They stood shaking in their boots, afraid and immobilized while the entire family was brutalized for 9 months straight.
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Posted on 07/06/2009 7:22:07 PM PDT by Plutarch
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Professional politicians and political journalists don't waste energy on political corpses. They reserve their energy -- positive or negative -- for viable politicians.
Thus, an intriguing part of the Sarah Palin phenomenon is the intensity of response to her every word and move -- from both Republican and Democratic Party professionals and from the conventional media. The negative but sustained passion being expressed by the professional Washington political class against her tends to belie its almost unanimous assertion that she is washed up.
I happened to be on CNN on Friday just as the story was breaking of Mrs. Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska, and for the next hour, I was the only on-air guest -- Republican, Democrat, journalist, politician -- who was not overtly contemptuous and dismissive of Mrs. Palin and her political future. On Sunday, as a panelist on ABC's "This Week," I was similarly situated.
What is it about Mrs. Palin that elicits such furious bipartisan Washington dismissiveness? After all, the polls show her to be tied with Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee for the very early lead in the Republican primary. As an outspoken conservative with about 80 percent favorable rating amongst Republicans and a high-40s percentage favorable plurality among independents, objectively she should be seen as quite competitive nationally (compared to other Republicans, particularly given that Republicans generically are weak, and she has been so viciously targeted by the media).
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(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
BTTT
There are too many dolts who “think they know” (not Tony)...A lot on FR, too. Mostly, know-it-all inside the beltline folks...she will be a force. I will vote for her and her running mate or vica versa. Mark your calendars. Find another uniter for the Tea Partiers...find one. Your alternative is another Dole or McCain that the inside the beltline folks will put forth as the next candidate. Dolts.
I think her support is underestimated and she is now very underrated
Maybe I’m over simplifying this, but...
It seems to me everyone who is conservative in nature (political labels aside) believes Sarah will be a galvanizing influence. All the other people hate her guts and are afraid of her.
Is that too simple?
Go Sarah!
Probably the most famous post-Miltonic use of Agonistes is by T. S. Eliot, who titled one of his dramas Sweeney Agonistes, where Sweeney, who appeared in several of Eliot's poems, represents the materialistic and shallow modern man. Another well-known example is Garry Wills' 1969 political book Nixon Agonistes, discussing embattled president Richard Nixon. Today, the word occasionally appears in headlines in a similar fashion, e.g., Rumsfeld Agonistes, George W. Agonistes.
Agonistes is also the name of an action figure in the series Tortured Souls, produced by Spawn and made by Clive Barker.
Some related words include "agonist" (the usual English form; agonistes preserves the Greek ending), agony (originally referring to mental struggle), and agonize. Also, "protagonist" and "antagonist."
I’d just like to see Sarah announce her own radio show following Rush’s. Or to see her co-host with Rush.
Talk about a way to build your base with a ready-made audience. Money, control over her own “voice” and a platform-building exercise in listening to the base. Rush doesn’t want to be an elected political entity, why lose the money and influence?
Maybe Sarah can use his groundbreaking for her own call to leadership. Talk Radio seems to be the last bastion for conservatives. They would do well to use it to its fullest capacity for growth.
They stood shaking in their boots, afraid and immobilized while the entire family was brutalized for 9 months straight.
Hunter/DeMint 2012.
Amen.
It became my grim duty to remind my interlocutors -- in case they had not noticed -- that all the cable news shows were dropping their programming to switch to wall-to-wall coverage of the Palin announcement and that we were, at that moment, telling a national audience that the story we were discussing was being buried.
LOL -- great point.
Woe to the establishment elites, for the ground is shifting beneath their feet! When Sarah Palin is on the scene, their conventional wisdom is worth bupkis. Maybe that's what scares them: she brings with her a whole new physics that they can't understand.
check out post 8
Interesting....
They stood shaking in their boots, afraid and immobilized while the entire family was brutalized for 9 months straight.
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Oh yeah?! You can see the RNC, and our man of Steele, rising up to Palin's defense right here .
(Maybe if you scroll through enough pages you can find something).
Sarah reading the TEAleaves!
Tied with Huckabee? If that’s true, the GOP is in more trouble than it knows. Huckabee - talk about weak.
