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A Conservative Woman's Problem with Sarah Palin
American Thinker ^ | 06/18/2011 | Lisa Fritsch

Posted on 06/18/2011 7:47:50 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Sarah Palin, the woman who put enough sizzle in McCain's 2008 presidential bid to make Republicans think they were finally cooking, now finds herself a few matches short of stoking her own political fire.  Palin has managed to maintain the conservative and national spotlight for three years since that failed White House bid.  She has won over the Fox News Channel, Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party, and Glenn Beck.  Yet a coveted demographic in her camp continues to elude her: the conservative woman.

Sarah Palin is smart, pretty, and adventurous -- a strong red-white-and-blue conservative.  Truth be told, conservative women do like and indeed love Sarah Palin; ask several genres of conservative women, from the stay-at-home mom to the working mom to the conservative youth leader at your local college campus, about Sarah Palin, and you'll find that the common sentiment goes something like this: "I love Sarah Palin and I think the world of her.  I wish her success in bolstering the conservative cause, but I don't think she should run."  There are many other votes conservative women would cast for her if possible -- U.S. senator, RNC committee chair, NOW president -- but president of the United States is just not one of them.

A self-proclaimed "Rush baby raising five more Rush babies" called into Rush Limbaugh's show recently,  offering a simplistic but widely held notion about why women -- including conservative women -- would not vote for Sarah Palin.  The caller boxed this phenomenon neatly into the "mean girls" category, where we regular girls don't like the popular all-American knockout with the QB boyfriend so we vote for the girl with the glasses as homecoming queen instead.  Sarah Palin has it all: Palin is a wife and mother (including of a special needs child); she hunts, fishes, and does things even men cannot do; she plays several sports; and, as if to put the ribbon on top of it all, she is beautiful.  With all this in mind, it follows that conservative women, like liberal women, hate her.

But not so fast.

Conservative women adore all of these things about Sarah Palin in the same way we adore a diamond.  Much as we love these jewels in our lives, we also admit that their brilliance doesn't illuminate every corner of our being.  Sarah Palin is such a jewel.

As much as conservative women admire and respect Sarah Palin, Palin's intellect and intellectual stamina stops short at her own base and platform.  The brilliance does not translate beyond her (and our own) comfort zone.  She lacks the ability to cross over and present herself in the wider social and political strata.  Just as love isn't enough to sustain a marriage, Tea Party-speak isn't enough to win the presidency.  The depth required of a president and commander in chief is missing.  Further, Palin has other problems to overcome before she can win over conservative women and other voters.  The bad news is that many of Palin's problems, as unfair as this may be, are somewhat out of her control.

The Couric Interview

Palin has never recovered from that introductory primetime interview with Katie Couric.  While Couric has since been given a mulligan on the many ways she failed to live up to her journalistic promise at CBS, she will forever be the woman who took the big, bad Sarah Palin down with an apple-pie smile and a simple question: "What do you read?"  Palin's befuddled and diffuse reply -- as if trying to work out quantum physics -- has lingered with her publicly and in the hearts of conservative women ever since.

Palin's frequent appearances as an expert in the safe waters of Fox News Channel have done nothing to overturn the initial picture of her as a lightweight intellectual.  Sure, Palin has made a media comeback, but even this comes off as coddled and artificial.

Not to mention that with each appearance on Fox News Channel, Palin's hair rises in height, her eyelashes thicken, and her cheeks redden...but her rhetoric remains callow and jaundiced.  Not only has she not ripened in poise and communication, but she has left behind the fresh-faced natural beauty we fell in love with when she was on the stage with John McCain in 2008.  Our bespectacled wonder has been traded in for an overly coiffed, stiffed-faced...well, stiff.  One wonders if she is capable of having a voice true to herself in the midst of fitting in.

Reality Bites

The TLC show Sarah Palin's Alaska came off as a contrived attempt to garner public adoration.  Were her comments that she would "rather be doing this than in some old stuffy political office" meant to confuse her fans about her intentions in politics, or were they meant to confuse Sarah herself?  She seemed more a pop-culture celebrity than a reflective political contemporary on the ascent.  She sprinkled in poor political metaphors about mama grizzlies protecting their cubs through self-reliance and independence as a way to connect with conservative voters.  These attempts fell flat.  The show depicted a woman more interested in being seen and heard than a woman with an indispensable voice on the subjects that really matter.

