Posts filed under 'Republicans'
Fascinating take on the skewed political playing field in the United States and how the left might be deluding itself as we head into the end of the campaign.
Will the exaggerations become a self-fulfilling prophecy, as assumed, or are Obama supporters spinning further and further away from reality, constructing one unsupportable exaggeration on top of another — only to be stunned on election day when the actual results, once again, don’t match either their pre-vote opinion polling or their post-vote exit polling?
Yet it may very well be that an army of glum, dispirited and pessimistic conservatives will reluctantly trudge to the polls on November 4, each one imagining they are the only remaining person in the entire country voting for McCain, and lo and behold — they’ll turn out to be a silent majority after all.
Read the whole thing.
Tags: Polls
November 3rd, 2008
Some polls show Obama up, but a raft of polls from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, etc, etc, etc show a clear swing towards McCain. Will it be enough? Will Democrats resort to their tried-and-true method of ballot box stuffing? When Obama loses, will he become the first Democrat in 20 years to concede defeat on the night of the election? When McCain wins, will the left put it all down as a spasm of racism?
Discuss these and any other issues which come to mind.
November 3rd, 2008
Some Democrats are really getting the whole “country first” message:
In blistering remarks to a Saturday morning rally here, former Robert F. Kennedy aide Bartle Bull embraced Republican John McCain for president, hurled Barack Obama under the bus, and then backed it slowly over the Democratic nominee.
“America needs a president who is grounded in patriotism, not drowning in ambition,” Bull told a crowd of hundreds gathered in Lower Manhattan. “I have used that sentence many times in the last three months, and not once — never once — have I been asked which candidate is which.”
The lifelong activist and former Village Voice publisher presented his impeccable liberal-Democrat credentials.
“I had the privilege of serving as Robert F. Kennedy’s New York campaign manager when he ran for president in 1968,” Bull explained. “I was arrested as a civil-rights lawyer in Mississippi, and I campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment. But in honest conscience, I cannot support the Democratic ticket in this campaign.”
Bull aimed at his target and charged like a longhorn.
“Character in the White House should be more important than charisma on the campaign trail,” Bull declared. “Barack Obama does not want to ‘change’ America. Barack Obama wants a different country.”
Turning to Obama’s financial agenda, Bull minced no words.
“Obama’s notion of economic fairness is pure Karl Marx,” Bull said, “plus a pocketful of Chicago-style ‘community organization.’ ”
How many Democrats are there like this? Just a percentage or two of the normal Democrat vote switching over to McCain out of dismay about Obama could make all the difference. There are, of course, a few GOP turncoats, but no one is seriously considering such to decide the race - McCain is doing as well with GOPers as any recent GOP candidate…Obama, on the other hand, has shown some great weaknesses with some of the core Democratic constituency - most notably blue collar and older Democrats…plus genuine liberals like Mr. Bull.
We’ll know soon enough - but as I’m always saying, consult not what people say, but what people do…people are saying there is a massive groundswell for Obama, but when we look at what people are doing (including Obama, himself, with his choices of campaign stops this past week) we can see that, at best, Obama is narrowly ahead and in for a close fought battle on Tuesday.
November 3rd, 2008
With nearly 9% undecided:
The race tightened again Sunday as independents who’d been leaning to Obama shifted to McCain to leave that key group a toss-up. McCain also pulled even in the Midwest, moved back into the lead with men, padded his gains among Protestants and Catholics, and is favored for the first time by high school graduates.
Still a completely wide open race - it will all come down to who shows up to vote, so don’t allow MSMers to depress you, fellow GOPers! The MSM will do everything they can to carry this semi-socialist political hack over the finish line - but we’ve got the better man and the better plan and right makes might.
Tags: Polls
November 2nd, 2008
In the name of “choice”, we have murdered 50 million unborn children - and now with the prospect of Obama becoming President and signing the misbegotten “Freedom of Choice Act”, we are on the path to another 50 million murders, unless we take this issue as seriously as we should:
The Church militant’s purpose, the bishop explained, is to “‘fight’ against the enemies of Christ’s justice and truth and light and life.” This fight requires our attentions in a “peaceable but serious manner.”
Lamenting the “casual manner” of some Christians, he said St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians reminds us that we are in a battle “not with flesh and blood, but with the principalities and powers, with the rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in heaven.”
