Posted on 11/23/2009 9:31:11 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
God bless John McCain for having picked Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008. McCain didn’t simply introduce a new politician into the national limelight, but someone who has already lapped him in public consciousness. Palin represents McCain’s most enduring political accomplishment. In tapping her, McCain unleashed the most volatile force into American politics since Joseph McCarthy. And unlike the saturnine McCarthy, Palin seems to succeed effortlessly at playing any role she assumes—in her latest incarnation as author, she produced a best seller even before her tome hit the bookstores, a particularly impressive accomplishment at a moment when the future of the book itself is in doubt.
Can she keep it up? Last night at a party for newly installed Los Angeles Times editorial page editor Nicholas Goldberg, I quickly canvassed dominant liberal opinion. Michael Kinsley doesn’t think she can. She’s a “flash in the pan.” Ronald Brownstein of the Atlantic and National Journal was fascinated that Palin has become the neocon horse, but thinks a Palin presidential candidacy would be political suicide for the GOP in 2012, destroying its chances to pick up lots of Democratic Senate seats because her base of white voters is too small to carry her, let alone the party, to victory.
Maybe so. But one of the more intriguing aspects of Palin’s ascent all along has been her alliance with the neocons. It’s not hard to see what they get out of it: Midge Decter, writing in the British magazine Standpoint, hailed Palin’s commitment to traditional moral values. The neocons have also tended to favor, at least in recent times, politicians that are something of a blank slate. In this regard, Palin, when it comes to foreign policy, is even more of a cipher than George W. Bush ever was. Her mind is about as empty on foreign policy as the yawning air pace surrounding Alaska, whether or not she actually ever saw Russian leader Vladimir Putin jetting about.
There is another thing that unites the neocons and Palin. The Weekly Standard’s Matthew Continetti has hit pay dirt in latching on to the Palin phenomenon by focusing on the aversion of the media to her. Palin, as Sam Tanenhaus observed to me, represents a hatred of what Irving Kristol dubbed the New Class—the journalists, environmentalists, and government bureaucrats who batten off a prosperous society, while denouncing the free-enterprise system. It’s a critique that is proving to have real legs, at least within the GOP.
Speaking of legs, Palin’s also looked dynamite on the cover of Newsweek, which she knows, even as she decried the magazine for supposedly focusing on flimflam instead of . . . what? Her carefully crafted policy stands? Her views on global warming? A nuclear disarmament agreement with Russia? The Middle East peace process? But Palin knows that her sex appeal sells. She gets to have it both ways: values and vixen. No wonder Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty and the rest of the potential Republican field for 2012 are worried. If they aren’t, they should be.
Palin is not going away. Her book tour is a clever and astute testing of the waters. If the rapturous crowds that have greeted her are any indication, she’s plunging into anything but an icy bath.
Her electoral future could come down to the mercurial Levi Johnston, who keeps threatening to reveal some dark secret about the Palin household: “She knows what I got on her.” What you got Levi?
That Todd cheated in running the dogsled competition? That Sarah threw a hairbrush at Piper? That she herself had a crush on Levi? It’s something that would further dent the image of Palin, revealing her more as a contemporary Becky Sharp than as a virtuous woman.
Or maybe not. The media needs Palin as much as she needs it. And for liberals she provides the perfect figure to loath. So far, the obloquy poured upon her has only boosted her popularity. This, then, is no twilight saga. Instead, Palin and her family are becoming an indispensable part of the American political theater. Go see it. It may be coming to your corner of town as she promotes her book and, incidentally, political future. If I were the Republican establishment, I wouldn’t be worried. I’d be quaking.
Why dignify this article?
“Who’s Afraid of Sarah Palin?”
Repub-likkins and other assorted liberals.
Should we only post “rah-rah!” threads that we all can agree with 100%? If so, I guess I misunderstand the purpose of FreeRepublic...
More terrified screed from another yapping leftist face.Yawn.
When they start out calling conservatives “neocons”, I don’t need to read any more.
Yeah, you know, we just don’t get enough contrary, anti-Republican views these days.
I love Sarah Palin and I will vote for her for president if she becomes the nominee. However I will not vote for her in the Primary election. She quit her position as mayor of Wasilla. She quit her position as Governor of Alaska, not to run for higher office, but to become a millionaire author. How will I be able to believe she will stay in office and run for re-election?
It’s a pathetic article, but my two cents on her having the support of the neocons: that’s because she genuinely believes in and promotes all three legs of the Reagan coalition, and a strong national defense is one of them.
There’s no problem in posting the article but anyone who is trying to link the dead term “neocon” to Sarah is simply writing a hit piece no matter how softly wrapped. Incrementalism is the name of the liberal game.
The low-achieving, pinhead tabloid trash Levi Johnson is about as relevant to Sarah Palin’s future as the very dead Saddam Hussein.
He'd better worry about his drug dealing, trailer trash mother, who is being sent to jail for 3 years even as we spek, for dealing drugs.
How did Sarah Palin’s daughter ever hook up with such a retarded loser anyways?
Is Alaska short of normal men?
“Last night at a party for newly installed Los Angeles Times editorial page editor Nicholas Goldberg, I quickly canvassed dominant liberal opinion.”
In others words, he talked to all seven people in the room.
This guy writes like he wears a bowtie and sucks on his pen.
I know the author via another business endeavor. He’s the typical liberal elitist and has written for NYT and LAT. Just a total dope who thinks he’s above everyone else. Worthless article except another example the socialists either don’t “get” Sarah and/or are totally running scared. I choose the latter!
the article is pretty condescending towards palin
Hoy Brownstein, if Sarah Palin is such a disaster for the GOP, why on earth are you waging all out war on her?
After all, the liberal media vermin hate the GOP with a passion, so if Sarhn Palin were really bad news for the GOP, they'd be cheering her all the way to 2012, no? But hey, just keep right on kidding yourself, suckers, till you get hit by a Republican tsunami in the 2010/2012 elections.
Depends on what you mean by “normal”. It seems that both ends of the bell curve might be overrepresented. In my experience, Alaskans (and their neighbours in northern Canada) value individuality & freedom-loving individuals are attracted to the north.
Some female Freepers might find this magazine interesting:
I love how he brings up the base of white voters. Perhaps, but is he trying to argue that Mitt Romney or Pawlenty is going to all of a sudden drive GOP #s among blacks or hispanics? Face it, as long as Obama is around the black vote is gone. Even before Obama the best we could hope for we around 10%. And hispanics? We hurt ourselves with the immigration debate in 07 and the economy but I see no reason why Palin or any other Republican couldn’t get around 35% or so next go-round.
That base of white voters is plenty enough to win. We just need an extra 4 or 5 pts. We got 55% in 2008, down from 58% in 2004. After an awful recession, an unpopular war and an unpopular President it wasn’t a bad showing. We can easily get back to the high 50s, maybe even the low 60s by 2012 if things go right.
It will be Obama’s base base of blacks and liberals who will be too small once the masses realize the con job he pulled and that he’s just another big spending liberal and not the moderate they thought he was.
In fact, that base of white voters has been enough for the GOP win any election since 1968 not influenced by a devastating recession. In 76 when Carter won we went through a recession under Ford, in 92 we went through one under Bush and Clinton one and last year we went through one under Bush and Obama won. Basically, unless the economy stinks, the GOP wins.
I’m finding her book fascinating. The miscarriage was heartbreaking and I know how awful it must be to go through something like that. So far the book is really giving me a better sense of who she is and where she comes from. After reading various reviews, I don’t think any of the writers actually read the book. Or if they did they purposely avoided discussing the more interesting parts.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.