227 Comments

1. smitty:

Sir,
No mention of the Tea Party movement in your otherwise astute analysis.
Also, have you noticed that the Obama Administration already feels years along? Much, much can happen prior to 2012.
Given that the bi-partisan Progressive movement is wholly accountable for the destruction of all we hold dear since Woodrow Wilson, I will vote _against_ a Progressive GOP candidate (e.g. Romney) in 2012 just like in 1992, since the difference between Progressive Democrats and Progressive Republicans is the rate at which the noose tightens.
Cheers,
Chris

Jul 7, 2009 - 11:18 am 2. vanderleun:

And that, Chris, is yet another example that proves my current adage: “Republicans. They thirst for death.”

Jul 7, 2009 - 12:20 pm 3. PA:

Sarah Palin’s resigantion was one of the most principled moves by a politician I have seen in some time–as evidenced by a, say, Anderson Coopers’ complete inability to understand what it “meant” (“Isn’t she just a quitter” was his repeated hypothesis). Ditto his silly panel of experts (Candy Crowley and the gang) who can only interpret human action through a corrupted political prism of opportunism and manipulation. Could she really be putting her family and the welfare of Alaska first? No way. She’s doing this for publicity (whether positve or negative doesn’t really matter), future political leverage, personal financial gain, etc., etc., etc.

To paraphrase Plato in his Republic, those who should most be our political leaders will not be due to their awareness of what it entails. So now does Sarah Palin. Is it possible that she genuinely doesn’t think that character assassination, frivolous spending (As she pointed out, those who level accusations do so for free; those who must defend against those accuastions do so at great cost both personal and public), and the general state of contemporary politics in which politicians care more for themselves than their state or country is worth the price of admission? Her resignation, that is, the requisite ergon which validates her logos, seems to answer that question. At least at this point…

Jul 7, 2009 - 12:59 pm 4. Gary Ogletree:

We need Sarah Palin in the White House asap. 2012. Need an old fashioned land slide that delivers Congress. So much to clean up after the National Socialists. Who, but Sarah? Hard job? Let her at it.

Jul 7, 2009 - 1:41 pm 5. vb:

Your Elly May paragraph reminded me of Diane Keaton in Baby Boom and of the dork she was living with before she inherited her baby. It might be interesting to get some reactions to that film by Sarah critics.

Jul 7, 2009 - 1:53 pm 6. Cris:

When all one has ever manipulated is symbols, it’s easy to forget that reality is not quite as easy to manage.

Jul 7, 2009 - 2:13 pm 7. Pajamas Media » On Sarah Palin and Her Critics:

[...] the entire story here [...]

Jul 7, 2009 - 2:36 pm 8. jharp:

Just speaking for me but I don’t hate anybody.

However, I am sure Palin is an ignorant buffoon, a serial liar, and completely unqualified for national office.

Other than that I’ve got no problems with her. She seems nice enough to me.

Jul 7, 2009 - 2:48 pm 9. John O'Neill:

Sarah Palin is above all an honorable woman. She towers over the small minded people who are manufactured in the Ivy League factories of the American ruling class. In contrast to her the Ivies would continue to hold on to one job while desparately seeking to move into another; only look at John Kerry an alleged senator spending about two years of his time running for president; Hilary Clinton another alleged senator spending much more time on the campagin trail than in upstate New York; and the king of all of them Obama another alleged senator who spent his entire senatorial career campaigning for another office. At least Sarah did not attempt to do that, she has far too much class. As for the man hating, family hating dowager princess of the New York Times who spends all of her time spewing hatred and lies Sarah is what we call a Lady; you are what we call a loser.

Jul 7, 2009 - 2:49 pm 10. Patrick of Atlantis:

Years ago I was visiting a friend’s house. My friend and his wife had company. The men were in the kitchen playing cards and the wives were in the living room watching The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. I was standing between kitchen and living room and when Bob Hope came on The Tonight Show my attention went to the television. Bob hope came on with two beautiful women on his arms and introduced them to Johnny and the audience and Johnny invited them to sing and they sang very well. So, I was shocked when the wives started berating them with words like “They sure can’t sing.”, and “They sure are ugly.”
Those wives were the ugly ones and their criticism sounds very similar to the criticism I’ve been hearing about Sarah Palin.

Jul 7, 2009 - 2:50 pm 11. Delia:

Sarah has stubbornly stuck to her guns and that scares both the left and the right elites.

Good on her!

I pray for you, Sarah. ♥

Jul 7, 2009 - 2:54 pm 12. Ron Kean:

It’s all about ambition. Like the coach says at halftime…’How much do you want to win!!!!?’

As a religious person she understands higher goals and higher callings. There is worth to making the climb. She has always seemed sincere. She’s a pleasure to look at.

I hope she get whatever she wants. She’s got me. I hope she calls VDH.

Jul 7, 2009 - 2:56 pm 13. Mike:

“Why, though, the venom?”

There is no venom, it is only barking. Liberals like to believe that the pen is mightier than the sword, but they never pause to consider that their metaphor may be backwards. Palin is criticized because she is a modest, unpretentious citizen. The real metaphor is that Palin is the pen, and the “dogs” are the sword. The self-adulating press is showing the lack of humilty that usually precedes a downfall…

Jul 7, 2009 - 2:58 pm 14. enlighten them!!:

Jealousy

Just because many women here wish for a burka…you know, those sacks that cover them from head to toe…jealousy. and the men knew no woman with those “good looks” could have an hones opinion.

stupidity

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:01 pm 15. william:

“So I am afraid right now, but not of Sarah Palin.”

That says it all!

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:01 pm 16. NCBob:

Don’t know if we need her in the White House but I am confident that she can concentrate the focus of normal America against the communists, fairies, unions and liberals that want to destroy America.
How about a weekly radio show that examines team Obama’s most recent criminal/stupid act?
A daily blog? A show on FOX?
She will burn left wing resources. Everything she says fires up their irrational hatred. They do/say stupid things. Why? Doesn’t matter. They hate her and she can use that to her advantage and to the advantage of our country.
She can quickly make a couple of million and decide how long she wants to take the heat.
GO GET ‘EM, SARAH!!!

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:02 pm 17. Strawman:

The Alaskan Clampetts

Or in the words of Iowahawk, Snowbillies.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:07 pm 18. Strawman:

But a pink woman with curves that delivers kids about every two years? Come on!-in the old days, who would have preferred an Ann Margaret to a Candice Bergen? A Raquel Welch to a Mia Farrow?

Better example: Mary Ann v.s. Ginger. Most red-blooded males preferred Mary Ann. Can’t exactly explain why, she’s just, well, if you gotta ask, you’ll never know.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:11 pm 19. Dave K.:

I want Sarah Palin to run for the Presidency.

I also want right-wingers to focus on tea parties, birth certificates, buying guns and ammunition, hating gays, and calling Obama a Muslim, Terrorist, Atheist, Socialist, Fascist, Keynesian Kenyan.

Instead of rebuilding the Republican Party and broaden its appeal to the moderate and undecided voters, I want you to purge the party of RINOs and only accept the Huckabees and the Ted Nugents of this country, the purest of heart. Only the most Christian of Christian soldiers should be allowed to represent the Republican Party.

And I want all of you to donate money to and volunteer for Sarah Palin.
That will make her betrayal of the “Palinstinians” even sweeter when she abandons them for some trivial reason or another.

Coffee too hot? She quits.
Not enough money coming into her PAC? She quits.

Her actions will demoralize the Republican party to such an extent that it’ll be reduced to a regional, Southern party, if that.

So, yeah, GO SARAH!

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:16 pm 20. LeighB:

I always enjoy reading your articles, VDH, as there is always much there to consider.

Perhaps it is just me but metrosexual men are so last century. Enough with the talk, talk, talk and time in front of their four-way mirrors. Men, show me what you can do with your brawn, your brain and your skills. If I want to spend time with someone who talks a lot and spends more time on their grooming than I do, I’ll call up some of my gal pals. Metrosexuals seem confused and weak. [let's hope dictators don't agree]

While some people may have an urban bias, I likely have a country bias. I have met the most interesting people in small towns in flyover country. Most of them are not as impressed with “book learning” as they are with common sense. I’m worried we don’t have enough of the latter in DC. And like you, Victor, I’m worried right now but not about Sarah Palin.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:25 pm 21. jharp:

11. Delia:

“Sarah has stubbornly stuck to her guns and that scares both the left and the right elites.”

As long as quitting midway through your first term is “sticking to your guns” you are dead on right.

Mega dittos.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:25 pm 22. John Schuh:

I want Dave K and others to look carefully at what Obama is doing, and I want to remind him he is doing everything that liberals want him to do. And if the country survives him, I want them to admit that they are wrong.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:28 pm 23. Jilly:

I happen to remember that right after 9/11 – when the city needed saving – that the real people, the ones who actually make things happen by their own efforts – were revered. The workers who tried and did save people at WTC were cheered and respected for having done the difficult things.

Well, that didn’t last long did it? Now these sorts of people are ridiculed…again….by the very people who support that ultimate man of the people, the Kenyan/Indonesian/Hawaiian citizen of the world whose best talent seems to be self-promotion and speechifying.

UGH!

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:30 pm 24. Morgan K Freeberg:

Good, healthy, hateful wish there, Dave K., mixed in with some not altogether subtle humor. You want to see Republicans go the way of the Whig party. Got it.

I wonder what horrible ideas you want to see the other guys put together, ideas so wretched that they enjoy absolutely no possibility of passage until & unless any & all opposition has been eliminated. If a job-killing stimulus bill and an America-killing cap-and-trade bill can weather the storm of a sickly wilting GOP, what else is around the corner that is so odious and weak that it demands they go away entirely before it dares to show its face?

I’m almost afraid to ask the question. I do hope you have some kind of answer. You seem to have something in mind.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:33 pm 25. sheesh:

Quitter. Opportunist. Abuser of power. You can dress up that sow’s ear as much as you like, but facts is facts. The vast majority of America agrees with that. You don’t. That’s fine. There are plenty of people who think Bush was a great president. That’s fine. Like you, they’re entitled to their opinion, and to the irrelevance it brings them.

And now for your quiz question:
Give one specific unique policy statement Palin has made, ever.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:37 pm 26. Dave the Kapampangan:

“Why the venom?”

Easy answer. They’re all petty fakes. As such they get enraged by Governor Palin’s authenticity as a human being, and they try their hardest to get everyone to believe that Palin is fake as well.

As for Governor Palin’s resignation and plans, that’s her personal business, and maybe we should leave it as such. It’s a free country, so let’s respect her unalienable right to pursue happiness and enjoy life and liberty.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:40 pm 27. Ed Wallis:

The author: “While we rightly argue that the Sarahs of the world, if they are to be taken seriously as leaders, must read and study more, why do we not also suggest that the Baracks of the world could do a little more chain-sawing, run a coffee shop for a summer, or drive a Winnebago cross-country?”

I sympathize and agree…but I think it’s a bit too optimistic (a la the Frank Fleming article also here at PJM at the moment, suggesting he open a lemonade stand)…it did nothing for the unrepentant Leftist Springsteen.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:41 pm 28. Robert Winkler Burke:

God love Sarah-Cuda,
Honor on her befits,
She’s got what they don’t,
Good looks, guts and wits.

The empowered hate her,
The ones who have irremovable tenure,
But her looks, guts and wits,
Will put ‘em thru’ her Alaskan meat grinder.

God love Sarah-Cuda,
Like a good general she’s unpredictable,
That’s what’s got those elites scared,
Weak magnets know she’s irresistible.

Why do we love Sarah Palin,
And others frightfully despise her?
She’s got truth and power,
With them, she’ll take down the liar.

‘Course, the liars think they got truth,
As they borrow to buy power,
But Sarah’s the real deal, hell-fire,
Devil or angel, it’s her hour.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:44 pm 29. Dave K.:

22. John Schuh:
“I want Dave K and others to look carefully at what Obama is doing, and I want to remind him he is doing everything that liberals want him to do. And if the country survives him, I want them to admit that they are wrong.”

Please, help and support Sarah Palin, so that Obama, the microbe from Nairobi, can be defeated with a dose of Palincillin.

Volunteer and donate via sarahpac.com now!

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:45 pm 30. Войска ПВО:

22. John Schuh writes:

“I want Dave K and others to look carefully at what Obama is doing..”

..I just want David K. to go away.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:45 pm 31. Ron Kean:

8. jharp

If I would write what you write, I wouldn’t let anybody know who I was either.

19. David K.

Maybe one day you’ll see people as individuals rather than formed from one same cookie cutter.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:46 pm 32. Michael:

David K, you are funny! Thanks for the laughs. You really must work harder or your handlers are going to be unhappy with you. If you had any interest in anything that people here found wonderful about the US over the last couple centuries we might listen. That you despise what our fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers created here on this continent makes your comments superfluous.

Jharp, you need to do better to. To make unsupported and unsupportable remarks works better when it is more than evident that Obama and Biden are the very picture of your claims.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:46 pm 33. chrisa:

Dave K. wins the thread’s award for hatred projection. Dave K. — 70% of blacks opposed gay marriage in Calif. So that means they’re all bigots by your logic. Right?

Who vetoed an attempt to restrict the rights of gays, Palin or Obama? You’re right, Dave K., it was Palin.

You’re either stupid, ignorant, or dishonest, Dave K. Well done.

Bankrupting the children… for the children. Obama ‘12.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:51 pm 34. Mongoose:

John Schuh: People like Dave K are around 25 years old, poorly educated (no matter how many degrees they have), booze it up after work and, of course, they work for someone else. Oh and women ignore them, They are completely led by sentimatality and emotions. Just look at Dave K’s childish little tantrums. Not even a mediocrity.

He has never been around a real woman in his life, i’d bet. Someone like Palin would get his goat in 10 minutes, probably never having to even say a word to him.

They are incapable of doing what you ask. If they were they would not be rooting for the Democrats in the first place. They are not really adults. They have no family, do nothing productive and have no real prospects.

It is going to get very rough for them very soon. Incompetents are the first to go. They think the Democrats “care” about they. They do not. They are going to have to learn the hard way.

They live in a childish world informed most by the MSM and Marxist propagandists. You might as well be talking to a squirrel.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:52 pm 35. Delia:

I doubt [highly] that our local ‘trollage’ have ever toiled a hard days’ work in their life. Crunching numbers and pushing buttons? Oh, and don’t forget all the sticky notes in your teensy, tiny cubicle. You know, remindes like, “We won!” “Yes We CAN!”

*gag*

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:58 pm 36. SteelerAZ:

I find it absolutely hilarious that MSM gives so much air time to Sarah Palin. If they really think she is as stupid and incompetent as they say she is then why don’t they spend their precious time covering other newsworthy items? How these people find that a Mother of five, business woman, City Coucil member and Governor of a state is stupid and incometent is beyond me. To me she is one helluva woman and I wouldn’t trade her for all the a**holes in the media combined. What better person to represent the common hard working people of this country. Her courage and stamina amaze me. How she has taken all this crap from the media is amazing. God forbid anything would be said about the Obama children. Those people would have to leave the country. It’s all because she is a conservative that she gets so much heat. Thus the biased MSM. They are absolutely disgusting the way they talk of this woman who has done nothing but good her whole life. I hope that people begin to wake up and tell all these newspeople to find a nice big lake in Alaska to jump into. I am so tired of their coverage of this women. If she wasn’t a threat why would they spend so much time on her? Go Sarah. We are all tired of politics as usual.

Jul 7, 2009 - 3:59 pm 37. Delia:

“Sarah has stubbornly stuck to her guns”

i.e. for the comprehension impaired:

Sarah won’t drain the State of Alaska’s resources dry by ‘hanging on’ when she’s been PURPOSELY subjected to frivolity via lame-assed suits which are counter-productive to her and her staff’s governance.

I’d like to see one of you trolls sued for half a mil and act like it’s nothing.

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:03 pm 38. Dave K.:

32. Michael:
33. chrisa:
34. Mongoose:

I can feel your anger. It gives you focus, makes you stronger.
Strike me down with all of your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!

Oh, and GO SARAH!
Donate at sarahpac.com

Remember:
Every penny counts if we’re going to defeat the swastika from Africa!

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:05 pm 39. Jerry Engelen:

Sarah Palin is what this country needs. She gave birth to a Downs Syndrome child and kept him rather than throwing him away.
She hunts, fishes and raises her own children rather than hiring a nanny.
The main Stream Media keeps reporting on all of her “faults,” because they seem to be afraid of her. The more they report on/sling at her, the more I like her.
She seems to have traditional values, like many of us have given up, and common sense, again like many of us have given up.

