printAn excerpt from my new WND column, “Sensational Sarah“:
“With the Liberty Bell on the big screen behind her, Sarah Palin was the Belle of the Ball at the Republican National Convention. The governor of the State of Alaska was more than picture perfect, she was pitch perfect. She’s a pit-bull with lipstick, alright—lipstick, and sharp stilettos. A potent mix of style and substance. …
Palin has what Washington harpies, Democrat and Republican, lack: authenticity, character and a personality. She’s a mensch. There are plenty of plastic people doing the Republican Party’s biding—vicious, vacuous, vain men and women who’ll embrace her and try and change her. Consider the consummate Court Courtesan, Peggy Noonan. This Washington insider, lapdog to the powerful, was caught on an open mike trashing Palin, decrying her appointment as ‘political Bullshit’ and ‘Gimmicky.’ Palin is not a member of Noonan’s claque—not yet. ‘The permanent political establishment’ Palin decried is a bipartisan plague. Let us hope she remains on the outs with “the Washington elite,” Democratic and Republican alike. …”
You can read the complete column, “Sensational Sarah,“ on WND. Comments are welcome.
Update I (September 6): An interesting analysis from Gerard Baker of the Times is “Sarah Palin: it’s go west, towards the future of conservatism.”
I must say Sarah Palin is sounding a little repetitive today as she regurgitates her Convention speech on the campaign trail. Perhaps most Americans can’t remember it by now.
Update II: “‘I think the best thing about Todd Palin, he’s a man’s man,’ family friend Kristan Cole told ABC News. ‘He knows how to fix the boiler or the toilet or the sink or whatever,’ Davis agreed. ‘It’s very common in Alaska. We don’t have the luxury of calling the Roto-Rooter guy. We just do it ourselves.'” That reminds me of someone I know. As I said in my column, “Sensational Sarah,” “Real women who’ve raised children with good men know exactly what Sarah Palin means when she speaks about her man.”
Update III (September 8): Did I read somewhere in the comments to this post that Sarah Palin was masculine or “manly”? That’s insane. Take it from a feminine female (who happens to wear spectacles too); Palin is feminine alright. Her attire is feminine; the hair classic and soft—unlike Hillary’s hardened helmet—the mannerism the direct opposite of … Ann Coulter’s. Ditto the voice—although it’s not soft, it certainly is much less shrill than your average female foghorn on Fox News. Palin is very feminine. Men who are not hip to her womanly wiles are probably not very masculine themselves.
Sarah the Barracuda….Wow! To me, she is like a cold glass of spring water on a blistering hot day. Fresh air is another good analogy. I would prefer that she was running for President and McCain VP. However, I will bask in this refreshing thought that someday she may be president. I never thought that I would say that about a woman being president, but she changes the equation dramatically for me. Under a discerning eye, one can tell that she is totally for real. If you have any discernment at all, it becomes crystal clear that Sarah is for real. I have been around to many people in my life, and my kind of work to know when someone is real and when they want you to think they are real. ILana is speculating and hoping that the corrupt inner sanctum of Washington will not corrupt Sarah. Rest at ease with that thought ILana…. It won’t happen to this woman. That’s my story and I’m stick’n to it.
Martin Berrow
I’m glad that I am not the only one who liked Palin. Second to Ron Paul, she is the most qualified – not because of the issues (in her case) but because she is clearly the most “outsider”. Boy, and I thought the liberal blogs were freaking out about Ron Paul; they went way off the deep end with Palin.
Strangely, there’s always hope. McCain could have a heart attack.
Another bull’s-eye column. Yes, in an ideal world, Sarah Palin would be the type of person who would be the VP under President Ron Paul. However, Lew Rockwell, myself, and others worry that the Republican Statist Fox News “handlers” will turn her into a complete political hack over the next several years – hopefully not. Let’s hope she doesn’t swallow all the Neocon Kool Aid. The New York Times and the Gloria Steinem crowd are apoplectic. She reminds me a little of one of my heroes, a reform mayor and governor who took on his own party’s Tammany Hall – Grover Cleveland – of whom it was said: “they love him for the enemies he made” – and he had an involvement with an out-of-wedlock baby as well! See:
{{ http://www.cdobs.com/archive/our-columns/taking-responsibility-grover-cleveland-and-john-edwards,1528/ }}
Cleveland cut tariffs, balanced the budget, vetoed corrupt and unconstitutional spending, opposed imperialism against Hawaii, and adhered to the gold standard.
