Much has been written why Palin both brings strength to the McCain ticket and is a gamble at the same time. Why then the growing wave of popular sentiment in her favor?
Various reasons, but one I think is that millions of Americans are simply tired of being lectured at by smug elites. Jetting Al Gore made tens of millions finger-pointing at us about our global warming. Obama’s America, apparently unlike Rev. Wright’s Trinity Church, is a cruel, downright mean and dysfunctional place. John Kerry’s United States is one of the half-educated in need of Ivy-League enlightenment and tutorials.
So along comes someone (unlike Biden’s vastly inflated middle-class biography) who really is from the working class. She likes it””and finds snowmobiling, hunting, fishing and living in small-town America not as a wasteful use of carbon-emitting fuels, cruelty to animals, gratuitous depletion of our resources, or proof of parochial yokelism. Instead it is a life of action in an often harsh natural landscape, where physical strength is married to intelligence to bring us food, fuel, and progress.
I will consider posting comments on this article which are submitted first by email to: KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.
From SCGM:
I admire her because even at my advanced age, I can relate.. I’d bet her daughter never gave her parents anywhere near the “grief”,
our eldest did. Running away, sneaking out of the house and then finally getting pregnant at 15 years old.
With the assistance and guidance, of our next door minister, she and her young man embarked on a truly rough road.
But, with lots of prayers, and her typical hard-headedness, she finally came to her senses. Divorced (as it was bound to be) of her first marriage, and with two small children she worked part-time, cleaning houses, as a secretary, in department stores (for the discount), got here GED, and went to college for 10 years for her Bachelors, two years later, a Master’s in Education, and now (with her Doctorate in Education) is Assistant Superintendent of a huge school system.
In the meantime, the rest of our family were not able to live even close because of my husband’s job.
Do not tell me there is no forgiveness! There is not only forgiveness but redemption. She and her husband are a wonderful Christian couple, and of course now her kids are giving them a bit of a fit, but nothing that with prayer they won’t grow out of.
Sarah Palin is going to be able to do what I couldn’t, be with her daughter during the tough times. Can you believe, I almost envy her?
From MB:
I feel like people see in Mrs. Palin a refreshing blast of honesty. Here we have a woman who lives and has lived what she is talking about, not talking about what she CAN do. That in itself is encouraging. She also has proven that she is pro life by doing the right thing. No abortion because of Down’s syndrome. As for the pregnancy of her daughter, not relevant, but it appears they are all doing what is right in that situation. If anyone tries to use that against her, I would challenge them to show me any community that doesn’t have the same problem. Yes, the daughter did wrong, but she has admitted it, and not compounded the wrong with abortion. Good on her. The whole family has my support until I am show they don’t deserve it.
From Tom Roberts:
I thought that Hanson’s article was the sort of news review that should have
been read at this site, so I was pleased that Kendall put it up. Hanson is a reasonable
sort, who is appalled by the current media feeding frenzy:
“It did not take a vicious Andrew Sullivan and the Daily Kos long, in despicable
fashion, to start directing our attention to pictures of the Palins’ sixteen-year-old
daughter, with the unhinged suggestion that she was really the mother of Sarah Palin’s
recent child-all this from liberal humanists who lecture the nation hourly about
Rovian politics.”
Note, most politicians have stayed away from this frenzy for good reason, and I
would not call the koskids politicians, as none of them are running for office anytime
soon.
Hanson seems to get the fact that this run of events says a great deal about the
participants in our political process, and whether they are qualified to even run
for dog catcher. In general, I’d agree with Hanson’s assessments, though
I’d also affirm Peggy Noonan’s appreciation of Obama’s observations
about children should be off limits as a class act (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122044753790594947.html?mod=todays_columnists).
Noonan’s article should be read on this subject as well.
But for a run up to Palin’s nomination, the Republican party could not have
asked for a better situation, despite the Palins paying the price of undeserved
notoriety. Or perhaps I should say, “the party that nominated John McCain”
could not ask for better, as the Republican party of, say, 2006, would never have
nominated either of these two people. Which is a good thing: a “change you
can believe in”, as you are seeing it in front of your eyes.
I sincerely hope that America will see how such “unqualified” candidates
as Theo. Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln might have a successor in Sarah Palin. In any case, she is going to make this election interesting.
Tom Roberts
Albuquerque, NM