I’m certainly no fan of Palin’s, but comments like

Palin, though notoriously ill-travelled outside the United States

don’t strike me as particularly well-reasoned or germane. What is it that makes such a lack “notorious” exactly? And why is it an “ill”-ness? An awful lot of people have never traveled outside their own countries - I’d bet a large majority, in fact.

Tanenhaus’ remark strikes me as smug, arrogant and smarmy. And it stains whatever follows it.