[Al B.]

Ping

[screaminsunshine]

Simple..Conservative women can not be alloed to suceed. It would mess up the left wing template of women need the government to save them from evil white men.

[Rodney Dangerfield]

Excellent and well-written article, and one that will never see the likes of a major, liberal newspaper.

This is what real journalism looks like, not the 8th grade “I’ve got a crush on Obama and BTW, isn’t he sooooo dreamy” crap we’ve been seeing/reading/hearing for the last two years.

[MathDoc]

Good commentary. Thank you.

[NeilGus]

BINGO

[LiberConservative]

Good read. Governor Palin is one of ‘us’. I can't remember the last time I thought so highly of a politician. As much as I loved Reagan not even he piqued my interest the way Sarah did. And for a the tough road ahead I can't think of anyone better suited to lead the way.

[Fiji Hill]

One of the most important aspects of what makes Sarah Palin different is the fact that she is not part of the traditional Eastern college, big money, Washington insider school of politics

There are even posters on FR who argue that Sarah Palin is unqualified for national office because she didn't attend an Ivy League school, hails from a sparsely-populated Western state, and has no Washington experience.

[Vigilanteman]

I can't speak for the entire nation, but I can tell you about the view from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania because the Mrs. and I worked on the campaign. Before Sarah was on the ticket, the GOP headquarters was largely deserted and couldn't give lawn signs away.

Volunteers came out of the woodwork once Sarah was on the ticket. Sarah is the only thing which kept this election from being something like a 60%-40% blowout.

She spent a lot of time in southwest Pennsylvania and was the main reason our swing county went 58% for McCain.

McCain didn't even show up here-- every volunteer I talked to or worked with here in Westmoreland County was there because of Sarah.

This is NOT a Republican county. Mondale carried it during the Reagan landslide of 1984. Registered Democrats are over 60% of the voter rolls here. No Republican has ever been elected to the state house of representatives from our district since it was created in 1969 until this year.

This county is heavily Catholic, blue collar and union, more urban than rural and we saw everyone campaign here this year except McCain-- Obama, Biden, Hillary and Sarah. And guess who beat them all?

[Fiji Hill]

Despite statements by members of the talk radio crowd that John McCain had genuine conservative credentials, many people I spoke with here in the Houston area as well as those I correspond with around the nation disagreed. One of the many criticisms I heard repeatedly was that McCain was out of touch with the voters he expected to elect him. These same people were frequently of exactly the opposite opinion with respect to Palin. They saw her as someone they could trust, rather than someone likely to double-cross them.

One website is selling bumper stickers that read, "Don't blame me--I voted for Palin"

[SoConPubbie]

I believe the usage of the word "Populism" or "Populist" with regards to Sarah Palin is sadly incorrect. For the Huckster, it is closer to the truth.

According to Webster's on-line, the word "Populist" has the following meaning:

1: a member of a political party claiming to represent the common people ; especially often capitalized : a member of a United States political party formed in 1891 primarily to represent agrarian interests and to advocate the free coinage of silver and government control of monopolies

Furthermore, the attempt to link the Huckster to Governor Palin is also misguided as the Huckster does believe and openly states his support for Big-government and his disregard for limited-government Republicans while Governor Palin, more or less, is a limited-government conservative.

[Lonely Are The Brave]

Imho, today, the conservative intelligentsia has disdain for populism.

Even The Great Man Ronald Reagan was not liked in his time for some of his populist views.

The establishment disliked Reagan...

“All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”

The Great Man Ronald Reagan

[NeoCaveman]

I’m not anti-elites on principle, it’s just that for a nation this great we should have much better elites than ones we have.

We should have elites that love this nation, its culture, its constitution, but we have the opposite.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

One of the most important aspects of what makes Sarah Palin different is the fact that she is not part of the traditional Eastern college, big money, Washington insider school of politics. ...... ......someone who is from the same background they are; someone who has both feet grounded in the real world, instead of the world of elites, big money and an “inside the beltway” mentality.

......

[sportutegrl]

. . . or she might have stolen the election.

I don't think that phrase means what Laib thinks it means.

[geologist]

excerpt
“In the wake of the 2008 election Conservative commentator Tammy Bruce has credited the poor Republican showing to Conservatives staying home instead of voting for John McCain. This is probably not a baseless claim. Democrats will generally vote for their candidate, regardless of circumstances. Conservatives and many Republicans will not. Despite statements by members of the talk radio crowd that John McCain had genuine conservative credentials, many people I spoke with here in the Houston area as well as those I correspond with around the nation disagreed. One of the many criticisms I heard repeatedly was that McCain was out of touch with the voters he expected to elect him. These same people were frequently of exactly the opposite opinion with respect to Palin. They saw her as someone they could trust, rather than someone likely to double-cross them.”
__________________________________________________________

John is/was a politician through and through. He was formed by the disciplines of the Army/Navy/AirForce ... armed services. He said he knew how it works in Washington and he knew how to fix it. No real meat as to how he would do it. He does/did not want to listen to the people. After all ... he knows best. Sarah was a brilliant choice. I believe it was inspired by God. There are no accidents. She is an important part of our future.We saw how the press/medias/liberals controlled the news; and still are controlling it.

#1 There are more Democrats than Republicans. Republicans do not unite well. We splinter and conversely ... do ourselves in ... leading to a lost election overall: Congress, Executive, Judicial. This portends bad things coming for America. In Spades.

Students of history can see this happens over and over again. It appears ... we do not learn from History. Perhaps real recent history abit. On second thought no we do not learn ... else how could it be we have essentially the Clinton's and their cohorts all back in office as of January 20,2009?

The Democrats were campaigning for many months before the election. They had thousands of volunteers doing constant legwork, getting their teams up and operating 18 months before the election. Did the Republicans? We are bested ... not by ideas but by long range planning and hard work ... backed by lots of money.

While we listen to Rush, Shaun, Laura, and several others on talk shows; and we feel like that is enough. Ann Coulter writes a book or two;and we agree with her and seem to think that our posting to the inter net to others like us is sufficient.

Does it work that way? You decide.

[timestax]

GO SARAH GO !

[Kevmo]

This guy is a lousy writer. He needs to edit his work. And calling Palin a populist is lowbrow. She’s popular because she’s conservative, and RINOs have a lot of trouble with that.

[Old Sarge]

So, let me get this straight...
You slandered my daughter, you libeled me,
you threw my political future under the campaign bus,
you allowed the media to convince The Sheep who I am,
you torched my church Odinga-style,
and you expect me to do WHAT for you in 2012??

Keep all your hate in the lower 48, because
I'm staying in Alaska after 2010, and
you all can kiss my perfectly-formed ass!

[Blind Eye Jones]

The left hates Palin because she is young and all youth are suppose to be enthralled with Obama. Don't (not you personally) underestimate the attractive power of youth on the American psyche and the Democrats know it. She is youthful and a fighter — two important qualities McCain lacked. If Obama screws up royally — like Bill Clinton — the mystique will shatter for a while and that will be the shoe in for Palin. Palin needs a counter to the biased media and Republicans have to come up with that solution — something they have ignored for years.

[bilhosty]

The dominant polarizing influence in politics is not self interest or ideology. It is culture.She was a middle class type who was populist. The middle class and those who sympathize with it are usually republicans and the people who do not fit into it or don't sympathize with it are Dem's. She was also a threat when they thought they had it in the bag she proved she could be a game changer so they dumped on her and destroyed her to all except the GOP base which loves her for the reasons mentioned above.