Look here.
Palin and Captain Kirk mix it up. Palin is funny and at ease. I love her in this clip. Does it matter if she cannot quote Plato correctly if she can yuck it up with Shatner?
Have we entered an age where “intellectual” skills will not matter at all to most voters? Will being “serious” be a detriment after Obama?
I really want to know.
December 12th, 2009 | 1:50 am | #1
I think her conservativism is rather basic to her, she may not be able to give profound philosophical arguments for her beliefs but she seems to know what she believes. She had a down syndrome child, contrast to 80% of women who kill them through abortion. I will cut her some slack, but conservatives need to avoid a cult of personality that mimics what the Left has done with President Obama.
December 12th, 2009 | 7:13 am | #2
Her mix of seriousness (the recent Washington Post Op-Ed on “climate change”) and humor (as here) is incredibly powerful–esp. in light of the lies and smear campaign that has been relentless against her. The fact that she’s still standing, stronger than ever, with a winsomeness about her is a testimony far greater than any current pol that I can see. Don’t be so quick to dismiss her based upon some academic skill set requirement (that comes from where?)
Most important is for a president to have the right philosophy (check), the strength to hold to it (check) and the ability to surround herself with the right people (check, as evidenced by this hugely successful tour/speech/interview circuit).
She gets more impressive by the day.
December 12th, 2009 | 7:55 am | #3
Quote
“Have we entered an age where “intellectual” skills will not matter at all to most voters? Will being “serious” be a detriment after Obama?
I really want to know.”
Is that not what the techno gadgetry has down to the post generation baby boomers? We traverse a mindless sea of endless devices and vices I might add, that obscures a true Christ-centered world view vs. a Hollywood driven entertainment centered reality. The problem is, it is funny but not seriously funny aka Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, wow dude! Yow know what I mean? Other than that, she is trying to be funny-centered to garner the average aged voter in this country for the 2012 run, oops, is that not a movie also. Man what would we do without Hollywood, ah…Hollywood driven politicians. I am not condoning Palin I think she is witty and smart underneath that country girl persona. The big challenge for her will be to approach the centrist line and still cleave to her conservative values. Unfortunate that is were the mass guppies hang out in the middle. If you want to be somebody in a worldly atmosphere, especially politics, you reach across the aisle in front of the camera, now that is a detriment to Obama.
December 12th, 2009 | 2:23 pm | #4
God help us if you’re right, John.
December 12th, 2009 | 10:21 pm | #5
I find Sarah Palin endlessly facinating. Whatever she may lack in “intellectual skills” are more than compensated for by her good sense and intestinal fortitude.
The intellectual skills for which JMR pines so ardently are not necessarily a political asset. Too often the intellectual madarin is a practical incompetent, wedded to his ideas and incapable of learning from his mistakes. In that sense I suspect that Mr. Obama’s intellectual pretensions and inability to govern pragmatically will become a “serious” detriment to him.
Mrs. Palin has, as you note, quickly mastered the “new” media, in the process demonstrating the irrelevance of the “mainstream” media which hates everything she represents, and managed brilliant cameo on the Tonight Show. Watching the clip I was most impressed by the reception of the audience. No boos or hisses, but a near standing ovation from the sound of it, and then she and Shatner walked off arm in arm. No doubt the whole thing was scripted and rehersed, but it came off well to an international audience.
December 12th, 2009 | 11:39 pm | #6
Sad, reading this thread and the comments. I see that John Reynolds and most of the male commenters here have the same basic problem older, white men have consistently had with Palin: they simply can’t help but swoon. The truth can knock them between the eyes over and over and over and it won’t matter.
Sarah could start sacrificing squirrels on her front lawn on the shore of Lake Lucille, and these guys would work long into the night to find some way to put a positive spin on it.
Bottom line: Jesus tells us to value others more highly than oneself – a trait He constantly demonstrated. And, more importantly, Jesus calls us to truth – without excuse. Truth is supposed to matter. It is supposed to be what we base our thoughts, values, behavior and beliefs on. We are not to be children of lies; but children of the truth.
Sarah Palin is the single most dishonest politician on the national scene today. Her ability to lie is simply stunning. It seems to be only outdone in its incredulousness by folks like those who’ve posted here having the ability to ignore her lies and fawn about the way she delivered written remarks on a late night TV show.
There is an interesting op ed piece in Alaska’s largest newspaper today (Sun) written by Paul Jenkins, Alaska’s most well known conservative writer.
