Dan Froomkin: Unqualified for Duty
Posted at 7:20 pm, September 2nd, 2008
One of the problems with modern political journalism is that when something manifestly absurd takes place, as long as there are people willing to argue both sides, our top reporters feel obliged to treat it as deserving of serious debate.
Case in point: John McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Palin would be spectacularly unqualified for the job of vice president even if McCain were immortal. But the prospect of her suddenly being thrust into the leadership of the free world has got to leave everyone but the most loyal, talking-point-equipped partisans deeply chilled.
This is not a question of her politics. And it has absolutely nothing to do with her gender. It’s not even strictly speaking a question of experience. Conceivably, somebody with even less experience than Palin could meet what everyone should be able to agree is a basic requirement for the office: That she or he has given serious thought to the national and international issues of our time.
Is there any evidence that Palin is anything other than an utter neophyte when it comes to issues such as Iraq, the economy, health care, and domestic and foreign policy generally?
Palin’s lack of the most basic prerequisite for the job should be the dominant message of the news coverage. Instead, her selection was hailed as a “bold move,” with her lack of qualifications relegated to the status of a Democratic complaint. Instead, the media establishment has let itself get drawn into a number of alternate story lines, some of them certainly quite fascinating, but none of them as essential.
What possible reason is there to nominate someone so lacking in gravitas for the vice presidency? In this case, of course, it couldn’t be more obvious that Palin’s selection has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with governance. Palin’s gender and her hard-right credentials were clearly seen by McCain’s top advisers as just what the campaign needed.
Whether that was a clever or suicidal political calculation remains to be seen. It’s certainly looking more and more like it was a reckless one. But it doesn’t just strain credulity – it pulverizes it – to suggest that she is the best and most qualified person McCain could find for the job.
It’s a tremendous failure of political reporting that such patent spin from McCain supporters is being treated like a supportable position. By contrast, it seems to me that anyone suggesting that Palin was selected for anything other than political reasons should be considered presumptively a liar from this point on.
This is not a radical view. Here, for instance, is Richard Cohen on the Washington Post op-ed page today:
Probably the most depressing thing about Palin is not her selection but the defense of it. It has produced a parade of GOP spokesmen intent on spiking the needle on a polygraph. Looking right into the camera, they offer statement after statement that they hope the voters will swallow but that history will forget. The sum effect on the diligent news consumer is a feeling of consummate contempt for the intelligence of the American people — a contempt that will be justified should Palin be the factor that makes McCain a winner in November.
Even though the cable networks can find matched pairs of pundits to take opposite sides on just about anything, I can’t help but think that the vast majority of political journalists recognize that there is something seriously out of whack with the Palin selection.
So it’s time for our elite political reporters to look into their own heads and decide: Do you value what’s in there? Or are you willing to write whatever people tell you?
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:47 pm |
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September 2nd, 2008 at 11:58 pm |
Dan Froomkin–the man who has been reporting on the imminent war with Iran for, what is it Dan? 3 years now?–is nothing more than a shill for the Democrat party. And not a particularly good one. If one wants the Obama talking points, why not go directly to the campaign? Can’t the Post just cut Froomkin’s job and use the money to hire a reporter instead of a typist?
The plain fact is that neither Palin nor Obama has the level of experience most would expect to see in a future president. Froomkin, adopting the Democrat line, tries to spin a solution to this problem for Obama: Obama’s thought about the big issues. And he hasn’t just thought about them; he’s given them *serious* thought! Well, given he hasn’t any other accomplishments I can see why Obama would take that position. But what about Dan? Is he willing to write whatever the Obama camp tells him? Isn’t the answer obvious? And now he has the presumption to lecture to other journalists. What a joke.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:41 am |
To call Sarah Palin unqualified is blatantly sexist, and in insults the honor of John McCain, who is a former POW. Barack Obama is the one with no – zero – experience being the mayor of a small rural hamlet in Alaska. And to insinuate that John McCain, a former POW, has made any mistakes or errors in judgement during his campaign – or indeed, in his entire life – is insulting, and quite frankly, makes me question your patriotism. I demand an immediate retraction and a personal apology to John McCain, Sarah Palin, and all former POWs, of which John McCain is one. Good day sir.
