Sarah in Salina

Before her keynote address, the Chamber of Commerce in Salina, Kan. showed a 5-6 minute video about local businesses. Many in the audience, and even folks up on the stage with Sarah at the head table, tuned out the video and were chatting. People were by and large ignoring the video on the large screen. But not Sarah. Sarah cranked her neck to see every second of the video. I watched her. Her eyes remained on the video, and she took notes about some of the people in it. Who else would give a darn? I mean the people in that video weren’t famous — they were just local business owners; some of them owned larger corporations. But it’s not like Salina, Kan. is critical to Sarah’s political future. Kansas always votes Republican for president. Yet, she gave people the respect of listening to their stories. If I were someone featured in that video I would have been impressed. Because Sarah DOES listen. She DOES care. We see it over and over and over again. That’s someone I would love to see representing the people in DC."

Sarah Palin - Yes She Can

I just got back from hearing Sarah Palin speak to a crowd of 6,000 enthusiastic supporters in what was proudly billed as the largest Chamber of Commerce dinner ever. There have been lots of reports on this Salina, Kan.-speech already, but sufficeth to say it was classic Sarah – autobiographical, authentic, emotional, and a tasty appetizer before what will undoubtedly be her Tea Party main course tonight.

Afterward I had the delightful experience of sharing a late Italian meal with two other Conservatives4Palin posters (and a friend of a C4Per) all of whom I’d never met until Friday. It turned out I was the only non-attorney at the table. Ha! I want to thank “A” and “AlwaysFiredUp” for an incredibly stimulating conversation where I walked away feeling that one thing was certain: Sarah will become president – if we who love her refuse to give up on her.

And, why is it so hard (given the current mood of the country) to imagine that she could win in 2012? (“A” predicts Sarah will cruise to a 49-50-state blowout. And, I have to trust him because he’s been following her career since 2006 and is a very analytical guy).

It strikes me that many of us Sarah Palin supporters (myself included) float between hope and fear: we adore Sarah and would love to see her run for president (we’d walk across hot broken glass for her), but we fear she could not win. Even the most ardent Sarah fans suffer from this failure of confidence. We believe the enemy propaganda: that her enemies are stronger than her -- and stronger than us.

I talked with a lady while waiting in the frigid cold for the shuttle bus Friday night and she was truly scared for Sarah: “I love Sarah but I hope she doesn't run for president. I don’t want her to go through what they’ll throw at her again. And I don’t think the media will let her win.”

Others think the GOP might be Sarah's insurmountable obstacle: AlwaysFiredUp thinks every Republican with a pulse will be vying to run against what she believes could be a severely weakened Obama, and the crowded field may be to Sarah's disadvantage. My aunt in Utah is similarly pessimistic: “I love Sarah, but the Republicans won’t let her win.” To which I replied: "Well, they still have to let people vote, you know.”

Granted, there will be opposition in the media and the party, but why should we settle for anything LESS THAN SARAH if that’s who we want? If we give up on her before she’s even started, how WILL she ever win?

This reminds me of what the Hillbuzz guys call the “Eyeore Republicans.” We give up too easy. I admit myself that I am too quick to believe negative propaganda. (Hey, I’m a Recovering Democrat with occasionally eyeore syndrome). I have too little faith sometimes in our side, and too much fear of the other side. I lose focus. I had to take six months off from politics after the election in ’08 I was so depressed.

But here’s the thing: We need Sarah.

And if some hater tries to tell you: well, GEE, she was mayor of a town of 9,000 – that’s smaller than the medium-sized suburb you live in. And she was only governor of Alaska, the fourth-least populated state in America. You tell them: Local government governs best. Mention the corruption in some of the larger cities and ask them which large-city mayor or large-state governor they’d rather have as president.

Sarah has a vision of limited government that is grounded in her experience at the local and state level. And she makes this clear every time she talks. In the 35-minute speech last night she displayed what I see as an innate libertarianism – perhaps her strongest expressions of it to date. Two-thirds of her address assailed the evils of government interference – not just in over-taxing, but also over-regulating. She drew the sharpest connection yet between government overstepping its bounds and the corruption and cronyism that accompany government largess. She invoked the Constitution, namely, the 10th Amendment, in reminding us that the best government is local. “The Feds need to keep their hands out of state business. We can’t legislate a favorable economic climate from Washington. It needs to be started at the local level,” she said.

I got a kick out of a couple of her anecdotes that I hadn’t heard before: she said some on the Wasilla council wanted to regulate whether businesses could have flashing signs. Another time they wanted to prevent the local barber pole from spinning. “We didn’t even have a barber shop with a barber pole, but people wanted rules to regulate it if we ever got one,” she laughed. She voted against both measures, opting to let people (and business owners) “think for themselves.”

(She didn’t mention it in the speech, but this reminded me of the fact that Sarah also nixed her council’s idea to close the Wasilla bars earlier than the customary 3 a.m., perhaps to the disappointment of the tee-totaling crowd.)The point is: Who are we going to trust to cut government? Why not Sarah?

