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Mark Steyn on Palin (The hostess with the moosest)
National Review Online ^ | August 30, 2008 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 08/31/2008 10:08:44 PM PDT by ME-262

The hostess with the moosest [Mark Steyn]

Over in the Frumistan province of the NR caliphate, our pal David is not happy about the Palin pick. I am - for several reasons.

First, Governor Palin is not merely, as Jay describes her, "all-American", but hyper-American. What other country in the developed world produces beauty queens who hunt caribou and serve up a terrific moose stew? As an immigrant, I'm not saying I came to the United States purely to meet chicks like that, but it was certainly high on my list of priorities. And for the gun-totin' Miss Wasilla then to go on to become Governor while having five kids makes it an even more uniquely American story. Next to her resume, a guy who's done nothing but serve in the phony-baloney job of "community organizer" and write multiple autobiographies looks like just another creepily self-absorbed lifelong member of the full-time political class that infests every advanced democracy.

Second, it can't be in Senator Obama's interest for the punditocracy to spends its time arguing about whether the Republicans' vice-presidential pick is "even more" inexperienced than the Democrats' presidential one.

Third, real people don't define "experience" as appearing on unwatched Sunday-morning talk shows every week for 35 years and having been around long enough to have got both the War on Terror and the Cold War wrong. (On the first point, at the Gun Owners of New Hampshire dinner in the 2000 campaign, I remember Orrin Hatch telling me sadly that he was stunned to discover how few Granite State voters knew who he was.) Sarah Palin and Barack Obama are more or less the same age, but Governor Palin has run a state and a town and a commercial fishing operation, whereas (to reprise a famous line on the Rev Jackson) Senator Obama ain't run nothin' but his mouth. She's done the stuff he's merely a poseur about. Post-partisan? She took on her own party's corrupt political culture directly while Obama was sucking up to Wright and Ayers and being just another get-along Chicago machine pol (see his campaign's thuggish attempt to throttle Stanley Kurtz and Milt Rosenberg on WGN the other night).

Fourth, Governor Palin has what the British Labour Party politician Denis Healy likes to call a "hinterland" - a life beyond politics. Whenever Senator Obama attempts anything non-political (such as bowling), he comes over like a visiting dignitary to a foreign country getting shanghaied into some impenetrable local folk ritual. Sarah Palin isn't just on the right side of the issues intellectually. She won't need the usual stage-managed "hunting" trip to reassure gun owners: she's lived the Second Amendment all her life. Likewise, on abortion, we're often told it's easy to be against it in principle but what if you were a woman facing a difficult birth or a handicapped child? Been there, done that.

Fifth, she complicates all the laziest Democrat pieties. Energy? Unlike Biden and Obama, she's been to ANWR and, like most Alaskans, supports drilling there.

Sixth (see Kathleen's link to Craig Ferguson below), I kinda like the whole naughty librarian vibe.


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: canuk; palin; steyn; veep
Mark Steyn returns from his secret mission to drop a note and then leaves again.
1 posted on 08/31/2008 10:08:44 PM PDT by ME-262
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To: ME-262

Seventh - Obama is now forced to run against the Vice Presidential candidate for the Republicans, which diminishes his stature. In Obama <-> Palin, Palin wins, McCain becomes more presidential and above it all, and Biden isn’t even there anymore.


2 posted on 08/31/2008 10:17:58 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: ME-262

ping


3 posted on 08/31/2008 10:18:26 PM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: ME-262

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2071846/posts


4 posted on 08/31/2008 10:18:40 PM PDT by JLS (Do you really want change being two guys from the majority of Congress with a 9% approval rating?)
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To: ME-262
LOL!....Short / concise...funny...nail+head=BINGO!
5 posted on 08/31/2008 10:20:45 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (If you aren't "advancing" your arguments,your losing "the battle of Ideas"...libs,hates the facts 8^)
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To: ME-262

...drop a note, leave fresh air and then leaves again.


6 posted on 08/31/2008 10:21:33 PM PDT by Atchafalaya
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To: ME-262
“a guy who's done nothing but serve in the phony-baloney job of “community organizer” and write multiple autobiographies looks like just another creepily self-absorbed lifelong member of the full-time political class that infests every advanced democracy.”

This is one of the best short descriptions of Obama I have read. Mark Steyn is dead on accurate in describing Obama. My description of Obama is "all fluff and no stuff".

7 posted on 08/31/2008 10:22:52 PM PDT by detective
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To: ME-262

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2071114/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2071846/posts

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/2071135/posts?page=6


8 posted on 08/31/2008 10:23:16 PM PDT by Perdogg
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To: Vince Ferrer

Right Vince , he will be at clancy’s talking to the other sheep faced guy’s in the mirror..


9 posted on 08/31/2008 10:24:34 PM PDT by fantom
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To: ME-262

ping


10 posted on 08/31/2008 10:37:08 PM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: ME-262

btt


11 posted on 08/31/2008 10:41:36 PM PDT by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: JLS
Sorry I didn't see this was posted before. I guess I'll have to keep an eye on FR 24/7.
12 posted on 08/31/2008 11:17:52 PM PDT by ME-262 (Nancy Pelosi is known to the state of CA to render Viagra ineffective causing reproductive harm.)
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To: Vince Ferrer

Obama comparing himself to Palin is too rich
I’d love to watch an Obama-Palin debate play out.
Maybe another type of competion would be in order.
Why not a hunt? First one to bag a Grizzly wins!


13 posted on 08/31/2008 11:32:55 PM PDT by topfile
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To: detective

Obama’s a poseur of the worst kind. I sort of pity the democrats who are gullible enough to fall for him. He needs a serious remedial education on how economies work. Instead, his Ivy League education was all Marxism.


14 posted on 08/31/2008 11:42:19 PM PDT by Bullish ( Reality is the best cure for delusion.)
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To: ME-262

Eight: BHO doesn’t believe you should own a gun.


15 posted on 08/31/2008 11:45:39 PM PDT by Domangart (editor and publisher)
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To: ME-262

No apology needed. I linked it mainly so people could see the comments there too.


16 posted on 09/01/2008 12:30:36 AM PDT by JLS (Do you really want change being two guys from the majority of Congress with a 9% approval rating?)
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To: ME-262

No worries Mate!
If you had not posted it again, I would have missed it. Thanks!!!!


17 posted on 09/01/2008 4:34:10 AM PDT by netmilsmom (The Party of Darkness prefers to have the lights out. - Go Fierce 50!!!)
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To: ME-262

Well, I have to admit I was skeptical about mccain’s veep pic. I mean, the first time I heard her voice I thought, “what the heck? mccain picked a little girl!” She’s not exactly the “margaret thatcher” type.

Now I’m beginning to be won over. She does have quite the impressive resume. I still dont care for her voice though. Not that there’s anything wrong with a woman having her voice, it’s just that I don’t think it sounds very presidential.


18 posted on 09/01/2008 7:37:39 AM PDT by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
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To: ME-262

“Governor Palin has run a state and a town and a commercial fishing operation, whereas Senator Obama ain’t run nothin’ but his mouth”

Ballgame.

Election over.


19 posted on 09/01/2008 9:46:03 AM PDT by Senator Goldwater
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To: ME-262
Palin needs to challenge Obama to a debate. If he won't debate McCain in town hall meetings maybe he will debate me.
20 posted on 09/01/2008 9:51:23 AM PDT by cruise_missile ('')
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