Posted on 04/19/2010 5:52:15 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Sarah Palin, 55 percent unfavorable poll ratings notwithstanding, is a political phenomenon the likes of which American public life rarely has seen. There's something distinctive, something deeply personal, about the way her legions of strong supporters rush not just to defend her but to counter-attack any and all of her critics. Palin has a way of establishing a sense of connectedness with her backers -- such a strong, attitudinal sense that she is not just like them but one of them -- that she has created what amounts to a one-woman, conservative "identity politics" writ very, very large.
Yet if conservatives are to continue a political love affair with this admirable and galvanizing woman, we need to insist on more than mere identity. And more than mere attitude.
We know that Sarah Palin shares our conservative values. But is she the leader conservatives need?
IN HER RECENTLY RELEASED memoir, Going Rogue, Palin tells a story about how she approached the first state budget she handled as governor. It sounds like something right out of the 1993 Kevin Kline movie, Dave, except that Palin's tale is fact instead of fiction.
We worked late into the night with the warm midnight sun still pouring through my office windows....Pens in hand, we combed through the budget, line by line, page by page -- my inner nerd coming out again, just like Wasilla City Council days....I had to know what was in there, or I wasn't doing my job. We spent days trying to decipher who put in what and why. Late one night, I looked up from the table and asked our veteran staffers, "What did past governors do? How did they get through these budgets with so little detail?" "They didn't," was the response.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
So is John Paul Stevens.
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stevens - thirty five years on the SCOTUS, retired at age ninety.
palin - two years as governor - quit at age 45.
Yep, there's a comparison you want to make...good job.
You make no sense. I’m sure you need some time to think about it so please, take your time.
Who did more good for their state and/or the nation during their tenure? Stevens or Palin?
Be honest.
Frankly Palin accomplished more in 2 years than most governors achieve in 20.
“Sarah Palin, 55 percent unfavorable poll ratings”
Fine, who else is there? And the first idiot that says Romney or Huckafraud ought to be dipped in an open sewer.
Sorry, you have slipped off the “in-touch-with-reality” table with that one. Have a nice life and I really hope you find your way back.
Go back and read the post to which I replied...
Have fun shilling for Romney.
one man’s quitting is another man’s deployment/remaneuver of forces.
however, the same as I don’t understand Obama refusing to reveal his original birth certificate, I don’t understand your stating which politician under consideration as a potential candidate for president best represents your positions.
JohnnyM, I completely agree with you that GWbush had some good points and some real victories.
I’m honest with him as I’m honest with Palin. In my opinion, she’s engaged in a strategic maneuvering of forces, and anyone who doesn’t admit that possibility is simply being obstinate for personal political reasons.
Marlowe, I notice these folks refuse to declare themselves.
As for me, I am a Duncan Hunter supporter. What about you?
My list would include Palin. We’ll see if her gambit pays off.
Romney is a liberal: gay supporting, abortion supporting, and actually fiscally wishy-washy.
DeMint seems a real conservative.
I doubt that Sarah Palin will be the 2012 nominee, but then I certainly won't put it past her. The MSM treated GWB with the same kind of contempt that they show Sarah Palin and GWB managed to get elected to the presidency .... twice!
GWB was portrayed as stupid an naive and unqualified for the job. But then GWB's transcripts revealed that he was a better student than Al Gore or John Kerry, but that never got reported.
If they say Sarah Palin is stupid, then I'm sure she will trot out her transcripts and request that they be compared to Obama's. But then those records might just reveal who paid for Obama's education and how a second rate student managed to not only get into Harvard with no visible means of support, but to become editor of the Law Review without publishing a single page of legal writing.
Oh, but then if we compare Sarah Palin to Obama all we are doing is damning her with faint praise. Baloney. She was THE MOST QUALIFIED CANDIDATE on the ballot in either party in the last presidential election.
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I don't think anybody here doesn't admit that possibility. There are more than a couple of us who do not believe that this is her plan. I for one do not think she will run.
That said, if she does run then I think that her 'strategic maneuvering of forces', by which, I think you mean her resignation, was a mistake that would make such run futile.
As for declaring whom I would support, that is a parlor game until a field has actually declared. When we know what our options are I will do my homework, make a decision, announce it here and defend it in detail. Until then anybody is free to make whatever assumptions they like.
He should have stayed in Congress. He's off the radar right now so his chances are slim. He would make a great president and if we had the old electoral college system in place in 2012, he very well might have been the candidate. But with direct elections of the president, you have to be in the limelight going into the election cycle and Hunter just isn't there. In fact, I don't have any idea where he is right now.
The last few democratic candidates haven’t measured up.
Gore and Kerry both had worse board scores and academic experiences as did GW Bush. Gore actually flunked out of Vanderbilt grad program.
Obama refuses to release his transcripts, scores, birth certificate, early supporters, etc. He didn’t serve in the military, he had no executive experience whatsoever, and he is protected behind a teleprompter.
Everything about Palin is open.
Romney finished his term as Governor and managed to single-handedly steer the ship of state directly into an iceberg.
Palin left Alaska in a lot better shape than it was when she went in.
End of story.
If here resignation were a strategic move, then it would have had to include a number of steps to enable a run for the presidency.
Step 1 would have been to acquire financial resources and backers. She appears to be doing that in spades.
In terms of message, Hunter & DeMint and Palin are on my radar screen.
I would love to return to the Founders’ electoral system.
Parties, as Washington predicted, have ruined the nation.
17 year old girls get pregnant everyday. It should never have been a big deal. Thats just rational thinking, not naive..
You are right in a way.
When some one makes an anti Palin argument. They turn themselves into target practice. And we take our wrath and spite for the MSM out on them with no mercy.
It is like being an American League pitcher. Because of the DH, you can’t throw at your intended target pitcher. So you just throw at anyone who steps in the box with a bat.
Step 1 would have been to acquire financial resources and backers. She appears to be doing that in spades.
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As I wrote above there is that possibility, especially given the way she endorses and defends the RINO establishment.
Here, however, is how it would end...
Televised debate question; "Mrs. Palin, we know what it took to get you to quit as governor, what would it take to get you to quit as President?"
It would be naive in the extreme to doubt that they would use this over and over. It would become their mantra, supported by the MSM in all its forms and recurring SNL Tina Fey skits of Palin taking her ball and going home.
There is a segment of the voting population to whom the issue is moot. That segment is a small slice of the 140 million or so Americans who will decide if it's relevent and defining. I know many small 'c' conservatives who have never voted any way but GOP. This issue is a deal killer for them. I would think that the same would hold true for Reagan democrats and independents.
So, imo, no matter how much money she can get her hands on as a result of walking away in Alaska, doing so was an egregiously ill-advised step vis a vis national office viability.
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