Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 201-220221-240241-260 ... 341-355 next last
To: counterpunch

I agree. You dont bail half way through a job and still come out as a success.

Her action undercut people like me who stuck up for her in the campaign and beyond...it just looks weird now.


221 posted on 07/04/2009 2:13:50 AM PDT by DeusExMachina05 (I will not go into Dhimmitude quietly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: floridagopvoter

All the economic projections show the earliest sign of recovery being mid 2012, and those are the rosy ones that assume 0bama’s policies will do what they claim. This recovery isn’t going to be even across the country, either. The more reliably Democrat areas won’t begin recovering until 2014 or later by these estimates.

But even if there is an economic recovery that 0bama claims credit for, there is still a good chance that people will revolt against his big government takeovers of their life savings and their healthcare. When Government Motors starts unfairly penalizing Ford trying to shut down the competition, people will react strongly against that too. And when 0bama’s foreign policy bungling leads to a real international crisis, people will begin to see him as a danger to our national security.

So there are a number of other issues to factor into the 2012 election besides the economy. However, don’t underestimate the stubbornness of a Cult of Personality’s flock. Just look at the Palin supporters who are still in denial over her downfall.


222 posted on 07/04/2009 2:14:28 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 214 | View Replies]

To: calex59

Wow, you like to throw around the RINO tag alot, I guess if you dont love Gov. Palin you cant be a conservative? Give me a break.


223 posted on 07/04/2009 2:19:03 AM PDT by DeusExMachina05 (I will not go into Dhimmitude quietly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 219 | View Replies]

To: calex59
You are a liar. Not only did she talk straight then, she talks straight now.

Look at post 99 where the Romney troll has an entirely different story about vice presidential candidates and their carrying the campaign on their shoulders.

224 posted on 07/04/2009 2:19:31 AM PDT by ansel12 (Romney (guns)"instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 219 | View Replies]

To: Monterrosa-24

“You give much more influence to the VP position than anybody else. Let’s put your theory to the test and see how well she does at the top of the ticket.”

BINGO! Many forget that Ronald Reagan lost to Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican primaries but was easily elected President just 4 years later.


225 posted on 07/04/2009 2:20:11 AM PDT by deener
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: counterpunch
Mid-term elections are only 16 months away. Palin will be a tremendous help getting the vote out to take congress back - and if we don't succeed I doubt there will be much of a country left by the next presidential election.

2010 is our D-Day.

226 posted on 07/04/2009 2:20:55 AM PDT by demkicker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: counterpunch

Just for fun, I looked through your posts on this thread and gleaned some of your weasel words.

“Palin Kool-Aid. Political poison, imploded, inevitable disaster, rabid supporters, cult leaders, hang yourself, Great White Hope, cult following, Palin choir, found her lacking, blindly follows, Kool-Aid drinker, Sarah Palin offers Kool-Aid, crushing defeat, blind cult following, head in the sand, Palin juggernaut is dead, Palin couldn’t talk straight. She had no command of any facts. like Elizabeth Hasselbeck running, Cult of Personality’s flock...”

You need help. You are gloating like a madman. These are the words of our political enemies. You are the worst kind of troll and disruptor. Join DU and dance on Sarah’s resignation over there. Your comments mirror theirs.


227 posted on 07/04/2009 2:25:30 AM PDT by Luke21
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 222 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

Good catch on where counterpunch is coming from. He isn’t winning any friends for his candidate of choice, Mitt Romney.

“He’s the reason 0bama is president now and not Mitt Romney.
And we all know that what America needed right now was Mitt Romney, not the clown 0bama.

12 posted on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 10:08:04 PM by counterpunch”


228 posted on 07/04/2009 2:28:46 AM PDT by deener
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 220 | View Replies]

To: counterpunch

Sarah Palin did not “implode”.

It seems you are the one drinking the MSM Kool-Ade.

Without Sarah on the ticket, McCain would have scored 3 maybe 4 points lower than he did.

Sarah is a political shining star. The most charismatic Republican to come on the scene since Ronald Reagan.

How this raw political instinct, charisma, and star power is harnessed, remains to be seen.


229 posted on 07/04/2009 2:40:26 AM PDT by Cincinna (TIME TO REBUILD * PALIN * JINDAL * CANTOR 2012)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: calex59
You are a liar. Not only did she talk straight then
How is this talking straight?
she talks straight now.
Or this:
"No wonder young girls especially have such low self-esteem in America when we think it's funny for a so-called comedian to get away with such a remark as he did and to think that that's acceptable."
 
230 posted on 07/04/2009 2:41:06 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 219 | View Replies]

To: deener

How does not getting picked by their party to run for president their first time around at all relate to a candidate who loses their one shot at running?

It’s the difference between striking out and not getting called up to bat this round.


231 posted on 07/04/2009 2:49:51 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 225 | View Replies]

To: Luke21

I’m not gloating, I’m making fun of the PalinChoir who worship her the way a Muslim worships Mohammad.


