We’re talking about political courage which is the only kind that benefits you in politics. She went up against the machine of the Republican Party in Alaska. She turned in the chairman of the party for unethical dealings while she was a member of the oil and gas commission. She could have sat there and drawn her salary and stayed quiet.
She opposed a sitting governor of her own party to get the nomination. After election as governor, she took on the big oil companies who had been using the Republican machine to have their will with the public. Have any other candidates taken on big corporations and their own party? She reset the split between the oil companies and the state and returned money to the taxpayers. Alaska may be the only state that owns its oil reserves.
When false accusations in serial lawsuits by democrat activists hogtied her administration costing her and the state millions to defend and preventing the state from doing its business, she took the politically risky step of resigning. Her resignation stopped the attacks that had frozen the government of Alaska, and freed Palin to take part in the 2010 midterm elections with great success. Making primary endorsements takes political courage because you make enemies. Did you notice that some candidates like Romney usually waited until after a contested primary to make an endorsement?
Since being the VP candidate, she has been targeted by the democrat party and their lackeys in the media for derision. If Romney or Huckabee had been so targeted, they would be sitting in a corner crying and sucking their thumbs. They were not targeted because they don’t present a threat to the power base of the democrat party, women voters. Palin does. She has fended off all of their attacks and has remained the voice of conservatives in opposition to Obama. She alone of the candidates has told Obama that he is ruining our country. In the coming campaign she will successfully make that case. The others wouldn’t even try.
If it was that easy to hog-tie a sitting governor, it would be happening all over the place. But it isn't. Anyway, leaving the cut and run/can't take the heat debate behind, how was it risky? It would have been politically risky for her to stay in office and risk failure, or risk becoming irrelevant on the national stage, or risk them finding or inventing something that might stick.
She left office a celebrity, knowing that she had throngs wanting her to speak and to support any future political aspirations she might have. A golden parachute with platinum backup. And that assumes she's even going to run for something again. If she's not, then abandoning ship had no political (or other) risks at all. Either way, though, lots of people are huge fans anyway, so the "risk" seems to have paid off in spades.
Her resignation stopped the attacks that had frozen the government of Alaska, and freed Palin to take part in the 2010 midterm elections with great success. Making primary endorsements takes political courage because you make enemies. Did you notice that some candidates like Romney usually waited until after a contested primary to make an endorsement?
That doesn't prove courage at all, though. It just demonstrates that she recognized her supporters would love her for doing that. And she's in a particularly good place with little or no risk because, not being an elected official, she doesn't have to worry about what a majority of voters think. All she has to do is keep her supporters happy, and she wins. She's a huge fish in her own pond.
Since being the VP candidate, she has been targeted by the democrat party and their lackeys in the media for derision.
So what? Everything she's done just makes her supporters love her more. The more they attack her, the more her supporters rally around her. It doesn't take courage to do what turns out best for you.
If Romney or Huckabee had been so targeted, they would be sitting in a corner crying and sucking their thumbs.
That just shows she has a different strategy than they do. Can't even say it's a different political strategy because we don't even know if she's running at this point. Rather than "courage", you could just as easily say that she has made a strategic decision to play to her base. Again, that might be admirable for any number of reason, including staying true to principles, but I don't see how playing to your base is courageous. It's about as risk-free as you can get.
She has fended off all of their attacks and has remained the voice of conservatives in opposition to Obama.
No, she's the voice of some conservatives.
She alone of the candidates...
She's isn't a candidate. At least not yet.
....has told Obama that he is ruining our country. In the coming campaign she will successfully make that case. The others wouldn’t even try.
That remains to be seen. I suspect that most of the other candidates will make exactly taht case. But again, it depends on her goal, doesn't it? If her real goal is to be elected President in 2012, then I'd agree that calling out the President aggressively early on might be characterized as courage by some. Maybe it's just smart strategy.
But if her real goal is to just be a voice from the conservative side, rally people, etc., then ticking off Democrats carries no risk at all for her, and all the acts of courage you abscribe to her may be nothing more than pandering to her base, which takes no courage at all.