Jerry the Naught Pines in Wrightwood, CA.

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:11 pm 40. jharp:

25. sheesh:

“Give one specific unique policy statement Palin has made, ever.”

I don’t know if this counts but Palin had a unique perspective on the bailout being a part of health care reform.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npUMUASwaec

I hope this makes you right wingers proud of your hero.

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:11 pm 41. Pete:

“To paraphrase Plato in his Republic, those who should most be our political leaders will not be due to their awareness of what it entails. So now does Sarah Palin. Is it possible that she genuinely doesn’t think that character assassination, frivolous spending (As she pointed out, those who level accusations do so for free; those who must defend against those accuastions do so at great cost both personal and public), and the general state of contemporary politics in which politicians care more for themselves than their state or country is worth the price of admission?”

Well said, PA. Sarah Palin has more integrity and honor in her pinkie than her critics will ever muster. What was done to her and her family by the leftist attack dogs is a disgrace, but that’s what you get when elect a Democratic machine pol your CIC. It’s the “Chicago way,” using scorched earth politics to not only defeat but destroy your opponents.
I’ve lived near Chicago my whole life (hope to “escape” soon!), and such tactics have been a feature of local political life as long as I can remember (and I am 48). As a civilian, I hope Palin and family countersue each and every one of the lowlife scum who’ve targeted them, for libel, defamation of character, slander, or some other applicable charge – and take these sleazeballs to the cleaners.

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:15 pm 42. elvis:

Dave K cracks me up! he’s working through his feelings now… feeling anger from people that feel pathetically sorry for him.

I wonder what would happen to him(I think it’s a him) If someone did get angry at him.

I do know this…. if Palin and he were in the same room …he’d soil himself like the rest of the trolls and media are over her.

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:23 pm 43. Thomas L......:

“Brainless men without taste think Palin is “hot.”” Thanks for sticking up for us Doc!

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:26 pm 44. jharp:

To me the most disgraceful candidacy in the history of our country.

Good Lord. The VP candidate not even knowing the role of the VP or what the VP does.

Palin has embarrassed and humiliated evry American with her ignorance. I, for one, am quite ashamed that our country could be ignorant enough to take her seriously.

In response to a question sent to the network by a third grader at a local elementary school about what the Vice President does, Palin erroneously argued that the Vice President is “in charge of the United States Senate“:

Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the Vice President do?”

PALIN: That’s something that Piper would ask me! … [T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:27 pm 45. Dave K.:

Amazing Sarah, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Please help Sarah Palin by donating to her official legal fund:

http://www.thealaskafundtrust.com/

Halfway through her first term as Alaska’s Governor, Sarah Palin has done so much for her state and her nation. She has been a champion for much needed transparency and accountability in government. She has sought to protect the fundamental freedoms ensured by our Constitution. And she has never forgotten the importance of lowering energy costs for Alaskans and striving for energy security for America. Still, there is much left to be done, so let’s help Governor Palin continue the job she was elected to do without all these petty distractions.

GO SARAH!

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:31 pm 46. Mike N.:

Dave K.:
I don’t hate you. I just feel really sorry for you. Obviously you have no life, no friends and you certianly aren’t very self reliant. What are you going to do when the dollar is worthless? Will you be able to hunt and kill animals to feed yourself? Do you know how to build a shelter to keep yourself from freezing? Do you even know how to read a compass? How to get drinkable water from polluted water? If you don’t know how to do any of these things sir, you had better learn. And in short order too. Remember this post when every thing goes to hell, because that is exactly where it is headed if we don’t do something to head off this fool that is in the White House. This idiot not only doesn’t know anything, he doesn’t even suspect anything. No, I don’t hate you. I just feel a profound sadness for you and your ilk. You are in for some hard, hard lessons sir. I really do pray that you make it thru, because then you will know what life is really about: FREEDOM!!

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:44 pm 47. elvis:

jharp you can not possibly be humiliated by palin as a vp candidate.

surely you voted for biden and obama… i won’t take up space with all of the gaffs and sheer stupidity from these marxists. you know like ” i’ve been to 57 states and have one or two left” and on and on and on….

spare us your idiocy

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:48 pm 48. vivo:

It’s all very simple:

I don’t TRUST her.

I don’t trust a person who makes mistakes, misleads the public, believes the wrong things, is totally selfish, xenophobic attitude. Her supporters might as well return to the rule of Buckingham Palace. You don’t want her as President. You want a Queen.

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:50 pm 49. Mike McDaniel:

Hmm. And how, pray tell, does one get that essential foreign policy knowledge and experience prior to being elected president? Serve in the House of Representatives? Nope. They have little to do with that sort of thing? Serve in the Senate? Nope. They ratify treaties (not if Obama gets his way), they pontificate, but don’t make policy or deal directly with foreign leaders in any significant way. Serve as an ambassador to Lower Guacamolestan? Nope. Too many are political hacks and donors appointed by presidents like, well, Obama, and the rest are career State Department types who all too often exhibit a Stockholm Syndrome-like love for anyone but their nation. I know! Get a masters in international relations from an elite university where one can be taught by professors who not only hate America, but would like to see it destroyed!

I’d feel far more comfortable with Sarah Palin in the White House for one reason alone: She would, without a teleprompter, without political consultants, without waiting days as people died, and with 100% accuracy, be able to identify America’s enemies. She’d likewise be able to identify America’s friends and would treat each group appropriately. These abilities, unknown to the elite and enlightened, come from common sense, patriotism and simple decency.

We are known by are friends and perhaps even more tellingly by our enemies. By that measure, Sarah Palin is the real deal, and a good woman. Being demonized by such as Maureen Dowd is the surest indication that one is virtuous and a genuine American.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:00 pm 50. sheesh:

Did you see Palin’s interviews today? The ones with all the dead fish?

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:07 pm 51. independent me:

hey #8..

I think you ment to say Obama, not Palin…you’re excused.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:09 pm 52. Dave K.:

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer against Obama.

Sarah will soon come to you and will fight against ACORN with the sword of her mouth.

We will come out of the great tribulation unscathed.

Remember: A black demon cannot sit on the white throne.

I have seen Palin and on her robe and on her thigh she has this name written:

Queen of Queens and Lady of Ladies.

And she will defeat Michelle Obama.

The White House has become a home for demons,
a haunt for every evil spirit,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird.

For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grown rich from her excessive luxuries.

For Sarah Palin is the Harbinger of all that is Good and Holy!

Praise Sarah!

sarahpac.com – Donate as if your life depended on it.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:12 pm 53. The Skizzerd of Waz:

What a great essay!

I would add a hearty thank you to Governor Palin for showing anyone with eyes to see how venomous, dishonest, self-consumed and vapid the Fourth Estate really is (Even though I’m sure that isn’t what she expected when John RINO tapped her to be his VP in an effort to recussitate his rightfully moribund campaign).

The chattering class shed its thin veneer of objective civility over Sarah Palin. Chuckles Gibson’s sneering condescension. Snarky Catty Couric’s uber bitchiness. MSNBC’s virulent attack drones nightly channeling of 1970’s era Bill Ayers / Saul Alinsky radical attack journalism. It was pile on time all the time with Sarah!

But with Obama it was a slobbering smoochfest that continues to this day. Fawning No-Hairy Smith’s blatant a$$ kissing antics even made the “One” cringe a little while ago. Probably because BO’s maserated hind end is starting to rot what with all the lip juice the MSM is constantly marinating his butt in?

At any rate, thanks and Godspeed Sarah, you still rock!

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:12 pm 54. terrence222:

The problem isn’t venom — it’s denial. Conservatives are so desperate for a popular leader that they overlook the fact that the woman has mental issues. What’s worse, they take the symptoms of her mental disorder and laud them as attributes.

Of course, all this is fine with me. Shoot yourselves in the foot. Please.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:14 pm 55. contributor:

You may not like Palin, at least she’s not a liar, a cheat, having children with other men, passing laws she does not read, making a fool of herself bowing before a foreign king, getting put down GOOD by Putin…but, those people are your heroes..crappy people you have chosen , but what else can we expect, you must not have morals or ethics and see yourself in them ..obviously.

I’m sure you’ll come up with some halfwit comment, or correct my grammar or hell only knows what else! Quit making excuses , you are a prime product of the left. Never give facts, just b.s.

Gov of Ks, Az, etc left before finishing out term…the jr senator from Il, with no experience but failure, left the senate, for all intenet and purpose, to run for Pres…he collected a paycheck,but was gonegonegone…

You’re on here a lot, go get a job. You sound like you might have a little book knowledge, but no life , social experience.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:19 pm 56. ahem:

Fear. You hate what you fear.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:19 pm 57. scott:

Lawzy!!

The best yet!

The description of the biotchs of DC slinging manure at Sarah made me think of the true character of the women surrounding Al Pacino as he played the Devil in that movie with Keano Reeves.

Harpies and demons in truth.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:24 pm 58. David W. Lincoln:

Victor, try this on for size: Sarah Palin is, in the eyes of her most vocal denouncers, an indication that they might be wrong.

For it is one thing to be wrong about a detail or two, it is a horse of a very different colour to be wrong about practically the whole thing.

So, to wait until a stalemate, without recrimination, is possible with those who feel threatened is the same as waiting until “kingdom come” – which is far too late.

For Dan Quayle gored various sacred cows by suggesting that there is a timeless aspect to
what is right and wrong, as opposed to a judgment by a person which reflects the status
quo and what they have done up to that time.

Because, I see government being as big as a threat today to the well being of everyone as
the church was during the 30 years war. The peace of Westphalia said, “No longer shall the
church be the dominant sphere of life”, it shall be, once again, government.

But, it is so easy for government to absorb aspects of the realm of church, that once again we see a part of life seeking too much
power and thereby jeopardizing the other areas
of life – and life to boot.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:24 pm 59. Marie Claude:

“DC-NY nexus, women who are highly educated, with Ivy-League degrees, with some sort of exoticism-a French name”

don’t worry, now it’s Samira, Rachida, Aicha, Badra…uh, Sarah !

yes, don’t call your girls Claire anymore, it’s not “in” LMAO

I’maskin my eputee to make a law to ban foreign nicknames,also Jennyfer, Christopher, Georges, Thomas, Nicolas, Dorothy, Elisabeth… Sarah !

that’s idiot, nah ?

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:35 pm 60. Marie Claude:

ooh,I’m askin my Deputee…

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:36 pm 61. Tolbert:

“Conservatives are so desperate for a popular leader….”

No, conservatives are desperate for a leader who is conservative.

There, fixed that for you.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:38 pm 62. jharp:

terrence222,

“Conservatives are so desperate for a popular leader that they overlook the fact that the woman has mental issues.”

I have to respectfully disagree.

Though conservatives are desperate they have no sense of the amount of knowledge demanded as President. They honestly believe shooting from hip is the best way to do things.

Witness their leaders, all intellectual inferiors.
Limbaugh = dropout.
Hannity = dropout.

Pence, Sessions, Cantor, Inhofe, Boehner, all who haven’t a clue on economics or foreign policy or an effective health care system. They still believe someone is trying to socialize our health care system for God’s sake!

But one thing they are have in common. Anti choice, the elixir to dupe the redneck, hillbilly Bible thumpers into voting republican.

If not for that one issue the GOP support would go down to less than 2%.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:39 pm 63. Phil Byler:

On the one hand, Sarah Palin — mother of five, wife in a stable marriage, former Mayor, state Governor, former Vice President candidate with a following, athlete, healthy looking.

On the other, Maureen Dowd — single, never a mother, never elected to any office, author of “Are Men Necessary?”, columnist for New York Times (more aptly called the New York Traitorous Slimes), bitter, sickly looking.

And it is Maureen Dowd who is viciously attacking Sarah Palin!!!

The real question is: “Is Maureen Dowd Necessary?” The answer is “no.”

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:49 pm 64. Dave K.:

I remember all my life rainin’ down as cold as ice
Shadows of a man
a face through a window
Cryin’ in the night
the night goes into morning.

Just another day
happy people pass my way
Looking in their eyes I see a mem’ry
I never realized how happy you made me.

Oh
Sarah
well you came and you gave without taking
But I sent you away
oh Sarah
Well you kissed me and stopped me from shaking
And I need you today
oh Sarah.

I’m standing on the edge of time
I’ve walked away when love was mine
Caught up in a world of up-hill climbing
The tears are in my mind and nothing is rhyming.

Oh
Sarah
well you came and you gave without taking

Yesterday’s a dream-l face the morning
Crying on a breeze
the pain is calling

Oh
Sarah
well you came and you gave without taking

no more “politics as usual” – http://www.thealaskafundtrust.com/

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:51 pm 65. PA:

With no direct offense intended toward Mike N, his closing remark represents what I believe to be one of many Americans’ conceptual problems on both the right and left.

The use of the word “freedom” to soley encapsulate what the United States stands for is a sword which cuts both ways; most seem to believe that it cuts only one. That is to say for most on both the right and left freedom = good; the more freedom the better. Therefore they go around espousing freedom as their catch phrase identifying them as ‘truly’ American. Any restraint on freedom = bad.

So where does that leave things such as duty, obligation, loyalty, and sacrifice–all of which involve restraints, to varying degrees, on one’s freedom? Too great an emphasis on “freedom” does indeed ‘free’ people psychologically from feeling bound to these very qualities; that is, the very qualities required of the citizens of a healthy polity which enable them to enjoy any degree of freedom in the first place. After all, it’s no coincidence that “freedom” is not a word used very often in any form of military training.

I say this because I for one believe that people go around talking about and placing too great an emphasis on their freedom (as well as other people’s, Iran case in point). If we want our country to thrive and produce the kind of people which will battle on behalf of the very freedom we all so vigorously espouse and enjoy, perhaps we should start emphasizing a bit more the qualities which enable that freedom in the first place. Those qualities, incidentally, all require a healthy absence of some of our freedom.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:55 pm 66. Jack Marcotte:

Essential vdh

Sarah also knows how to pick her battles and when to fight or not. She has a fully functioning brain and a compass with a map and knows that fighting idiots to stay in political office is a losing battle.

Sarah knows that after a while fighting idiots it is hard to tell who is dumber and she knows this because she also has something better to do that will be productive. Simply raising a family is more productive. Have we forgot that America?

What is funny is that the BHO’s of the world think that their ship has come in and they are riding high. This fog of stupidity is of course trumpeted in the MSM which is enough for BHO and JB to believe their own press.

They have yet to find the engine room and of course there is no engine. No compass, no knowledge of use if they had one, They have no oars nor do they know how to use them— so nothing will happen.

America, dead in the water and eventually sinking as all communist states do eventually. Utopian language can only go so far. Taxes are only good when enough of America is productive. Not so now.

When you see a Sarah Palin make an intelligent decision like leaving a dumbed down mud pit battle with idiots you know we are on the way down and out. She knows how to survive–do we?

Does anyone believe that BHO is smart. Smart Ass is closer to the mark. PC product of Affirmative action is accurate, J Biden is a naturally dumb guy perfect for teaming up with BHO.

Look at what playing politics along with PC affirmative action has done to BHO and J Biden. A pair of larger idiots in US politics would be hard to find.

How did they get there? Americans should look in the mirror for the answers. Also check with Acorn to see if the votes were counted OK.

BHO and JB are also a pair of idiots that are positioned to do terrible damage to the US. Why because we the people voted the Affirmative action idiot in and the natural idiot came with him. Our fault as Americans. Even if Acorn stuffed ballots we did and are doing nothing to stop it.

Did we get taken by The Acorn stuffed ballet boxes? Either way we are the idiots. Nothing is being done about their crimes. Do we have BHO to thank for that.

Is BHO subverting the criminal justice system like he will the supreme court? We don’t know do we and of course we won’t know.

That is the nature of this “revolution” it requires: dependency, ignorance, and deceit to work. It also requires destruction of productive Americans.

The one thing the communist takeovers in the past have never figured out is that after the productive anti communist people are destroyed how do you make communism work? It always fails but can an America rise from the ashes of this new communist failure on what used to be American soil.

Either way if we allow it to continue it will not be a Sarah Palin that caused the down fall of America.

The Sarah Palin’s of the world will have to put the pieces of America back together. She is tough enough to do that. Sarah is to smart to play with the current oversupply of idiots simply to stay in a political contest.

Maybe if we are rebuilt by the Sarah’s of the world along with T Sowell, vdh and W Williams America will become a place that can last a little longer than 200+ years that it took for the founding fathers fears to come true.

