Posted on 05/30/2011 9:47:09 AM PDT by Brices Crossroads
In the past week, we have witnessed Sarah Palin make the following moves, totally unanticipated by her detractors as well as those of us who are her ardent supporters: She announced the June rollout of a movie reintroducing her from the vantage point of her Alaska Record by a superb filmmaker, Stephen K. Bannon, who has already chronicled Ronald Reagan's single-minded crusade against the Soviet Union in the stunning documentary, "In the Face of Evil; Reagan's War in Word and Deed". She has announced a bus tour that will take her cross country, beginning on the eve of Memorial Day at the Rolling Thunder rally in Washington. Finally, she kept her itinerary private but the press, ever hungry to cover the most interesting and unconventional political figure in two lifetimes, found her in the midst of hundreds of thousands of bikers and followed her around like sheep. Yet the punditocracy continues to deny that she is serious and even goes so far as to raise the old canard, leveled at Reagan, that she is not to be trusted with "the bomb".
While I normally resort to military analogies in describing Palin's various and sundry maneuvers, over the weekend an analogy of a different sort--a sports analogy--came to mind, one that might not resonate with many of you. But here goes anyway.
The year is 1969. An underdog team from Mississippi, which had already lost three games, is facing what may have been one of the great LSU teams of all time, 6-0, ranked third and headed for the Cotton Bowl to face number one Texas in a showdown for the national championship. LSU leads, and will continue to lead, the nation in rushing defense and sports not one, but two, All American linebackers, George Bevan and Mike Anderson. The Mississippi team is undistinguished, except for its quarterback, Archie Manning (father of Peyton) who is known for his strong and accurate arm and very quick feet and moves.
In its reporting on the game in Sports Illustrated the next week (a 26-23 Mississippi victory, with Manning accounting for every Ole Miss point), the writer observed that football was a team sport, and surely one man couldn't beat a whole team, especially one as strong as LSU. Could he? The question was put to LSU's "bone weary" senior linebacker George Bevan and he gave an answer that I think could be applied to the nimble Palin as well: "You wouldn't think that, the way football is played today. But he is the one who beat us. I thought we had him every time. But he can turn a 15 yard loss into a 25 yard gain. I thought the quarterback from Auburn [1971 Heisman trophy winner Pat Sullivan] was good, but he has only one leg compared with Manning."
The rest of the GOP field, far less talented than the All American Sullivan, must be adjudged as legless, compared with Palin who outshines, outdraws and flummoxes them at every turn.
Palin's audacity and strategic "quick feet" reminded me of an anecdote by someone who knew Bevan, and I cannot vouch for its accuracy, but having seen the game film of the particular play in question, it looks plausible. My acquaintance said that on a particular play (a third down, I believe) from about the LSU ten, Manning executed one of his patented sprintouts to the left. The lightning quick Bevan reacted and was in a position to cut him off, when Manning cocked his right arm. Bevan reacted by jumping to block the pass but immediately thought to himself, "Wait a minute. I am 5'10" ; this guy is 6'4"; There is no way I am going to block his pass." Too late, however, the speedy Manning tucked the ball and ran around Bevan's left, over the flag and into the end zone. Out of the corner of his eye, Bevan saw Manning--who apparently realized the same thing at the same time--laughing as he darted past Bevan and into the end zone.
The dwarfs in the GOP primary hardly compare with a great All American linebacker, nor is the Establishment nearly as formidable as the great LSU team of 1969. But Palin's nimble, unexpected political moves compare quite favorably with the elusiveness and panache displayed by Archie Manning on the College Gridiron of 40 years ago.
Next year, Palin will be the one laughing as she sprints into the End Zone.
Sometime after Labor Day 2012 (varies by state).
When "sick of 'em both" goes over 60% in the polls, she'll be waiting...
Palin vs. Obama in a live debate -- wow, can you imagine!!! I hope I get to see that. Either Obama will be medicated to the limit of near stupor on some kind of prescribed substance, or Obama's combined narcissism and lack of mental ability going up against Palin in the arena of ideas, would reduce him to a shocking spectacle. It would be one or the other.
