Posted on 04/19/2010 5:52:15 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Sarah Palin, 55 percent unfavorable poll ratings notwithstanding, is a political phenomenon the likes of which American public life rarely has seen. There's something distinctive, something deeply personal, about the way her legions of strong supporters rush not just to defend her but to counter-attack any and all of her critics. Palin has a way of establishing a sense of connectedness with her backers -- such a strong, attitudinal sense that she is not just like them but one of them -- that she has created what amounts to a one-woman, conservative "identity politics" writ very, very large.
Yet if conservatives are to continue a political love affair with this admirable and galvanizing woman, we need to insist on more than mere identity. And more than mere attitude.
We know that Sarah Palin shares our conservative values. But is she the leader conservatives need?
IN HER RECENTLY RELEASED memoir, Going Rogue, Palin tells a story about how she approached the first state budget she handled as governor. It sounds like something right out of the 1993 Kevin Kline movie, Dave, except that Palin's tale is fact instead of fiction.
We worked late into the night with the warm midnight sun still pouring through my office windows....Pens in hand, we combed through the budget, line by line, page by page -- my inner nerd coming out again, just like Wasilla City Council days....I had to know what was in there, or I wasn't doing my job. We spent days trying to decipher who put in what and why. Late one night, I looked up from the table and asked our veteran staffers, "What did past governors do? How did they get through these budgets with so little detail?" "They didn't," was the response.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Reagan had three decades of experience on her. But you are correct as far as it goes.
Trash like this article is an embarrassment here.
Palin does not have 55% disapproval, as TV ratings on all the programs on which she appears demonstrate quite well.
America has already chosen her as our next president, and that is what has the Status Quo harpies shedding feathers.
The only ‘problem’ with Palin is that she is not yet in the oval office. (but she will be in 2013)
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“Odd how every one of these Palin hit pieces involves the author telling us what they personally feel about Palin, not any reasoned argument against her.”
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Not really odd at all when you consider that feelings are all they have to work with; the facts are all on Palin’s side.
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GOOD POST! I second your opinion!
I will admit that Palin’s followers worship her. And, that is a powerful benefit in any election. No one will get more out of her supporters than she. However, despite her zealous support, her supporters are clearly outnumbered by those who do not support her.
All I can say is good thing Ronald Reagan didn’t run for office in this media age. He never would have gotten elected as he would have been “Quayled” or “Palined” right out of the gate. That’s because people are too willing to be spoon-fed what the media tells them rather than do any independent thinking on their own.
“Oprah, Jennifer Anniston, Lady GaGa, Beyonce, Tom Cruise and several other “celebrities” can draw crowds. None has any chance of being President.”
Thanks for the great example of reductio aburdum fallacy.
I’m not talking about Congressional elections. In the last 30 years there have been 8 Presidential elections. We won 5 and the Dems won 3. I don’t see that as running rings around us. Anyway, my point was and is that two and a half years in advance is way to early to rule any candidate in or out. If there ever was a case of peaking too early, I am afraid Sarah Palin may be a prime example. Of course she may not even have any intention of running in 2012. No way for you or me to know.
I appreciate that her presence on the public stage has made EVERYONE’S true colors come out—not just the “liberals’.”
“Oprah, Jennifer Anniston, Lady GaGa, Beyonce, Tom Cruise and several other “celebrities” can draw crowds. None has any chance of being President.”
Thanks for the great example of reductio aburdum fallacy.
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“I share Hillyer’s concern about Palin’s lack of experience, but I also feel with just a little more experience on the national level (senator for instance) Palin would make a great candidate”
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Would you like to think about that ridiculous statement?
Time spent in congress is a huge DISQUALIFIER for the presidency. We desperately need a constitutional ammendment prohibiting congressmen from becoming presidents!
BUsiness experience is the best qualifier, and without it one cannot be an effective leader of a nation.
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Will you also admit you hate her and therefore are every bit as guilty of doing what you accuse Palin supporters of doing?
Will you admit that your respond to any thread is based on your personal feelings about Palin, that you are not even bothering to actually look at the data?
This is the most obnoxious habit of you Palin haters. You all accuse anyone who disagrees with you of "worshiping her" while total ignoring the emotion based source of your position on her.
It is very hypocritical of you all to lecture everyone when you all are guilty of the very same sort of mindset when it comes to opposition to her.
