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.
>>Way,way back in the 18th century William Thackery wrote: “Even as the worst enemy of the Irish are the Irish, so to the worst enemy of women are women.”
Wise words, my friend. Wise words.
Re#36 Trust me, he gets grief at every turn. Not just from me but from his whole circle of friends. He has admitted his stupidity but we will hound him to the end of his life. For the children...
“He has admitted his stupidity but we will hound him to the end of his life. For the children...”
Huzzzah! The favorite yell of the Tea Party Patriots. Huzzah! Now, let’s root out the rest of these socialist sympathizers and put them on the right track...
“The intelligentsia (led by the “Katie” and “Charlie” media sorts) also think that the average American is waaaaaaaaay beneath them.”
Only the uneducated and unwashed watch their idiotic “opinion” shows.
The covenants in our neighborhood prevent campaign signs, but we can have flags. Prior to the election, I placed the Flag of Alaska over the garage. Since the election, I see no reason to take it down.
It is my way of saying, "Don't Blame Me, I told you to vote for Sarah!!"
>The only way they could win is through massive fraud.
I for one would NOT mind seeing ACORN workers, poll worker, city, county, and state clerks... anyone who conspires to undermine our election-process as a group, hang.
Let’s make Conspiracy to Commit Voter Fraud a Capital Punishment, with a MANDATORY execution-date of six months after conviction by Jury, barring a successful and completed appeal...
Should we amend it to the Constitution? (I, for one, would LOVE to see the Constitution “Of the People” bite back these traitorous politicians!)
Should we make it immune to Presidential Pardon?
I preferred Fred Thompson, but Sarah Palin is the future.
Ditto.
Why do you post crap like this here? These photos were taken by some slime ball photographer hiding in the bushes with a zoom lens.
The comparison with Reagan is forced. His communication skills, leadership skills, and appeal to “Reagan Democrats” added up to a very different kind of candidate.
To all the posters who think Palin doesn’t have a chance in 2012 you’d better do your homework. You might be surprised. In politics, three and a half years is an eternity. It’s true, she’s been marginalized somewhat and smeared by the mid-stream media but it’s the same liberal media who said Ronald Reagan was a simpleton and never had a shot or the intelligence for the presidency. Even a week or two before the 1980 Election the media still thought Carter would win, then you watch Cronkite and his network cronies on election night scratch their heads and wonder “how the hell did THIS happen?” It’s easy to count Palin out. But it takes courage to stand behind this brilliant but battered woman and make her re-emergence to the national stage a movement — a conservative movement — like we haven’t seen since the 1980s.
Re: “True but she won’t win a national presidential election”
It is amazing that even conservatives don’t seem to understand that there has been no such thing as “republican” since the 17th amendment took effect.
Republican and Democrat are terms use to avoid using descriptive labels for political philosophy. The battle is about whether there is such a thing as individual freedom as opposed to collectivism.
I suspect that if we hang our future on the selling a Vassar accent, Bella Abzug beauty and a Berkley brain, we aren’t gonna get er done!
Ronald Reagan was lampooned as a amiable dunce, Bonzo up past his bedtime, B grade actor, etc. No other president since the civil war has done as much long term good for the country. His reelection was the greatest landslide in the history of the US.
The antipathy of the press and the “trueblood” democrats was just as universal toward Reagan as it is toward Palin. If he had been running in 2008 instead of 1980 it would have been just as vicious.
Everyone who has had any experience with her says Palin is very smart and a quick study. She almost certainly has more knowledge of energy policies than any individual in congress.
We need to first get our heads straight. The country is on the cusp of sliding into the abyss. If the american public can’t be convinced to vote for a conservative candidate who tells the truth, what’s the point of trying to run some “better red than dead” compromise in an attempt to pick off a few wishy-washy socialists (democrats)?
If we try to run a candidate that will be acceptable to the MSM we will lose for sure.
Because who cares what they said. Palin is hot. We all love her. Everybody here loves her. Who cares what TMZ or anybody else has to say about her.
Sowell nails it.
I am so tired of the “elites” in Washington telling me who I should support. THEY are part of the problem.
The election only got interesting when Palin entered the fray. I would have reluctantly pulled the trigger for McCain, but he was wrong on so many issues.
We need someone who understands energy policy and who is not afriad to CUT spending in Washington. Also, someone willing to call this global warming what it is - a hoax and a scheme to raise taxes. On all of these points Palin was way ahead of the other three idiots running. And she was the ONLY one with proven executive experience.
I laugh at the commentators and know-it-alls that keep trying to tell me how bad she would be. They haven’t got a clue about the frustration and anger ordinary Americans have with the runaway Federal government.
Palin 2012
Funny thing TMZ couldn’t identify the “young man” as Todd Palin.
Bears repeating many times over......one reason kids are not taught history, IMO
I know a woman who, ostensibly conservative, voted for Obama because she was convinced that:
A. Both McCain and Obama were likely to not survive their term in office, and hence she wanted a VP with “experience”.
B. Palin should not have been running around campaigning because her kids needed her at home.
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I heard the exact same thing - but by someone who is very young and hasn’t experienced the gradual loss of freedoms those who are older have experienced.
It is my way of saying, “Don’t Blame Me”
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hahahahahahahahahaha....I got to say that today for the first time when someone was complaining. I got to say, “Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for him!”
You comparing Palin to Fey is forced.
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