Steve Schmidt has a boogie woman in his flawed political closet - Sarah Palin. And the former top strategist for the McCain campaign seems unable to exorcise her to cover his own failings. He's making another stab at it in a new book, Game Change, authored by liberal journalists Mark Halperin (Time Magazine) and John Heilemann (New York Magazine).
Schmidt reiterated his criticisms on 60 Minutes Sunday night, accusing Palin of being "unfocused" and ignorant of historic details. And once again Schmidt portrayed the former Alaskan Governor and McCain running mate as stupid, uneducated, totally ignorant of national and international issues and an overall screw-up.
Then to top it off Schmidt accused Palin of lying frequently and charged she misled the campaign when she declared a report of a state ethics probe had exonerated her of wrongdoing. Actually it did, except for questioning one instance of Palin using state funds to cover the cost of having her young children accompany her on an trip involving state business. Palin promptly repaid the amount and apologized even before she was tapped as a vice-presidential candidate.
Schmidt's largely unfounded accusation borders on slander. If Schmidt has facts to support his allegations of Palin's lack of veracity he should make such facts public. Not to do so raises questions about his own dishonesty.
Schmidt's continuing effort to lay blame for a failed campaign at the feet of Sarah Palin is yet another attempt to deflect criticism of himself and campaign manager Rick Davis. Would you hire these two for your next campaign? Not if you want to win.
As always, Schmidt and the authors of the new book are being aided and abetted by a compliant national media which seems ever eager to criticize Palin. Example - Anderson Cooper asking Schmidt if he knew early on that "she (Palin) didn't know anything."
"It was clear we had a lot of work to do," was Schmidt's pompous reply.
Schmidt's demeaning of Palin is a rehash of what he has been spouting for months. It's time he put a lid on that spout.
The two authors of Game Change also take Hilary Clinton to the woodshed, contending she was so confident of winning the Democrat nomination that she began planning her transition to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue a year ahead of the election. There is no derogatory assessment of the Obama campaign which was found to be doing the same thing prematurely.
I wonder if people will stand in the cold for hours waiting to get books signed by these two unremarkable writers masquerading as journalists.
I seriously doubt it. And I seriously doubt their book will sell anywhere close to the two million copies already sold of Palin's book.
I've had enough of northeastern smug, chauvinistic, supercilious male journalists. I don't recall any male journalist spending weeks in jail on contempt of court charges for refusing to reveal sources as did Judith Miller when she still worked for the New York Times. She did so to protect the First Amendment rights of all journalists. Fortunately, Miller saw the light and is now a news analyst on the Fox News Channel.
Who says there is no Santa Claus?
Visit my website at: aliceajackson.com
No comments:
Post a Comment