Poll: Nearly 80% Support Palin 2012 Run
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
By: Jim Meyers
An Internet poll sponsored by Newsmax.com reveals that nearly four out of five respondents would support Sarah Palin as the Republican nominee for president in 2012.
A slightly larger majority believe the then-Alaska governor helped John McCain in the 2008 presidential race — while only 31 percent think McCain did a good job running for president.
The poll drew more than 600,000 responses, and Newsmax will provide the results to major media and share them with radio talk show hosts across the country.
Here are the poll questions and results:
1) What is your opinion of Sarah Palin?
Favorable: 83 percent
Unfavorable: 17 percent
2) Do you believe Sarah Palin as a running mate helped or hurt John McCain?
Helped: 80 percent
Hurt: 20 percent
3) In the election between McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden, who did you vote for?
McCain-Palin: 81 percent
Obama-Biden: 16 percent
Other: 3 percent
4) Would you support Sarah Palin as the Republican nominee for president in 2012?
Yes: 78 percent
No: 22 percent
5) Do you believe McCain did a good job running for president?
Good Job: 31 percent
Bad Job: 69 percent
6) Do you believe Barack Obama "bought" the White House by outspending McCain?
Yes: 72 percent
No: 28 percent
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
THE PASSION OF SARAH PALIN.
The Passion of Sarah Palin
posted by Femynist
07/27/2009
If there is anything that marks how perverse, patriarchal, and sexist this country is, then the 2008 election was it. It was sexist in the way it treated Hillary Clinton in the primaries and especially in it's treatment of Sarah Palin in the general election. To paraphrase Barry Hussein Obama, "To any of you that thinks the dream of American equality is dead, this is your answer."
Myself being a woman who many self professed so called feminists say they despise, their treatment of Sarah Palin just shows how dead our movement truly is.
Many of you will likely ask "But Femynist, as a feminist you should hate Sarah Palin." Then they usually list a bunch of things about how she doesn't support abortion, or charges for rape kits or how she's supposedly "not smart". The problem is, most of the charges about her are not true. In fact, besides her stance on abortion, Sarah Palin is more a feminist than most women.
FACT= The rape kit smear was started by the Obama campaign. There is not a shred of evidence to prove that Palin was behind this. In fact, no source for this smear can be produced AT ALL.
FACT= Sarah Palin does believe in global warming, though she believes (as do I) that there needs to be more proof of whether or not it is man made. She is hardly a scientfic Luddite.
FACT= Sarah Palin is not out to make abortion illegal. She is on record as saying that in the event of Roe V Wade being over turned, she would quote "Leave that issue to the voters in Alaska" end quote. These are not the words of a rabid anti abortion loon she is made out to be.
The horrible thing about Sarah Palin is how fellow women have treated her. Most hatred towards her has come from feminists, who should be supporting their sister. Or just look at the highly edited interview she did with that hack Katie Couric, or how she was mocked on TV by that talentless brood sow Tina Fey. I guess that third wave feminism distinguishes itself only by the level we will stab our fellow sisters in the back. After the election, on going jabs at her intelligence or her clothes budget were regularly made (ask yourself, when has a man ever been criticized for what he spends on clothes?)
So just think of that before you keep going on the attack on this strong woman. The fact that she is only the second woman to ever run on a major presidential ticket makes her extraordinary enough. The fact that she had more executive experience than McCain, Obama, or Biden combined is irrefutible.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: this country owes and apology to Sarah Palin and her family.
posted by Femynist
07/27/2009
If there is anything that marks how perverse, patriarchal, and sexist this country is, then the 2008 election was it. It was sexist in the way it treated Hillary Clinton in the primaries and especially in it's treatment of Sarah Palin in the general election. To paraphrase Barry Hussein Obama, "To any of you that thinks the dream of American equality is dead, this is your answer."
Myself being a woman who many self professed so called feminists say they despise, their treatment of Sarah Palin just shows how dead our movement truly is.
Many of you will likely ask "But Femynist, as a feminist you should hate Sarah Palin." Then they usually list a bunch of things about how she doesn't support abortion, or charges for rape kits or how she's supposedly "not smart". The problem is, most of the charges about her are not true. In fact, besides her stance on abortion, Sarah Palin is more a feminist than most women.
FACT= The rape kit smear was started by the Obama campaign. There is not a shred of evidence to prove that Palin was behind this. In fact, no source for this smear can be produced AT ALL.
FACT= Sarah Palin does believe in global warming, though she believes (as do I) that there needs to be more proof of whether or not it is man made. She is hardly a scientfic Luddite.
FACT= Sarah Palin is not out to make abortion illegal. She is on record as saying that in the event of Roe V Wade being over turned, she would quote "Leave that issue to the voters in Alaska" end quote. These are not the words of a rabid anti abortion loon she is made out to be.
The horrible thing about Sarah Palin is how fellow women have treated her. Most hatred towards her has come from feminists, who should be supporting their sister. Or just look at the highly edited interview she did with that hack Katie Couric, or how she was mocked on TV by that talentless brood sow Tina Fey. I guess that third wave feminism distinguishes itself only by the level we will stab our fellow sisters in the back. After the election, on going jabs at her intelligence or her clothes budget were regularly made (ask yourself, when has a man ever been criticized for what he spends on clothes?)
So just think of that before you keep going on the attack on this strong woman. The fact that she is only the second woman to ever run on a major presidential ticket makes her extraordinary enough. The fact that she had more executive experience than McCain, Obama, or Biden combined is irrefutible.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: this country owes and apology to Sarah Palin and her family.
Monday, July 27, 2009
SARAH RESIGNS, BLASTS PRESS, 'STARLETS'.
Sarah Palin resigns, blasts press, 'starlets'
By JONATHAN MARTIN
7/26/09
Updated: 7/27/09
POLITICO 44
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin resigned here Sunday with a blast at the media that reflected the frustrations that led her to leave office a year-and-a-half before her term expired. But speaking in a style that her fans see as plain talk and her detractors consider disjointed, she offered almost nothing about what she was planning to do next.
Plainly feeling liberated, Palin said that the freedom of the press was an important American right and one that members of the military died to protect.
“So, how about, in honor of the American soldier, you quit making things up,” she said with an insistent voice, prompting loud applause and cheers from a mostly sympathetic audience gathered at a park here.
Palin didn’t specify what she was accusing reporters of making up, but suggested that she was weary of the attention on her family since being tapped as the Republican vice presidential nominee last summer.
“Our new governor has a very nice family, too, so leave his kids alone,” she demanded.
Immediately after Palin’s speech that man, Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, a Republican and Palin ally, was sworn in as the state’s governor.
As she stepped down from the stage, Palin’s future remained a mystery.
Concluding her remarks, she only said, “Let’s all enjoy the ride.”
Others speaking before and after her were equally cryptic, referring only vaguely to her future endeavors.
In an interview Saturday, Todd Palin, Sarah’s husband, said only that they would “play it by ear.” On Sunday, her father, Chuck Heath, said in an interview he thought his daughter would stay in the public arena but had no other insights into her plans.
It was widely thought that Palin would appear at the Reagan Presidential Library next month in California for a Republican women event, but Heath and Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton said Sunday that her appearance there was not confirmed.
Speaking for just under 20 minutes on sunny afternoon in between a 1930s-era steamship and a carousel on a street dubbed Klondike Avenue,” Palin was surrounded by a crowd of a few thousand, among them some of her most ardent supporters and a smaller group of vocal detractors.
For the first group, she offered some rabble-rousing lines and partisan red meat.
She went after reporters but also what she called the Hollywood “starlets” who rail against gun rights and the “partisan operatives” who filed the ethics complaints that helped drive her from office.
She even aimed her fire at an undefined group who she deemed insufficiently patriotic.
Some in this group, Palin said, “seem to just be hell-bent on maybe tearing down our nation, perpetuating some pessimism and suggesting American apologetics.”
As for the “starlets,” Palin seemed to be alluding to actress Ashley Judd, who targeted the former governor on behalf of an environmental group for supporting aerial wolf hunting.
Warning of “anti-hunting, anti-Second Amendment circuses from Hollywood,” Palin said advocacy groups “use these delicate, tiny, very talented celebrity starlets.”
She offered such individuals this message: “By the way, Hollywood needs to know: We eat, therefore we hunt.”
It wasn’t all score-settling, though. Palin also paid tribute to the wild beauty of her home state and singled out some of her supporters for thanks and praise. She also touched on her record on energy, ethics and the size of government.
But she was clearly perturbed by those who have raised questions about her abrupt decision to leave office, and spoke directly toward a group of individuals in the crowd who were holding up such signs as “Quit, Baby, Quit.”
“Some still are choosing not to hear why I’m charting a new course to advance this state,” she said, adding that “it should be so obvious to you.”
“It is because I love Alaska this much, sir, that I feel that it is my duty to avoid the unproductive, typical, politics-as-usual, lame-duck session in one’s last year in office,” Palin explained, reprising some of the rationale she laid out in announcing her decision to resign earlier this month.
Palin, wearing a suit jacket with a corsage and jeans, was joined by her husband, Todd, in jeans and a fleece vest, on stage with Parnell and other dignitaries, all wearing more formal attire.
Before addressing the crowd in a park with an ersatz frontier main street and encircled by a choo-choo train that was once called “Alaskaland," Palin spent hours under a tent serving hot dogs and greeting admirers. Some of her most passionate supporters were from out of state and had interrupted or planned vacations to catch a glimpse at the outgoing governor.
Two Texans holding up pro-Palin signs said they drove on Harley-Davidsons some 4,000 miles north from the Ft. Worth area to check out Alaska and see the woman they want to be the next president.
But there were also a handful of individuals who came out to the picnic to register their displeasure at Palin, and at times some of her supporters turned their attention from the picnic to her opponents.
Larry Landry of Fairbanks was standing next to a friend, holding up a sign that said, “Thanks For The Laughs,” when he was heckled by a passer-by.
“Well, look here it's a couple of gay guys, couple of gay fellas,” remarked the passer-by.
The man holding the sign then held up what he said was his wedding band, hanging around his neck on a leather necklace, and put in the face of the heckler, saying he was married.
Most of the Palin supporters, however, focused their attention in the hours before the Alaskan resigned on just getting a moment of her attention, either by waiting in line with hundreds of others or standing as close as security officials would allow and holding up cameras and yelling her name.
Many indicated that they wanted her to run for president and wore shirts and waved signs to that effect.
“I don’t think she is going to be gone,” predicted Karen Hunter of Fairbanks, a vocal supporter at the picnic.
Just exactly how she’ll maintain a public profile will have to be answered in the weeks to come.
“It appears that she really doesn’t have a plan,” said Michael Carey, the former editorial page editor of the Anchorage Daily News and a public affairs commentator. “This is in keeping with her ad hoc approach to life.”
As for what her tenure has meant to this remote and still-new state – just celebrating its 50th anniversary of statehood this year – Carey said: “I think her big legacy is the incredible celebrity she became. Who else is like this in Alaska history?”
*********************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
Dear Sarah,
It's been about 11 months since I first saw you, heard you, and came to adore you! You are so real, genuine, and a welcome breath of fresh air! I am disgusted with what the media, Democrats, late-night jerks, and others have said and done to you. You did not deserve it! Especially with the Anti-American president we have in the White House now, who is totally destroying our wonderful country, I long for the day you WILL BECOME president! When that happens, I will KNOW my president LOVES America and will NOT apologize for us to foreign countries. I will know that our president is not corrupt. That she cares for the PEOPLE and does not cater to special interests. It sounds so wonderful! I hope you will make that dream come true for us, dear Sarah!
In the meantime, I wish you and your family good health, happiness, and finally peace of mind. I hope after you write your book and go on a book tour, you will come to New York so I can come to see you. I hope you will keep your supporters up-to-date on your activities and whereabouts. Good Luck, Sarah! GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY! AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
SARAH'S WASILLA PICNIC DRAWS 5,000!!!
Palin's Wasilla picnic draws a crowd
Event takes on added meaning with governor's resignation
Anchorage Daily News
July 24th, 2009
Last Modified: July 25th, 2009
WASILLA — Thousands showed up Friday for Gov. Sarah Palin’s annual picnic held in her hometown of Wasilla.
Palin, who is resigning and leaves office on Sunday, used the occasion, one of a series of picnics she is hosting this weekend, to sign autographs and hand out hot dogs.
The governor — dressed in blue jeans and a red New England Patriots sweatshirt — was mobbed by well-wishers who offered up babies, books, calendars, skateboards and even their hands for autographs. Several longtime picnic-goers said this year’s picnic crowd dwarfed last year’s.
Event coordinators planned for about 5,000 attendees. They roasted 4,008 hot dogs and had fixings for about 4,000 root-beer floats.
By the last hour of the event, the dogs were almost gone.
The picnics, which have become more popular in Wasilla since Palin was elected as governor, have previously drawn as many as 2,000 people.
Wasilla Chamber director Lyn Carden said she fielded calls this week from numerous out-of-state travelers who changed their plans to attend in hopes of meeting Palin. Some were interested in one-on-one time with the governor. Others wanted to know if they could buy mementos — such as a lock of Palin’s hair — at the event, organizer Lyn Carden said.
Kealoha Torres, who lives in Wasilla near the park, boosted his 6-year-old daughter, Leina, to his shoulders to get a good photo of Palin handing out hot dogs over the crush of people around the food tent. He said his family members from Washington state were risking missing their flight home to see Palin.
“They don’t care; they want to see her,” Torres said. “She has a lot of supporters in Washington.”
Fred Kostrick, an 84-year-old World War II veteran from Michigan who attended the event, said he appreciated Palin’s support of the military. “I think she’s one hell of a lady,” he said. “She’s tough, she stands her ground and she’s taken a lot of guff — more than I could.”
Some in the audience were there to catch a glimpse of Palin in her role as a national celebrity more than to support her political views.
Ozzy Cruz from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and a New York City resident who gave his name only as “Tom,” traded a camera back and forth, trying to snap photos of each other near Palin.
The two men had traveled down for the day from Talkeetna after hearing about the picnic. Dodging a question about whether they agreed with Palin’s politics, the two men said they found her “fascinating.”
Others, such as Wes Hamrick, relayed his admiration for the governor and his dreams for the future in song.
“In 2012, I’ll give you a hint. Alaska’s pit bull will be our president,” he sang in a tune titled “North to the Future.”
At the end of the song, the Big Lake resident shouted: “Sarah Palin for president!”
“This is my last time to speak to the Valley community as your governor,” she said. “I appreciate the support you have shown me and my family. I love you, and God Bless America.”
Another picnic will be held in Anchorage today and the third is scheduled for Sunday in Fairbanks, when Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell takes over as governor.
Palin chastised the media for sometimes ignoring those who defend freedom, telling the crowd that she had attended a memorial service for three soldiers from Alaska a day earlier. Her son, Track, is currently serving in Iraq.
“Never apologize for being American,” she told the crowd in Wasilla, a city of about 10,000.
A man yelled out, “We want you to be our commander in chief!”
Palin has not said what she will do after she leaves office, but many have speculated that she will run for president in 2012.
The governor left the event without taking questions from the media, driving off in a blue SUV with her daughter Piper.
Event takes on added meaning with governor's resignation
Anchorage Daily News
July 24th, 2009
Last Modified: July 25th, 2009
WASILLA — Thousands showed up Friday for Gov. Sarah Palin’s annual picnic held in her hometown of Wasilla.
Palin, who is resigning and leaves office on Sunday, used the occasion, one of a series of picnics she is hosting this weekend, to sign autographs and hand out hot dogs.
The governor — dressed in blue jeans and a red New England Patriots sweatshirt — was mobbed by well-wishers who offered up babies, books, calendars, skateboards and even their hands for autographs. Several longtime picnic-goers said this year’s picnic crowd dwarfed last year’s.
Event coordinators planned for about 5,000 attendees. They roasted 4,008 hot dogs and had fixings for about 4,000 root-beer floats.
By the last hour of the event, the dogs were almost gone.
The picnics, which have become more popular in Wasilla since Palin was elected as governor, have previously drawn as many as 2,000 people.
Wasilla Chamber director Lyn Carden said she fielded calls this week from numerous out-of-state travelers who changed their plans to attend in hopes of meeting Palin. Some were interested in one-on-one time with the governor. Others wanted to know if they could buy mementos — such as a lock of Palin’s hair — at the event, organizer Lyn Carden said.
Kealoha Torres, who lives in Wasilla near the park, boosted his 6-year-old daughter, Leina, to his shoulders to get a good photo of Palin handing out hot dogs over the crush of people around the food tent. He said his family members from Washington state were risking missing their flight home to see Palin.
“They don’t care; they want to see her,” Torres said. “She has a lot of supporters in Washington.”
Fred Kostrick, an 84-year-old World War II veteran from Michigan who attended the event, said he appreciated Palin’s support of the military. “I think she’s one hell of a lady,” he said. “She’s tough, she stands her ground and she’s taken a lot of guff — more than I could.”
Some in the audience were there to catch a glimpse of Palin in her role as a national celebrity more than to support her political views.
Ozzy Cruz from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and a New York City resident who gave his name only as “Tom,” traded a camera back and forth, trying to snap photos of each other near Palin.
The two men had traveled down for the day from Talkeetna after hearing about the picnic. Dodging a question about whether they agreed with Palin’s politics, the two men said they found her “fascinating.”
Others, such as Wes Hamrick, relayed his admiration for the governor and his dreams for the future in song.
“In 2012, I’ll give you a hint. Alaska’s pit bull will be our president,” he sang in a tune titled “North to the Future.”
At the end of the song, the Big Lake resident shouted: “Sarah Palin for president!”
“This is my last time to speak to the Valley community as your governor,” she said. “I appreciate the support you have shown me and my family. I love you, and God Bless America.”
Another picnic will be held in Anchorage today and the third is scheduled for Sunday in Fairbanks, when Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell takes over as governor.
Palin chastised the media for sometimes ignoring those who defend freedom, telling the crowd that she had attended a memorial service for three soldiers from Alaska a day earlier. Her son, Track, is currently serving in Iraq.
“Never apologize for being American,” she told the crowd in Wasilla, a city of about 10,000.
A man yelled out, “We want you to be our commander in chief!”
Palin has not said what she will do after she leaves office, but many have speculated that she will run for president in 2012.
The governor left the event without taking questions from the media, driving off in a blue SUV with her daughter Piper.
SARAH'S FAREWELL PICNICS.
Palin picnic marks beginning of the end
By JONATHAN MARTIN - POLITICO
7/25/09
WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin kicked off the first of three picnics marking her departure from office with a hometown tribute to the troops and an elbow at the news media.
Speaking before a friendly crowd at a park here Friday night, two days before she resigns, Palin invoked her soldier son to assure supporters that she is not downcast over the political frustrations that are prompting her to quit before her term is up.
She told the hundreds gathered in a military “Honor Garden” that she wanted to “do something… more worthy than speaking politics” before sharing a story about a reporter who had asked her about how she handles difficult days.
“I said, ‘Oh no,’ it is not a down day – my son called this week from Iraq,” Palin recalled, referring to her son, Track, an Army enlistee. “He is safe, he is sound. It is always a good day when my son calls.”
Interrupting the applause, Palin said: “I wish that some in the media would keep things like that in perspective, what is really important in our country. And what is important is our freedoms, America’s security, our liberty.”
Later, citing military families that have lost loved ones, she again drew loud applause by saying: “Let us continue to love our country, be proud of our country, never apologize for our country.”
She concluded her remarks by noting that it was the last time she’d appear in her hometown as governor, thanking the city that first elected her as mayor.
After she was done, one man yelled out, “We want you as our commander-in-chief,” prompting more cheers from the crowd and a military-style salute from Palin.
But that was the only hint she gave as to her future plans.
In a brief interview before the governor addressed the crowd, Chuck Heath, Palin’s father, said he didn’t know what was next for his daughter.
“I wish I knew,” Heath said. “I have no idea, honest.”
Noting that he had just spent several days with her on a local river, Heath quipped: “She’d be a good poker player. She never divulged what she’s going to do.”
Dressed casually in jeans and boots, Palin wore a blue star pin over her sweatshirt, signifying her son’s deployment. She spoke for about five minutes before spending over a half-hour greeting scores of people with relatives on active-duty.
With an emcee holding the microphone, a procession of Alaskans and some from the Lower 48 states came forward to briefly introduce servicemembers they were honoring, before shaking hands or hugging Palin and taking a blue star flag from her.
Some used the opportunity to pose for a quick picture with Palin, others offered her blessings and thanks, but most were more focused on their loved ones abroad than their fleeting encounter with the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee.
Others in the crowd, though, were plainly there to see the governor. Some wore “McCain-Palin” gear from last year or seemingly homemade Palin shirts and caps.
“She’s just like most of us,” explained Brenda Davis, a Palin fan from Wasilla wearing a “Go Sarah!” shirt. “Mom, Christian, conservative, Republican, family lady.”
As she tried to make her way out of the ceremony and down to a waiting SUV, Palin was thronged by supporters. While a phalanx of aides, state troopers and plainclothes security officials tried to keep her moving, Palin stopped to sign autographs, pose for pictures and greet at least one girl from a church group.
She left with her hands full, as people pressed items ranging from a stuffed moose doll to a copy of conservative talk show host Mark Levin’s best-selling “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto” in her hand.
Officially, the event was called the “Mat-Su Governor’s Annual Picnic,” a reference to Palin’s native valley region here, a picturesque spot where the mountains are still snowcapped in July.
A few thousand people were spread out around the park on a 60-degree summer night, some listening to music on a bandstand--there was a folk trio before Palin spoke and an Air Force cover band playing Motown afterward--and others checking out a faux Batmobile, playing on inflatable slides or sipping on the root beer floats a group of Boy Scouts were selling.
Not everyone seemed interested in their hometown gal’s departure tour, but before the military ceremony began at least one hundred attendees lined up next to a tent where hot dogs, chips and watermelon were being served and Palin was shaking hands and signing autographs on everything from paper plates to women’s purses.
Palin, standing right behind a box of Doritos and Sun Chips but not serving, greeted her supporters warmly. Next to her was daughter Piper, wearing an “Alaska Grown” sweatshirt and signing the occasional autograph herself.
There was little question that the governor, so polarizing in this state and the country at large, was among supportive friends who backed her decision to resign.
“She’s doing what’s right,” said Rebecca Buyse, from nearby Chugiak, who was waiting in line wearing a “Palin 2012” t-shirt. “There’s a lot of corruption and it’s taken her away from, and money away, from Alaskans. So I think she’s stepping down with the right motives. I hate it but she doesn’t need a title to do what she’s gonna do.”
For Buyse and her daughter, sporting a “Palin for President” shirt, that means one thing: “We think she should run for president.”
Palin will hold a picnic in Anchorage Saturday and before her formal resignation Sunday at a final gathering in Fairbanks.
************************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
Think about it. Alaska is a huge state. Imagine having a governor that everyday people know - I mean really know by name and she recognizes them, too? Just the sound of picnics to say farewell to her constituents is homey and real. The big question mark on everybody's mind is what will Sarah do next? Even her own father doesn't know, but I am sure Sarah does. People, especially women, have gut instincts that tell them what they should and shouldn't do. Everything happens for a reason and out of the ashes something wonderful can come to be. Just as so many Alaskans wish Sarah will run for president, I feel that way, too. I felt that Sarah was the most real politician I've ever seen - she is so genuine and a breath of fresh air. I said that last August 29th when Sarah first came on the national scene and I say it and believe it now. And I KNOW she loves this country. I would never have to worry about Sarah betraying our country, the way I feel about Obama doing it. I have said it before and again I will say it, I DO NOT BELIEVE OBAMA LOVES AMERICA. I DO NOT BELIEVES HE CARES ABOUT AMERICA. I DO NOT BELIEVE HE IS ON OUR SIDE. AND THAT'S DAMN SCARY!!
As Sarah said, we should NEVER apologize for our country. NEVER. And Obama does it everywhere he goes. WHY? But I digress. Enough about Obama! As I write this, I am saddened that Sarah will no longer be a governor because that is always a good place to stand before becoming president. However, I trust her judgement enough to know she is doing what's best for Alaska and for America. And whatever her plans, I wish her and her family well. I hope Sarah's plans will take her to the lower 48 and I hope I will have a chance to meet her. And I do hope she will run for president in 2012!!
By JONATHAN MARTIN - POLITICO
7/25/09
WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin kicked off the first of three picnics marking her departure from office with a hometown tribute to the troops and an elbow at the news media.
Speaking before a friendly crowd at a park here Friday night, two days before she resigns, Palin invoked her soldier son to assure supporters that she is not downcast over the political frustrations that are prompting her to quit before her term is up.
She told the hundreds gathered in a military “Honor Garden” that she wanted to “do something… more worthy than speaking politics” before sharing a story about a reporter who had asked her about how she handles difficult days.
“I said, ‘Oh no,’ it is not a down day – my son called this week from Iraq,” Palin recalled, referring to her son, Track, an Army enlistee. “He is safe, he is sound. It is always a good day when my son calls.”
Interrupting the applause, Palin said: “I wish that some in the media would keep things like that in perspective, what is really important in our country. And what is important is our freedoms, America’s security, our liberty.”
Later, citing military families that have lost loved ones, she again drew loud applause by saying: “Let us continue to love our country, be proud of our country, never apologize for our country.”
She concluded her remarks by noting that it was the last time she’d appear in her hometown as governor, thanking the city that first elected her as mayor.
After she was done, one man yelled out, “We want you as our commander-in-chief,” prompting more cheers from the crowd and a military-style salute from Palin.
But that was the only hint she gave as to her future plans.
In a brief interview before the governor addressed the crowd, Chuck Heath, Palin’s father, said he didn’t know what was next for his daughter.
“I wish I knew,” Heath said. “I have no idea, honest.”
Noting that he had just spent several days with her on a local river, Heath quipped: “She’d be a good poker player. She never divulged what she’s going to do.”
Dressed casually in jeans and boots, Palin wore a blue star pin over her sweatshirt, signifying her son’s deployment. She spoke for about five minutes before spending over a half-hour greeting scores of people with relatives on active-duty.
With an emcee holding the microphone, a procession of Alaskans and some from the Lower 48 states came forward to briefly introduce servicemembers they were honoring, before shaking hands or hugging Palin and taking a blue star flag from her.
Some used the opportunity to pose for a quick picture with Palin, others offered her blessings and thanks, but most were more focused on their loved ones abroad than their fleeting encounter with the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee.
Others in the crowd, though, were plainly there to see the governor. Some wore “McCain-Palin” gear from last year or seemingly homemade Palin shirts and caps.
“She’s just like most of us,” explained Brenda Davis, a Palin fan from Wasilla wearing a “Go Sarah!” shirt. “Mom, Christian, conservative, Republican, family lady.”
As she tried to make her way out of the ceremony and down to a waiting SUV, Palin was thronged by supporters. While a phalanx of aides, state troopers and plainclothes security officials tried to keep her moving, Palin stopped to sign autographs, pose for pictures and greet at least one girl from a church group.
She left with her hands full, as people pressed items ranging from a stuffed moose doll to a copy of conservative talk show host Mark Levin’s best-selling “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto” in her hand.
Officially, the event was called the “Mat-Su Governor’s Annual Picnic,” a reference to Palin’s native valley region here, a picturesque spot where the mountains are still snowcapped in July.
A few thousand people were spread out around the park on a 60-degree summer night, some listening to music on a bandstand--there was a folk trio before Palin spoke and an Air Force cover band playing Motown afterward--and others checking out a faux Batmobile, playing on inflatable slides or sipping on the root beer floats a group of Boy Scouts were selling.
Not everyone seemed interested in their hometown gal’s departure tour, but before the military ceremony began at least one hundred attendees lined up next to a tent where hot dogs, chips and watermelon were being served and Palin was shaking hands and signing autographs on everything from paper plates to women’s purses.
Palin, standing right behind a box of Doritos and Sun Chips but not serving, greeted her supporters warmly. Next to her was daughter Piper, wearing an “Alaska Grown” sweatshirt and signing the occasional autograph herself.
There was little question that the governor, so polarizing in this state and the country at large, was among supportive friends who backed her decision to resign.
“She’s doing what’s right,” said Rebecca Buyse, from nearby Chugiak, who was waiting in line wearing a “Palin 2012” t-shirt. “There’s a lot of corruption and it’s taken her away from, and money away, from Alaskans. So I think she’s stepping down with the right motives. I hate it but she doesn’t need a title to do what she’s gonna do.”
For Buyse and her daughter, sporting a “Palin for President” shirt, that means one thing: “We think she should run for president.”
Palin will hold a picnic in Anchorage Saturday and before her formal resignation Sunday at a final gathering in Fairbanks.
************************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
Think about it. Alaska is a huge state. Imagine having a governor that everyday people know - I mean really know by name and she recognizes them, too? Just the sound of picnics to say farewell to her constituents is homey and real. The big question mark on everybody's mind is what will Sarah do next? Even her own father doesn't know, but I am sure Sarah does. People, especially women, have gut instincts that tell them what they should and shouldn't do. Everything happens for a reason and out of the ashes something wonderful can come to be. Just as so many Alaskans wish Sarah will run for president, I feel that way, too. I felt that Sarah was the most real politician I've ever seen - she is so genuine and a breath of fresh air. I said that last August 29th when Sarah first came on the national scene and I say it and believe it now. And I KNOW she loves this country. I would never have to worry about Sarah betraying our country, the way I feel about Obama doing it. I have said it before and again I will say it, I DO NOT BELIEVE OBAMA LOVES AMERICA. I DO NOT BELIEVES HE CARES ABOUT AMERICA. I DO NOT BELIEVE HE IS ON OUR SIDE. AND THAT'S DAMN SCARY!!
As Sarah said, we should NEVER apologize for our country. NEVER. And Obama does it everywhere he goes. WHY? But I digress. Enough about Obama! As I write this, I am saddened that Sarah will no longer be a governor because that is always a good place to stand before becoming president. However, I trust her judgement enough to know she is doing what's best for Alaska and for America. And whatever her plans, I wish her and her family well. I hope Sarah's plans will take her to the lower 48 and I hope I will have a chance to meet her. And I do hope she will run for president in 2012!!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
SARAH TELLS FEDS: ALASKA IS SOVEREIGN STATE!!!
THE SARAH CHRONICLES
Palin to feds: Alaska is sovereign state
Constitutional rights reasserted in growing resistance to Washington
July 20, 2009
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Gov. Sarah Palin has signed a joint resolution declaring Alaska's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution – and now 36 other states have introduced similar resolutions as part of a growing resistance to the federal government.
Just weeks before she plans to step down from her position as Alaska governor, Palin signed House Joint Resolution 27, sponsored by state Rep. Mike Kelly on July 10, according to a Tenth Amendment Center report. The resolution "claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States."
Alaska's House passed HJR 27 by a vote of 37-0, and the Senate passed it by a vote of 40-0.
According to the report, the joint resolution does not carry with it the force of law, but supporters say it is a significant move toward getting their message out to other lawmakers, the media and grassroots movements.
Alaska's resolution states:
Be it resolved that the Alaska State Legislature hereby claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.
Be it further resolved that this resolution serves as Notice and Demand to the federal government to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.
While seven states – Tennessee, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Alaska and Louisiana – have had both houses of their legislatures pass similar decrees, Alaska Gov. Palin and Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen are currently the only governors to have signed their states' sovereignty resolutions.
The resolutions all address the Tenth Amendment that says: "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
The Tenth Amendment Center also reported that Florida State Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, introduced a memorial earlier this month urging "Congress to honor the provisions of the Constitution of the United States and United States Supreme Court case law which limit the scope and exercise of federal power."
"Now more than ever, state governments must exercise their Constitutional right to say no to the expansion of the federal government's reckless deficit spending and abuse of power," Sen. Baker said. "With this resolution, our Legislature can send a message to Washington that our state's rights must be respected."
The full text of Florida's memorial is available on the Tenth Amendment Center website.
As WND reported, South Carolina's proposal, S. 424, is titled: "To affirm South Carolina's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution over all powers not enumerated and granted to the federal government by the United States Constitution."
Essentially it's a reminder that the United States is made up of individual states; it's not a federal authority broken up into political subdivisions.
In South Carolina, the proposals remains pending in the state Senate, where Sen. Lee Bright said he still hopes that it will be adopted this year.
The proposal there notes specifically that the "federal government was created by the states … to be an agent of the states," and the states currently "are treated as agents of the federal government," many times in violation of the Constitution.
Bright told WND the movement is spreading from state to state as fast as lawmakers discover it.
Michael Boldin, a spokesman for the Tenth Amendment Center, said his organization has created a posting for all such proposals to be tracked.
Among the states where such proposals at least have been considered are Louisiana, Colorado, Wisconsin, Florida, Illinois, West Virginia, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Nevada, Oregon, Alabama, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Idaho, New Mexico, South Dakota, Virginia, Kentucky, Alaska, Indiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Minnesota, South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Missouri, Iowa, Montana, Michigan, Arizona, Washington and Oklahoma.
In Louisiana, it passed the Senate in May and the House in June.
In Idaho, it passed the House in March and the Senate in April.
In North Dakota, it passed the House and Senate both in April, with the House a short time later adopting changes made by the Senate.
In South Dakota, it was approved by both houses of the Legislature and under that state's rules does not need the governor's signature.
In May, Rep. M.J. "Manny" Steele, a Republican in South Dakota, wrote that he believes up to $11 trillion is being wasted in the coming years by Washington's efforts "to duplicate and micromanage our states' affairs."
He said states should manage their own affairs and not be dependent on a federal cash cow to make ends meet. Likewise with industries, he said, citing federal cash dumps on the banking, insurance and automobile industries.
Steele told WND his dollar estimate was based on what President Obama himself has allocated in the coming years to spend on stimulus packages, industry bailouts and the like.
"If we would just let the market take care of these things," he said.
His letter noted that Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Carolina legislatures joined South Dakota's in passing some statement on the Tenth Amendment this year. The results vary based on state procedures, however. In Oklahoma, the governor vetoed the plan and it was launched on its second trip through the legislature and has been passed by the House.
"Over the course of decades, there have been increasing federal mandates and acts designed to effectively step in and legislate the affairs of our various states from Washington D.C.," Steele said. "Federal usurpation into state affairs severely limits the ability of state governments to operate according to their citizens' wishes."
*********************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
Good for you, Sarah! After what Obama has done to our wonderful country in 6 months is mind-blowing!! He has DESTROYED America with his radical, Socialist policies. I wish New York would become a sovereign state but know that won't happen. Again, Sarah, GOOD FOR YOU!! AND GOOD FOR ALASKA!!!
Palin to feds: Alaska is sovereign state
Constitutional rights reasserted in growing resistance to Washington
July 20, 2009
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Gov. Sarah Palin has signed a joint resolution declaring Alaska's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution – and now 36 other states have introduced similar resolutions as part of a growing resistance to the federal government.
Just weeks before she plans to step down from her position as Alaska governor, Palin signed House Joint Resolution 27, sponsored by state Rep. Mike Kelly on July 10, according to a Tenth Amendment Center report. The resolution "claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States."
Alaska's House passed HJR 27 by a vote of 37-0, and the Senate passed it by a vote of 40-0.
According to the report, the joint resolution does not carry with it the force of law, but supporters say it is a significant move toward getting their message out to other lawmakers, the media and grassroots movements.
Alaska's resolution states:
Be it resolved that the Alaska State Legislature hereby claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.
Be it further resolved that this resolution serves as Notice and Demand to the federal government to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.
While seven states – Tennessee, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Alaska and Louisiana – have had both houses of their legislatures pass similar decrees, Alaska Gov. Palin and Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen are currently the only governors to have signed their states' sovereignty resolutions.
The resolutions all address the Tenth Amendment that says: "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
The Tenth Amendment Center also reported that Florida State Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, introduced a memorial earlier this month urging "Congress to honor the provisions of the Constitution of the United States and United States Supreme Court case law which limit the scope and exercise of federal power."
"Now more than ever, state governments must exercise their Constitutional right to say no to the expansion of the federal government's reckless deficit spending and abuse of power," Sen. Baker said. "With this resolution, our Legislature can send a message to Washington that our state's rights must be respected."
The full text of Florida's memorial is available on the Tenth Amendment Center website.
As WND reported, South Carolina's proposal, S. 424, is titled: "To affirm South Carolina's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution over all powers not enumerated and granted to the federal government by the United States Constitution."
Essentially it's a reminder that the United States is made up of individual states; it's not a federal authority broken up into political subdivisions.
In South Carolina, the proposals remains pending in the state Senate, where Sen. Lee Bright said he still hopes that it will be adopted this year.
The proposal there notes specifically that the "federal government was created by the states … to be an agent of the states," and the states currently "are treated as agents of the federal government," many times in violation of the Constitution.
