Two rules for Sister Sarah

In a dated Clint Eastwood movie, "Two Mules for Sister Sarah", the female lead played a nun who was protected and escorted across Mexico during the revolution.

Of course sometimes, scary as it is, you have no choice but to become the gunslinger.

On the upside, you draw the fire to yourself that otherwise would drive so many to ground and into foxholes.

For Sarah Palin, who has done a fair job in the last couple of years by lacerating the festering boil that is the mainstream media, this means that Rule One has already been savagely apparent.

(1.) When everything's coming your way, few others will choose to interrupt that state of affairs, other than to add their own fire at you.

You end up being good, bad and ugly all at the same time. Your exposure to increasing bile and vitriol will only increase, until the media finally get wise to your game. Sometimes they get hooked in so well that they nearly can't ever let go. And all during that time you can draw away fire. If you work it right, and can get access to national media, like the Fox Network, you can do the left some serious damage, by being an effective go-to critic, much like James Carville was for the Democrats during the Clinton years.

(2.) When the savaging you've taken finally begins to ebb, and the jackals turn elsewhere- enraged white hot that they allowed themselves to be distracted for so long from the program-, you can count on many on every side to ignore the scars you bear and remark about what a publicity hog you were. The fire will start up all over again.

With this in mind, I am appending a copy of what I wrote in early 2010. It seems just as relevant now, since it may appear that Sarah was indeed biding her time, while flying high-cover over the primaries. Has she gathered some money together in which to be effective, just like Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck have down? Sure. Because this woman isn't stupid.

The only unknown is what she decides to do once all of the primaries are over. Will she add useful support to a conservative candidate? Or will she bide her time as another RINO rises.

It may be difficult for many to understand, who did not see the movie, but a simple fact remains. There were many who fought their way across France and Germany in World War Two... in addition to General Patton.

There were infantry, signal intelligence, military police, and yes, morale and propaganda officers. And every last one of them played a significant part in the victory.

Yet, when it comes to politics in the United States, the pundits would have us believe that there are two, and only two, categories of persons. One category is the A. list- those being groomed for the run in 2012. The other is the B. list- everyone else.

It seems that for the pundits, the only useful function for publically known figures, outside of the circle of punditry itself, is to claw their way onto the Presidential ticket.

Some might say that this is a fear reaction wafting in from the pundits themselves, now being threatened with yet one more highly visible up and comer promising to further dilute each of their face-times. When Glen Beck showed up at the Fox Studios a while back, it has been rumored that certain highly paid celebrities there were rather unhappy with the new competition. How much less might someone like Sarah Palin be appreciated, at least while she isn't in the room?

It is far safer to immediately place her into the 2012 race, all by herself, now that Obama seems bent on an approval rating he can signify with just his left fingers. There, in that category, she can be pounded by all sides with relish and abandon.

And yet, for those of us who had some misgivings about George Bush at the very beginning, do we really want another nominee who can't spar verbally and hold their own with the worst the left can offer? It is true in many respects that George Bush was exactly the best man to be in power when the war on terror first became unignorable. The idea that a President elect takes the time to select the very best cabinet members and support staff that he can find, rather than emulate the Clintons and the Obamas by simply combing the university starbucks for the most controllable examples of political extremism, seems starkly more adult now.

Bush's faith led him to believe that history would judge, and that no useful purpose could be served by him trading punch for punch with the opposition. Plus to which his verbal dislexia prevented it even if he wanted to. This was a mistake that primary voters made. And yet, who did they have to choose from?

That all politics is local has had a wide circulation. What hasn't been widely understood, at least since Margaret Thatcher retired, is that all politics is also immediate. History, when finally ready to pronounce judgement, will be left in an empty auditorium.

The writer Terry Pratchett has noted that a lie can run halfway around the world before the truth can get it's boots on. This central truism has been the defining tactic of the left. And when unanswered immediately, and without hesitation, the lie can certainly do great damage. Yet even the lie cannot match the corrosiveness of the successfully embargoed truth.

Ronald Reagan understood that defeating the forces of leftism was a core function of his job, part and parcel of defending the nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic. What many never consider is that the domestic enemies to our constitution need not rely on throw weight ratios, like our foreign enemies rattle. In that respect they are far more dangerous, having made pact with those of the self-styled mainstream media, and tenured university types. For anyone to aspire to the highest office in the land, and yet be unrehearsed and untested in circumventing and sidestepping that treacherous media, to speak to America directly, is to be simply a failure in waiting.

Our next nominee must be a gifted, hardened street fighter, as far as politics is concerned. He must challenge ruthlessly and immediately the untruths, the sophomoric thinking, and downright amoral mindset of his, and our, opponents. He, or she, will be facing a leftist opposition which is realizing that their traditional camouflage has suddenly, inexplicably, been torn aside for all to see, and that they now fight desparately for their very political lives.

Who wants to bet that they will, under those circumstances, put on their softest gloves?

Does that mean then that Sarah Palin needs to go home to enjoy all of the richness of life? No. Not at all. What it means is that she needs to understand- and that we need to understand (since there is good evidence she already well understands)- that she can do a far better job for now as an "armored column", if you will allow, absorbing the very worst the enemy aims to stop our progress...rather than as a "headquarters company". The media is focused on her, past the point of simple obsession, as the standard bearer of the invading army, threatening to undo all that they have wrought over the last few decades.

They have shifted all of their artillery to fire-for-effect at what they fear most- an uncontrollable and attractive woman. A woman who puts the lie to everything the feminists have ever advocated.

