(Video) Interview w/ Sarah Palin at Eureka College & The Ronald Reagan Museum

Source:

NBC Central Illinois NewsCenter: Exclusive: Sarah Palin Visits Eureka College By Paul Strater

Palin Message From The Road: Visiting Reagan's Humble and Inspiring Beginnings

Ronald Reagan once said, “While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.” It’s because I believe in America's future that I take such inspiration from our past. We just visited Ronald Reagan’s childhood home in Dixon, Illinois. This beautiful small town along the Rock River is where Reagan learned the values that shaped him – the same values that have historically made America strong – thrift, hard work, fortitude, optimism, and courage in the face of adversity.

As a nation, we must reconnect with those values if we’re to truly restore all that is good and strong about the USA. Meeting the fine Americans in this small town on the river where Reagan saved 77 lives brought all this home for me.

Thanks to the wonderful volunteers who keep Reagan's memory alive. The restoration and tours of our beloved President's home are significant. Thank you, Dixon!

- Sarah Palin

P.S.: Allow me to share below the piece I wrote for USA Today’s special commemorative edition on President Reagan’s Centennial:

I had the privilege of coming of age during the era of Ronald Reagan. I like to think of him as America's lifeguard. As a teenager, Ronald Reagan saved 77 lives as a lifeguard on the Rock River, which ran through his hometown of Dixon, Ill. The day he was inaugurated in 1981, a local radio announcer famously declared, "The Rock River flows for you tonight, Mr. President."

The image of the lifeguard seems to represent what Reagan was to America and to the freedom-loving people of the world. He lifted our country up at a time when we were in the depths of economic, cultural and spiritual malaise. We were told that we must accept that the era of American greatness was over; but with his optimism and common sense, President Reagan held up a mirror to the American soul to remind us of our exceptionalism.

Reagan showed us that despite a deep recession, there could still be morning in America. He could speak to the economic troubles facing ordinary Americans because he understood what it was like to live through a Great Depression where families scraped to get by. And yet, he saw us recover from our Great Depression, and under his leadership we experienced the greatest peacetime economic boom in our history. He could speak to our fears that our years as a superpower were over, because he understood what it was like to see America at war and really fear that we might lose. And yet, he saw us win two world wars, and under his leadership we won the Cold War without firing a single shot. Reagan's belief in American greatness was rooted in historic fact, not blind optimism. He was a sunny optimist because he knew that our best days are yet to come.

Today, when we hear the worry in the voices of Americans wondering where the jobs will be for our children and grandchildren and wondering if the world will be safe and prosperous in the years to come, we should remember Reagan's faith in our inherent heroism and greatness. When we see people around the globe looking to the White House for leadership, we should remember Reagan's steel spine. He understood America's purpose in this world and what we need to do to secure liberty. As Margaret Thatcher said of him, "He sought to mend America's wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism." He sought those things and he succeeded.

This year, as we celebrate the centennial of Reagan's birth, let's remember the lifeguard from the Rock River who rescued us with his optimism and common sense. We need more lifeguards like him.

Source:

SarahPAC: Visiting Reagan's Humble and Inspiring Beginnings

Photo: Alex NBC News

The Palin Doctrine

Sarah Palin gave a speech in tribute to the Troops on May 2nd where she outlined 5 points of foreign policy which are being called the 5 points of Palin Doctrine. Here is the excerpt of the speech:

There’s a lesson here then for the effective use of force, as opposed to sending our troops on missions that are ill-defined. And it can be argued that our involvement elsewhere, say in Libya, is an example of a lack of clarity. See, these are deadly serious questions that we must ask ourselves when we contemplate sending Americans into harm’s way. Our men and women in uniform deserve a clear understanding of U.S. positions on such a crucial decision. I believe our criteria before we send our young men and women—America’s finest—into harm’s way should be spelled out clearly when it comes to the use of our military force. I can tell you what I believe that criteria should be in five points.

