Salute To Sarah Palin: She Was The Only Thing That Prevented a Democratic Landslide
Salute To Sarah Palin: She Was The Only Thing That Prevented a Democratic Landslide
by
Ken Eliasberg
I don’t think that I need to remind you that this was to be the year of the Democrat; the Republican “brand” has been damaged (hopefully, not beyond repair), and Bush hatred was running amuck o’er the land. There was almost no hope. John McCain not only was no draw, the base really didn’t like him; his campaign (to the extent that he had a discernible campaign at all) was directionless and messageless, and listening to one of his “my friends” speeches was about as inspiring as watching paint dry. Then along came Sarah Palin, breathing life into his pathetically dismal campaign. And with the advent of Sarah, the conservative base — an absolutely essential and integral component of the Republican Party — enthusiastically returned home. Indeed, for a brief moment, it almost seemed that she could carry McCain across the finish line (despite his otherwise clueless campaign; indeed, the only conspicuously intelligent thing that McCain did in the course of the campaign was to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate, and he managed to screw even this up in the manner in which he used her).
Let me make it clear at the outset —Sarah Palin is one of the best things that has happened to the Republican Party in a very long time!!! To me she is what America is all about. What’s that? First of all, authenticity. Sarah Palin, and the entire Palin brood, are real people. There is absolutely nothing phony about Sarah Palin. And to me, authenticity is the absolutely indispensable quality for getting my attention. Why? Because it inspires credibility, and, if I can’t believe you, why would I want to vote for you (or, for that matter, have anything to do with you)? The Palins offer a delightful contrast to the Clintons; they are real while the Clintons are a completely plastic and unbelievable couple. They also offer an interesting contrast to the Obamas; Todd Palin is America - a rugged individual, a patriot, and a great father and husband. And, unlike Michelle Obama, I’m sure that Todd Palin is not only proud of America, but has never entertained any lesser feeling for it, let alone found it to be a mean country. Think about that for a second; we have a first lady who, until her husband was a serious contender for the presidency, had never really been proud of her “mean” country — you know the country that just elected her husband president. Isn’t there something wrong with this picture? And it says more about us than it does about Michelle Obama — 61% of the American public thought that she would make a good first lady; only 54% felt the same way about Cindy McCain (who I also like a great deal, finding her infinitely more intelligent than her husband).
But back to Sarah, who I regard as a female Ronald Reagan in her capacity to attract and inspire those who love this country, which, in my opinion, covers almost every American, with the clear exception of our intellectual “elite” — you know, the guys who have never done anything of any consequence, but feel free to sit on the sidelines and criticize those who are making an honest effort to play the game (and who are also vigorously sucking on the American economic breast while trying to bite off the nipple — how noble, how inspiring, how completely stupid can you get!).
It has now become fashionable among certain segments of our literati and politicos to attack this woman — a disgusting and despicable undertaking to be sure. Despicable not just because Palin is a woman, but more to the point, because she is a good and decent woman, and the criticism leveled against her is either completely wide of the mark or completely irrelevant.
More to the point, while it is always pointless to point out hypocrisy on the left, let me assure you that if Sarah was a lefty, the left-wing establishment would be having a meltdown over the horrible treatment of this woman.
Palin criticism is coming from 4 separate, but not necessarily mutually exclusive, sources: (1) certain anonymous McCain staffers; (2) our intelligentsia on both sides of the aisle (who seem somewhat offended by Sarah’s earthiness); (3) Democrats, who not only can’t stand authenticity, but who haven’t seen it in so long that they wouldn’t recognize it if it bit them on their hind quarters (you know, the place where their head has been lodged for the past 70 or 80 years) and, finally, there were the feminists, a bunch of phony pseudo intellectuals who can be counted on to set the cause of feminism back about 100 years.
