How The Left Went Wrong By Not Getting It Right About Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin turns out to not be the mindless, soulless creature the left painted her to be during the 2008 election season.

The liberal press, the leftist bloggers, and the activists who hate Sarah Palin succeeded in turning Sarah Palin into a cartoon during the election cycle and many people were inclined to believe them. Sarah Palin interfered, at the time, with what voters wanted at the moment: young, hip, new, black. If she was turned into a moose-killin', baby-making, no paper-reading, dummie, then people could justify a decision they already wanted to make. And that strategy also worked only as long as the man they elected, Barack Obama stayed young, hip, and new.

Reality hit President Obama who had the misfortune of having to live up to sky-high expectations. But don't feel too sorry for him. They were his own creation and they came at the expense of women like Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. As his star fades, people look around and see what they passed over.

Sarah Palin is looking better.

Her new book Going Rogue has sold 2.7 million books and counting. I have it and continue to read it and the more I read it, the more I like Sarah Palin. And that's the whole point of the book, really: to get Sarah Palin back to neutral public perception ground; to humanize her. She was a cartoon. Now, in her own words (and after reading it, I don't know how anyone could capture the cadence of rhythm of her rhetorical and prose style, it's so unique) she's saying who she is. And she's believable. And she's not stupid.

And she's normal.

The bar was set so low for Sarah Palin, that she's surprising everyone, including the press. People are even rethinking the Katie Couric interview and Ms. Palin made a really good point: Why not release all the tape, unedited and uncut? If Sarah Palin comes off as such a complete moron, it should harm Sarah Palin worse, not make her look better. A win-win for the left and the press, but Katie Couric won't release the tape. Too bad, it makes Katie Couric look more like a partisan hack, if that were possible.

Over the next year, I'm guessing that Ms. Palin will just be not scary. In the mean time, she's hopefully boning up on foreign policy, philosophy, etc. There are hints in her speeches that she's doing just that.

The press and left will still call her stupid. They did that with Ronald Reagan (doddering grandpa) and Gerald Ford (fumbling moron) and George W. Bush (blathering idiot). Why? Because anyone who disagrees with leftist conventional wisdom is, by definition, stupid. So, once again, the bar will be set so low, even a McChimpyhaliburtan can leap it.

President Obama (dithering on Afghanistan) and the Climategate folks and the Congressional Dems cutting of grandma's healthcare, have destroyed any reverence for pseudo-intellectualism. Pointy-headed smart looks ineffectual and maybe even evil.

Americans like a pragmatic, action-oriented politician. Smart enough, but not waffling (Obama), haughty (Kerry), and humorless (Gore). By over-selling intellectualism and reducing enemies to mindless dunces, the press and left are themselves, the caricature.

Sarah Palin is turning into a real, fleshed-out human being. Now that she's established a bare minimum, she can turn toward policy questions. And she has. She has been a fearless critic or encourager depending on President Obama's policy choices. And if the President keeps making poor choices, her criticism will look genius.

The Left made a big mistake scorning Sarah Palin. They created a solid core of adoring fans and created an image so cartoonish, that she is bound to exceed expectations.

Bill_Dalasio

Posted by President_Friedman
2009-12-09 15:25:42

My hot girlfriend from Canada said she believes you.

What do you mean? They're not even a real country anyway!
Bill_Dalasio

Posted by President_Friedman
2009-12-09 15:25:42

My hot girlfriend from Canada said she believes you.

What do you mean? They're not even a real country anyway!
President_Friedman

Posted by huckupchuck1
2009-12-09 13:44:06

Don't worry, Huck. My hot girlfriend from Canada said she believes you.

(j/k I have always found Huck to be very honest, and have no doubts at all that he knows many conservatives who aren't wild about Palin. I live in the reddest of red states, and I know more than a few stalwart conservatives who aren't crazy about Palin.)
huckupchuck1

mightysamurai - Do you doubt that there are conservatives who don't like Sarah Palin? And do you doubt that I personally know some of them and talk to them about Palin? I live in a very conservative state, grew up in the conservative suburbs of New Orleans (Kenner and Slidell), went to Catholic schools virtually all my life. I come from a big working-class Catholic family, about 90% of whom are hard core conservatives. I'm just telling you what my experience has been. If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do about that.
Tennwriter

The way I see it is that Palin is keeping her options open. She can make money from the book(yay!) and redeem her reputation as a minimum, and possibly take the TV host job the Devil tempts her (I mean 'liberals, liberals offer' her currenlty as a means to sideline her) if things go somewhat south, possibly. Or she can do the Kingmaker thing and try to straighten out the stupids in the R party. Or she can take the Presidency. I'll say that she does not have a fixed plan at this point. Although I suspect one of her goals is to beat the MSM into submission until they roll over and play dead, and beg her to stop hurting them. Justice demands such.