“(Would that Rep. Ron Paul, the only politician who adheres to America’s founding philosophy, was Palin’s running mate, wisely steering her boundless energy and excellent instincts in excising the cancer from the body politic.)”
Interestingly, someone proposed that very idea about a year ago. Also, Palin has had complimentary things to say about Dr. Paul.
Picking Gov. Palin as his running mate was such an incredibly brilliant move that I can’t help but think it was accidental — I never thought McCain was that smart. My attitude toward the GOP ticket instantly went from “No way!” to “We’ll see.” After her speech Wednesday, I find myself actually leaning toward voting Republican in November.
Unfortunately, I’m sure the GOP establishment is even now trying to “educate” her about foreign policy, with neocon “experts” from the AEI and the Bush administration providing the education.
Gov. Palin strikes me as a strong and independent woman. I hope she’s strong and independent enough to stand up to them.
Phil Manger
The “Obamanation of Desolation” was a great title phrase, similar to a Biblical prophecy phrase describing a falsely worshipped man. Gov. Sarah Palin seems to be a conservative, innocent idealist, strong in her faith, and has till now survived confrontation with the evil establishment. It will take a strong person to fight the treasonous establishment. So far, her choice as Vice President candidate by “Moron” McCain seems to be the best decision yet for Senator McCain in his campaign, and seems to have revived his enthusiasm, which previously seemed to be at a narcoleptic level. I agree that pregnancy and childbirth out of wedlock is regretable, and should not be easily condoned and accepted, but a parent, presumably despite the moral instruction of their children, cannot be held entirely responsible for the wrong actions of their son or daughter, of the age of consent and nearly the legal age of an adult. Not to mention parental love and forgiveness of error for her daughter, which probably was the primary thought of Gov. Sarah Palin.
The pick of Palin was brilliant. No one who was going to vote for him anyway will change their minds, and millions of fence sitters will give him a much closer look. It rescues left leaning women who really did not want to vote for Obama but felt if they didn’t they might be (gasp) racist. Now they can vote against an Obama ticket with a clear conscience.
I’d like to make a few comments regarding conservatives and why I think that their idealogy is dying.
First of all, the ideal conservative believes that men should be heads of state, and serve in wars, blah blah blah.
Who is running for VP right now? A woman. Exactly how does this fit with conservative idealism? Is this ‘traditional’?
Years from now, when we have a national health program, female conscripts, women running for president and the like, you will still find the occassional idiot conservative pretending that he (or she?) is different from everyone else because they are traditionalists.
It just goes to show how bankrupt the idealogy of the Republican is.
And before I finish this, I should say something to a few people on this blog; Relax. Take a deep breath. Palin is not Ron Paul.
She is a VP who is a member of Feminists for Life.
Enjoy.
I think McCain exceeded himself. He will grow tired of a principled and honest woman in the Whitehouse beside him. McCain thinks he picked someone he can control. Her ethics will be his undoing.
I don’t think there’s much of a danger that Palin will be “corrupted” by neocons, “Washington insiders,” and Fox News. She is a fierce individualist and I suspect she will retain that trait if McCain-Palin wins.
However, it would not surprise me greatly if Palin comes naturally to the same pro-war stance as John McCain, based not on urgings from neocons, but on her own religious beliefs. As a relatively new convert to biblical Christianity, I’ve often found myself extremely uncomfortable with the willingness of many Christians to see our unprovoked, unconstitutional war in Iraq as “God’s will.”
