Posted on 11/21/2010 12:52:50 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
In a National Review Online column on November 19, Mona Charen provided an explanation of why she believes Sarah Palin shouldn’t run for President. She argued that after the 2008 campaign, Palin “quit her job as governor after two and a half years…and seemed to chase money and empty celebrity.” She asserted that “Palin seems consumed and obsessed” by the media, labeled Palin’s new TLC show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, a “cheesy entrant in the reality-show genre,” and took issue with the fact that Sarah and Todd sit in the Dancing with the Stars audience “cheering on their unwed-mother daughter.” She opined that Palin’s “endorsement of Christine O’Donnell was irresponsible and damaging” and suggested that “She would be terrific as a talk-show host — the new Oprah.”
First and foremost, let’s address one of Charen’s opening points as to why Palin should sit 2012 out. She stated, “Americans will be looking for sober competence, managerial skill, and maturity — not sizzle and flash.” Perhaps a walk down policy lane is in order.
As Governor, Sarah Palin actualized AGIA, the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, the largest private sector infrastructure project in North American history. Palin’s administration opened up drilling for oil and gas at Point Thomson for the first time in several decades. As Governor, Palin reduced earmark requests for Alaska by 80%, established Alaska’s Petroleum Integrity Office to oversee safe energy development, placed the state checkbook online, and reduced spending for Fiscal Year 2010 by over one billion dollars from Governor Murkowski’s Fiscal Year 2007 budget. Palin signed ACES, Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share bill, into law, incentivizing development and ensuring that Alaskans would receive a “clear and equitable” share of oil profits. She cut costs by selling a private jet purchased by the previous governor and saying “no thank you” to the Executive Mansion’s personal chef. She has served as Chairperson of the AK Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and Vice Chair of the National Governors Association Natural Resource Committee. Prior to her time as Governor, Palin served as Mayor of Wasilla, AK, and city council member in Wasilla. She has also been involved in running a commercial fishing business with her husband Todd.
“Sober competence, managerial skill, and maturity,” indeed.
Charen asserted that Palin’s statement to Barbara Walters that she believes she could defeat President Obama “has dimmed hopes cherished by sensible Republicans that she might decide against a run for the White House in 2012.” Well, it’s not the first time I haven’t fallen into the “sensible” VIP league of the Washington elite. On that note, let’s shift on over to Sarah Palin’s Alaska, Dancing with the Stars, and all that drives the GOP highbrows wild.
Sarah Palin has done something that no-one since President Reagan has been bold enough to do: just be herself. Sure, she’s a prominent political figure. Yes, she was a 2008 Vice Presidential candidate. But she’s also a mom, a wife, a hunter, a fisherwoman, and a plain old American just like you and me. In her new TLC show, Palin’s not afraid to show you how proud she is of the beauty of her state, a state which is so often discarded as unimportant – despite extensive energy and national security clout – by the likes of New York and California elites. She’s not afraid to speak in her folksy accent, to invite you inside her very regular American home, to let you watch her accept the challenge to climb Mt. McKinley, and do the dirty work of wiping slime off of newly-caught halibut.
Simply put, she’s not afraid to just be Sarah Palin. And in our phony, snobby, chameleon-happy political world, that is priceless.
Kudos to Sarah Palin for cheering on her daughter, who has had the commonsense wisdom to express, “They’re going to criticize me no matter what I do, so I might as well dance.” Kudos to Palin for placing principles over party by endorsing the only conservative choice in the Delaware Senate race this 2010 election season, Christine O’Donnell. Palin seems to understand that a Republican “gain” by a closet lefty isn’t a gain at all.
Also, when faced with frivolous, baseless ethics charges made by political operatives, which was costing her state millions of dollars and her staff thousands of hours to refute, kudos to Palin for having done the right thing. That’s right, she resigned. And it wasn’t to preserve her political future. It was to ensure that the Governor’s office could get back to what was important – the day-to-day work of protecting Alaska and its citizens.
