Sarah Palin: From running mate to Time's runner-up

In considering her for Person of the Year, the magazine calls the Alaska governor 'a one-woman rescue team for the Republican ticket.'

By Andrew Malcolm
December 21, 2008

Completely ignoring Al Gore because he'd already won the world's other top two prizes -- the Nobel and Oscar -- and pretty well rested on his warming climate laurels this year, Time magazine has chosen Alaska's Republican Gov. Sarah Palin as a runner-up Person of the Year.

Along with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Secretary of the Treasury Henry M. Paulson Jr.


Also director Zhang Yimou.

The immense individual honors were created by the aging weekly magazine many years ago to help sell copies in a normally very slow year-end period for news and sales.

At one point in history, this issue actually made news and people talked about it, if there wasn't much else going on.


But being in Time's year-end edition can also be a dangerous distinction. Many of Time's past Persons of the Year have died after receiving the honor -- for instance, Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. Also President Eisenhower.

Sarkozy was obviously chosen a runner-up because of his wife's beauty and his ability to get French fries back on the menu in Congress.

Paulson was chosen for reasons that have something to do with the financial mess and still being unable to identify the mortgages of dubious value but being incapable of doing that in a very quiet, behind-the-scenes kind of way that didn't cause complete market panic because no one really understands the numbers stuff anyway.

Also in recognition of Paulson's work, President-elect Barack Obama has decided to replace him with another numbers gnome.

Zhang's runner-up award needs no explanation. His accomplishments pretty much speak for themselves. So we won't.

Palin was picked because she almost single-handedly saved the Republican Party from total annihilation as its surprising vice presidential candidate.

Her selection by the old Arizona guy annoyed the nation's news media because they weren't ready and they think Washington is a qualifying experience for the White House now that Bill Clinton and the new guy have some.

So reporters wrote a lot about Palin's children and a future son-in-law and her baby with Down syndrome, and they jumped all over her effort to help salvage the 2008 women's clothing sales, as if that was a bad thing for the struggling economy.

Time calls hers "the most astonishing political debut in modern times" and says the 44-year-old mother of five -- who upset a corrupt GOP party establishment in a place many people don't ever want to visit -- was "a one-woman rescue team for the Republican ticket."

Which, you may have heard, lost anyway.

In fact, Palin's Republican National Convention speech before a record TV audience electrified the party at a somnolent time of late summer.

Time, like all print, online and broadcast media, knows the magnetic draw of Palin's mere mention among fans and foes. Putting Sarah Palin's name in a headline and adding Sarah Palin photographs draw thousands of people, even if they haven't a clue about her politics. Sarah Palin is simply great for the media business. The more photos the better too.

"Saturday Night Live" had its best ratings in 14 years the night it had the real Sarah Palin on. By golly, she just has a presence.

Time says it'll be interesting to see what happens to Palin's political evolution now and whether she emerges with a viable conservative philosophy beyond a beguiling but fiscally responsible wink.

Although many prominent Republicans campaigned for Saxby Chambliss in the recent Georgia Senate runoff, it wasn't until Palin spent a day there that Chambliss actually won easily over a Democrat endorsed by Obama and Gore.

At the same time as it announced its Person of the Year runners-up, Time also revealed its winner, the same guy Ebony already picked.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na...0,5175056.story

Rescue team or albatross?

Alaska or Illinois?

At least she worked her way up in politics. Seems like lately everyone wants to start at the top as a celebrity.

Well, we will just see how Princess Caroline gets handled by Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson and the rest of the MSM.
Apparently she worked a couple of days a week for 2 hours on her Educational Committee. Obviously, she should have been Obama's running mate?

Didn't bother voting much.

Maybe it's a good thing, she's to the left of Hillary & Barack. they are not).

Chelsea Clinton's birthday is February 27, 1980 making her just two years short of electoral senatorial qualification in New York.

Is there some conspiracy afoot to preventing her inheritance or is it just too early to tell?

Shows her commitment to politics.

Note to Gov. Paterson:



Sarah Palin and Peter King have more experience than Caroline Kennedy




December 21, 2008
by Mary MacElveen
www.opednews.com


While this one piece may have progressives and even Democrats screaming and tearing their hair out, I am going to say it right off the bat. Caroline Kennedy is NOT qualified to become the next U.S. senator representing New York State which is the seat being vacated by Senator Hillary Clinton as she goes onto become the next Secretary of State.