Bright told WND the movement is spreading from state to state as fast as lawmakers discover it.
Michael Boldin, a spokesman for the Tenth Amendment Center, said his organization has created a posting for all such proposals to be tracked.
Among the states where such proposals at least have been considered are Louisiana, Colorado, Wisconsin, Florida, Illinois, West Virginia, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Nevada, Oregon, Alabama, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Idaho, New Mexico, South Dakota, Virginia, Kentucky, Alaska, Indiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Minnesota, South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Missouri, Iowa, Montana, Michigan, Arizona, Washington and Oklahoma.
In Louisiana, it passed the Senate in May and the House in June.
In Idaho, it passed the House in March and the Senate in April.
In North Dakota, it passed the House and Senate both in April, with the House a short time later adopting changes made by the Senate.
In South Dakota, it was approved by both houses of the Legislature and under that state's rules does not need the governor's signature.
In May, Rep. M.J. "Manny" Steele, a Republican in South Dakota, wrote that he believes up to $11 trillion is being wasted in the coming years by Washington's efforts "to duplicate and micromanage our states' affairs."
He said states should manage their own affairs and not be dependent on a federal cash cow to make ends meet. Likewise with industries, he said, citing federal cash dumps on the banking, insurance and automobile industries.
Steele told WND his dollar estimate was based on what President Obama himself has allocated in the coming years to spend on stimulus packages, industry bailouts and the like.
"If we would just let the market take care of these things," he said.
His letter noted that Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Carolina legislatures joined South Dakota's in passing some statement on the Tenth Amendment this year. The results vary based on state procedures, however. In Oklahoma, the governor vetoed the plan and it was launched on its second trip through the legislature and has been passed by the House.
"Over the course of decades, there have been increasing federal mandates and acts designed to effectively step in and legislate the affairs of our various states from Washington D.C.," Steele said. "Federal usurpation into state affairs severely limits the ability of state governments to operate according to their citizens' wishes."
*********************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
Good for you, Sarah! After what Obama has done to our wonderful country in 6 months is mind-blowing!! He has DESTROYED America with his radical, Socialist policies. I wish New York would become a sovereign state but know that won't happen. Again, Sarah, GOOD FOR YOU!! AND GOOD FOR ALASKA!!!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
SHE'S NOT A QUITTER. SHE'S A FIGHTER!!!
What this woman has been through for the past 11 months is truly unbelievable! And it won't end. The Democratic Party KNOWS she is their biggest threat in 2012, so they will continue to run her down, discredit her, make up stories about her, and do anything and everything they can to try to destroy her. But Sarah will not let them!! SHE'S A FIGHTER!!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
SARAH STILL MOST POPULAR FIGURE IN GOP BY A MILE!!!
The Plum Line
Greg Sargent's blog
Despite Quitting, Palin Still Most Popular Figure In GOP By A Mile
This blog has repeatedly wondered aloud whether Sarah Palin would be able remain hugely popular among Republican voters, now that her resignation has shown that the Alaska governorship was too big a fish tank for the Bailin’ Barracuda to handle.
Well, the new Gallup poll shows that she’s still far and away the most popular GOP figure among Republicans and Republican-leading independents.
Palin retains an astronomical favorability rating of 72%. No one else in the Republican Party can touch her. Current Republican officials such as Michael Steele, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner just aren’t anywhere near being in her league.
Greg Sargent's blog
Despite Quitting, Palin Still Most Popular Figure In GOP By A Mile
This blog has repeatedly wondered aloud whether Sarah Palin would be able remain hugely popular among Republican voters, now that her resignation has shown that the Alaska governorship was too big a fish tank for the Bailin’ Barracuda to handle.
Well, the new Gallup poll shows that she’s still far and away the most popular GOP figure among Republicans and Republican-leading independents.
Palin retains an astronomical favorability rating of 72%. No one else in the Republican Party can touch her. Current Republican officials such as Michael Steele, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner just aren’t anywhere near being in her league.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
SARAH BECOMES MOVE ON TARGET AS SARAH PAC CASH HAUL SURGES.
July 14, 2009
Palin becomes MoveOn target as SarahPAC cash haul surges
Posted: 03:17 PM ET
From From CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand and Tracy Sabo
(CNN) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's political action committee is confirming a flood of new donations that push her cash haul close to the million-dollar mark, as one of the nation's largest liberal PACs announced an ad targeting the former GOP vice presidential candidate.
Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton confirmed a report in the Anchorage Daily News that more than $200,000 had poured into SarahPAC since Palin's announcement a week and a half ago that she would be leaving office by the end of the month.
Those funds, along with $732,867 received through June 30 according to federal campaign finance filings, leave the governor just shy of a million dollars in donations to date since SarahPAC's January launch.
Stapleton told CNN that the PAC, which supports conservative candidates, had received contributions from more than 11,000 supporters, with the majority of the money coming from outside Alaska.
The news came as MoveOn.org began e-mailing members Tuesday, asking them to fund a rapid response ad blasting Palin's new Washington Post op-ed that criticized President Obama's position on "cap and trade" legislation — a major part of the administration's effort to overhaul the nation's energy policy.
The group said Palin was positioning herself as the face of conservative opposition to Obama's energy policy, telling supporters her op-ed was "a marvel of misinformation and outright lies."
The group has not yet said where the spot would air, or revealed the scope of any potential ad buy.
**********************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
It doesn't matter that Sarah will not be governor very soon. The attacks on her are not going to stop - especially from any liberal group or person who thinks she is a threat to THE ONE. It must really be burning MoveOn that SarahPac raised so much money and the amount surged since her resignation announcement. When they heard she was resigning, they all probably patted themselves on the back that they had gotten rid of Sarah once and for all. But NO, sorry guys. Sarah is not a QUITTER. She may be giving up her day job but that will only free her up to be a louder voice to the American people!! YOU GO, SARAH!!!
Palin becomes MoveOn target as SarahPAC cash haul surges
Posted: 03:17 PM ET
From From CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand and Tracy Sabo
(CNN) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's political action committee is confirming a flood of new donations that push her cash haul close to the million-dollar mark, as one of the nation's largest liberal PACs announced an ad targeting the former GOP vice presidential candidate.
Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton confirmed a report in the Anchorage Daily News that more than $200,000 had poured into SarahPAC since Palin's announcement a week and a half ago that she would be leaving office by the end of the month.
Those funds, along with $732,867 received through June 30 according to federal campaign finance filings, leave the governor just shy of a million dollars in donations to date since SarahPAC's January launch.
Stapleton told CNN that the PAC, which supports conservative candidates, had received contributions from more than 11,000 supporters, with the majority of the money coming from outside Alaska.
The news came as MoveOn.org began e-mailing members Tuesday, asking them to fund a rapid response ad blasting Palin's new Washington Post op-ed that criticized President Obama's position on "cap and trade" legislation — a major part of the administration's effort to overhaul the nation's energy policy.
The group said Palin was positioning herself as the face of conservative opposition to Obama's energy policy, telling supporters her op-ed was "a marvel of misinformation and outright lies."
The group has not yet said where the spot would air, or revealed the scope of any potential ad buy.
**********************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
It doesn't matter that Sarah will not be governor very soon. The attacks on her are not going to stop - especially from any liberal group or person who thinks she is a threat to THE ONE. It must really be burning MoveOn that SarahPac raised so much money and the amount surged since her resignation announcement. When they heard she was resigning, they all probably patted themselves on the back that they had gotten rid of Sarah once and for all. But NO, sorry guys. Sarah is not a QUITTER. She may be giving up her day job but that will only free her up to be a louder voice to the American people!! YOU GO, SARAH!!!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
SARAH BASHES 'CAP AND TAX' IN WASHINGTON POST.
The 'Cap And Tax' Dead End
By Sarah Palin
WASHINGTON POST
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
There is no shortage of threats to our economy. America's unemployment rate recently hit its highest mark in more than 25 years and is expected to continue climbing. Worries are widespread that even when the economy finally rebounds, the recovery won't bring jobs. Our nation's debt is unsustainable, and the federal government's reach into the private sector is unprecedented.
Unfortunately, many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges. So, at risk of disappointing the chattering class, let me make clear what is foremost on my mind and where my focus will be:
I am deeply concerned about President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage.
American prosperity has always been driven by the steady supply of abundant, affordable energy. Particularly in Alaska, we understand the inherent link between energy and prosperity, energy and opportunity, and energy and security. Consequently, many of us in this huge, energy-rich state recognize that the president's cap-and-trade energy tax would adversely affect every aspect of the U.S. economy.
There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn't lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America's economy.
Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.
In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase.
The ironic beauty in this plan? Soon, even the most ardent liberal will understand supply-side economics.
The Americans hit hardest will be those already struggling to make ends meet. As the president eloquently puts it, their electricity bills will "necessarily skyrocket." So much for not raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year.
Even Warren Buffett, an ardent Obama supporter, admitted that under the cap-and-tax scheme, "poor people are going to pay a lot more for electricity."
We must move in a new direction. We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today.
In Alaska, we are progressing on the largest private-sector energy project in history. Our 3,000-mile natural gas pipeline will transport hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of our clean natural gas to hungry markets across America. We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats.
Of course, Alaska is not the sole source of American energy. Many states have abundant coal, whose technology is continuously making it into a cleaner energy source. Westerners literally sit on mountains of oil and gas, and every state can consider the possibility of nuclear energy.
For so many reasons, we can't afford to kill responsible domestic energy production or clobber every American consumer with higher prices.
Can America produce more of its own energy through strategic investments that protect the environment, revive our economy and secure our nation?
Yes, we can. Just not with Barack Obama's energy cap-and-tax plan.
The writer, a Republican, is governor of Alaska.
By Sarah Palin
WASHINGTON POST
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
There is no shortage of threats to our economy. America's unemployment rate recently hit its highest mark in more than 25 years and is expected to continue climbing. Worries are widespread that even when the economy finally rebounds, the recovery won't bring jobs. Our nation's debt is unsustainable, and the federal government's reach into the private sector is unprecedented.
Unfortunately, many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges. So, at risk of disappointing the chattering class, let me make clear what is foremost on my mind and where my focus will be:
I am deeply concerned about President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage.
American prosperity has always been driven by the steady supply of abundant, affordable energy. Particularly in Alaska, we understand the inherent link between energy and prosperity, energy and opportunity, and energy and security. Consequently, many of us in this huge, energy-rich state recognize that the president's cap-and-trade energy tax would adversely affect every aspect of the U.S. economy.
There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn't lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America's economy.
Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.
In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase.
The ironic beauty in this plan? Soon, even the most ardent liberal will understand supply-side economics.
The Americans hit hardest will be those already struggling to make ends meet. As the president eloquently puts it, their electricity bills will "necessarily skyrocket." So much for not raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year.
Even Warren Buffett, an ardent Obama supporter, admitted that under the cap-and-tax scheme, "poor people are going to pay a lot more for electricity."
We must move in a new direction. We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today.
In Alaska, we are progressing on the largest private-sector energy project in history. Our 3,000-mile natural gas pipeline will transport hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of our clean natural gas to hungry markets across America. We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats.
Of course, Alaska is not the sole source of American energy. Many states have abundant coal, whose technology is continuously making it into a cleaner energy source. Westerners literally sit on mountains of oil and gas, and every state can consider the possibility of nuclear energy.
For so many reasons, we can't afford to kill responsible domestic energy production or clobber every American consumer with higher prices.
Can America produce more of its own energy through strategic investments that protect the environment, revive our economy and secure our nation?
Yes, we can. Just not with Barack Obama's energy cap-and-tax plan.
The writer, a Republican, is governor of Alaska.
Monday, July 13, 2009
SARAH PROVES THE PROBLEM WITH JOURNALISM IS MAUREEN DOWN!!!
Palin Proves The Problem With Journalism Is Maureen Dowd
by Tommy De Seno
FOXNews.com
July 13, 2009
The one-two punch thrown by Democrats and their counterparts in mainstream media have probably cost Alaska the governorship of Sarah Palin.
Sarah has provided two reason for stepping down as Alaska's governor: 1) The money she and the state have had to spend defending against 15 ethics complaints, all dismissed, and 2) The endless attacks against her spouse and children by Democrats, the media and those in pop culture.
Politics is officially a rich person's sport -- so long as you are rich enough to defend yourself against a string of baseless complaints you can stay.
Also, the children of Republican politicians are now a target-rich environment for Democrats and media demagogues. It makes you wonder how many good people otherwise willing to serve, perhaps even better than those serving us now, are deciding to stay away from politics because of ruthlessness from Democrats and the media.
Let's look at both issues.
Right down to the level of local politics, Democrat strategy is to bring ethics complaints against Republicans in the months leading up to an election. The goal is pure smear. After the election the complaints are dismissed or abandoned, as they are no longer useful against the Republican candidate.
Even baseless complaints have to be defended. In Sarah Palin's case, she racked up a few hundred thousand dollars in legal bills and Alaskans spent even more for administrative costs. It gets in the way of governing.
The solution here is for Alaska to pass a bonding law. Anyone filing an ethics complaint against a candidate within a year of an election should be required to post a bond to cover the costs should the ethics complaint be found to be baseless or abandoned.
On to Democrats beating up kids. That didn't start with the Palin teenagers. It started in 2004 with Dick Cheney's daughter Mary.
During John Kerry's debate with George W. Bush, Kerry brought up that Mary Cheney is a lesbian. During John Edwards' debate with Dick Cheney, Edwards brought up that Mary Cheney is a lesbian.
If a Republican were to bring up lesbianism, the left would scream that they were trying to rally their homophobic base. What Kerry and Edwards were trying to do was, exactly that -- rally the Democrat homophobic base.
Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill was interviewed about why Kerry and Edwards kept bringing up Mary Cheney being a lesbian. Her response: She called Mary Cheney "fair game."
"Fair game" is a hunting term, used to identify which animals one can shoot. Can you imagine the outrage were a Republican to call a woman "fair game" because she is a lesbian? No Republican would, but the Democrats did.
It was the first time in American history that either party officially announced that they were intentionally attacking the family members of opposing candidates. Democrat politics have been uglier ever since.
Sarah Palin walked right into the new world of Democrat child abuse. As soon as Sarah was announced as the Veep choice, the Obama Campaign, Democrats and their media Igor sidekicks floated every rumor and joke they could think of about the Palin family, from Sarah's baby being her daughter's right up to Letterman's rape joke about 14 year old Willow Palin.
Don't think of Sarah when you hear these jokes. Think of the two teenage girls who have to take it from Democrat adults, who are forced to suffer public abuse they may not be mentally ready to take, for no other reason than their mother wished to serve her country.
In the next Presidential election Malia Obama will be 14 like Willow Palin. Should conservatives go at her with both barrels, tease her, ridicule her and hurt her every time she turns on the television? Hell no. Conservatives wince at the thought, even while knowing Democrats have positioned our children as "fair game." It is the burden of those who set the high moral bar to live by it, even has Democrats pass underneath the bar in an effort to hurt our families.
Sarah Palin is a woman who came up through the ranks from local politics to the governorship, which used to be honored as paying your dues through gradual experience. To hammer Sarah, the Democrats and the media turned starting from the bottom into something bad. Democrats believe it's more respectable to spend $80 million of your own money buying your first elected office as US Senator, as did NJ Democrat Jon Corzine.
In the 20th century 8 men rose from governorships to the Presidency. Most had not a lick of foreign policy experience (like Reagan or Clinton). A governorship became the standard for pre-Presidential experience, and if you hadn't been a governor and were standing for President, you had some explaining to do. Yet for Palin, the Democrats and the media threw out the governorship standard, when the only difference between Sarah, Reagan and Clinton was that she is a woman. Misogyny was used to tear apart Sarah. So-called feminist groups have only been heard to applaud it.
So what does all this have to do with Maureen Dowd, political columnist for the erstwhile "paper of record" the New York Times?
When Sarah Palin announced her resignation she did so with the complaint that the media was relentless in ridiculing her and her family. Dowd stood at the crossroads of choice: She could pen a column acknowledging some of Palin's good works - like taking on her own party, fighting corruption and gaining unmatched popularity in her home state. Or, Dowd could continue down the dirty road of journalism as pro-wrestling and throw a mindless, Hulk Hogan smack-down on Palin (thus proving Palin's point).
We know what a journalist would do.
Here is what Maureen Dowd did (I won't reprint her whole column, just the names and adjectives she used on Sarah):
Caribou Barbie, nutty puppy, exquisite battiness, erratic, egoistic, narcissistic personality disorder, grandiosity, need for admiration, lack of empathy, loopy, solipsistic meltdown, strange, incoherent, breathless, prickly, thin skinned, country-music melodrama, reckless, ga-ga, crazy like a fox, crazy, casuistry, girlish burbling.
You don't need any other words from Dowd's column to understand it, because the entirety of it was this ad hominem attack. Such is the state of journalism post-liberal takeover. Reason is dead and yellow journalism soars. Dowd no longer even tries her hand at political analysis with intellect. She has gone form Pulitzer Prize, to plagiarism to name-calling.
Stay classy, New York Times. As for Dowd, maybe Vince McMahon's WWE wrestling needs a commentator.
*******************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
This article is perfect in regard to Sarah Palin and how she and her family were treated ever since last August 29th. The abuse has NEVER LET UP. But I MUST say that the Republicans are NOT the perfectly polite party that this article makes it out to be. At least NOT where The Clintons were concerned.
Even BEFORE Bill Clinton won the Democratic Primaries, the garbage from the Republican Party started coming out. Throughout 8 years of the GREATEST PRESIDENCY EVER, there never was an investigation the Republicans did not want to pursue! It was unrelentless! And the Republicans never go after politicians' children? HA! Chelsea Clinton, who was 12 years old when Bill Clinton became president and at that awkward age, was made fun of constantly. Late night hosts held up a picture of Chelsea and said she was "the White House DOG". Even John McCain said that Chelsea was the result of her parents - Hillary Clinton and JANET RENO! So maybe Republicans don't go after Democrats in general, but they certainly went after the Clintons and NEVER LET UP for one minute during the whole 8 years of the Clinton presidency!
I just had to clear that up. I agree Sarah Palin and her children have been treated deplorably! I don't think any sane person could dispute that. However, the Republicans are NOT the saints this article indicates. Far from it. The Clintons were fair game for ridicule constantly - Bill, Hillary AND Chelsea!
by Tommy De Seno
FOXNews.com
July 13, 2009
The one-two punch thrown by Democrats and their counterparts in mainstream media have probably cost Alaska the governorship of Sarah Palin.
Sarah has provided two reason for stepping down as Alaska's governor: 1) The money she and the state have had to spend defending against 15 ethics complaints, all dismissed, and 2) The endless attacks against her spouse and children by Democrats, the media and those in pop culture.
Politics is officially a rich person's sport -- so long as you are rich enough to defend yourself against a string of baseless complaints you can stay.
Also, the children of Republican politicians are now a target-rich environment for Democrats and media demagogues. It makes you wonder how many good people otherwise willing to serve, perhaps even better than those serving us now, are deciding to stay away from politics because of ruthlessness from Democrats and the media.
Let's look at both issues.
Right down to the level of local politics, Democrat strategy is to bring ethics complaints against Republicans in the months leading up to an election. The goal is pure smear. After the election the complaints are dismissed or abandoned, as they are no longer useful against the Republican candidate.
Even baseless complaints have to be defended. In Sarah Palin's case, she racked up a few hundred thousand dollars in legal bills and Alaskans spent even more for administrative costs. It gets in the way of governing.
The solution here is for Alaska to pass a bonding law. Anyone filing an ethics complaint against a candidate within a year of an election should be required to post a bond to cover the costs should the ethics complaint be found to be baseless or abandoned.
On to Democrats beating up kids. That didn't start with the Palin teenagers. It started in 2004 with Dick Cheney's daughter Mary.
During John Kerry's debate with George W. Bush, Kerry brought up that Mary Cheney is a lesbian. During John Edwards' debate with Dick Cheney, Edwards brought up that Mary Cheney is a lesbian.
If a Republican were to bring up lesbianism, the left would scream that they were trying to rally their homophobic base. What Kerry and Edwards were trying to do was, exactly that -- rally the Democrat homophobic base.
Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill was interviewed about why Kerry and Edwards kept bringing up Mary Cheney being a lesbian. Her response: She called Mary Cheney "fair game."
"Fair game" is a hunting term, used to identify which animals one can shoot. Can you imagine the outrage were a Republican to call a woman "fair game" because she is a lesbian? No Republican would, but the Democrats did.
It was the first time in American history that either party officially announced that they were intentionally attacking the family members of opposing candidates. Democrat politics have been uglier ever since.
Sarah Palin walked right into the new world of Democrat child abuse. As soon as Sarah was announced as the Veep choice, the Obama Campaign, Democrats and their media Igor sidekicks floated every rumor and joke they could think of about the Palin family, from Sarah's baby being her daughter's right up to Letterman's rape joke about 14 year old Willow Palin.
Don't think of Sarah when you hear these jokes. Think of the two teenage girls who have to take it from Democrat adults, who are forced to suffer public abuse they may not be mentally ready to take, for no other reason than their mother wished to serve her country.
In the next Presidential election Malia Obama will be 14 like Willow Palin. Should conservatives go at her with both barrels, tease her, ridicule her and hurt her every time she turns on the television? Hell no. Conservatives wince at the thought, even while knowing Democrats have positioned our children as "fair game." It is the burden of those who set the high moral bar to live by it, even has Democrats pass underneath the bar in an effort to hurt our families.
Sarah Palin is a woman who came up through the ranks from local politics to the governorship, which used to be honored as paying your dues through gradual experience. To hammer Sarah, the Democrats and the media turned starting from the bottom into something bad. Democrats believe it's more respectable to spend $80 million of your own money buying your first elected office as US Senator, as did NJ Democrat Jon Corzine.
In the 20th century 8 men rose from governorships to the Presidency. Most had not a lick of foreign policy experience (like Reagan or Clinton). A governorship became the standard for pre-Presidential experience, and if you hadn't been a governor and were standing for President, you had some explaining to do. Yet for Palin, the Democrats and the media threw out the governorship standard, when the only difference between Sarah, Reagan and Clinton was that she is a woman. Misogyny was used to tear apart Sarah. So-called feminist groups have only been heard to applaud it.
So what does all this have to do with Maureen Dowd, political columnist for the erstwhile "paper of record" the New York Times?
When Sarah Palin announced her resignation she did so with the complaint that the media was relentless in ridiculing her and her family. Dowd stood at the crossroads of choice: She could pen a column acknowledging some of Palin's good works - like taking on her own party, fighting corruption and gaining unmatched popularity in her home state. Or, Dowd could continue down the dirty road of journalism as pro-wrestling and throw a mindless, Hulk Hogan smack-down on Palin (thus proving Palin's point).
We know what a journalist would do.
Here is what Maureen Dowd did (I won't reprint her whole column, just the names and adjectives she used on Sarah):
Caribou Barbie, nutty puppy, exquisite battiness, erratic, egoistic, narcissistic personality disorder, grandiosity, need for admiration, lack of empathy, loopy, solipsistic meltdown, strange, incoherent, breathless, prickly, thin skinned, country-music melodrama, reckless, ga-ga, crazy like a fox, crazy, casuistry, girlish burbling.
You don't need any other words from Dowd's column to understand it, because the entirety of it was this ad hominem attack. Such is the state of journalism post-liberal takeover. Reason is dead and yellow journalism soars. Dowd no longer even tries her hand at political analysis with intellect. She has gone form Pulitzer Prize, to plagiarism to name-calling.
Stay classy, New York Times. As for Dowd, maybe Vince McMahon's WWE wrestling needs a commentator.
*******************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
This article is perfect in regard to Sarah Palin and how she and her family were treated ever since last August 29th. The abuse has NEVER LET UP. But I MUST say that the Republicans are NOT the perfectly polite party that this article makes it out to be. At least NOT where The Clintons were concerned.
Even BEFORE Bill Clinton won the Democratic Primaries, the garbage from the Republican Party started coming out. Throughout 8 years of the GREATEST PRESIDENCY EVER, there never was an investigation the Republicans did not want to pursue! It was unrelentless! And the Republicans never go after politicians' children? HA! Chelsea Clinton, who was 12 years old when Bill Clinton became president and at that awkward age, was made fun of constantly. Late night hosts held up a picture of Chelsea and said she was "the White House DOG". Even John McCain said that Chelsea was the result of her parents - Hillary Clinton and JANET RENO! So maybe Republicans don't go after Democrats in general, but they certainly went after the Clintons and NEVER LET UP for one minute during the whole 8 years of the Clinton presidency!
I just had to clear that up. I agree Sarah Palin and her children have been treated deplorably! I don't think any sane person could dispute that. However, the Republicans are NOT the saints this article indicates. Far from it. The Clintons were fair game for ridicule constantly - Bill, Hillary AND Chelsea!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
JOHN MC CAIN SPEAKS NICELY ABOUT SARAH.
McCain Offers Words of Encouragement to Resigning Palin
Despite attacks from party insiders, Republican Gov. Sarah Palin still has a friend in Sen. John McCain, who tapped her to be his running mate in the 2008 presidential election.
FOXNews.com
Sunday, July 12, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain, Sarah Palin's would-be boss in an alternate reality, said Sunday he expects her to remain on the national stage despite giving up her job as Alaska's governor.
McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate who tapped Palin to be his running mate, said he is confident Palin will remain "a major factor" in the country's political dialogue.
"I understand that Sarah made the decision where she can be the most effective for Alaska and for the country," McCain told NBC's "Meet the Press"
"The fact is she is very popular with our Republican base. She will be a very strong voice," McCain added.
Palin, whose children even were targets for critics and comedians since she burst on the scene, called a press conference on July 3 to announce she had decided not to seek re-election. She also surprised political observers when she added that she didn't want to be a lame duck governor so was quitting her post 18 months early.
Palin said that she was going to go out and try to help anybody, including conservative Democrats, who she thought had a positive contribution to make and wanted her help.
But her first stop appears to be the 50th anniversary gala of Republican Women Federated of Simi Valley, Calif., which announced Sunday that Palin is will be at the event being held at the Reagan Presidential Library on Aug. 8.
McCain said he wasn't shocked by Palin's announcement last week but was "a bit surprised" since she did not tell him about it. He said they've since talked.
"I have never seen sustained, personal, family attacks that were made on Sarah Palin and her family in my life. ... I'm sure that had some impact," McCain said, adding, "I don't think she quit. I think she changed her priorities."
The Arizona senator said he is "confident" Palin would make a fine president but he didn't offer an endorsement, saying it's too soon to pick a candidate for 2012.
He also had a word for critics who want to cast her off as not nimble enough to be a presidential candidate.
"In all due respect to those who like to examine the entrails and look backward, the fact is we were three points ahead on Sept. 15 and the stock market crashed and we went seven points down. Sarah Palin ignited our party. We were winning and we could have won," he said.
Despite attacks from party insiders, Republican Gov. Sarah Palin still has a friend in Sen. John McCain, who tapped her to be his running mate in the 2008 presidential election.
FOXNews.com
Sunday, July 12, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain, Sarah Palin's would-be boss in an alternate reality, said Sunday he expects her to remain on the national stage despite giving up her job as Alaska's governor.
McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate who tapped Palin to be his running mate, said he is confident Palin will remain "a major factor" in the country's political dialogue.
"I understand that Sarah made the decision where she can be the most effective for Alaska and for the country," McCain told NBC's "Meet the Press"
"The fact is she is very popular with our Republican base. She will be a very strong voice," McCain added.
Palin, whose children even were targets for critics and comedians since she burst on the scene, called a press conference on July 3 to announce she had decided not to seek re-election. She also surprised political observers when she added that she didn't want to be a lame duck governor so was quitting her post 18 months early.
Palin said that she was going to go out and try to help anybody, including conservative Democrats, who she thought had a positive contribution to make and wanted her help.
But her first stop appears to be the 50th anniversary gala of Republican Women Federated of Simi Valley, Calif., which announced Sunday that Palin is will be at the event being held at the Reagan Presidential Library on Aug. 8.
McCain said he wasn't shocked by Palin's announcement last week but was "a bit surprised" since she did not tell him about it. He said they've since talked.
"I have never seen sustained, personal, family attacks that were made on Sarah Palin and her family in my life. ... I'm sure that had some impact," McCain said, adding, "I don't think she quit. I think she changed her priorities."
The Arizona senator said he is "confident" Palin would make a fine president but he didn't offer an endorsement, saying it's too soon to pick a candidate for 2012.
He also had a word for critics who want to cast her off as not nimble enough to be a presidential candidate.
"In all due respect to those who like to examine the entrails and look backward, the fact is we were three points ahead on Sept. 15 and the stock market crashed and we went seven points down. Sarah Palin ignited our party. We were winning and we could have won," he said.
Friday, July 10, 2009
SARAH: WHY SHE RESIGNED AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR HER FUTURE.
Movin' Out
ADVANCE COPY from the July 20, 2009 issue: Sarah Palin on why she resigned and what it means for her future.
by Matthew Continetti
07/20/2009
In early July, while most Americans were preparing for a long weekend of celebratory parades, charred meats, and noisy fireworks, Sarah Palin made some plans of her own. The Alaska governor had been the object of endless media attention and assorted calumnies since she became John McCain's vice presidential nominee last August. Now she wanted to try something new. So, on July 3, in a speech delivered from her home on Lake Lucille in Wasilla, Palin told her constituents that not only would she not seek a second term, but she would also be transferring authority to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell on July 26, abdicating her office with about 18 months left to go. The announcement, as one might expect, received global press coverage, dominated the weekend headlines, and gave stories about the late Michael Jackson a run for their money. Meantime, the political world went into sustained convulsions.
The fierce reaction surprised Palin. She is acutely aware of what the media and her opponents say about her. She heard some people say that the timing of her speech was odd. Not so. "Independence Day is so significant to me--it's sort of a way for me to illustrate that I want freedom for Alaskans to progress, and for me personally," she told me during a telephone interview on July 9. Others said the motivation for her resignation was not clear. "I'm like, 'Holy Jeez, I spoke for 20 minutes' " giving reasons, she said. Bloggers conjectured that a horrible scandal was looming over
her. Nope. Palin says she even heard a rumor that she resigned because pornographic pictures of her were about to hit the Internet. This left her bemused. "Between which pregnancies did I get to pose for those?" she said sarcastically. The obstinacy of her enemies, the fact that they consistently attribute bad-faith to her and accuse her of double-speaking, continues to mystify her. Hearing all the innuendo, Palin said to herself, "Really? You can't just believe what I'm saying?"
One thing you quickly learn about Sarah Palin when you study her career is that she never, ever does things by the book. The lady knows how to make a splash. She specializes in surprise announcements. Her 2004 resignation from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, her 2005 declaration that she was challenging incumbent Frank Murkowski for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, her March 2008 revelation that she was seven months pregnant with her fifth child, then her August 2008 addition to the GOP presidential ticket and the subsequent shocker that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant: All galvanized public opinion and upset established patterns of doing business.
Palin likes gambles. Her career is filled with firsts. In 2006, Palin became the first woman governor in Alaska history (as well as the youngest). In 2008, she became the first woman to appear on a GOP presidential ballot. And on July 3, she probably became the first governor with a 54-percent approval rating to resign from office for reasons having nothing to do with scandal or appointment to another job.
Palin says she had been thinking about her decision for a while, and had talked to various people about it. In January, during her state of the state address to the Alaska legislature, she asked lawmakers to put the previous year's election behind them. "I asked them not to allow those distractions that were on the periphery to hamper the state's progress," Palin told me. But her plea went unheeded. "It became obvious in the last months especially that too many people weren't going to ignore those things on the periphery," she said. As the months passed, Palin arrived at the conclusion that she didn't want a second term as Alaska's governor. She had achieved what she had set out to do, so why bother with one more lame-duck legislative session in 2010? "I know that we've accomplished more in our two years in office than most governors could hope to accomplish in two terms," Palin said. "And that's because I hired the right people." For Palin to remain shuttling between Juneau, Anchorage, and Wasilla would waste both her and her constituents' time. And "I cannot waste time," she said. "I cannot waste resources."
Before the announcement, Palin gave no public sign that she was thinking of resigning. When I visited Alaska in May, I heard widespread speculation that the governor would not run for reelection, but no one mentioned the possibility that she would resign. That announcement, Palin's sometime pollster David Dittman told me last week, was "out of the blue." Alaska's
next governor, Sean Parnell, reportedly found out that he was getting a promotion only a few days prior to Palin's announcement. The Alaska GOP chairman, Randy Ruedrich, who has clashed with Palin in the past, also expressed surprise. When I asked another plugged-in Alaska Republican for comment on Palin's decision, the response was, "Where do I begin?"
Palin's unconventionality and authenticity is the key to her appeal. She may move contrariwise to elite opinion in Washington and New York, but doing so strengthens her bond with conservative Republicans across the country. The things that make liberals flip-out at the first mention of Palin are exactly the ones that rally conservatives to her side. Liberals view Palin's resignation as a sign of weakness. Conservatives view it as attractive nonconformity. "To her credit," Dittman said, "she just didn't tip off a few people and go through the motions for a year and a half."
Why is Palin leaving? At this writing, there is no reason to doubt her stated position: Her enemies' concerted efforts to tear her down have caused her family financial stress and distracted her from her duties as governor. Since she returned to Alaska in November 2008, she has been hemmed in. Ethics complaints, insults, invective, undue attention, and legal bills have been all-consuming. "I can't fight for what's right when I'm shackled to the governor's seat," Palin said. For the last seven months the governor's office has been a ward. A trap. She is breaking free.
Palin likes to say "everything changed" for her on August 29, 2008, the day she was introduced as John McCain's running mate. That may be an understatement. Before then, Palin was an extremely popular governor known to Alaskans as a bipartisan reformer and a champion of clean government. Outside Alaska, she was almost completely unknown. When she strode onstage with McCain that August day in Dayton, Ohio, the only thing the global media knew for sure about Palin was that she opposed abortion and recently had given birth to a child with Down's syndrome. Since then, Democrats and the press have done everything in their power to transform this populist hero into a gun-toting, idiotic, apocalyptic harpy.
Last year, in the space of eight weeks, the media said Palin was a Buchananite (she wasn't), a member of the Alaska Independence Party (nope), a book-banner (wrong again), and a biblical literalist who believed dinosaurs roamed the Earth several thousand years ago (an utter fabrication). When it wasn't mangling facts, the press did its best to undermine Palin's accomplishments, from selling Governor Murkowski's jet to finally pulling the plug on the Bridge to Nowhere to pushing through a natural gas pipeline with bipartisan support. The denizens of leftwing fever swamps accused Palin of infidelity and questioned her most recent pregnancy. Feminist activists denied Palin her womanhood because she did not share their politics. Comedians made fun of her accent, clothes, smarts, and good looks. And in a craven attempt to preserve their ties to the media, the campaign operatives who had promoted Palin to John McCain later turned on her, telling reporters (on background, of course) that Palin was an incompetent "rogue" "diva" who may have been suffering from postpartum depression.
Palin-hatred is visceral and unrelenting. "Our state was inundated with opposition researchers trying to dig up dirt, the Democratic blogosphere up here making stuff up," Palin told me. The file on my desktop labeled "Insult List" is an attempt to track every foul thing that's been said about Sarah Palin since she rose to national prominence. At the moment, the list is seven single-spaced pages long. Palin's been called, among other things, a "bimbo," a "cancer," a "farce," a "jack in the box," a "provincial," a "maniac," an "airhead," "Lady Gaga," and "political slime." And that's just a small taste of the G-rated stuff. The blue material is far worse.
Unable or unwilling to grasp her true accomplishments and character, the media shoehorned Palin into a ready-made caricature of the know-nothing Christian PTA mom who enters politics because of "those damned lib'ruls." The reality is far different. Palin is a savvy and charismatic politician whose career has been filled with courageous stands against entrenched authority. Ideological or partisan attachments do not concern her. She has her flaws--who doesn't?--but they should be measured against her strengths. Instead the media ignored the positives and colluded with Palin's adversaries to reduce her to a cartoon.
The attacks did not stop when McCain and Palin lost the election. To the contrary: They shifted location and emphasis. Palin returned to a changed Alaska. Her first year in office had been remarkably successful because she governed with an ad hoc legislative coalition of Democrats and antiestablishment Republicans. That coalition broke down the moment Palin became a force in national politics and the most famous woman (probably the most famous person) in the Republican party. The Democrats in the legislature defected en masse. Compounding the problem: Because she had unseated it, the GOP establishment never liked Palin and wanted her to go away.
Suddenly "people were confronted with policy differences with the governor," Alaska state senator and Palin ally Gene Therriault told me. "The call went out from the national Democratic party to take her down. Some of the Democrats who worked with her previously took their marching orders." Gridlock ensued. Bipartisan comity was no more.
