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Cutting bait (Steyn on Palin)
NRO ^ | 7/3/09 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 07/03/2009 10:57:15 PM PDT by pissant

With respect to many of the Palinologists below, I think they're getting way too hepatomantic over the entrails.

As a political move for anything other than the 2010 Senate race, today's announcement is a disaster. And I'm not sure it's a plus for the Senate - and, even if it were, the manner and timing suggest it was not a professionally planned event and therefore is unlikely to have any grand strategy behind it.

So Occam's Razor leaves us with: Who needs this?

In states far from the national spotlight, politics still attracts normal people. You're a mayor or a state senator or even the governor, but you lead a normal life. The local media are tough on you, but they know you, they live where you live, they're tough on the real you, not on some caricature cooked up by a malign alliance of late-night comics who'd never heard of you a week earlier and media grandees supposedly on your own side who pronounce you a "cancer".

Then suddenly you get the call from Washington. You know it'll mean Secret Service, and speechwriters, and minders vetting your wardrobe. But nobody said it would mean a mainstream network comedy host doing statutory rape gags about your 14-year old daughter. You've got a special-needs kid and a son in Iraq and a daughter who's given you your first grandchild in less than ideal circumstances. That would be enough for most of us. But the special-needs kid and the daughter and most everyone else you love are a national joke, and the PC enforcers are entirely cool with it.

Most of those who sneer at Sarah Palin have no desire to live her life. But why not try to - what's the word? - "empathize"? If you like Wasilla and hunting and snowmachining and moose stew and politics, is the last worth giving up everything else in the hopes that one day David Letterman and Maureen Dowd might decide Trig and Bristol and the rest are sufficiently non-risible to enable you to prosper in their world? And, putting aside the odds, would you really like to be the person you'd have to turn into under that scenario?

National office will dwindle down to the unhealthily singleminded (Clinton, Obama), the timeserving emirs of Incumbistan (Biden, McCain) and dynastic heirs (Bush). Our loss.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Alaska
KEYWORDS: careerendingmove; chickenlittles; democratswin; fedindictmentcoming; gopimplosion; marksteyn; palin; quitter; sarahbarraquitta; soroswins
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To: TigersEye

“You can’t even get that fact straight. It was 66,862,039.”

Your NY Times graphic showed the status well before all votes were tallied. Vote counting for both sides went on for a couple months after the election. The official and final result can be seen here:

http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/data.php?year=2008&datatype=national&def=1&f=0&off=0&elect=0

70 Million vs. 60 Million is almost exactly accurate. Although I agree with you that 10 Million difference out of 130 Million still means that a ton of people punched the GOP ticket.

I disagree with counterpunch that the fact that 10 Million less people voted for the combination of McCain and Palin proves that Palin has no chance. People were excited about Obama and came out for “change.” Things indeed change, and for the incumbent not always for the better. The economy will be laid at Obama’s feet by 2011 at the latest. With the logic applied by counterpunch no politician who ever lost as part of a ticket should come back to try again 2 or 4 or 6 years later, with circumstances perhaps more favorable.


161 posted on 07/04/2009 12:50:36 AM PDT by floridagopvoter
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To: counterpunch

I think it is time that we destroy the people who chased her out of office.


162 posted on 07/04/2009 12:50:56 AM PDT by se_ohio_young_conservative (Palin 2012)
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To: WVKayaker

You noticed that also. Apparently he has no one at home to play with so he is using his mama’s computer without her knowledge to put his crap out. He is out to get as much play as he can with his drivel.


163 posted on 07/04/2009 12:51:10 AM PDT by nanook (Thomas Jefferson had it right.)
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To: counterpunch

Ha! I hope everyone keeps you going. It’s funny to realize you really don’t know how stupid you sound! ROFLMAO!


164 posted on 07/04/2009 12:51:50 AM PDT by weston (As far as I'm concerned, it's Christ or nothing!)
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To: GOYAKLA
To post to him sooths his ego.

That suits me. My solution for crack addicts is to give them a pound of it not take it away.

165 posted on 07/04/2009 12:52:13 AM PDT by TigersEye (0bama: "I can see Mecca from the WH portico." --- Google - Cloward-Piven Strategy)
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To: danamco
If she never plans on running for president, she may have made the right decision. If she does, I won’t be supporting her. Not after this...

Words, words,.... and here are yours, not mine!!!

I do believe it is my duty to respect my fellow man I also believe that I fail that duty more often than I would like Here's to a constantly expended effort to do better

There is Palin the person, the mother, the family matriarch.  There is also Palin the Political person who chose to go into politics, become mayer and then governor.

I respect her as a mother and in her personal life.  I do not respect a poltical figure who caves.  I thought Tom Delay screwed up when he stepped down.  I think Sarah has here.

You're going to have to come to grips with the reality that Sarah allowed people to force her from office.  You may not like it, but it won't be me who will be raising this issue for the rest of Sarah's political life.

Others are going to question what will happen if the going get tough again?  And I don't see an easy strategy out of that.

166 posted on 07/04/2009 12:54:24 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (_Resident of the United States and Kenya's favorite son, Baraaaack Hussein Obamaaaa...)
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To: TigersEye

I said this when?
It’s true that a typical VP choice doesn’t, but Sarah palin wasn’t a typical choice. Usually the best man wins the nomination, and he picks a sidekick.

