The American Spectator

Roy Koczela| 11.6.08 @ 2:32PM

People tend to forget just what Palin had the potential to be, and still could be down the road if she hasn't been irretrievably damaged by this.

Substantively, she was one of almost no politicians in America who has actually cut government in the last few years. This would rule out any congressional Republican, with hardly any exceptions. Some independent anger at Bush was over that issue - she had the chance to reverse it.

She has also actually fired incompetent, underperforming bureaucrats, something that would be a wonderful trait in a president, the failure to do which was Bush's major failing.

McCain couldn't have gotten either of those things with any of the other picks he had available. The cultural factors were, at least initially, secondary. She really represented an opportunity at a "reform" ticket. McCain is allergic to coherence, however(kinda the definition of being a "maverick") so that didn't work out.

The cultural issues - I dunno. She is toxic to liberals and David Brooks "conservatives". She can have strong appeal to a certain class of independent woman to whom she can provide an alternative model. But to the extent that liberals can succeed in destroying her that possibility recedes ever further.

Thanks to some mishandled interviews, she may be permanently damaged. I know my right-leaning father has concluded that she is "stupid" and voted against McCain on that basis. The next four years will tell the tale. If she succeeds in reforming Alaska's government, continuing on the path she is on now, and wins re-election in 2010, in the meantime studying up on foreign affairs and media relations, maybe she can come back.

Crusader| 11.6.08 @ 3:39PM

Hmm, Joe Biden claims FDR went on TV in 1929 to calm the fears over the Great Depression but Sarah is "stupid." Hmm. I would guess your right-leaning father is a member of the great flock of sheeple who do what the media tell them to do and think how the media tell them to think.

Roy Koczela| 11.6.08 @ 4:10PM

Much less so than lots(or he wouldn't be "right-leaning"). I believe he was played, but never mind that for the moment. There are a hell and crackling lot of these sheeple. What can be done about it?

Tom| 11.6.08 @ 4:13PM

Crusader: How does Joe Biden displaying stupidity make Sarah Palin any smarter or any more informed? Do you really want a President who doesn't know that Africa is a continent?

Scott| 11.6.08 @ 4:14PM

I really kind of doubt voters would take the trouble to parse which part of Lehman Brothers Kasich was associated with. We all saw how well they parsed who was responsible for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and that was with rather damning video to help them.

Crusader| 11.6.08 @ 5:05PM

Tom, your argument is the old bait and switch. Either that or you miss my point. My point is the media directs the sheeple's attention to stuff like Palin's shoes while completely ignoring Biden's gaffes.

As far as Palin being stupid, well, how does one get elected governor of a state if one is stupid? The stuff about her not knowing Africa was a continent? Man I stopped believing everything I heard on TV News when I was, oh, about 15. Especially "anonymous" attacks on someone, as were the accusations made to Carl Cameron by McCain insiders. If she is so stupid and you have conclusive evidence then get yourself in front of a camera and say it. Don't hide behind anonymity like a coward.

Crusader| 11.6.08 @ 5:10PM

Tom, do you really want a VP who says basically "follow us blindly, don't question, just support us when this 'crisis' hits" and then in the next breath slams Bush?

Do you really want a VP who asks a paraplegic to stand?

Do you really want a president who thinks there are 57 states?

Do you really want a president who when told raising taxes actually reduces receipts to the gubmint said he didn't care, because raising taxes was about what's "fair?"

Do you really want a VP who says paying mroe taxes is your patriotic duty?

I mean we could go on and on but the reality is the media tells the sheeple what to think and what to do and they do it. Critical thinking is dead in amerika.

Crusader| 11.6.08 @ 5:15PM

Roy, you ask what can be done about it? Secession. Seriously. America as we know it is dead. Even the socialist lite stuff I grew up with is now going to be full-blown commie stuff here shortly. Did you see the tapestries flying in Chicago? They looked like stuff straight out of an eastern bloc commie country.

