December 28, 2008

David Warren's selection for "Man of the Year 2008" is: Sarah Palin. Mine Too.

palinpretty.jpg

The citation reads:

"For a politician of real accomplishment and promise, who has somehow managed, for the first time since Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, to cut through the verbiage and posturing of an election campaign, and look an electorate in the eye; a politician whose policy instincts are sound, whose wits are sharp, and whose moral vision is unclouded -- who drives all the right people crazy, across party lines. ... thanks to the loss of her ticket in what may well prove the recent U.S. election most worth losing, Ms. Palin now has time to hone her skills, to study and supply her deficiencies, and focus on the road ahead.
She has a remarkable natural gift, her "star quality": the ability not only to instill hope and confidence in an electorate, but hope and confidence in the right things. She is the best thing that happened in politics all year. " -- David Warren
There will be more to come from Palin in the next four years as we move from the first black president to the first babe president: The Beautiful Candidate
The contemporary nature of Palin's beauty is also underscored for millions every day via television and print media. Simply put, the woman doesn't often take a bad picture. She's not only beautiful, but she has the kind of beauty that the camera loves. This not so secret weapon is, I suspect, what keeps her opponents spinning off center and crashing to the ground in smoldering ruins. Because she's not only classically beautiful, she's naturally so as well. And if there's anything the packaged, focus-grouped, carefully nuanced political set hates, it's a natural.
After all, Americans love a natural even more than they love a winner. And we're only talking about "skin-deep" here.
Looking deeper, it is easy to see that Palin is the only person that is keeping the Republican party alive. Does the "leadership" of the party know that? They do but it does not keep them from thirsting for death. I think they're working on a new slogan, "Better dead than led (by Palin)."

If so, history will be happy to accommodate them.

Posted by Vanderleun at December 28, 2008 11:43 AM
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Are you sure this is a picture of Sarah Palin?????

Posted by: polprof at December 28, 2008 12:48 PM

From Vogue. Here's the link:

http://www.style.com/vogue/feature/090108VFEA/

Posted by: vanderleun at December 28, 2008 1:03 PM

It's so interesting at times to gaze into a parallel universe. Unless of course you meant Palin's great alter ego Tina Fey, who showed inestimably more wit and savvy than her shrill original. A babe is nice for the short term, but intelligence is sexier in the long run. (Palin would have been perfect for the Siemens commercial--but Obama would be pilot).

Posted by: Novalis at December 28, 2008 1:35 PM

Governor Palin is one of the more intelligent politicians I've observed in recent years. Watching her live at a McCain rally in the closing weeks of what was a grueling campaign, it was apparent that she was paying attention to everything going on around her, and thinking about it. She listened to every word McCain said, and reacted to his stump speech appropriately. I thought that she was doing very well. But she was also very aware of what was going on in the crowd, and ad-libbed quite spontaneously and effectively in response to various handmade signs and gestures in the audience. There should be no doubt that she is very bright. As her defenders have pointed out time and time again, she is a self-made politician. Unlike Nancy Pelosi, she did not have a powerful father to teach her the ropes. Unlike Hillary Rodham Clinton, her husband is an oil-field worker and commercial fisherman, not a President. Unlike Caroline Kennedy, she is not the princess of a political dynasty. Sarah Palin defeated the sitting governor in her own party's primary, and a former governor in the general election. And I think she still has the best approval rating in the 50 states. At this stage in her career, she is at the point where Margaret Thatcher was at the beginning of her career (see John O'Sullivan's recent essay), and her gracious, self-effacing remarks about her campaign for Saxby Chambliss bode well. If she can continue to deliver crods, enthusiasms, and victories for the GOP across the country, her future is assured, and America's future is that much better.

