Palin agrees that it’s the class war, stupid
Back in September I wrote that much of the vicious bias against Sarah Palin was a result of her being from the wrong side of the tracks—the Walmart side. Now Palin is on the record as acknowledging the class issue in an interview with conservative filmmaker John Ziegler.
Palin feels that Caroline Kennedy’s upscale bona fides have caused her to be been handled by the press with more delicacy:
I think that as we watch that we will perhaps be able to prove that there is a class issue here also that was such a factor in the scrutiny of my candidacy versus, say, the scrutiny of what her candidacy may be.
I personally have been somewhat surprised that Caroline has been criticized at all by the press; I expected more of an anointment, which she certainly has not gotten. Nevertheless it’s true that she has been treated nowhere near as poorly as Palin was—but then again, few people on earth have been treated by the press as poorly as Palin was.
Palin adds that she was certainly aware of how badly things were going with the MSM almost from the start. Re the disastrous Couric interviews:
[M]y question to the campaign was, after it didn’t go well the first day, why were we going to go back for more?
This is another example of the fact that Palin had good political instincts. That was clear from the moment she gave her first speech, and it was one of the things that frightened the opposition and made them determined to destroy her. Her handlers should have trusted her more.
She’s not given up, but I wonder whether she’s through politically on the national level.
I’m consistently amazed by Palin’s courage: Palin is working on a highwire, yet charges out there without fear.
The Couric interview is one of the few times I’ve seen here hesitate and grope for the right thing to say – and I don’t fully trust that image of her, due to Couric’s misleading editing.
Palin reminds of a 1940s movie heroine who has spunk and who charges out and takes on the big challenge, i.e. damn the odds against me, I’m gonna report the big story!
I suspect one of Palin’s secrets is she believes she has nothing to hide. Therefore, she can charge forward without having to defend her rear. Put that together with her natural personality, energy, competitiveness: an attractive political package.
I don’t think she’s through, at all. Nor do I want her to be through. Voters know who she is: her limitations and her strengths. That’s a good thing. Familiarity. Voters like to vote for candidates they know.
I don’t think she is done on the national scene but it depends on a few things. Though the last election proves the exception it is very difficult for some to get elected to the presidency directly from congress (house or senate). But with her experience as governor I think if she can get to the senate for a term and stick to her values then I can see a good chance at the white house in the years ahead (with that gubernatorial experience behind her). I think a run in four years would be a misstep. I think she needs to get to Washington first and kick some a**. Of course the senate term wouldn’t be necessary if she was from any other state but Alaska.
It is a class issue. She is tremendously popular with people in the trades, factories, farms and other hands on type work. Before the election I was amazed to find out how popular she was with power plant workers in Ontario Canada. (For those who don’t know Canada, Ontario is ground zero for the Liberal party). She shows that you can be smart, accomplished and effective without having an Ivy league, prep school background and that both encourages her fans and frightens the left
I agree that she may be done on the national level. It’s hard to come back from mocking, unfair or not. Best thing she can do, I think, is go away for a few years. Out of sight, out of mind. Then when she comes back she needs to go medieval on the MSM. Walk out on a few interviews. Get into arguments. Come to these interviews prepared with every remark the interviewer ever made about her. Two go in, one comes out.
And even that might not be enough. But if she allows the MSM to ‘present’ her unchallenged to the public again in 2012 she’s done.
Here’s an amazing true story about Caroline Kennedy which illuminates the whole class and privilege issue:
My older sister and I attended the same boarding school as Caroline – big sis was a class below CK, didn’t know her well, but it was a small school so she got to see her in action quite a bit. One day big sis was behind CK in line at the bank, and heard CK trying to cash a check without an ID. When the teller challenged her, CK shot back “are you telling me you don’t even know who I am?” The teller gave her no joy, and CK ended up retiring in high dudgeon.
Privilege doesn’t always have its rewards. Somebody should send Caroline Kennedy back to get her political ID in order before she tries to cash the public’s check in the Senate.
No, Palin is NOT done at a national level. The mud and ridicule didn’t ALL stick. Or it stuck imperfectly. In grocery stores, even in my business — and I’m not a manual laborer — I hear people speak of her with admiration.
The left wouldn’t be SCARED of her and generate blog swarms wherever she’s praised if she were done and over with.
She can and SHOULD come back in 12. Till then she should stay MINIMALLY in public eye, just to be remembered.
That said, I agree with E on how she should “handle” the press next time. Frankly, getting a female speech writer would help too. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not a gender-fanatic. It’s just that in public, men and women — particularly beautiful women — use their appearance and words in different ways. I felt sure during te campaign the male speech writers had NO idea that a woman was a different instrument. (And women speech writers were used to writing for males.)
P.
Sorry, East Bay, not E.
P.
