May 27, 2011

"Althouse is shrewder."

Says Andrew Sullivan. Thanks. He's saying I'm shrewder than Byron York, referring to this post, earlier today, which is up to 249 comments (on the Friday afternoon before the long holiday weekend.) Of course, the topic is Sarah Palin. Sullivan connects my post, which tweaked the "serious people," with something Rush Limbaugh said:
'The Inside the Beltway’ ruling class — the elite — they’re more oriented toward candidates they can attach the word ‘serious’ to — which is another way of saying someone who is boring, who doesn’t ruffle feathers, someone who exudes an air of formal education and sophistication — she doesn’t exude that, and I think it’s going to shake a lot of people up ... You know the effect that she has on establishment Republican people.
Later, Sullivan put up another post on the Sarah Palin/seriousness theme. Asking "Does this sound like someone not running?," he posted Palin's bus tour ad:



Wow.

219 comments:

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Kathy said...

Seven, the fact that the "other guys" have jobs is exactly why their near-silence is discouraging. Part of their responsibility as political leaders, especially if they seek to lead our whole country, is to use the bully pulpit to reach out to the people at large and persuade them. I just haven't seen any of that.

I wanted to support one of the boring, stable guys this time around. I've supported boring, stable guys: Bush I, Dole, really even Bush II. I've accepted the argument that building coalitions will be the best route to achieving real change.

Guess what? That change hasn't happened. The Republicans have grown more corrupt and ingrown, and the country has moved further and further down a disastrous path. At this point, incremental change is not going to save this country for my children.

I'm fighting for the future for my children--if you want my vote, my money, my support during the campaign, show me that you will fight as openly and as fiercely as I am fighting, and you'll get it. Yes, it matters what you'll be fighting for, but it also matters how hard you will fight.

Pawlenty has not shown that fight. He has not shown that he can reach people with a powerful message. Guiliani has the wrong ideas in too many areas. Gingrich has it wrong and can't be counted on. Romney has it wrong and has no fight. And on and on. Rick Perry hasn't fought in Texas, a state filled with RINO legislators. I have no idea if he's even really a conservative at heart, and I live here!

If you want someone other than Palin, then light a fire under some of these other guys. I see her negatives, but right now I see no one else with even a prayer of making the impact that we desperately need. It's not a cult of personality. I just recognize that we're about to make a desperate charge and either we take the hill or we are relegated to fighting small meaningless skirmishes as we retreat to defeat and destruction.

Saint Croix said...

My feelings for her changed when she walked away from her job..I understand why she did it..but what is the point in taking on people if you are just going to quit when things get ugly?

All her local issues started when McCain thrust her into the national spotlight and she became a rock star. That's when the local libs decided to sue her. She could either stay and fight that, which would be an utter distraction from the job she was elected to do, or quit and seek bigger game. She chose the latter.

You might not like it, but the list of politicians who have quit their local jobs in order to seek national office is long. Even longer is the list of politicians who keep their job (and their salary) but don't actually do any work, as they are campaigning 24-7.

I think it would be awesome if every politician who wanted to seek the Presidency quit their job. You should quit. You're not frickin' doing your job any more. Quit!

Fen said...

A vote for Palin would be a wasted vote. It'll be like a vote for McCain.

I don't understand this. Instead of supporting Palin, you seem to prefer we support McCain v2.0

Saint Croix said...

If you're an elected official, it's not actually part of your job to campaign and raise money. (As Al Gore discovered the hard way, it's actually illegal to raise money in the White House). And yet campaigning and raising money takes more and more of their time and energy.

It would be bizarre (and yet totally honest) to have a rule where an elected official had to quit his job when he went into campaign mode. We would be upset when Obama hands power over to Joe Biden in order to campaign for a few months. But such a rule would make visible what is hidden--how money and its pursuit rules their lives.

What Sarah Palin is doing right now is amazing. One of the coolest things about her is not what she says, but how she acts. For instance, she doesn't give a pro-life speech. She keeps the baby. She doesn't point fingers at all the corruption in politics. She runs for office without doing the moneygrub.

Look at her campaign. She's running an old-fashioned citizen campaign, like Mickey Kaus did when he made his hopeless run for Senate. Honest, open, outsider, no money, no chance.

The difference is that she's Sarah Palin. She already has tremendous mindshare. The media gives her tons of negative (but free!) publicity. She does Sarah Palin's Alaska to introduce herself to millions of Americans. She relies on facebook posts, tweets, youtube videos, documentaries. This is an extremely low-cost and economical way to run for President.

