Re: Why They're Terrified of Palin

On Sep 3, 5:29 am, CliffB <fl...@gosympatico.ca> wrote:
> Palinmania Breaking Out in Unexpected Places
> —Ace
>
> Christopher Orr shouldn't be at TNR, and I mean that as a compliment.
> He's one of the few movie reviewers who seems to know his ass from his
> elbow.
>
> He has a post up called "The Case Against the Case Against
> Palin." (No, not a typo, read it carefully.)
>
> I'm not done reading this yet because I want to get it up quick but
> let me just be a hypocrite and say read the whole thing, even though I
> haven't, yet.
>
> This is actually his friend's testimony-- "one of the smartest" people
> Orr knows. Orr himself takes Palin lightly, he admits. His friend
> counsels against that.

Well, nobody ever questioned that. There's a lot of smart people.
in Alaska. They're just blissfully ignorant about the 21st Century,
Science, Education, Energy Systems, Technology, Libraries,
Medicine, and
post-Neanderthal Robotics, that's why they live in Alaska.




> At the end of 2005, a close friend called to say that he begun writing
> speeches and talking points for a certain gubernatorial candidate.
>
> "Remind me," I asked. "Who is Sarah Palin?"
>
> I was dismayed at my friend’s choice of political entree. Why was he
> wasting his time on a relative nobody, trying to beat an incumbent
> governor (and former three term senator) in the Republican primary? It
> was utter folly. "Wait until the big money starts coming in for
> Murkowski," I said. "Wait until the party machinery goes to work on
> Palin. They will eat her for lunch."
>
> Murkowski, for his part, expressed a similar view. "If I decide to,"
> he said, "I will run and I will win. It's that simple."
>
> The folly, of course, turned out to be my own (and Murkowski's), as
> Palin slaughtered the incumbent in the primary--posting a 30 point
> margin of victory--and went on to win the general (over a former
> Democratic governor) without seeming to break a sweat. She then
> quickly fulfilled an implicit campaign promise by slapping down
> ExxonMobil, BP, and ConocoPhillips in negotiations over a proposed
> Alaska natural gas pipeline, even though they, too, by all accounts,
> were well prepared to dine on her tender little frame. Not bad for a
> lightweight.
>
> Listening to the Democratic leadership respond to John McCain’s
> selection of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, one
> hears echoes of the Alaska Republican leadership from just a few years
> ago. Barack Obama’s spokesman, Bill Burton, put it this way: "Today,
> John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign
> policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency." Former mayor?
> If you're going to skip over her job as governor and, before that, her
> job heading the commission that oversees production of the largest
> petroleum reserves in America, why not "former high school student"?
> Bah, what does it matter: She's just a small town mayor, just a hockey
> mom, just a beauty pageant queen. Palin has never shunned these
> belittling monikers, in part, I imagine, because the camouflage has
> served her so well. Soothed by the litany, her opponents tend to sleep
> too late, sneer too much, and forget who it is that hires them.
>
> Watching Palin operate over the past few years has been like
> witnessing a dramatic reading of All the King’s Men. In 2002,
> Murkowski had interviewed but passed over Palin in selecting a
> replacement for the senate seat he vacated to become governor. In a
> grand act of nepotism, he chose his own daughter instead. Palin was
> tossed a bone: She chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation
> Commission, which oversees the production of petroleum in Alaska. When
> she reported conflicts of interest and other ethical violations by
> another commissioner, she was ignored by Murkowski’s chief of staff
> and ultimately resigned in frustration. One can imagine how the quick
> double dose of corruption--insiders having their way with the polity
> and its resources--sickened the young Palin. It also fired a savage
> competitiveness that is not, perhaps, apparent at first glance.
> And the Good Time Charlies at Reason seem to reach out for someone to
> slam Palin, and fail rather spectacularly.
>
> This guy is a Democrat... but loves her.
>
> Let me tell you all the nice things about Sarah Palin: Sarah Palin has
> been a pretty freaking awesome governor. She came in saying that the
> entire system was corrupt, and that Republicans were evil, and she was
> going to just mix everything up and get us a gas pipeline and end of
> story. And she got to power, she was elected overwhelmingly by
> independents, beat Tony Knowles, who had been governor before.
> The Republicans hate her. If you go and talk to the Alaska delegation
> here, they despise her.
>
> Q: Really?
>
> A: Hate her. Oh my god! This whole thing about her retarded son really
> being her daughter's was started by Lyda Green, who is president of
> the senate, a Republican. [...]
>
> She gave a two-finger salute to Conoco Phllips and Exxon Mobile,
> raised their taxes on their oil, put in place a transparent way to bid
> for the seed money and the licenses to finally, finally, put in a
> natural gas pipeline in Alaska. And it was won by a Canadian company.
> And she went to the mat and made it happen. She has been
> systematically pulling the drilling licenses of Conoco Phillips and
> Exxon Mobile for areas that they haven't touched. I mean, they've been
> hoarding reserves, and she says, you know, use it or lose it, and she
> has been sending the attorney general time after time to revoke these
> things. It's absolutely fascinating.
> Now, this guy seems to think there's going to be some huge scandal
> that will take her off the ticket. I rather doubt that. Palin is the
> ticket at this point.
>
> But note his joy over her leaving the ticket. It's not for the reason
> you might guess:
>
> [M]y personal prediction is that I give her two weeks... And look -- I
> love her so much that I'm really looking forward to having her back in
> 63 days. [...]
> She is what McCain would like to be: She really is a maverick. In two
> years she stuck it to the two largest oil corporations in the United
> States of America. That's pretty fucking impressive, you know, that
> she has antagonized her party to the point that they despise her. And
> her ratings are still in the 80s.
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