The non productive Idiots created by lame brained PC, born in America communist subversives outnumbering the producers and builders by voting and also stuffing the ballot boxes with impunity. We are all guilty of this simply for allowing it to happen.

Being lead by a Barney Franks, who’s only shot at a business or productive life was his Gay lovers prostitution ring run out of his basement in his DC townhouse! What is that America? Is that the best we can do?

Come on America, know that we could not have gotten to where we are by being like we are now.

We need a compass and historical maps now more than we need time clocks and “cute” subversive FU’s like BHO and JB.

Why can’t we just vote all the bastards out America. Lets start with the State Legislatures and any upcoming elections. Republicans or Dems out if they can’t preserve and protect the constitution of America as envisioned by our fore fathers.

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:56 pm 67. paul_unalaska:

terrence222, ‘mental disorder’?

Oh, I see. This diagnosis from a Vanity Fair writer. Hey bub, I’ve got some greeeat real estate to sell you on Pluto. Hasn’t been affected by Earth’s recession 1 bit.

I’m not overcome with Palin fever, either. Though living in Alaska and being fortunate to have met her, Ted Stevens and a few others, she’s a heck of a lot better than the grease ball politicians in ‘The Matrix’.

She’s rough around the edges, intellectually speaking. Then again, I bet she’s a better shot than ol’ John ‘I served 4 months in Vietnam and was ‘wounded’ twice (probably due to his own men)’ Kerry. That elitist waste of space is as gafftastic as Biden! Biden is frighteningly stupid.

As for the trolls, I find them to be more cynical, childish than anything. Then again, who isn’t a cynic to a certain degree when watching Mussolini incarnate reading ‘his speech’ written by a 20 something ignoramus. Oy…

Jul 7, 2009 - 5:58 pm 68. undefinedjoe:

ha

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:09 pm 69. Terry Gain:

When one sees someone live a life of such sacrifice, joyful acceptance of values, character and accomplishment there are two possible reactions:

Admiration, respect and love

or

Guilt, shame and hatred.

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:09 pm 70. Elle:

Amen and amen and amen!!!!!!!!!!

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:15 pm 71. Strawman:

Here’s another theory. Because of the smothering nature of PC, people now have to deposit their rage in designated rage receptacles. Sarah Palin has been designated by the chatterati as the designated rage receptacle. No matter what they’re ragged off about, there’s only one approved place to deposit their rage.

What you’re seeing on this thread is how perturbed the trolls are that they’re not getting any from their post-modern partners.

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:16 pm 72. PA:

Addendum:

I forgot to mention that Sarah Palin, in resigning, seems to me to have demonstrated the very qualities I cited in spades. One may argue: “But didn’t she demonstrate the absence of those qualities when she just up and quit? That’s not performing one’s duty, fulfilling her obligation, remaining loyal, or sacrificing and enduring the slander and punishment she was taking.” My response: “No”– it was her sense of duty, obligation, loyalty, and above all sacrifice to purposes–family and state–which transcended herself that compelled her to give up a position which she could have remained in and milked.

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:21 pm 73. misanthropicus:

Re VDH’s [...] A Vanity Fair author swears that on his trip to Alaska, people came up to him and, quite independently of one another, proclaimed that Palin was a narcissist. According to Todd Purdum, mirabile dictu, many have consulted the ol’ handy Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (which we all carry in our backpockets) and, presto, discovered that Palin has a ” pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy’ – and thought it fit her perfectly.”
[...]”

I buy it, but they were all talking about Barry Soetoro.

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:22 pm 74. misanthropicus:

I am not a Sarah Palin fan, but, considering the anxieties she has arisen amogst liberals, clearly they perceive her as having pretty good chances to dislodge Soetoro from the WH – she has my vote.
Otherwise, I simply cannot undertand Soetorotrolls’ furiously obsessing about a once Republican VP candidate, and now an ex-Alaska governor’s existence.

Clearly this, otherwise idiotic barking has a deeper cause.

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:28 pm 75. AtheistConservative:

Seeing how Sarah Palin was and is treated fills me with shame for this country.

The sad thing is, eloquent explanations of the left’s irrational hated of her, as given by Hanson and many other columnists, mean nothing to them. They just hate her. And they feel it’s perfectly right to hate her – that she brings that hate on herself. Ask them why, and they have no explanation. Point out that she has more experience than Obama, they fall back on the “she did poorly in her interviews” line.

Americans seem to want someone who photographs and interviews well, and does the job poorly. Congratulations. They got it.

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:36 pm 76. Listen up:

The personal attacks by the media and the lefty hate mongers comes because they have nothing else. Their arsenals are empty so they make stuff up and throw mud. Smile Sarah smile, all is well the bleeding trolls are undone!

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:47 pm 77. PM:

Wow. The morons are out in force.

So how is that “Hope and Change” working for you anyway?

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:50 pm 78. misanthropicus:

RE #25/sheesh: [...] Quitter. Opportunist. Abuser of power. [...] Give one specific unique policy statement Palin has made, ever. [...]

My! What about the following, which is a psychological sketch prepared for Vladimir Putin before his meeting with the current US president:

Name: Barry Soetoro, dba Barack Obama; aka Shovel-face, Brayer, Mandibule, Parrot, Echo-guy:
Illegitimate president. Crook. Corrupt to the bone. Liar. Incompetent. Illiterate. Vain. Haughty. Provincial. Un-hygienic. Crackhead with bisexual record. No academic records. Advanced acromegalia (see the “Shovel-face” nickname). All associates in jail, or heading towards. Lawyer w/o clients, legislator w/o record of voting. Pompous airbag, unable to speak w/o teleprompter. Narcissistic, left-wing gesticulation, grafted on chronic megalomania. Can’t figure out the US map, can’t figure out Europe map. Electoral fraudster. Access to power entirely owed to a tide of disorientation generated by a rotten economy crisis, everything on the background of an enormous cultural implosion.

Our residents in Indonesia and Kenya have established that Shovel-face is not a legitimate US president and that he lives in terror of being unmasked. Therefore we should pursue this path, softly blackmailing him as to engage his disoriented country on a trajectory that favors our interests. At the time of this note, we can confirm that China is already, discretely operating in this manner with him.

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:54 pm 79. Banned by Huffpo:

jharp:

“Just speaking for me but I don’t hate anybody.

However, I am sure Obama is an ignorant buffoon, a serial liar, and completely unqualified for national office.

Other than that I’ve got no problems with him. He seems nice enough to me.”

Now, that fits.

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:55 pm 80. Stevemmn:

vivo said:

“I don’t trust a person who makes mistakes, misleads the public, believes the wrong things, is totally selfish, xenophobic attitude.”

You must have deep mistrust of Barack Obama then because you just described him perfectly.

The worst part about the destruction of Sarah Palin is it sends a message to Democrats that massive lies and smear attacks work. This isn’t over by a long shot, now that they have finished with Sarah Palin Democrats will simply turn their sights to the next most prominent Republican. Romney, Huckabee, and Bobby Jindal had better watch out.

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:58 pm 81. misanthropicus:

RE #48/vivo: [...] I don’t TRUST her. [...] but I trust someone who hasn’t proved that is eligible for the US presidency, I trust someone whose records, academic, medical and otherwise are sealed, I trust someone whose countless parteners are in jail, I trust someone who was proved to be a fraudster and cheat, I trust someone who deeply hates America – so help me god.”

Jul 7, 2009 - 6:59 pm 82. ate mely:

VDH is writing and asking you – jharp, Dave K, vivo, terrence222- What is wisdom?

Jul 7, 2009 - 7:02 pm 83. Michael:

Common guys, you aren’t even trying anymore.

Even the lib trolls are tired of their invective.

Jul 7, 2009 - 7:02 pm 84. misanthropicus:

RE #50/sheesh: [...] Did you see Palin’s interviews today? The ones with all the dead fish? [...]

Did you see Soetoro’s recolections about being born atr two different hospitals in Hawaii? Did you see Soetoro’s recollections about his Columbia University work, work crowned by two different thesis? Did you see Soetoro’s list of clients?

Jul 7, 2009 - 7:02 pm 85. KBK:

VDH, assume you saw the thread over at reclusiveleftist? Extended discussion of the roots of PDS by an unusual cross-section of participants.

Jul 7, 2009 - 7:06 pm 86. sheesh:

A harsh bit of truth for y’all . . . That little Jackson girl, Paris, at the funeral today. What she said made you all feel a little shitty about the stuff you wrote here. yeah, it did. And it should have. There’s more than one kind of creep.

Jul 7, 2009 - 7:21 pm 87. sheesh:

84. m. thropicus:. . . No, nor did I hear the explanation for why the Lennon Sisters left the Lawrence Welk Show, though I suspect it had soemthign to do with Janet and “man trouble.”

Answering the voices in your head are you? That’s a bad sign.

Jul 7, 2009 - 7:33 pm 88. Richard:

As cruel as the liberal lefties have been to Sarah, isn’t it about time someone drop the name Larry Sinclair to do a little research on the character of Obama?

Jul 7, 2009 - 7:34 pm 89. tc:

“I saw more stupid people in graduate school and three decades in academia than I ever did who ran 100 acres without going broke-and more of the latter whom I’d trust not to bankrupt the country and let down our defenses than of the former”

this is simply a great line, and I wholeheartedly agree.

signed–
a stupid person in graduate school….

Jul 7, 2009 - 7:34 pm 90. Rich Casebolt:

One of the greatest lessons I learned after I received my BSEE and started in the practice of engineering was to maintain a healthy respect for those who did not share my education and command of electronics theory … assemblers, technicians, machinists, and the like … but who had actually had a hand in making things work and making a profit. Their practical wisdom kept me from looking like an educated idiot on many occasions.

Unfortunately, that lesson is not always learned by those fortunate enough to complete a college education … in fact, I think that our society has conflated education/erudition/expertise with the possession of wisdom, to our detriment. They are not equivalent — and often, it is the plain-spoken, less-than-erudite person that can see the forest where the Best and Brightest only see trees, or see the forest as an inadequate stage for the exhibition of their intellect, then go around trying to find trees where none have grown.

David W. Lincoln hit on something I’d like to expand upon … not only does having one’s worldview proven wrong inflict a grievous wound to one’s pride, but in the case of those within the professional political (Irish) cottage industry, the successful attainment of leadership authority by Sarah — and those who would follow in her footsteps — on their own terms instead of through conformance to the conventional wisdom of the pros diminishes the value of their services … eventually, reducing them to obsolescence. And they know it.

However, such obsolescence IMO is exactly the paradigm-breaker we need to CTL-ALT-DEL American governance and restore it to a basis of sound principle.

Jul 7, 2009 - 7:49 pm 91. paul_unalaska:

sheesh, I haven’t had cable in years. What am I missing?

‘Reality’ T.V., biased news from every spectrum, professional athletes provide a tour of their mansion and not one book, including a children’s book in the whole place. Idiocy such as ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ and other knuckle dragger type shows on the ‘Arts’ & Entertainment channel? Commercials for people to order healthy meals via mail because they’re too busy, dumb or lazy to shop properly? Empathy for the poor and downtrodden ‘Africans’ whereas tens of billions of worldwide dollars donated to Africa gets mishandled, et al.

Now you’re trying to play the empathy card with this sordid Michael Jackson tribute/ circus? Again, didn’t see it.

Jul 7, 2009 - 8:07 pm 92. sheesh:

Palin is a vampire in strategic diapers, and not necessarily clean diapers.

Jul 7, 2009 - 8:23 pm 93. bbbb:

“Sorry for the ‘either/or’ reductive binary: but I saw more stupid people in graduate school and three decades in academia than I ever did who ran 100 acres without going broke-and more of the latter whom I’d trust not to bankrupt the country and let down our defenses than of the former. (AMEN AND AMEN!)

While we rightly argue that the Sarahs of the world, if they are to be taken seriously as leaders, must read and study more, why do we not also suggest that the Baracks of the world could do a little more chain-sawing, run a coffee shop for a summer, or drive a Winnebago cross-country? (Who knows, he might meet a fellow woodcutter who knew there were 50 states or that it was dumb to make fun of the Special Olympics.)

After all, a lot of geniuses are now calling for a “second stimulus” to borrow another trillion or so still, but I don’t think they come from Wasilla.”

No, not from Wasilla, these pathetic second stimulus “geniuses” come from HARVARD!!! I love this quote. I personally am convinced that if most people came from farms or ranches, they would understand the difference between being smart, having common sense, and pontificating. I completely disagree with Hanson on his insinuation that Obama “read and studied” before he was elected- there is absolutely NO PROOF that he studied much of anything (beyond Alinsky, of course, and Mayor Daley). He demonstrates no understanding of basic economics and certainly Hanson has shown how Obama has no real understanding of history (of course, what liberal really does? They don’t believe history, no matter how ancient or recent, written in black and white- they only believe their feelings). Obama seems to have NO CLUE about the military and foreign relations, and absolutely, positively no concept or clue on how jobs are created or how businesses work. Pallin does get microeconomics, understands the role of government in the average American’s lives, and has resigned from a post without the stain of adultery, fraud, felonies, bribes, abuse of power, etc. and also isn’t on the state’s payroll for kickbacks as she seeks her own ambitions. Why can’t someone give her credit for being a true public servant, instead of a power hungry insincere “wannabe” who’s not really a public servant but special interest servant like most politicians, especially the liberal ones?

Jul 7, 2009 - 8:27 pm 94. Dave K.:

We who support Sarah Palin are the common clay, the salt of the earth.
You know: Conservatives!

7/3/09: Never Forget!

This day will live on in infamy as the Liberal Elite tried to assassinate our beloved Sarah-cuda!

The wisdom of our Queen of Queens:
http://twitter.com/AKGovSarahPalin

Jul 7, 2009 - 8:29 pm 95. Susan Wolf:

Dear Dr.Hansen,

You ask “Why the hatred?” and it is indeed an excellent question. I’m encouraged that someone finally asked it! You then proceed, however, to scrutinize Sarah Palin’s personality, lifestyle, beliefs, actions, etc. in the search for an answer. This, unfortunately, will get us nowhere fast, despite your heart being truly in the right place, and your erudition, impressive.

Hatred is never about the object of hatred, but always about the hater. In the same vein, the key to understanding antisemitism lies with the antisemite, not the Jew. Furthermore, hatred doesn’t know its object. Hitler did not know (m)any Jews, just as most Palin-haters probably don’t know anyone who resembles Sarah Palin. At bottom, it’s largely about the hater’s own isolation and ignorance.

Until this is understood, there will be lots of ink spilled for nothing. We will have spent endless hours of our time agonizing over that definitive list of Palin characteristics/beliefs/actions, but in the end, we will not have advanced our understanding of Palin-hatred one wit.

Andre Glucksmann, taking his cue from Sartre, has written most persuasively on hatred (see his impressive Discours sur la haine {discourse on hatred}for starters). His work and ideas deserve to be more widely disseminated here.

Thank you for your effort at elucidating this truly dangerous phenomenon, which is as old as humanity and crops up in every generation on every continent. And for someday proposing strategies to combat it!

Yours sincerely,
Susan Wolf

Jul 7, 2009 - 8:31 pm 96. antaine:

“And if the country survives him, I want them to admit that they are wrong.”

They never will, just as they can never admit that FDR only made things worse, not better; and it was wartime private industry coupled with a near-monopoly on world markets for a decade after the war while our former competition rebuilt itself that pulled us into prosperity. If there was any inkling that the New Deal worked, it should have been dispelled by the Great Society (basically the New Deal without WWII)…

Jul 7, 2009 - 8:38 pm 97. jharp:

“I saw more stupid people in graduate school and three decades in academia than I ever did who ran 100 acres without going broke-and more of the latter whom I’d trust not to bankrupt the country and let down our defenses than of the former”

Don’t know where you went to graduate school but my experience in the intelligence difference between graduate students and guys who farmed 100 aces was pretty much Jethro Bodine vs. Carl Sagan.

But by all means, please, keep keep right picking the Jethro Bodines to run for office.

Jul 7, 2009 - 8:39 pm 98. misanthropicus:

Re #88/Richard: [...] As cruel as the liberal lefties have been to Sarah, isn’t it about time someone drop the name Larry Sinclair to do a little research on the character of Obama? [...]

And right you are – check my previous post #78.

Jul 7, 2009 - 8:39 pm 99. Joseph:

46 Mike N.
Enlighten us, how do you “…get drinkable water from polluted water?”
I also hope Sarah runs, I probably won’t vote for her because I’ve haven’t heard anything coherent come from her except that for the different between a hockey mom and a pitbull.

