When Sarah Met Harry

Political Hay

When Sarah Met Harry

By J.T. Young Published 10/6/2008

Five weeks and one vice-presidential debate after joining the Republican ticket, Sarah Palin is not going away. As she proved Thursday night in St. Louis, for those who hoped to make her Dan Quayle, she is not obliging. Already she is rewriting the conventional wisdom that says running mates can only hurt, not help a ticket. Her appeal recalls that of Harry Truman, another vice-presidential selection whom opponents discounted at their peril.

Not long to politics, Palin's story is relatively short. She was a two-term city council member and then two-term mayor of small town Wasilla, Alaska. In 2006, she was elected Alaska's first female governor. A reform thread runs through her political career. But until John McCain chose her as his running mate this August, she captured little national attention.

Her quick rise has left the Left aghast. By various contrived measures they claim she is unqualified. In doing so, Palin's critics conveniently forget Harry Truman, another vice president whose qualifications were heavily discounted, yet is now remembered as a popular president and claimed as a liberal icon.

Truman did not attend college. During early adulthood he ran his family's small farm and was his town's postmaster. After serving as a captain of an artillery company in WWI, he owned a small clothing store that failed -- taking 15 years to pay off.

His political career began when he was elected county overseer of roads. He lost reelection. For the next two years, he held a series of jobs, including being a partner in a bank that also failed. Elected county public works supervisor, the local Democrat machine picked him to run at age 50 for the U.S. Senate. He improbably won and later won reelection. Again, he was fortuitously picked, this time to be vice president, by FDR for his unprecedented fourth term.

Nothing in Truman's past particularly qualified him to be vice president. In fact, nothing in any of Truman's previous incarnations ever seemed to particularly qualify him for anything that followed. All this caused opponents to continually underestimate him. Yet he became one of the vice presidency's greatest success stories -- a story culminating in his 1948 presidential election, perhaps the most storied comeback in presidential politics.

THERE IS A STRIKING similarity between Palin and Truman. Both have been underestimated politically. Both struck a chord running against Washington. To shouts of "Give 'em Hell, Harry!" Truman famously ran against a "do nothing" Congress in 1948. Palin has scored points running against a Congress with historically low approval ratings -- precisely because she is removed from Washington (the only such person on either ticket).

More important than their political comparison however, is their personal connection. Few people today could tell you what Truman did or stood for. He is memorable for who he was. He had an "everyman" quality, Midwestern and middle class, a life story that most could relate to far more easily than to the aristocratic FDR. He did not just seem to support the common man, he was the common man.

Palin too stands for, and with, a large segment of the electorate that is much discussed, often courted, but rarely represented. Her life story, both victories and challenges, have elements middle class America knows directly. She embodies the "Reagan Democrat" -- even more so than Reagan himself, who was long-removed from his Midwestern roots by the time he was elected president.

In all these qualities, but particularly her personal ones, she confounds the Left. They are not simply uncomfortable with Palin, they are offended by her. It should not be surprising. Palin vividly reveals how little rapport the Left has with middle class America. In it, the Left sees a group only to be led, not one to be followed.

It is fitting that the vice presidential debate took place in Truman's home state of Missouri. The parallels of his and Palin's popular appeal are as clear as they are understandable. If the Republican ticket wins in November, she will certainly be seen as the most politically potent VP pick since Lyndon Johnson in 1960. She has already succeeded beyond all expectations in drawing attention and energy to McCain's message and campaign. Who would ever have thought that the Republican VP speech would be only slightly less watched than, and that McCain's would actually exceed, Obama's?

At the heart of Palin's appeal is her mainstream and main street quality. While the Left is extremely uncomfortable with who she is and what she represents, she is extremely comfortable with both...and so is a very large section of the electorate. Her non-resident status in any elite group antagonizes them all, but it endears her to far more. Implicit in their support is a "Give'em Hell, Sarah!" quality. Harry would know exactly what, and who, they mean.

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Michael Reagan: Obama Lied About My Dad

By Michael Reagan
FrontPageMagazine.com
Thursday, March 20, 2008

Most of the media and their fellow liberals were positively giddy over Barack Obama’s speech Tuesday, all but comparing it to the Sermon on the Mount. I won’t deny it was a masterful piece of oratory -- the man can be spellbinding -- but when you stop to consider what Sen. Obama was really doing up there on the podium, invoking the specter of slavery and Jim Crow and the era of “whites only,” it becomes clear that it was a con job designed to make the voters as giddy as he knew his worshippers in the submissive media would be.

The speech was meant to be an explanation and expiation of his guilt for his years of remaining mute in the face of the outrageous anti-Americanism spewed by his pastor and bosom buddy, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.Until Tuesday, Barack Obama (you can’t use his middle name, which has now become the “H-word,” allegedly a code word for anti-Muslim rhetoric) had steadfastly denied he ever heard his friend and pastor make his hateful remarks.

