Palin still an easy target

EVERYONE is piling on Sarah Palin, even though she will never be president of the United States.

The Alaska governor is everyone's favorite foil, from the left-wing Huffington Post to the ever-posturing Mitt Romney. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee who cynically chose her as his running mate, now snubs her with relish.

They all act like she has a real chance to win the White House, when they all know the truth. When it comes to be taken seriously by the general electorate as a potential president, it's as over for her as it was for Dan Quayle.

Quayle was doomed even after he served four years as vice president. He was the proverbial heartbeat away from the first President Bush, but could never overcome the perception that he lacked gravitas.

Palin only ran for vice president; she never made it from Wasilla to Washington. And her political problem is bigger than Quayle's, because it extends to her family.

Think about the picture-perfect Obama family, from adorable First Daughters to adorable First Puppy. And speaking of adorable, what is more adorable than the president and his wife strolling hand-in-hand around the White House grounds after a Saturday night date? Their family image is managed expertly by the White House with help from the media.

Palin's family portrait is much more complicated and gritty. In some ways, it is more reflective of the reality of American family life. But it brings baggage that is especially difficult for a female candidate to overcome.

Funny thing about all these hit pieces on Palin. When someone like this says she hasn’t got a chance it has an odd effect on me. The more I hear she hasn’t got a chance and it would be a mistake for her to run- I consider the source and the more I think she could be the right candidate. After all these folks don’t want conservatives to win, we should likely do the opposite of what they recommend.

In all seriousness I think her biggest hurdle would be the early primaries- if something is not done ahead of time to help her out at the start she will be dead in the water, as will any conservative candidate. For starters anyone that wants her or any conservative to become the candidate should be working their tail off right now to close as many primaries as they possibly can. Many Republicans are liberal enough- we sure don’t need dims voting for our candidates.

She is popular because she speaks right to the people and gets right to the heart of the subject without the beating around the bush that most politicians do. That is what she has in common with Reagan. Another thing she has in common with Reagan is optimism and the optimism is contagious to the voters. It is a gift and can draw votes; it also draws attacks. Reagan was severely attacked by the media, but their attacks rolled off his back like a water shed and he kept talking directly to the people about the things they were concerned about.

The GOP didn’t want Reagan to begin with either- think back to his run against Ford, the party wanted Ford and though Reagan did well he lost. Reagan had attracted enough interest from the people to come back strong against Carter. The people wanted him, the party not so much in the beginning. The GOP was headed moderate/left at the time and he changed direction back to the right. Party leaders of the GOP have for years been to the left of the voters- it is just more obvious now because the divide is wider than ever.

Reagan also had the element of timing when he faced Carter- people were fed up with Carter; even many dims wanted to get rid of him. Whether it be Sarah or someone else I think they will have the element of timing on their side- I don’t think folks will be enchanted with Obama very long.

"Not One of Us"
Thomas Sowell
Wednesday, February 25, 2009

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 Governor 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.

Governor 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 Sarah Palin has. Joe Biden has had decades of experience in being both consistently wrong and consistently a source of asinine statements.

Governor Palin's candidacy for the vice presidency was what galvanized grass roots 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 Governor Sarah Palin provokes today.

Before the first trial of Alger 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.

Governor 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 Governor 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.

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