Comments

Sarah Palin’s Alaska — 43 Comments

1. The moment when Sarah held a fish’s just-removed but still-beating heart in her hand is likely to make her political opponents shudder.

   Heh. A message for Rahm “Dead Fish” Emmanuel?

2. I don’t think the left can do any more to her. Their inevitable efforts would either be ridiculous or superfluous. The numbers of people who could be convinced at this point that she is…pick one or more negatives–has probably maxed out. The haters have too much invested to change. The indies are probably where they are going to be except for positive changes. Can’t get any worse, is what I”m saying.
   The show won’t impress people determined not to be impressed. Might swing some undecideds.

3. I agree with Richard Aubrey: Palin’s already been vetted and scourged. What else can the Dems do to her? She’s come through it and she’s now out the other side and into the sunshine.

4. I agree with Richard Aubrey: Palin’s already been vetted and scourged. What else can the Dems do to her?

   Think how this must terrify the Reds. They’ve given her their very best shot, and not made a dent. Then she shows up on TV holding a beating heart and insouciantly bashing a fish’s brains out. They probably can’t help themselves imagining her doing that to them…

5. Commercial fishing isn’t for sissies

   Neo, that is almost by definition an understatement (meant or no). Wresting your living from the sea, is not meant for the faint of heart at all, at all.

   …and ohhhhh yes, she’s a force of nature. And she *will* be reckoned with.

6. This gal is a complete inspiration and an original. The east coast elites are completely flummoxed by her and her show can only help her. They are so contemptuous, and she could care less. Actions speak louder than words, and all the “elites” only have words and most of them can’t do anything. Watching Obama pedal around wearing his bicycle safetly helmut is not much of a comparison with Sarah out on the open seas clubbing halibut and holding beating hearts in her hand. The whole thing is too much. Love it.

7. davis, br: there was a part of the program I didn’t mention, where Palin went to the fishermen’s memorial in Homer, Alaska, a monument to commercial fishermen who have lost their lives at sea. I have lived in several Atlantic coastal communities that have a lot of commercial fishing, and I have long been impressed by how dangerous it is, and how many fatalities there are.

8. I think this show is yet another stroke of genius on her part. It’s fascinating to watch her moves in what amounts to a chess game against her enemies.

   That said, I found myself wondering whether her latest book “America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag” will help her or hurt her with those of us who generally vote conservative but are still on the fence about her future presidential run.

   Seems like more platitudes from Palin, and at this point I’ve heard enough of that from her. I’d really prefer to hear more substantive commentary on national issues.

   Yes I’d vote for Palin over Obama, but I’d really prefer Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio or Bobby Jindal.

9. The Teddy Kennedy comparison is brilliant: I think you have nailed it on the head. The Democrats should be rightfully terrified. Not merely that she’ll be elected to the Presidency, but more so because she will put half of them into serious medication and put the other half into apoplexy.

   Plus it would totally confuse the rest of the world. God, what a breath of fresh air.

10. John F Opie: Teddy Kennedy? I think you have the wrong political family dynasty.

11. My wife, a Jewish woman in early middle age (and in a country not your own), burbles “I love her. I didn’t think much of her when she was a candidate, but tonight she’s taking her daughter commercial fishing! They’re bonding !”

    Anything is possible.

12. Growing up in Alaska has probably given Palin many of the qualities and views we associate with Americans of an earlier era, and that is a good thing.

13. Neo, your take on the show is interesting. I am a great Palin admirer. To the point that my wife–who also admires her–looks askance sometimes. If I hadn’t passed my 75th birthday, she might give me harder looks.

    Still, I did not feel that the either episode did her any favors. I thought she came over as a bit too super-charged; to the point that it seemed phony.

    Nice to read that a discerning viewer like you took it positively. Maybe I worry too much.

    BTW our very anti-Palin daughter flew in from California for Thanksgiving and watched it with us last night. She was pretty noncommittal; which is probably a good sign also.

14. Can’t get the italics right. “Love” and “bonding” are italicized.

15. Oldflyer: I agree that Palin is most definitely supercharged. But it seemed very genuine to me. No one can fake that sort of energy—you just can’t keep it up without having the real thing. Her whole physical being radiates energy. She may be exhausting to live with. But it’s for real.