In this case, the GOP nominated a candidate who was DOA, and he picked someone else to be the star of the ticket.

So in this case, the VP candidate was the only one who was going to bring in votes, and she did. Just not nearly as many as the other ticket got.

there are no hard and fast rules for how people vote or why. Each election is unique. Each election has it’s own issues, personalities, and twists. And after all the drama plays out, the people go to the polls to give it a grade. Sarah Palin weighed heavily in the election, this no one can deny. She became the focus and rallying cry for the GOP. She was their star on the ticket, their answer to 0bama. And as much excitement and interest and votes that she generated, it was not enough to outperform the other ticket with 0bama as its star attraction.

Is this really a difficult concept to grasp?


167 posted on 07/04/2009 12:56:29 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
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To: floridagopvoter

Yes, you made your point and I conceded it. It was a small side issue but you nailed that point down.


168 posted on 07/04/2009 12:56:44 AM PDT by TigersEye (0bama: "I can see Mecca from the WH portico." --- Google - Cloward-Piven Strategy)
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To: counterpunch
like her blind cult following is trying to claim?

Too bad it's not a school night....we wouldn't have to put up with this Bravo Sierra.

169 posted on 07/04/2009 12:57:52 AM PDT by alaskanfan
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To: counterpunch
It’s true that a typical VP choice doesn’t, but Sarah palin wasn’t a typical choice.

Exactly. She is exceptional. Thank you for recognizing that fact.

170 posted on 07/04/2009 12:58:56 AM PDT by TigersEye (0bama: "I can see Mecca from the WH portico." --- Google - Cloward-Piven Strategy)
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To: se_ohio_young_conservative

I’m not defending the people who did unthinkable things. We all think they are slugs. The last thing I would do is allow them this victory.

The last thing I would allow them to point to for the rest of my political career, is that they could drive me from office.

Do you realize this is going to become the mantra every time Palin runs for office in the future? I’m not your enemy here. Explaining away being drive from office over and over and over and over again will be.

I can’t change that. I think it’s a problem and I’ve pointed it out.


171 posted on 07/04/2009 1:00:19 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (_Resident of the United States and Kenya's favorite son, Baraaaack Hussein Obamaaaa...)
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To: All

Once again, good night folks.


172 posted on 07/04/2009 1:01:07 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (_Resident of the United States and Kenya's favorite son, Baraaaack Hussein Obamaaaa...)
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To: floridagopvoter

I’m not saying no one who lost on a ticket should ever come back, necessarily.
They should just no be so foolish as to challenge the very person they lost against again.
Dewey, Stevenson, and Mondale all learned why the hard way.
All of them challenged a president who was elected on the ticket that had defeated them 4 years earlier, and all of them lost by an even larger margin the second time around.

When FDR and Nixon ran for president after losing on a presidential ticket before, both had waited at least 8 years, and for a totally different set of challengers to run against.

Sarah running in 2012 would be the same as Mondale running against Reagan 4 years after losing to him. The only difference is Mondale actually had a record of winning a national election before.


173 posted on 07/04/2009 1:01:53 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
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To: All
I'll repeat what I said on another thread. It is really about all I have to say about her resignation.

How about her statement that frivolous accusations had cost Alaskan tax payers $2 million dollars and consumed most of her time and her staff’s time? That she considered it unfair to Alaska to waste their time and money? Are her straightforward words too much to believe? She has a duty to her family as well as the state of Alaska and the attacks on her were compromising both.

174 posted on 07/04/2009 1:02:50 AM PDT by TigersEye (0bama: "I can see Mecca from the WH portico." --- Google - Cloward-Piven Strategy)
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To: TigersEye

Yes, but still not exceptional enough to beat 0bama.


175 posted on 07/04/2009 1:03:20 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
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To: pissant

I merely wish for the Palin family a long and happy life. A pox on all the houses of so called journalists and comedians.


176 posted on 07/04/2009 1:04:12 AM PDT by the long march
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To: TigersEye

It doesn’t matter what she said.
Her and her supporters will be bogged down in any election she runs in from here on out trying to explain it all over again and again and again.
And people will keep coming back to the same question: if she flaked out once, why wouldn’t she flake out again?


177 posted on 07/04/2009 1:05:13 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
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To: AZLiberty

Hmmmmm

Rather than listening to the pundits and analysts, I am just going to wait and see what happens. There is plenty of time of time till 2012. Lots of time for highly visible Obozo screw-ups too.

To be candid, she is the only person in the Republican party I’ve seen that I could get really excited about. I sure as hell hope that changes. The Repubs need to run some good people in 2010 and 2012 or we are all really screwed.


178 posted on 07/04/2009 1:05:32 AM PDT by RonboTex (Get off my lawn!!!!!!!!)
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To: counterpunch

Neither could Hillary or McCain. And Huckabee couldn’t beat McCain. And Romney couldn’t beat Huckabee. (how pathetic is that?) Let’s just keep going with your idiot-logic... Rudy Toot couldn’t beat Romney. Thompson couldn’t beat Rudy Toot......


179 posted on 07/04/2009 1:08:21 AM PDT by TigersEye (0bama: "I can see Mecca from the WH portico." --- Google - Cloward-Piven Strategy)
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To: weston

Keep on hiding your head in the sand.
The Sarah Palin juggernaut is dead.
It has been since October of last year.


180 posted on 07/04/2009 1:08:24 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
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