She's not really taking them on. She's saying her two cents, then screaming "MAINSTREAM LIBERAL MEDIA!" every time someone criticizes her.



See above. Getting out of the governership to "protect her family" or whatever is a lame excuse for running away from the critics.



Of course. Reagan won 49 states to 1. I'm sure Palin would win the dyed-in-the-wool red states, but I can't imagine her swinging states like Indiana, Ohio or Pennsylvania (as 3 examples) back her way.

She could hide behind McCain as the VP nominee and avoid the tough questions, but if she's seriously considering running for President, she'll need every second between now and then to even raise her level of discourse to "acceptable", much less "extraordinary".

Call me naive, but I expect excellence from my president. There's nothing excellent about Sarah Palin. Nothing.

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---------- Post added at 06:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------

If you say so.

My goodness, being underestimated is such a tactical advantage. Keep thinking she is a dumb "caribou barbie" and now a quitter.

Yea, she ran right into doing a MSNBC interview. I wonder where she is going to run next? Perhaps, a $250,000 per plate speaking engagement? The book tour? International travel? Maybe a movie, like Gore did?

She only gets about $50,000 per engagement, and the offers are slowing down since she quit. If she's smart, she'll join the blue collar comedy tour. Seriously, that's her best chance at good revenue right now.

Did i actually read the word "only" before "gets about $50,000" per speaking engagement? You guys are making me laugh so hard today, you can not imagine, I have to walk away and collect myself.

Someone has flip flopped...

$250,000 > $50,000 and dropping. I've seen how quickly legal bills can add up, too, so that $50,000 per might very well be going straight to her attorneys.

If she did 100 speaking engagements at $50,000, that's $5,000,000. If she did 20 at $50,000 and 20 at $40,000...etc to 20 at $10,000 and stopped, that would be 100 with a total of $3,000,000.

Personally, I would resign for that reason alone - and then re-engage in politics after financial security. Gee, I like Palin more and more.

---------- Post added at 06:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:32 PM ----------

True. But which position do you agree with, the critique of Clinton or Palin stepping down after a the media's unfair attacks.

I saw the attacks against Clinton as unfair, sexist, and unjustified. I agreed with Clinton's complaints and feel those who had Palin's view were wrong.

Experience can be the best teacher. I wonder if a person like Clinton or other feminist have the courage to stand in support of Palin given the unfair media treatment. I doubt it.

She was taking on the elites? She WAS the elites. Long before she became governor she had a family income of over 6 digits, so this whole "regular gal" routine is just that, a routine.

And the whole "oh, the media is mean to me" act is tiring as well. You can't really decide to make your daughter's pregnancy and engagement a campaign issue and then be surprised when they become tabloid fodder. You can't really accept the role of "snarky but lovable campaign attack person" and then be surprised when people are mean back.

I don't claim it is fair, but it is far, far from being unprecedented. Heck, Jon and Kate have probably received more negative press coverage than they did, and all they do is a reality show.

She more or less toes the company line as far as GOP/Neo-Con talking points, so I'm not sure why anyone would prefer over a similar candidate who actually has the educational pedigree, charisma and authority to rule a country

I think this is a great point here.

It sucks that candidates are being "vetted" by tabloids based on family life and such and not on political views, but Palin right there is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
She runs on biography, not on any novel policy ideas. In that sense, she is the anti-Ron Paul. Ron Paul, for all his faults, ran on policy ideas, and policy ideas alone. She ran on "I don't care about policy, I toe the republican party line, but look at me, arent I adorable? Ain't my family cute?"

Palin says Hillary Hillary Clinton shouldn't whine about tough media coverage


Does that Palin and a whiner and a quitter?

How can one person be considered tailor park trash and elite? I am very interested in an explanation, or have we forgotten what the woman has been called? So, which is it?

I don't buy that she's "elite", but she was quite well off financially before entering the national stage. That didn't stop her from being "folksy", though.

Im sticking with whiner and quitter.....and hypocrite, telling Hillary to buck up and then becoming the first high level political figure that I can recall to leave office voluntarily because of media scrutiny.

