Posted on 02/27/2009 2:51:53 PM PST by SmithL
IF BARACK OBAMA has been the most remarkable phenomenon of the recent political scene, Sarah Palin must be second. The emotional responses to each — especially by the media and the intelligentsia — go beyond anything that can be explained by the usual political differences of opinion on issues of the day.
That liberals would be thrilled by another liberal is not surprising. But there are conservative Republicans who voted for Barack Obama, and other conservatives who may not have voted for him, but who are quick to see in various pragmatic moves of his since taking office an indication that he is not an extremist.
Anyone familiar with history knows that Hitler and Stalin were pragmatic. After years of denouncing each other, they signed the Nazi-Soviet pact under which they became allies for a couple of years before going to war against one another.
Pragmatism tells you nothing about extremism. But the conservative intellectuals who seize upon President Obama's pragmatism to give him the benefit of the doubt are obviously bending over backward for some reason.
With Gov. Palin, it is just the opposite. The conservative intelligentsia who react against her have remarkably little to say that will stand up to scrutiny.
People who actually dealt with her, before she became a national figure, have expressed how much they were impressed by her intelligence.
Palin's "inexperience" is a talking point that might have some plausibility if it were not for the fact that Barack Obama has far less experience in actually making policies than Palin has.
Joe Biden has had decades of experience in being both consistently wrong and consistently a source of asinine statements.
Palin's candidacy for the vice presidency was what galvanized grassroots Republicans in a way that John McCain never did. But there was something about her that turned even some conservative intellectuals against her and provoked visceral anger and hatred from liberal intellectuals.
Perhaps the best way to try to understand these reactions is to recall what Eleanor Roosevelt said when she first saw Whittaker Chambers, who had accused Alger Hiss of being a spy for the Soviet Union. Upon seeing the slouching, overweight and disheveled Chambers, she said, "He's not one of us."
The trim, erect and impeccably dressed Alger Hiss, with his Ivy League and New Deal pedigree, clearly was "one of us."
As it turned out, he was also a liar and a spy for the Soviet Union. Not only did a jury decide that at the time, the opening of the secret files of the Soviet Union in its last days added more evidence of his guilt.
The Hiss-Chambers confrontation of more than half a century ago produced the same kind of visceral polarization that Gov. Sarah Palin provokes today.
Before the first trial of Hiss began, reporters who gathered at the courthouse informally sounded each other out as to which of them they believed, before any evidence had been presented. Most believed that Hiss was telling the truth and that it was Chambers who was lying.
More important, those reporters who believed that Chambers was telling the truth were immediately ostracized. None of this could have been based on the evidence for either side, for that evidence had not yet been presented in court.
For decades after Hiss was convicted and sent to federal prison, much of the media and the intelligentsia defended him. To this day, there is an Alger Hiss chair at Bard College.
Why did it matter so much to so many people which of two previously little-known men was telling the truth? Because what was on trial was not one man but a whole vision of the world and a way of life.
Gov. Sarah Palin is both a challenge and an affront to that vision and that way of life — an overdue challenge, much as Chambers' challenge was overdue.
Whether Palin runs for national office again is something that only time will tell. But the Republicans need some candidate who is neither one of the country club Republicans nor — worse yet — the sort of person who appeals to the intelligentsia.
The sooner the rearguard attempts to revive Palin from
the unfair media campaign against her end the better. Interesting woman but not the solution for conservatives or the GOP in presidential elections.
Give us your alternative.
I bet if she looked more like Hillary she would've gotten more votes from jealous chicks.
Any true conservative that buys ANY of Zero’s BS isn’t bending over backwards, they are bending over forwards, grabbing their ankles and waiting. And they are going to get what they are waiting for....
Sorry.
Thanks for the ping.
She has plenty of time to learn and grow. I don't know about the presidency, but definitely some high position in government -some place where she can use use her great communication skills and likable personality to utmost advantage.
I disagree but I would appreciate seeing your choice, or are you simply convinced Sarah Palin can't win the next presidential election, even if Obama's popularity has evaporated?
This man is too brilliant to run for elective office. And it is our loss that politics has become such a cesspool that brilliant minds want to avoid it.
“He’s not one of us.” So true and Palin is one of us. She is American through and through. We need her and we want her.
Every Sowell column is a must read. Same for Mark Steyn and Victor Davis Hanson.
Here’s the dirty little secret: The intelligentsia (led by the “Katie” and “Charlie” media sorts) also think that the average American is waaaaaaaaay beneath them. . which oddly seems to keep the average American anxious to be in the same “club” as “Katie” and “Charlie”, who laugh all the way to the bank as they joke about “fat” Joe Six Pak and his wife, Fat Bertha. Real people aren’t in the “in” crowd.
Respecfully disagree. I know one--lifelong Republican, supported/voted for W twice, insurance executive worth millions, big time hunter/gun rights type, anti homo marriage etc--that voted for Obama. He was p*ssed at W and GOP for the spending and politically inattentive to facts, sold on that hopey changey thing. Suffice it to say he now feels like an ass and a fool...
Palin is an attractive and likeable woman for conservatives but with regional limitations for national elections. It doesn't make the liberal parodies and criticisms of her right, but the weaknesses exist. Do you really want Tina Fey deciding another national presidential election?
“I think there may be some people who either say they are or THINK they are, but no conservatives who voted for the Kenyan.” Respecfully disagree. I know one—lifelong Republican”
Sorry...it boggles the mind that a true conservative would have helped throw us into this...beat him for me, will you? Don’t ever miss a chance to tell him he’s an ass...I think unless I was actually in the booth, watching him pull the lever everytime, I would not believe him...impossibly stupid...
. . . and Ronald Reagan was too old.
Deciding someone's guilt or innocence based purely on appearances, before any evidence has been supplied. Yeah, that's the American way of Truth and Justice. [/sarc]
Too bad it seems more are concerned with that appearance rather than what's beneath the surface, rather than the truth, rather than Justice. How the founding fathers must be sickened.
“I think there may be some people who either say they are or THINK they are, but no conservatives who voted for the Kenyan.”
Well said, direct and to the point, thanks
“We lost single women, young women badly. Goes to show women are catty. I knew tons of chicks that wouldn’t vote for her not because of issues— but because they didn’t like her accent or thought she was too bubbly.”
I can attest to that. I know women who just didn’t like her voice. Oh my, how dreadful to be a woman in public office with a strong, unwavering voice!
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