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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: matthew fuller

Whether Sarah had 40 million supporters or 60 million supporters doesn’t matter.
All that matters is both are well short of the 70 million supporters 0bama had.
She gave it her best shot, but her best wasn’t good enough in the end.
there is no way around that fact.
No matter how many voters came out for her, it wasn’t enough to overcome the number of voters who came out for 0bama.
Sarah hit her ceiling, and it was too low.


61 posted on 07/03/2009 11:51:45 PM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
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To: pissant

My guess, for what little it’s worth, is that she realizes that the single most effective thing she can do to advance a conservative agenda is to raise money for congressional candidates so that we can take back congress. Perhaps she is smart and ego-less enough to put country first- the good she could do raising enough money (and garnering publicity) to tip three or four senatorial races and a half dozen house races can make much more difference than anything she could accomplish as governor of a state; and it would lay the groundwork for 2016, a much more realistic goal than 2012 .


62 posted on 07/03/2009 11:52:42 PM PDT by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, Deport all illegals, abolish the IRS, DEA and ATF.)
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To: Kennard
"...Steyn is master of language, not a conservative..." But Sarah is the real deal and her appeal will be broad. She'll get the Reagan Democrats, the Wallace Democrats, and plenty of women to boot. Liberty Ladies
63 posted on 07/03/2009 11:53:30 PM PDT by Monterrosa-24 ( ...even more American than a French bikini and a Russian AK-47.)
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To: counterpunch
Sarah inspired 10 million fewer Americans than 0bama did.

Didn't he recently hold a seance to thank those 10 million?

64 posted on 07/03/2009 11:54:44 PM PDT by alaskanfan
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To: JLS; itsahoot

I caught every point in her speech.

If a leftist had made the same speech, I’d be ripping them a new one.

I don’t like the false charges. I don’t like the treatment of her kids. What did she think public life was all about?

What does she think the Presidency will be, a piece of cake?

Honestly folks, how can you possibly think she’s Presidential material now?

North Korea threatens to send over nukes, and Plain says, “Time out. My family comes first. I’m turning power over to the Vice-President?” Look, either I say this or you wait until 2012 and the Democrats say it.

This isn’t going to go away.

Sorry to be so against the grain here.


65 posted on 07/03/2009 11:55:27 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (_Resident of the United States and Kenya's favorite son, Baraaaack Hussein Obamaaaa...)
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To: counterpunch
Not everyone has drank the Palin Kool-Aid. Some of us recognized it for the political poison it is when she imploded last October.

That statement could not be made by anyone even remotely conservative. Or honest. Your coded rhetoric gives you away.

66 posted on 07/03/2009 11:55:34 PM PDT by TigersEye (0bama: "I can see Mecca from the WH portico." --- Google - Cloward-Piven Strategy)
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To: counterpunch
I'll play with you for a minute.

You are assuming too many things in your thoughts. She is resigning for sound reasons, and one of them is to further America's interests. She would be foolish to announce any run for anything right now. But, the infrastructure is there, and from the response, she is going to be in the middle of things.

I'll play with you for another minute.

You contribute nothing with your negativity. You go onto each and every Sarah thread and squeal you disapproval of her. You have forgotten Ronald Reagan's command, or never took it to heart.

She is a woman who is reaching into the hearts of folk all over America. She's going to run. She will likely win. We need someone like her to help mend our country back to health. America can probably use a Mom for a while. Who else can feed a family and wipe their noses?

Sarah Palin is a remarkable woman. I am an avowed patriarchal chauvinist. I would never have thought about voting for a woman before she came into the picture. Now, she is taking criticism from the likes of you for standing up to the crap and leading. She spoke to her Alaskan constituents this morning. Her words have been heard around the world.

If she wasn't worth the ink, they'd all shut up.

I will continue to post warnings about your trolling these Sarah threads. You seem intent on diminshing her relevance to others. Try finding some threads where you may cite something which may make a difference to someone. This INCESSANT negativity is only pissing on people, as you seem to be doing to Sarah!

67 posted on 07/03/2009 11:55:34 PM PDT by WVKayaker (Words are plentiful, but deeds are precious.- Lech Walesa)
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To: counterpunch

Actually, this may take more than a Moses. This may take a second coming. If so, she is Dagney Taggart joining John Galt.

IOW, she is doing the right thing if, in fact, it is for the reasons suggested by Mark.

America is at that awkward stage...and apparently Sara has figured that out.


