Beware the Cult of Personality
I have mixed emotions about Sarah Palin’s announcement that she won’t be running for the presidency. Though she would not have been my top choice had she entered the fray, she at least would have been in the portion of the field that I am still considering voting for (with Perry, Cain, Santorum and Gingrich). She would have provided a change of pace from the rest of the crop of candidates. And, frankly, I like her and think she’s a much more insightful and perceptive person than given credit for. But I am not convinced that her time is now, so it’s probably for the best that she is not part of the conversation for 2012.
One of the fascinating things in watching the conservative end of the blogosphere over the past few months is the intense reaction that Palin sparks. Of course there are her detractors, both right and left. Some of these individual – in particular the wannabe gynecologists – border on the pathological. There are valid criticisms to be levied against Palin, but I’ve seen otherwise reasonable people turn into irrational cranks when it comes to her. She may not have been the best candidate for president, but she is not quite the manipulative, dumb, vacuous or whatever adjective you want to throw out there individual that her most vocal critics have portrayed her as being. Continue reading
Palin Not Running
This was just released:
October 5, 2011
Wasilla, Alaska
After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.
My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.
From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.
I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs. Continue reading
Sarah Palin: Two Predictions
Based upon the above ad, and other signs, I think it is clear that Sarah Palin is going to run for President. I have two modest predictions to make if she does get in:
1. She will win the Republican nomination.
2. She will beat Obama decisively in the general election, gaining over 300 electoral votes.
Andrew Sullivan is Certifiably Insane
I don’t like to write about Andrew Sullivan. At this point he should be treated like a troll, meaning it is best to ignore him. Every now and then it is good to be reminded that Andrew Sullivan has clearly lost his mind.
Most of you have probably read this email that Sarah Palin sent before she gave birth to Trig. She actually published this in her book, but today it has garenerd wider attention. It’s a rather touching expression of her faith, and is one of the most beautiful pro-life testimonies you’ll ever read.
One would also think that it’s further proof – not that any is really needed save for disturbed individuals like Sullivan – that Sarah Palin is in fact Trig’s mother.
Oh no. This is just an opportunity for Sullivan to continue to cast doubts on the official story.
Earlier today there was a replay of the Michael Medved show where he interviewed Jonathan Kay, author of Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America’s Growing Conspiracist Underground. Kay and Medved discussed the nature of the conspiracist mindset, and Kay emphasized that there is really not much point in trying to rebut these folks with facts, because they are impervious to all evidence. Listening to Kay, and then reading Sullivan’s latest screed one is reminded of the futility of trying to deal with such people.
So can we please shun Andrew Sullivan and stop treating him like he’s even a remotely credible journalist of any kind? No more linking – not even to rebut the man. Yeah I know I just spent 250 words on the guy, but I guess I’m still in shock that there are people still willing to give this man a platform. For as absolutely batty Sullivan is, the Daily Beast should be ashamed of employing him.
H/t: Midwest Conservative Journal.
(On a side note, the critics of Kay’s book as well as Sullivan ought really to read my previous post.)
Update: Andrew Sullivan actually responded to an email that I sent him. Notice anything about the grammar?
show me some evidence. any evidence. then handle all the evidence i
have assembled.
i’m not insane. but palin sure is. when she produces the medical
records i asked for two and half years ago, i will stop asking
questions.
why not email her to ask her to clear this up? or do you suspect she cannot?
Yes, clearly we are dealing with a very lucid mind.
That Stupid Palin, Getting Her History Right
I guess there’s a new kerfuffle related to Sarah Palin. This video was linked at NRO “without comment” by Andrew Stiles. It’s more evidence that she’s some kind of historical illiterate, or something, as she supposedly claims that Paul Revere rode to warn the Brits.
Admittedly Palin’s wording is incredibly garbled and she did not give a very articulate response. Here’s the thing: her comments are completely accurate. Here’s a letter written by Paul Revere himself:
“I observed a Wood at a Small distance, & made for that. When I got there, out Started Six officers, on Horse back,and orderd me to dismount;-one of them, who appeared to have the command, examined me, where I came from,& what my Name Was? I told him. it was Revere, he asked if it was Paul? I told him yes He asked me if I was an express? I answered in the afirmative. He demanded what time I left Boston? I told him; and aded, that their troops had catched aground in passing the River, and that There would be five hundred Americans there in a short time, for I had alarmed the Country all the way up. He imediately rode towards those who stoppd us, when all five of them came down upon a full gallop; one of them, whom I afterwards found to be Major Mitchel, of the 5th Regiment, Clapped his pistol to my head, called me by name, & told me he was going to ask me some questions, & if I did not give him true answers, he would blow my brains out. He then asked me similar questions to those above. He then orderd me to mount my Horse, after searching me for arms.”
Again, though spoken in mangled English, Palin’s comments are pretty much right on the money. Revere was in fact warning the British, but more as a way of bragging.
But hey, it’s so much easier to call Sarah Palin an idiot than bother with facts.
Palin: “Fight Like a Girl!”
