Fighter Pilot Strafes His Target

I've questioned whether the media have tried to tie McCain to a small number of nutjobs who show up at his rallies. Now conservatives such as Michelle Malkin say the same standard doesn't seem to apply to crazies on the left:

"When a few unruly McCain-Palin supporters show their anger at campaign rallies, it's national news. It's an epidemic of 'Weimar-like rage' and 'violent escalation of rhetoric,' according to New York Times columnist Frank Rich. It's the 're-emergence of the far right as a power in American politics,' according to Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne. It's a mass movement of GOP crowds 'gripped by insane rage,' according to newly minted Nobel Prize--winner Paul Krugman. Too bad they don't give out global awards for the Blindest Eyes in Punditocracy. We've just hit a trifecta . . .

"Last month on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a small, brave contingent of McCain supporters marched through the streets with campaign signs. They were met by a menacing horde of New Yorkers who displayed their disapproval with a barrage of jeers and vulgar gestures. ('The number of middle fingers in the "progressive crowd" is directly proportional to the number of Ph.D. degrees in the 10-block radius,' one of the witnesses wryly observed.) A YouTube video of the confrontation now has half a million views. But don't expect to find it on the nightly news. It doesn't fit the Angry Right narrative . . .

"Speaking of 'violent escalation of rhetoric' you never hear about: Obama supporters in Philadelphia sported 'Sarah Palin is a [disgusting vulgarism referring to female genitalia]' T-shirts and yelled, 'Let's stone her, old school' over the weekend. An Internet artist has designated Palin an 'M.I.L.P.' -- 'Mother I'd Like to Punch' -- and published a drawing of a man's fist knocking a tooth out of the Alaska governor's mouth and the glasses off her face.' 'ABORT Palin' graffiti has sprouted on the sidewalks of Seattle, and 'Abort Sarah Palin' bumper stickers are spreading in Web stores."

My take is we ought to be careful about putting too much significance on fringe elements on both sides.

Pundit land is abuzz over the way Christopher Buckley, Kathleen Parker and David Brooks are getting kicked around on the right for taking on McCain and/or Palin. That prompts some interesting introspection by the Atlantic's Ross Douthat:

"Various folks have already gone round on this subject, but I think it's worth saying something further about the way figures like Mark Levin, Mark Steyn, Victor Davis Hanson and others have responded to those right-of-center pundits who have harshly criticized the McCain-Palin ticket and/or the GOP in general lately . . .

"I've always found the class-war element in inter-pundit sniping a little bizarre: Whether it's the netroots types hating on center-left columnists, or paleocons whining about how neocons get invited to all the cool parties, or Hanson's peculiar vision of David Brooks and Barack Obama chatting about Proust on the Acela (or something like that), it usually seems to involve the implication that successful newspaper columnists or think tank fellows live the lives of Hollywood starlets -- or maybe Gilded-Age robber barons, maybe . . .

"There is unquestionably a sense in which center-right scriveners who work for institutions more liberal than they (or merely exist in a climate more liberal than they) have both personal and professional incentives to criticize their own side as often as they do the other one, and to advance arguments and strike attitudes that drive more committed partisans up the wall . . .

"I'm also acutely aware, from my own experience, of the way that peer effects -- the desire to be perceived as the 'reasonable conservative' by friends and peers, the positive reinforcement from liberal readers, etc. -- can subtly influence the topics one chooses to write about and the tone one chooses to take. It's not a matter of wanting a seat at the table in the Obama administration, or anything absurd like that; it's just a matter of being aware of your audience, and wanting to be taken seriously by people who don't necessarily share your views, but who exert a significant influence over your professional success even so . . .

"What's the best course of action -- denouncing the rats, or trying to figure out why . . . the ship is sinking? Even if Brooks and Noonan and Buckley and Dreher and Kathleen Parker and David Frum and Heather Mac Donald and Bruce Bartlett and George Will and on and on -- note the ideological diversity in the ranks of conservatives who aren't Helping The Team these days -- are all just snobs and careerists who quit or cavil . . . when the going gets tough and their 'seat at the table' is threatened."

The Anchorage Daily News declares Sarah Palin to be "either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian" in claiming that she's been vindicated by the investigative report on Troopergate.