As to Jack, the MSM is liberal in the context of America. In the context of Karl Marx, its not. Big business is not conservative. Big business is for big business and the Divine Right of Big Businessmen to Make a Profit.

And conservatism is not about the status quo. The status quo is liberalism at this present point. A simple dictionary definition of 'conservative' might yield your definition, but the one used in modern American politics is far from the status quo. Perhaps a better word is 'constitutionalist', or 'traditionalist' or even 'liberal' as in 'classical liberal'.

You want more government and single payer, no doubt. I want to destroy threefourths of the gov't, and repeal at least half of the laws passed. You want more of the same just lots more. I want to rip things up. Who's the real radical here?
mightysamurai

Posted by huckupchuck1
2009-12-08 23:33:33

Ah yes, more quotes from Huckupchuck's supposed "friends" who supposedly don't like Sarah Palin. This reminds me of the "Concerned Christian Conservatives" that were popping up on right-wing blogs all over the net a while back.
TheBaud

As did KPFA in every example while the corporate controlled mainstream media you call liberal was anything but.
Posted by Jack Schite 2009-12-09 12:11:55

Not only do you have no idea what you are talking about in relationship to a Liberal bent to the media (as demonstrated above), the only counter example to my nationally recognized media sources is a local station that no one has heard of.

Jack Schite, don't you get tired of demonstrating your abject ignorance?
Jack Schite

Thebaud proves my point again, by suggesting that the samples he provides in any way exemplify a liberal media.

A liberal media would espouse the public option instead if dismissing it outright to appease advertisers. A liberal media would have strongly questioned the run up to Bush's Iraq fiasco instead of beating their chests over it. A liberal media would continually divulge the true cost of our country's perpetual war time economy. A liberal media would question the faux real estate boom instead of contributing to it.

As did KPFA in every example while the corporate controlled mainstream media you call liberal was anything but.
MediumHeadBoy

The news media is very conservative because it's owned by conservative corporations intent on protecting the status quo.

Just when you think Jack Off can't possibly get any dumber... he does.
TheBaud

You don't know what liberal media looks like.
Posted by Jack Schite 2009-12-09 09:06:40
Liberal media looks like...
...Dan Rather trying to affect the outcome of a Presidential election by using falsified document to bring down a Republican, while refusing to report the results of his own internal probe into his acts by says "We do not want to influence the election".
...the New York Times publishing every poll that shows Bush's numbers down, but ignoring and burying any poll that shows Bush's popularity on the rise.
...ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN investigating anything and everything about VP Candidate Palin, even attacking her children, while steadfastly accepting anything and everything said by Obama at face value.

Do I need to go further?
Jack Schite

Thanks Dick for proving my point. You don't know what liberal media looks like.
huckupchuck1

I find the whole Palin phenomenon to be fascinating. Of course, I'm no fan of Palin; but that's no surprise. However, given the rock-star status she has obtained, I have questioned whether I am really missing something about Palin. So, I have made it a kind of mini-crusade to ask conservatives whom I know personally and respect to explain the Palin phenomenon to me. These are long-time friends, acquaintances, and family members who I know are rock-ribbed conservatives. And I have yet to find anyone who will look me in the eye over a cup of coffee, when the partisan or ideological defensiveness gives way to honest reflection, who is truly enthusiastic about her. Some have told me that they simply cannot support her and will sit out the election if she is running; and others (probably more common) have said that they would reluctantly vote for her against any liberal because they imagine that she can't be worse than the alternative. Yet, I recognize that Palin remains extremely popular among a certain segment of the right wing. Everything I have observed so far seems to indicate to me that there is a real split among conservatives about Palin, and those who aren't very enthusiastic about Palin are just laying low and keeping quiet for the moment -- waiting to see how things play out some.
Dick_Nixon

The news media is very conservative because it's owned by conservative corporations intent on protecting the status quo.

Posted by Jack Schite
2009-12-08 19:54:32

This statement proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are either a liar or a moron. Your choice.
Christopher_Taylor

How anyone could believe the corporate controlled media as bring liberal is almost beyond understanding

The fact is I really do think there are some people so stupid and naive they believe this. That they really, honestly think this is a reasonable statement.
Jack Schite

How anyone could believe the corporate controlled media as bring liberal is almost beyond understanding, unless to you liberal means ending child labor.

