I called Kristol and asked him if he thought Palin could grow into the next Reagan, reminding him that he was outnumbered by conservatives recoiling from her.
“Conservative eggheads are my friends,” he said, “but politically they’re a contrarian indicator. If they’re down on Palin, things are looking up for her. With all due respect for my fellow eggheads, they are underestimating the importance of a natural political gift or star quality. It matters a lot.”
He suggested that she has a shrewdness and toughness — “like Andrew Jackson” — beyond what you get with a Yale law degree or Harvard business degree. “That may be hard for my conservative intellectual friends to grasp,” he said.
I didn’t seem to be soothing the waters. I called Brooks, who conceded: “Her political delivery skills are incredible.”
So you agree with Kristol that she might be a star in the party? Could Palin be the nominee in 2012?
“The short answer is no,” Brooks said. “She has reinforced the worst of talk-radio culture. The party will need a leader to strike out in a new direction, a fiscally conservative president more like a high-tech Teddy Roosevelt. Someone with gravitas.”
October 15, 2008
Is Sarah Palin the new Ronald Reagan?
Maureen Dowd asks her NYT op-ed pagemates:
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106 comments:
Brooks and Dowd.
Sounds like a bad Country band reunion tour from the Carter family.
-XC
Is there any doubt Palin is smarter than Reagan and more charasmatic?
She's also nastier.
I don't think she'd be a good POTUS but where does Brooks think he'll find the ideal conservative?
These think tank conservatives, like their liberal counterparts, are very naive. If any of them ran for office, they'd get trounced.
If Obama does a bad job governing, she'll be the perfect foil in 2012.
David Brooks is a horse's ass. Unfortunately, Palin is a bigger one.
The GOP media punditry was hardly worshiping Reagan before he came to DC. Reagan's gift was an ability to speak to the average folks and not getting into the good graces of the media elite.
Palin shares Reagan's common touch and the disdain of the pundit class. However, Reagan was far more prepared than Palin on the substance, having spent decades thinking about the issue facing the country.
Palin is an intelligent woman with the right instincts, though. With some hard work on the nuts and bolts of policy, Palin could get there.
Didn't Reagen spend decades crafting his political philosophy? Brook's point is that Palin has Reagan's screen presence without his focus on ideas. I don't see how anyone could argue with that right now. As for what she does in the next 4 years, who knows, but she'll sure as hell have to read and think a lot to get to where Reagan was in the late 70s.
Teddy Roosevelt as someone with gravitas? Great Bog!
addendum to prior post, common opinion of Roosevelt when he ascended was that he was a crazy wingnut with no qualifications to the Presidency, which sounds a lot like Brooks' opinion of Palin.
Personally, I'd rather have a Coolidge than a Roosevelt, but I'd like someone a bit more talkative.
Nastier? I don't know where you get that unless you're an MSM dupe.
I agree that fact that she unhinges the elites is a big plus. But there is no way a Republican will ever win again if Obama gets in. The fix is in already, and after four years of Bolsheviks burrowing into every nook and cranny of the government the idea that these pricks will ever release their stranglehold on the levers of power is pure fantasy.
TR was a progressive. No wonder Brooks suggests him as a model.
Maureen Dowd sounds like she knows the same kinds of Republicans that Pauline Kael did. The kind who find themselves voting D.
Sarah Palin, will be the next Sarah Palin. We small goverment types need to stop searching for Reagan.
Somethin' is goin' on, I can't explain but sure can touch: It's callin' both of us. Stronger than any fear or doubt, it's changin' everything I see: It's changin' you, it's changin' me. Right here, right now's the perfect spot, the perfect time. Oh, yeah.
It's heartwarming to see the Mandarins, whatever their superficial differences, lock arms and keep the alien outside their charmed circle. Bush, Kerry and Gore may have been indifferent students, but they were indifferent students at Ivy League institutions. They are one of us and have a place in public life. Sarah has no Mandarin credentials and, therefore, cannot govern.
mccullough said...I don't think she'd be a good POTUS but where does Brooks think he'll find the ideal conservative?
The Likud party. Netanyahu spends quite a bit of time in Manhattan.
"Is Sarah Palin the new Ronald Reagan?"
Only in the sense that she is passionately hated by the left. She has also attracted a sexualized hatred that Reagan never attracted.
No mere female could ever become a Reagan like figure in this country. Even an American born Margaret Thatcher couldn't do it and Sarah is no Margaret Thatcher.
I don't totally agree with her politics but I like her and strongly dislike her critics.
I don't think she has much of a nationwide political future.
She seems like more of a cultural figure than a political one. A symbol of a kind of America that people love and long for or deeply despise.
Yes, Palin is the new Reagan. The problem is that Reagan and his deregulation policies have been discredited and are about to be thrown into the dustbin of history. Nothing will save his legacy now, nowhere to run or hide.
Reagan will be remembered for destroying the American financial system. And destroying Grandma and Grandpa's retirement.
Here's to the new Reagan, hope you wingnuts can sell it to the masses.
One can't help but see in Brooks' hostility to Palin a certain defensiveness - that woman's never read one of my columns in her life! How can she possibly be smart enough to be elected?!
The GOP media punditry was hardly worshiping Reagan before he came to DC.