Coddled by Fox

Palin became a Fox News staple immediately following the end of the presidential election.  Fox stretched out the big, brawny arms of an overprotective father, to which Sarah Palin came running as if to be rescued from the big-bad-wolf leftist media on the other side.  When Palin's own show on historical stories didn't pan out, she was given infomercial-like slots on all the heavy-hitting news programs.  She promoted her second book, her reality TV show, and her speaking appearances, and she bolstered the arguments of the Fox News Channel's hosts.  She came off like the queen of the Republican scene and the Tea Party movement.

Still, regularly appearing as a self-appointed expert on conservative values is not enough to give her credibility on issues of finance, national defense, or our nation's history in the hearts and minds of conservative women and most other voters. 

Another problem, indeed, is that Palin still bumbles without apology.  Palin was clearly caught on tape saying that Paul Revere "warned the British" by "ringing those bells."  Even Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday graciously gave her an out to correct her words.  Instead, Palin persisted that she did not get the history and the story wrong on Paul Revere.  Whether she said it accidentally backwards or not, she conveyed the focal context incorrectly.  Why not simply explain oneself without a defensive "I know my history"?  [Editor's Note: the Boston Herald put out an article wherein at least two historians grudgingly admitted that Palin had the right of it vis-à-vis Paul Revere.]

While she passes the test of social and conservative convictions with flying colors, Palin simply does not excel in the hot seat.  And while there is no great sin in that (certainly many of us also crumble at an attempt to accurately recall and recount pertinent parts of American history), one cannot hope to be taken seriously as the first female president of the United States while being unable to stand up to friend and foe alike on political history.

It isn't enough to say that the media prejudices the public against Sarah Palin.  If she's smarter than Katie Couric and Rachel Maddow, and more of a man than Chris Matthews, then she ought to be able to prove it on the spot.  Shooting the breeze with Sean Hannity as he cocks his head adoringly to the left and asks rhetorical questions on liberty and fiscal responsibility simply doesn't do.  If Palin really wants to prove that fat meat is greasy, she will (fair or not) have to stretch herself beyond those who already accept her.

Barack Obama

Believe it or not, Barack Obama is a problem for Palin.  Because Americans have already taken a chance on the outsider who promised that charm and wit could make up for lack of experience in the line of fire and depth and expertise in foreign affairs, the conservative voter is especially turned off to this strategy of going with a candidate who lacks a serious résumé.  In the game that is the presidential election, you must not only be the able to show us the how, what, and why, but you must also be able to explain all of them convincingly and without defect.

Conservatives understand just how important it will be for the 2012 GOP candidate to be able to face Obama and articulate from every narrative -- present, social, historical -- with cunning ability so as to not allow the Democrats to run loose on flowery prose, false achievements, and enticing promises.  The conservative candidate will have to be so masterful at language, expression, and self-assured knowledge that she can speak candidly and from the bowels of her being without a hiccup or a worry of who thinks what.  She will have to know herself, trust her thoughts, and feel the gravitas of her candidacy.

Though Barack Obama was able to pull off the allure of the unknown in 2008, the conservative nominee will not be romanticized as the promising underdog whom we must fight for in order to set the stage for a new day.  She will have to package, introduce, sell, and defend this new day in a way that no one can deny.  When conservative women ask each other (without really putting into words all the questions in our minds) if Palin can do all that, our answer is that we love her, but she cannot.

What Conservative Women Want

Conservative women want what all conservatives want and need in our 2012 candidate: answers and accountability.  Unfortunately, Sarah Palin has raised a lot more questions than given sufficient answers.  And many of the questions seem deliberate: What's up with the bus tour?  What's up with showing up in New Hampshire while Mitt Romney was announcing his bid?  What was up with the reality show?  All these questions keep stockpiling like old newspapers.

As Palin continues to play these mind games -- either in an attempt to create buzz and mystique or to test the water -- she further distances herself as a sincere and genuine contender for the conservative nomination.  These questions lean toward the juvenile context which that Rush caller suggested; they cast Palin as a candidate for high school prom queen, not president of the United States. 

Lisa Fritsch is a talk radio show host and author of Obama, Tea Parties and God: What It Means to be an American, a Patriot and a Christian.  Find her at www.lisafritsch.com.



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: americanthinker; conservative; lindafritsch; lisafritsch; only4articlesposted; palin; pds; potus; rant; romneybot; sarahpalin; smellslikemitt; texas; waronsarah; whenmittbotsattack
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To: Minus_The_Bear

“I know that Palin never said that...

But people still make fun of her for it.

Palin was forced to resign because liberals in her state were filing lawsuits every week to destroy her family.

American Thinker is not a left-wing website. I talk to conservatives who roll their eyes at Palin.

The time to defend Palin was in 2008 when her life and family were being ripped apart!”

No, the time to defend Sarah and America is now, when we have more evidence than ever that the media and the political establishment betrayed us.

