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Reflections on Sarah Palin By Ed Koch
Yonkers Tribune ^ | January 17, 2011 | Ed Koch

Posted on 01/18/2011 5:01:56 AM PST by Virginia Ridgerunner

As I see it, in the current battle for public opinion Sarah Palin has defeated her harsh and unfair critics.

(snip)

Why do I defend Palin in this case? I don’t agree with her political philosophy: She is an arch conservative. I am a liberal with sanity. I know that I am setting myself up for attack when I ask, why did Emile Zola defend Dreyfus? Palin is no Dreyfus and I am certainly no Zola. But all of us have an obligation, particularly those in politics and public office, to denounce, when we can, the perpetrators of horrendous libels and stand up for those falsely charged. We should denounce unfair, false and wicked charges not only when they are made against ourselves, our friends or our political party but against those with whom we disagree. If we are to truly change the poisonous political atmosphere that we all complain of, including those who create it, we should speak up for fairness when we can.

(snip)

I repeat my earlier comment that she “scares the hell out of me.” Nevertheless, she is entitled to fair and respectful treatment. The fools in politics today in both parties are those who think she is dumb. I’ve never met her, but I’ve always thought that she is highly intelligent but not knowledgeable in many areas and politically uninformed. I don’t believe she will run for president in 2012 or that she would be elected if she did. But I do believe she is equal in ability to many of those in the Republican Party seeking that office.

(Excerpt) Read more at yonkerstribune.typepad.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: edkoch; giffords; koch; palin; sarahpalin
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Nice commentary by Koch, who's one of the very few honest liberals out there.
1 posted on 01/18/2011 5:01:58 AM PST by Virginia Ridgerunner
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

The left goes bonkers over Sarah Palin because she is much more in the mainstream of political and social values and principles than the liberals.

But among many Americans and especially the Tea Party Movement, Palin is extremely popular and that is exactly as it should be.

Palin gives great speeches and can rally a crowd of people like nobody since Ronald Reagan.

And that is why the left and liberaks are trying to destroy her. They call Palin the most vile unspeakable names and insults and yet these same tactics seem to make Palin even more popular.

Even independents seem to be climbing on the Sarah Palin bandwagon and that is a good thing.

Whether all these things taken together would translate into votes remains to be seen but certainly Palin is a force to be reckoned with.


2 posted on 01/18/2011 5:04:19 AM PST by Ev Reeman
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To: FlashBack; athelass; Tina Grazier; acapesket; exit82; backwoods-engineer; APatientMan; ...
(((((PING)))))
3 posted on 01/18/2011 5:04:32 AM PST by Virginia Ridgerunner (Sarah Palin has crossed the Rubicon!)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

Koch is also the only politician who ever answered a letter I wrote him. Actually answered it, not a form letter. Granted, he was out of public office at the time, and it was about something he questioned on his radio show, then on WABC.


4 posted on 01/18/2011 5:08:43 AM PST by Tanniker Smith (I didn't know she was a liberal when I married her.)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner
I repeat my earlier comment that she “scares the hell out of me.”

Why does Sarah Palin scare him? What is it about her that frightens liberals?

5 posted on 01/18/2011 5:09:32 AM PST by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner
Nice commentary by Koch, who's one of the very few honest liberals out there.

Maybe, but I stopped reading here: "I am a liberal with sanity".

Especially after calling Sarah "arch-Conservative" WTF is that?

6 posted on 01/18/2011 5:09:34 AM PST by hattend (The meaning of the 2010 election was rebuke, reject, and repeal. - Sarah Palin)
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To: Ev Reeman

( I am a liberal with sanity)
That there is funny!!


7 posted on 01/18/2011 5:10:21 AM PST by SECURE AMERICA
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To: hattend
Yeah, 'a liberal with sanity' - oxymoron alert!
8 posted on 01/18/2011 5:10:55 AM PST by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner
"but I’ve always thought that she is highly intelligent but not knowledgeable in many areas and politically uninformed...I do believe she is equal in ability to many of those in the Republican Party seeking that office."

Even when they are trying to "defend" a GOP'er and speaking as a "voice of reason", they still get in some form of ugly political shot. They can't really help themselves it seems, even when they are trying to be "civil". Nice commentary? No, it really is not.

9 posted on 01/18/2011 5:12:14 AM PST by L,TOWM (The Democratic Party Platform: Lies, promulgated by Liars whose only real talent is Lying.)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

Honest liberals? He still considers anyone who disagrees with him to be mentally ill: “I am a liberal with sanity.”