“What is at stake in this battle is our immortal soul, our salvation,” Bishop Finn insisted. “My responsibility as bishop is with the eternal destiny of those entrusted to my care. My total energies must be directed to the well being of those who otherwise may come under the spell of a radically flawed and fundamentally distorted moral sense, at odds with what our Mother the Church teaches.”
“The direct willful destruction of human life can never be justified; it can never be supported. Do you believe this firm teaching of the Church?” he asked.
Bishop Finn noted that priests and ministers in Canada had been brought before government tribunals for preaching and teaching in support of marriage, being charged with “hate speech” against homosexuality.
“In light of the tyranny of choice growing each day in our own beloved country, we ought to be ready for similar attacks on religious freedom,” he warned.
“We must not fail to preach the Gospel. We can not withhold the truth of our faith. That is why I will never be silent about human life,” Bishop Finn insisted.
“What about you?” he asked.
Noting that Christ told the apostles they would be hated by the world, just as He was, the bishop said Christians must never resort to violence but “we must stand up fearlessly against the agents of death, the enemies of human life.”
And we are, indeed, hated - the so-called “pro-choice” people are fanatic in their hatred of us. Which means that we must love them all the more, and pray for them…but we must also stand firm for life. Being kind and merciful must never become being morally flabby. Love and truth are not soft, mushy things but are, instead, the sharpest of swords and hard as diamonds.
We must take up this sword of truth and wield is tirelessly in the fight for life. No matter how hard the road, we must never give up. And right now we are come to the crossroads - on Tuesday we will either advance the Culture of Life or the culture of death. Obama is for death, McCain is for life - for people who respect life from conception until natural death, there is no other choice than Senator McCain.
Tags: abortion, culture of death, Culture of Life, Freedom of Choice Act
November 2nd, 2008
…and happened to find myself in the most heavily Democratic area of the Vegas metro area and I didn’t see a single Obama sign or sticker except for one rather lonely lady trying to sell t-shirts with Obama’s picture on them…there wasn’t exactly a crush of people to buy.
A couple days from the election which will elevate The One to the White House by means of the massive enthusiasm he brings to the electorate…and for all the world to see, there might not have been an election going on at all.
Meanwhile, when the Mrs went to the GOP office to get tickets to the Monday rally for John McCain down in Henderson the place was hopping with activity and enthusiasm.
Things just might not be as they appear. The polls still say “Obama wins” - narrowly or in a landslide, but “Obama wins” is the universal of the polls. Unless, of course, the pollsters got the demographics for the electorate in 2008 wrong. If there’s not a massive upsurge in young voters and new African-American voters and if blue collar and older Democrats surge to McCain, then the events on Tuesday wiil leave the MSM and Democrats stunned.
Tags: Nevada
November 2nd, 2008
By Mark Steyn:
…if Aunt Zeituni had settled in Wasilla — say, in lodgings across the way from Bristol Palin’s boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend’s uncle’s sled dog’s veterinarian’s ammunition dealer — the fact that she’s an “illegal immigrant” might have come out a lot sooner, even if only from the Atlantic Monthly investigative unit driving by and asking her whether Joe the Plumber had ever serviced Trig’s real mother’s double-wide.
On the other hand, what could be more American than an Undocumented First Family? If I’d known it was this easy, I’d have run myself.
I was away for much of the summer and, when I returned, the entire campaign felt like an absurd satire I wasn’t quite up to speed on. But truly, in a world in which the many illegal foreign contributions to the leading candidate’s unprecedented fundraising include his own deportation-ordered aunt, satire is dead.
And Victor Davis Hanson:
I don’t think in my lifetime I have ever witnessed quite a campaign in which the wife of the Presidential candidate has been sequestered lest she voice yet another sweeping generalization that can be rightfully interpreted as denigrating both the American system at large or the values of other Americans; or in which the Vice Presidential candidate has been sequestered from press questioning lest he once again in an interview or an impromptu says something that either is so bizarre that it makes no sense at all or serves as a good argument not to vote for his running mate; or in which the Presidential nominee himself knows that if he stays on the teleprompter he has a good chance of winning, but if he wades in to banter wtih the crowd there is equally a good chance that he may say something so disturbing that the entire facade that he has so carefully constructed simply collapses.
