Posted on 08/04/2011 3:39:38 AM PDT by newfreep
Tuesday night on Hannity, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin exhibited some of that fire. It’s sure to give the existing Republican presidential field no shortage of heartburn. She was strongly combative in the face of ridiculous slurs, and not merely those leveled at her, but also those aimed at Tea Party patriots and even talk radio hosts. Her message was clear and concise: “Enough is enough!” Indeed, her words reverberated with with passion for this fight. Sarah Palin seems intent upon taking up the fight against the entrenched establishment with a vigor that no other prospect of national political prominence is willing to do.
This facet of Governor Palin’s attitude is what Americans have been hoping to see from any of the other presidential prospects in the GOP. Instead, what they’ve seen is an increasingly invisible and tepid lot of weakly-mumbled remarks in lukewarm defense of the Tea Party, and conservatism. This is the most significant distinction between Sarah Palin’s electability and that of the other Republican candidates: Governor Palin has the unique capability to energize crowds, move people to rally with her, and focus their combined strength on virtually any cultural and political issue. Combined with her commitment to firmly held principles, what the fire in her belly provides is the one thing the GOP needs in a candidate, perhaps more desperately than any other trait: Sarah Palin has the unrepentant will to stand up and join in the fight.
It isn’t about simple sloganeering. Governor Palin seems willing to leave slogans to others, but what her passion indicates is a sincere commitment to the restoration of the republic. Why wouldn’t she be passionate? In most every respect, she has much more in common with the average American than any of the other republicans in a position to seek the presidency. She has every bit as much to lose from the continuation of the current establishment paradigm as any of us. She’s an entrepreneur who sees the effects of the growing government sector at the expense of the private sector. Like so many of us, as a parent, and nowadays, a grandparent, she has a deep personal investment in the future of the country, and it resounds in the tone of her voice as she tells her audience that we can’t afford any more of Obama’s disastrous economic policies. She isn’t just spouting talking points. She means it.
More importantly, perhaps, it seems many Americans recognize her commitment, her passion, and her sincerity in confronting the crises with which the country is faced. One fairly reliable gauge I’ve found for evaluating candidates is in the person of my wife. She’s had an uncanny ability to pick who will win or lose, and she is consistently adept at sizing up candidates. In 1992, she took one look at Bill Clinton and said: “Oh, wonderful, we’re going to have a used-car salesman for President.” In 1996, she took one look at the newly-minted Republican nominee, and said: “Just get yourself ready for four more years of Bubba-talk and used cars.” She’s successfully picked the winner in each subsequent election, mostly on the basis of her relative appraisals of the candidates. Somehow, she just knows, and while she may not like what her judgments tell her, she’s been remarkably straightforward in stating them. In 2008, she looked at John McCain, shook her head, and asked: “Why did they nominate him?” Adding more, she nodded her head at the speaker, Sarah Palin, and said: “They could have saved a lot of time and trouble, and four years of pain if they would have just nominated her, instead.” After a moment more of the governor speaking she looked at me and said: “Don’t worry, she’ll be back.” I’ve asked her to explain it to me, but she says it’s a ‘woman thing.’ Perplexed as ever when that is offered as the sole explanation, I shrug hopelessly and go on to the things I can measure.
It’s against this back-drop that on Tuesday night, I watched the Hannity interview alone, but I was curious to be able to watch the reaction of a true political skeptic. Mrs. America walked into the room, and I rewound the DVR to replay it for her, as I settled into a position from which I could watch my wife without making it obvious, and thereby biasing my ‘study.’ Having spent more than two decades as the perpetual cause of most of her more severe facial expressions, I knew that by watching Mrs. America’s face for every raised eyebrow, every tiny widening of eyes, and every re-forming of the shape of her mouth, I would be able to gauge her reaction as a sort of study in the effects Governor Palin might have on an agreeable but not altogether ‘sold‘ viewers. After forty-six years, I may not know the first thing about ‘women,’ but I know how to read the nuances of the mood of exactly one woman. When she started to speak, Hannity having posed the question about Biden and the others calling Tea Party Americans ‘terrorists,’ I watched a growing look of inquiring expectancy. She was waiting for something. When Governor Palin came out swinging, taking the leftists to task for this latest vile nonsense, I saw the set of a jaw tightening and the barely perceptible nod, and as Mrs. Palin went on, Mrs. America followed.
When Mrs. Palin said “I’m going to stand up…” I saw a brightening of the eyes, and a slight smile begin to take shape from the previously indifferent pose of Mrs. America’s lips. Every time and in every way she addressed the propensity of Obama to recklessly spend more money, I watched a growing resolve in the set of my wife’s jaw. When Hannity prepared to go to commercials, he had to make the obligatory inquiry about her plans for 2012, but pressed for time, he tried to suggest one, and Sarah Palin beamed and laughed and that’s when I saw it: My wife, the hardened cynic, with resolute indifference to most frivolous remarks, had leaned back slightly in her seat, and she had begun to smile with Sarah Palin.
