Our political Quote of the Day comes from former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin:
“Vote for Newt. Annoy a liberal. Vote Newt. Keep this vetting process going, keep the debate going.”
And so it comes down to this. The vote — that little thing that so many Americans died for more than two centuries to make sure all Americans had — should be used to “annoy” someone with whom you disagree. Someone who has a different ideological label than you do. The rest of Palin’s comment about keeping the vetting process going, fair enough.
But “Vote for Newt. Annoy a liberal”?
This quote isn’t notable for what it says about Gingrich.
Or for what it says about the vetting process.
But for what it says about Palin.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.