First, we should only commit our forces when clear and vital American interests are at stake. Period.

Second, if we have to fight, we fight to win. To do that, we use overwhelming force. We only send our troops into war with the objective to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible. We do not stretch out our military with open-ended and ill-defined missions. Nation building is a nice idea in theory, but it is not the main purpose of our armed forces. We use our military to win wars.

And third, we must have clearly defined goals and objectives before sending troops into harm’s way. If you can’t explain the mission to the American people clearly and concisely, then our sons and daughters should not be sent into battle. Period.

Fourth, American soldiers must never be put under foreign command. We will fight side by side with our allies, but American soldiers must remain under the care and the command of American officers.

Fifth, sending in our armed forces should be the last resort. We don’t go looking for dragons to slay. However, we will encourage the forces of freedom around the world who are sincerely fighting for the empowerment of the individual. When it makes sense, when it’s appropriate, we will provide them with material support to help them win their own freedom.

We are not indifferent to the cause of human rights or the desire for freedom. We are always on the side of both. But we can’t fight every war. We can’t undo every injustice around the world. But with strength and clarity in those five points, we’ll make for a safer, more prosperous, more peaceful world because as the U.S. leads by example, as we support freedom across the globe, we’re going to prove that free and healthy countries don’t wage war on other free and healthy countries. The stronger we are, the stronger and more peaceful the world will be under our example.

American Thinker: The Left Sees History's Fist Coming. Again. The Left Sees Gov Palin

The always great American Thinker wrote a superb piece ‘The Left Sees History's Fist Coming. Again.’ By James Lewis.  I posted the passages with Governor Palin mentioned directly.  I would highly recommend reading the entire piece and adding The American Thinker to your list of websites for daily news:

Want to know why the Democrats in Congress are mumbling "f*** the president"?  Want to know why the Cancun mobsters are demanding world power for yesterday's climate fascism? […]

But the biggest threat the left sees is Governor Sarah Palin.  And it's not just the American left -- the Euro-lefties hate Governor Palin in the same way they still go foaming at the mouth over Maggie Thatcher.  The U.N. corruptocrats fear her already.  Right now, the worldwide left is feeling a lot more scared than we think.

Here's why:

(a) Palin is Reaganesque beyond any politician we have seen in two decades.  When the Soviet Empire was defeated, it was by three Western conviction leaders: Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and John Paul II.

(b) Palin is charismatic far beyond Obama's sputtering appeal.  You can tell Obama's not happy whenever he makes that prune face, like he's biting into a lemon.  Obama looks sour whenever he is not being cheered and adored by the masses.  He needs that adulation to prop up his fragile ego.  Obama can't hide his sour face when things turn bad. […]

(c) Sarah Palin is a Reagan-style constitutionalist.  The hard left understands that, even though they pretend not to.  They know perfectly well who they are and what they are.  The hard left consists of wannabe totalitarians.  You can tell by the fear they show at the prospect of losing power.  […]

Remember also that Reagan, John Paul, and Maggie Thatcher were hit by assassination attempts.  Reagan and John Paul were badly wounded and lived with the pain for the rest of their lives.  Thatcher had a lucky escape.  John Paul's assassination plot was traced directly to the KGB; Reagan's and Thatcher's would-be assassins were also radical leftists.........

Source: 

The American Thinker The left sees history's fist coming. Again. By James Lewis

Sarah Palin Tweet: Obama's Fantasy World Please Read Obama's Next Act

In the political marketplace, there's now a run on Obama shares. The left is disappointed with the president. Independents are abandoning him in droves. And the right is already dancing on his political grave, salivating about November when, his own press secretary admitted Sunday, Democrats might lose the House.

I have a warning for Republicans: Don't underestimate Barack Obama.

Consider what he has already achieved. Obamacare alone makes his presidency historic. It has irrevocably changed one-sixth of the economy, put the country inexorably on the road to national health care and, as acknowledged by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus but few others, begun one of the most massive wealth redistributions in U.S. history.