The news media is very conservative because it's owned by conservative corporations intent on protecting the status quo.
mightysamurai

She hasn't beaten anything as of yet.

So you're saying your assertion was complete bunk. Thank you.

But your statement proves my statement.

You mean that you're insane? No, I think that was proven a long time ago.
President_Friedman

"Hillary was a front-runner for about three years before she decided to officially declare."

The thing is though, Hillary did all the things you'd expect one to do if they were planning on making a run for POTUS. She wrote a book, got elected to a Senate seat, and regularly made the rounds on the Sunday morning talk shows. Everyone could plainly see she was positioning herself for a run.

If that's what Palin is doing, she is going about it in a VERY unconventional way. You don't generally telegraph your intent to run for POTUS by resigning your positon as Governor, costing your party a Senate seat by publicly throwing your weight behind a third party candidate, and then stiffing the mainstream media every chance you get. About the only thing Palin has done that looks like a campaign run up is to write this book and then go on tour, but that could just as easily be all about the money.

Of course, with Palin, the fact that all this is so unconventional could be the big glaring signal that it is the beginning of a campaign... but at any rate, I don't think you can compare it to what happened with Hillary.
D-Vega

She doesn't have to declare squat in order to be front-runner, Nixon.

Hillary was a front-runner for about three years before she decided to officially declare.
Dick_Nixon

Given the huge vacuum that exists for a Rep candidate, she is by far the front-runner in terms of running for POTUS.
Posted by D-Vega
2009-12-08 16:31:28

Fucking shame she declared she was running so early, isn't it Vega? Oh wait........
D-Vega

Given the huge vacuum that exists for a Rep candidate, she is by far the front-runner in terms of running for POTUS.
President_Friedman

Posted by Christopher_Taylor
2009-12-08 15:59:22

I am moving more towards this view as well, C_T. I can see her in a role that is sort of a cross between Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich, and that's where I think she'd be most effective. But I'm not so sure she doesn't have her eye on a White House run.
Christopher_Taylor

I don't see Sarah Palin as a candidate for anything, I see her as a powerful and effective public face for conservatism. She's more a movement figurehead than a leader or politician to me, and I hope she stays that way because that's what she's good at and most useful for.
Living_Right_in_CA

That was actually an old reference? I thought I just wrote that.
Posted by D-Vega
2009-12-08 15:51:48

No, my reference of "You've come a long way baby"
D-Vega

So the fact that she's beating you proves that her supporters have turned into a creepy cult?

That was sarcasm, sam. She hasn't beaten anything as of yet. But your statement proves my statement. It's all in the perception, after all.

How's that for an old slogan reference!!

That was actually an old reference? I thought I just wrote that.
Living_Right_in_CA

It's only a matter of time before she is the messiah coming to save the US from the dregs of Marxism.
Posted by D-Vega
2009-12-08 15:26:49

Finally DV admits we are in the "dregs of Marxism". You've come a long way baby!!

How's that for an old slogan reference!!
mightysamurai

Well samurai, she is already bringing down national reform bills with just a tweet and making prominent journalists see shooting stars.

LOL

So the fact that she's beating you proves that her supporters have turned into a creepy cult?

Really, D-Vega?
Christopher_Taylor

Liberal I know and understand: that's what Thomas Jefferson was. A lover of liberty, someone who rejects tyranny and embraces the free market. In other words, what we call "conservatives" today.

Leftist is what modern people who call themselves liberal are. Socialists, heavily leaning toward marxism.
D-Vega

Well samurai, she is already bringing down national reform bills with just a tweet and making prominent journalists see shooting stars.

It's only a matter of time before she is the messiah coming to save the US from the dregs of Marxism.
mightysamurai

Too late.

Again, call me when Palin starts commissioning imitation Greek temples in her honor, has herself photographed with halos of heavenly light around her head, and when her supporters start fainting and going into trances at the very sight of her. Then, and only then, will you have any basis by which to claim that Palin supporters have become just as slavish and cult-like as Obama supporters.
bthewolf

The media may define itself as liberal but that's simply to appease people like you who wouldn't know liberal from fascist.
Posted by Jack Schite
2009-12-08 13:56:46

Oh look Jack Auf makes more assinine assertions about the 'non-liberal' but obviously leftwardly biased media.

And Fascism is a politically leftist philosphy, Jack so liberal and fascist are generally hard to tell apart since they're so much alike.
Living_Right_in_CA

Posted by Jack Schite
2009-12-08 13:56:46

You are liberal more than the media, which is also liberal.

btw is your middle name "Eats"?
Jack Schite

You folks wouldn't know liberal if ir continued making your lives better.