In sum, the voters suspect that there is something wrong with these faux-wizardly images on the campaign stump, but on the rare occasions they hear or see a gimpse of something real behind them that understandably makes them uneasy, they are sort of given the message “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”
Personally, I think the mask is off and right now we’re in a race between the Truth and Obama; and if by November 4th Truth is ahead, then Obama loses.
Tags: 2008 Campaign, Mark Steyn, Obama Deceptions, Sarah Palin, Victor Davis Hanson
November 1st, 2008
As usual, its not the crime but the cover up - and now we’ll want to know what Obama knew and when he knew it:
Vanessa Niekamp said that when she was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case.
Niekamp didn’t know she just had checked on “Joe the Plumber,” who was elevated the night before to presidential politics prominence as Republican John McCain’s example in a debate of an average American.
The senior manager would not learn about “Joe” for another week, when she said her boss informed her and directed her to write an e-mail stating her computer check was a legitimate inquiry.
The reason Niekamp said she was given for checking if there was a child-support case on Wurzelbacher does not match the reason given by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Director Helen Jones-Kelley said her agency checks people who are “thrust into the public spotlight,” amid suggestions they may have come into money, to see if they owe support or are receiving undeserved public assistance.
Niekamp told The Dispatch she is unfamiliar with the practice of checking on the newly famous. “I’ve never done that before, I don’t know of anybody in my office who does that and I don’t remember anyone ever doing that,” she said today.
Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland and Jones-Kelley, both supporters of Democrat Barack Obama, have denied political motives in checking on Wurzelbacher.
Which is, of course, a monumentally stupid lie - the cat is out of the bag, Strickland, and you’d better fess up, ’cause Obama might not be in a position to help you come January, and you don’t want to be left holding the bag in a federal case.
As a preview of Obama’s practices should he win on Tuesday, this is invaluable - but as an event, in and of itself, this is a crime for which everyone involved should spend a considerable amount of time in jail over. This is the worst sort of corruption - the use of government authority to slander a private citizen. Keep in mind that all Joe did was ask Obama a question - and in return for this, he’s being raked over the coals and having his personal life poked in to by Democratic party hacks.
Tags: 2008 Campaign, Extremism, liberal lies, Obama Deceptions
November 1st, 2008
With ACORN and other Obama groups planning to defraud our electorate, we must stay vigilant and ensure that the vote is as clean as possible:
Today, the McCain-Palin campaign launched the Honest and Open Election hotline to help citizens learn the location of their polling place, as well as report any instances of irregularities at the polls, including voter fraud, intimidation, violence and electioneering. The hotline can be accessed via phone at: 866-976-VOTE.
“With November 4th quickly approaching, our Honest and Open Election hotline will serve as an informative guide for all Americans participating in the electoral process,” said McCain-Palin National Political Director Mike DuHaime. “The hotline will allow us to learn about and take steps toward remedying any voter irregularities at polling places across the country. While we are hopeful that Election Day will be free of any wrongdoing, allies of the Democrat Party, such as ACORN, have shown a willingness to commit fraud in both this election cycle and in 2004. Given the tightness of the polls, all examples of fraud must be addressed to preserve the integrity of the election.”
In 2004, multiple forms of voter fraud occurred, including voter intimidation, fraudulent registrations, multiple ballots cast and votes bought for money. Already during the 2008 election cycle, a dead woman in Missouri cast an absentee ballot, individuals were arrested for voting twice in Florida and people in Ohio registered and voted on the same day.
Write that number down and carry it with you when you go to vote - if you suspect anything, call it in and allow the experts to determine if its fair or foul. Don’t get into arguments about it at the polling place - but report what you see. Our right to vote is vital and we must prevent people from diluting our votes with bogus ballots.
Tags: conservative truth, Iran, liberal lies, Obama Deceptions, Voter Issues
October 31st, 2008
What happens when you invite crooks and kooks to be part of your party - from NRO’s The Corner:
Last night at a candidate’s forum at Temple Beth El in Boca Raton, long time congressman Alcee Hastings debated his opponent Marion Thorpe Jr., for Florida’s 23rd Congressional District seat. According to a police report filed by Thorpe immediately after the event, debating wasn’t the only activity to take place that night.
