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Posted on 09/02/2008 1:34:13 PM PDT by mathprof
A very good friend, who is a lifelong Alaskan and one of the smartest people I know, offers this word of caution to those (yes, like me) inclined to take Sarah Palin lightly:
At the end of 2005, a close friend called to say that he begun writing speeches and talking points for a certain gubernatorial candidate.
"Remind me," I asked. "Who is Sarah Palin?"
I was dismayed at my friend’s choice of political entree. Why was he wasting his time on a relative nobody, trying to beat an incumbent governor (and former three term senator) in the Republican primary? It was utter folly. "Wait until the big money starts coming in for Murkowski," I said. "Wait until the party machinery goes to work on Palin. They will eat her for lunch."
Murkowski, for his part, expressed a similar view. "If I decide to," he said, "I will run and I will win. It's that simple."
The folly, of course, turned out to be my own (and Murkowski's), as Palin slaughtered the incumbent in the primary--posting a 30 point margin of victory--and went on to win the general (over a former Democratic governor) without seeming to break a sweat. She then quickly fulfilled an implicit campaign promise by slapping down ExxonMobil, BP, and ConocoPhillips in negotiations over a proposed Alaska natural gas pipeline, even though they, too, by all accounts, were well prepared to dine on her tender little frame. Not bad for a lightweight.
Listening to the Democratic leadership respond to John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, one hears echoes of the Alaska Republican leadership from just a few years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.tnr.com ...
Remember the "New Republic" is a very left leaning magazine.
Things seem to be going badly right now, but I think Palin will end up being a great choice.
Lets face it, Palin is not a trained lawyer, and even better an ivy league trained lawyer, therefore she is incapable of leading the country. Thus says the MSM.
If they leaned anymore left they'd fall over in the Kremlin.............
Neither was George Washington or Abe Lincoln..................
Lets face it, Palin is not a trained lawyer, and even better NOT an ivy league trained lawyer, therefore she is imminently capable of leading the country. Thus says Hegemony Cricket. (IMHO)
They are? By whose standards? The MSM and left? Did you expect that ANY nominee would breeze through to the election without being pummeled. What you have now is a pack of wild rabid dogs (the left) fighting over a couple of bones.
“Lets face it, Palin is not a trained lawyer, and even better an ivy league trained lawyer, therefore she is incapable of leading the country.”
What this nation needs is fewer lawyers in government, and far, far fewer Ivy League lawyers in government (including the court system).
The Republican party and the nation fared pretty well under a Eureka College graduate.
We need more people from obscure colleges in government.
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In another case, he showed up in the Senate with a Treaty for their advise and consent. They said....Wait a minute...We haven't even seen the paperwork. He said: Then why am I here? He was fuming when he left.
Without his advisors....George was lost.
Nevertheless, he was a great man....surrounded by Great Men.
Actually, Honest Abe WAS a lawyer.
Actually, Honest Abe WAS a lawyer.
I doubt that Murkowski had Alaska’s media doing his gutter work for him.
I doubt that Murkowski had Alaska’s media doing his gutter work for him.
Sarah Palin is ANYTHING but a lightweight or political diletante. She is a quick study on practically everything, and as the old adage says, you can hire people to do all the clever thinking for you.
Look who the other side is putting on the field, for cat’s sake. The controlling political power teams in this country have drummed up the notion that the operators of the levers of power have to have some kind of special expertise, gained only at certain institutions and granted permission to practice that exertion of power only when a certain level of ‘gravitas’ has been attained.
Well, news flash. Having a law degree does not confer some mysterious insight or exalted status immune to being exposed for a fraud. And that the law degree is issued by some elitist university that has NO connection with the roots of Middle America at all, is even more a perpetuation of this haughty and undeserved status for a limited few.
America was founded on NOT having immutable levels of social classes, and many of those who assume the mantle of superiority are in no way deserving or even defensibly entitled to claim it.
The new populism stands to remake the structure that has come to be an impediment, and not a means to make an equitable adjustment between the access to the means of wealth, and the application of the wealth generated.
The Dems and their free media friends are Borking and Linching (Thomas) Palin and her family.
Are we going to sit by and just watch it happen, or do we get down and dirty and act like it’s the WAR we are in?
Going badly? For whom? It hasn't even been a week and in my time here at Free Republic, I've never seen such fear and agitation from the left over an individual, even for Bush 43. In fact, their reactions are similar to those expressed at the thought of an actor best known for acting with a chimp becoming president...and all of this for a vice presidential nominee! They are worried, afraid and utterly perplexed by her and what to do about her. Their predictable reaction is every bit as natural as that of conservatives who donated $10 million since she was announced.
There are still some surprises ahead. I thought Obama would clean house at Rick Warren's pseudo-debate. He didn't. I thought Obama would get a tremendous bounce from the DNC convention and Hillary's call for party unity. He didn't. Next we have the RNC and the vice presidential debates, so there will be plenty more surprises. But, what is most surprising to me, is my own reaction to voting in November. I went from vowing to NEVER vote for McCain again to actually looking forward to it and all thanks to his picking someone I can relate to and respect. And, $10 million in a couple of days says I'm not alone.
I agree with you. After the Palin selection, I donated to McCain/Palin. I never thought that I’d donate to McCain before that. I got mailings from the campaign and used to put the bumper stickers in them on the garbage can. That’s all changed because of Palin. I knew quite a bit about her before the selection and was very pleasantly surprised that McCain picked her.
I was hoping the polls would stay better. I know, don’t pay too much attention to daily polls...
In what way? In a week the base has gone from a tepid, I guess I'll vote for the guy, to the most enthusiasm I've seen in years.
The Dims and MSM spitting nails means they know this pick will hurt them and, among other things, expose the split in their own party.
Remember, Palin didn't get the nickname "Barracuda" for nothing. She knocked off two very established Alaska names.
She's also not just a hockey mom - she has a degree in journalism and worked for two years as a TV journalist. Biden's in a bind. CW will expect him to dance rings around her in a debate, but the reality is she will be formidable.
Appointing his own daughter as a replacement for his own bad self didn't help much. Sara stomped him but good.
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