As Hal Lindsey continually reminds his readers, the war of Gog and Magog (an alliance of Russia and Iran, among others) against Israel will come. “Bomb, bomb Iran” McCain is a warmonger, plain and simple. Sarah Palin does not strike me as a warmonger, but I am not heartened by her previous enthusiastic support of the Iraq War, particularly now as the actions of Russia and Iran seem poised to change the international picture to one that dovetails along biblical lines. I would hope that her response (should she be called upon) to any international crisis would be, first and foremost, constitutional. Christians are called to be good stewards of the resources we have; our American resources include our Constitution.
I’ve said it before: Sarah Palin is the only man in this race. She makes the others look like the sissies they are. Obama, for instance, isn’t even half the man of his own wife.
I disagree with Palin on her war stance, but there are hopefully some salvageable attributes that won’t be corrupted in DC. Growing up in Alaska can leave one with a very independent and anti-government streak. I’m not so sure it will be easily eliminated and she has all of her relatives to bend her ear when she steps away from her roots.
In a way, I think Palin could help undo many decades of concerted feminizing that has happened to men in this country. Her husband is a great example of what men in this country should be, not what they’ve become.
Mercer’s piece thrilled me. I have read many articles on Palin and while others have made similar points in part, no one as skillfully wove it all together as a whole. I am by no means a Palin supporter, but I get the Palin phenomenon now that I’ve read this.
And I think Palin fits in with people like Rick Warren as bellwethers of a changing conservative christian movemement, one that is engaged with the world and positive of their impact on it. Palin is partially the GOPs Obama, but at the same time, she really isn’t, because even if you like him, you have to admit, he is small-c conservative… he has spent the past 20 years in a very careful way, building a conventional path to the presidency. He has made compromises and played the political game. Ayers for instance. I believe that he just went to Ayers house because he had to do that to get by in Chicago politics. But it’s indicative of many choices Obama has made. He is, like McCain, a politician. Palin is, as Mercer says, a true outsider, in an election when people want change. It’s unfortunate for the GOP that it’s Obama vs McCain. With that comparison, Obama wins. Perhaps it’s time for the GOP to start looking at 2012.
Well now Whoopi Goldberg say’s that Sarah Palin is “pro-Nazi”. Whoopi is a very ignorant person. How she comes to this conclusion may surprise some folks, but the answer is very simple. Whoopi Goldberg has (nothing) on Sarah Palin but a stellar record in Alaska,and a beautiful family. So all she can bring is a totally asinine statement like this. The truth about Whoopi is that she is a token commentator with the IQ of a sack of river rocks. Martin Berrow
The full thing is here http://rantsand.blogspot.com/
but my prediction (or perhaps wishful thinking) is,
“And here is why I’m absolutely gobsmacked. I’ve thought all along that Obama was going to win, for a number of reasons, chief among them that an awful lot of Americans just want to show the world we are so over that racist thing.
I also thought he’d repeat the Carter story and be a one-term president – if the Republicans had an even marginally Reaganesque figure to run next time.
I also thought that even if McCain were elected, he’d be a one-term president, for reasons of age.
Yes, I know Reagan was pretty old too. But Reagan didn’t spend five-and-a-half years being worked over by the North Vietnamese every day, and we’ve all seen how that job ages a man.
So, McCain wins, Palin runs next time. After four years of on-the-job training.
Obama wins by a narrow margin, who are the Republicans going to run against him four years from now?
Ladies and gentlemen, from the great state of Way-the-heckout, I give you the next-to-next President of the United States!”
I don’t know Sarah Palin yet
but she seems well worthy to know.
McCain may have done a great service
and soon to Heaven may go.
I wish the man long life,
eternal life in fact.
But only above, in heavenly bliss
where some country he cannot attack.
I wanted to make a humble suggestion that we get away from talk about ‘real men’ and ‘real women’. These are really subjective viewpoints based on outdated ideas of gender roles. Heck, we have a female running for VP, and might have her for the next President, if things go well.
It isn’t helpful to a lot of people to categorize what being ‘feminine’ versus being ‘masculine’ is. They are outdated ideas that don’t belong in our modern world.
Again, I point to the picking of a female VP. Do we really need this hashing of gender roles again? Does it have any place when things like this are happening? Maybe women can be masculine, and men can be feminine. If this is the case, as demonstrated by Palin, exactly how out of touch does one have to be to continue to speak about gender roles?
