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Posted on Thu, Nov 11, 2010 : 6:02 a.m.

Slate's Political Gabfest riffs on Sarah Palin, Barack Obama during live podcast in Ann Arbor

By Ryan J. Stanton

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From left to right, Slate magazine's Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discuss political issues during Wednesday's live Political Gabfest in Ann Arbor.

Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com

Slate magazine political correspondent John Dickerson says Sarah Palin ranks up there with marketing behemoths like Apple, Nike and Coca-Cola when it comes to brand management.

He found that out firsthand this week.

It seems Palin won't allow even the smallest voice of dissent on her Facebook page, Dickerson told a crowd of several hundred Wednesday night at the University of Michigan Law School.

"Within three minutes, it had been deleted," Dickerson said of a comment he left on one of Palin's posts on Facebook. "I wrote it in as anodyne and mild a fashion as possible."

Dickerson said his comment was an attempt to clarify facts surrounding Palin's post blasting Wall Street Journal reporter Sudeep Reddy. The reporter had asserted Palin got her facts wrong in a recent speech when she said grocery prices had risen significantly over the past year or so.

In her Facebook post, Palin asked whether Reddy even reads his own paper and pointed to a Wall Street Journal article to back up her statements. Dickerson said he attempted to jump in and point out the article Palin referenced actually says prices are only "beginning" to rise — and the time period of "significant" increase Palin talks about is referred to in the article as "the tamest year of food pricing in nearly two decades."

"Anyway, so I posted it again to see if there was a glitch or something like that, and it was gone again in two minutes," Dickerson said of his comment on Palin's page. "I knew they watched these Facebook postings really, really closely … but dissenting opinion also gets taken out."

Dickerson was joined by colleagues Emily Bazelon and David Plotz as the voices behind Slate's popular Political Gabfest. They took their show on the road in Ann Arbor on Wednesday.

During an hour-long podcast, the three pundits kept the crowd laughing as they riffed on Palin, the 2010 mid-term elections and the presidencies of Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

The 350-seat lecture space inside Hutchins Hall was filled to capacity, while dozens more spilled into overflow rooms to watch a live video feed.

Staying on the topic of Palin, an audience member asked the panelists whether they thought Palin stood a chance at winning the presidency in 2012. Dickerson said Palin turns off too many people even within the Republican Party, and many people see her as unqualified.

"She has very, very, very high negatives," he said. "She has high negatives inside the Republican Party. She has high negatives in the larger part of the country. She has high negatives in states like this where she needs to get the vote. She does nothing so far that does anything to drive those negatives down. The negatives only go up."

Dickerson touched on the reasoning behind bringing Political Gabfest to Ann Arbor. He said it made sense to head to the industrial Midwest one week after Republicans made strong gains in political battlegrounds where Democrats have dominated in recent times.

"They lost in all of the Rust Belt states: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania," he said, predicting those states will be political battlegrounds in the next two years.

Plotz said the outcome of the mid-term elections may seem surprising.

"Particularly, if you look at Michigan, you have a state which is heavily unionized, you have a state where there was a huge amount of money poured in through the auto bailouts, as well as through the stimulus bill," he said, concluding that "President Obama and the Democrats seem to have accrued exactly zero benefit from any of that."

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Plotz said he thinks President George W. Bush caused "terrible damage" to America and the country's reputation across the globe.

Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com

Plotz said it's not an irreparable loss for Democrats, but the remapping of congressional districts with the Republicans in control is sure to hurt them. It's also expected that Michigan will lose one congressional seat, dropping from 15 to 14.

"The congressional districts throughout this area are going to be redrawn by Republicans to screw Democrats, and that's going to be bad for them," Plotz said.

Plotz said the success of the Democrats in 2012 will be highly contingent on showing some economic progress. He said if Obama can put forth economic policies that seem like they're benefiting Michigan and other Rust Belt states, the party will benefit.

Bazelon said Obama seems "aloof" and hasn't said anything "that feels real."

"I mean, Obama isn't going to say, 'There just are no jobs. I tried really hard. I failed.' Right? You can't say that," she said.

Bazelon said she wonders whether Obama is just not a populist at a time when the United States needs a populist leader to believe in.

"It can motivate people to do amazing things, to see something larger than their own self interests," she said, noting that FDR was a populist.

"In a way, Hitler was a populist," Plotz responded, drawing laughs.

Bazelon offered her predictions for the next two years, saying she expects Republicans in Washington "to cause as much trouble as they possibly can."

"They were talking about exactly how they could, if not repeal health care reform, at least try to kind of throw a wrench in the works from the inside by defunding certain parts of it," she said. "That doesn't even seem to me like a political winner for them in terms of reaching out to independents and moderates. I mean, it's really for their base."