Let the remaining couple million folks who actually believe in that scary principal "freedom" have a couple states out west and leave us alone. We'll raise and educate our kids without having to be told how to do it. We'll use as much water in our toilets as we want. If we want to put an addition on our home, we won't ask nanny state if it is OK. If I want to buy a gun I will buy one. If I want to crank my heat up to 78 I will. The rest of the mindless sheeple can have amerika and you guys who stay can help pay ol' Peggy the Mooch's gas and mortgage payments like she said on TV the other day. Or join the Armed Civilian Security Force and goose step all over town as much as you like. Me, I just want ot be left alone to do what I want to do as long as I am not infringing on anyone else's rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

sickened| 11.6.08 @ 5:32PM

It strikes me that Quin Hillyer is a lot stupider than Sarah Palin. And probably Levi Johnston for that matter.

Objectivist| 11.6.08 @ 5:39PM

Crusader! There was a time and place where Colorado would have been one of those Western States for those who embrace the scary and sometimes brutality of freedom - however CO turned blue on Tuesday! They voted in the first Black president of the United States - arguably the most powerful position in the world but couldn't let go of affirmative action! It's time the 200 year time clock for democracies is fast coming to an end - and people are swooning head long into political and economic slavery! So eager are they, they drool at the thought!
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence; from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependency back again into bondage."
--Sir Alex Fraser Tytler, Scottish jurist and historian writing over 200 years ago on the fall of the Athenian Republic

I agree - let's head West with John Galt and take our chances.

Tom Paine| 11.6.08 @ 7:38PM

Folks,

I'm sorry, but I refuse to let Error run so wild.

While it is true that some in the media were unfair to Palin with respect to her daughter, it is also true that much more time was spent discussing the media's treatment of Palin in the media than time was spent treating her in one way or another.

The Governor of Alaska gave not a single formal press conference and sat for only a few formal interviews with nationally recognized journalists. Towards the end of the campaign she was accompanied by McCain -- which was weird and unprecedented.

Unlike Reagan, both Bushes, and many, many other conservatives, Palin was demolished by the media. She could not rise above it or operate in it. This may be because the media are evil communists, as you people aver, but I think not. Palin was just not smart enough for them.

Her interview with Gibson was understandable, and I suppose she probably broke even.

Her interview with Couric was simply devastating. No sane, mature, rational person could watch that interview and conclude that Couric was asking unfair questions or that Palin showed herself to be competent for the office she was seeking.

If you don't run people that can articulate complicated ideas, you'll lose eventually. You got away with it with Bush for some reason, but it couldn't last forever.

You want to win, find some people who know something about government and about the world and can speak the language properly. Then you'll be back in the game.

Bullpup| 11.6.08 @ 8:00PM

I don't think Sarah Palin was ready for primetime. But, her treatment by these McFlacks is unacceptable. At the very minimum couldn't Sarah Palin serve as a huge fundraising draw for the Republicans? She did pack venue after venue with cheering supporters. No one was ever fired up over McCain, at least a large segment of the movement was fired up over Sarah Palin. A couple of flubbed interviews do not erase the life she has actually lived and embraced. This was what inspired many of us who like her and her story. I don't think Palin will be anywhere near the trail in 2012, but I think she could be a great cheerleader for the conservative movement, and someone who will help put the energy back into the party.

Aedemmair| 11.6.08 @ 10:16PM

Tom Paine -

Excellen post, in entirety, because true.

I was an early fan of Palin, and I do think that there was a viciousness coming from people like Andrew Sullivan, unlike anything I have ever witnessed.

Krauthammer wrote today, in criticizing the selection of Palin, that it undercut McCain's prior experience argument. And to bolster my point about the viciousness directed at her, he differentiates between the political fallout and the "sideshow psychodrama of feminist rage and elite loathing that had little to do with politics and everything to do with cultural prejudices, resentments and affectations."

But back to Palin's problem, can you imagine Margaret Thatcher, even at a much earlier age, answering Couric's questions as Palin did? I cannot. Maggie was a middle-class girl too. IIRC, her degree was in chemistry.

Sarah Palin has a degree in journalism, and you would think that would give her some edge here, but it did not.

