Governor Sarah Palin had a few things to say to the media on her first day back on the job back in Alaska...about leakers, the lack of journalistic standards and what she learned on the campaign trail..things start to heat up at about 1:45.
What I'd like to see from Governor Palin is a couple of years spent appearing on talk radio, FOX and speaking at conservative forums while building her organization and defining herself in her own terms without the heavy hand of McCain campaign 'handlers'. If she does that, she'll have a nice headwind into 2012.
And that's pretty much what Reagan did between 1976 and 1980.
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I had a laugh at your last line. It wasn't what Reagan did between 1976 & 1980 which mattered ; it was what he did in 1976 to Ford in the primaries which mattered (I remember 1976 vividly! Ford had to battle back from, what?, 30 points down at 1 point), & the person Reagan's Southern supporters (the Dixiecrats) helped to elect (the abominable Jimmy Carter) which mattered. The Dixiecrats went from delivering the Solid South to Carter in 1976, to being Dixiecans in 1980 & delivering the Solid South to a former Democrat named Reagan. For your strategy to succeed, Obama would have to be another Carter ; however, he might turn out to be a Clinton. I recall how the GOP, after the 1994 mid-term elections, mistakenly thought that the 1996 Presidential election was going to be a cake-walk. Another thing : if Governor Palin spends 'a couple of years ... on talk radio, FOX and speaking at conservative forums', as you suggest, won't that be tantamount to 'preaching to the choir'? She would have to carry that constituency anyway. To win, she would have to reach a lot of non-partisans which don't visit those islands (though I think FOX News Channel is neat in non-election years). Please tell us more re Palin. What are her positions on specific issues? Would she abolish any specific department, agency, ministry, bureau? I do not follow vice-presidential candidates in election years. (I only look closely at the top of the ticket.) If, though, she is a serious candidate for the GOP Presidential nominee, as you clearly wish, I'm willing to listen to arguments pro & con. I am, after all, one of those swing voters with no partisan home which both major monopoly parties scurry & scamper after desperately in general election years. PS, am I the last person left on Earth to defend Gerald Ford? I realise that there must be a lot of young people rolling their eyes re this ancient history, but, surely, there must be some old-timers out there which remember & care. Thanks, ciao!
Hello Anonymous 7:39,
I disagree with your assessment of Ronald Reagan, to say the least.
He had spent years speaking around the country, letting people get to know him and his ideas politically.
Gerald Ford lost not because of th eprimary or because of th epeople you snidely refer to as 'dixiecrats' but because he pardoned Richard Nixon, a singularly decent act for which he was punished by the electorate. In the wake of Watergate, I'm convinced Mickey Mouse could have run as a Democrat and gotten elected.
BTW, I totally agree with your assessment of Gerald Ford,one of our most underated presidents...especially considering the lunatics he had to deal with in the post-Watergate Democrat dominated Congress, a number of whom are unfortunately still polluting the halls of government.
Gerald Ford took the nation out of the polarization the press created out of the Watergate soap opera and restored our country's faith in our democratic institutions. He inherently di dth eright things, even though it cost him considerable ridicule an dultimately his political career, and we owe him a debt of gratitude.
As for Governor Palin, if you don't have a sense of her stance on the issues, you haven't been paying attention. I advise you to look at her record. She's essentially a small government low taxes fiscal conservative and a populist with working class roots who negotiated a better slice of the pie for Alaska's people from the oil and gas companies ( Alaska's residents get an annual dividend check from this source)returned a budget surplus to the people it came from and is an innovater increating new infrastructure to continue to exploit Alaska's energy resources.
She favors energy independence for America and has anintuimate knowledge of this issue,and is one of the few governors in America who actually has experience dealing directly with entities of foreign governments, and she's extremely intelligent, honest and capable...as well as being a fighter. I can vouch for this personally.
Don't be misled in the least by the way she's been characterized by the dinosaur media or Saturday Night Live. The elan with whcih she's handled the pressure of the vicious attacks on herself and her family ought to clue you in to something about her basic character.People will continue to underestimate her, but they make a major error in doing so.
Regards,
ff
Speaking of Mickey Mouse, the Democrats could have run him as their Presidential candidate this Presidential election cycle and he would have goten at least 60& of the vote. Any human who ran on the Democrat ticket against a Republican should have gotten at least 70% percent of the vote and yet it appears Obama is only goint to get about 54% of the vote.
What this suggests is that the voting public is less than comfortable with Obama or his positions. He woudl be wise to keep this in mind as he leads. If he does not, he will likely have a short and unsuccessful presidency. I want him to be successful. So I hope he keeps this in mind.
actually 52%
Actually, I knew all of that stuff re Alaska from newspaper-reading. I was enquiring re her 'federal' positions ( I apologise for not being clearer): would she abolish anything at the 'federal' level? Any department, agency, ministry, bureau? (Sorry, I have this pesky libertarian & constitutional vein which runs through me & makes me ask impudent questions.) You mentioned SNL : the last time I watched SNL was during the Gerald Ford years & very briefly at that. & do you know what made me drop it? : you guessed it, the repetitively silly, patronising Chevy Chase impersonations of Gerald Ford! I didn't even know that that show was still on. I've run across it intermittently, of course, whilst travelling across the country over the span of years, but, having no interest whatsoever in the impersonation of politicians, (which I take it has been the main-stay for the show for all of these years,) I simply turned it off. It shows how little television I watch! I gave up on New-York network evening news concurrently & settled for newspapers. So, you don't have to worry re TV's influence on my interpretation of Palin! This is an old codger signing out. Thanks.
Anonymous,
Getting a federal program abolished of the Government's own free will would be next to impossible, however, I may have good news for you on this front. Given our massive deficit, it seems more likely than not that the Government will be forced cut programs wholesale in the coming years. At least this is a "silver lining" of sorts.
Freedom Fighter,
You write "actually 52%." By this I take it you mean that Obama got 52% of the vote. In addition to this, as I recall, the Democrats only had to defend 12 seats and the Republicans 21. As badly as Republicans performed, the Democrats should have captured at least 18 of those seats with only a minimum of effort at campaigning. As it was they spent massive amounts of money and time campaigning and were only able to pick eight and maybe nine seats. Of course nine seats would give them a filibuster proof majority.
The point is is would seemt he voting public is less than comfortable with the positions held by the Democrats. For the sake of the country, I hope they leep this in mind while governing. If they don't, they will fail and the country will fail. America really cannot afford failed leadership at this time.
Ah, but, b poster, the GOP, when they held both houses, could have 'zero-lined' budgetary items. They could have written zero next to some government entities. It's not as if Bush ever used his veto pen against the Republicans on monetary bills.
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