The New Republic

From a new cover story on Sarah Palin by Weekly Standard hack Matthew Continetti:

Last week, when Joe Biden traveled to upstate New York to campaign for Democratic congressional candidate Bill Owens, the vice president took aim at Sarah Palin. "The fact of the matter is that Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy was 'drill, baby, drill,' " Biden said. "No, it's a lot more complicated, Sarah, than 'drill, baby, drill.' "

A good sign of condescension is when someone tells you that "things are more complicated" than you think.

Now direct your attention to a previous paragraph in the same article!

Because Andrew Jackson was the founder of the modern Democratic party, we have a tendency to look at him through big-government eyes. We draw a line that starts with Jackson, runs through Bryan, Woodrow Wilson, and FDR, and ends up at Barack Obama. But the facts are more complicated than that.

Do they still edit at the Standard? Is there no one around to keep poor Continetti from embarrassing himself in public? And then, naturally, a cursory Lexis search of his work reveals the following:

--Jan 2, 2004: In other words, he screams at Person X because Person X is an obstacle to Desire Y. But it may be more complicated than that.

--June 18, 2007: Gerald Ford typically is cited as the last pro-choice Republican nominee, but the history is more complicated than that.

--June 9, 2007: According to this line of thinking, most GOP voters are still unaware of his positions on these issues, and when they find out, they'll go elsewhere. The reality is more complicated.

--August 25, 2008: But even here, the story may be more complicated than Georgian provocation and Russian reaction.

share this article on facebook or twitter print this article