Somebody Shut That Woman Up, He Said

Marc Ambinder today joins his fellow Atlantic columnist Andrew Sullivan in my "oh for God's sake I'm just going to ignore you for awhile" file. His ridiculous column today on Sarah Palin's op-ed, noted in the post below, is the last straw for me. Look at this crap:

Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate, has every right to submit an opinion piece on health care to the Wall Street Journal's op-ed page, and they've got every right to print it.

Gee, thanks for validating that, Mark. But beyond the glaringly obvious, what really sets me off is this:

But Palin's existence in this debate does not (a) lend her voice any credibility and, beyond that, even if you believe that her experience as a state governor does give her at least a modicum of credibility, it does not follow that, because her voice is credible, it ought to be influential. Newt Gingrich is influential by rights; he's done the work, come up with original ideas, and been in the trenches.

Ambinder even recognizes that this is the very policy stuff that Palin needs to be on top of and speak to in order to advance her political carreer, but then seems to deny that it is valid for her to do so. He is basically saying that Palin does not have the experience in the trenches and therefore, she should get out of the trench.

Well, bull. I know that Sarah Palin has her faults and needs to build credibility. She needs to study and refine her policy portfolio over the next few years with an eye for the 2016 election in my opinion, depending on what happens over the next few years. Ronald Reagan spent many years, in and out of government, honing and presenting his political philosophy. He did it by studying and weighing in on the topics of the day, year after year.

Sarah Palin is doing the same thing, I believe, and the possibility that she might be successful in that scares a lot of Washington insiders on both sides of the aisle. I have no idea if she will be successful in growing into a viable presidential candidate for 2012, or more likely, 2016. But I'm watching with interest despite the rantings of the Ambinders of the political world, and so are many others.

The irony here is that Ambinder warns others about losing their relevance and credibility by lending their forum to Palin, yet his screed means one less reason for me to visit his forum, The Atlantic, at least for a little while. Good thing for them that they still have Megan McArdle.