Nineteen years later, is Ross Perot fondly remembered or is he remembered as the fiasco that put the Clintons in the White House?
For months, I have been warning on FR about the "Cult of Personality" surrounding Palin, not because of Palin, but because of the extremely destructive effect that such behavior by some of her supporters was having on the ability to present a united front to defeat Obama.
Any Palin doubter who dared to question the merits of a Palin candidacy was personally insulted and attacked. Any Palin supporter than dared imply the slightest imperfection in Sarah was personally insulted and attacked until he or she begged for forgiveness. Any GOP candidate whose name was not "Sarah" was attacked. One FReeper actually posted "If Sarah does not get it, Obama can have it".
This is not "Conservative" behavior. Throughout History, "Cults of Personality" have been the hallmark of totalitarian regimes. In the United States of America, the "Rule of Law" and the Constitution, not mere mortals, were revered.
All my life, I have been affected by a "Cult of Personality" that still exists to this day. In 1958, the Savior of Cuba that would end the Batista dictatorship was a young man that promised the restoration of the Constitution of 1940. My grandfather, eager to restore democracy, donated a considerable amount of money to the cause. By 1961, all talk of the Constitution of 1940 had vanished and, by then, the only thing that mattered in Cuba was whether you were a "Fidelista" or an "anti-Fidelista". My grandfather, who believed in Constitutions and not men, then spent the years from 1961 to 1980 in Fidel's gulag, released a few short months before he died.
No mere mortal is ever going to meet the expectations of a Cult of Personality. As Stentor's tag line points out, "All cults of personality begin as high drama and end as low comedy."
Palin, herself, has never encouraged such fanatical behavior as "If Sarah does not get it, Obama can have it". Palin, herself, believes in my tag line "Defeating Obama should be Priority Number One".
It is time to stop treating Sarah Palin as a demi-god and it is time for rational conservatives to rally around Sarah Palin in her upcoming efforts to defeat Obama in 2012.
Palin, a FOX News contributor, said in a follow-up interview on Levin’s show that she would not run as a third-party candidate either as that would guarantee another four years for Obama.
http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpps/news/palin-says-she-will-not-run-in-2012-dpgonc-20111005-kh_15347347
Wednesday, 05 Oct 2011