Sarah Takes West Texas

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Sarah Palin's recent appearances in Midland have made an overwhelmingly positive impression in the Permian Basin, according to the Midland Reporter-Telegram's Ed Todd:

One day last week, Sarah Palin no doubt charmed and aroused a staunch and enthusiastic multitude of West Texans and, especially, diehard conservatives with or without party affiliations. Surely, most were Republicans and Tea Party loyalists and, to boot, a smattering of Independents and, perhaps, a few Democrats who fancy or decry her rhetoric and who critically mull over her preachments to set aright a nation gone astray.

By her rhetoric, upbringing and competitiveness, Sarah Palin is feisty. She is a smartly attired celebrity star often sporting a modified French-braid hairdo. She is emboldened by success, re-routed by failure and eager to "reload" and try again.

Midland's Clayton W. Williams Jr., West Texas rancher, oilman and adventurer who was the Republican Party's 1990 candidate for Texas governor, said Sarah Palin is "presidential material."

Williams, "very impressed" by the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate, said he "liked her wit. I liked her appearance, and I now think she's presidential material. I like her conservative stance. She's definitely got the intelligence and nearly two more years to continue to grow. She's already grown a lot since she was the VP candidate. Her bearing is such that I think she'd make a good president."

Her self-esteem seems intact and booming. As both the literate and unlearned populous surely knows, she is not by disposition a quitter, though she did bow out of the Alaska governorship (2006-2009) to pursue personal and political interests following her bold run for America's vice-presidency in 2008.

One of her favorite poets, Robert Service, the "Bard of the Yukon," penned in the poem "The Quitter":

"It's easy to cry that you're beaten - and die; It's easy to crawfish and crawl; But to fight and to fight when hope's out of sight - Why, that's the best game of them all!

Just have one more try - it's dead easy to die, It's the keeping-on-living that's hard."

Read more reactions to Gov. Palin's visit from West Texans in Todd's full article here.

- JP