It is hard for me to assess her potential because she did have to wear the hat of a VP, and all that entails relative to keeping your own point of view well hidden, should it conflict with the man at the top of the ticket.

But therein lies another problem: the top of the ticket.

Thomas Sowell, an emiently fair and honest man, wrote in February, that while Senator McCain "makes short, blunt statements," that "does not make him a straight-talker."

In particular he references a "short, blunt lie" that he told the night of the Florida primary, claiming that Mitt Romney has planned a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

And, as Sowell noted, even the Washington Post which supported McCain at the time, wrote that McCain had distored what Romney had said and that Romney had never proposed setting a date for withdrawal.

Sowell expounds a bit, and writes that when McCain was confronted about his lie he "blustered and filibustered in a manner reminiscent of Captain Queeg in "The Caine Mutiny," when he was caught in a lie during a navy inquiry."

While McCain's is entitled to respect and admiration for his conduct as a prisoner of war, it is not as Sowell said, "a lifetime get-out-of-jail-free card."

Had McCain had any real economic convictions he might have been able to help himself, but as he didn't, the electorate was not able to place confidence in him, despite his heroism.

McCain has a reputation for being a nasty tempered man. And based on a couple of tasteless jokes (alzheimer's and Chelsea Clinton) I'm inclined to believe it.

I'll be blunt here, we may have a dodged a bullet with his loss. He is a loose cannon, and I've known that from the beginnning. I voted strictly against Obama.

I am a conservative through and through. Moral man matters, and I am so tired of having to settle for men who don't really know what that means.

Would I forgive a president who stepped out on his wife? Certainly. Would I forgive a president who picks on 14 year old girl because of her looks? I would have to, if he's already the president, but it says something about a man that infidelity does not.

ruth| 11.7.08 @ 1:16AM

McCain was a flawed candidate and not my choice, but good God, Obama's a Marxist! None of us knows what he's really going to do. I am so creeped out!

Crusader| 11.7.08 @ 9:21AM

Objectivist,
Having read some of Boston T. Party's work I am familiar with his Free State Wyoming project. I didn't really take to it too seriously as I enjoy living in the South and planned on retiring to a quaint little mountain ranch in NE Arkansas. However with the recent developments I am giving serious thought to Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and even Alaska. If you want more info about the movement check out www.freestatewyoming.org (pretty sure it is .org).

BTW, I lived in CO many years ago and really loved it! Beautiful, beautiful place. However you are right, the "granolas" from Boulder are spreading everywhere plus the influx of, um, "immigrants" from our southern neighbor have turned it decidely blue. A shame really.

Doug Welty| 11.7.08 @ 9:50AM

In politics, there's no such thing as irretrievable damage - excepting, perhaps, the damage done by a felony conviction or a truly sordid sex scandal. Otherwise, the worst that can happen is a few years in the penalty box. Consider Nixon, Teddy Kennedy, Newt, and Gaffemaster Joe Biden just for starters. Sarah ain't going anywhere, and keep an eye out for the comeback of George Allen.

Bob| 11.7.08 @ 10:28AM

I was for Romney and against McCain/Palin because I could not vote for unqualified candidates -- both of them. Actually, my favorite candidate would have been Tom Ridge but he would have been blackballed by social conservatives. If good conservatives like Ridge cannot be put forth, the Republican party is doomed.

blotto| 11.7.08 @ 10:45AM

You idiots. You are doing what the Left wants you to do-mainly eating ourselves. Stop with the disgusting discussion over Gov. Palin's interview performance and intelligence. She is a governor for God's sake. Direct your wisdom(?) against the Left.
I liked Gov. Palin because of her foilables and because she spoke of true conservative principals. Not your latte sipping, Manhattan moderate, inclusive ones. It is you, the blue bloods, of our party that got us defeated. Go to the Demoncrats and see if they accept you. But stop criticizing our side. Leave!!