Posted by: Punditarian at December 28, 2008 2:26 PM

Governor Palin is one of the more intelligent politicians I've observed in recent years. Watching her live at a McCain rally in the closing weeks of what was a grueling campaign, it was apparent that she was paying attention to everything going on around her, and thinking about it. She listened to every word McCain said, and reacted to his stump speech appropriately. I thought that she was doing very well. But she was also very aware of what was going on in the crowd, and ad-libbed quite spontaneously and effectively in response to various handmade signs and gestures in the audience. There should be no doubt that she is very bright. As her defenders have pointed out time and time again, she is a self-made politician. Unlike Nancy Pelosi, she did not have a powerful father to teach her the ropes. Unlike Hillary Rodham Clinton, her husband is an oil-field worker and commercial fisherman, not a President. Unlike Caroline Kennedy, she is not the princess of a political dynasty. Sarah Palin defeated the sitting governor in her own party's primary, and a former governor in the general election. And I think she still has the best approval rating in the 50 states. At this stage in her career, she is at the point where Margaret Thatcher was at the beginning of her career (see John O'Sullivan's recent essay), and her gracious, self-effacing remarks about her campaign for Saxby Chambliss bode well. If she can continue to deliver crowds, enthusiasms, and victories for the GOP across the country, her future is assured, and America's future is that much better.

Posted by: Punditarian at December 28, 2008 2:26 PM

Here is the central fact about Andrew Sullivan, Peggy Noonan, Tina Fey...and, I dare say, Novalis:

If required to perform the public or private functions of Sarah Palin for longer than five minutes, these people would faint.

What's more, they know it.

Posted by: Robert Townshend at December 28, 2008 3:29 PM

Oh, I was just having a little fun. Don't mind me. I'm sure Obama will fall flat on his face, making W look like Lincoln by comparison, and then Sarah will get her chance. She is easy on the eyes I must say (I'll just take care to keep the volume turned down, like she did with SNL).

Posted by: Novalis at December 28, 2008 3:42 PM

"Looking deeper, it is easy to see that Palin is the only person that is keeping the Republican party alive. Does the "leadership" of the party know that? They do but it does not keep them from thirsting for death. I think they're working on a new slogan, "Better dead than led (by Palin).""

Unfortunately, Gerard, I think you're right.

The GOP has been in a death spiral since 2001. Their de facto renunciation of limited-government principles in favor of a belly-up-to-the-goodies-trough dive into unexampled profligacy suggests that their septuagenarians have decided "After us, the Deluge." Governor Palin, a true outsider with strong, uncomplicated morals, Reaganite political principles, and natural popular appeal, pricks them doubly: once on the conscience, and once in the pocketbook.

Washington's unspoken secret is that the Democrats need the remaining Republican rump for cover, and the Republicans still in office, now firmly addicted to pork and payoffs, need the Democrats' good will to keep the swill flowing. There'll be a lot of melon-slicing and mutual back-scratching in the next two years, as the federal budget and debt compound one another with the inexorability of Juggernaut's carriage.

It's a bad time to be a freedom lover.

Posted by: Francis W. Porretto at December 28, 2008 4:02 PM

Taking a point from Novalis, I find it hard to see how just about anybody in the job Obama got by fair means and foul could not fall on their face in the next four years.

On election eve I remember thinking, if not posting, that the second most relieved man in the US that night must have been John McCain. (The first being George Bush.)

Still, David Warren is a wise man and I think his main point bears repeating: "thanks to the loss of her ticket in what may well prove the recent U.S. election most worth losing, Ms. Palin now has time to hone her skills, to study and supply her deficiencies, and focus on the road ahead."

Palin could lead the party or Palin could kill the party. But if we recall the Whigs, they too deserved to be killed.

Posted by: vanderleun at December 28, 2008 4:18 PM

Warren's main point is a good one. I was never a McCain supporter, and by the time it became certain that he and Obama would be the nominees (and before Palin came along), I said that given the similarity of their economic platforms, as long as we were going to have wrong-headed anti-free-market big-government policies, I'd just as soon see the Democrats get full credit for the results.

On the other hand, as the campaign came down the home stretch, a friend remarked that there has never been a candidate he wanted to see lose more than Obama. I replied, "I agree, and at the same time there's never been a candidate I want to see win more than Palin."

