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Resolved: Sarah Palin Is Not Andrew Jackson
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Bill Kristol's comparison of the Alaskan governor to Old Hickory doesn't fly.
First, a stipulation: I like and respect Bill Kristol. There is, as you might expect, a “but” coming.
This morning in Maureen Dowd’s column in The New York Times, Bill compared Sarah Palin to Andrew Jackson. I have just finished five years of work on a Jackson biography, and am therefore particularly sensitive on this topic, and I have written about my reservations about Governor Palin in Newsweek. So Bill’s remark resonated with me on several levels.
The chief problem with the Palin-Jackson analogy is that Jackson was, by the time he came to the White House in 1829, a senior figure in American life. He had defeated the British at New Orleans and added millions upon millions of acres of land to the United States through his Indian campaigns. He served as a judge, a senator, a general, and, in 1824, won a plurality of the votes for president, only to lose the election to John Quincy Adams in the House of Representatives. He was much more than a mayor and a governor of two years’ standing.
For Palin admirers, there is much to like in a Jackson analogy. He was largely unlettered, ran as a champion of the people versus elites, and consistently surprised political observers and prognosticators with success upon success. But Jackson was an experienced hand at public affairs, and his populism, while genuinely felt, was not unthinking or unreflective. Perhaps Palin’s vision of the world is more complex than we know. If it is, she has 19 days to prove it.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
nclark499
While not an expert on Jackson, I am a history buff and was quite confused by the Palin-Jackson comparison. Thank you for clearing up my confusion with historical facts. And 19 days or not, I don't think she's got it.
JJPasadena
I'll just say this, over the last eight years Bill Kristol has lost most if not all of my respect because of saying things like...oh I don't know...that Sarah Palin is comparable to ANDREW JACKSON.
lfrenchsmith
I liken that, "she has 19 days to prove it." Good to end with a chuckle. Keep it up - love to read you.
UncleSam
"lowly task of stirring up the whack-job fringe of the party's right wing and of recycling patent falsehoods"
Sounds like the political strategy of the last admin.
If the voters don't fall for the provincialisms and symbolic exploitations this time around, at least Sarah has a home to go back to where she can be forgotten.
kgindc
I am so glad that someone finally gets this: Sarah Palin is a yahoo. Jackson is well known for having been a yahoo ... in fact, I believe he's the President credited with having had his inauguration party ruined b/c his yahoo relatives and guests tore the place to shreds. Yeah that's what I want repping me in the White House ...
toddanthonydirect
And humans are only 4% different genetically than apes. Lots of similarities there. But verrrrry different. Kristol's Palin/Jackson analogy is thusly strained.
Rocket88
Yeah, plus, Andy Jackson couldn't see Russia from his house.
I wonder what "Palinian Democracy" would look like? There would be more snowmobiles and fewer newspapers, fer sure. And Alaska would finally be granted its independence, you betcha.
wahooligan
"Oh, Bill Kristol, are you EVER right?"
ParzifalGF
Perhaps she is Jackson-Lite??
Austerlitz
What a ludicrous comparison.The only similarity is that both came from "white trash" backgrounds. Andy pulled himself out of his. He also had in him none of the intellectual (or other) cowardice Ms. Palin demonstrates daily by refusing to answer questions or even to submit to them. Andy would certainly never have bungled answers to questions, though he may have answered in terms that might have frightened a timid questioner. As his very full life of leadership demonstrated, his character contained infinitely more steel than our current national disgrace, the twinkle-eyed Thrilla From Wasilla.
t-bogg
You lost everyone when you said that you "respect" Bill Kristol, unless, of course ,you were starting off with a joke, in which case: good one.
the5thw
Thank you for standing up for Old Hickory. Many of us are getting our first look at his presidency through our financial history cramming. To say he is relevant now is an understatement.
Bulldoglover100
Someone needs to send this racist hick back to Alaska so she can be recalled.
dcreader
I'm no Palin fan, Austerlitz, but "white trash background"? Her mom was a school secretary and her dad taught science and coached track. Sounds pretty solid and decent to me. And Jackson, BTW, was the son of rural Scots-Irish immigrants; again, not what I think of as "white trash."
jpanderson
Wasn't Jackson functionally illierate? Is that not an apt comparison? I wonder how many duels Palin has been in.
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