I agree - she's an excellent debater.
What worries me, if she runs, is how much women hate her, because she's smart, successful, apparently happy, and beautiful. Beating Obama means moving a significant amount of his support among women to our side this time, and I wonder if Sarah can do that.
I see far more women than men at her rallies, speeches, and on pro-palin blogs.
I think that many on our side are too wrapped up in media-drivenmemes on Palin. It’s been a 3 year, unprecedented MSM assault on a politician that, for the most part, had nothing to do with policy (when they released 25,000 emails from her gubernatorial term they had to ruefully conclude that she was a concerned, effective, and even bipartisan politician who fought for her citizens’ interests against well entrenched opposition), but rather ranged quickly and deeply into personal matters to a point no one had ever witnessed. I can imagine that the textbooks looking back at this era will mark with bewilderment and incredulity that the mainstream media accused a female politician of faking a pregnancy, gleefully attacked an infant with Down’s syndrome, accused said politician of Nazism, racism, idiocy, hatred, moronism, book burning, antiSemitism, and - when she became financially successful for the 1st time in her extended family’s lives - being motivated by purely pecuniary interests.
With Breitbart’s expose today of the true libelous fraud and hoax of the McGinnis “book”, I believe we will see the beginning of the end of the hysterical smear campaign against Palin. Opposition based on personal/family issues will be debunked and discredited. Like other pols, her opponents will need to meet her on the field of ideas, not smears and contemptuous lies.
Public attitudes can and do change. It will of course be up to her to reverse perceptions driven home by 3 years of continuous calumny from the media, Hollywood, academe and - most sadly - some on our “own” side. She will need to first conquer the GOP side. After tonight’s performance, can’t we easily envision a tremendous response to her sunny optimism, devotion to American exceptionalism, concentration of the evils spawned by cronyism, and growing mastery of issues? Her force of personality would overwhelm the combined group on that stage tonight.
The time for her to formally get into the fray is drawing nigh. As a supporter, I have not begrudged her waiting until she felt it was the correct time to decide and take the plunge. She has waited out the Bachmann “surge” (she was the “smart” Palin, right?) and tonight seemed to indicate that she has waited out the Perry surge too! Weren’t the main reason that our “conservative” punditry gave for Palin not getting in was that Bachmann and Perry were “occupying her space”? Seems that there might be some freed up space there in the not too distant future. Also, by waiting, she has let any “excitement” about the McGinnis tripe-fest not only die down but, via Breitbart, be totally expunged.
Pretty good strategery (for the stupidest politician to ever grace this country!), no? Sun Tzu would be most proud....
“What worries me, if she runs, is how much women hate her, because she’s smart, successful, apparently happy, and beautiful.”
A particular problem in the swing state of Florida with all the granny voters.
We will have the women's vote in 2012.
And with Paln Presidency, the women's vote for decades after. Little girls will grow up dreaming of being President, as a Republican.
The whole ‘women are too jealous of Palin to vote for her’ line that Rush has pushed is very, very unfortunate. If someone’s worried about a lack of female support, they should look at the poll numbers for Perry or Gingrich sometime.
Mitt polls a little better for women, but he’s unlikely to energize very many women or men to actually go out and vote for him.
Palin was the leader in 2010, and more GOP women were elected, with more women backing GOP candidates than perhaps any other election in history.