The Cowardly Character Assassination of Sarah Pali

[bergsteiger]

The Cowardly Character Assassination of Sarah Palin
By Michelle Malkin

Sunken ships loosen bitter lips. The failed McCain campaign, for all its high-minded talk of honor, duty and courage, is now teeming with unscrupulous gossipmongers. Seems the dishy staffers forgot to crack open their copies of Sen. McCain's bestseller, Character Is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember.

Rest assured: Their cowardly character assassination of Sarah Palin won't be forgotten.

The finks turned to Newsweek and Fox News to spread petty rumors about Palin's intellect and character. The magazine peddled anecdotes from sources horrified that Palin greeted top advisers at her hotel room—gasp!—"wearing nothing but a towel" and "wet hair." Fox News reporter Carl Cameron breathlessly reported that his unnamed McCain sources told him Palin lacked "a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate" because, they claimed, she didn't know which countries were parties to the North American Free Trade Agreement and "didn't understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series, a country just in itself."

Let's assume for a moment that the McCain rumormongers are telling the truth about Palin (and I don't believe they are). Who would it d**n more: Palin, or McCain and his vetters, who greenlighted her for the vice presidential nomination? Don't need a fancy Ivy League degree to figure that one out.

In introducing her to America, McCain praised her independence and backbone: She "stands up for what's right, and she doesn't let anyone tell her to sit down." The inside snipers are now roasting her for that very attribute—redefined as "going rogue"——because she had the nerve to try to schedule media interviews on her own. The nerve of her!

Palin's response to the campaign fragging? At a late Wednesday night airport press conference in Anchorage, immediately upon landing home after the election defeat, she smiled cheerfully. The Alaska governor shrugged off the "foolish things" said by the McCain saboteurs, and simply said, "It's politics. … It's rough and tumble and you've got to have a thick skin just like I've got."

Hollywood savaged Palin. Journalists mocked her. Liberal blogs slimed her. Opponents cursed her, Photoshopped her, hacked her e-mail, hanged her in effigy, called her bigot, Bible-thumper and bimbo, and attacked her husband and children. But nothing Palin endured during the election season compares to the treatment she's receiving from these backstabbing blabbermouths who worked on the same campaign she poured herself into over the last three months.

Sarah Palin worked her heart out. She energized tens of thousands to come out when they would have otherwise stayed home. She touched countless families. I didn't agree with everything she said on the campaign trail. But she vigorously defended the Second Amendment and the sanctity of life more eloquently in practice than any of the educated conservative aristocracy. And she did it all with a tirelessness and an infectious optimism that defied the shameless, bottomless attempts by elites in both parties to bring her and her family down.

Liberty needs a virtuous people to survive; self-governance requires virtuous leaders. "Knowledgeability" is a necessary trait in political life, but it is not sufficient. The elitist critics of Palin, so blindly enamored of Barack Obama's ability to hold forth for hours on theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, ignored the Founding Fathers' counsel: Character counts. In times of adversity and crisis, it counts more than IQ points, instant trivia recall and bloviation skills.

"The most important thing I have learned, from my parents, from teachers, from my faith, from many good people I have been blessed to know, and from the lives of people whose stories we have included in this book," John McCain wrote in Character Is Destiny, "is to want what they had, integrity, and to feel the sting of my conscience when I have risked it for some selfish reason."

John McCain not only failed to make that message stick with the electorate, he apparently couldn't persuade his own staff to heed his advice and practice what he preached.

[adefonzo]

posted this article on another thread, but why not re-hash it here...

The Abyss Between Us...
by Prioleau Alexander



The 2007/2008 War for the White House. There are those that say it's the worst race ever, and those that say it's the tightest race ever, and those, like me, who say it's pretty much politics as usual: My Guy, Yea! Your Guy, Boo!

There is, however, one new phenomenon in this year's race that baffles me— And I can say with confidence it's new phenomenon in American politics. I'm speaking of the left's searing hatred of a vice-presidential pick, Governor Sarah Palin.

Where does this come from? What is it about her that inspires such white-knuckled rage? I'm a conservative, and I think Barrack, Joe Biden, and runner-up Hillary have goofy political ideas, but I don't hate them. I'm happy to admit, in fact, that they are all smart, ambitious, inspiring to their followers, and savvy. I also admit to finding them to be elitist, affected, racist, and narcissistic, but I don't hate them… it takes a lot to inspire that emotion in me.

