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Tenacious, perky, smart on stage, Sarah Palin is a rousing political personality
Midland Reporter-Telegram ^ | Thursday April 1, 2010 | Ed Todd

Posted on 04/01/2010 6:08:06 PM PDT by Bigtigermike

Conservative or Liberal, Right or Left, or somewhere in the vast spectrum of gray between Red and Blue, how on Earth could anyone not like - either be inspired by, bemused by, awed by or appalled by - Sarah Palin?

Not only is she an arousing and invigorating political wonder with evangelistic zeal and the moxie and alluring looks of a 46-year-old youthful cheerleader smartly attired, but Sarah Palin is an entertaining and spirited revolutionary yelling for a return to constitutional government and, were it attainable, self-reliance.

That is an image of the spirited Sarah Palin.

Across the nation (and in Midland last week), Sarah Palin is delivering a hellfire message, laced with homey frills and cutesy phraseology, that evokes attention: "You Betcha!" and "How's that 'hopey-changey' thing working out for you?" and "Our government is supposed to be working for us."

Her tone is upbeat and optimistic, though she does lament the nation's woes.

"We've had enough (of big government and big-government spending), and we want to take our country back," she declares to her exuberant audience. Her political rainbow is a "government that allows us to live as we choose" and does "not tell us how to live."

Sarah Palin lights a fiery blaze and holds high the Conservative Torch even if the pathway "back to the Constitution" (and, incidentally, back to the Bible) may be fraught with perils and crossroads brimming with hope.

She doesn't exude the anger or rage of polarizing right-wing conservative commentators and opinion-makers, such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. But in a more light-hearted tone and in plain, coffee-shop language, she bespeaks the certainty of a strategically shrewd Karl Rove and the audacity of a mild-mannered (could it be?) Dick Chaney.

One day last week, Sarah Palin no doubt charmed and aroused a staunch and enthusiastic multitude of West Texans and, especially, diehard conservatives with or without party affiliations. Surely, most were Republicans and Tea Party loyalists and, to boot, a smattering of Independents and, perhaps, a few Democrats who fancy or decry her rhetoric and who critically mull over her preachments to set aright a nation gone astray.

By her rhetoric, upbringing and competitiveness, Sarah Palin is feisty. She is a smartly attired celebrity star often sporting a modified French-braid hairdo. She is emboldened by success, re-routed by failure and eager to "reload" and try again.

Midland's Clayton W. Williams Jr., West Texas rancher, oilman and adventurer who was the Republican Party's 1990 candidate for Texas governor, said Sarah Palin is "presidential material."

Williams, "very impressed" by the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate, said he "liked her wit. I liked her appearance, and I now think she's presidential material. I like her conservative stance. She's definitely got the intelligence and nearly two more years to continue to grow. She's already grown a lot since she was the VP candidate. Her bearing is such that I think she'd make a good president."

Her self-esteem seems intact and booming. As both the literate and unlearned populous surely knows, she is not by disposition a quitter, though she did bow out of the Alaska governorship (2006-2009) to pursue personal and political interests following her bold run for America's vice-presidency in 2008.

One of her favorite poets, Robert Service, the "Bard of the Yukon," penned in the poem "The Quitter":

"It's easy to cry that you're beaten - and die; It's easy to crawfish and crawl; But to fight and to fight when hope's out of sight - Why, that's the best game of them all!

Just have one more try - it's dead easy to die, It's the keeping-on-living that's hard."

Read more: http://www.mywesttexas.com/articles/2010/04/01/news/opinion/columns/ed_todd/ed.txt#ixzz0jtslwGvo


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: elections; military; obama; palin; palin2012; palinlovfest; sarahlovfest; sarahpalin; sarahsavus; texas
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At age 42, she was the youngest person and the first woman elected to the Alaska governorship since Alaska's 1959 statehood. She was the Republican Party's 2008 vice-presidential nominee saddled up with presidential nominee John McCain. Recently, she authored her popular conversational memoirs, "Going Rogue: An American Life," that puts her novel take on "rogue" perhaps to mean daring and individualistic but not derelict.

