Keep on Keepin' On, Sarah!

If you've read my blog for some period of time beyond the last few months you know that I love Sarah Palin. I still have a difficult time figuring out what's not to love. All of the critiques friends and pundits have delivered ultimately embarrass them far more than Sarah. So it is with her decision to step down. I received an excited call on Saturday while driving to Jacksonville asking if I had heard the news about Palin. No, I replied, worried that something tragic had happened to her.

She resigned!

Resigned, I asked? (Relief swept over me; something like, "Oh. Okay.") What happened, I asked?

Once the basic information was given to me, I immediately determined this was a savvy move -- regardless of what her ulterior motive might have been. I explained to my friend that the Democrats ginned up manufactured B.S. scandals during the last election cycle. I know, because I received repeated calls about this or that obviously ridiculous phony scandal. I wanted to ask my friend this: did he really believe they wouldn't continue to do the same? Did he doubt there was a set-up waiting for her within the realm of Alaska Democrat politics? With a very willing D.C. and New York media at the ready?

I get extremely upset by people who should know better participating in the outrageous sliming of this good woman. And my recollection is similar to John Hayward's and I acutely remember all of this because it reflected my conventional wisdom at the time and all of those around me, including my mentors:

From my endless archives, a few samples of how the major media wrote off Ronald Reagan repeatedly:

Newsweek, 1971, “Ronald Reagan’s Slow Fade,” ended with the judgment that “the somber truth is that Sacramento may mark the end of Ronald Reagan’s political road. . .  By every normal measure, Ronald Reagan ought to be entitled to any political future he wants.  A close aide said, 'The Presidency?  Oh, he’s not interested. Four more years and I think you’ll see Ronald Reagan riding one of his horses off into the sunset.'” And see Stephen Roberts in the New York Times Magazine: “In 1976, the reasoning goes, Reagan would be 65, and too old to run.”  “When a guy’s built on celluloid,” Democratic State Senator George Moscone said, “he goes up fast, but he burns out quickly.” 

After the 1976 campaign, Newsweek offered a reprise, “Into the Sunset":  "The concluding line of Reagan’s convention speech — 'There is no substitute for victory' — could also turn out to be a epitaph for his own political career."

And not to be left out, John Coyne wrote in some magazine called National Review that "Reagan seems somewhat out of step with the new political stirrings, a man very much of the Sixties. . . .  For a decade he has been a central symbol of everything that is best in what we call the conservative movement, and if his approach and his ideas are obsolete, then so are those many of us who believe in him.  And it’s never much fun to be a middle-aged anachronism."

Everyone should apply the appropriate discount to the Palin commentary and analysis they read today.

I'd like to tell all of Sarah Palin's enemies to put that in their "sho' nuff pipe" and smoke it!

Comments

[gadfly]

As a certifiable Palinista, I have been reading everything I could find in the blogesphere in search of the right tone that reflects my view of the 4th of July Palin fireworks. You get the Gold Star.

The Ronald Wilson Reagan history lesson was perfect. Destiny may have at last moved into Sarah's "Vanity Fair misidentified" shoes.

Wretchard has an interesting theory on what happens next:
"Sarah Palin may be calculating that, with employment rates at their lowest point in decades and with polls showing a widespread fear for the country’s future, that a crisis is brewing or will soon burst. A real crisis would seek a natural center, a point around which to rally; and she would be it. For the Republican Party, a Palin at the center of “Tea Parties” and other unconventional protests would raise the risk of draining away support from the party, which to be fair, has done precious little to harness dissent itself."

Sarah Louise Heath Palin is the right person at the right time, because unlike the Obama administration, which spends all its time telling us what we cannot do, Palin has always told us what we are capable of doing.

[JewishOdysseus]

Hey, Amigo, I knew you cdn't resist a Palin story...

But I have to rain on this parade. Ahem:

Fool me once, shame on you. [Gibson, ABC]
Fool me twice, shame on me. (Couric, CBS]
Fool me three times...I must be a FOOL!! [Mitchell, NBC]

JB, when will this woman get it thru her skull that the lamestream media HATES HER GUTS, AND THE GUTS OF HER WHOLE FAMILY??!!

"Cluelessness" is never a strong point in a president.

[Ree]

I hear ya J.B. and I am marching right along side you:)

[Royce]

But remember what a flake Ross Perot looked like when he quit when the going got "tough" (he was afraid somebody would ruin his dauther's wedding or something). He fizzled out from there on.

[RattlerGator]

I hear you, Phil.

But "cluelessness?" I think this woman understands what she's up against and knows that she has to let people periodically *see* just what she's up against. The people that hate her will remain blind, just as they were to Reagan. So they'll continue doing what they do. Cool.

gadfly, I read that Wretchard piece and you know I love Wretchard. Sarah Palin has the power right now to destroy the Republican Party for the foreseeable future. No one else presently has that power. She also has the power to freak out otherwise sane people who simply can't resist showing their uglier side when it comes to her. There's a certain power in that ability as well. At least there is as far as I'm concerned.

I think she's coming to terms with her power -- and I couldn't be happier when I contemplate that possibility.

Ree, I'm proud to be a foot soldier with you by my side.

Royce, Sarah Palin is no Ross Perot. She knows something about [1] birthin' some babies, [2] being proud of where she's from (that counts for a hell of a lot in my book!), [3] being secure in her womanhood, [4] not being easily impressed by urbane punk ass surrender monkeys, [5] taking on a power structure that wanted to crush her after they couldn't co-opt her, [6] winning elections, and [7] standing tall when all the hyenas circled -- *that* was all the profile in courage I needed to see.

I'm ready for her to start whuppin' some ass, I sure am. But I want her to do it on her terms and at times of her choosing.