16. CV how can you consider Rubio at this point? I really like him, and hope that he has a big future. But as Presidential material at this time, he ranks with Barack Obama in terms of experience and accomplishment. Let’s watch him for awhile.

    As for Ryan, I have already commented that no Legislator who lacks Executive experience fits my template for a President.

    Finally, regarding Palin and the issues. She has spoken, and written extensively over the past year on the size and scope of government; on the level of spending and debt; on energy issues; on immigration issues; and on national security. I do not think that any one person has covered the bases more thoroughly on the issues. Of course the Media, and the Punditry, try to obscure her efforts and focus attention elsewhere.

17. You’re all so smart here! The most dangerous job in America: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-15-most-dangerous-jobs-in-america-2010-3#no-1-fishers-and-related-fishing-workers-15

18. Meant to see the show but missed it. Thanks to you and your band of merry commenters I believe I have a good idea of the high spots.

    Your remarks and the ensuing comments give me an image of Palin that I have had before: that of an irrepressible spirit that is so boundlessly here that, try as she might, will not be bottled up for too long and out pops Sarah.

    In this she reminds me very much of another populist vice-president candidate: Hubert Humphrey, another truly American candidate that the Post-American auto-scourges cannot abide.

19. I doubt she is exhausting to live with; her husband has a similar constitution and their children, unsurprisingly, seem cut from the same energetic cloth. They might tire out the staff of the New York Times, but not each other. Look around and you’ll see that many if not most families in flyover country are quite similar. The adults have paying jobs, the kids study hard, do chores and play sports; they go outside on weekends and blow off steam together, they go to church; they love each other, their communities and their country; they cheerfully give thanks to G-d for all their many blessings!

    It used to be the ideal for Americans to be positive, practical, hardworking and competent. Now, at least according to the “elites”, the standard is supposed to be excuse making, entitlement grabbing and navel-gazing. I have news for them – real America never bought into that scam. Get used to it, liberals, bubbly salt-of-the-earth types are proudly proclaiming themselves to be the majority! That’s why Palin has so many admirers, and why her detractors have only excuses, not serious reasons, for hating her.

20. Much as I love Sarah, I wouldn’t wish the Presidency on anyone of her quality. Quite a conundrum that. Quite frankly, I think her role as one of the faces of the True America is more important. We don’t need a Political Savior, we need an Awakening. We already have the Constitution, we just need to use it.

    Sarah drives the Left crazy for a reason: She exposes their lies about women, America, you name it.

21. Womens’ Lib in Alaska means women can do the same things as Todd Palin. Womens’ Lib in Washington DC means women can do the same things as Barrack Obama.

22. >>there was a part of the program I didn’t mention, where Palin went to the fishermen’s memorial in Homer, Alaska, a monument to commercial fishermen who have lost their lives at sea. Thanks Neo. I don’t watch TV really, so I’m waiting ’til the series hits DVD or online or whatever.

    …I’m more curious, than needing convinced (as is probably pretty obvious LOL).

23. Much if not most of today’s politics consists of framing the discussion or setting up the ground rules in a manner favorable to one’s side, e.g. “pro-life” and “pro-choice”. IMO the Left, with its race and gender cards and fabricated words like ‘Islamophobia’, has been better at it than the Right: not surprising, given their predominance in the MSM.

    After a brilliant convention speech in 2008, Palin accepted the opposition’s ground rules during the Gibson and Couric interviews, and she lost badly. Perhaps the McCain campaign was to blame, but the damage remains.

    So now she turns around and presents herself to the country on her terms.

    I am a Palin supporter turned skeptic. I don’t expect her to win me back Presidency-wise after she resigned as governor–but I have to acknowledge the ingenuity of this move.
    ***************
    Neo, time is confirming your comparison of Palin with TR as a apt one.

24. “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” is sponsored by toy companies and holiday movies for kids. There were other child-oriented products being advertised.
    Does this mean that Sarah is not just aiming at adults with her show?
    It didn’t remind me of Teddy Roosevelt, but of the Walt Disney show I used to watch on Sunday nights, back when tv was mostly black and white.
    If this is a chess game, she may be thinking many many many moves ahead.