Second, there is major financial reform, which passed Congress on Thursday. Economists argue whether it will prevent meltdowns and bailouts as promised. But there is no argument that it will give the government unprecedented power in the financial marketplace. Its 2,300 pages will create at least 243 new regulations that will affect not only, as many assume, the big banks but just about everyone, including, as noted in one summary (the Wall Street Journal), "storefront check cashiers, city governments, small manufacturers, home buyers and credit bureaus."

Third is the near $1 trillion stimulus, the largest spending bill in U.S. history. And that's not even counting nationalizing the student loan program, regulating carbon emissions by Environmental Protection Agency fiat, and still-fitful attempts to pass cap-and-trade through Congress.

But Obama's most far-reaching accomplishment is his structural alteration of the U.S. budget. The stimulus, the vast expansion of domestic spending, the creation of ruinous deficits as far as the eye can see are not easily reversed. […]

The net effect of 18 months of Obamaism will be to undo much of Reaganism. Both presidencies were highly ideological, grandly ambitious and often underappreciated by their own side. In his early years, Reagan was bitterly attacked from his right. (Typical Washington Post headline: "For Reagan and the New Right, the Honeymoon Is Over" -- and that was six months into his presidency!) Obama is attacked from his left for insufficient zeal on gay rights, immigration reform, closing Guantanamo -- the list is long. The critics don't understand the big picture. Obama's transformational agenda is a play in two acts.

Source:

Sarah Palin Twitter: We'll smother under Obama's fantasy world if his agenda to "fundamentally transform America" goes forth. Please read: Obama’s Next Act 

Washington Post: Obama’s Next Act by Charles Krauthammer

(Video) Sarah Palin: 23 years ago today, Reagan At Brandenburg Gate, Wall Torn Down 2 Years Later

Twenty-three years ago today, Ronald Reagan delivered this famous address at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. Two years later, the Wall he insisted be torn down, came down.

“Berlin Wall Speech - President Reagan’s Address at The Brandenburg Gate - 6/12/87

President Reagan's remarks on East-West relations at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987. For more information on the ongoing works of President Reagan's Foundation, visit us at http://www.reaganfoundation.org/

New York Post: Truman, Ike, Reagan: Next Up, Sarah Palin!

Ralph Peters, of The New York Post, wrote two insightful pieces:

Truman, Ike, Reagan: Next Up, Sarah Palin!

THE ISSUE: Whether presidential candidates today have character, as their predecessors did.

In looking for a president with the character of Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan, Ralph Peters asks, "Will we ever again have a president who didn't go to an Ivy League school, who knows what it's like to struggle -- as so many Americans struggle every day -- and who's tasted defeat, but got back in the ring with his dukes up?" ("Why Our 'Post-Modern Presidents' Fail,").

The answer is "yes." Her name is Sarah Palin.

Why our 'post-modern presidents' fail:

Since the end of World War II, our country has had three great presidents: Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan.  Their politics varied, but these giants stand in sharp contrast to our last three presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and now Barack Obama. The first two presided over gravely flawed presidencies; the third is on his way to outright failure. What makes these two presidential trios so different? A recent visit to the Truman Museum and Library in Independence, Mo., made me ask what made those great presidents great. The answer is character. The three greats were men of great character; the three recents, men of great ambition — driven, in their different ways, by a fateful sense of entitlement.

And you don’t build character by punching your ticket at today’s Ivy-League universities, then dashing straight into politics. The people I admire most in life aren’t the golden boys (or girls), but those who’ve come up the hard way. Frankly, failure builds character — in those who have the gumption to get back up on their feet and fight to succeed. Until the Reagan years, it was still possible to become president without elite credentials. Harry Truman had only a high-school diploma. Reagan graduated from the sort of college today’s Washington insiders mock. Eisenhower was a Military Academy grad — back when West Point was still an engineering school.

