More Quote of the Day Honorable Mention Part 372

“Lead On” Edition
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Kempite, at White House 2012:

“Since the end of the 2008 election, Sarah Palin has been a cheerleader for the right. She has fired up the forces, fueled the TEA movement, and in 2010, was a major factor in Get Out the Vote operations for dozens of winning congressional candidates and numerous gubernatorial candidates. But on Saturday, Palin began to sound less like a cheerleader and more like a leader. Her speech demonstrated her understanding of the millions of disaffected Americans who have become angry with the political establishment’s polluting of our political system and the liberal big government mentality that is only digging us deeper and deeper in to an economic abyss and a corrupt, out of touch legislative process. Yet she also demonstrated that she has not only the right kind of anti-establishment attitude that the people want, but that she also has an idea as to how to legislatively improve our nation.”

Mark America:

“One result from the weekend trip is the indelible impression with which I’ve been left about the nature of Sarah Palin’s supporters... We’ve come to a moment of clarity about our world, our national future, and who will lead us there. Sarah Palin is that leader.”

Richard Falknor, at BlueRidgeForum:

“What we do believe is that the Palin speech in Iowa is well worth reading for conservatives. She brings up — or alludes to — a number of troubling concerns which have not yet become part of the national GOP conversation... Maybe nothing quite so new here about the permanent political or ‘ruling’ class for some of our conservative pundits. But what is important is that Governor Palin pushes this concern into the national GOP and conservative conversation to include so many who might not otherwise hear it... One fears that many — often understandably exasperated — conservatives do not understand that we need to drain the entire swamp — not just vote out the chief game warden. Palin gets it spot on...”

acorcoran, at Potomac Tea Party Report:

“Palin seems to be reading Angelo Codevilla. I wonder if Katie Curic reads Codevilla, or the NYT for that matter.”

Jack Curtis, at The Constitution Club:

“The sun hasn’t risen in the west, but the New York Times has complimented Sarah Palin’s political thinking. And no, she didn’t melt down into blubbering liberalism. She delivered a cogent, even-handed evaluation of our political pickle, so far, uncharted waters for candidates from either side and requiring confrontation of shibboleths of both left and right. The NYT approved... The Times found Mrs. Palin and so will other readers... she’s the first propsective candidate to start acting like a leader with a real destination in mind. ‘Interesting,’ indeed.”

Zara Golden, at Mediaite:

“What’s interesting about Giridharadas story is the reminder it serves as to how easy it is to get caught up in a media narrative.”

Ed Morrissey, at Hot Air:

“I don’t want to take too many swipes at Anand Giridharadas for finally getting around to noticing this, but if the Gray Lady took three years to suddenly discover that Palin was an anti-establishment populist who takes on both parties, then that really says something about their approach to the news. Palin took on the Republican Party in Alaska, blowing the whistle on corruption in the GOP in Alaska as a member of the state oil commission. She rode that reputation to the governor’s office, where she fought the oil companies to protect Alaska’s interests in its natural resources. Did they not bother to find out these two basic facts about her political career when the Times and other national media outlets busied themselves reporting on the used tanning bed Palin bought with her own money?”

Public Policy Polling, via Twitter:

“Obama trails Palin by 14 with independents in North Carolina, that's when you know you're having a bad month.”

Stacy Drake, at Conservatives 4 Palin:

“Shaw maintains that there wasn’t a conflict of interest in doing the poll for Fox because Perry didn’t pay him and the other ‘eggheads’ for their services. Even though he and the others were very much a part of Perry’s political team, he claims that ‘we’re stupid, we never entered into any business relationship with Perry.’ The book states that Shaw was ‘moonlighting’ for the Perry campaign. I gather that one would have to go through Perry’s campaign disclosure forms to find out for sure. Given the huge numbers for Perry in the poll and the fact that Team Perry is determined to keep Governor Palin out of the race, something isn’t right with Fox using Shaw’s agency to gather numbers for a conservative audience. There is also the fact that the Fox poll numbers are very different from a poll that CNN conducted just this last July.”

