- by Ian Ransom
*
As citizens across the nation cringe at the passage of the shady, shameful, and surreptitiously cobbled-together "back-room" health care bill, I have the distinct feeling that Christmas comes with an ominous overtone for true conservatives at the end of this oft-bewildering year.
At this moment, I feel--more than I have ever felt in over a year and a half of steady conservative activism--disenfranchised and appalled at the travesty that is the Obama administration and his attendant Democrat "elves" on Capitol Hill. Earlier this year, I felt a swelling sense of optimism, a sense that great ground-work was indeed being paved for a powerful grassroots shift in the waffling of the Republican Party and the rise of the man-and-woman-on-the-street conservative movement. The wonderful American people who participated in the Tea Parties and Sarah Palin's gritty, unparalleled rise from the ashes of lamestream media abuse to reclaim control of her reputation and authentic voice have been beacons of the aforementioned optimism.
Perhaps like many of you, however, I now feel a genuine sense of fright (combined with anger) at what appears to be such a blatant and horrific betrayal of the Constitution and the future of our country via this damnable series of secretive health care machinations on the part of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and, of course, Barack Obama. These so-called "leaders" have now, and in no uncertain terms, most brazenly declared to the majority of Americans that they do not care about the well-being of this great nation, they do not care about the loud-and-clear voices of the majority of the American people, and they do not care about the crucial discussion of pivotal issues.
The hubris and wanton arrogance of Capitol Hill, and its perilous plunge toward the absolute ruin of the American identity, is shockingly evident. The dismal mechanics behind the "formation" of the health care bill is an outrage--a galling repudiation of all American people in favor of truly wayward and malevolent liberal partisanship. It is a disgusting scandal. Meanwhile, American people stand on the sidelines, marginalized and ignored by their own public servants, so many of us left only with the disturbing "hope" that enough of us will truly rise-up to "clean house" via 2010 elections.
I am convinced: Obama, Pelosi, Reid, et al. crave the destruction of America as we know it, as it was established by the Founding Fathers. They actively seek to alter the very fabric of our great nation for reasons of their abominably insular ideology and willful ignorance. To say that the American constituency must rise-up in 2010 with the equivalent of a thunderous vote of "No Confidence" is putting things mildly.
In some respects, however, this execrable series of events in D.C. will only strengthen the platform and power of Sarah Palin (and other fine conservative leaders) to blaze at the vanguard of an absolutely necessary revolution in 2010. It is our only hope, for, if we conservatives do not retaliate by utterly brutalizing the baboons on Capitol Hill with our votes in 2010, I fear our nation will truly have approached the brink, the "deep breath before the plunge."
Sarah and her kindred souls across this country are ready to rumble, as it were, and that is a comforting thought for the year to come. But "comforting thoughts" alone will not avail us; we need to work ten times harder next year, taking to the streets in ever-more determined fellowship, to guarantee America's future. Sarah has made it clear, even in the past few days, as she recovers from a draining book tour, that she is going to lead with relentlessness in 2010. Let us follow that lead.
Though we must indeed be mindful of the looming disaster that confronts our way of life, we should also take heart in the friendship and encouragement of our fellow American conservatives--people from all states and walks of life who will not be silenced or brushed aside. For my part, I extend a very enthusiastic 'Merry Christmas' to the readers of Texas for Sarah Palin, to my fellow contributors on this blog, and particularly to the extraordinary and dedicated Josh Painter, who has worked so tirelessly to provide up-to-the-minute news and pointed commentary about Sarah's efforts.
God Bless and get ready to "start your engines" for 2010, good American people!
- Ian
Ian Ransom is the editor of The Ian Ransom Notes and a regular contributor to Texas for Sarah Palin.
Showing posts with label ian ransom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ian ransom. Show all posts
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
What I Want From Sarah...Next Christmas!
- by Ian Ransom
*
Now that Sarah has blazed a proactive trail of reclamation as far as her public image is concerned, and stands in a position of even greater influence than she did during the '08 election campaign, some in the media seem baffled.
"How could she possibly have done it?" they snivel while wringing their taloned fingers and hands.
The answer rests quite clearly in Palin's resolute ability to know what's best for her message because she listens and sees--with unclouded vision--that her message is America's conservative message. Best of all, Sarah's proved that she knows how best to deliver that message apart from any corrosive Beltway spitshine. The moment those particular make-up artists tried to slather her in such flimsy camouflage, her very being rejected the ruse, like an army of antibodies trying to throw off a debilitating virus. Sarah succeeded because she knows that Washington's campaign gurus and Svengalis of Spin have long ago become adept only at promoting the art of duplicity and the kind of evasive policy-mongering that makes it easy for careerist politicians to speak around the American people, instead of directly to them--especially when it comes to how their tax dollars are to be horrifically misspent.
Aided by a pervasive culture of moral relativism and the wholesale rejection of objectivity, Hollywood and Washington have now smashed together like two shuddering tectonic plates. Hard-working American conservatives have watched this disturbing collision, and are happy to stand outside the new circle of vapid, self-congratulatory revelers--revelers dressed for a ball, but condescendingly unaware that the ball they're about to attend is very similar to the one portrayed in Edgar Allen Poe's Masque of the Red Death.