There was GOP media punditry in 1980? Well, Firing Line, sure, but who was the OTHER one? :)
Why is she asking people in NY? As if they matter to the Republican party! I think she's too lazy to get out into the real part of the country to ask the question. There, the answer might be somewhat different.
David Brooks is truly a wonder of nature.
That someone can speak and write when his skull is filled with fecal matter, rather than an actual brain, is amazing.
Reagan will be remembered for destroying the American financial system. And destroying Grandma and Grandpa's retirement.
Some people become afflicted with Alzheimers Disease - a terrible disease that causes people to forget everything that happened.
Others (see comment above) become afflicted with Chumpheimers Disease - an annoying disease that causes people to remember things that never happened.
As for Palin being the next Reagan - no one can tell until after she has been elected tot he presidency. We can only hope that Palin, Jindal, Ryan or some other conservative will aspire to be an heir to the Reagan philosophy in more ways than the mere proclamation of heritage during campaigns.
I think the potential is there, but right now she's more Reagan '68 than Reagan '80. She needs to develop expertise on a broader range of national issues and she needs to find her own big-picture vision for the country. The latter was really what made Reagan special, and it's what every candidate post '88 has lacked.
Michael_H said...
Reagan will be remembered for destroying the American financial system. And destroying Grandma and Grandpa's retirement.
Some people become afflicted with Alzheimers Disease - a terrible disease that causes people to forget everything that happened.
Others (see comment above) become afflicted with Chumpheimers Disease - an annoying disease that causes people to remember things that never happened.
I'll be stealing and using chumpheimer's in real life, very witty and hilarious. Especially coming from such a dim bulb. Kudos.
Who started the hardcore push for deregulation? The Easter Bunny? Dream on dreamer. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. It all lands at the feet of Ronald Reagan, no matter how you cut it. The experimentation in deregulation failed miserably.
I think MadisonMan nails it - Dowd needs to leave the island.
I like Palin's story, have not been too impressed with her media outtings (even granted the questions were loaded and the editing was unfair).
If Palin wants to be the next Reagan she needs to spend the next four years preparing a coherent worldview. Anyone that has read some of Reagan's letters knows that he spent a lot of time and effort thinking about the major issues of the day - free markets and the communist menace. Despite what his sneering critics said, he had a deep, well thought out core philosophy, delevloped over 30+ years in movies, labor relations, politics and advertising, and he reacted to events based on that core.
Palin has one very good issue - energy independence - it is something she does understand well, and it just happens to be very important right now. She seems to understand that nothing but an "all of the above" approach will staisfy the energy needs of the American economy. If she can build on that, she may have a shot.
jdeeripper -
I don't think she has much of a nationwide political future.
She seems like more of a cultural figure than a political one. A symbol of a kind of America that people love and long for or deeply despise.
Sort of a doppleganger Lady Di for the Religious Right?
**************
Look, it really won't pan out that Republicans somehow will toe the line since the great suffering! John McCain himself personally annointed her his "hope" right before treacherous, intellectually incoherent McCain went down in flames. What John McCain wanted, even her adoration by Fundies as some sort of Fertility Goddess and Everyfundie - doesn't make her the automatic Frontrunner for anything.
McCain is done. He will not be the Republican standard bearer after this election. He will again be a Lifetime Senator, happy to be back in the DC Clubhouse again, palling around with his "dear friends".
Who comes next will likely be a function of who can best reorg and redeem the Republicans after a failed President and the 2006 and 2008 debacles.
That is unlikely to be an inexperienced women serving as governor 3000 miles away from the Mainland USA, even if she is the Fundie Lady Di.
And to be honest, the Republicans have big problems with the Religious Right scaring more voters away from the table than they bring. And any Party rebuilding will have to deal with Fundie's increasing intolerance and religious litmus tests driving away women, Catholics, hispanic Pentacostalists, and well-educated small government Republicans who want a centrist, non-theocratic Republican Party.
"One can't help but see in Brooks' hostility to Palin a certain defensiveness - that woman's never read one of my columns in her life! How can she possibly be smart enough to be elected?!"
Has anyone ever read one of David Brooks' columns?
"And to be honest, the Republicans have big problems with the Religious Right scaring more voters away from the table than they bring."
Anyone Cedarford supports has big problems with protectionist national socialist Jew-haters scaring away voters.
Palin has one very good issue - energy independence - it is something she does understand well
I'm not sure how well she understands it, actually. Her policy seems to be -- until recently -- use Alaskan oil and gas. If the well dries up, just drill to find new sources.
I don't think her core values -- if she has them yet -- include much thought about coal (unless she's campaigning in PA) or nuclear or "greener" energy sources.
You are all wrong.
Sarah Palin is the new La Pequena.
In Palin news today:
* The Secret Service is investigating who shouted out a death threat during a warm up speech before Palin spoke. If found, the person will be arrested. (And, let's note, Palin said nothing to discourage more death threats, which are becoming a theme at her rallies!)
* Because of his association with the (literally) America-hating Alaska Independence Party, it is unlikely that Todd Palin would get a security clearance.
for conservatives (and certain deluded "moderates"), hating America is A-OK when you're a right winger.
After all, conservatives hate most of America. They hate Democrats, liberals, environmentalists, gays and lesbians, unionists, government workers, etc, etc.
And people are starting to notice.
Maybe Sarah Palin is the new Ronald Reagan!