Most important, each man tasted bitter disappointments along the way. Young Harry Truman had to return from Kansas City to work 16-hour days on his family’s troubled farm. After combat service in the First World War, he co-owned a men’s store — only to face bankruptcy in the postwar recession. Barely averting that bankruptcy, he paid each debt he owed over the years.

Eisenhower thought his career was finished when he failed to get a combat command during World War I. His peers gained medals while he trained troops Stateside. Years later, he was little more than a football coach in uniform. But he never gave up — and worked relentlessly at his profession.  Ronald Reagan knew what it felt like to be written off, to be regarded as a second-rater. Descending through B-movies to minor television jobs, he seemed finished. He wasn’t. Reagan remade himself to serve the country he loved. And the world’s better and safer for it.  Each of these men — all from rural or small-town backgrounds — knew hardship, failure and what it was like to sweat for a living. Not one of them would stand a chance of being elected president today. [...]

Will we ever again have a president who didn’t go to an Ivy League school, who knows what it’s like to struggle — as so many Americans struggle every day — and who’s tasted defeat, but got back in the ring with his dukes up? Wouldn’t it be a fine thing to have another president whose first serious taste of failure didn’t come in the Oval Office? We don’t need presidents with exclusive academic credentials. We need presidents who know what it’s like to work for a living. We need presidents who understand average Americans. We need presidents for whom the White House isn’t just the ultimate résumé entry.

Original Posts:

Why Our 'Post-Modern Presidents' Fail

Truman, Ike, Reagan: Next Up, Sarah Palin!

Sarah Palin Reincarnated As Ronald Reagan ("Welcome back Dad ..." Michael Reagan, Comparison Photos)

Sarah Palin: Reagan Never Stopped Regarding The Berlin Wall As An Affront To Freedom

Twenty years ago, the ultimate symbol of the division between freedom and tyranny was torn down. The Berlin Wall was constructed for one purpose: to prevent the escape of East Germans to the freedom of the West. The Wall’s cold, gray façade was a stark reminder of the economic and political way of life across the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. 

Ronald Reagan never stopped regarding the Berlin Wall as an affront to human freedom. When so many other American leaders and opinion makers had come to accept its presence as inevitable and permanent, Reagan still hammered away at the Wall’s very premise in human tyranny, until finally the Wall itself was hammered down. Its downfall wasn’t the work of Reagan alone. Our president’s actions were joined with the brave acts of many individuals who stood firm and united in facing the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall came down because millions of people behind the Iron Curtain refused to accept the fate of enslavement and their supporters in the West refused to accept that the “captive nations” would remain captive forever. 

Though that long, tragic episode in human history had come to a close finally with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, it wasn’t the “end of history” or the end of conflict as some had hoped. New conflicts confront us today throughout the world which call for courage and resolve and dedication to freedom. The new democracies and market economies that have emerged in Central and Eastern Europe still require our friendship and alliances as they continue to seek security, prosperity, and self-determination. But as we reflect on present and future challenges, let’s take time to celebrate the anniversary of this awesome victory for freedom. The downfall of that cold, gray concrete Wall should be a lesson to us in hope. Nothing is inevitable. Tyranny is no match for the hope and resolve of those who work and fight for freedom. 

Preliminary Report: Sarah Palin to speak at College of the Ozarks

This is a very very Preliminary Report: Sarah Palin to speak at College of the Ozarks

It has been reported Governor Sarah Palin will speak on patriotism, citizenship and civic engagement at College of the Ozarks at 7 p.m. Dec. 2 in the Keeter Gymnasium, a college news release said.  We should all wait for confirmation from Governor Palin's people.

The prelude to the Leonard B. and Edith Gittinger Community Convocation featuring Palin will begin at 6:30 p.m.

The convocation is free and open to the public, but tickets are required.

