Posted on 07/11/2011 1:42:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
As a conservative activist in an area of the country largely believed to be a remote suburb of the Twin Cities, I am increasingly encountering a general assumption — at family gatherings, on the air, and in casual conversation — that I am a big supporter of Michelle Bachmann. I fully realize, of course, that I am supposed to be. I'm just not.
The problem with Tea Party-type Bachmann supporters is that they haven't been paying attention. You'll hear it said that, "At least, she's better than Barack Obama." So was John McCain. You'll hear it said that, "At least, she doesn't have all the negatives of a Palin candidacy." That's because she doesn't have Sarah's record, or her guts, either. If she did, Bachmann would never have been proffered an apology for merely being called a "flake." The former governor of Alaska is a conservative. Her would-be political clone only plays one on TV.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying that Bachmann is insincere. Her voting history and her life story all indicate that she is. What I am saying is that, if you listen to her words and not the hype, you will easily perceive that Michelle's stock in trade is playing both sides of the Republican divide. Allow me to explain.
In scams, you have the role called, "cooling out the mark." It's kind of like the "good cop — bad cop" thing, where one person's job is to make sure that the person being scammed doesn't realize it, or at least doesn't try to do anything about it. This, by default or on purpose, has become the Bachmann role on the national Republican scene.
Whenever the GOP leadership decides to stab its base in the back, to let us down, to put political expediency above principle — and one could set one's clock by this phenomenon — it is Bachman who goes all over the airwaves making excuses for them. Listen for it. It will always be Michelle who is there to "cool out the" — well, "remark." I remember Bachmann being at the forefront, for example, of the "Repeal and Replace" groundswell that helped drive the huge Republican victories of last November. Now that that uproar has died down, her silence is as deafening as anybody else's.
On Hannity a while ago, Bachmann was touting herself as a "unifying" figure. There are Democrats and independents who approach her to express their support, she contended. The obvious question arises: Why? Why, at this extremely early stage in the game, would that be the case? Are they schizophrenic, or do they also perceive that she is not who she claims to be?
The only unity it is possible to achieve is the unity of a return to our national identity, based as it is on the Declaration and the Constitution, with their ineluctable recognition of the sovereignty of our Creator, God. The quixotic attempt to bridge the gap of the American political divide in any other way has already been attempted. Just ask Newt. The famous definition of stupidity as doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result, applies to conservatives as well as liberals.
As the primary season unfolds, I have diligently been trying to give Bachmann the benefit of the doubt, but in order to do that, there has to be some doubt there to work with. And as I say, I understand why people tend to assume that I back the bright, family-friendly, Palinesque-but-not-actually-Sarah-herself conservative activist from my own geographical region, who is ever ready to carry the Tea Party banner as far forward as serves her own political purposes.
I know I am supposed to like Michelle Bachmann.
I just don't.
Governor Palin has more executive service in government than Mitt Romney.
The real difference is that Palin was always successful in her offices, Mitt Romney was a failure, and left office with 34% approval, and turning the seat over to the Democrats.
Read number #52 and no she is not running.
“Bridge to Nowhere”? Obama’s old saw about earmarks? the leaving Wasilla in debt? and many other of the old liberal attacks?
Myself, I will need to go back in time to gather old stuff to meet your attacks on the internet.
I’m not desiring to start this process again tonight.
What has MB led?
Her letter about LOST speaks of it from the viewpoint of an Alaskan Governor who saw that Russia and others were going to steal US oil and resources without a better treaty, so you should be able to understand that. She hasn't reversed her position on Title IX, that is true, she appreciated the benefits she learned from playing basketball and described it in her autobiography. How she will address it in the future is a bit of a mystery.
You did mischaracterize her climate panel quite a bit. She appointed one to study the issue and never accepted their findings (did they have any?), nor did she do anything like cap and trade or move towards it.
It's also true the last couple of years, she has skewered the global warming crowd, cap and trade, the Copenhagen conference, and Obama for following their insanity multiple times. I think you missed that.
The only question about Governor Palin being the most powerful is whether she was the most powerful or the second most powerful Governor in the United States according to experts and historians.
