Indeed. For now. But take heart. An American family has just declared independence.
Happy Independence Day!
Posted on 07/03/2009 10:57:15 PM PDT by pissant
With respect to many of the Palinologists below, I think they're getting way too hepatomantic over the entrails.
As a political move for anything other than the 2010 Senate race, today's announcement is a disaster. And I'm not sure it's a plus for the Senate - and, even if it were, the manner and timing suggest it was not a professionally planned event and therefore is unlikely to have any grand strategy behind it.
So Occam's Razor leaves us with: Who needs this?
In states far from the national spotlight, politics still attracts normal people. You're a mayor or a state senator or even the governor, but you lead a normal life. The local media are tough on you, but they know you, they live where you live, they're tough on the real you, not on some caricature cooked up by a malign alliance of late-night comics who'd never heard of you a week earlier and media grandees supposedly on your own side who pronounce you a "cancer".
Then suddenly you get the call from Washington. You know it'll mean Secret Service, and speechwriters, and minders vetting your wardrobe. But nobody said it would mean a mainstream network comedy host doing statutory rape gags about your 14-year old daughter. You've got a special-needs kid and a son in Iraq and a daughter who's given you your first grandchild in less than ideal circumstances. That would be enough for most of us. But the special-needs kid and the daughter and most everyone else you love are a national joke, and the PC enforcers are entirely cool with it.
Most of those who sneer at Sarah Palin have no desire to live her life. But why not try to - what's the word? - "empathize"? If you like Wasilla and hunting and snowmachining and moose stew and politics, is the last worth giving up everything else in the hopes that one day David Letterman and Maureen Dowd might decide Trig and Bristol and the rest are sufficiently non-risible to enable you to prosper in their world? And, putting aside the odds, would you really like to be the person you'd have to turn into under that scenario?
National office will dwindle down to the unhealthily singleminded (Clinton, Obama), the timeserving emirs of Incumbistan (Biden, McCain) and dynastic heirs (Bush). Our loss.
But that's not what she did. So I have to think she has something else up her sleeve.
Mark Steyn is master of language, not a conservative. He cannot empathize with a true conservative. He could listen to Sarah Palin’s entire speech today and not come away understanding what she meant. Conservatives understood instantly. Steyn has become irrelevant. I am astounded by the positive reactions to his article in this thread.
You missed the point of her speech. Alaskan taxpayers were being hurt by the frivolous ethic charges against her. Every move she would make exploring running for president would lead to more and more such frivolous charges.
So her choice was to run the Alaskan government and not run for president. Turn over running the Alaskan government to her Lt Governor and save Alaskan tax payers money, if she wants to run for president. There will be no such issue of running for another position when she is president.
Are you drunk? McCain ran against Obama, not Palin. The only time I've seen such illogic on this forum is when the Romney supporters tried to spin his liberal past. You wouldn't be one of them now, would you?
If she announced she’s running for President in 3 years today, she picked about the worst way to do it by resigning after only 2 years into her first term and doing it in front of an empty crowd.
If she was serious about being president, she would have either run for reelection as governor, or run for the Senate in 2010 first.
Of course I still don’t see how she said it by not saying it.
It looks to me like she wants to go back to being a housewife and hockey mom. Good for her. She was always in way over her head as a national politician.
....Mark your flat out wrong....
People stayed tuned..the chair is against the wall...orders are forthcoming
And you are way over your head as a FReeper.
Are you at least leaving your toys behind when you go home?
Sarah wasn’t running last November. John McCain was. I know a lot of folks here convinced themselves they were putting Sarah Palin in the White House, but Johnny Boy the Leftard was ready to move in. Not Sarah...
So Sarah didn’t lose a straight up fight with Obama. Let me tell you something, McCain benefited from Sarah by ten to twenty points. That quack could have been looking at 35% or worse real easy. We didn’t want him. The left didn’t want him. Who besides a few deluded RINOs championed that loser?