Jul 7, 2009 - 8:49 pm 100. misanthropicus:

RE #86/ sheesh: [...] A harsh bit of truth for y’all . . . That little Jackson girl, Paris, at the funeral today. What she said made you all feel a little shitty about the stuff you wrote here. [...]

QED – Do we we need more light upon a liberal’s unhinged views about the world than sheesh’s emoting about Michael Jackson’s crass funeral?

A rotten pedophile, a terminal junkie, a mildly retarded roboton who compulsively grabbed his crotch, a scattershot psyche who kept bleaching hinself to the bone, a crassly illiterate and foolish jester – and now a national hero! (For liberals).
Now this tells a lot about those who voted for Soetoro – and about sheesh himself, whose (wretched) life obviously has been changed by “beat it!”

And you sure keep beating it, sheesh -

Jul 7, 2009 - 8:50 pm 101. vivo:

80. Stevemmn:

vivo said:
“I don’t trust a person who makes mistakes, misleads the public, believes the wrong things, is totally selfish, xenophobic attitude.”

“You must have deep mistrust of Barack Obama then because you just described him perfectly.”

I bet you don’t know what ‘xenophobic’ means. He makes mistakes but none of the other.

81. misanthropicus:

“I don’t TRUST her. [...] but I trust someone who hasn’t proved that is eligible for the US presidency”

This is July 2009, you sound like in November 2008. He’s done more than many achieve in a lifetime and there is much, much more to come . . . Palin is not a politician, she’s a performer good enough to keep us entertained. Let it roll!

Jul 7, 2009 - 8:56 pm 102. scott:

How did the trolls manage to pull themselves away from Jackass’s final production long enough to haunt pajamas? Amazing.

Jul 7, 2009 - 9:02 pm 103. Butterfly Mornings and Wildflower Afternoons:

I really do not see her as an Elly May Clampitt, I see her as a Mary Jane shipwrecked on an island of insane Media that have hearts so evil that they have decided to attack children. David Letterman you are the worst, and that website that picks on a baby too, what a bunch of bottom feeders. The insane Liberals so evil that think they will get away with trying to brainwash the people into believing their goggled eyed lies.
Everyone that has ever done one thing to her children or criticized them in any way is evil.
She has our vote if she runs for President or any other position she chooses.
She has our admiration, she took Texas during the presidential campaign with Senator McCain and I am sure she will again.

Jul 7, 2009 - 9:22 pm 104. Paul from Hamburg:

#44:
“In response to a question sent to the network by a third grader at a local elementary school about what the Vice President does, Palin erroneously argued that the Vice President is ‘in charge of the United States Senate’”.
Ummm…
Sorry, JHARP. Your normally brilliant analysis is not quite right. As it turns out, according to the Constitution, the vice-president of the United States has only one official job: President of the Senate. This is mostly a ceremonial job, but it sounds a lot better than telling an 8 year old that the vice president sits around waiting for the President to die.

Other than this error, I have to say that your other posts are really quite childish and inane.

Jul 7, 2009 - 9:26 pm 105. The Rabbit Hutch:

I knew there was a reason I liked you, Mr. Hanson! I read everything you write. You have a way of cutting right to the heart of the matter. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I prefer a politician with salt of the earth common sense rather than the nose in the air better than others know it alls! You have hit the nail on the head with this article.

Jul 7, 2009 - 9:29 pm 106. WhyamInotsurprised?:

#44 jharp -

To me the most disgraceful candidacy in the history of our country.

Good Lord. The Presidential candidate not even knowing the role of the President or what the President does.

Barry has embarrassed and humiliated evry American with his ignorance. I, for one, am quite ashamed that our country could be ignorant enough to take him seriously.

In response to a question sent to the network by a third grader at a local elementary school about what the President does, Barry erroneously argued that the President is “the boss of everyone!“:

Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the President do?”

BARRY: That’s something that ACORN would ask me! … [I] am king of the world. Friends will fear me, enemies will adore me and Americans will hate me. Why, because we will make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom, people who have been victims of this greedy, imperialist, racist country. We will make things right by making Americans (the bad ones) suffer through economic hardship, and I, I will be the one to measure the doses of pain during my reign.

Jul 7, 2009 - 9:45 pm 107. The Rabbit Hutch:

44. jharp

I find it comical that you wouldn’t be ignorant enough to take Sarah seriously, but many were ignorant enough to vote for Big O (I assume that includes you). Who is the bigger ignoramous?

Jul 7, 2009 - 9:57 pm 108. The Rabbit Hutch:

44. Vivo

We don’t need a Queen…we’ve already got a King!

Jul 7, 2009 - 9:58 pm 109. Linda Mae:

From the Wall Street Journal:
“Since the 2008 campaign, some 150 FOIA requests have been filed & her office has been targeted for investigation by everyone from the FBI to the Alaska legislature. Most have centered on her use of government resources, & to date have turned up little save for a few state trips that she agreed to reimburse the state for because her children had accompanied her. In the process, she accumulated $500,000 in legal fees in just the last nine months, & knew the bill would grow larger in the future.”

Add to this the 15 idiotic ethics violation charges – costing Alaska @ $2 million in time and effort to answer these charges. Visit the Alaska state web site to review the articles about the charges. My favorite was that she left the state to attend a fund raiser for children with special needs. Or that she wore a jacket with a logo on it. The bloggers who make these charges then break the law by making them public on their sites. They are part of the DNC. The cost to the state has risen – and another charge was just filed. #16. Palin is being smeared by Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals #4: make them walk their talk. She came out as a champion for ethics reform and so that is how they attack her. Rule #5: Ridicule the person in order to neutralize the message is also a tool used to discredit her. She just terrifies the left. George Soros spent millions of his own money – his claim – to discredit Bush because Bush was too proud to be an American and Soros wants us to go to a One World Order with one government and one money system – not the dollar – and led by the UN and IMF. I was amazed today to hear the Pope ask for the same thing. We thought we were just sliding into Socialism here in the states but it seems we are being erased as a nation. I feel as if I am in a sci fi movie with crazies who want to take over the world – or a James Bond movie – and then realize – it’s really happening. How do we stop it? Will Islam become the one world religion? The Pope calls for distribution of wealth. Where did we hear that before?

Jul 7, 2009 - 10:03 pm 110. DavidN:

The problem isn’t that the left fears Palin, it’s that they fear what she represents. The last time this happened, the challenger was Reagan, and no one on the left took him seriously until way too late. They aren’t going to make the same mistake twice, and if they have to bankrupt her with spurious ethics charges, attack her children (even the infant), or even lie about things…well, the alternative is she might get elected to something influential, and then destroy Medicare or something. Destroying Medicare would be bad, of course, but worse would be reforming it so that the gravy train didn’t pour money into various pockets in Washington and among the power elite. Bill Clinton, for instance, appointed cronies to the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac boards, where they did nothing and collected $100k plus paychecks. Bush didn’t repeat this (he just didn’t make the appointments, left the boards to the professionals) so the accusation is he’s corrupt, because it distracts from what Clinton did. Palin was honest, and threw both crooked Republicans *and* crooked Democrats out of office. That sort of politician needs to remain obscure, powerless, and far from Washington.

Jul 7, 2009 - 10:03 pm 111. J. Robertson:

Bravo, Dr Hanson !! Bravo !!!

Jul 7, 2009 - 10:05 pm 112. WhyamInotsurprised?:

Lets see! Palin steps down because she has been rendered unable to carry out the duties of Governor. An honest move by someone not looking to “milk” her position for personal gain but out of interest for the residents of her state.

On the other hand, we have “Crap&Tax” ripoffs,

healthcare reform to cover those unfortunate enough to not have medical insurance (even though we can keep our own plans,

if we pay a fine), a second “stimulus” package when the first hasn’t even been spent yet,

kissing up to and dry humping our prior enemies while spitting in the face of previous friends,

taking our energy dependence from 60% to 100% foreign totally ignoring the constitution,

forcing CLF lightbulbs (which is generous as a description) into every socket,

trashing capitalism by taking over banks, auto companies, insurance businesses,

fixing the US Census via ACORN,

appointing CZAR’s for every little thing that can bring pain on those to be controlled,

trashing liberty around the world for the masses when The One got his and that is all that counts.

Oh yes, Palin from Wasilla, is not trustworthy.

But Our Fearless Reader, that ivy league “trained” egoist is to be trusted with the fate of the most successful example of democracy in world history, all without a legitimate security clearance background check.

Who needs to read 1,000 page bills dropped on the doorstep at 3 a.m. on the day of the vote?

Sounds like a line I heard years ago. Do you know what a New Yorker means when he says “trust me?” Ha ha ha. Barry is using that line now. And too many Americans say “Yes we can!”

Jul 7, 2009 - 10:10 pm 113. Marie Claude:

“crassly illiterate”, uh, I have seen that “culture” is viewed as over-rated for certain positions, such as ruling a state, may-be depends on the persons

BTW, I’m not a fan, and found very boring to not get my favorite info channel right on real infos, but on the burial

Jul 7, 2009 - 10:12 pm 114. Butterfly Mornings and Wildflower Afternoons:

102.Scott,
Michael is selling 80’s music on iTunes so well, that it looks like other singers/songwriters who were on the charts with him during the 80’s are selling too tonight.
His mother cried today, because she had to set in front of her son’s casket, and whoever wrote that soldiers died on the same day, he visited hospitals in Iraq and helped soldiers.
Did you know that he has given away more money to charity than any other star?
His mother cried today. Have you ever read the words to “Man In The Mirror” or listen to them?
Who runs down the name of a most charitable man on the day of his funeral? I know I would not, because I like my reflection in the mirror. I am sad tonight and his mother cried today.

Jul 7, 2009 - 10:42 pm 115. Moogie:

jharp, David K, Sheesh, Vivo: You ALL protesteth much too much. I believe, all that projection stuff aside, all four of you are hopelessly besotted by Sarahcuda. I think, secretly, you adore her, admire her moxy, admire her integrity, work ethic, and willingness to sacrifice her own career in order to keep her family safe (OMG! What a selfish thing to do!!!) and to spare Alaskans the further expense of fraudulent and unjustified charges of ethics violations levied by those in your very own camp (OMG! Talk about selfish!).

I believe you really do see the outrageous hypocrisy of labeling her a “quitter” when your own little hero, Barry Soetoro, basically “quit” his senatorial job the first time he voted “present” and ever thereafter as he spent the last two years of that term campaigning for his own presidency (just who the hell was he BEFORE he announced to the world that he had no intention of running for president – that is, right before he announced that he was running for president… and who is the inconsistent one here???) WHILE still collecting his pay as a non-working senator. Yes, that is ever so much more admirable than someone recognizing the expense incurred when a lame duck elected politician knowingly takes the pay with all of the perks, despite the glaring fact that they have no intention of fulfilling their obligations to their electorate AND while doing absolutely nothing at all for their constituents. My, what an admirable and upright man Barry is!!

You truly admire her intellect, for how could you not, given that your very own hero, Barry “What Birth Certificate?” Soetoro believes there are 57 states in America and that Austrians speak … Austrian.

You are seeking her approval, for how could you not, given that Barry “Saul Alinsky? Bill Ayers? Never Heard Of ‘Em” Soetoro doesn’t give a rat’s arse about what you or anyone else wants, as he recklessly plows his way through our republic with his economy killing policies and his unfounded apologies to those who should be on their knees giving us thanks for keeping them safe for the past 50 years. Gosh, his foreign diplomacy skills practically make me swoon!

Obviously, you are completely incapable of understanding anything beyond your kindergarten education. Remember, you kool-aid drinking zombies: 2+2=5. Say that 500 times until you fully comprehend what it means.

Jul 7, 2009 - 11:04 pm 116. Jerry Engelen:

Put “EXIT ONLY” gats on the borders and herd illegals towards them !

Jul 7, 2009 - 11:10 pm 117. Nino:

It is literally conventional wisdom among smart conservatives (Hanson, Krauthammer, et al) that Palin should spend the next oh say, 100 years studying-up, writing, and traveling the lower 40 after which she just may be a dynamite presidential candidate. The same old myth about Ronald Reagan writing and thinking gets trotted out as an example. And that, when Dr. Hanson actually works at the same institution as a former Reagan speech writer while another writes for the Wall Street Journal! So why do we keep getting mumbo jumbo about Reagan writing his own speeches? It’s nonsense after nonsense that began only in Reagan’s death. And who among us actually thinks Reagan was a deep thinker about anything? He didn’t need to be in order to be a great President. Woodrow Wilson was a deep thinker AND he was complete dope and one of our most horrendous Presidents.

What Reagan possessed was clear, simple, fundamental beliefs about American ideals and their vital importance to humanity. George W. Bush had it. Sarah Palin has it. It’s not complicated and does not rely on any expertise whatsoever in domestic or foreign policy. And, contrary to popular myth Reagan didn’t possess charisma. What he had was a fairly decent talent for delivering a simple message devoid of facts that could confuse the audience. In fact, Reagan was literally a “talent” in the strict sense of the term as used in the world of media. He was a great voice-over narrator and he knew how to handle an audience but he didn’t possess charisma like say, JFK who had no clue how to handle an audience and didn’t need to know. Palin has charisma up the Wasila with some to spare. You can’t buy it and you can’t teach it. She doesn’t need schoolin’ from academics and pundits who’ve never run for office in their lives.

The real reason liberals hate Sarah Palin is because she has the core beliefs of Ronald Reagan which still drive liberals crazy and she has the exact same charisma as JFK: watch her walk up to a podium or take the mic. Like JFK, she doesn’t even need to speak and the mob goes crazy. There’s something about her appearance and the way she carries herself that lights up the crowd. Why in the world would somebody with Sarah’s charisma suddenly start spewing facts and figures on domestic policy or wax poetic about third world debt?

There is no earthly reason why Sarah Palin should spend the next 10-15 years tooling around America trying to get smart like academics. Good grief, it’s not that complicated. Government must be cut down to size before it destroys us, our defense must be maintained to protect us from our enemies and provide us sway in the world, and our energy needs must be secured–come hell or high water. It doesn’t take a spin through the periodicals stack to understand that.

Run Sarah run…and for God’s sake, do it now!

Jul 7, 2009 - 11:21 pm 118. Nino:

It is literally conventional wisdom among smart conservatives (Hanson, Krauthammer, et al) that Palin should spend the next oh say, 100 years studying-up, writing, and traveling the lower 40 [sic] after which she just may be a dynamite presidential candidate. The same old myth about Ronald Reagan writing and thinking gets trotted out as an example. And that, when Dr. Hanson actually works at the same institution as a former Reagan speech writer while another writes for the Wall Street Journal! So why do we keep getting mumbo jumbo about Reagan writing his own speeches? It’s nonsense after nonsense that began only in Reagan’s death. And who among us actually thinks Reagan was a deep thinker about anything? He didn’t need to be in order to be a great President. Woodrow Wilson was a deep thinker AND he was a complete dope as well as one of our most horrendous Presidents.

What Reagan possessed was clear, simple, fundamental beliefs about American ideals and their vital importance to humanity. George W. Bush had it. Sarah Palin has it. It’s not complicated and does not rely on any expertise whatsoever in domestic or foreign policy. And, contrary to popular myth Reagan didn’t possess charisma. What he had was a fairly decent talent for delivering a simple message devoid of facts that could confuse the audience. In fact, Reagan was literally a “talent” in the strict sense of the term as used in the world of media. He was a great voice-over narrator and he knew how to handle an audience but he didn’t possess charisma like say, JFK who had no clue how to handle an audience and didn’t need to know. Palin has charisma up the Wasila with some to spare. You can’t buy it and you can’t teach it. She doesn’t need schoolin’ from academics and pundits who’ve never run for office in their lives.

The real reason liberals hate Sarah Palin is because she has the core beliefs of Ronald Reagan which still drive liberals crazy and she has the exact same charisma as JFK: watch her walk up to a podium or take the mic. Like JFK, she doesn’t even need to speak and the mob goes crazy. There’s something about her appearance and the way she carries herself that lights up the crowd. Why in the world would somebody with Sarah’s charisma suddenly start spewing facts and figures on domestic policy or wax poetic about third world debt?

There is no earthly reason why Sarah Palin should spend the next 10-15 years tooling around America trying to get smart like academics. Good grief, it’s not that complicated. Government must be cut down to size before it destroys us, our defense must be maintained to protect us from our enemies and provide us sway in the world, and our energy needs must be secured–come hell or high water. It doesn’t take a spin through the periodicals stack to understand that.

Run Sarah run…and for God’s sake, do it now!

Jul 7, 2009 - 11:46 pm 119. JFM:

However, I am sure Palin is an ignorant buffoon, a serial liar, and completely unqualified for national office.