She was born in 1964 in Idaho and was graduated in 1987 from the University of Idaho with a degree in journalism. She was raised in Alaska. In her hometown of Wasilla, she played basketball and was point guard and co-captain of the 1982 Alaska State Championship girls basketball team, competed in cross-country races, won the Miss Wasilla Pageant in 1984, was the flute-playing Miss Congeniality in the Miss Alaska Pageant, served as Wasilla's mayor and councilwoman before that and chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

She is ambitious. Somewhere in her rise, she was a sportscaster and sports reporter and, all the while, became a seasoned and hardy hunter in a vast and scenic land of moose, caribou and wolves. A seasoned runner, at age 41 in 2005 she completed a marathon (26.2-mile footrace) in Alaska in slightly under four hours - a vigorous pace.

In 1988, she (as Sarah Louise Heath) eloped with her high-school sweetheart, Todd Palin, and, quite active, became a wholehearted "Hockey Mom." Her salmon-fishing and snowmobile ("Iron Dog") racing-champion husband became her devoted helpmate-booster. Born a Roman Catholic and then steeped in Pentecostalism, she is a Bible-believing Christian who advocates her like-minded patriots to cling to their "guns and religion" and, despite political and social obstacles, always ready to "reload" rather than retreat. The Constitution provides for freedom that is the peoples' "God-given right that is worth fighting for."

"I do love Texas. I really do," she declared and lauded the Texas twin-energy bonanza and economic elixir - oil and gas.

Delighting her admirers, she cited the Lone Star State's hospitality, found a kindred spirit in Rick Perry, the Texas governor, and extolled "the bravery of the American men and women," especially the wounded and fallen, who are fighting for freedom's cause.

"She's sharp as hell," said Midland investor Tom Sloan, apparently somewhat smitten by this "good, God-fearing lady. Anybody who sits down with her will like her, whether you happen to agree with her or not. I guarantee you: If she runs for president, I will vote for her. She's very conservative and very, very intelligent." Furthermore, "Nobody is going to push her around."

While he noted that he "doesn't know enough to comment about her," retired Midland sports editor Ted Battles said, "All I know, she made quite a splash when she came to Midland."

Last year, Midland ranchers T. O. Midkiff and wife Carol Ann Midkiff invited Sarah Palin and her husband to join them and friends in their annual September Dove Hunt around the Midkiff community southeast of Midland. They couldn't make it. Sarah Palin personally wrote Carol Ann Midkiff, who penned the invitation, and said "I loved the invitation . . . . Thank you so much for thinking of us. All the best . . . . God bless."

"She is the most common-sense person we've had around Washington or anywhere else in a long time," T.O. Midkiff said. "She speaks and talks sense. And she's not hard to look at, either."

His wife agreed with him, saying that Sarah Palin delivered "a wonderful speech" in Midland without benefit of a teleprompter, was "darling with the little children" in a question-and-answer session, and "she has pretty legs." In fact, Carol Ann Midkiff said Sarah Palin is "pretty (all over)."

Connie Harris, who organized a group of youthful "cheerleaders" sporting pink "Palin Event Staff" T-shirts in Midland, characterized Sarah Palin as "fresh" and particularly found her appealing as a "mom."

Sarah Palin's appeal to America is in "her logical, common-sense approach, her viewpoint and her genuinely natural sincerity," said Denise Kelly, conservative Republican stalwart. "She is an encourager and an optimistic problem-solver who has a gift for spreading the conservative message."

Vivacious and personable, Sarah Palin stokes her popularity by staging herself, a one-act political vaudevillian and pacemaker, with grit and flair.

1 posted on 04/01/2010 6:08:07 PM PDT by Bigtigermike
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To: Bigtigermike

Next RNC chairman?


2 posted on 04/01/2010 6:11:47 PM PDT by doc1019
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To: Bigtigermike

She’s turned a lot of conservatives off by helping McPain in the Neck. Is she still at it? Not helping herself or the America we always thought she loves.


3 posted on 04/01/2010 6:13:00 PM PDT by Jim W N
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To: doc1019

New President.


4 posted on 04/01/2010 6:13:25 PM PDT by presently no screen name
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To: Bigtigermike
Perky?

Hahahahaha...not a word I have ever associated with Sarah Palin...Katie Trainwreck is PERKY...this woman is formidable...PERKY?

Bartender, I'll have what he's having....

5 posted on 04/01/2010 6:13:26 PM PDT by jessduntno ( If someone calls me racist, I reply "you are just saying that because I'm white!")
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To: Jim 0216

Please!!!! Even the newspapers in Arizona noted that most of the people there were there to see her not McCain, they couldn’t care less about him and until People stop paying money to see her across this country then you might have a say.....BTW I won’t allow this thread to be hijacked about McCain.


