Published in The New York Post on September 12, 2008
For two weeks, Democrats and their media allies have leveled scorching fire at Sarah Palin. It’s not having much effect, but they keep at it anyway.
The latest Fox News poll shows Palin with a 54-27 favorable/unfavorable ratio, which compares well with Barack Obama’s 57-36, John McCain’s 60-33 and Joe Biden’s 51-29. (Of the four, she’s the most popular).
Why do Democrats feel so threatened? They’ve even stopped attacking McCain and President Bush to launch a vicious and sexist barrage at her that would normally make a feminist angry and a Democrat blush.
Basically, it’s this: John McCain only endangers Democratic chances of victory this November, but Sarah Palin is an existential threat to the Democratic Party.
She threatens a core element of the party’s base - women.
When an African-American like Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell or Condi Rice rises to prominence as a Republican, he or she endangers the Democratic coalition. So would a Republican labor leader.
And so, above all, does the woman Republican running for vice president.
Democrats can’t stomach seeing the feminist movement’s impetus for greater female political participation and empowerment “hijacked” by a pro-life woman who espouses traditional values. They must obliterate her, lest her popularity eat away at their party’s core.
So the Democrats are hysterical in their attacks on her. South Carolina’s Democratic Party chairwoman, Carol Fowler (wife of a national party chairman), said that the only qualification Palin had for vice president was that she hadn’t had an abortion. Tabloids are digging up dirt on Palin’s children. And liberal bloggers have suggested that Palin would neglect her children if she were elected (while the Democratic candidate has young children at home, too).
That liberals would resort to such blatant sexism shows their desperation.
But the Fox News poll of Sept. 8-9 indicates a deeper reality of Palin’s popularity. On the question of which of the four candidates best understands what day-to-day life is like in America, Palin finished first, with 33 percent. (Obama drew 32 percent, McCain 17 percent and Biden 10 percent.)
She’s not popular because she’s a radical feminist or pro-choice advocate. It’s because she understands what it’s like to be a woman in 21st century America.
She’s never ascended to the elite, so she doesn’t need to stoop to conquer as most well-heeled feminist leaders must. She lives far from the plastic pseudoreality where a fossilized ideology substitutes for human compassion and empathy. As such, she rises above the slogans of both the left and the right and proposes to bring to Washington a dose of reality - a taste of real life.
She may become the first woman in national office - yet the Democrats, feminists and liberals can’t control her, and that burns them up.
Elections come and go, but Palin is a far more fundamental threat to the Democratic Party. And that’s why they fear her so.
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If not right on you are very close. I find I don’t agree with her on several issues, I wonder about the implications of her inexperience (and Obama’s) and yet I like her. I really enjoyed her interview on ABC. It was refreshing. There is just something real and genuine about her that comes across.
…a second thought. Up until now I was skeptical of either Pres candidates claims regarding change and reform as just more political BS. I believe her.
Dick - I couldn’t agree more. To “paraphrase” from Carl Gustav Jung - I believe the “young warrior princess” unconscious archetype she represents is balanced by her pronounced feminine, maternal instincts and her great reverence for vulnerable, innocent very young human life. I believe that balance will be comforting and reassuring to many undecided voters that feel threatened by a turbulent world and a problematic economy. Also, as I am a former blue collar tradesman her personal connection to the manual labor demographic is meaningful to me. Very Best Regards, Ed C. (For Jung - please refer to “Man and His Symbols” Doubleday 1964.)
“Elections come and go, but Palin is a far more fundamental threat to the Democratic Party. And that’s why they fear her so.”I could hardly bear to watch the Gibson’s interivew without feeling embarrassed for Sarah Palin, John McCain, and this great nation of ours. Sarah Palin and John McCain are too busy trying to reform Washington–By way of Alaska…but are they real reformers….are moral reformers?
During the interview broadcast on ABC, the Alaska governor was seen shaking her Magic 8-Ball after each question before responding to Mr. Gibson….and when asked by reporters where she got her answer to the Russia question, Gov. Palin replied, “My Magic 8-Ball got stuck on that one, so I asked God,”–and when on the campaign trail, the GOP presidential nominee John McCain said he was “thrilled” with Gov, Palin’s performance, adding that she would be shipped to Alaska and frozen in a block of ice for the remainder of the campaign. If that is a fundamental threat to the Democratic Party they are not the only ones who should fear Palin…..all of America should be afraid.
Sometimes I believe that the Republicans are trying to lose this Election…but it doesn’t look like it working. The next President will inherit by default to mention some, inflation, a mortgage crisis, energy crisis, global unstability, healtcare insurance crisis and an intractable war. The GOP may have been dumb enough have caused these national calamities, but do you think that they are ignornant and dumb enough to remain around to see how all of it resolves?
In the political panorama of chess, the are going to sacrifice a pawn. It might be crazy, but as much as you once believed that the Clintons wanted Obama to loose, the GOP wants Obama to win the election so Obama can take the oath of office that will probably be the worst four years in economical history…..an overflow from the Bush administration. Then the Republicans can stoll back into the White House once again when things improve. Remember Jimmy Carter lost in 1980 and the Republicans were unchallenged in the White House for tweleve solid years.
So what it the Republican stratgey? Let’s be shrewed and run the oldest candidate in history, paired with the gun toting, bible thumping critter, fundamentalist extremist who looks to the bible instead of the Constution in running for elective office……and my references to McCain and Palin are figuratively speaking.
This election gets more ignorant and dumber as time passes……can’t wait until it is all over……because in the end….my alarm clock will go off the day after the election and I will be back at work as usual.
Dick–Where is Michelle Obama? She’s virtually disappeared.Was she getting too many “negatives”?
You are totally correct. If the McCain/Palin ticket wins and manages this country with the vision and insight that they serve the people and not their own or Washington’s interest, the Dems may not get the White House for 12 years. That is not Obama’s, Clinton’s, and the other Dem’s plans.
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Unless one thinks that the mainstream media is looking out for everyone’s best interests, the MSM’s crazy attacks on Palin ought to be enough to make up just about anyone’s mind to vote for McCain/Palin.
Just in case that’s not enough, I would like to see Dick or the McCain campaign or anybody else point out that Obama is a socialist… end of the economy debate.
Obama wants to debate the so-called “issues.” But, that only turns it into a campaign promise olympics. A contest of who can out-promise who. Since Obama has no shame in promising whatever to whoever, Obama wins. The real discussion is what would OBiden really do? Forget promises.
If someone can effectively point out that Obama is a socialist, no matter what he promises, most people could realize that America does not need socialism to fix it’s economy. I mean, socialism would fix things all right, but maybe not as most people would appreciate.
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