Sarah Palin is “some dummy”
By Ted Belman
What’s wrong with Sarah Palin, we are told, is that she is a dummy. In the words of the late great Winston Churchill, “Some dummy”.
When she, on short notice, announced she was retiring from her job as Governor, her admirers were all too quick to say that she was making a mistake. “Some mistake”. And detractors called it her swan song.
In less than six weeks she has taken over from all the elected Republicans, the role of government watchdog. She has assumed the role of a government in waiting and all Republicans are riding her coat tails.
From a very small perch on Twitter and Facebook, her messages take off and carom and careen throughout America.
As I reported in “Palin is just beginning to fight - and win”, she knocked the legs out from under Obamacare with her “death panel” charge. Obama has yet to recover. She followed this up with another broadside on Obamacare.
Showing impeccable timing, a day before Obama made a last ditch effort to salvage it with yesterday’s big speech, she wrote an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal, no less, entitled Obama and the Bureaucratization of Health Care.
Obama found it necessary in his speech to respond to this “dummy” by calling her a liar. Immediately afterwards, Palin fought back with a devastating counter attack on Facebook. To wit.
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Response to the President’s Health Care Speech
After all the rhetoric is put aside, one principle ran through President Obama’s speech tonight: that increased government involvement in health care can solve its problems.
Many Americans fundamentally disagree with this idea. We know from long experience that the creation of a massive new bureaucracy will not provide us with “more stability and security,” but just the opposite. It’s hard to believe the President when he says that this time he and his team of bureaucrats have finally figured out how to do things right if only we’ll take them at their word.
Our objections to the Democrats’ health care proposals are not mere “bickering” or “games.” They are not an attempt to “score short term political points.” And it’s hard to listen to the President lecture us not to use “scare tactics” when in the next breath he says that “more will die” if his proposals do not pass.
In his speech the President directly responded to concerns I’ve raised about unelected bureaucrats being given power to make decisions affecting life or death health care matters. He called these concerns “bogus,” “irresponsible,” and “a lie” — so much for civility. After all the name-calling, though, what he did not do is respond to the arguments we’ve made, arguments even some of his own supporters have agreed have merit.
In fact, after promising to “make sure that no government bureaucrat …. gets between you and the health care you need,” the President repeated his call for an Independent Medicare Advisory Council — an unelected, largely unaccountable group of bureaucrats charged with containing Medicare costs. He did not disavow his own statement that such a group, working outside of “normal political channels,” should guide decisions regarding that “huge driver of cost … the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives….” He did not disavow the statements of his health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, and continuing to pay his salary with taxpayer dollars proves a commitment to his beliefs. The President can keep making unsupported assertions, but until he directly responds to the arguments I’ve made, I’m going to call him out too.
It was heartening to hear the President finally recognize that tort reform is an important part of any solution. But this concession shouldn’t lead us to take our eye off the ball: the Democrats’ proposals will not reduce costs, and they will not deliver better health care. It’s this kind of “healthy skepticism of government” that truly reflects a “concern and regard for the plight of others.” We can’t wait to hear the details on that; we look forward to working with you on tort reform.
But she didn’t stop there and went on to underscore another difference between Obama and her.
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Finally, President Obama delivered an offhand applause line tonight about the cost of the War on Terror. As we approach the anniversary of the September 11th attacks and honor those who died that day and those who have died since in the War on Terror, in order to secure our freedoms, we need to remember their sacrifices and not demonize them as having had too high a price tag.
Remember, Mr. President, elected officials work for the people. Forcing a conclusion in order to claim a “victory” is not healthy for our country. We hear you say government isn’t always the answer; now hear us — that’s what we’ve been saying all along.
They don’t call her Sarah Barracuda for nothing.
Have you ever seen an unelected American before, garner so much attention, even from a president, and become the standard bearer for the nation.
Liberals instinctively understand what many conservatives do not: Sarah Palin represents a mortal threat to the Democratic Party. So while numerous “Republican” commentators (Noonan/Gergen/Brooks/From/Parker) conform to the mindless establishment meme that the GOP would be better off without Palin, left wingers are desperately trying to destroy her…before she destroys them.
Had Sarah Palin been the Republican presidential nominee, Barack Obama would still be in the Senate. Obama won the election because he was never challenged. Palin begged McCain to go for the jugular, but Old Maverick didn’t want to alienate the media (which hated him anyway).
