Tell you something I appreciate about Palin — one more thing. In the general election of 2008, the candidates talked a lot about the home-mortgage crisis, as well they should have. And they said how evil Wall Street was — how evil the lenders were. They had hoodwinked the people and all.
But Sarah Palin did something quite unusual — she certainly did this in the vice-presidential debate. She said that the borrowers had a role to play too: something to answer for. Didn’t our parents tell us to live within our means? she said. “We need to make sure that, as individuals, we’re taking personal responsibility through all of this.”
Here is the whole text.
A few days ago, I did a post in which I linked to an article about Sarah Palin. The article was published shortly after Palin was nominated for vice president. My purpose in citing the article was to say something about Palin and Israel. But I noticed something else in the article that I thought I’d bring up here.
In the 2000 presidential cycle, Palin was mayor of Wasilla. And she was formally with . . . whose campaign? Steve Forbes’s. I think that most people think of Palin as a “social conservative,” as indeed she is. But she’s also a raging free-marketeer — in fact, one of the most robust, full-hearted, and full-throated proponents of a free market in American politics today.
Funny that she’s so seldom described this way. Many of the “cool” Republicans disdain her. You know the type of Republican I mean: the type that wants the party to drop abortion and other icky, discomforting issues. But, if entrepreneurial capitalism’s your thing, Palin is your woman, or at least someone to appreciate. She ought to have the appreciation of the entrepreneurially minded everywhere. It’s just that some people can never forgive her for not aborting a Down-syndrome child. Believe me, I know such people (I’m sorry to say).
P.S. I apologize to The Atlantic magazine for the gullible assumption that Palin is actually Trig’s mother. You know how in the tank we are, enchanted by Palin’s winkin’ eyes and can’t-stop comeliness.
P.P.S. Palin is what I’d call a true-blue Reaganite, a Reaganite across the board: a free-marketeer, a social conservative, and a hawk. Beautiful.
‘Jane’ Nordlinger? Mr. Nordlinger has been a rare supporter of Palin, writing from Manhattan, for the last couple of years. He deserves better than that!
Palin has always understood that first and foremost “it’s the economy, stupid”.
Most politicians forget this, and start engaging in sexier policy issues or politics. Not Palin, she’s like a laser on this and always has been as Mayor or Governor, and a more true conservative in the sense of letting the private sector drive growth than any conservative I have known in the recent past, including Daniels (who I like).
< /Wicked sarcasm >
Dang. I read “forbesian” as four-bezian...and thought it was a new kind of lesbian. I got a little exited.
Dude, you are high. Duncan Hunter is so going to kick Sarah’s butt in 2012.
/s
I was always under the impression that Steve Forbes is/was a prolife social conservative.
Meh.
I’m a Misesian.
One of the dizzier complaints I’ve heard anti-Palinists make against her is to compare her to Reagan. They say because Reagan wrote volumes about conservatism in his private letters and Palin didn’t, that somehow disqualifies Palin. Well then, if that were so, every Republican candidate for prez should have written tons of words concerning conservatism. Obviously, the great majority of them haven’t. What a good prez candidate needs is a basic understand of American history, the constitution, free-market economics, and the backbone to stick to principles under fire. These qualities Palin seems to have in spades. The photogenic qualities are an added bonus.
Great post. Palin and Forbes will hopefully do some good work together in the future.