Ramesh Responds

Ramesh Responds Mr. Ponnuru has another post up about the recent unpleasantness:

Palin Mailbag [Ramesh Ponnuru]

A reader:

I appreciate that you're taking a wait-and-see approach on the presidential candidates for 2012—we should probably all do that. I just wish you conservative elite types—and I don't mean that in an insulting way—would defend Palin when she is viciously attacked, as she has been again and again. Instead you took a swipe at her for not being able to write her own speeches.


Defend Palin when she is unfairly criticized? You mean, like here and here and here and here and here and here and here? I'll get right on it. As for my alleged "swipe," check the context. I was commenting on two lines in a Washington Post article on Palin that I found amusing—one by her in an endorsement letter, one by one of her critics. I noted that her line was better but said, in fairness to the other guy, that she may not have written it herself. I don't think it would be wise for most politicians to write their own speeches or op-eds, and would never criticize Palin for that reason.


Well said.

As I noted yesterday, I'm a fan of Mr. Ponnuru. His book "The Party of Death" is perhaps this generation's finest philosophical treatise on the life issues. It has an honored place on my bookshelf. His work is always thoughtful. That's why it was so discouraging to see what many of us interpreted as a snark against Palin.

Perhaps we've become over-sensitized because we're on the defensive from all sides. I think we might have engaged in friendly fire with Mr. Ponnuru, and for that we're sorry. We never want to alienate an ally.

We've already tried to make amends a little.

UPDATE by VO: I sent an apology to Mr. Ponnuru for my "jerk" remark, an apology which he graciously accepted. He was also gracious enough to say that he understood how his remark might have been misinterpreted, and that our conversation with Mr. Taylor did make some good points. Thanks, Mr. Ponnuru, and best wishes!

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