Before I delve into why, in this past 2008 presidential campaign, I wrote piece-after-piece calling into question Governor Sarah Palin’s qualifications to run as the Republican vice presidential nominee. While Palin could not enunciate fully what the responsibilities of the vice president were, under the U.S. Constitution, the responsibilities of the vice president is to act as a tie breaker in the U.S. Senate and preside as its president. Also a vice president stands ready to assume the responsibilities of president under article 25 of the United States Constitution. They may act in an advisory role to the president, but under the Constitution this is not part of their job.



In this YouTube.com feed, which made its way around the Internet, Palin was mocked by so many expressing her understanding of the responsibilities of the vice president when she said, “they are in charge of the United States Senate...So, if they want to get can really get in there with the United States Senators and make a lot of good policy changes" Clearly she was and still is wrong.


As many did mock Palin during the presidential campaign of 2008, we must remember that she first ran for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska and won and then went onto run for the gubernatorial seat and won that too. She has more governing experience than Caroline Kennedy does.


Presently, Palin approves and oversees the budget of Alaska. She is the executive of that state as she oversees thousands of that state’s employees. Alaska being an energy producing state which is critical to our economy has been deeply involved in that issue. One can debate how, but still as the state’s executive, it has been her responsibility.

While Caroline Kennedy is a constitutional lawyer, the author of several books and has served on many boards that is the breath of her experience. Also let us not forget she has not chosen to vote in several elections as was reported the other day. We must take note and objection to that. Kennedy stated that she plans on running in 2010, so how can she ask people to come out and vote for her, when she has failed to show up at the polls herself?


Senators have more of an in-depth role within our federal government such as writing legislation, fomenting policy both foreign and domestic and actually voting on these pieces of legislation. They are also a co-equal branch to the executive branch. So, looking at both resumes above, exactly who has more experience in running for and holding a senate seat?


If Sarah Palin were to run for a United States senate seat coming from her state of Alaska at the same time Caroline Kennedy is asking to be named to the seat here in New York, Palin brings with her actual governing experience than Kennedy.


I know that will anger Democrats, but the facts speak for themselves and it is time that Democrats think pragmatically instead of giving into aristocracy.


If you think I am the only one questioning whether or not Kennedy should be appointed senator, in this YouTube.com feed, Ron Kuby who is as well a constitutional lawyer calls into question this senate appointment. Please take note where he says that progressives believe that people should have to work for the seat which they aspire to.


Towards the end of this feed, Kuby states, "it is an insult to all of the people in this state, elected officials who have worked hard year-after-year making New York a better place, they just do not happen to be named Kennedy. They happen to be named Maloney, Lowey or McMahon...It's an outrage."


While I do not necessarily agree with his politics, should Kennedy get the nod from Governor David Paterson, she would be forced to run in 2010 and most likely the Republican candidate would be Congressman Peter King of Long Island. He has a vast wealth of actual experience and knows the issues far better than Kennedy. He can challenge her when it comes to homeland security, immigration issues, terrorism which are all subjects still relevant to New York voters. While Long Island where I reside has voted Democratic over the years, King has been the victor in his congressional seat because of his experience.


Upstate New York tends to be more conservative than downstate New York and this is where King could prevail over Kennedy in 2010. This is something that Governor David Paterson must look at should he wish to hold onto this powerful senate seat as well as President-elect Barack Obama.


It is up to the sole-voter in this case, namely Governor David A. Paterson not to give into pressure in naming Caroline Kennedy to this senate seat, but go with a more experienced candidate who knows the issues and does have actual governing experience. This is not the time for on-the-job learning as Kennedy expressed the other day when she said, “I have a lot to learn.”


Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Since our Constitution no longer applies... the solution is to give New York 3 Senators.. and why not do it NOW! What the heck? Teddy Kennedy had the seat in Mass kept warm for him by a friend until he turned 30. It's all about Entitlement!

"The most astonishing political debut in modern times"


HAAAAAAW HAAAW HAW HAW HAW!!



How completely rediculous.

Sarah Palin’s To-Do List if She Wants to Run for President in 2012



Political strategists says she needs a plan now if she wants to stay a "hot property" in the GOP
By Kenneth T. Walsh


Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has some important political decisions to make. Republican insiders say that if she wants to maintain her viability as a presidential contender in 2012—after making such a big splash as the GOP vice presidential candidate this year—she needs to bring aboard some savvy political operatives who can help her decide what kind of events she should do and which she should avoid.


"There's still a lot of talk about her," says a longtime party strategist and former adviser to Ronald Reagan. "She's still a hot property, but she needs to put a system together. She doesn't have much in the way of political infrastructure up there [in Alaska]. It will be interesting to see how she allocates her time."

Another senior Republican who advised presidential nominee John McCain this year said, "She needs to focus on being a good governor. If she is going to be a national figure, she needs to be known for her reform work in Alaska."