USLaw.com: “Given its source, today’s article in the NYT entitled The Unusual Challenges Palin Faced in Alaska is remarkably balanced and informative. As PrestoPundit Greg Ransom notes, though, in his post linking the article”
Remember when the Democrat press wouldn’t stop telling us about how Texas has a “weak Governor” system, when Bush was running for President? Well, don’t expect them to talk much about the fact that Alaska has the most powerful governor in the country.
New York Times:
That said, by other measures, Alaska is harder to govern than a smaller, more settled realm in the Lower 48. With vast distances, large numbers of indigenous peoples and a narrowly based extraction economy — with a handful of giant multinational oil corporations dominating the game — some economists say a country like Nigeria might be an apter comparison.
“Alaska really is a colonial place,” said Stephen Haycox, a professor of history at the University of Alaska Anchorage. “One third of the economic base is oil; another third is federal spending. The economy is extremely narrow and highly dependent. It’s not to say that Alaska is a beggar state, but it certainly is true that Alaska is dependent on decisions made outside it, and over which Alaskans don’t have great control.”
Overlaid across all of that is a distinctly informal Alaskan style. At the annual governor’s picnic, usually held in July, the governor is expected to turn the brats and burgers on the grill — something Ms. Palin has done with gusto — with cabinet members in aprons rounding out the kitchen staff. Alaska also came of political age recently, which has meant two crucial things to Ms. Palin’s rise and experience as governor.
First, the State Constitution concentrates power in the governor’s office more thoroughly than in almost any other state — a legacy of the late 1950s, historians say, when statehood and a simultaneous trend all over the country toward elevating executive authority coincided.
Alaskan governors can edit legislation and their vetoes are tougher for lawmakers to overcome. In the numerical scale of power devised by Thad Beyle, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina, only Massachusetts’ governor has a mightier tool kit.
Second, inch-deep history has meant that the leading lights of statehood are not mere names in history books but are in many cases still around and even still in power, like Senator Ted Stevens and Representative Don Young, both Republicans with decades under their belts in Washington. That old guard is still revered by some Alaskans, but it is disdained by others who have been on the lookout for fresh Republican faces.
It is in that densely layered Alaskan mix that Ms. Palin rose, governed and must be understood, academics and people in both parties say — not as merely a governor, or a woman, but as an Alaskan.
“The frontier mentality, whether myth or not, is still alive,” said Donald Linky, director of the Program on the Governor, at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
Political organizations and the careful grooming of rising stars have long been part of the political culture in creating governors-to-be in many other states, Mr. Linky said. Not so in Alaska, and elsewhere in the West.
Even the Democrat party blamed her for stopping the bridge, the bridge was stopped only months into her administration, as far as earmarks see post 97.
When your incessantly repeatd "worst knock" against Palin is the disingenuous canard/Liberal Scum/Talking Point of "She quit!", it is quite obvious that you care not one whit for the truth of her superhumanly selfless act of sacrifice for the good of her constituents. When you repeat for the eight-millionth time the most debunked and vilely manipulative insult available, you mark yourself... not Sarah.
Christ Himself said "No greater love hath any man but that he lay down his life for his friends."
Your despicable reply?
"He quit!"
I don't hate you, I despise the sick, twisted poison dripping from your callous deceit, and the rebellious refusal to acknowlege one of the greatest acts of self-sacrifice ever undertaken by any political figure in the History of this great Republic.
Spin it however you like, when you stoop to that ghastly level of discourse, you mark yourself and no one else.
All you protestations and squealing accusations to the contrary will benefit you nothing whe you are called to account for your actions. Indeed, for what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but forfeit his soul?
Believe me when I say that I do understand and have compassion for you: it would gnaw at my guts, too, were I in your shoes.
;^|
Try reading only the New York Times portion.
New York Times:
“That said, by other measures, Alaska is harder to govern than a smaller, more settled realm in the Lower 48. With vast distances, large numbers of indigenous peoples and a narrowly based extraction economy — with a handful of giant multinational oil corporations dominating the game — some economists say a country like Nigeria might be an apter comparison.
