Posted on 06/23/2011 1:36:36 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A governor who’s self-centered, self-consumed, ill-informed about and disengaged in the state’s affairs. An elected head of state who would avoid important meetings with the budget director by hiding in the bathroom. A governor who would spend eight hours or less in the office, staying home or attending events rather than focusing on the state’s business.
That’s exactly how Robert Greenlee, Rod Blagojevich’s deputy governor, described his former boss.
And it’s exactly what most Americans expected 24,000 pages of personal and business emails to reveal about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Obsessive news hounds scrounged through pages and pages, looking for damning information that could wipe the outspoken conservative from America’s political scene.
What they found, though not so widely publicized, was the inner workings of an efficient, informed and very involved governor that mounted an unprecedented 80 plus approval rating while in office. The people of Alaska loved her and appreciated her backbone and focus on making their state a better place.
Such a contrast to Blago.
Soon after Palin entered the national political scene as Arizona Sen. John McCain’s GOP running mate, she was attacked as a diva, a clothes hog, an irresponsible mother and a political mercenary. National broadcasts showed her as being inept and ignorant. At the same time, they dismissed what she achieved as mayor of her hometown, commissioner of the state’s oil and pipeline board and governor of America’s largest state.
Palin was called vile names. She was accused of not being the mother of her youngest son, Trig. She was blamed for her children’s misbehavior.
Indeed, few, if any, political women in our day have been slandered, ridiculed and lied about more than Sarah Palin. And that’s why director Stephen K. Bannon teamed up with producer Dan Fleuette to make “The Undefeated,” a documentary about Palin’s accomplishments in Alaska.
Last weekend in Minneapolis, Bannon was on hand to introduce his latest project to conservative writers from throughout the nation.
“We wanted to hit the reset button on Governor Palin’s perception,” Bannon said at the screening, which I was fortunate enough to attend. “We thought the story had enough substance that if we could present in a dramatic fashion what she’d accomplished, people would understand her better.”
Even though the version shown Friday night was “raw,” Bannon said he was pleased his project was having the effect his team had hoped for.
“Some writers confessed they had started to buy some of the mainstream media’s perception,” he said. “I come from a Reagan Democrat family, but I believe in the basic fairness of the American public. After seeing the film, even people that don’t like Governor Palin’s politics can understand she’s a woman of substance. More appreciate how she’s accomplished what she has, coming from a family of blue-collar workers and teachers.”
Bannon said the Palins had nothing to do with the film’s production and had no say in editing.
“The Undefeated” is rolling out over the next few weeks in early presidential primary states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. On July 15, AMC theatres will be showing the film in limited areas. So far, the film’s not scheduled to be shown in Illinois.
The first several minutes of the film quickly review talk show hosts and news commentators referring to Palin in crass and vulgar terms never used by opponents of Hillary Clinton or Geraldine Ferraro. Then the film moves towards an in-depth review of Palin’s battles against party insiders, oil company executives and Democratic foes.
Controversial media activist Andrew Breitbart, who also attended the screening in Minneapolis, criticized the length of the segment about Palin’s accomplishments.
“I told Stephen his act two was too long, that it needed to be shortened, but he told me the truth had to be told and it was impossible to cut,” Breitbart said.
Bannon must have been conflicted in editing, but for those of us watching Friday night, “The Undefeated’s” lesson was clear as it was drilled into our heads: Sarah Palin is not the airheaded nincompoop you’ve been led to believe she is.
I greatly admired Palin when she was first introduced to America in 2008, but I hesitated to rave too much about her. Frankly, from my perspective, she was just too good to be true. Few women see the world similarly to me more than Palin does. Like many others, I watched from afar and hoped above hopes that what we thought we were seeing was what we would get.
But it wasn’t until last summer when I read Palin’s book “Going Rogue” that I was really was won over.
So when the news hounds began digging through the emails last weekend, I held my breath waiting for bad news. Having lived the cruelest, most-heartbreaking political state in the Midwest for conservatives, I’m fairly used to being disappointed by politicians.
Would Sarah Palin be just another?
No one is more happy than I that those emails revealed a hard-working, committed public servant. No one is more delighted that through her book “Going Rogue” and Bannon’s film “The Undefeated,” the truth will finally be accessible to the American public.
And while Palin’s story is likely not to be wildly embraced in Barack Obama’s hometown, open-minded people should be brave enough to at least investigate her. While you may not like Palin’s politics, you will find yourself admiring her stamina, courage and forthrightness.
And being from Illinois, where such bold examples of positive leadership are few and far between, learning the truth will be refreshing and invigorating to the soul.
It was to mine.
Greetings 2ndDivisionVet:
Furthermore, unlike Illinois ex-Governor Blowdryb!tch, former Governor Palin also communicates via personal computer.
Cheers,
OLA
Over the past month or two, I’ve gone from doubtful about Sarah Palin to the point at which I’m ready to commit to her as “my” candidate. This article is pretty much the final push for me.
She is competent, she’s intelligent and engaged, she shares my values, she is prepared to fight for them, she is experienced in fighting for them, and she has weathered just about every possible attempt to destroy her politically.
Plus, Palin t-shirts at CafePress are selling at 3x the Ron Paul t-shirts, more than 12x the Gingrich shirts, and more than 20x the Myth Romney shirts. What does that have to do with it? Obviously, she’s a candidate people know and can get excited about.
