Posted on 06/05/2011 5:50:27 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell
Cutting through the maze of mixed metaphors, wheels within wheels, muddied waters and other devices of disinformation is simple. We now have a comparison that works, George Washington.
Suppose the primaries select no one with a resounding lead? Suppose, while we are supposing, that Sarah does not run in the primaries. Who becomes the Convention candidate? George Washington, of course, the reluctant candidate with the fire in the belly to fight and win the war for independence almost single handed.
Who, dear friend, is the modern equivalent of George? Sarah, of course. She has won more battles than any other political leader in either party. She is the people's president. Sarah is most visibly the press favorite, notwithstanding their derisive tones. They are, after all, tone deaf and could never admit their cherished hopes. The press would love to pit Sarah vs Hussein.
The dirty little secret of this match up is Americans could not tolerate the thought of letting the first black nominee for president be defeated. Nor can they allow the first woman be defeated even though she is running against a black president.
Trust me, after 8 years of Sarah we will offer her a crown. True to form she will choose to return to Wasilla with time to play with her grandchildren.
The days of hero worship are far from over. This time we have a heroine, a truth teller. Sarah is true red, white and blue. Hussein is a watermelon, red to the core who lies and deceives with every breath.
This will not be a fair fight but she has admonished us to fight like a girl and everyone knows girls do not fight fair.
Great post.
“What I cannot figure out is however why there are those on the conservative side that have such distain for her. Their distain boarders on the same level of democrat distain.”
Well, I’ll tell you why there are “conservatives” who have distain for her (Palin). It’s because way down deep in their most remote innards they are elitists, same as Inside the Beltway Limosine Liberals. They just won’t acknowledge it openly. Bottom line on these people is they don’t trust the “great unwashed” aka “Joe and Jane SixPack”, choose your own metaphore for the average American. Palin scares the snot out of them. Why, because she could actually win, that’s why.
agreed
George Washington never quit, but he had to make quite a few withdrawals under pressure, such as Long Island. Palin left the governorship of Alaska because the Dems and the Murkowski clan were determined to throw charges at her until one stuck. She withdrew to fight again.
Great post. Washington was forced to re-load often and live on to fight another day. As he did it, he found ways to get stronger—just as Sarah has politically.
With respect to the presidency, it was not established at the time of Washington that sitting presidents would yield their power. By not running for a third term, Washington again shocked the world by voluntarily yielding the great power that he had to a successor - and not necessarily a successor that he personally supported.
Getting back to Sarah Palin, while her decision to resign as Alaska's governor is not quite in the historical league as Washington's resignations, it was the right thing for her to do. It would have been difficult for her to give full attention to her job as governor while simultaneously putting herself in position for a 2012 presidential run.
It is too bad that Barack Obama did not take this high road on his journey to the White House. Instead, he kept his senate seat even though he could not possibly devote the necessary attention to that job. As it turned out, he missed most of the votes and did an extremely poor job representing the people of Illinois in the senate. Thanks to Palin's courage to do the right and proper thing, the people of Alaska have a full time governor and she has a free hand to pursue higher political office.
She was great on FNS...even Chris Wallace saw it....
George Washington LOST a lot of battles, so don’t act too smug
She quit a battle to win a war. Washington and many successful generals retired or regrouped or were even defeated and came back. Read a bit more history.
I agree that what Washington did was shocking and unprecedented. I just dont think it compares similarly with what Palin did.
While the British may have kept funding the indians and eventually led to another war with them, Washington had successfully won the American Revolution. After that, it is more about semantics. It is the same in Iraq. We won the war in Iraq fairly quickly and toppled Baghdad and captured their leader within a year. The postwar has been dragging on ever since.
So for Washington, while no one had given up power willingly before him, he did not quit in the middle of either the War or his Presidency.
For Palin, leaving probably was the best thing for her and her family. The lawsuits, the lack of exposure, the media’s sudden interest in polling Alaskan democrats all had to have played into that. But I think it is somewhat naive to believe that her resigning wont be used as a blunt force against her in a general election.
The scenario I can see about it is this: Palin gets an interview with an alphabet network. First question - Why did you quit? Palin gives a reason and tries to delve into her policies. A few questions later, reporter asks -Well, you say you want to do “x”, but what happens if there is too much opposition? Will you quit, again?....And I can see that happening in every broadcast tv interview she gives. IT is a way the journalists can stifle Sarah from presenting her policies.
So, to sum up my points:
1) I dont think Sarah’s decision was similar to Washington’s
2) I dont think it will be looked upon by the masses as having the courage to do what is right
But I can appreciate the thoughtful debate about it.
.......and the first nation to be run by public servants who serve the citizens - as opposed to the other way around.
It started out that way but somewhere along the way things got turned around............
stop? We are just getting started.....you palinhaters have no idea what is coming down the pike
yeah FDR.
“Retreat?”” “Hell, I’m just attacking in another direction!’’- General Chesty Puller, USMC, Korea, 1951.
Now if Palin had slinked back to her home in Wasilla after stepping down as governor, then a better case for "quitter" would be able to be made. After all, it would be argued that she couldn't take the heat so she got out of the kitchen. Had she taken that route however, she'd be politically finished and we wouldn't even be discussing her today.
However, she not only stepped back into the fray but stepped it up a few notches. Should she officially enter the race, she will easily be able to explain her decision to resign as governor (answered a calling to serve a higher purpose).
Earlier in my career, I had to make a similar decision. I was a manager running a branch at my company but I had the desire to move up to a regional management position. So in order to take on that role, I had to give up my branch. It was a tough decision as I loved that job and I had a lot of projects going on (that I had to turn over to my successor) but at no point did I consider myself a quitter. Yes, I could have stayed on as a branch manager and finished the projects I had started, but had I done that, I would have lost my opportunity for a much higher position in the company.
Well I think Sarah was at the same crossroads. Had she finished her term, she would not be in the strong position she is in today to run for the presidency. If Sarah does get elected and ends up being a big success as our president, then we will look back at her resignation as one of the best things that ever happened for America. I realize I'm projecting here but we must wait to see how future events play out before we can render final judgment on her decision.
They may not get that traction with her base, but they arent targeting conservatives anyway. They got traction with using a Tina Fey line attributed to her, and the people I know who dont live on political blogs still think she said that herself.
As for your position, Im going to assume that the company you worked for as branch manager offered you the step up. Is that true? Unless you were signed to be the branch manager for a specific amount of time, you probably had a contract where you could be promoted or let go based on merit or anything else the company chose. Ive never heard anyone refer to being promoted as saying that they “quit” their previous job.
Hah!!!!
We may once have been such; it's debatable.
To suggest that we are such now is ludicrous.
A bit short sighted on your part, and I'm sure it's not the way she saw it.
The fight for one's principles and ideals is a life-long thing. If you aren't going to be able to move forward toward those goals, then it's a reasonable choice to pass the torch to someone who can do the job of governor without being side tracked by the bogus ethics claims. Staying the course as governor would not have been good for Alaska, or Sarah Palin.
The only downside is the group of nitpickers who can't shake the idea that there is only one 'correct' path of action. Somehow the nitpickers think it'd be ok to leave the governorship for the warm bucket of spit that is the vice-presidency, yet not ok to leave to avoid saddling Alaska with the pain of the bogus ethics claims. Yet both paths of action promoted the same lt. governor to the top job in Alaska, and gave Sarah Palin a bigger stage.
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