Greta Van Susteren, at GretaWire:

“Sometimes the media has too much time on its hands…”

Tony Lee, at Human Events:

“If Palin intends on entering the race, she won this debate. Every candidate has now shown their cards and revealed parts of their strategy. This allows Palin to come in last after surveying the field. If she jumps in, all of the candidates will have damaged the other candidates, and she will have the added benefit of being more prepared and able to anticipate the various lines of defenses these candidates will use to defend their weaknesses. Palin can also come up with unique policy solutions that allows her to be the last candidate standing.”

Daniel Foster, at NRO's The Corner:

“She came from Alaska, to feast on your flesh!”

Lance Thompson, at Canada Free Press:

“I believe Sarah Palin would be a strong, inspirational and galvanizing candidate. There may be good reasons not to nominate her, but the professed eagerness of the Democrats to run against her is not one of them. If Republicans believe another candidate will do better, they will make that choice during the primaries. And if Sarah Palin runs, and the GOP nominates her next fall, then we’ll see how eager the Democrats really are for a fight.”

Rush Limbaugh:

“Tormenting the media, Sarah Palin, who to Thomas ‘Loopy’ Friedman represents the apocalypse because she won't go away... They hate when they hear ‘Run, Sarah, run.’ They despise the Tea Party still being optimistic and uplifting.”

Mark America:

“Sarah Palin, as Mayor of Wasilla, and as Governor of her state, actually set out to do what none before her would do: She tackled Alaska’s version of the ‘Good Ol’ Boys’ and drove them from power. If you’ve bought the media’s narrative about her, you might have been led to believe she’s ‘an intellectual lightweight,’ or a ‘tease’ or any number of scurrilous claims they routinely make... Did they tell you that when she was Mayor of her small town, she was re-elected by 75% of the population? What did 75% of the people of Wasilla, Alaska know about her that the media has not told you? Did the opinion-leaders in your local paper tell you that as Governor, she attained an approval rating over 80% after her gubernatorial victory? ... Did they tell you she cut government spending in a time of surplus that she created by her good governance? Were you told that her tough stand against ‘Big Oil’ resulted in providing new wealth to the whole of the state, not to mention its people and its government? They told you she was a ‘quitter.’ Have you believed this stubborn lie, too?”

Exit Quote - Sam Walton:

“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.”

- JP

Andy Barr: Emails show a governor engaged, effective, attentive

Gov. Palin was right when she said all of the rocks have been turned over
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Politico reporter Andy Barr says the Great Alaskan Email Dump "not only shows how effective she is, but how attentive she is as governor." An additional benefit she will derive from media scrutiny of the emails, Barr points out, is that it reinforces the image of Gov. Palin as a very serious executive presented in the forthcoming documentary film "The Undefeated." The emails, he observes, are evidence which back up some of the claims being made about her in the movie:


Right, Andy. It's called "leadership." And Sarah Palin has been an effective leader her entire political career.

- JP

Is Sarah ready to unite...and conquer?

- by ehvogel
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I've been thinking a lot about how to get the federal government under control. So much bureaucracy is not going to be easy to unwind, but I have a few ideas.

First off, what should the Executive branch look like? What departments are truly necessary for the things that a national government should concern itself with? What about:

1. Defense - It used to be called the Department of War. That's a good [re-] start. Homeland Security should be part of it's purview, not a bunch of bureaucrats that manage our transportation system and their supporting unions.

2. Commerce - There needs to be a return to PROMOTING commerce as opposed to regulating it, which is all the Commerce Department does nowadays. I could spend a few months in the Commerce Department and streamline their reporting mandates in a way that PROMOTED commerce. The existing efforts stifle it. It's a pet peeve of mine.

3. Treasury - The Treasury Department needs to manage the finances of our national government and not anything else. How in the hell did we get to a point where the Treasury Department is managing our entire economy? This has to stop! I could go on and on about all the ridiculous federal bureaucracies that fall under this department (FNMA and FHMC come to mind) and need to go.

4. Foreign Affairs - I think that the State Department needs to go in its present form. What we really need is a department to manage our foreign affairs. It should operate within the dictates of our national interests, not as a cabal of bureaucrats that patronize left-wing dictatorships. If a foreign country is all-in for capitalism, we should be all-in for supporting them. Why waste time and resources on a country that doesn't support our national interests in a market-based economy?

Anyway, I hope you get my drift. Re-establish priorities and put them in place. Once you've done that, staff the departments in a way to further the goals of that department.

