Why I will miss her presence on stage

by Mark Rhoads

Gloating begin and the chapagne corks pop in the editorial office of Vanity Fair and in Rockefeller Center network newsrooms and in the offices of Dave Letterman at The Ed Sullian Theater. Some on the left will jump for joy tonight that they ran Sarah out of town on a rail.

I saw Sarah Palin just once at a campaign stop last fall and I really liked her as a person, not just because I agreed with her on some key issues that I felt strongly about.

But to be honest,I have to admit the thing I most liked about her was that she was so fiercely hated by so many of the people I like the least --starting with the elitist snobs in the networks and those unfortunate few poor souls in the left-wing blogosphere who dedicated their lives to launching some of the most vile and mean-spirited personal attacks on her family for human flaws when they routinely overlook more far serious flaws in the families of their left-wing darlings. I loved her speech at the Republican Convention and her debate with Joe Biden because she twice beat low media expectations. I loved it when it turned out that ABC's former nice guy Charlie Gibson, who asked her a snooty question about the Bush Doctrine,did not himself have any idea what he was talking about. I loved it when many people turned against the even more snooty Dave Letterman for his pointless and stupid and offensive "jokes" about Palin's children. By the way, what does a hayseed from rural Indiana turned wannabe-New York sophisticate have to be snooty about in the first place? Wasn't that exactly what Letterman always used to razz fellow-Hoosier Jane Pauley about? Did it make Dave feel better about himself that he could pick on the family members of the governor of Alaska as being bigger hicks than he is? At the time of the Letterman "jokes" Palin was not a candidate and what did her children have to do with politics anyway?
So, Sarah has had enough and the left-wing media cannot understand how any one would voluntarily leave any governor's office because in their poltical power-obsessed world, pols just don't walk away from any power base even if it is a small state capital. After all, the current president was elected with a resume no more extensive than a few years as a unaccomplished back bencher in Springfield and an absentee four years warming a chair in the US Senate when he was not on the road campaigning at taxpayer expence--four years that also passed by without any tangible accomplishments for either his state or the country.But thanksin part to a worshipful media,he won the nomination anyway.
So good luck to Gov.Palin, I hope she now has more quality time with her family and can somehow escape the professional haters and pundits--but I doubt they will be ableto just leave her alone even now. You have to catalog all the horrible sins of Sarah Palin from the leftie point of view. As a very young woman she once entered a beauty queen contest, strike one. She attended an evangelical church, strike two. She was pro-life,strike three. She knew a lot more than Joe Biden did about energy policy and showed him up in that part of their debate, strike one for the next at bat. She became a GOP star on the speaking circuit and made a few liberals nervous about her future prospects even as they dismissed her. For that reason alone, I will miss her presence on the national stage when just by being who she is she could so greatly irrirate and annoy the leftie haters. Not all liberals hated her(some few publicly said they admired her stands for special-needs children). But the most passionate lefties of the blogworld and the direct mail fundraisers will not be able to lay off her even now because they need her as a punching bag and a symbol and icon of the sub culture of America that they despise.

Comments

[Jim Caldwell]

I feel the same way. I think I'll never understand why she and her family drew so much hatred and invective from the left. Why did they feel so threatened by her?
I wish her the best and hope she goes out across the country and earns millions of dollars, has a best selling book, whatever.

[Dr Linda Shelton]

I respect Gov. Palin for a lot of things. However, I was dismayed that she accepted the position of vice-presidential candidate mainly because she should have admitted to herself that she was not qualified. I was dismayed at John McCain for picking her as his running mate. The position of vice-president must be for a person who is ready to immediately become the president. It was clear Gov. Palin had such a poor understanding of history, of world cultures, of current events both domestic and foreign that she was not qualified. Her understanding of certain aspects of energy policy was simply NOT ENOUGH. Running a state with only 250 or so State troopers, a cash surplus due to its unique status as having abundant oil, essentially rural inhabitants with no really large city and its urban problems, with a total population smaller than many large cities does NOT qualify her to be president.

[Jim Caldwell]

What good is knowledge of history and world cultures when we have a president that is ashamed of the US and bows to a Saudi King?

I would much prefer the former mayor of Wasilla to the usual corrupt Ivy league blowhards who are are marching us towards socialism and insolvency.

[Pat Hickey]

As a Regular Democrat (one not given to the allure of free Purple T-Shirts or having MSNBC think well of you), Sarah Palin represented all that is good in public service - Gov. Palin reminds me of all the great women in my neighborhood.

Moreover, Gov. Palin drew fire for John McCain, for whom I had great hope and more admiration, until the economy tanked and McCain limped through the end of Campaign, and did so cheerfully and heroically.

