Deep Down, He’s Really Shallow

It’s no secret that I think Rick Martinez is, as the Irish might say, an eejit. I wish he didn’t feel the need to reinforce that view so regularly, but wishes are just lovely fleeting dreams aren’t they? It’s not that Martinez’s conservatism that bothers me, I’ve actually known and loved some very conservative people, it’s the shallowness of his though. Martinez’s column this morning is Exhibit A (or Z if you’ve been paying attention). It’s a spirited defense of Sarah Palin against, well, haters, kicked off with the odd notion that Mark Sanford is being given a pass by the Establishment. While it’s fun to watch the GOP’s internecine smackdown, I don’t think this makes much sense. If Martinez believes that Sanford deserves worse treatment, he should use his column to serve it up. Sanford deserving more than censure, however, doesn’t mean that Palin hasn’t earned all the criticism coming her way.

Anyone who publicly claims that the honor and bravery and endurance of American troops inspired them to quit public service has a screw loose. Apparently that doesn’t bother Martinez. No, he’s shocked – shocked, I tell you – by how Sarah Palin has been treated, even by the journos on Fox News. Such a staunch defender of the Roman Catholic hierarchy must know from sexism (though he’s unable to recognize it in ecclesiastical garb), but it’s still nice to see the Rickster’s consciousness raised. Weirdly implying that Palin’s like a rape victim, he’s all in an uproar over a woman’s asserting that most political writers have ignored that Palin’s main qualifications for the vice presidency were her looks and her gender. Martinez thinks she’s just like Obama who used his looks and race to win the nation’s highest office. Never mind that he made it through many debates and interviews actually answering questions instead of winking. McCain picked her because she was the most attractive charismatic woman he could find, not the most qualified. I think that’s an uncomfortable truth that many commentators have tried to ignore by talking about Palin’s other (alleged) qualifications. That’s a short discussion and not good enough for Martinez.

Of the same Fox-y lady calling Palin inarticulate and undereducated, Martinez takes umbrage.

OK, so Palin doesn’t give the best media interview in the world. But anyone who has heard her speeches or seen her debate could hardly classify her as verbally inept. The ‘undereducated’ charge is also wrong. Palin’s sin is that her degree is from the University of Idaho and not an Ivy League institution. Palin also committed an establishment faux pas by attending a community college.”

Leaving aside the fact that there’s a world of difference between “not the best” interview and complete incoherence, let’s examine Martinez’s defense of Palin’s education. She went to college. Where I went to University (the u’s capitalized ‘cuz it’s The University), we weren’t encouraged to believe we would learn everything we needed to know for the rest of our lives before we left. Perhaps that was the mission of Martinez’s alma mater; if so, it would explain a lot. I think education happens every single time we decide to learn what’s going on in the world around us. It happens with every question we seek an answer to, and with every answer we weigh against the totality of our knowledge to judge its merit. But that’s just me, just the way I was raised. Rick Martinez believes that education stops at the Ivory Tower’s exit and thinks it’s just dandy to run for federal office evincing not one iota of curiosity about the world and its workings. Yes, that does explain a lot. It doesn’t explain how this guy got hisself a column, but I guess we’ll have time to puzzle that out when the N&O goes under.