I know I have a couple of conservative type people who read this blog and I need your help...
Please help me understand why on earth the idea of Sarah Pallin running as the Republican candidate in 2012 isn't invoking uncontrolled laughter from everyone on the right?
I know I've alluded to the idea in the past, that I think a great percentage of the Republican base have degenerated into a brain dead state where Glenn Beck is God and his words are followed with exactness, but I have to think there are some thinkers out there, and if you continue to read this blog, I would think you would have to be.
From what I can tell...
She's a woman, which is kind of a unique thing, especially in the Republican Party.
And if she could keep her mouth shut, she's not too bad looking (although I definitely think Tina Fey is hotter.)
But neither of those things qualify a person to lead this country.
All I can see is a person who can parrot the party line, whether it makes sense to her or not.
Is there something else about her I'm missing?!?
Mwahahahaha!!
ReplyDeleteThat has to be the top candidate for best comment ever!
Well, heck, I'm sold. ;o)
ReplyDeleteHey did you see that clip of her ranting about how Obama is an elitist because he uses a teleprompter, and then she looked at the notes ON HER HAND??? Oh boy.
E - yes I saw that clip of her ranting. One of my FB, anti-Obama friends evern quoted it. I was laughing hysterically. Even WITH hand notes or a teleprompter, that woman is a train wreck.
ReplyDeletep.s. UK - isn't it telling that NOBODY can find a reasonable argument to defend her?
ReplyDeleteIt is rather telling!
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, while Clink was being sarcastic up above, I think she may have hit on it... Abortion could be the clincher.
I think she's found a niche market as it were. Making sarcastic comments which support the party line, but show little to no thought seems to be her shtick, and with a party which is completely lost and looking for someone to think on their behalf, she fills a void.
I'm a little late on this, but I'll take a stab at it. (And Vixen, I'm not sure it's all that telling that nobody had chymed in yet..I'm not sure I've ever seen another conservative-toned comment on this blog that wasn't my own. Could it be that conservatives aren't exactly Brother Koda's target audience?)
ReplyDeleteLet me preface my comments with this: Do I like Sarah Palin? Yes. Do I think she's a lot smarter than she comes off as being? Definitely. Do I think she's presidential material? Absolultely not. I think she's a horrible communicator, she doesn't interview well, and she's a little too polarizing for my taste (and after more than a year with Obama, I'm sick and tired of polarizing figures)
Not just anybody can play QB on a football team. One might be a good athelete and have a lot of football talent, but that doesn't mean anybody can fit in any position. Sarah's got talent, but she's not the QB. The Right is trying to shove her into that square hole, and to an extent she's trying to fit in it.
So I'll start first with a couple rebuttals, then I'll put forth my own points in a subsequent comment (for readability's sake):
"She's a woman, which is kind of a unique thing, especially in the Republican Party."
Not really.
"But neither of those things qualify a person to lead this country."
You're right, they don't. But exactly what qualified Obama to lead this country prior to the election? Anything more meaningful than Sara's skills/experience?
"All I can see is a person who can parrot the party line, whether it makes sense to her or not."
Keep in mind that Sarah isn't a typical Republican. The official Republican platform is, in practice, a watered-down liberalism. She's more in line with the Tea Party movement, which is scorned (albeit not in public), by main-line Repubs. There is a growing rift between Republicans and the Tea Party crowd. There are a LOT of Republicans that despise Sarah Palin.
Granted, by running with McCain, Palin was towing the party line. And by campaigning for his re-election, she sort of is, too. McCain is a progressive Republican, always has and always will be hated by conservatives. I saw her run with him as a foot in the door, and her support of his reelection as sort of a paying of dues.
Does the platform make sense to her? Well, you wouldn't know it watching MSNBC or Jon Stewart, but listen to what she's saying on her home court. She gets it. She may not communicate it well, but she gets it. And conservatives know she gets it.
Why do conservatives like Sarah Palin? Let's count down, shall we?
ReplyDelete3) She's the anti-feminist. Think about it- here's a powerful woman who plays with the big boys, who excercised her reproductive agency to not abort her baby. She meets every requirement for an empowered woman, yet she goes against every principle the feminist establishment espouses. She's winning, and she's playing the game her way.
2.5) She's hot.
2) She's the anti-liberal/progressive. The Pelosi's and the Hillary's drive us nuts. Does Sarah's accent drive me batty? Yes. Is she a good speaker? No. But FINALLY we've got a woman with a little political weight to throw around who is decidedly NOT LIBERAL.
