Palin Defenders Need to Check Their Facts

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog 

I agree with my colleague Mary Kate Cary and commend her for taking on the female star of her party. In her most recent blog entry, Mary Kate discussed the discovery that Sarah Palin had scribbled notes on her palm while speaking to the Tea Party Convention this past weekend. 

The notes, which say, "energy, cuts and lift American spirits" display in bold print, Sarah Palin's inability to speak off the cuff. Mary Kate generously noted that many of use have trouble remembering every point we wish to make, especially in front of a crowd. Nonetheless, Mary Kate notes:

Unfortunately, Mrs. Palin didn't write down a reminder for an everyday errand. Instead she felt she had to write down basic political priorities, core issues for the GOP. That's the problem. Imagine if President Obama were at a similar Q&A session and the camera caught the words "Hope ... Change" on his hand. 

While I commend Mary Kate for her gentle criticism of Sarah Palin, I find frustrating the uneducated rush to judgment by some of her readers. One, for example, attacks Mary Kate as a "liberal" for criticizing Sarah Palin. Check out this e-mail, which was the first comment following Mary Kate's blog entry: 

YOU LIBS ARE JUST SCARED OF HER!
So whats the big deal with Mrs. Palin making notes on her hand!
If I am not mistaken your dear joke of a president can't speak at all unless he has a telepromter in front of him. 

Dear readers (or some of you, at least): please do your homework before you make fools of yourselves. The first reaction to Mary Kate's blog entry shows the reader has not bothered to research his target of attack. Mary Kate Cary is hardly a liberal. She was a speechwriter for President George H. W. Bush! I doubt former President Bush would have had many if any liberals on his White House staff. 

I, too, am tagged with all kinds of labels by readers who don't take the time to find out my true political beliefs, which vary from issue to issue. But that's fodder for another blog. In the meantime, a warning to the more loose lipped among our audience: please check your facts before you call a respected conservative a liberal. 

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