You want liberal? Try radio station KPFA at KPFA.org and then try and convince yourselves the mainstream media is liberal, like KPFA. The media may define itself as liberal but that's simply to appease people like you who wouldn't know liberal from fascist.
Christopher_Taylor

Well the left and the legacy media went into panic mode. She was too effective, too well liked, and too good with the public. Obama's poll numbers took a plunge when Governor Palin joined the McCain ticket, and they had to destroy her fast and effectively.

The problem is, as the good doctor points out, is that it was only good in the short term. As time goes on the tactic is shown to be wrong, yet they're stuck in repeating the old lines about her. Fear not though, they'll come up with a new attack: she has to be destroyed.

Vega is providing the new talking point: the right is treating her just like we did Obama!

The problem is, not only is that admitting that guys like him treated Obama like the second coming of Christ, but the reaction on the right is nothing remotely close to what the left did with Obama and often still does. When Sarah Palin shows up in fifty pictures with a halo over her head, on votive candles and in statues of her as Christ, when there's a rash of paintings of her riding a unicorn and showering blessings on people, when people show up at her rallies wearing her shirt and gazing up at her worshipfully and so on and so on and so on to the point of revulsion...

then we'll talk.

The left is pretty weak at this though. They hated Bush to the point of madness, creating a new insanity called Bush Derangement Syndrome. The left responds by calling any opposition at any level to President Obama as ODS. It's a day late and a dollar short, dears. You look like pathetic little children copying their older siblings.
Living_Right_in_CA

Looks like there's a new messiah in town.
Posted by D-Vega
2009-12-08 13:27:17

Certainly there is a need to replace the current one. He is in a constant left turn, thus goes in circles and whines constantly even about Gallup!
BIG

Posted by Tennwriter
2009-12-08 13:07:28

Actually, the answer is no to all of the above. I guess that means I am not Presidential material. Besides, I wouldn't vote for me either.
Bill_Dalasio

Posted by President_Friedman
2009-12-08 13:02:40

For the record, while I am certainly open to a Palin presidency, my comments are much more motivated by contempt for her detractors than devotion to her.
D-Vega

Looks like there's a new messiah in town.

You betcha.
Living_Right_in_CA

Too late.
Posted by D-Vega
2009-12-08 13:20:48

He said the "right" not the "left" and there singing, chanting and praying to their Messiah Obama.

That was weak even for you DV...
D-Vega

You don't want to see the right succumb to the cult-like worship of a politician

Too late.
mightysamurai

I understand very well why the left hates her. What I still don't quite get is why so many people on the right, who I tend to agree with politically, seem to be almost irrationally enthusiastic about her. In some respects they remind me of the Obama supporters who fell in love with him as 'their guy' way before he ever had a stable of policy initiatives to push.

*sigh* P_F, why do you keep repeating this nonsense that no one knows what Palin would do once elected? We KNOW what her stable of policy initiatives are. Sure our knowledge is vague on certain points, but it's only been a year since the last election. We've still got two, maybe three years yet before anyone will be seriously talking about Presidential elections again. Plenty of time for Palin to start laying out a more detailed plan.

For the record, I understand the point you're trying to make. You don't want to see the right succumb to the cult-like worship of a politician the way the left did with Obama. I get that, and I don't want to see that happen either. But I submit that the support Palin gets from the right doesn't even approach the slavish devotion that Barack Obama got from the left. When Palin starts commissioning imitation Greek temples in her honor, having herself photographed with halos of heavenly light around her head, and when her supporters start fainting and going into trances at the sight of her, then maybe we can start to talk about "irrational enthusiasm".
Tennwriter

I agree Dr. Clouthier,

She had to clear the brush so that people could get to know her, and then do policy. There were some liberals who thought she had to do the Big Policy Book first, but no one wants to hear policy from as you well put it, a cartoon. We don't ask Wile E. Coyote for military strategies and weapons procurement.

As to BIG,
Do you have a wife who hates America? Have you wasted a hundred million dollars of OPM? Are you willing to flick off a woman on national TV by giving her the finger? Do you have 'glistening pecs'? Are you aiming to destroy America as the Founders saw it? If so, Ted Turner needs a candidate for 2012 since this one is about toast.
President_Friedman

I understand very well why the left hates her. What I still don't quite get is why so many people on the right, who I tend to agree with politically, seem to be almost irrationally enthusiastic about her. In some respects they remind me of the Obama supporters who fell in love with him as 'their guy' way before he ever had a stable of policy initiatives to push.

