“It has nothing to do with personalities. What is at stake is the most important non-negotiable principles upon which our republic and our liberty rest.”
It does, in fact, have to do with principles. I couldn’t agree more. In many ways, this feels like our last campaign.
I understand you are talking about global principles, conservative principles, but the gifted leader must carry them personally.
I have not seen anyone with this much courage and commitment to stated personal and political beliefs in my adult life...which now spans many years. I hope I am right...if not, I don’t think I would recover from the disappointment...the shock of the miserable performance of the last candidate will be with me for a long time.
I am sure she has foibles, I am sure she has flaws, but I will not believe she is not true at heart, that she is not just who I think she is. I may be let down or disappointed by her, but I doubt sincerely that I will be surprised. I can’t think of a better starting point. Or a more bitter ending for us all, if we are wrong. I think we are at that point in history exactly...2-3 or more SCOTUS appointments in the next two terms on top of the disastrous handling of the economy so far will put the next POTUS in no less a difficult position than one could possibly imagine.
I can’t think of anything that could have reassured me more than for her to withdraw from the petty politics and the quagmire in which she found herself. I think she will become whatever we allow her to be, that she has the ability to be our rock, that she has that much potential.
Just my opinion.
Mrs Palin is an amazing woman, and she has tremendous potential to become NOT the second coming of Reagan, but rather the first coming of Palin (every era needs its hero, and while Reagan was great, it may soon be time for Palin to come to the fore and lead the nation).
HOWEVER, I am troubled by what appears, to me at least, like some level of Palin worship has been going on here on FR. If not worship outright, then at the very LEAST the insinuation that Mrs Palin is infallible, she can do no wrong, and any one who does not recognize that fact is a Leftist aggitator. Where Mrs Palin makes a decision (e.g. resigning from her post), and before she even says why she did so people are already saying what a great master-stratagem that was (it probably is a terrific master-move from Palin that will ensure she garners the Big Seat come 2012, or it could simply be she wants to step down from the limelight and spend time with her family! I would personally rather wait and hear from Mrs Palin herself rather than people who probably have only seen her on TV, and read about her from other commentators).
Do I doubt that she is capable to be president ...yes, more than anyone I can think of right now. Do I doubt her integrity ...not one bit, and I admire someone who will look you square in the eye and say the darn truth for a change!
However, we are becoming like some of those people on DU who will swarm over anyone saying anything negative about Hugo Chavez. Where someone's personality eclipses other issues at hand.
I know we have a dearth of people who can be president (and win), and that makes Mrs Palin even greater for us because the other people are either too compromised (RINOs like McCain ...actually McCain is not a RINO ...he is a DUC - a democrat under cover ...and quacking all over), too emotionally-saitized (e.g. Bobby Jindal ...nice guy, true conservative, could stop a world war simply by talking the fighting forces to sleep), or apparently or actually hypocritical (e.g certain conservatives who preach the Bible but fly to Argentina for explicitly non-Bible purposes). With such a situation, Palin becomes even more important, and it is easy to understand why.
It is just that reading some threads on FR regarding Mrs Palin, and some threads of DUmmie land on Hugo Chavez, brings very close parallels that in some aspects are exactly the same, apart from the posters and their subject. Rather than overriding issues, it is instead more of the personality and the hope. While for Mrs Palin that may not necessarily be a bad thing - as I mentioned I think by 2012 she could be an amazing leader and president - it does induce myopia where all people see is Palin, and not other people who are still unknown as of now but could be even better come then. People have already corronated Palin, which is ironic considering how we were saying the same thing had happened to a certain person with the last name of Obama.
That myopia not only makes other potential candidates (and I am NOT talking about people like Huxy et al ...please!) invisible, but it also opens people up to disappointment! Think of Bobby Jindal ...he was not on my radar until a time came when every other fifth thread was about him, and how he is this and that. Well, he seems to be a true conservative, and his heritage would have tapped people who may have thought Conservatism is for old white people. Then he spoke on TV, and I immediately knew that he would never be able to win a debate, even at the VP level. Soon after that his movement on FR fizzled up.
Anyways, I like Mrs Palin, but I think that has to be a decision that each Conservative makes for him/herself, and that is based on a critical and careful assessment of what the Party needs in terms of direction and leadership, what the Country needs in terms of defense and economy and a dozen other issues, whether the person in question can deliver on that and a whole other issues, and deliver while receiving hellish amounts of attack from all sides (I will always respect President and Mr Bush for his resilience in what must have been quite hard for him ...I was not always with him from an economic point of view, and some of this actions were honestly Liberal, but he was a strong president on defence, and a man of such integrity in the face of withering fire that my respect for him on that front couldn't be higher ...Mrs Palin NEEDS to be able to withstand the same), and at the same time keeping an eye out for any other candidate, even if none is apparent now, who may be able to deliver in a better way.
I have the highest hopes for Mrs Palin, and if what she did was a master-stratagem then she will be, as mentioned, the first coming of Palin rather than the second of Reagan. She would be head to head with Mr Reagan and Mrs Thatcher ...easily. Even though I cannot vote (not a citizen) I feel that she would be an amazing candidate, and she is a breath of air in a party, and a country, that seriously needs to get its second wind. However, there has been a spot of Hugo Chaveism going on with regards to support for her, and while she may be all she is said to be and a can of fried beans, it does expose one to risk and myopia. If she is as great as I think she may be, then she will rise up to the top anyways.
Flame away.