Daily Dish Hiatus

That's it.  I can't take it any more.  I am not going to read Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish for the rest of November.  I need a break from his "Palin Derangement Syndrome".  I count 17 "Palin" posts on his front page, and that number is down, as he's slowly moved on to other topics over the past few days (but it's been too slowly for my taste).

His "PDS" was so severe the day the Palin book came out, her magical powers fried his brain so much that he only posted twice (to inform the readers of the reason for his absence), when he usually posts 20-30 times a day.

Once McCain selected Palin as his running mate over a year ago, Sully set his sights on her (I don't have the strength to look it up, but I'm pretty sure he'd thrown his support behind Obama at that point in the campaign).  His Palin-centric blog posts had dwindled considerably since Inauguration Day, as he'd put most of his effort toward defending Obama, his administration, and his policies.  But once word got around that Palin had a book coming out, he turned his sights back to her.

His is one of the blogs I check out daily (along with Instapundit and Hit&Run) to get an idea of what's happening in the world.  What keeps me coming back is his passion for the topics he blogs about.  And I enjoy that most days, his blog posts are on a variety of subjects, from politics, to current events, to culture and society.  This summer, he was on the top of his game covering the Iran elections and all the drama that followed.  When he focuses his attention toward furthering a debate/conversation/topic/event in a positive way (the Iranian elections, marijuana, The War on Terror, etc.) he is one of the best in the country.  But when he gets into battling or defending a "persona", he's unbearable.

Whether it is his fawning over Obama or attempting to destroy Palin, he can't pull himself away from certain topics.  And I'm not the only one who's noticed his Palin Derangement Syndrome (here or here or here to name a few-- and FYI, the last link is a bit salty with the language).  It's gotten to the point that anytime I see the word "Palin" on his blog, I just scroll on past.

It reminds me of when I was in high school football.  We had two coaches, who had the "good cop/bad cop" routine down to an art form.  The defensive coordinator was the in-you-face, spit-flying-out-his-mouth, call-you-every-name-in-the-book "bad cop" coach.  His job (or so he thought) was to break the team down.  During half-time of games, he was known to throw anything in his path (chairs, chalk, helmets, etc.).  And as a freshman, the routine worked perfectly.  We were all scared shitless when he was in one of his foul moods.

The head coach, and offensive coordinator, was the X's and O's guy.  After Angry Coach had finished cursing us out and telling what worthless piles of crap we were, Head Coach would step up to the chalk board and would show us how we were going to improve our strategy and execution the next half of the game.  Head Coach was the steady tactician "ying" to Angry Coach's emotional train wreck "yang".

And after 4 years, everyone on the team had it figured out.  At halftime, you weathered Angry Coach's storm because you knew that after the storm would be an explanation on how and why we could win the game.  By senior year, people found it comical to get a chewing out from Angry Coach because he had set the yelling bar so high, he could never go higher.  We became immune to it.  It was just loud noises with no power.

On the other hand, Head Coach had set the bar at a reasonable height and we all came to expect him to be the calm, rational leader of the team.  So if and when he bumped it up a notch, you paid attention because he meant business.

Well, Andrew, sir, you are becoming Angry Coach.  You're Palin-overload is causing me to hear only static coming from you.  You've lost much of your rhetorical power in my mind by slogging around in the mud over a personality.  Rather than focusing your attention on the people with the power to make and shape policy in this country, you're analyzing every step made by a person who's only power is the power over your attention.  It's sad really.

So, I'm taking a bit of a break from the Daily Dish to allow Andrew to track down all of Palin's lies and disceats and falsehoods once and for all.  I want him to fully finish deconstructing Palins book.  Then I want him to track down all the ractions to Palin's book.  Then I want him to compare and contrast and post reader emails.  Then, after he has said all that needs to be said about Sarah Palin, he can get back to, as he likes to say, the constant struggle to see what is in front of one's nose.