David Karki: What the left does tells us who Sarah Palin is

Their actions reveal what their words deny
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In a North Star National opinion piece, David Karki makes an excellent point: From a purely strategic standpoint, the left's hate rage against Gov. Palin makes no sense at all. If the Democrat/Media Complex really believes that she she would be such a disaster for the GOP as a presidential candidate, then why constantly attack her instead of trying to ensure that she gets her party's nomination so Obama could go on to defeat her in the landslide they insist would ensue?

The best answer I can come up with – assuming that there in fact is any logical reason for this and that the far left isn’t simply stark raving mad – is that they do in fact see Sarah Palin as a legitimate threat to their power and existence. A big enough threat, in fact, that they must do whatever is necessary to keep her from getting in the race in the first place, regardless of how much self-inflicted public relations damage they incur in the process by using such over-the-top, scorched earth tactics. So big a threat, in fact, that the risk of having their media allies’ smear campaign backfire by inadvertently turning Palin into a martyr via blood libeling her is worth taking.

You’ll never get anyone on the left to admit this, of course. But if Palin is who they say she is, then they should not be doing to her what they’re doing – quite the opposite, in fact. The left’s actions toward and horrible treatment of Sarah Palin tell us all who and what they believe her to be: an existential threat to them so great that anything goes if it helps to destroy her. Nothing is beyond the pale.

She cannot be allowed to even get as far as primary debates – which will inevitably be dubbed “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” given how thoroughly weak and uninspiring the rest of the GOP field is – lest even those small opportunities to show her real self explode the phony image that the media has manufactured with its non-stop propagandizing against Palin.

Moreover, she would have the energy, huge crowds, and celebrity buzz that Obama had in 2008 while Obama would just look older (aided by the grey hair and accelerated aging the presidency inevitably inflicts on all who hold the office) and out of fashion, yesterday’s news. One certainty in politics today is that youth wins and age loses – witness Clinton/Dole, Bush/Gore, Bush/Kerry, Obama/McCain. The one who appeared to be younger, more energetic, and more vibrant won every time. Against any other candidate, Obama would still be on the good side of that equation. But against Palin, it would be the reverse. Admittedly, he wouldn’t be on the bad side by much, but he would be there. And it’s not a desirable place to be.

Not to mention that there would inherently be big momentum, perhaps unstoppable momentum, behind the first female major-party presidential nominee. The campaign would be historic, by definition. (A fact many have seem to forgotten, though I can forgive the left as they honestly believe Bill Clinton was black and Clarence Thomas was not.) It would cancel out at least a good chunk of the advantage that Obama would have against “just another white guy.”

[...]

So, when the Democrats and their media allies unleash their next slanderous verbal assault against Palin, just remember that what they are doing tells you who they really think Sarah Palin is. Their actions reveal it even as their words deny it.

[More]

- JP

Origin of “We can’t spare this woman; she fights!”

It has become a familiar refrain when the topic of discussion turns to Sarah Palin:

"We can’t spare this woman. She fights."

Some have inquired of us about the origins of this quote. According to one of the inner circle that was close to Arbraham Lincoln, the simple statement came from the great man himself:

"Can't Spare This Man"

One night, about eleven o’clock, Colonel A. K. McClure, whose intimacy with President Lincoln was so great that he could obtain admittance to the Executive Mansion at any and all hours, called at the White House to urge Mr. Lincoln to remove General Grant from command.

After listening patiently for a long time, the President, gathering himself up in his chair, said, with the utmost earnestness:

"I can’t spare this man; he fights!"

In relating the particulars of this interview, Colonel McClure said:

"That was all he said, but I knew that it was enough, and that Grant was safe in Lincoln’s hands against his countless hosts of enemies..."

(from Lincoln’s Yarns and Stories, by Colonel Alexander K. McClure)

The quote has been adapted by Sarah Palin’s supporters to stress how important she is to the center-right grassroots.

