Bill Kristol's not the best media critic either
July 07, 2009 2:43 pm ET by Eric Boehlert
Following Jonah Goldberg's lead, Kristol claims the "mainstream media" have been wildly unfair to Sarah Palin. That they're panicked about her. They "disdain" and "dislike" her.
Number of media examples Kristol cites to prove his point? Zero.
As Goldberg has consistently illustrated, being a (lazy) conservative media critic means never having to prove a thing. Nice work if you can get it.
UPDATE: Honestly, Kristol's lack of media research is the least of his problems in this column, in which he makes a direct comparison between Palin's current situation and Barack Obama's in 2005.
The media establishment didn't protest much about the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. He gave a good speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, was elected to the Senate that fall, and immediately started running for president. He didn't accomplish much in his four years in the Senate (nor could he have been expected to). But that didn't seem to hurt his standing. Isn't Palin about as well positioned for the GOP 2012 nomination as Obama was in 2005 for the 2008 Democratic one?
Right. Except last time I checked, Obama didn't abruptly quit his senate seat for vague reasons. But hey, other than that, Kristol's comparison's a perfect one.
He wrote "Isn't Palin about as well positioned for the 2012 GOP nomination as Obama was in 2005 for the 2008 Democratic one?" No - she's not. Mr. Obama hadn't already lost a national race. Mr. Obama was (and remains) capable of participating in a news interview and not coming across as a liar and a complete fool.
Mr. Kristol went on to write: "I think so [so? He has been wrong about so much for so long his opinion is worthless.] -- except that her own party's establishment fears and even loathes Palin, while the Democratic establishment wasn't set against Obama."
The Democratic Establishment was dead set against Mr. Obama because it was 100% for Sen. Clinton. Is this really news to Mr. Kristol? Where was he for the 24 month presidential campaign of Mr. Obama?
Mr. Obama went out and built a new organization all his own. Ms. Palin has yet to prove she can run much of anything.
Palin = Professional Victim