You betcha!

Put a fork in her.

So, how do you explain the dislike from GOP elites? How do you explain the recent Vanity Fair reports from McCain people? Palin has a grass-roots following that has almost nothing to do with the "company line".

---------- Post added at 08:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:40 PM ----------

Having money and being an elitists are not correlated in my view. When you read the book "Millionaire Next Door", it becomes very clear how down to earth, hard working, people can be very rich monetarily and not elitist.

---------- Post added at 08:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:43 PM ----------

But, seems like most in the national media just can not stop thinking and talking about her. And, why you of all people would waste your time giving any thought to her is beyond my comprehension. She is even giving Micheal Jackson competition in the media the last few days.

Don't think she is ready for that fork just yet.

Hey, I am just trying to understand how it could be perceived as honorable for Palin to tell Hillary to buck up and then turn around and quit when she couldnt take the heat herself. Her rambling, incoherent speech and the subsequent attempted clean-up by staffers left me and the media and many supporters dumbfounded. WTF?

Her negatives are the highest among any potential "name" candidate for 2012...and likely to soar after this fiasco. Any appeal beyond the hard core base is gone.

I suggest reading: "Art of War" - Sun Tzu.

"Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."

I doubt that Palin has read "Art of War" but I could be wrong.

In any case, her basketball analogy was more compelling or at least more amusing:

Let me go back quickly to a comfortable analogy for me, and that’s sports. Basketball. And I use it because you are naïve if you don’t see a full court press from the national level picking away right now. A good point guard, here’s what she does. She drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her head up because she needs to keep her eye on the basket and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can win. And that is what I’m doing. Keeping our eye on the ball.

And I thought a good team player never abandons the team.

It was not honorable. I said I disagreed with her. It is clear that she had not experienced or fully understood what Clinton had experienced, yet she made her criticism. When she experienced what Clinton experienced she gained a new perspective on the issue. I think the attacks caught her off guard. In my view it is reasonable for her to re-group, or pause before going on an offensive. You assume she is a quitter, I don't. I think she is a fighter. I also think Clinton is fighter, I respect that in both women.

Why do you think I would care about that? I am a fanatic if you did not already know.

---------- Post added at 09:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:02 PM ----------

Yes, I got it - you think she is dumb.

I don't feel abandon. She is not on your team, so what is your point? Of course you can find fault in everything she does. I bet there some environmentalist group in the wings going to file an ethics violation on her fishing trip filmed on MSNBC yesterday.

how one chooses to portray oneself and how one actually lives are two different things.

George W. Bush was a multi-millionaire who made his political career by portraying himself as "just like us."

I'm loving the portrayal of Palin as "master political strategist." keep it coming

ace...I dont think she is dumb, but her depth of knowledge of national policy issues was (is) appalling and blaming the media only made her look weaker.

I wish her well and would applaud her for milking it for every penny she can get with a book deal, speeches, a potential TV gig...but thats where her future lies.

This latest fiasco is the last nail in the coffin...she is a "not ready for prime-time player" in national politics. Doesnt have the policy intellect or the heart.

Internal party politics have very little to do with policy positions.

Or any other policy position, for that matter, which is exactly his point.

He is.

---------- Post added at 09:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 PM ----------

I am saying she is under-estimated. If she get a guy like Rove on her team the way Bush did, she will be President.

a Rovian smear campaign is about the only way she's going to get elected

Hence, a local, small time politician, pauses/regroups, reinvents herself for the national stage and continues the fight. You assume she is a quitter, I don't. We all know what her weaknesses are, I think it is wise for her to take her game to the next level after some focused preparation and work. Seems to me that elitist's don't think she has what it takes, we will see. And, I totally understood McCain making her his VP choice given his strengths and weaknesses. No one politician comes without weakness or flaws. In the end it is a question of character or how does a person respond to their weaknesses.

---------- Post added at 09:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:46 PM ----------

Or, an Obama smear campaign? Check with Hilery and Bill. Bill Clinton, a racist??? Wow!