Unions are not welcome. They should be abolished from any form of government. There should be absolutely no negotiating on this point. Working for any level of government is a service to your country, your state or your local jurisdiction. Unions do not have a place in this service. They are anathema to our Constitution.

Once you've established the proper departments of the Executive branch and staffed them to the level needed to perform their functions (within their established budgets), cut the rest free. This may displace thousands of governments workers, but they really need to be in the private sector anyway.

Freeze all government pensions that are not part of the surviving structure. They get what they get, as of their termination date. Why should they be treated any differently than private sector employees?

Now, you'll notice that I have not talked about entitlements. There's a reason for that. As of [name your date], they cease to continue. Notice that I didn't say "cease to exist". There are far too many citizens of this great country that accepted the "New Deal" and planned accordingly. They should NOT be penalized. Anyone over the age of 65 years old needs to be "grand-fathered". Anyone younger than that needs to have their contributions to Social Security transferred to an account that THEY control.

Going forward, there is no Medicare or Social Security, as we know it. What is in its place is a actuary-based system that weans people off the government dole and places them in a privatized system. I have the utmost confidence that our free enterprise system will find a way to assist them, albeit at a price.

So, who is positioned to lead this charge?

I can only think of one, and her name is Sarah Palin.

Who is the one that espouses all that is the free market? Who is the one to focus our attention on the roots of our society? Who is the one that "gets it" and opposes the ruling elite? Who is the one that speaks to our values and stands opposed to a mosque at Ground Zero? Who is the one to stand up for our Christian beliefs? Who is the one that stands willing to battle a progressive ideology? Who is the only one committed to unite us in conquering our socialist foes?

Who amongst us hails from Alaska, the last bastion of rugged individualism?

- ev

Tx4P contributor ehvogel resides in North Texas where he presides over Generational Dysfunction.

Is Sarah Palin the cure for Washington's leadership deficit?

- by ehvogel
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I am aghast at the events that are unfolding before our eyes:

Ground Zero Mosque

JournoList collusion in the news

The return of the "Death Tax"

Obamacare mandates are now a tax

Expiration of the Bush tax cuts

Cap and Trade

Where do we find the leadership to confront these issues? I'm not the only one concerned. As an example, only 20% favor the Ground Zero Mosque. In addition, it now seems like the timing of your death means everything. Is there now an incentive to pull the plug on Granny before December 31st? What kind of government creates that kind of incentive?

Fortunately, there IS someone leading the charge against many of these issues.

"An Intolerable Mistake on Hallowed Ground"

JournoList fallout

Energy independence and Cap and Tax

And there is still much, much more to focus on. One idea that's being floated is "Nullification." We just need someone to lead the effort. Sarah Palin has clearly shown that she is willing to speak up for the American spirit on a whole host of issues. While Washington politicians tremble at the thought of repeal and nullification, they will follow a leader.

Can you think of anyone at this juncture that can even begin to do what needs to be done besides Sarah Palin? If so, I need names AND evidence, because I'm not convinced that there is anyone else that even comes close.

- ev

Tx4P contributor ehvogel resides in North Texas where he presides over Generational Dysfunction.

Quote of the Day (June 23, 2010)

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Iam Doubt:

"She's a bold, natural, political leader. She is taking a national leadership role in voicing conservative criticism, from the forum offered by Facebook, as well as speeches, of Obama's politics and policies. And nearly all the time her criticisms have been right on and effective... She has more connection to the historical economic experience of most Americans than nearly any major national politician. And now she is beginning to reap the rewards of her efforts. Her candidates are winning... Watch Palin build and consolidate a national political base over the next several years."

- JP

Gov. Palin is in the top 10 of TIME's Top 100 for 2010

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Sarah Palin is number nine on The 2010 TIME 100. The next highest-ranking Republican on TIME's list of "the people who most affect our world" is Sen. Jon Kyl at number eleven. Ted Nugent wrote the testimonial about Gov. Palin:

"If Sarah Palin played a loud, grinding instrument, she would be in my band. The independent patriotic spirit, attitude and soul of our forefathers are alive and well in Sarah. In the way she lives, what she says and how she dedicates herself to make America better in these interesting times, she represents the good, while exposing the bad and ugly. She embraces the critical duty of we the people by participating in this glorious experiment in self-government. The tsunami of support proves that Sarah, 46, represents what many Americans know to be common and sensible. Her rugged individualism, self-reliance and a herculean work ethic resonate now more than ever in a country spinning away from these basics that made the U.S.A. the last best place. We who are driven to be assets to our families, communities and our beloved country connect with the principles that Sarah Palin embodies. We know that bureaucrats and, even more, Fedzilla, are not the solution; they are the problem. I'd be proud to share a moose-barbecue campfire with the Palin family anytime, so long as I can shoot the moose."