In the speech, however, he just kind of mentioned that… well, yes … he guesses he was aware of the Reverend Wright’s offensive rhetoric after all. Mea Minima Culpa.

He then launched into a defense of his friendship with the man he credited for bringing him to Christianity, and helping to form his social and political philosophy and set him on the path to a life of public service. Admirably, while denouncing Wright’s extremism, he refused to denounce the man himself.

Nobody expected him to declare Wright anathema and cast him into the outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and the gnashing of teeth -- one simply doesn’t do to that sort of thing to a longtime friend, benefactor and mentor even if he has been shown to have slipped the rails time after time.

What was not expected was Barack H. Obama’s use of a litany of America’s past racist offenses to justify not only Wright’s blatant hatred of white America but his suggestion that it was a sentiment shared by most African Americans. And that is simply not true.

Nor was it true, as Obama charged, that the Reagan coalition was created out of white resentment for affirmative action or forced busing. He charged that “anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime… talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.”

Poppycock! These are not only outright falsehoods, but echoes of what Obama learned at the feet of Jeremiah Wright and now preaches as his own beliefs. He learned his lessons well.When he suggested that my father’s coalition was based on anger over affirmative action and welfare he was peddling a blatant falsehood as egregious in its falsity as Wright’s charge that whites created AIDS to wipe out the black population.

Everything Obama said was directed at suggesting that while Rev. Wright should not have used such inflammatory language, he was somehow justified because of America’s white racism.Try as he might, Barack Obama cannot claim the innocence of a lamb in his long years of worshipful association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. He was either fully aware of the seething racial hatred that motivated Wright, or something of a blithering idiot who can’t spot a racist hater when he spends years genuflecting at his feet.

Barack Obama is not an idiot. He is a brilliant orator who exudes charm and arouses near-worship from his host of giddy, hypnotized supporters. He is also a committed socialist and a talented salesman for his brand of Marxist snake oil. Beware of camels bearing gifts, and politicians promising utopia.

Mike Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Radio America Network

http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=8B65FFA4-BC99-4B34-A67B-8AE71CBD2B77

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CBS: Palin the Second Coming of Reagan

National Review Online: Republicans Sigh In Relief As VP Nominee Embodies Spirit Of Comeback Reagan

(National Review Online) This column was written by John J. Pitney Jr.

‘The moral elements,” Clausewitz wrote, “are among the most important in war.” He was talking about such things as morale, confidence, and devotion to a cause. With a moral advantage, an outnumbered force may win a surprise victory. Without it, well-equipped legions may go down to defeat.

That’s the significance of Sarah Palin’s debate performance. After all the lousy news of recent weeks, Republicans were starting to get gloomy. Mostly because of financial turmoil, Barack Obama’s lead in the polls edged upward. John McCain’s “suspension” of his campaign failed to have the desired effect, and his position on the Paulson plan put him at odds with many Republicans.

Palin herself contributed to the gloom by giving awkward interviews on television. On the morning of the debate, NBC’s Chuck Todd came close to declaring the race to be over: “All the trend lines are pointing in Obama’s direction. . . . [Pointing to a series of battleground-state polls] This should really scare the McCain campaign. This thing - it’s at a tipping point.”

There was speculation that a poor Palin performance could decisively tip the election to Obama. Her supporters held their breath. A few minutes after she walked onto the stage, they could exhale. They were watching the poised and feisty Palin of the Republican convention, not the hesitant Palin of the Gibson and Couric shows. The election wasn’t over yet. She bolstered Republican morale in other ways, too.

In politics as in war, you have to rally the troops against an opponent. You also have to pick the right target. Focusing her fire on Joe Biden would not have helped much, since most Republicans don’t have strong feelings about him. Instead, she went after the One. During the debate, she nodded to Biden while throwing verbal daggers at Obama:

“Barack Obama voted against funding troops there after promising that he would not do so. And Sen. Biden, I respected you when you called him out on that. You said that his vote was political and you said it would cost lives.”

“You also said that Barack Obama was not ready to be commander in chief. And I know again that you opposed the move he made to try to cut off funding for the troops and I respect you for that.”

As she did at the Republican convention, she reminded people at the grassroots that she is one of them. “I think we need a little bit of reality from Wasilla Main Street there, brought to Washington, D.C.” Once again, the liberal elites will sneer at her background as a hockey mom and small-town mayor. The more they sneer, the more they’ll fire up the Republican volunteers.