The historic elections of 2010 were not a fluke, they were just the beginning.

I like Herman Cain even more than Sarah, because of the Fair Tax, and his more extensive business background, but those are the only two left on my short list at the moment.

There is a long time left until the election, for more and more people to see the truth.

There is still time for Michelle Bachmann to get back on my short list, or for other people to get in - it’s going to be an interesting summer...


221 posted on 06/18/2011 10:37:30 PM PDT by redinIllinois (Pro-life, accountant, gun-totin' grandma - multi issue voter)
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To: Lancey Howard
Conservative women adore all of these things about Sarah Palin in the same way we adore a diamond. Much as we love these jewels in our lives, we also admit that their brilliance doesn't illuminate every corner of our being. Sarah Palin is such a jewel.

I could not get beyond this "jewel" of a comment.

222 posted on 06/18/2011 10:40:30 PM PDT by TCH (DON'T BE AN "O-HOLE"! ... DEMAND YOUR STATE ENACT ITS SOVEREIGNTY !When a majority of the American)
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To: SeekAndFind

You sure Cynthia Tucker didn’t write this?


223 posted on 06/18/2011 10:41:09 PM PDT by Luke21
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

Pawlenty has a ways to go in combat, I’ll give you that, but he is a decent man and a decent conservative. He may not do lip stick and distract us with personal media wars, but he has a platform based on the math, as does Bachman, and neither need a tutor, nor advisors to suggest learning it. AND, they are both IN, actually running.


224 posted on 06/18/2011 10:43:49 PM PDT by RitaOK
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To: RitaOK
Pawlenty is even less interesting/charismatic than Tom Dewey!

He's also less good looking than Nixon; even when he was ill.

He may be a "decent man", but that doesn't make a great candidate; especially in this day and age.

Bachmann could use some advisers/tutors/speech writers ( geographical and historical ones ), as well as someone to tell her to ditch Rollins, who is well remembered for all the wrong reasons!

225 posted on 06/18/2011 10:48:38 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: nopardons

Marginalizing Bachman lifts no boats but Romney at this early stage. I’d hold my fire if I were you because Romney is sewing up too much, too soon because the conservative tier has not yet lit a fire yet. Bachman is about to, and if Perry gets in we have a horse race to stop Romney. Sarah will not.


226 posted on 06/18/2011 10:57:03 PM PDT by RitaOK
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To: RitaOK
Romney is only cruising to a #1 finish in the papers/punditry. These are early days and there has yet to even be a primary! Hell, there are far too many announced and unannounced candidates right now! Of course most won't last into next year, so why don't YOU hold off trying to make me do whatever it is you want me to do?

You posted your opinion, I replied to that. Obviously I struck a nerve.

227 posted on 06/18/2011 11:02:11 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: SeekAndFind
I thought this trash was from the Guardian or Huff Post but it's from the American Thinker. Unbelievable!. Sarah an intellectual lightweight??..we have a president that thinks there are 58 states and ATM machines are an example of too much automation.
228 posted on 06/18/2011 11:02:58 PM PDT by Mogollon (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. -- Thomas Jefferson)
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To: RitaOK

LOL, attack Palin, the one that is actually running neck and neck against Romney and has been for years, but leave Bachmann alone, that is funny but it fits some of the other goofy things that you are posting.


229 posted on 06/18/2011 11:04:28 PM PDT by ansel12 (America has close to India population of 1950s, India has 1,200,000,000 people now. Quality of Life?)
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To: marsh2
one word -—gravitas. She doesn’t have it.

Please clarify your remark. Palin or the authoress?

230 posted on 06/18/2011 11:07:01 PM PDT by TCH (DON'T BE AN "O-HOLE"! ... DEMAND YOUR STATE ENACT ITS SOVEREIGNTY !When a majority of the American)
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To: ansel12; RitaOK

Rita has a terrible case of PDS and all I did was refute something she had posted and caught hell, from her, because she claimed that I shouldn’t “marginalize Bachmann”. This from someone who spends many hours posting far worse things about Palin and her supporters.


231 posted on 06/18/2011 11:11:32 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: SeekAndFind

Leftists are jealous of her. She’s gorgeous and smart, a combination they throws them off balance. The can’t accept the fact that there’s intelligent life in Alaska. Leftists are a narrow and parochial bunch. If they thought for themselves, they’d realize that Palin is the real deal and would make an excellent president. The problem is that too many people have been brainwashed against her already.


232 posted on 06/18/2011 11:21:22 PM PDT by Seeing More Clearly Now (From 1963 Congressional Record http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Honestly, I posted this in order for thoughtful Palin supporters in FR to refute what she wrote, not simply to read people badmouth the writer.”