Some honesty from Republican strategist Matthew Dowd:
Saying that Palin was a "net negative" on the ticket, he went on: "[McCain] knows, in his gut, that he put somebody unqualified on the ballot. He knows that in his gut, and when this race is over that is something he will have to live with... He put somebody unqualified on that ballot and he put the country at risk, he knows that."
The problem is that Reagan and his deregulation policies have been discredited
Deregulation is not the cause for this crisis, no matter how many times the media/left says it.
I like Sarah Palin, but I don't like all these 'the new x' designations. People are what they are, and should be evaluated as such.
Jindal-Palin 2012...
Watch the lefties heads asplode!
Dereg is not the cause. Really?
So repeal of Glass-Stegall had nothing to with this. Passage of Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act had nothing to do with it?
Yes, I know. The answer from conservatives is to scapegoat minorities and Republicans.
Back in reality, the history is different.
If Obama screws up bad enough, Palin will be POTUS in 2012.
I drinking a cuba-libre with Rene Gomez Manzano and Oscar Biscet the other day and asked them what they thought of Sarah Palin. They seemed very excited about her prospects, excited enough that they went straight back to solitary. What happens in 2012 does not concern me.
Try a little of that vbspurs.
I thought Obama was the next Reagan. Not politically, but in the cult of personality way; People like him for no good reason. Reagan wasn't a great president but people liked him anyway, so the Republicans have elevated him to sainthood. What choice do they have. In the past 50 years their only other choices are Nixon, who left office in shame, the unelected Ford who filled in for a blip, and two Bushes. Obama even praised Reagan earlier in the campaign. Seems one finesser likes another.
"The Secret Service is investigating who shouted out a death threat during a warm up speech before Palin spoke. If found, the person will be arrested."
Does that make your winky hard, Alfie? Isn't arresting people for speech your absolute bestest erotic fantasy? Do you remember when John McCain said he was going to "kill" Bush during the 2000 primaries? Arrest him!
Haha, Alphie and his tiny winky think the New York Times is "reality"!
MM:
"I'm not sure how well she understands it, actually. Her policy seems to be -- until recently -- use Alaskan oil and gas. If the well dries up, just drill to find new sources.
I don't think her core values -- if she has them yet -- include much thought about coal (unless she's campaigning in PA) or nuclear or "greener" energy sources."
I'm old enough to have suffered through the abysmal Carter Administration. All kinds of talk about coal gasification, alternative energy (in fact he established a Department of Energy) ,new technologies on the horizon, yada yada yada.
BO is an instant replay of the whole era. Just like Carter's SynFuels Corporation, BO's new ideas won't produce one erg. But, they will produce lots of conferences, policy papers, government grants to 'community groups, urgent redrawing of line-and-block charts, and empty threats against OPEC.
He's so smart he can't figure we've gotta' dig, drill, blast, mine, and all sorts of dirt-under-the-fingernails messy stuff to get it done. He does'nt have it in him to do the really messy things that need doing, in energy or foreign policy for that matter.
I voted no because "this-is-the-new-that" never makes sense to me. That was that, and this is this. Period. Sorry for being so simple, it's just the way I manage to keep things straight and properly categorized.
Isn't arresting people for speech your absolute bestest erotic fantasy?
No.
"This has been another episode of simple answers to stupid questions."
The white hood contingent of the Republican Party embraces violence.
The U.S. Secret Service is investigating a threatening remark directed at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama during a political event in Scranton.
The agency followed up on a report in The Times-Tribune that a member of the crowd shouted, "Kill him!" after one mention of Mr. Obama's name during a rally Tuesday for Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
The remark came while congressional candidate Chris Hackett was addressing the crowd at the Riverfront Sports Complex. There is no indication Mr. Hackett or Mrs. Palin, who took the stage a half-hour later, heard the remark. [...]
Times-Tribune employees who covered the rally were interviewed today by the Secret Service.
Palin is dumb on energy. She keeps saying Alaska provides 20% of US energy, which is so dumb...
Pinching loafs feels good.
There is nothing better than the sensation of a log being released from your hole.
I love pooping.
Todays loafs had whole mushrooms in them from the salad I had last night.
Lettuce makes you poop.
Sometimes I talk to my loafs.
I say hi there little loaf, thank you for coming out so easy, welcome to the world, now I am going to flush you.
And sometimes I am angry at my loafs when they are being beligerent. They don't want to come out and I say loaf get out here now with many grunts and groans. But the loaf has a mind of its own. It wants to stay inside and cause havoc. That loaf is not a nice loaf.
Palin is an amazing force of nature. Her ability to say in a phrase that which others struggle to say in essays, and to say it with a smile, to cut to the core, and peel back all the BS is pretty amazing in itself.
She's a natural, and she either has the best speech writer in the world, or she comes up with alot of this herself.
The reaction of the Maureen Dowds, the hideous "I'm melting!" screams give you an indication of just how powerful Palin is, and she has only just begun.
She's getting a taste of just how hateful people and politics can be. She's probably seen some of it before, but this is something entirely worse.
But look what is happening - by her very presence there is a coming together of the parties - you saw a Democrat, President of NOW endorse her. The centrist Clinton Democrats are for Palin and McCain, you are seeing the PARTISAN iceberg crack and fall.
This is a good thing for all of us.
McCain has shown he can work with others. Palin has also.
