The Coming Trials of Sarah Palin

American Thinker ^ | September 01, 2008 | J. Robert Smith

[vietvet67]

Democrats and the left generally can no more accept a Sarah Palin vice presidency than they could Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court justice.  They can no more accept a conservative woman a heartbeat away from the presidency than they can a conservative African-American interpreting the nation's laws.  Expect the long knives to be out, and stay out.  

Since the Clarence Thomas nomination fight in 1991, conservatives and fair-minded Americans have learned a bitter lesson: for liberals, it isn't about promoting the advancement of all African-Americans, but only those in step with their ideology and aims.  The same can be said of women.  Liberals believe they own the franchise, and it doesn't allow for baby-making, gun-friendly, God-fearing women, who, not incidentally, fight for lower taxes, smaller government and a strong national defense.  They certainly can't be Republicans.   

Aside from her xx chromosomes, Governor Palin flunks the liberal litmus test.  She presents a powerful and alluring role model for women, especially younger women, who are regularly bombarded with not just conflicting messages about their roles in modern society -- careerist versus mother -- but are regularly lectured by the left, politically and culturally, that if choices are to be made, then career, not family, is preeminent. 

Sarah Palin, an obviously remarkable woman, demonstrates that family and career mustn't be mutually exclusive.  Yet it's a safe bet that if need be, this wife or twenty years and mother of five would put family first. 

Moreover, Palin represents a threat to the left's narrative that, due primarily to the wearing out of conservatism and generational change, voters are moving inexorably their way.  Conservatives have argued for awhile that they have no shortage of ideas, but a shortage of candidates and politicians who possess the desire and will to articulate and advance those ideas.

The forty-four year old Palin is in the vanguard of the new generation of conservative politicians.  Louisiana's Bobby Jindal isn't far behind.  The Palin nomination puts the lie to the argument that conservatism is headed for the dustbin.  The Governor's nomination will serve as a clarion call to younger women and men who find her dynamic, upbeat personality, rootedness and strong advocacy of conservative ideas appealing.      

Part of Palin's attraction is that she's a solid conservative reformer, who's unflinchingly tackled government corruption -- corruption largely on the part of oil interests and the old bulls in her own party.  Ask Frank Murkowski, Alaska's former governor, who lost to challenger Palin in 2006.  Or embattled Congressman Don Young, who's heading for a recount against Alaska Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell, a Palin ally who the Governor is publicly backing. 

She's also told indicted Alaska powerhouse Senator Ted Stevens to take his Bridge to Nowhere back to Washington.  Her reformist efforts have won her high approval ratings from voters. 

Enter the Long Knives

But the trials of Job lie ahead for Governor Palin. Expect Democrats, the left and their allies in the establishment media to go well beyond the initial attacks on the Governor's inexperience and whatever they can pick out of her record.  In the coming weeks, the left's whole political and media machine will seek not only to trip up the Governor to prove their contentions that she's dangerously inexperienced, but will attack her character.  They'll especially go after her motherhood, her womanhood and her honesty.

They'll argue that Palin's demanding political career undermines her strong pro-family stances.  It's tough enough to be governor and a mother, they'll say, much less vice president and a mother.  Certainly, Palin will need to construct a powerful counter to that argument; no doubt, she already has. 

Of course, the question is never asked of a man.  Case in point, Barack Obama, who has two young daughters of his own.  Don't young daughters need a father as much as they need their mother?  If the demands of the vice presidency are great, aren't the presidency's demands greater? 

This may come as a surprise to politics-obsessed, government-centered liberals, but the perception that the presidency and vice presidency are all-consuming is overblown.  That perception owes as much to the drama and stagecraft of those offices as to the facts.

President Reagan didn't live his presidency.  Why should he have? George W. Bush isn't living his.  Why should he?  President Reagan had a life outside the office.  President Bush does too.  Indeed, there are times when the demands of both offices are great, when the holders are required to go into overdrive and burn the midnight oil.  But not typically, and Vice President Palin could well serve as a conspicuous example of an executive who makes an important job and family life work.             