But Governor Palin? If you have access to the Internet, you already know what I'm talking about-- there is fury amongst tens of millions of Americans at the mere mention of her name. According to these haters, she's not just "dumb," she's "an embarrassment." She's not just "unqualified," she's "proof that John McCain is an idiot." She's not just a "deeply religious," she's a "close-minded, hateful bigot."

You betcha, to coin a phrase. A bigot married to an Eskimo. Happens all the time.

So why the hate? Poor Dan Quayle was the butt of a billion jokes, but people didn't hate him. What are the reasons Governor Palin inspires such an emotion? Let's explore a few ideas that come to mind:

She's beautiful. No two ways about it, she's " America 's hottest governor from America 's coldest state." Not only is she beautiful, but she's just had a fifth kid and still retains a body that would bode well in a bikini. I think her beauty is most horrifying to the grim-n-grumpy feminists on left, who are far more comfortable with female politicos that angrily eschew things like "looks" and "fitness": Madelyn Albright, Janet Reno, and yes—Hillary. "Pretty girls" are the butt of these "smart" women's jokes, because "pretty girls" have it all handed to them on a silver platter, right? Now don't get me wrong… there are plenty of beautiful women who hate Sarah Palin, but it's for a different reason. They hate her for her stunning, meteoric success—that she rose to become Governor in a male-dominated state, while remaining married to her blue-collar husband, while raising five children, while being involved in church and athletics—and now she's potentially one heart-beat away from being President! Beautiful women just don't do that… because they don't have to, of course. Maybe marriage, a career, and school board-- but not that level of success. For a beautiful woman to see another beautiful woman put in such hard work—ugh. It's hateful to be reminded of one's decision to take the bench early, I guess..

She's married to a man's man. For the last forty years, the hard left has sought to recreate American men and American women as American human beings, as if we are somehow differentiated only by reproductive organs. Men should cry more. Women shouldn't cry at all. Men should be sensitive. Women should be tough. Men should get manicures. Women should compete harder in sports. The destination is a mushy, gushy middle, where everyone is equal, and equally unattractive to the opposite sex. And you know what? There's been a lot of success in this area. Grim-n-grumpy feminists wake up in the morning with the Pilsbury Doughboy next to them. (Boy, that's a turn-on). The Pilsbury Doughboy looks in the mirror and sees—surprise, surprise—what he's become: Effete and helpless. Then comes Todd Plain . He works the nightshift. In the oil industry. In Alaska . He races snow mobiles. He's got a flat belly. And he'd kick your ass in a bar fight. He's everything the Grim-n-grumpies strangled out of their husbands, and both parties in the bed know it. That's cause for a lot of hate.

She's apparently happy. The twenty-year marriage, five kids, started life without a trust fund, didn't marry money, works sixty hours a week—just two of these horrifying afflictions would have the hysterics on the left on meds and in therapy. And yet, Sarah Palin is not only surviving… she's thriving. She seems to be happy. She talks about her husband as "still my guy." She looks like she's having fun when she gives speeches. What's not to hate?

She's low-maintenance. Sarah Palin can stalk, shoot, and field-dress a moose. She lives above the Arctic Circle . She snowmobiles with "her guy." She ran against her own party to become Governor in an uber-macho state and maintains 80%+ approval ratings. She and her husband pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. They work as a team. She is, quite literally, the polar-opposite of Hillary Clinton. She seems to offer evidence that you don't have to be a "pregnant dog" to make it. She seems to demonstrate that a sham marriage is not a pre-requisite to making it big. She is hardest, meanest dose of reality a Hillary supporter could ever be forced to see… and the result is hate.

She makes clear the inexperience of Senator Obama. Barrack Obama has less that 200 days service in the United States Senate. He has zero executive-level experience. None. In fact, at one point he pointed to "his campaign" as his executive experience, as if running for President makes you qualified to be President. Personally, I have no problem with Obama's lack of experience. Hell, I think I could be President, sipping on martinis and taking advice from my hand-picked advisors. But the problem with Sarah is this—A leftist cannot rub her face in the dirt of experience without stuffing Barrack's in there too. She has executive experience as a mayor and a Governor, and he has none. Zero. And the fact that Obama supporters are put in a position where they have no choice but to sound stupid and hypocritical in discussing Obama's superior qualifications… well, hatred is the only viable emotion.

She is one of us. This, I think, is the thing that inspires the deepest hatred. You see, Americans love their champions and leaders up on a pedestal—invincible and removed. We like our sports heroes to embarrass and crush the challengers. We like our movie stars nothing less than perfect. We like our politicians to members of mensa, or brilliant orators, or war heroes, or fabulously wealthy aristocrats who've never worked. Why? Because we love our "stars" not for the light they shine down on us, but how far away from us they are. Sarah Palin reminds us of how little most of us have achieved—that 99% of us are mere scrappers, vying for 10,000th place. She is the American success story of a woman who took what she was given, and multiplied it one-hundred fold.