Here is part of his op ed. He is referencing a recent article about Palin by Clarence Page.
“To Page, she (Palin) is entertaining, funny, self-effacing, a woman in need of only a boffo speech to finally position herself on the national scene.
For many of us (meaning Alaskans and those who have done the hard work of facing facts about Sarah and responding in our heads and hearts accordingly), she is much, much more: delusional; paranoid; vindictive; bitter; polarizing; petty and more than a trifle pathological.”
Written by a dyed in the wool conservative, an accomplished Alaskan writer, a man who has known Sarah for years and years (and who used to refer to her as “the lovely Sarah P.”)
Used to. Until he saw, along with other Alaskans who were paying any attention, that Sarah is not a woman of honesty or integrity.
Please stop the fawning, gentlemen.
December 13th, 2009 | 12:31 am | #7
Sarah Palin is the single most dishonest politician on the national scene today.
If that bit of overstatement doesn’t pull the curtain back on this objective “comment,” you ain’t paying attention.
Wow. The single most. How could we miss that?
December 13th, 2009 | 1:41 am | #8
Truth Matters,
How you could read this blog and think I give Sarah a pass is beyond me. Even this post is more a worry than praise . . . yes?
JMNR
December 13th, 2009 | 2:16 am | #9
JMNR – it’s not the issue of giving Sarah a pass. It’s continuing to cover her as a potential respectful and responsible politician. She is not. The sooner Christians wake up and simply refuse to comment on her, the better for all of us.
Sarah is a celebrity. Great. May she be the most successful celebrity ever, anywhere. It is simply that there is an ever growing number us who are aware of the very real danger she poses should she decide to make a run in 2012.
Sarah is decisive beyond the pale. She has already exacerbated the deep chasm in the Republican Party. We need those who speak from positions of care and concern for the country and the party to do the hard work of rebuilding and reuniting us.
Sarah is extraordinarily divisive. And it is not a division based on ideas or ideals. It is a division based solely on the insatiable need she has to have attention focused on herself.
She becomes the “issue.” And her unawakened fans froth at the trough of imagining her some grand Joan of Arc, arriving in just a nick of time to right the wrongs.
But the first slate of wrongs Sarah should work on righting would be the extensive lies she has told over and over – most recently in her memoir.
Which brings me to your very poignant question, Mr. Dialectice: “How could we miss that (Sarah being the most dishonest politician on the national scene today)?”
Brilliant question. And I would behoove you to give it considerable consideration this holiday season when we contemplate the wonder of the Truth being made flesh and coming to dwell among us.
I think the “us” in the “among us” that He dwells with – He would like to have doing the hard and often painful job – of reviewing facts objectively so that what we believe as truth is indeed truth.
The extensive and growing list of dishonesties Sarah has spun in her relatively short-lived national political career has been detailed in numerous sites all over the web for those who have eyes to see.
December 13th, 2009 | 2:34 am | #10
“Sarah Palin is the single most dishonest politician on the national scene today.”
No way. Barack Obama has got her beat by a country mile.
December 13th, 2009 | 3:40 am | #11
Again, Truth Unites and Divides – while I am certainly no fan of the President – I do pray for him, his family and his Cabinet; and no, I don’t believe he has anywhere near the extensive list of blatant-as-you-please lies that Mrs. Palin has spun.
That is what is dangerous about Sarah – she lies with an abandon that is best dissected by those with degrees in psychiatry and other related fields.
Much as certain visitors to First Things may enjoy Sarah as a pop culture personality, it would be exhausting and dangerous to have her, or anyone else like her (who handles recognized reality so subjectively), anywhere near a seat of real power.
Enjoy Sarah and her unpredictable, mavericky, fascinating life. But please, let’s not discuss her as a potential leader of our great nation.
December 13th, 2009 | 3:53 am | #12
Reynolds – I have gone back and read your post, short though it was, the headline with “Palin” and “politico” in the same breath is what gave me initial pause.
Re: the three questions you pose –
1) Yes. It matters.
2) Goodness, I certainly hope not.
3) Goodness, I certainly hope not.
(Do you see: Sarah works wonderfully as a late night celebrity, merely having to read lines someone else wrote for her. You yourself said you “love her” in this clip. Perfect. Let’s love her as an unpredictable celebrity who we can follow with the interest normally applied to say, a Taylor Swift by the ‘tweens of the nation. Let’s ooh and ahh when she makes $200,000 for giving a 30 minute speech to a group at a Canadian hospital in April and bat our eyes at her and marvel when she addresses the national bowling convention in Vegas in June. I imagine she will be “funny and at ease” in both those venues, where again, she will read what another has written for her. We can love her in her new celebrity life and then we can get back to the business of asking hard questions to the Jindals, Gingrichs, Romneys, Pawlentys, Thunes, and Cantors of the nation.)