Those seeking tickets may call 690-2240. Tickets are limited, and they will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

“Sarah Palin is a great example of an individual who became involved in her small town community and whose efforts and success eventually placed her in the national spotlight,” said Sue Head, executive director of The Keeter Center for Character Education. “We are looking forward to hosting her at the college.”

Reported From:

News-Leader.com

Sarah Palin: Doctors Will be 'Drafted' Under Public Option

Governor  Palin posted this article on her Facebook page: Doctors Will be 'Drafted' Under Public Option:

A respected medical specialist has carefully reviewed the healthcare reform bill in the U.S. House, and he declares that it would amount to a virtual "draft" of doctors into the government's "public option" health insurance program.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, a renowned neurosurgeon, book author and editor of the Blaylock Wellness Report published by Newsmax, also warns that "death panels" could lead to the rationing of medical care to the elderly and a "violation of the Hippocratic Oath."

In an exclusive Newsmax interview, Dr. Blaylock points to other ominous provisions in the bill, HR 3200, which he says would:

Severely discourage the readmission of patients to a hospital after they have been treated, and punish doctors and hospitals if they do readmit them.  Require medical practitioners to document their dealings to the extent that they won't have enough time to adequately treat their patients. Jeopardize the confidentiality of patients' medical records, including psychiatric reports.

The Senate's version of healthcare reform is slated to be voted on by the Finance Committee on Tuesday. But the House bill has already been approved by several committees and is sure to play a major role in any conference by the House and Senate to reconcile the bills those bodies pass.

Newsmax.TV's Ashley Martella noted that under the House bill, physicians would be drafted into the public option, a provision Dr. Blaylock has earlier called "conscription."

This bill "is virtually a draft because it says all physicians are automatically in the public option unless they opt out, and the opt out mechanism will be later determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services," Dr. Blaylock said.

"Well, we don't know how difficult it will be for physicians to opt out. Will there be penalties, fines, taxes, etc.? Because that's all left up to the Secretary."

He added on that score: "One of the things that concerns the legal minds of this country is that any bill that contains arbitrary language can be interpreted after it's passed any way they want to. And in this bill, virtually every page gives arbitrary powers to the Secretary of Health and Human Services."

Blaylock warned that under the House bill, hospital readmissions will be very restricted.

"One of the things they targeted to save money was to punish hospitals and physicians if they readmit a patient within a month of them being treated in an emergency room," he said.

"The effect of that is going to be that doctors are not going to want to treat these patients, hospitals are not going to want to treat these patients. It's going to cost hospitals a considerable amount of money as well as the physicians in fines if a patient comes back readmitted.

"Now the people who are going to be readmitted are people with chronic illnesses, the elderly, the disabled. Those are the people who are going to have complications occur within that month period. And why should hospitals and physicians be punished for that?

"They're not going to want to treat these patients. They're going to want to refer them quickly to another facility. And that's one of the biggest problems we have, patients being bounced around."

Martella asked about a controversial provision in the bill for so-called end of life counseling, which critics have charged would set up "death panels."

"This caused a lot of controversy, on so-called death panels and whether this advanced healthcare planning was actually required," Dr. Blaylock said.

"But it says very specifically on pages 424 through 428 that these sessions will be part of the normal medical practice. Therefore it's not voluntary.

"So every patient of a certain age will have to undergo this counseling. And further, in really frightening language, this bill [stipulates] that the people doing the counseling will be specially trained and approved by the federal government. They'll supply films, brochures, pamphlets — the data the patients are being exposed to.

"If you look at a lot of this literature now, what it says is that these patients will be encouraged to end their life early rather than take extraordinary medical treatments.

"For instance, if you're 65, 70 years old and you have congestive heart failure, in their view you really should make the decision that you don't want any further treatment, that it would be best for you and your family.