Glenn Beck is number twelve on the list, and Gov. Palin wrote his testimonial:

"Who'd have thought a history buff with a quirky sense of humor and a chalkboard could make for such riveting television? Glenn's like the high school government teacher so many wish they'd had, charting and connecting ideas with chalk-dusted fingers — kicking it old school — instead of becoming just another talking-heads show host. Self-taught, he's become America's professor of common sense, sharing earnestly sought knowledge with an audience hungry for truth. Glenn, 46, tackles topics other news shows would regard as arcane. Consider his desire to teach Americans about the history of the progressive movement: he's doing to progressive what Ronald Reagan did to liberal — explaining that it's a damaged brand."

"His love of the Founding Fathers inspires others to learn and respect our nation's history. Best of all, Glenn delights in driving the self-proclaimed powers-that-be crazy. (The whole country awaits the red phone ringing!) Even his critics (whom he annihilates in ratings) have to admire his amazing ability to galvanize everyday Americans to better themselves and peacefully engage their government. Though he sometimes dismisses himself as an aw-shucks guy or just a "rodeo clown," he's really an inspiring patriot who was once at the bottom but now makes a much needed difference from the very, very top."

- JP

Malek's List

Inspired by Chris Cillizza's recent Top Ten List of the most influential Republican leaders, heavyweight GOP insider Fred Malek made a list of his own.

Malek's list -- titled "10 Republican Leaders Who Could Be President" -- differs from Cillizza's in that the former Deputy Director of OMB in the Nixon White House wanted to identify "those less visible figures who will emerge over the next five to ten years as leaders in the House, Senate, state capitols, and Presidential primaries." Malek's list grew from ten to thirteen, and most of the people on it are under age 50, though a few are just page that age.

Only two names appear on both lists -- Bob McDonnell and Sarah Palin. Of former Governor Palin, Malek had this to say:

"Charismatic, effective, and beloved by so many in the Republican Party. Since I know her reasonably well and like her a lot, people always ask me about her future plans. The answer is I have no idea, and my sense is she hasn’t ruled anything out and is truly undecided. Maybe her book next month will provide some clues."

Palin, along with Marco Rubio and Jon Huntsman, are on Malek's list, but they are not ranked, he says, because "I’m not sure where or how to place them."

- JP

Conservatism in search of a leader

Elvin Lin has published an excellent essay, "The Republican Party is Not the Conservative Movement" (read it here). While much has been written about the struggle between conservatives and moderates for the soul of the Republican Party, it is a battle conservatives have no hope of winning unless they renew old alliances. That means that Republican conservatives and Republican libertarians need to not only make peace with each other, but together they must forge a coalition with the Tea Party movement, a force which owes no allegiance to the GOP or any other political party. It is among these three groups -- conservatives, libertarians and the grassroots movement -- where the seeds of the Reagan Coalition have been scattered.

In his essay, Lin discusses how that winning coalition became unraveled:

The Reagan coalition is fraying, because the libertarian faction of the conservative movement has had enough of sitting at the back of the movement's bus. For too long, they bought Ronald Reagan's and George Bush's argument that expensive and deficit-increasing wars are a necessary evil to combat a greater evil, but the bailout of the big banks last Fall was the last straw for them. If Irving Kristol once said that neoconservatives are converted liberals (like Ronald Reagan himself) who had been "mugged by reality," Tea Partiers are conservatives who have woken up to the fact that neoconseratives are no different from pre-Vietnam-era liberals chasing after utopian dreams.