Bob| 11.7.08 @ 11:03AM

Blotto -- you are living in a glass house and shouldn't throw stones. The truth is that the reason she is so popular in Alaska is because she instituted a windfall profits tax on oil and gave all Alaskans a check. Is that conservative? She has the largest per capita use of earmarks in the U.S. Is that conservative? She spends hundreds of thousands of dollars of you donations on clothes for herself and her family. Is that conservative? We don't know what she actually believes because all of her comments and speeches were written for her and she didn't give any of us reassurance in the two interviews of Gibson and Couric. All of the Fox news interviews were puff pieces and you know it. She was never really challenged. You have to be a fool to believe otherwise.

Besides, I object to the our side/their side game. We should be Americans first and party people second. The social conservatives and their intolerance that forced McCain to choose Palin is the reason we were defeated. When we move from hard right to center right -- closer to where the country is -- we will win again. That's why Bush won two times as a "compassionate conservative". The fact that he was an incompetent leader is the problem.

Gazinya| 11.7.08 @ 12:12PM

Obama found 'obscurities' in the New Testament that interfeared with his politics. Obama campained in all but one "of 57 States with just one more, I think." Biden told us about FDR and his television appearences. Stop with the Palin intellegence tests. She and her family were asked to follow a dullard and a closet liberal. The people who knew from the beginning that Gov. Palin could be trouble for their political 'careers' wanted her gone before the gun sounded. I believe that Sarah and her family were set up by these 'aides' to McCain. I just hope the Palins can enjoy some real peace back in Alaska. What makes Africa a continent? Size, geography? Tell me that without looking it up.

Mary| 11.7.08 @ 12:36PM

I am a child of God first, an American second and conservative third. God, Country, Honor!

Compassionate Conservatism is a defacto admission that conservatism, in and of itself, is cruel. So, calling yourself a "compassionate conservative" produces, along with burgeoning deficits and a sickly, dependent citizenry, incoherence. Leave the incoherence to religious infighting and homogeneity.

Dick Armey has a good piece in today's WS Opinion Journal:

Ronald Reagan, for example, held an unshakably positive vision of American capitalism. He didn't feel a need to qualify the meaning of his conservatism. He understood that big government was cruel and uncaring of individual aspirations. Small government conservatism was, by definition, compassionate -- offering every American a way up to self-determination and economic prosperity.

If we run as those who can design a hammock that is just as sturdy, but less expensive, smart people will choose Democrats with extensive experience in hammock design, every time. A good IQ showing, as far as I can see.

As Bobby Jindal said earlier on the Laura Ingrahm show, restoration and renewal of the Conservative party must begin at the local level, pointing out that The Founders were not men who believed power should be concentrated in Washington.

Armey also writes that: "Parties are all about getting people elected to political office; and the practice of politics too often takes the form of professional juvenile delinquency: short-sighted and self-centered."

The decency of President Bush will not be outweighed by his missteps. History is likely to be kinder to him than is currently expected. His incompetency vis-a-vis PR and engaging the electorate, hard to measure.

When the triple-stitched canvas hammock -which now must hold the weight of the lumpenleisure as well- gives way, and it will, Conservatives should make sure they're ready to remind everyone that those who claimed Conservatives were hammock makers were spit-shined, but wrong, and that even when Conservatives were 'ragged, they were right!'

I think it might be a pretty good idea for rank and file Conservatives to forget about the acquisition of power right now, and get together at the local level. Here in my area there is a group that gets together in a local pub and reads Kirk together. They are people from diverse walks of life. The group includes Christians and agnostics who think that free-trade and capitalism must be informed by morality if it is to produce a healthy and enduring private sector. Not a socialist in the group, just people who think we owe something to the communities in which we live.

The bailout, however necessary -and who can know if it was?- has something at the center that is like an artificial life form yet still rotting and stinking.

If all fails, then let us all admit that the way to keep the barbarians outside the gate and the mob inside the gate from colluding and pillaging, is redistribution. It's the cost of doing civilization from sonsabitches as far a'way back as the no-nonsense, temperate-zone occupying Romans.

P.S. All I remember about continents is that they are great land masses of the earth. But then, I'm not a Governor of a State. I don't care much about the continent stuff or even the NAFTA thingy as neither one of those beat the news that we have 57 States.

The Couric disaster is one of her own making, that she can probably blunt of if she can get out of that very average synaptic loop that is her mainstay on the stump. Good for true believers, bad for propaganda haters.

