Posted on 07/02/2009 7:08:13 AM PDT by Al B.
After enduring months of derision within Republican circles for her role as the party's 2008 vice presidential nominee and her uneven performance as a national figure this year, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is experiencing something of a rebound among the D.C. chattering class in the 48 hours since the release of a very tough profile on her in Vanity Fair magazine.
In the wake of that piece -- a 9,800 word opus penned by Todd Purdum -- a number of operatives who worked closely with Palin during the 2008 campaign have reached out to the Fix to defend the governor.
"She's a fine person, with unique and unteachable political skills," said Mark Salter, a senior adviser to Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) presidential bid who was deeply involved with the Palin pick. "I'm sure she has a future if she wants one."
Palin got a vote of confidence from Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele as well on Wednesday during an appearance on Fox & Friends.
"Sarah Palin will be a leader in this party," said Steele during an appearance Wednesday on "Morning Joe." "She has the ability to galvanize the base, and even folks outside the base. "And I think all the hindsight second guessing and back looking does nothing."
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
Fred Malek, who served as a national finance committee chair for McCain's presidential bid, said that he recently hosted a foreign policy lunch at Palin's request in which she mixed with the likes of former secretary of defense Frank Carlucci and former deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott.Looks like the GOP's premier rainmaker is firmly on her side.
"She has been vastly underestimated as a result of one or two interviews," said Malek of Palin. "I have spent a lot of time around her and can state unequivocally she is smart, perceptive, curious, and absolutely on top of issues like energy which are pivotal to her role as Alaska's Governor. "
I believe that her hesitancy in answering questions during the interviews was due to a desire not to contradict the positions of the one at the top of the ticket, rather than a lack of knowledge.
Those photos! Holy crap, does she look good.
The day Sarah Palin becomes a pariah within the GOP is the day the GOP ceases to be a serious political party.
Sarah’s credibility or lack of it will always be an issue until she gains the GOP nomination. No politician is perfect.
But given the choice if you were an aspiring politician would you rather be deficient in name recognition, charisma, the ability to raise money, or to attract MSM attention or large crowds or be perceived to be deficient in lacking gravitas or the requisite knowledge.
99% of politicians would choose the latter alternative.
“It is easier to study up and get SMARTER than it is to not have a personality and try to get one.”
Roger Simon
These photos are why the left - particularly the “feminists” - hate her so viscerally. Palin is a bright, beautiful woman and a typical NOW convention looks like a herd of wildebeest queuing up to cross the Mara River.
Wow that's quite a statement. And an accurate one. Pity the fool who has to run against her.
Yes, I still like Sarah Palin!
By Camille Paglia
Nov. 12, 2008 | [excerpts]
“...Liberal Democrats are going to wake up from their sadomasochistic, anti-Palin orgy with a very big hangover.
The evil genie released during this sorry episode will not so easily go back into its bottle. A shocking level of irrational emotionalism and at times infantile rage was exposed at the heart of current Democratic ideology — contradicting Democratic core principles of compassion, tolerance and independent thought. One would have to look back to the Eisenhower 1950s for parallels to this grotesque lock-step parade of bourgeois provincialism, shallow groupthink and blind prejudice.
I like Sarah Palin, and I’ve heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is — and quite frankly, I think the people who don’t see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma.
So she doesn’t speak the King’s English — big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes.
She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns — that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World.
As for the Democrats who sneered and howled that Palin was unprepared to be a vice-presidential nominee — what navel-gazing hypocrisy!
What protests were raised in the party or mainstream media when John Edwards, with vastly less political experience than Palin, got John Kerry’s nod for veep four years ago?
And Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, for whom I lobbied to be Obama’s pick and who was on everyone’s short list for months, has a record indistinguishable from Palin’s.
Whatever knowledge deficit Palin has about the federal bureaucracy or international affairs (outside the normal purview of governors) will hopefully be remedied during the next eight years of the Obama presidencies.
The U.S. Senate as a career option? What a claustrophobic, nitpicking comedown for an energetic Alaskan — nothing but droning committees and incestuous back-scratching.
No, Sarah Palin should stick to her governorship and just hit the rubber-chicken circuit,.. Step by step, the mainstream media will come around, wipe its own mud out of its eyes, and see Palin for the populist phenomenon that she is. ...” — By Camille Paglia
http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2008/11/12/palin/print.html
Having seen the governor's debate with rivals for governor in 2006, and her lenghty interview with Marie Bartiromo on CNBC it is clear to me that when she achieves a grasp of issues Palin is a formidable debater and interviewee. In both cases she was operating on solid and familiar ground. She needs to develop easy familiarity with issues like health care, Iran, TARP, et. al. Until then she will be at a disadvantage in the contest with GOP rivals like Romney, and especially with a smooth operatpr like Obama.
From the Governor's viewpoint I don't think it's ever wrong to get disparate views on an issue where she's trying to gain additional insight. Frank Carlucci and Strobe Talbot are the ultimate in "disparate views"...LOL.
The Guv will sort it out.
That’s definitely one reason. Visceral jealousy. Those hags are miserable because they focused on their career to the exclusion of kids, a spouse, happiness, etc. Sarah is smart, healthy, beautiful, and “has it all”...and it drives them absolutely crazy.
Sarah has 2 years to get her DUCKS IN A ROW and to do her HOMEWORK. I have every confidence that she can pull it off.
When superstars put their mind to anything with undiluted focus it gets done.
Oh My Goodness! Can I hear a, "Yes, Ma'am!"?
The WaPo fails to mention the 24/7 attacks launched by itself and the rest of the so-called “mainstream” media. Probably just an oversight.
“In Anchorage on the coastal trail there have been many times where I’ve had to stop right in my tracks and turn around because there’s been either a moose standing there staring at me or a moose’s butt plopping on over into the trail. I have to turn around and leave or I’m going to get clobbered.” ~Sarah Palin for RunnersWorld.com
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