You had a moment of distraction and wrote Plain where you wanted to write Obama and Biden.

Jul 7, 2009 - 11:52 pm 120. Aeschines:

If Palin has “natural intelligence” then I’m Isaac Bloody Newton. As for all those mean, nasty things that you say people said about Palin, they don’t come anywhere close to what you and your pals said about the Clintons.

Jul 8, 2009 - 12:53 am 121. stuart Williamson:

Why the venom? Prominent among Saul Alinsky’sRules, the matrix of Axelrod’s audacious scam, are: Zero in on the target,relentlessly. Never hit above the belt. Ridicule. Overwhelm them so they flounder in attempts to fight back. They Obamites take it seriouusly which is why you see the
senseless evil posts on every conservative site of any influence.

Alinsky pointed out that that the conservative groups would always follow the decent principle of responding to all phone calls, letters and letters and would thus be paralized into ineffectiveness. Which raises the question: Why do PJM and other major sites oblige, post the garbage at all? (I know – they ban more than they post.) The inane “banter” this generates is a total turn-off and makes “discussion” difficult.

Why did Palin resign?

She was frustrated, and distracted from her official obligations, a classic victim of the Alinsky Rules strategy. She had a trusted Lieutenant to step right into the role, so she was not betraying the voters.

She is totally disgusted with the GOP, who have fought her ever since she blew the whistle on them in Alaska, and compounded it by stabbing her in the back when she energized the McCain campaign and the Fighter Pilot avoided the target and bailed out.

She knows that there is a large segment, millions of traditionalist Americans who loathe politicians on both sides, and are milling around at Tea parties, looking for a Leader to rally around. They will be the swing vote that makes the difference, starting in 2010. That Leadership is hers for the asking.

Then she can call the shots against the sclerotic, disfunctional RNC and seriously reshape the GOP.And go back to Wasilla and take over from Newt. She will NEVER run for high national office.

She’s got the savvy, the guts, the fire-in-the belly, to do it. All the smart conservatives will give her the support and the cadre she needs.

That’s where my money is.

Jul 8, 2009 - 1:14 am 122. Rashputin:

It’s really interesting to see the anti-Palin folks who post her go into soprano blathers whenever her name comes up. In fact, it looks like Palin the mere fact that she exists neuters all these guys. Not a one of the great “correct” folks could deal with an honestly independent woman in the real world, and the last thing they want is to end up like the liberals in England who were forced to live under Thatcher for years.

If for no more reason than the way she terrifies the liberals, I hope she runs for president and wins. She couldn’t possibly be more ignorant than the current president and she obviously knows more about what average people deal with in their lives.

Regards

Jul 8, 2009 - 2:04 am 123. Realist:

The world does not love America since you elected the Mohammedan BOGUS POTUS the world is laughing at America .

Laughing as it watches your sublimely naive and stupid President only open his mouth to change feet.

Laughing as you are lead by a totally irrelevant and useless MSM into national orgasmic grief over a drug addicted paedophilic perverted black man changed in to an ugly middle aged white woman who BOUGHT three white children as playthings.

Laugh as the self same idiots who worship Obambi and MJ pour out hate and disgusting spite on a woman Palin who dares to challenge your stupidity.

Leaders of the Free world don’t make me laugh you are the laughing stock of the free world.

Jul 8, 2009 - 2:07 am 124. caestal:

The biggest reason that the media has a hate on for Ms. Palin is because she didn’t jump through hoops for them. She actually dared release info and hold interviews when she wanted and on her schedule, unlike then-candidate Obama, who gave them 100 percent access to everything he did, and refused to do anything unless his troupe of reporters/photographers were part of it. (Remember the visit he cancelled to wounded soldiers when he couldn’t get a photo op out of it?)
Sheesh: You are apparently stringing random negative words together and saying “Palin” somewhere within the sentence, but I am not seeing any actual accusations there, other than that she is evil incarnate.
Dave K: Your spam makes me feel Sarah Palin must be doing something right. If the only thing you can do is troll post over and over again, obviously your case must be awfully weak.
Marie Claude: I wish I spoke French, because then maybe I would have some idea what you are trying to say. I suspect there was a point in there, but I couldn’t find it.
“Better example: Mary Ann v.s. Ginger.
. Most red-blooded males preferred Mary Ann.
. Can’t exactly explain why, she’s just,
. well, if you gotta ask, you’ll never know.”
Spot on, brother.

Jul 8, 2009 - 3:16 am 125. Terry:

8. jharp:
Just speaking for me but I don’t hate anybody.

However, I am sure Palin is an ignorant buffoon, a serial liar, and completely unqualified for national office.

As transposed by “Banned by Huff Po” said, this statement fits the current resident of the White House much more closely than it does Sarah Palin. Liberals and fools voted for Obama who not only was completely unqualified for the office, but won’t even release his birth certificate or college transcripts. While realizing that those pursuing the birth certificate are regarded as right wing fringe members, why won’t POTUS release same? Hidden in the past is the truth and that’s (’serial liar’) what liberals wish to avoid.

Jul 8, 2009 - 3:19 am 126. fear obama:

Its the pictures-

You know…

The dead caribou with blood all over its nose and body.

The pictures of her working with her husband and holding a child – God forbid.

And her wanting to drill for oil?

That smelly greasy stuff that used to get us back and forth to work.

We cant afford to offend the gay abortionists tree huggers.

Whats wrong with you people?

Have you no respect,

Do you not realize that Michael Jackson has died?

Jul 8, 2009 - 3:47 am 127. Marc Malone:

#25 sheesh – One specific unique policy statement?

Ending the corruption in government regardless of party. Then actually doing it.

How about resigning one’s position on the AK Oil & Gas Board in protest of the ethics violation? Didn’t she know this was supposed to be a no-show job? Instead, she cracked the books… and cracked some heads.

How about resiging as Governor, because she was no longer able to serve the people? She had become an impediment to the proper running of the government. Falling on one’s sword. Taking one for the team. What a unique policy!

Jul 8, 2009 - 3:53 am 128. Marc Malone:

#65 PA – We Conservatives agree that unlimited freedom is not a good thing. We know freedom isn’t free. That’s why we talk of values… nobler things. We speak regularly of things like personal responsibility, patriotism, etc….

Jul 8, 2009 - 4:10 am 129. vivo:

115. Moogie:

“jharp, David K, Sheesh, Vivo: You ALL protesteth much too much.”

I expressed my opinion, you just twisted it to fit your own thinking. Do you understand what ‘literal’ means? Your Freudian analysis doesn’t apply here.

Jul 8, 2009 - 4:29 am 130. kywrite:

jharp said: “Don’t know where you went to graduate school but my experience in the intelligence difference between graduate students and guys who farmed 100 aces was pretty much Jethro Bodine vs. Carl Sagan.”

In that order? That’s about right. Of course, I grew up on a farm about two miles from Wendell Berry’s farm too. If more graduate students tried a little farming, they might discover the things that Thoreau and Robert Frost and Thomas Merton (also in my neck o’ the woods) found while working in the earth, producing things of real value, things that nourish the body as well as the soul.

And if you, jharp, were to talk with a grizzled, dirty old farmer or two, you might learn a few things. People with soft hands rarely have a deep understanding of the world.

Jul 8, 2009 - 5:31 am 131. Maggie:

an Oprah-like talk show?

I think that’s a great idea. Conservative voices in the popular culture would be wonderful.

Jul 8, 2009 - 5:40 am 132. Sioux Lady:

I had to get out the dictionary to get a precise definition of “hate” to see if I “hated” Obama. I guess I don’t because Ole Web distinguishes “hate” from “detest” “despise” “abhor” and “loathe.” Hate, it says, “connotes the bearing of malice.” I have none such toward the great Obama so I guess I don’t hate him. “Detest implies vehement dislike or antipathy” – absent malice, I assume. “Despise suggests a looking down with great contempt upon the person or thing one hates” – again, absent malice, I assume. “Abhor implies a feeling of great repugnance or disgust” – again, absent malice, I assume. “Loathe implies utter abhorrence, – again, absent malice, I assume. I guess “abhor” best conveys how I feel about O.

Given what has happened to Sarah and her family and what many of the trolls here seem to want to happen to them, I guess they hate her. Given half a chance and a guarantee they could get away with it, I’ll bet any one of them would “off” her and think they were doing the world a service. Scary! I don’t love the lady, but I sure like her and would vote for her over The Mighty O anyday.

Jul 8, 2009 - 6:56 am 133. Ron Kean:

92. sheesh

You’re silly.

Jul 8, 2009 - 7:19 am 134. Dave K.:

115. Moogie:
“jharp, David K, Sheesh, Vivo: You ALL protesteth much too much. I believe, all that projection stuff aside, all four of you are hopelessly besotted by Sarahcuda. I think, secretly, you adore her, admire her moxy, admire her integrity, work ethic, and willingness to sacrifice her own career in order to keep her family safe (OMG! What a selfish thing to do!!!) and to spare Alaskans the further expense of fraudulent and unjustified charges of ethics violations levied by those in your very own camp (OMG! Talk about selfish!).”

There’s no projection here.

Sarah Palin becoming the next Presidential candidate of the Republican party will help this nation to ascend to a higher level of freedom, peace, prosperity, and reason.

We only disagree on how that will happen and what her actual impact will be.

But we do agree that Sarah Palin’s future Presidential candidacy for the Republican party is the best thing that could happen to this country!

GO SARAH!

sarahpac.com – Give until it hurts. For the unborn children.

Jul 8, 2009 - 7:30 am 135. Geoff Smith:

“I think most would like to see her do another Couric interview five years from now. . . .” I think most would be surprised if Couric is on the air in five years!

Jul 8, 2009 - 7:33 am 136. Robert Winkler Burke:

Thank you Susan Wolf, great comments…

Jul 8, 2009 - 7:56 am 137. RandyChandler:

Reading over these posts, I think conservatives can take heart from the weak intellectual abilities the leftwing trolls display. They throw up their recylced garbage, not really caring if it will stick but only intending to foul up the works. It doesn’t work. Nothing sticks.

As with their sludge-slinging attacks on Palin, the leftwing thugs only succeed in revealing their intellectual weaknesses and their vulnerabilities. A seasoned hunter/trapper should have no trouble bagging them and clearing the field. [Not that you'd want their heads mounted on your wall...]

Jul 8, 2009 - 7:56 am 138. Lucy:

Unlike all the wonderful, astute, intelligent, carefully observed, on-target pieces VDH has written, I felt this one in the pit of my stomach. This is so accurate it’s painful.

Jul 8, 2009 - 8:07 am 139. Lawrence Kohn:

My amen to Victor is as follows:

Our era dubbed Cybernity
Sustained by secularity
Immersed in virtuality
Where books lack sensuality
Prof Hanson with alacrity
Reminds us of eternity
Within whose bounds each entity
Exists quite temporarily
But strives for every liberty
To make a living meaningfully
Despite the cultish certainty
Of chic, cool post-modernity.

Jul 8, 2009 - 8:13 am 140. Tommy T:

If you a lefty and want to be associated with david letterman and maureen dowd go for it.

Jul 8, 2009 - 8:17 am 141. Blarty Blarckleblart:

Sarah who?

Jul 8, 2009 - 8:23 am 142. sceptic:

This doesn’t read like VDH. Who wrote this?

Jul 8, 2009 - 8:27 am 143. BGold:

Jharp seems to suffer from an acute case of Palin derangement syndrome. Are you sure you it wasn’t Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Frank, and company, and the incumbents of the White House and VP (there are too many to name them all)when you were talking about? Ignorant buffoon, a serial liar, and completely unqualified for national office is such an apt description of all of the above. None of them can hold a candle to the splendid gal from Alaska.

Jul 8, 2009 - 8:40 am 144. Mike W.:

“We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America.”

With those words, Palin expressed her view that a majority of Americans – i.e., those who do not live in small towns – do not live in the “real” America and therefore are not real Americans.

I include myself in this majority, and therefore I can only take a statement such as this to mean that Sarah Palin thinks that I am not a real American. I don’t care if those words were just a campaign speech, or that she was just trying to fire up a small town audience, or that it was “just politics”. When a person, any person, of any political or ideological affiliation, gets on a stage before thousands of people and claims to decide what the real America is, and who real Americans are, they have immediately earned my contempt.

Not hatred, just contempt.

Jul 8, 2009 - 8:52 am 145. sheesh:

127. Marc Malone:

I asked for one specific unique policy statement. You gave me one myth and two examples of her quitting her job and running away from her responsibilities.

Wow, she’s something else!

Jul 8, 2009 - 9:06 am 146. Attila:

Here is an example of the clueless hatred of the left:

[quote]
8. jharp:
Just speaking for me but I don’t hate anybody.
However, I am sure Palin is an ignorant buffoon, a serial liar, and completely unqualified for national office.
Other than that I’ve got no problems with her. She seems nice enough to me.
[/quote]

Note that “Hatred is not a family value”,
but hatred is the left’s agenda.

This hatred is just the only logical opinion, according to jharp and other hate-filled and small minded leftists.

Jul 8, 2009 - 9:09 am 147. J.E. Dyer:

You’re on a roll, Professor. Had several LOL moments with this one.

This is my theory on why Palin drives the self-appointed elite batty. Sure, they’re afraid of her, and what she represents. But even more important, she’s NOT afraid of THEM.

Nor is what she represents. Millions of happy Americans simply could not care less what MoDo, Todd Purdum, or others from the dribbling class think of them. Not only do they not know the particulars of how the I’m-in-the-Elite-Dammit crowd thinks of them — they DO NOT CARE.

Nine people out of ten would rather be the plumber who takes calls at MoDo’s apartment building than MoDo herself. Guy’s probably got three kids, his first and only wife, and viable plans to retire to Florida in 10 years, and take up driving the RV around the Civil War battle sites, and organizing the Special Olympics. And unlike MoDo, he’s happy — and isn’t annoyed that other people are too.

Jul 8, 2009 - 9:24 am 148. Mike Myers:

I’ve known a great number of educated fools. Some of them are lawyers, some of them are teachers.

I’ve been privileged to know several long time farmers–people who’ve made a go of it in the Imperial Valley or in the Texas Panhandle.

Knowledge of the real world is a hard won thing, and truly bright people will figure it out, whatever vocation or profession they’re in. But the college and graduate degrees are only degrees–not necessarily indicators of wisdom.

Consider the choice for Vice President last year. Joe Biden, longtime member of the Senate. Sarah Palin, small town lady from Alaska.

Joe had a law degree from a mediocre law school; there was a strong suggestion that he cheated while there (viz. Teddy Kennedy, thrown out of law school for cheating). He was a plagiarizer, and a long winded gas bag.
The voters figured him out; he got a grand total of 9,000 votes in all of the Presidential primary campaigns in 2008. His 30 plus years in the Senate gave him some gloss of “gravitas”. But buffoonery will out, and Obama and his henchmen have spent a lot of time “explaining” what Biden meant during episodes where Biden was talking with his foot in his mouth. Biden sometimes starts sentences that are so long, he’s forgotten where he started before he finishes them.

Ms. Palin–lots of different colleges; a degree in journalism, no Senate experience; a lot of life experience. Can resign at a press conference without a teleprompter, while speaking complete sentences.

You ask me to bet which one of these Vice Presidents is least likely to embarass the United States in any meaningful fashion (other than irritating Maureen Dowd) and I’ll put my money on Palin every time. One has wisdom, and the other has a resume.

Jul 8, 2009 - 9:26 am 149. Heidi:

Jharp, if you are calling Sarah Palin a serial liar(please give specifics), what are you calling Obama?? He has done nothing BUT lie since before he started his campaign and being elected.. I am NOT going to run for President..
And anyway, he’s a puppet… Now the big question is, WHO IS THE PUPPET MASTER?? Soros?

Jul 8, 2009 - 9:30 am 150. gs:

In 2007 when Palin was a reform governor, I spotted her and saw her as a potential President. I am seriously disappointed and have all but written off my former support.

I am more or less indifferent to her personal style. It’s the substance (or lack thereof) behind it that concerns me.

1. She really should have finished out her term. If she cannot afford the financial harassment, I see that as (yet another) stupidity by the GOP and the right: standing by while one of their rising stars, who happens not to be personally wealthy, is driven out of office over what would be petty cash to Schwarzenegger, Spitzer, or Weld. Nevertheless, it was up to Palin to find a way to do her job.