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:24 am |
POW! POW! POW!
I think that sufficiently disproved any criticism of McCain I’ve seen here. Good day.
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:07 am |
Movie review for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
This is John McCain’s first movie appearance since his cameo in Wedding Crashers. McCain has once again played himself this time starring as the film’s protagonist, the Mummy. It was a clever casting move by the film’s directors, as no makeup was needed to portray McCain as an ancient decaying evil corpse.
The movie begins when McMummy falls out of his chariot and is captured by the Syrians. He spends five and a half years being tortured in a Syrian prison camp and being brainwashed into a secret Syrian supporter. When he returns to Egypt his wife who has faithfully waited for him, falls off a camel and is crippled. McMummy, becomes a politician in the Egyptian parliament and is then involved in a political scandal. He is known as one of the “Cairo Five,” a group of five Egyptian politicians who took bribes and kickbacks to reward lucrative government contracts to a wealthy businessman. McMummy is attracted to the businessman’s secretary who accidentally burns a pile of records that implicated him deeper in the scandal. He starts cheating with her, and it doesn’t hurt that she’s a wealthy meade heiress. McMummy applies for a marriage license with the beer heiress even though he is still married to the woman was crippled in the camel accident. McMummy uses his war record to help people forget about his corruption issues. He styles himself a “maverick” by doing maverick things like voting against a holiday for “Mummy Luther King,” an Egyptian holy man who was murdered for preaching for peace and equality between the Egyptian races. McMummy’s conservative followers aren’t to into things like peace and equality, they love war and so does the McMummy.
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:09 am |
McMummy’s political ambitions burn for him to be Pharaoh someday but by the time he gets the opportunity he is snake bit by his political rival a former Pharaoh’s son “Bushotept.” Bushotept is a brain-damaged figurehead but his handlers maliciously slander McMummy spreading rumors of his having a Nubian baby and of being a homicidal maniac from his years in a Syrian prison. McMummy is defeated by Bushotept and he falls in line to serve the new Pharaoh.
McMummy lusts for war after war with Egypt’s neighbors and he helps Bushotept gin up a war with Babylon so they can seize its rich resources. A million Babylonians are slaughtered in the war and thousands of young Egyptians are needlessly butchered in Bushotept’s invasion and occupation of the fertile crescent. McMummy is in ecstasy from all of the destruction caused by the war with Babylon. He takes credit for the carnage and urges a war with Persia. After eight years of war and economic ruin from Bushotept and his cronies it’s McMummy turn to run for pharaoh. He is now older then the dead sea scrolls and he can’t even remember how many pyramids he owns.
When it comes time for McMummy to pick a running mate he picks Cleopatra’s religious fanatic sister Sarahpatra. Sarahpatra believes Osiris, God of the dead, wants to burn up the earth asap. She also believes Osiris is against healthcare for children and for tax cuts for the rich. The faithful are delighted with his choice even though she cant find Babylon on a map and is one McMummy heartbeat away from being Pharaoh.
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:37 pm |
You must realize that Bush got elected twice and therefore the only logical conclusion is that the average intelligence of the electorate is on a par with cattle. So all those GOP spokesmen already KNOW that their defense of Palin will work. Sad but true.
From my point of view the entire MSM is and has been in their own bubble for a long time and whatever is written and broadcast has everything to do with money, every possible angle of political, corporate and personal power and virtually nothing to with the facts, truth, and reality itself.
September 3rd, 2008 at 3:43 pm |
Thanks for the column. I too am vexed by the lack of interest and focus by prime time “journalists” regarding Gov. Palin’s lack of qualifications. Even as Governor, her grasp of legislative and executive experience is limited, not to foreign policy experience. Further, her background gives us not one iota of proof that she has the inclination or capacity to think critically.