And doesn't an attack on Palin's motherhood conflicting with her work life contradict longstanding feminist claims about women pursuing both?  The answer is yes, but what does that matter?  You expect logic and fairness?  The left plays mercilessly for advantage.  Contradictions are nuisances.  The messaging will aim to bury the contradictions under a blizzard of criticism and negative news stories. 

Palin's womanhood will also be questioned, because it is the left which is licensed to define womanhood, just as the left is permitted to define blackness.  And make no mistake, feminism is a subsidiary of the left. 

By the left's definition, a pro-life woman cannot be a woman.  A woman who seeks a family-centered society, not a government-centered society, cannot be a woman.  A woman who celebrates traditional American values, and not the secular values of Europeanized liberalism, cannot be a woman. 

Sarah Palin is a threat to the left's feminist agenda.  She is an eloquent and persuasive testament to the fact that the modern woman can embrace traditional values while seeking her place in the professional world.  She can produce better than 2.2 children, love them, engage them and still make a difference in her community, state and nation. 

And the left will attack Palin the Reformer.  It will seek to undermine her honesty.  The left can't help but concede that Palin has fought corruption in Alaska, but they'll assert that her firing of the state's public safety commissioner was a misuse of office; that when it comes to her or her family, she's all too ready to abuse her powers. 

Here, again, we must expect that Palin has anticipated the argument.  That, as they might say in Alaska, she's loaded for bear.  From available news sources, it appears that the Governor was well in her purview to replace the commissioner.  

Do note that when it comes to the subject of honesty, nary a word has been expended by the establishment media re-introducing Americans to Joe Biden's law school plagiarism and his lifting of lines from a speech by British Labour Party Chief Neil Kinnock, the latter forcing Biden to exit the 1988 presidential contest.  And don't hold your breath.    

Countering the Long Knives

With her confidence and poise, Governor Palin will be her own best advocate.  But with the onslaught of criticism headed her way, with the game of "gotcha" that the Democrats and the media will play with cunning and relentlessly, she can't be expected to fight the good fight alone.  And it isn't enough for the GOP and the McCain campaign to cover her back. 

Conservatives from all quarters will need to answer the bell.  To defeat attempts by the left and their handmaidens in the media to destroy the Governor's character, the conservative response will need to be swift, sure and unflagging.  Conservatives will need to be smart and creative in the ways of getting their arguments and messages to average voters.

The battle of the narratives will begin, with the legacy media and the Democrats on one side and the new conservative media, especially talks radio and the internet, that engine of creativity, research, analysis and energy, on the other.

Sarah Palin's candidacy represents not only a new and important chapter for the conservative movement and the Republican Party, but for the nation as well.  And how will you know this?  By the volume and ferocity of attacks to come against Governor Palin leading up to the November elections. 

[healy61]

The good old boy network of nancy news boys needs to be nutted and nuetered.

[Sans-Culotte]

I ought to get a medal for going over and confronting Joyce and John McKee at Alan Colmes web site last night...

Somebody (Hannity, maybe?) needs to confront Colmes about this pre-natal BS. Down's syndrome is a chromasomal disorder. Are Colmes and his acolytes suggesting that Trig's disorder was caused by poor prenatal care? Aside from Down's, isn't Trig a healthy baby?

[devolve]

[2nd Amendment]

Yes, this is inevitable. I’ve got to believe McCain believes Sarah can withstand this lynch mob or he wouldn’t have picked her to be VP. Hermettle will be tested as the MSM and defeatist liberals attempt to “Quaylize” her. We need to pray for Sarah in thje weeks ahead as she fights these inevitable onslaughts. As an aside I found it interesting in the Warren forum that Obama without thinking said Thomas was the justice he would want to get rid of. Clarence Thomas has been one of the few stalwart conservatives on the court. Liberals will never forgive themselves for allowing him on the court.

