Re: Sarah Palin

OK: I shoulda knocked wood.  Just read on the crawl that Sarah Palin is coming to Texas to campaign for Rick Perry. 

In a sense, it's a good fit.  I mean, can't see Sarah campaigning for Kay Bailey, can you?  Sarah Palin and the woman who was once described as a female version of George H.W. Bush, only without the personality?  But have you ever seen Rick Perry in the flesh?  He is one animated dude.  And then there's the folksiness quotient of this combo.  If there were a down-home Richter scale, a campaign event with the two of them would be a 9.0.

Magnanimous for a Day

I was gracious.

Yesterday.

Today is red meat day.

To the people who are trashing Sarah Palin: We'll find out who you are. Many people already know. Your identity will come out. And you'll be stuck in low level, third tier campaigns for the rest of your natural lives. And did I mention they'll be Democrat campaigns?  We want to inflict you on them.  You'll be happier with them anyway: low-class, undignified, pathetic, craven, ignoble, unprincipled jerk-offs often find their way to the Democrat camp.

From the carnivorous Ann Coulter:

Republicans lost this presidential election, and I don't blame the messenger; I blame the message. How could Republicans go after B. Hussein Obama (as he is now known) on planning to bankrupt the coal companies when McCain supports the exact same cap and trade policies and earnestly believes in global warming?

How could we go after Obama for his illegal alien aunt and for supporting driver's licenses for illegal aliens when McCain fanatically pushed amnesty along with his good friend Teddy Kennedy?

How could we go after Obama for Jeremiah Wright when McCain denounced any Republicans who did so?

How could we go after Obama for planning to hike taxes on the "rich," when McCain was the only Republican to vote against both of Bush's tax cuts on the grounds that they were tax cuts for the rich?

And why should Republican activists slave away working for McCain when he has personally, viciously attacked: John O'Neill and the Swift Boat Veterans, National Right to Life director Doug Johnson, evangelical pastors Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and John Hagee, various conservative talk radio hosts, the Tennessee Republican Party and on and on and on?

[...]
Indeed, the only good thing about McCain is that he gave us a genuine conservative, Sarah Palin. He's like one of those insects that lives just long enough to reproduce so that the species can survive. That's why a lot of us are referring to Sarah as "The One" these days.

Update on Thursday, November 6, 2008 at 07:55PM by bbmoe

Yes, YES, YES!!!

Over at Red State, Erik Erikson has launched Operation Leper.

I don't know about the name. The idea of consigning these people, even figuratively, to a painful, disfiguring hell of disintegrating digits, deciduous noses, and open, oozing sores seems...well, too charitable.

I want Ann Coulter in charge of the punishment.

To open the bidding, Erik suggests that the list begin with

1. Nicolle Wallace
2. Steve Schmidt
3. Mark McKinnon

and of course, emeritus status to Kathleen Parker and Peggy Noonan.

In Response to Heather MacDonald

Gettin' all Mavericky, in City Journal, by Heather MacDonald.

I called into the Laura Ingraham Show this morning because I disagreed with the trajectory of this article.  On re-reading it, I find much to agree with.  But, I bow to a political reality, and that is that John McCain's own weaknesses drove this choice, and it was a good one for this political season.  I think that Sarah Palin has demonstrated executive acumen in a way that no one else on either ticket has.  I think that she is unripe for the national stage, however.  As for her family circumstances, especially her daughter's pregnancy, perhaps it is caving to embrace that as wholeheartedly as the operatives have, but I can tell you from personal experience, my own reaction when a girl takes the baby to term: Thank God.  Then: so, why isn't she married already?

And I think that's the reality "on the ground," as they say.  We are willing to swallow a lot because we see a glimpse of potential, a home-grown conservative,  one not schooled in the academic "principles" but one who simply embodies many of our cherished ideals through her life: hard work, determination, and a record of making her government more "of the people."  And she is self-made, and very liberated for all that.

She's leaning heavily on a certain populism, possibly to deflect attention from her scant background in finance and the economy, for example.  But I look at those other three also running for office, and with all their years, they are more culpable for the current mess, and equally clueless about how to fix it.  That is, clueless about how to fix it while preserving the liberties of the free market, capitalism, and property rights.

It is a part of a great intellectual and political heritage that we can express opposition even within our own party, (and our subset: conservatives.) But it's painful to have someone like you, logical, knowledgeable, and thoughtful, take your shots when The Daily Kos is urging its acolytes to "crush" us and "break our backs."