1) They love her because the Left hates her. She is the most hated woman in the U.S. today. The utter vitriol expressed by so many on the Left, as demonstrated on broadcast and cable networks, your beloved Comedy Central, and in newspapers across the country makes us ask one question: why? If she's really that stupid, why is she such a target of the Left's (and the moderate Right's) ire? She doesn't even hold elected office any more, so why does the White House press secretary make fun of her in press conferences.
Why? Becuase we have the sneaking suspicion the Left is deathly afraid of her. And evil sadistic conservatives really, really really like that thought.
Is she the QB? Not in my book. I'm a Romney man. But whatever position she takes up, she's deserves a spot in the starting line-up.
And one last thing. The fact that the Left is completely baffled by Sarah Palin's popularity-- well that's another thing we like about her-- the Palin Concept, if you will.
ReplyDeleteMassachusetts took the Left by complete surprise. Let's just say the Massachusetts Concept and the Palin Concept are not foreign to each other.
I was about to ask what "It" was, but I think you read my mind :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm in the midst of a major project today, but I'd like to respond to some of those things... I think we might agree on some of them, and disagree on others...
Appreciate you chiming in though. I think I used to have a more conservative leaning audience, but you might be the sole member of that audience currently. Idealistically, I'd like to think I could be read by either side of the political aisle, but in reality, I definitely don't.
Alright, let me begin with the stuff I think we agree on...
ReplyDeletePerhaps the question is not whether Sarah Palin is qualified to be president, but rather is she a good presidential candidate (qualifications being only a part of that), and think we agree that the answer to that is....
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Actually that was the whole point of my post, but since I tend to be enjoy a nice verbose discussion, let me regurgitate the remainder of my thoughts about her...
Is she smarter than she comes off as being? Obviously. Because, lets be honest here.... the public persona she's helped shape would have difficulty remaining upright and chewing gum at the same time! I think both she and the media (left and right) have done her a huge disservice.
Polarizing - Abso-freaking-lutely (And I'll come back to this one at the end.)
Does the left hate her? I would have to give that one a resounding yes too, and I think this hate is largely fueled by fear that through a weird twist of events she might end up in the White House, which is a place we seem to agree that she doesn't belong.
I should probably make an amendment to my initial comments a little. Being a female Republican is not necessarily a unique thing, but being a female leadership model in the party is somewhat rare. I'm sure there are a couple of others, but they don't fare as well as female leaders on the left hand side of the aisle.
I think a great deal of her popularity is coming to her, purely because she has a vagina though.
I'll add, since you brought the current president into the argument, that he has a great deal of popularity because of the color of his skin.
I disagree that either should receive popularity because of features they were born with. Their gender or skin color has nothing to do with their leadership abilities, however in a culture where the superficial seems to trump that with real substance it makes a difference for the ignorant masses.
However with that said, in a society where, for too long the status quo has been a white patriarchy, they both face and uphill battle.
Moving on...
ReplyDeleteWhen Hillary was running as a potential candidate for the Presidency, there was a huge response from the right about her needing to suck up any of the anti-female attacks levelled at her. She's needed to man up and realize she's playing with the big boys. She can't expect special treatment because she's a woman. I know because at the beginning of all of that I was still in my pro-Limbaugh and Beck phase.
All of a sudden Sarah comes along, and the right sets her up as a victim of evil men on the left who don't want to see a woman succeed. The hypocrisy got a little thick at that point.
Similarly, when Barack threw his hat into the ring and the shouts of "Not qualified" started from all the conservatives. We need a man with the depth of experience like a John McCain, they said. Which right on the outset was a little funny, since candidates from the right (Utah's Jason Chaffetz as a prime example) like to run on the "I'm not a typical politician" type platform. I should add that I actually like the idea of electing someone with minimal exposure to politics as usual, but that's likely a whole other discussion.
However, while the cries of "He's not qualified" were still ringing in our ears. Sarah gets picked to run as McCain's VP.
Now, Vice-President is not the same job as president as you rightly pointed out, but at the same time, McCain is not exactly the picture of good health. Again, another one of those "Huh?" moments.
I actually think the selection of a young female running mate for McCain was an excellent strategic move on the part of his campaign. I just don't think they or Palin was ready for that...
The event which triggered this post of mine was her little hand incident. After a rant about the use of teleprompters by the president, she then scribbles notes on her hand... I've done that before though, so I can kind of understand, except I was in SECOND GRADE at the time. Yikes - that comments was a little Palin-esque.... My apologies!
There are serious arguments which could be made about the direction in which the liberal movement of this country would have us head. Spending speeches whining about teleprompters seems to be a waste of everyone's time.
