A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on October 24th, 2008 in Campaign News

Ruben Navarrette is earning his pay. Rewriting history as it happens is a difficult job:

As Palin herself pointed out in a recent CNN interview, imagine if she had been the one to imply that electing Obama would invite calamity. Biden does it, and the media shrug.

Well, Biden said that Obama would be tested. That isn’t inviting calamity. John McCain compared it to the Cuban Missile Crisis – was that a calamity? The media shrugs because everyone not in the McSame pocket understands that all new Presidents are tested. John McCain wants us to think that he is above testing – which means he’d likely fail.

Tell that to Joe Wurzelbacher, the Ohio resident who got his 15 minutes — and 40 lashes — because he dared question Obama about his tax plan. Obama insists that the plan would raise taxes only on those Americans earning more than $250,000 per year. It was then Obama made his clumsy “spread the wealth” comment.

“Joe the Plumber” wasn’t pilloried because he asked a question – he was pilloried because he asked it under fraudulent pretext. The business for which he works doesn’t make $250,000 and, given his financial situation, he isn’t likely to buy it out.

I’m still waiting for a conservative to explain why “spread the wealth” is a bad thing. After eight years of concentrating the wealth, it should be apparent that there is a basic problem with that worldview as a governing principle – like Alan Greenspan admitted yesterday.

Commenting on a CNN.com story, one condescending reader wrote that Joe the Plumber should pipe down and “get back in my bathroom and unclog the toilet.”

I agree that is condescending and stupid. But shall we compare it to Palin’s crowds yelling “Kill him!”?

Even Biden and Obama got in a few licks. Biden quipped to Jay Leno that Democrats wanted to take care of “Joe-the-real-plumber-with-a-license,” and Obama sarcastically asked supporters, “how many plumbers do you know making $250,000 a year?” The implication being that Joe the Plumber isn’t who he pretends to be.

The Biden remark reflects the thinking of someone who lives in a union state – where tradesmen undergo formal training in their craft (is that a bad idea?). But if Joe doesn’t have a license, then he isn’t a plumber – he’s a “helper” or an “apprentice” and should be identified as such.

If Obama’s “sarcastic” remark bothers you, then why not answer it? How many plumbers actually make more than a quarter million per year – in taxable income?

What worries me is that the Democrats aren’t what they pretend to be.

Then I suppose you are also worried about John McCain saying that he understands what it means to an American family to go into foreclosure when he doesn’t even know how many houses he owns? Maybe you are concerned that Palin claims to understand how Wal-Mart moms clip coupons while the RNC spends $150,000 on her clothing? Well?

So why is it to so hard for them to conceive of a situation where someone dreams of earning more money a few years from now than they earn today. Has Barack Obama consumed all the social mobility this country has to offer, so there isn’t any left for the rest of us?

Yes, of course he has. /snark

Hey – here’s a question for you: If George W. Bush’s tax policies are so wonderful, why isn’t “Joe the Plumber” able to pay his taxes, get a license, and buy the business for which he aspires to own? Maybe it’s hard to conceive of a person who is working so hard to stay dead even that they can’t see they are being swindled.

The latest media template is that the vice presidential nominee is a drag on the GOP ticket. Pundits detect a backlash, not just among Democrats who love to hate Sarah Palin but also among women, independents and seniors. They cite polls showing Palin with an unfavorable rating of 50 percent.

I don’t think the GOP was counting on Democrats voting for Palin, but that’s a nice strawman. As for women, independents, and seniors – that’s the swing vote, Bucky! If they turn on you, you have no chance – like McSame.

McCain oversold it when he said Palin was the most qualified vice presidential candidate in recent history. Better than Dick Cheney? Could she be worse? Obama might have paid Biden the same compliment if his running mate hadn’t already told supporters that Hillary Clinton would have been a better choice.

Except you don’t get critiqued over what you “might have said”. McSame said this woman was ready to lead the free world in case, God forbid, he collapsed. She isn’t. That shows how poor McSame’s judgment is – and that is fair game for an election based on the judgment of the candidates.

Then there is the faux-scandal that the Republican National Committee shelled out $150,000 in the past several weeks on Palin and her family for campaign wardrobe, accessories, makeup, etc.

Many Americans don’t see why it’s a story. Fellow hockey mom Page Growney of New Canaan, Conn., asked The Associated Press, “What did you want to see her in, a turtleneck from L.L. Bean?”

Well, supposedly that would be more authentic to her lifestyle. What’s wrong with letting Sarah be Sarah instead of dolling her up to be a Upper East Side pin-up? Or maybe we shouldn’t worry when Republicans are inauthentic. That just shows they are one of us, right?

Still, we’re told, this tempest in a Gucci bag has some Republicans worrying that shopping sprees at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue might undermine Palin’s everywoman image. To think, just last month, the criticism was that Sarah the Moose Hunter wasn’t sufficiently sophisticated or glamorous. Now her wardrobe signals the hockey mom is high-maintenance.

We were told by Palin and McSame and the entire Republican Party that she wasn’t sophisticated or glamorous – despite her history as a beauty queen. Now her wardrobe signals that those comments were as off-base as the ones about her being ready to lead. She’s a laughingstock because she says one thing and lives another – get it?

Just how many more caricatures — some of them contradictory — can we expect the left to throw at Sarah Palin before time runs out on this election?

That depends entirely on how many different ways she proves herself a liar.

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