Sarah Palin showed her striking resilience by simply continuing to be one of those hard-working American people who knows who she is and who knows that what her fellow Americans need has become grotesquely divorced from what they've been told to want. Emerging from a presidential campaign that utterly squandered her vitality in a miasma of milquetoast machinations, she took the reins of her own Iditarod sled and said, "Mush!"
And she wasn't afraid to use the whip when she needed to do so. Liberals from California to Connecticut are still trembling at the sound of her reverberating "Snap!"
Having reversed the damage of John McCain's team of demented elves and positioned herself as herself once again, Sarah needs only one more weapon in her arsenal, and I trust we'll see it come around this time next year, just in time to occupy 2010 mantelpiece stockings: a second book in which she tackles nothing but hard-hitting, explicit policy for America's ultimate redemption, rendered in her inimitable voice, with her unobscured committment to common sense.
Trust me, when it comes to the magnificent Sarah Palin and her ability to relentlessly "produce the goods" these days, it's never too early to think about next year's Christmas presents.
- Ian
Ian Ransom is the editor of The Ian Ransom Notes
*
Now that Sarah has blazed a proactive trail of reclamation as far as her public image is concerned, and stands in a position of even greater influence than she did during the '08 election campaign, some in the media seem baffled.
"How could she possibly have done it?" they snivel while wringing their taloned fingers and hands.
The answer rests quite clearly in Palin's resolute ability to know what's best for her message because she listens and sees--with unclouded vision--that her message is America's conservative message. Best of all, Sarah's proved that she knows how best to deliver that message apart from any corrosive Beltway spitshine. The moment those particular make-up artists tried to slather her in such flimsy camouflage, her very being rejected the ruse, like an army of antibodies trying to throw off a debilitating virus. Sarah succeeded because she knows that Washington's campaign gurus and Svengalis of Spin have long ago become adept only at promoting the art of duplicity and the kind of evasive policy-mongering that makes it easy for careerist politicians to speak around the American people, instead of directly to them--especially when it comes to how their tax dollars are to be horrifically misspent.
Aided by a pervasive culture of moral relativism and the wholesale rejection of objectivity, Hollywood and Washington have now smashed together like two shuddering tectonic plates. Hard-working American conservatives have watched this disturbing collision, and are happy to stand outside the new circle of vapid, self-congratulatory revelers--revelers dressed for a ball, but condescendingly unaware that the ball they're about to attend is very similar to the one portrayed in Edgar Allen Poe's Masque of the Red Death.
Sarah Palin showed her striking resilience by simply continuing to be one of those hard-working American people who knows who she is and who knows that what her fellow Americans need has become grotesquely divorced from what they've been told to want. Emerging from a presidential campaign that utterly squandered her vitality in a miasma of milquetoast machinations, she took the reins of her own Iditarod sled and said, "Mush!"
And she wasn't afraid to use the whip when she needed to do so. Liberals from California to Connecticut are still trembling at the sound of her reverberating "Snap!"
Having reversed the damage of John McCain's team of demented elves and positioned herself as herself once again, Sarah needs only one more weapon in her arsenal, and I trust we'll see it come around this time next year, just in time to occupy 2010 mantelpiece stockings: a second book in which she tackles nothing but hard-hitting, explicit policy for America's ultimate redemption, rendered in her inimitable voice, with her unobscured committment to common sense.
Trust me, when it comes to the magnificent Sarah Palin and her ability to relentlessly "produce the goods" these days, it's never too early to think about next year's Christmas presents.
- Ian
Ian Ransom is the editor of The Ian Ransom Notes
Friday, December 11, 2009
Not to Worry: Sarah Palin Knows The Meaning of "Next"
- by Ian Ransom
Oh, I’ve thought about this one while observing the flurry and fantastic fury of Sarah’s book tour, friends. I’ve let it simmer on nights when I lie awake, ever-stunned at the audacious uselessness of our President and the diseased, freak-fest of liberal weasels (at every level) who keep taking a rabid approach to supposedly “destroying Sarah Palin.”
It is with great pleasure that I announce to dim, degenerate, and deaf progressive ears: “YOU HAVE LOST. SHE HAS BEATEN YOU ALL.”
It’s true. Of course, more socio-cultural analysis will certainly be directed upon the new “Era of Palin,” but as her monumentally successful book campaign winds to a close, she’s helped us—-her fellow common-sense conservatives—-realize that we’ve got some very steely grappling hooks into the meat of this revolution. Yeah, our Neo-Reagan vehicle may still be mired in a bit of mud at some chaotic crossroads (thanks to lingering RINOs), but Sarah’s triumphant re-ascent has been akin to a much-needed AAA visit. And by those three “A” letters, I specifically mean: Aggressive American Aptitude.
More than any other figure in the conservative universe, Sarah has just single-handedly generated enough spark and energy to jump-start the unmistakable beginnings of the unstoppable turnaround. Her new favorability in the polls proves it. The millions (yes, millions) who are buying her book to see exactly what she has to say about things are proving it. The thousands who have thumbed their noses at wind-chill and “conventional wisdom” to attend her book signings undeniably prove it. In many respects, this was far more than a mere publicity junket for Sarah Palin; this was a statement made by the American conservative constituency about what direction they indentify as representative of their own, and who they want to lead in that direction. Forget the liberal media’s envious dismissal of the crowds as being “enamored of a celebrity.”