Anybody who had the opportunity to score political points against Palin took a shot. The Alaska judicial council, a body that recommends jurists to the governor, forced the pro-life Palin to appoint a pro-choice judge to the state supreme court. The legislature rejected Palin's choice for state attorney general. The governor and the legislature fought protracted battles over the replacement for Democratic state senator Kim Elton (appointed to the Obama administration) and stimulus money from the federal government. Civility with the legislature became untenable. John Coale, the Washington, D.C.-based Democratic lawyer who set up Palin's political action committee and legal defense fund, told me, "Something had to change."
The problem wasn't so much Palin as it was Alaska. She had become too big for her home state. Bizarrely, her celebrity did not expand her political capital but erased it. The knives were out, and you could hear the sound of still more sharpening in the distance.
The moment warranted a bold move. John Bitney, a former Palin aide who has known the governor since they were in junior high, told me that in times like these Palin seeks spiritual and familial counsel. "Sarah Palin on a personal level is driven by spiritual guidance that has taken her to where she is today," he wrote in an email exchange last week.
Bitney, whom Palin let go over personal differences in 2007, is worth quoting at length. "While she has learned to accept that guidance--she often alludes to it in her statements--she probably can't explain it fully," Bitney wrote. "And I am assuming that guidance is now apparently telling her it's time to heal herself, her family, and get grounded for whatever the future holds. I can tell you that I have learned to respect her guidance (wherever it comes from), for it has given her strength and direction to some unparalleled political heights."
Alaska ties down Palin in multiple ways. The state's distance from the rest of America makes it difficult to travel to major cities (or small caucus and primary states) in the continental United States without a hefty time commitment and scheduling effort. So far this year, every time Palin traveled outside Alaska, her enemies inside the state pilloried her for neglecting her job. This is a standard that applied neither to George W. Bush, who traveled the country campaigning for president while he was still Texas governor, nor to Barack Obama, who spent two of his four years as a U.S. senator from Illinois running for president. Palin chafes at this inconsistency and still isn't used to the idea that a different standard applies to her.
Then there are the ethics complaints. Practically everything Palin has done since returning home has been politicized by her enemies and, in some cases, criminalized. The moment she knew there would be trouble, Palin said, was when she returned to the governor's office in Juneau after the November election. The gaggle of reporters assembled there asked her a few questions about the campaign. Palin answered them. Almost immediately, an ethics charge was filed against her for conducting political business from her state office. "That was part of the Democratic plan to grind her up," state senator Therriault said. "Use the ethics law as a blunt instrument to club the administration."
In her July 3 speech, Palin mentioned 15 ethics complaints leveled against her. The Anchorage Daily News counts 18. The Wall Street Journal reports that Palin's office has been inundated with 150 FOIA requests for information regarding her schedule and contacts. Her staff is spending its time as unwilling participants in a giant fishing expedition. "They knew how to file these," Palin said. "They knew what category to file them under. We got the fake people, we got the people filing online."
The charges are frivolous. Some are just silly. One complaint said Palin violated the law by mentioning her vice presidential candidacy on her state website. Another said that her wearing a T-shirt with the insignia of Todd Palin's sponsor in the Iron Dog snow-machine race constituted a conflict of interest. "It's a cold, outdoor event," Palin said. "I've been wearing Arctic Cat gear for many years. I wear a Carhartt coat and commercial fishing bibs, too." Yet another complaint was filed under the name of a character from a British soap opera. One suspected it was only a matter of time before someone complained on behalf of the turkey who was decapitated in the background as Palin gave a television interview last Thanksgiving.
The state personnel board has dismissed the complaints, one after the other. According to the governor, however, when all is said and done--when one factors in all the wasted time and resources--the cost to Alaska amounts to some $2 million. "Why would I continue to put Alaskans through that?" Palin said. Furthermore, because state ethics law requires the accused to pay for her own defense, the Palins' personal legal bills add up to around $500,000. The Palins aren't poor, but they aren't rich, either. Paying off the debt will take some effort. If Palin remained in office until the end of her term, the bills would just grow.
Some of the charges were so silly that Palin wanted to pay the fines and move on. "I got to the point where I said, 'May I just plead guilty?' " she told me. But pleading guilty would have been political suicide. Palin's opponents in the legislature would have moved to impeach her on the flimsiest of pretexts. She had to fight it out, whether or not it was costing her money and peace of mind. "In politics you're either eating well or sleeping well," Palin said. "I want to be able to sleep well."
The accusations affected Palin emotionally. A rare and necessary talent for a great politician is the capacity to ignore or laugh off the critics' most vicious assaults. FDR had it. So did Reagan. When Palin spoke at the 2008 Republican convention, it seemed as though she had it, too. Her commanding performance gave the impression that the previous week's falsehoods, exaggerations, myths, insults, and smears did not matter to her. Not one bit.
This doesn't seem to be the case anymore, however. Over time, the attacks on Palin--on her character, intellect, appearance, femininity, and family--clearly got to her. One associate told me that, after the election, Palin made a habit of listening to talk radio, attempting to track what pundits were saying about her. Her Momma Grizzly instincts came out whenever her sons and daughters were mentioned. In January, she gave a rare interview to the libertarian documentary filmmaker John Ziegler on media bias. She could hardly give a speech in which she did not mention elite condescension and her ill-treatment at the hands of Katie Couric and leftwing bloggers. Her public performances became personal testimonials to the damage the media can inflict on a person's reputation and career. Palin was right, of course. But these were arguments for polemicists to make, not statesmen.
Palin thought she could respond to every attack. But no one can respond to every attack. Nor should they. Hatred and slander aimed at the people who disagree with you is a lamentable yet unremarkable fact of American politics. The vitriol is the heap of dirty laundry in the corner of a room that everybody pretends to ignore. A politician just has to live with the smell.
Palin is not a normal politician, however. For one thing, she is a newcomer to the national arena. The bulk of her career has been at the local and state level, where the stakes and the tempers are low compared with the rock 'em, sock 'em dramas that play out inside the Beltway and on the cable channels and blogs. "Everyone else in '08 had been in the game for decades," John Coale said. "They all had been there. This was somebody playing for the first time." For Palin, the hostility directed at her was novel and shocking. Because she prides herself on her unconventionality, and because she knows how to win a political knife-fight, she decided to fight back.
The turning point came in June. On June 3, Palin introduced the conservative radio talk-show host Michael Reagan at a dinner in Anchorage. In her introduction, Palin clumsily paraphrased from articles by Newt Gingrich and author Craig Shirley. Palin attributed the statements to Gingrich and Shirley, but she was a little sloppy in doing so. Predictably, a leftwing blogger soon took to the Huffington Post--a virtual coffee klatch for Palin-haters--claiming that the governor was guilty of plagiarism.
The charge did not go unanswered. Palin's lawyer issued a statement saying that the blogger's accusation was ridiculous, which it was, especially considering that both the current president and vice president are known to have lifted passages from other politicians in the past without any attribution whatsoever. Both Gingrich and Shirley said no plagiarism had occurred. The round went to Palin.
Next, on June 8, the late-night comedian David Letterman made a partisan, crude, and unfunny joke involving baseball star Alex Rodriguez and Palin's underage daughter Willow. The former had "knocked up" the latter, Letterman said, on the Palins' recent trip to New York City. (In his monologue, Letterman also said Palin had a "slutty flight-attendant look.") Palin didn't watch the show, but the next day a reporter asked for her reaction. When the reporter read the joke to her, Palin was taken aback. She called it disgusting. What happened next shocked her even more. "The reaction to my candid and heartfelt response blew me away," Palin said. "I all of a sudden became the bad guy. Who says I don't have the right to give a candid and heartfelt response? The reaction to it really opened my eyes: This is ridiculous. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't."
Palin demanded that Letterman apologize. She defended her position on the airwaves. Less than a week later, Letterman said the nasty crack actually had been directed at Palin's 18-year-old daughter Bristol, as though that made it any less tasteless. Then Letterman admitted he'd been wrong to make the joke in the first place. Palin had won again.
In late June, an Alaska Democratic blogger pasted the face of a pro-Palin radio talk-show host on the body of Palin's son Trig. The governor's camp released a withering statement, saying, "The mere idea of someone doctoring the photo of a special needs baby is appalling. To learn that two Alaskans did it is absolutely sickening. . . . Babies and children are off limits." The blogger backtracked. She said she only had intended to ridicule the talk show host, like that made any difference. "What if I hadn't responded?" Palin said. "Well, then, the criticism would be, can't you stand up for the special needs community?" The constant bickering and shifting standards rankled her. "Well, enough is enough," she said. "I would like the opportunity to speak up and speak out."
Palin's new combativeness is pronounced. When she announced her resignation, the Internet rumor mill went into high gear. Lefty bloggers could not countenance the idea that the woman to whom they devote such enmity might actually be resigning for her stated reasons alone. There must be some other story, they wrote, some other snowshoe waiting to drop. The CNN anchor Rick Sanchez speculated on air that Palin might be pregnant. The Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore wrote on the Huffington Post that Palin resigned because she was "under federal investigation" for self-dealing in the construction of a recreation center in Wasilla. Other liberal bloggers parroted Moore's baseless accusations. Palin's team wasted no time in issuing a statement from the governor's lawyer that shot down Moore's blog. "We will be exploring legal options this week to address such defamation," the lawyer wrote. The FBI also came out and said Palin was not the subject of an investigation. Another malicious story batted down.
Palin had made a clear decision to defend her family's honor. "The toll on her family from all the events over the past three years has been extraordinary," John Bitney wrote in his email to me. "She had a baby, Bristol had a baby, Track was sent overseas, and no doubt Piper and Willow have all the day-to-day issues that come from young women growing up." The parade of outrages against her and her children didn't help.
Yet a politician's job is to serve her constituents, not bicker with comedians. Palin has been caught in a bind. Her global celebrity has been in tension with her duties to Alaska. Had she remained in office, the tension would have become more pronounced. Meanwhile, the agenda on which she defeated Frank Murkowski has been enacted into law. One more year in office would mean additional legal bills and constant juggling between the demands of family, work, and fame. The job had become demanding and unpleasant.
So Palin let go.
Palin has begun ramping up her criticism of President Obama. "Somebody's got to start asking President Obama questions" about how he plans to pay for his agenda, Palin said. In her July 3 speech, she blasted "debt-ridden stimulus dollars," said that "today's Big Government spending" is "immoral and doesn't even make economic sense," and called the national debt "obscene." In an interview last week with Time magazine, she called cap-and-trade "cap-and-tax," and said the policy would "drive the cost of consumer goods and cost of energy so extremely high that our nation is going to start exporting even more jobs to China." I asked Palin about President Obama's response to the democratic upheaval in Iran. "Maybe they're tougher behind closed doors," she said. She noted that there were plenty of things "the most powerful man in the world" could do to help bring down Ahmadinejad, including a new round of international sanctions. She went after Obama's rhetoric. "It's not 'meddling' in another country's business when you understand that what happens over there affects us over here," she said. "I wish Obama was tougher in that area."
Speculation about Sarah Palin's presidential ambitions is premature. She herself probably does not know her next move. There is a strong chance that the unpredictable Palin may decide against running for any office, ever. You never know. But since the presidency so captivates Americans, and since the most recent vice presidential nominee has as much of a claim on the next presidential nomination as anyone, "Palin for President" (Tippecanoe and Piper too!) stories will be around for years to come.
Did Palin's surprise resignation help her chances? The flippant answer is, "Check back in four years, bub." The serious answer is, "There's no strong consensus one way or the other." When Palin announced her resignation, the conventional wisdom immediately gelled behind the position that she could no longer win the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. Maybe. Slowly and haltingly, however, an alternative theory emerged that said the move might not damage Palin as much as the establishment believed it would.
The polling evidence seems to confirm this. So far, Palin's fans have viewed her decision not to seek reelection sympathetically. A Gallup poll released on July 8 recorded that 67 percent of Republicans wanted Palin to have a role as a national political figure. A Rasmussen poll from last week found that Mitt Romney, Palin, and Mike Huckabee are in a statistical tie for the nomination.
Palin has a devoted following. No Republican politician energizes GOP crowds as much as she does. When I saw her speak at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life dinner in Evansville, Indiana, in April, Palin was practically mobbed by well-wishers and autograph seekers. The conservative movement is rudderless, and social conservatives in particular would like a powerful spokesman for their cause. The social issues may not have played much of a role during Palin's governorship, but once she is free from office she can emphasize them as much as she likes.
One lesson from Barack Obama's candidacy is that a politician should seize his (or her) moment. Elite opinion, remember, thought that Barack Obama wasn't ready to run for president in 2008. He should sit back, the argument went. Gain seasoning. Master a few issues. Wait for his turn. But Obama understood that when you do that, you end up being Joe Biden. Obama understood that once the spotlight is on you, it's foolish to let it pass on to someone else. He ignored the naysayers. He launched his campaign. Now he lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Reagan's late campaign manager John Sears had a term to describe what voters look for in a presidential candidate. The term was "appropriateness." Sears meant that John Q. Public wants to support the guy that best fits his mental picture of what a president should be. Does Palin have such "appropriateness"? The verdict is mixed. Certainly there's a latent hunger for a viable female presidential candidate who isn't Hillary Clinton. Palin, moreover, looked authentic and commanding in her speech to the 2008 Republican National Convention. It is not an exaggeration to say that her address there was one of the most effective political communications ever. In the vice presidential debate, Palin went toe-to-toe with Biden, the paradigmatic Beltway insider, and gave as good as--if not better than--she got.
Throughout her career, Palin has seemed most "appropriate" at moments when she senses that the populace is diverging from the political class that rules over it. Palin exploits the split and wins office as the tribune of the people. That is what happened when she saw that Wasillans were tired of the nonideological, nonpartisan, unexciting mayoralty of John Stein; when she saw self-dealing among Republican insiders in Anchorage and Juneau; when she saw that Alaskans were tired of Frank Murkowski and the lobbyist culture he nursed and protected. That is what she and John McCain tried to do last year, when Americans had grown tired of George W. Bush and Republican misrule (things didn't work out the way they'd hoped). The next time Palin sees a gap separating the people and their government, she may try to jump in and fill it.
For now, though, Palin will focus on writing her book, on the midterm elections, and on giving speeches. One certainty is that neither she nor the people who love and hate her are going away. "It's not retreat," Palin said. "It's moving more aggressively than ever to fight for what's right." Today the Palinistas and Palinphobes are as much a part of the national scene as they have been part of Alaska's. Since her debut, Palin has sparked curiosity and revulsion, devotion and illwill, admiration and scorn in equal measure. For whatever reason, the press cannot take its unblinking eye off of her. To the media and her detractors, she is a force of nature. She cannot be ignored.
The obsession is sure to intensify. Be prepared. Hurricane Sarah is about to descend on the Lower 48.
Matthew Continetti is the associate editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD. His The Persecution of Sarah Palin will be published by Penguin Sentinel in 2010.
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MY COMMENTS:
None needed. Mr. Continetti said it ALL!
ADVANCE COPY from the July 20, 2009 issue: Sarah Palin on why she resigned and what it means for her future.
by Matthew Continetti
07/20/2009
In early July, while most Americans were preparing for a long weekend of celebratory parades, charred meats, and noisy fireworks, Sarah Palin made some plans of her own. The Alaska governor had been the object of endless media attention and assorted calumnies since she became John McCain's vice presidential nominee last August. Now she wanted to try something new. So, on July 3, in a speech delivered from her home on Lake Lucille in Wasilla, Palin told her constituents that not only would she not seek a second term, but she would also be transferring authority to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell on July 26, abdicating her office with about 18 months left to go. The announcement, as one might expect, received global press coverage, dominated the weekend headlines, and gave stories about the late Michael Jackson a run for their money. Meantime, the political world went into sustained convulsions.
The fierce reaction surprised Palin. She is acutely aware of what the media and her opponents say about her. She heard some people say that the timing of her speech was odd. Not so. "Independence Day is so significant to me--it's sort of a way for me to illustrate that I want freedom for Alaskans to progress, and for me personally," she told me during a telephone interview on July 9. Others said the motivation for her resignation was not clear. "I'm like, 'Holy Jeez, I spoke for 20 minutes' " giving reasons, she said. Bloggers conjectured that a horrible scandal was looming over
her. Nope. Palin says she even heard a rumor that she resigned because pornographic pictures of her were about to hit the Internet. This left her bemused. "Between which pregnancies did I get to pose for those?" she said sarcastically. The obstinacy of her enemies, the fact that they consistently attribute bad-faith to her and accuse her of double-speaking, continues to mystify her. Hearing all the innuendo, Palin said to herself, "Really? You can't just believe what I'm saying?"
One thing you quickly learn about Sarah Palin when you study her career is that she never, ever does things by the book. The lady knows how to make a splash. She specializes in surprise announcements. Her 2004 resignation from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, her 2005 declaration that she was challenging incumbent Frank Murkowski for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, her March 2008 revelation that she was seven months pregnant with her fifth child, then her August 2008 addition to the GOP presidential ticket and the subsequent shocker that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant: All galvanized public opinion and upset established patterns of doing business.
Palin likes gambles. Her career is filled with firsts. In 2006, Palin became the first woman governor in Alaska history (as well as the youngest). In 2008, she became the first woman to appear on a GOP presidential ballot. And on July 3, she probably became the first governor with a 54-percent approval rating to resign from office for reasons having nothing to do with scandal or appointment to another job.
Palin says she had been thinking about her decision for a while, and had talked to various people about it. In January, during her state of the state address to the Alaska legislature, she asked lawmakers to put the previous year's election behind them. "I asked them not to allow those distractions that were on the periphery to hamper the state's progress," Palin told me. But her plea went unheeded. "It became obvious in the last months especially that too many people weren't going to ignore those things on the periphery," she said. As the months passed, Palin arrived at the conclusion that she didn't want a second term as Alaska's governor. She had achieved what she had set out to do, so why bother with one more lame-duck legislative session in 2010? "I know that we've accomplished more in our two years in office than most governors could hope to accomplish in two terms," Palin said. "And that's because I hired the right people." For Palin to remain shuttling between Juneau, Anchorage, and Wasilla would waste both her and her constituents' time. And "I cannot waste time," she said. "I cannot waste resources."
Before the announcement, Palin gave no public sign that she was thinking of resigning. When I visited Alaska in May, I heard widespread speculation that the governor would not run for reelection, but no one mentioned the possibility that she would resign. That announcement, Palin's sometime pollster David Dittman told me last week, was "out of the blue." Alaska's
next governor, Sean Parnell, reportedly found out that he was getting a promotion only a few days prior to Palin's announcement. The Alaska GOP chairman, Randy Ruedrich, who has clashed with Palin in the past, also expressed surprise. When I asked another plugged-in Alaska Republican for comment on Palin's decision, the response was, "Where do I begin?"
Palin's unconventionality and authenticity is the key to her appeal. She may move contrariwise to elite opinion in Washington and New York, but doing so strengthens her bond with conservative Republicans across the country. The things that make liberals flip-out at the first mention of Palin are exactly the ones that rally conservatives to her side. Liberals view Palin's resignation as a sign of weakness. Conservatives view it as attractive nonconformity. "To her credit," Dittman said, "she just didn't tip off a few people and go through the motions for a year and a half."
Why is Palin leaving? At this writing, there is no reason to doubt her stated position: Her enemies' concerted efforts to tear her down have caused her family financial stress and distracted her from her duties as governor. Since she returned to Alaska in November 2008, she has been hemmed in. Ethics complaints, insults, invective, undue attention, and legal bills have been all-consuming. "I can't fight for what's right when I'm shackled to the governor's seat," Palin said. For the last seven months the governor's office has been a ward. A trap. She is breaking free.
Palin likes to say "everything changed" for her on August 29, 2008, the day she was introduced as John McCain's running mate. That may be an understatement. Before then, Palin was an extremely popular governor known to Alaskans as a bipartisan reformer and a champion of clean government. Outside Alaska, she was almost completely unknown. When she strode onstage with McCain that August day in Dayton, Ohio, the only thing the global media knew for sure about Palin was that she opposed abortion and recently had given birth to a child with Down's syndrome. Since then, Democrats and the press have done everything in their power to transform this populist hero into a gun-toting, idiotic, apocalyptic harpy.
Last year, in the space of eight weeks, the media said Palin was a Buchananite (she wasn't), a member of the Alaska Independence Party (nope), a book-banner (wrong again), and a biblical literalist who believed dinosaurs roamed the Earth several thousand years ago (an utter fabrication). When it wasn't mangling facts, the press did its best to undermine Palin's accomplishments, from selling Governor Murkowski's jet to finally pulling the plug on the Bridge to Nowhere to pushing through a natural gas pipeline with bipartisan support. The denizens of leftwing fever swamps accused Palin of infidelity and questioned her most recent pregnancy. Feminist activists denied Palin her womanhood because she did not share their politics. Comedians made fun of her accent, clothes, smarts, and good looks. And in a craven attempt to preserve their ties to the media, the campaign operatives who had promoted Palin to John McCain later turned on her, telling reporters (on background, of course) that Palin was an incompetent "rogue" "diva" who may have been suffering from postpartum depression.
Palin-hatred is visceral and unrelenting. "Our state was inundated with opposition researchers trying to dig up dirt, the Democratic blogosphere up here making stuff up," Palin told me. The file on my desktop labeled "Insult List" is an attempt to track every foul thing that's been said about Sarah Palin since she rose to national prominence. At the moment, the list is seven single-spaced pages long. Palin's been called, among other things, a "bimbo," a "cancer," a "farce," a "jack in the box," a "provincial," a "maniac," an "airhead," "Lady Gaga," and "political slime." And that's just a small taste of the G-rated stuff. The blue material is far worse.
Unable or unwilling to grasp her true accomplishments and character, the media shoehorned Palin into a ready-made caricature of the know-nothing Christian PTA mom who enters politics because of "those damned lib'ruls." The reality is far different. Palin is a savvy and charismatic politician whose career has been filled with courageous stands against entrenched authority. Ideological or partisan attachments do not concern her. She has her flaws--who doesn't?--but they should be measured against her strengths. Instead the media ignored the positives and colluded with Palin's adversaries to reduce her to a cartoon.
The attacks did not stop when McCain and Palin lost the election. To the contrary: They shifted location and emphasis. Palin returned to a changed Alaska. Her first year in office had been remarkably successful because she governed with an ad hoc legislative coalition of Democrats and antiestablishment Republicans. That coalition broke down the moment Palin became a force in national politics and the most famous woman (probably the most famous person) in the Republican party. The Democrats in the legislature defected en masse. Compounding the problem: Because she had unseated it, the GOP establishment never liked Palin and wanted her to go away.
Suddenly "people were confronted with policy differences with the governor," Alaska state senator and Palin ally Gene Therriault told me. "The call went out from the national Democratic party to take her down. Some of the Democrats who worked with her previously took their marching orders." Gridlock ensued. Bipartisan comity was no more.
Anybody who had the opportunity to score political points against Palin took a shot. The Alaska judicial council, a body that recommends jurists to the governor, forced the pro-life Palin to appoint a pro-choice judge to the state supreme court. The legislature rejected Palin's choice for state attorney general. The governor and the legislature fought protracted battles over the replacement for Democratic state senator Kim Elton (appointed to the Obama administration) and stimulus money from the federal government. Civility with the legislature became untenable. John Coale, the Washington, D.C.-based Democratic lawyer who set up Palin's political action committee and legal defense fund, told me, "Something had to change."
The problem wasn't so much Palin as it was Alaska. She had become too big for her home state. Bizarrely, her celebrity did not expand her political capital but erased it. The knives were out, and you could hear the sound of still more sharpening in the distance.
The moment warranted a bold move. John Bitney, a former Palin aide who has known the governor since they were in junior high, told me that in times like these Palin seeks spiritual and familial counsel. "Sarah Palin on a personal level is driven by spiritual guidance that has taken her to where she is today," he wrote in an email exchange last week.
Bitney, whom Palin let go over personal differences in 2007, is worth quoting at length. "While she has learned to accept that guidance--she often alludes to it in her statements--she probably can't explain it fully," Bitney wrote. "And I am assuming that guidance is now apparently telling her it's time to heal herself, her family, and get grounded for whatever the future holds. I can tell you that I have learned to respect her guidance (wherever it comes from), for it has given her strength and direction to some unparalleled political heights."
Alaska ties down Palin in multiple ways. The state's distance from the rest of America makes it difficult to travel to major cities (or small caucus and primary states) in the continental United States without a hefty time commitment and scheduling effort. So far this year, every time Palin traveled outside Alaska, her enemies inside the state pilloried her for neglecting her job. This is a standard that applied neither to George W. Bush, who traveled the country campaigning for president while he was still Texas governor, nor to Barack Obama, who spent two of his four years as a U.S. senator from Illinois running for president. Palin chafes at this inconsistency and still isn't used to the idea that a different standard applies to her.
Then there are the ethics complaints. Practically everything Palin has done since returning home has been politicized by her enemies and, in some cases, criminalized. The moment she knew there would be trouble, Palin said, was when she returned to the governor's office in Juneau after the November election. The gaggle of reporters assembled there asked her a few questions about the campaign. Palin answered them. Almost immediately, an ethics charge was filed against her for conducting political business from her state office. "That was part of the Democratic plan to grind her up," state senator Therriault said. "Use the ethics law as a blunt instrument to club the administration."
In her July 3 speech, Palin mentioned 15 ethics complaints leveled against her. The Anchorage Daily News counts 18. The Wall Street Journal reports that Palin's office has been inundated with 150 FOIA requests for information regarding her schedule and contacts. Her staff is spending its time as unwilling participants in a giant fishing expedition. "They knew how to file these," Palin said. "They knew what category to file them under. We got the fake people, we got the people filing online."
The charges are frivolous. Some are just silly. One complaint said Palin violated the law by mentioning her vice presidential candidacy on her state website. Another said that her wearing a T-shirt with the insignia of Todd Palin's sponsor in the Iron Dog snow-machine race constituted a conflict of interest. "It's a cold, outdoor event," Palin said. "I've been wearing Arctic Cat gear for many years. I wear a Carhartt coat and commercial fishing bibs, too." Yet another complaint was filed under the name of a character from a British soap opera. One suspected it was only a matter of time before someone complained on behalf of the turkey who was decapitated in the background as Palin gave a television interview last Thanksgiving.
The state personnel board has dismissed the complaints, one after the other. According to the governor, however, when all is said and done--when one factors in all the wasted time and resources--the cost to Alaska amounts to some $2 million. "Why would I continue to put Alaskans through that?" Palin said. Furthermore, because state ethics law requires the accused to pay for her own defense, the Palins' personal legal bills add up to around $500,000. The Palins aren't poor, but they aren't rich, either. Paying off the debt will take some effort. If Palin remained in office until the end of her term, the bills would just grow.
Some of the charges were so silly that Palin wanted to pay the fines and move on. "I got to the point where I said, 'May I just plead guilty?' " she told me. But pleading guilty would have been political suicide. Palin's opponents in the legislature would have moved to impeach her on the flimsiest of pretexts. She had to fight it out, whether or not it was costing her money and peace of mind. "In politics you're either eating well or sleeping well," Palin said. "I want to be able to sleep well."
The accusations affected Palin emotionally. A rare and necessary talent for a great politician is the capacity to ignore or laugh off the critics' most vicious assaults. FDR had it. So did Reagan. When Palin spoke at the 2008 Republican convention, it seemed as though she had it, too. Her commanding performance gave the impression that the previous week's falsehoods, exaggerations, myths, insults, and smears did not matter to her. Not one bit.
This doesn't seem to be the case anymore, however. Over time, the attacks on Palin--on her character, intellect, appearance, femininity, and family--clearly got to her. One associate told me that, after the election, Palin made a habit of listening to talk radio, attempting to track what pundits were saying about her. Her Momma Grizzly instincts came out whenever her sons and daughters were mentioned. In January, she gave a rare interview to the libertarian documentary filmmaker John Ziegler on media bias. She could hardly give a speech in which she did not mention elite condescension and her ill-treatment at the hands of Katie Couric and leftwing bloggers. Her public performances became personal testimonials to the damage the media can inflict on a person's reputation and career. Palin was right, of course. But these were arguments for polemicists to make, not statesmen.
Palin thought she could respond to every attack. But no one can respond to every attack. Nor should they. Hatred and slander aimed at the people who disagree with you is a lamentable yet unremarkable fact of American politics. The vitriol is the heap of dirty laundry in the corner of a room that everybody pretends to ignore. A politician just has to live with the smell.
Palin is not a normal politician, however. For one thing, she is a newcomer to the national arena. The bulk of her career has been at the local and state level, where the stakes and the tempers are low compared with the rock 'em, sock 'em dramas that play out inside the Beltway and on the cable channels and blogs. "Everyone else in '08 had been in the game for decades," John Coale said. "They all had been there. This was somebody playing for the first time." For Palin, the hostility directed at her was novel and shocking. Because she prides herself on her unconventionality, and because she knows how to win a political knife-fight, she decided to fight back.
The turning point came in June. On June 3, Palin introduced the conservative radio talk-show host Michael Reagan at a dinner in Anchorage. In her introduction, Palin clumsily paraphrased from articles by Newt Gingrich and author Craig Shirley. Palin attributed the statements to Gingrich and Shirley, but she was a little sloppy in doing so. Predictably, a leftwing blogger soon took to the Huffington Post--a virtual coffee klatch for Palin-haters--claiming that the governor was guilty of plagiarism.
The charge did not go unanswered. Palin's lawyer issued a statement saying that the blogger's accusation was ridiculous, which it was, especially considering that both the current president and vice president are known to have lifted passages from other politicians in the past without any attribution whatsoever. Both Gingrich and Shirley said no plagiarism had occurred. The round went to Palin.
Next, on June 8, the late-night comedian David Letterman made a partisan, crude, and unfunny joke involving baseball star Alex Rodriguez and Palin's underage daughter Willow. The former had "knocked up" the latter, Letterman said, on the Palins' recent trip to New York City. (In his monologue, Letterman also said Palin had a "slutty flight-attendant look.") Palin didn't watch the show, but the next day a reporter asked for her reaction. When the reporter read the joke to her, Palin was taken aback. She called it disgusting. What happened next shocked her even more. "The reaction to my candid and heartfelt response blew me away," Palin said. "I all of a sudden became the bad guy. Who says I don't have the right to give a candid and heartfelt response? The reaction to it really opened my eyes: This is ridiculous. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't."
Palin demanded that Letterman apologize. She defended her position on the airwaves. Less than a week later, Letterman said the nasty crack actually had been directed at Palin's 18-year-old daughter Bristol, as though that made it any less tasteless. Then Letterman admitted he'd been wrong to make the joke in the first place. Palin had won again.
In late June, an Alaska Democratic blogger pasted the face of a pro-Palin radio talk-show host on the body of Palin's son Trig. The governor's camp released a withering statement, saying, "The mere idea of someone doctoring the photo of a special needs baby is appalling. To learn that two Alaskans did it is absolutely sickening. . . . Babies and children are off limits." The blogger backtracked. She said she only had intended to ridicule the talk show host, like that made any difference. "What if I hadn't responded?" Palin said. "Well, then, the criticism would be, can't you stand up for the special needs community?" The constant bickering and shifting standards rankled her. "Well, enough is enough," she said. "I would like the opportunity to speak up and speak out."
Palin's new combativeness is pronounced. When she announced her resignation, the Internet rumor mill went into high gear. Lefty bloggers could not countenance the idea that the woman to whom they devote such enmity might actually be resigning for her stated reasons alone. There must be some other story, they wrote, some other snowshoe waiting to drop. The CNN anchor Rick Sanchez speculated on air that Palin might be pregnant. The Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore wrote on the Huffington Post that Palin resigned because she was "under federal investigation" for self-dealing in the construction of a recreation center in Wasilla. Other liberal bloggers parroted Moore's baseless accusations. Palin's team wasted no time in issuing a statement from the governor's lawyer that shot down Moore's blog. "We will be exploring legal options this week to address such defamation," the lawyer wrote. The FBI also came out and said Palin was not the subject of an investigation. Another malicious story batted down.
Palin had made a clear decision to defend her family's honor. "The toll on her family from all the events over the past three years has been extraordinary," John Bitney wrote in his email to me. "She had a baby, Bristol had a baby, Track was sent overseas, and no doubt Piper and Willow have all the day-to-day issues that come from young women growing up." The parade of outrages against her and her children didn't help.
Yet a politician's job is to serve her constituents, not bicker with comedians. Palin has been caught in a bind. Her global celebrity has been in tension with her duties to Alaska. Had she remained in office, the tension would have become more pronounced. Meanwhile, the agenda on which she defeated Frank Murkowski has been enacted into law. One more year in office would mean additional legal bills and constant juggling between the demands of family, work, and fame. The job had become demanding and unpleasant.
So Palin let go.
Palin has begun ramping up her criticism of President Obama. "Somebody's got to start asking President Obama questions" about how he plans to pay for his agenda, Palin said. In her July 3 speech, she blasted "debt-ridden stimulus dollars," said that "today's Big Government spending" is "immoral and doesn't even make economic sense," and called the national debt "obscene." In an interview last week with Time magazine, she called cap-and-trade "cap-and-tax," and said the policy would "drive the cost of consumer goods and cost of energy so extremely high that our nation is going to start exporting even more jobs to China." I asked Palin about President Obama's response to the democratic upheaval in Iran. "Maybe they're tougher behind closed doors," she said. She noted that there were plenty of things "the most powerful man in the world" could do to help bring down Ahmadinejad, including a new round of international sanctions. She went after Obama's rhetoric. "It's not 'meddling' in another country's business when you understand that what happens over there affects us over here," she said. "I wish Obama was tougher in that area."
Speculation about Sarah Palin's presidential ambitions is premature. She herself probably does not know her next move. There is a strong chance that the unpredictable Palin may decide against running for any office, ever. You never know. But since the presidency so captivates Americans, and since the most recent vice presidential nominee has as much of a claim on the next presidential nomination as anyone, "Palin for President" (Tippecanoe and Piper too!) stories will be around for years to come.
Did Palin's surprise resignation help her chances? The flippant answer is, "Check back in four years, bub." The serious answer is, "There's no strong consensus one way or the other." When Palin announced her resignation, the conventional wisdom immediately gelled behind the position that she could no longer win the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. Maybe. Slowly and haltingly, however, an alternative theory emerged that said the move might not damage Palin as much as the establishment believed it would.
The polling evidence seems to confirm this. So far, Palin's fans have viewed her decision not to seek reelection sympathetically. A Gallup poll released on July 8 recorded that 67 percent of Republicans wanted Palin to have a role as a national political figure. A Rasmussen poll from last week found that Mitt Romney, Palin, and Mike Huckabee are in a statistical tie for the nomination.
Palin has a devoted following. No Republican politician energizes GOP crowds as much as she does. When I saw her speak at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life dinner in Evansville, Indiana, in April, Palin was practically mobbed by well-wishers and autograph seekers. The conservative movement is rudderless, and social conservatives in particular would like a powerful spokesman for their cause. The social issues may not have played much of a role during Palin's governorship, but once she is free from office she can emphasize them as much as she likes.
One lesson from Barack Obama's candidacy is that a politician should seize his (or her) moment. Elite opinion, remember, thought that Barack Obama wasn't ready to run for president in 2008. He should sit back, the argument went. Gain seasoning. Master a few issues. Wait for his turn. But Obama understood that when you do that, you end up being Joe Biden. Obama understood that once the spotlight is on you, it's foolish to let it pass on to someone else. He ignored the naysayers. He launched his campaign. Now he lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Reagan's late campaign manager John Sears had a term to describe what voters look for in a presidential candidate. The term was "appropriateness." Sears meant that John Q. Public wants to support the guy that best fits his mental picture of what a president should be. Does Palin have such "appropriateness"? The verdict is mixed. Certainly there's a latent hunger for a viable female presidential candidate who isn't Hillary Clinton. Palin, moreover, looked authentic and commanding in her speech to the 2008 Republican National Convention. It is not an exaggeration to say that her address there was one of the most effective political communications ever. In the vice presidential debate, Palin went toe-to-toe with Biden, the paradigmatic Beltway insider, and gave as good as--if not better than--she got.
Throughout her career, Palin has seemed most "appropriate" at moments when she senses that the populace is diverging from the political class that rules over it. Palin exploits the split and wins office as the tribune of the people. That is what happened when she saw that Wasillans were tired of the nonideological, nonpartisan, unexciting mayoralty of John Stein; when she saw self-dealing among Republican insiders in Anchorage and Juneau; when she saw that Alaskans were tired of Frank Murkowski and the lobbyist culture he nursed and protected. That is what she and John McCain tried to do last year, when Americans had grown tired of George W. Bush and Republican misrule (things didn't work out the way they'd hoped). The next time Palin sees a gap separating the people and their government, she may try to jump in and fill it.