Yep, they may as well run Bob Dole again in 2012. We’re going to get the same result anyway.
That is the crux of it. We may be witnessing for the first time a compact between a potential candidate and the people based on truth. A refreshing event indeed.
Well, I'm not so sure being an incumbent is an advantage if the world seems to be going to hell and government is seen to be at least part of the cause for that journey.
Another good point.
The RNC wasn’t “shaking in their boots”, afraid to respond.
They were passively endorsing the actions of the left.
The GOP elite dislike Palin as much as the Democrats do.
They can’t stand her - because they can’t control her!
And by “they”, I mean the GOP, the DNC and the media.
The handwringers need to maybe just give up wondering the “why”of Sarah’s huge popularity (and how to dissuade it,) and just focus on the “is”of it. Because she “is.”
Add Tony Blankley to the list. I’d forgotten that he worked for both Reagan and Newt....another experience good guy to have in her corner.
hmmm Sarah’s “Contract with America”
I THINK BOTH PARTIES DID HER WRONG AND I BET SHE RUNS INDEPENDENT AND WINS!
His take is very interesting. I think he is right about Sarah and the fact the way both sides of the elitists are acting tells me they know this is the beginning not the end. I think they think they can talk enough and make her go away. Not going to happen.
Concur 100% — she scares the elitist from both sides but did Reagan after he was only a movie actor and they seemed to forget he was Governor of California. Movie actor — who would want someone like that?
I remember it all too well and even after the nomination, the same crap kept floating around about Reagan.
That same good old boy network endorsed Crist over Rubio and hates Tom Coburn. I say it is time for the grassroots to take back the party. The Republican National Committee is made up of the State GOP Chair, a national committee man and woman from each state. We are lucky in OK to have good people that represent us but in most states it is elitist who hold those positions. Time to change that and make the RNC responsive to the grassroots instead of the power brokers in DC who determine who gets the money.
Don’t know if any of you have been involved in any campaigns where the RNC sends out their college kids to tell the campaign and the workers what to do, but it makes you want to not work in any campaign where those college kids are working. Talk about arrogant — a lot come from east coast families that and they are in states in Middle America telling people who live there what will work.
I got turned off by RNC in a special State Senate race here in OK by RNC sending out ‘experts’ who were in their early 20’s into a rural environment. What a waste.
Excellent summation - There was no evidence that the RNC ever wanted to win the last election. Sarah was treated very badly by a bunch of spoiled little boys who were jealous of all the positive attention she got.
Like you said on your profile page, “Democrats have spent the last eight years blackmailing the country: give us power or we will destroy America.” I would say, “Give us power AND we will destroy America.” That’s been the intent for many years now. It won’t change in the years to come. Why doesn’t the Repub leadership get it? There isn’t an ounce of testosterone among the lot of them.
Yes .. and I’m just thinking .. in light of
his remarking on what we’re all seeing:
an initial reaction from 95% of the glitterati
that was mocking, cynical, derisive, churlish,
unless it was vitriolic, biting and despicable.
And I’m sitting here thinking:
what will they say about this time .. their
faulty logic ... when they drone on about it
next year,
when she could well be a mega galvanizing, heavy
duty campaigning, money raising author, speaker,
and undeniable force, once again attracting tens
of thousands of people to her every public event,
hungry for her conservative principles and her
courage in refusing to let anyone else decide her
path ?
What will they be saying then ?
They won’t even apologize or comment about what
they’re saying today.
It’s always onto the next current thing .. and
it will always be thus with them. They’re just
frail and flawed humans as we all are, only the
words they use to fill column space and airtime
affect and can twist public opinion.
And in some instances, they’re paid to do just that.
Don't listen to the hype.
The enemy doesn't underestimate Sarah Palin at ALL. They rate her very highly. So highly, in fact, that she has weathered more flak attacks from them than almost any politician on the national stage, but George Bush.
Those who are slaves of the status quo, or who are sworn enemies of the concept of our constitutional republic, are determined to destroy her. She is Joan of Arc, come in a red, white, and blue F-22 Raptor to demolish them, and they know this.