The difference between Palin and McCain?
She has big brass ones.
Comment by ayn reagan — September 10, 2009 @ 5:28 pm
The good ol’ USA could use an Iron Maid as Prsident.
Comment by Ed D — September 10, 2009 @ 11:07 pm
Ed D, now she has both our votes and while we’re at it how about Caroline Glick, Israeli PM?. Why not?
Comment by rongrand — September 11, 2009 @ 12:40 am
McCain was just a “patsy” as was Bob Dole a few years back. My guess is Palin was chosen because she was seen
as a threat a few years down the line, and they wanted to railroad her with the loser McCain. The libs can
see a real conservative on the horizon just like anyone else, and they planned ahead. Look at it now, the
likes of Letterman and numerous others try to paint her as a laughing-stock. (As they did successfully to
another vice-presidential candidate a few years back - D.Q. and he never recovered) There is a famous
democrat strategist who says that making someone a “joke” over a period of time will make them unelectable
in future campaigns. This is what Mrs. Palin has to battle and overcome - and with the internet and
(for a while at least, while we have it), talk radio it can be done. I wonder how many would have to vote
for her in order to overcome the “fixed” voting machines….
Comment by Steve Smyser — September 11, 2009 @ 3:31 am
The 2012 election? I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. The Congressional races are coming up in a few months, along with some Senate contests. Let’s hope the Republicans can come up with a few candidates there. My own Congressman, Democrat Pete DeFazio, is so popular that I think he would win the election even if he were two years dead.
The thing that bothers me about Palin, and about the Republican Party in general, is that they are making their stand on the Health Care issue. Don’t they know that the majority of Americans would welcome changes in the system? The Baby Boomers are coming “of age” — which means they’re being retired early by companies they’ve worked for for years, and are all too often losing their health coverage at the very time they need it the most. Meanwhile, the ranks of the homeless and jobless are being swelled by executives, financial consultants and professionals of every kind. There are plenty of issues on which the Reps could take a stand, which are truly popular — like correcting the institutionalized moral decay of our country, and ISRAEL — which most Americans support but Obama is selling up the river. But the Conservatives are afraid to tackle these issues, so they are ducking under the cover of “traditional conservatism”, the policies of feeding the rich and giving the poor the crumbs that fall under the table (It’s called “Trickle Down”).
Sarah will probably get my vote in 2012, if there indeed is an election in 2012, because the Dems have a habit of repeatedly coming up with candidates that make ANY Republican look good. That’s the extent of my enthusiasm for her.
Comment by BlandOatmeal — September 11, 2009 @ 6:36 am
In the mid term elections next year Palin will be in great demand by Repblican candidates. Palin will travel all over the US in support of these candidates and get more exposure then she got in last year’s presidential elections. She will also collect a lot of IOU’s.
Its hard to imagine any other Republican Presidential hopeful dislodging her from the the role of front runner.
Comment by Ted Belman — September 11, 2009 @ 8:07 am
PALIN: Tells it like it is
NOBAMA: Pathological liar
Comment by bronco — September 11, 2009 @ 4:11 pm
Here’s a typical email that I receive
It seems most people either love or hate Obama and love or hate Palin. You can’t reason with Obama lovers so infatuated are they. The same might be said of Palin lovers.
On the question of trust, either one trusts the government to serve us well by doing the right thing, keeping costs low and corruption to a minimum or we trust free enterprise to do it. Nothing is perfect. That’s why the middle way is best. They both have a role to play and neither should be allowed to go overboard.
Comment by Ted Belman — September 12, 2009 @ 6:01 am
Some might wonder when and what what context Churchill said “some dummy” or something like it.
Prior to the battle of Britain in 1940, Hitler said he was going to wring Britain’s neck like a chicken.
After Britain was victorious in the long battle, Churchill referred to this remark in Parliament and said “Some chicken, some neck”
Comment by Ted Belman — September 12, 2009 @ 6:15 am
email
Comment by Ted Belman — September 12, 2009 @ 6:37 am
email rec’d
Comment by Ted Belman — September 12, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
email rec’d
Comment by Ted Belman — September 14, 2009 @ 6:44 pm
PalinPac got $20 from me. I’ve never done something like that before. It was my gut feeling to be the right thing to do.
Comment by Shy Guy — September 14, 2009 @ 7:44 pm