Last Sunday, Palin got a bit of bad news when McCain told ABC's This Week that he can't, at this time, back Palin for the top job. Asked whether he would support her, McCain replied, "I can't say something like that. We've got some great other young governors. I think you're going to see the governors assume a greater leadership role in our Republican Party."

McCain did express "admiration and respect" for his running mate and said no one should doubt "my view of her viability."

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2008/1...nt-in-2012.html

Here's a clue for you dimwit. Couric asked NO HARD QUESTIONS. Palin sounded like an ignorant dumbsheit. That interview and the nation's reaction to it WAS HER FAULT.

So now Republicans care about the Constitution? Since when?

She's going to rescue the Republican party. Even McCain didn't know if he would support Palin for president.

For Palin fans, a team of their own
The Alaska governor drew a lot of women into the political conversation, and they're trying to keep it going.
By Laura Olson
December 21, 2008

Reporting from Washington -- Across Shannon McGinley's hometown of Bedford, N.H., this fall, women were talking about politics.

At school gatherings and Bible study groups, women who had never followed political affairs were talking about a woman like them -- a conservative mother trying to balance family and career.


It started when the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his running mate.

Now, more than a month since the political spotlight has turned away from the failed GOP ticket and the running mate who rallied so many conservatives, some of those whom Palin drew to the political arena are seeking to keep a conversation going. This includes TeamSarah.org, a social networking site launched in September.

Palin's emergence in national politics touched a group of women who hadn't connected with other female politicians, who usually were Democrats, said Barbara Burrell, a researcher at Northern Illinois University who focuses on women and politics.


One of those women is Jackie Siciliano, 45, a New Jersey mom who calls herself conservative-leaning but open-minded. She hadn't paid attention to the election until Palin's nomination.

"When I heard her speak and I realized she's my age and was a member of the PTA, I thought she's a different kind of person and brings different experiences into the political arena," Siciliano said.

Organizers stood ready to rally Palin fans.

TeamSarah.org -- boasting more than 60,000 members and hoping to top 100,000 by Inauguration Day -- was started in part by a mother of five, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, an antiabortion group that promotes the involvement of women in politics. She and Jane Abraham, chairwoman of the group's board, started the site as a place for followers to network and promote Palin.

The website grew quickly, the organizers said, with membership increasing after each burst of critical news coverage of the controversial Republican running mate from Alaska. On the site, members created profiles, browsed blog postings, found volunteer activities and met other supporters.

Some identified with Palin on social issues. Some, despite differences on the issues, found life experiences in common. McGinley, a Team Sarah member who coordinated outreach in New Hampshire, said a friend of hers who supports abortion rights got involved in the campaign.

"She said to me that, of all of the things that she might disagree with Sarah Palin about, the other things outweighed" the issues in dispute, McGinley said. "She felt Sarah Palin understood those things better than other women in politics."

But with the election over, will Dannenfelser's "vast army" stay engaged?

"It's extremely difficult to sustain any movement over an extended period of time," said Karen O'Connor, director of American University's Women and Politics Institute. "And it gets really difficult to sustain momentum as a vice presidential candidate down the road."

lolson@tribune.com

Oh please make it Palin.

BE AFRAID! BE VERY AFRAID!

beware the moron

hey Goldie how many letters in Obama today?

Barack Hussein Obama =18 letters

18= 6+6+6

can't answer a simple question

You asked a mathematical question. You are on the wrong thread... This is the Governor Palin thread.

so you actually get things right in a different thread?

18 = 6 + 7 + 5

Just what kind of person bothers with this sheit?

Probably you! You just did!

You're the moron who keeps making these ridiculous claims!

Fool!

Matthew 5:22 (Amplified Bible)
But I say to you that everyone who continues to be angry with his brother or harbors malice (enmity of heart) against him shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court; and whoever speaks contemptuously and insultingly to his brother shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, You cursed fool! [You empty-headed idiot!] shall be liable to and unable to escape the hell (Gehenna) of fire.

What moron asked her the farking question, genius?

Goldie told us theres 6 letters in Obama

run with it

You don't want to go there! Quit meddling in my business!

I got your "Amplified Bible" 'right here'!

18= 12+6, or 9+9, or 17+1.

palin...

as if bush hasn't made the world think that all Americans are as dumb as the average republican.

Its funny, too, that we have all these "brainy" republicans around here that, just like every time the republican party does something completely f----ing dumb, they pretend like it isn't happening and just go along la dee da like what they talk about every day is grounded in reality for the rest of the real world.