What she's doing right now is amazing. Obama says "change," she's actually bringing it. Look at this frickin' campaign, man.

The Crack Emcee said...

The same arguments, repeated repeatedly:

"It's never been done" means it never will.

Polls, which change daily, are indicators of future inevitability.

If your daughter ballroom dances on television - I repeat: ballroom dances on television - you can forget about being taken seriously yourself.

And on and on and on.

This, my friends, is not only conventional thinking defined, but a fine example of how we hurt ourselves politically. When anyone can have a choice between milquetoast TPaw and a dynamo Palin and say "We should go into battle with TPaw because the other side won't fight as much" well, you might consider not fighting at all, because you're clearly too stupid to be in the ring.

Peter Hoh said, if Palin loses, it'll be Seven's fault. Now that I've had some sleep, that's making much more sense.

viator said...

What politician ran on two tickets simultaneously, guaranteeing a job for himself, and then "walked away from (his) job" in the US Senate by resigning?

Joe Biden, 2009

What politician "Walked away from (his) job" in the US Senate, not even completing one term, to run for higher office?

Barack Obama, 2008

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I'm saying Palin won't win. You are saying she will. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one thing. No big deal.


I don't know if she will win either. What I do know is that the rest of the doofus, mealy mouth, RINO's who mouth conservative sound bites when it suits their lust for power have no chance of winning or if they did win, they would be just more of the same.

We are tired of more of the same. Tired of the insider game. Newt and Romney represent the tired old guard.

Sarah and some other candidates that I wish would run (Christie, Rubio) represent the different way that we hunger for.

Decisive political figures who have principles that they will adhere to: Smaller government, less taxation, adherence to the constitution, anti corruption, less spending, lower debt, pro business, pro energy development, pro-military, PRO-AMERICA.

@ AJ Lynch. Those are at least 5 things that Palin stood for, even if we knew McCain didn't, in the last election that caused us to want to vote for HER.

As bad as it is that Obama got elected, it may be a blessing in disguise, because this rapid marching into Socialisam, and yes, even Fascism by the tinpot dictator that Obama truly is, has woken up the public, us frogs in the gradually hotter water, to our danger.

You and others who do NOT represent the best interests of the country, who want us to bow down again to the Democrat/Socialist machine, the MSM, and who want to foist the Democrat-Lite losers like McCain, Romney, Newt and the rest of the tepid candidates that we don't want and who will just continue the death march can bleat all the tired talking points you want---shes a quiter blah blah blah--- or make fun of her accent, family, traditions......whatever. If we do not run with Palin or someone LIKE her we have not only lost THIS election we have lost the future.

So if Palin doesn't win, at least we will have gone down fighting. And gone down fighting before the real literal, fighting begins.

Peter Hoh said...

Crack, you're correct that, given the choice between Pawlenty (or Romney) and Palin, voters in Republican primaries will choose Palin.

There's no way the party elite can stop Palin, should she get in the race.

And I've been saying that for a while.

Peter Hoh said...

Blogger just ate a comment, or else I posted it to another thread. Anyway, I wanted to respond to Traditional Guy re. the two years as governor deal.

Yes, sitting governors have won the presidency while in their first term. The most recent of these was Woodrow Wilson.

But running as a governor with a year or two in office is different than running as a former governor, with only two years in office. That's not been done before.

Phil 314 said...

Wow, she has an RV!

(and a BIG ONE too!)

It is true:

Bears shit in the woods, and

Momma Grizzlies shit on the internet

Trooper York said...

Yashu...I love you too buddy. So let we clue you into something. It is a "Facebood" Society now. The world is different. People get their information and form their opinions in a different way. I can give you an example.

My wife's aunts are both very conservative Catholics. They voted for Obama in the last election because they saw him on Oprah and he sounded like a nice young articulate man and they felt good about giving an African American a chance. Millions of people voted that way. Not from seeing him on "Meet the Press." But now they know different. What Sarah can do is use Facebook and Twitter and yes reality TV to put out a message and to break throught he media cacoon that swaddles Obama.

Plus Orpah is off the air.

Trooper York said...

This race is going to be different. Just like the 1960 race. In that you had a young Senator running against the two term incumbent Vice President. But this new thingy called television had a lot to do with the election.

Just like Bob Dylan fans are not going to have a lot to say in the is election....the Tommy Dorsey fan club couldn't understand this brave new world.

Trooper York said...

Sarah needs to have Bethanny Frankel run as her vice-president. Just sayn'

Freeman Hunt said...

