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Cutting bait (Steyn on Palin)
NRO ^ | 7/3/09 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 07/03/2009 10:57:15 PM PDT by pissant

With respect to many of the Palinologists below, I think they're getting way too hepatomantic over the entrails.

As a political move for anything other than the 2010 Senate race, today's announcement is a disaster. And I'm not sure it's a plus for the Senate - and, even if it were, the manner and timing suggest it was not a professionally planned event and therefore is unlikely to have any grand strategy behind it.

So Occam's Razor leaves us with: Who needs this?

In states far from the national spotlight, politics still attracts normal people. You're a mayor or a state senator or even the governor, but you lead a normal life. The local media are tough on you, but they know you, they live where you live, they're tough on the real you, not on some caricature cooked up by a malign alliance of late-night comics who'd never heard of you a week earlier and media grandees supposedly on your own side who pronounce you a "cancer".

Then suddenly you get the call from Washington. You know it'll mean Secret Service, and speechwriters, and minders vetting your wardrobe. But nobody said it would mean a mainstream network comedy host doing statutory rape gags about your 14-year old daughter. You've got a special-needs kid and a son in Iraq and a daughter who's given you your first grandchild in less than ideal circumstances. That would be enough for most of us. But the special-needs kid and the daughter and most everyone else you love are a national joke, and the PC enforcers are entirely cool with it.

Most of those who sneer at Sarah Palin have no desire to live her life. But why not try to - what's the word? - "empathize"? If you like Wasilla and hunting and snowmachining and moose stew and politics, is the last worth giving up everything else in the hopes that one day David Letterman and Maureen Dowd might decide Trig and Bristol and the rest are sufficiently non-risible to enable you to prosper in their world? And, putting aside the odds, would you really like to be the person you'd have to turn into under that scenario?

National office will dwindle down to the unhealthily singleminded (Clinton, Obama), the timeserving emirs of Incumbistan (Biden, McCain) and dynastic heirs (Bush). Our loss.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Alaska
KEYWORDS: careerendingmove; chickenlittles; democratswin; fedindictmentcoming; gopimplosion; marksteyn; palin; quitter; sarahbarraquitta; soroswins
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To: smoothsailing
I agree Steyn has over thought this he and Krauthammer have no experience in this stuff. Until Rush speaks it is all noise.
301 posted on 07/04/2009 9:31:31 AM PDT by Brimack34 (I hate people that hate Palin)
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To: AuntB
In her first speech

Awesome speech - just that one statement was enough for the people to decide they had someone worth voting for - while it sent a cold chill up the spines of the media and libs and McCain - the media's golden boy. Unconventional Sarah - how dare she not bow to them - the godless - who can make or break her career!
302 posted on 07/04/2009 9:35:08 AM PDT by presently no screen name
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To: counterpunch

I give up! Just answer my question. What grade are you in?


303 posted on 07/04/2009 9:38:06 AM PDT by deener
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To: counterpunch
I doubt Sarah Palin will be raising money for Michelle 0bama anytime soon

nor any RINO pubs like myth, newtered and their fellow elitist ilk....

304 posted on 07/04/2009 9:39:14 AM PDT by newfreep ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." - P.J. O'Rourke)
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To: EveningStar

Your close only that George Washington, Ronald Reagan, Moses, served and obeyed the God she serves and obeys. That’s the common thread. God, family, country - the TRUE American way.


305 posted on 07/04/2009 9:40:57 AM PDT by presently no screen name
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To: Nosterrex
But Obama IS Presidential material? Give me a break.

I wouldn't trust “The One” to take care of my dog.

306 posted on 07/04/2009 9:53:09 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (One Man's Messiah is another Man's Fuhrer...)
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To: counterpunch
Since I can't read Sarah Palin’s mind like you can, I can only rely on what she said.

I reread the transcript of her speech and determined that her resignation was based on her effectiveness as Governor being undermined by the Democrat Party and the State Run Media Hate Machines.

She made a decision to put her State and Country first, not herself. She is the first Citizen Politician I have seen in my lifetime that has gained any traction.

If she pursues higher office, so be it. If she does not, she will be a loud Conservative voice that will stand against the Traitorous Ideology that has overtaken our Government. Either way, she will shine the light of truth on the Obama Commies and their ilk.

As of now she is the only person I see that can turn the Republican Party back to its Conservative principles.

307 posted on 07/04/2009 10:11:02 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (One Man's Messiah is another Man's Fuhrer...)
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To: counterpunch
That the point.. Im not waiting on her ...We are all working our own part of the battlefield... but went you see another element on the other end of the line make a move ..know the difference if their maneuvering, retreating or surrendering

Palin has resigned before to break out and maneuver...

She made her political name on the Alaska Oil and Gas board bumping heads with the party...She did a very high profile resignation where again, she was supposed to be "done"

Then she bypassed the party system and did a grass root guerrillas movement against the system all the way in to the governor's office

Is that whats going to happen this time?... don't know... but she had done this same head fake before...

