The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

Reader Mail

DOWN, NOT OUT
Re: Robert Stacy McCain's Sarah Surprises Again:

Thank you for the most level-headed analysis about Sarah Palin's resignation that I have yet seen anywhere on the web. There is no doubting that establishment Republican types, who are uncomfortable with being anything other than Democrat-lite in their thinking, don't understand her appeal. Her appeal is simple to understand. She is not one of "them." She is one of "us"… a conservative!
-- Gray Creager
Colorado Springs, Colorado

While I may agree that resigning as Governor of Alaska will make it very difficult for Sarah to be nominated as the 2012 Presidential candidate, I do find it disturbing and even disgusting that conservative bloggers and establishment figures do the left's work in trashing her.

I am not a pure "social conservative." I am a pro-life libertarian with a realistic view of the wages of isolationism. What attracts people to Sarah Palin is her common sense view of what works in America, and what doesn't. She actually believes in the low tax, small government tradition that made America great. She does not have the intellectual firepower of a George Will in opposing counterproductive energy regulations/taxes, or of a John Bolton in noting that we are at war with an anti-life ideology rather than policing a few nutcases. Yet, she knows the truths here, and she is effective at expressing them clearly and concisely to people as if she were sitting at their kitchen tables. She does not need a PhD in economics to understand why tax, spend, and regulate is not a path to growth of anything other than an oppressive government. She knows this because she is a real American, not some college don or media thumb-sucker playing mind games with those they consider "rubes."

I heard Mike Huckleberry this weekend try to compare his situation as Governor of Arkansas with Sarah's situation. I don't recall the national press retailing every off-the-wall made up rumor about him to a national audience, nor do I recall attacks on his family members. He may have had strong opposition among the majority Democrat Party, but I don't think he also had to contend with a hostile Republican Party that he had worked to cleanse. There is a reason for the sustained attacks against Sarah Palin. Her opponents know that she is the most natural Republican politician in a generation. No, she is not Reagan II. She is Palin I. Why would you bother to trash a true lightweight? There is fear that she is the one candidate who might have some crossover appeal outside the Republican Party.

And who are the competitors to take on the Obamamessiah? The "love guv" from South Carolina? The chameleon from Massachusetts who is willing to tailor his message to his political situation? Mr. Boring from Minnesota? The cheerleader for the Porkulus bill from Florida? The secessionist from Texas? The pro-abortionist from New York City? The anti-semitic isolationist from Medialand? The tax and spend governor from Arkansas, who wants to enact the "Smuggler's Promotion Act" by replacing the income tax with a poorly conceived consumption tax? Or the media darling war hero? Oh, wait, we already tried him!

So now Sarah Palin is free to take on the national naysayers. Sarah, don't bother "brushing up" on who might be running Myanmar or Keynesian I-S analysis. Spend your time learning how to communicate what you know about America and how America works in unfiltered ways. You don't need a seminar. You need a microphone.

People don't vote for Bill Buckley, and they certainly don't vote for conservative intellectual apostates such as the two Davids. They voted for Ronald Reagan, and not because he was an intellectual. They liked what he knew about the character of America, and what made America an exceptionally successful country, and how he could communicate his love for his country and the people who made it work. Sarah, you can follow this same path, and you don't have to change who you are to do so.
-- Stephen Zierak
Kansas City, Missouri

With the barrage of criticism once again mounted upon Sarah Palin from both Democrats and Republicans when she announced her resignation, I for a brief moment thought that maybe they were at least partly right. They cite her mediocre education, lack of knowledge of foreign affairs and unorthodox views and other shortcomings. But only for a brief time because then I remembered the "mental giants" who made up the rest of the national ticket last fall. The half-educated clueless socialist, he who must be the dumbest person who ever emerged from the Naval Academy, and the weirdest man alive today, Joe Biden, the man who never saw a life he did not want to steal. Sarah Palin, who has shortcomings as we all do, never saw a day when she was not at least five times smarter than the other three numb numbs.
-- Jack Wheatley
Royal Oak, Michigan

There is among the punditry on the right a unique brand of elitism. While different from that on the left, wherein they believe in their individual superiority and an endowed right to rule the huddled masses, those on the right appear to think they have a singular ability to understand and speak for the same huddled masses. Both sides are missing what is and has been happening to the electorate in this country. Sarah Palin has struck a chord, not because of her looks or folksy mannerism, but because she can and does relate to the "folks" who are completely fed up with the "elitist oligarchy" running the country. This includes not only the politicians, but the bureaucrats, the media, academia and, yes, the pundits on both sides of the aisle.

The reaction by the average person over her resigning the governorship has been: we believe what she is saying is the reason she resigned and we trust her to continue to speak for us. It has not been to foment a coffee-shop discussion equivalent to analyzing the real meaning of "Lord of the Flies."

Today the conservatives, libertarians and right-of-center "moderates" are looking for someone to get on the national stage and vigorously oppose President Obama and the Democrats in Congress. There is no one in the Republican Party either willing or capable of doing so. There are none in the media, except for the major talk show hosts throughout the country; but they cannot command national attention whenever they speak. Like it or not, there are only two people on the political stage that can do so. They are: Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. 

She can, and I believe will, become the left's biggest nightmare. They can do no more to destroy her and in fact have made her more of an icon to the average family in the country. She has become, in essence, damage proof by her baptism of fire from the left and the right. She may never become president but she can unite the frustrated electorate into a powerful force that will in time affect the entrenched elites in Washington, New York and Los Angeles. Do not underestimate her.
-- Steve McCann
Salisbury, Maryland

Had Governor Palin run on the Democratic ticket, she could have easily buried both Obama and Hillary, she is the perfect poster child for the left. She's an attractive female, she has exercised her reproductive rights, and she's blown through the glass ceiling due to her brains, courage, and will to succeed, not riding her husband's coattails. Unfortunately and tragic almost, she's a conservative. That makes her the enemy. Period. How dare she appropriate liberal concepts and ideas? Those are domains reserved for the left, thank you very much. Perhaps one day we truly will judge a person by the content of their character. 

I look forward to the next chapter in this remarkable tale. I know of a state that sorely needs a leader right now. I know of a country that is in dire need of a leader as well.
-- Greg Mercurio
Vacaville, California