Defending Sarah Palin

As noted on the HuffPo, Carl Cameron of Fox News gave a breathless report on some staffers on the McCain campaign who are now taking cheap shots at Sarah Palin. Having defended Wal-Mart, Alec Baldwin and Ann Coulter on the HuffPo, I'd like to now offer some thoughts in Palin's defense.

Cameron reported that Sarah Palin, fresh from the shower, opened the door for a staffer in her bathrobe. And they're complaining? Hello!! I would pay good money to see that. These unnamed cowards found that "uncommon." It seems to me it would be a problem if that sort of occurrence were "common." At least the Democrats who attacked Palin had the courage to give us their names. Are you listening Nicolle Wallace?

The problem these ingrates have is they have to blame someone for the loss, plus they know she is a threat to their potential employers in 2012. No Republican I know cared about the McCain campaign at all until Palin was picked. Palin's solo rallies always outdrew McCain's. In Florida she drew 18,000 to a rally at a location where Biden pulled 2,000 the next week. She earned Saturday Night Live their best ratings in years. She drew a Super Bowl sized audience for her debate with Biden. Perversely for Republicans this helped Biden because tens of millions watched who wouldn't have if McCain had picked say... Tom Ridge or that Pawlenty dude. This immense TV exposure helped Biden because he was likeable and was a complete gentleman during the debate. Americans like gentlemen. Gentlemen don't anonymously leak stories about someone who just busted her ass for 8 weeks on their behalf. Are you listening Steve Schmidt?

Cameron reported Palin "didn't know Africa was a continent." Right. It was actually a comment on southern vs. South Africa. Whatever. She bought a lot a clothes. Big deal, she looked great in them. I call that an investment that paid good dividends, aside from the press reporting on it, which was the result of... a McCain staffer leak. It was money well spent, as opposed to money spent hiring Beltway Republican "advisors." These same advisors made the whole election about freaking William Ayers. Epic fail.

Without Palin, McCain would have carried maybe 7 states. But she energized the base, despite her pratfalls. People started giving money and manning phone banks. Conservatives love her. Beltway Republicans don't, but they are corrupt and all need to be flushed out in a giant conservative colonic. Beltway Republicans had complete power and squandered it. Republicans need to get back to basics. Palin is gold in the red states, and is just the reboot conservatives will need. We don't need more John Boehner, Mitt Romney, or Lindsey Graham.

Castration anxiety sufferer Carl Cameron also says Sarah Palin made staffers cry. Mean old Sarah. I'd make staffers cry too if I were as badly mishandled as she was. They're lucky she didn't shoot them from a helicopter with a tranq dart. In two weeks Sarah Palin went from nobody to giving a show-stopping convention address. That's pressure. Especially when your teleprompter malfunctions. But she handled it because she has big brass balls. Beltway Republicans don't. The thumb-sucking leakers to Fox sure don't. Are you listening Mark Wallace? (Nicolle's husband BTW and also on the campaign).

If you think I'm picking on Nicolle Wallace, I am. She used to work with Katie Couric and insisted on the three infamous interviews with her, refusing many conservative news organizations. It's not paranoia if everyone is out to get you. "Wasilla hillbillies" is a phrase tailor made for her mouth.

Sarah Palin had two weeks prep to go nationwide. Obama had four years to do so since his convention speech in 2004, and he's the best in the business now. Therein lies the problem for the Republican Palin-haters. They worry how good she'll be in 4 years. But with the Republicans as feckless as they are right now, Palin might as well wait until 2016. Obama is going to have an easy 8.

Comments

[bevy777]

Very SMALL people in the GOP right now ... bitter people too ... people who are upset that they have to go look for a job now ... people who live behind anon faces and names ... people with too much time on their hands. No use listening to them ...

[trisha08]

Sorry if I can't defend Palin. She is no vicim. She said YES even though she should have known she isn't (and will never be) qualified.

I love the quote from the Newsweek article that Todd Palin was making calls to heavy hitters in Alaska telling them to hold on until 2012. I think the McCain camp underestimated Palin's quest for power. Her goal was not to help McCain win the election, but only to help herself get on to the National stage.

To say that Palin only had two weeks to prep. is a lie. She had been preparing for years. What's funny is that she thought she was ready.

[davism97]

I'm not worried about Palin in 4 years. She's completely devoid of curiosity. The amount of prep time she had (boohoo) for this election has absolutely nothing to do with her dismal display of knowledge. She'll be as ignorant in 2012 as she is now.

[mercuryguy]

I don't know about you guys but I strongly think Palin should offer an apology to President-elect Obama to all the nasty things she told about our New President. You Betcha!!

[rbenjamin]

"Without Palin, McCain would have carried maybe 7 states." Besides you Ron, who sez that? I followed the polls for months before Palin came on board, and the Red states that McCain won were pretty much the same solid ones he was predicted to win before the Gov signed on (ID, UT, AZ, WY, SD KS, OK, TX, LA,MS, AL, TN, KY & AK= 14). Palin energized the GOP base, but turned off independents who might conceivably have given McCain a narrow electoral victory (think Jews in Fla). Palin wasn't a drag on the ticket, she was a sea anchor.

"...when your teleprompter malfunctions. But she handled it because she has big brass balls. " Two words: Sportscaster Experience. Palin knows how to use a teleprompter. In Podunk markets like Alaska you can bet TV equipment failures are the rule. Not so much balls as appropriate training & experience. Hey, she IS fairly good at something, if not exactly ready for prime time politics, assuming you actually want to win elections and not just make your dog pound bark.

