Barack vs. Palin

Barack Obama and Sarah Palin have been attacking each other’s record. I see that as a good thing.

Let’s take Obama’s attacks on Palin. Obama recently called Palin’s claim that she killed the Bridge to Nowhere “shameless.” Many news outlets have pointed out that Palin initially supported this symbol of pork, but she changed her mind once it became controversial, and Congress wasn’t appropriating enough money for it. “A bunch of heat started generating because people were thinking, ‘Why are we building a bridge to nowhere?'” Obama said to laughter. “So a deal was cut where Alaska still got the money. They just didn’t build a bridge with it, and now she’s out there acting like she was fighting this thing the whole time” (see here).

Palin hasn’t yet explained herself on the Bridge. As far as I know, she hasn’t even given an interview in which she’s had to answer tough questions. Hopefully, Charlie Gibson will grill her for answers this week! Good for Obama that he’ll keep goading Sarah Palin until she offers some.

I’ve loved this characteristic of Obama since his run against Hillary: he’ll use the campaign trail as a place to goad his opponents. He doesn’t limit himself to sappy cliches in his speeches. He asks serious questions that merit an answer! I liked it when Hillary had that goofy 4 a.m. ad that portrayed her as experienced in foreign policy, and Obama said something like, “What is this ‘experience’ she keeps talking about? Has she negotiated any treaties?” Hillary then tried to spin something as foreign policy experience. That led to her making up that whole sniper story, which culminated in her political demise (Hooray!). But I hope it doesn’t get to that point for Sarah.

Now for Palin’s attacks on Obama. I relished something Peggy Noonan said in her September 6 column (see here):

“What she did in terms of the campaign itself was important. No one has ever really laid a glove on Obama before, not in this campaign and maybe not in his life. But Palin really damaged him. She took him square on, fearlessly, by which I mean in part that she showed no awkwardness connected to race, or racial history. A small town mayor is kind of like a community organizer only you have actual responsibilities. He wrote two memoirs but never authored a major bill. They’ve hauled the Styrofoam pillars back to the Hollywood lot.“

I don’t entirely agree with Peggy’s narrative, since Obama has had to endure all sorts of criticisms: about his experience, about his minister, about his wife, etc., etc. But the general tone of the Democratic National Convention was that Obama’s record as a community organizer is sacrosanct. And Palin did well to ask how that meager record prepares him to be President.

Unfortunately, some supporters of Obama will see any criticism of the Senator as racist. The AP has reported the following about New York Governor David Paterson (see here):

“New York Gov. David Paterson said Tuesday that there were racial overtones in the Republican presidential ticket’s criticism of Democrat Barack Obama’s work as a community organizer. ‘There are overtones of potential racial coding in the campaign,’ Paterson said at an event in New York City.”

Get a life, Governor! Obama’s record as a community organizer is fair game. If Obama wants to emphasize that, which is what the Democrats did at the Democratic National Convention a few weeks ago, then the Republicans have a right to question it as a qualification for the Presidency. Some people will inject race into anything! Comments like those of Governor Paterson lead many white people to yawn, drowning out the legitimate complaints about racism.