Posted by: rickl at December 28, 2008 5:09 PM

The only faulty premise to that argument is that the party has any leadership; I mean other than her. Mike Duncan, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell I'd give some points to. Sanford, the select of the RGA; can only blandly "lip synch" what she clearly speaks out, yet they picked him as their spokesman. Then again, keeping her as unassociated with this mess; is the best favor they could do for her.

Posted by: narciso at December 28, 2008 6:10 PM

The only faulty premise to that argument is that the party has any leadership; I mean other than her. Mike Duncan, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell I'd give some points to. Sanford, the select of the RGA; can only blandly "lip synch" what she clearly speaks out, yet they picked him as their spokesman. Then again, keeping her asunassociated with this mess; is the best favor they could do for her. She commands the grass roots, an advantage no one had this go around.

Posted by: narciso at December 28, 2008 6:11 PM

No one is smarter than their criteria...

Though the election is over, Gov. Sarah is being attacked by the leftist-humanists because they fear her re-appearance on a future ballot. They are afraid and rightly so! She is a perceptive excellent candidate to represent the Founders Principles and our American way of life with intelligent courage.

Additionally, since no one is smarter than their criteria, the collectivists are working from a pre-chosen mediocre (and worse) set of man-made carnal-ruled opinions that delimit perception of consequences-of-choice prior to choosing. In other words, they lack Vision. Based on a universe-sized ignorance, such devices are self-imposed, thus, the lefties can accurately and historically be defined as unintelligent.

On the other hand, Sarah and her chosen criteria, which is far superior to any man-made system of opinion, and reasonably scares those who possess no practicing standard greater than mediocrity. Their collectivist opinion rises no higher than eyebrows - or belly-button.

Sarah lives life governed by God's superior transcendent principles as found in The Holy Bible. Judeo-Christian principles are the founding precepts of the greatest nation in human history; America! Including, but not limited to, Human Defined: Earth's Choicemaker, Unique Individual Value, Personal Rights and Responsibility, and Representative Government. Add: The Creative Process is a choice-making process and functions best in Freedom.

( 5th Grade Lesson: God-made social criteria cannot be topped. All man-made social opinion has a ceiling! )

( 6th Grade Lesson: Every IQ Test is a test of one's ability to make choices. )

Sarah is recognized by friends and admirers a worthy representative of all that is wonderful about America. 2012 will be here shortly. Keep your eye on this courageous intelligent leader - and pray!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Happy 2009 AD!

Jim Baxter
Santa Maria, CA

semper fidelis
Sgt. USMC
WWII & Korean War
a point-man/follower of The Lion of Judah
www.choicemaker.net

5th Grade Teacher - 30 wonderful years !
My favorite teachers are Sir Isaac Newton and Dr. Henry Margenau. jfb

Posted by: Jim Baxter at December 29, 2008 1:51 PM


Every September, I recall that is more than half a century (63 years) since I landed at Nagasaki with the 2nd Marine Division in the original occupation of Japan following World War II. This time every year, I have watched and listened to the light-hearted "peaceniks" and their light-headed symbolism-without-substance of ringing bells, flying pigeons, floating candles, and sonorous chanting and I recall again that "Peace is not a cause - it is an effect."

In July, 1945, my fellow 8th RCT Marines [I was a BARman] and I returned to Saipan following the successful conclusion of the Battle of Okinawa. We were issued new equipment and replacements joined each outfit in preparation for our coming amphibious assault on the home islands of Japan.

B-29 bombing had leveled the major cities of Japan, including Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, Yokosuka, and Tokyo.

We were informed we would land three Marine divisions and six Army divisions, perhaps abreast, with large reserves following us in. It was estimated that it would cost half a million casualties to subdue the Japanese homeland.

In August, the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima but the Japanese government refused to surrender. Three days later a second A-bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. The Imperial Japanese government finally surrendered.

Following the 1941 sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese admiral said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant..." Indeed, they had. Not surprisingly, the atomic bomb was produced by a free people functioning in a free environment. Not surprisingly because the creative process is a natural human choice-making process and inventiveness occurs most readily where choice-making opportunities abound. America!

