Comparing Sarah Palin with Obama

Never, never understimate Sarah Palin's toughness . . .

Right now (8 p.m. ET Saturday), Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are at the Alfalfa Club dinner in DC. Like you, I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that event.

Today, I was reading John Brady's superb biography of political genius, Lee Atwater (Bad Boy: The Life and Politics of Lee Atwater). Brady opens the book with the following quote: "The things we admire in men [and women, hopefully], kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest -- sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest -- are the traits of success. And while men [and women] admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second." (John Steinbeck, Cannery Row)

Is that true? For the most part, it is. Someone like Sarah Palin falls mainly in the first category, while Barack Obama -- and the men around him -- fall mainly in the second. Obama's campaign manager, David Axelrod, is a specialist in smearing -- defaming -- his client's opponents. Axelrod was the primary sources for the flood of lies about Palin. To a degree, his tactic worked, driving down Sarah's "favorables," which was Axelrod's intent.

I've talked about Joe Biden uttering one falsehood after another during the campaign. He's now the vice-president of the U.S. No one has yet identified one lie told by Sarah Palin. She's the one who's not the vice-president.

Does all this mean that Obama inevitably defeats Palin in a head-to-head match? Not necessarily. We cannot ignore Sarah's toughness, which far exceeds that of Barack Obama. Also, as former Ms. editor Elaine Lafferty observed, Sarah is infinitely curious and a fast learner.

How much exactly she learned in 2008 -- and continues to learn -- we're beginning to see. Perhaps at tonight's Alfalfa Club dinner, Obama will begin to see it also.

Camile Paglia Admires The Palins

One chapter in the book I'm writing (with help from other very talented people) about Sarah Palin will deal with feminists who strongly support the Governor and see her a role model for American women. They include Elaine Lafferty, the former Ms. Magazine editor who called Sarah a "feminist' and a "brainiac"; Shelley Mandell, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of NOW, who endorsed Sarah in a Carson, CA event (to the dismay of the tree-dwelling segment of NOW) by saying, "This [Sarah] is what a feminist looks like"; and the remarkable Camille Paglia, who voted for Obama, but has paradoxically been Sarah's strongest defender. Paglia wrote the following on October 8, 2008, about Gov. Palin:

"The mountain of rubbish poured out about Palin over the past month would rival Everest. What a disgrace for our jabbering army of liberal journalists and commentators, too many of whom behaved like snippy jackasses…One of the most idiotic allegations batting around out there among urban media insiders is that Palin is "dumb." Are they kidding? What level of stupidity is now par for the course in those musty circles? People who can't see how smart Palin is are trapped in their own narrow parochialism-the tedious, hackneyed forms of their upper-middle-class syntax and vocabulary…I admire her competitive spirit and her exuberant vitality, which borders on the supernormal…both Todd and Sarah Palin…have emerged as powerful new symbols of a revived contemporary feminism. That the macho Todd, with his champion athleticism and working-class creed, can so amiably cradle babies and care for children is a huge step forward in American sexual symbolism."

Please also pass along the following link to Paglia's extended (and brilliant) analysis of the character, values, and socia significance of Sarah Palin:

http://www.blogrunner.com/snapshot/D/0/9/camille_paglia_on_sarah_palin_barack_obama_joe_biden_and_more/

Sarah in 2006 campaigning for Gov. with her strongest supporter, Piper Palin

Sarah among the people she loves -- and who love her

I wrote the following to Karen Allen, who's head of one of my favorite organizations: http://annieoakleypac.org. She and I were talking about the fact that some Sarah Supporters believe she's more conservative than she actually is.

Karen, the issue you and I are discussing is perhaps the most important one facing those of us who back Sarah Palin: It's: How do we attract more voters?

Frankly, some of them will be pro-life. Others will be on the fence, and some will be pro-choice, such as Elaine Lafferty, the former Ms. editor who wrote the piece on Sarah (whom she supporterd) that described Gov. P. as a "feminist" (correct) and a "brainiac" (also correct). The head of the LA Chapter of NOW, Shelley Mandel, famously endorsed Sarah at a rally in Carson, CA.

We must welcome such people into our movement, and we must seek out more of them. We can't just hand every large state (CA, NY, PA, OH, MI, MA) to Obama. We can't prevail with UT, ID, AL, and MS alone. Above all, we can't ask Gov. Palin to run a race that she cannot win.

One of my favorite professional football coaches has said, "In pro football, there are NO MORAL VICTORIES." I believe the same is true of high-level politics. If a candidates doesn't believe he or she can win -- and doesn't have a credible plan to do so -- then someone else should run.

In the campaign, Sen. McCain's staff basically pulled out of Michigan, the kind of state Republicans must win. Gov. Palin opposed that move. She recognized that McCain was waving a white flag.
She also understood that people in Michigan (and we could add Ohio and Pennsylvania) are HER people. They aren't the "fat cats" of the GOP past, but rather autoworkers and ordinary Americans from all walks fo life.

In the heavily unionized PA county where I live (Beaver County), Democrats outnumber Republicans by two-to-one. However, McCain-Palin carried the county by 4,000 votes. We need to understand why this county ended up loving and admiring Sarah Palin.

We have a government "of, by, and for the people." It's not the obligation of political leaders to give the people marching orders. That reverses the process the Founding Fathers had in mind.

The most imporant tool any political leader has -- and Gov. Palin possesses it in abundance -- is the ability to LISTEN. We need to believe that she will respond to what she hears.