How Can Anyone Love Biden and Hate Sarah?

Decent people cringe whenever one of the media ghouls, liberal comedians or Democrat operatives make another false charge or disgusting joke about Sarah Palin and her family. It seems that every other day my hometown newspaper prints another, viciously misleading and vile anti-Palin cartoon on its editorial page. I’m a senior citizen, and I’ve just never seen anything like the hatred and slime hurled at anyone like this before. It would be comical if it were not so ugly.

Just the other day a childhood friend who is a well-educated, liberal attorney passed along the news that Sarah Palin had banned books when she was mayor. He had heard the lie but not the truth, and passed the lie along for reasons that escape me. Conversation around the lunch table also referenced her lack of experience. Let’s see now, a mid first-term, America-hating senator with absolutely no governing experience is better suited than a sitting governor and former mayor for an executive position? How's that working out for all of us?

At this same luncheon, Sarah was also ridiculed by another person, who said she didn’t know anything. I tried to point out the comparison to now VP Biden, who made 17 documented errors of fact during the debate, while Sarah made none, and who now makes a gaffe just about every day. Recently Biden, who has proposed splitting Iraq into three separate countries, represented the USA with Iraqi leaders. I wonder what kind of jokes the Iraqis muttered when he wasn’t in earshot.

For some reason, they just hate her, and facts and logic don’t matter at all.

This is not to say that she has all the experience we would like to see in a would-be President, but she is just as much a ‘quick-study’ as is Obama, and I expect that she will be ready and well-versed in foreign affairs and leaders when and if she decides to run again. Her record and her values are good enough for me right now.

JOE BIDEN'S TERRIBLE TRUTHS

By JAMES LILEKS July 18, 2009 New York Post

It takes years of yoga to learn the posture necessary for speaking clearly with all your feet in your mouth. But for some the skill comes naturally, which brings us to Joe Biden. Those who saw Dick Cheney as an evil genius crouched silent in the shadows of the Oval Office like Nosferatu must enjoy Biden's high profile: he's out there daily with the sunny enthusiasm of Ronald McDonald opening another store. And, quite often, telling everyone to have a Whopper.

The "gaffes," as we call unscripted thoughts, come delightfully often with Biden. The latest: Speaking before the AARP, Biden aarped up a peculiar formulation to explain the need to borrow 3.2 bejillion dollars in order to transform the American health care system, preferably by next week. He said people ask him "What are you talking about, you're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt? The answer is yes, 'I'm telling you.'"

In Vietnam-era terms: we have to burn the hospital in order to save it. Even if that means losing the burn unit.

In one sense, Biden's logic isn't new; anyone who said we had to partition Iraq to save it is perfectly capable of believing we have to dig a deep hole now to keep from falling into a deeper hole later. But how does this fit with Biden's other summer misstatements? Let's take a quick review.

Iran. Earlier this month George Stephanopoulos asked Biden if the US would stand in the way of Israel decided it was time to take out Iran's nuke program. Said the Veep: "We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do ... if they make a determination that they're existentially threatened and their survival is threatened by another country."

True. But wrong! The sensible thing is to say: "We are seriously concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions, and strongly support serious efforts to be concerned, in coordination with allies whose serious efforts are concerned with -- hey, is that a mushroom cloud on CNN? Turn the sound up." Everyone knows Iran will give up the bomb, but in their own way: by putting it on a rocket and waving safe journey, Allah-speed. As the saying goes: If you love something, set it free. If the US isn't going to stop them, shouldn't Israel have the right to?

But that's not the official line, so YANK went the collar. Administration officials explained that the Vice President was using secret reverse-talking, and the allies remain committed to a sustained effort to frown and grip the podium while hoping there's no follow-up questions.

Swine Flu. Should we panic? "I would tell members of my family -- and I have -- I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now," Biden said, adding, "When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft." This statement was so true it was retracted by the end of the day. When the experts -- i.e., cable-news reporters on the medical beat -- start talking about Pig-Pandemic bringing down human civilization, everyone's first reaction is to stay away from planes and trains. But a Leader is supposed to say something calming, like "if you're taking a flight full of feverish travelers back from Cancun, don't lick the tray tables."

The Economy. Also in early July, Biden said "We misread how bad the economy was." This one is a bit different to explain away, since the administration billed itself as having super-genius comprehension of the problem and the necessary solutions.

Now, many suspect, President Obama finds himself staring at a portrait of FDR, murmuring "Help me, Obi-Wan. You're my only hope."

What Biden meant to say, in his puckish way, that they misunderstood what an economy is, and how it works. Piling up a mountain of proposed taxes, mandates, regulations, do-nothing programs and pork unseen in such dimensions since Pink Floyd floated a dirigible pig over an outdoor concert might, in fact, prevent recovery.

So do not criticize him; applaud his palaver, and hope for more. Biden's "gaffes" are anything but -- they're simply what the administration is really thinking. Truer words have never been babbled.

Just this morning, as I was preparing this post, the Providence Journal ran another ridiculous hit-piece on Sarah Palin authored by a senior fellow at Media Matters, a left-wing organization. It’s an epidemic.