People don’t risk frostbite to encounter mere “celebrity.” But they’ll risk it for their country, for their values. That’s what Sarah Palin’s new victory is all about: it's about our own victory. The first of many to come.
The next question is, appropriately, about “next.” What will Sarah do once the current excitement subsides? What should she do? If her recently excellent TV and radio interviews are any indication, she’ll continue to bone-up on complex national and international issues in her straight-shooting way, apply her common sense conservatism to the mix, and then choose her future interviews with the same sort of liberal-vaporizing savvy. She’ll welcome those who play into her wheelhouse, of course, but now that she’s thrown off the Schmidt/Wallace Chains of Mismanagement, she’s confident enough to throw-down with anybody along the Beltway, and will soon be armored enough to do so. Don’t be surprised when she sends a eunuch like Keith Olbermann running back to his Mommy in tears. Don’t be surprised if she frazzles the frump right out of Rachel Maddow’s lunch-lady hair, face-to-face.
And she’ll do it with the same unfettered optimism, charm, insight, and integrity she's just magnificently displayed across the proverbial board.
If her choice of speaking engagements is any indication (College of the Ozarks, Gridiron Dinner), she’ll also keep picking those battles wisely and with effective variety. Don’t be surprised to see her accept some key university invitations in the coming months—-in places you might not expect. She’s ready, friends.
Facebook will continue to be a potent tool for circumventing the lamestream media’s damnable filtration & sewage-spewing system, but now that Sarah has proved strong enough to outwit the vipers at their own game (and on their own programs) she will not have as much need for frequent use of the social networking site’s services. That’s a good thing, because she doesn’t want to overplay that particular hand to the point of trivialization.
Make no mistake: The Arctic Fox didn’t write this book and rush it out just to enjoy bus rides. She’s cannily assessing the national scene on her own terms, the way she once assessed her hometown and state “scenes” with such precision and grit, and indelibly on her own terms. She’s marching toward the White House and America’s reclamation from the brink, friends, as surely as she’s ever marched toward anything she’s deemed worthwhile and admirable in life. Best of all, we’re marching right by her side; every one of us, to the last.
Let’s keep our voices strong and our eyes, minds, and ears open, and make sure we get it done together.
- Ian
Ian Ransom is the editor of The Ian Ransom Notes
Oh, I’ve thought about this one while observing the flurry and fantastic fury of Sarah’s book tour, friends. I’ve let it simmer on nights when I lie awake, ever-stunned at the audacious uselessness of our President and the diseased, freak-fest of liberal weasels (at every level) who keep taking a rabid approach to supposedly “destroying Sarah Palin.”
It is with great pleasure that I announce to dim, degenerate, and deaf progressive ears: “YOU HAVE LOST. SHE HAS BEATEN YOU ALL.”
It’s true. Of course, more socio-cultural analysis will certainly be directed upon the new “Era of Palin,” but as her monumentally successful book campaign winds to a close, she’s helped us—-her fellow common-sense conservatives—-realize that we’ve got some very steely grappling hooks into the meat of this revolution. Yeah, our Neo-Reagan vehicle may still be mired in a bit of mud at some chaotic crossroads (thanks to lingering RINOs), but Sarah’s triumphant re-ascent has been akin to a much-needed AAA visit. And by those three “A” letters, I specifically mean: Aggressive American Aptitude.
More than any other figure in the conservative universe, Sarah has just single-handedly generated enough spark and energy to jump-start the unmistakable beginnings of the unstoppable turnaround. Her new favorability in the polls proves it. The millions (yes, millions) who are buying her book to see exactly what she has to say about things are proving it. The thousands who have thumbed their noses at wind-chill and “conventional wisdom” to attend her book signings undeniably prove it. In many respects, this was far more than a mere publicity junket for Sarah Palin; this was a statement made by the American conservative constituency about what direction they indentify as representative of their own, and who they want to lead in that direction. Forget the liberal media’s envious dismissal of the crowds as being “enamored of a celebrity.”
People don’t risk frostbite to encounter mere “celebrity.” But they’ll risk it for their country, for their values. That’s what Sarah Palin’s new victory is all about: it's about our own victory. The first of many to come.
The next question is, appropriately, about “next.” What will Sarah do once the current excitement subsides? What should she do? If her recently excellent TV and radio interviews are any indication, she’ll continue to bone-up on complex national and international issues in her straight-shooting way, apply her common sense conservatism to the mix, and then choose her future interviews with the same sort of liberal-vaporizing savvy. She’ll welcome those who play into her wheelhouse, of course, but now that she’s thrown off the Schmidt/Wallace Chains of Mismanagement, she’s confident enough to throw-down with anybody along the Beltway, and will soon be armored enough to do so. Don’t be surprised when she sends a eunuch like Keith Olbermann running back to his Mommy in tears. Don’t be surprised if she frazzles the frump right out of Rachel Maddow’s lunch-lady hair, face-to-face.
And she’ll do it with the same unfettered optimism, charm, insight, and integrity she's just magnificently displayed across the proverbial board.