"And if you couch it that way you can convince a lot of patients through guilt that they really shouldn't be spending the money that it's going to cost their family as well as the country at large. So this is a very dangerous precedent. This is a violation of the Hippocratic Oath...

Full Article At:

Doctors Will be 'Drafted' Under Public Option

Rejected Covers Of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue: An American Life

No Cover, Not Even Finished But Sarah Palin Is A Phenomenon

Michael van der Galien, of Poligazette.com, had a nice article: Sarah Palin: Phenomenon

It’s almost beyond belief but Sarah Palin’s book “Going Rogue” is already the best selling book on both Amazon and Barnes & Nobles. This even though it isn’t finished yet.

Un-be-lie-va-ble.

Forty-eight days before the release and she’s already topped Dan Brown’s latest conspiracy-theory casserole at both top retailers. To put that in perspective, note that the book doesn’t even have a cover yet. So much for the Page Six hit piece about demand for her being slack.

Politico – which is no friend of Palin (this the organization that broke the $150.000 wardrobe scandal last year - adds that these pre-order sales are “unprecedented.” A publishing industry source said they “cannot remember a non-fiction book taking off like this in the pre-order market. It became number one only a couple of hours after nothing more than a date announcement. It is truly unprecedented.”

She could not possibly have hoped for a better start of a presidential campaign. And let’s face it, chances are she’ll run for president. She should. There’s not one Republican out there who is more popular among the grassroots. The only question is whether she’ll attempt to succeed Obama in 2012 or 2016.

Like it or not, this woman truly is a phenomenon.

Full Article At:

Sarah Palin: Phenomenon

Sarah Palin Teaching The US Catholic Church A Thing or Two

Frank Walker, of Pewsitter.com, wrote a great piece: Palin’s New Tack and the Catholic Bishops’ Old Game.  I posted parts of the article:  

Sarah Palin is starting to slowly re-appear on the world scene. Now that she is free of the hopeless McCain campaign and no longer tied up in Alaska, she’s presenting a clear ideology with a potent delivery.  It's a pure antidote to the current American pathology. Many U.S. Catholic leaders, so key to the liberal government’s ascendance, should try to hear what Sarah is ready to teach the country.

Sarah Palin's Determined Message
Sarah Palin is an amazing and interesting politician, but even the boldest conservative writers have asked that she take time off and educate herself. Voices on the right are hopeful and intrigued by her, but they would consider it foolish to suppose she's a viable leader. Republican elites think Palin is the kind of embarrassment that stalks the party and must be handled. The contempt and condescension from the left never seem to erase their horror that she might represent an American majority.

[...]

The Right's disconnect with Sarah Palin comes from entrenched expectations. Political talkers can be steeped in the past. They know each player and strategy. They track every measure. But there is something fundamental and new about Palin that is hard for professionals to detect. She is not manly and that is rare for a powerful woman today. There is no reason why this must be the case, nevertheless Sarah brings her whole self to politics. She won't shut a part away as if it were not good enough. Sometimes she is emotional, even vulnerable, and in the face of something shockingly wrong, stunned; but Palin is rarely daunted, and she's canny. Her purpose on the world scene grows from a compassionate heart. The same devotion that rescued and protected her baby is the force in her leadership.

Today Sarah has re-positioned. Always conscious of the American people and fixed on reaching them directly, Palin is sending her messages in code and short wave, under the radar of the state media machine. As James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles have just demonstrated, this is the only effective way. Their ACORN trojan horse tells the story. America is now an underground movement again.

Speaking in Hong Kong September 23rd Palin called her ideas, "common sense conservatism." To many this may just sound like more populist material, but it's different from the compassionate conservatism of George W. Bush, which generally meant liberalism. Here it suggests Thomas Paine's straightforward calls to action and it builds on her natural style. Before the closed group of business and political people she said:

• "I believe in striving for the ideal, but in realistic confines of human nature."

• "China rightfully makes a lot of people nervous."

• "It's just common sense that government attempts to solve problems like health care will just create new problems."

