Your daily obsession with Palin has made me hope that she never runs for higher office again.

Give it a rest, Josh.

I really appreciate your post. I think as long as there are folks willing to make baseless accusations regarding the Governor, there should be people like you on defense.

that Gov Palin is in the news 3 months after the elections are over. Clearly she is seen as a threat to leftist agenda. And the leftist smear artists in the media continue to smear her. Recent example was the ad by Ashley Judd.

I am even more amazed by people on this side criticizing the attempts to counter the smears and correct the record.

We live in interesting times.

Thanks for this post Josh!!!

but her running for higher office (presidency or vice presidency) isn’t going to work well at all.

Yeah, conservatives love her and think she’s smart. Pretty much everyone else thinks she’s not. I know you’ll vigorously deny this, but the general consensus among your average Joes is that she’s not bright.

We need to win this next election, and handicapping ourselves with Palin right from the get-go would be a major mistake.

Josh -

Bonnie Erbe and itellectual honesty are mutually exclusive terms. I resent that this woman and so many others are on NPR and we get to foot the ball.

is that the left perceives her as a threat. When she came on board the McCain campaign and then gave a couple of speeches the left came unhinged.

They saw someone who had the same reactions from the Right as the Left did for Obama. And… if she garnered that much attention to reinvigorate the Right then she was a threat to be taken down.

I think that’s it pure and simple. The fact that she was able to do what she did and how she was received by the people sent the Left into full-blown derangement.

Since I know her and the rest of you don’t beyond soundbites, press releases, and canned speeches, it depends on how you define “smart.” She has a very quick brain and processes information quickly. She’s very clever and quite ruthless politically except she probably has too much loyalty to old friends/family and takes things too personally, e.g. the so-called Troopergate mess.

Is she smart as Ivy League elites would define that word? No. She, like most real people in America, is not indoctrinated to the canon of learning and body of thought and expression that they use to define smart. Frankly, you can’t be one of those and get elected here or any any other rural area I know anything about. As an example, Democrat Tony Knowles was a Yale graduate, but when he ran for governor he touted his service as a paratrooper and his small business experience, not his Ivy League background, and usually Democrats and D constituencies are favorable to fancy educations.

Gov. Palin will NEVER be accepted by the elites. The best parallel because they are so different politically is to Gov. Jimmy Carter. The elites look down on Georgia the same way they look down on Alaska or any other place that isn’t in the Northeast or California. Since he’s from Chicago, even BHO would be dismissed as just another knuckle-dragging machine politician if he weren’t Black. Those of you that are old enough will recall that Pres. Carter NEVER had the support and often had the outright condescention of the DC elites left and right. Consequently, since these are the people that the MSM fawn over, they’ll have to trash Gov. Palin in order to stay on the A-list for party invitations.

consistently, always, without reservation, blindly, yes religiously.
Dumb is being a reporter who is fortified by a lifetime of asking prepared & rehearsed questions, who thinks that’s intelligent but never has to sit in the hot seat himself.

Dumb is never seeing the dumbness of Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid, because and only because they’re liberals and you agree with them.
Dumb, real dumb, is Ms Erbe, stupid, bitter, and narrow minded.
Ignorantly encased in her own cocoon of journalistic grossness, she is doomed to a life of self delusion and the unearned pride that comes from it.

The irony is that it is through fools like this that the liberal voters depend on, fools themselves.

I’ll be damned if I let NYT, Leno, Letterman and SNL determine who are party leaders are going to be. Its death by a thousand paper cuts. They fear her the most and cannot stop perpetuating lies and slander to diminish her appeal. I say confront their slandre early and often.

Achance was quite correct when he pointed out the elites on both the right and the left look down their noses at anyone who is not from the NE or those parts of California they deem acceptable (LA or SF). They will condescend to offer one exception – people from flyover country might get a pass if they have a piece of paper from an Ivy League institution and/or are members of a minority racial group or are GLBT.

Otherwise, we’re ALL dumb f’n hicks.

- JP

…she is getting the absolute worst advice imaginable. I’m saying that assuming that she “does” have aspirations for 2012/POTUS. If that’s true then lets forget the Couric/Gibson ambush and look at some of the bone-headed political moves she’s made after 11/4/08. Just this past weekend she joined other governors in DC, like a collection of refugee’s, groveling and clamoring for Obama stimulus $$. Actually lobbying GOP senators to pass the stimulus bill!!! Disgusting and a complete lost opportunity to demonstrate true leadership. And in her state she’s gone totally and radically green. The GOP Base is looking for someone to aggressively oppose environmental whacko’s not join them. No, Sarah is apparently very much like McCain and Bush on the issues. Not what the Base is looking for.

As for Palin followers? I’ve found that they are often governed by their emotions and have lost objectivity very much like Ron PaulPods. Darvin Dowdy

Let me tell you about the power of Palin. Our family is Republican-have always voted same. We are also very low key people-not activists. When Sarah Palin came on the scene, we not only started to believe that McCain actually had a chance, we became active with our time and treasure(what little was left). We also met others who responded in the same way; becoming active and involved in the campaign. None of us had done so before.

When we first heard her speak-the day McCain picked her- many people were excited to hear someone who appeared to be one of us. Someone with common sense and decent values, who was also able to articulate our beliefs about ourselves and our country. Those that had a negative response to her feel threatened. People who responded positively saw her as genuine and decent.

This last election awakened some of us. We are remaining active and hopefully, our numbers will grow. Thank you Redstate.

