I just got finished listening to Sarah Palin do a half hour on Rush Limbaugh's show.
I thought she did pretty well.
Obviously,the interview was on friendly ground but I find that less biased than the hit jobs Katy Couric and Charlie Gibson did on her on the other direction, simply because it was live without any editing. And to be honest, Limbaugh has a great deal more integrity than those two 'journalists'.
Rather than deal with Oprah-style dirt or the 2008 campaign, Limbaugh's interview focused on politics and policy.
On the economy, Palin was outspoken about the need to do what has historically worked in bad economic times - lowering taxes on job creators and investment to put people back to work. Her views on ObamaCare are also well known and were articulated in a refreshingly straight forward way.
Palin and Limbaugh also spoke briefly about the idea of a third party ( she's against it) and attracting independents to vote for the GOP. To Governor Palin, the road there is to stand for principle and naturally attract independents, and she sees that as a coming trend, which should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with her style.
She also contrasted what she termed as the vigorous and healthy debate within the GOP with what she termed as the lock step mentality among the Democrats,where anyone who steps out of line is demonized. Frankly, I think that applies to some degree to both parties,but the difference is that in the GOP the debate tends more to range around principle and not to assume the sort of personal cast it frequently does onthe Left side of the spectrum.
On energy,Governor Palin shone. She effortlessly made the link between the energy issue and the national security issue, and referred to it as a crime that we're not utilizing the resources under our feet to enhance our own prosperity, create jobs and distance ourselves from catering to certain regimes. I couldn't agree with her more.
She also discussed increased and strict sanctions on Iran, especially of refined petroleum products as beginning steps in getting Iran's leaders to pay attention. There's no doubt in my mind that a President Palin would never countenance a nuclear armed Iran.
As you can imagine, I was disappointed that she appeared to embrace the standard conservative line on Afghanistan, calling for us to immediately send General McChrystal the troops he says he needs. I appreciate where she's coming from when she says about the Islamist terrorists 'you lose, we win', and the only place we disagree is on what winning looks like and where best to fight the battles.
She's obviously gotten a bit more polished as time has gone on, but she's also gotten a lot more effective in getting things across without losing her essential charm. Look for her to create some major waves in the future.
"If you want something said, look to a man. If you want something done, look to a woman!" - Baroness Margaret Thatcher
Just a quick question : does she explicitly support abolishing a specific Department or Agency or Ministry or Bureau -- by name ?
ReplyDelete--signed, the independent, generally libertarian dragon/dinosaur
Dunno, this was a half hour spot and I'm sure the book is written with a larger brush.
ReplyDeleteOn th eplus side, when she was in Alska on the State Energy Board she ended up causing it to be totally revamped and downsized.
She's definitely a small government type.
Thanks !
ReplyDeleteI definitely support her Alaska oil-drilling position. Dig away !
Anyway, I have an open mind re her.
d / d
Sarah Palin is the former Governor of Alaska. Right now she holds no political office nor does she hold a position of influence within the RNC. She is nothing more than a political pundit at this time. Nothing more and nothing less.
ReplyDeleteWhile I personally like her myself, I must admit to being a bit perplexed. Her enemies attribute powers to her she doesn't have and her strongest supporters attribute powers to her she doesn't have. In the case of her enemies, it might make sense. It makes the object of their contempt much easier to vilify. For her supporters, she is almost a cult personality figure or so it seems. This can be dangerous, as I see no way for her to possibly live up to what she is being billed as.
The same applies to Barack Obama. At the end of the day "the one" can never meet the expectations his supporters have and he has done nothing to tamp down the expectations either. At the very least, Ms. Palin needs to do something to lessen the expectations of her supporters. Her powers are strictly limited. In fact, politically her powers are not even formidable.
While I like her personally to some degree, I don't think she stands any chance to be elected to the Presidency nor does a ticket with her on it as VP have any chance of winning. Furthermore she has no chance of being elected to any office of any type.
Her biggest problem is she quit as Governor of Alaska in the middle of her term. Her opponent in any race for any public office will have a field day with this one. After all, if she quit in the middle of her term as Governor of Alaska, how can we be sure she won't quit again? Right now I don't see how she overcomes this.
While Ms. Palin is far from the ideal candidate, I do think she is the best that either party has to offer right now. As such, I would have no problem with her serving in a major role in the Government. The biggest hurdle as stated above is the fact that she quit in mid term as Governmor of Alaska and has yet to really give a good explanation for this that I'm aware of. How does she overcome this obstacle? I'd be interested in seeing any suggestions.