[realcleanguy]

Interesting analogy. let me give you another example

Lydia Lee, my wife.

She was raised in a broken home in Texas. Her father and step-mother both alcoholics. They lived just below poverty level. She was able to overcome this, not by liberal social programs but by her own determination. She enlisted into the US army at 18, and found her way to Ft Gordon Ga. She complete telecommunications school, and was assigned to Hawaii with a top secret, SBI/TK1 clearance. Even though we were married, she never once discussed anything she saw or heard with me

She left the military with an honorable discharge.

She has raised 3 daughters, and worked in between. She has never complained about equal pay issues, equality in the workplace, feminism, womens rights or political issues surrounding these. She has overcomes these by outstanding work performance and outpacing her peers.

She has been married for 33 years. Even though I have been moved several times with my employment, she never complained, never threatened to leave, lashed out in anger or demanded her own rights.

She can still break down, clean and fire an m-16. She can also nurse a sick baby kitten back to health. She has 2 horses that are mustangs that she has single handedly trained. Her abilities to sew a shirt or dress are unsurpassed. She reroofed the house while I was overseas.
She is a volunteer for the Anza Trails group and has secured several miles of trails set aside in San Luis Obispo county for biking, horseback riding and hiking. She delivers reports in San luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties on the progress of group. She has petitioned in Sacramento for the funding for the trails.

She has a career, a family, is a political activist, a volunteer, grows her own garden, is eco friendly, and alas, she is a Judeo-Christian Conservative. The liberal left crucifies her each time she is in a meeting. And she still walks away the winner.

Can Sarah Palin do it? Absolutely

TJ in Paso Robles

[mware]

From what I can make out (Colmes pulled the orignial thread) Colmes meant to imply that Sarah risked the life of the baby by getting on the plane after her water began to leak.

He did not do his research, she spoke with her doctor and was given the okay to take the flight.

Colmes chose to go with a doctor from San Francisco, who said she should have gone to a hospital instead.

In any case he was not clear with his comments and it appeared he was claiming the Down's was caused by a lack of proper pre natal care.

BTW Colmes also made the claim that Sarah had to get married because her first born was delivered just short of 8 months.

[SupplySider]

I agree with this article 100%. Like Clarence Thomas, Ms Palin will be the target of an Hiroshima style media attack.

"Liberals", who are mostly white and affluent, do not care about the advancement of blacks, women, or any other group. They care about the cause of Marxism, because it gives them more power.

[ZOOKER]

They will try to smear Gov. Palin unlike any other veep candidate.

I tend to disagree. Whispering campaigns, unfounded rumors, anonymous posts maybe, but I doubt the DNC will attempt a frontal assault. If they are wise, the Dems will keep the gloves on and save their ammo for McCain.

Palin is attractive, principled and likable, especially to women, even to women who don't agree with her conservatism. Engaging her in rough-and-tumble gutter politics would be unproductive at best, disastrous at worst.

[SupplySider]

I’m going to enjoy voting for Ms Palin. I wish I could vote for your wife, TJ, too!

[Presbyterian Reporter]

“””””Conservatives will need to be smart and creative in the ways of getting their arguments and messages to average voters. The battle of the narratives will begin, with the legacy media and the Democrats on one side and the new conservative media, especially talks radio and the internet, that engine of creativity, research, analysis and energy, on the other.”””””

I have started by emailing a copy of this commentary to my conservative friends and asked them to do the same.

We need to keep in mind there are conservatives who still watch ABC, CBS, and NBC for their evening news. We can help them by sending those folks a commentary like this.

[BibChr]

True, but I actually think I've more accurately identified what's going to be done to her.

They won't hate and attack her for being a conservative woman in public life as much as they will for being a conservative Christian woman in public life.

[TheBattman]

This story really highlights the sad reality of politics, and why we so often have junk to pick from.