For all the cries about McCain not being conservative - you must realize, once elected, no matter who it is, they are supposed to represent ALL OF US.
McCain and Palin have shown and are showing that they can do that.
Obama cannot. Has not. Will not. Can NOT.
If for no other reason, you have to choose HOPE, and that is McCain and Palin. HOPE that the Partisan hatred can be put aside.
(I'd add a flippant remark that I think the fashion industry will get a HUGE much needed boost, too, but... it seems so trivial...:))
Palin is more than Reagan. I believe that.
The GOP pundits may not think Gov Palin is the next Reagan, of course they didn't think Reagan would be what he became either.
The MSM certainly is acting like she could be though, otherwise why try so hard to "Quayle" her?
Palin is bigger than Reagan. She will revolutionize the party and wrest control from the nutjob blue states like... North Dakota, Indiana and West Virginia.
I'm old enough to have suffered through the abysmal Carter Administration. All kinds of talk about coal gasification,
1980 was the first Presidential contest I could vote in. I had a roommate who threw his vote away on John Anderson.
I'd like to know why research into gassification of coal wasn't -- isn't -- a good idea. One of the prime energy consumers in the US is the car -- why not figure out a way to run cars on coal? I think that was one of Carter's few good ideas. There weren't many!
Danny said...
Palin is bigger than Reagan. She will revolutionize the party and wrest control from the nutjob blue states like... North Dakota, Indiana and West Virginia.
As the tears of laughter stream down my face........thank you for making my day. Funny funny. I owe you.
Coal gasification was heavily looked into after the first oil shock, during the Nixon administration. Of course we weren't concerned about breaking carbon bonds back then. The problem was that oil quickly became plentiful once more, while coal gasification costs remained high.
But gas from coal was used to light our homes a century ago, with coke as a solid fuel byproduct. The Nazis produced even gasoline from coal when their oil supplies were cut off.
Re Sarah Palin: I finally remembered what fictional character she reminded me of, with her relentless averageness: World President "Ma" Kennedy in Kurt Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House. On her office walls hung signs that read "THIMK," and "You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it sure helps," along with "One of these days we've got to get organized."
Kennedy's office was in the Taj Mahal.
I called Kristol and asked him if he thought Palin could grow into the next Reagan, reminding him that he was outnumbered by conservatives recoiling from her.
Dowd certainly doesn't speak for me in that regard as I had reserved my 'recoil' for the Senator from Arizona. In all honesty, I'm puzzled at all this supposed conservative backlash over Palin when it seemed to me, she only re-invigorated his anemic campaign.
I think given the VP slot to get up to speed she'd be a fine president. Before anyone brings up the heartbeat away argument, allow me to remind you the Democrat candidate for the driver's seat has less chops for the job right now than she does.
Reagan was excoriated at the time for being a dummy know-nothing.
Now they're attacking Palin because she doesn't have the intelligence or the "decades of hard thinking" that Reagan had?
Huh.
Reagan will be remembered for destroying the American financial system. And destroying Grandma and Grandpa's retirement.
I must confess it is certainly hard to keep up with the blame game as I have been hearing for the last month how the collapse of the financial system is Bush's fault.
Reagan was excoriated at the time for being a dummy know-nothing.
Now they're attacking Palin because she doesn't have the intelligence or the "decades of hard thinking" that Reagan had?
It's called moving the goal posts. No conservative, ever, will pass muster from the media in terms of being fully qualified for the office. Then again, those standards are never, ever applied to their candidate of choice.
Earth to MM and FLS:
"I'd like to know why research into gassification of coal wasn't -- isn't -- a good idea. One of the prime energy consumers in the US is the car -- why not figure out a way to run cars on coal? I think that was one of Carter's few good ideas. There weren't many!"
We've got lots of dreamy ideas. It's the environmental restrictions
and engineering problems we can't conquer(physical laws just refuse to recognize legislation)..but don't despair..I can see it on the horizon...it's cheap..it's clean...it's easy,...no risks...all we need is a few more federal dollars aimed in it's direction and it's ...another twenty years sitting on our collective ass wishing.
William stole the comment I was going to write
It's heartwarming to see the Mandarins, whatever their superficial differences, lock arms and keep the alien outside their charmed circle
and did it better than I would have.
That's exactly the problem. Besides, they're still angry at us nitwits who didn't vote for their choice, Mitt Romney, so they're taking it out on her as a way to get back at us.
To quote that eminent philosopher, Kos, screw em.
I'm a big fan of Sarah Palin but I am not interested in seeing her as a candidate for President in 2012. I would prefer she serve in the Senate for awhile, and build experience and presence at the national level.
I guess my one exception would be if McCain wins in 2008 and chooses not to run in 2012 for reasons that are not performance-related. (e.g., health). Then I think she is the logical choice to carry on.
lars, if I wanted dreamy, I'd talk about running cars on hydrogen. Now *that* is a stupid idea.
She certainly has more personality than Reagan that's for sure. Hopefully people think she has more personality than Obama come November. Otherwise, we will be stuck with those lefty illuminati politicians in DC.
Integrity: deregulation started in the carter administration. Airlines and telecommunications. Looks like you have never moved past RDS!
Sarah Palin, will be the next Sarah Palin. We small goverment types need to stop searching for Reagan.
Good point.
She's also nastier.
