AWR Hawkins: WWPD?

What would Palin do?
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In a Pajamas Media commentary, AWR Hawkins counts the ways our republic is headed for the cliff under an Obama presidency which is arguably even more disastrous than that of Jimmy Carter: high gasoline and diesel prices are up, rising food prices, record high foreclosures, an unemployment nearly twice that under Bush, a mountain of debt and a devalued dollar. Meanwhile, the president is clearly in over his head as he apologizes to our enemies, snubs our allies and pursues aself-contradictory foreign policy. None of this has gone without notice from Sarah Palin, and Hawkins figures it's a good time to ask the question: What would Gov. Palin do if she were President Palin?

In addition to an America-first policy toward energy, Palin believes that reducing the size of government and the taxes levied on Americans is a common-sense way to make sure hard-earned dollars stay in the hands that earned them. It’s also the surest way to unleash the creative spirit of America’s best: a spirit currently shackled by the debt and myriad of regulations the Obama administration has placed on the backs of citizens of all walks of life.

[...]

Obama’s current foreign policy missteps and hesitancy in using the military to crush terrorists wherever they hide would also change under Palin’s watch. She has made it clear that she would not hesitate to use the military to keep Americans safe. And as for fighting terrorists, she has expressed her strategy via a simple Cold War maxim: “We win, they lose.”

Those who have paid attention to Palin’s words and deeds as governor of Alaska, Republican vice presidential candidate, and the mother of a combat soldier (her son Track served a tour in Iraq) must have noticed that she has backbone. When she talks about national security she exhibits a decisiveness and determination far removed from the Jimmy Carter-style approach of Obama. She is far more reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher or even Ronald Reagan in this area.

Our country’s relationship with Israel is but another area in which Palin would usher in a complete reversal of the policies we’ve seen under Obama. Whereas the current administration has been markedly anti-Israel, Palin would not only support Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorist threats (like those coming from Hamas), but would encourage Israel to be unapologetic in doing so.

She’s already on record saying Israel apologizes too much.

[...]

I can’t help but think that somewhere, somehow, Reagan is smiling.

[More]

- JP

Joe Miller: Gov. Palin is more than just constitutionally qualified

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TheRightScoop captured audio of Joe Miller's appearance Friday on Laura Ingraham's radio talk show. At about the 9:00 mark, Miller leaves no doubt that he believes Gov. Palin is more than just constitutionally qualified to be president of the United States...


... but don't look for the lamestream media to give these remarks by Miller the same coverage they did his earlier comments, because what he says here doesn't fit their anti-Palin narrative.

- JP

Don Surber: 10 more reasons why Sarah Palin will make a good president

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U.S. News and World Report recently published: “10 Reasons Sarah Palin Would Make a Good President.”

Don Surber adds 10 more reasons of his own:

11. Put up with a lot of crap from a media that gave Barack Obama a pass on his association with terrorists, racists and crooks.

12. Took on Exxon and won.

13. Took on Frank Murkowski and won.

14. Was cleared of 26 ethics charges making her the cleanest politician in the land.

15. Actually leads people.

16. Actually leads people by example.

17. Todd Palin. He is the husband I would want if I were a woman.

18. Has balanced a budget.

19. Has cut taxes.

20. Not an Ivy Leaguer. The last non-Ivy Leaguer president we had was Ronald Reagan.

- JP

Moore: A Palin presidency would be good for Canada

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Charles W. Moore, in an op-ed published by the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal, says that Sarah Palin has become "a force to be reckoned with - not just in U.S., but in North American politics":

Ms. Palin, currently a Fox News commentator, whose memoir, Going Rogue, is a bestseller, actually has a strong pro-Canadian record, although she's granted little credit for it in Obama-besotted Canuck public perception.

As governor of the border state of Alaska, after signing an agreement granting TransCanada pipeline US$500 million to help launch a new 2,700-kilometre pipeline project to carry natural gas from Alaska to Alberta, Ms. Palin affirmed her desire to "grow the relationship we have with Canada," observing that the NAFTA has enhanced job-creation and growth in both countries.