2. The ‘reflective period’ is indispensable. Unfortunately, I see no indication that Palin perceives the need for it. Since she did not ask to get on the national stage in 2008, I gave her a pass for her deficiencies. Going forward, she has no excuse. Afaic the reflective period should have started the moment the election ended. Until she deepens her substance, Palin loses more points with me every time she publicizes herself.
******************
VDH, thanks for this piece. You’ve worked both with your hands and with your mind, so you know what you’re talking about. You made about the best possible defense of a leader who seriously disappoints me to a point which is barely short of irremediable.

Jul 8, 2009 - 9:37 am 151. tjproudamerican:

There are two things that are striking about Populists like John Fund and Victor Davis Hanson explaining why Sarah Palin is not beloved and recognized as the source of all Wisdom by everyone:

First, what makes John Fund and Victor Davis Hanson Populists? And Governor Palin herself has quite an Estate now, built as it was by “Todd’s contractor buddies”? Most of us who have educations like andlove Culture from the High of Symphonies and Thomas Mann to the low Michael Jackson’s videos and self destruction for our amusement. And even Governor Palin wants to be rich.

Most Americans do not have “Contractor buddies” who build us Million Dollar homes and Big Boats. Sarah Palin is an Insider in the crude small town world that gave us The Clinton’s. Why not say so?

Second, no nation worth its continued existence can survive if we look culturally to the lower classes for hints on behavior and culture. I deplore Hip Hop and the whole noise-first endless texting and cell phone and i-pod generation of bad manners.

One can, and if one supports her should, make a case for Sarah Palin, but why pretend that we all would like a nation where we have a Culture wort mporting and supporting?

I cannot wait for John Fund, the snob’s snob, to wear a white t-shirt with his smokes in the sleeve to tell us that The all Street Journal’s Editorial Page is now The Home of The Bad-asses, “You kno what I’m sayin” with a shout out to his peeps over at the Heritage Institute.

What is the matter with you people? We create colleges and universities and culture to find a connection to God and The Sublime. Why are you so dismissive of learning and real wisdom?

Jul 8, 2009 - 10:01 am 152. Robert Winkler Burke:

WHEN YOU ARE HATED

(Redacted from Susan Wolf’s reference herein to Andre Glucksman’s Discourse on Hatred.)

It isn’t great,
Being an object of hate,
But what can we do?
Not knowing whom they pursue.

But the object of hate,
Isn’t the prime tell,
It’s the haters always,
Who explain themselves.

Haters’ isolation,
And haters’ ignorance,
Is the Alpha Omega,
Of their primordial dance.

They mustn’t know,
Whom they hate,
Might have more,
In heart and pate.

Haters can’t be ever,
Ever proved wrong,
Ignorant and isolated,
They remain strong.

What they don’t know, they fear,
(Unaware it’s love they lack!)
What they fear, they hate,
What they hate, they attack.

They simply hate you,
For not being them,
But we love ‘em anywho,
It’s God’s stratagem.

Jul 8, 2009 - 10:03 am 153. Jack Marcotte:

Essential vdh

#151: tj… I am in awe of your abject and oblivious stupidity, ignorance and elitism. Whale shit on the bottom of the ocean looks like a shooting star when compared to your piss-ant condition.

Your “comments” confirms beyond any doubt that you and most “liberals” who aspire to even put two cogent thoughts together are educated far beyond their intelligence.

What makes it worse is that you could vote if you were lucky enough to find where the place to cast your Acorn filled out ballot was located. Acorn probably mailed yours in, many times.

Jul 8, 2009 - 11:24 am 154. sonoffar:

Your piece was interesting enough that I read the whole thing. I wonder though, as you have pointed out all the best qualities of Sarah Palin and the millions of Moms, Sisters, and Wives in this country like her, why you would have her spend the next 3 or 4 years becoming something that she is the antithesis of? Why would you have her conform to the standard of the ‘elites’ who despise her so for what she is? Sorry, despite it’s interest factor your piece is a bust on the common sense level.

Jul 8, 2009 - 11:35 am 155. paul_unalaska:

vivo, I have to ask.

What has Obama ‘Achieved’? Spare me the ‘1st 1/2 white, 1/2 black President..’ or other grandiose platitudes/ butt sniffing identity politic jive. The moronic Wolf Blitzer has pounded his fists into sand with those sad ‘examples’. I want true accomplishments. Programs he’s set in motion that are coming to fruition and succeeding as we speak. You know, achievements!

The only ATTEMPT I know of is he’s written 1 Bill, 1! When a Senator. Aid for Congo.. how’s that going by the way?

He may have been able to do more but wasn’t paying attention or too chicken*hit to vote, instead circled, ‘Present’.

Please, elaborate on his ‘awesomeness’.

Jul 8, 2009 - 11:43 am 156. Tcobb:

(1) Palin isn’t a member of the social group that makes up the majority of the current political class.
(2) Most outsiders who manage to get elected into major positions of power tend to be incompetent buffoons who do as their political betters ask them to do, or are so out of touch with reality that they can do no harm due to their sheer incompetence. She fits neither category, and to the entrenched powers that be that is a threat.
(3) She is not just competent, but apparently can and will maneuver in ways that are detrimental to the interests of the patrons of some members of the political class, like she did in dealing with the oil companies.

Conclusion: If the political class does not stop people like Sarah Palin from getting into office, they as a class may be doomed to be swept off into the dustbin of history. Its analogous to Nat Turner’s slave rebellion in the old South. It has to be nipped in the bud if the old way of life is to be preserved.

Jul 8, 2009 - 12:31 pm 157. Ooooo, What a Lucky Man He Was! | DEEP BRAIN DIARY:

[...] of the traveling PUBLIC!

Jul 8, 2009 - 1:08 pm 158. WR Jonas:

I would love to see the Ann Coulter -Sarah Palin Show on PBS. It might restore my faith in free speech.

Jul 8, 2009 - 1:18 pm 159. Strawman:

I just found an interesting quote from Freeman Dyson:

My view of the prevalence of doom-and-gloom in Cambridge is that it is a result of the English class system. In England there were always two sharply opposed middle classes, the academic middle class and the commercial middle class. In the nineteenth century, the academic middle class won the battle for power and status. As a child of the academic middle class, I learned to look on the commercial middle class with loathing and contempt. Then came the triumph of Margaret Thatcher, which was also the revenge of the commercial middle class. The academics lost their power and prestige and the business people took over. The academics never forgave Thatcher and have been gloomy ever since.

Everything you need to know about this can be gleaned from that.

Jul 8, 2009 - 1:25 pm 160. heidi:

Great article… Love the part about the Kennedy’s, they can kill a woman, rape a woman and get a pass.. Sarah Palin has a downs child and gets racked over the coals… Sad day in the US of A..

Obama supporter = FOOL

Jul 8, 2009 - 1:42 pm 161. Brutus:

Stamina indeed; it seems I can’t read a report on the One’s travels without some commentary about how tired he is.

He really is a metrosexual pansy!

Jul 8, 2009 - 1:52 pm 162. TLM:

PA @65:

“So where does that leave things such as duty, obligation, loyalty, and sacrifice–all of which involve restraints…”

Duty, obligation, loyalty, and sacrifice — all of which are restraints entered into freely, ie they are choices made by free people in a free society. For the last 233 years this has worked pretty well. I see no need to change the arrangement now.

Jul 8, 2009 - 1:59 pm 163. james:

You know we’re in trouble if the great Mr. Hanson doesn’t even understand Gov. Palin and why 2012 is not only on the table but may be evidently so by next year. Go off somewhere and read? You mean the way Joe Biden has done? Or Jimmy Carter? By suggesting that, Mr. Hanson is starting to sound a little like Kathleen Parker and Peggy Noonan and all the other Beltway geniuses who think themselves so superior to Palin, but who couldn’t get themselves elected to the school board. The same ones who claim to be well-read but haven’t been since they left college.
Sarah Palin doesn’t need to go read solemn tomes by policy wonks in Washington. She needs simply to announce that she is appearing at a rally for Congressman so-and-so during next year’s campaign, deliver her prepared speech on America, and let the media try to explain away the 50,000 people who show up.
Go away and read? Pretty condescending, and pretty far off the mark. Sorry, Mr. Hanson. I love you, but you’ve got this one dead wrong.

Jul 8, 2009 - 2:06 pm 164. Joef:

Good stuff, VDH!

Why do they hate her so? Why Palin Derangement Syndrome? Why all the venom? Fear and trembling: of being exposed.

More than any national-level politician I’ve ever seen, Palin’s very existence EXPOSES liberals, progressives, statists for what they are: elitists with political and social values ranging between highly dubious to depraved. And she does it with such wholesome joie-de-vivre and aplomb! She ties them in greasy, shivering knots and makes them wet their pants.

Perhaps there is a God, after all!

Jul 8, 2009 - 2:11 pm 165. The Anchoress — A First Things Blog:

[...] Biden/Palin curve She’s so nuts, and so weak: that she drives her haters to the Cliffs of Insanity! Paglia: [...]

Jul 8, 2009 - 2:44 pm 166. Ramp Rat:

“THE IVIES” “AMERICAS RULING CLASS”: Excuse me folks last time I checked, there were more of us than them; even if you toss in all minority group members who don’t think, actually they are smaller in number than other folks who don’t think. You may not checked lately but our minority group folks (even considering the sorry-sorry state of secondary ed in this country )have begun to see through the Democratic patchweave of filtered BS from the last 50 years. The “GOV” is one of US! that is what scares the hell out of the “Ruling Class”, so lets send them packing off to “France” their favorite country. I believe we can see that begin to happen in 2010. So hows that voter registration commin for you folks!
Palin, where ever she is I’ll be a watchin, got my pork rinds, my jerky, beer, ammoed up, locked and loaded, know the address of the “Grad Ole Opre” yessum just waitin for Ms Sarah to say go! Hey Lefties-err ruling class? about time for you to check “6″

Jul 8, 2009 - 2:49 pm 167. bbbb:

jharp- you really need to put education in perspective. Hanson is dead on about idiotic PhDs. My father only got a BS, did fantastic research in broadcasting, upstaged MANY PhDs, won TWO Emmy’s, holds 19 patents, you can watch HDTV because of him (I’d tell him thanks for you but he passed away last October), yet not only did he NEVER look down on less educated (or farmers, blue collar, since he grew up on a farm), he credited his success with having to work multiple jobs in college and what he learned from the practical hands on technician stuff. Too many business PhDs could never run a business. Too many economists with PhDs also can’t understand human behavior and how government messes up business- but talk to an owner of a McDonald’s or a farmer or an owner of a mechanic shop or self employed plumber and you’ll learn more about life and economics that what some stupid PhD teaches you.

Jul 8, 2009 - 3:17 pm 168. Ditto:

#130. kywrite:

“And if you, jharp, were to talk with a grizzled, dirty old farmer or two, you might learn a few things. People with soft hands rarely have a deep understanding of the world.”

Amen! What kind of left-leaning metrosexual ignoramus creates a cartoon like “Barnyard” where the bulls have teats? Of course, there is some truth to males being ball-less in their world, but the rest of Americans know better. Kids on the farms and ranches in America know more than these so-called sophisticates…

#156. Tcobb:

“Conclusion: If the political class does not stop people like Sarah Palin from getting into office, they as a class may be doomed to be swept off into the dustbin of history. Its analogous to Nat Turner’s slave rebellion in the old South. It has to be nipped in the bud if the old way of life is to be preserved.”

Just like in the old days, after Lincoln beat the Democrats and ended that cushy little lifestyle of theirs, they had to kill Abe before he had a chance to rebuild the South. They had to hate him badly enough so they could kill him, all in an effort to prove they were right and he was wrong… I believe it’s called ‘circular logic’ n’est ce pas?

I believe they hate anybody who has the power to stir the vast majority of Americans (who don’t involve themselves in political intrigues enough to know what’s really going on) into awareness and, ultimately, action. #1. smitty and #121. stuart Williamson — I think you’re right about the TEA Parties in search of a leader.

Jul 8, 2009 - 4:29 pm 169. Smoking Frog:

Something that hasn’t been touched on here: Many of the liberal elite actually are smarter and more informed than the people who troll for them, e.g., in this message thread. The latter merely identify with them, and, being ignorant, they overestimate them. That’s why they think liberals are vastly superior to conservatives. They don’t know any better.

Jul 8, 2009 - 5:53 pm 170. Tractordriver:

Dr. Hanson

I thought I had the only spray rig that you described. I was thinking of who I would rather help me to calibrate such a rig and keep it running. Would it be Sarah or Barry or Joe (Biden)? Common sense says one Sarah would be better than any number of the others.

If you can’t run a farm or business how can you run a country?

Thank You
Tractordriver

Jul 8, 2009 - 6:47 pm 171. John Samford:

The Tea parties are pretty much a waste of time. They will NRVER accomplish anything besides giving a bunch of people a mild case of sunburn. It takes years to get a grass roots organization of that sort grown to where it has political power. And pots of money. The Anti-war movement of the Vietnam era was only made possible by KGB funding. I can’t think of any reason for China to fund the Tea Parties so they will not accomplish anything.

Jul 8, 2009 - 6:52 pm 172. Mandy:

Is it not remarkable that even Palin’s most strident defenders wind up saying that if she wants to be taken seriously as a national figure, she needs to fill her empty head? Even if one concedes her ability to do so (which is very doubtful, at best), the chance that she will do so is lower than — what, a snoball’s in hell? That this bigoted yahoo is even being discussed constitutes a devastsating commentary on the state of the American polity.

Jul 8, 2009 - 6:58 pm 173. John Samford:

It dawned on me that the left still clings to it’s myths about Vietnam. So here is the story from one of the guys who ran the program;

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/pacepa200402260828.asp

He is wrong about some things, there being no Statue of Limitations on a Capital crime for example, but in the parts of which he is an expert, you have to give him his due.

Jul 8, 2009 - 6:58 pm 174. Mandy:

And reading the comments here, I finally uhnderstand the otherwise inexplicable devotion Sarah Palin evokes: she is the embodiment of the dark side of the American character. Thank goodness, most of us reject it.

Jul 8, 2009 - 7:14 pm 175. mrp:

What impressed me most about Sarah Palin’s resignaton is that once she made her decision, she announced it within hours. No public drama about whether she should do so, she just marched up to the microphones, read her text, and moved on. That’s the fundamental element of being a chief executive.

Jul 8, 2009 - 7:24 pm 176. dck:

While I thoroughly enjoyed your analysis of why “they” hate Sarah Palin (the sting in any rebuke is its truth), and I agree that it never hurts to improve your education (I just read the “Persian Expedition” after years of procrastination), I think you made your best point when you said you’ve met smarter, more capable, more reliable and trustworthy people living ordinary lives than you have in the rarest latitudes of graduate education.

The real problem lies in the professional political class that now misgoverns this country–both “Brands.” There is an absolute disconnect between this class and its attendant culture, and the lives and values of ordinary Americans. An even larger gulf exists between how smart they claim to be compared to their actual performance in the real world.

Joe Biden is a perfect example; he assures us he has a higher I.Q. than most of us, yet, even if true, have you ever seen such a serial-bungling ass in all your life? Can he not at least LEARN from a given mistake? Must he keep repeating it over and over? A man such as this can survive only in Academia or politics.

Can you see Joe taking command of the Ten Thousand in the worst extremity and leading them to safety, fame, and relative fortune?

Xenophon was a keen observer of men and a realist who learned much by watching others and even more from his own experience. And he started from a bedrock of character. As far as I know, he never attended the Kennedy School of Government nor even the Army War College; yet how many graduates of those two fine institutions could do as well as he if dumped in comparable circumstances?

Already proven in Alaska, Sarah will do fine, like Lincoln, harry Truman, Reagan, and many other successful leaders in our history. I’ll send her a copy of Xenophon to read while she’s trolling for a King Salmon.

Jul 8, 2009 - 7:59 pm 177. Tcobb:

Mandy writes:
And reading the comments here, I finally uhnderstand the otherwise inexplicable devotion Sarah Palin evokes: she is the embodiment of the dark side of the American character. Thank goodness, most of us reject it.
And after reading your comments, Mandy, I “uhnderstand,” as you say, about the low IQ of “Progressives” such as yourself. The Dark Side of people who pretend to have a clue– people who can’t even use a spell checker.

PEASH AND SHOSHAL JUSHTISH!
(Translation from Progo–Peace and Social Justice)

Jul 8, 2009 - 8:00 pm 178. 38952R:

I think lots of women who criticize her are really and truly just jealous. Hunky husband. Beauty-pageant-girl-grown-up looks. Got elected governor. And, horror of horrors, she did it on her own, while raising kids, and while being a Republican!