According to the report, Congressman Hastings approached his opponent on the back of the stage, after the debate for their race had ended. As the candidates for State Attorney began their debate, following the Hastings-Thorpe exchange, Hastings embraced Thorpe and began threatening to “take (him) out, permanently! (emphasis his)” if he ever mentions Hastings’ impeachment again. He followed up by turning away from his opponent, wagging his finger and whispering “it’s not over, it’s not over, I’m coming for you.”
Witnesses of the event only saw what seemed to be a terse embrace and huddling of the candidates after the debate. It was noticeable that Thorpe was visibly taken aback after the encounter.
A police report was filed in which Thorpe has asked for criminal charges to (be) laid against Hastings, as well as for a restraining order to be issued. He believes that his recent endorsement by Esquire magazine and several news outlets may have led to Hastings’ peculiar behavior, Hastings not being used to electoral opposition.
According to attendees of the event, it was Hastings, not Thorpe, who raised the issue of Hastings’ 1989 impeachment by the House on charges of bribery and perjury.
Ok, Democrats - first off, I’d love to hear you ever explain why a crook manages to get elected and re-elected in your party. After that, I’d like to explain why you aren’t calling for this insane crook to be forced out.
Tags: Alcee Hastings, Extremism, Marion Thorpe
October 31st, 2008
Wow - and she’s also written for Edwards and Hillary:
This drift started on a personal level with the fall of former Senator John Edwards. It got stronger during the Democratic National Convention when I counted the substantive mentions of poverty on one hand and a whole bunch of bad canned partisan lines against Senator John McCain. Some faith was lifted after Senator Hillary Clinton’s grace during a difficult hour. But that faith was dashed when I saw that someone had raided the Caligula set and planted the old columns at Invesco Field.
The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”
Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.
As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”
The party I believed in wouldn’t look down on working people under any circumstance. And Joe the Plumber is right. This is the absolutely worst time to raise taxes on anyone: the rich, the middle class, the poor, small businesses and corporations…
…I was dead wrong about the surge and thought it would be a disaster. Senator John McCain led when many of us were ready to quit. Yet we march on as if nothing has changed, wedded to an old plan, and that too is a long way from the Democratic Party.
I can no longer justify what this party has done and can’t dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics. It’s wrong and someone has to say that. And also say that the Democratic Party’s talking points—that Senator John McCain is just four more years of the same and that he’s President Bush—are now just hooker lines that fit a very effective and perhaps wave-winning political argument…doesn’t mean they’re true. After all, he is the only one who’s worked in a bipartisan way on big challenges.
I know that none of you Democrats will believe me on this, but your man Obama is a disaster-in-waiting. He’s a product of the hopelessly corrupt Chicago Democratic machine and he lacks the knowledge, judgment and courage to be President. He won’t heal anything and won’t change anything - he can’t; he won’t be allowed to by the Powers That Be in the Democratic party and he lacks the ability to face them down and do the right thing in spite of them.
If you want change, then McCain is your man - he’ll get right to work actually changing the way DC does business.
Tags: 2008 Campaign, Obama Deceptions
October 31st, 2008
Just happened to overhear that in Mesquite, Nevada, yesterday and it really just encapsulates the entirety of Campaign ‘08.
October 31st, 2008
I think that, this time, we’ve got him:
Veteran Democratic Rep. John Murtha (Pa.) has sent out a last-minute plea for $1 million to save his hotly contested seat, endangered by his own remarks describing his district as racist.
In an e-mail sent to potential donors, Murtha’s campaign asked his supporters to maximize all campaign contributions.
“We need to raise another $1 million to compete,” his campaign fundraiser Susan O’Neill wrote in the e-mail obtained by The Hill. “We need money immediately.”
O’Neill blamed Republicans from outside Pennsylvania for Murtha’s problems. Polls show Murtha, running for his 18th term, ahead of his GOP opponent by just a few percentage points.
“Congressman Murtha is in a brutal reelection campaign,” O’Neill wrote. “The Swift Boaters have put up a candidate from Virginia and have raised millions of dollars against Congressman Murtha. In addition, other 527s and the [National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC)] have spent millions to smear Congressman Murtha on TV, radio and in newspapers.”