[...]

In Calgary Ms. Palin, speaking without notes, opened by highlighting commonalities shared by Alaska and Alberta with their respective histories of independent thinking and economies heavily dependent on energy production. She also cited her own Canadian roots, noting that both of her great-grandfathers were Canadian prairie born and bred, one from Manitoba, the other from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan - quipping: "that must be where my love of moose came from." (A member of the U.S. National Rifle Association, Ms. Palin is an avid hunter and outdoorswoman).

Ms. Palin also recalled that when she was young, fellow Alaskans would travel to Whitehorse in Canada's Yukon for medical treatment. She praised Vancouver's successful Winter Olympics, graciously congratulating Canada's dramatic men's hockey gold medal victory over the American team, and riffing on her own family's affinity for the game.

She praised the Harper government's approach in balancing response to calls for environmental reform, particularly cutting carbon emissions, with the economic realities of energy production, predicting that cap-and-trade proposals to reduce emissions will lead to fewer jobs and heavier tax burdens.

Moore reminds his readers that in the middle of 1977, the very idea that Ronald Reagan, with whom Sarah Palin has much in common, could win the presidency by a landslide in 1980 would have been unthinkable, and he cites both Reagan and Harry S. Truman as evidence "that one doesn't have to be a 'public intellectual' to be an effective and successful president.

Moore's conclusion: Don't count Sarah Palin out yet, and a Palin presidency would likely be good for Canada, "regardless of what many Canadians think they think" about her.

- JP

Taking a page from the Ronald Reagan Playbook

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Here is See-BS' Harry Smith with two political analysts, both of whom agree that Sarah Palin can use her Fox News appearances as a stepping stone to run for President in 2012. What Ronald Reagan did with radio, Gov. Palin can do with cable television and her Facebook page:



Related Story here.

h/t: Freedom's Lighthouse

- JP

Liberal Heads Explode: A Possible Palin Presidency

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On Wednesday night's "The O'Reilly Factor" Dennis Miller and host Bill O'Reilly talked how a possible Sarah Palin presidency could be the result of the continuing incompetence of Barack Obama and his administration:



That sound you hear is the chorus of exploding liberal heads...

h/t: Jim Hoft

- JP

Sarah Palin: 2012 "not on my radar screen right now"

In her interview with Oprah Winfrey, to be aired on "The Oprah Show" this afternoon, Sarah Palin said that a run for the White House in 2012 is "not on my radar screen right now."

Palin fans should not be discouraged, however. Most political observers would consider the former governor's response to be a typical "non-answer" to a question that few, if any, political figures would be crazy enough to answer in the affirmative this far in advance of the 2012 presidential race. Most pundits will simply intrpret her answer to mean that she's not shutting the door on a possible run.

Also in the report from the Chicago Tribune's entertainment page is this exchange between Oprah and Sarah:

Oprah: Everybody's waiting on the Levi question I know.

Palin: I hear he goes by the name Ricky Hollywood now. If that's the case, we don't want to mess up this gig he's got going---kind of this aspiring porn. Some of the things he's got going, it's kind of heartbreaking.

Oprah: "The Playgirl" centerfold.

Palin: I call that porn, yes. He's quite busy with his media tours and he hasn't seen the baby for a while. Levi forever will be the father of this baby, and I continue to hope for the best and pray for the baby.

More here.

- JP

Will Palin 'pull a Reagan?'

Don Campbell, a former Washington-based newspaper man, writes in USA Today that Sarah Palin could "pull a Reagan" in 2016. Unlike some commentators who have written off Palin's political future because she resigned her governorship, Campbell thinks she still has a good shot at the White House:

I believe she's not only a prime candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, but she could be a formidable general election contender as well — if she's willing to take her time and do it right.