ReplyDeleteNow, to her credit, as a leader for the anti-feminist movement she is an excellent role model, particularly with respects to the elimination of reproductive agency. I disagree with her, as do most of commenters above, but she has a right to believe the way she wants to, and promote that belief. The problem is that she's being celebrated for exercising a agency she's doesn't believe other should have. Kudo's on making a decision, but big thumbs down on trying to remove that choice from others.
She's also fiercely anti-liberal, which is why she's such a hit with the tea party movement - I think I may do a post of my thoughts on them when I get done with this.
But I think those two points kind of sum up my personal problems with her specifically, but she's also the poster child for my concerns with the state of politics currently as well.
She doesn't stand for anything, and isn't that is what leadership is really all about... Standing for something?
For Palin and scores of other politicians, it's not about what they can do right, it's about what the other guy is doing wrong. I may have commented about this before, but I realized that after the 2008 election, most of the political bumper stickers I saw where about the Obama campaign - either pro or con. It seemed like the entire strategy of the McCain/Palin ticket was simply... We're not Obama! Not exactly inspiring stuff.
Her popularity has come because she's against the left, not because she is proposing better path.
Her speeches are all about how the liberals, socialists, communists and others are trying to take away our freedom, and not about what she is doing to personally make this country a more free nation.
Yes, I can see the appeal of a figure which your opponents hate, but doesn't the conservative movement have something better to offer?
Clearly they do, but perhaps it's just a sign of a deeper problem in this country that someone like Sarah Palin still hogs the media spotlight.
I apologize for taking so long to respond, but I appreciate your taking the time to elaborate. Just a few quick responses:
ReplyDeleteYour comment at 8:01 AM, February 23, 2010: Amen, completely.
"Similarly, when Barack threw his hat into the ring and the shouts of "Not qualified" started from all the conservatives."
True, but this criticism skyrocketed after he criticized Palin's experience (when he made fun of her mayorship of Wasilla). My main criticism of Obama was more that he had no real-life executive experience or economic exposure. We're seeing the fallout of that now.
"After a rant about the use of teleprompters by the president, she then scribbles notes on her hand."
Yeah, this doesn't really resonate with me for two reasons: 1) Palin's teleprompter failed halfway through her convention speech and she winged it-- brilliantly-- through the rest of the speech, no scribbling on hands, and 2) Obama can't even speak to elementary students without his teleprompter.
"Yes, I can see the appeal of a figure which your opponents hate, but doesn't the conservative movement have something better to offer?"
Let's hope.
Just for grins and giggles...
ReplyDeleteFallout from the president's lack of economic experience...
Would you mind elaborating on this for me?
Please feel free to provide all the details of what problems you're seeing and how exactly his decision caused those problems.
Are you kidding me?
ReplyDeleteEvidence of this fallout can be seen in his general attitude and in specific policy.
On the general level, he subscribes to the progressive (yes, even Marxist) mentality of class warfare, redistribution of wealth, and tax and spend. We're in debt past our eyeballs, so instead of paying the essential bills and cutting elective spending, he spends spends spends and talks of raising taxes.
How about some figures from the Office of Management and Budget?
Under Bush, the debt held by the public grew $3 trillion to $6.3 trillion from $3.3 trillion.
By the end of the current fiscal year, Obama will have run up as much debt as Bush did in 8 years.
With those numbers, the tired premise that Bush's mess necessitated all the spending stretches really thin. Especially when so much of it went toward new programs that 1) haven't affected the economic outlook positively, 2) have not reduced unemployment, and 3) haven't inspired consumer confidence.
Increased taxes for the rich, a popular progressive idea, will only be a crap snowball. Increased taxes for the middle class, which he's now proposing (and which he promised on the campaign trail he'd never, ever do), stymies growth and entrepreneurship. Pushing cap and trade, which would increase ALL of our utility bills to fight the global warming bogeyman, and ramming a wildly unpopular and outrageously expensive health care bill down our throats when we're already hurting like crazy betray some serious economic ignorance.
Obama would be a better president today if he had ever owned a small business, managed a city, or governed a state.
Japan and China OWN us. No, it didn't start with Obama. But how does he handle it once he takes the reins? He goes on the biggest spending spree in this nation's history.
That's the fallout I'm talking about.
As I work on a response to that, since from what I have seen so far, there is more involved than those figures appear to show...
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think they should have done different, or alternatively what would the conservatives have done differently?
I ask because I'm hearing lots of "The Obama and the Liberals are ruining this country" and have yet to hear an actual alternate plan.