Nothing in politics touches Republicans as deeply as the memory of Ronald Reagan. A few weeks ago, Michael Reagan made a remarkable comment: “Wednesday night I watched the Republican National Convention on television and there, before my very eyes, I saw my Dad reborn; only this time he’s a she.” By making this comparison, he perhaps said more than he realized. The Gipper did not always shine in debates and press conferences. He made mistakes that worried his aides and political allies. Still, he had a way of coming back and reenergizing the ranks.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/03/opinion/main4498482.shtml

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Sarah and David; A Lesson from the Bible

by Mark Joseph

Along with the rest of America, I turned on my TV to get a first glimpse of Sarah Palin in action during the GOP convention. I had been aware of Palin before John McCain selected her, but only vaguely, and this would be my first chance to see her in action.

The day before her debut, I watched as she made the customary rounds that all speakers do, walking around the podium, checking out the TelePrompter and surveying the hall. She looked nervous. If looks could speak, she was saying, "Oh dear, what in the world have I gotten myself into? I am way out of my league."
Uh, oh, another Dan Quayle, I thought.

But what I saw the next night was not Quayle in New Orleans, but a tough, powerful, political figure, cool and confident, tossing off jokes and mocking her opponents. The fact that, nationally speaking, she was a political neophyte and yet was speaking so forcefully and powerfully on a national stage brought to mind Ronald Reagan and his powerful debut that has come to be known simply as "The Speech."

The fact that Palin was attacking her political enemies with such charm and with a twinkle in her eye reminded me of another legendary speech by Texas Governor Ann Richards in 1988, when she famously chirped that George H.W. Bush had been born with a silver foot in his mouth.

But Palin was like Reagan in ways beyond speaking style or delivery, because she had managed to capture, as few had, his spirit, the spirit that had turned working class Democrats who hadn't voted for a Republican in a generation into Reagan Democrats, voters who had suspended their dislike for Republicans in order to vote for Reagan.

The Obama campaign appeared to be flummoxed by McCain's choice of a running mate for a few days, as though they had been preparing for the usual suspects: Romney, Pawlenty, etc., but hadn't given a thought to the possibility of having to face Palin.

But then something happened to Sarah Palin. Handlers began to take her into back rooms and tell her how little she knew and how she'd have to quickly learn the names of presidents of small countries and bills in the Senate and how many missiles were in various nuclear arsenals around the world. And that process seemed to kill her confidence, shut down her natural political instincts and kill what made Palin such an interesting political animal.

The cocky, scrappy Sarah Palin who looked like Tina Fey and sounded like Ann Richards was replaced by the deer-in-the-headlights look that Americans have seen before in politicians ... a candidate who was unsteady, unsure of herself, trying too hard to be something she wasn't — and trying to make the ridiculous argument that a handler had obviously given her: that being close to Alaska somehow gave her insight into foreign policy with Russia.

The Palin story is steeped in religion. Her supporters believe she is a modern day version of the biblical Queen Esther, sent by God to save the nation from peril "for such a time as this," and prophetic e-mails proclaiming that Palin is going to win are being forwarded around cyberspace as we speak.

But there may be another story that fits Palin's dilemma: In the story of David and Goliath, the young, future king decides that he will take on the 9-foot giant and goes to King Saul and tells him of his plan. Saul is bemused by the teenager who has no chance against the giant, but he consents and immediately gives him the appropriate gear, a heavy protective outfit worn to battle, known as a "coat of mail," along with the king's sword.

David, Scriptures imply, was physically overwhelmed by the get-up and barely able to move. Telling the king thanks but no thanks, the young shepherd boy threw off the gear and proceeded to gather stones found by a brook in his slingshot, which he used to fell the giant.

Not unlike the young shepherd boy, the best thing Sarah Palin can do in the remainig hours before she faces her own Goliath in the form of a tough, smart senator with three decades of experience, and the best thing the McCain campaign can do for her, is to let her rid herself of her coat of mail — the overzealous handlers — and let Palin run wild and be the natural, untamed politician she is.

David spent his youth battling bears and lions, but he knew nothing about battle. His victory came when he was freed of the then-modern tools of battle and allowed to bring his native skills, cultivated in the wild, to a battle for which he was by all accounts not trained for.

Palin's political skills are the equivalent of David's battle skills, honed in the Alaskan wilderness where she operated as her nickname "Barracuda" suggests, ruthlessly defeating opponents who crossed her (including her own mother-in-law, who ran for mayor after Palin) and political mentors who she thought had become corrupt (Gov. Frank Murkowski).

If that Palin shows up at Thursday night's debate, it will because she dismisses the advisers, trusts her instincts, regains her confidence and remembers where her success came from.

Mark Joseph is a multi-media producer and the author of the forthcoming Sarah Barracuda: The Rise of Sarah Palin. He has written extensively on politics, pop culture and religion for a variety of media including Beliefnet, Christianity Today, The Jewish Press and others. His books include "Faith, God & Rock 'n' Roll," and "Pop Goes Religion."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,431286,00.html

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