For now, though, Palin will focus on writing her book, on the midterm elections, and on giving speeches. One certainty is that neither she nor the people who love and hate her are going away. "It's not retreat," Palin said. "It's moving more aggressively than ever to fight for what's right." Today the Palinistas and Palinphobes are as much a part of the national scene as they have been part of Alaska's. Since her debut, Palin has sparked curiosity and revulsion, devotion and illwill, admiration and scorn in equal measure. For whatever reason, the press cannot take its unblinking eye off of her. To the media and her detractors, she is a force of nature. She cannot be ignored.
The obsession is sure to intensify. Be prepared. Hurricane Sarah is about to descend on the Lower 48.
Matthew Continetti is the associate editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD. His The Persecution of Sarah Palin will be published by Penguin Sentinel in 2010.
*************************************************************************
MY COMMENTS:
None needed. Mr. Continetti said it ALL!
PALIN 1, PUNDITS 0. USUAL POLITICAL CALCULATIONS SIMPLY DO NOT APPLY TO SARAH PALIN!!!
John Tantillo
- FOXNews.com
- July 09, 2009
Palin 1, Pundits 0
The usual political calculations simply do not apply to Sarah Palin. One thing is already clear -- her base is still with her, and Sarah Palin is poised to grow.
Everyone -- especially those in the political pundit class seems to be calling Sarah Palin a loser, a quitter, a committer of political suicide by leaving office mid-term.
They are all very wrong.
What's being missed is that the usual political calculations simply do not apply to Sarah Palin, one of the most unusual public figures to come along in years.
With this decision and this announcement, Sarah Palin has been absolutely true to herself. Long-term, this will translate to a success that will leave most political pundits in the dust.
Why?
The pundit class is basing their analysis on calculations of the past (i.e., people who got elected president didn't quit as governor) and on the assumption that Sarah Palin made a political calculation in resigning.
They are simply not seeing either Sarah Palin for who she is, or what truly matters to the millions who support her, and they can't compute that there were no political calculations involved.
Her decision was one with her brand for two main reasons:
1) She's practical and holds government to the same standard. This means that when she was watching millions being spent on what seems to amount to frivolous investigations against her, she couldn't stand by and watch the money be wasted. Not only was she being hamstrung in her job, but dollars were being thrown out the window. Her frustration over this waste showed at her press conference. Not only does this point back to the sincerity of her brand and reinforce that she actually cares about every taxpayer dollar, but it puts her "quitting" in a different light -- by stepping aside and risking hurting her political career, she is actually saving Alaska money (one of her core promises she made to the people of that state).
2) She embodies family values and put them first. For the political class, a family is often an accessory, but even so, families are semi-sacred ground for the media, that is except for Sarah Palin's. By any reasonable standard, her family was dragged through the mud. The wife and mother making the announcement on July 3 was someone who could not and would not bear any more. She made a choice that came out of the deepest part of herself (her core brand) -- no wonder the political class was left scratching its collective head. They hadn't taken her claims of loving her family seriously. But the wives and mothers who make up Palin's supporters got it.
Fact is, as Stanley Fish over at The New York Times pointed out: if you just listened to what Palin said at her press conference, you'd understand that this was not someone making a traditional political calculation. This was someone being real about her choices and her pain.
And that's why Sarah Palin has just strengthened herself for the long run (if she ever chooses a political future). She wasn't erratic at all; she was true to the things she believes in.
Just look at her latest interview with the Associated Press:
You would be amazed at how much time and resource my staff and I, the Department of Law especially, spend on this every day. It is a waste. We are spending these millions of dollars not on teachers and troopers and roads or fish research and other things that are needed in Alaska."
She's a woman who means what she says and does what she believes. But the pundits simply aren't listening.
So let the pundits piece this out over the months and years ahead, but one thing is already clear: her base is still with her, and Sarah Palin is poised to grow.
And remember, things are always easier to understand when you keep marketing and branding in mind.
John Tantillo is a marketing and branding expert and the founder and president of Marketing Department of America.
- FOXNews.com
- July 09, 2009
Palin 1, Pundits 0
The usual political calculations simply do not apply to Sarah Palin. One thing is already clear -- her base is still with her, and Sarah Palin is poised to grow.
Everyone -- especially those in the political pundit class seems to be calling Sarah Palin a loser, a quitter, a committer of political suicide by leaving office mid-term.
They are all very wrong.
What's being missed is that the usual political calculations simply do not apply to Sarah Palin, one of the most unusual public figures to come along in years.
With this decision and this announcement, Sarah Palin has been absolutely true to herself. Long-term, this will translate to a success that will leave most political pundits in the dust.
Why?
The pundit class is basing their analysis on calculations of the past (i.e., people who got elected president didn't quit as governor) and on the assumption that Sarah Palin made a political calculation in resigning.
They are simply not seeing either Sarah Palin for who she is, or what truly matters to the millions who support her, and they can't compute that there were no political calculations involved.
Her decision was one with her brand for two main reasons:
1) She's practical and holds government to the same standard. This means that when she was watching millions being spent on what seems to amount to frivolous investigations against her, she couldn't stand by and watch the money be wasted. Not only was she being hamstrung in her job, but dollars were being thrown out the window. Her frustration over this waste showed at her press conference. Not only does this point back to the sincerity of her brand and reinforce that she actually cares about every taxpayer dollar, but it puts her "quitting" in a different light -- by stepping aside and risking hurting her political career, she is actually saving Alaska money (one of her core promises she made to the people of that state).
2) She embodies family values and put them first. For the political class, a family is often an accessory, but even so, families are semi-sacred ground for the media, that is except for Sarah Palin's. By any reasonable standard, her family was dragged through the mud. The wife and mother making the announcement on July 3 was someone who could not and would not bear any more. She made a choice that came out of the deepest part of herself (her core brand) -- no wonder the political class was left scratching its collective head. They hadn't taken her claims of loving her family seriously. But the wives and mothers who make up Palin's supporters got it.
Fact is, as Stanley Fish over at The New York Times pointed out: if you just listened to what Palin said at her press conference, you'd understand that this was not someone making a traditional political calculation. This was someone being real about her choices and her pain.
And that's why Sarah Palin has just strengthened herself for the long run (if she ever chooses a political future). She wasn't erratic at all; she was true to the things she believes in.
Just look at her latest interview with the Associated Press:
You would be amazed at how much time and resource my staff and I, the Department of Law especially, spend on this every day. It is a waste. We are spending these millions of dollars not on teachers and troopers and roads or fish research and other things that are needed in Alaska."
She's a woman who means what she says and does what she believes. But the pundits simply aren't listening.
So let the pundits piece this out over the months and years ahead, but one thing is already clear: her base is still with her, and Sarah Palin is poised to grow.
And remember, things are always easier to understand when you keep marketing and branding in mind.
John Tantillo is a marketing and branding expert and the founder and president of Marketing Department of America.
WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, CARL CANNON, BLUNTLY DECLARES POLITICAL PRESS GAVE SARAH A RAW DEAL IN 2008 CAMPAIGN; SERIOUS FAILED TO SCRUTINIZE JOE BIDEN.
Reporter: 'We Took Sides, Straight and Simple' Against Palin
By Tim Graham
July 10, 2009
On AOL Politics Daily, long-time White House reporter Carl Cannon bluntly declared that the political press gave Sarah Palin a raw deal in the 2008 campaign, and seriously failed to scrutinize Joe Biden, especially his fact-mangling and odd statements in the vice presidential debate. Cannon summed up:
In the 2008 election, we took sides, straight and simple, particularly with regard to the vice presidential race. I don't know that we played a decisive role in that campaign, and I'm not saying the better side lost. What I am saying is that we simply didn't hold Joe Biden to the same standard as Sarah Palin, and for me, the real loser in this sordid tale is my chosen profession.
Cannon suggested female journalists failed to make up for male sexism in Palin coverage because she didn’t match the kind of Hillary Clinton candidate they wanted to represent women in politics:
From the beginning, and for the ensuing 10 months, the coverage of this governor consisted of a steamy stew of cultural elitism and partisanship. The overt sexism of some male commentators wasn't countered, as one might have expected, by their female counterparts. Women columnists turned on Sarah Palin rather quickly. A plain-speaking, moose-hunting, Bible-thumping, pro-life, self-described "hockey mom" with five children and movie star looks with only a passing interest in foreign policy -- that wasn't the woman journalism's reigning feminists had envisioned for the glass ceiling-breaking role of First Female President (or Vice President). Hillary Rodham Clinton was more like what they had in mind – and Sarah, well, she was the un-Hillary.
But the most eye-opening part of Cannon’s piece looks at the vice-presidential debate. He chronicled some of Palin’s mistakes on that night, but then made a list of Biden’s egregious errors that were overlooked by a supportive media elite:
Sen. Biden, however, was in a place by himself when it came to bogus claims, absurd contentions, and flights of rhetorical fancy. He threw out several assertions that were so preposterous that – had Palin made them – they would have prompted immediate calls for McCain to dump her from the ticket.
The good senator from Delaware warmed up slowly, erroneously claiming that McCain voted with Obama on a budget resolution, and asserting wrongly that Obama wanted to return to the Reagan-era marginal income tax rates. He also embarked on an appallingly wrongheaded monologue about the constitutional history of the vice presidency. But when the talk turned to national security, presumably Biden's purported area of expertise, he went completely off the grid.
• "John McCain voted against a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty that every Republican has supported," Biden stated. (Actually, in a 1999 vote in Congress, McCain sided with 50 other Republicans to kill the treaty. Only four joined the Democrats.)
• "Pakistan already has deployed nuclear weapons," Biden said. "Pakistan's weapons can already hit Israel and the Mediterranean." (Pakistan has no known intercontinental missiles. The range of its weapons is thought to be 1,000 miles – halfway to Israel.)
• "When we kicked -- along with France -- we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, 'Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't...Hezbollah will control it.'" Biden recalled. "Now what's happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel." (Except that the U.S. never kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon or anywhere else. They've been entrenched in Lebanon since 1982. Actually, Hezbollah, insofar as it was responsible for the 1983 suicide bombing at the Marine barracks that killed 241 U.S. servicemen, kicked America out of Lebanon, not the other way around.)
• "The president...insisted on elections on the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, 'Big mistake. Hamas will win. You'll legitimize them.' What happened? Hamas won," Biden said. (Only the last two words of Biden's strange soliloquy are true. The rest are false. For one thing, Fatah controls the West Bank. Biden was thinking of Gaza. Secondly, neither Biden nor Obama predicted the 2006 victory for Hamas in Gaza's legislative elections. Third, McCain and Obama – but not Biden -- signed a letter urging the president to pressure Palestinians to require that candidates adhere to democratic principles before being allowed to run for office. Fourth, Biden served as an election observer and later wrote an article expressing high praise for Bush's actions. To sum up: One factual error and three fibs in only 31 words. Pretty impressive, in its way.)
• "With Afghanistan, facts matter...we spend more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spend on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan. Let me say that again..." (He did say it again, but that didn't make it true. It's wildly and weirdly off the mark. Yes, facts matter. The facts here were that at the time Biden was speaking, the U.S. had spent $172 billion in Afghanistan. The Iraq War consumes between $7 billion and $8 billion every three weeks. Biden's math was off by 2,000 percent.)
• "Can I clarify this? This is simply not true about Barack Obama. He did not say (he'd) sit down with Ahmadinejad." (He most certainly did. And among those who criticized him at the time for it was Joe Biden, who told Byron York of National Review that the idea of a president meeting with the likes of the Iranian president or Hugo Chavez was "naVve.")
Those were alarming mistakes. To me Biden's most discordant claims concerned his Animal House-like history lecture about the office of the vice president. It came while Biden was dressing down Dick Cheney, who was not present, for supposedly being unfamiliar with the Constitution. "The idea (that) he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States – that's the executive branch – he works in the executive branch," Biden said. "He should understand that. Everyone should understand that. And the primary role of the vice president of the United States is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and, as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit....He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he's part of the legislative branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive, and look where it has gotten us."
Lord, would Tina Fey have had fun with this jumble of misinformation – if only Palin had said it! Article I defines the legislative, not executive, branch. The vice president is, indeed, mentioned there. What Biden finds "explicit," hasn't been so to previous vice presidents or to most constitutional scholars. Prior to the 20th century, vice presidents didn't even have offices at the White House compound – they were housed in the Capitol. The notion that a veep's constitutional authority is to provide advice to a president springs from Biden's brow; it certainly isn't mentioned, or even contemplated, in the Constitution, which doesn't even say whether the vice president should receive a salary.
Should Joe Biden have known this stuff? Since he chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, you'd hope so. But even if he didn't, you'd think it would be news when he unleashed a veritable fount of misinformation to impugn Palin's knowledge of the federal system while attacking a sitting vice president. It barely rated a mention in the collective mainstream media.
Facts matter, the man said. But they didn't in 2008, not when it came to Joe Biden (our guy) against Sarah Palin (odd outsider). The ladies and gentlemen of the press were more interested in her hair, her glasses, her wardrobe, he accent, her sex life, her kids' sex lives, and her hunting habits than in whether her opponent knew anything about foreign policy, the Constitution of the United States, or the job he was running for. They still are. The relentlessly negative coverage of Palin goes on unabated -- she's the subject of a much-ballyhooed hatchet job in Vanity Fair this month -- even as Biden makes minor news from time to time by continuing his penchant for gaffes, this time while serving as the second most powerful person in the federal government.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.
**********************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
Well, it's nice SOMEONE is finally admitting that Sarah Palin got the shaft in the Vice Presidential campaign but it doesn't stop there. What about the FACT the MSM was and is STILL in the tank for Obama? What about how they treated Obama over how awful they treated Hillary? Yes, Sarah was treated miserably and I am glad someone is admitting it. But it went a lot deeper than that and they know it!
By Tim Graham
July 10, 2009
On AOL Politics Daily, long-time White House reporter Carl Cannon bluntly declared that the political press gave Sarah Palin a raw deal in the 2008 campaign, and seriously failed to scrutinize Joe Biden, especially his fact-mangling and odd statements in the vice presidential debate. Cannon summed up:
In the 2008 election, we took sides, straight and simple, particularly with regard to the vice presidential race. I don't know that we played a decisive role in that campaign, and I'm not saying the better side lost. What I am saying is that we simply didn't hold Joe Biden to the same standard as Sarah Palin, and for me, the real loser in this sordid tale is my chosen profession.
Cannon suggested female journalists failed to make up for male sexism in Palin coverage because she didn’t match the kind of Hillary Clinton candidate they wanted to represent women in politics:
From the beginning, and for the ensuing 10 months, the coverage of this governor consisted of a steamy stew of cultural elitism and partisanship. The overt sexism of some male commentators wasn't countered, as one might have expected, by their female counterparts. Women columnists turned on Sarah Palin rather quickly. A plain-speaking, moose-hunting, Bible-thumping, pro-life, self-described "hockey mom" with five children and movie star looks with only a passing interest in foreign policy -- that wasn't the woman journalism's reigning feminists had envisioned for the glass ceiling-breaking role of First Female President (or Vice President). Hillary Rodham Clinton was more like what they had in mind – and Sarah, well, she was the un-Hillary.
But the most eye-opening part of Cannon’s piece looks at the vice-presidential debate. He chronicled some of Palin’s mistakes on that night, but then made a list of Biden’s egregious errors that were overlooked by a supportive media elite:
Sen. Biden, however, was in a place by himself when it came to bogus claims, absurd contentions, and flights of rhetorical fancy. He threw out several assertions that were so preposterous that – had Palin made them – they would have prompted immediate calls for McCain to dump her from the ticket.
The good senator from Delaware warmed up slowly, erroneously claiming that McCain voted with Obama on a budget resolution, and asserting wrongly that Obama wanted to return to the Reagan-era marginal income tax rates. He also embarked on an appallingly wrongheaded monologue about the constitutional history of the vice presidency. But when the talk turned to national security, presumably Biden's purported area of expertise, he went completely off the grid.
• "John McCain voted against a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty that every Republican has supported," Biden stated. (Actually, in a 1999 vote in Congress, McCain sided with 50 other Republicans to kill the treaty. Only four joined the Democrats.)
• "Pakistan already has deployed nuclear weapons," Biden said. "Pakistan's weapons can already hit Israel and the Mediterranean." (Pakistan has no known intercontinental missiles. The range of its weapons is thought to be 1,000 miles – halfway to Israel.)
• "When we kicked -- along with France -- we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, 'Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't...Hezbollah will control it.'" Biden recalled. "Now what's happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel." (Except that the U.S. never kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon or anywhere else. They've been entrenched in Lebanon since 1982. Actually, Hezbollah, insofar as it was responsible for the 1983 suicide bombing at the Marine barracks that killed 241 U.S. servicemen, kicked America out of Lebanon, not the other way around.)
• "The president...insisted on elections on the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, 'Big mistake. Hamas will win. You'll legitimize them.' What happened? Hamas won," Biden said. (Only the last two words of Biden's strange soliloquy are true. The rest are false. For one thing, Fatah controls the West Bank. Biden was thinking of Gaza. Secondly, neither Biden nor Obama predicted the 2006 victory for Hamas in Gaza's legislative elections. Third, McCain and Obama – but not Biden -- signed a letter urging the president to pressure Palestinians to require that candidates adhere to democratic principles before being allowed to run for office. Fourth, Biden served as an election observer and later wrote an article expressing high praise for Bush's actions. To sum up: One factual error and three fibs in only 31 words. Pretty impressive, in its way.)
• "With Afghanistan, facts matter...we spend more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spend on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan. Let me say that again..." (He did say it again, but that didn't make it true. It's wildly and weirdly off the mark. Yes, facts matter. The facts here were that at the time Biden was speaking, the U.S. had spent $172 billion in Afghanistan. The Iraq War consumes between $7 billion and $8 billion every three weeks. Biden's math was off by 2,000 percent.)
• "Can I clarify this? This is simply not true about Barack Obama. He did not say (he'd) sit down with Ahmadinejad." (He most certainly did. And among those who criticized him at the time for it was Joe Biden, who told Byron York of National Review that the idea of a president meeting with the likes of the Iranian president or Hugo Chavez was "naVve.")
Those were alarming mistakes. To me Biden's most discordant claims concerned his Animal House-like history lecture about the office of the vice president. It came while Biden was dressing down Dick Cheney, who was not present, for supposedly being unfamiliar with the Constitution. "The idea (that) he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States – that's the executive branch – he works in the executive branch," Biden said. "He should understand that. Everyone should understand that. And the primary role of the vice president of the United States is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and, as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit....He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he's part of the legislative branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive, and look where it has gotten us."
Lord, would Tina Fey have had fun with this jumble of misinformation – if only Palin had said it! Article I defines the legislative, not executive, branch. The vice president is, indeed, mentioned there. What Biden finds "explicit," hasn't been so to previous vice presidents or to most constitutional scholars. Prior to the 20th century, vice presidents didn't even have offices at the White House compound – they were housed in the Capitol. The notion that a veep's constitutional authority is to provide advice to a president springs from Biden's brow; it certainly isn't mentioned, or even contemplated, in the Constitution, which doesn't even say whether the vice president should receive a salary.
Should Joe Biden have known this stuff? Since he chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, you'd hope so. But even if he didn't, you'd think it would be news when he unleashed a veritable fount of misinformation to impugn Palin's knowledge of the federal system while attacking a sitting vice president. It barely rated a mention in the collective mainstream media.
Facts matter, the man said. But they didn't in 2008, not when it came to Joe Biden (our guy) against Sarah Palin (odd outsider). The ladies and gentlemen of the press were more interested in her hair, her glasses, her wardrobe, he accent, her sex life, her kids' sex lives, and her hunting habits than in whether her opponent knew anything about foreign policy, the Constitution of the United States, or the job he was running for. They still are. The relentlessly negative coverage of Palin goes on unabated -- she's the subject of a much-ballyhooed hatchet job in Vanity Fair this month -- even as Biden makes minor news from time to time by continuing his penchant for gaffes, this time while serving as the second most powerful person in the federal government.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.
**********************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
Well, it's nice SOMEONE is finally admitting that Sarah Palin got the shaft in the Vice Presidential campaign but it doesn't stop there. What about the FACT the MSM was and is STILL in the tank for Obama? What about how they treated Obama over how awful they treated Hillary? Yes, Sarah was treated miserably and I am glad someone is admitting it. But it went a lot deeper than that and they know it!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
DON'T COUNT SARAH OUT FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012!!!!!
July 9, 2009
Don't Count Saint Sarah Palin Out for President in 2012!
By Bonnie Fuller
Don't write off Saint Sarah all you political pundits, press smartypants, and Washington insiders. You're out of touch with the men and women who love Sarah Palin--always have been and clearly will be. In your mind--Mr. Rove, Mr. Steele, and Mr. Huckabee--Sarah Palin has thrown away her chance to take the White House by handing in her resignation as governor. That's not what presidential candidates are supposed to do. They're supposed to toil away for years--decades, even--as senators or governors--before announcing their candidacy on the long haul to The Big White House.
Well guess what, boys--election rules are now made to be broken. Didn't you all just watch Barack Obama steal the White House right out from under the feet of the establishment-anointed Hillary Clinton? And he did it by forging a new path to the presidency based on an enormous grass roots movement that got its momentum from regular folks.
Oh yeah. Sounds familiar. Well Sarah Palin, despite her Katie Couric missteps, is no dumb bunny. The lady from Wasilla didn't leapfrog from nowheresville to Alaska governor by accident. She is a canny operator in her own right, with the ability to understand and embody the opinions of her audience. And they already like her better than before!
A new nationwide USA TODAY/Gallup Poll has found that two-thirds of Republicans want Palin to be "a major national political figure" in the future. In fact a whopping 71% of Republicans say they'd likely vote for her if she ran for president in 2012. And this poll was done after her resignation!
In fact, announcing her resignation on the eve of Independence Day wasn't done so the deed could slide under the radar of a long holiday weekend.
No way. She did it BECAUSE it WAS Independence Day and she wasn't really announcing a resignation. No, she was actually proclaiming "my independence...no more politics as usual."
When Sarah Palin shared the presidential campaign trail with Mr. Maverick himself, John McCain, she quickly learned that The Maverick is still a path with enormous appeal to the conservative small government crowd. That crowd still gets teary-eyed over the belief that every man or woman can make it for him or herself with just spit, vinegar and hard work. No need for government intervention. And don't forget, Obama won the presidency because he was the Maverick Democrat.
Now, the Lipstick Pitbull is banking on the fact that over the next 3.5 years there will be a behemoth of a backlash against Big Government, Big Spending, and Big Big Deficits--all the things that she and her supporters abhor.
And you know what--she's probably right. No matter how successful Obama's policies for routing a recession, there will be a swing back to the ideal that less government is more. America is just like that--cycles happen.
In the meantime, Saint Sarah can spend her time advancing her "higher calling" out of office. She made it very clear in her resignation speech that she has a mission and a missionary's fervor.
In her own words, she is done with conventional "politics as usual." Big Government spending is "amoral." She needs to "BUILD UP" and "FIGHT" for our country. She will support others who "seek to serve for the RIGHT reasons."
Sarah sees herself as the Joan of Arc for hardworking "average Americans." And like saints and missionaries of the past, when you have a calling that necessitates taking a bigger, more important road than regular roads, then you can't be bothered by accusations of "frivolous ethics violations," or by the typical "blood sport of the national political process."
I don't agree with critics that claim Sarah was speaking gobeldy gook when she was announcing her resignation. No, she was saying exactly what she wants to do. And it's clever.
No more time wasted on unproductive opposition that she would face in office. Instead, she'll take her message successfully on the road. And whether she's a new fox at Fox or reads speeches in front of sold-out auditoriums, Sarah Palin does know how to speak in a way that emotionally connects with her audience.
So beware to all Republicans and Democrats who count her out of the 2012 presidential race. These are unprecedented times, and unprecedented approaches that are not politics as usual will work. Saint Sarah has years now to go grassroots and spread her gospel. And guess what? It could work!
*************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
Hallelujah!! I LOVE this article. And you know what? I believe every single word of it! No sooner had Sarah finished her speech than the pundits were examining WHAT? WHY? WHERE? Some said she was running for president. Some said she was giving up politics and running away. Some said she blew her chance at the White House. But everybody was ANALYZING her. What those people do not understand is Sarah is NOT your typical politician. She does NOT speak out of both sides of her mouth. Her words do not have to be dissected or analyzed. What she says is what she means. And what she means is what she says. Sarah is real. Genuine. A breath of fresh air. I think she is as FED UP with Obama already as I am and millions of Americans are, too. So she wanted to be set free from the ties of the governor's office so she could be free to do what she sees as right for our wonderful country. I applaud Sarah. I hope she can fulfill her dreams and correct the damage Obama has already done to America. Sarah loves our country. She does NOT go to foreign countries and APOLOGIZE to them for America's faults. It seems Obama did the same thing today on his latest foreign jaunt. The only ones he should be saying he's sorry to is Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Especially Hillary. He STOLE the nomination and ultimately the presidency from her. And to both Hillary and John McCain because this USURPER is not even ELIGIBLE to BE the president!!
But I digressed. Sarah has her head on straight and she knows what she's doing. I believe in her! And in 2012 I hope her name will be on the ballot so I can pull the lever for her as our FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!!
Don't Count Saint Sarah Palin Out for President in 2012!
By Bonnie Fuller
Don't write off Saint Sarah all you political pundits, press smartypants, and Washington insiders. You're out of touch with the men and women who love Sarah Palin--always have been and clearly will be. In your mind--Mr. Rove, Mr. Steele, and Mr. Huckabee--Sarah Palin has thrown away her chance to take the White House by handing in her resignation as governor. That's not what presidential candidates are supposed to do. They're supposed to toil away for years--decades, even--as senators or governors--before announcing their candidacy on the long haul to The Big White House.
Well guess what, boys--election rules are now made to be broken. Didn't you all just watch Barack Obama steal the White House right out from under the feet of the establishment-anointed Hillary Clinton? And he did it by forging a new path to the presidency based on an enormous grass roots movement that got its momentum from regular folks.
Oh yeah. Sounds familiar. Well Sarah Palin, despite her Katie Couric missteps, is no dumb bunny. The lady from Wasilla didn't leapfrog from nowheresville to Alaska governor by accident. She is a canny operator in her own right, with the ability to understand and embody the opinions of her audience. And they already like her better than before!
A new nationwide USA TODAY/Gallup Poll has found that two-thirds of Republicans want Palin to be "a major national political figure" in the future. In fact a whopping 71% of Republicans say they'd likely vote for her if she ran for president in 2012. And this poll was done after her resignation!
In fact, announcing her resignation on the eve of Independence Day wasn't done so the deed could slide under the radar of a long holiday weekend.
No way. She did it BECAUSE it WAS Independence Day and she wasn't really announcing a resignation. No, she was actually proclaiming "my independence...no more politics as usual."
When Sarah Palin shared the presidential campaign trail with Mr. Maverick himself, John McCain, she quickly learned that The Maverick is still a path with enormous appeal to the conservative small government crowd. That crowd still gets teary-eyed over the belief that every man or woman can make it for him or herself with just spit, vinegar and hard work. No need for government intervention. And don't forget, Obama won the presidency because he was the Maverick Democrat.
Now, the Lipstick Pitbull is banking on the fact that over the next 3.5 years there will be a behemoth of a backlash against Big Government, Big Spending, and Big Big Deficits--all the things that she and her supporters abhor.
And you know what--she's probably right. No matter how successful Obama's policies for routing a recession, there will be a swing back to the ideal that less government is more. America is just like that--cycles happen.
In the meantime, Saint Sarah can spend her time advancing her "higher calling" out of office. She made it very clear in her resignation speech that she has a mission and a missionary's fervor.
In her own words, she is done with conventional "politics as usual." Big Government spending is "amoral." She needs to "BUILD UP" and "FIGHT" for our country. She will support others who "seek to serve for the RIGHT reasons."
Sarah sees herself as the Joan of Arc for hardworking "average Americans." And like saints and missionaries of the past, when you have a calling that necessitates taking a bigger, more important road than regular roads, then you can't be bothered by accusations of "frivolous ethics violations," or by the typical "blood sport of the national political process."
I don't agree with critics that claim Sarah was speaking gobeldy gook when she was announcing her resignation. No, she was saying exactly what she wants to do. And it's clever.
No more time wasted on unproductive opposition that she would face in office. Instead, she'll take her message successfully on the road. And whether she's a new fox at Fox or reads speeches in front of sold-out auditoriums, Sarah Palin does know how to speak in a way that emotionally connects with her audience.
So beware to all Republicans and Democrats who count her out of the 2012 presidential race. These are unprecedented times, and unprecedented approaches that are not politics as usual will work. Saint Sarah has years now to go grassroots and spread her gospel. And guess what? It could work!
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MY THOUGHTS:
Hallelujah!! I LOVE this article. And you know what? I believe every single word of it! No sooner had Sarah finished her speech than the pundits were examining WHAT? WHY? WHERE? Some said she was running for president. Some said she was giving up politics and running away. Some said she blew her chance at the White House. But everybody was ANALYZING her. What those people do not understand is Sarah is NOT your typical politician. She does NOT speak out of both sides of her mouth. Her words do not have to be dissected or analyzed. What she says is what she means. And what she means is what she says. Sarah is real. Genuine. A breath of fresh air. I think she is as FED UP with Obama already as I am and millions of Americans are, too. So she wanted to be set free from the ties of the governor's office so she could be free to do what she sees as right for our wonderful country. I applaud Sarah. I hope she can fulfill her dreams and correct the damage Obama has already done to America. Sarah loves our country. She does NOT go to foreign countries and APOLOGIZE to them for America's faults. It seems Obama did the same thing today on his latest foreign jaunt. The only ones he should be saying he's sorry to is Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Especially Hillary. He STOLE the nomination and ultimately the presidency from her. And to both Hillary and John McCain because this USURPER is not even ELIGIBLE to BE the president!!
But I digressed. Sarah has her head on straight and she knows what she's doing. I believe in her! And in 2012 I hope her name will be on the ballot so I can pull the lever for her as our FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!!
SARAH HITS THE RESET BUTTON.
Sarah Palin hits the RESET button
By: Noemie Emery
Examiner Columnist | 7/8/09
Sarah Palin's early retirement from Alaska's governor's mansion has been called erratic, unhinged, and irrational, which isn't surprising: Her ten-month career as a national figure has been marked by erratic, extreme, and unhinged behavior, most of it emanating from the other side.
How rational is it for a once-noted blogger to obsess for months over Palin's gynecological history, insisting that her younger son, born in April, 2008, was really born to her 18-year-old daughter, although the daughter was already pregnant with her own child, born eight months later, in December of the same year?
How rational is it for a reputable pundit to call her a "cancer" on the Republican party, for reasons he seemed to feel deeply (they had something to do with not reading Niebuhr), but couldn't exactly describe?
It was rational to critique her lack of experience, (though Barak Obama had less as a senator), and her lack of knowledge of foreign affairs (which was typical of most governors, and could be assuaged with tutorial sessions); but the real objections to Palin were of other kinds.
A McCain-style maverick, who fought her own party and put social concerns on a fairly back burner, the moose-hunting mother of five was transformed within days to a backwoods fanatic, who banned books when not burning them, opposed contraception, wanted rape victims to pay for their treatment, wanted Alaska to secede from the Union, believed, (said Yuval Levin) "that the Iraq war was mandated by God, that the end-times prophesied in the Book of Revelation were nearing," and that the world had been made in six days.
None of this was true, but this failed to bother the "fact-based community," for whom her actual record didn't exist. In fact, her record was never brought up by her most intense critics, who focused instead on their inchoate feelings.
"Palin became the embodiment of every dark fantasy the Left [and part of the Right] had ever held about the views of evangelical Christians," said Yuval Levin. Oddly, the main complaint leveled at Palin was that she was not tolerant, and she disdained logic and reason for appeals on the purely emotional level, geared to primitive yearnings and fears.
And how tolerant was it to "gun for her children," as Peggy Noonan and others have said? A comedian joked about her 14 year old being "knocked up" at a ball game, and then explained it by saying he meant the 18-year-old daughter instead.
Her husband was portrayed on Saturday Night Live seducing his daughters. She was mocked as a slut, hung in effigy, and called a fit subject for rape by a number of feminists.
And the special-needs child? Don't ask. Pictures were photoshopped that showed him with the head of a freak or a monster or criminal. Critics said she had cornered the "retard' vote; which she would have done anyhow." She said that the "world needs more Trigs, not fewer," complained one blogger recently.
"Her first act as President: To introduce a Pre-K lunch buffet that includes lead paint chips. Sort of a large HEAD-START program...Her policies will increase jobs because Wal-Mart is building new stores each day and someone has to be the greeter. This will lead to smaller government because fewer Americans will have the cognitive ability to hold a government job."
It's class all the way with these wonderful people. Perhaps she's resigning because her husband was getting an ulcer, repressing his impulse to shove them through walls.
Part of this descends from the Clintons' "nuts and sluts" strategy, and part from the campaign in 2004, when Mary Cheney emerged as a culture war issue, because, in the words of the Democrats' fixer, she was "fair game."
Now everyone is fair game to the party of reason and tolerance, which may finally have pushed things too far. They'll have Palin to kick around a bit longer, but from the top of a pile of money, free of their lawsuits, and perhaps with a microphone or two in her arsenal.
She's not quitting, just shifting the terms of the battle. Nixon survived a disjointed "farewell," and he became president. Twice.
Examiner columnist Noemie Emery is contributing editor to The Weekly Standard and author of "Great Expectations: The Troubled Lives of Political Families."
By: Noemie Emery
Examiner Columnist | 7/8/09
Sarah Palin's early retirement from Alaska's governor's mansion has been called erratic, unhinged, and irrational, which isn't surprising: Her ten-month career as a national figure has been marked by erratic, extreme, and unhinged behavior, most of it emanating from the other side.
How rational is it for a once-noted blogger to obsess for months over Palin's gynecological history, insisting that her younger son, born in April, 2008, was really born to her 18-year-old daughter, although the daughter was already pregnant with her own child, born eight months later, in December of the same year?
How rational is it for a reputable pundit to call her a "cancer" on the Republican party, for reasons he seemed to feel deeply (they had something to do with not reading Niebuhr), but couldn't exactly describe?
It was rational to critique her lack of experience, (though Barak Obama had less as a senator), and her lack of knowledge of foreign affairs (which was typical of most governors, and could be assuaged with tutorial sessions); but the real objections to Palin were of other kinds.
A McCain-style maverick, who fought her own party and put social concerns on a fairly back burner, the moose-hunting mother of five was transformed within days to a backwoods fanatic, who banned books when not burning them, opposed contraception, wanted rape victims to pay for their treatment, wanted Alaska to secede from the Union, believed, (said Yuval Levin) "that the Iraq war was mandated by God, that the end-times prophesied in the Book of Revelation were nearing," and that the world had been made in six days.
None of this was true, but this failed to bother the "fact-based community," for whom her actual record didn't exist. In fact, her record was never brought up by her most intense critics, who focused instead on their inchoate feelings.
"Palin became the embodiment of every dark fantasy the Left [and part of the Right] had ever held about the views of evangelical Christians," said Yuval Levin. Oddly, the main complaint leveled at Palin was that she was not tolerant, and she disdained logic and reason for appeals on the purely emotional level, geared to primitive yearnings and fears.
And how tolerant was it to "gun for her children," as Peggy Noonan and others have said? A comedian joked about her 14 year old being "knocked up" at a ball game, and then explained it by saying he meant the 18-year-old daughter instead.
Her husband was portrayed on Saturday Night Live seducing his daughters. She was mocked as a slut, hung in effigy, and called a fit subject for rape by a number of feminists.
And the special-needs child? Don't ask. Pictures were photoshopped that showed him with the head of a freak or a monster or criminal. Critics said she had cornered the "retard' vote; which she would have done anyhow." She said that the "world needs more Trigs, not fewer," complained one blogger recently.
"Her first act as President: To introduce a Pre-K lunch buffet that includes lead paint chips. Sort of a large HEAD-START program...Her policies will increase jobs because Wal-Mart is building new stores each day and someone has to be the greeter. This will lead to smaller government because fewer Americans will have the cognitive ability to hold a government job."
It's class all the way with these wonderful people. Perhaps she's resigning because her husband was getting an ulcer, repressing his impulse to shove them through walls.
Part of this descends from the Clintons' "nuts and sluts" strategy, and part from the campaign in 2004, when Mary Cheney emerged as a culture war issue, because, in the words of the Democrats' fixer, she was "fair game."
Now everyone is fair game to the party of reason and tolerance, which may finally have pushed things too far. They'll have Palin to kick around a bit longer, but from the top of a pile of money, free of their lawsuits, and perhaps with a microphone or two in her arsenal.