December 13th, 2009 | 8:58 am | #13
Lesson: Do not feed DNC trolls. This is clearly someone dispatched to do mischief on behalf of those who fear Sarah Palin (the phoney monicker “truthmatters” is another obvious giveaway). Well trained in rhetoric, but not in substance. Notice the slander “lies” without one shred of backup.
The jig was up with the initial, overheated blather. Expect more of this stuff as Palin’s popularity rises.
December 13th, 2009 | 12:46 pm | #14
Dear Johnny – I am a Republican (not that I think that matters necessarily); a business owner, a parent, and an Alaskan. But more than any of that, I am a follower and friend of the Baby whose birth we celebrate this month.
Like thousands of Alaskans, I know Sarah and have known her for years (Alaska is rightly called a small town).
Sarah is held with such disregard in our State right now that later today when she has her last book signing at Elemendorf AFB, it will be an event closed to the public.
I was out and about in a public venue a couple weeks back and Sarah showed up (one of the first times she’d been seen in public since she resigned.) There were about thirty people present. Everyone looked up when she entered and then went right back to the conversations they had been having before. Finally one person went over to say hello.
While she can razzle and dazzle the rest of the country, those of us who love and live in Alaska are now left with the fiscal nightmare she left our state in (businesses are struggling due to her onerous tax increases on the oil industry which drove them out of state. She signed into law the largest tax increases on the oil industry anywhere on the planet. They’ve packed up and left for friendlier climes.)
But I digress because if it were just her tax increases, increasing the AK administration by 23% while she was in office for 2 1/2 years, etc., then that would just be a matter of someone who ran as a fiscal conservative governing as a liberal. Unfortunate but oh well.
Sarah is not an honest individual.
And really – nothing more needs to be said. Or, rather, nothing more should need to be said – esp. on a site that promotes a spirited debate about religion and public policy.
Perhaps you think by calling me a democrat and a troll it will infuriate me enough to silence. But people who love our great nation and who know democracies don’t work when leaders aren’t honest will understand the importance of speaking out.
December 14th, 2009 | 11:19 pm | #15
The mice may “roar,” but it’s drowned out by the sound of a million copies sold, and counting.
December 15th, 2009 | 2:51 am | #16
I’ll pray for you, Johnny, that you will have a conscience more smitten with what is right than with a passing commericial statistic.
December 15th, 2009 | 7:17 am | #17
Thanks for the prayers. Always appreciated. Why don’t you pray for Sarah Palin while you’re at it?
December 15th, 2009 | 1:43 pm | #18
I do pray for Sarah – not as frequently now that she no longer governs my fair state. I pray that Sarah would somehow, someway have a collision with her conscience so that she would understand how the constant promoting of herself has negative consequences in the lives of others – starting most notably with her children.
I believe this to be the root of Sarah’s challenge. Her conscience doesn’t function the way God designed the human conscience to function. That is what has allowed her to spin one elaborate fabrication after another and to seemingly just not care, or to attack, with great vitriol, those who point out obvious duplicities in her policies, conduct and speeches.
I want to hope, Johnny, that if you or I or virtually anyone else were to engage in the kind and frequency of blatant dishonesties for which Sarah is known, that we would be driven mad by a guilty conscience.
That is why we have a conscience in the first place, no?
So yes, I pray for Sarah, though not as much as I offer prayers for Piper, Willow and Bristol because they for sure didn’t ask for any of this. I mean on that one point alone – does it not in anyway strike you as wrong that Sarah would have traipsed Bristol onto a stage in Ohio when she was first introduced as the VP nominee, knowing B was 5 months pregnant and that she would become the world’s most infamous unwed, pregnant teenage mom?
Does that do anything to you, Johnny? It’s okay to do that to one’s children? B was flown to Ohio under the guise the family was celebrating Todd and Sarah’s anniversary; Todd and the children were driven to a hotel and a man she didn’t know (Steve Schmidt) told her that her mother would be running as VP nominee on the Republican ticket. Did Bristol’s privacy or opinion matter? No. Did either Todd or Sarah have the parental decency to sit down with B privately to inform her of this life altering choice? No.