Even though Herman Cain is a bit higher on my list than Sarah is right now, I consider myself a thoughtful Palin supporter.

Most of the article seems to be just drivel that you would expect from an opponent’s camp, or someone who is jealous, or maybe just not very bright.

I read the whole useless thing, but this seemed like a really glaring hit piece:

“Another problem, indeed, is that Palin still bumbles without apology. Palin was clearly caught on tape saying that Paul Revere “warned the British” by “ringing those bells.” Even Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday graciously gave her an out to correct her words. Instead, Palin persisted that she did not get the history and the story wrong on Paul Revere. Whether she said it accidentally backwards or not, she conveyed the focal context incorrectly. Why not simply explain oneself without a defensive “I know my history”? [Editor’s Note: the Boston Herald put out an article wherein at least two historians grudgingly admitted that Palin had the right of it vis-à-vis Paul Revere.]”

She blathers on and on to say it’s a big problem that Sarah didn’t correct herself, and has a link in the same paragraph that proves Sarah was right, after all.


233 posted on 06/18/2011 11:23:42 PM PDT by redinIllinois (Pro-life, accountant, gun-totin' grandma - multi issue voter)
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To: nopardons

Rita has a terrible case of PDS and all I did was refute something she had posted and caught hell, from her, because she claimed that I shouldn’t “marginalize Bachmann”. This from someone who spends many hours posting far worse things about Palin and her supporters. “ .....

Surely you gest. You? Refute? Something I would say? I blush. You defining “far worse”, describing anything I have ever humbly said, need to tour the remarks made around here to anyone undecided, or outside the Chapel of Palin Parrots. Then we can talk.

I want to hear from Perry, btw, so brace yourself.


234 posted on 06/18/2011 11:28:17 PM PDT by RitaOK
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To: redinIllinois

It’s really gettin tiring hearing people complain about every little thing a politician might say when there are big issues which really make the difference in who we elect.

The Palin pounding will never cease, for sure, but I’m going to start knocking the people who make issues out of insignificant comments our candidate might say. It’s getting beyond ridiculous.

In fact when they mention these things about Palin I’m just going to post all the great things Palin has done...or ask them why it is significant to them when there are big issues.... Not going to feed their fire.


235 posted on 06/18/2011 11:31:07 PM PDT by caww
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To: pgkdan

“That was then...this is now. There are many.many alaskans who vted for her for Governor who wouldn’t vote for her again. She quit...remember?”

You’re one of those “establishment repubs”, eh? FYI, that means RINOs who drink the progressive koolaid so you can claim to be popular!

JC


236 posted on 06/18/2011 11:38:48 PM PDT by cracker45
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To: RitaOK
Why yes, Rita, everyone, who cares to, can, most assuredly, go read all of your posts and all of my posts and decide for themselves. I certainly hope that they do so. :-)

I have read posts about Perry, for years, here, by Texas FREEPERS.

I will keep those posts in mind, as well as listen to him.

I know that there is something between Perry and the Bushes, though not what. But still and all, another governor from Texas? Will the public go for that? Has he changed his mind about the border/illegals?

Facts, I'm interested in facts, actions, and what is in people's closets ( a la secrets/sins/what can be held against them ) as well as what they have to say on the stump.

237 posted on 06/18/2011 11:49:07 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: SeekAndFind
Sarah Palin, the woman who put enough sizzle in McCain's 2008 presidential bid to make Republicans think they were finally cooking, now finds herself a few weeks short of stoking her own political firestorm. Palin has managed to maintain the conservative and national spotlight for three years since that failed White House bid, even with the combined might of all the major networks, the late night comics, the newspapers and periodicals, cable TV women's talk shows, and "educated opinion" almost unanimously against her. She has won over the Fox News Channel, Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party, and Glenn Beck: even though she has been attacked on Fox by Chris Wallace; Rush Limbaugh has not endorsed her; the Tea Party is split among herself, Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain, and a couple of minor politicians; and Glenn Beck is backing Romney as a fellow Mormon. Yet a coveted demographic in her camp continues to adore her: the conservative woman.

Sarah Palin is smart, pretty, and adventurous -- a strong red-white-and-blue conservative. Truth be told, conservative women do like and indeed love Sarah Palin; ask several genres of conservative women, from the stay-at-home mom to the working mom to the conservative youth leader at your local college campus, about Sarah Palin, and you'll find that the common sentiment goes something like this: "I love Sarah Palin and I think the world of her. I wish her success in bolstering the conservative cause, but Tina Fey and The View and Oprah have told me that I'm not supposed to think she should run." There are many other roles RINOs would cast her into if possible -- U.S. senator, RNC committee chair, NOW president -- but President of the United States is apparently her manifest destiny.

