Carol Fowler: Serious Foot-In-Mouth Disease

Carol Fowler, chair of that venerable institution called the South Carolina Democrat Party, commented that she believes Sarah Palin’s primary qualification “seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion”.

Interesting.  By that standard, Barrack Obama may actually have one qualification.

But let’s focus on the issue at hand.  There are two angles to consider here:  (1) The factual accuracy of the statement and (2) the political ramifications.

Factual Accuracy - On that basis, Carol Fowler is clearly an idiot.  Ms. Fowler may not like that Palin is the governor of Alaska.  Ms. Fowler probably disapproves of the fact that Sarah Palin has a very clear history on the issues that are important to the Republican base.  And Ms. Fowler may even dislike the fact that Sarah Palin is a fantastic communicator who has even managed to command the respect of many who oppose her.  But Ms. Fowler’s preferences don’t make fact.  The facts make Ms. Fowler wrong

Political Ramifications - The public isn’t responding well to factually inaccurate statements and false negative innuendo about Sarah Palin.  Witness the results experienced by the magazine US Weekly when they ran a cover story about Ms. Palin titled “Babies, Lies and Scandle”: While the publishers clung to the notion that the word “lies” referred to untruths told about Palin rather than by her, the cover of their magazine clearly made a different statement.  And the result was that, according to MSNBC, US Weekly has had more than 5,000 subscription cancellations within a few days of publication.

So, Carole Fowler:  Please continue your winning ways.  You’re displaying great judgment, if one makes evaluates on the basis of benefits to the Republican party.