When you see an out of power politician saying important things on important issues, showing important people in the midst of a political scandal and silliness he knows what is important and what isn’t, you are seeing that politician act as the opposition party leader.
If such a politician isn’t the opposition party leader when he is saying those important things, that politician just announced his intent to pursue the position.
Gov. Sarah Palin did just that with this recent Facebook post Another “WTF†Obama Foreign Policy Moment*.
Very few people in the midst of the current Congressional sex scandal saw this UK Guardian article titled “The day after Iran’s first nuclear test is a normal day†that was a headline over on the Hot Air blog.
Iran announced to the world that it is thinking of testing a nuclear weapon.
Meanwhile, the Obama Administration is thinking of giving American anti-missile technology to the Russians, who are one of Iran’s chief suppliers of long range ballistic missile technology. This Obama Administration initiative represents a grave threat to America’s national security and Sarah Palin was the only serious American opposition party figure who commented upon it.
Whatever Gov. Palin was looking for on her northeastern bus trip, she came away from it with a decision to run for President.
The meme that she will not run, cannot get the nomination, and cannot win if nominated got blown out of the water by the Washington Post and the New York Times with their decisions to employ hundreds of volunteers to comb through her 24,000 e-mails looking for dirt. No one does this to a private citizen with no political future. (Also, that is a lot of reading and writing for a lady that the Leftist pundits keep trying to portray as someone who never reads, cannot write, and is lazy.)
It is an article of faith among the left that Gov. Palin is weak and eaily intimidated.
This is an attempt by the MSM to follow that belief with action.
Their problem is that Palin is neither.
Nohype nails it. Where are the armies of Romney email checkers?
This is what is deciding Palin’s timing to announce for President:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/06/sarah-palins-documentary-to-go-nationwide-july-15.html
Trent Telenko: “Their problem is that Palin is neither.” I have never seen anyone more villified in all sorts of ways than Sarah Palin and I very much admire her tough chin – perhaps the toughest chin I have ever seen in the dirtiest game that is played.
There are a lot of people, like me, who are watching how she does and could very well decide to vote for her. The biggest question is simply who can beat Obama. The second question is who will stop the bleeding at the federal government. Personally, I think she is probably best prepared to do the second.
If she runs, she will go through a superhuman trial by fire.
If she manages to get the nomination anyway, she will be in a completely different place, and may be viable against Obama by then.
I hope she runs so we can find out if she is up to it. It will be good for the party and the country for her to run.
Note the complete absence of policy discussion. It appears that any discussion of Sarah Palin, even among her supporters, is limited to Palin as personality, and policy issues never enter into it. This is not good for a presidential candidate.
Tom, wrong.
Palin has been producing a steady output of policy positions, mostly via Facebook.
I have read most of it, and I have not seen anything I disagree with.
It is rock-solid conservative thinking on all issues.
It is her opponents, in both parties, who ignore the policy substance.
It is there to be read and many of us have read it.
Get over your stereotypes and do a little research.
Start here. Keep scrolling.
Tom, Did you notice the article you are presumably commenting on? The point is that while Obama golfs and the Media digs dirt, Palin was the only one commenting on Iran’s possible nuclear test.
The woman is dumber than W and that is saying quite a lot.
Does anyone here know anything about START. It’s impossible to discuss missile defense without knowing what it is.
START has reduced strategic nuclear weapons by maybe 80%. Regan initiated it because of several reasons. The one that matters was the SS18, good ol SATAN. That puppy made Minuteman obsolete.
At the moment Russia and from them the Chinese as well have the most accurate medium range missile there are. The Russian Iskander, which would be ranged against any European anti missile endeavor, has a CEP of 1 meter. The Chinese have taken this and produced missiles which can hit a carrier.
Real missile defense just ups the stakes all around and just makes everything more, not less, dangerous. Obama being a smart man does not want to walk this path.
You have the most advanced weapons there are but not in all categories. It appears that stealth may soon be useless soon as progress in detectors continues. At that point a great deal of your recent effort in stealthy aircraft will have just produced compromised platforms partly crippled by their stealthy nature. The SU 37 becomes the best fighter in the world at that point.