One of the hardest things for any orator to do is to give a successful stump speech before a hostile audience, and that is just what Sarah Palin did on Saturday, April 16, 2011, in Madison, Wisconsin at a tea party rally. Union rent-a-mobs were out in force, drawn like flies to sugar by the presence of Palin, always a mesmerizing target for the denizens of the Left. During her speech you can hear constantly in the background their continual attempts to shout her down. Go here to Ann Althouse’s blog to see some of the charming signs carried by the Union mob and her comments on their attempts to drown out Palin. (The height of courage was shown when the Union thugs attempted to drown out a 14 year old girl who was speaking.) Palin did not back down an inch, giving a pugnacious, fighting speech, that not only took on Obama and the spend-us-into-bankruptcy-Union leadership, but also the clueless Gop establishment. It was a bravura performance, and the best stump speech I have seen since Reagan rode off into the sunset. Here is the text of her speech with my comments:
Hello Madison, Wisconsin! You look good. I feel like I’m at home. This is beautiful. Madison, I am proud to get to be with you today. Madison, these are the frontlines in the battle for the future of our country. This is where the line has been drawn in the sand. And I am proud to stand with you today in solidarity.
Note the use of the term solidarity, and it will not be the only time she uses it. Palin wasn’t born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and her family members belong to unions.
I am here today as a patriot, as a taxpayer, as a former union member, and as the wife of a union member. What I have to say today I say it to our good patriotic brothers and sisters who are in unions. I say this, too, proudly standing here as the daughter of a family full of school teachers. My parents, my grandparents, aunt, cousins, brother, sister – so many of these good folks are living on teachers’ pensions, having worked or are still working in education.
Not us versus them, but just us. Palin is talking to union members over the heads of their union bosses. Continue reading
This Issue’s A Bust
Once in a while the political news circuit gets stuck on a topic so amazingly trivial and foolish that the spectacle of such a large tempest raging in such a small teapot makes it hard to look away. This week, the leading ladies of the right and left have decided to fight it out over breastfeeding.
 |
| I picked this for obvious reasons, but the parent in me says “No diaper and white dress: Watch Out!” |
How, you might ask, could something like breastfeeding become a hot political issue? It seems that as part of her Let’s Move program to reduce childhood obesity, Michelle Obama has decided to promote breastfeeding. A nurse-in at the White House? No, that might actually be interesting. Rather, the proposal is for the IRS to grant a tax deduction for breast pumps and other nursing supplies.
Seeing a chance to turn a phrase, Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin have weighed in, saying that getting the government involved in breastfeeding is the ultimate in “nanny state” politics. And this has given political commentators on the left the chance to weigh in with “Palin attacks breastfeeding” and “Bachmann says government has no business telling women what choices to make about their bodies” type headlines.
Continue reading
Life Imitates Art
Orwell’s two minute hate from 1984 is brought to film in the above video. Below is a video montage of tweets calling for the death of Sarah Palin which went out after the Giffords shootings. (Strong content advisory: many of the tweets are very vulgar and obscene and all of them are examples of congealed hate.) Continue reading
Yes, It Is A Libel, And It Is Bloody
Let’s make this short.
Sarah Palin uses the phrase “blood libel” in her response to the round-the-clock assertions that she was directly responsible for the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords.
Everyone accuses Sarah Palin of insensitivity and even in some extreme cases, anti-Semitism.
Every leftist or left-leaning publication declares – once again – that Sarah Palin’s presidential chances are ruined.
Are you bored yet?
Sarah Palin WAS the target of some kind of “blood libel”, for two reasons.
First, what else do you call it when one of the first articles to come out in a major publication is titled “Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ blood is on Sarah Palin’s hands after putting cross hair over district?” That was Michael Daly of the NY Daily News. And our old friends Krugman and Olbermann, not to mention dozens of other left-wing commentators, kept the libel going over the next few days.
No one thought that using the word “blood” while actually engaging in libel would be combined as “blood libel” because no one was thinking at all when they made these morally repugnant and shameless accusations. As everyone on the left is forced in the most begrudging manner to admit, Palin was probably only borrowing the phrase from earlier conservative commentators such as Glenn Reynolds.
Secondly, scores of leftists have expressed their desire to murder Sarah Palin in the most vicious ways, to spill her blood. This video contains graphic and vulgar language – it is a reel of tweets that display of the sort demonic rage and hate that Palin inspires in many leftists, who sound as if they really might not mind using her blood to bake a cake.
I think Palin’s response was about as rational as one can be under this sort of constant attack. The level of psychopathic dishonesty it takes to a) first make the shooting entirely about Palin and then b) criticize Palin for making her response mostly “about her” is unfathomable. It takes reserves of bad-will and malice that I am glad I wouldn’t know how to muster if I wanted to.
Whether or not I would support her as a presidential candidate, I have to say, on this matter, I am firmly with Sarah Palin. Sometimes you can just judge a person’s worth by the nature of those who hate her the most.
Palin On The Giffords Shootings
Sarah Palin has released a statement on the Giffords shootings. The above video accompanied the statement. Here is the text of the statement: Continue reading
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