“Alaska really is a colonial place,” said Stephen Haycox, a professor of history at the University of Alaska Anchorage. “One third of the economic base is oil; another third is federal spending. The economy is extremely narrow and highly dependent. It’s not to say that Alaska is a beggar state, but it certainly is true that Alaska is dependent on decisions made outside it, and over which Alaskans don’t have great control.”
Overlaid across all of that is a distinctly informal Alaskan style. At the annual governor’s picnic, usually held in July, the governor is expected to turn the brats and burgers on the grill — something Ms. Palin has done with gusto — with cabinet members in aprons rounding out the kitchen staff. Alaska also came of political age recently, which has meant two crucial things to Ms. Palin’s rise and experience as governor.
First, the State Constitution concentrates power in the governor’s office more thoroughly than in almost any other state — a legacy of the late 1950s, historians say, when statehood and a simultaneous trend all over the country toward elevating executive authority coincided.
Alaskan governors can edit legislation and their vetoes are tougher for lawmakers to overcome. In the numerical scale of power devised by Thad Beyle, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina, only Massachusetts’ governor has a mightier tool kit.
Second, inch-deep history has meant that the leading lights of statehood are not mere names in history books but are in many cases still around and even still in power, like Senator Ted Stevens and Representative Don Young, both Republicans with decades under their belts in Washington. That old guard is still revered by some Alaskans, but it is disdained by others who have been on the lookout for fresh Republican faces.
It is in that densely layered Alaskan mix that Ms. Palin rose, governed and must be understood, academics and people in both parties say — not as merely a governor, or a woman, but as an Alaskan.
“The frontier mentality, whether myth or not, is still alive,” said Donald Linky, director of the Program on the Governor, at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
Political organizations and the careful grooming of rising stars have long been part of the political culture in creating governors-to-be in many other states, Mr. Linky said. Not so in Alaska, and elsewhere in the West.”
Once again, just like a democrat, you accuse me of what you have done... Your gall is unmitigated. You are unhinged.
Yeah, that really sucks.
Oh they have on other threads. I got most of my information from friends who live in Alaska, not from links.
One in particular works with a program for special needs people. These people were sure that after Trigg was born, she would become involved in and bring attention to their organisation. They have Proms for the mentally challanged and such. But, despite invitations and requests, they haven’t heard or seen Mrs. Palin at any of their events, in the last 3 years.
Why do we have to be so hateful with each other!
I DO NOT agree with the tenor of this diatribe at all! Sarah Palin DOES NOT “think she is better”, than anyone! She doesn’t have an arrogant bone in her body. She is a very, very nice person, and a GREAT champion of conservative values. But, she has never proven to be a legislative leader. That’s all.
The article isn’t even accurate, because Palin IS a journalist! That was her major in college, and she did appear on tv as such!
And, I happen to think we NEED the culture war!
I don’t know where you are getting your information. But, it is inaccurate. Alaska is the only state to not have either an INCOME TAX NOR A SALES TAX! They actually PAY their residents part of the income they get from the oil companies....
All of your points actually apply to Palin. As I pointed out, Bachmann has actually written and sponsored and cosponsored over 500 pieces of legislation repealing obamacare and supporting all conservative values! She has actually worked at being a legislator for 11 years.
How long has Sarah been a legislator? Did she finish any term on the state level? No. She did not.
Bachmann has worked for fiscal responsibility and an end to federal pork programs; while Palin, as mayor of Wasilla, actually hired a lobbyist to lobby for some of that pork barrel money. She got $27 MILLION in FEDERAL dollars, for a sports center in a town of 5,000! Now the poor town can not afford to keep the thing open! It cost over a million dollars to run, yet they only take in $800,000. in fees and such!
Let’s not just blindly support someone, like the Dems do Obama. They refuse to address his short comings or recognise his faults-—just like many Palin fans.
And Sarah isn’t even a candidate. I doubt she will be either. She knows the job is too hard for her, and that she would have to give up her celebrity status. She knows it is much easier to critisize than to actually come up with solutions. She doesn’t want to do that. She make a ton of cash as a critic.
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