Live from the Roasterie Failure to Take Personal Responsibility Blogging: For Sarah Palin, it's always Obama's or Pelosi's or Reid's or the libruls' fault.
: A Master: "Even though Sarah Palin passed over Ted Cruz... this has not stopped Cruz from trying to hitch a ride on...
...the Palin Grievance Wagon.... Cruz slammed the 'dirty ... unprincipled ... [and] wrong' decision of many media outlets to report Palin's son Track's arrest....
I want to take a moment to discuss Palin's decision to [who to] blame...
And that is--Obama:
: "I can talk personally about this.: I guess it’s kind of the elephant in the room....
What we’re going through today with my son, a combat vet... like so many others... come back a bit different. They come back hardened... wondering if there is that respect for what their fellow soldiers and airmen and every other member of the military have given so sacrificially to this country, and that starts at the top.... The question... that comes from our own president where they have to look at him and wonder, ‘Do you know what we go through? Do you know what we’re trying to do to secure America and to secure the freedoms that have been bequeathed us?’.... I can certainly relate with other families who kind of feel these ramifications of PTSD and some of the woundedness that our soldiers do return with, and it makes me realize more than ever, it is now or never for the sake of America’s finest that we’ll have that commander in chief who will respect them and honor them...
Josh goes on:
Substantial numbers of soldiers (in the broad sense of the word, inclusive of all branches) suffer PTSD. And it would be wrong to make too fine a distinction between those with a formal diagnosis and the large numbers who have more limited difficulties... depression, alienation from loved ones and various sorts of inward anguish and self-destructive behavior, when it spills out it is often in the form of impulsivity and violen[ce].... We can't rule out the possibility that some level of psychological damage suffered on duty contributed to this incident..... Understanding the causes or triggers of criminal behavior does not condone it. Indeed, it's a key way to learn ways to prevent it in the future.
At the same time, when someone gets drunk, beats up a girlfriend and starts brandishing a firearm with threats all around, our default assumption should be that they've committed a very serious crime - not that they're a victim in need of support. It may turn out to be a mix of the two. It can be.... Palin's attitude seems to be that beating the crap out of his girlfriend almost amounts to an extension of Track's military service for which we should all be proud and thank him. And this doesn't get into her almost comically hideous decision to blame President Obama for her son's behavior....
A possible - I stress 'possible' since there is little or not public evidence for this at all - factor in the incident becomes a catch-all justification, an alchemical process transforming him from perpetrator to victim lickety-split.... For Sarah Palin it's always someone else's fault, someone else's blame or bad behavior and never her or her family or any role of hers in her family's problems. Grievance and resentment are the alpha and omega of Palin's emotional range and political message... always blaming someone else for everything that ever happens.
