[N]o character, however upright, is a match for constantly reiterated attacks, however false. It is well understood by its disciples, that every calumny makes some proselites and even retains some; since justification seldom circulates as rapidly and as widely as slander. The number of those who from doubt proceed to suspicion and thence to belief of imputed guilt is continually augmenting; and the public mind fatigued at length with resistance to the calumnies which eternally assail it, is apt in the end to sit down with the opinion that a person so often accused cannot be be entirely innocent.
— Alexander Hamilton, “Observations on Certain Documents continued in No. V and VI of The History of the United States for the Year 1796” (1797) in: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 7, p. 377 (H.C. Lodge ed. 1904)
To understand Sarah Palin and her following in the conservative ranks, you must see her as a sort of Joan of Arc. She is their firebrand. She carries their standard without the muddled apologies of the Republican centrists.
The Alien and Sedition Act of 1798 was the first Patriot Act.
Fear removes the thin varnish of small-government and states rights from the conservative backside. Underneath they clamor for big government to protect and succor them.
— Me
Congressional Republicans are whelping that Obama has shown his hand to be a liar because he has brought on Rahm Emanuel as his first staff appointment. Emanuel, the grand strategest who brought about the 2006 Democrat surge and is arguably the Democrat’s Karl Rove, has a reputation for brusque, bull in the china shop politics. They argue that this shows that Obama hs no inclination to run a truly bipartisan government.
Obama’s choice signals two messages. One, he is laser-focused on pushing through changes. He found the sharpest, smartest point man, who speaks fluent House. Two, his is not a soft, push-over administration, like the Carter years - the memory of which, in my opinion, is stain that will take the Clinton administration and this one to remove. If Obama had chosen some mousy Harvard don or Silicon Valley vaporware executive, then the Republicans would ready their knives for an easy meal of this President. The hypocrisy of the Republicans to whine about sharp elbows and an exclusionary president is coy.
