Some media's treatment of Weiner was very similar to Palin

Update:

I just realized that what politicians do in their private lives do affect them in office, as far as they could be blackmailed with what people find. If a lobbyist or political enemy of Weiner found evidence, photos, etc. of his private bad behavior then they could blackmail him into doing many things in order to keep the photos out of the public. And I remember after the Arnold love-child news broke some people thought that a lot of his weird actions as governor now made sense, as in, he could have been blackmailed into doing them with info about his child and extra-marital affair. Or he could have had other affairs that he was being blackmailed with. So yeah, that stuff needs to be exposed. People who hold office can't do that stuff because it puts the office at risk. They need to resign if caught. I wholeheartedly disagree with how Weiner behaved and I do now understand why he was dogged. It just really creepily reminded me of how Palin was treated and seeing him resign sent a chill down my spine. Knowing he wouldn't have resigned if he hadn't been dogged with it. But yes, what he did was so wrong and inexcusable. He needed to go and it was good that people found out what he was doing.


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Original post:

Let me preface this by saying I wanted Anthony Weiner to resign and I'm glad he finally did. That he might have been saying innapropriate things to an underage girl is disgusting. However, (even though I'm glad conservatives controlled the message) I'm really sickened by the actions of the conservative bloggers who dogged, dogged, attacked, dogged, uncovered dirt, dogged, grabbed screen shots, dogged, posted filthy and embarassing private conversations to the world, dogged, until Weiner was forced to resign. I believe that was dirty politics just to get someone they don't like out of office. I know it felt good to see that arrogant blowhard get knocked down a peg. And it felt good to see him cry and that his career unraveled, but that was wrong, and it reminded me of how the corrupt media treats Palin.

Palin was (is) dogged, dogged, dogged, and had umpteen frivolous lawsuits filed against her just because the other side wanted her out of office and out of the spotlight. They wanted to take down their most feared opponent and did it by any means necessary. Until she was forced to resign. She called it "political bloodsport."

Now the main difference is that Weiner actually did something bad and lied, while Palin did nothing bad. Her detractors simply made up stuff and took her down financially by filing lawsuit after lawsuit, knowing she would have to resign because of it.

Palin didn't cry when she resigned. She pointed at her enemies, called them out and promised she wouldn't just sit down and shut up.

Weiner's supporters are so upset, saying he didn't need to resign and that he should still run for NYC mayor, as he was planning to do. I kind of agree. Minus the underage girl allegations, I don't think Weiner really did anything wrong as far as holding office goes. He wasn't bribing anyone, breaking the law, or using his office for corruption. He had a messy private life. His sham marriage is exposed. He took marriage vows that he didn't keep, and probably had zero intention of keeping. But as far as holding office he seemed passionate to the Left's cause and was doing whatever he needed to further it. So I say let the voters decide. The state of California seems to be happy to be going down the Lefty shithole by electing liberal after liberal, so maybe NYC will follow. I know I don't care who's mayor of New York. I do care about my mayor, my Governor, my President, whom I have some power to elect by my vote.

The media shouldn't attack people like this. They shouldn't bury stories, either. They just need to report the facts. If someone discovered Weiner was innapropriately speaking to an underage girl, that needed to be reported by ALL networks and that is a resigning offense. If he's using his office for corruption and bribery that should be reported. But this attacking day after day until someone cracks, is just evil and wrong. I hate how our politicians are attacked and treated like they're criminals constantly, just because we don't like them and want them to resign. The Left tried every trick in the book to get GWB to resign or impeached. I'm assuming they did to Richard Nixon as well and succeeded. They did it to Palin and succeeded. And now I see that the Right will do the same thing. I don't like it.

Arnold post

I wrote the Arnold post before the news broke that he fathered a child outside his marraige. I wanted to clarify that I wasn't comparing him and Palin substantively, only on their mass superstar voter appeal (at the time he first ran). The guy is obviously a massive tool and brazen liar. He needs to just disappear for awhile and stay out of the public eye - movies, politics - and try to repair the relationship with his kids.

This campaign cycle reminds me of the "Schwarzenegger effect"

I just saw on Fox News that by this date in 2007, 10 candidates had already announced they were running for POTUS for the 2008 election. For this cycle, only four have formally announced. Why the difference? Sarah Palin.  Everyone is waiting for her to either say yes or no. There is no way anyone on the fence (Republican or Democrat) who might have trouble raising money would even think to run if Sarah were running, too. There's just no way anyone could raise enough money, or attain the same level of name recognition she has. It kind of reminds me of when the state of California did a recall on their Governor. A handful of candidates were running to be the one to replace him. But when Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he was going to run, pretty much all the other candidates dropped out, including the guy who led the charge on the recall. I remember him specifically crying in an interview saying there was no way he could compete with Arnold who has more money than anyone and was one of the biggest box-office movie stars of all time. Palin might even be more popular now than Arnold was at that time. So this is definitely reminding me of that recall, and the effect one superstar candidate can have on an election.