Her response to allegations that she fired a state official without just cause is also disturbing. Today’s on-line news outlets report that she wants to block further legal review; instead she wants the matter examined by a commission, which she appointed! If we are being asked to consider her seriously as a VP candidate, journalists are compelled to probe her ethics. And yet the RNC and McCain campaign scorn their questions.
Likewise, the McCain campaign has been down right belligerent when questioned about the process used for their selection of Gov. Palin. But isn’t it valid to clarify exactly how McCain arrived at this decision. After all, he is asking us to vote for him to lead our country. Voters need to know if, when faced with complex decisions, discerning and methodical or cavalier and reckless.
The nation watched two feisty and determined reporters break open the secret workings of Nixon’s White House and end a presidency. These days I wonder if their stories would be flashy enough to make the evening news. Probably not.
On the other hand, the past eight years have produced many insightful and even brave journalistic efforts: Now (PBS); Bill Moyer’s Journal (PBS); Blackwater (Jeremy Scahill); Fresh Air (Terri Gross, PRI); Free Lunch (David Cay Johnston) Good work is being produced and written every day….but sometimes it seems like they’re just spittin’ in the wind.
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:06 pm |
Dan, Joe Biden was described as a foreign policy expert when he joined the Obama ticket. This is a man who voted against the first Iraq war in 1991, for the 2003 Iraq war, and against the surge in Iraq. Which of these votes qualifies him as an expert?
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:06 pm |
Dan, you hit the nail on the head. While everyone else is preoccupied with pregnancy, pork and troopergate, I was wondering how long it would take before someone noted the obvious: that Palin is a total empty suit, unfit for duty because she has not been engaged with national and international issues, has no record of contributing to the governance or even critical thought on those issues, and has no record of seeking national office. At least Bill Clinton, when elected, had been in the national spotlight for some time and had well formed ideas about the issues.
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:13 pm |
By the way, I’m a former print journalist (turned software exec) who is aghast at the laziness of the national media, and their seeming inability to ask the tough questions. Thank god for the blogasphere, it’s the only platform for critical thinking now.
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:29 pm |
You say in relatively few words what no one else would say. This should be required reading for everyone. I would add to John’s statement that its not just laziness in the media, but laziness in the general public.
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:46 pm |
[...] This too. Explore posts in the same categories: Damned Liberal Media, Election, GOP, Politics [...]
September 4th, 2008 at 1:42 am |
“You must realize that Bush got elected twice” Choice Point, Katherine Harris, Ken Blackwell, the Supreme Court and the corporate oligarchy media spinners declared Bush president. He is nothing but a usurper figurehead and a lying mass murderer. McCain is a completely corrupt fraud, if the MSM just listed his lobbyist and the murderers they have whored for, McCain would be as dead as the Do Do. Only two things are certain in this election and that is
1. There will be election fraud comitted by Republicans.
2. The MSM will not report on the election fraud.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:53 am |
dan, i’m sorry to say that our elite political reporters, by and large, don’t value what’s in there: they are a thin-skinned and sorry lot.
September 4th, 2008 at 7:14 am |
Every mention of Palin as being unqualified highlights the fact that Barack Obama is EQUALLY unqualified, though most corporate media folks won’t say so out loud.
But the message gets across, nevertheless.
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com
September 4th, 2008 at 12:23 pm |
“Every mention of Palin as being unqualified highlights the fact that Barack Obama is EQUALLY unqualified,”
Completely false Carolyn!
The truth rarely has any bearing on what pablum the lemming republican sheep regurgitate.
Obama, has over 20 years of public service in state and federal government as well as being a community organizer. He authored major bipartisan bills for securing loose nukes, lobbyist reforms, and veterans health care.
McCain fought for 15 years against a holiday for MLK,voted against raising the minimum wage 19 times, is rated as the single worst senator on children’s issues having a %100 record voting against children’s healthcare. He is a criminal, look up the Keating Five
Obama strongly denounced the impending invaison of Iraq as pure folly.
McCain whored for the war, and will never recognize it has killed hundreds of thousands of innocents. He will never mourn the 4,000 plus pawn sacrifices young American lives murdered by his and Bush’s rancid lies.
