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.
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
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.
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
McCain received 58 million votes. 10 or 15 million of those people wouldn't have crossed the street to shake his hand.
The fact the lib/leftdemholemediawhores - and RINOs - are still trying to take her down shows that they're terrified. Otherwise they'd ignore her.
PING
Any chance Sarah might consider vocally defending Honduras and becoming the world spokesperson for that beleaguered nation?
The Hondurans’ defense of their constitution is going to break big-time to the conservative side and anybody backing them is going to look good. The opposition will look like a pack of (oh wait, they are!) leftists.
Huh?
-PJ
What I like is she hasn’t so far even acknowledged the latest nonsense (VF article and ensuing brouhaha). She’s remaining stoic and focused and allowing her supporters (us) to fight in the trenches——she’s too many other more important things to be concern with than to get into this mud ring.....let me do it for her!!!
My GOD, is she gorgeous!!! Knew that already, of course, but those pics just confirm it even more.
Palin PING!
Anyone on or off the Palin ping, write me.