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The Perils of Palin
Townhall.com ^ | January 22, 2011 | Dick Morris and Eileen McGann

Posted on 01/22/2011 8:13:05 AM PST by Kaslin

After Tucson, Ariz., shootings, Sarah Palin's unfavorable rating in the CNN poll rose from 49 percent before the midterm elections to 56 percent now. It was not the left-wing charges that Sarah Palin had somehow incited the Tucson shooter by her aggressive political rhetoric that did her damage. Polls show that voters discounted these statements and even Rep. Giffords' husband has made clear that there was no political motive involved. It was Palin's response to these attacks that got her in trouble. Her highly publicized accusation that the criticism was a "blood libel" turned voters off. As sincere admirers of hers, we hope she learns a lesson from this exchange.

The lesson is simply this: She should not become a battering ram hammering at liberal critics -- getting down into the mud with them -- answering every attack, no matter how low, personal or undeserved it is. She is a potential presidential candidate for the Republican Party. As such, she needs to keep her own head unbloodied and intact. Battering rams don't find that easy to do.

The left plays Sarah like a fiddle. They pile on with totally outrageous attacks aiming at her personal life, her children and her family, and -- now -- linking her to murder. These disgraceful attacks do not score points with the voters. In fact, they tend to trigger a sympathetic feeling toward Sarah when they are leveled. But, for some reason, Palin feels compelled to answer them, to reply, to tell her side of the story (aka the truth).

The result of the exchange is that both sides lose: Her attackers and Palin herself both suffer. But the attackers aren't running for anything. They just go on to the next attack. They are after ratings and circulation, not votes -- and the more sensational their accusations and the more vulnerable the target, the better. But Palin has an image to protect, and when she is hurt in these exchanges, it matters politically.

Palin's basic point was, as usual, sound. These killings were the act of an evil madman, not anything related to our political dialogue. But this sensible point got buried, and many voters looked at the "blood libel" statement as self-indulgent and thin-skinned. To them, Palin seemed to be the one using the murders to besmirch her enemies, even though she was only answering their charges. Critics charged that she looked more concerned about defending own personal reputation from the attacks than with the national tragedy that had just taken place.

The point is that Palin should not and cannot answer. She needs to rise above the attacks. If she is going to run for president, she needs to be presidential. She can't descend to the level of her critics. She needs to do what makes her look good, fighting for less government and conservative causes, not what makes her look bad -- fighting with her enemies.

If Palin took the high road -- as Obama did -- and decried the violence in our society and stuck to condemning the killings, she would not have been hurt by the liberal charges. But, by answering, she exposed herself and got hurt.

Next time, we hope she learns her lesson.


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: freepressforpalin; giffords; palin; toesucker
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To: chemicalman

Why don’t we give a surprise to the main stream media? Please someone tell me, why we are not discussing Paul Ryan as a candidate for president? He is young, smart, good looking, articulate, mid western family values, high favorability and he is a recipe for success.


81 posted on 01/22/2011 10:07:53 AM PST by Ranjit
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To: trisham

PS- most of that info I posted was first posted by other FReepers. I just made or enlarged some screen shots.


82 posted on 01/22/2011 10:11:40 AM PST by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: Brices Crossroads; All

It’s difficult to even engage on this board about Sarah Palin, unless it is with unlimited admiration.

I probably will return to my usual practice of just lurking and watching the Palin worship.


83 posted on 01/22/2011 10:19:03 AM PST by don-o (He will not share His glory; and He will NOT be mocked! Blessed be the name of the Lord forever.)
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To: MountainWoman

No kidding. They all sound rather nuts to me. Their logic is twisted and a lot of the time doesn’t even make good sense.


84 posted on 01/22/2011 10:21:31 AM PST by MsLady (If you died tonight, where would you go? Salvation, don't leave earth without it!)
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To: Bigtigermike

It doesn’t matter if she hadn’t said anything. She would have been attacked regardless, and by reading your post you would be right in the middle of those attacking her because she kept quiet. So don’t come to me saying she should have been quiet


85 posted on 01/22/2011 10:26:56 AM PST by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: ETL

Thank you for posting it. :)


86 posted on 01/22/2011 10:28:49 AM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: don-o
At one time, "I will not dignify that with a response" was a legitimate reply to an outrageous question / accusation.

That (alas!) was in the distant past, before the "Clinton War Room", and 24x7 Twitter whispering campaigns. Look what dignified silence did for Bush '43 and his political fortunes wrt "Bush lied, people died."

In answer to your question: of course you are not disqualified from your opinion; but do your best on this issue, as you do on almost everything else I've seen you opine upon, to make sure it is a fully-informed opinion. First hand sources beat the rumor mill :-)

Cheers!

87 posted on 01/22/2011 10:30:26 AM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: onyx

I really wished FOX News would drop him. I can’t stand him. He acts like he knows everything, but is polls always missed by a mile. I refuse to go to his website when he asks people to


88 posted on 01/22/2011 10:30:26 AM PST by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Ranjit

Because this thread is about Palin?