McCain is COMPLETELY unqualified to be a dog catcher let alone get his warped gnarled hands on the button.
September 4th, 2008 at 1:26 pm |
[...] Dan Froomkin: Unqualified for Duty Palin would be spectacularly unqualified for the job of vice president even if McCain were immortal. But the prospect of her suddenly being thrust into the leadership of the free world has got to leave everyone but the most loyal, talking-point-equipped partisans deeply chilled. Every mention of Palin as being unqualified highlights the fact that Barack Obama is EVEN LESS qualified, though most corporate media folks won’t say so out loud. But the message gets across, nevertheless. And besides, Obama had great things to say about the pipeline she has pushed. See below. [...]
September 4th, 2008 at 5:21 pm |
Now I know that the vast right-wing machine monitors all the sites they oppose with GREAT avidity. Three “Dan, you’re an idiot” posts before anyone has digested this excellent, on target, and TRUE essay. Wingnuts, he’s talking about the PRESS. Kneejerk stuff about McCain isn’t an appropriate response.
September 4th, 2008 at 5:46 pm |
Dan, well said. Wing-nuts? Get a grip. You cannot disagree with anything because you have no standing so you call names.
“To call Sarah Palin unqualified is blatantly sexist, and in insults the honor of John McCain, who is a former POW.”
To vet someone is not ‘sexist’…truely it’s not. John McCain was a hero…being a POW is not a resume builder and when you question him you do not ‘dishonor’ him. I guess all I have to add is ‘how the last eight years working for you???”
September 4th, 2008 at 8:32 pm |
Clearly McCain made his choice with an eye to responding to protests by comparing Palin’s inexperience to Obama’s.
Assuming McCain believes what he says about Obama, by choosing the far greener Palin he shows he’s willing to cut off his own nose to spite Obama’s face — except that it’s really the country’s nose that’s being removed.
“Country First”? Not ever, when that would frustrate the ambition of vain McCain.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:39 pm |
The first time I turned on a radio and heard Mrs Palin speaking…I laughed and laughed my head off. Only slowly did it dawn on me that I was NOT listening to a clever parody on her, but that I was indeed hearing the words from her very own mouth.
Very very scary, Truly a post-rational world it is which will intertain aligations of “serious contender”
We may be primed for another round of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Regime, where full-on idiots mean well and thus all turns out well. Only in your prayers/dreams/halucinations, Mrs Palin.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:19 am |
Sarah Palin could go through a sex change and she would still be a less than stellar choice for our country. The republicans are enjoying some success at turning common sense on it’s head. It’s the Karl Rove strategy to turn virtue to vice. Obama’s education, academic achievement, community service, aspirations and magnanimosity are defects in the republican universe. The fact that we want to know as much about Palin as we know about McCain, Biden and Obama makes us mean and sexist. Palin’s sarcasm, pugnacity and family troubles have elevated her on an unassailable pedestal. Obama is criticized for many well reviewed oration that he both wrote and delivered and Palin is hailed for one speech that she delivered but did not write. McCain’s abandonment of his first wife is ignored and, apparently, Fred Thompson finds his philandering endearing as is Todd Palin’s membership in a political party that advocates Alaska’s succession from the United States of America, which makes him the true maverick. His views are certainly independent and unorthodox. If unorthodoxy is what is needed, maybe McCain picked the wrong Palin? McCain is a wannabe maverick. He is a maverick 10% of the time. It’s all about a political party’s desperation to hold on to power and their cynical view that the American voter is lazy and gullible. Prove them wrong. Check out Fact Check, PolitiFact, Snopes, Wikipedia and Alaskan press reports. Do your homework and become informed. Or has ignorance now a virtue to be pursued?
September 10th, 2008 at 2:08 pm |
Did you know that John McCain was a POW and Sarah Palin has executive experience? And by the way; Ms. Palin is a quick study and John McCain was a POW. Don’t forget to show “deference” towards Ms. Palin; and in case you’ve forgotten, John McCain was a POW. If your keeping score; Ms. Palin is a Hockey mom and not a pig with lipstick as the democrat party would have you believe. Also, John McCain is a “maverick,” and was a POW too. So Amereica, don’t forget: Sarah Palin IS qualidied to be the VP and John McCain was a POW.