It's one of the reasons I think there are significant odds that the Dem nominee for 2012 will not be Obama.
Since I don’t follow college football I’ll go with Super Bowl XXXII - Green Bay and Denver.
Sarah is John Elway.
Go Broncos!
The MSM haters want her to announce NOW so they could throw grenades at her and wear her down by Christmas but she learned her lesson. Nice middle finger to the libtards<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
She doesn’t need to announce until July = July 4th would be good and then fireup the Palin war machine and start raking in donations for the primaries. They can all speculate but she’s runnin’
The MSM haters want her to announce NOW so they could throw grenades at her and wear her down by Christmas but she learned her lesson. Nice middle finger to the libtards<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
She doesn’t need to announce until July = July 4th would be good and then fireup the Palin war machine and start raking in donations for the primaries. They can all speculate but she’s runnin’
Nice post. Tks BC.
And will Piper be the Peyton Manning of politics in 2040?
“And will Piper be the Peyton Manning of politics in 2040?”
Now that’s a thought.
bump
Are you saying that Archie isn’t Eli’s real father ? ? ?
(snicker...)
“You’d think George would at least have the courtesy to let us know where he’s going.”
**************
Media is tremendously frustrated, Al. They can’t stop her the way Eisenhower and Patton did to allow Montgomery (for political reasons) to use the gas for the Market Garden catastrophe in Holland. When stopped at the end of August, Patton was nearly in the Siegfried line (which he called an “empty shell, overgrown with weeds and crawling with cows.. I could punch through it in 2 days”) The delay for Market Garden allowed the Germans to reinforce and when he got the fuel, the window had closed. In the movie, he laments that he could be in Berlin in 10 days and that he has the whole Nazi Reich for the taking and all he needs is a few miserable gallons of gas.
Well, Palin has the whole GOP Establishment for the taking ...and plenty of gas. It’s overgrown with weeds and crawling with cows as well. The Establishment has NO REINFORCEMENTS to send to stop her. She is slicing through it even as we speak.
>> “What is last day she can withhold her decision to run?” <<
.
She has to show up for Iowa and New Hamster, or its all over, and Iowa takes ground soldiers.
>> “She is slicing through it even as we speak” <<
.
She cut them off at the knees in 2008.
Not one of them has been able to stand up since then.
“Thanks for remembering Archie.”
No one who saw Archie play in college could EVER forget him. The most exciting players I ever saw...Among the most courageous (another Palin attribute)as well. Playing against another great LSU team in his senior season after breaking his left arm four weeks earlier, was a singular act of valor on the gridiron that, to my knowledge, has never been repeated.
“I remember Steve Kiner, an all American LB for Tennessee, commenting that Archie and his team were a bunch of mules. I cringed when it hit the media because I knew what Archie could do. Archie did it. He made Tennessee run around in circles and beat an excellent Tennessee team readily. Kiner got kicked by a mule.”
In much the same way that Sarah Palin was dogged and slimed by the media in 2008, Archie was slandered by Kiner of Tennessee the team which, in Manning’s sophomore season, intercepted SIX of his passes, and beat Mississippi 31-0. What Kiner said about Manning that was worse than the mule remark was: “It’s not so tough defending against Manning. He tells you where he is going to throw with his eyes.” Manning, a fierce competitor, would have remembered this even without the mule comment.
The next year, Manning and company, fresh off big upset wins over Georgia and LSU, gave a 7-0 number three ranked Tennessee and Kiner their comeuppance in a stunning upset shellacking, 38-0.
This is hte kind of catchback I expect Palin to deliver to the MSM and the Establishment for dissing her. Heck...it has already begun.
The media forgets that Sarah was a basketball player
and a pretty good one.
” A basketball player, how cute!
Thank goodness for Title IX. etc”
‘but B-ball is a fast game, I could never play it, I
was always two moves behind. Which is where the press
finds itself when going up against her, they haven’t
even seen her best moves yet!
The MSM is like those German generals frantically moving pieces around on the map, trying to figure out what she will do next.
The Establishment=Dead From the Neck Up.
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