I'd love to hear the list of policies where Palin differs from the GOP

She could have done that while still completing her current term and keeping her commitment to the citizens of Alaska (and then choosing not to run for reelection in 2010)....as all others from similar political backgrounds or experience levels have done.

lol

I think she may be to the right of the GOP on a few things, like privatizing rape kits.

I'm not one to chastise another because they subscribe to an opinion different than my own, but come on.

Palin is PAINFULLY stupid. Worse yet, she is proud of her ignorance. Republicans, you can do much, much better at finding someone to represent your ideals and policy; if you can't, the Republican party really is dead.

Why do you think elitist Republicans dislike Palin?

---------- Post added at 10:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:08 PM ----------

She ain't like all others. Maybe you will never understand. The fact that she is different is what is appealing.

---------- Post added at 10:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:09 PM ----------

There ain't no references to "czars" in the Constitution either. Why isn't that funny to you?

---------- Post added at 10:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 PM ----------

If it is covered by private insurance, why shouldn't a local government collect for the cost? Seems to me to be a fair question for government officials to discuss and agree upon, one way or the other.

---------- Post added at 10:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:17 PM ----------

As a registered Republican, thanks for your concern.

Yeah. So why isn't this thread about that?

For someone who wants to escape the persistent glare of media attention she sure picked a funny way of doing it.

And, is this really all about that David Letterman thing? Or has there been a constant barrage of unflattering news items about her since the election? I haven't seen them. I do look at internet news and I can't remember seeing any articles about her. Of course, chances are if I did see them I wouldn't take notice, but really, where was this constant barrage of unflattering coverage coming from?

Also, there ain't no way in hell you're going to convince me that it is any worse than it is (or has been) for A) the current president or B) the Clintons.

And, Ace, do you actually know Sarah Palin? All this mysterious 'just you wait and see,' business sounds like you know something we don't know.

Answering a question with a question, eh? YOU are the one who says that Republicans don't like her, so the onus is on YOU to explain why.

She was just raped, she doesn't need to be handed a bill. There should be no debate over that.

Because they falsely blame her for ruining McCain's campaign. I personally blame the idiots that picked her, but that's just me.

"Different is good," is bullshit. Different can be good. And it can be bad. Child molesters are "different," as are serial killers. You're right that Palin is different, but that's because most people who achieve political office at the level she just ran away from, are more informed about how government works. They do not think the Vice President can force the Senate to pass laws, they do not think being able to barely see a foreign country from an island off the coast of their state qualifies them as a foreign relations expert, and they do not think that the White House's fictitious "department of law" can unilaterally squelch investigations of a sitting president.

Palin is different in that she is vapidly stupid, shockingly ignorant, and further different in the fact that she glorifies and revels in that ignorant stupidity.

That's not the kind of difference the country needs. We already had that brand of different from 2000 to 2008. Why do you want to have it again, only to an even greater degree?

Some funny, and true, political cartoons. Yes, Palin is in there.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/20...a-From-Wasilla

#1. While I feel you will discount my reply, I'll go ahead anyways.

By her very existence she puts the lie to numerous liberal mantras, such as the notion that women cannot advance without affirmative action; Republicans are sexist; anyone who loves Alaska's beauty can't support drilling in ANWR; and women need government programs to manage marriage, children and work simultaneously.

Sarah Palin doesn't just talk respect for unborn human life. She's lived it. She chose not to abort her son after learning that he had Down's syndrome.

She hasn't fallen for the myth of man made global climate change, or whatever they're calling it today.

She supports Isreal.

Like Ace, I don't feel abandoned by Sarah. I think good things are in her future.

#2. Sarah is not a Washington insider. Neither am I and I feel like NO ONE there is working for me. I want them ALL gone. I think like Sarah, so I know she would be working for me.

In the video that Ave provided, Sarah explained very well, even twice to the thick skulled Andrea Mitchell, why she is stepping down-to prevent a lame duck sitting governor. She knew she couldn't get any work done for the people of Alaska.

Can you cite anyone or any speech where "liberals" claim any of the things you've accused them of?