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Opinion
Sep. 07, 2008
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VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Desperate Democratic attacks on Palin very revealing

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ
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I'm considering voting for a major party's presidential ticket this year, for the first time in decades. As a matter of fact, it would mark the first time I've voted the top of the ticket for this particular party in my life.

I've met the presidential nominee. He's got character. He's also a likeable guy -- most politicians share that asset -- though he's clearly a creature of the Senate, where respect for freedom and limited government are laughed at, deemed a handicap in "making the deal."

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    • Over the past year, though, he's run a come-from-behind Cinderella campaign that could become the stuff of legend. And then last week, he did something that made our enemies afraid.

    That made me take notice.

    Mind you, there's a good moral case to be made for not voting. By participating in the election, you tacitly acknowledge the winner has the right to do all the awful, unconstitutional, morally wrong things they now do in our names.

    I still vote largely because the "Libertarian" button is available. This year, though, the Libertarian Party has nominated Fearless Drug Warrior Bob Barr, a man who has opposed medical marijuana initiatives, opposed needle exchanges, a man who zealously locked up for years those seeking to peacefully medicate themselves or help others to do so, shoving them into small cages where they're subject to anal rape by guys named "Bubba."

    It's tempting to stay home on Nov. 4. But there's now at least a 50-50 possibility -- higher, given Americans' demonstrated reluctance to elect ultra-socialist Big City senators over the past 40 years -- that when Americans wake up Nov. 5 they'll rub their eyes and wonder what kind of a shuck job the Leftist Mainstream Press has spent the past year peddling them about some Chicago ward heeler whose silver tongue seemed to tie up pretty quick when he strayed from the prepared script and the Teleprompters, and how this same press corps largely missed the come-from behind Cinderella story of a guy they declared dead in the water in August of 2007.

    Wishing won't make John McCain a small-government libertarian. But think back to how the defeatist fellow-travelers in the media ridiculed him when he said The Surge could defeat al-Qaida in Iraq.

    Think back to when the genius political analysts told you McCain's campaign was dead, that this guy was so clueless he had no remaining plan but to spend the entire autumn in New Hampshire, hanging out and gabbing with the locals at Dunkin' Donuts.

    And then last week my former senator, John McCain, threw the entire race into a maelstrom, confounding all expectations and common wisdom by choosing Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate.

    If Democrats believed what they say -- that Gov. Palin is such a poor choice that John McCain might as well fold his tent and go home -- they should be condescendingly patting the little lady on the head right now, saying, "Oh, how cute."

    So how are we to explain the way the Democratic Party is now going after Sarah Palin and her perfectly lovely pregnant daughter, for all the world like the frenzied final holdouts on some Japanese-occupied Pacific atoll, shrieking "Banzai!" as they level their bayonets and charge the machine guns in their loincloths?

    I've already lost count of the ways the ululating harridans have attacked this anti-corruption reformer. She can't be president because she lives too far from Washington. Because she bore a child with Down syndrome instead of aborting him. Because a woman with young children shouldn't put them through the strain of a campaign for high office. (Is the Democratic position now that only sterile old men should be president, or does that one apply only to women?)

    Her husband wants Alaska's federal land turned over to the state (oh, the horror!) and had a DUI some decades back, before they were even married. (I don't believe the Democrats actually used the phrase "drunken Indian," any more than they specifically said a woman still of child-bearing age can't be president because she might be irritable during "that time of the month," though they sure went right up to the line. My, how thin is their veneer of political correctness?)

    Why the desperation?

    Because Vice President Sarah Palin would mean Americans could actually end up electing a woman president without tapping a manipulative, soulless, stay-married-just-to-stay-in-power socialist.

    How dare the Republicans threaten to do that? Only the "progressive" party is supposed to be allowed to put the first articulate woman in line for the White House! Why, it's just like when the Republicans dared to put a conservative black man on the Supreme Court. It's so wrong!

    Sarah Palin is a gun owner and Westerner who seems to still understand the core American notions of Freedom and the Frontier, a woman who vetoed a half billion dollars in proposed state spending and "put the government of our state back on the side of the people."

    Yes, it bothers me that she might outlaw other women's abortion choices if she could. But she can't.

    What these screeching attacks on Sarah Palin are really all about is not a pregnant daughter or a 20-year-old DUI. And the "no foreign policy experience" red herring would have barred Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton as well as Barack Obama.

    What this is really all about is that she is the first everyday American in a generation, the first person who is not an Ivy League attorney, not a career Washington insider, not vetted by the Brookings Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations and the CIA and Ellen Goodman, a person who works her husband's fishing boat and drives her own car to work and buys her own groceries, to be given a shot at leading this nation.

    And that appears to have a certain element of the political power structure terrified.

    Why do you suppose that is?

    Gov. Sarah Palin can't save America all by herself. That's the underlying absurdity of this near-religious frenzy to pick a new Guy On A White Horse every eight years.

    But an America that could elect Sarah Palin might still save itself.

    That's why.

    Because they know their guy's already absurd claim to be the best and only available "agent of change" ran out when he tapped graying political plagiarist Joe Biden -- and John McCain decided to roll the dice and go the other way.

    Because the chances are now better than even that when Barack Obama awakens on Nov. 5, the song they'll be playing is, "We used to love him, but it's all over now."

    Vin Suprynowicz (vsuprynowicz@reviewjournal.com) is assistant editor of the Review-Journal's editorial page.