Finally, If those of you who dislike her are so sure there is such an overwhelming huge majority who hate Palin as much as you all do, why are you wasting so much time and bandwith slandering her?
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“They do not like Palin because they haven’t found a way to compromise her”
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Yes, that is 99% of the motivation of the PDSers.
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I'm not only up with that, I'm down with that, too!
Okay, now you're just being silly. Does that mean that, for example, Mitt Romney or Charlie Crist would be a better choice than Fred Thompson or Michelle Bachman?
Nope.
Sarah is already an executive, and legislators rarely become POTUS.
Sounds like Palin is as unqualified as Reagan. Liberals and elitists still spew spittle when they say his name. I’m looking forward to the same for Palin in another 10-15 years.
Let’s hope you and I will still be here to see it....
Correction, Jefferson was Governor for three years. But those three years were during wartime, when governors had a great deal power and responsibility over military affairs.
Perchance you refer to the Patrick Henry citation?
And for the record, "Old Tom", prior to being elected our third President, served as Vice President, Sec of State, Governor of Virginia; Delegate to the Virginia Assembly.
State your case, for or against Mr Hillyer's article, but try to be a little less ignorant in going about it.
This egregious slander of Palin’s record needs to be reported to the Wash Times and Spectator editor.
"instead of what she did in looking out for her family by going out into the marketplace, earning $12 million..."
That is exactly how it will be played out by her opponents and the msm...."Show me the money..."
PALIN RESIGNATION SHOULD BE a major warning to those who, in mind-numbingly unconservative fashion, denigrate the importance of government experience -- those like Palin herself, who write that "government experience doesn't necessarily count for much."
Frankly, this deification of government inexperience is nutty. An old Latin saying holds much truth: Discimus agere agendo, which means "we learn to do by doing." Nobody would argue that a 22-year-old right out of engineering school should be the lead designer on a major urban bridge. Nobody would ask a Peyton Manning right out of high school to lead an NFL team into a Super Bowl, the way the experienced Manning twice has done. Nobody would ask a junior member of the diplomatic corps to negotiate directly with Vladimir Putin. So why should anybody in his right mind believe that the mind-bogglingly multi-faceted job of president of the United States -- a job involving economics; a massive administrative state; and war, peace, and survival of the very planet in the face of weapons of frightening power -- should be handled by somebody whose primary asset is an attitudinal anti-establishmentarianism combined with a virtue uncorrupted but also completely untested by the fires of national politics?
When Palin was hoisted on her own petard of Alaska's new ethics system, it should have taught all conservatives that inexperience is no virtue. As George Will wrote just days after John McCain chose Palin as his running mate, the selection flew in the face of the single philosophical document probably most revered by American modern conservatives, the Federalist Papers. Wrote Will: "The word ‘experience' appears 91 times in the Federalist Papers....[According to the Federalist,] ‘Accumulating' experience is ‘the parent of wisdom' and a ‘guide' that ‘justifies,' ‘confirms,' and can ‘admonish.' America's Founders were empiricists and students of history who trusted ‘that best oracle of wisdom, experience,' which is humanity's ‘least fallible guide.'" And so on, with James Madison particularly insistent that attitude and goodwill alone are hardly substitutes for wisdom accumulated in the cauldron of statesmanship -- a wisdom that understands human nature well enough that it casts a skeptical eye on even the noblest intentions.
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The 'electorate' didn't do that at all. The 'electorate' in this country doesn't do its own research, never has. The 'electorate' was sold a bill of goods by a complicit MSM. The same MSM that will hammer Palin over the inescapable fact that she quit.
...but you left out the part where it was also the best political decision she could have made also.
Now she is making money, campaigning for the 2010 midterms, and very visible...playing it her way.
“The ‘electorate’ didn’t do that at all. The ‘electorate’ in this country doesn’t do its own research, never has. The ‘electorate’ was sold a bill of goods by a complicit MSM. The same MSM that will hammer Palin over the inescapable fact that she quit.”
Bingo.
Both are large and complicated states. Alaska even has certain challenges that California does not.
Palin resigned when it became clear that because of the peculiarities of Alaska law, that she could not govern the state and defend against the frivilous lawsuits simultaneously. The Presidency has buffers against said frivilous lawsuits.