If her choice of speaking engagements is any indication (College of the Ozarks, Gridiron Dinner), she’ll also keep picking those battles wisely and with effective variety. Don’t be surprised to see her accept some key university invitations in the coming months—-in places you might not expect. She’s ready, friends.
Facebook will continue to be a potent tool for circumventing the lamestream media’s damnable filtration & sewage-spewing system, but now that Sarah has proved strong enough to outwit the vipers at their own game (and on their own programs) she will not have as much need for frequent use of the social networking site’s services. That’s a good thing, because she doesn’t want to overplay that particular hand to the point of trivialization.
Make no mistake: The Arctic Fox didn’t write this book and rush it out just to enjoy bus rides. She’s cannily assessing the national scene on her own terms, the way she once assessed her hometown and state “scenes” with such precision and grit, and indelibly on her own terms. She’s marching toward the White House and America’s reclamation from the brink, friends, as surely as she’s ever marched toward anything she’s deemed worthwhile and admirable in life. Best of all, we’re marching right by her side; every one of us, to the last.
Let’s keep our voices strong and our eyes, minds, and ears open, and make sure we get it done together.
- Ian
Ian Ransom is the editor of The Ian Ransom Notes
Monday, November 23, 2009
REVIEW: Palin Launches Mighty Battleship with Shrewd, Compelling 'Rogue'
- By Ian Ransom
Sarah Palin has built a career and well-deserved reputation upon being lost when it comes to "politics-as-usual." The fact that so many people are still too willfully blind to see that Palin is an astonishingly effective politician, however, now makes everything that's happened to this woman since late 2008 deliciously understandable.
That is because Sarah Palin is the most compelling and effective conservative politician of the new millennium, and her memoir, Going Rogue, drives this reality home with all the mammoth, unstoppable force of an Alaskan glacier.
It's not just because of the extraordinary sales figures or even the thousands of frostbite-braving supporters who have already flocked to book-tour appearances. These things are great, but they're on the periphery, in this context. Palin's gleaming "Excalibur," at the moment, is the book itself, and believe me as I explain to you why the book is not to be missed, and far less to be underestimated.
I wasn't able to read Going Rogue right away and, frankly, did not know what to expect, despite my own unflagging support of Palin's conservatism. It was to be her first book, after all. The project had been rushed--considerably rushed. She was teaming with a respected collaborator, but a collaborator nonetheless. All good reasons to expect a product that might indeed miss the mark, or fail to capture the authentic voice and vision of Palin the person. The first sign that I need not worry came when it was revealed that the AP had hired eleven--count 'em!--eleven fact-checkers to tackle a book written by a woman routinely dismissed by their unhallowed association as a lightweight dunce. Conservative commentators initially saw this act as yet another sign of the liberal media's automatic condescension toward Palin, an act of blind aggression in the continued effort to "destroy" her.
Oh, no, friends. No. That may have been part of the impetus, but after finishing Rogue last night, I now realize exactly why eleven AP hounds were unleashed and why Rachel Maddow has been looking more fatally constipated than usual this past week.
Going Rogue is effective. Head-smackingly effective. Dirt-roads-being-paved-with-money-culled-from-budget-cuts effective. Ronald Reagan-shutting-up-a-liberal-heckler effective. Barack-Obama-being-summarily-trounced-in-2012 effective.
This brings us inevitably (and in no uncertain terms) back to the Land of How Can There Be Any Doubt? Sarah Palin not only knows who she is and what she believes, but she demonstrates who she is and does what she believes. Put it on a basketball court. Put it in a salmon fishing boat. Put it in a small-town cabinet meeting. Put it on the stage at a national convention. Put it in a book.
Put it anywhere: Sarah Palin is the realest thing you're going to see in American leadership, which is why liberals--attuned to illusion, enamored of ciphers and abstractions--can't even see her at all. The book is one mighty flex of an arm attached to that particular heaping helping of "real," the latest manifestation of Palin's effectiveness. What tantalized and thrilled me most about Going Rogue, however, was its jaw-dropping shrewdness.
Yes, Going Rogue is most certainly a memoir, and an eminiently readable one at that. Formative events, environments, and endeavors are delineated and Palin rewards us with a "picnic-blanket-on-the-tundra" feast that is compelling without being affected, evocative without being egotistical, and loaded with integrity in that her narrative lets the reader draw the self-evident conclusion, instead of the self-serving conclusion trying to "draw" the reader (take that, Audacity of Hope).
Palpability is the order of the day, the week, the year, the month, the sentence, and certainly the very word in Palin's book. The frosty, hardscrabble streets of Skagway are palpable. The "gentle warning" that all families are tested by life's travails is palpable. The self-doubts that come after normal human mistakes are palpable, as are the lessons learned which open the door to victories big and small. All palpable. To this reviewer, the most palpable thing of all about this book--the thing that literally gripped me and made me pause to think about it the most (among dozens of notable things)--was the concept of work. "Concept" doesn't begin to do justice, though, because work is not a concept for Sarah Palin. It's a quality, an attribute.