The negative comments you're hearing about Sarah Palin are just the death shrieks of a pathogen which has infected the body politic.
They fear them more than us.
This. Must. Change.
Is that too simple?
Nope. Dead on the money, in fact.
Simplicity = Truth
Complexity = Untruth
Very well said. The people that will remember their snarky comments will be all of us.
A lot of people have been wondering if she'll do that, myself included.
Rush takes enough time off during the summer, that Sarah could easily step in and sub for him. That would be the right gradient for her to get her feet wet with live radio.
You can bet that the EIB Network has already brain-stormed on this very possibility, and may already be in talks with her. Could this be the "big thing" that Rush was "up half the night working on" last week?
All I have to say, is that the Arbitron ratings for that show would go through the freaking roof.
“For instance, as the story was breaking Friday, fellow panelists were pointing out, on the air, how stupid Mrs. Palin was to put forward her big story on a late Friday afternoon before a three-day holiday weekend. Everyone “knows” one buries a story that way.”
~~~
That sure worked out ..... /s
They don’t take her seriously because they don’t take conservatives seriously.
Not at the moment, anyway...
First of all, we need to do away with all “open primaries” and only allow only registered Republicans to vote in Republican primaries. New registrations are acceptable 30 days before a primary, but anyone transferring from another party must do so 90 days prior to being eligible to vote in a Republican primary.
Also, we need to work towards some kind of agreement on term limits. Since a Senator's term is 6 years, I think 2 terms (12 years total) is enough. And Representatives serve 2 year terms, so they should be allowed 4 terms (8 years total). Each would have to wait at least one election cycle before being eligible again.
And the whole system where primaries are spread out over such a long amount of time is impractical and inefficient. It should be arranged in regional sections, so all candidates, even cash strapped ones, have a chance. The way it is now, it's not always the best person who wins, it's the one with the most money. Or in McCain's case, the one left standing after the media interferes with the process by attacking those candidates it doesn't like.
I'm not going to get my hopes up yet, but I can imagine a scenario where Palin campaigns across the country, raising money and supporting a few good conservatives in some close races, tipping the scales in 2010 to take back the Senate and House. And that sets her up as the front runner in 2012, with 0bama continuing to destroy the economy, a massive Republican sweep in 2012! Just some wishful thinking...
They stood shaking in their boots, afraid and immobilized while the entire family was brutalized for 9 months straight.
What a terrible, and devastating indictment. And totally true.
Every conservative needs to stop for a moment and look at what you've just said. I mean really look. Look at the Republican party's dereliction of duty.
The Republican party has a duty to protect and defend the one person who is arguably the standard bearer for the future of conservatism, and they failed to do so in every way.
Shameful, worthless posers.
Not only that...the RNC is/has participated in the pile-on...
They believe that most Americans WANT big government, and are not willing to teach and lead those Americans away from the precipice of tyranny and towards liberty.
We need to infuse DC with young men and women who are not so cynical and weary.
From Lucianne.com today:
It is not actual suffering, but a taste of better things which excites people to revolt: Eric Hoffer
(btw, you reminded me of the election night rant on my homepage, it needs an edit badly, lol....I was so mad!)
I agree with you 100%.
Oklahoma was taken to court about our closed primary system and it was ruled in our favor to keep the closed primary by SCOTUS. If you change registration here for the primary, you cannot change it back until the general election. They close registration here so many days before the election.
Not people here change in case there is a runoff election. You have to get 50% of the vote or you are in a run-off.
Think that we should change the Iowa/NH as being first since neither state is reliably Republican. I detest caucus which we defeated going back to at our State Convention by about 8-1 margin.
We are an early voting state, 1st Tuesday in Feb, and it was already decided by the time we voted for the most part. I am sick of Iowa, NH, MI, and SC determining our candidate and this time FL moved up against the rules to vote early to cinch it for McCain.
I agree with you that we need to do something about open primaries where someone can come in that day and register to vote in a GOP primary or like in 2000 when the Dems changed to caucus so in some states they could crossover vote in our primary.
It gets really frustrating that it becomes a money race. An individual could only donate $2200 but a candidate could self finance — something about that is not right either when they can spend millions against someone raising $2200 a person.