To be true to my own beliefs, that is the worst of the motivating reasons. I don't want a pol who motivates for politics. I want a pol who motivates for the public good. I believe she acted in the public good, in resigning.
I disagree with you. I happen to believe that she is perfectly capable, and up to the job of United States Senator, I have every confidence she would make an incredible impact in Washington D.C., but as I also mentioned, a very top Cabinet position would also be a place where she could have immense effect. She is really top notch.
Sure, we all do. But the political calculus can’t be ignored. She is a much stronger politician and aiding the cause now that she is free of the absurd constraints from the Leftist loonies in Alaska.
Now when she is attacked she can counter.
Thank God, she is out of Alaska...I can’t think of one conservative that get the attention that she does and promotes the cause as she does...certainly not Romney.
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As all my posts here indicate, I do not think that her resignation was a good political move at all...handing your opponents the tools to label you a quitter is just dumb if you want a future politicical career.
Agree with your comments..a screechy voice is offputting.
She sounds better in an indoor setting.
Actually, Hillary has a better speaking voice if
you don’t have to listen to what she says.
The alternative was bankrupting her family and ruining her career. You, of course, would be fine with that.
“As all my posts here indicate, I do not think that her resignation was a good political move at all...handing your opponents the tools to label you a quitter is just dumb if you want a future politicical career.”
Proving you know nothing about politics. If she stays she dies politically. If she leaves, they hammer her, like all Republicans on everything and anything anyway.
"Sarah Palin, clean up your act and wait your turn." Gag me with a spoon.
Typical Republican arrogance. Making the choice for us poor ignorant peons.
And a significant majority will agree with Palin while you, romney and his little advisors and the msm watch powerless from the sideline and stew with resentment as Palin wins the nomination and presidency.
From the article:
ALL OF WHICH IS NOT TO SAY that Sarah Palin lacks the right stuff -- the right values, the right determination, the right gumption, the right toughness -- to serve our nation in high office. She certainly has abundant and admirable amounts and quality of all those virtues, no matter how viciously the left tries to smear her.
Another political advantage is Palin's preternatural ability to turn a pithy phrase to convey powerful messages. Perhaps this is partly a function of her training as a TV journalist -- and a sports reporter at that. Far more than print journalists, TV scribes learn and learn and work and work to hone their reports to short, well-turned phrases. Sports especially, as an entertainment medium, provides a milieu for memorable verbiage.
Hence Palin's brilliant ad-lib (she truthfully says it was not part of the written text) in her national convention speech about a hockey mom being a pit bull with lipstick. Hence her incredibly potent warning against "death panels" -- a warning based just enough on the substance of health care rationing, as detailed by the Washington Times, that it stopped just short of demagoguery. (Again, though, this skill only serves to further highlight the difference that relevant experience can make for the better -- or, by logical extension, that a lack of experience can make for the worse. Discimus agere agendo, indeed.)
Some hit piece.
I think some folks define a "hit piece" as being any article that is not 100% lavish praise.
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A. The alternative was finishing the job that she sought and for which she was elected.
B. You guys just can't resist being snide, can you?
I’m a hit piece.
Yes, we are all going to follow her to Jonestown....(says with zombie like glazed eyes)
Thank you Mrs. Olbermann.
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ome fantasy life you've got going there. No facts or persuasive arguments...just idle speculation.
And you evidence is....?
She opened up her own business.
Get over it lol.
However, where we differ, is that my evaluation of her is totally based on her record and past and not on emotions and feelings. Her experience is painfully weak, and where it exists is dissapointing. She appointed a former board member of Planned Parenthood to the Alaska Supreme court, she has ethical issues, supported increased taxes on oil companies, supported the Bridge to Nowhere, is soft on illegal aliens, supports McCain’s reelection bid, supports Mr. Steele, and in a personal interview, could not name a Supreme Court case other than Roe v. Wade where she disagreed with the Court’s decision. Recently, she commented on how she could run with Mitt Rommney.
Rare to see any acceptance or acknowledgement of the fact that she and her family were well down the path of personal bankruptcy at the point of her resignation. This situation was not miraculously going to change had she stayed on as Governor. I’m sure she would have run a terrific re-election campaign £1m plus in debt with the guarantee of no support whatsoever from the RNC. Maybe money really does grow on trees. /s Matryrdom looks great from the comfort of someone else’s armchair.
You haven't read her book or actually listened to anything she has been saying recently, have you?
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