In the end, that may be Sarah Palin's most winning way: she is indomitable.  A rare commodity among conservatives these days.

Wee Willie Winkie

Whenever Sarah winked, I imagined the men of America collectively wondering, "What would Sarah find attractive in a man?  Should I enlist, kill a grizzly bear with my bare hands, or would it be enough to vote Republican?"

What was Bill Clinton doing in the privacy of his media room last night? Can't you just hear him, muttering in the dark, "See, she's coming on to me...she's looking right at me when she winks...this debate is more fun than a barrel of interns."  Yes, I'm sure the Master Debater had a good night.

Kathleen Parker: Feeling Better?

Kathleen Parker, as we know, has never been my favorite commentator.  She's a prissy sorority girl when it comes to politics and standing up for conservatives.  She bails as soon as there's a whiff of imperfection, and worse, she advocates political suicide.

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

What to do?

McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

This is the last third of the column Ms Parker wrote last week.  It's nauseating. What does Kathleen think about piling on when the people who HATE Palin and HATE us,  are doing a fine job of trashing Palin da- in and day-out for weeks?  Doesn't she think that it might be graceful to train her sights on one of the hundreds of injustices that are occurring in this election that have nothing to do with Palin?  I don't see Kathleen trying to understand the financial markets.  I don't see her calling out John McCain for being a wimp.  Newsflash: Kathleen, you aren't being objective, and Palin isn't the albatross.   Palin isn't the problem. 

And even if she were, Kathleen  advocates the suicide of this campaign as a remedy for Kathleen's embarrassment.  Parker won't stand up for lacross-playing jocks when they are clearly being railroaded.  Too icky.  And she won't stand up for Sarah Palin because Kathleen can't take the heat from her peers in the liberal media. 

Kathleen, become a Democrat.  Write for the New Republic.

Do it for your country.

PS,  Hey, Kathy- what about that debate?

Above Average

Heard about Sam Harris's op ed in the Los Angeles Times?  The one entitled, "Palin: Average Isn't Good Enough"?  It's short so I'll put it all here, complete with my interlinear commentary which will simply point out the obvious in case a Liberal happens tot read this blog.  The rest of you don't need commentary.

Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves. President Bush kept his edge on the "Who would you like to have a beer with?" poll question in 2004, and won reelection.

Hey, you average Americans are unhealthy and Sarah Palin is "average."  Oh, yeah.  As for not wanting an average neurosurgeon or an average carpenter, well, the liberal fetishists have made the likelihood that you will encounter an unqualified doctor much higher (thank you, affirmative action) and the possibility that you will find even a decent carpenter at any price remote (thank you, tort lawyers and the teacher's unions for eliminating shop and other vocational training from our school systems.)

This is one of the many points at which narcissism becomes indistinguishable from masochism. Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be president of the United States, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages -- and loses -- both necessary and unnecessary wars.

Sammy, Sammy, Sammy.  Do you mean to tell me that the majority of Americans are pathological narcisso-masochists who want to be ignorant and live in polluted squalor?  You've been spending far too much time in Detroit.

McCain has so little respect for the presidency of the United States that he is willing to put the girl next door (soon, too, to be a grandma) into office beside him. He has so little respect for the average American voter that he thinks this reckless and cynical ploy will work.

I'm beginning to see his point.  I mean, we really want someone in the Veep slot who wouldn't live next door to us on a bet, like Barack Obama or Joe "Let's Take a Tour of the Compound" Biden, who moved out of the much vaunted Scranton   as soon as his little feet could carry him.

I'm trying to ignore the fact that Sammy seems to not like women very much.  Do you sense that, too?

And it might. Palin's nomination has clearly excited Christian conservatives, and it may entice a few million gender-obsessed fans of Hillary Clinton to vote entirely on the basis of chromosomes. Throw in a few million more average Americans who will just love how the nice lady smiles, and 2009 could be a very interesting year.

Normally, you'd have to be at a San Francisco cocktail party to hear this level of condescension, heavily laced as it is with rather naked totalitarian leanings.  You people are just too stupid to realize that Sam Harris and his ilk could really make this country an environmentally sensitive paradise with only smart people populating it if the breeding morons [you] would just get out of the way.  Sam Harris hates a government by the People  because it gives power to the Untermenschen** from places like Alaska.

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**Barry: that's German.  Tchüss!