She's not quitting, just shifting the terms of the battle. Nixon survived a disjointed "farewell," and he became president. Twice.
Examiner columnist Noemie Emery is contributing editor to The Weekly Standard and author of "Great Expectations: The Troubled Lives of Political Families."
THE OUTSIDER: WHERE IS SARAH PALIN GOING NEXT?
The Outsider: Where Is Sarah Palin Going Next?
By David Von Drehle and Jay Newton-Small / Dillingham, Alaska
Thursday, Jul. 09, 2009
TIMES.COM
Sarah Palin is that most exotic of American creatures: an Alaska original, raised and ripened in an environment remote, extreme, unfamiliar — and free. A land of self-invention, where no one bats an eye at a mom-deckhand-governor-whatever-comes-next. Ever since John McCain introduced his running mate last year, Palin has been like a modern-day version of the captive specimens hauled back to Europe by explorers of old. Like Squanto in London, she speaks the language — if not always the idiom — of the audiences she fascinates. But she remains, on some level, unknowable.
This outsider quality is easy to ignore when you see her in full dazzle on a convention stage, but it comes into focus should you find her in her habitat. After announcing plans on July 3 to resign as governor after just 2½ years, Palin retired to her in-laws' place in Dillingham, a tiny fishing village in southwestern Alaska, reachable only by boat or plane. TIME caught up to her there. It was salmon season, and thick fillets, red from the smokehouse, were drying on a line strung from a nearby tree. Husband Todd Palin was chopping wood and feeding it into a homemade sauna, the kind that native fishermen — like him — sweat themselves clean in after a day on Bristol Bay. He likes it hot — 190°F to 200°F (about 90°C to 95°C) — but that's too much for Sarah. Daughter Piper hovered over her baby brother Trig, who shares a name with one of the volcanoes on the far side of the water. Flat land, flat water, distant mountains. You can see for miles but not far enough to spot the nearest town.
Could there be a less likely venue in which to ask a woman in a blue T-shirt — "Go Slam a Salmon," it reads — about her plans to run for President? And yet this was the place where her answer finally made sense. It included none of the strange ramblings of her televised resignation speech, which managed, in pure Palin style, to be both plainspoken and inscrutable. For example: "Take the words of General MacArthur. He said, 'We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.' " And "Do you want me to make a positive difference and fight for all our children's future from outside the governor's office?"
With salmon and wood smoke fragrant in the endless summer evening, amid wet socks and waders and red rubber fishing gloves, Palin tells TIME, "I cannot predict what's going to happen. I don't know what doors will be open or closed by then. I was telling Todd today, I was saying, 'Man, I wish we could predict the next fish run so that we know when to be out on the water.' We can't predict the next fish run, much less what's going to happen in 2012."
In Washington, where even a flat no can mean maybe, this answer will almost certainly be taken to mean "Yes, she's running," heedless of the widely spouted view that she blew her chance with the decision to quit her current job. Left, right and center, pundits opined on the lightness of Palin's résumé and her vanished chance to beef it up. How could she seek a promotion when she didn't finish the job she had? Even a fan like columnist Fred Barnes, writing in the pro-Palin Weekly Standard, declared glumly, "Forget about Sarah Palin as the Republican presidential candidate in 2012 and probably ever."
In Alaska, though, her answer could mean exactly what it says — that she doesn't yet know what she'll be doing in 2012. Here, you make each day from the materials at hand. "My intention" in the coming months, she said in her resignation speech, "is to go out and to campaign for people who can effect change all across our nation." She added that "I can't do that from the governor's desk" because enemies stirred up by her sudden prominence — and orchestrated, she believes, by the Obama White House — would bury her in unfounded ethics complaints.
Whether that is true or not, Palin's unconventional step speaks to an ingrained frontier skepticism of authority — even one's own. Given the plunging credibility of institutions and élites, that's a mood that fits the Palin brand. Résumés ain't what they used to be; they count only with people who trust credentials — a dwindling breed. The mathematics Ph.D.s who dreamed up economy-killing derivatives have pretty impressive résumés. The leaders of congressional committees and executive agencies have decades of experience — at wallowing in red ink, mismanaging economic bubbles and botching covert intelligence.
If ever there has been a time to gamble on a flimsy résumé, ever a time for the ultimate outsider, this might be it. "We have so little trust in the character of the people we elected that most of us wouldn't invite them into our homes for dinner, let alone leave our children alone in their care," writes talk-show host Glenn Beck in his book Glenn Beck's Common Sense, a pox-on-all-their-houses fusillade at Washington. Dashed off in a fever of disillusionment with those in power, Beck's book is selling like vampire lit, with more than 1 million copies in print.
Suppose that Palin somehow channels this grim and possibly gathering sense that America's institutions and authorities are no longer worthy of deference. Suppose that the Obama Administration's expansions of government don't prove as popular — or successful — as Democrats hope. Maybe then she will have picked the right time to declare in her resignation speech, "I've never believed that I, nor anyone else, needs a title" to be effective. In fact, a title might slow you down if your message is that our nation's leaders are so deeply and abidingly inadequate that the only appropriate attitude toward them is scorn.
The Outsider
Palin's breakneck trajectory from rising star to former officeholder — with more twists sure to come — has everything to do with her Alaskan context. As the writer John McPhee once observed, "Alaska is a foreign country," a statement legally false but true in terms of culture and attitude and location. Recall how the story begins. It is June 2007, and a ship docks at the remote port of Juneau, a place tightly bound between sea and mountains. Down the gangplank walks a pair of pundits — Barnes and editor William Kristol — bound for lunch with an unknown first-year governor. A few hours later, the two reboard their cruise ship, delighted to have found a Republican fresh as a glacier breeze, seemingly tough as a sled dog and unsullied by the internecine battles raging within the fracturing GOP.
But how tough could she really be, having learned about politics in a state with almost as many square miles as people? Alaskan feuds are straightforward and personal, against a backdrop of "live and let live." Washington combat has an impersonal cruelty to it, reflected in a maxim of the strategist Lee Atwater: "Never kick a man when he's up." As Barnes and Kristol began feeding Palin's name into the swirl of Washington gossip known as the Great Mentioner, they might have overestimated how ready she was for battle in the big time.
In Dillingham, Palin traces her decision to resign directly to Aug. 29, 2008, the day she was announced as McCain's running mate, the day "the distractions," as she calls them, "ramped up." They ranged from the bizarre — a blogger's campaign to prove that Palin faked her last pregnancy (she didn't) — to the humiliating. The National Enquirer sent four reporters to Alaska, hoovering up gossip about drug use by her older children and long-ago marital infidelity. Despite rave reviews for her Republican National Convention speech, Palin soon became the target of late-night comics and snarky columnists. The obvious pleasure she took in her attacks on the Democrats made it hard to feel sorry for her.
A more experienced, more familiar politician would have been ready for the ramping, but Palin seemed consumed by it. Instead of ignoring hostile bloggers, she combed the Web for their latest postings. At the same time, she assumed the classic role of vice presidential attack dog, making insinuations about Barack Obama's religion and patriotism. She urged the McCain campaign to strike back at every heckler, and when staffers admonished her to remember the big picture, she suspected that she was surrounded by enemies. An armor of suspicion closed her in. Asked recently to name the people Palin trusts for advice, a source close to her answered, "Nobody. I'm not even sure she listens to Todd."
The campaign ended but not the barrage. Since the election in November, Palin has been hit with at least 10 ethics complaints for such alleged offenses as allowing her picture to be used to promote Alaskan fisheries and wearing a logo on her snowmobile gear. One complaint was filed under a pseudonym borrowed from a British soap opera. Most were quickly dismissed. And yet, Palin says, she arrived at the conclusion that there would always be more and that the complaints would consume her remaining time as governor.
"It comes at such great cost," she tells TIME. "The distraction. The waste of time and money, public's time and money." She decided that "it's insane to continue down this road. And Alaskans who have paid attention to what's going on, they understand that." But what she sees as distractions, many voters see as the gauntlet of public life; that if you can't take the heat, don't go into the public sauna. She asserts that if people were shocked by her decision, it was because the media haven't covered the real story. "We have sat down with reporters, showed them proof of the frivolity, the wastefulness, you know, millions of dollars this is costing our state to fight frivolous charges. And countless, countless hours from my staff, our Department of Law, from me, every single day, just trying to set the record straight — and it doesn't cost the adversaries a dime."
Hell, Yeah, We're Out of Here
According to Palin, as she announced her decision, her family was uniformly delighted by her move. "It was four yeses and one 'Hell, yeah!' " she said. Others, however, had tried and failed to persuade Palin to rise above silly-season attacks. John Coale, for one. A prominent Washington attorney and fundraiser (and husband of Fox News' Greta Van Susteren), Coale helped Palin set up a PAC and a legal-defense fund. "She was very worried about money," he says, because the cost of defending herself against the various complaints ran some $500,000 in legal bills. Perhaps inevitably, the legal fund produced yet another ethics complaint.
Coale was surprised when Palin told him she made a habit of listening to her critics on talk radio. "You can't do that," he told her.
"Yeah," she conceded — then reconsidered. "But I've got to see what they're saying."
"No, you don't," he answered.
"She made the mistake that every time someone attacked her, she'd fight back," Coale says. And that instinct was especially strong when the attack involved family. In recent months she has been in an unseemly tussle with Levi Johnston, the hockey-playing former fiancé of her daughter Bristol. After a joke aimed at 18-year-old Bristol hit 14-year-old Willow instead, Palin demanded multiple apologies from comedian David Letterman. Even after Palin announced her resignation, she remained on high alert. Shannyn Moore, an Alaska blogger, questioned whether Palin quit because of rumors she was facing a scandal. Palin's lawyer threatened to sue. Net result: more publicity and an FBI denial of any investigation.
"There's been a lot of adverse publicity and the drumbeat of allegations," says Gregg Erickson, who watches Juneau politics as editor-at-large of the Alaska Budget Report. "She rises to the bait every time."
For Palin, however, these aren't isolated incidents. She believes they grow from the same root, which is too big and too formidable to ignore. "A lot of this comes from Washington, D.C. The trail is pretty direct and pretty obvious to us," says Meg Stapleton, a close Palin adviser in Alaska. Awaiting a flight back to Anchorage from distant Dillingham, Stapleton adds that the anti-Palin offensive seems lifted straight from The Thumpin', which describes the political strategies of Rahm Emanuel, who is now the White House chief of staff. "It's the Sarah Palin playbook. It's how they operate," Stapleton says.
Palin and her Alaska circle find evidence for their suspicions about the White House in the person of Pete Rouse, who lived in Juneau for a time before he became chief of staff to a young U.S. Senator named Barack Obama. Rouse, they note, is a friend of former Alaska state senator Kim Elton, who pushed the first ethics investigation of Palin, examining her controversial firing of the state's public-safety commissioner. Both Rouse and Elton have joined the Obama Administration. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs scoffed at the theory. "The charge is ridiculous," he said. "Obviously there is no effort ... From my vantage point, a lot of the criticism she is getting from others seems to be generated from self-inflicted wounds."
Something else might have been eating at Palin too. Call it boredom or impatience: Juneau must seem awfully small compared with the national stage. A state representative from Anchorage, Democrat Mike Doogan, recalls the traditional opening of the legislature on a January day — the same day Obama was sworn in as President. Doogan was chosen to pay a ceremonial visit to the governor to announce that the session had begun. Dressed in his best suit, with a plastic iris in his lapel, he waited in Palin's office as she finished a meeting. "She wasn't particularly happy to see us or interested in anything other than getting the ceremony over as quickly as possible," he says. "And this from a woman who had served cupcakes for my birthday at the mansion just six months earlier." That was the last he saw of the governor in Juneau.
Born to Run
Her departure was a distillate of all things Palin. It packed the same gob-smacking wallop as her arrival on the GOP ticket. Sunlit against an Alaskan waterfront, it was as telegenic as her boffo acceptance speech. Rambling along in Palinesque fashion, she didn't quite tell us where she's headed, but she left no doubt that she remains in a hurry to get there.
Where does Sarah Palin go next? To the bank. She has already announced plans to write a book; her advance is reportedly in the millions. A celebrity of her wattage commands huge money on the lecture circuit, and at as much as $100,000 per speech, she can exceed her official salary in a couple of days. Attractive and garrulous, Palin seems born to host a cable-TV show.
She also has a standing invitation to a lovefest with America's social conservatives. Like opera or scrapple, Palin is something of an acquired taste, a phenomenon loved by some, detested by others, with an uncomprehending vastness in between. But for those who don't get it, here's a thumbnail sketch of her rightward appeal: For the pro-life movement, this cheerful mother of a Down-syndrome baby is a rousing affirmation. For the gun-rights movement, she's a glamorous, moose-hunting shot of adrenaline. She hates on the media, never forgets the troops and is a walking middle finger to the BosNYWash élite. As Rush Limbaugh interrupted his vacation to declare, "She is going to continue to fire up people in the conservative Republican base as often as she speaks to them."
A recent Gallup survey asked American adults whether they have become more conservative or more liberal in recent years, and the answer might suggest a bumpier road ahead for the Administration. Despite the Democratic sweep in 2008, "more conservative" prevailed 2 to 1. Being strong with the right is not a bad place for a woman of ambition to get started.
Outside her family's Dillingham smokehouse, Palin lays out a robust indictment of the Obama agenda. "President Obama is growing government outrageously, and it's immoral and it's uneconomic," she says. "The debt that our nation is incurring, trillions of dollars that we're passing on to our kids, expecting them to pay off for us, is immoral and doesn't even make economic sense. So his growth-of-government agenda needs to be ratcheted back, and it's going to take good people who have the guts to stand up to him."
She continues. The cap-and-trade energy plan "is going to drive the cost of consumer goods and the cost of energy so extremely high." Democratic health-care proposals, she says, look increasingly like the ideas that McCain proposed during the campaign. "One thing reporters aren't asking the Administration is — it's such a simple question, and people around here in the real world, outside of Washington, D.C., want reporters to ask — President Obama, how are you going to pay for this one- or two- or three-trillion-dollar health-care plan? How are you going to pay off the stimulus package, those borrowed dollars? How are you going to pay for so many things that you are proposing and you are implementing? Americans deserve to know."
For Palin, the question might be, How thin a résumé and how unconventional a background will voters embrace? Obama — a first-term Senator with roots in Hawaii, Kenya and Indonesia — moved the bar quite a distance. But would the same country that picked the lofty, cerebral liberal turn around four years later and embrace an earthy, instinctive conservative? After all, President Obama will also be a lot more experienced in 2012.
Whatever else we take away from Palin's abrupt announcement that she is quitting, she has proved that her low opinion of government includes even her own powers and prerogatives. As she put it in her farewell speech — the one that began "Hi, Alaska!" — the governor's office is no longer a place for "productive, fulfilled people ... choosing to wisely utilize precious time." A lot of conservative politicians stop wanting smaller government the minute the government is them. Then they discover that they like the trappings, earmarks and junkets, the plums for friends. For Palin, the job offered little more than "lame-duck status — hit the road, draw the paycheck and milk it."
So, bye, Alaska! She made her declaration on Independence Day weekend as a symbol, she says, of her new and exhilarating freedom. She's headed to a bookstore, a television set, a convention hall near you, armed with an anti-résumé. Cut loose from her obligations to her huge and awesome homeland, her message remains quintessentially Alaskan. Where she comes from — the last American frontier — the past is irrelevant, the rules are suspended, and limitations are for losers.
— With reporting by Karen Tumulty / Washington; Michael Scherer / Rome; and Andrea Sachs / New York
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MY THOUGHTS:
It seems everybody in America has an opinion of Sarah Palin. Some love her; some hate her. Maybe some feel somewhere in between. But however YOU feel about her, one thing I am pretty sure about. Do NOT underestimate her. She is a very smart woman. She KNOWS what she is doing. And she has Obama's number. Not only does she know and agree with those of us who realize Obama is RUINING OUR COUNTRY, she also knows how devious he is. She says several times that these Ethics Complaints are stemming from the White House. Even I didn't think of THAT before I read it here. Sure. Obama campaigned for 19 months to win the presidency. We KNOW he did ANYTHING and EVERYTHING he could to get the nomination, INCLUDING CHEATING, STEALING, CONNIVING, BRIBING, THREATENING, AND ULTIMATELY STEALING THE NOMINATION FROM THE TRUE WINNER, HILLARY CLINTON. Since he has been president, he has NOT STOPPED CAMPAIGNING. WHY? Has this ever happened before? Not to my knowledge anyway. He's already planning and working for the 2012 election. You would think he had enough on his plate to worry about NOW without worrying about 2012, but you can bet your ass he is doing just that!
When McCain picked Sarah as his running mate, Obama and the DNC went into ATTACK MODE. They instigated and started all the rumours about Sarah and her family either directly or indirectly. And I DO BELIEVE OBAMA IS BEHIND THOSE ETHICS COMPLAINTS. Think about it. This man broke every campaign finance law, getting money from every foreign country on earth, because he knew that money was the answer to the White House. So what better way to STOP Sarah even thinking about 2012 than to bombard her with Ethics Complaints left and right and to make her personally bankrupt besides? Obama is not stupid. He is the world's greatest conniver that's for sure. But my bet is on Sarah. She knows what's she's doing. I don't know if she will run in 2012 and I believe it when she says she doesn't know yet either. But she hasn't taken it off the table. Remember what Sarah said at the convention last year? What's the difference between a woman and a pitbull? LIPSTICK. YOU GO, GIRL!!!
By David Von Drehle and Jay Newton-Small / Dillingham, Alaska
Thursday, Jul. 09, 2009
TIMES.COM
Sarah Palin is that most exotic of American creatures: an Alaska original, raised and ripened in an environment remote, extreme, unfamiliar — and free. A land of self-invention, where no one bats an eye at a mom-deckhand-governor-whatever-comes-next. Ever since John McCain introduced his running mate last year, Palin has been like a modern-day version of the captive specimens hauled back to Europe by explorers of old. Like Squanto in London, she speaks the language — if not always the idiom — of the audiences she fascinates. But she remains, on some level, unknowable.
This outsider quality is easy to ignore when you see her in full dazzle on a convention stage, but it comes into focus should you find her in her habitat. After announcing plans on July 3 to resign as governor after just 2½ years, Palin retired to her in-laws' place in Dillingham, a tiny fishing village in southwestern Alaska, reachable only by boat or plane. TIME caught up to her there. It was salmon season, and thick fillets, red from the smokehouse, were drying on a line strung from a nearby tree. Husband Todd Palin was chopping wood and feeding it into a homemade sauna, the kind that native fishermen — like him — sweat themselves clean in after a day on Bristol Bay. He likes it hot — 190°F to 200°F (about 90°C to 95°C) — but that's too much for Sarah. Daughter Piper hovered over her baby brother Trig, who shares a name with one of the volcanoes on the far side of the water. Flat land, flat water, distant mountains. You can see for miles but not far enough to spot the nearest town.
Could there be a less likely venue in which to ask a woman in a blue T-shirt — "Go Slam a Salmon," it reads — about her plans to run for President? And yet this was the place where her answer finally made sense. It included none of the strange ramblings of her televised resignation speech, which managed, in pure Palin style, to be both plainspoken and inscrutable. For example: "Take the words of General MacArthur. He said, 'We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.' " And "Do you want me to make a positive difference and fight for all our children's future from outside the governor's office?"
With salmon and wood smoke fragrant in the endless summer evening, amid wet socks and waders and red rubber fishing gloves, Palin tells TIME, "I cannot predict what's going to happen. I don't know what doors will be open or closed by then. I was telling Todd today, I was saying, 'Man, I wish we could predict the next fish run so that we know when to be out on the water.' We can't predict the next fish run, much less what's going to happen in 2012."
In Washington, where even a flat no can mean maybe, this answer will almost certainly be taken to mean "Yes, she's running," heedless of the widely spouted view that she blew her chance with the decision to quit her current job. Left, right and center, pundits opined on the lightness of Palin's résumé and her vanished chance to beef it up. How could she seek a promotion when she didn't finish the job she had? Even a fan like columnist Fred Barnes, writing in the pro-Palin Weekly Standard, declared glumly, "Forget about Sarah Palin as the Republican presidential candidate in 2012 and probably ever."
In Alaska, though, her answer could mean exactly what it says — that she doesn't yet know what she'll be doing in 2012. Here, you make each day from the materials at hand. "My intention" in the coming months, she said in her resignation speech, "is to go out and to campaign for people who can effect change all across our nation." She added that "I can't do that from the governor's desk" because enemies stirred up by her sudden prominence — and orchestrated, she believes, by the Obama White House — would bury her in unfounded ethics complaints.
Whether that is true or not, Palin's unconventional step speaks to an ingrained frontier skepticism of authority — even one's own. Given the plunging credibility of institutions and élites, that's a mood that fits the Palin brand. Résumés ain't what they used to be; they count only with people who trust credentials — a dwindling breed. The mathematics Ph.D.s who dreamed up economy-killing derivatives have pretty impressive résumés. The leaders of congressional committees and executive agencies have decades of experience — at wallowing in red ink, mismanaging economic bubbles and botching covert intelligence.
If ever there has been a time to gamble on a flimsy résumé, ever a time for the ultimate outsider, this might be it. "We have so little trust in the character of the people we elected that most of us wouldn't invite them into our homes for dinner, let alone leave our children alone in their care," writes talk-show host Glenn Beck in his book Glenn Beck's Common Sense, a pox-on-all-their-houses fusillade at Washington. Dashed off in a fever of disillusionment with those in power, Beck's book is selling like vampire lit, with more than 1 million copies in print.
Suppose that Palin somehow channels this grim and possibly gathering sense that America's institutions and authorities are no longer worthy of deference. Suppose that the Obama Administration's expansions of government don't prove as popular — or successful — as Democrats hope. Maybe then she will have picked the right time to declare in her resignation speech, "I've never believed that I, nor anyone else, needs a title" to be effective. In fact, a title might slow you down if your message is that our nation's leaders are so deeply and abidingly inadequate that the only appropriate attitude toward them is scorn.
The Outsider
Palin's breakneck trajectory from rising star to former officeholder — with more twists sure to come — has everything to do with her Alaskan context. As the writer John McPhee once observed, "Alaska is a foreign country," a statement legally false but true in terms of culture and attitude and location. Recall how the story begins. It is June 2007, and a ship docks at the remote port of Juneau, a place tightly bound between sea and mountains. Down the gangplank walks a pair of pundits — Barnes and editor William Kristol — bound for lunch with an unknown first-year governor. A few hours later, the two reboard their cruise ship, delighted to have found a Republican fresh as a glacier breeze, seemingly tough as a sled dog and unsullied by the internecine battles raging within the fracturing GOP.
But how tough could she really be, having learned about politics in a state with almost as many square miles as people? Alaskan feuds are straightforward and personal, against a backdrop of "live and let live." Washington combat has an impersonal cruelty to it, reflected in a maxim of the strategist Lee Atwater: "Never kick a man when he's up." As Barnes and Kristol began feeding Palin's name into the swirl of Washington gossip known as the Great Mentioner, they might have overestimated how ready she was for battle in the big time.
In Dillingham, Palin traces her decision to resign directly to Aug. 29, 2008, the day she was announced as McCain's running mate, the day "the distractions," as she calls them, "ramped up." They ranged from the bizarre — a blogger's campaign to prove that Palin faked her last pregnancy (she didn't) — to the humiliating. The National Enquirer sent four reporters to Alaska, hoovering up gossip about drug use by her older children and long-ago marital infidelity. Despite rave reviews for her Republican National Convention speech, Palin soon became the target of late-night comics and snarky columnists. The obvious pleasure she took in her attacks on the Democrats made it hard to feel sorry for her.
A more experienced, more familiar politician would have been ready for the ramping, but Palin seemed consumed by it. Instead of ignoring hostile bloggers, she combed the Web for their latest postings. At the same time, she assumed the classic role of vice presidential attack dog, making insinuations about Barack Obama's religion and patriotism. She urged the McCain campaign to strike back at every heckler, and when staffers admonished her to remember the big picture, she suspected that she was surrounded by enemies. An armor of suspicion closed her in. Asked recently to name the people Palin trusts for advice, a source close to her answered, "Nobody. I'm not even sure she listens to Todd."
The campaign ended but not the barrage. Since the election in November, Palin has been hit with at least 10 ethics complaints for such alleged offenses as allowing her picture to be used to promote Alaskan fisheries and wearing a logo on her snowmobile gear. One complaint was filed under a pseudonym borrowed from a British soap opera. Most were quickly dismissed. And yet, Palin says, she arrived at the conclusion that there would always be more and that the complaints would consume her remaining time as governor.
"It comes at such great cost," she tells TIME. "The distraction. The waste of time and money, public's time and money." She decided that "it's insane to continue down this road. And Alaskans who have paid attention to what's going on, they understand that." But what she sees as distractions, many voters see as the gauntlet of public life; that if you can't take the heat, don't go into the public sauna. She asserts that if people were shocked by her decision, it was because the media haven't covered the real story. "We have sat down with reporters, showed them proof of the frivolity, the wastefulness, you know, millions of dollars this is costing our state to fight frivolous charges. And countless, countless hours from my staff, our Department of Law, from me, every single day, just trying to set the record straight — and it doesn't cost the adversaries a dime."
Hell, Yeah, We're Out of Here
According to Palin, as she announced her decision, her family was uniformly delighted by her move. "It was four yeses and one 'Hell, yeah!' " she said. Others, however, had tried and failed to persuade Palin to rise above silly-season attacks. John Coale, for one. A prominent Washington attorney and fundraiser (and husband of Fox News' Greta Van Susteren), Coale helped Palin set up a PAC and a legal-defense fund. "She was very worried about money," he says, because the cost of defending herself against the various complaints ran some $500,000 in legal bills. Perhaps inevitably, the legal fund produced yet another ethics complaint.
Coale was surprised when Palin told him she made a habit of listening to her critics on talk radio. "You can't do that," he told her.
"Yeah," she conceded — then reconsidered. "But I've got to see what they're saying."
"No, you don't," he answered.
"She made the mistake that every time someone attacked her, she'd fight back," Coale says. And that instinct was especially strong when the attack involved family. In recent months she has been in an unseemly tussle with Levi Johnston, the hockey-playing former fiancé of her daughter Bristol. After a joke aimed at 18-year-old Bristol hit 14-year-old Willow instead, Palin demanded multiple apologies from comedian David Letterman. Even after Palin announced her resignation, she remained on high alert. Shannyn Moore, an Alaska blogger, questioned whether Palin quit because of rumors she was facing a scandal. Palin's lawyer threatened to sue. Net result: more publicity and an FBI denial of any investigation.
"There's been a lot of adverse publicity and the drumbeat of allegations," says Gregg Erickson, who watches Juneau politics as editor-at-large of the Alaska Budget Report. "She rises to the bait every time."
For Palin, however, these aren't isolated incidents. She believes they grow from the same root, which is too big and too formidable to ignore. "A lot of this comes from Washington, D.C. The trail is pretty direct and pretty obvious to us," says Meg Stapleton, a close Palin adviser in Alaska. Awaiting a flight back to Anchorage from distant Dillingham, Stapleton adds that the anti-Palin offensive seems lifted straight from The Thumpin', which describes the political strategies of Rahm Emanuel, who is now the White House chief of staff. "It's the Sarah Palin playbook. It's how they operate," Stapleton says.
Palin and her Alaska circle find evidence for their suspicions about the White House in the person of Pete Rouse, who lived in Juneau for a time before he became chief of staff to a young U.S. Senator named Barack Obama. Rouse, they note, is a friend of former Alaska state senator Kim Elton, who pushed the first ethics investigation of Palin, examining her controversial firing of the state's public-safety commissioner. Both Rouse and Elton have joined the Obama Administration. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs scoffed at the theory. "The charge is ridiculous," he said. "Obviously there is no effort ... From my vantage point, a lot of the criticism she is getting from others seems to be generated from self-inflicted wounds."
Something else might have been eating at Palin too. Call it boredom or impatience: Juneau must seem awfully small compared with the national stage. A state representative from Anchorage, Democrat Mike Doogan, recalls the traditional opening of the legislature on a January day — the same day Obama was sworn in as President. Doogan was chosen to pay a ceremonial visit to the governor to announce that the session had begun. Dressed in his best suit, with a plastic iris in his lapel, he waited in Palin's office as she finished a meeting. "She wasn't particularly happy to see us or interested in anything other than getting the ceremony over as quickly as possible," he says. "And this from a woman who had served cupcakes for my birthday at the mansion just six months earlier." That was the last he saw of the governor in Juneau.
Born to Run
Her departure was a distillate of all things Palin. It packed the same gob-smacking wallop as her arrival on the GOP ticket. Sunlit against an Alaskan waterfront, it was as telegenic as her boffo acceptance speech. Rambling along in Palinesque fashion, she didn't quite tell us where she's headed, but she left no doubt that she remains in a hurry to get there.
Where does Sarah Palin go next? To the bank. She has already announced plans to write a book; her advance is reportedly in the millions. A celebrity of her wattage commands huge money on the lecture circuit, and at as much as $100,000 per speech, she can exceed her official salary in a couple of days. Attractive and garrulous, Palin seems born to host a cable-TV show.
She also has a standing invitation to a lovefest with America's social conservatives. Like opera or scrapple, Palin is something of an acquired taste, a phenomenon loved by some, detested by others, with an uncomprehending vastness in between. But for those who don't get it, here's a thumbnail sketch of her rightward appeal: For the pro-life movement, this cheerful mother of a Down-syndrome baby is a rousing affirmation. For the gun-rights movement, she's a glamorous, moose-hunting shot of adrenaline. She hates on the media, never forgets the troops and is a walking middle finger to the BosNYWash élite. As Rush Limbaugh interrupted his vacation to declare, "She is going to continue to fire up people in the conservative Republican base as often as she speaks to them."
A recent Gallup survey asked American adults whether they have become more conservative or more liberal in recent years, and the answer might suggest a bumpier road ahead for the Administration. Despite the Democratic sweep in 2008, "more conservative" prevailed 2 to 1. Being strong with the right is not a bad place for a woman of ambition to get started.
Outside her family's Dillingham smokehouse, Palin lays out a robust indictment of the Obama agenda. "President Obama is growing government outrageously, and it's immoral and it's uneconomic," she says. "The debt that our nation is incurring, trillions of dollars that we're passing on to our kids, expecting them to pay off for us, is immoral and doesn't even make economic sense. So his growth-of-government agenda needs to be ratcheted back, and it's going to take good people who have the guts to stand up to him."
She continues. The cap-and-trade energy plan "is going to drive the cost of consumer goods and the cost of energy so extremely high." Democratic health-care proposals, she says, look increasingly like the ideas that McCain proposed during the campaign. "One thing reporters aren't asking the Administration is — it's such a simple question, and people around here in the real world, outside of Washington, D.C., want reporters to ask — President Obama, how are you going to pay for this one- or two- or three-trillion-dollar health-care plan? How are you going to pay off the stimulus package, those borrowed dollars? How are you going to pay for so many things that you are proposing and you are implementing? Americans deserve to know."
For Palin, the question might be, How thin a résumé and how unconventional a background will voters embrace? Obama — a first-term Senator with roots in Hawaii, Kenya and Indonesia — moved the bar quite a distance. But would the same country that picked the lofty, cerebral liberal turn around four years later and embrace an earthy, instinctive conservative? After all, President Obama will also be a lot more experienced in 2012.
Whatever else we take away from Palin's abrupt announcement that she is quitting, she has proved that her low opinion of government includes even her own powers and prerogatives. As she put it in her farewell speech — the one that began "Hi, Alaska!" — the governor's office is no longer a place for "productive, fulfilled people ... choosing to wisely utilize precious time." A lot of conservative politicians stop wanting smaller government the minute the government is them. Then they discover that they like the trappings, earmarks and junkets, the plums for friends. For Palin, the job offered little more than "lame-duck status — hit the road, draw the paycheck and milk it."
So, bye, Alaska! She made her declaration on Independence Day weekend as a symbol, she says, of her new and exhilarating freedom. She's headed to a bookstore, a television set, a convention hall near you, armed with an anti-résumé. Cut loose from her obligations to her huge and awesome homeland, her message remains quintessentially Alaskan. Where she comes from — the last American frontier — the past is irrelevant, the rules are suspended, and limitations are for losers.
— With reporting by Karen Tumulty / Washington; Michael Scherer / Rome; and Andrea Sachs / New York
***************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
It seems everybody in America has an opinion of Sarah Palin. Some love her; some hate her. Maybe some feel somewhere in between. But however YOU feel about her, one thing I am pretty sure about. Do NOT underestimate her. She is a very smart woman. She KNOWS what she is doing. And she has Obama's number. Not only does she know and agree with those of us who realize Obama is RUINING OUR COUNTRY, she also knows how devious he is. She says several times that these Ethics Complaints are stemming from the White House. Even I didn't think of THAT before I read it here. Sure. Obama campaigned for 19 months to win the presidency. We KNOW he did ANYTHING and EVERYTHING he could to get the nomination, INCLUDING CHEATING, STEALING, CONNIVING, BRIBING, THREATENING, AND ULTIMATELY STEALING THE NOMINATION FROM THE TRUE WINNER, HILLARY CLINTON. Since he has been president, he has NOT STOPPED CAMPAIGNING. WHY? Has this ever happened before? Not to my knowledge anyway. He's already planning and working for the 2012 election. You would think he had enough on his plate to worry about NOW without worrying about 2012, but you can bet your ass he is doing just that!
When McCain picked Sarah as his running mate, Obama and the DNC went into ATTACK MODE. They instigated and started all the rumours about Sarah and her family either directly or indirectly. And I DO BELIEVE OBAMA IS BEHIND THOSE ETHICS COMPLAINTS. Think about it. This man broke every campaign finance law, getting money from every foreign country on earth, because he knew that money was the answer to the White House. So what better way to STOP Sarah even thinking about 2012 than to bombard her with Ethics Complaints left and right and to make her personally bankrupt besides? Obama is not stupid. He is the world's greatest conniver that's for sure. But my bet is on Sarah. She knows what's she's doing. I don't know if she will run in 2012 and I believe it when she says she doesn't know yet either. But she hasn't taken it off the table. Remember what Sarah said at the convention last year? What's the difference between a woman and a pitbull? LIPSTICK. YOU GO, GIRL!!!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
SARAH WILL PROVE THE HATERS WRONG!!!!
July 8, 2009
Palin Could Prove the Haters Wrong
By Mark Davis
Talk about nerve. The very notion of leaving an elected office occupied for barely two years. Even if it is to run for president, that makes it even more peculiar in view of the candidate's lightweight résumé of political experience.
I refer, of course, to Barack Obama.
Cheap stunt, but it makes my point. Sarah Palin's electoral track record, of course, is far longer than that of Obama, who overcame his meager credentials, and longer even than that of George W. Bush when he ran for president.
Granted, the departing Alaska governor's early political career is defined within the walls of a small-town city hall, but is that somehow less valid than years spent as baseball team co-owner or a community organizer?
The 2008 election redefined experience. As such, it is comical to read the sneering attacks launched toward Palin by hateful columnists who exalted Obama's decision to chuck his elected office and reach for the White House brass ring.
One difference is that Obama did it on the public dime, while still technically a U.S. senator. Palin at least has the decency to pursue her "higher calling" without the necessary long stretches away from her actual job.
So she leaves that job for a very uncertain future. Will she use this time to broaden herself, campaign for key people in 2010 and develop a strong foundation of voters that admires her as much for issues advocacy as spunk?
If so, she becomes a commodity to be reckoned with, a fact easily readable in the venom of her mocking detractors.
I was halfway through Todd Purdum's vicious Vanity Fair piece on Palin when I heard of her decision to step down. Among the first things I read afterward were the even more acrimonious New York Times columns by Maureen Dowd and Gail Collins, ridiculing that decision.
To Dowd, Palin is a "nutty puppy" displaying "exquisite battiness." She is merely "incoherent" to the similarly vexed Ms. Collins, who surely thought herself lucid when she found irony that someone against the "choice" to kill the unborn would focus on life's choices in her resignation announcement.
But in the stagnant Manhattan mindset, only people as glib as Dowd or as cavalier about human life as Collins deserve benefit of the doubt when approaching the presidency with slim political experience.
In Barack Obama they found their man. Just the proper hard-left instincts, just the right silver tongue. Their revulsion at Palin's un-Obama-ness is accentuated by the success she has enjoyed despite abandoning virtually everything the left requires of modern womanhood.
Now, her future is a blank slate, to be filled with her actual accomplishments. They had better be considerable.
The love of a loyal base takes a candidate only so far. She has to do more than delight the people who already adore her: She has to show doubters that she is indeed ready to be Barack Obama's successor.