It is critically important that Sarah Palin write her own book, with only the usual editorial assistance, and that it be a good one.
She was pushed onto the national scene too soon, and in a disastrous year for the Republicans. I doubt that she is done.
If you believed the media’s assertion of her incompetence you would have thought surely she and McCain might get 10% of the vote.
Maybe she wont be President. But i get the feeling at some point she’ll play a major and more important role in the unraveling of the corrupt liberal media in this country.
I like Palin but she didn’t stick out in her VP debate (she and Biden both were poor). To come back from all this, she’d need to better at that / good enough to shoot down the media… and/or get around them when they cover for the other guy (I guess any republican needs that now).
If Governor Palin does her homework, and comes back strong, she’ll do well.
That diamond in the rough has some shining days coming. Not that it matters, she’s going to have my vote.
I still don’t see Obama doing more than 4 years. He doesn’t have what it takes. Even those that voted for him, I believe, are already beginning to see it. Some of the Dems on the hill certainly are.
Take no prisoners. Be belligerent. Take notes from Rush Limbaugh and throw back everything the liberal media hacks choose to fire. Take time off and debate liberal retards online. Maybe even blog a little. This will surely sharpen her better than any book or course on politics. Timmer, Troof, and Booger man were my victims here and she should seek her own trolls to destroy and embarrass.
She’s not done at all. In the 2008 campaign, she was hamstrung because the was the VP candidate, and as such she had to parrot McCain’s policies, as lame and stupid as they were. McCain was one of the worst Republican candidates I’ve seen in my lifetime, but he and Palin would have won if it weren’t for the economic meltdown. (And if they had won, it would have been her who dragged him over the finish line.)
There were plenty of Republican voters in the last election who would have greatly preferred to have had her at the top of the ticket. And that might have made a difference, too, because I’ve seen numbers that indicate that some Republican voters stayed home and sat on their hands, or even went over to the other side, compared to the figures from 2004.
Great comments everywhere. Maybe the Joetheplumber effect. Plus free people seem fed up with the so-called Palestinian … soap opera. And crooks in general.
Perfect place for me to go off-topic; or, right on.
In case I already have a fan club. Three is a good start. I will tell you about my move. Yesterday, I checked Lou Reed’s site and found this message:
“we are currently taking design submissions for Lou Reed muscle t-shirts and women’s tank tops. To submit a design please email it to Loureedshirt@…”
So I sent some brand new pictures of my brand new painting and wrote this:
“You already have my paintings (hopefully). You can choose any detail you wish. This last one is full of punch!! You already have my address. Maybe you’ll send some real photographers. Maybe yourself. We are waiting. Maybe I’ll report to neo-neocon that I sent pictures of my last picture to LouReed site at his own request. It’s public. Depends how inspired I will be.”
Obviously I need to be my own agent. But what at least I could do (is doing) is making my bidding public. From my design cave. And what better place than here at neo’s? Later I will have to post also the comment I wrote on this site on the topic of Andy Warhol to him. Using Damien Hirst to make my point. A “Démonstration par l’absurde”, if I’m right with my french and my math/philosophy. To make my case.
At this point, we will all have to simply wait and see, I guess. I confess I needed to get high to do this part. Thanx.
Not done by a long shot. She will spend her time continuing to be an effective governor, using her popularity to remain in the national eye, and will come back in 2012 and teach the Republicans and the MSM how politics should be done in the 21st century.
I agree with Genuine Realist who said that Ms. Palin was pushed onto the national scene too soon.
This extraordinarily average woman has done extraordinary things every step of her public journey. At every level of involvement, from the school board, to city council, to mayor, to oil board, to governor I’m sure there was an amazing learning curve for her which she obviously mastered. Specific information for each position which had to be studied, learned and applied.
When she was just a mom I’m sure she had little or no knowledge of what the mayor, oil board, or governor would need to know. But I’m sure all along the way she studied each position and gained what she needed to know.
My point is that while she was focused on her various career steps, I doubt that she paid a lot of attention to international affairs, even national affairs for that matter. She was focused on learning things she needed at the time in Alaska.
If Sarah Palin decides she wants it badly enough, focuses like a laser on developing her knowledge of national and world issues, there is no doubt that she has what it takes to be a great leader.
She just wasn’t prepared for it this time.
Smart, savvy, supportive family, beautiful without being obsessively sexy, down-home, projects honesty…..
Meh, what do I know? I’m one of the folks who was only willing to vote McCain because the alternative was a guy who voted NOT to save babies that everyone agrees are babies.
Palin should not go quietly into the night.
She has a strong populist touch, and this is going to continue to resonate positively with the general public – but not if she simply disappears for a few years.
Newt Gingrich went away quietly, and even though many still know who he is he’s not the political force he used to be even though he’s trying to exert influence once more on the Republican party.