 While we agree with Lin that Iraq was both a botched and expensive adventure, we believe that the terrible price paid in blood and treasure to have a bastion of liberty in the Middle East and a base from which to ride herd on radical jihadists could have been worthwhile, had the neoconservatives only been willing to make the additional sacrifice of spending restraint on other fronts and committing the assets required to win the war sooner. Had there a sufficient   commitment to the effort from the beginning no surge would have been required, and the war could have been won sooner and with far fewer casualties. But George W. Bush and those who were advising him were more interested in playing at the margins. While Republicans in Congress were busy spending like Democrats, no adult was in the room to put a halt to it and school them on the error of their ways. As a result, neoconservatism is in decline, and its death as a force in American politics can't come too soon for libertarians and populists alike.

As Lin points out, the fall of neoconservatism has created a leadership vacuum in both the conservative movement and the GOP:

Most people will agree that we know exactly what Barack Obama is up to, politically. The right-wing talk-show hosts will be the first to tell us. But we really do not know what the Republican party stands for or who could possibly lead it in 2012. This is because the party has lost its synthesizing logic and lacks a unifying hero. This weekend, a straw poll conducted at the Values Voters Summit put Mike Huckabee on top, with 28 percent of the vote, because the straw pollers are Values Voters, who constitute yet another faction within the conservative movement. But what was more telling is that even though Sarah Palin did not even turn up for the event, she nevertheless garnered the same endorsement as Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and Mike Pence, at 12% each. This is conservatism in search of a leader.

Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum, and so a golden opportunity presents itself:

Because it is parties that win elections and not movements, Republican members of congress should not be taking any comfort from the passionate protests of the Tea Partiers. Instead, they should be embarrassed about the fact that they have been trying to play catch up with a movement that has lost hope in its elected officials. More importantly, the Republican party must find a new way to unite the neoconservative, libertarian, and traditionalist factions of the movement to have any chance of standing up against a president and party, who in 2010, could well be riding the wave of an economic recovery to electoral success.

Viewed in this light, Sarah Palin's decision to give up her office and title as Governor of Alaska should begin to make sense even to the myopic critics who said at the time that doing so meant that her career in politics was over. Perhaps Citizen Palin's greatest assets are her political instincts. She saw the storm clouds gathering across the land and her political forecast was spot on. It is no coincidence that she chose the conclusion of her address in Hong Kong -- that part of a speech where the speaker wishes to hammer home the most salient point -- with these remarks:

My country is definitely at a crossroad. Polling in the U.S. shows a majority of Americans no longer believe that their children will have a better future than they have had...that is a 1st.

When members of America’s greatest generation – the World War II generation – lose their homes and their life savings because their retirement funds were wiped after the financial collapse, people feel a great anger. There is suddenly a growing sentiment to just “throw the bums out” of Washington, D.C. – and by bums they mean the Republicans and the Democrats. Americans are suffering from pay cuts and job losses, and they want to know why their elected leaders are not tightening their belts. It’s not lost on people that Congress voted to exempt themselves from the health care plan they are thrusting on the rest of the nation. There is a growing sense of frustration on Main Street. But even in the midst of crisis and despair, we see signs of hope.

In fact, it’s a sea change in America, I believe. Recently, there have been protests by ordinary Americans who marched on Washington to demand their government stop spending away their future. Large numbers of ordinary, middle-class Democrats, Republicans, and Independents from all over the country marching on Washington?! You know something’s up!

These are the same people who flocked to the town halls this summer to face their elected officials who were home on hiatus from that distant capital and were now confronted with the people they represent. Big town hall meetings – video clips circulating coverage – people watching, feeling not so alone anymore.

The town halls and the Tea Party movement are both part of a growing grassroots consciousness among ordinary Americans who’ve decided that if they want real change, they must take the lead and not wait to be led. Real change – and, you know, you don’t need a title to do it.

The “Tea Party Movement” is aptly named to remind people of the American Revolution – of colonial patriots who shook off the yoke of a distant government and declared their freedom from indifferent – elitist – rulers who limited their progress and showed them no respect. Today, Main Street Americans see Washington in similar terms.

When my country again achieves financial stability and economic growth – when we roar back to life as we shall do – it will be thanks in large part to the hard work and common sense of these ordinary Americans who are demanding that government spend less and tax less and allow the private sector to grow and prosper.

We’re not interested in government fixes; we’re interested in freedom! Freedom! Our vision is forward looking. People may be frustrated now, but we’re very hopeful too.