As a parting thought, let’s revisit a segment from radio host and bestselling author Mark R. Levin’s November ninth monologue: [In] 1976 … Ronald Reagan was running against Gerald Ford. There were conservatives all over the country who were lining up behind Gerald Ford. ‘Reagan’s too extreme, Reagan is a B actor, Reagan is this, Reagan is that, he can’t win, he can’t win.’”
Sound familiar?
Regardless of what her future plans may be, Sarah Palin is certainly qualified to step up to the plate in 2012 if she so chooses – Facebook posts, mountain climbing, and dancing daughter included.
Because it's her schtick. It's intentional -- a way to set her apart, and make her seem like "one of us" rather than "one of them."
What I suspect she's lost sight of, is that most of us have been around women who talk that way for real, and there's something about them that makes 'em difficult to tolerate except in small doses.
It works for a certain segment of the population .... but it's unhelpful to her in general.
I'd bet real money that she knows perfectly well how to give a properly modulated speech with serious and forceful intonation -- and it would help her prospects a lot if she started to use that tone.
Thank you, all.
I have been running through these points in my own mind for weeks, so I have them refined enough to explicate.
We all simply need to take the criticisms one-by-one and answer them in our own words as though we were debating an anti-Palin voter. Too many people are simply parroting the objections of the opposition without any real thought.
I should add that my main doubts about Palin are visceral, not intellectual or political. Her voice is light and reminiscent of my 2nd grade teacher, who was 22 at the time. She tends toward the shrill. She still tends to speak as though she was running for PTA, where she began. She is pushing 45 and still sports the styles of someone in their 30s. I am unsure how she can overcome this sort of thing, because it is emotional and almost instantaneous for the observer. Any physical makeover or voice coaching is going to be exploited against her. It is unfair, but humans are judgmental and react to such insignificant things (Nixon’s 5 o’clock shadow and sweating in the TV lights, for example).
I think she needs to write more policy books and she needs a TV venue where she can speak directly to policy in light of her political experience and without her tendency for sound-byte zingers. She must do this in the language of her detractors and force them to respond without personal references.
Above all, she needs to learn how to pitch her voice lower and respond more slowly to questions. Personally, I could give her a pass on style grounds if her voice didn’t immediately put me on the defensive. She is such an open book and so scrutinized that she may have to do this on a DIY basis and not hire a voice coach.
As for style, it could also be a DIY effort. Slowly trim back the hair and occasionally wear some glasses with visible frames, for a start. I understand that she already does some of her own TV makeup and with 3 daughters, she would have a lot of advice and hands to help. Personally, I think her eye makeup is too heavy and too 90s. Today’s styles for the more sophisticated is less is more. She is a beautiful woman and she could set some more trends, besides the glasses, just by updating her look as most women naturally do over time. She has already become a trend-setter, stylistically, even with the media dishing her look 24/7
Oh, and she and Todd need to impress on the girls that they should think before they speak or text. Those kids are not helping her. A little bit of *finishing school* education would go a long way with Willow and Bristol.
I am not advocating something fake, which would become a joke. Whatever she does, it needs to be her decision and her effort and perhaps she could inspire the daughters to be a bit more toned-down.
All of this is going to get more difficult with each passing month, so, if not addressed quickly, she will lose some more momentum.
HN, you need a new tag.
A point guard is no cheerleader, hot or not.
A point guard is the basketball equivalent of quarterback.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_guard
You knew Sarah’s a point guard, right?
Which Mr. Bila summarized in a single paragraph. And, while they're not bad things ... they're not all that great, either. They don't suggest anything special -- any governor could compile a similar list of items over his or her first half-term. (And, of course, Palin gave up her chance to build on that list.)
Is there anything in her record that shows she has the means to deal with a fractious Congress? Anything to demonstrate that she has a clue about how to deal with the nation's financial difficulties? How about China .... any idea -- any clue in her past -- about how she'd deal with the threat posed by them?
Nope.
The lesson of this and similar threads, is that Palin's ardent supporters cannot be bothered to judge her in comparison to the actual duties she'd have to shoulder. They evidently don't need to worry about "credentials;" the mere force of Palin's personality will carry the day, every day.