The definition of “swift boat”: Telling the truth about a Democrat. Murtha called our glorious Marines cold blooded murderers, and he’s called his own constituents a bunch of racist rednecks. No, Ms. O’Neill, it isn’t EVIL REPUBLICANS doing your man in, but his own idiocy.
As an aside - if you’d like to help turn Murtha’s seat over to a patriot, go here.
Tags: Defeaticrats, fundraising, Haditha, Iraq Campaign, Jack Murtha, liberal lies, Lt. Col. William Russell
October 31st, 2008
From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Exit polling of early voters conducted by a local political consultant suggests a close presidential contest in the Silver State: Democratic nominee Barack Obama had the votes of 50 percent who had voted, while Republican nominee John McCain had 48 percent of the early vote.
The poll, conducted by Las Vegas-based consultant Steve Nathan’s firm Dialing Nationwide Automatically, or DNA, was conducted by automatically dialing everyone who had voted through Friday, based on statewide voter records, and weighting responses to reflect the composition of the electorate so far.
Nathan said the statewide numbers were based on 7,147 responses to the survey. He said McCain was getting much of his support from rural and Northern Nevada.
Experts caution that it is important to take such data with a grain of salt because it reflects only who has voted, not who intends to vote.
Indeed - a few grains of salt should be added, but here’s the interesting thing: Obama leads in early voting 50% to 48%, while the party ID in Clark County (the place where Obama must do well to win the State) has been 55% Democrat, 29% Republican - which indicates a substantial number of Democrats are voting for McCain. Translate this to election day and around the country, and McCain will pull off a huge upset.
Tags: Exit Polls, Nevada
October 30th, 2008
What may prove critical to who wins is the number of Democrats who decide not to vote for Obama:
WHILE BARACK OBAMA talks a good game about being able to unite this country, as a former Hillary Clinton supporter who has closely examined both his words and actions, I don’t see it that way at all. I and a growing number of my fellow Democratic elected officials in New Hampshire believe that it is actually John McCain who is best able to bring us together as a country and a people, will inspire a new American unity and patriotism and will push all of us to work together to solve our most pressing challenges at home and abroad.
Given the fact that I am making a difficult decision to cross party lines to support Sen. McCain, I thought it would be useful to explain why I am joining a growing number of Democrats (including three lifelong Democratic state representatives who have endorsed John McCain in just the last month) in this state who are uniting to elect John McCain as our next President. While Obama talks of putting partisan politics aside, the reality is that his record in the U.S. Senate shows he has voted with Democrats 97 percent of the time. He has never once taken on the Democratic Party on even a single issue.
John McCain, on the other hand, has never allowed partisan politics and Washington political scorekeeping to come before the greater good of what is necessary for this nation. I have seen him time after time rise above the political pettiness in Washington politics to get things done for this country to make it more safe, secure and prosperous. He has taken on people in his own party time and time again and has made many in the Republican Party leadership upset – which, I can tell you as a Democrat, first caught my attention and showed that will put country over partisanship.
As a former Hillary supporter, I certainly do not agree with John McCain on everything; but, what I most like most about John McCain is that he has proven continually that we can trust him to do what is right for our country.
Country first, indeed. And this is true - lost in all the hub bub of Campaign ‘08 is the fact that GOPers in general and conservatives in particular have long had bones to pick with Senator McCain but aside from a few elitist “wets” (as Maggie Thatcher called them), we’re all swinging enthusiastically behind John McCain. Why is that?
Sarah Palin is a big reason, but the more important reason is that John McCain is someone who has the experience to be President from day one; that John McCain is a man unafraid of taking the hard path in service to our nation as a whole; that John McCain is a sincere patriot who views America as an exceptional place, graced by God with immense wealth and power for the benefit and example of the whole world. Trust me on this one, if McCain wins on Tuesday, on Wednesday we conservatives will start gearing up to do battle with McCain on such issues as global warming and campaign finance reform…and while I’ll be with McCain on it, there will be those on the conservative side who will still want to fuss with McCain on the immigration issue. We are not, you see, supporting McCain out of blind, partisan fury - we are supporting him because he is clearly the better man for the job.