Maybe that’s okay with you. To me, it tells me everything I need to know – but again, I’ve lived years watching Sarah do similar things to other people so it wasn’t a surprise (although the schtick with B did take the cake). I found it still to be incredulous, but little she does surprises me anymore.
I pray for the Holy Spirit to heal and correct and renew Sarah’s conscience, because until that happens, these lying escapades and mistreatment of others will continue unabated.
Do I ever want her to hold a governmental position of power?
No.
Do I think it would be dangerous for the nation if she were to ever be elected or appointed to such a position.
Yes.
So, you’re right, let’s toast her grand ghost -written book success and wait with bemusement for her next mavericky move. She’s wanted to be a wealthy celebrity and now she is one. Good for her. But when it comes to ideas, ideals, vision and prudence, we would be wise, and not foolhardy, to look elsewhere.
—and you’re welcome for the prayers; certainly my pleasure.
December 15th, 2009 | 5:49 pm | #19
I believe this to be the root of Sarah’s challenge. Her conscience doesn’t function the way God designed the human conscience to function.
Wow, I’m at a disadvantage here. I don’t have the godlike ability to look into another person’s conscience in order to discern if it’s running the way God designed it. Wish I did. I could go around and throw monkey wrenches all over the place.
Nor have I spoken to Bristol, as you obviously have, to determine how much damage her mother has done to her.
What I do know is that her son, Track, serving honorably in the military, called his mom from Iraq during all the slanders and told her, “Don’t let the jerks get you down!”
But he’s probably just as deluded and damaged as the rest of the family. You can tell us this, right? You have seen into their consciences, yes? Or is it only Sarah’s?
December 16th, 2009 | 4:34 am | #20
1. Track did serve honorably in the military and we were all thankful and grateful for his service. It has been quite a turn around for him since his run in with the law a couple years ago when, on a November morning, Valley residents received early morning phone call from the district that school was canceled for the thousands of valley school children due to vandals having cut the break lines on a number of school buses. When the story came out, it was Track and a couple of his buddies who had committed the crime. Sarah worked overtime to have the state troopers bury this info b/c she had just begun her run for governor and you know, having it be public knowledge that one’s child has just put bus driver’s lives and school children’s lives at risk by cutting break lines might not line up so well with the “involved parent” persona.
But Track seems to be doing better and should be able, in the next couple of months, to move into his brand new, skies-the-limit apartment which is part of Sarah’s multi million dollar new construction that she feverishly worked on her last few months as our governor (she had to resign before ground breaking on the project b/c she needed her 5 million dollar advance to fund it). You know, just small, minor details shouted out by poor Evangel’s inhouse “mouse” (have no fear, after this tired posting, I will scurry along to other sites that aren’t so offended with annoying things like the truth).
2. Yeah. Bummer for you that you don’t live here in Alaska because otherwise you could run into Bris and she could tell you first hand how absolutely demoralized and vulnerable she felt last fall and since. But you don’t want to take my word for it. (Heavens. Could someone just buy a mousetrap and be done with it?) And apparently you lack the base level amount of empathy required to try and place yourself in Bristol’s shoes, if even for a moment, and contemplate how it would feel to know the entire country and, heck, planet, now knows you were hanging out with your boyfriend at your family’s home, unattended for hours on end (mom was busy in Juneau running the state and dad was busy in Prudhoe pumping oil). So what is Bristol supposed to do with that – with all that scrutiny and shame and regret and anger and… oh right. It doesn’t matter.
And wow. I’m going to have to go ahead and quote you, “I’m at a disadvantage here,” because I know nothing of you and your spiritual background or journey so I’m not quite sure where the basis for your next sentence comes from. But let me see if I can’t help you out. You can breathe easy: it doesn’t require a “godlike ability” to look into another person’s conscience to discern if it’s running the way God designed it to. There’s this really cool portion of holy text (see – here comes my distinct disadvantage – I don’t know your opinion of holy text, but you’re about to find out a little of mine) wherein believers are charged to judge a person by the fruit of his/her life; and not the “fruit” as described by FOX news pundits. This helps us know how to intercede for others; whether they are people we should be in close relationship or not, etc. If we lose, or never develop, the ability to judge the fruit of another’s life, than it becomes easy to follow leaders who can lead one down dangerous and pit laden pathways.
This charge – to be wise and judge the fruit of our own lives as well as the fruit of others – esp those who would long to function as our leaders; coupled with the insight that God “desires truth in the (our) inward parts,” should paint a pretty clear picture of the fact that God isn’t real happy with chronic lying.