To stay relevant she should be heard from regularly for at least the next 2 years, and should position herself as a voice for the Republican party whether the RINO’s or the MSM want her to or not.
When she does speak out publicly, she needs to make it count. She needs to be in control of her own message. It needs to be on matters of importance that the majority of the public will side with her on.
She needs to use her political capital wisely so that such efforts create even more political capital for her in the long run.
Political capital need not be seen as a finite substance that has to be treasured and expended wisely or not at all.
She needs to discard all of the “handlers” who so mismanaged her during 2008.
She also needs to cultivate relationships on the national level with the right political allies, so that when the RINO’s try to undermine her (particularly RINO’s like McCain and his immediate circle of staff and handlers) she has friends in high places who can act as surrogates and defend her flanks from *friendly* fire.
This will extend her shelf life so she retains a shot at higher office later.
The more exposure she gets, and the more she can succinctly put her case out before the American people, the more she can undermine this image that has been created for her by the MSM that she’s a ditzy lightweight.
As the misleading image created by the media is discredited, she has an opportunity to create her own more positive image in the minds of the public.
Once the public has discarded the media generated image, it will be difficult for the media to recreate it, and any efforts to do so will only reinforce the perception that the media is just another organ of the national Democrat party leadership. Their own bias can be used against them to blunt any media criticism of Palin.
This is very important – Palin needs to do everything she can to demonstrate that she’s not the person she’s been portrayed as in the media, but she needs to do so without appearing as a whiner. Speak bluntly, as she did recently in an interview, but then move on.
National leaders don’t have the luxury of whining.
Palin should serve out her term as governor, and then consider a run for the Senate. A few years in the Senate will undo quite a bit of the damage the media inflicted – even though it will also expose her to close proximity and the influence of, the majority of the RINO’s in the Republican party.
BTW, I don’t think a term or two in the Senate is mandatory, though I think it is useful. After all, Reagan was never a Senator either.
The Senate terms are for so long that politicians tend to become quite geriatric by the time they feel they’ve built up enough political capital to run for president – and in that length of time will have cast many votes that can later be used against them by a hostile media even if the media has to misrepresent the issues surrounding the votes.
Just a lot of deal making to get their legislation passed, and this works against Senators in general as they run for president.
This may be one of the reasons The One was successful. He wasn’t in that body long enough to really become tainted in the eyes of the general public – and any votes He did cast that could be used against Him were studiously ignored by the media.
Not a bad playbook for Palin to follow….
On one boog or another, the meme was that she lacked intellectual curiosity. What that is, and how you know someone has it or doesn’t, or whether Biden had it, was left unspecified.
The left tried the specific–rape kits and banned books–which only provided ammo for those thinking the rest of us are dumb enough not to know better.
They also tried the non-specific, such as lacking intellectual curiosity, which can never be disproven.
As usual with a lie, it indicates that the truth has been evaluated and considered to be not useful.
Thus the lies.
On one blog or another, the meme was that she lacked intellectual curiosity. What that is, and how you know someone has it or doesn’t, or whether Biden had it, was left unspecified.
The left tried the specific–rape kits and banned books–which only provided ammo for those thinking the rest of us are dumb enough not to know better.
They also tried the non-specific, such as lacking intellectual curiosity, which can never be disproven.
As usual with a lie, it indicates that the truth has been evaluated and considered to be not useful.
Thus the lies.
If the lefties push the dummy meme hard enough, there will be a sufficient number of folks who know little but want to appear smart who will buy it.
It may be vile and dishonest, but the lefties know what works.
Adagny wrote pretty weirdly, “This extraordinarily average woman has done extraordinary things every step of her public journey. At every level of involvement, from the school board, to city council, to mayor, to oil board, to governor I’m sure there was an amazing learning curve for her which she obviously mastered.”
Please apply that standard to Obama.
Obsessive people are…. obsessive. They will try and try to make their point. And they will try harder but only look foolish.
She was well qualified and had more experience than many of the presidents that ALREADY served and more experienced than Obama. Period.
Baklava.
The astonishing thing is that the chattering classes were comparing her to…who? Certainly not Biden. Slow Joe, the gaffe-a-minute guy.
Nobody challenged his huge misstatements because…he’s a democrat.
But, and it does not seem like it in retrospect, they were each candidates for the same office and they should have been compared.
But the lefties knew they didn’t have a chance with that one, as did the MSM.
These days I almost don’t want people I admire to take up the gauntlet for fear of the savaging they are going to get. Her family seems almost too good to be true and I feel protective of them to the point where I don’t want her to sacrifice a marriage and family to the cesspool Washington has become. But then again, it’s a cultural/spiritual battle now more than ever and good people are going to have to stand up whatever the cost. SO I have to say———you go girl!
Limbaugh defends Palin: ‘Most prominent and articulate voice’…
He’s back on drugs….