The earliest application of the quote to Palin that we can find was by author David Karki in an op-ed for the North Star Writers Group April 22, 2009:

The next step is to coalesce into a cohesive organization, rather like the Sons of Liberty in the 1760s. And as for leadership, I hesitate to even begin to guess at this embryonic stage, but if the evaluation criteria are being despised by the establishment and having a willingness to fight, there is only one name presently on the public scene that comes close to fitting both bills – Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Much like the aforementioned example [i.e., Lincoln], it may come down to one simple thing: We cannot spare this woman – she fights.

The quote, as modified by Karki, has become a battle cry for Palin supporters who are convinced that, more so than any other prominent GOP figure, she is showing leadership in opposition to Barack Obama, the Democrats and all that they represent.

- JP

Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 7

This is the seventh in a series in which TX4P recommends some of the best writing which chronicles the liberation of Sarah Palin from the ball and chain of the Alaska governors office to her new role as a leading American conservative coalition builder.

Adrienne is a young woman who is a committed Sarah Palin supporter and and a born again Christian. She also just happens to be black. Adrienne recently posted about the frustration she feels when she encounters people who falsely assume that Gov. Palin "doesn't like black people" on her blog Motivation Truth in "Sarah Palin and I Working Together":

Look, I've spent a considerable amount of time in Sarah's hometown, spent time with her family and friends. I've walked the streets of the place that has influenced her, where she grew up and currently resides. I worshipped at the church where she gave her life to God and worshipped for years. I digested the culture of Wasilla. I've met the governor myself before. I've talked to her. She's shaken my hand. She's hugged me. I've talked to her husband and two of her kids. I know what I'm talking about here. Now, I didn't have to do any of these things to know that Sarah Palin is sincere, kind, and respectful--to all. I already knew in my spirit that she was the real deal--a woman of character, a woman of God. I had no doubts along these lines, but when you actually look someone in the eyes, you get a better sense of who they are. When you spend time where they spend time and see the people there--how they treat you, how they smile, how they reach out--it brings it home even more. I know Sarah is who she says she is. I know she sees people as people. I know she doesn't have people divided into groups and segments of society. I support her because what she stands for is right for all America..."

Minnesotan David Karki studied political science at St. Olaf's college, has campaign experience and now writes about politics for the North Star Writers Group. In an earlier column, he turned a famous Lincoln quote about Grant into what has become an anthem for many Sarah Palin supporters: "We can't spare this woman. she fights." Karki comments on Palin's critics in "Who’s Scared of Sarah Palin . . . And Why":

Think about it – if she were half the joke of a candidate that both Democrats and liberal establishment Republicans apocalyptically claim she'd be, both should eagerly welcome Palin running against President Obama in 2012.

Democrats would theoretically have an easy win given a weak challenger and the fact that first-term incumbents generally win re-election barring a disaster. Vichy Republican bigwigs wouldn't have to sacrifice a preferred liberal candidate – such as Mitt Romney – against an unbeatable incumbent, and could save their Just-Like-the-Democrat-Only-A-Tiny-Bit-Less guy for 2016. With the loss, both would be rid of her once and for all.

But this isn't what's happening. Instead, both entities are freaking out over Palin, in a classic case of “methinks thou doth protest too much.” (To use the oft-misquoted Shakespeare line from Hamlet.) And, just as in Hamlet, the very fervency of the dismay inherently undermines its own credibility while revealing more about the critic than the performer.

In Palin's case, it's that entrenched interests on both sides of the aisle are scared to death of her. And even though the attacks on her might actually generate sympathy and draw attention to her, they can't take the risk of just letting her run, watching her lose and being rid of her – because she might well win.

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist, historian and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is an author and was a full-time farmer before he became an academic, as we learn in "Why the Elitist Hatred Toward Palin?" published at RealClearPolitics.com:

I saw more stupid people in graduate school and three decades in academia than I ever did who ran 100 acres without going broke-and more of the latter whom I'd trust not to bankrupt the country and let down our defenses than of the former.

While we rightly argue that the Sarahs of the world, if they are to be taken seriously as leaders, must read and study more, why do we not also suggest that the Baracks of the world could do a little more chain-sawing, run a coffee shop for a summer, or drive a Winnebago cross-country? (Who knows, he might meet a fellow woodcutter who knew there were 50 states or that it was dumb to make fun of the Special Olympics.)