Tamper with a giant, indeed! Tyrants, beware: Free men are nature's pit bulls of Liberty! The Japanese learned the hard way what tyrants of any generation should know: Never start a war with a free people - you never know what they may invent!

As a newly assigned member of a U.S. Marine intelligence section, I had a unique opportunity to visit many major cities of Japan, including Tokyo and Hiroshima, within weeks of their destruction. For a full year I observed the beaches, weapons, and troops we would have assaulted had the A-bombs not been dropped. Yes, it would have been very destructive for all, but especially for the people of Japan.

When we landed in Japan, for what came to be the finest and most humane occupation of a defeated enemy in recorded history, it was with great appreciation, thanksgiving, and praise for the atomic bomb team, including the aircrew of the Enola Gay. A half million American homes had been spared the Gold Star flag, including, I'm sure, my own.

Whenever I hear the apologists expressing guilt and shame for A-bombing and ending the war Japan had started (they ignore the cause-effect relation between Pearl Harbor and Nagasaki), I have noted that neither the effete critics nor the puff-adder politicians are among us in the assault landing-craft or the stinking rice paddies of their suggested alternative, "conventional" warfare. Stammering reluctance is obvious and continuous, but they do love to pontificate about the Rights that others, and the Bomb, have bought and preserved for them.

The vanities of ignorance and camouflaged cowardice abound as license for the assertion of virtuous "rights" purchased by the blood of others - those others who have borne the burden and physical expense of Rights whining apologists so casually and self-righteously claim.

At best, these fakers manifest a profound and cryptic ignorance of causal relations, myopic perception, and dull I.Q. At worst, there is a word and description in The Constitution defining those who love the enemy more than they love their own countrymen and their own posterity. Every Yankee Doodle Dandy knows what that word is.

In 1945, America was the only nation in the world with the Bomb and it behaved responsibly and respectfully. It remained so until two among us betrayed it to the Kremlin. Still, this American weapon system has been the prime deterrent to earth's latest model world- tyranny: Seventy years of Soviet collectivist definition, coercion, and domination of individual human beings.

The message is this: Trust Freedom. Remember, tyrants never learn. The restriction of Freedom is the limitation of human choice, and choice is the fulcrum-point of the creative process in human affairs. As earth's choicemaker, it is our human identity on nature's beautiful blue planet and the natural premise of man's free institutions, environments, and respectful relations with one another. Made in the image of our Creator, free men choose, create, and progress - or die.

Free men should not fear the moon-god-crowd oppressor nor choose any of his ways. Recall with a confident Job and a victorious David, "Know ye not you are in league with the stones of the field?" Gov. Lapin understands. Me too.

Semper Fidelis
Jim Baxter
Sgt. USMC
WW II and Korean War
a point-man/follower of The Lion of Judah

No one is smarter than their criteria...

Posted by: Jim Baxter at December 29, 2008 3:23 PM

Sarah Palin "nee Scudder" For President!

Paleo-fundamentalist for GOP Candidate!

Vote Palin, get orders from the Pope!

Vote Palin if you want your neighbour to give birth to a monster!

Vote Palin, the Moral Minority Candidate!

Wildlife butchers endorse Palin!

(Where the heck is Jack Ryan when you need him?)

Posted by: Fletcher Christian at December 29, 2008 3:52 PM

You had to mess it up didn't you Fletcher. Tell me, does she or the Wahhabis scare you more, don't answer.

Posted by: narciso at December 29, 2008 4:09 PM

narciso, I will answer. Palin scares me more. Why? Because the Wahabis can cause death and mayhem, but they will never be able to cause Armageddon by picking up the phone. Palin might.

