Some conservatives fear Sarah Palin’s political career is over with her recent decision to resign as governor of Alaska. Captain Ed Morrissey has even ripped into Palin for quitting and dismissed any reason she might have for resigning as nonsensical.
And he got slammed with 3000 comments on a thread filled with vitriol. Other bloggers came to Morrissey’s defense, including Patterico who, despite disagreeing with Morrissey’s analysis, thought it wrong to declare criticism of Palin verboten. Morrissey is a great blogger and shouldn’t be written off, but is the reaction to him merely for suggesting Palin made a poor move?
On Monday afternoon, I listened to a friend’s radio show. He also believed Palin’s career in public office to be over, however he emphasized not Palin’s decision to quit, but the unhinged nature of the far left’s attack on her that he deemed to have succeeded in forcing her out. Several people disagreed with him, and a few hoped he was wrong, but he didn’t get any rude or angry callers. The difference in focus is key.
If one believes Sarah Palin was driven from office because of cruel personal attacks on her children and frivolous legal allegations that have become the bane of her and her staff’s existence, with thousands of state tax dollars and personnel hours being wasted responding to idiotic ethics complaints, Morrissey’s comments are far from sympathetic:
I’ve seen a myriad of excuses on Twitter and e-mail for this bizarre resignation: her legal bills are too high, she’s putting her family first, she doesn’t want to distract Alaskans because of cheap-shot ethics complaints that are distracting everyone. None of those make any sense. If the spotlight was too much, then she shouldn’t have run for office in the first place. If she’s quitting because people are taking potshots at her, then she’s not the kind of political fighter we thought she was.
However, much of what Palin has received, she could not have possibly anticipated, including the unprecedented abuse of Alaska’s ethics systems and that the media has decided that every one of her children is open game, from her son who’s fighting to defend our country to her single mother daughter to her infant son, who has been the recipient of the most vile cruelty. No governor of Alaska has had this happen to them, nor has any former Vice-Presidential nominee.
Beyond that, Morrissey piled on a woman who has been trashed for the past eleven months because she’s a conservative. Who can honestly blame her for leaving? Apparently, Morrissey.
Palin is the most popular figure among Conservative Republicans. They don’t just like her policies, they like her, they empathize with her. Most Palin fans find themselves divided between the disappointed and the uncertain. Except for the few true believers absolutely sure this is a brilliant political decision, Morrisey’s unkind political obituary hit a raw nerve.
In reading the Internet comments on Palin’s resignation, I find few people angry at her, a few people wanting to dance on her political grave, but a lot of people discomfited. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tx.) once told how, when he saw Barry Goldwater nominated, he thought that people like him could get elected, and when he saw Goldwater defeated, he concluded people like him could not win, it was the election of Ronald Reagan that changed his mind.
What angry conservatives may not admit is that many of our hopes and dreams have been invested into Sarah Palin. To many of us, she symbolized the idea that the ordinary middle class person can make a difference. Now, we are left with haunting questions.
Personally, I can’t blame Palin for stepping aside under the pressure she was under. I have friends who have suffered the vicious slings and arrows of the far left and have not run for office since. Former Congressman Bill Sali was vilified by the media and slandered by the Democrats with allegations that painted the false picture that a twenty-year-old tax lien was a current problem. On top of that they had his social security number and his wife’s “accidentally” were sent out to tens of thousands of homes. The Democrats initially excused the conduct by saying Sali had brought it on himself with the twenty-year-old, long settled tax lien. Congressman Sali probably won’t run again, and I can’t blame him.
But here’s the problem we are left with. We can’t blame these people for not running, but if decent people will not run because they do not want to be reduced to rubble by our political processes, where does that leave our nation? If these conditions prevail, who would ever consider a run for political office? Sociopaths and the grinning tools of the political establishment, who know the political buzz words, but when they get in office will do nothing to advance conservative values. Is government “by the people, for the people, and of the people” dead, to be replaced by either government “by the sociopaths, for the sociopaths, and of the sociopaths” or government by “the cronies, for the establishment, of the establishment”?
We can’t simply dismiss this with clichés. If the odds are too great, if the heat from the leftist fire is too strong for any to withstand, conservatism is done. No matter how good our ideas, we can’t win the game if we can’t put a team on the field.
Whatever Sarah Palin does over the next few months, she has to show us she’s still fighting. If she does more for the conservative cause out of office than in it, she’ll win and conservatives with her. Otherwise, the momentary leftist triumphalism will quickly turn into long-term conservative disappointment.