A self-proclaimed "Rush baby raising five more Rush babies" called into Rush Limbaugh's show recently, offering a deeply offensive but devastatingly accurate reason about why women -- including conservative women -- would be so jealous of Sarah Palin that it would affect their judgement about voting. The caller boxed this phenomenon neatly into the "mean girls" category, where we regular girls don't like the popular all-American knockout with the QB boyfriend so we vote for the girl with the glasses as homecoming queen instead. Sarah Palin has it all; she's a brainy chick with glasses whose glasses only serve to accentuate her feminine hotness, dammit. AND she has the ultimate Hunk Stud in Todd. AND they have five children, so they've been getting lucky with each other too. AND their marriage has lasted, so any erstwhile hope of problems in her life which would serve as a salve to a jealous girl's spite is missing: and to top it off, she has a career. In a field that is dominated by men. IT'S...JUST...NOT...FAIR!!! With all this in mind, you would think that it follows that conservative women, like liberal women, hate her.

(The above, of course, is a sanitized version of what the caller said. The truth is, the caller opined -- and Rush agreed -- that any women who is at least an "8" on the hotness scale will not be threatened by Palin at all. So it would seem only natural that Sarah is hated by conservative and liberal women alike.)

But not so fast.

Remember the natural division among the spokeswomen in the Conservative and the Liberal movements. Not just in terms of politics -- that is axiomatic -- but especially on looks, with the implication being that most Democrats -- who are lucky to hit a "3", see the Internet poster "Theirs vs. Ours" -- are torn between suicide and genocide at the mere sight of Palin. They resolve their feelings of jealousy and inadequacy by spewing an entire vomitorium of rage and bile at Palin, every time they get the chance. The same thing happens even more forcefully with Gay Men, who are torn between their rage that Sarah Palin attracts more male attention than they EVER will, and their latent futile desire to land Todd Palin for themselves. So the upshot of all this is that Sarah is beloved of conservatives and hated of liberals, just what would have been predicted on the basis of her politics alone.

With petty personal jealousy out of the way, conservative women adore all of these things about Sarah Palin in the same way we adore a diamond. Much as we love these jewels in our lives, we also admit that their brilliance doesn't constitute the core of our being, we are independent people beyond a brightly polished jewel on our fingers. Sarah Palin is such a jewel. We conservative women are grateful for her, but not obsessed.

As much as conservative women admire and respect Sarah Palin, Palin's intellect and intellectual stamina has never been given a fitting platform, since the main information gatekeepers in our society are liberal women, whom we have already shown above are bitterly jealous of Palin and so wish to ruin her. Therefore her brilliance has not yet been translated beyond her (and our own) political comfort zone. Without help, she lacks the ability to cross over and present herself in the wider social and political strata. Just as love isn't enough to sustain a marriage, Tea Party-speak isn't enough to win the presidency. Without this, the depth in her, required of a president and commander in chief, is hidden. Further, Palin has other problems to overcome before she can build on her base of conservative women and move to other voters. The seeming bad news is that many of Palin's problems, as unfair as this may be, appear to be somewhat out of her control.

The Couric Betrayal

Palin's reputation among the left has never recovered from that introductory primetime interview with Katie Couric. While Couric has since been given a mulligan on the many ways she failed to live up to her journalistic promise at CBS, she will forever be hailed by the liberals as the woman who took the big, bad Sarah Palin down with an apple-pie smile and a simple question: "What do you read?"

Palin's befuddled and diffuse reply -- as expected of someone who rose from being a girl who worked her way through college, single-handedly defeated an incumbent governor, then wrecked a corrupt party machine, and faced down the best lawyers Exxon-Mobil could buy -- showed her self control in not gutting the supercilious twit Couric on the spot like a Grizzly bear gorging on a salmon.

My desire to snark at Palin right there by making some remark about quantum physics -- as though I can tell a Kronecker delta from a Clebsch-Gordan coefficient myself, or can tell Katie Couric's colonoscopy from my own nether regions, as I have been part of a human centipede with the Eastern liberals for ages myself -- lingered with me privately and in the hearts of countless other jealous women ever since.

Palin's frequent appearances as an expert in the controversial waters of Fox News Channel have done much to overturn the initial picture of her as a lightweight intellectual, for anyone with an IQ over the low 30s themselves. Witness the contrasting ongoing response to Palin from the Hollywood Left as compared to the blogosphere, say, Free Republic. Sure, Palin has made a media comeback, written a New York Times bestseller, monopolized the national debate about Obamacare with a single Tweet, but even this fails to stir the self-coddled and artificial left, so insistent they are in living in their echo chamber.