Gov. Palin exuded the qualities tested by the Progressive robot-army of academics, media mopes, lard-padded politicians like Dick Durbin.

Gov. Palin is feared, because she is genuine.

When the clowns gang up on one genuine American, it seems to me, time to pull the clowns off and toss them back into the Volkswagon.

[Kurt U. Giehler]

Sarah had, and more importantly continues to have, character. She is right on the issues and can appeal to the hard right and the middle "muddle-headed" voters with her common sense unvarnished style.

In short, she's the most significant threat to Democrats hold on power. Despite negative press, the more she's mentioned or exposed, I believe there is a net gain. In her column.

Whatever direction her politcial fate, her integrity is the anticeptic both parties, albiet one more than the other, could use.

[Mark Rhoads]

The so-called issue of Palin's "qualifications" for high office was debated ad nauseum during last fall's campaign. Former Sen.Obama had an extremely thin resume for high national office--barely reaching himself a threshold of credibility in normal years, and yet the news media never even seriously explored his dismal lack of appropriate prepartation for the highest office. Obama was given a pass but Palin was always challenge on her supposedly thin credentials, when in fact her executive experience, though relatively short, still exceeded that of McCAin, Biden,Obama,or Hillary Clinton and certainly was much more than that of Geraldine Ferraro who was the national Democratic nominee for VP in 1984. So as Walter Mondale and Clara Peller once put it, where's the beef? If lack of Washington,DC-type credentials was the only argument against Palin,it is a thin case vis a vis the other nominees and candidates .

[stargirl]

"The position of vice-president must be for a person who is ready to immediately become the president."
unless you pick joe biden, of course.

[Sam Pierce]

Yes Really,

Were you able to contain your spittle as you typed the most recent comment?

[Mark Rhoads]

Noticed some anonymous slander enabler who has the gall to assume the moniker "yes, really" stolen from Saturday Night Live characters is very careless when using the word "reportedly" in the rumor reportage broadside above. Just exactly where was this "news" "reported?" Was it in the New York Times or The Washington Post of the AP or Time Magazine or the Boston Globe or CNN or ABC? Why not cite a source for this "reporting" unless is is a just another crazoid leftwing blog of the type that claimed her son was not hers but belonged to her daughter. In a comment only 12 hours ago on the morning of July 4 I predicted that LEFT will never be able to leave Sarah alone for any reason because of their own pathology of hate demands that she be there for them as a useful punching bag. Now the snootiest and most ingnorant pundit .Super hater--Maureen Dowd of the New York Times looks down her long bumpy nose at Palin in the Sunday column to question her sanity when Dowd herself is famous for hererratic behavior and writing. This will quickly become the story line of the day on all the leftist hate-filled blogs. They will never let go and will never prove anything as they did not in the so-called ethics probe. Now they are trying to tie Sarah to Ted Stevens who was never close to her and whose guilty verdict was thrown out of court by a federal judge when prosecutors engaged in official misconduct in their zeal to convict Stevens. Yes teally again used the word "reportedly" a SECOND time to claim that some small-time building supply company has "ties" to Palin. "Ties" is another sloppy word to imply some wrong doing on her part by innuendo. "Really" has no legit news source to cite so he just passed on idiotic rumors and speculation from leftie bloggers who pretend they are news reporters when no authentic news organization will touch their rumor or pass on the so-called "report" because they know the "story" is bogus. But the slanderous leftie bloggers who make up these rumors out of whole cloth don't care--they only want to get their rumor "out there" in the ether hoping that some gullible name- brand news organ will pick up this garbage report it and they can then cite that name-brand as a "source" for the very rumor they invented in the first place. "Really" is one of those pathetic little foot soldiers for this type of anonymous slander campaign. Nice try but no sale Really. We are on to you and your duplicitous breed.

[Jim Caldwell]

These "Really" types were salivating over getting Bush/Cheney/Rove for so many years. Time and again they just knew they had the goods on them and it blew up in their faces everytime. These types of "news stories" are really just someones sick fantasy. They have zero credability.