This woman's life is about work. Constant, dedicated, relentless, enthusiastic, back-breaking WORK. I have to admit it; even I was stunned. The thing that Sarah Palin knows best, from the irrefutable evidence of her life, is how to work her tail off if she wants to get something done, and how to do so with unfailing optimism and not a shred of entitlement. Not even with a hint of self-aggrandizement! "Refreshing" hardly begins to capture this dynamic. No wonder liberals think she's some sort of fearful alien. Yes, hard work and uncluttered dedication are in the blood and the bone, for Palin. It's not a thing needing explanation, and Palin doesn't attempt to explain it. It's like breathing. Take a lungful and move on to the next breath. The work ethic that literally leaps from the book's pages applies to cultivating a cherished and well-adjusted family life, to sports competition, to making ends meet, to toting happy kids in a red wagon from door to neighborly door in a fight to build a better town, to digging in one's heels for endless months and seeking to build a team out of mutinous administrators, to...everything.
Truly, if the reader takes only one thing away from this always steady, often moving, frequently humorous American story, it ought to be the sobering and expansive scope of hard work that Palin represents in every fibre of her history and lifestyle as person and public servant, juxtaposed against this contemporary liberal culture of snarky disillusionment with work, with our offices, with our output, and with the almost reptilian sense of entitlement.
Man, does this book ever make a shattering statement without even needing to "make a statement."
That's another potent aspect of Going Rogue. Palin wastes no time with insipidly cerebral circumlocutions about the possibilities of this or that wyrmhole of wonderment. You'll find no unicorns in her book. Plenty of moose. There's not a sniff of fairy-dust. Lots of snow, though. Beginning with her parents' adventurous journey to the Alaskan frontier and extending all the way through the Governor's mansion and deep into the bowels of the identity-challenged McCain presidential campaign, Palin isn't out to impress herself by communicating through a conceited veil of sophistry, or "navel-gazing," as Rush Limbaugh was quick to pipe. Her story is sensible, responsible, and linear--like her politics. When Sarah tells you how things happened, she tells you how they happened. C happened after B, and B happened after A, and A came about because A is where things begin.
In adhering to a method that favors the logical progression of events and reactions to events, Palin reveals far more of substance and interest than any amount of wistful ruminating ever could. Most effectively, Palin's very specific and straightforward delineations of policy are at the service of her natural narrative, and not the other way around. Her expertise on issues of energy and executive fiscal strategy are powerful not because she's trying to make sense out of them, but because she's already made sense out of them via experience.
More than a few liberal (and conservative) critics have grumbled that the book represents some sort of bitter "payback" to transparently out-of-touch campaign managers Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace, but nothing could be further from the truth. Palin's frustration at being so terrifically mismanaged by the people she trusted (and was expected to heed by the top of her ticket) comes through, but her frustration merits a revealing explanation in an autobiography dealing with events that impacted and shaped (or misshaped) the perceptions of millions of observers around the globe. Here again, Palin recounts what happened from her purview, touches upon her frustration without belaboring any one incident, describes how she moved on--remember, with this woman, there is always more and more work to be accomplished--and she covers this material without bitterness. In straightening the lopsided Katie Couric "painting-over-the-mantelpiece," Palin marshalls transcripted evidence of just how very much was sliced-and-diced to expose the "perky one's" agenda for what it was (Creepy Liberal Ambush). Nicolle Wallace's managerial ineptitude in this department is especially and meritoriously glaring.
At last, this brings me back to the shrewd quality of Palin's achievement regarding Going Rogue. In one fell swoop she has reversed the prior damage done by the vampiric "lamestream" media and has very wisely maneuvered herself into position as a Reaganesque "teflon-style" figure on the global political landscape. Her resignation from the Governorship of Alaska--once a catalyst of caterwauling derision--is now crystalline in its emergence as potentially the most brilliant political move of the decade. The decision hearkens back to everything Palin has fought for and come to understand about being most effective at the most important junctures, for those who most count: American people. Careful and objective readers who may have harbored doubts will pick-up on this in a revelatory flash.
Palin's strength and savvy as a genuine leader is likewise exemplified in the construct of this narrative. To wit: Palin knows that she's got the the courage of her convictions, she knows that people respond to courage of conviction because its so damned rare today, and Palin very deliberately uses her courage of conviction to connect with her base. The coup de grace? You can't fault or assail courage of conviction! It's impossible.
Oh, my. Sarah Palin has arrived.
- Ian
Sarah Palin has built a career and well-deserved reputation upon being lost when it comes to "politics-as-usual." The fact that so many people are still too willfully blind to see that Palin is an astonishingly effective politician, however, now makes everything that's happened to this woman since late 2008 deliciously understandable.
That is because Sarah Palin is the most compelling and effective conservative politician of the new millennium, and her memoir, Going Rogue, drives this reality home with all the mammoth, unstoppable force of an Alaskan glacier.
It's not just because of the extraordinary sales figures or even the thousands of frostbite-braving supporters who have already flocked to book-tour appearances. These things are great, but they're on the periphery, in this context. Palin's gleaming "Excalibur," at the moment, is the book itself, and believe me as I explain to you why the book is not to be missed, and far less to be underestimated.
