Palin's Tea Party Rally speech...and a warning

I don't know about anyone else, but to me, Sarah Palin's speech at the Tea Party Rally today sure made it seem as if she is going to be a presidential candidate before too long.  It was a great speech, taking aim at the "permanent political class" on both sides of the aisle (because we all know that neither side has a monopoly on people whose first priority is to stay in power), and it laid out a great plan for helping to move America forward.  (That sounds like a good name for an organization...one that I didn't actually remember until I typed those words, but still...)

The full speech (with thanks to The Right Scoop and Conservatives 4 Palin for pointing me in the right direction) can be found right here.  It's just over 40 minutes, but well worth watching.



I'd include some of the best quotes from the speech, but, as usual, Jedediah Bila has beaten me to it.  A sampling of her picks are as follows:

“What brought us together is a love of country and we see that America is hurting. We’re not willing to just sit back and watch her demise through some fundamental transformation … we’re here to begin the restoration of the country that we love. We’re here because America is at a tipping point.”

“Politicians are so focused on the symptoms and not the disease … so this is why we must remember that the challenge is not simply to replace Obama in 2012, but the challenge is who or what we will replace him with.”

“My plan is a bona-fide pro-working man’s plan and it deals in reality … My plan is about empowerment, empowerment of our states, empowerment of our entrepreneurs … empowerment of you, our hard-working individuals.

“Real hope is in you. It’s not that hopey-changey stuff that we heard about in 2008 … Real hope comes from realizing that ‘we the people’ can make the difference.”

I ended with that last quote on purpose.  What Ms. Bila snipped from that quote was the sentence just before, which stated that real hope should not be in any one person (at least in the political word...my hope is indeed in one Person, which is good because I'm a bit of a screw-up on my own).  I warned years ago about people forming a cult of personality around President Obama or Governor Palin.  As I said then, the policies are the important thing, not the person.  And, as we've seen (and as I recently pointed out), the true believers react very negatively when their object is belittled in any way.  That isn't standing up for a policy, that's standing up for a person.

But with that said, there now seems to be an Anti-Palin cult of personality as well (or would that be a cult of anti-personality?), in which the members react negatively when their object is praised.  (Yes, there's one of those for President Obama as well...you've seen it, I'm sure.)

So my advice (which I am mostly offering to myself, since I'll forget this within 48 hours, most likely) is not to be a member in such a cult, and not to engage someone who is obviously a member of an anti-cult.  Let them stew in their overly intense emotions, and you work toward bringing about the change you want to see in this country.  If someone running for anything shares your views (as, for example, Sarah Palin seems to share mine), then work with them.  But don't focus on a person too much, to the detriment of the country.

Jedediah Bila: "What pundits should be talking about when it comes to Palin"

As regular readers of this blog (of which I have none) may know, I have become quite the fan of the writings of one Jedediah Bila in recent months.  (I most recently said as much here.)  Ms. Bila, as seen on her site, has written a quite interesting book, which I intend to review at some point in the future when I learn that crucial skill of time management.  (After thirtysomething years, it's not looking terribly likely, but I'm still holding out hope.*)  Among the reasons that I enjoy her writing, as anyone familiar with both of us would know, is that we both are in substantial agreement with Sarah Palin with regard to policy.

So with that said, it comes as no surprise to see Ms. Bila leading the way in trying to steer bunches of misguided pundits toward some proper Palin-related talking points.  This is necessary, of course, because, as Ms. Bila states in her latest column at the Daily Caller:

While some pundits are busy calling Sarah Palin thin-skinned, claiming that there is “no space for her” in the 2012 race and incessantly speculating about her potential announcement date, some of us are sitting by laughing, sufficiently amused by typical establishment tactics that have grown tired, old and frankly a little boring.

One of the problems with this approach to Governor Palin is that these pundits are forgetting the fairly impressive record that she put together when she was governor.  So, as a helpful reminder for these pundits, Ms. Bila has compiled a nice list of ten accomplishments from the Palin administration in Alaska, ten accomplishments that these pundits, seemingly, have either forgotten or never bothered to learn in the first place.  Here's a taste:

1. As governor in 2007, Palin was responsible for the largest veto totals in state history, while investing $1 billion in forward-funding education and fulfilling public safety and infrastructure necessities.

For the rest, you'll need to check out Ms. Bila's column.  It's definitely worth a read, just as Governor Palin is worth a second look.

* It's true that I still hold out hope; it's not as true that I am actively, you know, doing something about the problem.

What do Manhattan liberals think of Sarah Palin?

If I haven't already said so, I have grown to enjoy Jedediah Bila's writing over the last year, or however long it's been since I was first introduced to her punditry.  Ms. Bila can truly turn a phrase, which is probably why she's an up-and-coming pundit, whereas I'm a seventh-rate blogger.  But I digress.

Ms. Bila, like me, is a fan of one Sarah Palin, which deeply colors her interactions with other people in the greater Manhattan area, where she lives.  (She wrote a whole book about such experiences, Outnumbered: Chronicles of a Manhattan Conservative, which I intend to review if I ever finish the thing.)  Anyway, she was at a cocktail party on the Upper East Side and overheard many of the left-leaning attendees talking about Governor Palin, who, it had been announced that day, would be headlining a tea party rally in Iowa on September 3.

And what kind of sentiments were expressed about Gov. Palin?  Well, for starters, as per Ms. Bila:

5. SHE’S SCARY BECAUSE SHE’LL ACTUALLY DO WHAT SHE SAYS. That’s right, folks. They know she’s the real deal. They know that if she says it, she means it. And that scares the living daylights out of them.

No, I'm not including the whole list.  If you want to see the rest, as they say, read the whole thing.

But I will say that it is very telling that these Manhattan liberals seem to think more of the potential of Sarah Palin than a lot of Washington Republicans do.  I guess we'll see who's right in the coming months.

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