Andrew Sullivan is a poor man's Christopher Hitchens. Poor in the sense that he's one of America's favorite contrarians, but whereas Hitchen is subtle, unwavering and original, Sullivan repeats much of the same old tired things we've heard from the Left ever since Bush took office -- that he was selected, not election; that Cheney really ran the government; that torture was committed by U.S. soldiers with the complicit knowledge of the Bush adminstration; and on and on.
I'll deal with the torture question in a subsequent blog post, but I thought that I would mention rather quickly that I was taken aback by the very long answer to my question tonight on Governor Palin and his obsession with transparency surrounding her child. I had asked Mr. Sullivan if he felt as if he had a duty to be asking the same kinds of questions of Obama that he had spent diving into the personal, familial life of Ms. Palin. President Obama still has not released his medical records, his birth certificate, or his university grades. So much for the transparency Sullivan demanded of the Bush administration and Governor Palin.
I think that it would be a rather remarkable and not altogher unwelcome gesture if a politician, in the first recorded instance of this in perhaps human history, claimed a child that wasn't theirs. Aren't we more cross with politicians for fathering children and then ignoring them than with raising children that aren't their own (assuming, of course, Ms. Palin didn't birth Trig.) Indeed, contrary to what Mr. Sullivan argued tonight, he has still maintained that there are legitimate questions surrounding Trig Palin. Here is the December 5 blog post I asked him about this evening. Take a look for yourself. Here's just a sample paragraph of the extent to which he's gone to with respect to Palin's baby. Just imagine if he had shown a shred of due diligence he did in consulting eight (why not two or three?) obstreticians in the country on the matter of Trig Palin. Oh, and that's after his mother was defeated for the position of vice presidency.
Actually, the Dish went out and interviewed eight of the leading obstetricians in the country and laid out all the facts of the case and asked the experts for their take. While none would say that this pregnancy could not have happened, and none would comment on a case they hadn't examined personally, all of them said it was one of the strangest and unlikeliest series of events they had ever heard of and found Palin's decision to forgo medical help for more than a day after her water broke and risk the life of her unborn child on a long airplane trip to be reckless beyond measure.Sullivan cannot turn around and claim that the vice presidency is a major office and that we need someone strong in that role after he argued tonight that Vice President Cheney was effectively president. Either the Vice Presidency has a very limited role or it's an important job. It cannot be both. And if the Democrats are going to reassert some "constitutional order" as he claimed tonight -- one one wonders just what the whole fiscal stimulus was about then!-- then wouldn't you want your Vice President just to go to funerals and preside over the Senate?
The obsession with Trig Palin goes a bit too far. Sullivan has written dozens of blog posts about Palin's pregnancy. Just how much asking of questions did Sullivan do for his preferred candidate, Obama?
He's demanded that the McCain people release some kind of information about Trig. Might it be just as possible that she didn't feel comfortable with her Down Syndrome baby getting all sorts of attention? Rather incredulously, Sullivan said that it was one thing for you to claim your family was off limits -- a position he claimed to defend -- and another to hold your child up at the Convention like in "The Lion King." He claims that Palin made it a political issue by holding up the baby at the convention. Would it seem fair to say then, that Sasha and Malia have become political issues now that an open letter was written from Obama to his daughters? Obama's made a big deal about how he has fathered children in wedlock as part of an appeal to conservative Democrats that he might be a force for good parenting with black men. Obama wanted us to "lay off his wife," but clearly had no trouble bringing her out on the campaign trail.
Sorry, but I don't buy the argument and find his view that the birth certificate thing is "no big deal" a little implausible. If Obama were a foreign national, which he may very well be, then it represents the greatest constitutional crisis ever. Obama could, just as the McCain camp should in Sullivan's eyes, dismiss those allegations immediately by releasing the information.
Of course I delighted in how long he took to answer my question -- by far the most time he took on any question -- and the rant he gave about the governor of Alaska. I find it somehow revealing that he spent the most time on the Q & A on my question. He could have answered it quickly, instead he launched into something about how his role as a writer is in the "netherworld" of chatting with your friends on instant messaging and serious reporting.
Who does Mr. Sullivan think he is? Entertainment Weekly?
3 comments:
I agree Sullivan bloviated in response to your question. Poor judgment on his part. He should know better.
One thing, though: you're mistaken about Sullivan's assessment of the job of Vice President. The VP can have both a limited role AND still be important. The simple reason is -- to paraphrase Jed Bartlet -- because the President could die.
The Trig Palin bullshit is one of the few instances Sullivan really pissed me off. Otherwise, your assessment of him is ridiculous and uninformed. Also, "not as subtle" as Christopher Hitchens? Not only are their styles and argumentative methods completely different, but their views on almost everything don't match. Stop talking out of your ass, Charles.
Anyways, a simple Google search would reveal Obama's birth certificate and medical records. Good research, there. And as for his uni grades, they aren't on public record, but you don't become editor of the Harvard Law Review by slacking off and skating by. Usually one gets that spot by being top of your class.
Actually, I did that simple Google search. If you're referring to the letter from his doctor of twenty years, forgive me for being skeptical. It's been almost standard practice for politicians doctors to lie about their client's medical records going back at least as far as FDR.
As for the birth certificate, I'd like to see the physical, real copy as opposed to the one that they are saying is real. Why not just make it publicly accessible?
On the contrary to your Harvard law point, we don't know his Occidental or Columbia grades. He didn't graduate with honors from Columbia which makes me wonder how qualified he was to get into HLS in the first place. He also was the first black law review president, a position he got because Harvard was afraid it would be the last LR to have a black president.
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