It was a refreshing bit of fresh air, then, to have a reader call my attention to what one magazine has been saying about Gov. Palin overseas -- in England of all places. In searching for the article via Google, I first turned up this very upbeat bio just after her nomination by Sen. McCain: "Why John McCain's beauty queen running mate has a grizzly bear on her office wall" (London Daily Mail, August 31, 2008). This article contains a lot about her family and childhood background that is particularly winsome, especially from an interview with her mother.
The more interesting from a political point-of-view, however, is "A pistol-packin' Looby Loo: the Left's worst nightmare" (London Daily Mail, September 4, 2008). The article may be dated in some respects, but not in others -- especially amidst the mounting barrage of slanderous attacks on Gov. Palin. In fact, it may be more timely now than when it was written:
At the very least, McCain has got a wonderful sense of mischief - a quality sadly lacking in most politicians. The way the Left, both here and in America , are contorting themselves is a joy to behold. Sarah Palin is every Guardianista's worst nightmare.[Hat tip to C.G.-Z.]
It's reminiscent of how they used to patronize Mrs. Thatcher 30 years ago. What did this small-town girl know about anything? How could any woman expect to run a country and raise a family? What does she know about foreign affairs? Of course, they weren't saying that a woman couldn't be Prime Minister, you understand. Just not this woman. Shirley Williams would have been fine, but this ghastly, lower middle- class Snobby Roberts woman from Grantham, of all places - AAARGH!
It's been hilarious watching the sisterhood tie themselves in knots over Sarah Palin.
They've been in full Glenda Slagg mode - dontcha just hate her, dontcha just love her?
... What they are doing is what they usually do when confronted with something which offends their world view - character assassination. Every 'liberal' newspaper and TV network has sent hatchet men north to Alaska to dig for the dirt beneath the tundra.
What they discovered is that 80 per cent of Alaskans think she's doing a great job.
A supermarket tabloid is claiming she had an affair, which she denies. Apart from that, the worst the scandal-hounds have come up with is that Palin, as governor, put pressure on a police chief to fire her former brother-in-law. Given that said brother-in-law had beaten up her sister and threatened to kill her father, I'd say that far from abusing her office, she showed considerable restraint....
... When Palin talks about shattering the glass ceiling, the sisters are supposed to cheer - except most of them suspect her idea of shattering a glass ceiling would be with a both barrels blast from a 12-bore.
She epitomizes the 'God and guns' mentality at which Barak Obama and his supporters sneer. They use 'small town' as a pejorative term. That's not how Middle America sees it.
John Mellenkamp wrote his hit song Small Town as an ironic take on Hicksville, USA . He even performed it at an Obama rally earlier this year.
Back at you: Democrats say Sarah lacks the experience for the top job - but neither do Obama or Biden.
But that hasn't stopped Middle Americans adopting it as an anthem. Mellenkamp must be just as horrified as Springsteen was when Ronald Reagan purloined his anti-war Born In The USA as a campaign song.
It's not that the Americans don't do irony, as European 'sophisticates' always maintain. It's just that sometimes, my dear, they don't give a damn. A good song is a good song - and to hell with the message.
Most Americans were born and raised in a small town. Her values are their values. John Mellenkamp wrote his hit song Small Town as an ironic take on Hicksville, USA . He even performed it at an Obama rally earlier this year.
Back at you: Democrats say Sarah lacks the experience for the top job - but neither do Obama or Biden. But that hasn't stopped Middle Americans adopting it as an anthem. Mellenkamp must be just as horrified as Springsteen was when Ronald Reagan purloined his anti-war Born In The USA as a campaign song.
It's not that the Americans don't do irony, as European 'sophisticates' always maintain. It's just that sometimes, my dear, they don't give a damn. A good song is a good song - and to hell with the message. Most Americans were born and raised in a small town. Her values are their values.
The mantra from the Obama camp is that she lacks the experience to be VP. In truth, she has more executive experience than either Obama or his Neil Kinnock-impersonator sidekick mate Joe Biden, neither of whom has ever run anything.
But, wail the skeptics, what about foreign affairs? Admittedly, Palin has never slagged off her country at a mass rally in Berlin. But Alaska's next door to Russia. She's got more experience of dealing with Russians than anyone outside of corporate hospitality at Stamford Bridge.
Who is Putin more likely to be wary of - Barak 'we must negotiate with dictators' Obama, or Looby Loo packing heat?
To paraphrase the Duke of Wellington, I don't know what she does to the enemy, but she scares the life out of me.
... With all the hoop-la, it's easy to forget that she's running for Vice-President, not President. Not yet.
Sarah Palin: The next Margaret Thatcher? Time will tell...
That's what really frightens her condescending opponents. Not that we've a leg to stand on in Britain. We've got Harriet Harman a chewed fingernail away from the top job - and she's never shot a moose in her life.
Remember, they all laughed at Margaret Thatcher.
But ho, ho, ho, who had the last laugh?
Of related interest
If you haven't really appreciated just how winsomely funny McCain can be, you owe it to yourself to check out his speech (along with Obama's who gets in some good lines of his own) at the recent Al Smith Dinner in NYC. "John McCain Rocks the House at the Alfred House Dinner" (YouTube). At least read the transcript: "McCain, Obama Bring Down House At Al Smith Dinner." You could almost remember the Gipper at times. Sen. Obama got in some good lines, too, especially the one about having once hung around with a crowd of worthless punks -- members of the U.S. Senate. He did seem to me like he looked a bit out of place, however, like a dressed-up school boy invited to address the Rotary Club after winning a spelling bee. But then, he was surrounded pretty much by the NYC geriatric set of aging Democrats -- and a septuagenarian Republican opponent.
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