As I’ve said before, I feel an affinity for Barack Obama - he is, after all, the first person of my generation to rise to the top of our political field. He and I disagree on 19 out of 20 issues, but I sense in him a kindred spirit in a lot of ways. I’m hopeful that Obama - now freed from Wright’s poison - will grow in his faith and start to realize that being an economic liberal is a matter of opinion, but being a leftwing fanatic is a matter of exceptionally poor choice. But, for the present, I’d rather have Joe the Plumber in the Oval Office than Barack Obama - at least Joe has been in charge of something in his life other than the advancement of Joe.
Some Democrats see this, too - and understand that while it’d be nice to win the White House, its not worth winning if the man who will hold it is not up to the job. It would not only be bad for America and the world for someone like Obama to win, but also bad for the Democratic party which would bear the brunt of anti-Obama disaffection by 2010.
Country first, fellow Americans - once we secure a government which will do that, then we can get back to our regularly scheduled political arguments.
Tags: 2008 Campaign, Democrats for McCain
October 30th, 2008
Did anyone see it? From the comments I’ve read around the right blogosphere, it was a bust - but one must sit up and take notice when the AP finds fault:
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.
Obama’s assertion that “I’ve offered spending cuts above and beyond” the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by “eliminating programs that don’t work” masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are — beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq…
The Mrs said she watched it - well, strictly speaking, she had it on the TV but just couldn’t concentrate on it…she did recall, however, that McCain had spots right before and right after it, which puts a lie to the concept that McCain is running a slipshod campaign. I’ve noted more than one person lately saying that Obama’s voice is becoming a bit annoying - that he just yammers on and on about the same things and when he does say something new, its usually in direct contradiction to something he said before.
Anyways - what did you think of it? Will it help? Hurt? Make no difference? Did Chris Matthews get another leg-tingle out of it?
Tags: Obama Deceptions
October 30th, 2008
This will not sink in for most liberals - just as the fact of Reagan’s astounding intelligence and knowledge never sank in:
I’m a Democrat, but I’ve worked as a consultant with the McCain campaign since shortly after Palin’s nomination. Last week, there was the thought that as a former editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine as well as a feminist activist in my pre-journalism days, I might be helpful in contributing to a speech that Palin had long wanted to give on women’s rights…
…Now by “smart,” I don’t refer to a person who is wily or calculating or nimble in the way of certain talented athletes who we admire but suspect don’t really have serious brains in their skulls. I mean, instead, a mind that is thoughtful, curious, with a discernable pattern of associative thinking and insight. Palin asks questions, and probes linkages and logic that bring to mind a quirky law professor I once had. Palin is more than a “quick study”; I’d heard rumors around the campaign of her photographic memory and, frankly, I watched it in action. She sees. She processes. She questions, and only then, she acts. What is often called her “confidence” is actually a rarity in national politics: I saw a woman who knows exactly who she is.
For all those old enough to remember Senator Sam Ervin, the brilliant strict constitutional constructionist and chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee whose patois included “I’m just a country lawyer”…Yup, Palin is that smart.
Like Reagan (and, though she’s got a long way to go to achieve this level, like Churchill), Palin’s critics are hammering her for being dumb when she’s actually thinking so far ahead of them that they can’t even grasp the concept. What newspapers do you read? For crying out loud, who reads newspapers at all anymore? Why on earth would a governor of Alaska be even remotely interested in, say, the New York Times? Other than glances at papers while sitting in waiting rooms, its been some years since I’ve read newspapers - there’s usually no point, as the news is something I read a day or two before on the internet. I don’t know where Governor Palin draws her information from, but she’s certainly drawing from better sources than the MSM.
A lot of things go into making a person smart - and very often these days, an Ivy League diploma, outside of the sciences, is an indicator not of smarts but of the willingness to swallow and regurgitate the reigning liberal orthodoxy. The crucial divider between “smart” and “dumb” is intellectual curiosity - a willingness to consider a different point of view. Our friends on the left are convinced it is they who have this talent, but the fact of the matter is that they are rigid ideologues who are terrified of anyone questioning their beliefs.
And this, I think, is what scares them most about governor Palin - her very existence is a question to their beliefs. How can it be that a woman can be an ardent Christian, a great mother and wife and still rise high in a career? This is supposed to be impossible - Christians are too dumb, wives and mothers lack motivation and to rise high in a career requires the abandonment of children. Allow Palin to rise hi