There are none.
Sarah Palin’s speech shows that she does not grasp fundamental issues. She never mentioned the flawed assumptions that have led our society to be out of control. Ron Paul seemed to have a clue, at least. Sarah Palin is not a man. She is a failure as a women, and not a particularly good mother (judge by the results). Gender roles arise naturally from human nature: being a mother is a full time job, one that Palin is shirking. As a politician, she is vicious and vindictive. Would a corrupt leadership promote Palin if she represented a threat?
I’d like to reply to your comment, John.
I didn’t always think this way, but after looking at ideas, and listening to ‘what women want’ (going to college helps some with that), it is greatly apparent that this idealogy of gender roles is not very natural at all; it’s largely a political and cultural construct. It’s also dangerous to teach boys to respect and protect women; they are likely grow up feeling that they are superior to them, and feel that they need to protect them from harm (has anyone seen the female combat casualties in the Iraq war? or the workplace?).
Palin is not a bad mother, nor is she clueless.
She’s a shrewd politician who has done well for herself.
The only thing that I dislike about her is that she supports institutions such as feminism that does not preach true equality, or economic sense.
John,
I used to think that women liked the sensitive man ideal because that’s what the media always said. What I found out is that many women talk about how nice it would be to have a man who was touchy feely and a “great listener”. However the reality is, I feel, that most women actually like men who are, well, men…
So the gender role I bring up not because I really think Palin is actually manly, but because someone like Obama is just such an incredible Oprahfied sissy by comparison. I think Obama typifies what our society says they want in American men, but deep down they all know they probably couldn’t stand being around the guy for any length of time because he’s such an incredible self-centered drama queen wuss.
Whoops. Above comment for Alex, not John.
“Alex” believes that “gender roles” and identities are artificial “social constructs” yet he opposes the ideology responsible for his androgynous illusions! I suspect that “Alex” is a “masculist” or MRA or has at least been influenced by this mirror-image of feminist ideology.
I’m a real man. And I respect real women. I’m not homophobic, but wimps of either sex are useless to me. That said, the Vice Presidency is an ineffectual position unless the president dies, and usually means the end of a political career. I don’t believe Palin can stem the tide of statism, or even deflect it one little bit. Today we see the total takeover of the communist seeds planted with Fannie and Freddie. Huge amounts of new money will be created to pay off previously created bad money. Neither party has any other plan besides communist control over our failing economy. So to me, this is just noise, and not a glimmer of hope.
–John Danforth–
Ilana,
No Sarah Palin is not “manly” at all. She’s the exact opposite. She’s a woman who can carry herself with dignity and use her femininity to expose just how ridiculous the other candidate’s behavior actually is. I personally loved her dig at Obama and his journey of “personal discovery” (or whatever). It took a woman to mock these things and show everyone just how sad these Obama-esque statements actually are.
I also have been enjoying watching the Democrats squirm as their usual identity politics are turned against them. They seem to have been defanged overnight by Palin and Obama must be feeling the heat. Palin is both feminine and able to point out the absurdities in her opponents.
My feeling has been that McCain was going to beat Obama. With Palin I’m now certain of it. I think the first woman president of the US is going to be Palin. Aside from her stance on Iraq, I’m not so sure I have any problems with that.
I think that Palin has both style and substance, and that she is feminine not masculine. However, I don’t think that’s the point. The point is that McCain’s pick of her has brought back the “values voters” into the Republican orbit, many of whom were skittish of voting for McCain in the first place due to his stances on social issues. His pick of Palin has energized the socially conservative base.
The Democrats have picked a candidate so far out of the American mainstream that they’ve once again demonstrated their aversion to winning. Hillary was right in that she, not Obama, was the candidate who could beat McCain; the latter’s VP pick ups the ante. What frightens me in all this is the war issue. Not just the Iraq War, but the possibility of future unprovoked military action. Many evangelicals supported Bush on the war because they believed he was “one of our own,” and look where that has led this country.