That will require opposing his agenda with a vigor largely absent in most of today's Republicans. It will require campaigning skillfully for people who will try after 2010 to derail the nightmare of socialized health care, the punitive taxation of cap-and-trade and the sheer insanity of the spending binge launched on Inauguration Day.
If she succeeds, she may not silence the haters, but she will achieve an even loftier goal: proving them wrong.
That is a big "if." Her decision to step down creates instant pressure to perform. She seems to welcome it, but now we'll see if she is up to the self-created challenge.
If she is not, the clinging hopes of diehard fans will not help her.
But if she is, no amount of snotty condescension will keep her star from rising farther.
Mark Davis is a columnist for the Dallas Morning News. The Mark Davis Show is heard weekdays nationwide on the ABC Radio Network. His e-mail address is mdavis@wbap.com.
*********************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
I love that first paragraph, don't you? One would think the author is speaking about Sarah Palin, but NO, he's talking about Obama!! When Sarah was picked by John McCain to be his running mate, it used to piss me off big time how the liberals called her not capable of being Vice President. It was so damn IRONIC! Their candidate had NO EXPERIENCE, NO QUALIFICATIONS, NO ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND HE WAS RUNNING FOR THE TOP JOB - THE PRESIDENCY!! How dense were those people that they could not see that? While Obama was out campaigning for two years, Sarah was running the State of Alaska as governor. What made Sarah's more fuller resume less important to Obots, whose candidate voted "present" 130 times in the state senate? Who only ever won any race he was in by eliminating his competition? Was it the fact he was a man and Sarah was "only a woman?"
If Obama was considered qualified to be president, then Sarah certainly is, too, since she has a lot MORE EXPERIENCE than Obama did! Boy would I love to see it when Sarah Palin becomes the FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT!! That would really burn some of the backsides of the Obots and anyone else who was bamboozled into voting for Obama, the Empty Suit!!
Palin Could Prove the Haters Wrong
By Mark Davis
Talk about nerve. The very notion of leaving an elected office occupied for barely two years. Even if it is to run for president, that makes it even more peculiar in view of the candidate's lightweight résumé of political experience.
I refer, of course, to Barack Obama.
Cheap stunt, but it makes my point. Sarah Palin's electoral track record, of course, is far longer than that of Obama, who overcame his meager credentials, and longer even than that of George W. Bush when he ran for president.
Granted, the departing Alaska governor's early political career is defined within the walls of a small-town city hall, but is that somehow less valid than years spent as baseball team co-owner or a community organizer?
The 2008 election redefined experience. As such, it is comical to read the sneering attacks launched toward Palin by hateful columnists who exalted Obama's decision to chuck his elected office and reach for the White House brass ring.
One difference is that Obama did it on the public dime, while still technically a U.S. senator. Palin at least has the decency to pursue her "higher calling" without the necessary long stretches away from her actual job.
So she leaves that job for a very uncertain future. Will she use this time to broaden herself, campaign for key people in 2010 and develop a strong foundation of voters that admires her as much for issues advocacy as spunk?
If so, she becomes a commodity to be reckoned with, a fact easily readable in the venom of her mocking detractors.
I was halfway through Todd Purdum's vicious Vanity Fair piece on Palin when I heard of her decision to step down. Among the first things I read afterward were the even more acrimonious New York Times columns by Maureen Dowd and Gail Collins, ridiculing that decision.
To Dowd, Palin is a "nutty puppy" displaying "exquisite battiness." She is merely "incoherent" to the similarly vexed Ms. Collins, who surely thought herself lucid when she found irony that someone against the "choice" to kill the unborn would focus on life's choices in her resignation announcement.
But in the stagnant Manhattan mindset, only people as glib as Dowd or as cavalier about human life as Collins deserve benefit of the doubt when approaching the presidency with slim political experience.
In Barack Obama they found their man. Just the proper hard-left instincts, just the right silver tongue. Their revulsion at Palin's un-Obama-ness is accentuated by the success she has enjoyed despite abandoning virtually everything the left requires of modern womanhood.
Now, her future is a blank slate, to be filled with her actual accomplishments. They had better be considerable.
The love of a loyal base takes a candidate only so far. She has to do more than delight the people who already adore her: She has to show doubters that she is indeed ready to be Barack Obama's successor.
That will require opposing his agenda with a vigor largely absent in most of today's Republicans. It will require campaigning skillfully for people who will try after 2010 to derail the nightmare of socialized health care, the punitive taxation of cap-and-trade and the sheer insanity of the spending binge launched on Inauguration Day.
If she succeeds, she may not silence the haters, but she will achieve an even loftier goal: proving them wrong.
That is a big "if." Her decision to step down creates instant pressure to perform. She seems to welcome it, but now we'll see if she is up to the self-created challenge.
If she is not, the clinging hopes of diehard fans will not help her.
But if she is, no amount of snotty condescension will keep her star from rising farther.
Mark Davis is a columnist for the Dallas Morning News. The Mark Davis Show is heard weekdays nationwide on the ABC Radio Network. His e-mail address is mdavis@wbap.com.
*********************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
I love that first paragraph, don't you? One would think the author is speaking about Sarah Palin, but NO, he's talking about Obama!! When Sarah was picked by John McCain to be his running mate, it used to piss me off big time how the liberals called her not capable of being Vice President. It was so damn IRONIC! Their candidate had NO EXPERIENCE, NO QUALIFICATIONS, NO ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND HE WAS RUNNING FOR THE TOP JOB - THE PRESIDENCY!! How dense were those people that they could not see that? While Obama was out campaigning for two years, Sarah was running the State of Alaska as governor. What made Sarah's more fuller resume less important to Obots, whose candidate voted "present" 130 times in the state senate? Who only ever won any race he was in by eliminating his competition? Was it the fact he was a man and Sarah was "only a woman?"
If Obama was considered qualified to be president, then Sarah certainly is, too, since she has a lot MORE EXPERIENCE than Obama did! Boy would I love to see it when Sarah Palin becomes the FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT!! That would really burn some of the backsides of the Obots and anyone else who was bamboozled into voting for Obama, the Empty Suit!!
SARAH PULLS THE RIPCORD.
Andrea Tantaros
- FOXNews.com
- July 07, 2009
Palin Pulls the Ripcord
Palin's done what she needs to do to advance her career as a Republican rock star, move conservatism forward, and harness her power to propel the problematic Grand Old Party back to greatness.
Since Sarah Palin's Wasilla press conference on July 3 it seems you can't turn on the TV without seeing some commentator or pundit talking about the risk she's taking or harping on the hazards she now faces or listing the potential liabilities of Palin's symbolic in nature, Independence Day decision to bail from her post as Governor of Alaska.
Someone please tell me: what's the big gamble?
Let's see: she might write a book, make millions and raise even more money for the GOP? She could end up giving killer speeches on issues of national importance that bring the house down and command the attention of a national media that currently is something only the Democrat in the White House can do? Or wait -- she might actually run for the White House and er, um, lose? (That worked out horribly for Hillary, Secretary of State, "18 million cracks" Clinton, Nobel Prize winner/filmmaker Al Gore, and icon Ronald Reagan, to name a few).
I'm especially amuse by those who attack her for abandoning her office -- surely not a novel idea in politics. If leaving a position for a "higher calling" articulates the definition of reckless abandonment, most of the Obama administration is worthy of similar blame, including the president himself. Even more amusing are those who allege Palin is running away from the incessant personal assaults. This is a woman who decided not to abort a child she was told would likely have Down Syndrome, hardly what I'd call someone who retreats over impending adversity. Mothers of special needs children are the epitome of portraits in courage. I should know, I was raised by one.
So why is stepping down such a volatile venture?
Win, lose or draw, Palin is, and likely will remain, a wildly popular figure in the Republican Party and the conservative movement -- a movement that currently lacks a leader and is devoid of direction (besides "the opposite of whatever the tall guy with the teleprompter is saying").
Despite the Obama administration's many stumbles and impending economic implosion, no Republican has managed to emerge as the conductor of the constituency. The old guard of the party is over. So over. Whether Palin decides to become the conservative version of Oprah, a best-selling author, the country's first female president (or all of the above) she is the next generation, the new guard, and the GOP's MVP.
From a messaging standpoint Palin is perfect. She is also the only one who can reasonably argue that she hasn't been part of either the Republican or Democratic web of Washington politics. No bailouts, big spending, or Buenos Aires lust romps.
Her fundraising potential is potent. Her support is solid from the right. She is poised to fill a leadership vacuum and there is no better time than now, when Obama's numbers (especially with Independents) are at the precipice of plunging. The iron is scalding hot and Palin, ever the shrewd politician, knows exactly when to strike.
Remind me, where's her "exposure" again? The country took a risk on a well-scripted, super- smooth, inexperienced, Ivy League fancy lad junior senator from Illinois. Since taking office he'ss quadrupled the deficit, conceded our liabilities abroad, shoved us to the brink of a crippled, European-style nanny state, all the while increasing the unemployment numbers to the cusp of double digits. See, the plainspoken, big-haired, conservative hockey mom who uses hokey animal analogies doesn't seem like such a bad bet after all.
We don't know precisely how Palin's wager will play out, but we do know that she pulled the political ripcord to advance her career as a Republican rock star, move conservatism forward, and harness her power to propel the problematic Grand Old Party back to greatness. Now that's a bailout I can get behind.
Andrea Tantaros is a conservative commentator and columnist. Her commentary can be found on www.andreatantaros.com. Follow her on Twitter: @AndreaTantaros.
*************************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
I like Andrea Tantaros. I am sure I wouldn't like to hear her talk about Hillary Clinton, who is still my #1 favorite person and the person I admire most in the world. But I DO like how she speaks about Sarah Palin and also how much she criticizes Obama. So in those regards I agree with her 100%!!
When I first heard Sarah was stepping down as governor, I was so sad. I thought it meant she was leaving politics and that she had let the disgusting media and late night jerks run her out of town. But it's true. Without the confines of the governor's office and the continued ethics complaints that we know would continue, Sarah can do more good for our country - not just the Republican party - but for ALL OF AMERICA. I am an Independent. After the corrupt rigging of the Democratic primaries, where the nomination, and ultimately the presidency, was STOLEN from Hillary Clinton, I left the Democratic Party and became a PUMA. I am now a PROUD INDEPENDENT and I really always have been. I have always voted "for the person" and not "for the party." I think it is ridiculous to automatically pull the lever for ANYONE who has your preferred initial after their name. If a janitor runs, would you still vote for him or her just because they were from the party of your choice? I sure as hell would NOT. And I never have.
There is no way I can see how Hillary could possibly run for president in 2012. The DNC would not let her have the nomination she WON because they wanted THE ONE to have the nomination. Can you see them letting her run AGAINST The ANOINTED ONE? LOL!! Not. a. Chance. I would not want to be faced with the choice of deciding who to vote for if by some miracle both Hillary and Sarah ran opposite each other. I have to admit Hillary would get my vote. But since that will never happen, if Sarah runs for president in 2012, I will definitely be voting for her. She is a woman who truly loves her country - something Obama does NOT. She is proud of her country as I am. Something Obama is NOT. I would feel very safe with our country in Sarah's capable hands. And the SOONER THE BETTER!!
- FOXNews.com
- July 07, 2009
Palin Pulls the Ripcord
Palin's done what she needs to do to advance her career as a Republican rock star, move conservatism forward, and harness her power to propel the problematic Grand Old Party back to greatness.
Since Sarah Palin's Wasilla press conference on July 3 it seems you can't turn on the TV without seeing some commentator or pundit talking about the risk she's taking or harping on the hazards she now faces or listing the potential liabilities of Palin's symbolic in nature, Independence Day decision to bail from her post as Governor of Alaska.
Someone please tell me: what's the big gamble?
Let's see: she might write a book, make millions and raise even more money for the GOP? She could end up giving killer speeches on issues of national importance that bring the house down and command the attention of a national media that currently is something only the Democrat in the White House can do? Or wait -- she might actually run for the White House and er, um, lose? (That worked out horribly for Hillary, Secretary of State, "18 million cracks" Clinton, Nobel Prize winner/filmmaker Al Gore, and icon Ronald Reagan, to name a few).
I'm especially amuse by those who attack her for abandoning her office -- surely not a novel idea in politics. If leaving a position for a "higher calling" articulates the definition of reckless abandonment, most of the Obama administration is worthy of similar blame, including the president himself. Even more amusing are those who allege Palin is running away from the incessant personal assaults. This is a woman who decided not to abort a child she was told would likely have Down Syndrome, hardly what I'd call someone who retreats over impending adversity. Mothers of special needs children are the epitome of portraits in courage. I should know, I was raised by one.
So why is stepping down such a volatile venture?
Win, lose or draw, Palin is, and likely will remain, a wildly popular figure in the Republican Party and the conservative movement -- a movement that currently lacks a leader and is devoid of direction (besides "the opposite of whatever the tall guy with the teleprompter is saying").
Despite the Obama administration's many stumbles and impending economic implosion, no Republican has managed to emerge as the conductor of the constituency. The old guard of the party is over. So over. Whether Palin decides to become the conservative version of Oprah, a best-selling author, the country's first female president (or all of the above) she is the next generation, the new guard, and the GOP's MVP.
From a messaging standpoint Palin is perfect. She is also the only one who can reasonably argue that she hasn't been part of either the Republican or Democratic web of Washington politics. No bailouts, big spending, or Buenos Aires lust romps.
Her fundraising potential is potent. Her support is solid from the right. She is poised to fill a leadership vacuum and there is no better time than now, when Obama's numbers (especially with Independents) are at the precipice of plunging. The iron is scalding hot and Palin, ever the shrewd politician, knows exactly when to strike.
Remind me, where's her "exposure" again? The country took a risk on a well-scripted, super- smooth, inexperienced, Ivy League fancy lad junior senator from Illinois. Since taking office he'ss quadrupled the deficit, conceded our liabilities abroad, shoved us to the brink of a crippled, European-style nanny state, all the while increasing the unemployment numbers to the cusp of double digits. See, the plainspoken, big-haired, conservative hockey mom who uses hokey animal analogies doesn't seem like such a bad bet after all.
We don't know precisely how Palin's wager will play out, but we do know that she pulled the political ripcord to advance her career as a Republican rock star, move conservatism forward, and harness her power to propel the problematic Grand Old Party back to greatness. Now that's a bailout I can get behind.
Andrea Tantaros is a conservative commentator and columnist. Her commentary can be found on www.andreatantaros.com. Follow her on Twitter: @AndreaTantaros.
*************************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
I like Andrea Tantaros. I am sure I wouldn't like to hear her talk about Hillary Clinton, who is still my #1 favorite person and the person I admire most in the world. But I DO like how she speaks about Sarah Palin and also how much she criticizes Obama. So in those regards I agree with her 100%!!
When I first heard Sarah was stepping down as governor, I was so sad. I thought it meant she was leaving politics and that she had let the disgusting media and late night jerks run her out of town. But it's true. Without the confines of the governor's office and the continued ethics complaints that we know would continue, Sarah can do more good for our country - not just the Republican party - but for ALL OF AMERICA. I am an Independent. After the corrupt rigging of the Democratic primaries, where the nomination, and ultimately the presidency, was STOLEN from Hillary Clinton, I left the Democratic Party and became a PUMA. I am now a PROUD INDEPENDENT and I really always have been. I have always voted "for the person" and not "for the party." I think it is ridiculous to automatically pull the lever for ANYONE who has your preferred initial after their name. If a janitor runs, would you still vote for him or her just because they were from the party of your choice? I sure as hell would NOT. And I never have.
There is no way I can see how Hillary could possibly run for president in 2012. The DNC would not let her have the nomination she WON because they wanted THE ONE to have the nomination. Can you see them letting her run AGAINST The ANOINTED ONE? LOL!! Not. a. Chance. I would not want to be faced with the choice of deciding who to vote for if by some miracle both Hillary and Sarah ran opposite each other. I have to admit Hillary would get my vote. But since that will never happen, if Sarah runs for president in 2012, I will definitely be voting for her. She is a woman who truly loves her country - something Obama does NOT. She is proud of her country as I am. Something Obama is NOT. I would feel very safe with our country in Sarah's capable hands. And the SOONER THE BETTER!!
SARAH IS STILL POPULAR!!!
Sarah Palin still popular, says poll, despite quitting as Alaska Governor
By Michael Sheridan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, July 8th 2009
She may have resigned her position as Governor of Alaska, but Republicans still favor Sarah Palin has a candidate for President in 2012.
Although some pundits and talk show hosts have pronounced her career dead, a new poll suggests Republicans still love Palin as a presidential candidate for 2012.
According to a new USA Today/Gallup poll, 19 percent of voters would "very likely" vote for her if she ran, with another 24 percent saying they were "somewhat likely" to give her their vote, despite that fact she quit her job as Alaska governor last week.
"For independents and Democrats, she's already not their candidate, and with Republicans, her support is not based on her record as governor of Alaska," Republican consultant Alex Castellanos told USA Today.
According to the poll, 70 percent said their opinion of Palin did not change after the shocking announcement she would resign on Friday.
But much of her support is based on her national status gained on the campaign trail with John McCain in 2008, not her position as the top politican of remote Alaska.
It should be no surprise that Palin's support comes mostly from Republicans. Seventy-two percent say they would support her for President in 2012, while 70 percent of Democrats said they were "not at all likely" to vote for her at all.
Palin's support isn't just limited to a run for the White House. Thirty-nine percent of Americans say she is in a strong position to pick the next Republican candidate, including 67 percent of Republicans and 18 percent of Democrats.
Thirty-four percent of independents could also see Palin serving as king-maker.
The news media has often been critical of the 45-year-old former beauty queen, something Palin has complained about repeatedly. And according to the poll, 53 percent said coverage of her has been "unfairly negative," while 28 percent said it was "about right."
By Michael Sheridan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, July 8th 2009
She may have resigned her position as Governor of Alaska, but Republicans still favor Sarah Palin has a candidate for President in 2012.
Although some pundits and talk show hosts have pronounced her career dead, a new poll suggests Republicans still love Palin as a presidential candidate for 2012.
According to a new USA Today/Gallup poll, 19 percent of voters would "very likely" vote for her if she ran, with another 24 percent saying they were "somewhat likely" to give her their vote, despite that fact she quit her job as Alaska governor last week.
"For independents and Democrats, she's already not their candidate, and with Republicans, her support is not based on her record as governor of Alaska," Republican consultant Alex Castellanos told USA Today.
According to the poll, 70 percent said their opinion of Palin did not change after the shocking announcement she would resign on Friday.
But much of her support is based on her national status gained on the campaign trail with John McCain in 2008, not her position as the top politican of remote Alaska.
It should be no surprise that Palin's support comes mostly from Republicans. Seventy-two percent say they would support her for President in 2012, while 70 percent of Democrats said they were "not at all likely" to vote for her at all.
Palin's support isn't just limited to a run for the White House. Thirty-nine percent of Americans say she is in a strong position to pick the next Republican candidate, including 67 percent of Republicans and 18 percent of Democrats.
Thirty-four percent of independents could also see Palin serving as king-maker.
The news media has often been critical of the 45-year-old former beauty queen, something Palin has complained about repeatedly. And according to the poll, 53 percent said coverage of her has been "unfairly negative," while 28 percent said it was "about right."
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
SARAH TELLS NBC "ONE TERM WAS ENOUGH".
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
I'm surprised Sarah gave NBC the "honor" of an interview the way they've treated her. How ironic that Ms. Mitchell should ask Sarah something to the effect she had seen the big time (White House) by running for Vice President. Here the woman is dressed for deep sea fishing and dressed anything but glamourously. But then NBC's(The Barack Channel) reporters are morons anyway!
YES, SARAH IS THE ONE TO WATCH, YOU BET YOUR ASS SHE IS!!!
PRAIRIE EDITOR: IS SARAH PALIN THE ONE TO WATCH?
By Barry Casselman on July 6th, 2009
With three years to go for the next Republican national convention, where
presumably Barack Obama’s next opponent will be nominated, it might be
considered a trifle premature to speculate about who that nominee might be.
On the other hand, the nation’s traditionally conservative party is leaderless, or
more accurately, rudderless in a sea of political turmoil, and any sign of an
authentic direction for the GOP is worth talking about even now.
Governor Palin’s surprise announcement of her early retirement on July 27 has
provoked an avalanche of reactions among politicos and in the media. Her
political enemies, most of whom are in the Democratic Party (but a noticeable
number are in her own party), have denounced the move, citing it as one more
piece of evidence that the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee is over her
head in national politics and not worthy of consideration as a candidate for
president. Her political friends and supporters have predictably defended the
move, but lacking specific information about what will come next, have been
mostly limited to generic explanations of what she is doing and why she is doing it.
Liberal media rumormongers have once again implied and insinuated dark motives
behind her announcement, piously citing so-called sources that imminent legal and
personal disasters are behind her move. Of course, anything is possible, but it is
important to note that all such political gossip about Palin has been wrong in the past,
and has proven to be examples of a mean-spirited and recurrent campaign to
discredit her.
In fact, I think that Sarah Palin is the Republican that the Left and the Democrats
fear most today. There is an intensity in the campaign of ridicule and rumor
against her, since her emergence less than a year ago as John McCain’s surprise
choice as his running mate, that is reminiscent of the prolonged campaign by many
of the same ilk to discredit Ronald Reagan as a political lightweight, a mere film
actor, and a tool of the entourage around him. None of the latter turned out to be
true, and so far, none of the malignity about Palin has been confirmed.
One of the myths about the 2008 presidential campaign is that Sarah Palin cost
John McCain the election. Post-election polling, however shows the opposite to be
true. Governor Palin struck an instant chord with many blue collar and working class
Americans when she came on the national scene. It was she, and not John McCain,
who drew some of the biggest and most intense crowds before election day, and most
revealing, she is still doing it. Even though the McCain staff clearly ill-used Mrs. Palin
during much of the final weeks of the campaign, and the media became a transparent
conspirator in the effort to ridicule her, any serious analyst of the 2008 presidential
contest knows that the 2008 campaign effectively ended with the banking and
mortgage meltdown.
That John McCain came as close as he did only illustrates the risk that Democrats took
in nominating Senator Obama over Senator Hillary Clinton, but there was no reasonable
chance, given the unpopularity of President George W. Bush and his Republican
administration, to win the presidential race once the financial crisis took over the news
headlines.
My own evidence of Mrs. Palin’s appeal to Republicans was reinforced at a rally for the
McCain/Palin in ticket in Blaine, Minnesota, a suburb north of Minneapolis, a few weeks
after the GOP national convention in the Twin Cities. By this time, the media and
political analysts were telling us, the novelty about Governor Palin had worn off and
she was already being ridiculed for her manner of speaking and her apparent lack of
experience in national affairs. The rally was to be held inside a regional airport
hangar with a capacity of about 10,000, and I remember how difficult it was to get
there and find parking, even with its proximity to the city. I was forewarned by
McCain staffers that the crowd may not be as big a one as originally predicted.
By the time the plane landed carrying the two candidates, their spouses, and their
entourage, however, the hangar was packed, and a few thousand had to stand
outside. But that was not the most remarkable fact. What amazed me was that such
a large part of the crowd was made up of young working class women, and I knew
this was so because prior to the event, I circulated in the crowd and asked many
why they were there. Even in his own remarks, Senator McCain acknowledged that
to a major degree the crowds there, and elsewhere, were motivated to come out to
see his running mate.
All of that, of course, was in the past. We are now looking forward to the kind of
Republican party we will see in the years ahead. The Party no longer controls either
house of the Congress. A very liberal Democrat resides in the White House. The
national agenda, foreign and domestic, is now a liberal agenda based on liberal
assumptions. The 2012 presidential campaign, now in its formative stages, is
mostly dominated by names from 2008. Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee
and Sarah Palin are the names we hear most often. Even some of the new names
such as Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, host of the 2008 convention and
finalist for the McCain vice presidential nomination, have resonances from the last
election. Only a very few new names have yet surfaced. Governor Mark Sanford
of South Carolina, thanks to recent events, is out of the race. A very promising
newcomer, Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana, has declared himself not only out
of the presidential race, but out of electoral politics totally. Others may yet
emerge, and like Barack Obama only a year ago, one of them might win the
nomination in an upset against more well-known names, but time is beginning to
run out for truly new entrants.
It is a fact that the Republican Party’s demographics have changed significantly in
the past three decades. Since Reagan’s election, more and more GOP voters are
coming from working class and blue collar constituencies, reversing the
conventional wisdom that Republicans are the party of the rich. If this trend
continues, which of the candidates we know about would appeal to this new party
base? Perhaps it will be Pawlenty, the “Sam’s Club” Republican, or Huckabee,
the appealing blue collar southerner. It might even be Newt Gingrich, who
continues to dominate the discussion of policy issues in his party.
But I think it is fair to say that, at the present time, the name most talked about,
the person most in the news and most attacked by opponents, is the soon-to-be
retiring governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.
Her next political destination is unknown, but rich with tantalizing and promising
mystery.
Copyright (c) 2009 by Barry Casselman
All rights reserved.
*************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
Let's face it, from the very second John McCain picked Sarah, the Democrats went NUTS! Reporters were sent to Wasilla, Alaska to "dig up dirt" on her. They did dig up dirt - but it was all LIES, RUMOURS and otherwise UNTRUE stories. Even when they were proven untrue, they persisted and still do today. My God, even that jerky comment made by Tina Fey, the SNL person who continually made a jackass out of Sarah, is STILL being taken for something Sarah said. It was Tina Fey who said, "I can see Russia from my house" NOT SARAH. Sarah said you could see Russia from parts of Alaska; she NEVER SAID you could see it from her house. But what the hell did the media care? If they could mock her, they did. They would do anything and everything they could to protect THE ONE and Sarah was definitely a THREAT to THE ONE winning the White House. My God, after CHEATING AND STEALING THE NOMINATION FROM HILLARY, WAS ANOTHER WOMAN GOING TO TAKE THE PRIZE FROM THE ANOINTED ONE?? It still burns me up a year later.
You would have thought AFTER the election was over, the disgusting comments, lies, and rumours about Sarah and her family would have ended. But NO, they did not. And that tells me ONE THING. They KNOW she IS a threat and time flies. Before we know it, 2012 will be right around the corner!
By Barry Casselman on July 6th, 2009
With three years to go for the next Republican national convention, where
presumably Barack Obama’s next opponent will be nominated, it might be
considered a trifle premature to speculate about who that nominee might be.
On the other hand, the nation’s traditionally conservative party is leaderless, or
more accurately, rudderless in a sea of political turmoil, and any sign of an
authentic direction for the GOP is worth talking about even now.
Governor Palin’s surprise announcement of her early retirement on July 27 has
provoked an avalanche of reactions among politicos and in the media. Her
political enemies, most of whom are in the Democratic Party (but a noticeable
number are in her own party), have denounced the move, citing it as one more
piece of evidence that the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee is over her
head in national politics and not worthy of consideration as a candidate for
president. Her political friends and supporters have predictably defended the
move, but lacking specific information about what will come next, have been
mostly limited to generic explanations of what she is doing and why she is doing it.
Liberal media rumormongers have once again implied and insinuated dark motives
behind her announcement, piously citing so-called sources that imminent legal and
personal disasters are behind her move. Of course, anything is possible, but it is
important to note that all such political gossip about Palin has been wrong in the past,
and has proven to be examples of a mean-spirited and recurrent campaign to
discredit her.
In fact, I think that Sarah Palin is the Republican that the Left and the Democrats
fear most today. There is an intensity in the campaign of ridicule and rumor
against her, since her emergence less than a year ago as John McCain’s surprise
choice as his running mate, that is reminiscent of the prolonged campaign by many
of the same ilk to discredit Ronald Reagan as a political lightweight, a mere film
actor, and a tool of the entourage around him. None of the latter turned out to be
true, and so far, none of the malignity about Palin has been confirmed.
One of the myths about the 2008 presidential campaign is that Sarah Palin cost
John McCain the election. Post-election polling, however shows the opposite to be
true. Governor Palin struck an instant chord with many blue collar and working class
Americans when she came on the national scene. It was she, and not John McCain,
who drew some of the biggest and most intense crowds before election day, and most
revealing, she is still doing it. Even though the McCain staff clearly ill-used Mrs. Palin
during much of the final weeks of the campaign, and the media became a transparent
conspirator in the effort to ridicule her, any serious analyst of the 2008 presidential
contest knows that the 2008 campaign effectively ended with the banking and
mortgage meltdown.
That John McCain came as close as he did only illustrates the risk that Democrats took
in nominating Senator Obama over Senator Hillary Clinton, but there was no reasonable
chance, given the unpopularity of President George W. Bush and his Republican
administration, to win the presidential race once the financial crisis took over the news
headlines.
My own evidence of Mrs. Palin’s appeal to Republicans was reinforced at a rally for the
McCain/Palin in ticket in Blaine, Minnesota, a suburb north of Minneapolis, a few weeks
after the GOP national convention in the Twin Cities. By this time, the media and
political analysts were telling us, the novelty about Governor Palin had worn off and
she was already being ridiculed for her manner of speaking and her apparent lack of
experience in national affairs. The rally was to be held inside a regional airport
hangar with a capacity of about 10,000, and I remember how difficult it was to get
there and find parking, even with its proximity to the city. I was forewarned by
McCain staffers that the crowd may not be as big a one as originally predicted.
By the time the plane landed carrying the two candidates, their spouses, and their
entourage, however, the hangar was packed, and a few thousand had to stand
outside. But that was not the most remarkable fact. What amazed me was that such
a large part of the crowd was made up of young working class women, and I knew
this was so because prior to the event, I circulated in the crowd and asked many
why they were there. Even in his own remarks, Senator McCain acknowledged that
to a major degree the crowds there, and elsewhere, were motivated to come out to
see his running mate.
All of that, of course, was in the past. We are now looking forward to the kind of
Republican party we will see in the years ahead. The Party no longer controls either
house of the Congress. A very liberal Democrat resides in the White House. The
national agenda, foreign and domestic, is now a liberal agenda based on liberal
assumptions. The 2012 presidential campaign, now in its formative stages, is
mostly dominated by names from 2008. Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee
and Sarah Palin are the names we hear most often. Even some of the new names
such as Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, host of the 2008 convention and
finalist for the McCain vice presidential nomination, have resonances from the last
election. Only a very few new names have yet surfaced. Governor Mark Sanford
of South Carolina, thanks to recent events, is out of the race. A very promising
newcomer, Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana, has declared himself not only out
of the presidential race, but out of electoral politics totally. Others may yet
emerge, and like Barack Obama only a year ago, one of them might win the
nomination in an upset against more well-known names, but time is beginning to
run out for truly new entrants.
It is a fact that the Republican Party’s demographics have changed significantly in
the past three decades. Since Reagan’s election, more and more GOP voters are
coming from working class and blue collar constituencies, reversing the
conventional wisdom that Republicans are the party of the rich. If this trend
continues, which of the candidates we know about would appeal to this new party
base? Perhaps it will be Pawlenty, the “Sam’s Club” Republican, or Huckabee,
the appealing blue collar southerner. It might even be Newt Gingrich, who
continues to dominate the discussion of policy issues in his party.
But I think it is fair to say that, at the present time, the name most talked about,
the person most in the news and most attacked by opponents, is the soon-to-be
retiring governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.
Her next political destination is unknown, but rich with tantalizing and promising
mystery.
Copyright (c) 2009 by Barry Casselman
All rights reserved.
*************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
Let's face it, from the very second John McCain picked Sarah, the Democrats went NUTS! Reporters were sent to Wasilla, Alaska to "dig up dirt" on her. They did dig up dirt - but it was all LIES, RUMOURS and otherwise UNTRUE stories. Even when they were proven untrue, they persisted and still do today. My God, even that jerky comment made by Tina Fey, the SNL person who continually made a jackass out of Sarah, is STILL being taken for something Sarah said. It was Tina Fey who said, "I can see Russia from my house" NOT SARAH. Sarah said you could see Russia from parts of Alaska; she NEVER SAID you could see it from her house. But what the hell did the media care? If they could mock her, they did. They would do anything and everything they could to protect THE ONE and Sarah was definitely a THREAT to THE ONE winning the White House. My God, after CHEATING AND STEALING THE NOMINATION FROM HILLARY, WAS ANOTHER WOMAN GOING TO TAKE THE PRIZE FROM THE ANOINTED ONE?? It still burns me up a year later.
You would have thought AFTER the election was over, the disgusting comments, lies, and rumours about Sarah and her family would have ended. But NO, they did not. And that tells me ONE THING. They KNOW she IS a threat and time flies. Before we know it, 2012 will be right around the corner!
LIKE HILLARY, SARAH FACES MEDIA SEXISM.
LIKE HILLARY, SARAH FACES MEDIA SEXISM.
July 7, 2009
Like Hillary, Sarah Faces Media Sexism
By Marie Cocco
WASHINGTON -- As Donald Rumsfeld might put it, there is only one known known in the tsunami of speculation touched off by Sarah Palin's announcement that she's stepping down as governor of Alaska: The media will almost certainly have Palin to kick around some more.
Her forthcoming book is going to be fodder for who-knows-how-much dissection, and her obvious earnings potential on the conservative talking-head circuit means that even should she eschew a future run for public office, she's very likely to remain in the public eye.
And it is equally likely that the media will continue to subject Palin to the unapologetic sexism that has been directed at her since the very first hours after John McCain announced that she was his pick to be the Republican vice presidential nominee -- and which continued to animate coverage of her, right up through a lengthy political profile in the current issue of Vanity Fair.
Almost as certain, my colleagues will seek to defend the indefensible as something Palin brought upon herself -- by being too ignorant, too unpredictable, too touchy, too hypocritical, too loose with facts, too inept at governing, too flirty, even too obviously fertile.
Yes, this is one of the assertions made in the Vanity Fair profile. It declares that Palin is "the first indisputably fertile female to dare to dance with the big dogs," and notes that some McCain campaign aides (unnamed, of course) speculated that Palin's erratic performance last fall might have been due to post-partum depression she could have been suffering a few months after her son Trig's birth.
Not to be outdone, CNN's Rick Sanchez, anchoring the network's coverage of Palin's resignation announcement, asked, "Hey, could she be pregnant again?" A stammering Candy Crowley could only reply: "Well, I, I certainly don't know the answer to that last thought."
At this point, I will provide the requisite disclaimers: I disagree emphatically with Palin's ideology and with her policy prescriptions on just about every issue. I, too, find her intellectual emptiness to be frightening in a public official, and her demonstrably poor judgment disqualifying.
None of this excuses the sexist cant that Palin, like Hillary Clinton before her, has been subjected to since she burst onto the national scene.
Immediately after McCain's choice of Palin was announced -- knowing just about nothing about Palin's governing track record, having no inkling that she was unprepared for national office and ill-suited to the rigors of a national campaign -- mainstream media figures asked aloud if she could possibly run for vice president and be mother to five children, too.
The sexist hazing became a leitmotif many weeks before Palin disintegrated under Katie Couric's questioning in those pivotal -- and, it must be noted, entirely professional -- CBS News interviews.
Almost as soon as she'd finished her breakthrough speech at the Republican National Convention, one columnist for the liberal online magazine Salon called Palin a "dominatrix" and a "pinup queen," referred to her "babaliciousness" -- and described her convention address as having been charged with enough sexual energy to give the partisan crowd a "collective woody." Another Salon columnist described Palin as a "Christian Stepford wife in a 'sexy librarian' costume" who was, for the most ideological Republicans, a "hard-core pornographic centerfold spread."
Palin early on was called "Stepford Barbie" and "Caribou Barbie" -- terms used even by highbrow commentators, who find it acceptable to liken Palin to the impossibly proportioned fashion doll. The Barbie epithet marked Palin as an object of sexualized fashion fascination well before it came to light that the vice presidential nominee had used Republican Party funds to buy an expensive campaign wardrobe.
When did such a savage strain of sexism become acceptable public discourse?
Why does the same combination of bemused condescension and uninhibited vitriol that the media of a century ago showed toward the suffragists persist today?
Palin most likely will fade away as a meaningful political figure to all but her admirers on the far right. It is more relevant to ask not what she will do next, but how the political media will treat the next Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton -- who, you may recall, was subjected to a Washington Post analysis of a bare hint of cleavage that showed beneath a business suit. It appeared months before the first Democratic primary vote was cast.
More than 100 years of sexist media treatment of women political leaders is, for me, quite enough. Whether it is for anyone else remains to be seen.
mariecocco@washpost.com
Copyright 2009, Washington Post Writers Group
July 7, 2009
Like Hillary, Sarah Faces Media Sexism
By Marie Cocco
WASHINGTON -- As Donald Rumsfeld might put it, there is only one known known in the tsunami of speculation touched off by Sarah Palin's announcement that she's stepping down as governor of Alaska: The media will almost certainly have Palin to kick around some more.
