Fear & Perversion

Here's the JournList's perversion, if you can stand being within smelling distance of four hundred Andrew Sullivan clones.

And here is the JournoList's fear:

Sarah Palin’s speech to the 2008 Republican convention impressed more than a few doubters, including even some members of Journolist, an online community for liberal journalists.

“This speech is gangbusters,” wrote Ari Melber of the Nation. “Her tone is pitch perfect.” Adele Stan of the Media Consortium agreed: “Palin is golden.”

The exuberance appeared to unnerve the Guardian’s Michael Tomasky. “People get a hold of yourselves!” Tomasky wrote to his fellow Journolisters. “It’s a very good speech with good lines. But there’s very little substance.”

Usually a person's initial, gut reaction is the most honest. You can see the Obamedia's initial, gut reaction to Sarah Palin right here. "Fear" doesn't quite capture the emotions percolating to the surface in this private press enclave; "stark raving terror" seems a bit closer to the target.

Because they knew. In that moment they knew for certain that the anti-Obama existed. And in the next they determined that the anti-Obama had to be destroyed:

While other members of the group debated whether to coordinate a pro-Obama message – or, more precisely, whether to concede that such a message was being coordinated — Todd Gitlin of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism had already made up his mind. Gitlin, whose job is to train the next generation of America’s most elite journalists, wrote this impassioned plea on behalf of the Obama campaign:

“On the question of liberals coordinating, what the hell’s wrong with some critical mass of liberal bloggers & journalists saying the following among themselves:

“McCain lies about his maverick status. Routinely, cavalierly, cynically. Palin lies about her maverick status. Ditto, ditto, ditto. McCain has a wretched temperament. McCain is a warmonger. Palin belongs to a crackpot church and feels warmly about a crackpot party that trashes America.

“Repeat after me:

“McCain lies about his maverick status. Routinely, cavalierly, cynically. Palin lies about her maverick status. Ditto, ditto, ditto. McCain has a wretched temperament. McCain is a warmonger. Palin belongs to a crackpot church and feels warmly about a crackpot party that trashes America.

“These people are cynical. These people are taking you for a ride. These people are fakes. These people love Bush.

“Again. And again. Vary the details. There are plenty. Somebody on the ‘list posted a strong list of McCain lies earlier today. Hammer it. Philosophize, as Nietzsche said, with a hammer.

“I don’t know about any of you, but I’m not waiting for any coordination. Get on with it!”

I'll guarantee you this was about more than just 2008. Remember, this was before Wall Street melted down a couple of weeks later. That took care of Obama's election once and for all. But the Palin savaging continued. Right through Election Day and beyond, without even slowing down, as we recently revisited. It continues to this day.

Because they know. They know that Sarah Palin has the "it" factor. The same intangible that Ronald Reagan had. The same sunny optimism, the same inherent everyman "Americality," the same genuine populist instincts, the same retail political shrewdness, the same ensteeled principles coupled with the flexibility political reality sometimes demands, and the same ability to use the Left's pavlovian disdain to political advantage.

That's what made her resignation as Governor of Alaska such a huge win for the Obamedia. Nothing they barfed at her would have denied her her presidential destiny, but bullying her into voluntarily donning the label "quitter" did more damage to her credibility as a future presidential candidate than all that slanderous abuse combined. It wasn't innuendo, it wasn't insults; it was something real and tangible: she quit. She ran away. She let the other side beat her.

Somehow I think the leftwingnutters would be feeling this way about a Hussein-Palin 2012 showdown no matter what the political landscape looks like, just as Jimmy Carter's campaign high command was overjoyed when Ronald Reagan emerged as his 1980 challenger. And its twenty-first century reprise would have had the same result, but for what Ezra Klein fretted was "illegal".

A dirty, filthy, despicable job. But but one well done, nonetheless.