As mayor, her focus was on cutting taxes on small business and providing the core infrastructure (sewer and roads) that were truly needed, the city services that would allow business development to expand.

As governor, she followed a similar “keep it simple pattern” pattern, laying out four keys for her state government:

1) Live within means
2) Develop energy sources
3) Provide core services
4) Save for a rainy day.

”It was not always the easy path,” she said. “I had to butt heads with the legislature. And the media didn’t always agree with me. Some things never change.”

The bottom line: everywhere Sarah has gone, the conditions have improved: her city, her state, (her nation?) She left them better than she found them. And it must be so frustrating (indeed the anguish shows in her demeanor) when she looks at the horrific abuses going on at the federal level. As she turned her attention to the national level in her speech, she spoke loathingly of TARP, quoting Rep. Paul Ryan that the TARP has morphed into “crony capitalism of the worst kind.”

(Incidentally, Ryan was the only Republican she mentioned by name in her whole speech, except for thanking Kansas Congressman Jerry Moran for introducing her.)

The foundation for a better future isn’t that complicated. And the answers aren’t all found in D.C. or in the highly populated cities or states – where big government lives.

Small-town Sarah Palin would be an unlikely president, to be sure. But her story would be no more unlikely than the story of America itself: a bunch of ragtag patriots in sparsely populated colonies taking on the British Empire.

And as “A” reminded me: Sarah's already conquered similar mountains on a "smaller" level. She should never have become governor. Odds were not in her favor. You just don’t take on the sitting governor of your own party in a primary. And if you somehow win the primary, well, you just don’t defeat a popular former Democratic governor who has the media on his side. You just don’t do it.

Unless you’re Sarah Palin. Yes, she can.

Palin Addiction

I think Sarah Palin has created two new cottage industries. Talk about stimulating the economy! Sarah has simultaneously inspired a legion of supporters to create their own blogs, and sell Palin merchandise - as well as inspiring her detractors to do the same thing, in an effort to bring her down.

Tonight I visited a detrator blog called Palinsgate and they follow every so-called conspiracy committed by the famous governor. These people are convinced Sarah did not give birth to her Down Syndrome child, and spend hour upon hour going over video and photographs from the Spring of 2008 to try to catch her without a baby "bump" ... It's so pathetic.

Now they are taking pictures of a supposed new addition the Palins are making to their home in Wasilla on the shores of Lake Lucille. These people obviously had someone in a seaplane fly over the Palin's home and snap these shots like some kind of enemy intel.

Sarah may be building a compound to house her staff as she gears up for her presidential bid. That's my HOPE anyway. And I thank the detractors for being so obsessed about Sarah's every move to bring us the story! Ha!

I have been addicted to Sarah ever since she was announced as John McCAin's running mate 8/29/08 ... I took about 6-7 months off after the election. I was so crushed.

But then after Sarah resigned I began following her again - intensely. It's become such an addition that I'm worried it's taking over my LIFE! I spend most of my time on www.conservatives4palin.com as well as Governor Palin's Facebook page. Since I started following her page in mid-July, it's grown by nearly 300,000 supporters. She's closing in on 1 million fans - a wonderful milestone. We can also say: 1 million potential campaign volunteers :-)

Viva Sarah!

Republicans, Democrats and Race

Americans, in general, don't know their history. But it's not really our fault. For the most part, we're taught history by teachers with a liberal agenda and that bias is reinforced by a liberal media and entertainment complex. And it's hard enough to remember REAL history, let alone distorted history.

Take for instance the common "meme" that Republicans are racist, that somehow the GOP INVENTED racism, and was the sole cause of its tragic consequences. I actually believed that as a liberal Democrat. How wrong I was ...

What I didn't realize, because it's never really taught or broadcast: Democrats actually are the party of racism. Democrats practiced slavery, and fought to keep slavery. Democrats fought the 14th and 15th Amendments that gave blacks rights as citizens. Democrats enacted Jim Crow laws that segregated the South. Democrats fought integration. A MAJORITY of Democrats fought the Civil Rights Acts in the 1960s. Were it not for Republican support, pro-civil-rights Democrats would not have been able pass this legislation. For more than 100 years, blacks had always aligned with the Republican party, the party of Lincoln, the party of emanicpation, the party of Frederick Douglass.

So, where did Democrats become the sole champion of civil rights and Republicans began being tarred as bigots?

It obviously began after the tumultuous 60s, and the social revolution that occurred then. Republicans resisted the changes occurring with the student movements that became increasingly radical and self-destructive. These were not movements FOR expanded rights, these were movements AGAINST the established order, against anything deemed traditional, including moral and political values. Hence, we see the birth of the anti-war movement, the sexual revolution, and the environmental movement. We also saw women burning their bras and the rise of the radical Black Panthers and other far-left minority groups. I was just a child, but I heard about all this later.