Not to mention that with each appearance on Fox News Channel, Palin's hair rises in height, her eyelashes thicken, and her cheeks redden...but her voice patterns are becoming more measured, her tones less strident. Not only has she ripened in poise and communication, but she has left behind the fresh-faced natural beauty we fell in love with when she was on the stage with John McCain in 2008.

Not that I am *at all* gloating, you understand. Why, I'm so far from being obsessed over her perfect life that I sweep under the rug what the stress of a Vice Presidential campaign, the constant travel, being a worldwide target of the left, being accused of complicity in the attempted murder of a Congresswoman by a Sheriff who admitted on the air he had no evidence, having her daughters the subject of jokes about statutory rape by professional athletes, death threats, facing over half a million dollars in undeserved legal bills as the result of a deliberate campaign to destroy her, writing a bestseller and having a book tour, and planning a Presidential run against the combined opposition of the entire left of the country AND the RINOs in her own party, and pretend that NONE of this would affect the appearance of a woman approaching fifty years of age. (There! I sunk the knife in to that preening b!tch) Oops, delete, backspace. *Whew!* Good thing I caught that line before it printed!

Moving on...

Our bespectacled wonder has been traded in for an overly coiffed, stiffed-faced...well, stiff. One wonders if she is capable of having a voice true to herself in the midst of fitting in. At least, *I* do. The rest of you who aren't blinded by jealousy have realized that her stiffness was in the McCain campaign from being FORCED to fit in, and that she is showing her true self, and easing up and enjoying the chase, even now.

Grizzly Bites

The TLC show Sarah Palin's Alaska came off as an inspired attempt to salvage her public reputation...particularly for the middle-of-the-road, non-politically involved TV watchers who were most likely to have been swayed by Katie Couric and the venom spewed about Sarah. What a better way to present her as anything BUT a cold, demanding prima donna, a "salt-of-the-earth" girl who any God-fearing American woman would be proud to spend an afternoon with. Sure, she's good-looking, but she's not snotty about it. Her comments that she would "rather be doing this than in some old stuffy political office" were meant to reassure her fans about her looks, and they were backed up by actions. Any "beauty queen" who can let her stuffiness down enough to club fish to death on camera can't be all bad.

She continued her metamorphosis into more of a pop-culture celebrity than a resplendent political diva on the ascent; knowing from her days of retail politics, running for office in Alaska, that people will not listen to your political views, nor vote for you, unless they first like you. She sprinkled in "unsophisticated" political metaphors about mama grizzlies protecting their cubs through self-reliance and independence as a way to connect with conservative voters. These attempts fell flat with the Eastern sophisticates and the hangers-on like myself...but Sarah didn't care about that either, having learned from her political role model, Ronald Reagan, that in politics, as in the theatre, it is infinitely more important to satisfy the box office than the critics. The show depicted a woman just as interested in being in the great outdoors with her family than a woman who (like Hillary Clinton) wanted to overcome her rage at being born "only a woman" by beings seen as an indispensable voice on the subjects that really matter.

The Arctic Fox

Palin became a Fox News staple immediately following the end of the presidential election. Fox, seeing how Palin had by herself rescued the moribund McCain campaign, and would have (if not sabotaged by moles and Romney ex-staffer, if not held back by the RINO arms of McCain himself) propelled the ticket to victory, stretched out arms to this wonderkind, to which Sarah Palin came running, grateful to find someone with the intelligence to want to make use of her talents and journalistic training. When Palin's own show on historical stories didn't pan out, she was given infomercial-like slots on all the heavy-hitting news programs: after all, she hadn't written her best-seller yet, for which her fans were hungry, and her personal charisma still enabled her to draw crowds (read: eyeballs beloved by advertisers). She promoted her first and second book, her reality TV show, and her speaking appearances, and she bolstered the arguments of the Fox News Channel's hosts. She came off like the queen of the Republican scene and the Tea Party movement. As indeed, she was.

(Dammit.)

Still, regularly appearing as a self-appointed expert on conservative values is not enough to give her credibility on issues of finance, national defense, or our nation's history in the hearts and minds of conservative women and most other voters. So, using the same determination which enabled her to take on Alaska's entrenched party machine, she began bolstering her credentials with overseas meetings and paid speeches at various venues: a chamber of commerce in the Northeast, a trip to India, a speech in Hong Kong, meeting with the prime minister of Israel (who had a degree from MIT and could tell a very sharp intellect hidden from hostile eyes beneath an "aw, shucks" demeanor, just like Bill Clinton; yet unlike Clinton, not given to perversion and guile).