[Mark Rhoads]

Using the same low standards of journalistic honesty and integrity used by Really, IR could also report rumors about Obama and pass them off as fact but does not routinely do so. For example, web sites in the UK and all over the world last fall "reported" that Obama's paternal grandmother claimed that Obama was born in Kenya in 1961 and not in Hawaii. Main stream newspapers including Nicholas Kristoff at The New York Times had to refer to the story in order to refute it but they never actually got any denial on the record from either the grandmother who reportedly claimed she was in the delivery room in Kenya in 1961 or a half-brother and a half-siter who made the same claim that they remembered Obama being born in that country. The pro-Obama Annenberg-owned and operated web site that amusingly calls itself "FactCheck" merely reported an Obama campaign statement in "disproving" the rumor and it really is a fact that the Obama campaign was never able to actually produce an ORIGINAAL birth certificate rather than a modern-day copy with no name of an attedning physician or hospital. Really cannot cite a genuine hard news organization on what he admits is a rumor about Palin's house. But he still has managed to circulate the mindless slander anyway and this too is a sad pattern for the honesty-challenged trolls of the American Left because they comicly view their silly and pointless slanders as part of their immature and romanticized pathology of guerilla-warfare in the blog world and truth does not matter to them as long as they can spread their hate-filled rumors in an effort to pass them off as fact. It time for Really to cite a legitimate news organization on what he calls "the Paliin house rumor" if he can. Really needs to get a life and go back to school or learn a trade. Start by looking up the Latin definition of what an 'ad hominem" attack means.

[Mark Rhoads]

The ONLY citation that Really gives for hisslanderous rumors against Palin is a left-wing web site at this addresss:

http://www.postchronicle.com/

Note the it is a web site pretending to be a newspaper but does not give the name of an editor or publisher or city of publication. That is typical of the intllectual dishonesty of the Left blog world--fly under false colors.

[Johnny D]

Well said, Mark. You've nailed it.

The Left continues to practice the brazen double standard of refusing to allow discussion of any personal issue that's negative about their side... while considering the mere unsupported accusation of the wildest rumor, however outlandish or thinly supported, to be fatal for anyone on our side.

Remember, these are people who will support a Democrat president who rapes a regulated businesswoman (remember Bill Clinton and Juanita Broadrick?), but condemn a Republican senator who merely asks a girl out and backs off when turned down (remember Bob Packwood).

They can't surprise us anymore; their parallel universe approach to the "rules of evidence" regarding Palin and Obama have a long pedigree on that amoral side of the aisle.

[Jim Caldwell]

attn: Mr Really
the FBI has stated there is NO investigation of Palin going on.
you and your sources have been exposed.

From todays LA Times;

"There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we're investigating her or getting ready to indict her," Special Agent Eric Gonzalez said in a phone interview Saturday. "It's just not true." He added that there was "no wiggle room" in his comments for any kind of inquiry.

[PeteSpeer]

You will note that damn near every one on this post is brazen enough to use real names excapt Mr. Y. Really.

Why is that?

[Mark Rhoads]

JUst to provide more documentation to slam down Reslly's slander rumor. Associate Press wire service reports today that the FBI denies Palin is under investigation by federal prosecutors for anything: Here is part of the July 5 AP story in reply to false claim in a left wing blog site in Alaska.
"The abruptness of her announcement and the mystery surrounding her plans have fed widespread speculation. But Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein on Saturday warned legal action may be taken against bloggers and publications that reprint what he calls fraudulent claims.

"To the extent several websites, most notably liberal Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, are now claiming as 'fact' that Governor Palin resigned because she is 'under federal investigation' for embezzlement or other criminal wrongdoing, we will be exploring legal options this week to address such defamation," Van Flein said in a statement. "This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law."

He also told the Anchorage Daily News that Palin wasn't in any criminal legal jeopardy.

"I can say definitively I am aware of no criminal investigation whatsoever involving Sarah Palin. Zero," he said.

The FBI reiterated that claim Saturday, telling the Los Angeles Times for a story Sunday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was not investigating Palin's activities as governor, a former mayor or in any other capacity.

"There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we're investigating her or getting ready to indict her," Special Agent Eric Gonzalez, the bureau's Alaska spokesman, said.

[jsb]

George Will on the "This Week" show on ABC admitted that he didn't understand why she did this. Hopefully, she'll come out soon with something more definite. Otherwise, rumors like those peddled by Yes Really will continue to run wild in the blogosphere. Looking at several online news sources, there doesn't seem to be any truth to the idea that Palin decided to leave the governor's mansion because of an impending indictment. I can't help but think Palin wishes she had told McCain that she wasn't interested in the VP spot. You look at all the abuse she's gotten and McCain's people are busy slicing and dicing her with behind the scenes comments to the press. McCain ought to put his foot down and tell his staffers to stop the sniping.

[Mark Rhoads]

Illinoisians may be warped in our perspective because the only time our governors leave office is normally one step ahead of the sheriff as in Otto Kerner and George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich--so maybe we cannot understand why a governor would just resign because she was tired of all the invective coming her way--that cannot be easy on her family at all.

[Johnny D]

On the matter of governors, Illinois is far ahead of the other states. We're the only state where our ex-governors keep working for us long after their terms are over.

Only in Illinois can we say "my governor made my license plates."