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    Alex wrote on November 05, 2008 03:36 AM: I couldn't believe your article. I am in favor of the NRA's stance, being a firm believer in a person's right to bear arms. However, "I wanna let ya'll know that I am gonna vote against that Palin woman cause she don't respresnt us women at all. I'm tell ya, it's true." She would have been better served with an English teacher. Those dangling earring and LOUD screeing voice, told me see needed much more help. I, as a woman took great offense at her comments intending to bring woman's rights back 30 years. She is an insult to all intelligent women. Go shoot youe carbou Palin, and leave the rest of us to decide if we want your pregnant 17 year old daughter to be held up as an example for all teenage girls!! Good God, what are you thinking? Of course, that is assuming you can think, dear Sarah.


    Micheal wrote on October 12, 2008 03:57 PM: Palen has been overly scrutinized and yet "Biden the Plagerist" with a son and brother both indicted for fraud are never mentioned?

    www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/23/AR2008082302200.html


    Michael Seebeck wrote on September 16, 2008 10:48 AM: OK, so where's Vin's real column?

    NOTA in NV, last I checked.

    And Palin is less qualified to be VP than any three of my dogs, me, or even Barr.


    Alibaba wrote on September 15, 2008 11:51 AM: The over the top crude, lewd and sexist comments made by the Demos about Governor Palin show how desperate and out of touch they are. They more they attack, the more I want to vote for the lady! Keep it up, Demos: Palin for President!


    artie wrote on September 14, 2008 09:55 AM: I'm a gun owner and a Westerner, too, and I'll be voting for Obama. One reason (and I have a lot more) is to keep this wing nut woman out of high office. Do your research on her spending. Just because she wasted less than the previous most wasteful state government out there in Alaska doesn't mean she's fiscally responsible.
    If I'm fifty pounds overweight and you're thirty-five pounds overweight, it doesn't mean you're fit.


    artie wrote on September 14, 2008 09:42 AM: It's interesting how VS likes to use facts and common sense, except when facts and common sense go against his bizarre world view.

    Sarah Palin believes in no abortion, nohow, even in cases of rape and incest. And the GOP believes in freedom and government out of our lives, right? Just wait to read the responses to this, and the way they'll fall all over the place trying to make their "freedom" line match their anti-abortion line. And to them, it will actually make sense. Ask them about separation of church and state. Some will admit they want a Christian government, but many will lie about that, too.

    What about those issues, Mr. Libertarian?

    I could go on and on, but the information and facts about Palin are out there, reported in respectable news channels. Too bad such a stellar journalist, working at such a respected paper, can't find his way to factual news to see how frightening this Barbie Gidget cheerleader is, because so many Americans are so ignorant, and cannot research facts and think critically.

    And how refreshing that Vin now gets to read reactions by people who have brains and pay attention. But I wonder if he bothers.


    Peggy Prestis wrote on September 14, 2008 06:09 AM: In short there are a number of inexperienced candidates that could have been in her shoes however I am jumping on the band wagon that it is like a bad Disney movie. Alaska "soccer mom" becomes next president. Just for the simple fact that every time she has patted herself on the back the truth comes out that her self righteous accomplishments are none other than her over exaggeration and in short twisted, stretched truths. In my personal opinion there are acceptable qualities and future promises from all parties involved that we would all like to put our faith in and at the same time they all have a way of inserting doubts in the minds of Americans who really want to see the change that they are all preaching they can and will produce without solid convictions that they can. I do not see where any of the candidates can empathize with the true victims of the election. US the middle class slowly failing in the deteriorating economy. Do any of them really feel our desperation? Do any of them have to worry if thier mortgage gets paid or if there is enough money left over to feed the family or how high the gas and oil prices will be tomorrow? I do not think so. I do agree Palin is a hard worker in her own family life more so than the other cadidates but I do not feel that is enough to make her qualified to run the country. McCain's wife is a great humanitarian but that does not qualify her either. McCain has stood by Bush through thick and thin. Does that make him the qualified. Maybe, if you want more of the same. The Muslim's have 57 state's not the Us so who is Obahma


    Paolo wrote on September 12, 2008 07:53 PM: Sarah Palin is not qualified to be Empress of the World, but no one is, anyway. I don't want the President to be a "leader." I want him or her to be a competent executive who will stay within the strict bounds of the Constitution. As such, I would take any name at random out of the phone book to be President, as opposed to the current crop of idiots.

    Palin has actually had a few good talking points, in the past. She's supported the Alaskan secession movement, and spoken well of Ron Paul. Of course, now that she's sold her soul to McCain and the Neocons, she will be forced to take standard imperial, warmonger, Federal Reserve supporting stands.


    I Care wrote on September 12, 2008 05:44 AM: Vin--
    Brilliant piece. I know that you have us "everyday" Americans nodding in agreement. Sarah Palin is not part of the Washington establishment. That will motivate many people to take a new look at the GOP ticket. To those political analysts that are shocked by her popularity and the voting public's reaction-- how can you be so out of touch?


    Paranoia wrote on September 11, 2008 02:15 PM: Both of the big tickets are terrible. Bob Barr is terrible, too.

    Stop thinking that you can save the world by either killing brown people or giving them handouts. Liberate your minds so we can liberate our country. It's time to stop talking about family values and return value to having a family. It's not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. Have these things been lost? Is all we care about driving cars and eating hamburgers at the expense of our own once freedom-loving culture?

    Vote Nader, McKinney, Baldwin, write-in Paul, or any other candidate who will take a real stand. Obama and McCain need to believe in the constitution of the United States before they can be appointed to be the executive of a constitutional republic.


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