September 10th, 2008 at 2:09 pm |
I am stunned by the absolute shamelessness of people who cite Russia’s proximity to Alaska, that Palin is the commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard, and the fact that Palin’s son is in the Army as evidence of her fitness to be THE commander in chief. Does anyone really believe that? These laughable attempts to argue Palin’s fitness to be president are a result of McCain being caught on tape, many times, saying his criteria for selecting a running mate is their fitness to be president from day one. I can only draw two conclusions from McCain’s repeated statements that these traits are legitimate qualifiers for the office of President of the United States, he is lying through his teeth or is suffering from the onset of dementia.
September 10th, 2008 at 2:09 pm |
Did you know that John McCain was a POW and Sarah Palin has executive experience? And by the way; Ms. Palin is a quick study and John McCain was a POW. Don’t forget to show “deference” towards Ms. Palin; and in case you’ve forgotten, John McCain was a POW. If you’re keeping score; Ms. Palin is a hockey mom and not a pig with lipstick as the democrat party would have you believe. Also, John McCain is a “maverick,” and was a POW too. So Amereica, don’t forget: Sarah Palin IS qualified to be the VP and John McCain was a POW.
September 10th, 2008 at 2:12 pm |
Did you know that John McCain was a POW and Sarah Palin has executive experience? And by the way; Ms. Palin is a quick study and John McCain was a POW. Don’t forget to show “deference” towards Ms. Palin; and in case you’ve forgotten, John McCain was a POW. If you’re keeping score; Ms. Palin is a hockey mom and not a pig with lipstick as the democrat party would have you believe. Also, John McCain is a “maverick,” and was a POW too. So Amereica, don’t forget: Sarah Palin IS qualified to be the VP and John McCain was a POW. Texas being on the border with Mexico certainly qualified Mr. Bush to be president. So it goes without saying that Russia’s proximity to Alaska makes Ms. Palin as mus an expert on Russian affairs as Condo Sleeza Rice. John McCain was a POW..just sayin’
September 10th, 2008 at 4:48 pm |
The pick of Ms. Palin as a VP was purely political and I can’t believe anyone with a brain cannot see it for what it is!
September 10th, 2008 at 7:14 pm |
Thank you.
Yes, the unthinking pursuit of “balance” makes no sense when the story, the facts, point in a particular direction, and there is no real question of that. In that circumstance, playing to be “balanced” is simply bad journalism, stories that pretend to inform, stories that actually misinform.
Do we need to be “balanced” on whether the Earth is flat? No? Doesn’t matter how many spokespersons will repeat the claim? The facts are clear? Right! And any story that implies there are two sides to the story is actually misinforming the reader.
The tobacco industry used this strategy very well for 50 years: stories on cigarettes and disease must present “the other side” to be balanced. This continued long after any real scientific controversy on smoking and disease had ended, to misinform the public that there was “controversy” as in “the smoking and health controversy” and “experts disagree!”
If you’re going to inform the public, when there’s no real controversy, THAT’S THE STORY; REPORT IT!
There is no real controversy: Palin is unqualified to be VP, let alone President.
All those stories that pretend maybe she is, maybe she isn’t, experts disagree, what may indeed be the bulk of the coverage so far, that is simply misinforming the reader. Period. And very poor journalism, yes.
It’s nice to hear someone finally say so. Thank you.
September 13th, 2008 at 6:27 am |
it is simply one more case of republican party interest trumping american interests for the republicans… as with decision after decision made by the bush admin without regard to either fact or knowledgeable opinion but instead riding on the wave of republican partisanship this selection of palin is simply more of the same… if i were interested in the demise of the american culture/system/people i would be a supporter of this mindless more of the same approach
June 28th, 2011 at 10:28 pm |
Well… that is one side of the story. Not that i disagree but there is always additional info. In this specific case id recommend checking out this article