And, after all, why shouldn’t we be? We’re Americans. We’re always hopeful.

Thank you for letting me share some of that hope, and a view from Main Street with you. God Bless You.

To us, those sound like the words of someone who is ready, able and willing to fill the leadership void Elvin Lin described. 

Another View: Meanwhile, The Reaganite Republican questions whether the GOP really needs to have a leader at this stage of the game.

- JP

MA GOP Committewoman: Don't count Palin out

Linda Rapoza, a Republican state committeewoman in Massachusetts, says in an op-ed in the New Bedford Standard-Times not to count out Sarah Palin:

As a proud conservative woman who has no problem standing up for what she believes, even if it means being hounded by liberals and isolated by her own party, she's managed to succeed beyond the wildest dreams of most women in politics. Curiously, she's received no accolades for her achievements as governor, and certainly no respect for her efforts as a wife and mother of five.

[...]

Unapologetically pro-life, Palin's been chastised for giving birth to a handicapped child, and then accused of not having given birth to him at all! Despite her efforts to inform an aggressive media that she was fair game, but her children were not, cowardly clap-trappers chose the easier targets: the children. When a well-rehearsed "joke" about statutory rape starring her daughter went bad, all the supporters of hate-crime legislation rallied to the defense of the joker and criticized her for taking offense. You don't experience that level of criticism because you're ineffective.

Rapoza points to two trends that seem to be occuring simultaneously:

For the first time in decades, more people identify themselves as pro-life than pro-choice. Coincidently, a recent Gallup Poll revealed that by a 2-to-1 margin, more people claim to be "conservative" than "liberal" in their political views.

Gov. Palin's own poll numbers have show a recent modest gain in approval with independents and Democrats. Timing is everything. Sarah Palin is breaking the chains that bind her to Alaska, and she will be seeing a lot more of the lower 48 in the coming months. If she can manage to forge a coalition of conservatives and independents as she raises money and campaigns for conservative candidates, those doors she's fond of talking about will be opening for her.

- JP

Quote of the Day (May 12, 2009)

It's The Economist, stupid:

"Sarah Palin is still a frontrunner for the party's 2012 presidential nomination—a de facto leadership role as long as the party is led in Washington by the cardboard cut-outs of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. And no other potential candidate is more emotionally tied to the base of the party."

It's a left-handed compliment, for the article goes on to snark at the Governor. But that's nothing new for The Economist, which decried her perceived lack of experience last September, despite the fact that Obama had no executive experience at the time, and Joe Biden still has only half a brain to work with.

But the Economist nevertheless manages to make the point that Gov. Palin is at the head of the pack for the next GOP presidential nomination, despite the nostalgia of party moderates for Mitt Romney and the wishful "thinkers" on the left who have insisted that her political career was over at each little bump and turn in the long road to 2012.

- JP

Steele: Palin is one of the GOP's current leaders

According to an AP report, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, in Evansville Indiana to attend the Vanderburgh County Right to Life banquet tonight, appraised Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as one of the current atandard bearers of the GOP.

Organizers say an overflow crowd of 3,000 has turned out for the event, which is now in progress. Chairman Steele and Gov. Palin haven't been called on to speak yet. You still have time to watch it via a live stream from CNN, here (requires Adobe Flash Player).

The Evansville Courier & Press reported today that before it was certain that the governor would make the trip to Indiana, some Vanderburgh County conservatives attempted to entice her there with an offer to hold a fundraiser for SarahPAC, her political action committee:

"She declined that offer almost immediately," said Hermann, who is chairman of the Vanderburgh County Republican Party. "My understanding is, her feeling was that if she came, she'd be here to support Vanderburgh County Right to Life and not to raise money for her PAC."

Right to Life officials have said Palin is not being paid for her appearance here, but SarahPAC is picking up her expenses.

That sounds just like the Sarah Palin those of us who support her have come to admire and respect. It's the same Sarah Palin who turned down a substantial raise in her salary as Alaska's governor.

This banquet has become a very high-profile event for Gov. Palin. The McClatchy chain of newspapers has described it as the former vice presidential candidate's return to the national stage. Among the media outlets that were expected to be there are CNN, ABC News, C-Span, and Fox News. Vanity Fair and The Weekly Standard should also be present.

- JP