25. Maybe she plays 3-D chess better than Obama?

26. Maybe she plays 3-D chess better than Obama?

    Bingo.

    …much, much better.

27. I channel surfed on to Ed Schultz’s little eye twirling, pea soup spitting, wacko rage fest on MSNBC this evening. GAWD, I love watching Lefty loonies go postal over Sarah. The more she prospers the more they show themselves. Maybe, just maybe, Fast Eddie will pop an artery and, ya know, die in the middle of a Palin Hate Rant one night soon.

    Hey, I can dream…

28. LOVE Palin!

29. I liked her best working the slime line. She’ll get more of that if she makes it to DC.

30. Sarah had a whole hour on Hannity tonight talking about her new book. She explained that the book and the TLC show are aimed at people who don’t watch Fox News. She said appearing on Fox News was like “preaching to the choir,” She’s looking to spread the message of conservatism to a wider audience.

    After watching that interview as well as the TLC program last night, she impresses me as a person that believes she has been chosen (she believes in God-given destiny) to spread the message of conservatism. She does it with such energy, good humor, middle-American common sense, and guts that she will undoubtedly find many new converts.

    Of course Hannity asked about her presidential intentions. Her answer was that she would not go the usual route, which she described as doing surveys, polls, and fashioning her campaign to appeal to the most people. She said she has to do things her way and be who she is – take it or leave it. That in itself is a huge breath of fresh air. May not win the primary, but honest and down to earth.

    Even if the TV program doesn’t win her new followers, the show is a big winner for Alaska. I predict there is going to be a big increase in tourism there next year. It’s a truly fabulous outdoors state that is also blessed with bounteous natural resources. We’re fortunate Seward had the foresight to acquire it.

31. I love Alaska. Palin’s grown kids probably think she’s a nudge.

32. One thing for sure: neither she nor her family will ever starve.

33. OT, but I wanted to put it Out there….

    Harvard’s latest experiment in Soviet-style self-criticism: Project Implicit. Forwarded to me by a lefty friend who has no idea of my true identity. 😉 Multiple hotlinks, capital letters in original; typos as well.

    >>To My lovely family and friends,

    My belief is that stamping out discrimination starts with each of us and I am asking for your help in creating a world where everyone is given equal opportunity

    In the interest of stamping out discrimination, I am asking you to take the tests at Project Implicit. The topics include preferences for ethnic and racial groups, religious groups, sexual orientation, gender, stereotypes of race and crime, gender and science, and ethnic-national links.

    https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/featuredtask.html

    These tests were designed by Harvard University to uncover personal bias.
    They are designed to uncover unconscious, unplanned bias.

    WOULDN’T YOU LIKE TO KNOW IF THERE ARE ANY AREAS OF UNCONSCIOUS BIAS YOU ARE OPERATING UNDER? Our personal peferences [sic] often impact our choices and decisions. Think of the possibility for change created by awareness.
    https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/featuredtask.html

    The demo tests are completely anonymous —no one will know your outcomes except you.

    The demo tests are designed this way deliberately. You can test for your biases or lack of biases privately as a step toward personal awareness and change.

    https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/featuredtask.html

    The demo tests offer us the opportunity to become aware of our preferences as a starting point to changing our behaviors.

    I believe this is a small, but important step in the quest to stamp out discrimination.

    I am committed to raising awareness and promoting change by getting these tests to a minimum of 100 people by November 30rd. and 1000 people by April 30th 2011.

    https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/featuredtask.html

34. I honestly don’t have a strong opinion of Palin. I’m certainly not going to judge her on the basis of a reality show. She does seem to drive people crazy, and the media can’t stop hating her. It’s one of the strangest things I’ve ever witnessed.
    Seriously, ask a friend how long it took them to hate this woman with a passion. It can be scary.

35. Neo, try to catch the first episode if you can. In it Palin admits to being afraid of heights and then literally claws her way up the side of Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America. It is, without a doubt, everything you need to know about this woman. She is openly honest about her fear, and then faces it head on.