How so? I don't understand this. She's relentlessly cheerful. She constantly refers to America as being great and Americans being great. She smiles and she laughs. Big, open mouthed, joyful laughter. She seems like a genuinely happy person. Does she seem nasty because she doesn't act guilty or remorseful about America? Does she seem nasty because she smiles while she says that she doesn't see a reason not to talk about Rev. Wright or Bill Ayers? Does she seem nasty because she expresses the ideas, such as valuing life, that have been presented as nasty and hateful? I suppose if certain political opinions have been presented as hateful, any person who expressed them would seem "nasty" to those who bought into that. Is she "nasty" because she doesn't seem to care that someone calls her nasty?
(And if we want to talk nasty... how about, "You're likable enough, Hillary.")
Madison Man wrote:
I'd like to know why research into gassification of coal wasn't -- isn't -- a good idea.
It's a great idea for so many reasons, and the conversion technology is commercial. Unfortunately, the concomitant production of CO2 makes it environmentally taboo.
CO2 Sequestration or direct chemical reduction CO2 are the current technical challenges.
mcg said...
"I'm a big fan of Sarah Palin but I am not interested in seeing her as a candidate for President in 2012. I would prefer she serve in the Senate for awhile, and build experience and presence at the national level."
I can't agree. A Presidential candidate need not have "national experience." What they need is executive experience, self awareness, modesty, and a keen sense of the limits of their own knowledge. Reagan had all those things. McCain and Palin have those things, although Palin more so. Clinton had... Well, he had executive experience. And Obama and Biden? They have none of those things. As Fred put it before Iowa, you're electing a President, not a set of position papers. It is more important that someone be able to run an administration that they know the name of the Elbonian President. I have no objection to electing a governor who was once a Senator, but it's not so clear that it works the other way around.
The best thing for Palin to do is to be Vice President for four years. Failing that, she should stay as Governor of Alaska until the next election, and spend the entire time making sure that her critics are being bled, because they are sure as hell going to be working to destroy her in advance of the next election.
RDS, BDS, PDS. I have the whole bag of derangement syndromes. But I really just don't like how they think.
Is Carter worthy of a syndrome? I don't think so.
Synova - presumably she's "nasty" because she won't give the messiah a free pass and isn't willing to pretend that the press vultures - not even vultures, piranha is a better analogy - are actually neutral.
Perhaps the best thing for conservatives to do is to start buying shares in MSM outfits and start forcing changes that way.
I have already commented that she will be our first female president in 2012 and I am sticking to it.
She has gotten where she is today by beating smug, self-satisfied establishment types. They still don't know what hit them.
She will find her way around the media filter easily enough. This idea that there are foreign or financial policy issues that she can't get a handle on and surround herself with top people to deal with is insulting. She is far better than our current number three, Pelosi and I and many others would choose her for her character and smarts over the Hillary.
Think that if she was pro-choice and had a D after her name that her story would not be trumpeted by these same people who now can't help but beclown themselves any time she is mentioned?
Small town girl, state champion athlete, involved in her community saw corruption and fought it where she found it,kept fighting it even when it could have cost her a career, married to a part Eskimo, devoted Mom, hunter, shops for diapers at Walmart, runs marathons, negotiates energy policy to the benefit of the citizens of her state.
She would be hailed as the second coming if she was a lib, because she isn't, she is demonized.
The other sorts of labels that people have tried to stick on her... incurious.
I think "incurious" is a curious word.
By what evidence is she "incurious?"
Or is this just shorthand for, "Didn't press through to a high powered Ivy League education in economics or government and hasn't written a book."
She has, more than once, declined to discuss something she didn't feel adequately informed about. Is that because she's *incurious* or is it because she doesn't tend to pretend to be adequately informed when she's not? An odd trait in a politician, for sure, to have an understanding of what she needs to know more about before spouting off.
She seems to be other things... independent... fearless... non-controlling...
I take the last one, although she's been portrayed as demanding cooperation as governor (shocking, I know), from an interview after Todd won the Iron Dog. Would she *let* him race next year? She said it wasn't up to her, that was his thing, he loved doing it, so she supported that. It wasn't about *her*. What ever ambition she has toward political power, she seems not to be prone to *needing* to be in control. (And Todd expresses the same attitude toward her ambitions as she expressed toward his.) I think this says a good deal about her temperament.
(Also, she was chewing gum and wearing the hoochi-hoops in the interview, so it was just *fun* to think about who else might find that interview.)
The best thing for Palin to do is to be Vice President for four years. Failing that, she should stay as Governor of Alaska until the next election,
Agree.
Governor is much better than Senator to prepare for President.
dualdiagnosis said...
She would be hailed as the second coming if she was a lib, because she isn't, she is demonized.
She would be hailed as the second coming if she were a lib, provided she could speak coherently and do press conferences and had more knowledge on all issues than she appears to have. That's a lot of ifs, but in current form she would not make it anywhere as a democrat. Don't kid yourself, your party gets off on praising and electing ignorant people(and I assume that's why she has appeared as idiotic as she has, because the campaign is requiring her to do so).
But yes, with much more knowledge and a few policy tweaks we could really make her a star(instead of turning her into a doofus as the repubs have, and a toxic one at that).
The best thing for Palin to do is to be Vice President for four years. Failing that, she should stay as Governor of Alaska until the next election, and spend the entire time making sure that her critics are being bled, because they are sure as hell going to be working to destroy her in advance of the next election.
