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"'What they're trying to do now is bail out the guys who failed, and I think that's very dangerous,' Gingrich said, comparing the latest stimulus plan with bailout legislation signed by former President Bush. 'That's not change you can believe in. That's more of the same.'" He adds that "If Sarah Palin seeks out a group of very sophisticated policy advisers and develops a fairly sophisticated platform, she will be very formidable."
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the luxury
Ahh, the luxury of being the critic from the side of the out-of-power minority. What a delight that is.
Gingrich is of course right. As far as that quote goes. Current practices are indeed dangerous. Risky. A very good choice of words. Left unsaid is whether there are good reasons to think that doing nothing is not also dangerous for other reasons. I've no quarrel with anyone who suggests that time may prove recent actions (the Bush and Obama stimuli) imprudent, foolhardy, hasty, etc. Hindsight is the only thing that MAY tell us.
How does one determine who has the correct foresight? That's something I have no answer for. Especially given how forcefully recent trends have reinforced the dictum that past results are no guarantee of future performance.
I also agree with Gingrich about Palin. Wholeheartedly. If she hires a bunch of sophisticated policy advisors and develops a sophisticated platform, she will thus look much more sophisticated herself, and will thus look more formidable than she did in this recent round. When by the vast majority of semi-objective accounts she looked comparatively unsophisticated.
Gingrich did leave out one thing though. In addition to hiring sophisticated advisors to develop a sophisticated platform, Palin will need to demonstrate that she herself has a sound fundamental grasp of the various sophisticated concepts that get compiled. Because if she doesn't, she'll sometimes look like a puppet and a tool.
In 2.5-3 years, will Sara Palin be sophisticated enough for a sophisticated platform? Time will tell.
Her new act will have to be more than a folksy recitation of cant. If we fastforward 3 years and the economy is still in the crapper (which IMO is very likely), then Mitt Romney will be well-positioned to demonstrate himself as a smart guy with a pretty high-level understanding of economic mechanics. He can answer novel questions in real time and connect a to b to c to d. Will Palin be able to do this, or will she still be unable to do more than to recite whichever nursery rhymes she has managed to memorize?
"Change" was rather sophisticated....
Oh, don't kid yourself that many things won't change for the Democrats putting "sophistication" in perspective. “Change” a rather sophisticated word. And the bailout won't be the only or the most important thing to put sophistication to the test. Remember, Obama has built his foreign policy on the sophisticated notion of "talking". What Palin lacked most of was elegance and discursive composure (and that drawl). We may very soon see the "sophisticated approach" Obama has heralded to issue in the New Age of Peace reach a rather unsophisticated crash landing.
And let's rule out the unsophisticated notion that Dems including Carter and others have tried to make contact. Despite all the intellectual hype coming from the Liberal side, if "talking" and "bailing out" ends up looking incredibly stupid, would that change the bar on Palin? Did she look as foolish as Caroline, or have her family respond with promises of sinking Patterson?
And how sophisticated do you have to be to file taxes before you except offers from Obama?
I suppose Newt is saving his fire on Liberal "sophistication" until the litany is built quite high.
Yes, Palin did appear far more “unintelligent” than I suspect she really is. But then I listened to Richardson explain how moderates in Pakistan would eliminate militants and Liberalize their country. I listened to Obama say our leaving Iraq two years ago would produce the results we saw this weekend. I heard Biden "explain" why no lessons from Iraq could be applied to Afghanistan and right now, Iran is playing a far more sophisticated game than we are. I think the issue here confuses common sense from intellectual finesse. You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to connect to the American people. One can stare at the facts
For sophistication try to separate Liberal from Leftist in this mess. Perhaps some "sophistication" blurs the truth. I recommend the last link for all Liberals trying to improve their level of sophistication. I did.