Noonan to Palin: Reagan was a Great Man and You are a Nincompoop

Sarah Palin at a recent 2010 midterm election campaign event.

Conservative columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan doesn’t like people demeaning the Gipper’s legacy, not even Sarah Palin, and not even if she’s only talking about the former president’s Hollywood career.

She writes in her latest column of a recent incident in which Sarah Palin attempted to explain away a Karl Rove criticism over her “reality show” by drawing parallels to former president Ronald Reagan’s silver screen career, including his roles in movies such as “Bedtime for Bonzo, bozo or something”:

… “Conservatives talked a lot about Ronald Reagan this year, but they have to take him more to heart, because his example here is a guide. All this seemed lost last week on Sarah Palin, who called him, on Fox, “an actor.” She was defending her form of political celebrity—reality show, “Dancing With the Stars,” etc. This is how she did it: “Wasn’t Ronald Reagan an actor? Wasn’t he in ‘Bedtime for Bonzo,’ Bozo, something? Ronald Reagan was an actor.”

Excuse me, but this was ignorant even for Mrs. Palin. Reagan people quietly flipped their lids, but I’ll voice their consternation to make a larger point. Ronald Reagan was an artist who willed himself into leadership as president of a major American labor union (Screen Actors Guild, seven terms, 1947-59.) He led that union successfully through major upheavals (the Hollywood communist wars, labor-management struggles); discovered and honed his ability to speak persuasively by talking to workers on the line at General Electric for eight years; was elected to and completed two full terms as governor of California; challenged and almost unseated an incumbent president of his own party; and went on to popularize modern conservative political philosophy without the help of a conservative infrastructure. Then he was elected president.

The point is not “He was a great man and you are a nincompoop,” though that is true. The point is that Reagan’s career is a guide, not only for the tea party but for all in politics. He brought his fully mature, fully seasoned self into politics with him. He wasn’t in search of a life when he ran for office, and he wasn’t in search of fame; he’d already lived a life, he was already well known, he’d accomplished things in the world.

Here is an old tradition badly in need of return: You have to earn your way into politics. You should go have a life, build a string of accomplishments, then enter public service. And you need actual talent: You have to be able to bring people in and along. You can’t just bully them, you can’t just assert and taunt, you have to be able to persuade.

Americans don’t want, as their representatives, people who seem empty or crazy. They’ll vote no on that.

It’s not just the message, it’s the messenger.”

Why the Washington Post Was Right to Publish Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin‘s column today in the Washington Post calling for President Obama to boycott the Copenhagen summit is pure malarkey. Which is why the Post was absolutely right to print it.

Those who are claiming that the column was factually inaccurate miss the point. Since when has anything that Palin ever said been accurate? It’s like accusing Sarah Silverman of failing to be serious or Hugh Hefner of being promiscuous.

Palin isn’t interested in accuracy, but causing a stir and, above all, positioning herself as a serious candidate for the GOP’s nomination in 2012, which keeps moving to the right, partly in response to Palin and partly because Palin is responding to it. So far, she’s done an excellent job of trying to establish herself as a major voice in the party. Now she needs to tackle policy, and she’s doing it.

Her column epitomizes conservative conspiracy thinking and ventilates her views rather deftly (does anyone think that Palin actually wrote it?). It accuses a cabal of radical scientists of pushing alarmism about global warming. To be sure, Palin, in order to give her views a veneer of sobriety, concedes that warming is actually taking place, just that it can’t be pinned on humans. How come conservatives, who are always stressing individual moral responsibility, suddenly abdicate it when it comes to global warming?

Sarah Palin’s Obama Obsession

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin ranting to the crowds during her speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Today [Saturday] marks the one-year anniversary of John McCain’s introduction of Sarah Palin to the international stage, in Dayton, Ohio, a political battleground that the Republicans desperately needed for another shot at the White House. They lost Ohio big (by more than 300,000 votes), and they lost the election even bigger–mostly thanks to Palin’s erratic, if not downright bizarre, performance as the vice-presidential nominee.

In many ways, it seems longer than a year. Much longer. Palin went back to Alaska, where her life turned into a nasty soap opera. There were revelations from McCain’s staff about her behavior on the campaign trail; she was hit with a myriad of ethics charges (some of which, contrary to Palin’s claims otherwise, stuck); she bailed on her relationship with the state’s legislators and played politics with the federal stimulus plan; she got into a dog fight with Levi Johnston; she began a series of odd Twitterings, replete with a six-part ramble on Mommy Bear; she resigned amid chaos and deception, only to return as a diva on Facebook.

And through it all she has been obsessed with Barack Obama.

Open Letter to Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin

It has now been a little over a week since your resignation as governor of Alaska, and thankfully you haven’t made many recent headlines. It seems America has been too busy discussing race relations, health care, and the economy to notice you. How refreshing!

As a 17-year-old American who has to live in this country for probably the next 80-90 years, I formally request that you pack your bags and swim across to Russia. After all, it must be close enough if you can see it from your house. I have never seen, nor have I ever heard of, a politician less qualified and less engaged than you are, and I want you to leave politics for good before you start giving the impression to other politicians that somehow these deficiencies are acceptable.