I like Palin. I like her ability to rally the conservative base and I like that she is so unconventional in her approach to politics. I agree with what I've heard her say about energy, but haven't heard her talk nuts-and-bolts policy about many other subjects, so its impossible for me to say if I would support a Presidential bid from her. But I like her.

What i don't like is making rock stars out of politicians. Even Reagan, as loved as he was, was always more of a national statesman than a retail political product. I never liked the way Obama's team turned him into a brand, right down to the 'bacon and eggs' logo, and hate to see that same thing happening with Palin. I am a bit suspicious of any politician (and their supporters) who carries so much support based on cultural identification. Certainly there are Palin supporters who can point to things she did as Gov. of Alaska as reasons for their support, but most of the people I talk to who like her just like her because "she's one of us", and I don't trust that... not only do I not trust it, but after GWB I'm deeply skeptical of it.
BIG

I am trying to get Bill Ayers to ghost write my autobiography so I too can become President. :-)
mightysamurai

Palin is as sane as the press is liberal.

So, extremely then. Gotcha.
MediumHeadBoy

Whoa, will wonders never cease. Drive-by castrato troll Jack Off posts more than once in the same thread?
Mike_M

The reason Palin is so hated at the national level when she was so popular in Alaska is her record of actually fighting corruption and controlling spending. The Federal government is slightly more than a glorified piggy bank for politicians and their donors these days, and Palin represents a very real and credible threat to the pork cycle. The thought of having her hanging around the Senate as VP scared the crap out of these people.

The idea of Palin as "being stupid" or even her social conservatism didn't generate the level of hate and rage among the left as was displayed...it was her potential of derailing the DC gravy train, and there are a lot of people, including some Republicans, with a vested interest in seeing it continue.
Bill_Dalasio

Dr. Clouthier,

I'll spare everyone a repeat of my comments on this matter and simply note that the left's mistake was one that they were largely unable to avoid. This wasn't a rational calculation of their advantage for many on the left, but a visceral need to protect their worldview and sense of self. The modern left is largely dominated by those whose entire sense of self-worth is wrapped up in their presumption of intellectual supreriority to the "sheeple", "grazing masses", "rubes in flyover country", or whatever the latest snide put-down is making the rounds. Ms. Palin, as I've noted, largely projects the image of the lower middle class, of the petit bourgoisie - the very group targeted by this presumption. To consider Ms. Palin as anything other than a cartoonish buffoon would call into question their very sense of self-worth.
belacuse

...a truly liberal press would have laughed her right off the stage.
Posted by Jack Schite
2009-12-08 10:21:33

Yeah, speak truth to power comrade! I mean, it's not as if the media printed lie after lie about Palin for months after she appeared on the scene, right? It's not like they gave her bitterly hostile interviews in which their main interest was the big "gotcha", right? It's not like the media made mountains out of trivial Palin details while ignoring massive democrat scandals like, oh I don't know, maybe Edwards cheating on his cancer stricken wife, right?

Like I said, you nailed it comrade - the illusion of a liberal media has infested the capitalist pig dogs. And you are bang on when you say that Palin is as sane as the media is liberal.
TheBaud

Please show us how she is sane and how the press is oh so liberal.
Posted by Jack Schite 2009-12-08 10:21:33

The press is Liberal and they have admitted repeatedly that they are Liberal.

And as far a proving to you that Sarah Palin is sane, first, you will have to prove to us that YOU are sane.
Jack Schite

Quitter Palin is how she is known outside the wacky right wing.
Jack Schite

Just keep trying to convince yourself Melissa.

Palin is as sane as the press is liberal. Neither is the case and no amount of declarations makes it otherwise.

Please show us how she is sane and how the press is oh so liberal. A sane person in her shoes would hesitate when asked to run, a truly liberal press would have laughed her right off the stage.
regularguy

Part of the left's problem with Palin is on a spiritual level. She's wholesome, and so is anathema to the left's inherent spiritual evil. That doesn't make her a saint, but the left spontaneously and uncontrollably reveal themselves for what they are: full of hatred.
arcman46

I was on the Palin bandwagon before most had even heard of her. I started thinking about a Palin Vice-Presidency in March of last year. She is anything but a dolt. She was an accomplished and successful governor, who had truly worked with both sides of the aisle to get things done. When she left Alaska after McCain picked her up she had a 90% approval rating. That is unheard of in any politician. She may or may not run for President (I hope she does) but I continue to be excited about what she will do on the national stage.