The key I think to watch for is if she comes down in to the lower 48 as a very hi profile independent advocate for Alaska oil and gas and against cap and trade.. it's the logical door.. it give her a very legitimate platform to attack Obama, while being seen as doing her higher duty for Alaska...and to not to being seen as just attacking Obama with no reason.

Their was one other little odd tell this week.. a story headline, "Palin: If I ran against Obama, I would beat him" Turns out this was a story about real running but Palin in the story was clearly playing with the double meaning of her words in the story... saying she had the long term endurance to beat Obama in a run....odd trash talk from some one that was planning to give up at the end of that same week

308 posted on 07/04/2009 10:27:16 AM PDT by tophat9000 ( We are "O" so f---ed)
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To: EveningStar

No, you simpering fool, many see Sarah as a woman in full. She is not led by the same forces which you serve, she is a woman of prayer and a woamn of family. She is a wife and mother first, and everything else comes well after the first. Your sort cannot comprehend that in the Biblical context of womanhood. Go pound sand with your dead-soul friends, fool.


309 posted on 07/04/2009 11:19:50 AM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: Kickass Conservative
Since I can't read Sarah Palin’s mind like you can, I can only rely on what she said.

I reread the transcript of her speech and determined that her resignation was based on her effectiveness as Governor being undermined by the Democrat Party and the State Run Media Hate Machines.

She made a decision to put her State and Country first, not herself. She is the first Citizen Politician I have seen in my lifetime that has gained any traction.

If she pursues higher office, so be it. If she does not, she will be a loud Conservative voice that will stand against the Traitorous Ideology that has overtaken our Government. Either way, she will shine the light of truth on the Obama Commies and their ilk.

As of now she is the only person I see that can turn the Republican Party back to its Conservative principles.

EXTREMELY WELL SAID!!! I totally agree.

310 posted on 07/04/2009 11:22:35 AM PDT by Aria ( "The US republic will endure until Congress discovers it can bribe the public with the people's $.")
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To: EveningStar
Some of these folks think Sarah Palin is George Washington, Ronald Reagan, Moses, and Jesus Christ all rolled into one.

She's easy on the eyes which doesn't hurt either.......

311 posted on 07/04/2009 11:30:00 AM PDT by ninonitti
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To: presently no screen name

You are turning her into a modern Jean D’Arc.


312 posted on 07/04/2009 11:31:29 AM PDT by Pudding Biafra (Because "Jello" was already taken.)
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To: Pudding Biafra

I don’t have the power to turn her to anyone/anything. The facts speak for themselves. She’s not anyone else - she’s Sarah Palin.


313 posted on 07/04/2009 11:52:35 AM PDT by presently no screen name
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To: ninonitti
She's easy on the eyes which doesn't hurt either.......

Twue, dat. :)

314 posted on 07/04/2009 11:59:04 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: MHGinTN

Wow. Such sanity. I’m impressed.


315 posted on 07/04/2009 12:02:54 PM PDT by EveningStar
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To: ansel12; counterpunch

“45 posted on Thursday, August 28, 2008 12:52:47 AM by counterpunch (John McCain - For the LOVE of Country)”

ansel12, While I had a chance to work for McCain, and declined, counterpunch seems to have been in line trying to get an autograph.

I did, however, vote for the ticket which featured ******Sarah Palin******.

(Sarah Palin - FOR LOVE OF GOD AND COUNTRY)

GOD IS A POSITIVE, dissing Palin is a negative.


316 posted on 07/04/2009 12:15:37 PM PDT by widdle_wabbit
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To: pissant

Sarah’s timing is not everyone else’s timing. Steyn should not have titled this “Cutting Bait.” Let’s wait and see what happens.


317 posted on 07/04/2009 12:20:25 PM PDT by WashingtonSource
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To: EveningStar

And I was for some time impressed by the posts you offered.

What happened? Can I help?


318 posted on 07/04/2009 12:20:34 PM PDT by widdle_wabbit
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To: counterpunch

If you think Sarah is done, you must live in the glorious state of California.


319 posted on 07/04/2009 12:21:17 PM PDT by lonestar (Obama is turning Bush's "mess" into a catastrophe.)
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To: pissant

Just goes to show that no one, not even the great Mark Steyn, is perfect. In fact, this time he’s simply wrong.

Look at all the national political figures, especially on the Republican side, who ran for President last year without holding elective office while they did so. I didn’t see Romney, Newt, Giuliani, Huckabee or even my guy, Fred Thompson, holding any elected office.

The fact of the matter is this: if Sarah Palin were to decide tomorrow that she is a candidate for President, come 2012 she will STILL have more executive experience than the current occupant of The People’s House did when he decided to run.

If she runs, I’ll support her. And I hope she does — God knows we’ll need her more than ever then.


320 posted on 07/04/2009 12:26:37 PM PDT by Colonel_Flagg (You're either in or in the way.)
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