Posted by: Fletcher Christian at December 30, 2008 2:24 AM

There you have it, the modern deranged mind, ab reducto. A woman who got into politics, because
she thought she could make a difference, first working with the PTA,then challenging and defeating corrupt officials, including in her own party's corrupt machine promoting life by persuasion rather than legisltation, work that the nation be defended against various threats
and be self sufficient in energy; in part because
of her Christian faith is the enemy. Sarah's a 'happy warrior', the kind we get once in a generation. The love of her family, her new grandchild, the support of many across this land,
despite the lies and acrimony she's suffered, mostly from baldheaded falsehoods like that. indicates she has everything to live for and to continue fighting for us. The world is not a Stephen King/Crinenberg/USA production. The ones who have tried to return the world back to the 7th century, through embargo, war pestilence, they're are to countered but understood. You have just proven Warren and Vanderleun's point for them; there is little hope for this nation,
if "Better Dead(than led by Palin is the
watchword. We probably could do worse, than her, and probably will.

Posted by: narciso at December 30, 2008 5:22 AM

A fundamentalist protestant takes orders from the Pope? Fletcher, you're just babbling now.

Posted by: Mikey NTH at December 30, 2008 8:15 AM

And, she supports out of wedlock babies! Well, those in her own family, anyway; the rest of you single mothers are all morally deficient whores.

Posted by: Thomas at December 30, 2008 10:20 AM

narciso, the real point is that America (and the world) needs strong leadership. And that leadership needs to be able to think for itself, not to be given orders by someone who does most of his work on a Sunday. And that leadership should be of a sort that doesn't want to impose its personal values, about personal behaviour, on others.

There is indeed little hope for the USA, as it splits ever-deeper along these lines. It is going to end up with a central section, in which alcohol, abortion, contraception, rock music and adult literature and movies are illegal as are the teaching of evolution and any Sunday leisure activity other than listening to someone tell you how and why you are going to Hell; and areas on either side that belong in the 21st century rather than the 18th.

The rather nasty "Jesusland" joke is not really a joke at all. Unfortunately.

Posted by: Fletcher Christian at December 30, 2008 2:31 PM

Fletcher, you've proven to be an insincere troll, always calling for that final campaign against the Wahhabis, but who would lead it Romney, Crist.

For one, I think Heinlein would roll over in his grave to see how you've hijacked " If this Goes On" Scudder as some analogue to her. Have you ever seen her be judgmental to other than crooked politicos and terrorists, no.

Heinlein would have seen her in the vein of his heroines. We are certainly in the "Crazy Years" but don't blame for it.

Jerry Pournelle, one of the science fiction writers most in that vein, had high praise about her, and he's generally jaundiced on the GOP. So does Bidinotto, Green, no raging theocons there.

She's a Feminist for Life, supports contraception, you think she's some kind of Puritan; in Alaska!

She understands like few others the dangers of Wahhabism, and the tools to leverage it's elimination with our own resources. She even put it in her acceptance speech, the one with the "lipstick on a pig" You think like Stillson she'll just wake up one day and let the missiles fly. Who are you kidding?

Posted by: narciso at December 30, 2008 6:32 PM

Leftist humanists lack criteria that rises higher than pubic hair. Their historically dumb questions and answers are still stooopid. |JFB

Posted by: Jim Baxter at January 3, 2009 10:07 AM

The west recognized women's rights before women were recognized at the federal level. This is because the men out west saw women doing basically the same things they were doing.

Out here in rural California, Sarah puts me in mind of many of the gals I live and work around. Intelligent, strong, capable, close to the earth, yet capable of projecting a professional and feminine presense.

Oh. And Gerard. That ain't no man.
And she looks like she's about to open that flight jacket to prove it.

Posted by: adagny at January 3, 2009 6:23 PM

The west recognized women's rights before women were recognized at the federal level. This is because the men out west saw women doing basically the same things they were doing.

Out here in rural California, Sarah puts me in mind of many of the gals I live and work around. Intelligent, strong, capable, close to the earth, yet capable of projecting a professional and feminine presense.

Oh. And Gerard. That ain't no man.
And she looks like she's about to open that flight jacket to prove it.

Posted by: adagny at January 3, 2009 6:31 PM

Sarah is Jeanne d'Arc.

Posted by: bunuel at February 9, 2010 11:50 AM