10 posted on 01/18/2011 5:13:25 AM PST by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

(She is an arch conservative)
In other words she is extacly what America needs and wants.


11 posted on 01/18/2011 5:13:44 AM PST by SECURE AMERICA
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To: hattend

“Liberal with sanity” is Koch’s catch phrase-—it means that he is liberal in his ideology, but he does not subscribe to the Clinton/Obama politics of vitriol, thuggery, poison, and destruction. I respect that.


12 posted on 01/18/2011 5:14:19 AM PST by Virginia Ridgerunner (Sarah Palin has crossed the Rubicon!)
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To: mvpel

No, what he’s saying is the current crop of vitriolic liberals on the National scene today are the ones who are insane with their rhetoric.


13 posted on 01/18/2011 5:15:59 AM PST by Virginia Ridgerunner (Sarah Palin has crossed the Rubicon!)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

Double points to Koch for quoting her video at length in his article. I remember Koch as mayor of NYC, and he was MUCH better than his successor (David Dinkins), he was better than Bloomberg.

When Koch describes himself as a sane liberal, I simply take it to mean that he doesn’t have a compulsion to commit suicide. He also has a streak of common sense in him that allows him to abandon policies that don’t work. Finally, he is generally honest and means what he says. Most of the 20 something percent who tell pollsters that Sarah Palin or the Tea Party share significant responsibility for the shooting are being disingenuous. They are simply saying what they believe will advance the liberal case.

Koch, is intelligent, yet foolish, monstrously wrong, but honest in his presentation (except, perhaps, his fling with Bess Myerson). Having men like him defend Palin shows liberals who think they want to be reasonable how whacked-out the MSNBC talking heads really are.


14 posted on 01/18/2011 5:16:21 AM PST by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics.)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

-—I repeat my earlier comment that she “scares the hell out of me.” Nevertheless, she is entitled to fair and respectful treatment.-—

If that ‘fair and respectful treatment’ included actually giving her due consideration, I seriously doubt Sarah Palin would “scare the hell” out of you, Mr. Koch.


15 posted on 01/18/2011 5:17:07 AM PST by MichaelCorleone (Sarah Palin is America's Margaret Thatcher)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

Koch has always been pro-woman. Not just in the liberal pro-abortion way (I believe he has written that his poor, overwhelmed mother had an abortion) but supporting conservative and liberal women for high office. Obviously, I totally disagree with his pro-choice stance but he has been very good in defending women who have been under siege by the media.


16 posted on 01/18/2011 5:18:14 AM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: hattend

“A liberal with sanity,” is Koch’s description for himself. He’s been using it since the 70s. It really has no meaning, lol.


17 posted on 01/18/2011 5:22:10 AM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

As many have already pointed out, liberals have no intellectual foundation for their beliefs—Everything is based on emotion.

The standard response to the slightest questioning of any of their positions is a gratuitous attack on the questioner—Racist, Bigot, Homophobe, etc. In most instances, these attacks are sufficient to induce the questioner to relent.

I believe what we are seeing with the Arizona tragedy is an unwillingness of the attacked to back down. This “out of character” response has the Left completely perplexed and has increased the intensity of their antagonism. They don’t realize it yet, but they’ve done significant damage to themselves.

I also note that the MSM has both led, and provided a forum for, the countless attacks on Conservatives over the years. This has convinced me that the MSM is the head of the Dem/Lib/Commie/Socialist snake; and you know what the tried and true method for killing a snake is (sorry, does that sound uncivil?).


18 posted on 01/18/2011 5:22:48 AM PST by Arm_Bears (I'll have what the gentleman on the floor is drinking.)
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To: hattend
“I am a liberal with sanity”.

He is (for the most part)....I use to listen to his radio show just before Rush's show on WABC NY....

I like him, he did a lot of good for NYC after liberals Lindsay and Beam....he brought the city back to solvency.

he is socially liberal to the enth degree...he is a Greenwich village homo social liberal....

but he is a moderate to conservative when it comes to money matters and things like fighting terror....

I can only defend him for the good he did, not his ultra left leanings which, yes, he has....

19 posted on 01/18/2011 5:41:29 AM PST by Vaquero (BHO....'The Pretenda from Kenya')
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner
Time Magazine published a story implying that Sharon was directly responsible for the massacres. He sued the magazine. At trial it was determined that the magazine story included false allegations, but since Sharon was a public figure, he received no monetary damages.

Being a 'public figure' means you have no rights against those who slander you? What BS. Sounds like a law libs wrote to hide behind when they throw rocks at people they don't like.

20 posted on 01/18/2011 5:45:53 AM PST by GBA (Not on our watch!)
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