Another problem, indeed, is that Palin still sucker-punches the press without apology. Palin was clearly caught on tape saying that Paul Revere "warned the British" by "ringing those bells." Even Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday viciously called her out to correct her words, and that was after a professor of history at Boston College had backed her up. Palin persisted that she did not get the history and the story wrong on Paul Revere: realizing that anyone too stupid to realize she had just TOURED the Paul Revere house on her bus tour, and was probably up-to-snuff on it, deserved whatever set-up she could get away with. Whether she said it accidentally backwards or not, she conveyed the focal context incorrectly -- at least according to the geniuses in the press whose knowledge of Paul Revere was limited to a vague quotation from Longfellow. [Editor's Note: the Boston Herald put out an article wherein at least two historians grudgingly admitted that Palin had the right of it vis-à-vis Paul Revere, thus proving that I myself am a jealous bimbo. Dammit!]

While she passes the test of social and conservative convictions with flying colors, Palin simply does not excel among the self-annointed set. And while there is no great sin in that (certainly many of us also crumble at an attempt to fake having attended one of the "right" schools), one cannot hope to be taken seriously as the first female president of the United States on the Georgetown Cocktail party circuit while being unable to stand up to friend and foe alike on one's alma mater. (Our only hope is that the economy heals quickly enough, like the planet was supposed to do once Barack Obama was elected, that hoi polloi continued to be dazzled by his effortless reading of the teleprompter and his proclaimed superiority, rather than turning to someone like them "who gets it" like Sarah Palin.)

That is, it isn't enough that the media prejudices the public against Sarah Palin, if Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Parties, and the economy mean people stop listening to the media altogether. If she's smarter than Katie Couric and Rachel Maddow, and more of a man than Chris Matthews, and she's able to prove it on the spot, it's still downright rude of her to show it so easily, as when she asked Maddow to get her a Diet Coke at the White House correspondent's dinner, and everyone else crowded in for a glamour shot with our Alaskan Queen. Shooting the breeze with Sean Hannity as he cocks his head adoringly to the left and asks rhetorical questions on liberty and fiscal responsibility simply makes it worse: the rest of us don't get to flirt with rich New Yorkers like him. If Palin really wants to prove that fat meat is greasy, she will (fair or not) have to stretch herself beyond her running workout and invite us common girls for a jog. We'll see who is sweating THEN, dammit.

Barack Obama

Believe it or not, the liberals actually believe that Barack Obama is a problem for Palin. Their "reasoning" runs like this: "Because Americans have already taken a chance on the outsider who promised that charm and wit could make up for lack of experience in the line of fire and depth and expertise in foreign affairs, the conservative voter is especially turned off to this strategy of going with a candidate who lacks a serious résumé."

My God, they're stupid. Dumb as a box of rocks. Stupid like the crew running Mondale's campaign against Reagan in 1984. Stupid in a way you have to have an Ivy League degree to accomplish. For one thing, Barack Obama didn't run on his lack of experience: he ran on the promise of his own awesomeness. "This was the moment when the planet began to heal." And the New York Times' own David Brooks touted Obama based on the crease in his pants. I don't remember ANYONE saying that Sarah was qualified to be President just because she was a hottie.

In the game that is the presidential election, you must not only be the able to show us the how, what, and why, but you must also be able to explain all of them convincingly and without defect. Obama did not, but then got caught in EPIC FAIL.

And as far as policies? Pretty much all Sarah has to do in order to win in a landslide, is to promise to do the OPPOSITE of everything Barack Obama has done. Think about it:

1) Denying oil leases while offering to buy oil from Brazil? No, "Drill, baby, drill."

2) Obamacare? No, that's "Death Panels." Let's privatize.

3) Cap and Trade? No, natural gas.

4) Raise taxes? Not on your life.

5) Partial birth abortion vs. five kids.

6) Meaningless wars all over the world after getting a meaningless Nobel Peace Prize like the prize in a Cracker Jack Box? No, we fight to win, win convincingly, then leave.

I could go on and on. But after everything else, is it not clear that the last election in 2008 was a referendum on Bush, and 2012 will be an up-or-down (but mostly DOWN) vote on Obama?

Democrats believe that in order to be able to face Obama the 2012 GOP candidate will need to articulate from every narrative -- present, social, historical -- with cunning ability, because they really believe that people are still hypnotized by the teleprompter. After all, isn't that how Obama first got elected? He ran on flowery prose, vague tales of great achievements, and enticing promises.

According to the liberal cant, then, the conservative candidate will have to be so masterful at language, expression, and self-assured knowledge that she can out-fox the teleprompter.