Both Plotz and Dickerson said Obama has been wrongly blamed for actions taken by Bush.

"Forty-seven percent of the country thinks that President Obama initiated TARP, and only 34 percent think President Bush did," Dickerson said.

Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.

Comments

robyn

Fri, Nov 12, 2010 : 12:02 p.m.

It doesn't matter who you are - if you're a public figure or not. Your personal FaceBook page is yours, even if it's open to the public. Just because someone is well known - for any reason: sports, acting, music, politics, etc... They are still entitled to keep personal/possession of whatever they choose to keep personal or maintain possession of. The sheer fact that they are well known does not make them public domaine. And it certainly doesn't take away their right to decide where they draw the line when it comes to people's input into their personal life/business. I'm sure if you or anyone else feels compelled to voice their opinion or dissent about someone or something - there are plenty of public/open forums for you to voice that opinion with being censored. Think of it this way - you have a house - it is basically 'open' to the public - it's not hidden, people who know you know it's YOUR house. Does that give them the right to walk up to your door and say things you don't agree with? Are you forced to invite them in even if you don't like them? Just because you have a welcome mat - doesn't mean EVERYONE is welcome.

clownfish

Fri, Nov 12, 2010 : 8:30 a.m.

We saw in 2008 that voters don't have much interest in whether a candidate is qualified Obama was not "qualified" due to his lack of executive experience. Sarah is not qualified because she knows not of what she speaks, she has NO actual plan, just platitudes and jingoes. If you could get me a link to one of her policy/white papers, I would change my mind. Isn't she rather fond of the Great Ronald Reagan? Didn't Reagan triple our debt? didn't Reagan/Bush I bail out the Savings and Loan industry, after Reagan de-regulated it? The federal government ultimately appropriated 105 billion dollars to resolve the crisis. After banks repaid loans through various procedures, there was a net loss to taxpayers of approximately $124 billion dollars by the end of 1999.

clownfish

Fri, Nov 12, 2010 : 8:15 a.m.

I don't let people 'dissent' on my FaceBook page either. It's MY page. Are you a political figure attempting to sway the electorate? Do you rant and rave about the censorship of your opponents?

TripleVSix

Thu, Nov 11, 2010 : 4:32 p.m.

"and many people see her as unqualified" We saw in 2008 that voters don't have much interest in whether a candidate is qualified.

kittybkahn

Thu, Nov 11, 2010 : 2:34 p.m.

What clownfish said!!

robyn

Thu, Nov 11, 2010 : 2:04 p.m.

I don't let people 'dissent' on my FaceBook page either. It's MY page. Actually - she wasn't too far off. Here is an article by the National Inflation Association: http://inflation.us/sarahpalin.html They took her speech and did the research and posted their results.

YpsiLiz

Thu, Nov 11, 2010 : 1:30 p.m.

I was a member of the crowd in the auditorium last evening; and this was one of the most fun things I've done in a long time. I'm a regular listener to the Gabfest, but it was SO much better in person. Bazelon, Dickerson, and Plotz clearly enjoyed playing to the audience, and they got warmer and more engaged as the evening went on. This article nicely captured some of the highlights of the evening. Well done!

FreedomOfSpeech

Thu, Nov 11, 2010 : 11:20 a.m.

Putting aside the phony/false - left/right paradigm: The truth is hiding in plain sight. -(---(((

clownfish

Thu, Nov 11, 2010 : 10:13 a.m.

Of course Palin brooks no dissent! How can she spread misinformation if she allows give and take? How can she rile the sheep if it is shown that she does not know what the heck she is talking about? The really funny part is that her followers call themselves "independent thinkers" and love to talk about the "censorship of the left"! Just look at the stats: Obama IS a Muslim! Obama is not a naturalized citizen. Obama started TARP. Obama is going to take your guns. Death panels. Grocery prices...thanks for that info...I wish I could finish articles too. It is just too much work to actually read whole paragraphs. Good Lord People, Oklahoma just passed a law banning the use of Sharia law in OK...but nobody EVER used Sharia law in OK. Meanwhile we have this http://tinyurl.com/24s9nwb Perhaps the most disturbing thing about Palin is that she wraps herself in God, but ignores His/Her Ten Suggestions, particularly His/Her "Thou Shall not bring false witness". She does not love her neighbors as she loves herself. And her followers parrot her, ignoring the very God they claim to love. The same conservatives who now claim that President Obama's program didn't work are those who once warned that President Clinton's program would lead to ruinjust before the greatest peacetime expansion in history. Believe them at your peril. Joe Conasan Are these the same folks that warned you about Iraqi wmd's and links between Saddam and AQ? Or that warned you that inflation would be 10% by 2010 because of Obamas "anti-business" agenda? (the anti-business of bailing out businesses! Gotta love that "logic"!)