Iran, the cradle of civilization, will test a nuclear weapon in the next while. They may have material for perhaps four devices. You cannot put Genies back in their bottles.
That’s mine above.
WRT Tom’s comment re policy: They say Pawlenty just gave a good policy speech. Obama got elected for giving good speeches. “Policy” means words that can be changed as needed. What do Obama’s policy statements from 2008 mean now? Better to vote on character than on policy. Character doesn’t change.
>>Real missile defense just ups the stakes all around and just makes everything
>>more, not less, dangerous. Obama being a smart man does not want to walk this
>>path.
This, like Sarah Palin being dumb/vulnerable, is also an article of Leftist faith.
In a world of precision guided long range ballistic missiles, robust multi-layer missile defense is the only answer.
“In a world of precision guided long range ballistic missiles, robust multi-layer missile defense is the only answer.”
SATAN made the Minutemen obsolete, not well known in the US, by throwing 10 MIRV warheads that individually have a CEP of 30 meters. That meant every silo was toast. The Russians kind of own ballistic missile accuracy.
If you think you can depend on missile defense against a world as advanced as you I have some bridges, in real good shape, I can let you have cheap.
“This, like Sarah Palin being dumb/vulnerable, is also an article of Leftist faith.”
No faith needed, she will not shut up. The evidence is overwhelming and continuous.
Since you didn’t actually read the article, I’ll summarize it for you:
The main argument in favor of ABM technology is that it can protect the US from missile attack by rogue states like Iran. Even if you don’t agree with that, it’s important to understand what the point is.
The biggest problem with giving ABM technology to the Russians is that they will probably give or sell it to Iran. Iran in turn will use that information to either to build their own ABM system or to try to figure out ways to defeat ours.
Again, if you disagree, you have to acknowledge and answer the point if you want to advance a coherent argument against it.
I’m no apologist for Palin or W, but that’s the second funniest thing I’ve heard today. Thanks for brightening my Friday.
You can tell who a group or organization fears, by who they attack. NO organization or group attacks Romney, or any of the other mainstream Institutional Republican candidates. The White House/Democrats/Media is in fact promoting certain “Republican” candidates as being “feared” by them. Huntsman comes to mind.
Sarah [and yes, she is now at the level where one name will do to identify her] is under constant attack, and occupies the major portion of the enemy’s attention. The question is, who constitutes the enemy? Yes, it includes the White House/Democrats/Media. But it also includes the Institutional Republican Party. Outside of the TEA Party and those candidates now in office because Sarah took on her own party to get them the nomination; the Institutional Republican Party is as venomous against her as the Democrats.
IF she runs, she may well win the nomination, unless the national party takes a hint from our Colorado Republican party and rigs the process.
If Sarah wins the nomination, she will receive minimal support from the national Republican Party, and will be attacked mercilessly by them.
They will literally work to re-elect Obama, rather than allow her to win if they can prevent it. Why? She fights. She has taken on corruption in both parties, and won. She is an enemy of our entrenched Political Class [see Rasmussen] more than just an enemy of the Democrats.
We constantly hear from the Institutional Republicans that unless we nominate another get-along, go-along empty suit; that we will give Obama a second term. All blame is to be placed on the Conservatives and the TEA Party in such a case, and none on them or the candidates they chose. There are demands for “loyalty oaths” that the TEA Party will support whoever the Republicans nominate, concentrating on Romney [pro-gun control, pro-nationalized health care, pro-AGW, willing to reach across the aisle for anything].
It goes both ways, even though they will not admit it. They will not allow us to even ask if they will support a Conservative or TEA Party candidate if one wins the nomination. In Colorado in 2010 the TEA Party candidate WON the nomination for governor, clearly, fair and square. The party then tried to revoke his nomination after he won the primary. When that failed, they got former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo to switch to the Constitution Party, paid them to make Tancredo their governor candidate, and then supported Tancredo over their own candidate; knowing that it would give the governorship to the Democrats. It did.
Immediately after the election, Tancredo became a Republican again and now is well regarded in establishment circles.
Will the Republican Party support Sarah Palin as their candidate if she wins the nomination? Will they allow her to win the nomination?
