Monday, November 9, 2009

Opinion

Sam Dealey

Bonnie Erbe's Cheap Shot on Sarah Palin

October 28, 2008 04:07 PM ET | Sam Dealey | Permanent Link | Print

After taking a barb from liberal journalist Elaine Lafferty for her dim assessment of Sarah Palin's intelligence, my Thomas Jefferson Street colleague Bonnie Erbe responds:

I find high irony in the coincidence that as this former editor of Ms. magazine and self-proclaimed Democrat dissed me, I was simultaneously E-mailed by a PR firm (Gehrung Associates), offering up an interview with a former high school acquaintance of Governor Palin that read as follows:

Ashlyn Kuersten, an associate professor of political science at Western Michigan University specializing in women in law and politics, has a little more insight into Sarah Palin than the average Joe Plumber: They attended the same high school only two years apart....

"Sarah changes the debate," [says Kuersten]. "She brings a lot of bling and chrome, but virtually nothing of substance. She doesn't know a lot about politics, it's more important to the American public that she looks like she does than what she has to say."

Let me get this right: A lefty poli-sci professor from Western Michigan University, who is crying for her 15 minutes of fame because she attended the same high school as Palin 30 years ago, says the popular sitting governor of Alaska-cum-Republican veep candidate "doesn't know a lot about politics."

Good grief.

Tags: presidential election 2008 | Sarah Palin

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Reader Comments

Keustner is left wing.

No doubt about it. Google and look at what she writes. Does anyone care she went to HIGH SCHOOL with Palin THIRTY YEARS AGO?!? Some insight, hah!

Any chance you can be wrong?

Are all Political Science professors left wing? Any reason to think that a person who actually spent some time around Sarah might know her better than watching her prepared sound bites? Aren't you a little concerned that she cannot answer a question unless she knows it ahead of time? With McCain's age this is way too important to the put to the side. Good grief she could be president some day!

Sam Dealey, are you chicken?

Sam,

Come on now. How can you pass up a dare that is SO doable? It is substantive too! You must be smart ... that is why you are quick to judge a person (Dr. Kuersten) without even investigating. Are you a tabloid writer or an investigative journalist?

Kuersten vs. ?

You have the option. Make it happen. It might just give YOU an additional 15 minutes of fame.

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Sam Dealey is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and Reader's Digest. He has written for many publications, including Time, GQ, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

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