Also, Sarah Palin is a living, breathing disproof of the pro-choice feminist argument that women “need” to have abortions because having kids will interfere with their careers. Every woman who had an abortion in college or graduate school because she thought a baby would hold her back looks at Sarah Palin and realizes it didn’t have to be that way. But they don’t like admitting they were wrong, and that they could have been carrying a sweet, adorable toddler when they went up to get their diplomas, so they act like there’s something wrong with her.

And every woman who aborted a baby with Down syndrome, or other genetic issues, because “his quality of life will be awful” or whatever excuse they used, looks at Trig Palin and how much his family obviously loves him and realizes people with Down syndrome are human beings who can be loved like anyone else. But, once again, they don’t want to admit they were wrong, so they act like there’s something wrong with Sarah Palin. How dare she get pregnant in her forties with a baby with Down syndrome, and have a teenage daughter get pregnant, and STILL not be pro-choice? How dare she demonstrate that perhaps they didn’t “need” to have an abortion?

Jul 8, 2009 - 8:02 pm 179. conservativeguy:

Just being objective here, not trying to be diplomatic. While I agree with Palin’s positions, I don’t agree with the constantly repeated theme that she ’scares the liberals.’ I understand why one might say that she would have had the *potential* to do this following her convention speech, but come on, outside of that speech, I don’t see her scaring anybody. Let’s be objective – if Obama lost the election, then quit the Senate, I’d have laughed at any attempt to put a positive spin on it.

Jul 8, 2009 - 8:10 pm 180. TLM:

92. sheepish:

“Palin is a vampire in strategic diapers, and not necessarily clean diapers.”

Troll logic at work. Fool with the sheepish moniker, don’t quote yourself too often around all those libs with the DSM in their back pocket. This kind of obtuseness will get you a label worse than fool.

jharp:

“Don’t know where you went to graduate school but my experience in the intelligence difference between graduate students and guys who farmed 100 aces was pretty much Jethro Bodine vs. Carl Sagan.”

I seriously doubt you have had much, or any, experience around farmers. As for your graduate school education, email your dean this phrase — “my experience in the intelligence difference between” — and see if he lets you keep your diploma. (Hint: the statement is asinine and the preposition used is incorrect).

95. Susan Wolf:

“Hatred is never about the object of hatred, but always about the hater.”

So true. Along with “you hate what you fear”, this is a large part of the psychology underlying PDS.

Jul 8, 2009 - 8:44 pm 181. Tcobb:

The TEA party movement should not be looking for “leaders,” they should be looking for concrete proposals to make sure that structural changes are made that won’t require us to have the right “leaders” to make sure we won’t be screwed again. Protest isn’t enough. We need constitutional amendments that limit the amount of GDP that the government can tax for other than defense, and we need mechanisms for throwing out Supreme Court Justices when say, 50% of the States pass a resolution that Justice X has made a decision that has purely gone over the line.

Jul 8, 2009 - 10:10 pm 182. Steve:

I am fascinated and frightened by her appeal just as I was by W’s…it’s clear that many people are untroubled by the idea of having a leader who rambles-on nearly incoherently.

Jul 8, 2009 - 10:19 pm 183. Caestal:

“Is it not remarkable that even
Palin’s most strident defenders wind
up saying that if she wants to be
taken seriously as a national figure,
she needs to fill her empty head?”

Wow, amazing, you really pulled that out of thin air. That would be like me saying “Isn’t it amazing that even President Obama’s greatest supporters believe he is ignorant of the most basic tenets of government,” when clearly it is their respective opponents who are saying these things. If you are going to lie about what people have said, at least have the common sense to tell those lies somewhere where their statements aren’t on the same page…

Jul 9, 2009 - 1:33 am 184. vivo:

155. paul_unalaska:

“vivo, I have to ask.

What has Obama ‘Achieved’? ”

If you really want to know, call his Press Secretary or read the websites.

Jul 9, 2009 - 3:49 am 185. james:

Oh really, Mandy? It’s Sarah Palin who is from the dark side and not Maureen Dowd and David Letterman? Have you ever heard Palin make jokes about Letteman’s illegitimate child, or someone’s Down Syndrome baby, or advocate the assassination of a sitting president, ala Alec Baldwin? In fact, have you ever heard even call someone a relatively benign and stupid name like a “bigoted yahoo?” Bigoted against whom? and in the same way you are bigoted against her?
Methinks it’s you and your Rahm Emmanuel blow-up doll who need to take a long look at the dark side of humanity.

Jul 9, 2009 - 6:42 am 186. ~Paules:

I would prefer a leader who blends practical wisdom with erudition, but that’s a rare combination. I look at the history of Rome and find Marcus Aurelius the only example. Nevertheless, Rome did produce a number of capable rustics, men like Vespasian, who were hated by Roman aristocrats even as they reinvigorated the empire and set things to rights. Sound familiar?

Any student of history knows the frequency by which aristocracies place fops and buffoons in power. A Nero, Louis XVI, or Dowager Empress is too often the norm. Joe Biden clearly falls into this category. I’m not so sure about Mr. Obama, but he might represent an even older version of this folly. Only a god-king believes in his own infallibility. The thought chills me to the bone.

I guess the American republic will last a while longer yet if history is any teacher. Cities are notorious nests of decadence and corruption. The strength of any nation resides in the provinces. At least I hope so.

Jul 9, 2009 - 8:07 am 187. BettyBlue:

The dark side of the American character? The DARK side of the American character? Ooooooh, cue in the spooky music, the Darth Vader theme! IT’S DA DARK SIDE! Look out, everybody, it’s Sarah Palin, the dark queen! She has children, she’s not of the elite, therefore she is eeeeeeeeeevil! The Wicked Witch of Wasilia! Hide the cats and dogs! Run for the hills! Somebody call Joe Biden, where’s Maureen Dowd maybe Al Gore can save us! AIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!

“Egads, Lovey,” says Thurston Howell, III, sipping his bloody Mary, “How do they let people like her in here?” “So true, darling,” says Lovey, “Thank goodness most of us reject the dark side! Why, I wouldn’t dream of shopping at Wal-Mart!”

Meanwhile, we’ll pass another stimulus, recommended by the good guys, who know what’s best for us! That’ll work!

(Mandy, you have absolutely no idea what “dark”, “evil”, “America”, etc., really are, do you?)

Jul 9, 2009 - 8:14 am 188. quesnay:

# 172 Mandy

I suggest that you look in the mirror at yourself and you will see that it is you Mandy that is on the dark side, and a bigot at that. Thank goodness, most of us reject you.

Jul 9, 2009 - 9:28 am 189. David W. Lincoln:

As far as I am concerned, Daniel Hannan is the right of centre law maker with the most credibility. Sarah Palin has more in common with
him, than her detractors and those who are indifferent to her.

Is there anyone willing to contest this? For, as I have pointed out before, what Lord Balfour said about David Lloyd-George can be said about Sarah Palin.

Jul 9, 2009 - 9:49 am 190. GodsCountry:

There is a catchy phrase that suddenly occurred to me as I was reading the hysterical Liberal-lashings of Sarah.
Those who know will really find this catchy, I think. Here it is; “PALIN ENVY”.

We all know what them liberals been smokin’, so why do we let them get away with passing their fantasies off as “news”?

Jul 9, 2009 - 10:21 am 191. Carl Sesar:

@174 Mandy

Sarah Palin “is the embodiment of the dark side of the American character. Thank goodness, most of us reject it.”

Reject it in favor of the cold-blooded killer and Obama babysitter William Ayers, who trampled the American flag underfoot on 9/11, vowing, on that day of mass murder, that he’d kill Americans all over again himself, too, if he could get away with it. And in favor of black racist Obama mentor, surrogate father, and spiritual guidance counselor Jeremiah “God Damn America!” Wright, who applauded the mass murder and murderers alike. And above all, in favor of Barack Hussein Obama, aka Barry Soetoro, inveterate liar and con man, an American president who despises “his” country and its people, subverts American interests, and won’t allow his birth certificate to be seen by anyone, because – who can blame him? – an embodiment of corruption and the dark side of the human character, he’d end up rotting in jail if he did.

Jul 9, 2009 - 11:09 am 192. Gerald Arcuri:

I have no problem with Sarah Palin quitting as Governor of Alaska. I wish more politicians with a lot more reasons to quit would actually do so. ( Mark Sanford, for one. ) What I did find troubling was the way Sarah wandered all over the place with her remarks about it during her press conference. Geez! She needs Sergeant Joe Friday of Dragnet fame to edit her speeches: “Just the facts, Mam.” I’m all for full disclosure, but after listening to the press conference, I just felt confused. I like Sarah Palin. I think that she’s got more going for her than the proverbial faculty at Harvard. But she lacks focus. Perhaps she will now take the time to hone her thoughts and refine her delivery in order to make her underlying principles come across like a laser beam. There’s no question that she is likable and refreshing in her approach to public policy. She has incredibly good instincts for what really matters, and she is undeniably a patriot. Let’s see if she can mature into a consummate stateswoman who can eventually lead the country out of its present morass.

Jul 9, 2009 - 11:12 am 193. MisterH:

“Who’s more dumb: Sarah Palin or her detractors?”

Actually, that’s not an entirely honest question. But what I find most intriguing is the degree to which this love/hate debate regarding Sarah Palin has so illuminated the stark contrasts in the sensibilities and dispositions of both her supporters and detractors. Disclaimer: I did not think she was ready for elevation to VP in 2008. But then again, after seeing Joe Biden in action and hearing his multiple public gaffes I don’t think Palin could have done worse.

The most common beef her detractors pile on with is the intelligence question – or her perceived lack of it. This is I think is at the core of the divide between many conservatives and liberals in how they see the the world and themselves. We all know intelligence can be demonstrated and measured in multiple ways:

1) Some people are marvels at reading, absorbing and recalling written information with great ease.
2) Some have have the gift of extraordinary verbal intelligence- an expansive vocabulary coupled with the ability to deliver a message with great rhetorical flourishes and impact (never mind if they didn’t actually WRITE the message themselves).

3) There’s the aspect of emotional intelligence – or the ability to accurately read other people’s true disposition or motivations.
4) There’s spatial interpretation/visual acuity that gives some people an amazing capacity to observe how physical objects are assembled and how their component parts interact.

5) Finally there’s what is often described as common sense or perhaps “street smarts” — the ability to correctly size up people and situations and take a decisive course of action.

You can also loosely group these indicators of intelligence into classic “left brain, right brain” sensibilities: the “experiential/doing” versus the “thinking/feeling. To take it a step further one could interpret these groupings in to the classic “male vs. female” sensibilities.

Sarah Palin I think operates from the experiential/right-brain, or male perspective. This is a perspective that conservatives will probably value much more than liberals. But based on the criticism of Palin by people of the more liberal persuasion, I am getting the strong sense that they have fallen into a dangerous trap, in that they have come to only value the aspects of intelligence associated with the feminine perspective. (What’s that old adage about a woman being more persuaded by what she hears versus what she sees?)

To put it another way, I wonder if liberals have collectively come to a point where they seem infinitely more impressed by what they hear -words or sentiments expressed– as opposed to what they see; as in actions or results. What other explanation can one have for their wholesale buying into Pres. Obama’s platitudes about “hope and change” while being seemingly oblivious to what he’s actually done in the past or is doing now and its ugly consequences?

Of course I could indulge in the flip-side of this argument, but perhaps someone from the left-brain perspective can do a better job than I.

Jul 9, 2009 - 12:06 pm 194. Adopted:

To Mandy: You wrote that Sarah is “the embodiment of the dark side of the American character” … Wow, I guess you really have a different view of the dark side than me. I’ve seen nothing in her record that suggests a dark side — at least any darker than any other normal person. Just because she opposes Obama’s policies makes her a “dark character”? Count me as a dark character, too, I guess.

To Mike W.: You feel that Sarah Palin was wrong to label some parts of America as “real America.” I understand your sentiment. But I also recognized that there was a double meaning when Sarah said “real America.” I don’t think she was dissing people who lived in urban settings, or implying they aren’t even Americans. I think the kind of “real” she meant was down-to-earth — and that certain parts of the US prefer authenticity over style, that they embrace what might be called traditional American values. She was referring to the non-pretentious attitudes of folks in the heartland and farmlands of America. In “real America”, i.e. rural America, what you see is what you get. And that’s exactly the way Palin operates. In “real America” they don’t want people in big cities telling them how to live.

And truly, if you admit it, you wouldn’t want to live in “real, (i.e. down-to-earth) America.” You would miss out on an urbane and sophisticated lifestyle. There’s not as much to do in the small towns and there is a total lack of shopping and nightlife. So, there’s an equal amount of distrust going from urbanites to rural folks, right?

Rural folks get called rednecks and hillbillies … They have a right to toss back a little invective at the city slickers once and awhile. Sarah is certainly identifying with the rural demographic.

Jul 9, 2009 - 12:14 pm 195. PA:

TLM@162

“Duty, obligation, loyalty, and sacrifice — all of which are restraints entered into freely, ie they are choices made by free people in a free society. For the last 233 years this has worked pretty well. I see no need to change the arrangement now.”

TLM I have no doubt that you, like many, believe “they have worked pretty well” and do not see a “need to change the arrangement now.” That, right there, is the problem. The “arrangement” that you abstractly allude to has been changed many times in the past and continues to be today in seeming perpetuity. It’s called being a “progressive.” I submit to the court the Obama administration as exhibit A (although both sides have been guilty of this in the past)…

Nobody is born free; everyone is born into a particular society or locality involving, let us call them, “sacred restraints.” Those restraints (contra freedom) are what differentiate “us” (i.e. Americans) from “them” and enable us to be possessed of what’s referred to as a “culture.” The alternative is to be a motley assortment of individuals lacking any form or substance–that is, lacking any culture. When the latter happens to a people it is disasterous in large measure because the qualities I cited in my previous post cease to have any meaning to them. Incidentally, I submit with very heavy heart, I believe my country–our country–is becoming this way all too quickly; perhaps it’s there already. Much of this, I believe, can be traced to a freedom-obessessed culture run amoke which my great grandparents and their forebearers (i.e. the WWII generation and prior) did not know.

Indeed your post is symptomatic of this very phenomenon.

Jul 9, 2009 - 12:24 pm 196. Merri Monks:

Excellent article. The 2008 presidential election cured me of my allegiance to the Democratic Party. And, like many Independents, I no longer support Obama. I see him as the inexperienced failure I predicted he would be in the Oval Office. And I LOVE Sarah Palin. She has qualities rare in politicians–heart and guts, as well as intelligence.

Jul 9, 2009 - 12:36 pm 197. PA:

Marc Malone@128

“We Conservatives agree that unlimited freedom is not a good thing. We know freedom isn’t free. That’s why we talk of values… nobler things. We speak regularly of things like personal responsibility, patriotism, etc….”

Indeed Marc: That is why “We Conservatives” includes “me”–I’m with you. My post was directed toward those who may have never thought about their freedom in that way. Many–not all, but many–conservatives do indeed understand what maintaining their “freedom” entails.

Jul 9, 2009 - 12:46 pm 198. Ron Kean:

My first wife was from a town of 4,000 in a northern state. I was from an upper-middle class suburb in midwestern city of about 2,000,000. We met in college. She was very pretty.

Deep down inside I might have felt superior since she was from a semi-rural small town background and I was from the city. Sometimes I thought she was kind of a hick and possibly I didn’t respect her as much as I might have.

We split up and eventually she went on to be an executive director in a large clinic in my city. She was recognized nationally for her accomplishments for a time. I’ll never write off anybody from small town America ever.

Great Americans can come from anywhere in America. I think Sara Palin has a great future. I have doubts about the future of LA and NYC.

Jul 9, 2009 - 1:53 pm 199. Jim C.:

38. Dave K. wrote, “I can feel your anger. It gives you focus, makes you stronger.
Strike me down with all of your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!”

Poor Dave. He tries so hard. Too bad he’s just revealed his own heart of darkness. He really DIGS the Emperor from Star Wars. He chose the quote because that’s where he’s coming from. Dave only THINKS he’s fighting a monster, but he’s become one himself regardless.

“All in all it is difficult not to feel that pacifism, as it appears among a section of the intelligentsia, is secretly inspired by an admiration for power and successful cruelty.” –Orwell, “Notes on Nationalism”, 1945

Dave may not be pacifist to any degree, but Orwell had him (and leftists like those who admire Castro) pegged.

Jul 9, 2009 - 2:27 pm 200. BARB:

Hard to know how the Dems can criticize Sarah Palin, when they have managed to put one of the least intelligent, least experienced persons in the White House in the history of this country.