Her forthcoming book is going to be fodder for who-knows-how-much dissection, and her obvious earnings potential on the conservative talking-head circuit means that even should she eschew a future run for public office, she's very likely to remain in the public eye.
And it is equally likely that the media will continue to subject Palin to the unapologetic sexism that has been directed at her since the very first hours after John McCain announced that she was his pick to be the Republican vice presidential nominee -- and which continued to animate coverage of her, right up through a lengthy political profile in the current issue of Vanity Fair.
Almost as certain, my colleagues will seek to defend the indefensible as something Palin brought upon herself -- by being too ignorant, too unpredictable, too touchy, too hypocritical, too loose with facts, too inept at governing, too flirty, even too obviously fertile.
Yes, this is one of the assertions made in the Vanity Fair profile. It declares that Palin is "the first indisputably fertile female to dare to dance with the big dogs," and notes that some McCain campaign aides (unnamed, of course) speculated that Palin's erratic performance last fall might have been due to post-partum depression she could have been suffering a few months after her son Trig's birth.
Not to be outdone, CNN's Rick Sanchez, anchoring the network's coverage of Palin's resignation announcement, asked, "Hey, could she be pregnant again?" A stammering Candy Crowley could only reply: "Well, I, I certainly don't know the answer to that last thought."
At this point, I will provide the requisite disclaimers: I disagree emphatically with Palin's ideology and with her policy prescriptions on just about every issue. I, too, find her intellectual emptiness to be frightening in a public official, and her demonstrably poor judgment disqualifying.
None of this excuses the sexist cant that Palin, like Hillary Clinton before her, has been subjected to since she burst onto the national scene.
Immediately after McCain's choice of Palin was announced -- knowing just about nothing about Palin's governing track record, having no inkling that she was unprepared for national office and ill-suited to the rigors of a national campaign -- mainstream media figures asked aloud if she could possibly run for vice president and be mother to five children, too.
The sexist hazing became a leitmotif many weeks before Palin disintegrated under Katie Couric's questioning in those pivotal -- and, it must be noted, entirely professional -- CBS News interviews.
Almost as soon as she'd finished her breakthrough speech at the Republican National Convention, one columnist for the liberal online magazine Salon called Palin a "dominatrix" and a "pinup queen," referred to her "babaliciousness" -- and described her convention address as having been charged with enough sexual energy to give the partisan crowd a "collective woody." Another Salon columnist described Palin as a "Christian Stepford wife in a 'sexy librarian' costume" who was, for the most ideological Republicans, a "hard-core pornographic centerfold spread."
Palin early on was called "Stepford Barbie" and "Caribou Barbie" -- terms used even by highbrow commentators, who find it acceptable to liken Palin to the impossibly proportioned fashion doll. The Barbie epithet marked Palin as an object of sexualized fashion fascination well before it came to light that the vice presidential nominee had used Republican Party funds to buy an expensive campaign wardrobe.
When did such a savage strain of sexism become acceptable public discourse?
Why does the same combination of bemused condescension and uninhibited vitriol that the media of a century ago showed toward the suffragists persist today?
Palin most likely will fade away as a meaningful political figure to all but her admirers on the far right. It is more relevant to ask not what she will do next, but how the political media will treat the next Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton -- who, you may recall, was subjected to a Washington Post analysis of a bare hint of cleavage that showed beneath a business suit. It appeared months before the first Democratic primary vote was cast.
More than 100 years of sexist media treatment of women political leaders is, for me, quite enough. Whether it is for anyone else remains to be seen.
mariecocco@washpost.com
Copyright 2009, Washington Post Writers Group
TIME'S INTERVIEW WITH SARAH PALIN: 'IT'S ALL FOR ALASKA'
TIME's Interview with Sarah Palin: 'It's All for Alaska'
By Jay Newton-Small / Dillingham, Alaska
Tuesday, Jul. 07, 2009
The Palins were staying with Sarah's in-laws Bob and Blanche Kallstrom when the soon-to-be-ex-governor of Alaska sat down for an interview. The Kallstroms are two of the 2,500 full-time residents of Dillingham, Alaska, and owners of the Bristol Bay Inn and a hardware store. The town's population swells to 7,000 in the summer, as it's a magnet for sport fishermen. Todd Palin grew up in a house across the street from the hardware store — a building that has since been "moved," Blanche says, to make way for another building.
About 10 years ago, the Kallstroms moved into a two-story wooden house with a bright orange garage door. The house is modern with two octagonal windows (Blanche says the carpenter who built the place was "some hippie" who put in all the windows). They have two cottages — both also with bright orange doors — at the end of the driveway. One is a type of sauna with a wood-burning stove. The other is a smoke shack for fish. Their catch of the day is hanging from a clothing line strung from the shack to a tree. The driveway is littered with boots, gray-and-red-tipped fishing socks, waders, scooters, tricycles and a green yoga ball with bunny ears for kids to bounce on. On an opposite line, fishing gear is being hung out to dry. Two cars bear McCain/Palin stickers and faded "Palin for Governor" stickers.
Sarah Palin is in a long-sleeved blue T shirt that reads "Go Slam a Salmon, Peter Pan Seafood" on the back, brown drawstring Capri cargo pants and sneakers, with a ponytail and a beautiful French manicure. She looks tired under her TV makeup. Todd and their daughter Piper are both there, wearing T shirts. Todd is outside chopping wood and feeding it into the stove. Piper is in the driveway holding the Palins' youngest son, Trig. She will later bring him inside to put him to bed, on her mother's instructions.
Sarah Palin gives me a tour of the two shacks, starting with the sauna. "Usually you stay out there until the fish aren't hitting anymore, and then you come in," she says. "And here, especially in Native Alaskan culture, you come in and take a seat, and you sweat everything out." She asks Todd how hot it usually gets. "220 [degrees Fahrenheit] is too hot," he says. "190's good." "Too hot for me," she says. "But these guys do it. So, everybody comes in after fishing and gets buckets of water, and the steam lets you sweat everything out, and it's all guys and it's all gals. That's the tradition."
Then she shows me the smoke shack. "This is usually the subsistence catch," she says, gesturing to the gutted, smoked fish drying in the 10:45 p.m. sun, "which means it's just going to be for personal use." Todd hands me a frozen pack of smoked salmon from a freezer. "And it's the best-tasting stuff in the world after a couple of weeks of drying. People then store it away and eat it through the winter. But they smoke it there and dry it here."
For the interview, Sarah Palin sits down on a curved cement wall next to the shacks, moving some red rubber gloves to make room.
TIME: I wanted to start out somewhat philosophically: Did you feel that the institution of government was no longer the best way to bring change about?
Sarah Palin: There certainly needs to be reform of government on a national level. On a state level, we've been successful in reforming our level. This being my third year, heading into my final year in office, though, knowing that my agenda to reform state government, to rein in the rate of government growth that our state had been on — it was a trajectory that was going to put our state in dire straits if we couldn't rein it in. So we did that. We adopted an agenda that would responsibly develop our resources so that our state would be on good economic grounds but also in a position to more fully contribute toward energy independence for America. We have done that. We've reformed on a state-level government with ethics reform. My first year in office, we worked with the lawmakers to usher through ethics legislation that would disallow any of the previously accepted unethical practices in state government. So we did that. Now, heading into my final year in office, though, it's quite apparent that I will not be the one to effect more fully that continued reform on a state level. But Sean Parnell, our lieutenant governor, will be.
Is that because you feel you don't have a mandate anymore?
It's not that. It's that our administration is so stymied and paralyzed because of a political game that has been chosen to be played by critics who have discovered loopholes in the ethics reform that I championed that allows them to continually, continually bombard the state with frivolous ethics-violation charges, with lawsuits, with these fishing expeditions. We win the lawsuits, we win the ethics charges, we win all that — but it comes at such great cost. The distraction, the waste of time and money, the public's time and money — it's insane to continue down this road. And Alaskans who have paid attention to what's going on, they understand that.
Now, there's been some frustration with some in the media not fully reporting what's been going on, so this may come as a shock to some Alaskans. We have sat down with reporters, showed them proof of the frivolity, the wastefulness — you know, millions of dollars this is costing our state to fight frivolous charges. And countless, countless hours from my staff, our department of law, from me every single day just trying to set the record straight. And it doesn't cost the adversaries a dime in this game. It costs our state so much in time and in resources. Alaskans that have paid attention to that, despite the media choosing not to fully report on the circumstances today, Alaskans understand why there had to be a shift here. There has to be a change of direction, and it makes sense for Alaska, my final year in office, to not only be honest with them and tell them that I'm not going to run again, knowing that we've accomplished what we wanted to accomplish, but taking it one step further, saying I'm not going to put them through a lame-duck session where there will be, obviously, more wasted time and money because of the political game being played right now.
When you resigned from the AOGCC [Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission], that was a huge catapult for you. Do you think this might catapult you as well? Or do you see it as kind of a selfless move, more for the state than for you?
It's all for the state. For me personally, it's extremely tough to make a decision and an announcement like this because I love my job and I love Alaska. This is who I am. This is what I am. And serving the people of Alaska is the greatest honor. But when you know that you come to a point when you cannot effect the change because of circumstances that have so greatly changed, and that happened on Aug. 29, the day that I was tapped to run for VP. Circumstances have so drastically changed, I just have to be realistic about it and I have to be honest about it and say Alaska — certainly, Alaska, our state's fine without me at the governor's desk — but Alaska's going to be even better off in terms of progressing and reaching our potential and our destiny with Sean Parnell coming in, taking over the reins. Same agenda, same staff, but it turns down the volume on the distractions that had been ramped up on Aug. 29.
Why make the announcement on July 3? Because I think that date more than anything set people off — right before the three-day weekend. People assume scandal.
Yeah, that's amazing to me. That hit me like a ton of bricks there, this assumption that there must be something more to it than the altruistic, sincere and articulated reasons why I know that this is best for Alaska, that there was speculation that there must be scandal. July 3 is the eve of Independence Day. It is meaningful to be able to say, Look, there needs to be freedom all the way around here to progress. Alaska, we're going to continue to waste resources and time if this political game continues, and it will only continue, because it's a game of political, personal destruction is what the attempt is. But for me personally, it doesn't affect me like the way some people would assume, personally. Anybody growing up in Alaska is pretty tough and rugged. And, you know, I've been in politics since 1992. Local politics is really tough too, so on a local level, on the state, jumping on an international stage, I've got those years under my belt and I expect and even invite the constructive criticism and those things that hold a public servant accountable, and I invite that. But the circumstances have changed, where we have seen this allowance of critics who lie, who stymie progress and who try to paralyze an administration. That hurts a state. That's not fair to the people of the state. And that's why I said circumstances — my choice is to react to the circumstances, maybe unconventionally, but wisely and fairly to Alaskans.
At one point during the campaign you said Hillary Clinton whines a little bit too much about being in the public eye. Do you now sort of sympathize with her?
What I said was, it doesn't do her or anybody else any good to whine about the criticism. And that's why I'm trying to make it clear that the criticism, I invite that. But freedom of speech and that invitation to constructively criticize a public servant is a lot different than the allowance to lie, to continually falsely accuse a public servant when they have proven over and over again that they have not done what the accuser is saying they did. It doesn't cost them a dime to continue to accuse. That's a whole different situation. But that's why when I talk about the political potshots that I take or my family takes, we can handle that. I can handle that. I expect it. But there has to be opportunity provided for truth to get out there, and truth isn't getting out there when the political game that's being played right now is going to continue, and it is. When you realize that it doesn't cost them a dime and it's a fun sport for some, you know it's going to continue. I love Alaska too much to put her through this in a lame-duck session.
Now that you've thought about Alaska, what do you think might interest you moving forward?
I will work extremely hard for Alaska, continuing to work for Alaska, but helping other people who can effect this change, whether they're in office or out of office. I don't need a title to do that. I don't need to be sitting in front of a governor's desk. In fact, my intention is to go out and to campaign for people who can effect change all across our nation. I can't do that from the governor's desk no matter how careful I were to be, because we've got lots of double standards hitting us. Other governors probably could travel around and campaign for others and speak candidly, using their First Amendment rights to express what they feel about a person, a candidate, a position. I get hit with ethics-violation charges if I do that. I mean, literally, I do. The first day back from the campaign trail, I met with reporters in my office who kind of bombarded me there in the lobby of the office. I answered their questions and I got hit with an ethics complaint, and it cost a lot of money to fight things like that, and that's ridiculous. But I'd like to work for other people who'd like to effect change, and Alaska's going to play a big part in the effectiveness of America. As our country progresses with energy independence and Alaska's role in national security and Alaska's part, too, in ratcheting down this government overgrowth that President Obama is ushering in.
You sound a lot like someone, campaigning for other candidates, perhaps fundraising for them, who's going to run in 2012. Is that an interest?
I honestly [pausing to brush Piper's cheeks, who has come back in the room] don't know. I cannot predict what's going to happen. I don't know what doors will be open or closed by then. I was telling Todd today, I was saying, "Man, I wish we could predict the next fish run so that we know when to be out on the water." We can't predict the next fish run, much less what's going to happen in 2012.
So you wouldn't rule it out?
Todd and I, our family's always believed in keeping all options on the table and seeing in this case still what is best for the family and what is best for Alaska.
What do you think is particularly wrong with what Obama is doing now?
President Obama is growing government outrageously, and it's immoral and it's uneconomic, his plan that he tries to sell America. His plan to "put America on the right track" economically, incurring the debt that our nation is incurring, trillions of dollars that we're passing on to our kids, expecting them to pay off for us, is immoral and doesn't even make economic sense. So his growth of government agenda needs to be ratcheted back, and it's going to take good people who have the guts to stand up to him, stand up to him and debate policy, not personalities, not partisan politics, but policy to effect the change that we need there. And allow free enterprise and the industrious Americans who run our small businesses and want to raise a family, allowing our families to grow and prosper and thrive, Americans who still believe in those ideals to get in there and effect change. I want to work for people who believe in that.
Two of his big platform issues now are universal health care and your favorite issue, energy, his global-warming plan. What do you think of his positions on both?
His cap-and-trade agenda is a cap-and-tax agenda, and it's going to drive the cost of consumer goods and the cost of energy so extremely high that our nation is going to start exporting even more jobs to China and to other countries that do not have the corporate tax or the equivalent of the corporate tax that the cap-and-trade — I call it cap-and-tax — agenda is going to usher in. What he needs to be understanding is, we have the domestic supplies of energy in America. It's conventional sources — oil, gas, coal, it's nuclear — and we have the renewable sources here in America. But if we're not allowed to drill and develop those conventional sources in this transition period between now and when we can rely more on alternative sources, we're going to become more and more reliant on foreign sources of energy and importing more and more goods because they're going to be cheaper over there to produce, and our country is going to be in a world of hurt. And that, of course, has so much to do with his economic policy in thinking that it's O.K. to borrow money from other countries to fund this government largesse that he's believing in. It doesn't make any sense. We need to develop responsibly our natural resources of energy here. This will provide the jobs here, the true economic stimulus is developing our domestic, safe supplies of energy here, and Alaska is the place to look to contribute.
And health care?
And health care too. I remember certainly on the campaign trail, John McCain and his ideas — basically, bottom line, allowing businesses to afford to pay for health care, to provide health care and to give employees options, and Obama scoffed at that. His campaign thought that that was ridiculous. It's funny now to hear him kind of go to some of John McCain's ideas. John McCain had some good ideas about bolstering the economy through businesses so that families could afford to pay for health care and making sure that no one was falling through the cracks and not receiving health care. One way you do that is to reduce the corporate tax on our small businesses especially in America. You're going to see Obama increase those taxes on small businesses — whether he admits it today or not, he's going to. One thing reporters aren't asking the Administration is — it's such a simple question and people around here in the real world, outside of Washington, D.C., want reporters to ask — President Obama, how are you going to pay for this $1 [trillion] or $2 [trillion] or $3 trillion health-care plan? How are you going to pay off the stimulus package, those borrowed dollars? How are you going to pay for so many things that you are proposing and you are implementing? Americans deserve to know what the plan is to fund these things, health care included.
By Jay Newton-Small / Dillingham, Alaska
Tuesday, Jul. 07, 2009
The Palins were staying with Sarah's in-laws Bob and Blanche Kallstrom when the soon-to-be-ex-governor of Alaska sat down for an interview. The Kallstroms are two of the 2,500 full-time residents of Dillingham, Alaska, and owners of the Bristol Bay Inn and a hardware store. The town's population swells to 7,000 in the summer, as it's a magnet for sport fishermen. Todd Palin grew up in a house across the street from the hardware store — a building that has since been "moved," Blanche says, to make way for another building.
About 10 years ago, the Kallstroms moved into a two-story wooden house with a bright orange garage door. The house is modern with two octagonal windows (Blanche says the carpenter who built the place was "some hippie" who put in all the windows). They have two cottages — both also with bright orange doors — at the end of the driveway. One is a type of sauna with a wood-burning stove. The other is a smoke shack for fish. Their catch of the day is hanging from a clothing line strung from the shack to a tree. The driveway is littered with boots, gray-and-red-tipped fishing socks, waders, scooters, tricycles and a green yoga ball with bunny ears for kids to bounce on. On an opposite line, fishing gear is being hung out to dry. Two cars bear McCain/Palin stickers and faded "Palin for Governor" stickers.
Sarah Palin is in a long-sleeved blue T shirt that reads "Go Slam a Salmon, Peter Pan Seafood" on the back, brown drawstring Capri cargo pants and sneakers, with a ponytail and a beautiful French manicure. She looks tired under her TV makeup. Todd and their daughter Piper are both there, wearing T shirts. Todd is outside chopping wood and feeding it into the stove. Piper is in the driveway holding the Palins' youngest son, Trig. She will later bring him inside to put him to bed, on her mother's instructions.
Sarah Palin gives me a tour of the two shacks, starting with the sauna. "Usually you stay out there until the fish aren't hitting anymore, and then you come in," she says. "And here, especially in Native Alaskan culture, you come in and take a seat, and you sweat everything out." She asks Todd how hot it usually gets. "220 [degrees Fahrenheit] is too hot," he says. "190's good." "Too hot for me," she says. "But these guys do it. So, everybody comes in after fishing and gets buckets of water, and the steam lets you sweat everything out, and it's all guys and it's all gals. That's the tradition."
Then she shows me the smoke shack. "This is usually the subsistence catch," she says, gesturing to the gutted, smoked fish drying in the 10:45 p.m. sun, "which means it's just going to be for personal use." Todd hands me a frozen pack of smoked salmon from a freezer. "And it's the best-tasting stuff in the world after a couple of weeks of drying. People then store it away and eat it through the winter. But they smoke it there and dry it here."
For the interview, Sarah Palin sits down on a curved cement wall next to the shacks, moving some red rubber gloves to make room.
TIME: I wanted to start out somewhat philosophically: Did you feel that the institution of government was no longer the best way to bring change about?
Sarah Palin: There certainly needs to be reform of government on a national level. On a state level, we've been successful in reforming our level. This being my third year, heading into my final year in office, though, knowing that my agenda to reform state government, to rein in the rate of government growth that our state had been on — it was a trajectory that was going to put our state in dire straits if we couldn't rein it in. So we did that. We adopted an agenda that would responsibly develop our resources so that our state would be on good economic grounds but also in a position to more fully contribute toward energy independence for America. We have done that. We've reformed on a state-level government with ethics reform. My first year in office, we worked with the lawmakers to usher through ethics legislation that would disallow any of the previously accepted unethical practices in state government. So we did that. Now, heading into my final year in office, though, it's quite apparent that I will not be the one to effect more fully that continued reform on a state level. But Sean Parnell, our lieutenant governor, will be.
Is that because you feel you don't have a mandate anymore?
It's not that. It's that our administration is so stymied and paralyzed because of a political game that has been chosen to be played by critics who have discovered loopholes in the ethics reform that I championed that allows them to continually, continually bombard the state with frivolous ethics-violation charges, with lawsuits, with these fishing expeditions. We win the lawsuits, we win the ethics charges, we win all that — but it comes at such great cost. The distraction, the waste of time and money, the public's time and money — it's insane to continue down this road. And Alaskans who have paid attention to what's going on, they understand that.
Now, there's been some frustration with some in the media not fully reporting what's been going on, so this may come as a shock to some Alaskans. We have sat down with reporters, showed them proof of the frivolity, the wastefulness — you know, millions of dollars this is costing our state to fight frivolous charges. And countless, countless hours from my staff, our department of law, from me every single day just trying to set the record straight. And it doesn't cost the adversaries a dime in this game. It costs our state so much in time and in resources. Alaskans that have paid attention to that, despite the media choosing not to fully report on the circumstances today, Alaskans understand why there had to be a shift here. There has to be a change of direction, and it makes sense for Alaska, my final year in office, to not only be honest with them and tell them that I'm not going to run again, knowing that we've accomplished what we wanted to accomplish, but taking it one step further, saying I'm not going to put them through a lame-duck session where there will be, obviously, more wasted time and money because of the political game being played right now.
When you resigned from the AOGCC [Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission], that was a huge catapult for you. Do you think this might catapult you as well? Or do you see it as kind of a selfless move, more for the state than for you?
It's all for the state. For me personally, it's extremely tough to make a decision and an announcement like this because I love my job and I love Alaska. This is who I am. This is what I am. And serving the people of Alaska is the greatest honor. But when you know that you come to a point when you cannot effect the change because of circumstances that have so greatly changed, and that happened on Aug. 29, the day that I was tapped to run for VP. Circumstances have so drastically changed, I just have to be realistic about it and I have to be honest about it and say Alaska — certainly, Alaska, our state's fine without me at the governor's desk — but Alaska's going to be even better off in terms of progressing and reaching our potential and our destiny with Sean Parnell coming in, taking over the reins. Same agenda, same staff, but it turns down the volume on the distractions that had been ramped up on Aug. 29.
Why make the announcement on July 3? Because I think that date more than anything set people off — right before the three-day weekend. People assume scandal.
Yeah, that's amazing to me. That hit me like a ton of bricks there, this assumption that there must be something more to it than the altruistic, sincere and articulated reasons why I know that this is best for Alaska, that there was speculation that there must be scandal. July 3 is the eve of Independence Day. It is meaningful to be able to say, Look, there needs to be freedom all the way around here to progress. Alaska, we're going to continue to waste resources and time if this political game continues, and it will only continue, because it's a game of political, personal destruction is what the attempt is. But for me personally, it doesn't affect me like the way some people would assume, personally. Anybody growing up in Alaska is pretty tough and rugged. And, you know, I've been in politics since 1992. Local politics is really tough too, so on a local level, on the state, jumping on an international stage, I've got those years under my belt and I expect and even invite the constructive criticism and those things that hold a public servant accountable, and I invite that. But the circumstances have changed, where we have seen this allowance of critics who lie, who stymie progress and who try to paralyze an administration. That hurts a state. That's not fair to the people of the state. And that's why I said circumstances — my choice is to react to the circumstances, maybe unconventionally, but wisely and fairly to Alaskans.
At one point during the campaign you said Hillary Clinton whines a little bit too much about being in the public eye. Do you now sort of sympathize with her?
What I said was, it doesn't do her or anybody else any good to whine about the criticism. And that's why I'm trying to make it clear that the criticism, I invite that. But freedom of speech and that invitation to constructively criticize a public servant is a lot different than the allowance to lie, to continually falsely accuse a public servant when they have proven over and over again that they have not done what the accuser is saying they did. It doesn't cost them a dime to continue to accuse. That's a whole different situation. But that's why when I talk about the political potshots that I take or my family takes, we can handle that. I can handle that. I expect it. But there has to be opportunity provided for truth to get out there, and truth isn't getting out there when the political game that's being played right now is going to continue, and it is. When you realize that it doesn't cost them a dime and it's a fun sport for some, you know it's going to continue. I love Alaska too much to put her through this in a lame-duck session.
Now that you've thought about Alaska, what do you think might interest you moving forward?
I will work extremely hard for Alaska, continuing to work for Alaska, but helping other people who can effect this change, whether they're in office or out of office. I don't need a title to do that. I don't need to be sitting in front of a governor's desk. In fact, my intention is to go out and to campaign for people who can effect change all across our nation. I can't do that from the governor's desk no matter how careful I were to be, because we've got lots of double standards hitting us. Other governors probably could travel around and campaign for others and speak candidly, using their First Amendment rights to express what they feel about a person, a candidate, a position. I get hit with ethics-violation charges if I do that. I mean, literally, I do. The first day back from the campaign trail, I met with reporters in my office who kind of bombarded me there in the lobby of the office. I answered their questions and I got hit with an ethics complaint, and it cost a lot of money to fight things like that, and that's ridiculous. But I'd like to work for other people who'd like to effect change, and Alaska's going to play a big part in the effectiveness of America. As our country progresses with energy independence and Alaska's role in national security and Alaska's part, too, in ratcheting down this government overgrowth that President Obama is ushering in.
You sound a lot like someone, campaigning for other candidates, perhaps fundraising for them, who's going to run in 2012. Is that an interest?
I honestly [pausing to brush Piper's cheeks, who has come back in the room] don't know. I cannot predict what's going to happen. I don't know what doors will be open or closed by then. I was telling Todd today, I was saying, "Man, I wish we could predict the next fish run so that we know when to be out on the water." We can't predict the next fish run, much less what's going to happen in 2012.
So you wouldn't rule it out?
Todd and I, our family's always believed in keeping all options on the table and seeing in this case still what is best for the family and what is best for Alaska.
What do you think is particularly wrong with what Obama is doing now?
President Obama is growing government outrageously, and it's immoral and it's uneconomic, his plan that he tries to sell America. His plan to "put America on the right track" economically, incurring the debt that our nation is incurring, trillions of dollars that we're passing on to our kids, expecting them to pay off for us, is immoral and doesn't even make economic sense. So his growth of government agenda needs to be ratcheted back, and it's going to take good people who have the guts to stand up to him, stand up to him and debate policy, not personalities, not partisan politics, but policy to effect the change that we need there. And allow free enterprise and the industrious Americans who run our small businesses and want to raise a family, allowing our families to grow and prosper and thrive, Americans who still believe in those ideals to get in there and effect change. I want to work for people who believe in that.
Two of his big platform issues now are universal health care and your favorite issue, energy, his global-warming plan. What do you think of his positions on both?
His cap-and-trade agenda is a cap-and-tax agenda, and it's going to drive the cost of consumer goods and the cost of energy so extremely high that our nation is going to start exporting even more jobs to China and to other countries that do not have the corporate tax or the equivalent of the corporate tax that the cap-and-trade — I call it cap-and-tax — agenda is going to usher in. What he needs to be understanding is, we have the domestic supplies of energy in America. It's conventional sources — oil, gas, coal, it's nuclear — and we have the renewable sources here in America. But if we're not allowed to drill and develop those conventional sources in this transition period between now and when we can rely more on alternative sources, we're going to become more and more reliant on foreign sources of energy and importing more and more goods because they're going to be cheaper over there to produce, and our country is going to be in a world of hurt. And that, of course, has so much to do with his economic policy in thinking that it's O.K. to borrow money from other countries to fund this government largesse that he's believing in. It doesn't make any sense. We need to develop responsibly our natural resources of energy here. This will provide the jobs here, the true economic stimulus is developing our domestic, safe supplies of energy here, and Alaska is the place to look to contribute.
And health care?
And health care too. I remember certainly on the campaign trail, John McCain and his ideas — basically, bottom line, allowing businesses to afford to pay for health care, to provide health care and to give employees options, and Obama scoffed at that. His campaign thought that that was ridiculous. It's funny now to hear him kind of go to some of John McCain's ideas. John McCain had some good ideas about bolstering the economy through businesses so that families could afford to pay for health care and making sure that no one was falling through the cracks and not receiving health care. One way you do that is to reduce the corporate tax on our small businesses especially in America. You're going to see Obama increase those taxes on small businesses — whether he admits it today or not, he's going to. One thing reporters aren't asking the Administration is — it's such a simple question and people around here in the real world, outside of Washington, D.C., want reporters to ask — President Obama, how are you going to pay for this $1 [trillion] or $2 [trillion] or $3 trillion health-care plan? How are you going to pay off the stimulus package, those borrowed dollars? How are you going to pay for so many things that you are proposing and you are implementing? Americans deserve to know what the plan is to fund these things, health care included.
THIS WOMAN IS TOUGH; DON'T UNDERESTIMATE HER AS OUR FUTURE PRESIDENT!!!
Palin Blasts Critics, Remains Mum on 2012 Bid
In her first interview since announcing she was stepping down as governor of Alaska, Palin remains coy about her presidential aspirations but criticized both Obama and the Republican Party.
By Robert Shaffer and Dan Springer
FOXNews.com
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Gov. Sarah Palin was coy about her presidential aspirations but criticized both President Obama and the Republican Party in her first interview since announcing she was stepping down as governor of Alaska.
Standing astride a fishing boat she would later climb aboard to haul in fishing nets and salmon, Palin expressed bitterness at bloggers who peppered her with ethics accusations, whom she said brought government in Alaska to a grinding halt.
"The critics want to put you on a course of personal bankruptcy, so you can't afford to serve," she said, calling the attacks "bull crap."
The governor made the remarks in an interview with FOX News in Dillingham, where she was fishing with her husband, Todd, and daughter Piper. Reporters from three other networks were also in attendance.
Watch the full interview on FOX News Channel at 9 a.m. ET
Palin said she has started a legal defense fund to raise money for legal fees.
She said Obama is taking the country in the wrong direction, and while she wouldn't reveal her future plans, indicated she has fight left in her.
"Average, hard-working Americans need to be able to get out there, unrestrained, and fight for what is right," she said. "Fight for energy independence and national security, fight for a smaller government instead of this big government overgrowth that Obama is ushering in."
Palin also offered criticism of the Washington, D.C., political establishment, and even the Republican Party, which nominated her to be vice president last year.
"Obsessive partisanship" has hurt the party, she said, striking a more independent beat than the partisan tune she sang on the campaign trail.
"We have so many people who offer advice, but I'm going to continue to be, whether some of them like it or not, pretty darn independent, and not get wrapped up into a strong political machine that hasn't been extremely successful in some ways."
Palin also decried the state of the American media and said news coverage of her children was unfair.
"Most candidates, most public officials get to look into a camera and say, 'you better leave your hands off my kids,'" she said. "Well I haven't been able to say that. And that double standard that's been applied, that's been a little bit frustrating."
Asked if she wanted to be president, she repeated she did not know what her future holds.
"I want to work, right now, for people who are going to work either in office or out of office for the right things. Those principles that build up America, those who are inspired by the values of America, and will not deride or apologize for the values we hold as Americans."
Palin had cited attacks on her family and multiple ethics complaints that had forced her family to rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills. As a result, it's unlikely she'd run for president in 2012, suggested Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.
"Not having talked to the governor, I take 2012 off the table right now simply because given everything she's going through personally, dealing with the financial mess that all these ludicrous investigations have put her and Todd in, at the moment, I think she's trying to focus on getting her house in order, her personal house in order," Steele told FOX News.
"I look forward to welcoming her out and helping us in our campaigns this fall if and when shes ready to do that. Sarah Palin will be the ultimate arbiter of when she will engage and how she will engage," he said.
As Palin spoke, she and her husband Todd Palin loaded four news crews into two small fishing boats and headed into Bristol Bay from Dillingham.
The Palin family -- Todd's sister, mother and father, as well as nieces and at least two children, had picked the journalists up at the airport in Dillingham and shuttled them to Bristol Bay in old pickup trucks and SUVs.
On the bay, Sarah Palin showed how they spent time each summer hauling up pre-placed nets, emptying them of captured salmon, and tossing them back into the water.
Todd Palin was all smiles as he captained the fishing boat in Bristol Bay out to nets filled with Sockeye.
He grew up commercial fishing these waters and Sarah Palin has been making the summer trip to Dillingham for many years. She joked that even though she's been helping her husband haul in fish for decades he still yells at her for doing it wrong. The governor and another hauler lifted the nets out of the water and pried the salmon out.
It was tough work. She wore rubber gloves, knee-high boots and waders.
This was a portrait of the moose hunter and folksy hockey mom that emerged soon after she was picked by Sen. John McCain to be his running mate.
In her first interview since announcing she was stepping down as governor of Alaska, Palin remains coy about her presidential aspirations but criticized both Obama and the Republican Party.
By Robert Shaffer and Dan Springer
FOXNews.com
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Gov. Sarah Palin was coy about her presidential aspirations but criticized both President Obama and the Republican Party in her first interview since announcing she was stepping down as governor of Alaska.
Standing astride a fishing boat she would later climb aboard to haul in fishing nets and salmon, Palin expressed bitterness at bloggers who peppered her with ethics accusations, whom she said brought government in Alaska to a grinding halt.
"The critics want to put you on a course of personal bankruptcy, so you can't afford to serve," she said, calling the attacks "bull crap."
The governor made the remarks in an interview with FOX News in Dillingham, where she was fishing with her husband, Todd, and daughter Piper. Reporters from three other networks were also in attendance.
Watch the full interview on FOX News Channel at 9 a.m. ET
Palin said she has started a legal defense fund to raise money for legal fees.
She said Obama is taking the country in the wrong direction, and while she wouldn't reveal her future plans, indicated she has fight left in her.
"Average, hard-working Americans need to be able to get out there, unrestrained, and fight for what is right," she said. "Fight for energy independence and national security, fight for a smaller government instead of this big government overgrowth that Obama is ushering in."
Palin also offered criticism of the Washington, D.C., political establishment, and even the Republican Party, which nominated her to be vice president last year.
"Obsessive partisanship" has hurt the party, she said, striking a more independent beat than the partisan tune she sang on the campaign trail.
"We have so many people who offer advice, but I'm going to continue to be, whether some of them like it or not, pretty darn independent, and not get wrapped up into a strong political machine that hasn't been extremely successful in some ways."
Palin also decried the state of the American media and said news coverage of her children was unfair.
"Most candidates, most public officials get to look into a camera and say, 'you better leave your hands off my kids,'" she said. "Well I haven't been able to say that. And that double standard that's been applied, that's been a little bit frustrating."
Asked if she wanted to be president, she repeated she did not know what her future holds.
"I want to work, right now, for people who are going to work either in office or out of office for the right things. Those principles that build up America, those who are inspired by the values of America, and will not deride or apologize for the values we hold as Americans."
Palin had cited attacks on her family and multiple ethics complaints that had forced her family to rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills. As a result, it's unlikely she'd run for president in 2012, suggested Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.
"Not having talked to the governor, I take 2012 off the table right now simply because given everything she's going through personally, dealing with the financial mess that all these ludicrous investigations have put her and Todd in, at the moment, I think she's trying to focus on getting her house in order, her personal house in order," Steele told FOX News.
"I look forward to welcoming her out and helping us in our campaigns this fall if and when shes ready to do that. Sarah Palin will be the ultimate arbiter of when she will engage and how she will engage," he said.
As Palin spoke, she and her husband Todd Palin loaded four news crews into two small fishing boats and headed into Bristol Bay from Dillingham.
The Palin family -- Todd's sister, mother and father, as well as nieces and at least two children, had picked the journalists up at the airport in Dillingham and shuttled them to Bristol Bay in old pickup trucks and SUVs.
On the bay, Sarah Palin showed how they spent time each summer hauling up pre-placed nets, emptying them of captured salmon, and tossing them back into the water.
Todd Palin was all smiles as he captained the fishing boat in Bristol Bay out to nets filled with Sockeye.
He grew up commercial fishing these waters and Sarah Palin has been making the summer trip to Dillingham for many years. She joked that even though she's been helping her husband haul in fish for decades he still yells at her for doing it wrong. The governor and another hauler lifted the nets out of the water and pried the salmon out.
It was tough work. She wore rubber gloves, knee-high boots and waders.
This was a portrait of the moose hunter and folksy hockey mom that emerged soon after she was picked by Sen. John McCain to be his running mate.
IN DEFENSE OF SARAH PALIN.
In Defense of Sarah Palin
July 7, 2009
By Elvin Lim
OUP blog
People love to hate Sarah Palin. I thought she was trouble on the McCain ticket, trouble for feminism, and trouble for the future of the Republican party, but I am troubled at the feeding frenzy that has continued despite Palin’s express desire and efforts to bow out of the negative politics that has consumed her governorship.
The speculation about what exactly Palin is up to is itself revealing - for it comes attached to one of two possible postulations - neither of which are charitable. Either Palin is up to no good, or she is completely out of her mind. Even in surrender Palin is hounded. Either she is so despicable that post-political-humous hate is both valid and necessary or she is so dangerous that she must be defeated beyond defeat.
Even Governor Mark Sanford got a day or two of sympathy from his political opponents before he admitted to other extra-marital dalliances and referred to his Argentinian belle as his “soul-mate.” Sarah Palin was accorded no such reprieve. Yes, I think gender is entirely relevant here.
