Here's a quote from Ann Coulter's latest column (see here). I loved it! I should read Ann more often.
"While Gov. Sarah Palin is being grilled on her position on mark-to-market accounting rules, the press can't bother to ask Joe Biden if he could give us a ballpark estimate on when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president -- or maybe take a stab at guessing the decade when televisions were first available to the public. Being interviewed by Katie Couric on the 'CBS Evening News,' Biden said:
"'When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'' For those of you who aren't hard-core history buffs, Biden not only named the wrong president during the 1929 stock market crash, he also claimed a president who wasn't president during the stock market crash went on TV before Americans had TVs. Other than that, the statement holds up pretty well. At least Biden managed to avoid mentioning any "clean" Negroes he had met.
"Couric was nearly moved to tears by the brilliance of Biden's brain-damaged remark. She was especially intrigued by Biden's claim that FDR had said the new iPhone was the bomb! Here is Couric's full response to Biden's bizarre outburst about FDR (a) being president and (b) going on TV in 1929: 'Relating to the fears of the average American is one of Biden's strong suits.'
"But when our beauteous Sarah said that John McCain was a better leader on the economy than Barack Obama, Couric relentlessly badgered her for evidence. 'Why do you say that?' Couric demanded. 'Why are they waiting for John McCain and not Barack Obama? ... Can you give us any more examples of his leading the charge for more oversight?' The beauteous Sarah had cited McCain's prescient warnings about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
"But Couric, the crackerjack journalist who didn't know FDR wasn't president in 1929, demanded more examples from Palin. We are currently in the middle of a massive financial crisis brought on by Fannie Mae. McCain was right on Fannie Mae; Obama was wrong. That's not enough? Not for the affable Eva Braun of evening TV! 'I'm just going to ask you one more time,' Couric snipped, 'not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation?' This would be like responding to someone who predicted the 9/11 attacks by saying: OK, you got one thing right. Not to belabor the point, but what else?
"Obama was not merely wrong on Fannie Mae: He is owned by Fannie Mae. Somehow Obama managed to become the second biggest all-time recipient of Fannie Mae political money after only three years in the Senate. The biggest beneficiary, Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, had a 30-year head start on receiving loot from Fannie Mae -- the government-backed institution behind our current crisis."
And Ann's not exaggerating about the Couric story on Biden. See here.
I think Katie was right to press Palin on certain specifics. But she's wrong to give Biden a free pass on his gaffes, even as she treats Palin like a bumbling idiot. And Ann Coulter is a valuable part of the national discourse for pointing that out!