But that's just not Sarah. She has never been the master of the mellifluous, faux-sophisticate neurolinguistic programming. But she hasn't had to. Her strength has been in speaking from the heart -- "a servant's heart" -- in a way that all those of good will, those who like her, put the country above their own prestige or possibilities for graft, can sense her love of country and respond instinctively. Because of this, Sarah can speak candidly and from the bowels of her being without a hiccup or a worry of who thinks what. She will have to know herself, trust her thoughts, and ignore the calls from the polished shysters and establishment thieves to put ever more gravitas into her candidacy.

Though Barack Obama was able to pull off the allure of the unknown in 2008, the conservative nominee will not be romanticized as the promising underdog whom we must fight for in order to set the stage for a new day. She will have to package, introduce, sell, and defend this new day in a way that no one can deny. And this will be easy. Easy, for one, because it is impossible to deny that even Jimmy Dhimmi Carter is a towering paragon of strength and decisiveness, of sheer brilliant leadership, next to Barack. Easy, for another, because despite the frenzied mewling of jealous women and Eastern homosexuals, Sarah Palin really does have a successful, established track record to run upon. Even if we have acted as gatekeepers to suppress this news from the American people.

But no more; the celebrated filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon is set to release a new film about Sarah Palin which fits this bill exactly. It is entitled The Undefeated, and walks through Sarah's life and character from childhood through high school, from Mayor of Wasilla up to Governor of Alaska, to Vice Presidential candidate, through "the thumping" and beyond. We see a woman of iron will, every bit as much as Margaret Thatcher. And conservative women (like others) will fall in love with her all over again.

What Conservative Women Want

Conservative women want what all conservatives want and need in our 2012 candidate: answers and accountability. Unfortunately for the press, and the MSM (the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party), Sarah Palin has raised a lot more questions than given sufficient answers. And many of the questions seem deliberate: What's up with the bus tour? What's up with showing up in New Hampshire while Mitt Romney was announcing his bid? What was up with the reality show? All these questions keep stockpiling like old newspapers, mouldering in the basement while people turn to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for current events and analysis. (What do you expect? The press, beginning with Katie Couric, led the character assassination against Palin beginning in 2008, and haven't let up yet: up to and including crowdsourcing the reading of 24,000 emails from her term as governor. At the same time, they covered up everything imaginable about Obama, even helping to trash anyone who dared even seek his background information. Do they really expect Sarah even to give them the time of day after all that?)

As Palin continues to play these mind games -- both in an attempt to create buzz and mystique or to cheese off the press -- she further distinguishes herself as a sincere and genuine contender for the conservative nomination. People throughout the United States are sick to death of political games, and those who go through the motions of the same old thing: and Sarah's mind games address both the players and the playees of the games. She shows that not only that she can avoid dancing to the liberal tune, but that even if she does, they can't avoid covering her. Due to her genuineness and openness, she is not just photogenic, but charismatic. And in the hunt for ratings, the fight not to get scooped, they need Sarah Palin more than she needs them. These questions lean toward the juvenile context which that Rush's caller suggested; they cast Palin as a candidate for high school prom queen, soon to be President of the United States.

And there's nothing we bitter jealous chicks can do about it.

Dammit.

238 posted on 06/18/2011 11:54:27 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: FourPeas

“Lisa Fritsch is a wife, mother, and writer who is as compelling and provocative as she seems. Fritsch has a rare diversity on the national scene that is marketable for books, television, radio, and public appearances. Lisa is a Tea Party activist and speaker who has garnered national attention for her willingness to stand up to the NAACP for accusing the Tea Party as racist and for speaking out on the “diabolical” ways of liberalism on “Glenn Beck.” Fritsch is also a political strategist who is a frequent guest on “Your World with Neil Cavuto” where she has commented on everything from the GM IPO to the Tea Party platform. Lisa Fritsch is a member of the national advisory council for the Project 21 black leadership network, a think tank to advance the voices of black conservatives. Additionally she is a political contributor to her local Fox News 7.”

That is Lisa’s self-described propaganda and a bunch of hooey! Being retired, I now watch Cavuto and Beck nearly every single day and have NEVER even heard of her. Betcha she voted for Obama too!

JC


239 posted on 06/18/2011 11:54:27 PM PDT by cracker45
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To: SeekAndFind

Hmmm... Who you going to vote for in 1012? Obama or Sarah? Obama or Sarah???????

If the choice is Obama or Sarah, I’m voting for Sarah.


240 posted on 06/18/2011 11:59:42 PM PDT by abner (I have no tagline, therefore no identity.)
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