I wasn't able to read Going Rogue right away and, frankly, did not know what to expect, despite my own unflagging support of Palin's conservatism. It was to be her first book, after all. The project had been rushed--considerably rushed. She was teaming with a respected collaborator, but a collaborator nonetheless. All good reasons to expect a product that might indeed miss the mark, or fail to capture the authentic voice and vision of Palin the person. The first sign that I need not worry came when it was revealed that the AP had hired eleven--count 'em!--eleven fact-checkers to tackle a book written by a woman routinely dismissed by their unhallowed association as a lightweight dunce. Conservative commentators initially saw this act as yet another sign of the liberal media's automatic condescension toward Palin, an act of blind aggression in the continued effort to "destroy" her.
Oh, no, friends. No. That may have been part of the impetus, but after finishing Rogue last night, I now realize exactly why eleven AP hounds were unleashed and why Rachel Maddow has been looking more fatally constipated than usual this past week.
Going Rogue is effective. Head-smackingly effective. Dirt-roads-being-paved-with-money-culled-from-budget-cuts effective. Ronald Reagan-shutting-up-a-liberal-heckler effective. Barack-Obama-being-summarily-trounced-in-2012 effective.
This brings us inevitably (and in no uncertain terms) back to the Land of How Can There Be Any Doubt? Sarah Palin not only knows who she is and what she believes, but she demonstrates who she is and does what she believes. Put it on a basketball court. Put it in a salmon fishing boat. Put it in a small-town cabinet meeting. Put it on the stage at a national convention. Put it in a book.
Put it anywhere: Sarah Palin is the realest thing you're going to see in American leadership, which is why liberals--attuned to illusion, enamored of ciphers and abstractions--can't even see her at all. The book is one mighty flex of an arm attached to that particular heaping helping of "real," the latest manifestation of Palin's effectiveness. What tantalized and thrilled me most about Going Rogue, however, was its jaw-dropping shrewdness.
Yes, Going Rogue is most certainly a memoir, and an eminiently readable one at that. Formative events, environments, and endeavors are delineated and Palin rewards us with a "picnic-blanket-on-the-tundra" feast that is compelling without being affected, evocative without being egotistical, and loaded with integrity in that her narrative lets the reader draw the self-evident conclusion, instead of the self-serving conclusion trying to "draw" the reader (take that, Audacity of Hope).
Palpability is the order of the day, the week, the year, the month, the sentence, and certainly the very word in Palin's book. The frosty, hardscrabble streets of Skagway are palpable. The "gentle warning" that all families are tested by life's travails is palpable. The self-doubts that come after normal human mistakes are palpable, as are the lessons learned which open the door to victories big and small. All palpable. To this reviewer, the most palpable thing of all about this book--the thing that literally gripped me and made me pause to think about it the most (among dozens of notable things)--was the concept of work. "Concept" doesn't begin to do justice, though, because work is not a concept for Sarah Palin. It's a quality, an attribute.
This woman's life is about work. Constant, dedicated, relentless, enthusiastic, back-breaking WORK. I have to admit it; even I was stunned. The thing that Sarah Palin knows best, from the irrefutable evidence of her life, is how to work her tail off if she wants to get something done, and how to do so with unfailing optimism and not a shred of entitlement. Not even with a hint of self-aggrandizement! "Refreshing" hardly begins to capture this dynamic. No wonder liberals think she's some sort of fearful alien. Yes, hard work and uncluttered dedication are in the blood and the bone, for Palin. It's not a thing needing explanation, and Palin doesn't attempt to explain it. It's like breathing. Take a lungful and move on to the next breath. The work ethic that literally leaps from the book's pages applies to cultivating a cherished and well-adjusted family life, to sports competition, to making ends meet, to toting happy kids in a red wagon from door to neighborly door in a fight to build a better town, to digging in one's heels for endless months and seeking to build a team out of mutinous administrators, to...everything.
Truly, if the reader takes only one thing away from this always steady, often moving, frequently humorous American story, it ought to be the sobering and expansive scope of hard work that Palin represents in every fibre of her history and lifestyle as person and public servant, juxtaposed against this contemporary liberal culture of snarky disillusionment with work, with our offices, with our output, and with the almost reptilian sense of entitlement.
Man, does this book ever make a shattering statement without even needing to "make a statement."
That's another potent aspect of Going Rogue. Palin wastes no time with insipidly cerebral circumlocutions about the possibilities of this or that wyrmhole of wonderment. You'll find no unicorns in her book. Plenty of moose. There's not a sniff of fairy-dust. Lots of snow, though. Beginning with her parents' adventurous journey to the Alaskan frontier and extending all the way through the Governor's mansion and deep into the bowels of the identity-challenged McCain presidential campaign, Palin isn't out to impress herself by communicating through a conceited veil of sophistry, or "navel-gazing," as Rush Limbaugh was quick to pipe. Her story is sensible, responsible, and linear--like her politics. When Sarah tells you how things happened, she tells you how they happened. C happened after B, and B happened after A, and A came about because A is where things begin.
In adhering to a method that favors the logical progression of events and reactions to events, Palin reveals far more of substance and interest than any amount of wistful ruminating ever could. Most effectively, Palin's very specific and straightforward delineations of policy are at the service of her natural narrative, and not the other way around. Her expertise on issues of energy and executive fiscal strategy are powerful not because she's trying to make sense out of them, but because she's already made sense out of them via experience.
