Back in the Middle Ages, mass madness would descend on portions of the population every so often, causing men, women and children to jump about crazily, foam at the mouth, laugh maniacally and scream hallucinatory blather until they finally collapsed from exhaustion.
Sometimes thought to be the work of the devil, these spurts of frenzy finally disappeared in the 17th century and did not re-emerge until fairly recently — when John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate on the Republican ticket.
Then it was as if we were experiencing a new round of the long-departed St. Vitus’ dance phenomenon. This time, however, it manifested itself in pointlessly aghast news reports on Palin, virulent commentaries, blog lies and other means by which the supposedly enlightened aimed to encourage hysteria from coast to shining coast.
The worst of it was the tawdry attention paid to Palin’s pregnant daughter, who was unmarried but would not be for much longer.
Here was an effort, I guess, to say that the girl’s mother doesn’t know the uses of abortion, or how to raise a daughter.
The real lesson was about the ugliness of those intruding on family privacy, and the stupidity of people who think a matter of this sort is in some way relevant to the office sought.
The hypocrisy has been dumbfounding.
We’ve heard endlessly about Palin’s inexperience, and yes, that’s a matter of some concern, so we should learn as much about her activities in the public realm as we can.
But the people worrying most don’t seem to care much about Barack Obama’s inexperience, and don’t seem to get it that while Palin may have little in her background that relates to foreign affairs, her experience outstrips Obama’s in virtually every other way.
Some testimony to this effect comes from what some might think an unexpected quarter, a Washington Post editorial that examines the way in which Palin took on all kinds of political and financial interests in redirecting and furthering a project crucial to America’s energy future: a natural gas pipeline from Alaska.
Not all is said and done yet, but The Post finds much positive about what Palin has so far accomplished.
And I would contend that in the whole of his public career, Obama has never done anything nearly so significant.
The Democrat is now telling us that he has managerial experience because he has directed his campaign, but candidates don’t manage campaigns — they hire professionals for that job.
And by Obama’s logic, all candidates for president would be managerially qualified simply by virtue of being candidates. Give me a break.
The slaps at Palin are too many to enumerate, including a false claim that she tried to ban library books and the supposedly shocking revelation that she favored the “bridge to nowhere” before rejecting it, as if public officials never change their view as they learn more.
As if Joe Biden, for instance, had not voted for the war in Iraq before he later decided he was against it, or that Obama could not finally come around to saying that the military surge in Iraq was a success.
In the end, it is not the devil making people attack Palin, but a leftist ideology that recognizes nothing of worth in people who don’t subscribe to it.
One that fears its ascendancy to power might be blocked by this woman.
Guess what? It might be.
Examiner Columnist Jay Ambrose can be reached at [email protected].