July 7th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Look, Sarah Palin needs to get out of the limelight for a while and get back to her roots, whatever those might be. I think she’s been pushed around so much for so long without really having a good support system that she needs to “re-plant” herself in some fertile soil and just chill for a while. Help out candidates here and there, but just be a Mom and a Wife, and a Citizen for a while. Make some money, raise your family, get a groove going, etc.
I’ll definitely take a look at Palin in a few years if she can refocus and come back without the victim mentality and be a leader.
Just my 2 cents, since everyone else is commenting on this.
July 7th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Three words:
department of law
July 7th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
She’s quitting politics so she can cash in on book deals and speaking tours. Stop defending her.
July 7th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
I’ve never understood guys who think Palin is very attractive.
She’s not ugly. I guess she’s pretty by the standards of women in politics.
July 7th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Mrs. Palin must be doing something right, she has already left the seen for a few days and we still have people like Kevin with PDS.
July 7th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Homework! The actual costs of the ethics investigations, as reported by the Ak personal board on July 1, 2009. And, the bulk of it was troopergate, and the ethics violation she slapped on herself.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/henkimaa/3696442646/
July 7th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
5. It’s just too easy. It’s hilarious, honestly.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Well Kevin, when you can get your President and your Vice President to sing from the you songbook, then you can tell me how hilarious it is. Until then you are just as clownish as Minnesota’s newest Senator.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Knickers, you failed to do your homework again, tazergate was not of Mrs. Palin’s making.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Kevin, I cannot believe you are allowed to post on this site.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Adam – “Personally, I can’t blame Palin for stepping aside under the pressure she was under.”
As one human being to another, Adam, neither can I. Unfortunately, Palin chose to run for high elective office. You’re not allowed to just pick up your toys and go home and keep your good political name, without a damn good reason. Unfortunately, Palin hasn’t come up with one of those. About the only reason she could legitimately have used was her special needs child. No one would have questioned that. Unfortunately for Palin, her ability to use that as a reason got flushed when she accepted the Veep nod. In any further run for anything other than Wasilla dog catcher, the Dems will delight in calling her a quitter (it will stick, by the way) and no Republican will be able to fully trust her commitment. The rest of her reasons are just so much hogwash. If she didn’t expect the heat she’s received, she’s not as smart as all the Palinites think she is.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
It’s amazing that the two most maligned former politicians in the country were the last two losing VP picks. Makes you wonder whether one should automatically accept the offer without blinking!
July 8th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Trooper gate was one. There is ANOTHER that she did on herself.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:03 am
good point, heath! Kiss of death, that position!
July 8th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Troopergate (or tazergate, as you call it) is not the one she did on herself. And you know,that’s not what I said. Troopergate cost the most. One of the ones still pending, is the one she did all on her own.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:05 am
I would venture to say that there are many more famous politicians in America that are more maligned than Sarah Palin… Dick Cheney, GW Bush, John Edwards (true), Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid…
July 8th, 2009 at 6:27 am
I don’t even know what to say about Palin anymore. I think she is very good at making herself the victim. She can’t handle anybody saying anything critical about her. What makes her any different than other Republican that’s in the news.
Look back at the 08 Primaries, look at the arrows shot at Thompson, Romney and Rudy. There were some vile things said about them. Things about Fred and Rudy’s wives and Mitt’s Religion and character. Republican’s didn’t came to their defense to protect them and complain about the politics of destruction. Hell, the Republican’s were the ones that were slinging the arrows by saying those vile things. But each one of them handled it remarkably well because they knew that it was part of being a Candidate.
What Palin supporters are doing by protecting her against anything bad is not doing her any good. If she is a Governor or a Candidate for President then she has to learn to handle it as well as Fred, Rudy, and Mitt handled it.
Palin supporters have gotten to the point where other Republicans can’t even be critical of her without thinking of them as traitors. You guys can’t be that protective of her, she’s in the wrong business if she can’t handle the daggers.
July 8th, 2009 at 8:45 am
IKV, what is misunderstood by you and by many is the criticisms and inconsistant reporting that she must carry that other male politicians do not. She is criticized for not being there for the electorate. Yet Barry was on the campaign trail for 18 months plus and not once criticized for not doing the people’s work. Palin is questioned about her ability to be a good mother, why isn’t Barry questioned of being capable of being a good father? Some of the attacks against her are a prime example of the liberal media weilding their influential sword to control the minds of the voters and they see her as roadblock to their very own collective progressive future…so what do they do, they attempt to destroy her.