And in doing so, they have unavoidably exposed two things. One is that they have offered a brief respite to the other several thousand normally targeted Republicans, who now find themselves out of the media crosshairs for a "quick smoke and a cuppa", as the Brits might say. For if Sarah is the anti-anti-Christ, then how much bad press can they spare to fling at a mere Senator?

The second thing they have done is expose, in a way they really don't understand, just who they really are, what they really think of the average American, and what they are willing to do to anyone... to get their way. The Freepers have of course known this for many years, but the average middle American never really understood this before. That someone who unapologetically beams with love at her unaborted Downs Syndrome child, shines a harsh light on others who simply found inconvenience to be sufficient grounds. That someone embraces the joy of the outdoors, enthusiastically fishing and hunting, is unbearable to those who consider man a scourge to nature. But most dangerous of all, that a woman with sufficient support from her nuclear family can have a career in her own right, without establishment approval.

Sarah, if she finds she is up to this sort of thing- and as we have all seen, the punishment will be intense and harsh- can be the one who stood, much like the Marines at Guadalcanal, while the rest of the country gathers itself together to deal a little payback. Those who tilt their head into the wind of the kamikazi left, and don't back up, need to be supported by the headquarters types.

But this likely won't happen. They are pleased that someone else is in the line of fire. But many of the McCain supporters want no truck with a woman who can bring down crooked Republicans, as well as Democrats. This isn't how the old-boy rules are supposed to go. This is blatant conservatism. This is dabbling in middle class wisdom.

And so it falls, as always, to a slowly arousing American public, to support as best they can those troops, or in this case that woman, who can serve as the 'idee fixe' for the enemies of Constitutional America.

And if she toys with the idea of another Presidential run, so be it. We as conservatives need to never again allow the media to decide for us who is an 'acceptable maverick candidate.' There will be adequate time to see who has survived intense sweeping fire... and who merely hid in the brush, waiting for it all to die down. It will be good training, if it takes.

We'll have plenty of time to see if Margaret Thatcher is getting her revenge. And if not, then we won't be guilty of the leftist fixation on the idol, instead of the message. We'll be polite to Sarah, and continue the search for the next Thatcher/Patton.

And realize that in the end, it still all comes down to the common sense of the American voter and those of us who try to crank open his eyes.

When Obama was elected, the GOP was as demoralized as I think I have ever seen it. And Repubs in congress were bending over backwards to prove to Obama that they would be happy to work with him. No one among the GOP establishment had the nerve to confront him.

It was left to Sarah Palin to stand up and speak up and draw all the opposing fire onto herself. She took him on, and in doing so made a political space that gave others the nerve to start to fight back.

Michele Bachmann also stood up, and I give her a lot of credit for refusing to lay down in those dark early days. And I give similar credit to DeMint in the senate.

But Palin, who held no office, was the most public of Obama’s attackers at the very beginning, and she traveled the country helping to shore up others who were similarly trying to fight back.

So, now that the Tea Party has arisen and spoken, and swept the congress, she has more or less stepped to the side and let the parade go on by. I don’t know what her future holds. I don’t know if she knows. But when no one else stood up, she did. She has been savaged for it, even by her own party. But I admire her grit, and whatever she decides to do with her life at this point I wish her well.

God talked to Sarah and she listened.

I have no idea why, but she will be there when we need her the most.

For this election, it will only be a “holding pattern” as the forces become more focused.

We are not ready yet!

In a dated Clint Eastwood movie, "Two Mules for Sister Sarah", the female lead played a nun who was protected and escorted across Mexico during the revolution.

Just a little nitpick here: in "Two Mules for Sister Sarah", Shirley Maclaine played a whore pretending to be a nun so the gunslinger would protect her. That takes the analogy to a new level. While that analogy doesn't apply to Palin, it does apply to many of our politicians.

Amen, I say Amen. You are so right-on! The Romney-bots that joined the McCain campaign in 2008 were wretched in their attack against Sarah, during and after the election. These are the same nasty punks that are now working again with Romney. The same ones that have disgustingly attacked Newt.

This is war folks and it’s not against the candidates. It’s against DC establishment - yep - the Karl Roves, the Trent Lotts, the same old, same old John McCain types.

All of us that call ourselves the Tea Party had better pick up our voices and make our wishes known. This is war and we need to act like it. Keep the faith and keep up the fight. No Romney, no Way!!!

"..Just a little nitpick here: in "Two Mules for Sister Sarah", Shirley Maclaine played a whore pretending to be a nun so the gunslinger would protect her. That takes the analogy to a new level. While that analogy doesn't apply to Palin, it does apply to many of our politicians.."

Actually, you are right. But it's been 30 plus years since I saw the movie, and my memory slid a bit. Still, the metaphor holds.

Rather than answering the Democrats by creating an attack-puke like Carville, I like the idea instead of a strong woman bringing home "Rat Patrol" stinging attacks that rock the Democrats back on the defensive.

As successfully as she has done that, a 2012 Republican President would be a fool not to talk her into accepting some highly media-visible position within his administration.

For 8 years she could continually drive the liberals to appoplexy, so constantly enraged that they would be rendered nearly impotent. And all the while, if positioned wisely, she could act as a first responder to media drive-bys, with the help of a research staff of fast, clever assistants.

Think then of 8 solid years of such seasoning, and imagine her as a candidate then. We would own this country for decades!!

Let us use our assets, gentlemen, and play to their greatest strengths.

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