Lambaste the cowards in the McCain camp all you want. She's slammin' that issue anyway by not crawling into the low rent space of these losers. But for goodness sake, don't make excuses for her. Don't make her our AA candidate.

Mary| 11.7.08 @ 12:38PM

Tried to blockquote, wouldn't take. But this is the part of Armey's piece that I was trying to highlight.

Ronald Reagan, for example, held an unshakably positive vision of American capitalism. He didn't feel a need to qualify the meaning of his conservatism. He understood that big government was cruel and uncaring of individual aspirations. Small government conservatism was, by definition, compassionate -- offering every American a way up to self-determination and economic prosperity.

Crusader| 11.7.08 @ 2:42PM

Someone a lot smarter than I said something to the effect of "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." By that definition, Bob, my firend, you are insane.

Conservatives need to move closer to the center? Are you joking? How many times did Bush move to the center if not all the way to the left and what did that get him? NCLB, Medicare, the bailout, immigration, etc. Bush was not "hard right" on anything, the war included. On most things he was left. But what did that get him? Lambasted every day. If he had a "D" next to his name he would be hailed as one of the great pez's in history with the massive govt expansion he wrought.

No, conservatism needs a hard, hard, HARD turn RIGHT. People seem to think that is "bad." Is freedom bad? Is live and let live bad? Is having the government out of our lives as long as we don't infringe on other's rights bad? Is no DEA/BATFE/DOJ/TSA/etc/etc/etc bad? Is not sending uncle Sam 60% of your wages so he can pay Peggy the Mooch's mortgage bad? Is having a dollar that actually increases in value as opposed to being near worthless bad?

Get out! Go join the dems man. Tell them to "move to the center." I am staying firmly ensconced on the FAR FAR FAR RIGHT!!!!!

Red Neck| 11.7.08 @ 4:40PM

I see the war against terrorism as the single thing which was topmost in Bush's mind. Who in his shoes could forget the moment when the towers were rammed and fell, and the Pentagon was smashed? For the sake of doing every single thing he could think of to keep that horror from recurring on his watch, he went to the mat with the Supreme Court for years. It's easier to see his acquiescence to domestic largesse in that light. Keep the people fat and happy, on Uncle Sam's credit card. Don't raise a fit antagonizing the Democrats, who wanted the largesse and who were sitting stubbornly in filibuster against fixing the then-remote risks of Fannie and Freddie.

I don't envy Obama for what's going to happen when the Supreme Court order that the EPA must follow the Democrat Congressional dictate to set greenhouse gas policies across the entire nation, exits the comment period that Bush's EPA used to buy time until the next President. It will be a perfect manure storm. Dow zip to 5000 or less, and that's if it has previously leveled off where it is now. Obama will have to arm twist his rabid Congressional Democrats into rescinding that law or face a popular mutiny.

ruth| 11.7.08 @ 5:36PM

Red Neck, I agree. I also think Bush had tunnel vision when it came to our security. The problem I have with him is that he couldn't or wouldn't articulate what his policies, strategies and successes were. Sometimes I felt like we didn't have a president. A leader has to be able to communicate with the people. Do you have any idea why he withdrew from the public? I am so grateful we haven't been hit by terroists again--why didn't he talk about this? We've won the Iraq war, the economy was good until liberal social engineering screwed it up and we've had no more 9/11 attacks. These are incredible accomplishments! Bush's lack of vocal leadership created a vaccuum--negativity (a lot of it false) rushed in and created a mis-perception of reality. He let his enemies define him and his policies and, unfortunately, conservatism too.

Karl Miller| 11.7.08 @ 10:06PM

The gaps in Sarah Palin's knowledge can be explained by the plain truth. She was a journalism major.

Roy| 11.8.08 @ 3:37AM

She did not "institute a windfall profits tax". The oil companies already paid Alaskans to drill their oil, just as they pay Saudi Arabians, etc. She negotiated a better deal for them.

I might prefer that the oil were completely privatized eg by giving shares to every Alaskan, but that could be complex and she is not to blame for what was already in place when she got there.

