You know, even if I didn’t appreciate Sarah Palin’s accomplishments in the years leading up to her election as Alaska Governor and in her short time in office nor recognize her gifts to move an audience (more on this anon), I would have the same kind of respect for her as I have for Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and sometimes even Glenn Beck. The mere mention of her name can work some liberals up into a lather. Like her, they deserve some credit for getting under left-wingers’ skin.
One of her critics reveals his own obsession in a comment to this blog, “maybe, just maybe, her ability to make news is a function of her own obsessive attempts to thrust herself into the limelight“. Those of us who live in a town with a few too many self-promoters know all too well that obsessive attempts to thrust oneself into the limelight don’t necessarily mean the light shines upon them. I mean, how many people outside this town have ever heard of Dennis Woodruff or Angelyne, two people who have made self-promotion their stock-in-trade?
Like them, she can promote herself all she wants. It’s that people insist on paying attention to Mrs. Palin as they don’t to Mr. Woodruff or Miss Angelyne, save to scoff when his car drives by or to shake their heads when they catch sight of one of her billboards. And these lefties insist on telling us just how much they hate that Republican woman.
On Larry King Live last night, the Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel pitched a fit about Sarah Palin interjecting herself into the health care. Um, Katrina, she’s a citizen of this great country, that’s what citizens do. But lots of citizens speak up, just like lots of folks in Hollywood demand attention without anyone paying them any heed. Why do you let her upset you so? Did you get upset when Angelyine interjected herself into the California gubernatorial recall election in 2003?
No one forced Newsweek to run a cover story on Palin or compelled a major daily newspaper to run an article about her appearance on Oprah. No one threatened to incarcerate left-wing bloggers if they didn’t live blog that appearance. No one requires some of my acquaintances to pitch a fit any time her name is mentioned. Or to bring up her for the sole purpose of making an adverse comparison. Or derogatory remark.
Yet they all have done such things. And for some, these are just a handful of examples of the time they devote to a woman who is no longer even Governor of a state. They just can’t let her go.
And their obsession says far more about them than it does about her.
If she can learn to rise above their bile, then the American people might once again (as we briefly did for a few weeks in September 2008) see her as she truly is, a good woman, a devoted mother, a loving and faithful wife, an accomplished politican, a genuine reformer with a record of forming bipartisan coalitions and bucking her party’s establishment and a pragmatic leader, far different from the caricature created by folk such as vanden Heuvel and her cohorts on the left and in the MSM.
UPDATE (via Instapundit): Andrew Malcolm writes:
Wow, for somebody who’s supposed to be such a political joke, an Arctic ditz and eminently dismissable as a serious anything except maybe a stay-at-home hockey mom, Sarah Palin is sure drawing an awful lot of attention from Democrats and eager critics.
The launch of her “Going Rogue” interviews Monday on “Oprah,” of her book today, of her on-air chat today with Rush Limbaugh at 10 a.m. Pacific and of her mid-America bus book tour Wednesday ignited a surprisingly large blizzard of derogatory Democrat dis-missives.
Every few minutes another note from Democratic National Committee operatives and others dropped into electronic mailboxes across the media-verse, helpfully passing on even the tiniest tidbit of negative news about Palin.
Um, regular missives from DNC operatives? These guys are obsessed. No one’s forcing them to send out such notes.
Daniel, you are so very right. I comment as an outsider who also heard the woman speak on the TV when I was visiting the USA. I was impressed with what she had to say and cannot understand Sarah Derangement Syndrome.
I take issue with the nonsensical meme that Sarah thrusts herself into the limelight. On the contrary, the journalists and the left wing bloggers have been doing all of the thrusting. As a private citizen Sarah most definitely has the right to speak up about what is contained in your healthcare legislation and she is doing a great job of calling out BOW WOW Obambi over the fact that there are things in that legislation that is really very harmful to the population as a whole.