My mother and father worked together as a team. We went to work with them...wonderful childhood and I was extremely close to both of my parents.
Sarah and Todd/ mom and dad all know what being a team member is all about...Good environment for kids...They learn it is important for ALL to contribute.
It's become even clearer in the last couple of days, that Sarah Palin represents The People - not any organized party. Her values are timeless American values, which are shared by the majority of ordinary people in this country.
Sarah struck a nerve with the people during the campaign. She reached a deep, and primal understanding of basic American principles among us. She has tapped into the strongest, most illustrious of core values of our people, and she does so without effort, or even thinking, because it's as instinctive with her, as it is with most of us.
And this is why she will triumph in the end. She speaks the truth of America to us all.
I love irony! Tony, I am sorry I missed you making that point. I'll bet it sailed right over their heads.
Hoffer took solace in being an outcast, believing that the outcasts have always been the pioneers of society. He did not consider himself an “intellectual”, and scorned the term as descriptive of the allegedly anti-American academics of the West. He believed academics craved power but were denied it in the democratic countries of the West (though not in totalitarian countries, which Hoffer understood to be an intellectual’s dream).
He sounds like an interesting fellow. Ronaldus Magnus certainly thought so.
Put me in that category. As one who delights in seeing liberal heads explode, messy but delightfully enjoyable, she has has deal them the political equivalent of a wooden crucifix, draped in garlic and sharpened on the bottom to facilitate driving it through the vampire's heart!
I don't like feeling glee at the misfortune of others, but darned if I don't feel better today than I have in a lot of days since the election!
bump
I’ve been saying this for some time (most of your proposals.)
There is an issue and that is states make the law with regard to the primaries BUT the credentials committees can hold the states to the fire by failing to certify their primaries as valid. Thus, you have to balance reform with realism and the fact that many state parties will find ways to revolt over measures deemed too drastic.
However, in our favor is the fact that Iowa and NH are both not representative of typical conservative/libertarian values. For one, I can tell you from my own experience at the Caucus that the foolish “Christians first!” people got behind Huckabee (who had no chance at being President) and the softer Republicans endorsed that reptile Romney. Thompson, Paul, Giuliani etc had no shot (not that I’m a fan of Giuliani but still.)
Also, after a few ‘defeats’ good candidates are driven out of the process. Thompson is someone who was picking up some steam but after not ‘placing well’ in Iowa of all places and after having Huckabee draw away those fooled by his rhetoric—that was it. I think the regional primary plan would work best for the Republicans, as huge blocks of states would be forced to consider their own elections and desires and not just wait to see what happens in the states of Iowa and NH or one or two others.
-No open primaries (you’ll probably have to fight in each state but the best way around this is to move up the primaries of other states and remove the effectiveness of IA and NH in shaping the overall campaign.)
-Regional (touched on) primary sections
-End the winner take-all system in the party. Right now, someone with a plurality of votes with a divided base vote (like Huckabee and Romney and Thompson all splitting ‘the base’) leaves it open for a McCain. I like the idea of someone having a lot of delegates to swing to the best candidate as the race goes on, not just having someone like McCain take all the delegates in the state for barely winning.
On a national level, we’ve invested too much in the antimajoritarian view of the Electoral College, but that was itself a compromise and balancing of interests. I think as a nation we’d be a hell of a lot better off with:
Proportional Electoral votes. Nebraska has this. Here’s the value to conservatives. Look at a map of the country. Assuming population still matters, at least now you can get some votes in California. Does it reduce the importance of the smaller states? Maybe. But is a Republican going to win Connecticut generally? Not typically. But, now the Republican or right-leaning independents have a say. And so do Democrats in red states. Overall, I’d venture a guess that with much of California ‘red enough’ that Democrats couldn’t win if we went with proportional EC reforms.
Now, obviously, they know this and would fight that type of reform, GENERALLY but they’re also the ones talking about changing the EC.
The reason there is so much anti-Palin feeling among the “powers that be,” regardless of what party they belong to, is that Sarah Palin is the most potent anti-elitist to come along in decades. She turns out huge crowds that rally against the media and the beltway types. She has the power to turn the insiders out, they know it, and they’re scared.
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