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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Governor Sarah Palin

This opinion piece by William Kristol, in The Washington Post this morning sums up my views on Governor Sarah Palin.
For psychological and sociological reasons too deep for me to grasp, a good chunk of elite America hates Sarah Palin and what they've decided she stands for. But if she wears their scorn as a badge of honor, comports herself with good cheer and personal dignity, studies up on national issues and takes the lead in selected debates on behalf of conservative principles against Obama administration policies, she has a shot.

If she's as foolish, erratic and even nutty as her critics claim, then of course she'll fail. If she performs well, she may succeed. If you have an anti-mainstream-media and anti-GOP-establishment bone in your body, it's hard not to root for her at least a bit.
What can I say? I was an anti-establishment insurgent when I ran for Student Body President at Robert A Millikan High School (Long Beach, California) in 1959.

But, looking at the Eugene Robinson column in the same newspaper, I thought his view was more confused that he thinks Governor Palin's is.  He says the reason the MSM follows Governor Palin is:
The first is fear -- not of Palin and her know-nothing legions, but of being painted as elitist and sexist.
I am not sure sexist exactly captures it, but the fact is the MSM keeps reporting on her because they are elistists and it is their form of a supermarket tabloid story.

Then you have WashPost columnist Richard Cohen, who basically thinks she would have been a worse President than your next door neighbor, if Senator McCain had won and then passed away.  But, then he goes on to trash several other Republicans by name and Republicans in general.  Interestingly, he skips Governor Bobby Jindal.

One question that jumped up in my mind as I read the Richard Cohen article was if the Vanity Fair plug was because he thought it buttressed his case or because it was paid for.  Given the recent problems The Post has had with $25,000 per person seminars where you can meet the stars of Washington, one can't be too careful.

In the end, I thought Mr William Kristol had the best OpEd.

Regards  —  Cliff

4 comments:

Craig H said...

Two things I think are pertinent regarding Sarah Palin: She seeks attention above substance, (exhibit A being her beauty contest background, but this also extends to parading her decidedly un-family-values progeny on the national stage on a premise of family values), and her political track record is of one failure after another. (Exhibit A here being the finances of Wasila, followed by exhibit B of the pay-for-it-yourself rape kits, followed by the political firing of perceived enemies, which should amuse a lot of anti-Lynch pols here in Lowell). It sure seems to me, combining the two is about the worst recipe for a public servant that there can be.

Being an "outsider" is pure market positioning, as they say in my business, and carries no weight with me if it's not backed up by achievement. I fully expect the press in Alaska to continue to reveal a number of potential scandals related to her abrupt resignation, and I can view it as little more than a selfish dodge made at the expense of the constituency she had purported to represent.

Strip the "R" from her bio, and nobody would care at all about her. (The opposite of Tim Cahill's bald attempt at political gamesmanship here in Massachusetts). I should think righties used to criticizing Clinton for being a hack populist from a tiny and semi-failed state would be better at recognizing their own hypocrisy on this one.

Renee said...

I'm not going to repeat myself in other comments I've made regard Sarah Palin.

In the most recent AP news story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090707/ap_on_re_us/us_palin_resignation

"But told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she recognizes she might not have political staying power after her surprise resignation Friday, which came just as she had been expected to elevate her national profile ahead of a possible 2012 GOP presidential run.
"I said before ... 'You know, politically speaking, if I die, I die. So be it,'" she said.
Speaking in fishing waders from the town of Dillingham, Palin said her administration has been paralyzed by fending off frivolous lawsuits.
"I'm not going to take the comfortable path. I'm going to take the right path for the state," she said of her resignation, which she characterized as a matter of progressing in an unconventional way."

It's posts like kad barma, is the why she is resigning. She tells them why, and he won't believe her because he simply doesn't want to believe. Nothing no one can do about that. It's distracting with all the crazy rumors about her. The FBI even had to make a statement that there is no investigation.

Like Susan B Anthony, a pro-life feminist, she never got to live to see women have the right to vote. Palin is not a messiah, she's a woman. A tough woman. And she knows when 'to call it quits' because people are obsessed with hating her. Not because she's an awful person is because they hate really all the good she tries to achieve. And yes she darn pretty too, beauty contest pretty!

I would like to call myself a pro-life Democrat, I believe in services for the needy, yet encourages the formation and reliance on family too. The party is filled with individuals like 'Kad barma', it's easier just to focus these services through private charity such as Saint Vincent de Paul and there locally Christian based charities like My Father's House in Chelmsford who helps pregnant teens be awesome moms with job and life skills.

After reading that you rejoiced in knowing the mother of your children received a speeding ticket and your post regarding morality, then all of a sudden what to judge.

I take everything you say with a grain of salt.

Renee said...

In concern to all the scandals...

"As Palin noted Friday, political enemies used state ethics laws to raid her family's assets. "Every one -- all of the 15 ethics complaints have been dismissed," said Palin. According to the Associated Press, all but two of the 15 complaints "have been dismissed with no findings of wrongdoing."
According to the Anchorage Daily News, Alaskan taxpayers have spent nearly $300,000 investigating those apparently baseless complaints. Palin's personal legal bills exceeded $500,000, while, as Palin noted Friday, it doesn't cost her political foes a dime to file complaints "so they're not going to stop draining public resources." There also has been no cost for smearing Palin -- a hobby that has become so reckless that the FBI announced Monday that Palin is not under investigation on corruption charges.
If Palin simply had announced Friday that she was done with politics because she didn't want to bankrupt her family defending against baseless charges, you could applaud."

Craig H said...

I was at a Worcester Counts basketball game once, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (Coincident with Stampede week, natch). Being the New England homer that I am, I couldn't resist being the single solitary fan in the entire Saddledome not rooting for the Calgary 88's. After cheering particularly loudly for one particular play, a boy seated in front of me turned around and said, "Are you from Edmonton?"

I find it remarkable how quickly the pejorative "Democrat" gets applied to anyone with the temerity to call Emperor Clothes BS on the beauty contestant from Wasila. The woman left office with a five figure debt accumulated for every man, woman and child in the town. You don't have to belong to any particular political party (I don't belong to any, if that helps you understand where I'm coming from) to see that nonsense like "smart government" coming out of a trap like that is pure political moosewash.

I'm surprised, as a feminist, that you're also giving her a pass on the public policy decision she supported to charge rape victims for the kits used to investigate their being victims, even though the courts have ruled such practices illegal.

But, by all means, you go on believing that everyone who disagrees must be one of those Demican people... Or was that Republicrat? I have so much trouble telling the difference.