I will say this now. I support Sarah Palin, because she will fight and not waffle. If she is forced out of the Republican Party by the Institutional Republicans, I’m going with her.
Mr. Holsinger, I have tremendous respect for you. There is no sarcasm there at all. I commend what Lexington Green said to you wholeheartedly. She has more complete, and consistent positions on foreign, domestic, and economic issues than anyone else out there.
Subotai Bahadur
PenGun
American ballistic missile defenses buy several important things starting with:
1) Uncertainty — In a world where 100 Satan missiles with 10 RV’s each can destroy 100 to several hundred Minutemen silos. A multi-layer missile defense can thin out the attack in the boost phase, can identify incoming missile targeting to concentrate interceptors to thin portions of the attack in the mid-course phase and upper atmosphere point defense phase, saving a portion of the attacked silos from any attack. Thus guaranteeing retaliation by the remaining fraction.
Note as well that the Satan was a very long burn missile and was duck soup for a orbital based kinetic kill vehicle. Which brings up a 2nd point.
2) An unconstrained by missile treaty missile defense can be mobile. This means that neither the defenses nor the scale of defense of any particular target can be known with certainty over time. A continual shell game with mobile ABM defenses, and defensive decoys of same, can drive uncertainty of attack result outside the realm of political/military calculation into the realm of the irrational.
3) Nuclear club barriers to entry — An America that is capable of stopping 100 nuclear RV’s 100% is one that is not deterred from using conventional or nuclear military forces against Iran, North Korea or Pakistan. Thus preserving America’s role as the world hyperpower.
Which seems to be your real problem with the thought of American ABM defenses.
>>>No faith needed, she will not shut up. The evidence is overwhelming and continuous.
You are showing an upper class, snobbish, slip.
Gov. Palin bears the cultural markers of a working/middle class mother. That does not make her “dumb.” Point in fact, it may make her extremely electable in the populist wave election that seems to be shaping up for 2012.
“You can tell who a group or organization fears, by who they attack.”
Does the Right Blogosphere fear Anthony Weiner?
“Which seems to be your real problem with the thought of American ABM defenses.”
Your exceptional-ism is over. The problem is technical and you are in no way so far ahead as to have any confidence in your ability to remain so. It will not be possible to have a real missile defense for some time yet. Did you know ‘stealth’ is probably useless now?.
The danger is as always hubris and if you think you are safe you will do even more stupid things than you would otherwise.
Lex & Merlin,
You just proved my point. There is no discussion about Palin’s positions on issues. Anything she says starts a discussion about her, not the merits of her proposed policies.
I.e., I did NOT say she had no positions on issues. I said that OTHER people, i.e., you two in particular just now, as with most everyone else, ignore what she actually said about policy, and instead changed the discussion to her personally, as opposed to her policies.
This happens over and over again. Her policies simply are not taken seriously even by her supporters. This is not good for a presidential candidate.
PenGun,
You can avoid proving yourself a fool with precautionary Googling of people before you accuse them of not knowing what they talk about.
You are showing an upper class, snobbish, slip.
I don’t think so. I’ve known upper class snobbish slips and yours is not upper class.
He also seems to get a bit strident when doubted. Missile defense was a bluff with the Soviets but it is not with Iran or North Korea. The fact that Israel has spent considerable trouble building a missile defense suggests that it is seen as an integral part of a defensive program.
The right blogosphere is enjoying Anthony Weiner to the last drop. The tone with Sarah Palin is entirely different. We don’t hate Weiner; we want him to continue to prosper. It is the Democrats who are figuring out he has to go. We do note the double standard with people like Mark Foley and Chris Lee. That’s all.
I should have said he is not upper class.
“Her policies simply are not taken seriously even by her supporters.”
Wrong again.
I don’t need to “discuss” her position on issues. I already agree with them.
Of all the people who are seriously discussed as candidates, she is about the best on the “issues.”
Further she has an important track record of attacking the Combine, the connected hacks in her own party.
The people who support her, or would like to support her, know what she stands for because she speaks clearly.