And for that, I love Sarah Palin. And even if she fades into political obscurity in the next two months, I will always remember 2008 as the year I was, probably for the last time, inspired by an American politician.

Prioleau Alexander is the author of YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT? A White-Collar Burnout Experiences Life at Minimum Wage. ( Arcade , 2008)

[adefonzo]

What's even more interesting than the article, is the response I got when I sent it out to some folks I know who were Obama supporters and had spoken ill of Sarah Palin.

"My honest opinion of what is below is a very small minded person feeling the need to stand on a soap box. That is the dumbest thing I have read so far. and there has been alot of crap out there. It's actually not worth a response.

total idiot"

"Andy- what you sent had nothing to do w any divide in dem/rep thinking. It was an insult to women who have may have a nonfavorable opinion of this lady.

Good for her and her accomplishments, but she speaks little to the heart of issues and tries to scandalize the opposing party.

And if u want to speak to her personal character, I have trouble being "inspired" by a women who preaches abstinence, and then has a pregnant 17yr old daughter by her side who will now marry some teenage dad."

"What a bunch of Republican nonsense. Just because your candidate picked a beauty queen with enough space between her ears to park the campaign's lear jet, don't get mad at the folks who are pointing out her shortcomings.

And as far as her qualifications vs. Senator Obama's qualifications...try listening to Senator Obama for once, the man is a born inspirational leader, you can see it in his speaches and hear it in his voice. This country will be 100x better off with Senator Obama than with the old McCain and the ditzy Palin."

These are actually friends of mine who have all told me throughout the years (in one form or another) that I have to learn to open myself up and accept other people for who they are, and respect them for what they have accomplished. I see now (and I have told each of them individually) that they were only talking about people whom they already respected...the pendulum doesn't swing the other way when it's someone they have decided is not worth their time.

Interesting how that goes sometimes.

[admin]

Nov 9, 2008 8:29:42 GMT -5 adefonzo said:

What's even more interesting than the article, is the response I got when I sent it out to some folks I know who were Obama supporters and had spoken ill of Sarah Palin.

"My honest opinion of what is below is a very small minded person feeling the need to stand on a soap box. That is the dumbest thing I have read so far. and there has been alot of crap out there. It's actually not worth a response.

total idiot"

"Andy- what you sent had nothing to do w any divide in dem/rep thinking. It was an insult to women who have may have a nonfavorable opinion of this lady.

Good for her and her accomplishments, but she speaks little to the heart of issues and tries to scandalize the opposing party.

And if u want to speak to her personal character, I have trouble being "inspired" by a women who preaches abstinence, and then has a pregnant 17yr old daughter by her side who will now marry some teenage dad."

"What a bunch of Republican nonsense. Just because your candidate picked a beauty queen with enough space between her ears to park the campaign's lear jet, don't get mad at the folks who are pointing out her shortcomings.

And as far as her qualifications vs. Senator Obama's qualifications...try listening to Senator Obama for once, the man is a born inspirational leader, you can see it in his speaches and hear it in his voice. This country will be 100x better off with Senator Obama than with the old McCain and the ditzy Palin."

These are actually friends of mine who have all told me throughout the years (in one form or another) that I have to learn to open myself up and accept other people for who they are, and respect them for what they have accomplished. I see now (and I have told each of them individually) that they were only talking about people whom they already respected...the pendulum doesn't swing the other way when it's someone they have decided is not worth their time.

Interesting how that goes sometimes.

Wow! It looks like you hang out with all those "tolerant" liberal types.

[casualreader]

Sarah Palin was an insult to all the bright women in both parties -- she was so clearly unqualified for the job.

Choices like Olympia Snowe or Kay Bailey Hutchinson or Elizabeth Dole would have been much more appropriate and may have garnered McCain some support.

It was obvious that Palin was way out of her league.

[adefonzo]

Nov 10, 2008 14:31:50 GMT -5 casualreader said:

Sarah Palin was an insult to all the bright women in both parties -- she was so clearly unqualified for the job.

Choices like Olympia Snowe or Kay Bailey Hutchinson or Elizabeth Dole would have been much more appropriate and may have garnered McCain some support.

It was obvious that Palin was way out of her league.

Some folks are just so predictable...

[casualreader]

I would rather have you -- Randy Andy -- as vice president than Sarah Palin. I believe you are more informed on the issues.

Casually Complimenting DeFonzo