    If she isn’t qualified to handle the gritty work of leading America to reclaim its “heritage and values,” to recover its exceptional place in the world again, I don’t know who is. Does she need to run for President to do that? I don’t think so: I think she has already begun the task.

    I am hoping this TLC program will help the more gentrified of the lower 48 understand who Sarah Palin is and how life in Alaska has made her that way.

36. But as Presidential material at this time, [Marco Rubio] ranks with Barack Obama in terms of experience and accomplishment.

    Oh? The Won was the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives?

37. One of the best things urbanized Americans can do for themselves is to take a long road trip or many road trips across the United States, visiting various national and state parks and surrounding areas. Eat in the local bar-cafes, McDonald’s, Denny’s, etc. Stay out of yuppy areas, artists’ colonies, and college towns.

    There’s a huge American world out there that one will never see by staying in the urbanized areas.

    **********

    I love love love Sarah Palin. I don’t know if she would be a great President, because that’s a very specific job. However, I’ve reevaluated many things I learned in school about our past Presidents. Now Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge are looking pretty good, while Woodrow Wilson looks much more vile than he ever did before. Eisenhower has risen to a very high level because he knew how to use the executive office.

    So, I think all of us need to rethink what we think we know about good and bad Presidents. Re Neo’s look at the death of President Kennedy, I didn’t read these posts or comments. I’m sorry, Neo, I’m just sick of the Kennedys. They were all slick media manufactured creeps. J. Kennedy’s death affected Americans, but I know that we can attribute much of that angst to the MSM.

    So, to whom should we be comparing Palin right now? Why is Jindal on one commenter’s list ahead of Palin? What’s he done that’s so much better? We all need to get the MSM out of our heads and start looking at candidates’ qualifications for the job. Right away, I’ve learned to put governors higher up on my list of potentials as well as other people with executive experience. My perfect candidate would be a younger and healthier Dick Cheney. But Palin still seems like a very strong candidate.

38. Promethea: the effect JFK’s death had on Americans of the time was NOT manufactured by the MSM. Before the coverage even began—before I had seen a spot of TV about it (I was in school, and then it took me a long time to get home)—the emotional reaction was there. If you were not alive then, it may be hard to imagine.

    If you read the comments thread on that post, you’ll see a discussion of this.

39. Neo . . .

    I WAS there. However, I’m older than you so I know how the press treated JFK before his assassination and how the Camelot legend was created and fed. The assassination of JFK was shocking, but it became obsessive as time went on.

    A real look at JFK would have done wonders to put the legend to rest. JFK played around a lot and took a lot of drugs. He and his brother used the FBI to hurt his political enemies. Where was Camelot?

    Jackie had a great influence on style, and her redecorating of the White House was terrific. She was also a terrific book editor. Laura Bush wasn’t so stylish, but she was a similar type. A classy first lady. But Camelot?

    Anyway, Kennedy’s death wouldn’t have been so shocking if the MSM had provided a bit of perspective. They were eager to cash in on the public interest. JFK was sort of a Princess Diana.

    I suppose I’d better read your posts and threads now that I’ve responded to your response. 😉

40. Promethea: I completely disagree. I think you are confusing the JFK legend (to which I never really ascribed, except perhaps when I was very young, and then not because of the newspapers—which I mostly didn’t read—but because of his charm, wit, and youth, all of which I perceived directly) with shock at his death.

    For example, I would have experienced the same shock had it happened to Nixon, or Eisenhower, or any president or vice-president of the time. The shock did not grow over time, for me—it was greatest at the beginning. It was the shock of something that (to me) had been literally unthinkable, happening. I knew about Lincoln and McKinley, of course, but they were fusty old historical figures, not a living president.

    It’s something like academically knowing that all humans are mortal, and then having the experience of a death in the family. You either feel it that way, or you don’t. I think most people at the time felt it that way, whether they idealized JFK or not.

41. Beverly, that test seems to be rubbish.

42. I’m coming late to this party but I cannot resist: that halibut should have been labelled Political Left.

43. I really love your website.. Pleasant colors & theme.
    Did you build this website yourself? Please reply back as I’m wanting to create my very own site and would love to find out where you got this from or exactly what the theme is called. Kudos!

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