Posted on 02/23/2009 9:19:15 PM PST by VinL
If Barack Obama has been the most remarkable phenomenon of the recent political scene, Sarah Palin must be second. The emotional responses to each-- especially by the media and the intelligentsia -- go beyond anything that can be explained by the usual political differences of opinion on issues of the day.
That liberals would be thrilled by another liberal is not surprising. But there are conservative Republicans who voted for Barack Obama, and other conservatives who may not have voted for him, but who are quick to see in various pragmatic moves of his since taking office an indication that he is not an extremist.
Anyone familiar with history knows that Hitler and Stalin were pragmatic. After years of denouncing each other, they signed the Nazi-Soviet pact under which they became allies for a couple of years before going to war against one another.
Pragmatism tells you nothing about extremism.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
This was poor article to excerpt. It’s clear from many of the comments that quite a few did not click on the link but simply knee-jerk replied to the first few lines without understanding what the entire article was saying.
I think you must be right. I have several Republican friends who regard Palin with the same disdain ... and indeed, they are higher-end, professionals who work in mental-intellectual pursuits as opposed to production and employment (i.e. businesses, producers) pursuits.
I think you’re right.
Hssssssst! Mrow! Ouch!
(That's just delicious!)
Somebody posted a pic of Sarah in a skirt and boots waving to the crowds, and damn hootin' howdy, I know my men well enough to know that that woman would catch their eyes (and other things we'll not mention) anywhere, anytime. She is gorgeous, the kind of unintended God-given babe bod that is distracting. And then she's got a brain to go with it. PLUS she lives dangerously! I love the pic of her riding a quad across a crik with her little girl behind her, holding her fingers up in a V over her mom's head. Most GUYS have never driven a quad across a crik. She's got five kids and has hunted and shot moose, for Pete's sake. And she's got a bod like Barbarella and a mind of her own that's made it in a demanding world.
Truth is better than fiction.
I loves me some Sarah too! How the west was won! Send her in to tame Washington!!!
Agreed,I voted for Palin and she just happened to have dickhead on the ticket with her.
“But there are conservative Republicans who voted for Barack Obama, and other conservatives who may not have voted for him, but who are quick to see in various pragmatic moves of his since taking office an indication that he is not an extremist.”
What’s this jerk smoking!
He’s a radical communist!
“When asked absolutely fundamental and rudimentary questions, like”
Those are not questions. Those are insults thinly disguised as questions. I’d have punched the b*tch in the face, myself, but then Sarah Palin is a better person than I am.
“Lastly, if the question offended her (as she has later claimed)”
As was obvious at the time, to the fair-minded.
“then she should have said so at the time”
Because she is a woman of character, a decent person, and because she was on McLame’s team at the time, she choked back the harsh answers that rushed to her tongue. Anyone with an open mind and a three-digit IQ could have seen that easily.
“Someone with capable communication skills could have teed Couric up as demeaning, biased or grandstanding. Palin didn’t’. She didn’t because she was intimidated by Katie Couric.”
Fresh, steaming meadow muffins. She didn’t because she was playing for McLame’s team at the time, and as a person of character takes her obligations seriously.
No. Doing well(hell, just doing alright) in college implies intellectual curiosity and work ethic, nothing more. Gov. Palin couldn't even meet that low threshold.
No one saying she needs to qualify for the Townsend Chair of Theoretical Physics at Oxford. But, one might expect her to roll off the names a few conservative authors and ICONS that may have influenced her political philosophy. She couldn't. She didn't. Apparently, she can't.
Frankly, I got sick of her say ad nauseum "We're gonna send a message to the fat cats on Wall Street, You Betcha!" Adam Smith was rolling over in his grave.
Fred Thompson has been involved in professional politics his ENTIRE adult life. He has TWO undergrad degrees and graduated in the top three of his law school class at Vanderbilt (the Harvard of the South). Exactly how is he the "common man?",
People don't love Sarah Palin, they're IN LOVE with Sarah Palin. Either they look like her (or want to), or like her family or her locutions or they share a similar life story. Maybe they just like her because she's a woman in what they perceive to be a man's world.
