Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton: Is Obfuscation Intellectual?

- By Lisa Graas, Special Guest Contributor
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CBS News interviewed Dick Armey, who heads up Freedom Works, regarding the future of the Republican Party. Regarding Sarah Palin, Armey had this to say:

"The first thing that drives them nuts about Sarah Palin is that she's authentic. She is who she is, on her own terms. In many respects she's everything that Hillary Clinton pretends to be. She became the governor of the state of Alaska not because she was someone's daughter or sister or wife, but because on her own terms on her own initiative, she became the governor."

"She's not wishy-washy. She says exactly what she means and makes it quite clear so there can be no misunderstanding. Clarity is considered by the left to be intellectually diminished as opposed to obfuscation."

Admittedly, I do spend some time wondering why the liberal mind deems Sarah Palin to be lacking intelligence. I had always chalked it up to their elitism that makes them confuse her accent with a lack of intelligence. As someone who speaks with a Southern accent who also happens to have a high IQ, I know something about that. It happens to me frequently. Armey may have something here, though. Could it be that the liberal mind expects intelligent people to speak in extraneous meanderings? 

I'm also intrigued by the comment "she's everything Hillary Clinton pretends to be". Would Hillary Clinton have the position that she has if not for her husband? I doubt it so, on this point, I agree with him without compunction. She would likely be a very high profile attorney if not for her husband's political rise. In fact, I might venture to say she'd be sitting on a federal court somewhere......but presidential hopeful? Nope.

Mind you, Hillary is a very accomplished and intelligent person. At the same time, she is a master at obfuscation. When asked by Congressman Chris Smith how she could have brought herself to accept the Margaret Sanger award for her work in expanding abortion even though Margaret Sanger's agenda was to eliminate the minority population, Clinton reminded him that the Founding Fathers were slave holders. My, how she can catch us off guard with what seems at first glance to be a brilliant retort. None would argue that the Founding Fathers had an agenda to keep the slaves in permanent bondage. Slavery was not their main agenda. On the other hand, Sanger's entire agenda was to bring about a somewhat systematic elimination of those she deemed to be unworthy of life, including the poor and minorities. This is just one example of Clinton's ability to practice piercingly effective deceit.....but it is deceit, nevertheless. What may sound good at first hearing is revealed by some investigation to be quite sinister. On the other hand, in considering Palin's public statements, what may sound quite sinister at first hearing is revealed by some investigation to be, in many cases, utterly brilliant and decent.

Also today, Michael Petrilli, writing at the Wall Street Journal, claims that Palin supporters are "anti-intellectual" and that Palin is "unable" to name newspapers she reads. I wasn't expecting to see a suggestion in the Wall Street Journal this morning that I am "anti-intellectual". As a devout Catholic, my heroes include Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa and when I want to pleasure myself, I study the Summa Theologica. Petrilli is engaging in a generalization that simply doesn't fit reality. I find myself perplexed, as well, that he believes Sarah Palin can't name a newspaper she reads. Did he watch Media Malpractice or, for that matter, the Oprah interview for the story on that? Has he read her op-eds in the New York Times and the Washington Post?

I don't know that we will ever get to the bottom of the reasoning behind this hatred, but I do sometimes wonder, do those who said such things about Ronald Reagan have any regrets now? It's my fallen nature that urges me to ask this in pride because, when Sarah Palin is our next president, I'd like to hear some apologies from the likes of Petrilli.

- Lisa

Lisa Graas is editor of several websites, including the Palin Twibe Blog.

McCain's advice for Sarah Palin

A man named McCain has some advice for Sarah Palin. No, not the McCain that was her former running mate, but journalist/blogger Stacy McCain, who writes for The American Spectator and his blog The Other McCain.

One piece of Stacy's advice seems to us to be a no-brainer -- Ignore Andrew Sullivan:

Dr. Andrew Sullivan, M.D., OB-GYN, excecutive director of research at the Atlantic Memorial Center for Republican Obstetric Investigation, accuses Palin of being obsessed with him.

[...]