So, Republicans who stood for traditional conservative values were seen as impediments to racial (and gender) progress. Not because they opposed rights for blacks and women (they did not) but because they opposed the radical agenda of fringe social groups.

Where did the old Democratic racists go? Some of them branched off into third parties. Some became Republicans. Many remained in the Democratic party.

But the Democratic party, through its promotion of social welfare, was able to convince blacks that they were better off as Democrats. Where has that gotten them the past 40 years? Has welfare achieved ANYTHING for blacks? What about the breakdown of the black family? Isn't that directly a result of government handouts? What about the collapse of inner cities and the despicable lack of quality education in many inner city schools? Doesn't that trace to liberal corruption in local government and the complete domination of the teachers' unions over education?

Are there bad Republicans out there? Sure. Are there racists in the Republican party? Unquestionably. But is the Republican Party the party of racism? Absolutely not. This is the party that judges people as individuals. This is the party of Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King.

We Republicans (and I'm proud to count myself a member now) need to do a much better job enlightening the public about our proud tradition. We need to remind people that two Republican presidents did more for blacks in this country than all the Democrats combined: Eisenhower, in addition to appointing pro-civil-rights judges, enforced Brown v. Board of Education, standing up to Democrat governors, to integrate Southern schools, which laid the groundwork for the civil rights laws of the 1960s.

And Abraham Lincoln paid the ultimate price: a martyr for freeing the slaves.

We must remember our heroes. We must tell their stories.

The Anti-Palins and Classism

Liberals (and even some Republicans) are obsessed with destroying Sarah Palin. I've never seen such hatred for another human being. They claim that we on the right are racist for opposing Obama (forgetting that we also opposed Clinton's liberal policies) but they can't see their own misogyny against Sarah Palin.

With personal insults about Sarah being a bimbo, and questioning her intelligence and her mothering skills. Last I checked the Kennedy kids got into a boatload of trouble (drugs, rape, arrests) but Kennedys are never called bad parents. Obama has made TONS of gaffes, including his insults of police officers, lies about doctors, huge mistakes on how many people died in tornadoes .... but he is never called unintelligent.

These attacks on Sarah Palin represent blatant classism. Sarah Palin doesn't hail from the Ivory Tower elite. So she is villified. If you are so much smarter than her (or more "serious" about politics), I challenge anyone to simply do what Sarah did. Get elected two terms as mayor of your town.

Then, just as your political star is rising, blow the whistle on corruption in your own party at the highest level of state government. Run for governor against an incumbent from your own party and win. Then get picked to run as vice president. John McCain's staff said the reason they went with Sarah instead of Tim Pawlenty was in part because of her foreign policy instincts and her answers to foreign policy questions. So, now these same moderate Republicans who picked Sarah are trashing her to cover their own failures?Sarah is a rising star. She has the right instincts on America's allies -- and our enemies. She is willing to stand up to the Chinese on human rights, and question our ridiculous bans on drilling our own oil. And she has devoted supporters -- including PUMAS -- and that is what terrifies the Lefties.

Conservatives4Congress?

Everywhere you go in the conservative blogosphere people are talking about the 2010 elections. And rightly so. The conservative grassroots movement has been awakened, and we are committed to helping elect conservatives to Congress in next year's critical mid-term elections.

But where can we go to get information on all the candidates in the hot races? We certainly don't trust the national fringe media. Furthermore, many times national media cannot devote the airtime to covering all the races that matter. The need for critical support in close races

What if we had a clearinghouse to feed information from local news reports and to keep track of polling data?

What if we had a website similar to Conservatives4Palin?

I'm interested in starting a sister site for C4P called Conservatives4Congress ... I have the web domain. I have the ideas. But I don't have technical skill yet.

Let me know if you're interested in helping me!

Sarah Palin

I first heard about Sarah Palin in the summer of 2008. Her name was mentioned in conservative blogs and on Townhall.com as a possible VP contender. I was immediately interested, but it wasn't until Aug. 29, 2008, that my world changed forever.

My husband and I heard news on the radio that morning that Sarah Palin shortly would be announced as John McCain's running mate. I was shocked and thrilled. I started jumping around my house and turned on the TV.

We sat on our living room couch watching Sarah Palin give her announcement speech in Dayton, Ohio. It was pure joy. She thanked Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro for helping pave the way! She said the women of America aren't done yet. She spoke of fiscal restraint. She spoke of a ship in the harbor being safe, but that's not what ships are built for. She also spoke of having a servant's heart, and getting into government for the right reasons.

From that day on, I have been a Palin Zombie! I've blogged about her on the various websites, defended her from detractors, and pretty much given up housework to read everything I can about her! I spent most of my time on the Hillary Clinton Forum last fall where surprise, surprise, hundreds of other Democrats and former Democrats supported Sarah Palin.

I think Sarah would make a wonderful president. She's a mom. And more than that, she entered government service for the right reasons. We need her leadership, her integrity and her vision in Washington, D.C.