Why would any good man (or in this case, woman) voluntarily not only submit to the incredible scrutiny and outright lies that a candidate for major office undergoes?

It is one thing when real issues are aired out - but when not only are stories stretched completely out of context and reality, but outright lies are told to intentionally besmirch someone’s character - it is just sick.

AT what point do “freedom of expression/speech” and “ freedom of the press” get trumped by the concept of slander?

[Iron Munro]

Barack Obama wearing a USMC T-Shirt is a disgusting spectacle!

He’s a whiney little twit who has never had to stand up on his own.
He has never accomplished a thing without the aid of affirmative action and white pandering.

He isn’t man enough to be permitted to muck out a Marine Corps latrine with a wooden spoon...

Seeing Obama in a USMC T-Shirt as like seeing Barney Frank in his nurse Ratched’s uniform - they can only dream.

[I still care]

No one gets attacked as viciously as liberal token minority groups who stray off the plantation. They get attacked at the very core of their character; i.e., if they are conservative AND a woman or a minority there must be something severely wrong with them. And they are necessarily a “traitor to their kind”.

The libs hate Condeleeza. They hate Thomas. And they are going to hold nothing back in relation to Palin.

As far as they are concerned, in this situation, racial and low despicable attacks against basic character are called for.

[BOBTHENAILER]

Both of them without comparing notes or thoughts said that their liberal contacts are predicting that Sarah will drop out in 10 to 15 days due to the attacks that will come from the media and liberal web sites.

Personaly I think the reason the attacks are so vicious and despicable, is naked fear on the left. They KNOW a strong one when they see her and they know that if they can't rips her to shreds quickly, that, just like tempered steel, she will get stronger through the fire.

We will all be there, front and center, to turn the liberal bile into a caustic weapon that gets shoved down their f---ing throat. Then again, she seems to me to be MORE than tough enough to handle the pathetic lies of the left.

[madinmadtown]

My husband was the mayor of a small town, and I am sure that the Palin family has already heard a lot of painful and nasty rumors...as well as anonymous nasty letters and some serious threats as well. I don't think that people understand how difficult it is to be a small town mayor at times. Things are very personal. And you have to face the people who hate you on a day-to-day basis. There is no buffer zone between you and your enemies in a small town.
I think that an extraordinary number of Dems really do believe that conservatives really do hate women and minorities. When their beliefs are challenged, they can not accept that their attitudes were wrong. I do not believe that the Dems thought that the GOP base would be so strong and energized with the choice of a woman. It goes against everything that they believe. To witness the enthusiastic embrace of Sarah Palin destroys one of the basic tenets of their “religion”.

[devolve]

Use the exact published/broadcast words written and spoken by Barack Hussein Obama Junior! against him

[Chode]

i think the RATS have shot their bolt on this one and have absolutely nothing left to smear her with and ten days from now they will be forced to deal with Saracuda chewing on their azz!!!

[chiller]

"He said the liberal hatred for Sarah was worse than their hatred for GW/Cheney."

Oh PLEEEAASSSEEE attack Ms Palin. It will expose them clearly for the POS they are. It would be one thing to attack an unpopular, corrupt VP of questionable integrity. To attack the popular, likeable, honest, reeks-of-common-sense Palin is death to the attackers. PLEEEAASSSEE commence with the attacks.

A few months ago I worried about a socialist ruining all that makes this country uniquely great with the help of both houses of Congress, soon to be enhanced with total contral of the judiciary. Now, I see a path which is 180 degrees opposite. I've also maintained that McCain has been respectful in his criticisms of O (denouncing use of "Hussein" for example) so that he can claim some moral high ground when he does take residency in the Oval office.

In private discussions, McCain wants to look Pelosi/Reid in the eye and say "I kept the campaign clean, above board, and you damn well know it. Now get with the program or it goes public. I'll make it my goal to put your party out of business."

That's how I'd do it, at least.