Posted on 01/03/2011 9:59:10 PM PST by unseen1
On most issues, Americans at large and conservatives in particular agree with Governor Palin. However, for two years now, the media has been pushing the narrative that Governor Palin is polarizing, radioactive and unpopular. They’ve been trashing her, attacking her, distorting her record, and making up lies about her on a daily basis. No politician in US history has received the scrutiny that Governor Palin has received.
Now as the 2012 campaign gears up, we suddenly have people coming out from the left and the right proclaiming that Governor Palin is unelectable because she is, lets repeat that: Polarizing, radioactive and unpopular. That is like leaving your milk out in the sun and then suing the dairy when the milk goes sour.
The reasoning goes that Governor Palin has been, fairly or not, so smeared that there is no way she can come back from it. Today our friend, Erick Erickson, weighed in:
[R]ight now I am not excited by or inspired by any of them save Sarah Palin and, as much as I love Sarah Palin, I am adamantly convinced that she cannot win given the ridiculous smears and hate thrown her way by Democrats and, frankly, by a lot of Republicans. She has been made radioactive.I respect Erick a lot and he’s a really good guy but it appears that he has decided to raise the white flag and send the media a message “if you do it long enough, you’ll win.”
My question to Mr. Erickson is if the standard of electability is judged by the degree in which a candidate has been smeared, who in the GOP is electable?
Make no mistake, the next GOP nominee will be taken to the woodshed and beaten up just like Governor Palin. Just go back and see what happened to media darling John McCain in 2008. This time though the operation is run from within the white house, with the CIA, FBI, the Pentagon and the entire media at their disposal. They will use every tool and every trick in the book to take down any GOP potential nominee.
If the degree to which a GOP nominee has been smeared is how we judge the electability of a candidate, Governor Palin is actually the only potential candidate that is electable. Palin has already had everything and anything thrown at her. They have sent the lawyers, investigated her, hacked her emails, and everything in between. What else do they have? Nothing. That’s why they keep on going back to her “refudiate” tweet and even that tactic came back to bite them when it made it into the Oxford dictionary.
Why do people think they trash her in the first place? Because they actually believe she could win and think they can beat her by taking her out of the game. If Governor Palin announces tomorrow she won’t run the attacks will stop. Minus some of the more unhinged people on the left who clearly have other issues.
Governor Palin has not even announced a run for the presidency yet. She has not established her campaign message, no campaign ads have been produced, there have been no debates or campaign interviews, and she hasn’t gone out and done the meet and greet with voters. In other words, the Palin campaign has not even begun. This gives Governor Palin the advantage over her potential rivals. When the campaign begins and Governor Palin gets the opportunity to get out and talk directly to the voters, she’ll be immune to any potential attack because the voters have already heard every potential attack launched against her.
Some argue that her initial interviews with Katie Couric left a bad first impression. Let’s be clear here – Governor Palin was thrown on to the national stage and she didn’t even have time to take her coat off before her motherhood, faithfulness, record, and entire life had already been questioned. So yes, Governor Palin didn’t have the best start and with only eight weeks, she never really had a chance to settle in. Barack Obama himself admitted that it took him three months to settle into the campaign.
If and when Governor Palin announces a run, she will do so with the benefit of hindsight and past experience. Her campaign will be organized, well managed, and she will spread her own message. Her message is one that the American people will want to hear and agree with. The American people will learn that all those things they’ve been led to believe about her were simply not true. They will suddenly realize that all those things they want America to be is exactly what a President Palin will make manifest.
Erickson goes on:
I would, however, still gladly vote for her and support her.So my message to Mr. Erickson and all those people who believe in Governor Palin is to help Governor Palin push back against the false narratives, help us get the truth out, and help spread Governor Palin’s message instead of conceding to the “ridiculous smears.” For too long, we have stood by at the sidelines and allowed the media and the elites to tell us what to believe and what to think. Stand up for your country, stand up for your constitutional rights, and stand up for what you believe in. If not now, when and with whom?
Don’t retreat, reload!
If the GOp thinks to use Gov Palin as a cheap whore to sell their “candidate” of choice I have news for them. I donate to Gov Palin because I want her to run for POTUS and I want our country to return to Reaganism. The day she decides not to run I stop donating. Either she runs or the money dries up IMO.
The GOP establishment thinks they can have all the bonuses of Gov Palin without giving her a major seat at the table. they are wrong.
I don’t understand why mainstream GOP pundits are pushing Mitch Daniels as somehow extremely electable. I have no idea, really, who he is, and I haven’t heard a peep from him on any issues.
compromise in and of itself is not bad. compromise is only seen as bad in today's world because the RINOs have proven to be terrible horse traders...
because danials is a bushie and not a Reaganite. the mainstream GOP pundits are all bushies except for Rush and at times Hannity. It is no coincidence that Rush supports Palin 110% as the only Reaganite radio host left.
I’m also a Palin fan who has trouble with her voice. I believe she’s plenty smart and quick witted. She needs coaching just like a singer preparing for a tour. If anyone has access to Sarah please tell her to hire a voice coach.
Firstly: she’s blowing out her vocal chords yelling at that cheerleader level, which also is unmusical in that it it becomes a one note horn for volume. Like any good speaker/singer she must insist on good monitors and PA system so that she’s not ruining her voice trying to overcome equipment shortcomings. She (and everyone) sounds better, more relaxed and more intelligent when speaking at conversational volume. Notice how she sounds more intelligent in quiet interviews than on the campaign stops?