I think that's a scenario I could sign onto, as long as Palin deliberately worked to stay in the national public eye. To a certain degree that will be inevitable because of her VP run.
No, I don't think a presidential candidate needs to have national experience. But I think Reagan came into the candidacy, even his first run, with a command of the defining international issue of his time (communism). That may not have been apparent at the time of his running but it certainly is now, and explains much of the success of his administration against the Soviets.
I don't yet see that with Palin.
The next Ronald Reagan? How about this ?
The liberal MSM should be looking for a new and improved Maureen Dowd while conservatives need to find a replacement for David Brooks.
And then Althouse can link to some interesting writers. Who reads Dowd and Brooks anymore except Althouse?
Simon sez (sans Latin):
...because they are sure as hell going to be working to destroy her in advance of the next election.
Naaah. Not so much. She'll be a footnote on the demise of the right wing Republican Party. Exhibit A in how dishonest tactics fail.
She's nasty, largely ignorant and a liar. Really, she has no qualities worth recommending her.
Today, she keeps up the lie that the Troopergate report found did nothing wrong.
The report found she accused the power of her office, acted unlawfully an unethically. She's been called on this lie (the Anchorage paper calling her "Orwellian") and she continues to spout it.
Sarah Palin thinks you're pretty dumb!
AlphaLiberal said...
[something about lies]
I think there is some wiggle room for Palin on the Troopergate report. A clearer (but potentially less damaging) example of a lie is her repeated assertion that construction has begun on a $40 billion natural gas pipeline (this statement still on the mccain/palin website). Cost estimates for the pipeline are closer to $26 billion, and they have not received the necessary federal permits to begin construction yet.
You know, with her disregard for the facts and open willingness to engage in corrupt behavior, Palin could be another Reagan.
Remember when Reagan violated the Constitution to flout the will of Congress and sell arms to Iran to wage war on Nicaragua? That was illegal.
Reagan also supported death squads in El Salvador that even killed American nuns. And, did Reagan embrace Saddam Hussein? Why, yes. Ronald Reagan did support the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein.
My favorite was when Dean Baker (I think it was) carried a cake on a military plane to Iran. Hey, at least he wasn't hat in hand, just cake.
Reagan is greatly over-rated. The right wing needs him as a saint, though.
"...and they have not received the necessary federal permits to begin construction yet."
...just in case anyone was wondering how on Earth anyone in Alaska could possibly be less than enamored with the United States Federal Government.
;-)
By what evidence is she "incurious?"
Because she apparently doesn't read any newspapers or magazines?
Unless of course you really believe she reads "all of them"
Who is running for President of the United States of America? Let’s not let the intellectual snobs keep the focus off of the two candidates and what we know about or don’t know about them. We have to make sure that these illuminati politicians don’t use mainstream media to decide the election, rather the facts.
Synova said...
;-)
To be fair to the government of this great country of ours, Gov. Palin only signed the license for the pipeline on August 27th.
So the party of Lincoln cannot imagine having the ability to produce a better candidate for 2012 than Sarah Palin?
Well, whatever!
Since it's clear Obama will win in a landslide, now is not the time to think of 2012. Come January, all Americans should hope Obama turns out to be a great president.
She said she reads anything and everything in front of her. In a "who are your favorite authors" question, someplace or other, she listed a sports columnist by name as someone who's writing was inspirational to her... and I think the other she mentioned was CSLewis... not surprising for someone with an evangelical background, but not fluff reading either.
And Couric asked which newspapers? Who reads newspapers? And the ones "in front of" Palin were probably those from Alaska. Same AP articles but would that matter?
Newspapers are a day behind anyhow.
Magazines are a week behind.
If Couric wanted to find out if Palin was *curious* about the world, there are all sorts of things she could have asked her instead of "What provincial and irrelevant newspapers do you read, so we can point out how it's not the New York Times or any newspapers that matter?"
Deregulation has nothing to do with the current situation on Wall Street. The most regulated parts of the financial sector are those that are in the worst shape, while the barely regulated hedge funds are feeling little to no strain.
The fault for the entire situation can be laid at the feet of those who demanded 'affordable housing' and insisted that home ownership was inherent in the 'American Dream'. No sane person who examined the ways in which banks were forced/coerced into approving loans to terminal risk borrowers could conclude that this is the failure of the market.
The government (read: Barney Frank) got us into this mess, why should we trust them to get us out? What happened to "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"?
If we want to talk incuriousity... there's AL, completely happy to have no understanding at all of why Palin appeals to a great many people.
HILLARY SUPPORTERS RAISE $8 MILLION FOR MCCAIN-PALIN from ChicagoansAgainstObamaBlog
All I can say about this, personally, is that the McCain/Clinton alliance is under-estimated and under-reported.
At this point…the most ardent McCain supporters I know….are the people who know Obama the best…..Chicago Democrats…..
Tonight I will be attending a debate watching party in Downtown Chicago…
At the party will be many Democrats and many Republicans…….many white people and many minorities….many straight people and many gay people……many rich people and many poor people….many young people and many old people…..
Don’t believe the media hype…..
McCain’s support is deep and diverse…..
What'm I tellin' you?
This is our chance to get rid of partisan hatred. What an amazing thing that would be!
If Obama wins then by 2012 people will look back on the Bush administration as a halcyon period of pure bliss.