Having ridden his lunatic hobby-horse to self-indulgent glory -- the rodeo hero of Palin-haters everywhere -- now Sully goes for the championship buckle by issuing a ridiculous "challenge" to Palin. (Note the Charles Johnson-like gadfly approach: Sullivan arrogates to himself the authority to decide what subjects Sarah Palin must address.)

What should Palin do about Sully? For now, do nothing. Or, rather, don't do much.

[...]

There's a right way and a wrong way to deal with the annoyances of a gadfly. The important thing is to maintain the strategic initiative: You decide when, where and how to respond.

Perhaps the former governor should simply send Sully Levi's cell phone number. Since her there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-almost-son-in-law rather hatefully turned down her invitation to come to Thanksgiving dinner with the family, Ricky Hollywood and Doc Sully could get together on Turkey Day and share some dressing.

The Other McCain's other advice -- is that Sarah Palin should seek out Dick Armey and listen seriously to the FreedomWorks Chairman's advice.

Armey recently caused a bit of a stir when he criticized the former governor for being a "cheerleader" for the TEA Party movement at a time when it is looking for a "captain." Armey also commented that Mrs. Palin doesn't appear to him, at least, to be doing a very effective job of rehabilitating her image.

Actually, we believe that the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate is taking steps to address both of Armey's two major criticisms of her. Sarah Palin's appearances on The Oprah Show and her many-segmented interview with ABC's Barbara Walters are in our opinion designed to do much more than just sell a lot of books. She intends to show women who aren't part of movement conservatism that she isn't the ogress that the Left and the media have painted her to appear to be. Moderate and independent women are a key segment of voters and precisely the demographic with which Mrs. Palin fared worst in 2008 election exit polling. She doesn't need to make Palinistas out of these women, and indeed that would be an impossible task. She only needs to soften her image with them. There's plenty of time to take the next step, which will be to show them that she understands the issues which she has been talking about on her Facebook Notes page, in op-eds she has written and will continue to write for such media outlets as the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, and in stump speeches she will deliver for congressional candidates who will seek and garner her support.

Sarah Palin has also moved to address Armey's other concern by saying "yes" to the chairman's own TEA party movement. She has accepted an invitation to keynote the first TEA Party national convention, which will take place in Nashville in February. This seems to us to be an ideal way to begin the transition from cheering on the sidelines to joining Armey's army and fighting with them on the field of battle. From there, time will tell if she will seek out and earn her captain's bars.

Can she win over Armey? We wouldn't count her out. Not all of what the chairman says about her is critique. He has acknowledged that Palin is probably a person of greater ability and possessing of more sense than what she's been given credit for. He has also praised her for being a self-made woman and for her proven ability to draw crowds. Again, time will tell.

Stacy also recommends that Sarah Palin not pass up opportunities to appear at some smaller-town rallies and call some local radio talk show hosts. We doubt that either of these tasks would be a problem for The Arctic Fox. She certainly did plenty of small-town venues on the campaign trail in 2008 and seemed to really enjoy that part, at least, of the race. She also has a history of calling local talk shows, which she did before the campaign. Her Team McCain handlers prevented her from making a large number of such calls, but she did manage to sneak a few in when they weren't looking.

We think that in time Sarah Palin will show women who are swing voters, the TEA party troops and even Dick Armey that she has the right stuff. Heck, she'll most probably even let Stacy have the credit for taking his good advice, too.

- JP

Armey: "McCain strategists feared Sarah Palin the moment she was chosen"

In a wide-ranging NewsMax.com interview, FreedomWorks chairman and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas was asked about Steve Schmidt's recent comment that a Sarah Palin presidential candidacy would be disastrous for Republicans in 2012. Armey's reply:

"You have to understand, McCain strategists feared Sarah Palin the moment she was chosen" because of concerns she might upstage the candidate at the top of the ticket, Armey said.

"Sarah Palin is I think now on her own terms and giving expression to her own voice.

"She's going to demonstrate herself to be a far more shining example of what small government conservatism is and how well it can be understood and expressed than the McCain campaign was able to do."

You can read the full interview here and here.

- JP