In the Grand Tradition of Jefferson & Reagan
This whole thread smells like a ‘come and attack me Palin supporters. See how you are?’ setup.
That sounds rather Obama-esque or Clintonian.
Bump for later reading
One was born here?
Ask Jim before he ZOTs your post...
1. Who cares what the MSM label her? They labeled Bush everything negative under the sun and he won two terms.
2. The real role of the MSM label-mongers is to confuse the weak minded or the apathetic, and they're pretty effective at that. Otherwise, liberals would be something we once heard of but can't remember what they were.
2. Palin’s conservatism is real, unlike Bush's. MSM Labels don't phase me. But her endorsement of Rick Perry here in Texas is pretty confusing.
The adulation of Obama was based, in large part, on the notion that HE was going to solve the problems faced by people. HE was going to pay their mortgage - HE was going to lower gas prices - HE was going to pay for their healthcare. It wasn't so much that people agreed with his specific proposals, other than HE was going to take care of them.
The enthusiasm for Palin, on the other hand, is based in large part on her stand on issues. She's NOT going to pay my mortgage, but she does favor the free-market. She's NOT going to lower my gas prices, but she does favor drill here/drill now. She's NOT going to pay for my healthcare, but she's is going to make sure we don't have nationalized care.
Big distinction between the candidate as savior and the candidate as a philisophically-based leader.
Poke a pitbull in the eye and expect to get bitten.
She has stated her support for:
This is the qualitative difference between her and any of the other Republican candidates to grace the national stage in recent years. They pretend to be American on one or two issues. The Democrats don't even pretend to be for America.
She is pro-American. They are anti-American globalists of various sorts. It is that simple.
Duncan Hunter could not get it done. Fred Thompson could not get it done.
And then McCain, quite unintentionally, unleashes the previously unknown Palin upon the political scene. She takes the Conservative movement by storm, but in so doing brings down the worst sort of smears and vicious attacks upon herself and her family, not only from libs, but also from within the corrupt GOP. No one was there to help her, as she was bottled up in Alaska and on her own for all intents and purposes.
Now that she has freed herself from the trap and is about to launch a Nationwide Conservative campaign, we are rallying around her. But there are those like you, Bob, who are deriding our support as "blind worship."
Needless to say, I find it reprehensible and even incredible that there are people on this board who not only doubt her, but are completely willing to trash her in favor of the same ol' RINO fare we've been force-fed over the years.
It is now my firm opinion that there are a bunch of damned hypocrites on this board who are all mouth and no gumption. You've been pining away for years for a Conservative who you can rally around. Now that we've got one, you not only run away from her, but you also sneer at those of us who are lining up behind her.
Screw you all, I say!
Pull you head out, Bob.
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.
To summarize baseball legend Reggie Jackson: nobody boos a nobody. That is definitely true in the case of Governor Sarah Palin. I don’t think I am going out on a limb here when I speculate that individuals who repeatedly attack her anonymously view her as a threat. And that includes members of the media hell-bent tearing down young Republican up-and-comers as well as some in Governor Palin’s own party — a party desperately in need of redefining — who are motivated, for whatever reason, to try and crush their rivals.
The most recent and grossly unfair attack came from Vanity Fair magazine. The writer clearly had an unshakable point of view from the start and talked only to those who would criticize. For example, he personally asked me at event preceding the White House Correspondents Dinner if I would talk to him about Governor Palin. I agreed. He didn’t call. He didn’t email. He never once tried to get my take. I also know he never contacted campaign manager Rick Davis, or John McCain.
I have known many political leaders over four decades including all Republican presidents and VPs. I have come to know Sarah Palin over the past year and can state unequivocally that she is smart, curious, hard working, charming, and effective. She also has something her detractors clearly lack – a sense of honor and loyalty.
I know this is petty, but it reminds me of the 2004 presidential election where it was commonplace and accepted in much of the mainstream media to call President Bush stupid and Senator Kerry smart and insightful. At the end of the day, when Senator Kerry finally released his college transcripts, wouldn’t you know: he did quite a bit worse than President Bush.
I have seen Sarah up close with leading heavyweights, and have seen her hold her own and then some. At the dinner at my home referenced in the article, she engaged comfortably and deeply with people ranging from Alan Greenspan to Madeleine Albright to Mitch McConnell. She asked for a foreign policy discussion on her June 7 trip to Washington, and I saw her engage in an informed and spirited manner with Frank Carlucci.
Governor Palin has many admirers and defenders out there who will not allow her to be branded by jealous rivals with their own agenda and the elitists in the national media. I am not sure who the unnamed Vanity Fair sources are, but without question they lack chivalry and have acted in a craven manner. They also lack the facts. I am ashamed of my former campaign colleagues, whoever they are.
Conservative Snobs Are Wrong About Palin
I know Maggie Thatcher. The two women have a lot in common.
The republican party is full of petty leaders each representing a different coalition, each trying to become top dog. Enough already.
When we find a charismatic, well-spoken leader representing the right ideas, we should COMMIT to that person, and demand that the bickering cease over who is the real leader.
That’s what Palin represents...a leader...THE candidate. Now, on to organizing around that leader.
The would-be leaders — McCain, Huckabee, Romney, etc. — risk becoming anklebiters and baggage, unless they put advancing ideas first, and advancing careers second. Palin has shown her willingness to put career second by leaving office. Do other would-be leaders have the courage to step down from their own positions, and put trust in their ability to attract a following on a shoestring? (They haven’t, should, but never will.)
What is the dollar value of a candidate’s ability to spontaneously attract a national movement? Priceless. Romney hasn’t got enough money ; neither has any other conservative would-be candidate, with or without GOP help.
From another thread today:
EXCLUSIVE: Palin to stump for conservative Democrats
There are NO conservative Democrats! Wake up folks!
What we got:
If the Republican Party can’t do any better than that quitter, we’re really in trouble. When the going gets tough the tough get going. HAHA
The writer of the article puts it well. But a mother of a still growing family doing what is best for her family does not go along with being a serious candidate for POTUS. Both are full time jobs.