Do you know where Sarah Palin got the title to her wonderful book Going Rogue? It was a phrase used by the top McCain staffers, who were always afraid she would say something off-the cuff. She was asked by Fox News reporter Carl Cameron about a news story that asserted the campaign was blowing off Michigan, and she answered honestly that she thought that they should not give up anywhere on any voter. That was when McCain senior staffers accused her of "going rogue." I love that she is now using that as the title for her excellent book.
I find myself being emotionally drawn to this wonderful candidate, especially when she talks about her children, her appreciation for the average Americans, her love of country, and her deep admiration for those who defend our country.
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I'm drawn to her and to the tea party movement. Regular folks waking up and realizing we have to keep our republic as Franklin was once famously said.
Hey, I am also halfway through her book. Cool.
There's some observation I want to make, but I can't quite grasp it, and it's late and I need sleep. Something about: you don't have to be intellectual to be a good POTUS. See: Harry Truman. However, in addition to principles, values, understanding of who you are and what you believe; in addition to understanding history and humanity: you must also be shrewd enough and competitive enough to fight, and to handle the infighting, and to prevail. This is also true, for instance, of working in management at a large corporation: you must protect your turf; you must understand the infighting; you must be competitive enough to engage and contest things.
I think Sarah Palin has natural gifts as a politician. I think she has displayed them in her zooming career, and I think she displayed her natural political gifts in 2009, in spades.
I think people who dismiss her are missing her natural political gifts. It may sound silly to such people, but it's no accident that Palin rose from PTA to Governor to national conservative power broker, and all before age 50. That doesn't just happen; that is not a fluke. That is evidence of political skill, yet Palin's detractors choose to ignore it and dismiss it.
And, speaking of "before age 50": Palin's detractors act as if she is as finished a product as she will ever be. I think that's way wrong. I think she is learning, learning, learning, and getting better, better, better. What was she in 2008? 45 years old? I think she's going to get better and better.
Repubs like Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace cynically desire a Washington insider who can pretend to be an outsider. Repub hoity toities have no respect for Palin as a true outsider. If Palin fully understood Washington, she would be an insider. She does not fully understand Washington, but she is learning, and will continue to learn. I don't hold it against a 46 year old politician from Alaska.
Palin is a combination of Elvis, Harry Truman, and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffanys. I think she can win(I think much of the nation does not yet know her, and will like her as they come to know who she truly is), and I think she can be good as POTUS. And I'm only speculating. She may, as she is on the stage more, prove to be unworthy. But I don't expect that. I wager my $2 that she will prove herself worthy. We shall see.
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