Please Sarah, DON’T YELL to crowds any longer. It’s an amateur’s mistake. Tell the venue to have adequate main drivers and monitors, along with good microphones. Practice with proximity effect (close the space between mouth and mic to test the system) have a trusted sound man in the audience signaling you.
You never saw Reagan yelling, he took the important moments to learn his gear first, then he drew the listeners in. Believe me, this will be a BIG improvement for Sarah, and it’s just common sense.
The idea that Pence, a decent conservative but just a congressman with no executive experience and little charisma, is more ‘electable’ is laughable. I do wonder why certain bloggers have developed the following they have.
You never saw Reagan yelling, he took the important moments to learn his gear first, then he drew the listeners in. Believe me, this will be a BIG improvement for Sarah, and it’s just common sense.
I'm with you on this. Delivery of the message is very important. Reagan sounded calm, assured, and in control, because he did not yet. He did not have to yell.
“I do wonder why certain bloggers have developed the following they have.”
For the same reason that Foxnews gets the ratings it gets. when you are in a desert all water tastes good.
there is a shortage of conservative bloggers, conservative cablenews, conservative MSM etc. So all conservative media gets a good following.
As the rightsphere blogging world comes online People like Allah and eric will be sidelined IMO.
My wife has been taking professional singing lessons most of her life, and she's quite good at harmonizing with opera singers as well as occasionally spoofing actresses.
Even though we love Sarah, wifey will do a Sarah immitation when she's speaking on Hannity. It's pretty funny actually.
I'm sure you're right. Will all of her campaign speeches and rallies be recorded on audio books?
I’m actually afraid that your title is true. 2012 not looking so good, despite what Obumbler has done to the nation.
let them sit on their asses then. I am willing on taking a bet that if it comes down to Sarah Palin vs Obama.. more of them than not will eventually come into line with OUR position and vote for her.
because we are sure as hell are not following their lead. their lead got us John McCain.
Look at all the success Republicans had running progressive liberal Republicans against FDR in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944.
Not a single one of these people could articulate a Constitutional conservative vision for the USA, and none of them even tried. All four of them were slightly less communist than FDR, and differed only on the pro-business angle (exactly like the RINOs of today).
And they all lost to the second worst communist president the USA ever had.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover
Hoover was a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted government intervention under the rubric "economic modernization". In the presidential election of 1928, Hoover easily won the Republican nomination, despite having no previous elected office experience. To date, Hoover is the last cabinet secretary to be directly elected President of the United States, as well as one of only two Presidents (along with William Howard Taft) to have been elected President without electoral experience or high military rank. America was prosperous and optimistic at the time, leading to a landslide victory for Hoover over Democrat Al Smith.
Hoover, a trained engineer, deeply believed in the Efficiency Movement, which held that government and the economy were riddled with inefficiency and waste, and could be improved by experts who could identify the problems and solve them. When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after he took office, Hoover tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with volunteer efforts, none of which produced economic recovery during his term. The consensus among historians is that Hoover's defeat in the 1932 election was caused primarily by failure to end the downward economic spiral. As a result of these factors, Hoover is ranked poorly among former US Presidents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alf_Landon
Alfred "Alf" Mossman Landon - supported Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party in 1912, and, in 1922, was private secretary to the governor of Kansas. He later became known as the leader of the liberal Republicans in the state. He was elected chairman of the Republican state central committee in 1928 and directed the Republican successful presidential and gubernatorial campaigns in Kansas in that year.
Landon was elected Governor of Kansas in 1932. He was re-elected governor in 1934 – the only Republican governor in the nation to be re-elected that year. He served as governor from 1933 until 1937. As Governor, Landon gained a reputation for reducing taxes and balancing the budget. Landon is often described as a fiscal conservative who nevertheless believed that government must also address social issues. He supported parts of the New Deal but opposed labor unions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Willkie
Wendell Lewis Willkie ran against FDR in 1940 - a corporate lawyer and dark horse Republican Party nominee for the 1940 presidential election. A member of the liberal wing of the GOP, he crusaded against those domestic policies of the New Deal which he thought were inefficient and anti-business. Willkie, however, waffled on the bitterly debated issue of intervention in or isolation from World War II. His opponent Franklin D. Roosevelt won that election, with 55% of the popular vote and 85% of the electoral vote.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_E._Dewey
Thomas Edmund Dewey ran against FDR in 1944 - led the liberal faction of the Republican Party, in which he fought conservative Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft. Dewey advocated for the professional and business community of the Northeastern United States, which would later be called the "Eastern Establishment." This organization accepted the majority of New Deal social-welfare reforms enacted during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It consisted of internationalists who were in favor of the United Nations and the "Cold War" fought against communism and the Soviet Union.
I agree we have a bunch of foppish pundits like AP and Erickson and I found that Redstate and Hotair have become more pop culturistic aka stoopid....I also rarely can stand the Fox fair & balanced piss fest, the cry baby Shep, bloviator O’R, etc....there is a large opening for the true conservative voice that needs filling.
I have money ready for her campaign if she decides to run. If she decides not to run, the money stays where it is. She is the only one now on the scene I would vote for.
She is trustwworthy and can not be bought.
Sarah, Tell the venue to have adequate main drivers and monitors, along with good microphones.
I like that. I am mostly a Libertarian myself. The hatred of her by the Left is a good indicator she might make for a good President.
Great post. I had the exact same thoughts about Alan Keyes. I love the content of his speeches (they are very good to read) but cannot listen to him speak for more than a couple of minutes.
I hope that someone around Sarah takes your good advice to heart.
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