If Obama wins his economic policies will result in higher taxes for all and a lower standard of living for everyone not sucking on the government tit. That plumber is the forerunner of millions more middle class people who will rapidly tire of being squeezed by runaway government.
Obama will dismantle the war on terror, with the predicable result that we'll have another 9/11. Terror supporting countries will have no fear of Commander-in-Chief Obama, the OBLs of the world will have many safe havens again.
He'll appoint activist judges who will legislate the far left social policies that left wing Congressmen are afraid to support openly.
President Obama will wish for the kind of popularity President Carter had in the last year of his administration.
I'm sure Sarah will spend the next four doing what Reagan did in the 70s, getting ready for the next election .
Sarah Palin will be the exact person the country will turn to reverse the many disasters Obama's socialism will create.
integrity said-
"..She would be hailed as the second coming if she were a lib, provided she could speak coherently and do press conferences and had more knowledge on all issues than she appears to have. That's a lot of ifs,..
This canard about her speaking ability comes from the demonization, Biden can't put a sentence together without insulting a minority group or making up some facts out of whole cloth and he is considered Mr Gravitas by the MSM and the left (but I repeat myself). Obama hasn't accomplished anything of note in his career and likes to campaign in our 57 states, talks about the typical white person, talks about a story in Life that influenced him about black people bleaching their skin (none exists), claims his campaign doesn't have the technical capacity to create anti-Hillary campaign ads, in the wake of a deadly Kansas tornado that killed 12, Obama said "Ten thousand people died - an entire town destroyed", refers to the 'president' of Canada, etc., etc....
Your many parries, ripostes, feints, lunges, thrusts and attacks au fer have suggested I briefly isolate myself and prepare a salmon lunch in the form of a late breakfast. Salmon because these noble fishes are also known to struggle upstream against odds and fend off competition in a valiant effort to extend their line, even as it means their own doom.
Is Carter worthy of a syndrome? I don't think so.
Carter didn't arouse any hatred, only malaise.
I personally think some one should lead a conservative movement that is focused on the common workingman. You know that your liberal commie professors and scumbag news gasbags claim that is the Democratic Party but they have to be kidding. The small businessman who was told by Obama that he wanted to screw him out of his plumbing business to give it to those “who aren’t doing as well” knows the score. Palin could be that person is she is willing to fight.
To fight the scumbag elitist media pundits, the entrenched government workers who make every government agency the fucking DMV, the parasitical professors who couldn't teach you to pour piss out of a boot but get million dollar foundation grants and the fucking lawyers who are blight on our Republic who will sue anyone at the drop of a hat.
Not to mention the corporate thieves who have there whores both Republican and Democrat to bail them out of the shithole their greed put them in.
A working class revolt of Americans from fisherman in Alaska to longshoreman in Brooklyn to coal miners to guys who own small business who are the true working class because they go to work every day to keep people employed in small business that are being taxed out of existence.
Andrew Jackson would be the perfect role model. He hated the banks and the fancy pants lying weasels that ripped off everyday Americans. It's time to get back to basics and after four years of yuppie eggheads running things; I think the time will be ripe.
I don’t know if Palin is that person but bitch slapping elitist weasels like Brooks, Maureen Doud, Peggy Noonan, Katie Couric, Christopher Buckley and Gwen Ifil would definitely be a good start.
dualdiagnosis said...
integrity said-
"..She would be hailed as the second coming if she were a lib, provided she could speak coherently and do press conferences and had more knowledge on all issues than she appears to have. That's a lot of ifs,..
This canard about her speaking ability comes from the demonization, Biden can't put a sentence together without insulting a minority group or making up some facts out of whole cloth and he is considered Mr Gravitas by the MSM and the left (but I repeat myself). Obama hasn't accomplished anything of note in his career and likes to campaign in our 57 states, talks about the typical white person, talks about a story in Life that influenced him about black people bleaching their skin (none exists), claims his campaign doesn't have the technical capacity to create anti-Hillary campaign ads, in the wake of a deadly Kansas tornado that killed 12, Obama said "Ten thousand people died - an entire town destroyed", refers to the 'president' of Canada, etc., etc....
Have you bothered to watch her interaction with the media? No canard, why don't people like you call the McCain campaign and tell them to put her in front of the media? A press conference. We are not making this stuff up, but you seem to be in deep denial. I have said that she has been victimized by the McCain campaign, they have made her look very bad. Demand that they open her up to all media immediately.
Biden has always been a gaffe prone gasbag, there is no need to repeat what everyone already knows.
The fault for the entire situation can be laid at the feet of those who demanded 'affordable housing' and insisted that home ownership was inherent in the 'American Dream'.
Not quite but certainly a contributing factor. I'd go further and say the cheap money that the Fed was allowing to circulate had a much larger impact. The crisis is an extremely complex issue and trying to point a finger at a single cause is simplistic at best. Deregulation is oft touted as the main cause although I am still waiting for someone, anyone, to ask Senator Obama to indicate specifically what de-regulation caused the crisis.
I'm certain you'd hear a few 'umms and errrs' in that answer and then something about his paygrade.
I just finished doing a boatload of taxes and it just pissed me off. Sorry for the screed.
dualdiagnosis - Small town girl, state champion athlete, involved in her community saw corruption and fought it where she found it,kept fighting it even when it could have cost her a career, married to a part Eskimo, devoted Mom, hunter, shops for diapers at Walmart, runs marathons, negotiates energy policy to the benefit of the citizens of her state.