"She earned Saturday Night Live their best ratings in years." See, the problem with that was most viewers were laughing at her, not with her. Similar to the ol' fame versus notoriety distinction.

So hockey mom got her hair messed in the big leagues. Big deal.

[NumYummy]

I'm certainly no fan of Sarah Palin. But I have to say that I'm starting to feel a little sorry for her.

I think all the bashing the McCain camp is doing is making her look like a victim. I think it's going to backfire and make people feel sympathetic. This will hurt McCain even more. He picked her!

[AHydel]

The problem with this post is that you credit Palin with energizing the base, but you don't give her credit for her devisiveness and flagrant stupidity. The women isn't an innocent victim. She chose to run as VP, a job she was clearly unqualified for. She chose not to be prepped for the Couric interview. She chose to spend that that $150,000 and change on designer clothes while REAL Americans were loosing jobs and their retirement. She chose to bring up Ayers, and mock Obama for being a community organizer. In the end and was her and her neo-conservative handlers who leaked allegations of dissent in the campaign to further her 2012 ambitions. They started the shooting war. I suspect John McCain and Co. is pissed about that original betrayal and they're doing the old Potamic two step all over her reputation out of spite, as their want. You mess with Washington political bit bull, you're gonna get bit.

[pcpatterson]

Perhaps the most baffling thing about this "defense" of Palin is the description of Katie Couric as some kind of second coming of Keith Olberman. Hello? Couric served up more softballs than Larry King does. Are you seriously attributing Palin's inability to name a single newspaper she's read in the past 10 years (if, in fact, there are any...) to "bias" from Couric? Hell, she gave her THREE chances to answer the question...

[SusaninIN]

My problem with Sarah Palin is not her lack of knowledge, I believe that she is inteligent and can learn the things she doesn't currently know. It is her totally narrow world view that has kept her from learning these things already. How can you want to become VP, next in line to be president, when you don't have any curiosity outside of your own little universe?

I agree that she is being attacked unfairly by people in her own party. The McCain camp did pick her after all. I am however concerned about what these statements show about Gov Palin. My impression of her is someone out for themselves. If she really wanted to help lead this country, she would have been more willing to take advice from the campaign. And the clothes issue is a big one. How can she justify the expense when the campaign was needing to fight in every state, not to mention the state of the economy. That undermined her Joe six pack and hockey mom theme bigtime.

My biggest concern , however, of a Palin administration is that she would govern from her own idealogical ideas, which would in essence leave quite a large number of citizens without representation. She's not someone I could vote for, now or in the future.

[HonorJusticeTruth]

Did John McCain really pick her? Or did the RNC advisors hand him the lines about galvanizing the base and needing an attack dog, etc? I'm sure a lot of money rested on getting someone like Palin on the Republican ticket to represent "her people". John could have said no, but he didn't. John could have been a real maverick and chosen someone else. People in positions of power are briefed. Who knows what information was flowed to McCain about her.

But Sarah Palin was not used. As much as anything, her own ambitious personality came full speed ahead. The clothes spending was just representative of a personality whose only goal was to grab everything for themselves, without thinking of the consequences. Her decision to ignore the McCain camps directives and start the "Palin movement" was totally contrary and destructive to the McCain campaign.

John could have tried to pull her back into line. But one has to question if the party around McCain really wanted it. After all, HE was the real outsider. They could have grounded her campaign airplane. They could have sent over someone of absolute loyalty to McCain to make all spending decisions.

If anything, Sarah Palin did us all a service and delivered a number of Republicans of good will into the Obama camp.

[veisalgia]

Truly,
I doubt she has the world curiosity to really educate herself in 4 or 8 years.

If somehow being elected Mayor...... than Governor......... than potential VP- does not send you back to the books to catch up, I don't know what would.

V

[veisalgia]

Get your popcorn and pull up a chair.... (from a safe distance)

The GOP "Circular Firing Squad" has fired its first shots...

This could be exciting!!

[Wiserone]

Just heard that part of that $20,000-$40,000 shopping spree for Todd were silk boxer's!! Guess the Tundra, snowmobiling, oil rigger personna has crashed and burned. We've got an economy that has collasped and we are looking for LEADERSHIP that has a basic understanding of that fact alone. Yet, we had a potential vice president that had NO HESITATION to mock the United States' suffering in the way she more than just flaggrantely shopped. McCain/Palin: "Country First"??? Yeah, right.

Also, if she didn't return the clothes FOR DONATION to charity, wouldn't the IRS frown on that big-time??? I know they did with Nancy Reagan when she kept her designer dud's. I'd tell the RNC not to go retrieve them but just let the IRS know instead and have them handle it.

[2876]

Therein lies the problem for the Republican Palin-haters. They worry how good she'll be in 4 years.
********************
Palin would still be dumb as a rock in 4, 8, 12 years. Sure, she can learn to memorize more geography, history, and foreign affairs but ask her something she hasn't prepped for and you'll get Katie 2.0

[Siryn]

I will agree that it's a tad tasteless to start leaking all this nasty gossip. But this was a match made in hell, and her unpreparedness was a really big factor in turning off the independents. The bottom line is that she wasn't ready. You don't sequester a candidate like that and make absurd demands for "deference." It was more than clear that she was ignorant of national issues once she opened her mouth in those interviews. The beauty pageant reply didn't cut it.

You're right, without her, the right wouldn't have been excited, and she seemed to give them the shot in the arm that they needed. But she turned away the center. You don't win just with the base. The thought of her anywhere near the presidency at THIS TIME should be absolutely frightening.

All this really shows is how deep the contempt is for the electorate. They quickly found out how much of a disaster she was and they covered it up for two months. So much for "Country First."