Yes, she has a large negative perception to overcome, because of the media. Can she do it? Personally, I’m inclined to think she can.
I like Cain as well, and from what I’ve heard of Pawlenty, I like him too. And Bachmann. But Cain has never run a State, Pawlenty doesn’t even register on the Excitometer, and it would be pretty much unheard-of for Bachmann as a Representative to win the White House.
For all of these reasons, I am ready to support Sarah Palin for President in 2012.
As for Mr. Cain, we’ve never elected someone to the White House without some elective, appointed or flag officer experience. As for Rep. Bachmann, I believe Abraham Lincoln was the single president with only the House of Represntatives on their resume, and he only narrowly won a freakish four-way race that is unlikely to be duplicated again. Governors, vice presidents, generals and senators are who get to be president, in the main.
Yes, and personally, I’m no longer that impressed with Lincoln’s performance as President.
Reagan Had a Statement ,I dont think I have it exactly right but it goes something like this, Its not that the Left wing or Liberals are stupid or ignorant ,but its that so Much of what they Think They know is wrong.
As far as I can tell she has a pure heart. Very rare in this business
Governors, vice presidents, generals and senators are who get to be president, in the main.
Yes - and it's astonishing how unusual it is for governors to be beaten by senators or even vice presidents who haven't been governors. Warren G. Harding was the only senator to ever beat a governor in a race for the White House, no senator has ever unseated a sitting president - and presidents whose sitting VPs win election (Washington, Jackson and Reagan) are are historically very significant leaders.The conclusion is that nominating anyone but a governor (or a renowned general) is a very dubious strategy for winning elections.
I have officially lost all hope for the Republican party or this country.
Good God she didn't even know what the Bush Doctrine was.
Why don't you define it for us, then? Especially since there have been multiple meanings of the term.
I will fully support Palin when Romney wins the nomination and she refuses to endorse him right up to his defeat around dinnertime on election night.
Until such time, she is not what I’d call a watertight vessel of conservative principles.
Nobody else is either.
On my droid right now, so I can’t post the link, but Charles Krauthammer vindicated her cautious response to Gibson’s ambiguously framed questioned. This was an especially effective vindication, in that Krauthhammer was he who coined the term “Bush Doctrine” in the first place. And, BTW, according to him, the offhand definition offered by Gibson was incorrect. That’s the hand they dealt Sarah, and she did the best she could with it. As an attorney, I tell my clients, when you get asked an ambiguous question, get a clarification. That’s exactly what she did, and it marks her as the more intelligent of the two, as Gibson was apparently blissfully unaware of the potential for multiple meanings. Sad day for the once proud institution of journalism.
Never heard a better recipe for reflecting Obama than what you just said. You should pass that along to his campaign. For my part, there is only one person who ever really walked on water, and he’s not on the ballot, so I guess I’ll just have to settle for the most vested presidential candidate ... ever. Oh well.
The Governorship of Alaska as defined by the state Constitution is the most powerful in the nation. This has left Sarah Palin uniquely qualified to go from being the most powerful Governor in the nation to being the most powerful national leader in the world.
Whoever reads her book or sees this film finds out just how capable and experienced and honest (a very rare quality these day) Sarah Palin is.
My skepticism toward politicians is too much for some people to bear.
I have officially lost all hope for the Republican party or this country.
Yes, that would be correct.
Why are you impressed with Lincoln?
Lincoln plunged us into a war where Americans slaughtered Americans. If we had an equivalent today, we'd have around 6 million Americans slaughtered by their own countrymen, about as many more wounded, and God knows how many other people barely surviving due to economic hardship.
And yes, regardless of his intentions at the beginning of the war he did set free a huge number of Americans, but one has to think there must have been some way to do it other than at the cost of so many lives. And while I've no doubt that Lincoln was anti-slavery, setting the slaves free does not seem to have been his goal. Freeing the slaves was a means to his real goal, which was control of the States that chose to leave the Union.
The United States of America was founded on the proposition that people of one region ought to have the freedom to leave a political union. Lincoln's attitude was that it was fine for the original States to leave Britain (which they more of less had always been a part of; but anathema for some of those same States to leave the United States, which union they had entered into voluntarily, and no doubt with the belief that if things didn't work out they would be free to leave.
Lincoln was therefore the first President to give us the all-powerful US government: You do what we tell you to do, or we'll bring an army to your town and put a bullet in your head.
Or, as General Sherman did, we'll burn your crops and destroy your ability to earn a living. Sherman's march alone did an estimated $1.5 billion worth of damage to Georgia, four fifths of which Sherman himself seems to have admitted was simply total waste rather than being of actual strategic benefit to his war aims.
So let me ask you again: Why, exactly, are you impressed with Lincoln? Again, I do admire the fact that he ended slavery, but at the same time, that seems to have been kind of a happy accident in support of his real aim, which was to prevent a second successful American revolution. And in the latter, he certainly succeeded.
As for Palin and the Bush Doctrine, okay, so she was thrust into national politics fairly suddenly. I can hardly imagine that the Bush Doctrine was that important of an issue in governing Alaska.
At least she knows how many damn States there are.
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