She would be hailed as the second coming if she was a lib, because she isn't, she is demonized.
All you have done is tout biography. The last telegenic candidate running on biography had tons if it. Mill workers son, toiled there to become the 1st in his family to get a degree...fighter of corruption and skilled negotiator "fighting in court for the little guy" (and his 35% contingency fee).
John Kerry's "annointed one"? Remember him?
Biden has always been a gaffe prone gasbag, there is no need to repeat what everyone already knows.
Yet, he's perfectly qualified to be President of the United States.
Or are you simply implying that the standards that you establish for Palin need not apply to Biden? Had Obama picked a VP who didn't manage stick both feet in his mouth to say 'hello', I'd say Palin was fair game. Instead you sound like a parent who ridicules your neighbor's kid for not making the honor roll when you're kid is in special ed.
That's good rage, Trooper. :)
Worship the surface.
AlphaLiberal,
Palin is corrupt and a liar but Obama isn't?
Obama used Tony Rezko to help him buy his house and then lied about.
That makes him corrupt and that means he's a liar.
And Palin's ability to be nasty is a good thing.
Let's face it, no one has summed Obama as well as she has.
The truth hurts.
I voted "No" and was surprised to see that "Yes" is way ahead. That's not to say that I don't like Sarah Palin. I love Sarah Palin, and I think she's an excellent communicator. I also don't buy the pundocricy's elitist meme that she's unintelligent.
However, I've seen quite a bit of Reagan's writings from prior to his running for President. For decades he planned out his strategy to defeat communism in detail. I could be wrong, but I don't think Palin has done such a thing as regards socialism or Islamofacism.
Also, Reagan was brilliant. His insight was brilliant, and he was extemporaneously brilliant. The same may be true of Palin on the insight (I don't know.), but she's not yet extemporaneously brilliant the way that Reagan was. She may become so as extemporaneous speaking is largely a practiced skill, but we'll have to wait and see.
All of that said, I'd still vote for her in 2012 if she were the nominee, Reagan or no.
Ah, you see, I agree with Freeman, yet I voted "yes".
I don't see Palin as Reagan, but as "a Reagan", in the sense that, here we are ruled by an elite, slouching toward a socialism that Republicans and Democrats simply disagree on how to get there, and here's someone who maybe, might just say "No."
The problem with the Reps is that they say "Socialism bad! America good!" while implementing it. The Dems say "Socialism good! America bad!" while implementing it.
But they're both implementing it. And the elites are there encouraging them to do so. There's the cultural hegemony in the ruling class.
I don't know if Palin can break that, but I haven't seen anyone else come close. (Fred, of course, but Fred doesn't excite people and that, apparently, is a big part of our criteria.)
Palin/Fred, 2012.
?
He'll be older than dirt, but the gravitas... hard to argue with the gravitas.
Fred has made the good point that the only position worth enduring the crap for is the Presidency.
So, no, no VP Fred.
We had our chance.
“The short answer is no,” Brooks said. “She has reinforced the worst of talk-radio culture. The party will need a leader to strike out in a new direction, a fiscally conservative president more like a high-tech Teddy Roosevelt. Someone with gravitas.”
Palin's cardinal sin is that she isn't part of the political class. ("Not one of our people, you know.") I was actually having a conversation earlier this evening with an old friend of mine (currently a professor at Johns Hopkins University) who started ripping on Palin.
Because she's stupid and a neanderthal, dontchaknow.
Which reminds me of the reception I got (academic accomplishments notwithstanding) when I came in straight off the farm as a freshman at the same University. It was an accent-and-attitude thing. ("Why do you smile and talk to strangers?" I actually got that question once.)
To his credit, my old friend wasn't one of the bigots back then, and I'm sure that if he had met Sarah Palin at a conference or some such 2 years ago he would have hated her politics but have been respectful of the person. Because he is a good guy.
But the comfortable home of bigotry these days isn't the rural south, or even the urban ghetto (where this white boy now lives - black-against-white racism is certainly around me, but it is rarely flaunted). No, the real bigotry is nurtured within the demesnes of the chattering classes, and is held toward everyone else, and becomes especially virulent when somebody who should just be grateful for all the wonderful things their betters bestow on them instead decide to step up, smile, and participate.
And in Palin's case, not only does she participate, she has a history of shaking things up and taking charge.
Palin is not the new Ronald Reagan. She is Sarah Palin, she is of and for the proletariat, and the Brooks and the Buckleys are widdling themselves and don't even understand why.
Synova said...
Palin/Fred, 2012.
In other words, Obama will be a two-termer.
sarah isn't the new ronnieraygun...
sarah is sarah. a mediocre governor of a state with a lot of land and oil and not many people and an eccentric lot at that which is not bad at all..they are good folk there...with a unique set of values and personal perspectives and we should applaude their individuality...really and i mean that....
but what an Alaskan has to do day to day with someone from NYC is apples and grapes...
What Palin has to do with a black with 20 acres in Mississipi is beyond recognition.
That goes the other way too, of course.
What does someone from NYC have to do with me?
OTOH, I could probably relate quite well to a black in MS with 20 acres. We could talk chickens, varmints, and picking rock.
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