Alaska News

Left's lynching of Palin's cross hairs is sadly typical

Nobody has been harder on Sarah Palin. Nobody. It wasn't always fun for me, but she arguably was Alaska's worst governor -- that point is debatable only because of Steve Cowper -- and she miserably failed Alaska on so many fronts it is painful to list them all. She earned the criticism.

Now, she is a national star, a former vice presidential candidate tweeting and Facebooking and hosting TV shows and writing and backing Republican candidates while taking the occasional swat at President Barack Obama. Not bad for an Alaska political lightweight, a sparrow among eagles.

Because she is considered a likely presidential contender in 2012, the lovely Sarah P. is a lightning rod for the umbrageous left, which spends much of its time and energy picking at nits, checking its skirts and searching for something to stew about. When it has a moment, it tries to destroy possible political opponents. Too often, our progressive brothers and sisters simply look desperate.

Consider, for instance, their silly tantrum about Palin's use of cross hairs on a map -- dare I say it? -- targeting 20 Democrats in election districts Palin and Sen. John McCain carried in 2008. Those Democrats voted for Obama's health care reform and could be toast at the midterm election.

The map, or the cross hairs, triggered indignant yelps from self-righteous Democrats and their minions, even that intellectual colossus on "The View," Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who dismissed it as "despicable." Mind you, the map's cross hairs look more like boundary monument symbols used by surveyors than gun sights. If the cross hairs in my rifle scopes looked like that, I'd be upset. Palin should have used clown heads to mark the districts. It would have been apropos. And funny.

There was more. With debate still raging over the Democrats' ramming what amounts to the largest tax bill ever down Americans' throats, and Obama's sophomoric gloating, Palin had the temerity to tweet: "Don't retreat, Instead -- RELOAD."

Oh, my. Critical mass. The left was apoplectic. She's trying to goad tweeters into shooting somebody! She's fomenting violence! She's crazy! All this from flaming hypocrites who had no angst about a movie depicting the assassination of George Bush or who burned him in effigy so often Zippo stock soared.

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These folks actually want you to believe nobody in the history of man has used military or aggressive terms such as "battlefield state," or "targeted district," or "war chest" or "rapid fire" in descriptions of anything political -- until Palin. Nobody. Ever.

In rapid order, Ann Curry of the "Today" show donned her concerned-but-not-yet-tearful visage and badgered Sen. John McCain about Palin's military-gun-reload remarks and the cross hairs, suggesting they easily could inflame the emotionally challenged. McCain, to his credit, responded: Get real, bimbo -- or words to that effect. But news media outlets were having none of it; they smelled blood. Democrats wailed the nation was on the brink. The Southern Poverty Law Center's research director fell into a swoon and hinted Palin was using the same evil tactics as racists and neo-Nazis.

With all that hoopla, there were a handful of incidents across the nation, but it was hardly Kristallnacht. Here in Anchorage, a window in the Democrats' headquarters was broken. Who's to blame? Republicans -- and Sarah Palin, the left said. "She's not leading them," Alaska Democratic Party Chairwoman Patti Higgins told the Daily News. "She's just out in front of a mob."

Positively mind-boggling.

It is increasingly difficult to expect much from the left, but what is bothersome, even frightening, is its obvious underlying aim. The secondary goal is to hobble Palin on the national political stage, but, more important, it wants to quash dissent. The left believes it can shout down all opposition with charges of insanity, or danger, or incitement, and control the argument and the outcome. Essentially, it wants you to sit down and shut up. To that end, it attracts bitter, anonymous bloggers -- little old ladies and weird, has-been, hack music professors -- to cruise the Internet and demonize anyone who disagrees. If you challenge Obama or the left, you are a racist, a Tea Party nut, a dangerous person, someone prone to violence. Oh, or stupid.

Take it from me, Palin offers a cornucopia of personal and policy choices to legitimately examine. But instead of concentrating on issues, the loser left chases nits and again only looks desperate.

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Paul Jenkins is editor of the Anchorage Daily Planet.

PAUL JENKINS

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Paul Jenkins

Paul Jenkins is a former Associated Press reporter, managing editor of the Anchorage Times, an editor of the Voice of the Times and former editor of the Anchorage Daily Planet.

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