The problem is that the ultra liberals are misogynists and in fact the worst of the misogynists is currently the POTUS. Even if I disagree with the bloggers at Hillbuzz on certain things they are calling it right about Sarah Palin. In fact even little things like the manner in which David Letterman went after her and belittled her daughters, it was Sarah’s followers who took up the cudgel against Letterman rather than Sarah Palin. Hillbuzz was at the forefront of the protest against the misogyny of Letterman, and they were busy pointing out the best way of going about the protests. (you can learn a lot from these guys at least about how Dems operate, because they know this form of activism and they are really moderate Democrats, soon to be Independents).
I am hoping that Sarah will learn to rise above the taunts and show the audiences at large who she really is – an intelligent and accomplished woman (something that cannot be said about your POTUS)
i will vote for sarah in 2012! she has been a very impressive governor. just look the facts up about her governing alaska.
Well thanks for quoting me, Dan. But I think your analysis falls short a little. It seems you have some themes that you need to force reality into, whether it fits well or not. The themes in turn seem to have more to do with your real underlying purpose – insulting your political opponents – than shedding any light on the situation.
This need to insult yields a theme that must claim that liberals, or the left, are some irrational, hate-driven force (hey, I guess a little projection is at work here too!). So we see you natter on endlessly about how we all supposedly hate dear Sarah.
But I don’t hate her, nor do I know many lefties who do. We love Sarah. Sarah is a gift from heaven. Sarah is, by all rights, the heir to George Bush. As the saying goes – first time as tragedy, second time as farce. Is their a better embodiment of that concept than these two?
Sarah so perfectly captures the absurdity of modern Republicanism – the way the cynical pols like to put the dunderhead “personality” up front, while all the really ruthless evil ones work behind the scenes to frame the decisions that the “decider” will get to make. The glorification of ignorance as a populist virtue – we don’t want none of them elitist types that actually know anything, do we? The breezy effortless lying – witness the almost comically blatant lies about the “bridge to nowhere” – she is a natural. And of course, we also get to see, in all its glory, the hilarious pretzels that the rank and file of the “movement’ – like you – go through to try and sell this product.
A farce indeed. The latest poll shows that only 28% of Americans think she is even minimally qualified for the Presidency. Thats not the total who support her – thats the number of those who think she should even be considered. This is a year AFTER she has appeared on your national ticket! Heck, even 44% of Republicans think she is unqualified!
So how on earth do you think someone like this could possibly worry Democrats, let alone provoke the hatred that grows out of fear? It is my fondest hope that she does well, that y’all actually go out and nominate her. Would you please do that for me, Dan?
*yawn* And again Tano will not address Gov Palin’s accomplishments.
“As the saying goes – first time as tragedy, second time as farce. Is their a better embodiment of that concept than these two?”
We’re not talking about Carter/Obama here.
The glorification of ignorance as a populist virtue – we don’t want none of them elitist types that actually know anything, do we?
The entertaining thing about watching Talking Points Tano scream that one is what his Barack Obama is doing — such as quoting job statistics from Congressional districts that don’t exist.
I think that qualifies Barack Obama as beyond ignorant. But of course, Talking Points Tano would never acknowledge that; he’ll just beclown himself by screaming that these districts DO exist and that anyone who says otherwise is a racist.
You really see the terror and screaming fits that Talking Points Tano has over Sarah Palin. I mean, why else would Talking Points Tano repeat the lie that she faked her pregnancy, that her husband is having incestuous sex with their daughters, and all the other “facts” that the Obama campaign was frantically putting out to smear her?
“why else would Talking Points Tano repeat the lie that she faked her pregnancy, that her husband is having incestuous sex with their daughters,”
Never did such a thing.
You are quite the pathological liar arent you ND? I mean really, no hesitation whatsoever. Are you writing to us from some asylum somewhere, or a prison cell?
Actually, Talking Points, you’re the one who’s doing the lying, as I have pointed out previously.
But then again, all you’re doing is repeating what your screaming Barack Obama pays you to say with taxpayer dollars. Really, it’s Barack Obama who is repeating the lie that she faked her pregnancy and that her husband is having incestuous sex with their daughters.
Of course you support Barack Obama telling these lies, right Tano? You tell lies about Palin constantly. it’s just what you Obama puppets do. No morals, no values, nothing but worshiping power. How many people have you hurt for your Barack Obama, Tano Brownshirt?