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In Palin they see optimism; in Obama cynicism. In Palin they see pride in her country; in Obama an element of shame.

Very true!!

Three out of four isn't bad, but that last one is often said but is imprecise. It's not shame ("liberals" are immune to that), it is contempt and condescension.
When "liberals" speak of a cause for "shame," they use what has been called "the non-inclusive we." They use the first person plural pronoun, as if they included themselves in the shame (of, for instance, slavery) but they actually project the blame on you, and accept none for themselves. Theodore Roosevelt nailed Big Journalism and nailed Barak Obama before Obama's father was even born:
There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life's realities - all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their part painfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affection of contempt for the achievements of others, to hide from others and from themselves in their own weakness. The rôle is easy; there is none easier, save only the rôle of the man who sneers alike at both criticism and performance.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds . . . Theodore Roosevelt

A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform

To someone blinded by Liberal Mind Fog, there is nothing unreasonable about comparing the claims made for an untested plan against the actual results of a tested one.

bump for TR