On having the Fed oversee "systemic risk" in the financial system:

• "The words fox and henhouse come to mind."

How Catholic Church Leaders Can Learn From Palin's "Common Sense."
The honesty and simple wisdom of Sarah Palin is rejuvenating. Many who lead the Catholic Church will hopefully take notice. Today there are bishops worldwide who will go to almost any lengths in the name of social justice. Often when they do, they reveal their allegiances and their worldliness. This week the social justice arm of the USCCB, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, is under intense light again for its openly political, anti-Catholic, and corrupt beneficiaries. In Vienna Cardinal Schoenborn recently tried to squelch a pro-life rally and then forbad clergy to participate. Notre Dame, the pre-eminent American Catholic University, continues to prosecute eighty-eight pro-life demonstrators, including Norma McCorvey, following the Obama honors last spring. In August Boston's O'Malley scandalized the world with a funeral for anti-life pariah Ted Kennedy, and this past week Scotland's Cardinal O'Brien railed in the press about global catastrophes, millions of refugees, and the poor before a climate meeting at the UN.

America's most powerful Catholic hierarchy are so eager to socialize our medicine, that they act as though it were possible to protect the lives of the sick, elderly, and unborn by simply not mentioning them in a massive healthcare takeover bill. In calculated parsings they've called on Catholics to urge Congress to pass a reform now (leaving out explicit abortion funds and references to euthanasia). Some bishops have gone so far as to equate a lack of what is called universal coverage with the evils of abortion.

From their holy offices many bishops are keen to promote uncontrolled immigration, an end to capital punishment for brutal killers, subsidized housing, and free healthcare even at the expense of the Catholic conscience. When we hear bishops condemn abortion today, we must ask ourselves if his Excellency has a sincere interest in what he is saying based upon his actions, or whether he is just using genocide to rally the faithful toward another deadly statist cause.

In her Asian speech Sarah Palin mentioned government re-distribution and its flaws. Considering all the compromises bishops have been making in the name of social justice, perhaps Mrs. Palin in her common sense way could teach from the lives of Christ and St. Mary Magdalene. It was not a small, simple thing for Magdalene to be changed by Jesus. She showed her gratitude with a priceless jar of perfume at the house of the Pharisee. Even with this extravagance, her loving affection, and the entirely humble spectacle the honor and appreciation could never repay. Regardless, the apostle Judas, humiliated by the scene and envious of the "misused" money, took what he saw as a weak moment to publicly challenge, "Why was not this ointment sold and given to the poor?"

[...]

Speaking critically of the current U.S. political climate, Sarah Palin has said, "There is no justice in taking from one person and giving it to another." Some of our bishops might learn a thing or two from Palin. It sounds like she grasps the scriptural story of Mary Magdalene, Jesus, and Judas. I wonder whether some of our bishops do...

Full Article At:

Palin’s New Tack and the Catholic Bishops’ Old Game

How Sarah Palin Made Me a Fan

A very nice piece was posted by Race 4 2008 about how the author and people are realizing the media played a fast one on us about Sarah Palin.  Obama was a complete fabricated fantasy presented to us by the media and so was The Governor.  She is actually the person we new before McCain introduced her which was a popular and good Governor.  In my view, she says what she means and means what she says, no games or ulterior motives.  Her latest description of Obama is amazingly simple and insightful: “Obama is making the poor poorer.”

How Sarah Palin Made Me a Fan

Again I come to you with an article about Sarah Palin. My turnaround regarding the former governor is perhaps as perplexing to you as it is to me. It is certainly so that the paradigm shift in the national dialogue and the sudden urgency that has arisen in the conservative base about the proper role of government has produced something of a change in what I perceive as a proper strategy. It has forced me to reassess what the practical should and could be — and the question of ends and means. But it is more than this, I think. It was certainly Palin’s Hong Kong speech that served as the catalyst for my soul-searching, but it is not that speech alone that has swayed my opinion. Upon evaluating her actions in the calendar year of 2009, I have come to the conclusion that I was honestly wrong about certain aspects of Palin.

