“Who is Jeffrey MacDonald?

He is not the brother of Jerry Sandusky, although they are often confused.

 

What does MacDonal have to do with Sarah Palin?  The answers are “convicted murderer” and “nothing”.  Mr. MacDonald is growing old in a jail cell and wasn’t allowed to vote in the 2008 election because he was a convicted felon.  MacDonald will be 70 years old next year.  He’s been in jail for the murders of his pregnant wife and two children.   He is serving three consecutive life sentences.  The amount of information available on this case and the extent of the legal proceedings surrounding this case are vast and complex.  It has nothing to do with politics.    It is unclear to what political party MacDonald belonged, if he ever joined one.

In a Facebook post Palin, the person who reads “all of them” offered her insightful analysis of a new book by Errol Morris, Wilderness of Error that addresses the conviction of Jeffrey MacDonald:

“Morris argues with refreshing clarity that objective truth is real and worthy of being sought after despite the pretentious nonsense preached in faculty lounges about all truth being relative. In fact, he argues passionately that the search for truth is what journalism and justice is all about.”

 

Joe McGinnis also wrote a book about Jeffrey MacDonald, and concluded that his conviction was appropriate, and endorsed the conviction of MacDonald.

McGinnis’s book, Fatal Vision, was published in 1984 when Sarah Palin would have been 20 years old and in one of her five colleges, trying to complete her study in Broadcast Journalism. Likely Palin was unaware of the case at the time.  Now 42 years after the murders, Palin weighs in on the case.  Clearly the only reason for her position is to wage war on Joe McGinnis, the author of The Rogue:  the Search for the Real Sarah Palin, as it was a very unfavorable portrait of the Ex-Governor, and the Ex-neighbor of Joe McGinnis.  Palin’s endorsement of Morris’ book contrasts Morris’s search for the truth, suggesting that anyone who would reach a conclusion different than Morris (like McGinnis) was simply interested in selling books.   The implication is that McGinnis is not a truthful journalist, and thus his book about her must not be true.

Thus, Sarah Palin is willing to align herself with a convicted murderer for the sake of revenge.  Nobody knows if Jeffrey MacDonald actually killed his pregnant wife and two girls.  Certainly a jury listened to the evidence and quickly convicted him.  Anyone reading about the case, including Errol Morris, recognizes that there is much about the case we may never know.  Morris simply points out the problems with the prosecution of MacDonald, and doesn’t proclaim his innocence.  Instead of making a point about the convicted murderer, Palin uses this as an opportunity to attack a perceived enemy. She doesn’t say she didn’t have sex with Glen Rice.  She doesn’t say she didn’t snort cocaine off a barrel drum.  She simply attacks the messenger.  Make no mistake, Palin’s comments about MacDonald have nothing to do with the case itself, and everything to do with revenge.

 

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