In that, Palin's ardent supporters sound uncomfortably like Obama's ardent supporters.
That was 30 years ago, FRiend. Lots of us played sports in high school, and it's fun to reminisce about it sometimes.
But anybody who puts their HS sports record on a grown-up resume, is just asking to be laughed at.
I did not "reject" her, dillweed. I just said I cannot stand her rollercoaster voice. I would still vote for her over Romney, Pawlenty or Perry any day.
And Reagan was just someone who would "shoot from the hip" and blow up the world, too.
Try watching this 1980 "re-elect President Carter" commercial for how they treated Reagan.
And, incidentally, look at the horrifying numbers in the proposed Kennedy budget and compare to Obama.
We ought to be able to either do some "gotchas" or *crucify* the Dems with this.
Cheers!
“Sarah’s a point guard” = Sarah WAS a point guard.
Hospice Nurse needs a new tagline. She seems to think a point guard (basketball’s equivalent to quarterback) is equivalent to cheerleader.
Sarah’s early leadership experience was good training.
And her being a female head-of-state would drive the Moose-limbs nuts.
And her being married, pro-life, and with a special-needs child whom she did NOT abort would drive the feminazis nuts.
And her not being from a pedigreed school would drive the East Coast establishment nuts.
So...what's not to like? ;-)
Cheers!
"America, do you love your FREEDOM?"
Is there anything in her record that shows she has the means to deal with a fractious Congress?
When she was governor, she had the highest approval rating of any governor in history and enjoyed tremendous bi-partisan support in her State legislature. To me that shows DEMONSTRATED leadership. A former Commander of the National Guard, Maj General Campbell, said she was one of the best, most hard working governors he had ever worked with!
Anything to demonstrate that she has a clue about how to deal with the nation's financial difficulties?
Well, let's see, there was her speech in Hong Kong which was well received. Then her recent taking to task of Ben Bernanke on Monetary Policy and QE2. She has a clue but nothing short of her having already served as President would satisfy some.
Mona Charen has an undergraduate degree from Barnard College, Columbia University (with honors) and a J.D. from The George Washington University Law School.
I know Mona’s a conservative, but she’s possibly an elitist and can’t relate to Sarah.
I’ve seen Mona on C-Span and watched liberals trash her there.
Mona should just keep her opinions about Sarah to herself.
“So now we hate Mona Charen, Karl Rove, and Barbara Bush because they believe a candidate for president should have credentials.”
Who hates them? Mona and Barbara should bake cookies and let the real women play politics.
Tokyo Rove, well, ok I guess I hate him.
“Being better than Obama isn’t a credential. We have many better qualified conservative candidates”
Name them.
Then specify the one’s who can get more than 5% of the vote.
Those are good points.
Some will tell us that such a person will come out of the shadows to be our next nominee, which raises the question, why on earth have they been hiding in the shadows for the last two years?
“You know another short skirt and even shorter IQ.
Their only value is to attract the attention of the middle age and elderly guys in the audience.”
That’s about as bimboLogic I’ve heard in a long time on FR. lol
One of the things I love about Sarah Palin is that she doesn’t apologize for being herself- or for being American.
I’m trying to think of a person who would have the same spine of steel as Palin does to do what’s right for the country. No candidate is perfect, but I doubt Palin would approve of any of the reckless spending schemes lately passed by congress. She would demand Mexico get it’s house in order and enact tougher measures to keep out illegals. She would not kowtow to foreign dignitaries like the present presidential embarrassment. She would understand the need for national security and be pro-military. She would be against all the current global warming nonsense espoused by even some so-called conservatives like Newt Gingrich. No passing of anti-gun laws obviously. Pro-business and free-enterprise. I don’t see where Palin is unqualified. In fact, I think she’s more than qualified.
You left out the first Bush. All of them had one thing in common: they were all moderate Republicans. Even though the first Bush did get elected once, he rode in on Reagan's coattails. Nice guys, but if their defeats prove anything, it's that nice guys who are moderates finish last..or second which is the same thing in a presidential election.
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