89 posted on 01/22/2011 10:30:33 AM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Logical me

I know you did


90 posted on 01/22/2011 10:32:14 AM PST by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: MountainWoman

“Next time, we hope she learns her lesson”


No Dick, the lesson is that sometimes you have to do and say things that are right but may not make you immediately popular. In the long run, the message is received and voters will know she was right because this is only the first tragedy that will be blamed on her. Once the Alinskyites have created a boogeyman, all they have to do is sit back and wait for the next event to happen.

To problem is, how to reach the people who buy into crap like this and turn them around. They don’t watch FoxNews. She may have to go through their gatekeepers of information who didn’t play her full 8 minute statement. They only played the one sentence about blood libel. None of those gatekeepers is on her side, but some are capable of a degree of fairness. This is about more than Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh. It’s about the demonization of opponents and the politics of personal destruction. Blame is assigned without evidence. It’s not a new thing in America, remember the Salem witch trials. At least they had trials. Now they convict them in their own minds.

What happened after the Tucson shooting needs to be discussed and rejected by society. If we don’t have the courage to talk about it, we will be victimized again.

Gov. Palin will turn this around by making Obama the boogeyman. He will be accused of bankrupting this country, exchanging our personal freedoms for collectivism, for reducing our national security and energy independence. The difference will be that Gov. Palin didn’t do what she was accused of, and Obama did.


91 posted on 01/22/2011 10:36:55 AM PST by excopconservative
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To: TomGuy

Plenty. How many Muslim shoot-em-up sessions got swept out of the news cycle toot sweet?


92 posted on 01/22/2011 10:36:55 AM PST by pingman (Price is what you pay, value is what you get.)
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To: grey_whiskers

I appreciate that. I would just offer that over immersion in the news cycles can skew perceptions of the reality that 99% of the American people actually inhabit.


93 posted on 01/22/2011 10:42:28 AM PST by don-o (He will not share His glory; and He will NOT be mocked! Blessed be the name of the Lord forever.)
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To: don-o
Agreed -- which is one of the reasons I asked what news sources you'd been tracking.

Let me end up with a rhetorical question: please step away from the computer and mull it over, over a good beer or while shoveling snow, or something "ordinary".

When is the last time that major organs of the press, and public officials "on camera" (Sheriff Dipstick) have OPENLY and EXPRESSLY blamed a private citizen in connection with a mass murder?

Cheers!

94 posted on 01/22/2011 10:49:06 AM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: grey_whiskers

Well. I guess I have my marching orders /s

Is it OK if I just take a nap?


95 posted on 01/22/2011 11:09:34 AM PST by don-o (He will not share His glory; and He will NOT be mocked! Blessed be the name of the Lord forever.)
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To: Ranjit

We’ll get a good chance to see him in action after the State of the Union address...is this an election to fight young President with young candidate? maybe...magritte


96 posted on 01/22/2011 11:15:55 AM PST by magritte ("There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself "Do trousers matter?")
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To: don-o
Is it OK if I just take a nap?

Ask Mrs.don-o. :-)

97 posted on 01/22/2011 11:18:41 AM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: Kaslin
We love her because she fights. She's the ONLY candidate willing to wage war against the LSM, which is just as much, if not more, an enemy of the republic than the Democommies.

This is war. Footsie time is over.

98 posted on 01/22/2011 11:28:07 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: excopconservative

“It’s not a new thing in America, remember the Salem witch trials. At least they had trials.”

Sorry but this sentence reminds me of the scene out of Monty Python where they were going to put the “accused” witch in the water - if she drowned (and died) she was innocent, but if she floated she was guilty and was burned at the stake - sounds about right these days with Sarah, aye??

You make good points - I have no doubt that with time, Sarah can reach those who aren’t rabid, closed minded liberals. It’s going to be a brutal battle, but she’s ready.


99 posted on 01/22/2011 11:51:58 AM PST by MountainWoman
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To: ETL

These very “b*ll -less” useful idiots who say she should not defend herself are the ones being played like a fiddle.

When the enemy used every drop of ink and space on the web they could cull together to attempt to associate her name with that looney lib murderer, did they defend her or even make an attempt to point out the enemies’ false associations?

Then they show up after the fight is winding down and every cheap shot and below the belt hit has been thrown at Palin and trot out some ancient Marquis of Queensbury rule about being above the fray even though they know the fray is attempting pummel her to death.

She should have let others defend her? She was quiet for so long her attackers changed their attack to why is she silent. There was plenty of time for Dick toesucker and any of the other useful idiots who think its better to attack conservatives than to stand up to their liberal overlords to come to her defense. But they chose silence.

At one point I was willing to give Dick Morris the benefit of the doubt because he seemed to be trying to help conservatives. But after this, I can see he is no better than the rest of the beltway suck ups like Tokyo Rove who earn their living kissing elitist backsides. They don’t care about “we the people” except when they need the candidate they are shilling for elected. They get paid by the self-exalted class, the so-called beautiful people of the beltway, not the hoi palloi. So their real interest has never been in seeing conservatives win.

As far as I’m concerned, not one of them has anything to say worth hearing.


100 posted on 01/22/2011 12:05:39 PM PST by Waryone (RINOs, Elites, and Socialists - on the endangered list, soon to become extinct.)
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