Here's a clue; bush was in no way even remotely qualified (and of course has not made even a single decision) and that ignorant divicive token moron from Alaska isnt either by any streatch of the imagination. No matter how much you work with your corporate masters to manipulate the media, or the market, or oil prices or anything else.


Hmm... manipulating oil prices... bet Carter wishes he had had republican oil buddy connections/stock when he was pres.. At least some cooperation from that quarter in some way, shape, or form.

I think the first thing that has to happen here on CSPAN sucks is that the LP/Goldie wing of the "republican party" has to reconcile with the rest of the republicans that post on CSPAn sucks as far as the whole palin nomination goes.

Only if she were a pube.

OMG.


You have some brass balls for a woman.

Who put them notions in your head, Miz?

They can't do it on a national level, what makes you think they can do it here?

She wouldn't be my first choice, but that's not because of "experience", where she's done more than most anyone her age.

Conservative Snobs Are Wrong About Palin
I know Maggie Thatcher. The two women have a lot in common.

By JOHN O'SULLIVAN



Martin KozlowskiThough regularly pronounced sick, dying, dead, cremated and scattered at sea, Mrs. Palin is still amazingly around. She has survived more media assassination attempts than Fidel Castro has survived real ones (Cuban official figure: 638). In her case, one particular method of assassination is especially popular -- namely, the desperate assertion that, in addition to her other handicaps, she is "no Margaret Thatcher."

Very few express this view in a calm or considered manner. Some employ profanity. Most claim to be conservative admirers of Mrs. Thatcher. Others admit they had always disliked the former British prime minister until someone compared her to "Sarracuda" -- at which point they suddenly realized Mrs. Thatcher must have been absolutely brilliant (at least by comparison).

Inevitably, Lloyd Bentsen's famous put-down of Dan Quayle in the 1988 vice-presidential debate is resurrected, such as by Paul Waugh (in the London Evening Standard) and Marie Cocco (in the Washington Post): "Newsflash! Governor, You're No Maggie Thatcher," sneered Mr. Waugh. Added Ms. Coco, "now we know Sarah Palin is no Margaret Thatcher -- and no Dan Quayle either!"

Jolly, rib-tickling stuff. But, as it happens, I know Margaret Thatcher. Margaret Thatcher is a friend of mine. And as a matter of fact, Margaret Thatcher and Sarah Palin have a great deal in common.


They are far from identical; they rose in different political systems requiring different skills. As a parliamentarian, Mrs. Thatcher needed forensic and debating skills which her training in Oxford politics and as a tax lawyer gave her. Mrs. Palin is a good speaker, but she needs to hone her debating tactics if she is to match those of the Iron Lady.</H3>On the other hand, Mrs. Palin rose in state politics to jobs requiring executive ability. Her successful conduct of the negotiations with Canada, Canadian provinces and American states over the Alaska pipeline was a larger executive task than anything handled by Mrs. Thatcher until she entered the Cabinet and, arguably, until she became prime minister.

Mrs. Thatcher's most senior position until then had been education secretary in the government of Edward Heath where, as she conceded in her memoirs, she lacked real executive power. Her political influence within that government was so small that it took 17 months for her to get an interview with him. Even then, a considerate civil servant assured Heath that others would be present to make the meeting less "boring." Her main political legacy from that job was the vitriolic slogan, "Margaret Thatcher, Milk-Snatcher," thrown at her by the left because of a budgetary decision she had opposed to charge some children for school meals and milk. It was the single most famous thing about her when she defeated Heath for the Tory leadership in 1975.

At this point she became almost as "controversial" as Sarah Palin. Heath, for example, made it plain privately that he would not serve under her. And Sir Ian Gilmour, an intellectual leader of the Tory "wets," privately dismissed her as a "Daily Telegraph woman." There is no precise equivalent in American English, but "narrow, repressed suburbanite" catches the sense.

Mrs. Thatcher attracted such abuse for two reasons. First, she was seen by the chattering classes as representing a blend of provincial conservative values and market economics -- Middle England as it has come to be called -- against their own metropolitan liberalism. They thought this blend was an economic dead-end in a modern complex society and a political retreat into futile nostalgia. Of course, they failed to notice that their modern complex society was splintering under their statist burdens even as they denounced her extremism.

Second, Margaret Thatcher was not yet Margaret Thatcher. She had not won the 1979 election, recovered the Falklands, reformed trade union law, defeated the miners, and helped destroy Soviet communism peacefully.

