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Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates - Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues for TheAtlantic.com and the magazine. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. More

Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents. Raised in West Baltimore—not quite The Wire, but sometimes ill all the same. Studied at the Mecca for some years in the mid-’90s. Emerged with a purpose, if not a degree. Slowly migrated up the East Coast with a baby and my beloved, until I reached the shores of Harlem. Wrote some stuff along the way.

The most revealing thing I've seen about Sarah Palin

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Sep 11 2008, 9:26 PM ET Comment


I like to think I've been at least sober in my criticism of Palin. Maybe not. Either way, today, I finally got it. Forget about Trooper-gate and creationism. Forget about the truly low, cynical people who think that being the target of "liberal ridicule" neccessarily means your qualified to lead the country. Forget about moose-hunting and pipelines. You simply can't be a credible VP nominee and have no idea what the Bush doctrine is. Watch this clip. And then think about the people who say Andrew has lost his mind over Palin's nomination. I admit, for a while I wondered why he was going so hard. Now I know. And now I know who, truly, must be out their minds.

UPDATE: Many have noted that the Bush Doctrine has actually been a somewhat amorphous phrase. Fair enough. But she seemed to not even have a handle on any of the various definition. It was almost as if she'd never heard the phrase. It wasn't like she said "Well what aspect" or "It's changed a few times." She seemed to be basically clueless.




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