The beauty of DVR technology is that we didn’t need to wait through those commercials. Advancing it to the resumption of the interview, Mrs. America, at first sitting forward again, now leaned back against the sofa as if settling in. When Hannity asked about the notion of ‘compromise,’ here too, my wife leaned forward a bit, as if waiting to hear the answer that would tell the tale of the tape. As Governor Palin described the need to stand firm, citing Ronald Reagan’s example, I watched something interesting develop on the face of Mrs. America, and it was an expression with which I’m naturally less familiar: Approval. Nodding in agreement, I watched my wife’s hand tighten on the remote, and lightly pound it into the top of her thigh. It was an exclamation point in time with the Governor’s remarks on Cut, Cap, and Balance. The drumbeat of those words were matched in time by Mrs. America’s. When Governor Palin analogized her position to that of Hannity, Levin, and Limbaugh, Sean asked if she really thought any of the three could be elected to office. Sarah Palin’s answer was a laugh, and as she said “Well, I do, but I’m one of those ‘terrorists’…” My wife had begun to smile again, and now laughed openly, again with Mrs. Palin. When I saw that, what it told me is that the remainder of the Republican field had better prepare themselves for a serious primary battle. If Mrs. America’s reactions to Governor Palin are any yardstick by which to measure her presidential prospects, my wife’s little statement to me as she passed back the remote may be the indication: “She’ll do just fine.” After twenty-three years of marriage and five presidential campaign seasons together, that sort of matter-of-fact appraisal is as much as I will get, and what it tells me is only: She knows.
[If Sarah Palin runs I don’t see Rush getting behind anybody else and there really isn’t all that much out there to get behind. ]
No disrespect to Bachmann, Cain and Perry, I just don’t think they can rally the troops like Palin can. I watch Palin and I’m ready to jump out of the trenches and charge the machine gun nests.
In this economy we may not need a war time President because we could not afford to have one. National Defense is soon going to be strictly for threats at our borders, sad to say.
Palins honesty is her greatest asset.
She answers questions, she doesn’t beat around the bush.
Honesty is a dying attribute in Washington.
Soon our President will climb aboard a bus traveling the country Campaigning for President. It is openly a Campaign trip, No one with half a brain could call it anything else, and yet our tax funds are paying for it. Not his Campaign fund,but our tax’s.
It is more a show of arrogance on his part than anything else. He is throwing it in our face that no one will say anything about his Campaign not paying for the bus. Be cause he is calling it an “Official” Presidential tour.
He has been using Air Force One for this for the last 2 years and no one has said anything so he is probably right.
What do we want for President? Honesty or Dishonesty it is that simple.
But, if you're looking for some REALLY great tea...
Even if we had the money, I don't see Obama lifting his finger for Taiwan if China ever made the move. I doubt he'd save South Korea, Japan or Vietnam.
I also think that's why Obama's working hard at destroying our economy. The only war and foreign policy's he gotten involved in are those that give Islamic extremists and American haters the upper hand.
The man's done nothing but bad for this nation.
If honesty is her greatest asset, then she can prove it by saying if she is running, instead of this dishonest cat and mouse game. Get in the game or carry the water bucket, I would bet it is the water bucket.
The MSM ignores all criticism directed at them, so it is futile.
What they can’t ignore, however, is if Republicans begin to threaten their non-media parent corporations with antitrust laws. The media oligopoly seriously needs to be broken up. A oligopoly press is not a free press.
Palin/DeMint 2012
Most red-blooded American men would like to share a fox hole with Saracuda.
Baloney. Rush has a Palinista for quite some time now. If you can't see that you are blind or in denial.
ROFLOL, HEE, HEE, what is that statement, about none so blind. LOL, why don’t you call him, your’s was the funny post of the day.
Don't be silly. She decided to run over two months ago.
Announcing now would be tactically unwise.
Contrary to the views above, she is not at risk to having people leave to support others.
Non-candidate that she is, she has the best organized most effective campaign organization in Iowa and when she does get in, she should be the favorite to win the Republican side in Iowa immediately.
She also has people working New Hampshire. I know less about what is going on there but you would bet that she is looking at New Hampshire as the opportunity to put Romney away; and South Carolina as the opportunity to the inside track for the nomination.
Well that settles it then. Rick Perry is indeed one who "walks the walk of a true conservative".
So many of us here feel the same way. I have a Facebook page, not in my own name. I’ve befriended a lot of people of my political persuasion, and they also also feel the same way. I wonder how many there really are who would vote for Palin simply to be rid of the Bamster or even with much reluctance. I wish there were a way to track that no. to see how it changes between now and next summer.
Do I understand correctly that you want her to get in the game or carry the water bucket right now? Why? I hope it’s not to please you. I hope also that you’re aware that there might be a huge upside to not announcing right now simply to put a few people’s minds at rest, that there is much to be gained by letting the insignificants (Pawlenty, Johnson, Gingrich, Santorum), the delusionally optimistic (Romney, Bachmann) and the rest of the motley crew work themselves out of the race. Would it not be better for the marginally Republican voting group to tune in at around Thanksgiving and have to decide among only 3 or 4 who they’re going to vote for in the primaries? Palin could insert herself when 3 are left standing. Can you see any benefit at all to her going that route?
Her daughter says the decision has been reached, state what it is are lose more credibility.
“If honesty is her greatest asset, then she can prove it by saying if she is running, instead of this dishonest cat and mouse game. Get in the game or carry the water bucket, I would bet it is the water bucket.”
Presumably your great impatience extends to Perry and Giuliani, correct?
Correct?
Presumably, you’re going around FR spewing all about your impatience with Perry and Giulani, too, correct?
Correct?
No.
Perry has one guiding principle: do what is best for Perry.
Spoken as a Texan who has watched his career up close for years.
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