More than a few liberal (and conservative) critics have grumbled that the book represents some sort of bitter "payback" to transparently out-of-touch campaign managers Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace, but nothing could be further from the truth. Palin's frustration at being so terrifically mismanaged by the people she trusted (and was expected to heed by the top of her ticket) comes through, but her frustration merits a revealing explanation in an autobiography dealing with events that impacted and shaped (or misshaped) the perceptions of millions of observers around the globe. Here again, Palin recounts what happened from her purview, touches upon her frustration without belaboring any one incident, describes how she moved on--remember, with this woman, there is always more and more work to be accomplished--and she covers this material without bitterness. In straightening the lopsided Katie Couric "painting-over-the-mantelpiece," Palin marshalls transcripted evidence of just how very much was sliced-and-diced to expose the "perky one's" agenda for what it was (Creepy Liberal Ambush). Nicolle Wallace's managerial ineptitude in this department is especially and meritoriously glaring.
At last, this brings me back to the shrewd quality of Palin's achievement regarding Going Rogue. In one fell swoop she has reversed the prior damage done by the vampiric "lamestream" media and has very wisely maneuvered herself into position as a Reaganesque "teflon-style" figure on the global political landscape. Her resignation from the Governorship of Alaska--once a catalyst of caterwauling derision--is now crystalline in its emergence as potentially the most brilliant political move of the decade. The decision hearkens back to everything Palin has fought for and come to understand about being most effective at the most important junctures, for those who most count: American people. Careful and objective readers who may have harbored doubts will pick-up on this in a revelatory flash.
Palin's strength and savvy as a genuine leader is likewise exemplified in the construct of this narrative. To wit: Palin knows that she's got the the courage of her convictions, she knows that people respond to courage of conviction because its so damned rare today, and Palin very deliberately uses her courage of conviction to connect with her base. The coup de grace? You can't fault or assail courage of conviction! It's impossible.
Oh, my. Sarah Palin has arrived.
- Ian
Saturday, October 31, 2009
An All Hallow's Eve of Horrors
TX4P contibutor Ian Ransom has been toiling over the cauldron to brew up a Halloween horror which ought to scare the living nightlights out of us flyover folk. Ian's recipie remains a closely guarded secret, but we suspect that three of the many icky ingredients which went into the steaming stew are Oil of Obama (made from arugula grown in Michelle's White House garden!), Eye of Newt and Brain of Biden.
If this don't creep ya' out pilgrim, then you're just an ol' Limousin liberal. Moo! So lock the doors, grab some garlic and brace yourselves for our fright night delight. Boo!
- JP
An All Hallow's Eve of Horrors
- By Ian Ransom
Spooks and all things that go bump in the night
have nothing on me, kids, in sheer terms of fright!
One look at my face and you'll turn into stone;
my crone-fangs will gnaw your limbs straight to the bone!
My breath is a venom, my spit is like acid.
My nose is a wart-fest, all drooping and flaccid.
Upon an old dust-mop I fly through the air;
My spellbook of horror? The Bill of Health Care!
My sisters and I shall soon take to the skies.
We'll cackle and swoop as we buzz you like flies!
So make no mistake, we're the worst hags around.
It would take Sarah Palin to shoot us all down!
On Kathleen Sebelius! On vile Maureen Dowd!
On, Maddow and Huffington--witches most proud!
And woe to the poor soul that chances to meet us;
We'll boil him in oil (like we would with a foetus)!
We're a coven of doom, we're a grouping of ghouls.
We're a man-eating gaggle of liberal fools!
Thus travel with care, if you know what I mean,
'cause I'm Nancy Pelosi...and tonight's HALLOWEEN!
- Ian
If this don't creep ya' out pilgrim, then you're just an ol' Limousin liberal. Moo! So lock the doors, grab some garlic and brace yourselves for our fright night delight. Boo!
- JP
An All Hallow's Eve of Horrors
- By Ian Ransom
Spooks and all things that go bump in the night
have nothing on me, kids, in sheer terms of fright!
One look at my face and you'll turn into stone;
my crone-fangs will gnaw your limbs straight to the bone!
My breath is a venom, my spit is like acid.
My nose is a wart-fest, all drooping and flaccid.
Upon an old dust-mop I fly through the air;
My spellbook of horror? The Bill of Health Care!
My sisters and I shall soon take to the skies.
We'll cackle and swoop as we buzz you like flies!
So make no mistake, we're the worst hags around.
It would take Sarah Palin to shoot us all down!
On Kathleen Sebelius! On vile Maureen Dowd!
On, Maddow and Huffington--witches most proud!
And woe to the poor soul that chances to meet us;
We'll boil him in oil (like we would with a foetus)!
We're a coven of doom, we're a grouping of ghouls.
We're a man-eating gaggle of liberal fools!
Thus travel with care, if you know what I mean,
'cause I'm Nancy Pelosi...and tonight's HALLOWEEN!
- Ian
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Ian Ransom Joins the Texas for Sarah Palin Staff
We're pleased to announce that Texas for Sarah Palin has a new contributor. We welcome Ian Ransom, who blogs at The Ian Ransom Notes to our staff. From his Blogger profile:
Author, editor, ecumenical commentator, recalibrated Prodigal, illustrator, and Catholic writer Ian Ransom is the author of one novel, Fishing for Piranha (2000), a non-fiction investigative book, Mary and the Ossuary (2003), and a collection of satirical essays, Waiting for the Rapture (2006).
