Sarah Palin's Finest Hour

What was Sarah Palin's finest hour? Some will say it was her acceptance speech to the RNC convention a little over a year ago. Some will say it was her David to Joe Biden's Goliath at the vice presidential debate in October. To others, it was her April pro-life manifesto in Indiana. To the American Thinker's Claude Sandroff, it was July 3, when she announced her intention to give up her political position as governor of Alaska:

"Sarah Palin relinquished state power in the simplest of settings. It was obviously not comfortable, nor easy. However we define Palin, as frontier feminist, movement conservative or middle class populist this will always stand as her finest hour. It might not have been her finest performance, but it crystallized in a moment the very essence of virtue. It was Sir Thomas More resigning as Lord Chancellor and George Washington returning to Mount Vernon. It showed how rare virtue has become in our politics. It shows why we adore Sarah Palin and why we need her. And it explains why, even without office, she has become the most important political figure in America."

Sandroff addresses the "quitter" label and turns it back on Palin's critics:

"The question her political biography begs is why don't more politicians resign? Why didn't Ted Kennedy creep into a hole after Chappaquiddick? Why doesn't Robert Byrd resign, clearly too feeble to hold office effectively? Isn't fifty-four years in office enough for John Dingle? Hasn't Mark [Sanford] learned how to say adios? And how about Bill Clinton, and John Ensign and Charlie Rangel, and on and on."

Unlike those politicians who cling so desperately to their offices as the seats of their political power, Sarah Palin let it go. And her reward for so doing is that she has become even more powerful as a citizen than she was as a governor:

"Ultimately, virtue is the result of recognizing evil and ensuring that it does not prevail over good. It's a simple formulation, but who in politics is audacious enough to speak in such stark terms? Sarah Palin has, with world-shattering results."

"In her first explosive Facebook entry into the health care debate, she pointed out that 'death panels' were the logical consequence of the government rationing of health care. And that such rationing was 'downright evil.' There were health care policy wonks galore, and Medicare and Medicaid experts by the droves who offered endless technical details about the health care bill. But only Palin distilled the debate to its fundamental moral core."

Another excellent read from American Thinker, which has established itself as one of the best sources of good writing on the subject of Sarah Palin.

- JP