Doing it right, according to Campbell, means that Sarah Palin should get the same kind of coaching on national and international issues that Ronald Reagan sought on state issues prior to campaigning for and winning the California governor's job.

But Campbell seems to have bought into the Left's "incurious" meme, expressing his wonder "about her lack of curiosity" and what he supposes is the former governor's opinion that she can become president simply by being an outsider. As Afghan President Hamid Karzai remarked after meeting with Palin:

"I found her quite a capable woman. She asked the right questions on Afghanistan."

Democrats from liberal writer Ari Berman to center-left former President Bill Clinton have warned against underestimating Sarah Palin, but many pols and pundits from all points of the political spectrum continue to ignore their advice. Despite Campbell's doubt about Palin's curiosity, he still thinks she can pull off a Reagan-style win, but he doesn't believe 2012 will be her year:

She might win the GOP nomination in 2012, but I'm skeptical that voters will turn Barack Obama out of office after four years. On the other hand, I'd bet the mortgage that a majority will be ready for a Republican president by 2016.

Despite a press corps which still mostly swoons over him, President Obama faces some serious economic challenges, and his prescription of statism and spending isn't likely to make them go away in three years, by which time the 2012 election will be in full swing. If she wants the job, we believe Sarah Palin can have it in 2012 if she surrounds herself with the kind of team that Ronald Reagan built.

Scott Martin has his own thoughts on Campbell's piece posted at The Patriot Room.

- JP

Barbour praises Palin as "a bonafide energy expert"

Mississippi governor Haley Barbour says the GOP should use its time time that it is out of power to rebuild and reposition itself to win back the White House in 2012. Barbour was interviewed by FOX News at the summer National Governor's Association meeting, and said that after eight years of hearing from the Bush administration, it was time for people to hear some new Republican voices:

"There are a lot of people in the Republican Party who have a chance to be heard now, and we want to hear from them. When you're the out party you don't have one spokesman."

Barbour, himself a possible 2012 presidential contender, is Chairman of the Republican Governors' Association. He described two of his fellow GOP governors, Louisiana's Bobby Jindal and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, as stars of the party. Barbour also had words of praise for Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, whom he said was still "very popular" with Republicans:

"I just think she's a great person, and she's also a bona fide energy expert," Barbour said, citing her recent op-ed against the Cap and Trade issue. Palin, surprising many, decided to end her term early as governor.

The Mississippi governor declined to say whether he was interested in campaigning for the presidency. He said that the first thing Republicans must do to recapture the White House is to win back gubernatorial seats in the 2010 midterm elections.

- JP

If Palin Were President...

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David Harsanyi serves up some satire at RCP. A few choice tidbits:

But running government is no longer a suitable vocation for the bumbling proletariat. It's for folks with schoolin' and such. It's a job for herculean thinkers with degrees from Ivy League schools. In other words, no one from Alaska need apply.

Former sports reporters certainly won't do. We need former constitutional scholars. Who else, after all, has a better understanding of how to undermine the document?

Really, where would we be if a bumpkin like Palin were president? With her brainpower, we probably would be stuck with a Cabinet full of tax cheats, retreads and moralizing social engineers.

If Palin were president, chances are we'd have a gaffe-generating motormouth for a vice president. That's the kind of decision-making one expects from Miss Congeniality.

The job of building generational debt is not for the unsophisticated. Enriching political donors with taxpayer dollars takes intellectual prowess, not the skills of a moose-hunting point guard.

The talent to print money we don't have to pay for programs we can't afford is the work of a finely tuned imagination, soaring gravitas and endless policy know-how.

Palin is so clueless she probably would have rushed through some colossal stimulus plan that ended up stimulating nothing.

After four years of Obo the Clown -- assuming this republic can survive four years of his circus act -- Americans will be begging for someone like Sarah Palin to put the nation back on Ronald Reagan's clearly-defined path to that shining city on a hill. Right now, we're headed off the cliff on the outskirts of town.

- JP