Posted on 03/28/2010 6:05:44 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
One of my very favorite bloggers on the Right - Powerline's John Hinderaker - wrote a post earlier today entitled 'Biker Girl Campaigns for McCain'. By Hinderaker's own admission, his sole motivation for writing it was to show a perfectly gratuitous photograph of Palin looking great in a black leather biker jacket on the campaign trail.
No complaints there.
However, I have a bone to pick with the rest of John's comments:
Sarah Palin was in Arizona yesterday, campaigning for John McCain in his primary contest against former Congressman J.D. Hayworth. This was an appropriate demonstration of loyalty toward the man who opened the door to fame and fortune for her. Beyond that, Palin's support McCain is right on the merits and displays her almost unerring judgment in political matters.
Like most conservatives, I sometimes disagree with John McCain, and on those occasions he can be an infuriating opponent. But he describes himself as a "proud conservative," and that's how he votes a large majority of the time. Moreover, while he is an imperfect Republican, McCain is a great man. He is a warrior, one of the staunchest characters ever to participate in politics, a modern-day Andrew Jackson. We need him. If the Republican tent ever grows too small to contain the likes of John McCain, we are in deep trouble.
Moreover, McCain was the party's Presidential nominee just two years ago. The last thing Republicans need to do is to start eating our own, like the Democrats when they drummed Vice-Presidential nominee Joe Lieberman out of their party.
Now, Sarah Palin endorsing John McCain per se is understandable. I still don't like it one bit, but I'll cut her some slack. Remember, she threw in with McCain before conservative J.D. Hayworth entered the race. And with McCain expecting only token opposition from the Democrats in the general election, he was for a time the most conservative man in Arizona's U.S. Senate race - if only technically and by default.
BUT...J.D. Hayworth is in the race now. He is a far preferable choice than McCain for conservatives on many issues, particularly immigration. Meanwhile, Palin has transitioned from merely supporting McCain (presumably out of a sense of loyalty) to actively stumping for the guy.
I thought Palin was supposed to be helping elect conservatives - not campaigning against them.
Furthermore, in this instance Palin is supporting the very man who deserves unique (though not exclusive) blame for putting Barack Obama in the White House, for the following three reasons (at least):
1. McCain-Feingold. The effect of this now officially unconstitutional campaign finance 'reform' legislation was to allow 'non-partisan' (read: radical left) outfits like MoveOn.org to thrive and to bestow massive political influence upon filthy rich liberal donors like George Soros. Think that played a role in Obama's victory?
2. Comprehensive Immigration Reform (aka Amnesty for Illegal Aliens). Read this and you'll get a sense of how McCain's convoluted stance on illegal immigration lost him the conservative vote in droves in 2008. Think that played a role in Obama's victory?
3. The Bank Bailouts of September 2008. McCain went out of his way to put himself on basically the same page as Barack Obama when it came to bailing out big banks. In an election year that favored any warm body the Democrats ended up nominating, this gave voters one less reason to not vote for Barack Obama. Think that played a role in Obama's victory?
Don't get me wrong - I'd probably still support John McCain vs. 'unopposed' or 'garden variety Democrat.' Probably. But J.D. Hayworth is a no-brainer for conservatives vis-a-vis John McCain, and one has to assume Palin would be in Hayworth's corner were it not for the fact that she was McCain's hand-picked running mate in 2008.
So I'll ask the question: Does personal loyalty trump conservative principles for Sarah Palin?
The Obama and PaulBot trolls don’t want the truth.
They spit out lies and hate hoping something will stick.
The “humane ways” of dealing with the illegals here means let them stay and become citizens once they pay a fee. That’s what all of the “pro-amnesty” pols say, just as they all say we must secure our border. We’ve seen the policy that McCain advocates in an actual bill and this week Palin denied that she disagreed with McCain on the issue in the slightest.
McCain has also contributed to our tying our hands with a lot of our captured enemy combatants, and though I think Palin would be preferable to Romney who is at risk of getting the nomination nailed down early, I’m not ready to blindly back her without getting a better feel for her real approach to the major issues—and the last few weeks have made me less comfortable with her than I was over the last year.
They are trying so hard make everyone else hate Palin. It's not working! Sarah is a huge draw!
Proof, please.
You need to get on her FB and read the various artivles she writes daily on the issues.
Some are OpEds at WallStreet Journal, and other papers.
The $1000.00 donation in July of 2009 was related to the FCC compliance and activation for her new PAC and it helped win the final approval for her PAC, two weeks later from the FCC.
It was not related to a non existing endorsement.
News for you. Sarah gave $1000 to Lindsey which is the exact same amount he gave to her in seed money when she started her PAC. He is not up for reelection until 2014. Want to try again with another attempt to smear her?
Sarah Palin has nothing hide, no matter how you try to spin it.
Sarah Palin, more than any politician on the face of God’s green earth, has been vetted, and dug into by all her haters, detractors and every other slug looking to bring her down!
That’s interesting (and horrible). Why would the SCOTUS refuse to hear those cases, I wonder. It only takes 4 of them to hear a case. Couldn’t Thomas, Scalia, Robertson and Alito choose to hear one?
More proof that the homosexual agenda, along with feminism, is one of the most destructive agendas there is.
I’ve read every article she’s posted on Facebook.
“VAN SUSTEREN: Governor Palin, if you were vice president today, what would you be telling a President McCain about what to do about immigration, if anything?
PALIN: I support his position on immigration. It all comes down to securing the border. And he who has actually proposed some solutions, the Obama administration does not want to listen to Senator McCain or any other Republican, and that, of course, leads to a greater problem that we have in Washington, D.C. And it’s that lack of the new administration’s ability and enthusiasm for listening to those on the other side of the aisle who have some good solutions that they want considered.”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,590022,00.html
It all comes down to securing the border.
Your hatred for McCain makes you incapable of seeing that sentence, doesn't it?
There are more than a few on this thread who live
here in San Diego north of the border of Mexico.
We know where Sarah Palin stands on the Border, immigration
and one of the reasons we support her.
What further information do you have that the rest of us don’t have?
There’s no pol who doesn’t wax eloquent om securing the borders. What McCain has actually done is try to get legislation passed that would legalize the 30 million-plus illegals who are here now.
These Trolls and their Jihad on FR are Obama’s best friends
They don’t care about this Country only about their narrow view of helping Obama to destroy it.
Awesome post! That's but one of the reason's I support Sarah. :)
I do think you're conveniently ignoring lots of things Sarah has said in her interviews about the subject, and you're taking a single issue over her support of McCain to mean something it's not.
That kind of blind hatred is never healthy.
Can you name a single in-office, mainstream politician who hasn’t supported ‘securing the borders’? 99% of congress and 100% of our presidents over the past 30 years have said that and yet it hasn’t nearly been done—even after 9/11.
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