Butterfly Stings Eustace Tilly

The September 8 New Yorker has a short "Talk of the Town" piece by Philip Gourevitch about Sarah Palin that the editors must not have vetted. Entitled "Palin on Obama," it reports on a pre-nomination interview that was apparently worthy of Eustace Tilly's amused curiosity because it catches the Governor of Alaska speaking some entirely non-partisan words about Barack Obama's popularity in her state! And the article concludes by quoting Governor Palin as saying "we better have a real clear plan for this war." All this was supposed to embarrass John McCain: look, even the idiot's own running mate supports his opponents and their positions! But what the interview actually shows--read it for yourselves--is that both McCain and Palin are the non-partisan, outside-the-box thinkers they claim to be. Not something anyone could honestly say about The New Yorker : the tidbit on Palin was preceded immediately by editor David Remnick's smug dismissal of Palin as a "baffling rejoinder to the assuring nomination of Joe Biden." Remnick's declaration went to press before Sarah Palin addressed the RNC and the world. Obviously the slow-moving Senator McCain was a few steps ahead of The New Yorker's pompous editor.