She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It

NY Times ^ | July 11, 2009 | FRANK RICH

[skimbell]

SARAH PALIN and Al Sharpton don’t ordinarily have much in common, but they achieved a rare harmonic convergence at Michael Jackson’s memorial service. When Sharpton told the singer’s children it was their daddy’s adversaries, not their daddy, who were “strange,” he was channeling the pugnacious argument the Alaska governor had made the week before. There was nothing strange about her decision to quit in midterm, Palin told America. What’s strange — or “insane,” in her lingo — are the critics who dare question her erratic behavior on the national stage...

[Arkinsaw]

Geez! The Left just will not quit on Palin.

And that will be their downfall. The American people have always liked underdogs. The American people do not like someone being ganged up on. The American people side with who they see as victims.

We witnessed this ourselves. Our efforts against Bill Clinton turned at some point and went over the top and the American people decided to give him a pass.

The media went after Ronald Reagan as an "evil moron". They portrayed him as just a stupid actor...dangerous...warmonger. It backfired on them because they overdid it.

They are overdoing their attacks on Palin....bigger than ever.....and will be perceived as the hateful piranha.

[Moonman62]

I believe it was the McCain crowd that broke the GOP.

It was the Bush Dynasty and its allies.

[dforest]

I agree with that.

[BilLies]

I'd call Rich a A..hole but I know he would take it as a compliment.

[Yorlik803]

Sarah...if you aint taking flak...then you aint over the target.
Sarah must be hitting them where it hurts with all the lead they are throwing at her.

[don-o]

Ankle biter alert ping

Its voice can be found in the postings at a Web site maintained by the fans of Mark Levin, the Obama hater who is, at this writing, the No.2 best-selling hardcover nonfiction writer in America. (Glenn Beck is No.1 in paperback nonfiction.) Politico surveyed them last week. “Bottomline, do you know of any way we can remove these idiots before this country goes down the crapper?” wrote one Levin fan. “I WILL HELP!!! Should I buy a gun?” Another called for a new American revolution, promising “there will be blood.”

[Arkinsaw]

Sarah...if you aint taking flak...then you aint over the target. Sarah must be hitting them where it hurts with all the lead they are throwing at her.

Oh yeah, she is the same danger that Reagan was. She hits them on so many levels.

[Aevery_Freeman]

I have to disagree. This game, DEM v. GOP, is being played on a field that is muddy, bloody and the lines blurred to meaninglessness. That field is our nation, the homes, lives and fortunes of We the People.

The lack of standards by one side does not preclude the other from holding to theirs or our Churches would not exist.

No, we must hold ourselves to those higher standards even in the face of overwhelming evil or lose ourselves even in victory.

Keep the faith, my friend, we are in good company.

[Fudd Fan]

Well put!!

[Doc Savage]

It’s just Frank’s penis and balls envy! She’s gott’em and HE DON’T!

[RichInOC]

Frank...

1. Sarah Palin may own the GOP, but
2. She didn’t break it. It may be broken, but not by her.
3. Just because I posted the Colin Powell quote on one of your recent columns doesn’t mean it was a good idea to crib it for this column. Especially not if you’re going to use it badly.
4. This column is just another exhibit in evidence that the Times should have left you as the theater critic, where you at least had a clue what you were doing.

[Jack Black]

Except that structurally our system favors, and will always return to two parties. It is a function of “winner take all elections”. So, unless we go to a parliment the parties may change (the Dems as the party of Jim Crow in the 1950s is now the party of most blacks).

The real question is what is the Republican Party morphing into. The Dems have completed their metamophosis into the party of Socialism, Fascism, Propaganda, Internationalism, Group Rights and Class Envy.

[tet68]

The Dems have completed their metamophosis into the party of Socialism, Fascism, Propaganda, Internationalism, Group Rights and Class Envy.

Propaganda, group rights and Class envy and warfare are
tactics, Fascism is an offshoot of socialism so what we
are left with is the democrats are the party of
International Socialism.

[sloane]

The only thing i like about Palin is that she's good fodder for Tina Fey. But this Op-Ed is typical of why I rarely find Op-Eds worth reading--vague criticisms and ranting and ravings instead of analysis or insight. I like how the title has hardly anything to do with the roving content of the article. And the Republican party had plenty of pre-existing problems. I hardly think that Palin can be considered to have broken it. And while it may be clever to title an article with a nod to the saying "you broke it you buy it," buying has nothing to do with anything here. The title is a mess and indicative of what follows. John Tantillo is a branding expert and does a weekly brand winner/loser post on his blog. In last week's post, he named political pundits the 'brand loser' for being out of touch, predicting their decline as they listen "to their own little echo chamber"--and named Palin the brand winner, explaining that it is entirely consistent with her personal brand, and thus actually positions her for a future in politics if she should want one. In resigning, she stood behind her own family values (as her family was being dragged through the mud by the media) and her stance against waste (as she was watching millions of AK $s be spent on frivolous investigations). Full post.

[Clemenza]

Frank Rich is more “European” in his thinking than Sarah Palin.

[dead]

That resentment is in part about race, of course. When Palin referred to Alaska as “a microcosm of America” during the 2008 campaign, it was in defiance of the statistical reality that her state’s tiny black and Hispanic populations are unrepresentative of her nation. She stood for the “real America,” she insisted, and the identity of the unreal America didn’t have to be stated explicitly for audiences to catch her drift. Her convention speech’s signature line was a deftly coded putdown of her presumably shiftless big-city opponent: “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”

Perhaps, the "microcosm of America" comment rang true to Palin and those listening because they do not share the left's pathetic obsession with race. It's irrelevant to the statement, unless race is the sole attribute by which you categorize "Americans" and, by extension, humanity as a whole. Most "normal Americans" don't share that peculiar leftist fixation.

If you have no history of racism - no racist writings, speeches, or even anecdotes from strangers about racist tendencies - leftist slimeballs like this theater critic will discover "coded speech" wherein his ears can hear the magic racist words unsaid.

A disgraceful article, now officially declaring Palin and her supporters "racist" with ABSOLUTELY no evidence to back up the claim.

Frank Rich is unrepentant serial rapist, by the way. It's obvious from the coded language in this poorly written screed.