I didn’t vote for a presidential candidate in November 2008. It was the first time in my 34 years of voting. That’s why the McCain/Palin ticket didn’t get as many votes as Bush. Many of us refused to swallow a Soros lovin’ pimp daddy as our candidate.
Obama is going to force this nation’s citizens to vote for someone else. There’s not really going to be any choice, but the time 2012 rolls around. He will have scared the —— out of many people who voted for him. He will have pi—ed off many of the others. He’s a moron.
Our goal is to get someone in there, that will undo what he has done. I have already said, day one I’d be penning more E.O.s than this nation has seen in the last fifty years. I would strike down almost everything this jackass did in four year, with 72 hours. What’s more, I’d tell folks I was going to do it up front. We’ll see what U.S. citizen really want, unlike picking between a Kruschev/Mosolini candidate and a George Soros clone/Obama rubber stamp from Arizona.
Yes, we do need to move on. Palin needs to go back to her family.
Do you realize that Palin was getting tens of thousands of people to show up at her events this spring? From what I’ve read, she is on fire.
Too bad that fire extinguisher fell on her head. (just figuratively folks)
“...As much as I like Mark, I don’t think he has a clue on this one.”
I agree and the fact remains that nobody out there has the political appeal of Sarah. Bobby is too timid and not combative. Mitt is too liberal as are the other players. Only Sarah inspires the real Americans.
Last primary season I support Hunter to the point where he dropped out. Now I want somebody who already has some name recognition and has plenty of reasons to hate the establishment media and the insider powers. That person is Palin.
the chair is against the wall...orders are forthcomingWhat, are you waiting on the word from Sarah to hang yourself?
Sarah was the best Governor we’ve had in my lifetime, and the youngest.
I think she is tired of being a Pinata for everyone from comedians to politicians that couldn’t find their ass with both hands and a flashlight while socialists in her own state file bogus ethical charges against her running up a personal defense bill of 1/2 million. Her and Todd are not professional politicians and can’t afford that.
I like that idea, and I’ve said as much before.
It’s time to stop carrying water for all of them.
Let them prove themselves to us for a change.
Then choose the most fit of the bunch.
We’ll know who it is when the time comes.
I disagree totally. McCain, without Palin, might have gotten twenty million votes. Forty million of his actual total was because of Palin.
Bastards. This is what's left to run our country.
Sarah inspired 10 million fewer Americans than 0bama did.
It’s time to keep looking.
Agree...and she can use the support she has to accomplish greater things.
You are spot on correct...
No one showed up for her speech today.
I’m not denying she had supporters last November, or now for that matter.
She just didn’t have nearly as many as 0bama had.
60 million people came out to vote for her. That’s fewer than Bush got 4 years earlier. Hell, that’s fewer than Kerry got 4 years earlier. But 0bama got 70 million people to come out and vote for him.
There just aren’t enough people out there willing to support Palin to beat 0bama.
The first step to recovering from a loss is accepting defeat. Many FReepers aren’t yet ready to move on from 2008, which is why they still cling to Palin. But it is a destructive relationship. She’s no good for us, and we are no good for her.
We need to move on and find someone new to champion as the leader of the GOP. Right now, as you may have noticed, the Republican party is leaderless. That implies Sarah Palin is not the leader. So let’s cut bait and find one.
1. No one showed up for her speech....?? Uh she did not have a lot of folks show up because it is a holiday weekend, there was not a lot of notice (as per FOX news), and it was held in Wasilla, AK?! Dunno if you have looked on a map, but it is not easy to get there from the Continential 48—over 3,500 miles from Chicago. I am sure if presser had been held at at Tea Party in Chicago or New York, thousands would have come. As I told you before, she did have support; was the life of the GOP ticket in last election.
2. Are you a grief crisis counselor? I am not grieving—not yet anyway. Thank you for the professional grief counseling, but I will move on when I am ready. I think everyone should give Palin space to contemplate her future—not pressure or write her off.
3. I am curious why you are in such a hurry to dismiss her/write her off? Since there are no other leaders, why not let her call the the ball on HER next play instead of calling it for her?
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