When Sarah Palin resigned as governor, John Fund of the Wall Street Journal contended that her resignation had to do with how effective she could really be as governor while dealing with a barrage of frivolous ethics complaints. She essentially, in Fund’s words, was being paid to show up to work to defend herself. The state of Alaska was being drained of its time, money, and energy, and Palin determined that the overall costs of staying to fight outweighed the benefits of simply handing over the reins to now-Governor Parnell. For this, she was maligned as a quitter: if you’re a real fighter, then why don’t you stay around and, you know, fight? And the money wasn’t much, after all, in the grand scheme of things.

Doctor Zero at Hot Air provides the rebuttal that planted the seed within me to start warming up to Palin:

I don’t blame her for refusing to take any more personal or financial pounding from political operatives using Alaska’s odd government ethics system as a weapon. Some have said she was foolish to cite the cost to Alaskan taxpayers as a reason for her resignation, since it was a paltry two million dollars. To me, that doesn’t sound like a criticism – it’s a campaign slogan. Sarah Palin: She Still Thinks A Million Bucks Is A Lot of Money. If she runs for president in 2012, it will be against an incumbent who thinks a billion dollars of graft or waste is a rounding error in one of his big-government schemes. A lot of people will like the idea of voting for someone who doesn’t use rolls of taxpayer dollars to wipe the ink off their hands after signing legislation.

Indeed. Moreover, her newfound status as a national lightning rod made her a chief target for Alaska Democrats who wanted to earn a killing by taking her down. The maverick politician who once boasted a 90% approval rating was no more — and she could never come back in such an atmosphere. I have no reason to believe that Palin desired to govern as anything other than a pragmatic center-right Republican, and it’s rather, well, refreshing, in hindsight, to realize that there is actually a politician out there who would rather just get out of a system in which she can’t do anything productive.

Only a knave or a fool would think that she didn’t realize she’d be branded as a quitter. And yet, she decided that it wasn’t worth her blessed, almighty title to be ineffective. She stated in her resignation address that she could be more effective elsewhere: “Only dead fish go with the flow.”

She seems to have been vindicated. Her decision to leave certainly wasn’t nonsensical, in hindsight: she’s had a lot more of an impact on the national debate from behind her computer chair than she would have from the governor’s mansion. Just like she had more of an impact by resigning from the Oil and Gas Commission than by staying on it, the tool of resignation once again came in handy. From Facebook to Hong Kong, Palin’s words have echoed with force matched only by the president himself.

When Sarah Palin contends in her Hong Kong speech that we don’t want fixes, but rather freedom, it sends my classically liberal heart a-flutter. When she has the audacity to go after the third rail that is the Federal Reserve, my eyebrow raises, and not in a bad way. When she simultaneously condemns protectionism and the human rights record of China, I can’t help but clap my hands. Yeah, yeah, she had a speechwriter. Just like Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Mr. Intellectual himself, President Obama. Is Sarah necessarily, strictly speaking, as intelligent as any of the three? Probably not. But what’s her ideology like? It seems to be a lot more like Barry Goldwater’s than Richard Nixon’s. If it turns out that we can’t beat Barack Obama, I’d rather send a message with Sarah Palin than with Mitt Romney.

Now, I’m not turning into John Ziegler or Kristofer Lorelli, here, but my opinion of Sarah Palin is now officially positive. Freed of the McCain campaign’s fumbling and often bizarre calculations, Sarah, I believe, can be set loose to do what she really wants to do. I eagerly await her next speech and her upcoming book. If she can sway me, she can sway others. Go get ‘em, Sarah!

Full Article At:

How Sarah Palin Made Me a Fan

The author Alex Knepper can be contacted at apkkib@aol.com