That's not how I pick my Presidential Candidates. I care what they've accomplished, what they think, how they think and how frequently they think. And last but not least, I'm deeply interested in how effectively they can communicate their ideas, strategies and plans without terrifying more than half the population.
I think the votes that were lacking were the independents, who liked Reagan, Clinton, and G.W.Bush.
Maybe she doesn't consider that particularly important. I certainly don't. Anybody can read all kinds of stuff, it's putting things into PRACTICE that matters to me. She's apparently been a very effective Governor; she has an approval rating in her state that rivals That One's.
You seem to denigrate those of us who liked her, and respected her ability to draw people to her. And yes, she drew them, almost in the numbers That One did, except that she didn't have to throw free concerts in order to get people to attend.
You keep fixing her in a certain negative time and place, but she's moved on, as will the people in this country who will see her when she emerges again. I daresay that many folks didn't see the Katie Couric interview about which you seem so fixated, so they won't have that image in their minds. They will see her as a smart and accomplished woman, because she clearly is both, though you seem to want to ignore either of those facts.
I think you're right, and I'm mighty proud to say, that even though I was a stay at home mom, for 30 years, until our youngest went off to college this past Fall, now we're just Empty Nesters,that I've never watched ANY of the morning or afternoon talk shows. I couldn't even name any, except for Oprah and the View, which are talked about here, and the Bonnie Hunt show, a billboard for which I see everytime I drive East on Rt. 9.
I'm not into 'victim' TV. I consider it a monumental waste of time.
Right. I guess she got all the knowledge she needed to deal with oil companies and the Canadian Govt. regarding the natural gas pipeline, by osmosis, somehow.
you want an American Idol candidate.
I've read your posts over on the Jindal threads and now here. I think you don't get Palin because her message of social conservatism and living what she preaches doesn't reach you.
Your notion we are in love with her versus just simply love and share her ideas and are excited by her prospects is foolish.
I've been in politics a long time. She moved folks...bigtime. You 've let the media call your game for you. Unusual for this forum.
lest I need remind you I'm hardly a feminist...far from it...I'm their worst nightmare which is what made Palin so incredible.
All over the South for the first times in their lives old warhorse white boys like me were enthusiastic about a woman running our country because she represents what we believe in and cherish.
If you don't get that then I can't explain it to ya.
Considering the pillage perpetrated by many of those 'fat cats', methinks Adam Smith might just be agreeing with Sarah.
Amen, wardaddy, and the nancy boys here in the Northeast couldn't stand her, or at least they told their feminist wives and girlfriends that they didn't like her. Didn't want to make waves, you know. ;o)
I don't denigrate anyone. Since the election, Time Magazine did some polling. Only 40% of those polled thought that Sarah Palin was qualified to be VP. Other polls have indicated some further erosion of that number since the election. That's a huge problem.
Regardless of how popular she may be with the base, a 40% competency rating won't win many, if any, elections.
George W Bush is an example that works well here. One university poll found that 89% of American thought that they were smarter than W. 89% seems high, and i don't know how scientific it was. But, even Bush's most ardent supporters (of which I'm one) would stipulate that Bush has a perceptual problem with respect to intelligence.
In reality, probably less than 20% of the US population has an IQ higher than Bush's. But, people believe they're smarter because Bush is so painfully inarticulate. He knows plenty, and apparently in private even his critics say it shows. But in public, he's a mess. Communication skills, style and effectiveness matter more than anything in US politics. Once Bush was believed to be "stupid", he could never recover.
Bush ran, at governed almost as an anti-intellectual, and it killed him in the end. The country didn't want someone else who was perceived to be antagonistic of education, communication and intellectual endeavor. Palin has tremendous work to do to repair her image in the interim two years (it'll only be two years before the next campaign starts). If she can't come out much more polished, informed and with better command of the facts and issues, she cannot be elected. In fact, I doubt she'll be nominated.
And here's the really tough part. What many people here find so endearing about her, is what drives a great many more absolutely mad.
I believe if you pick up a copy of "Wealth of Nations" and read it, you wouldn't agree.
Smith wouldn't want any politician to make wild accusations about "punishing" the market or those who run them. Why? Because what's happening in the market isn't the damn business of the government Hence, we have a "free" market.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.