Contra Jonah

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31 Aug 2008 08:47 pm

He posts a reader email that says I am contradicting myself:

I'm a long time reader of both the Corner and Andrew Sullivan's blog. Sullivan's blog this weekend has been entertaining, to say the least. In one weekend, he has completed reversed his arguments on experience needed to be President, a candidate's personal life as an appropriate subject in an election and just about any reason he had to vote for Obama in his analyses of the Palin pick. I've watched him twist his arguments to further his causes before, but this has been nothing short of breathtaking.

I haven't reversed anything. I don't think experience is irrelevant as an issue for Obama; in fact, I think it's the major reason to worry about him. From my blog last week, for Pete's sake, before I had any idea McCain would be unserious enough about national security to pick Palin:

And, yes, experience is an issue. It should be. It is not unreasonable or unfair for the GOP to target Obama's relative youth and inexperience. Sure: McCain hasn't had any real executive experience either. But he's been around a long, long time and he was right about the surge.

But yes, I think Obama is in a simply different league than Palin in terms of seriousness as a candidate, and record on the issues, especially foreign policy. And private life?

If the first thing that the McCain-Palin campaign puts out there is a Down Syndrome baby, and the main argument for Palin is about the authenticity of her lifestyle, are we not allowed to respond? The antics over her sister with nine-children and no live-in dads is relevant because Palin dragged her public office into it. My point has been not so much inexperience, although Palin's lack is acute, but her lack of even interest in or awareness of foreign policy. I mean: she's supposed to learn all this in four months?

Jonah is reduced to wishing her well. We all should. But pointing out her obvious cluelessness about foreign policy, her anti-neocon views when she actually had any, is totally legit and completely of a piece with my arguments for Obama. And, jeez, it doesn't take a scraming lefty to see this. Has Jonah read Brookhiser, Frum and Ponnuru?

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