Things like that change your mind about a girl. But they also take time, during which she had to turn her instinctive beliefs into intellectually coherent policies against opposition inside and outside her own party. Like Mrs. Palin this year, Mrs. Thatcher knew there were serious gaps in her knowledge, especially of foreign affairs. She recruited experts who shared her general outlook (such as Robert Conquest and Hugh Thomas) to tutor her on these things. Even so she often seemed very alone in the Tory high command.

As a parliamentary sketch writer for the Daily Telegraph (and a not very repressed suburbanite), I watched Mrs. Thatcher's progress as opposition leader. She had been a good performer in less exalted positions. But initially she faltered. Against the smooth, condescending Prime Minister James Callaghan in particular she had a hard time. In contrast to his chuckling baritone she sounded shrill when she attacked. But she lowered her tone (vocally not morally), took lessons in presentation from (among others) Laurence Olivier, and prepared diligently for every debate and Question Time.

I can still recall her breakthrough performance in a July 1977 debate on the Labour government's collapsing economy. She dominated the House of Commons so wittily that the next day the Daily Mail's acerbic correspondent, Andrew Alexander, began his report: "If Mrs. Thatcher were a racehorse, she would have been tested for drugs yesterday." She was now on the way to becoming the world-historical figure who today is the gold standard of conservative statesmanship.

Mrs. Palin has a long way to go to match this. Circumstances may never give her the chance to do so. Even if she gets that chance, she may lack Mrs. Thatcher's depths of courage, firmness and stamina -- we only ever know such things in retrospect.But she has plenty of time, probably eight years, to analyze America's problems, recruit her own expert advice, and develop conservative solutions to them. She has obvious intelligence, drive, serious moral character, and a Reaganesque likability. Her likely Republican rivals such as Bobby Jindal and Mitt Romney, not to mention Barack Obama, have most of these same qualities too. But she shares with Mrs. Thatcher a very rare charisma. As Ronnie Millar, the latter's speechwriter and a successful playwright, used to say in theatrical tones: She may be depressed, ill-dressed and having a bad hair day, but when the curtain rises, out onto the stage she steps looking like a billion dollars. That's the mark of a star, dear boy. They rise to the big occasions.

Mrs. Palin had four big occasions in the late, doomed Republican campaign:

1. her introduction by John McCain in Ohio,

2. her speech at the GOP convention,

3. her vice-presidential debate with Sen. Joe Biden,

4. and her appearance on Saturday Night Live. With minimal preparation, she rose to all four of them.

That's the mark of star.

If conservative intellectuals, Republican operatives and McCain "handlers" can't see it, then so much the worse for them.

Mr. O'Sullivan is executive editor of Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty in Prague, and a former special adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His book, "The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister" (Regnery), has just been published in paperback.

<shakes head> That Couric interview showed me everything I need to know about Palin. And before you say a damned thing, Couric asked NO HARD QUESTIONS and Palin's bad performance was all her own fault. 1st impressions are hard to escape and she blew it big time.

Like Bush needs to hone his skills to be another Lincoln.

The Iron Lady we remember had been PM for years. She didn't just start out famous for her manner and toughness.

FYI-- The interview was hours long and carefully edited so wacky lefties like you would get your sound bites. You were 'used' and you still don't get it. Sarah Palin is a huge threat to the left and so every effort is made to try to diminish her. SNL tried with Tina Fey but even long time executive producer Lorne Michaels had to admit that Sarah Palin intelligent, a quick study and a STAR!

For example the interview with Entertainment Weekly and Lorne Michaels:



What do you think Palin gained from her appearance?
I think Palin will continue to be underestimated for a while. I watched the way she connected with people, and she's powerful. Her politics aren't my politics. But you can see that she's a very powerful, very disciplined, incredibly gracious woman. This was her first time out and she's had a huge impact. People connect to her.


She's a ratings magnet, too — do you think she can land a development deal if this VP thing doesn't work out?
She could pretty much do better than development. I think she could have her own show, yeah.

For more information Click here

I wonder if they just cut it off the minute they had the gotcha moment they were looking for. Q&A is probably easier than a long conversation because we all end up saying something a little off sooner or later if enough is thrown at us.

I think people misunderestimate Palin at their own peril.

Like Bush.

Like Obama.

Exactly! Too bad that Sarah Palin had such terrible handlers. She proved herself several times. She won the debate with Goofus, her GOP Nomination speech was a show stopper, her introduction in OH was awesome and the way she handled herself on SNL after they tried tearing her down every week was brilliant. She was the star of the show... no doubt about it.

One of my neighbors said she wouldn't vote for Sarah Palin and started quoting Sarah Palin comments:
They weren't Sarah Palin's they were Tina Feys'. She watched SNL and though that was Sarah Palin. But lefties are easily fooled.