68 posted on 07/03/2009 11:55:41 PM PDT by RobRoy (This too will pass. But it will hurt like a you know what.)
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To: bushwon

All the pressure I see on Palin is to be some Great White hope for the GOP.
She’s obviously not up to that, and she knows it.
I think half of why she resigned was because of all the pressure put on her from her own supporters who expect way too much from her. They expect more than she can deliver, and it’s wearing her out.

I’m not pressuring her not to run. I’m just telling her cult following that she’s not the savior they want her to be.


69 posted on 07/03/2009 11:56:44 PM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
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To: TigersEye; All

Bump your post for consideration by all.


70 posted on 07/03/2009 11:56:49 PM PDT by antceecee (Bless us Father.. have mercy on us and protect us from evil.)
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To: counterpunch

There is no person. The media has learned how to destroy anyone good.


71 posted on 07/03/2009 11:57:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: Aria

Aria, then what business will she have running to be President? I mean that’s the real kicker here. You’re trying to make the case this was a sound reasoned move. Okay, what happens when she runs in 2012? Do you think that race will be clean? She’ll be right back where she is now, and the media will be playing the same tricks. Hey it worked!

So then what? Please tell me, because I’d love to know how she avoids melting down again?


72 posted on 07/03/2009 11:58:08 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (_Resident of the United States and Kenya's favorite son, Baraaaack Hussein Obamaaaa...)
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To: counterpunch
"She gave it her best shot, but her best wasn’t good enough in the end."

BS- She was shut up by McCain's handlers. She was not allowed to campain. Her "shot" was deflected by McCain.

73 posted on 07/03/2009 11:58:20 PM PDT by matthew fuller (-- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really ashamed of my country.)
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To: Kennard
I am astounded by the positive reactions to his article in this thread.

I agree. Steyn appears not to be a sharp judge of character. Sarah has never "cut and run" in anything she has ever done in her life, and it would be extraordinarily out of character for her to do so now. If concern for her family were the reason for her resignation, she would have said so. That she hinted at a fight "from another direction" means she has a political agenda.

Steyn has never quite recovered from the Nov. 4th election. He claimed that it represented a "sea change" in the U.S. from a center-right country to a center-left one. I think Ziegler's documentary, "Media Malpractice", pretty much destroys that argument; it shows cluelessness on the part of zerobama supporters, and it shows that people were kept in the dark about zerobama by a complicit media. Steyn is a very gifted writer, but I think he's unduly gloomy about this latest tactical move by Sarah.

74 posted on 07/03/2009 11:58:37 PM PDT by GoodDay (Palin for POTUS 2012)
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To: TigersEye; dixiechick2000

no kidding JR should can this asshat

i got banned for a year for far less


75 posted on 07/03/2009 11:59:27 PM PDT by wardaddy (Proudly Anti-Abortion, not and will never be Pro-Life...........Sarah Palin, there is no substitute)
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To: TigersEye

How so?
This isn’t about ideology or policy positions to the extent that Sarah Palin has formulated any.
This is about this woman’s (in)ability to deliver electoral success to the GOP against 0bama on the national level.
She can’t do it, and to follow her back into battle against 0bama after already getting trounced by him once is a suicide mission.


76 posted on 07/03/2009 11:59:42 PM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
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To: Lancey Howard

Jesus.

This is looking more and more “interesting” as the months wear on. We are in for a VERY interesting 18 months.


77 posted on 07/03/2009 11:59:53 PM PDT by RobRoy (This too will pass. But it will hurt like a you know what.)
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To: WVKayaker
counterpunch, THE TROLL!

Exactly! Big time Troll! thanks for the picture - now I know what he/she looks like. Don't we ban trolls?
78 posted on 07/04/2009 12:00:27 AM PDT by presently no screen name
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To: PhilDragoo

Post #35- Agree 100% Well said.


79 posted on 07/04/2009 12:00:33 AM PDT by budwiesest (The truth is about to set us free. Won't that be nice?)
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To: Prokopton
counterpunch is an obnoxious Romneyite troll who's been stalking the Palin threads for weeks now spouting his drivel. He seems to think that Palin was the only one on the GOP ticket in 2008, and that it was all her fault that Obama won.

Don't bother trying to argue with him since circular arguments are his specialty.

80 posted on 07/04/2009 12:01:06 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner (Sarah Palin is a smart missile aimed at the heart of the left!)
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