UPDATED: A Letter to Jonah

Below is the text of an e-mail I sent to Jonah Goldberg of National Review, in response to his piece "A Letter to Sarah":

Hi, Jonah -

I'm a big fan of yours, but I was really disappointed with your recent open letter to Governor Palin. The biggest problem with your piece is that you used a number of unfair generalities and stereotypes without any examples to back them up. In fact, your piece is devoid of even a single example!

For instance:

For starters, every time I see you on TV, you’re whining about unfair press coverage. Don’t get me wrong: Much of it is unfair, and some of it deserves a response. But it’s not presidential. It’s not even gubernatorial. You are constantly taking the bait, taking up the fights your biggest fans want you to take up.

I can think of only one instance of Governor Palin discussing unfair press coverage - this was in her interview with John Ziegler shortly after the campaign. It was done for a documentary film in the specific context of media bias during the campaign. Other than that, I'd defy you to produce any examples of her "whining" about unfair press coverage. I write for a pro-Palin website and follow her closely - and honestly, I can think of no instances where she has done this, other than to offer factual corrections to specific errors made by the media.

Your statement about "peddling a few platitudes and truisms about free markets and limited government" is patently unfair. She's consistently shown through her actions as Governor that these are more than platitudes to her. The most prominent example of a free market initiative from her administration is the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, but there are numerous smaller examples just from this year. For instance, rural Alaskans, mostly Natives, have faced an increasingly difficult time maintaining their traditional subsistence lifestyle in a cash economy, and faced a crisis last winter in that they couldn't afford both food and heating oil. While other politicos rushed to throw taxpayer dollars at a chronic problem, Palin instead organized temporary aid from private charites, and proposed a real long-term private-sector solution - for Natives to take seasonal work with the natural resource extraction industries. Her administration has since been working hard at connecting rural Natives with prospective employers.

And I don't know if you've actually been listening to the speeches she's given, they are much more than platitudes and truisms. They are substantive. For example, see her Lincoln Day speech to Alaska Republicans, her introduction of Michael Reagan, her speech on life issues in Evansville, or her Seward House address in New York. However, the press narrative of these speeches is to only pull one or two potentially controversial passages and harp on them while ignoring the rest. With the Lincoln Day speech, it was her saying a prayer with her daughter before the VP debate. With the Michael Reagan introduction, it was a ludicrous plagiarism claim after she quoted and cited Gingrich. And on the life speech, it was whether or not she had been tempted by abortion. I think perhaps you've allowed yourself to buy into the liberal narrative without looking below the surface.

So here’s my advice. Stay home and do your job and your homework.

Jonah, she has been doing exactly that! She's been practically glued to Alaska since the end of the campaign. She's made a handful of short trips outside since - here is a complete list:

1. November/December - Attended Governor's Association meetings in Nov. and Dec. 2008 (one with President Obama), including one day campaigning for Saxby Chambliss in Georgia
2. January - Attended Alfalfa Club Dinner
3. April - Gave a speech on life issues in Evansville, Indiana
4. June - Spoke at William Seward event in Auburn, NY; attended charity event on Long Island, attended NRCC/NRSC fundraiser, pipeline negotiations with Exxon in Texas (all on one trip)
5. June - Trip to Kosovo, Germany to visit troops

That's it! Exactly how much more should she be staying home? And when she does stay home, other Republicans are sniping because she's not attending their fundraising events. And she's clearly doing her "homework" - even Fred Malek states that she's been doing things like meeting with Carlucci and Talbott.

I normally have a tremendous respect for your opinion, but your piece, while couched in the format of helpful advice, is actually seemingly (at least to me) an attempt to belittle and demean the Governor (especially in its use of language - "laughingstock", "whining", "peddling...platitudes").

What's astonishing to me is that Governor Palin has never issued a public breath of criticism about another national Republican figure, showing that she has a perfect understanding of Reagan's Eleventh Commandment. But the Eleventh Commandment seems to have been completely forgotten by everyone else in the GOP. If you want to build up Romney, Daniels, Jindal, etc - hey, go for it! If you think they're the future of the GOP, God bless you. But please refrain from tearing down other Republicans in the process, especially without any concrete basis for your criticism.

UPDATE: Please see Joshua Livestro's much better response to Jonah Goldberg here. Also, be sure to check out the response by our reader 'wisetrog' in the comments of this thread.

UPDATE II: Jonah Goldberg has responded at The Corner:

What this reader, and many others, fail to understand is that I haven't written columns like this about other candidates is because I either don't think they need the advice (Romney) or because I have no interest in seeing them succeed (Huckabee).

Unfortunately he didn't respond directly to C4P. Instead he seems to take pleasure in quoting people who were, shall we say, a little more uninhibited in their opinion-voicing.

Romney doesn't need advice? Hmmmm - OK. Yeah, he's been so incredibly successful - especially in that whole primary thing with McCain and in connecting with the grassroots of the party. And, as many commenters have expressed, if Jonah was really interested in helping, he would have offered his advice privately, not publicly.

UPDATE III: More from Jonah here.