It’s not so much that you and I see two different Americas, or that we just have different perceptions of the same core American ideals. It’s that you fundamentally misunderstand America’s ideals. Every time you talk about freedom, or the future, or “the wisdom of the people,” I only have one question: what the hell are you trying to say?

Palin Speaks at NRA Event — Receives a Bunch of Awards

Sarah Palin

Not enough Sarah Palin news for you over the weekend? Well, here’s another…

The former governor of Alaska spoke at a National Rifle Association dinner on Saturday night in Anchorage. Few details are available about the speech itself, except the topic was on the Second Amendment — something she, presumably, remains in favor of as the NRA branded her remarks “stirring.”

NRA president Ronald Schmeits and executive vice president Wayne LaPierre joined Palin and husband Todd at the dinner, where she reportedly received numerous awards including an NRA Benefactor Life Membership and a Gold Medal Award of Merit for the Promotion of Gun Collecting.

It’s not the first time Palin has received commendation from the NRA. You’ll recall that a few months ago she was presented a special M4-like assault rifle. The custom-made, all-white AR-15 dubbed the “Alaskan Hunter” was presented to Palin in May.

Less than a month ago, Palin signed a guns rights bill to much fanfare in Fairbanks where she appeared on the “Firearms Friday” radio talk show. Rocker Ted Nugent dialed in and “told Palin from his home in Michigan that he was firing up the grill to cook up some Alaska black bear backstrap in her honor.”

“Awesome,” she replied.

Are Sarah and Todd Palin Getting A Divorce?

Sarah and Todd Palin were all smiles during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Reports are coming in that former Alaska Governess and failed Vice-Presidental candidate Sarah Palin and husband Todd are getting a divorce. Is it true? And if it is, was this why Palin resigned from office? Updated: Palin’s camp denies it.

Blog Alaska Report, who’s reporting on this, asserts the rumor as truth, in addition to noting that Sarah Palin has purchased land in Montana, and possibly plans to move her family there.

Palin’s Siren Song

In denouncing Hollywood and Washington insiders in her farewell speech, she shows that the culture wars are still alive, at least for some.

Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, congratulate incoming Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell.

Sarah Palin’s valedictory address as governor of Alaska will (we hope) be little noted nor long remembered. But its denunciation of Hollywood and Washington insiders reflects a perennial obsession by some conservatives that mainstream politicians are too eager to indulge. As Republicans regroup after the disaster of 2008, they would be wise to resist this shrill siren song.

MoveOn.org Releases Ad About Clean Energy Jobs Featuring Sarah Palin (VIDEO)

MoveOn.org has a new television ad featuring the now former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin that focuses on the Republican Party’s opposition to green jobs. The 30-second spot, entitled “New Face,” comes not long after Palin attacked Obama’s energy bill in an Op-ed in the Washington Post.

The Huffington Post

The Real Story Behind Palin’s Bombshell

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin campaigned for Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss last year.

Anyone who is in any way surprised by Sarah Palin’s announcement today that she will not be seeking re-election, and, even more significantly, is stepping down as Governor of Alaska, has not been paying close attention. The signs have been everywhere.

Palin has absolutely zero interest in running the State of Alaska. She steadfastly refused to live in Juneau after her first year there, had the gall to charge the state for residing at her home in Wasilla 600 miles away, and she basically mailed in her performance as the state’s top administrator during Alaska’s most recent legislative session. She has alienated virtually all the key legislators in her own party — that’s right, Republicans — and had failed to move any key legislation forward since her return to Alaska from the national campaign trail last November.

In fact, her bizarre appointment for Attorney General, Wayne Anthony Ross, was rejected nearly unanimously by the state legislature — a first in Alaskan history. Even in respect to energy policy, her supposed bailiwick, she has been categorically ineffective. When I asked those in-the-know what role Palin had played in putting together the recent pipeline deal between TransCanada and Exxon, their response was simple: “None.”

None. That about sums up Palin’s accomplishments as Governor of the Last Frontier.

Poll: Palin GOP Favorite in 2012 – But Pollster Says Poll has No Value

A new CNN poll shows Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be the favorite for the Republican nomination in 2012. The pollster goes on to say the poll has no predictive value.

Well it looks like a Palin presidency is guaranteed. And with the Conservative Political Action Conference heating up in Washington, DC, this is sure to cause great excitement.

A new CNN poll looking at the 2012 presidential election is out (which makes sense because President Obama only has 47 months to go in this term).

Smooth sailing

The results show Sarah Palin is the favorite to receive the GOP presidential nomination. So all she’s got to do now is remain popular this year, and in 2010, and in 2011, and in 2012, raise a ton of money, win a bunch of primaries, and then get nominated.

You can’t dispute polls. Pollsters have proven there is no better industry to be in when it comes to economic catastrophes. They never get laid off.

Just last week, there was one that had President Obama beating Jesus in a “who’s your favorite hero” poll. (Not lying, here’s that story).