232 posted on 07/04/2009 2:51:00 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 208 | View Replies]

To: Cincinna

Abruptly resigning from office is not “raw political instinct” if that person has any future aspirations in elected politics.


233 posted on 07/04/2009 2:54:20 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 229 | View Replies]

To: DeusExMachina05

“You dont bail half way through a job and still come out as a success.”

Obama did it. He quit his first term in the Senate and campaigned for President from the first day he took office.
Conservatives don’t win because they can’t get together and support one candidate. That is the Democrat’s ace in the hole in most elections.


234 posted on 07/04/2009 2:58:50 AM PDT by kittymyrib
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 221 | View Replies]

To: deener; ansel12

Out of the 2008 presidential candidates on both sides, Mitt Romney was clearly the best of the bunch and would be doing a hell of a lot better on the economy than 0bama is. He would have done a hell of a lot better as a candidate in the middle of a financial meltdown than McCain too, and would have wiped the floor with the novice 0bama. What about any of this is untrue?

But simply acknowledging that Romney was the best choice from a weak field in 2008 for the problems we’re currently facing isn’t the same thing as thinking he will be the best choice in an as yet unknown field in 2012. If the 2012 primaries are a repeat of 2008, then yes. But if there is a whole new slate of better candidates as I expect there will be, then probably not.

You HuckaBots are still sore over 2008. It’s time to move beyond it.


235 posted on 07/04/2009 3:02:21 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 228 | View Replies]

To: freebilly

“hepatomantic” ?


236 posted on 07/04/2009 3:04:31 AM PDT by iowamark (certified by Michael Steele as "ugly and incendiary")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: demkicker

How will Palin be a tremendous help for getting out the vote in 2010?
Most Republicans want to move past 2008. And as someone who abruptly resigned from office, she’s not exactly going to have the clout she once had.

Who says she wants to be a tool for the GOP anymore at all?
She’s been used and abused by everyone in Republican politics who just wanted to exploit her as some kind of ‘symbol’ and project all their hopes and aspirations on to her. Unlike 0bama, I don’t think she’s cool with that. I don’t think she wants any of this.

You really think she’s going to go out and devote her life to advancing the careers of other politicians over being a wife and mother? She just isn’t the kind of hungry political animal all of her supporters want her to be.

I think that’s half the reason she quit.
Not everyone wants to drag their family through political life. Sarah Palin really is all about her family. I think she had a surreal ride in the twisted political world, and she’s ready to get back to normal life.

She’s not going to continue painting a target on her children’s backs just to promote her career, much less other people’s.

I’ve made it no secret that I don’t think she was ever up to the job of national politics.
But that doesn’t mean I wish ill on her. I just think she doesn’t have what it takes to deliver a political victory.
I think it’s time people stop treating her like some piece of political meat, demanding she be everything they want her to be, putting her life and her family aside for their own selfish wants.


237 posted on 07/04/2009 3:19:13 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 226 | View Replies]

To: kittymyrib

Ok, so Obama did it but remember he moved into another elective office. People are forgiving of that, see GW Bush in Texas. He left the gov mansion in Texas the same way as Obama in the Senate. But what Palin did it walk away completely. Americans like a winner, and that is like taking the ball and going home cause you dont like the game.


238 posted on 07/04/2009 3:20:51 AM PDT by DeusExMachina05 (I will not go into Dhimmitude quietly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 234 | View Replies]

To: nathanbedford
I don't know. There is one thing she said that some writer (Kristol?) picked up on that has me scatching my head. She said, "You don't need a title to fight for what is right..." I listened last night to every word of her speech and this isn't someone who is going home to cook moose stew. I get a sense that she may feel that she is ready to really take on the elites. The libtards are claiming she is "abandoning" her responsibilities but I get a sense that she (perhaps had inside intel or just smart) would have been criticized viciously had she stayed governor and started making bold statements about Zero's misdeeds. As governor the libtards would have continued to attack her with spurious ethics complaints and every comment she made about Zero would have been rejoined with more snooty crap from libtards about how she was neglecting her responsibilities as governor. Now that isn't a problem.

I said from the start last Nov. what conservatives need is a "shadow" gummint that would boldly announce what it would have done instead of what Zero and his minions are doing. Now she is free to fill that roll, boldly and loudly. The tone of voice and the words I heard lead me to suspect this is just what she is thinking. I think this girl is grabbing the biggest damn gun in her closet and going moose hunting. God Bless her and I say I would be happy to help her "field dress" that moose when she brings it down.

Μολὼν λάβε


239 posted on 07/04/2009 3:22:10 AM PDT by wastoute (translation of tag "Come and get them (bastards)" and the Scout Motto)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: alaskanfan

Since JFK?

None.

But the philandering Irish Catholic would be considered a good conservative by today’s standards.

Meaning—run for president as a conservative and you win—which no senator since JFK has ever done.


240 posted on 07/04/2009 3:23:48 AM PDT by Happy Rain ("If every man who swore to uphold the US Constitution actually did so...")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 109 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 201-220221-240241-260 ... 341-355 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson