75 – By all means ask questions. Get info. First, ask what it is you find disturbing about Palin. Was that attitude put into your head by the MSM?
She’s weak on foreign policy, like most any Governor. Fortunately, she has time to learn. She DOES know energy policy, but the MSM doesn’t ask her about THAT! She’s a solid conservative, but has successfully governed from the middle as an exec. She has MANY other skills. If she seems less knowledgable on national affairs, it’s because she’s been learning all kinds of other things. She’s no dummy!
Thus, she and McCain balance each other very well. He can lean on her for executive guidance, and she can learn foreign policy from him and others. Hope that helps.
Oct 4, 2008 - 9:50 pm 63. Pajamas Media » McCain’s Keys to the Keystone State:[...] hatred, made up stories, and called her names. They hid out at her rallies. Professors gave assignments to “critique” her, and juvenile journalists mocked her “accent” while [...]
Oct 29, 2008 - 9:33 am