Wow! Yesterday Brian Williams asked Sarah Palin if those who bomb abortion clinics are terrorists. She replied "I don’t know if you’re going to use the word ‘terrorist’ there."
Well, I know I am going to use the word terrorist there.
It has come to this: we have a vice-presidential candidate who can openly state that radical rightists who commit violence, often murder, against innocent Americans, should not be termed "terrorists." Her hesitation to label this terrorism is not due to squeamishness about using the word, it must be said.
She tossed out the dog whistle. We're on to the next stage. Unbelievable.
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I think, more than anything, this just continues to show she is not a serious thinker about serious issues like this. Yes, she is obviously pro-life. And she has said some pretty extreme things (or failed to say anything, as when she was questioned about rape and incest being justifiable reasons for abortion and basically just refused to say anything). But I think the take-home message here is that, like many other empty-suit politicians, she has her scripted phrases, and her talking points, and she knows she has to recite them. Palin is an extreme example of "talking point recitation," to be sure, but my point is that the underlying problem is that she's never really sat down and thought about any of these issues she's being asked about. Not that she'd really be in favor of anyone bombing anyone.
Maybe I'm giving her too much credit, and while I don't doubt that she has pretty extremist views on social issues, this is an example of where I'd actually give her the benefit of the doubt and guess that, if it were somehow possible to have a normal conversation with her outside the context of a campaign, you could probably get her to come around and admit that "bombing of any kind" = "domestic terrorism." But it's not going to happen in an interview, and I think it's more a lack of seriousness on her part than a true violent extremist tendency.
Part of why I've liked Obama from early on is exactly because he *doesn't* come across like this. You get the sense that he really has thought about big issues in a serious way. Maybe that's just an act, too, but it doesn't seem that way to me.
Ever notice that Timothy McVeigh is never described as a "domestic terrorist"?
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