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Lance Fairchok

Sarah Palin & the Philistines
September 2, 2008

"If anything were to happen to a President McCain, the destiny of the free world would be placed in the hands of a woman who until the day before Friday was a small-town mayor.” – David Frum, National Post, 29 August 2008

Pundits are pontificating and as usual, they are focusing on Governor Palin’s origins while ignoring her accomplishments, making it all the easier to demean her, openly and outrageously on places like the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post and more subtly in the mainstream press. Even on conservative venues, some of the criticism sounds like it comes from the Obama campaign. The hubris of the chattering class makes it hard to embrace the heartland and even harder to remember that it is the people who are supposed to run this country.

This "small town mayor” is in fact the governor of a very large state with international borders and the largest oil reserves in the nation. Alaska is center stage for the battle between enviro-fanatics and the reasonable use of resources. She has innate ability, not merely political grooming. Her humble origins are troubling for cynical commentators, especially because she is successful. The press wants political caricatures, not elected officials who are honest and principled. Sarah walks the walk and talks the talk, all without handlers and image-makers, or the party operatives that specialize in hiding unfortunate votes, speeches, financial records and relationships. Sarah Palin is what our middle-class democracy is supposed to be about, by the people, for the people, not by the elites for the elites.

"But question: If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?” – David Frum, NRO, 29 August 2008

The arrogance of that question is stunning on a fundamental level. We do not have a presidential job application, for if we did when it comes to integrity and ethical reform Palin is eminently more qualified than Obama or Biden. Is it not the American dream that all citizens can aspire to great things, even to the highest office in the land? All it takes is hard work and dedication. Have not some of our greatest leaders come from humble origins and meager means?

Sarah Palin has rooted out corruption in her own party, while Obama enables it in his. His success sprang from the corrupt politics of Chicago. Palin worked hard, started at the grass roots, took a principled stand on the issues and followed it with action. Obama filled the political squares just long enough to get into the game. His speeches are filled with endless promises, his positions are constantly shifting, reacting, adapting, spinningly nuanced. Palin’s record may be short, but she has one. Obama’s is a fabrication that does not survive honest scrutiny.

Sarah scares the hell out of the progressive left, she is the real deal and Americans will sense it. There are no contradictions to obscure. Palin has no connection with terrorists, criminal financiers, anti-Americans or racist churches. She is proud of her country, not ashamed of it. She does not subscribe to moral relativism, in her life or in government. She would be a breath of fresh air in Washington, an agent of real change, one of action, not platitudes. She is the proverbial David facing the Goliath of entrenched party politics. For that reason alone, there are those in both parties who will try to destroy her.

The socialist left is scrambling to find dirt, and of course, where there is no dirt, they will make it up. The Obama-intoxicated press is spinning her political reforms in Alaska as betrayals of her political patrons, ridiculing her motherhood, and making an issue of her inexperience, which by the way, is 18 months more executive experience than either Barack or Biden. They will determine that her greatest vulnerability is her "American-ness,” her can-do attitude, and of course her honesty and openness. They will paint her as naive, a rube, a patsy, and a cynical political decision by John McCain. The press and the cocktail party elites already sniff disdain into their faddish drinks, describing her as a "backwoods peasant,” a "baby factory” and other less flattering phrases.