After all, a lot of geniuses are now calling for a "second stimulus" to borrow another trillion or so still, but I don't think they come from Wasilla.

So I am afraid right now, but not of Sarah Palin.

Former newspaperman Stuart H. Schwartz, Ph.D., is on the faculty at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. We've referred to his American Thinker post "Peggy Noonan: Sarah Palin Jealous" before, extracting a Quote of the Day from it and also in an update to "The Pwning of Peggy Noonan." Here are some more excerpts:

You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. So you loosed a multi-column primal scream: Palin is an idiot who is "out of her depth in a shallow pool", a woman who has no sense of personal limits because she is not even smart enough to realize she is "a ponder-free zone." Whoa-good one! The rhetorical equivalent of the chickenwing camel clutch, where you come up behind and twist her arm behind her back, and then force her face to the mat. Or, in her case, to the snow. That's what they have in Alaska, don't they? You don't know, of course-Martha's Vineyard is about as far north as you venture, and then only to observe humanity-you know, the common folks-from "a little pier" before strolling over for dinner with two of the more brilliant stars in your friends firmament, television personalities Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric.

You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. You pal around with Sawyer and Couric, Jane Fonda, Marlo Thomas, Lily Tomlin -- the world is your aging oyster -- and The New York Times (which is sort of iffy on your writing) admires you for the company you keep. The Manhattan and beltway salon denizens love you. Brian Williams even said he'd nominate you for a Pulitzer, calling your writing "sparkling." Yes, THE Brian Williams, He Who Anchors NBC News, who had an audience with President Obama, to whom he bowed when leaving.

Bill Adams is a retired computer industry executive and an historian. From "Bon Voyage: Sarah's Departure Viewed From Alaska" -- also published on American Thinker -- we gain the perspective of the governor's neighbors on how low her enemies stooped to attack her and her family:

It was the assault on the children that was breaking my heart. As a father, I wondered how Sarah would explain to her fourteen year old daughter why she was the brunt of a joke on national television about her most intimate person. I pondered how she would council another daughter whose dual mistakes of getting pregnant out of wedlock and being a Christian were transmogrified into nationally-ridiculed hypocrisy.

Those involving Trig, Sarah's Down syndrome baby, were astonishing. How does one explain the hateful and evil mentality underlying these attacks on him -- and on her for daring to bear him? How does Sarah explain to her children the nature of people who rail through the media that the child they clearly love should never have been allowed to be born? Sarah's decision not to abort that baby, my friends, is what I believe to be the basis of most of the Democrat hatred of her.

Watch The View on TV or read anything from the Washington Post to the Huffington Post. You will see the media bubbling over with hatred of the woman who would dare not to kill her afflicted baby and then dare further to flaunt him in public as a blessing. Recently the Huff-Po proposed that Sarah run in 2012 on a "More Retardation platform." Good Lord.

Sure they label her as ‘trailer trash' and make fun of her manner of speech, but that's an old tactic for the Liberal Elite. It worked well on all of Clinton's bimbos and it worked on Bush because he had a country accent. But it is that she's an evangelical Christian and didn't abort Trig that makes these Elites crazy.

The absence of shame in the promulgation of such base evil is stunning.

Other posts in this series:

Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 1
Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 2
Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 3
Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 4
Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 5
Commentaries on the Liberation of Sarah - Pt. 6

- JP

'We cannot spare this woman – she fights'

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The Latest column by David Karki of the North Star Writers Group looks at the recent tea parties and wonders where the movement goes from here:

It will be interesting to see if something longer lasting can grow from what we saw on April 15. The next step is to coalesce into a cohesive organization, rather like the Sons of Liberty in the 1760s. And as for leadership, I hesitate to even begin to guess at this embryonic stage, but if the evaluation criteria are being despised by the establishment and having a willingness to fight, there is only one name presently on the public scene that comes close to fitting both bills – Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Much like the aforementioned example, it may come down to one simple thing: We cannot spare this woman – she fights.

- JP