The personality crap is the response she is getting from her enemies in the media and on the Democratic party, and her far more vicious enemies in the GOP who would rather have Obama again than have her be president, because their goal is not to change the game but to get their own snouts in the trough.
Your repeated statements that Palin’s supporters don’t know or care about her policy positions is false, baseless and insulting.
Lex,
You are coming across as PenGun’s mirror twin. I said, and repeat, that you guys won’t DISCUSS her policy statements, not that you don’t know what they are or don’t care.
Oh look, a Straw Man! And there goes a SQUIRREL!
After the damage the Brain Trust (FDR) and Best and Brightest (JFK, LBJ) and the Yale-Harvard grads (Bush, Bush, Obama) have inflicted on America, “dumb” is a virtue.
Tom,
Via the Powerline blog:
>>Your exceptional-ism is over.
PenGun,
Thank you for proving my point.
As for this:
>>The danger is as always hubris and if you think you are safe you will do
>>even more stupid things than you would otherwise.
You just described Obama Administration foreign/national security policy for Libya, Yemen and Egypt to a Tee.
>>>I said, and repeat, that you guys won’t DISCUSS her policy statements…
Two points,
1) It is rather hard to hold a discussion on a Sarah Palin policy position that no other Republican candidate has said squat about and the Obama Administration is the stupid policy actor she is commenting upon. That is why I made the point about Palin being the Opposition Party leader.
2) We have talked off-line about the number one determinant of voter selection in 2012 being Republican versus Democratic label over candidate charactor. Obama giving away our missile defense secrets to Russia, while serious, substantive, and important, is in the realm of “R” vs “D” identity issue. American immunity from nuclear attack by small foreign power ballistic missiles hits the “American Exceptionalism” “R” vs “D” identity button with a 10-lb sledgehammer.
You should really consider that Obama or Republican candidates agreeing or engaging with with Palin — and discussing this or any other serious policy issue — makes her exactly the kind of serious candidate you are speaking of…AKA it is an “admission against their interest.”
Palin, more than anything else, needs to get into debate scrums with other Republican Presidential candidates and use her ability to sound bite-frame what is in American hearts minds to define the 2012 Presidential campaign and herself.
This is something she is in complete control of.
PenGun,
You are way wrong on a number things you said about missiles. I cannot go into details. The one thing I Can say is that I’ve seen Migs up close and personal at 30,000 feet.
Trent, my point is and was about Palin’s supporters. They won’t discuss her policy statements. IMO this is because she is mostly to only a symbol even for them.
It is not good for a presidential candidate to be viewed almost entirely as a symbol.
Tom,
Until Palin runs her own Presidential campaign, all she has been is an image to her supporters and detractors.
treating “Tom” and “PenisGum” as worthy of notice just encourages them to post more. it’s akin to gop politicians going on cbs and nbc. try and be disciplined enough to just ignore them for the tar babies they are.
I don’t need to DISCUSS her policy statements because I AGREE with them.
“You are way wrong on a number things you said about missiles. I cannot go into details. The one thing I Can say is that I’ve seen Migs up close and personal at 30,000 feet.”
No I’m largely right. Before there was an internet, well a useful one, I had been indulging my hobby and had a large amount of useful data on missiles of all kinds.
I did make one error from just using memory though. The CEP on an SS 18 is about 300 meters not 30.
Nice gambit though. “You are wrong but I can’t say why.”
# Paul Milenkovic Says:
June 10th, 2011 at 8:05 pm
“You can tell who a group or organization fears, by who they attack.â€
Does the Right Blogosphere fear Anthony Weiner?
Wasn’t ignoring you, just came back to the thread.
What Weiner is receiving is not the result of a generalized hatred for his existence, his political beliefs, his class, or his violation of what is considered to be his “place”. All of these and more motivate the hatred aimed at Sarah Palin. What is being aimed at Weiner is based on specific acts that can be pointed at, which should offend and disgust Americans of whatever political persuasion. It is telling that a significant portion of the body politic, up until yesterday, was defending him. Yesterday it came out that at least one of those communicating with him online was an underage female. Delaware police have talked to her and her mother, and while Weiner publicly claims that there was nothing “explicit or indecent” about his communications with her; I rather expect that her computer is now in the hands of cyber-forensics experts.