6 posted on 04/01/2010 6:17:36 PM PDT by Bigtigermike (Loose lips sink ships, stay away RINO's)
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To: Bigtigermike

Wait a minute - is she out there campaigning for McCain or not?


7 posted on 04/01/2010 6:19:40 PM PDT by Jim W N
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To: jessduntno

Yes, Sarah Palin is perky!! In the same way that a Zodiac Grizzly is “perky”!!!


8 posted on 04/01/2010 6:21:06 PM PDT by SoldierDad (Proud Papa of two new Army Brats! Congrats to my Soldier son and his wife.)
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To: jessduntno

I’m not sure what you’re talking about but whatever it is it’s kind of funny...


9 posted on 04/01/2010 6:21:45 PM PDT by Jim W N
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To: doc1019

She’d probably do much better in that capacity than Steele. And she’d have to really TRY to do worse.


10 posted on 04/01/2010 6:22:05 PM PDT by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (Progressives are everything they accuse their opponents of being.)
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To: Jim 0216

geesh....grow up...she had NO choice but to be loyal to McPain.


11 posted on 04/01/2010 6:22:43 PM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion,,,,,,the Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: presently no screen name

As an “A” type personality, she has to have something to do until 2012. I think she would make a great RNC leader; she would control the fiscal part of the group (proven by her track record in Alaska) and be a super motivator for Republicans in general.


12 posted on 04/01/2010 6:24:26 PM PDT by doc1019
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To: Bigtigermike

Great article. There isn’t much Sarah can’t do.


13 posted on 04/01/2010 6:26:32 PM PDT by rae4palin (RESIST--REPEAL--IMPEACH)
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To: Bigtigermike

Well, I’ll not nitpick with Ed Todd. Finally an article that sounds like the real Sarah Palin.


14 posted on 04/01/2010 6:26:39 PM PDT by Navy Patriot (Sarah and the Conservatives will rock your world.)
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To: doc1019

She already has a job, almost everyday of this month

April 6 - Las Vegas, NV - Keynote speaker, 2010 Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America Convention
April 7 - Minnesota - Campaigning for Congresswoman Michele Bachmann
*April 9- New Orleans- Southern Republican Leadership Conference
April 14 - Boston, MA - Stop on The Tea Party Express
April 15 - Hamilton, ON - Charity of Hope
April 16 - Louisville, KY - Women Of Joy
April 22 - Houston, TX - Barbara Bush’s Literacy
Foundation’s “A Celebration of Reading”
April 23 - Eugene, OR - Lane County Republican Party
Fundraiser
April 29 - Austin, TX - Majella Society: An Evening With
Sarah Palin
April 30 - Dallas, TX - An Evening With Sarah Palin by
Palin 4 Life


15 posted on 04/01/2010 6:26:48 PM PDT by Bigtigermike (Loose lips sink ships, stay away RINO's)
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To: Jim 0216

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about but whatever it is it’s kind of funny...”

I been getting that a lot lately...I’m gonna have to stop posting drunk...but it won’t be anywhere near as much fun.


16 posted on 04/01/2010 6:29:04 PM PDT by jessduntno ( If someone calls me racist, I reply "you are just saying that because I'm white!")
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To: Jim 0216
She’s turned a lot of conservatives off by helping McPain in the Neck. Is she still at it? Not helping herself or the America we always thought she loves.

Not those with wisdom and experience, which includes Rush, Jim Robinson, and a whole lot of other wise conservatives.

17 posted on 04/01/2010 6:29:07 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle (Overproduction, one of the top five worries of the American Farmer each and every year..)
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To: Bigtigermike

Then why not do them in the name of the RNC as its chairman? Get rid of Steel and put someone in charge that knows what they are doing. Someone that would hold the leadership of the RNC accountable. ;-)


18 posted on 04/01/2010 6:31:32 PM PDT by doc1019
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To: doc1019
be a super motivator for Republicans in general.

I agree. You bring up a another good point - fiscal responsibility.

But she would need to travel alot - is the downfall, IMO.

But Mr. Steele has to go!
19 posted on 04/01/2010 6:32:29 PM PDT by presently no screen name
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To: Bigtigermike

She’s living out of a suitcase. Not sure how she does it.


20 posted on 04/01/2010 6:34:47 PM PDT by presently no screen name
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