SARAH PALIN – 2012!!!!!

Jul 9, 2009 - 5:21 pm 201. Edward Baker:

We are making a very great deal out of very little. Governor Palin committed a strategic error in saying yes to Senator McCain, who make a strategic error in asking her. She was grossly unprepared for national office. Among other things, she reminded voters of the still sitting president, Mr. Bush. He too had a gift for connecting with middle America, which he screwed mercilessly, and a great many voters in a great many places decided by November 4 that they had had enough. The tens of millions of independent voters whom the Governor needed to woo ran for the exits every time she turned a crank over a “real America” filled with “read Americans” who didn´t look terribly much like us. She had very little appreciation for the complexity of the beast that is the American electorate, and she got the bejeezus beaten out of her by a guy who to her didn´t look American at all, and yet was and is quintessentially so.
And finally, her inability to figure any of this out reflected on John McCain,a man of advanced age and less than perfect health. Had he won, and well into September it seemed as though he could, and had he died in office, a very real possibility, we would have been stuck with a beginner, a bright and energetic beginning, but a stupefyingly ignorant one as well. All in all, we got it right.

Jul 9, 2009 - 5:26 pm 202. Aleena:

Mandy:
#172 Mandy

“And reading the comments here, I finally uhnderstand the otherwise inexplicable devotion Sarah Palin evokes: she is the embodiment of the dark side of the American character. Thank goodness, most of us reject it.”

Sarah Palin represents everything that is good and worth keeping about our culture. Sadly, Mandy, you don’t know right from wrong and probably never will. And I can only speak for myself. And you can only speak for yourself. But it is your utter arrogance which suggests that you can speak for more than one person.

Jul 9, 2009 - 5:31 pm 203. sheesh:

I knew somebody would bite. Thanks, TLM:

180. TLM: . . . “92. sheepish:“Palin is a vampire in strategic diapers, and not necessarily clean diapers.” Troll logic at work. Fool with the sheepish moniker, don’t quote yourself too often around all those libs with the DSM in their back pocket. This kind of obtuseness will get you a label worse than fool.

http://vodpod.com/watch/1873158-ralph-peters-applause-craving-vampire-obama-is-that-babe-in-strategic-diapers-and-not-necessarily-clean-diapers

Worse than a fool, indeed. And . . . I thank you.

Jul 9, 2009 - 7:22 pm 204. Ron Kean:

Attn: Professor Hanson

I know your family’s lived on that patch of land forever but there are tremors on the fault line so it’s time to pack up and head east.

I’m saying this for selfish reasons only. Load up the books, call a moving company and hit the road.

Jul 9, 2009 - 7:33 pm 205. Jim Tynen:

If she runs a conventional campaign, she will lose, as a revolutionary army cannot win a conventional war against regular forces.

That’s what she found in the Alaska governor’s office. She was pinned down, and exposed to air and heavy armor attacks by the media and political establishment.

She has to go guerrilla. She has to attack when the conventional forces least expect it — July 4th weekend, for instance.

She has, as it were, gone into the hills. She will sally out at times and places of her choosing — speeches for conservative candidates, perhaps gigs on Fox News or talk radio, writing a book — then retreat before the conventional media can bring all their firepower to bear.

But, VDH is right. She has to have some grasp of the ideas. Of course, almost none of the conventional Republicans have it either.

Jul 9, 2009 - 8:52 pm 206. bobby bb:

Does anybody else see any irony about the right complaining about the hatred of Palin, and they defend it by….hatred of Obama, or of the liberals? Sadly, the hatred goes both ways. Palin has been called some ridiculous hateful things. She said some hateful things too. all politicians are attacked, as are their families. It isn’t right by either side. Yes, Obama traveled around for 2 yrs running for President…as did McCain, as do ALL who are competing. Personally, I do not blame Pain for quitting and taking advantage of the riches that are coming her way…few of us could turn down that kind of opportunity, me included. It is her right to quit for whatever reason she wants. I just think she is carrying the victim card way too far..she should listen to her own words when she was complaining about Hilary’s whining.

Jul 9, 2009 - 11:51 pm 207. Marc Malone:

#192 Arcuri – I did not find her speech rambling. I have been following her story for some time. Thus, I know to what she refers, and it all made perfect sense to me. I think it also resonates with the common man, because her style is kitchen table. She speaks the way the commoner speaks. This is her great strength. She sounds like them.

#193 MisterH – Really good thought-food. Thanks. Yum-yum.

Jul 10, 2009 - 1:14 am 208. AnaHadWolves:

According to the Replican-NeoCon-Born-Again sycophantic horde, any truthful disection of Sarah Palin’s abilities/disabilities, motives, mores or methods are “verboten” and smack of a Democratic cabal’s pogrom against her. No, actually, they don’t.

The mouth-foam from that horde at any mention of the liabilities of a Sarah Palin presidency is self-generated and self-delusional. She may be a “nice person”, but, is hardly qualified to be in charge of the country. Being a good mommy, pitbull-with-lipstick, wolf-killing NRA member and/or a far-right loon may excite the base of the Republican party, but, are not qualifiers, in any meaningful way, to the job of President.

So, dear NeoCon brethren…continue to push unqualified candidates on us like Sarah Palin. Please do! The more the average American, who can assess a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, sees and hears her, the less they like the things for which she stands.

That’s not an EastCoast “grandee” point of view…that’s an objective point of view of the Sarah Palin who lacks even the basics of leadership.

Jul 10, 2009 - 3:16 am 209. Robert Coggins:

Curiously, the reaction of the intellectuals is not unlike that of the aristocrats in France prior to the revolution. Destroy those whom you fear and disagree with with ridicule.

Ridicule and the maintenence of power are the elite’s only defense. They distrust the millitary,dislike the police and understand should they lose power they are finished.

In the past they ridiculed her personna, her family, and her beliefs. Now they ridicule her willing surrender of power. How dare she remove herself as a target which is what the elites used her for as governor.

The Taoist philosopher Sun Tsu would understand that her resignation follows his recommendations in “Strategy” almost to the letter. With one decision she has refused to swim against the tide (the Tao or Way), made it more difficult for her opponents to approach and attack her and given her an opportunity to gather her strength.

Time will tell, but as of now, Palin 1 the Chattering Class 0. And if she ever realizes how easy it is I suspect it will be a shutout.

Jul 10, 2009 - 4:47 am 210. Pops in Vienna:

Doc, I sincerely hope that Sarah’s resignation is part of a cunning and devious plan to save the country. I can’t think of any Republican polticians that generate the excitement she does. The woman’s charisma factor is off the scale.

Life is strange. I can almost see Obama’s approval ratings being in the dumper when he runs for re-election and the Republicans will either run McCain again or Romney. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

I’ll stick with the Alaskan hillbilly. I trust her and that’s more I can say about anybody else in Washington.

Jul 10, 2009 - 9:54 am 211. mik:

she’s just a bit too snarky and lies a lot. other than that, she’s pretty entertaining. and it’s obvious she quit because she wants to make money while her star still shines.

Jul 10, 2009 - 11:03 am 212. Nino:

Qien es mas macho? Sarah Palin o Barack Obama?

Jul 10, 2009 - 9:03 pm 213. Gaffe Prices:

One of the most unbearable things of politics today is how much it resembles my junior high school peer environment.
There were ecology logos, and green flags, and a downside of rock and roll such that we were able to engage in prolonged adolescence in a hyper youth takeover of the culture.

Not much has really changed, and the whippersnappers who try to swarm sites such as this have no idea how much they’ve been had. They are encouraged to stay in packs and parrot the herd mentality and be especially aggressive in keeping things on the personal attack level. Like trained dogs, they hope to please their masters, and the smell and taste of blood gives them their one shot at a primal sensation, however virtual that might be.

The paradox is that when one looks back at the leadership that emerges from one’s own generation, it will not be a leader or leaders who represented those people of that generation, but the leader or leaders who represented a way of life that requires a vigilance to defend.

Instead, the baby boomer generation that represents us has a belief system founded on the notion that a whole new way of life has to be invented and imposed from the top down on the masses.

So Churchill was right when he said you cannot construct a socialist state without a Gestapo to enforce it.

And the message coming back to Washington is that America doesn’t want Cap & Trade to kill jobs and send them overseas, and won’t reduce Co2 emissions one iota, we don’t want single payer healthe care, don’t want another “stimulus bill” because the first one didn’t stimualte and the two tarps being paid back are already being slated to be spent by the very people who brought on a housing market collapse in the first place.

And yet the double-talk coming from 0nabhamas mouth is fripping staggering; at the G8 he says he saved the world from economic disaster, but puts it in the passive voice 2nd person “Reckless actions by a few have fueled a recession that spans the globe,” Well he got that part right. But of course, confession, contriteness, and punishment are all meant for those not usurping power right now.

The leadership today, and the issues being bandied are still at the level of those years away from having accepted adult responsibility. Trust me that’s just how it was back in junior high school.

Success, as defined as “persisting, despite a multitude of failure” was the scientific method of research, medical research, entrepreneurial enterprise; the trial and error of a loud and experimental nation, where unorthodox was the mode of change.

But that’s all an anachronism now. Our neuroses have overtaken us now. We fear less the dangers of the natural world and replace any previously misunderstood malevolence in nature, with the very same appeasement tactics and pieties directed towards the nature gods of old.

In the past, knowledge and learning developed when farming practices lead to surpluses that paid the way for scholars to devote themselves to learning and teaching. This was called leisure activity and required much work and tending and was not confused as it is today with the spare time one might devote to any activity that served as relaxation, as an antidote from the rigors he or she must engage in to survive and prosper.

And in a moment such as this professor Hanson queries for an objective assessment of governor Palin’s qualifications, for better or worse, and the high school level of “discourse” returns in profusion as inside-the-beltway snob Peggy Noonan follows Maureen O’dowds suit with her “America rid of Stupid Palin” essay, unconcerned with the political rape and lynching Palin, her family, and now Alaskans receive at the hands of Onobhamas behind-the-scenes-Tammany Hall brigades.

Nor is she able to concede that fact that hurt Onabhamas’ ego the most: Palin brought in a close election and forced Onabama to reveal himself disappointed on an election victory night: Since he hadn’t won in a sweep, he would be sensitive to the needs of the 58 million that voted for McCain/Palin ticket in Washington, shamelessly playing his campaign “Moderate” Card” one more time, to appear conciliatory just before he began “governing” as any other kleptocrat and usurper would, and does.

A month or so ago onabama overdid it and said “the Stars have aligned: We have to rubber stamp pass this such and such legislation NOW!!”

A cultur=e and a leadership motivated by adolescent fantasy and superstition. One can only think on the Icarus myth to explain the disillusion that will follow and serve as the kick-start to a reconnection to the worlds evolutionary liberty.

Jul 10, 2009 - 10:15 pm 214. Gaffe Prices:

And speaking of the Icarus myth: when I was 3 or 4, there were cartoons depicting the Icarus myth because the Icarus myth deals with the Bradshawian “magical child” egocentric nature of child psychology, and children could understand it, and myth telling begins in childhood to begin with, or at least it did in the old days.

Now we have a pluperfect fool as president, who blew the budget money on some magic beans, that he *believes* will take him to the sky, and where there is talk of a golden goose.

Now the rude awakening for many who voted for him is that they no longer *believe* in him or his hype, they don’t want anymore of the Kool-aid nor the cotton candy for sustenance. They want to keep from losing their jobs.

And those *magic* beans he got conned into buying are only going to lead to, ironically, his impeachment, as his, uh, emissions that will retroactively violate the Nurnberg Methane and Other Gasses Laws (Ban).

I told you the guy stinks, but you wouldn’t *believe* me.

Jul 11, 2009 - 1:31 am 215. Darwin Akbar:

Another brillian piece by one of the great thinkers of our time. Please keep it up, Professor.

Jul 11, 2009 - 9:27 am 216. myth buster:

Palin is Pyrrhus. She won every battle, but she lost the war for lack of resources. Her enemies could endlessly rearm, reinforce, and resume their bombardment. They don’t need to win a single battle; they only need to deal enough damage every time they lose that she eventually runs out of resources to keep fighting.

Jul 11, 2009 - 11:29 am 217. Oregonian:

Dr. Hanson: another great piece! My favorite line was “…I saw more stupid people in graduate school and three decades in academia than I ever did who ran 100 acres without going broke-and more of the latter whom I’d trust not to bankrupt the country and let down our defenses than of the former.”

#121 stuart Williamson: great response! I like your premise that Sarah is not going to let the Alinskyites set the rules of the game! It looks like she’s going to go on offense, and defense is not their strong suit!

#95 Susan Wolf: great point! The proof of your premise is right here in the comments to Dr. Hanson’s article: jharp, for example!

#0 jharp: perhaps if you gave some details of your own academic accomplishments it would help give some context to your ad hominem rant. Or, is your record sealed like that of the Great and Powerful Oz? If that is the case, I can only echo the comments of #153 Jack Marcotte: “I am in awe of your abject and oblivious stupidity, ignorance and elitism.”

Jul 11, 2009 - 11:48 am 218. TLM:

PA:

I do not see a need to change the arrangement now, the arrangement being the one between our government and the citizens of this country. In other words, the arrangement codified in our constitution.

The freedom I’m referring to is freedom from government interference in our personal lives (speech, religion, etc.) I agree that, in large part, abuses of personal freedom have led to a considerable decline in our culture. I would, however, not look to government to rectify this situation.

Democracy is messy, and freedom carries with it the potential for abuse. That’s a trade off I’m willing to accept. Freedom also carries with it responsibility. It is up to us to change the course our culture is taking. We need to elect political leaders who truly reflect our cultural norms. Judging by recent events, we have not done a very good job at this. As a first step toward cleaning up the mess we’ve made of our culture I offer a modest proposal: Shoot your TV.

Jul 11, 2009 - 5:55 pm 219. TLM:

203. sheepish:

Still missing the point. Pasting the title of an article here as if it is your own thinking proves what exactly? Taken out of context it is an absurd statement, which would be the norm for you, I believe.

BTW, you do realize that “sheesh” is a common euphemism for sh*t, right?

Jul 11, 2009 - 6:20 pm 220. Gaffe Prices:

#210: Pops in Vienna- “I’ll stick with the Alaskan hillbilly. I trust her and that’s more I can say about anybody else in Washington.”

You hit the nail right square on the head: she’s the only person whose worthy of our trust, and that should be the paramount issue addressed by all the others, especially on our side, but isn’t, except for Sarah Palin.

Jul 12, 2009 - 12:52 pm 221. Tom:

I agree with Krauthammer. Sarah isn’t presidential material. This whole republican “elites” conjured up by the “base” is a crock. Are we talking about “elites” like Ann Coulter of Greenwich, Ct? Have any of you people ever been to Greenwich? Honestly, if you’re looking for conservative christian to vote for who stands for “Joe six pack” then Mike Huckabee would be a better choice. At least he knows a few things about the world outside of what his advisers tell him. However, I guess he’s not as “attractive” a candidate to you guys.

Jul 13, 2009 - 4:59 am 222. joeblough:

I’ll take a so-so educated person who knows how to think over a super-educated dolt who can’t think straight any day of the week for any purpose whatever.

Jul 13, 2009 - 9:52 pm 223. joeblough:

And I’ll add that for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on, this is one of the Hanson columns I’ve liked best.

Oh, BTW, I’m nuts about Palin.

Jul 13, 2009 - 9:54 pm 224. gs:

Yes, Palin needs to load up on gravitas.

I wonder if Mike Huckabee is quietly doing so. If the country is in trouble in 2012 and Huckabee holds his own with venomous MSM interviewers, he will have a real chance.

(My intention is to speculate dispassionately. Huckabee reminds of Nixon. I do not support him.)

Jul 17, 2009 - 6:37 pm 225. Tomo:

I have no political affiliation. As one who is free from the inherent constraints of any political persuasion, I consider myself unbiased. I think Sarah Palin and her followers are remarkable people. I have never seen a person with such a limited intellectual capacity overreach so far past their abilities, with such staunch support from people with similar limitations. It is a scary thing to watch, because by some catastrophe of history Sarah could become President. But it is thrilling to watch… acts of insanity always are.

Jul 19, 2009 - 4:48 pm 226. Mike:

I think That Obama was considered unelectable ,too, pretty early on in the last campaign. As for the reading and studying part,there is a difference. I think Sarah Palin studies, Barack Obama reads.

Jul 30, 2009 - 7:17 am 227. Ted:

Mr. Hanson,

what kind of books would you recommend Sarah Palin to read? Just curious…

Jul 30, 2009 - 11:42 pm

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