The opprobrium he has received has been aggravated by what has to be one of the most counter-productive political defenses I have ever seen. Add to that the Schadenfreude at his come-uppance due to his less than lovable public persona AND his authorship of a bill currently in Congress that would make his admitted conduct a Federal felony.
What he has and is going through is barely measurable on the scale of what Sarah Palin has gone through. His family has not been targeted at all, nor his past, and insofar as she has been mentioned, his wife is an object of sympathy. He still has plentiful defenders in the political and media arena, and most of the media is not attacking him; but rather is doing its best to make the story disappear.
Moving back to an earlier mention of the forced release of all of Sarah Palin’s emails as governor; not only has nothing discrediting been found, the Left has been hoist on its own petard. The demands for the emails were absolutely specific that they be completely unredacted. And so they are. The names, home addresses, phone numbers, and other personal information of those making ludicrous charges and threats to the lives of Sarah and her family are now out in public. The Leftists are screaming about the violation of the Moonbats’ privacy.
I admit to my share of Schadenfreue and amusement.
Subotai Bahadur
PenGun,
I can’t go into details because I signed documents that expose me to 30 years in prison if I talk about certain things.
There is an enormous amount of disinformation intentionally placed in the public realm by both sides. There are those who claim to have “inside” information, just as there those who claim to have been SEALS or Rangers. Of the stuff out there in the public realm of which I have specific knowledge, some of it comes somewhat close. A lot of it doesn’t. Particularly the stuff about CEP.
Roy
Roy,
One part of CEP which was overlooked is that half the warheads which both (a) are launched by missiles which are serviceable, and (b) are on missiles which are reliable, re-entry bodies which are reliable and which warheads are themselves reliable. come down within the CEP, and the other half come down:
someplace else.
It’s the “someplace else” bit which few outside the civil defense community were aware of.
Tom,
The concept of MAD is widely misunderstood. The Samson option was not part of the plan. The actual doctrine, through measured strikes, was to convince the enemy that they would lose. This goes back to Sun Tszu, which is part of the core curriculum of our military academies.
The Cuban missile crisis was all about counter force capabilities. We were forced to give up IRBMs in Turkey which had the Russian bomber fleet pinned. In retrospect it probably contributed to the avoidance of WWIII.
Who knows? we’re still here.
Roy
Roy
>>>I don’t need to DISCUSS her policy statements because I AGREE with them
Lex,
Word of mouth is the most powerful political tool of persuasion…when you use it
Tom Holsinger is not a Palin Supporter.
If Palin supporters are not in the habit of explaining what her real political positions are, and simply get into personality driven conflicts over her. Then Palin is just a media reality star and not a politician.
How pray tell shall people who are neither Palin supporters or haters — but are not seriously considering considering her due to media image — going to learn what her policy positions are unless her supporters tell them via intelligent discussion?
The Media?
Facebook?
I know Palin’s positions on domestic energy production energy, biofuel subsidies and nuclear arms. The last was the reason I dropped this post.
Heck, I wish Palin would go out and say the real reason for American national ABM defenses was to keep the world safe for American gunboat diplomacy.
That you didn’t understand what Tom Holsinger was speaking about was Tom’s point.
I wondered if anyone would figure that out.
All presidential nominees need more votes to win than those provided by their supporters. The actual presidential campaigns, and the MSM’s own campaigns, generally do not convince enough more voters to provide the winners with the necessary votes. It generally requires a nominee’s own supporters in day today contact with undecided voters, and in both organized and disorganized campaign work, to provide their candidate with the ultimate margin of victory.
Sarah Palin cannot be elected president if her own supporters fail to discuss her policy positions. Why her supporters won’t do that doesn’t matter. It only matters that they don’t discuss her policy positions.
It does matter, though, if the reason is that her supporters are so utterly convinced of the rightness of her and their policies that they don’t need to discuss those with anyone. This is called arrogance.
Hubris begats Nemesis.
Sorry, Cjm, regarding Holsinger and PenGun: one of them is not like the other.