Feminist scholars have studied the double-bind of woman political leaders for a while now. Women leaders are faced with a dilemma a still-patriachical political world imposes on them: women must either trade their likeability in return for male respect; or they preserve their likeability but lose men’s respect for them in exchange. When it comes to women in positions of political power in the world that we know, they cannot be both likeable and respected. Unlike men, they cannot have their cake and eat it as well. This is not the world I like, but it is the world I see.
Let me draw an unlikely parallel to make the point. People love to hate another woman that we saw a lot of in 2008 - Hillary Clinton. Like Palin, she was to her detractors the she-devil to whom evil intentions were automatically assigned for every action. But unlike Palin, she was respected and feared - she was everything Sarah Palin was not. What Palin lacked in terms of likeability she possessed in terms of respect (or at least reverent fear). No one underestimated Hillary Clinton, no one doubted her ambition. And of course, as Barack Obama put it in one of their debates, she was only “likeable enough.” Clinton was respected as a force to be reckoned with, but she paid her dues in terms of likeability. Just like the Virgin Queen and the Iron Lady, she could only be respected if she surrendered her congeniality.
Palin stands at the other end of the double-bind. Where Palin was in need of respect she gained in terms of likeability. She was the pretty beauty queen loved and beloved by her base, unapologetically espousing a “lip-stick” feminism (in contrast to a grouchy liberal feminism). But what she enjoyed in terms of likeability she lost in terms of respect. If there was one thing her detractors have done consistently, it has been to mock her. She was the running joke on Saturday Night Life, and now, a laughing stock even amongst some Republicans who see her as a quitter and a thin-skinned political lightweight. Strangely enough, Sarah Palin is Hillary Clinton’s alter-ego. Where Clinton is perceived as strong, Palin is seen as weak; whereas Clinton turns off (a certain sort of) men, Palin titillates them.
If we lived in a post-feminist, gender-neutral world, the two most prominent women in American politics, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, would not so perfectly occupy the antipodal caricatures of women trapped in the double-bind of our patriachical politics. That they each face one cruel end of the double binds tells us that the two women on opposite ends of the political spectrum sit in the same patriachical boat. So the next time liberals mock Sarah Palin, they should remember that they are doing no more service to feminism than when some conservatives made fun of Hillary Clinton’s femininity allegedly subverted by her pant-suits.
*************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
Where do I begin? It's nice for a change to actually read that there IS a double standard where women are concerned in politics. But what has been done to Sarah Palin from the very second she was named as John McCain's Vice Presidential running mate, goes far and beyond the pale. Some people just can't stand it that she is a politician, a governor, and yet she is a real, genuine breath of fresh air. She doesn't have the educational background of going to Ivy League schools and that is one of the reasons some seem to disqualify her for higher office. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, does have the Ivy League education and she is hated by some for other reasons. Both women are loved so much by the people who love them and understand them. Both women are hated by those who see a side they cannot stand. Both women are favorite punching bags for the media. Hillary has gotten a little break NOW that she is the top diplomat in THE ONE'S cabinet. Otherwise, she would STILL be being bashed continually.
I personally saw and still do see Sarah as the most real and genuine person first and politician second. You KNOW she loves her country dearly. She wants the best for it and hates what she sees what is going on now with Obama totally DESTROYING America. Perhaps she wants to break free from being tied to the governorship of Alaska that she CAN do more to help get the country back on the right track. Whether that is by running for president herself or by helping others she sees capable of bringing about the change she knows the country needs. And just to get away from the media bashing her continually and taking their hatred for HER out on her children, even her Down Syndrome baby!
Hillary Clinton had 35 years of working for noble causes and protecting the rights of women and children. As First Lady, she traveled to 82 countries. Her famous speech in Bejing in 1995 where she said "womens' rights are human rights and human rights are womens' rights will go down in history as one of the more famous speeches ever! Hillary was NEVER the typical First Lady. She rolled up her sleeves and wanted to get to work to help her husband run the country. Even though her attempt at Universal Healthcare failed, I think the Republicans in Congress would never have allowed her to get that passed. Obama, on the other hand, has everything going for him. He has the White House, Senate (60 members!), and House. More than likely he will be able to push through any crap he wants to as he HAS already! During the primaries, Hillary, the experienced, qualified WOMAN was PUSHED ASIDE for the inexperienced, unqualified, no accomplishments empty suit black man. The Obama lovin' media made a big stink about Obama making history as the first black president, while totally IGNORING that Hillary becoming president would also make history as the FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT!! I thought and still do think that the FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT was much MORE HISTORIC than the first black president. After all, we now have had 44 MEN running this country in 233 years. We have NEVER had a woman. IF women had backed Hillary loyally as blacks backed Obama loyally, she would have been the nominee EVEN WITH ALL THE CHEATING OBAMA DID, EVEN WITH PAYING OFF SUPERDELEGATES FOR THEIR ENDORSEMENTS, EVEN WITH THE DNC RIGGING THE PRIMARIES, EVEN WITH FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN BEING TAKEN AWAY FROM HILLARY, ETC. ETC.
So YES, there is a double standard for women. They can't win in more ways than one. Can you imagine a WOMAN with Obama's non-accomplishments and non-experience winniing the presidency? She would have been laughed out of the race during the first primary! It is FRUSTRATING, AGGRAVATING AND UNFAIR. I CANNOT STAND INJUSTICE. IT BOTHERS ME MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE IN THIS WORLD!!
(This article and my comments will be cross-posted as my Hillary blog:
www.alwaysforhillary.blogspot.com.)
July 7, 2009
By Elvin Lim
OUP blog
People love to hate Sarah Palin. I thought she was trouble on the McCain ticket, trouble for feminism, and trouble for the future of the Republican party, but I am troubled at the feeding frenzy that has continued despite Palin’s express desire and efforts to bow out of the negative politics that has consumed her governorship.
The speculation about what exactly Palin is up to is itself revealing - for it comes attached to one of two possible postulations - neither of which are charitable. Either Palin is up to no good, or she is completely out of her mind. Even in surrender Palin is hounded. Either she is so despicable that post-political-humous hate is both valid and necessary or she is so dangerous that she must be defeated beyond defeat.
Even Governor Mark Sanford got a day or two of sympathy from his political opponents before he admitted to other extra-marital dalliances and referred to his Argentinian belle as his “soul-mate.” Sarah Palin was accorded no such reprieve. Yes, I think gender is entirely relevant here.
Feminist scholars have studied the double-bind of woman political leaders for a while now. Women leaders are faced with a dilemma a still-patriachical political world imposes on them: women must either trade their likeability in return for male respect; or they preserve their likeability but lose men’s respect for them in exchange. When it comes to women in positions of political power in the world that we know, they cannot be both likeable and respected. Unlike men, they cannot have their cake and eat it as well. This is not the world I like, but it is the world I see.
Let me draw an unlikely parallel to make the point. People love to hate another woman that we saw a lot of in 2008 - Hillary Clinton. Like Palin, she was to her detractors the she-devil to whom evil intentions were automatically assigned for every action. But unlike Palin, she was respected and feared - she was everything Sarah Palin was not. What Palin lacked in terms of likeability she possessed in terms of respect (or at least reverent fear). No one underestimated Hillary Clinton, no one doubted her ambition. And of course, as Barack Obama put it in one of their debates, she was only “likeable enough.” Clinton was respected as a force to be reckoned with, but she paid her dues in terms of likeability. Just like the Virgin Queen and the Iron Lady, she could only be respected if she surrendered her congeniality.
Palin stands at the other end of the double-bind. Where Palin was in need of respect she gained in terms of likeability. She was the pretty beauty queen loved and beloved by her base, unapologetically espousing a “lip-stick” feminism (in contrast to a grouchy liberal feminism). But what she enjoyed in terms of likeability she lost in terms of respect. If there was one thing her detractors have done consistently, it has been to mock her. She was the running joke on Saturday Night Life, and now, a laughing stock even amongst some Republicans who see her as a quitter and a thin-skinned political lightweight. Strangely enough, Sarah Palin is Hillary Clinton’s alter-ego. Where Clinton is perceived as strong, Palin is seen as weak; whereas Clinton turns off (a certain sort of) men, Palin titillates them.
If we lived in a post-feminist, gender-neutral world, the two most prominent women in American politics, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, would not so perfectly occupy the antipodal caricatures of women trapped in the double-bind of our patriachical politics. That they each face one cruel end of the double binds tells us that the two women on opposite ends of the political spectrum sit in the same patriachical boat. So the next time liberals mock Sarah Palin, they should remember that they are doing no more service to feminism than when some conservatives made fun of Hillary Clinton’s femininity allegedly subverted by her pant-suits.
*************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
Where do I begin? It's nice for a change to actually read that there IS a double standard where women are concerned in politics. But what has been done to Sarah Palin from the very second she was named as John McCain's Vice Presidential running mate, goes far and beyond the pale. Some people just can't stand it that she is a politician, a governor, and yet she is a real, genuine breath of fresh air. She doesn't have the educational background of going to Ivy League schools and that is one of the reasons some seem to disqualify her for higher office. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, does have the Ivy League education and she is hated by some for other reasons. Both women are loved so much by the people who love them and understand them. Both women are hated by those who see a side they cannot stand. Both women are favorite punching bags for the media. Hillary has gotten a little break NOW that she is the top diplomat in THE ONE'S cabinet. Otherwise, she would STILL be being bashed continually.
I personally saw and still do see Sarah as the most real and genuine person first and politician second. You KNOW she loves her country dearly. She wants the best for it and hates what she sees what is going on now with Obama totally DESTROYING America. Perhaps she wants to break free from being tied to the governorship of Alaska that she CAN do more to help get the country back on the right track. Whether that is by running for president herself or by helping others she sees capable of bringing about the change she knows the country needs. And just to get away from the media bashing her continually and taking their hatred for HER out on her children, even her Down Syndrome baby!
Hillary Clinton had 35 years of working for noble causes and protecting the rights of women and children. As First Lady, she traveled to 82 countries. Her famous speech in Bejing in 1995 where she said "womens' rights are human rights and human rights are womens' rights will go down in history as one of the more famous speeches ever! Hillary was NEVER the typical First Lady. She rolled up her sleeves and wanted to get to work to help her husband run the country. Even though her attempt at Universal Healthcare failed, I think the Republicans in Congress would never have allowed her to get that passed. Obama, on the other hand, has everything going for him. He has the White House, Senate (60 members!), and House. More than likely he will be able to push through any crap he wants to as he HAS already! During the primaries, Hillary, the experienced, qualified WOMAN was PUSHED ASIDE for the inexperienced, unqualified, no accomplishments empty suit black man. The Obama lovin' media made a big stink about Obama making history as the first black president, while totally IGNORING that Hillary becoming president would also make history as the FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT!! I thought and still do think that the FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT was much MORE HISTORIC than the first black president. After all, we now have had 44 MEN running this country in 233 years. We have NEVER had a woman. IF women had backed Hillary loyally as blacks backed Obama loyally, she would have been the nominee EVEN WITH ALL THE CHEATING OBAMA DID, EVEN WITH PAYING OFF SUPERDELEGATES FOR THEIR ENDORSEMENTS, EVEN WITH THE DNC RIGGING THE PRIMARIES, EVEN WITH FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN BEING TAKEN AWAY FROM HILLARY, ETC. ETC.
So YES, there is a double standard for women. They can't win in more ways than one. Can you imagine a WOMAN with Obama's non-accomplishments and non-experience winniing the presidency? She would have been laughed out of the race during the first primary! It is FRUSTRATING, AGGRAVATING AND UNFAIR. I CANNOT STAND INJUSTICE. IT BOTHERS ME MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE IN THIS WORLD!!
(This article and my comments will be cross-posted as my Hillary blog:
www.alwaysforhillary.blogspot.com.)
Monday, July 6, 2009
SARAH'S 2012 TWO-STEP.
Palin's 2012 Two-Step
THE FIX
By Chris Cillizza | July 4, 2009
For those people who doubted whether the Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's (R) resignation decision yesterday was freighted with 2012 presidential implications, we present two pieces of evidence.
First, Palin released a statement on her Facebook page today that not only castigated the media for how they covered her announcement ("How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country," she wrote) but only sounded a distinctly presidential note.
Said Palin:
I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint. I hope you will join me. Now is the time to rebuild and help our nation achieve greatness!
Those lines would fit almost perfectly into a stump speech in Iowa or New Hampshire -- two states you should expect to see Palin in sometime soon.
The second piece of evidence regarding Palin's national ambitions came later today when her private attorney -- Thomas Van Flein -- released a four-page statement seeking to quash rumors that the Alaska governor's decision to resign was motivated by ethics problems.
The document seeks to detail Palin's ties to the Wasilla Sports Complex and insists that neither she nor her husband, Todd, gained any sort of benefit from the building of the complex.
Van Flein also notes that those publishing "defamation" regarding the sports complex will be made to answer for those charges "in a court of law".
Palin is trying to do two things simultaneously with these twin announcements.
The Facebook message is on the positive track -- making clear she has plans and a vision for her future and the country's.
The letter from the lawyer has a different goal: to make clear to her detractors that she will not take what she takes to be false attacks laying down.
The broad message? Sarah Palin is here to stay -- whether you like it or not.
THE FIX
By Chris Cillizza | July 4, 2009
For those people who doubted whether the Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's (R) resignation decision yesterday was freighted with 2012 presidential implications, we present two pieces of evidence.
First, Palin released a statement on her Facebook page today that not only castigated the media for how they covered her announcement ("How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country," she wrote) but only sounded a distinctly presidential note.
Said Palin:
I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint. I hope you will join me. Now is the time to rebuild and help our nation achieve greatness!
Those lines would fit almost perfectly into a stump speech in Iowa or New Hampshire -- two states you should expect to see Palin in sometime soon.
The second piece of evidence regarding Palin's national ambitions came later today when her private attorney -- Thomas Van Flein -- released a four-page statement seeking to quash rumors that the Alaska governor's decision to resign was motivated by ethics problems.
The document seeks to detail Palin's ties to the Wasilla Sports Complex and insists that neither she nor her husband, Todd, gained any sort of benefit from the building of the complex.
Van Flein also notes that those publishing "defamation" regarding the sports complex will be made to answer for those charges "in a court of law".
Palin is trying to do two things simultaneously with these twin announcements.
The Facebook message is on the positive track -- making clear she has plans and a vision for her future and the country's.
The letter from the lawyer has a different goal: to make clear to her detractors that she will not take what she takes to be false attacks laying down.
The broad message? Sarah Palin is here to stay -- whether you like it or not.
SARAH OFFERS COMMENTS OVER TWITTER AND FACEBOOK.
Palin offers comments over Twitter, Facebook
Jul 6, 2009
By RACHEL D'ORO
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Sarah Palin is communicating through social networking sites after her surprise announcement last week that she will resign as Alaska governor.
Throughout the holiday weekend, the governor has provided frequent updates to supporters on Twitter while otherwise laying low.
She also turned to Facebook, citing a "higher calling" to unite the nation along conservative lines.
Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Monday the governor often Tweets on weekends and "this past weekend was no different."
Political analyst Larry Sabato says online networking is a perfect vehicle for "a controversial politician to communicate with her public in an unfiltered way."
Palin's attorney Thomas Van Flein says Palin has kept in touch with several people, including him.
Jul 6, 2009
By RACHEL D'ORO
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Sarah Palin is communicating through social networking sites after her surprise announcement last week that she will resign as Alaska governor.
Throughout the holiday weekend, the governor has provided frequent updates to supporters on Twitter while otherwise laying low.
She also turned to Facebook, citing a "higher calling" to unite the nation along conservative lines.
Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Monday the governor often Tweets on weekends and "this past weekend was no different."
Political analyst Larry Sabato says online networking is a perfect vehicle for "a controversial politician to communicate with her public in an unfiltered way."
Palin's attorney Thomas Van Flein says Palin has kept in touch with several people, including him.
GOOD!! SARAH'S ATTORNEY WARNS PRESS ON ''DEFAMATORY MATERIAL'!!!!
Sarah Palin attorney warns press on 'defamatory material'
By JONATHAN MARTIN
7/6/09
POLITICO 44
Ratcheting up her offensive against the news media, Gov. Sarah Palin’s attorney threatened on Saturday to sue mainstream news organizations if they publish “defamatory” stories relating to whether Palin is under federal investigation.
In an extraordinary four-page letter, Alaska-based attorney Thomas Van Flein warns of severe consequences should speculation that until now has largely been confined to blogs — about whether Palin embezzled funds in the construction of a Wasilla, Alaska, sports arena — find its way into print.
“This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who republish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law,” Van Flein warned, citing Alaska liberal blogger Shannyn Moore.
Much like Palin did in her Facebook statement Saturday, Van Flein savages the news media in his letter.
“Just as power abhors a vacuum, modern journalism apparently abhors any type of due diligence and fact checking before scurrilous allegations are repeated as fact,” the Anchorage attorney wrote.
Neither the Times nor the Post made any mention of the embezzlement rumors in their Saturday editions, but sources close to Palin consider the letter a warning shot to stay away from the topic.
In the letter, Van Flein writes: "'The Alaska Constitution protects the right of free speech, while simultaneously holding those "responsible for the abuse of that right.'… These falsehoods abuse the right to free speech; continuing to publish these falsehoods of criminal activity is reckless, done without any regard for the truth, and is actionable."
Still, the decision to issue a public statement reciting all the facts in the case now all but ensures that there will be mainstream media accounts of the situation.
“While the Federal Government has a process to follow, and that process sometimes takes time, we can categorically state that we are not aware of any ‘federal investigation’ that has been ‘pending’ for the last seven years,” Van Flein wrote. “We are aware of no subpoenas on [the Wasilla supply company that supplied equipment for the construction of the sports arena and Palin home] regarding the Palins… .To be blunt — this ‘story’ was alleged during the campaign, evaluated then by national media and deemed meritless. Nothing has changed.”
Scores of left-leaning blogs posted speculation in the wake of Palin’s surprise announcement Friday and among the most common theories was that she was on the verge of federal indictment over the 2002 construction of the sports arena.
Making the case for his client, Van Flein writes that Palin, then the mayor of Wasilla, did not oversee the Steering Committee tasked with running the project.
“While her public support of this project was deemed pivotal by many, the actual construction, bidding, financing and other day-to-day management of the project was not in her scope of authority as Mayor,” Van Flein writes.
Van Flein also notes that the project was publicly bid and therefore Palin had little control over construction.
The attorney also addressed another of the bloggers’ claims: that Palin purchased building materials to build her own home from the same supply store as was used by those who built the arena.
“Prior to the construction of Lowe’s and Home Depot within the last few years in Wasilla, Spenard Builders Supply was the primary building supply company in Wasilla,” Van Flein writes. “It can hardly come as a surprise that it would sell materials to small homeowners or that it would also bid to supply commercial contracts.”
As for how the Palins financed their home on Wasilla’s Lake Lucille, Van Flein says they “used a combination of personal savings, equity from the sale of their prior home and conventional bank financing to build the house — like millions of American families. The deeds of trust are recordable public records. Basic journalism and fact checking would confirm this.”
By JONATHAN MARTIN
7/6/09
POLITICO 44
Ratcheting up her offensive against the news media, Gov. Sarah Palin’s attorney threatened on Saturday to sue mainstream news organizations if they publish “defamatory” stories relating to whether Palin is under federal investigation.
In an extraordinary four-page letter, Alaska-based attorney Thomas Van Flein warns of severe consequences should speculation that until now has largely been confined to blogs — about whether Palin embezzled funds in the construction of a Wasilla, Alaska, sports arena — find its way into print.
“This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who republish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law,” Van Flein warned, citing Alaska liberal blogger Shannyn Moore.
Much like Palin did in her Facebook statement Saturday, Van Flein savages the news media in his letter.
“Just as power abhors a vacuum, modern journalism apparently abhors any type of due diligence and fact checking before scurrilous allegations are repeated as fact,” the Anchorage attorney wrote.
Neither the Times nor the Post made any mention of the embezzlement rumors in their Saturday editions, but sources close to Palin consider the letter a warning shot to stay away from the topic.
In the letter, Van Flein writes: "'The Alaska Constitution protects the right of free speech, while simultaneously holding those "responsible for the abuse of that right.'… These falsehoods abuse the right to free speech; continuing to publish these falsehoods of criminal activity is reckless, done without any regard for the truth, and is actionable."
Still, the decision to issue a public statement reciting all the facts in the case now all but ensures that there will be mainstream media accounts of the situation.
“While the Federal Government has a process to follow, and that process sometimes takes time, we can categorically state that we are not aware of any ‘federal investigation’ that has been ‘pending’ for the last seven years,” Van Flein wrote. “We are aware of no subpoenas on [the Wasilla supply company that supplied equipment for the construction of the sports arena and Palin home] regarding the Palins… .To be blunt — this ‘story’ was alleged during the campaign, evaluated then by national media and deemed meritless. Nothing has changed.”
Scores of left-leaning blogs posted speculation in the wake of Palin’s surprise announcement Friday and among the most common theories was that she was on the verge of federal indictment over the 2002 construction of the sports arena.
Making the case for his client, Van Flein writes that Palin, then the mayor of Wasilla, did not oversee the Steering Committee tasked with running the project.
“While her public support of this project was deemed pivotal by many, the actual construction, bidding, financing and other day-to-day management of the project was not in her scope of authority as Mayor,” Van Flein writes.
Van Flein also notes that the project was publicly bid and therefore Palin had little control over construction.
The attorney also addressed another of the bloggers’ claims: that Palin purchased building materials to build her own home from the same supply store as was used by those who built the arena.
“Prior to the construction of Lowe’s and Home Depot within the last few years in Wasilla, Spenard Builders Supply was the primary building supply company in Wasilla,” Van Flein writes. “It can hardly come as a surprise that it would sell materials to small homeowners or that it would also bid to supply commercial contracts.”
As for how the Palins financed their home on Wasilla’s Lake Lucille, Van Flein says they “used a combination of personal savings, equity from the sale of their prior home and conventional bank financing to build the house — like millions of American families. The deeds of trust are recordable public records. Basic journalism and fact checking would confirm this.”
NEWS OF SARAH'S RESIGNATION SHOCKED ME TO THE BONE!!
Palin resignation leaves questions on 2012 run
Jul 4, 2009
By RACHEL D'ORO
BREITBART
WASILLA, Alaska (AP) - Even for a nonconformist, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has defied political logic with her sudden, stunning announcement to leave office more than a year early.
Supporters and critics alike say the former GOP vice presidential candidate's resignation, announced Friday afternoon and effective July 26, is an inexplicable move for a high profile Republican widely seen as a contender for a White House run in 2012. A half-term governor campaigning for president?
"If she is thinking that leaving her term 16 months early is going to help her prepare to maybe go on to bigger and better things on the political stage, I think she's sadly mistaken. You just can't quit," said Andrew Halcro, a Palin critic who lost the 2006 gubernatorial race to her.
Palin's abrupt announcement Friday rattled the Republican Party but left open the possibility of a presidential run. She and her staff are keeping mum on her future plans.
Palin's spokesman, David Murrow, said the governor didn't say anything to him about this being her "political finale."
"She's looking forward to serving the public outside the governor's chair," he said.
And Pam Pryor, a spokeswoman for Palin's political action committee, said the group continues to accept donations on its Web site, which saw an uptick in contributions Friday afternoon.
The announcement caught even current and former Palin advisers by surprise. Former members of Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign team, now dispersed across the country, traded perplexed e-mails and phone calls about the vice presidential nominee's decision to step down.
In a hastily arranged news conference at her home in Wasilla, a suburb of Anchorage, Palin said she had decided against running for re-election as Alaska's governor, and believed it was best to leave office even though she had 1.5 years left to her term. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will take her place.
"Many just accept that lame duck status, and they hit that road," Palin said. "They draw a paycheck. They kind of milk it. And I'm not going to put Alaskans through that."
Palin has proven formidable among the party's base. But the last week brought a highly critical piece in Vanity Fair magazine, with unnamed campaign aides questioning if Palin was really prepared for the presidency.
The backbiting continued with follow-up articles elsewhere recounting the nasty infighting that plagued her failed bid. Her advisers sniped with other Republicans, underscoring the deeply divided GOP looking for its next standard bearer.
Meghan Stapleton, Palin's personal spokeswoman, shot down speculation that ranged wildly from Palin dropping out of politics altogether to eyeing runs against fellow Alaska Republicans Rep. Don Young and Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Palin's comment about serving outside government refers to the present, she said.
Stapleton, however, said it's too early to say whether Palin would seek the presidency. In the meantime, the governor will continue to work to bring "positive change as a citizen without a title right now," she said.
"Her vision is what's best for Alaska, which translates into what's best for America," Stapleton said.
Murkowski, whose father was the governor when he lost to Palin in the 2006 Republican primary, was dismissive of the announcement.
"I am deeply disappointed that the governor has decided to abandon the state and her constituents before her term has concluded," she said in a one-sentence statement.
At the news conference, Palin alluded to how she could help change the country and help military members—an indication that she didn't think her time on the national stage was over.
On her Twitter page Friday evening, Palin wrote that she was remembering America's service members on the eve of Fourth of July.
"Thinking of our vets who kept us free & our troops keeping us free today: THANK YOU!" she wrote on the social-networking Web site.
Palin's decision not to seek re-election is a familiar one for those considering a presidential campaign. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney chose not to seek another term as he geared up for an unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has announced he won't seek another term, giving him plenty of free time ahead of a potential 2012 bid. But Romney completed his term and Pawlenty plans to finish his.
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said the announcement left many confused. "I think it eliminates her from serious consideration for the presidency in 2012," he said.
Palin, 45, also has the potential to make far more money in the private sector than the $125,000 or so she has been making as governor. She already had a deal with publisher HarperCollins to produce her memoirs, with publication planned for next spring. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Six-figure book deals are common for high-profile political figures.
Palin emerged from relative obscurity nearly a year ago when she was tapped as then Republican presidential candidate McCain's running mate.
She was a controversial figure from the start and soon became the butt of talk-show jokes. Comedian Tina Fey famously imitated her elaborate updo and folksy "You betcha!" on "Saturday Night Live."
In Alaska, she saw her popularity wane this year after returning from the presidential campaign. She's become a polarizing figure, and multiple ethics complaints have been filed against her with the state personnel board.
All but two of the 15 complaints have been dismissed with no findings of wrongdoing, although one complaint led to Palin's agreement to reimburse the state about $8,100 for costs associated with trips taken with her children. The state says it has spent nearly $300,000 to investigate the complaints, and Palin says she has racked up more than $500,000 in legal fees fighting them.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
***************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
I was in Washington, D.C., taking a badly needed getaway. I was exhausted and in pain from the 10 hour day of sightseeing and anxious to get back to my hotel. On the bus shuttle, I heard something about "Palin steppin' down" and wondered what that meant. As soon as I got back to my hotel, I turned on the TV and saw the extended coverage of Sarah's resignation and the pundits who had various ideas as to WHAT THIS MEANT.
My immediate reaction was sadness. After campaigning for Hillary Clinton for 17 months, working my ass off for this woman I believed would be the best president ever, I was emotionally, physically, and financially drained when Hillary suspended her campaign and endorsed Obama. Obama STOLE the nomination, and ultimately the presidency, from Hillary through caucus fraud and paying for endorsements of superdelegates. When Hillary acclaimed Obama to be the nominee at the convention, after PUMAS worked for 3 solid months to have her name put into nomination with the hope she could STILL get the nomination, I was deeply depressed! It was only the announcement of John McCain saying Sarah would be his V.P. running mate that made me feel more cheerful and hopeful. Now my goal was to have the McCain/Palin ticket win the presidency!
Since I've come to "know" Sarah, I have admired her greatly. She is the most GENUINE and REAL person I've ever known who also happened to be a politician. Sarah was a breath of fresh air and not corrupt. As a matter of fact, she fought corruption, even to members of her own party! I liked that a lot. I also was so ANGRY and FRUSTRATED when I saw that the media and the Obama campaign was out to destroy Sarah. The usual - sexism and misogny - as Hillary endured, but Sarah had to also endure her family being lied about and every ridiculous thing possible was said about her and her family.
You would have thought once the arrogant, lying fraud Obama usurped his way into the White House (WHERE IS THAT BIRTH CERTIFICATE???), that the jokes, criticism and despicable rumours about Sarah and her family would have been over. But it wasn't. She was the butt of vile, despicable jokes, her poor Downs Syndrome baby was made fun of as well as her daughter who had a baby out of wedlock. Add to that 15 frivolous ethics lawsuits which caused the State of Alaska a fortune as well as the Palins' wracking up over a HALF MILLION DOLLARS in legal fees. Was it any wonder Sarah felt she had to leave office now? The more and more I thought of it, it made sense. As I said, the pundits were analyzing what this meant. Did it mean she would run for president in 2012? Was she leaving politics for good? WHY one extreme to the other? I decided to take Sarah at her word because I do believe she is something very odd and unique for a politician. She's HONEST!
As a free spirit, the frivolous ethics complaints would disappear. She could work on her book. She could go out and campaign and raise money for other candidates as well as fill her own SarahPAC for a possible future run. Sarah draws enormous crowds and just that alone could raise a lot of money in speaking fees to help pay off some of those legal bills.
As I write this, I hope and pray that the jokes and lies and mean comments will stop. I hope Sarah will work hard for the party and I DO HOPE she will run for president in 2012. AMERICA NEEDS YOU, SARAH!! WE NEED YOU DESPERATELY.
Jul 4, 2009
By RACHEL D'ORO
BREITBART
WASILLA, Alaska (AP) - Even for a nonconformist, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has defied political logic with her sudden, stunning announcement to leave office more than a year early.
Supporters and critics alike say the former GOP vice presidential candidate's resignation, announced Friday afternoon and effective July 26, is an inexplicable move for a high profile Republican widely seen as a contender for a White House run in 2012. A half-term governor campaigning for president?
"If she is thinking that leaving her term 16 months early is going to help her prepare to maybe go on to bigger and better things on the political stage, I think she's sadly mistaken. You just can't quit," said Andrew Halcro, a Palin critic who lost the 2006 gubernatorial race to her.
Palin's abrupt announcement Friday rattled the Republican Party but left open the possibility of a presidential run. She and her staff are keeping mum on her future plans.
Palin's spokesman, David Murrow, said the governor didn't say anything to him about this being her "political finale."
"She's looking forward to serving the public outside the governor's chair," he said.
And Pam Pryor, a spokeswoman for Palin's political action committee, said the group continues to accept donations on its Web site, which saw an uptick in contributions Friday afternoon.
The announcement caught even current and former Palin advisers by surprise. Former members of Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign team, now dispersed across the country, traded perplexed e-mails and phone calls about the vice presidential nominee's decision to step down.
In a hastily arranged news conference at her home in Wasilla, a suburb of Anchorage, Palin said she had decided against running for re-election as Alaska's governor, and believed it was best to leave office even though she had 1.5 years left to her term. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will take her place.
"Many just accept that lame duck status, and they hit that road," Palin said. "They draw a paycheck. They kind of milk it. And I'm not going to put Alaskans through that."
Palin has proven formidable among the party's base. But the last week brought a highly critical piece in Vanity Fair magazine, with unnamed campaign aides questioning if Palin was really prepared for the presidency.
The backbiting continued with follow-up articles elsewhere recounting the nasty infighting that plagued her failed bid. Her advisers sniped with other Republicans, underscoring the deeply divided GOP looking for its next standard bearer.
Meghan Stapleton, Palin's personal spokeswoman, shot down speculation that ranged wildly from Palin dropping out of politics altogether to eyeing runs against fellow Alaska Republicans Rep. Don Young and Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Palin's comment about serving outside government refers to the present, she said.
Stapleton, however, said it's too early to say whether Palin would seek the presidency. In the meantime, the governor will continue to work to bring "positive change as a citizen without a title right now," she said.
"Her vision is what's best for Alaska, which translates into what's best for America," Stapleton said.
Murkowski, whose father was the governor when he lost to Palin in the 2006 Republican primary, was dismissive of the announcement.
"I am deeply disappointed that the governor has decided to abandon the state and her constituents before her term has concluded," she said in a one-sentence statement.
At the news conference, Palin alluded to how she could help change the country and help military members—an indication that she didn't think her time on the national stage was over.
On her Twitter page Friday evening, Palin wrote that she was remembering America's service members on the eve of Fourth of July.
"Thinking of our vets who kept us free & our troops keeping us free today: THANK YOU!" she wrote on the social-networking Web site.
Palin's decision not to seek re-election is a familiar one for those considering a presidential campaign. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney chose not to seek another term as he geared up for an unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has announced he won't seek another term, giving him plenty of free time ahead of a potential 2012 bid. But Romney completed his term and Pawlenty plans to finish his.
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said the announcement left many confused. "I think it eliminates her from serious consideration for the presidency in 2012," he said.
Palin, 45, also has the potential to make far more money in the private sector than the $125,000 or so she has been making as governor. She already had a deal with publisher HarperCollins to produce her memoirs, with publication planned for next spring. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Six-figure book deals are common for high-profile political figures.
Palin emerged from relative obscurity nearly a year ago when she was tapped as then Republican presidential candidate McCain's running mate.
She was a controversial figure from the start and soon became the butt of talk-show jokes. Comedian Tina Fey famously imitated her elaborate updo and folksy "You betcha!" on "Saturday Night Live."
In Alaska, she saw her popularity wane this year after returning from the presidential campaign. She's become a polarizing figure, and multiple ethics complaints have been filed against her with the state personnel board.
All but two of the 15 complaints have been dismissed with no findings of wrongdoing, although one complaint led to Palin's agreement to reimburse the state about $8,100 for costs associated with trips taken with her children. The state says it has spent nearly $300,000 to investigate the complaints, and Palin says she has racked up more than $500,000 in legal fees fighting them.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
***************************************************************
MY THOUGHTS:
I was in Washington, D.C., taking a badly needed getaway. I was exhausted and in pain from the 10 hour day of sightseeing and anxious to get back to my hotel. On the bus shuttle, I heard something about "Palin steppin' down" and wondered what that meant. As soon as I got back to my hotel, I turned on the TV and saw the extended coverage of Sarah's resignation and the pundits who had various ideas as to WHAT THIS MEANT.
My immediate reaction was sadness. After campaigning for Hillary Clinton for 17 months, working my ass off for this woman I believed would be the best president ever, I was emotionally, physically, and financially drained when Hillary suspended her campaign and endorsed Obama. Obama STOLE the nomination, and ultimately the presidency, from Hillary through caucus fraud and paying for endorsements of superdelegates. When Hillary acclaimed Obama to be the nominee at the convention, after PUMAS worked for 3 solid months to have her name put into nomination with the hope she could STILL get the nomination, I was deeply depressed! It was only the announcement of John McCain saying Sarah would be his V.P. running mate that made me feel more cheerful and hopeful. Now my goal was to have the McCain/Palin ticket win the presidency!
Since I've come to "know" Sarah, I have admired her greatly. She is the most GENUINE and REAL person I've ever known who also happened to be a politician. Sarah was a breath of fresh air and not corrupt. As a matter of fact, she fought corruption, even to members of her own party! I liked that a lot. I also was so ANGRY and FRUSTRATED when I saw that the media and the Obama campaign was out to destroy Sarah. The usual - sexism and misogny - as Hillary endured, but Sarah had to also endure her family being lied about and every ridiculous thing possible was said about her and her family.
You would have thought once the arrogant, lying fraud Obama usurped his way into the White House (WHERE IS THAT BIRTH CERTIFICATE???), that the jokes, criticism and despicable rumours about Sarah and her family would have been over. But it wasn't. She was the butt of vile, despicable jokes, her poor Downs Syndrome baby was made fun of as well as her daughter who had a baby out of wedlock. Add to that 15 frivolous ethics lawsuits which caused the State of Alaska a fortune as well as the Palins' wracking up over a HALF MILLION DOLLARS in legal fees. Was it any wonder Sarah felt she had to leave office now? The more and more I thought of it, it made sense. As I said, the pundits were analyzing what this meant. Did it mean she would run for president in 2012? Was she leaving politics for good? WHY one extreme to the other? I decided to take Sarah at her word because I do believe she is something very odd and unique for a politician. She's HONEST!
As a free spirit, the frivolous ethics complaints would disappear. She could work on her book. She could go out and campaign and raise money for other candidates as well as fill her own SarahPAC for a possible future run. Sarah draws enormous crowds and just that alone could raise a lot of money in speaking fees to help pay off some of those legal bills.
As I write this, I hope and pray that the jokes and lies and mean comments will stop. I hope Sarah will work hard for the party and I DO HOPE she will run for president in 2012. AMERICA NEEDS YOU, SARAH!! WE NEED YOU DESPERATELY.
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