1. McCain Staffers.- There is absolutely no excuse for this group of nasty imbeciles. An attack coming from these people, many of whom were so influential in engineering McCain’s defeat — again, a defeat which would have been staggering in its dimensions were Palin not on the ticket — is inexcusable. I don’t care if the criticism is true (which, again, it clearly is not); you do not attack anyone — particularly a woman (sorry feminists: I still believe in a measure of gallantry where women are concerned) — in the idiotic and nasty fashion in which these “anonymous” staffers have done so, i.e. impugning her intelligence and challenging the quality of her character. The fact that they do so in secret not only speaks to their judgment, but to their courage as well. And you know that they can, and should, be identified and drummed out of the corps. They are quite simply vermin. And McCain should have made every effort to identify them and expose them to the public. These people are without either shame or courage, and they speak volumes to the kind of campaign that McCain ran — so noble as to take Obama’s past off the table, yet so hypocritical as not to out and severely punish Palin critics for their vicious and unfounded attacks.
2. Our Intellectual Elite.- Our intelligentsia, or at least a good number of them, appear to have been offended by Palin’s apparent lack of sophistication and her inability to make a better showing on being exposed to certain of our celebrity commentators — i.e. Katie Couric and Charles Gibson. First of all, if this wasn’t such a sad event, I would almost find it amusing. Why? That one’s intellect should be weighed in the balance by lightweights like these 2. And I don’t mean to be cruel here, but no one with any real intellect takes Katie Couric seriously (in light of her ratings it would seem that even T.V. viewers don’t take her seriously). And, according to Charles Krauthammer, inventor of the phrase “the Bush doctrine,” Charles Gibson, who posed the question to Palin, did not himself know what the doctrine was all about (although one could hardly tell in view of the rather haughty and condescending manner in which he reacted to Sarah’s faux pas.).
I blame her performance on these occasions on John McCain, who, in my opinion, handled Palin, as he did everything else in his campaign, BADLY!!. She is obviously a very intelligent and courageous woman (very comfortable in her own skin, a refreshing and all too rare quality in a politician). She could have been better briefed, put on with friendly pundits or, at the very least, soft-ball throwers (e.g. Larry King) before being exposed to those with a very left-wing bias.
Nonetheless, I am profoundly disappointed in certain members of the conservative “intelligentsia,” who seemed every bit as unwelcoming as their left-wing counterparts, e.g. Peggy Noonan, Heather MacDonald, Kathleen Parker, David Brooks, and, of course, Christopher Buckley, scion of the modern-day keeper of the conservative flame, Bill Buckley. Here, it seems to me, is the key to how our “intellectuals” think, i.e. elitism trumps everything.
3. The Dems.- Here, there is no surprise. Politics is indeed hardball coupled with hypocrisy, and no one plays this game better than Democrats — vicious, nasty, and, almost always, completely wrong. What is really annoying about this is that they know that they can get away with it. Why? Partly, because the media will give them cover. But mostly, because they know the Republicans will not respond in kind. The Republicans delude themselves in this regard by constantly reminding each other that we are above such unpleasantries. But the Dems know better; they kow the real reason — i.e. that the Republicans haven’t got the guts for a real confrontation. As I have often said — Democrats confuse audacity with courage; Republicans confuse cowardice with good manners. In McCain’s case, it wasn’t a lack of courage that was involved; it was a lack of judgment, wisdom, and anything else that might resemble political smarts.
4. The feminists.- These are the guys who can handle anything other than a real woman, and that is exactly what Sarah Palin is — a real woman. Actually, I always thought that this was exactly what the feminist movement was all about — the charge that women can do it all. And along comes a woman who fulfills the charge, and, what do you know, she scares the hell out of these phony pedants and gad flys — you know, the Naomi Wolfs, Erica Jongs, and Gloria Steinems of this world; women who really hate being women and do it badly, or, worse yet, women who have no idea of what a real woman is all about.
Once more, back to Palin; she is the best thing that has happened to the Republican Party since Reagan — a breath of fresh air, and someone that the Party can hitch their wagon to and ride it to the White House. Not only did she not hurt John McCain, she was the only thing that allowed him to make the race competitive. She didn’t hurt the Republican Party, she saved it from what would have been a very embarrassing defeat.