July 8th, 2009 at 9:21 am
The news cycle on this story is just about over. Bye, bye Sarah! Won’t
seeya!
July 8th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Palin’s Problem Outside the Base
By Charles Franklin
http://www.pollster.com/blogs/palins_problem_outside_the_bas.php
Palin’s Base
By Mark Blumenthal
http://www.pollster.com/blogs/palins_base.php
Boehner On Palin: “It Will Be Very Difficult For Her To Run In 2012?
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/campaigns/boehner-on-palin-it-will-be-very-difficult-for-her-to-run-in-2012/
The Inscrutable Resignation of Sarah Palin
With the dust settled on the speech that befuddled a nation, the writer who spent perhaps more private time with the Palins than any other tries his best to decode it
http://www.esquire.com/print-this/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-070809
Palin resigned to her fate
http://www.winnipegsun.com/comment/2009/07/08/10061691.html#/comment/columnists/lisa_vandusen/2009/07/08/pf-10059956.html
The Sarah Palin Show with Sarah Palin
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/8/751208/-The-Sarah-Palin-Show-with-Sarah-Palin
The Maverick Political Party
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/8/750896/-The-Maverick-Political-Party
July 8th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Sarah is the queen of bizarre. I don’t get her resignation. I don’t know the details but it seems like he was giving up to me. She just didn’t care enough about being governor of Alaska enough to fight for it. I imagine it is because her main focus at this point is on getting the nomination. I guarantee she runs.
Her career is not over, but I don’t see her ever winning the nomination or presidency. She just hasn’t proven capable of handling the attacks against her effectively.
July 8th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I’d be the first to admit that a lot of the way her publicity comes out is mishandled. She obviously needs a better staff. For a girl from a small town in Alaska with a staff that is mostly comprised of family and friends and Alaska handlers then she is not doing too bad. She is still neck in neck with Romney and Huckabee…give or take. When she gets some staffers on the national stage that understand national politics and how to run a national campaign…like Romney and Huckabee have…then I think the train will leave the station and Huckabee will not even be aboard and Romney will lose even more of his personal fortune to another failed attempt at a Presidential nomination. Time will tell and I personally am rooting for her. I still don’t understand why any Republican or conservative would want one of our own to fail?!?!?
July 8th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
#21 – Honestly, I do not know what you do not get? If you give her the benefit of the doubt, that what she claims is the truth then it should make perfect sense. Every other day she has a new ethics charge filed against her. Now she has to spend valuable time fighting these charges. In life, time is money, time spent away from her desk fighting these charges is time lost for the state of Alaska. Since she was going to have to announce that she wasn’t running for a 2nd term anyway, she would then become a lame duck governor. Why spend her time and the people’s of Alaska’s time fighting ridiculous ethics charges and not accomplishing a damn thing with the Democratic legislature that refused to work with her? Why do that? If she does intend to run for President in 2012, she can use this extra time to formulate a campaign and a strategy to be on the national stage and in the spotlight. All she has to do, when her book comes out, is hint that she will run for President in 2012 and she will be a guest speaker at every Republican event in the Washington Corridor. Who will the press cover, Sarah Palin speaking events or Huckabee’s band? Actually if she goes full court press with this…I wouldn’t be surprised if Romney and Huckabee decide not to run at all.
July 8th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
JerseyRepublican: I’m just saying that she is very good at rallying her supporters to protect her. She would be better off if she ignored the criticism and not make a two week story out of a routine political jab. She has to realize that politics is like being in a pressure cooker, and she can’t quit or resign when the pressure it gets too much. That is not good political instincts, that is a flaw.
There is a public relations blitz going on with Palin. The day after her resigning as Governor obviously under pressure, she’s on a fishing boat? This was nothing but spin, a photo opp., damage control in full gear. There is no woman in the world who wants her picture taken with fish guts all over them.
Her team is working full time on rehabilitating her. I would rather see her learning about the world and coming out with a good conservative grip on the issues.
With Obama’s Poll numbers going south, we need to get the best conservative out there who already has a grip on the issues so we can win back the W.H.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
JersyRepublican:
If this special treatment Palin is getting from conservatives keeps up then Romney probably will not run in 2012.
Nobody can run a campaign when the same rules don’t apply to all, think how impossible that would be.
July 8th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Troopergate turned out to be a scam. Same with the “bridge to nowhere” which both Obama and Biden voted for twice. It is easy for the Left to attack Palin simply because she’s American and defends everything America stands for. She has become the most abused political figure in modern history because she believes in America.