Jay Nordlinger: Sarah Palin, Forbesian and Reaganite

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At National Review Online, Jay Nordlinger posts a reminder that during the Y2K presidential primary race, Sarah Palin, who was mayor of Wasilla at the time, was also a member of the Steve Forbes campaign's Alaska leadership committee. Though, thanks to the media and its leftist allies, Gov. Palin was given the reputation of being a social conservative, she was and continues to be just as much a fiscal conservative and free market advocate:

Funny that she’s so seldom described this way. Many of the “cool” Republicans disdain her. You know the type of Republican I mean: the type that wants the party to drop abortion and other icky, discomforting issues. But, if entrepreneurial capitalism’s your thing, Palin is your woman, or at least someone to appreciate. She ought to have the appreciation of the entrepreneurially minded everywhere. It’s just that some people can never forgive her for not aborting a Down-syndrome child. Believe me, I know such people (I’m sorry to say).

P.S. I apologize to The Atlantic magazine for the gullible assumption that Palin is actually Trig’s mother. You know how in the tank we are, enchanted by Palin’s winkin’ eyes and can’t-stop comeliness.

P.P.S. Palin is what I’d call a true-blue Reaganite, a Reaganite across the board: a free-marketeer, a social conservative, and a hawk. Beautiful.

As we never tire from pointing out, Gov. Palin is not only a fiscal, social and security conservative, as Nordlinger says, but a limited-government conservative as well. Unlike Mitt Romney's metaphor of a three-legged conservative stool, Reagan's own formulation for the furniture has four stout legs for stronger support. Those who forget the libertarian leg understand neither Ronald Reagan nor his brand of conservatism.

In an earlier NRO post, Nordlinger credits Sarah Palin with not only speaking truth to power, but "speaking truth to the people" as well.

- JP