But hey. What do I know. Maybe in your world view I’m way out on a limb with this revelation (ie. God’s not into lying. He sure does love and will forgive the liar but He actually does have a standard and an opinion on the basic necessity of truth-telling).
But I guess the good news for you in all of this is that you don’t have to have the “godlike ability to ‘see’ another’s conscience.” All you need is to assume the responsibility of doing the hard work of weighing whether another has engaged in long term, systemic deception (on the issue of truth telling, that is).
The facts, as have been noted on an earlier response, are all over the web for those who would rather deal with the disappointment of learning things they don’t want to accept; than those who will attempt to demoralize the messenger because they so loathe the message.
3. I did not infer that the family was deluded. Has it been a damaging year for the kids? It’s been very hard. Willow had such a difficult time last year she has transferred out of the high school her mother made famous, to attend another high school in the area; Bristol keeps as low a profile as she can; Todd is busy overseeing the construction of the “Lake Lucille Monstrosity” as the building has been referred to in the Valley (turns out five mil and all the other $ that fervent fans have forked out the nation over, can result in some rather swanky specs)
Sarah? Last seen she was off to Hawaii for some much needed R and R after having been lauded by her fans across 26 states the past month.
(But the funniest thing I read all day isn’t, in fact, what Sarah’s ghost writer penned in response to Arnold S’s chastising her for her Copenhagen remarks – the ‘how green thou art’ remark. So funny. It will be great one day to learn who this witty writer is. The funniest thing was a report in the Salt Lake City paper about the hairdresser who was called last minute to attend the lovely locks at Sarah’s hotel before her Costco signing in SLC. The beautician was carefully prepped before her last minute task began with the directive, “Do not speak to her unless she speaks to you first.”
So Sarah. It’s going to be a riot around Alaska’s water coolers tomorrow when we regale ourselves with this latest Palinism. And then the poor working bloke was stiffed her pay, had to pay the valet out of her own pocket, and when she contacted Sarah’s staff – instead of a heartfelt apology and a great tip, was told to submit an invoice. Lovely. Hey, welcome to Sarah’s world. You, from your postings, obviously desire to be a part of it.)
And one final remark. It appears you clearly want the last word. Fair enough. I won’t be back and am sure you’ll conclude it was good riddance.
On a more serious note, here’s hoping you and yours have a really great holiday.
December 16th, 2009 | 9:34 am | #21
I might have been more convinced by a moderate tone with citations and hard facts, but the bile and slander here has been the more telling. I mean, a little googling got to the source of the hate-rumor about Track Palin…a left wing radio station. Hater central, complete with its “unamed source.” And so on.
But far be it from me to get between a man’s hatred and his target — and his target’s family. This last comment speaks for itself, and if anyone can “look into q conscience” based on text alone, perhaps this is will serve as Exhibit A.
What Sarah Palin has had to endure since stepping onto the national stage is more than ANY politician of any stripe in any era. Non-stop hatred. That she still stands strong and winsome is simply amazing, and is turning her political fortunes around.
Let the hatred continue. A majority of the American people are watching. They are fair. They see the spew, then see the woman, and guess what? They begin to admire her all the more.
December 16th, 2009 | 12:47 pm | #22
I assume what this poster is referring to is the December 6, 2005 Frontiersman article. Anyone wondering about the Track matter should talk to the young man’s family who was 18 and who is named in the article. He took the heat for the other three when the incident occurred. His family decided to speak out about Track’s involvement when they experienced how the Palins tried to avoid any complicity.
December 16th, 2009 | 2:07 pm | #23
Way to go, fellas. You must be referring to Deryck Harris, who was 18 at the time. Half a minute of Googling got me to the following NY Daily News report.
“Track wasn’t with me. Track had nothing to do with it,” participant Deryck Harris, 20, said Wednesday in an exclusive interview.
Citing an anonymous judicial source, the Anchorage radio station 1080 KUDO was the first to report last week that Track Palin was the unidentified 16-year-old delinquent who not only trashed the buses but also swiped the bottle of alcohol that fueled the teen rampage.
“I was friends with him. We hung out. But he wasn’t there,” Harris said, describing the incident as a senior prank gone awry. “It was my high school mistake. It was a really bad choice. I’ve paid my restitution.”
Anyone reading this comment thread is really getting the picture now.
December 16th, 2009 | 5:15 pm | #24
Crazy, all of it
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