Would it be illegal to raise a million dollars to bribe Christie or Ryan to run?

Freeman Hunt said...

Or even ten million.

What do they like? Chocolate? Basketball? What? Lifetime supply of anything to whichever of them will run.

Joanna said...

I still contend that Palin has already begun campaigning. Once she officially announces, I can't wait to hear her tell us:

"I don't need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars of YOUR MONEY to get my message across. Obama should need $0 to get his message across, since he's already in office and is living his message by leading our country. But what does Obama do? He takes time away from doing the job you elected him to do, so he can raise and spend BILLIONS of dollars trying to convince you that he's not ruining the country. He gives speeches and charges $1000/person to hear him speak. Me, I hop in the ol' RV and get out there and talk to you for free. I don't take your money, and I listen to you -- I want to hear what YOU have to say." (Except she will say it better than me.)

*BAAM*, she shows fiscal responsibility through personal actions
*BAAM*, she uses the actions of her campaign to demonstrate how she would function in office
*BAAM*, she slams Obama in a black and white "there's no way to argue against it" way
*BAAM*, she takes the fight to Obama, striking first and making him defend himself.

For the record, I do not usually support the strong campaigner above the "person I want to BE president". I've changed my views for this election, because
- ONLY a strong campaigner can break Obama's Spell
- ONLY a strong campaigner will be able to undo the damage Obama has done to the Republican message
- ONLY a strong campaigner will be able to fix the worldwide PR nightmare that Obama has created (RE: our relationship with other countries).

For the record, I believe that many in the country DO see that Obama is a crappy president. I also believe that during his campaign, most of those people fell head over heels in love with him. They want him to do well. They want this FOR HIM. They want this so they can believe they weren't duped. They are willing to overlook his flaws, because it's hard to admit that you've been swindled. These are the scariest of the independents -- the less Obama has accomplished, the worse he's performed in office, the MORE they will want to vote for him. If they give him more TIME, then he'll finally be able to turn the world into unicorns and rainbows as he promised he would. At best, they are willing to admit that they are disappointed, and then they qualify that disappointment by saying that THEY were the ones who misunderstood his campaign message. THEY thought he said hope and change would come quickly, and THEY were wrong, and HE just needs MORE TIME... That is terrifying: the people who don't care about the truth and the facts. Those independents will not be turned by typical GOP candidates, regardless of their record. They need a new drug (candidate) if there's any hope that they'll replace their old drug (Obama). They've already shown that they don't care about anything beyond their candidate making them feel good. Those independents scare me. That fear is a good part of the reason that I want a MASTER CAMPAIGNER running against Obama.

In the end, will Palin be the best person for that job? I don't know. Right now, is she the only one capable to do that job? Hells yes.

/soapbox

Phil 314 said...

*BAAM*, she shows fiscal responsibility through personal actions
*BAAM*, she uses the actions of her campaign to demonstrate how she would function in office
*BAAM*, she slams Obama in a black and white "there's no way to argue against it" way
*BAAM*, she takes the fight to Obama, striking first and making him defend himself.


Emeril Lagasse is running for POTUS?

yashu said...

Ryan, Christie, and Rubio are my favorite politicians out there right now (and I appreciate Rand Paul's out there too, saying the things he says, even though I disagree with some of what he does, e.g. voting against the Ryan plan to make the point it doesn't go far enough)-- these young politicians give me hope for the future. (Heh, I think I've developed something of a crush on Ryan-- I'd be more embarrassed to say that if Dick Cheney hadn't gushed like a schoolgirl over him too.)

Of those who've entered the presidential race or say they're considering it, I guess right now I like Pawlenty & Perry (though I still know very little about either of them). Newt is anathema to me. I like Giuliani, but he seems from another political era (post 9/11, pre Obama). I'm not sure what to think of Romney (other than Romneycare, ugh: thing is, that state experience/ experiment could maybe, conceivably be turned against Obamacare, but so far Romney's gone about it all wrong.) And y'all already know my ambivalent thoughts about Palin, no point repeating them. I'm sure I'd vote for almost anybody over Obama (though voting for, say, Newt would be excruciatingly difficult, I'd have to get falling-down drunk first).

Gene said...

Alex: "One Nation" seems very Aryan Nation-ish."

Perhaps to you. It doesn't seem that way to people who said the Oath of Allegiance when they were in elementary school.

In case you forgot, here's how the relevant part goes:

"One nation, under, God, with liberty and justice for all."

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