Whoa! Reihan on Sarah Palin!
To my lasting embarrassment, I keep tabs on Grand New Party-related news, and I came across this blog post on Salad Ahoy!:
One advantage of listening to podcasts months after they air (this one is from July 16) is that I have a different perspective than I would have at the time. Check out the answer to Terry Gross’ question that that starts just after the 6:00 mark.
Intrigued, I decided to give it a listen — I figured we’d have said something really embarrassing. Terry Gross — who is mesmerizing — asked a question about John McCain’s remark concerning “getting on the Internet by myself.” At that point, I laughed somewhat creepily and said,
REIHAN: I think John McCain is an incredibly charming person. I also think that he absolutely doesn’t represent the future of the Republican party. I think that this is a highly unusual election in a lot of ways, but when you look at that demographic composition of the Republican party, and where the party needs to go in order to build a majority, I think the party really needs to look to figures like Sarah Palin, a mother of five, someone who was also the mayor of a fast-growing suburban small town, she’s now —
ROSS: She’s now the governor of Alaska
REIHAN: — now the governor of Alaska. I think it’s figures like that who don’t come from that tight, narrow demographic box of aging, cranky white men that has been a rich source of Republican politicians for, you know, a really long time now.
We’ve both been talking her up for a while now. Man, this is all really weird. It’s interesting — I think there’s a default assumption that Pawlenty would be our candidate, but he wasn’t (he wasn’t mine, certainly), though I do suspect his nomination might have piqued interest in GNP.
This is my last day here. Still have a lot of work to do. I’m eager to take a breather from politics, though it occurs to me that I’m going to the birthday part of one of my best friends on Saturday, in New Haven, and there is a real danger of, “I mean, can you believe it?” chatter re: Palin, and then I’ll go ape. Oh please, let it stop. My usual approach in such circumstances — entirely sincere — is to simply say, “Look, Obama should just ignore her. Attacking her won’t help.” But this will draw me further into a conversation I’d rather not have. My problem is that I’m uncomfortable with leaving assertions unchallenged, to the point where I’m playing devil’s advocate half of the time.
You were on Fresh Air? With Terry Gross? The Terry Gross?
Oh, fuck, man. I hate you. I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you.
Damn, damn, damn, I’ve gotta write a book about something. Something nobody else has written a book about. Cheese logs or something.
— Sanjay · Sep 4, 06:52 PM · #
I have already faded back into the obscurity from whence I came and where I belong!
— Reihan · Sep 4, 07:26 PM · #
Oh. Then I’ll let you have the cheese log idea.
— Sanjay · Sep 4, 07:29 PM · #
Sanjay, you need to come to D.C. and teach me how to make waffles.
— Reihan · Sep 4, 08:23 PM · #
Reihan,
Any thoughts on this GNP review? Enquiring minds, etc.
http://bostonreview.net/BR33.5/daly.php
— jason · Sep 5, 10:03 PM · #