Palin was not picked as a "social conservative" but as a reformer. The first time she appeared in the conservative press, at least that I saw, was Fred Barnes' article in early 2007. It talks about how she fought corruption, cut spending, and opposed burdensome regulation. These are things John McCain talked a good game about but had not, in actual fact, when it comes right down to it, you know, DONE.

I'm not saying she is perfect, but the "stupid social conservative" meme is idiotic.

Bob| 11.8.08 @ 12:51PM

Roy, there is a difference between royalties and a "profits" tax. You're mixing up the two. Read this article:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008103325_alaskatax07.html

As to the statement that Palin was picked as a "reformer", that is pure and unadulterated marketing -- and you bit on that talking point. She was chosen for two reasons which are well substantiated -- to obtain the women's vote from Hillary and to strengthen the base of social conservatives since McCain had problems with that group.

I don't think that anyone rational thinks Palin to be "stupid". However, she is ignorant of national and international issues, the intricacies of the Constitution, geography, and world affairs. This is not detrimental to being the governor of Alaska, but it is a severe handicap to holding a national position. On the plus side, she is a natural communicator and populist. You cannot learn the latter, but you can learn facts which gives here a chance in the future.

The fact is that we know a lot about Obama's intellectual capability and beliefs is that he's been writing books/articles and giving speeches for many years. We know nothing of Palin's capabilities because she has written nothing, studied nothing, not even the speeches she has given. She has only used talking points. She is more of an actor than a politician. The only place she was tested was in the Gibson and Couric interviews which she failed miserably. At her debate, she refused to answer questions and what she did answer showed a significant lack of knowledge -- like agreeing that there was a privacy right in the Constitution which was the main support for Roe v. Wade.

She is not stupid -- that is a biological trait. She is ignorant which is a function of a lack of strong education and a lack of intellectual curiosity.

Bob| 11.8.08 @ 1:10PM

Crusader, here's what's wrong with your logic. The definitions of right and left have changed since Reagan. Both the hard right and hard left want government to intervene in our lives. The left wants government to control more of our economic lives, and the right wants government to control more of our "moral" lives. Personally, I don't want either -- and neither do the vast majority of the electorate. Limited government, fiscal conservatism, and limited libertarianism is now the new center. Social conservatives and neocons have taken over the hard right of the Republican party and they are very interventionalist -- as much as the social welfare of the hard left. I want government to provide what's called for in the Constitution and then to get out of the way. I want government to be pragmatic, not ideological, about solutions. Obama understood the new dynamics and ran to this new center. The purpose of choosing Emanuel as Chief of Staff was not to push us left, but to fight the hard left of the Democratic party. That is the risk that Obama faces and he knows it. He will govern to the center because he is a student of history and understands to do otherwise will make him an unsuccessful President. McCain and Palin are just not bright enough to understand this.

I heard Armstrong Williams this morning talking precisely about this topic recognizing that "right" and "left" are no longer meaningful labels.

Bob| 11.8.08 @ 3:07PM

Gazinya, I can understand why you don't want to address Palin's intelligence - just check your spelling of "interfeared", "appearences", and humorously, "intellegence". There is a difference between misspeaking and not knowing/understanding. McCain talked about "My fellow prisoners", but that was an obvious misspeak. On the other hand, McCain always mixed up Sunni and Shia -- that's a matter of content. Not knowing Africa is a continent or that the privacy right was the main support for Roe v. Wade is a matter of a lack of knowledge. As to the Obama "obscurities", read this:

http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/03/04/barack-obama-first-rate-theologian-on-romans-1-matthew-5-and-obscurity/

Palin has a severe lack of knowledge when it comes to national, international, and Constitutional issues. That's understandable given her background. However, that is not acceptable for someone running for national office. Other governors, including Reagan, Clinton, and yes, Bush, understood these things. Palin does not.

ruth| 11.8.08 @ 6:34PM

Hey, Bob, you won--you can give it a rest now. Go home, Sarah's not going away. In fact, the more you Obama trolls howl and screech, the more we are going to support her.