Ian was born, educated, and graduated in New York State, spent over a decade in Roman Catholic ministry in the Southeastern USA and Europe before moving to California in the mid-1990s. His published material has been noted in USA Today, The San Francisco Chronicle, Borders Monthly, Biblical Archaeology Review, Sciences et Avenir (published in 11 countries), and other international dailies and journals.
[...]
He is completing a new novel, slated for release in 2009.
Ian brings a unique writing style and a sense of humor that we found refreshing when we first read his work. He's impressive, and he brings an entirely new perspective to this little ol' mom and pop blog.
Welcome, Ian.
Footnote 1: By chance more than choice, Texas for Sarah Palin has a writers' roster full of Catholics, although yours truly is just a Catholic-in-transition (from what at least used to be the Anglican tradition) and attending weekly RCIA classes. The Holy Father may have just cut through some ecclesiastical "red tape" for yr. obd. svt., however, with his unprecedented announcement that the Mother Church will welcome Anglicans back to the Church of Peter with open arms.
Footnote 2: Some have asked, "Why the name Texas for Sarah Palin, since Painter is the only Texan on the contributor list?" We will let literary luminary John Steinbeck (a Californian) answer that one:
"Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word." - From Travels with Charley: In Search of America, (1962)- JP
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Ian Ransom on Levi's Vanity Fair Palin Smear Job
*
Ian Ransom's cutting commentary regarding Vanity Fair's latest character-assassination-for-hire of Sarah Palin is not to be missed. The contract on Palin went to the most unlikely of hit men -- Levi Johnston, who blends with the VF elites like Scotts Miracle Gro mixes with moose manure. Any way you package it, it's the same old... er, stuff. What we like about Ian is he uses a keyboard like a samurai wields a katana. Here are a couple of excerpts:
Read Ian's complete commentary here.
- JP
Ian Ransom's cutting commentary regarding Vanity Fair's latest character-assassination-for-hire of Sarah Palin is not to be missed. The contract on Palin went to the most unlikely of hit men -- Levi Johnston, who blends with the VF elites like Scotts Miracle Gro mixes with moose manure. Any way you package it, it's the same old... er, stuff. What we like about Ian is he uses a keyboard like a samurai wields a katana. Here are a couple of excerpts:
"Once again, we witness the Left's indefatigable obsession with defaming and dehumanizing Sarah Palin, long after she has departed center stage--for the time being--in the battle for America's ideological soul. Though Beltway denizens and pundits have adopted a wait & see approach (whilst keeping their straight-razors handy), bloated old fashion-mummies like Graydon Carter can't seem to shake their overweening fear of Palin's decency, or their inability to comprehend her unwavering, distinctly American dignity. Fops like Graydon Carter can't tolerate such abiding normality because, unlike Palin, these individuals do not value character...they value characteristics."Well, Ricky Hollywood, when Rex Butler said he would make you a star, is this what you had in mind? Probably beats posing for Gayboy magazine, though. Or is that next? And to think that your dad had found honest work for you until Dan Fagan screwed that up.
[...]
"It's not shocking that Vanity Fair and its washed-out hive of worker bees would stoop to such galling depths to ridicule a fine American leader who has never harmed anyone. Vanity Fair's sales are unquestionably in the same toilet wherein the souls of its editors are currently swirling toward the Ultimate Flush. These dandies are forced to pander for their very lives, which, in a way, testifies to the power that Sarah Palin has over them, and not vice versa."
Read Ian's complete commentary here.
- JP
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Ian Ransom Slices and Dices Paul Begala
Reading Ian Ransom's dissection* of Paul Begala for the Democrat strategist's ad hominem attack on Sarah Palin reminded us of our first visit to a Japanese steak house, where a skillful chef not only prepared the food before our eyes, but he made quite a dazzling show of all the mid-air slicing and dicing. It was precision culinary performance art done at nearly supersonic speed.
See if you don't agree, as Chef Ransom filets a side of Begala whale:
*language alert
Related: Wynton Hall catches Begala and Maureen Dowd in a trap made of their own elitist snobbery.
- JP
See if you don't agree, as Chef Ransom filets a side of Begala whale:
It's becoming laughable to note the number of Democratic strategists who are still frantically seeking to perpetuate the myth that Sarah Palin is crazy, stupid, intellectually deficient, etc. Begala hopped onto the Bandwagon of Snide Obfuscation via CNN a few days ago, referring to Palin as "half a whack-job."Pinot grigio? No, this is a Japanese restaurant. We're savoring the saki.
Perhaps he, like so many other terrified liberal communists, was annoyed by that particular "half" of Palin that managed, in a mere Facebook message, to burst a gaping, game-changing hole in the national health-care debate.
[...]
The childish and utterly ridiculous "You're not smart like me" mantra is the same once hurled at wily Ronald Reagan by sniveling, pencil-dic*ed liberal snobs who--let's face it--think that ordering a glass of pinot grigio in some drab Beltway bistro exemplifies superior intellect.
*language alert
Related: Wynton Hall catches Begala and Maureen Dowd in a trap made of their own elitist snobbery.
- JP
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