The reply button is not working for me on this thread for some reason. I just wanted to ay that there are a lot of people out there that have strong anti-establishment and anti-elitism sentiments that we can tap. I am one of the few who stands by W. He had walk and talk of West Texas, but many still saw him as Daddy’s boy, a privileged president’s son. A skull and bones product of Yale. A guy who never had a real job. I live in a working class Democratic stronghold and they could never get past this. Palin upsets the elites because she is the real deal working class hero. Feminist hate her for obvious reasons.

I am from Massachusetts and I even I can see Palin’s appeal here. I love her upbringing. My father and my brothers are all commercial fishermen; work boots, paint crusted jeans, beer drinking, truck driving, Labrador riding shot gun types. And even up here in rural Massachusetts, people have a sense that she is “one of them”. That is why she is special.

Sarah is lighting in a bottle. Let’s not over analyze it. The timing might not be right and she may never materialize as a candidate. But we cannot let external forces choose our standard bearers. It’s ironic that Palin is the anti-McCain. External forces created the circumstances that led to the ascension of McCain. They want another appeaser like McCain or somebody who reinforces negative Republican stereotypes like Huckabee. We must choose and protect our standard bearers. Even if she never runs, we need Sarah as a force within our party, especially among young women.

…have I found Palin intelligent? Not especially. She’s not dumb, but she currently seems to only have a partial subset of the wits she needs to survive the Washington political climate. She doesn’t seem to be an ideas person, and, most seriously, she didn’t really seem to notice that her own handlers were stabbing her in the back until it was too late.

However, is she capable? Certainly. She’s proven herself to be a shrewd, effective manager, and could definitely be, with a bit of study, a force in Presidential politics in years to come. I’d give her another look come 2016, although 2012 is probably too soon.

“Sarah Palin Gets NHL Goalie Fired”

http://deadspin.com/5148809/sarah-palin-gets-nhl-goalie-fired

Well, it’s not exactly the MSM, it’s Dead Spin, but it is funny and it is hockey so that’s funny too.

And please, it’s a joke…

Just thought I’d share this with you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmDTSQtK20c

Suck it, losers. LOL

I read this back and forth between fellow conservatives and I shake my head and say: “Are you guys kidding me?”

Sarah Palin is a very good Governor. With TONS of real world experience:

City Council Woman, Wasilla, Alaska

Mayor, Wasilla , Alaska. Two terms, term limited out.

President of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.

Chairman. Alaska Oil And Gas Conservation Commission. The largest oil and gas regulatory board of it’s kind in the nation. STRONG ETHICS REFORM

CURRENTLY:

Governor Of Alaska.

Chairman of The Interstate Oil And Gas Compact Commission. As voted in by other Governors.

Chairman. National Governors Association’s Natural Resource Committee. As voted in by the other 49 Governors.

Palin is a recognized authority on energy, and environmental issues.

Vice Chairman. National Republican Governor’s Association.

Commander in Chief of the only National Guard in the nation that is on permanent deployment.

Commander -In-Chief of the Alaska Defense Force, ADF, a federally recognized militia that is part of Homeland Security’s national defense plan. This militia answers to the Governor. And can be used as Police, or for national defense.

As Governor of Alaska, Palin is briefed on highly classified military issues, homeland security, and counterterrorism.

Governor Palin just hosted a delegation from nations that are direct trading partners with Alaska, including Sergey Kislyak is the newly appointed ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States.

Also at the meeting were Consuls General from the Russian Federation, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Hungary, Norway, South Korea, The Philippines, as well as representatives from Canada and China.

“Members of the Alaska consular corps also participated, including: Karen Matthias, of Canada; Hideo Fujita, of Japan; Hee-chul Kim, of South Korea; and Jose Luis Cuevas, of Mexico. They were joined by honorary consuls of the Czech Republic, Poland, Finland, Seychelles, and Norway”

Governor Palin just signed the license to build the TransCanada natural gas pipeline. Something Alaska has been trying to do for 50 years.

She went in, cleaned up the process and got it done. This is the largest infrastructure project in history.

Environmentalists love this.

Alaska is sitting on 400 TRILLION cubic feet of natural gas. That is more than all of the world’s oil reserves!

And natural gas is the cleanest burning fuel there is. It’s almost zero emissions.

Even better, every major car manufacturer makes cars that burn compressed natural gas, and have for decades.

There are millions of trucks, cars, and buses in use daily.

Just a few weeks ago, Governor Palin announced that Alaska will not only meet the plan Mr Obama has for renewable energy, she will DOUBLE it!

Obama wants to see America get 25 percent of it’s energy from renewable resources. well, Alaska already gets 25 percent of it’s energy from renewables! So, she has pledged to have Alaska get 50 percent of it’s energy from renewables by 2025.

She and her husband, Todd still own a small commercial fishing business. The season is quite short. But as time permits, you’ll see her out there working the nets with the men. She’ll bring in those big fish with the best of them.

Once, she even refused to take it easy after her fingers were crushed in an accident when two boats collided. She went to the doctor and was back at it the same day.

She knows exactly what hard work looks like, and isn’t afraid to take refresher courses from time to time!

So tell me again that Governor Palin, with more Chief Executive experience than most, isn’t smart, or qualified.

And if you think she isn’t a shrewd politician, read the letter she just sent B.Hussein Obama. In her typical style, she not only brings up an important issue, but calls him out to act. She is the master of this kinda deal. She knees him in the groin, while smiling!

http://govweb.state.ak.us/pdf/GasPipeline_LetterPresObama_Feb6.pdf

I’m sorry, but Sarah Palin is exactly who we need in DC!

ever since she announced her support for Obama’s stimulus bill. I really don’t want to go from one Obama to another.