I Have Been to the Shining City on a Hill

I have been to the shining city on a hill. Many say that getting back there is a long difficult path with no guarantee of reaching the destination. When Republicans lost their way and Americans lost touch with history, the city went into decay. We were exiled, wandering in the desert until we came upon a vast and dense forest - the dark forest that we're in now. Yet there is hope again that we can get to that city and bring our youth to a place that they only know about from the stories we older people tell them.

There is a map. Ronald Reagan started laying out the groundwork in 1964. Everything that needed to be done to make it back to the shining city on a hill was laid out by him and other conservatives like Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley, Jr.

Reagan worked hard and tirelessly clearing the brush and forging a path. He fought to the final breath in 1976, only to find himself shut out at the gates. So he took the next four years to brush up, dust off and prepare and build his army for big push in 1980. Despite resistance from the media and the Republican establishment, Reagan went directly to the people and got them to help him barrel through the gates and into the city.

Reagan stood on Capitol Hill delivering his inauguration speech. He laid out the entire plan that January 21, 1981. The city was grungy. But after four years of hard work, it was morning in America. When he was reelected in 1984, the city sparkled and the city shined. For the next 16 years, the American people would experience a period of prosperity never before seen in our nation’s history.

Ronald Reagan passed away in 2004. For many like me, it seemed that so much of what he had done for America passed away, too. We were on the road to ruin again. Government was growing, taxes were getting higher again. Our budget deficits and national debt were getting larger.

We were on the brink of radical socialism in 2008. Barack Obama spoke of fundamentally transforming America – a code phrase for turning us into a European socialist style democracy to prep us for entry into the New World Order. Americans were asleep at the switch. They believed what the media were telling them. They were sheep, complacently accepting their fate believing that it was a lost cause - that no one was powerful enough to stop the growth of big government and the looming nanny state.

Something happened when John McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Suddenly, those who remembered the shining city were electrified. Those who had once thought that all hope was lost saw someone who demonstrated that you could still take on the corrupt and buck a system that favored cronies and good ole boys. Sarah Palin proved to us by her example that the citizen could in fact make a difference if they only tried.

Her vice presidential candidacy was invigorating. She drew enthusiastic crowds to every rally. In retrospect, her rallies resembled what Tea Party rallies have become today. While she was not the founder of the Tea Party, it was her spark and charisma along with Rick Santelli’s rant on the Chicago Stock Exchange floor that got us all to believe that we could do it. Without Sarah Palin and those who formed the Tea Party, we would have been left for dead with the socialist boot on our throats finally crushing conservatism's windpipe

When over a million people marched on Washington in 2009, it was a validating signature event that proved that we were much more than just alive again. It gave millions and millions of Americans the courage and the confidence to know that we could go up against the forces of radical socialism and statist big government. The phrase “you can’t beat city hall” has since vanished from our lexicon. We rally now. We communicate and organize at a level never before seen in the conservative movement.

Sarah Palin has been to the shining city on a hill. She came of age during the Reagan years. Reagan was as much a hero to her as he was to so many other Americans. Yet, only she could capture his essence in her approach to politics. She never sold her soul. While many could recite Reagan’s famous quotes and talk about conservative principles, Sarah Palin lived them. She embodied them. She became them.

She knows the way out of the dark dense forest. She knows how to get back into the city and clean it up. This time, we will set it up permanently and never forget the principles forged by our founders and Reagan before her. History taught us a very harsh lesson. History showed us how easily we were able to lose touch with what Ronald Reagan did because we were not vigilant. But history also gives us the map that Reagan drew.

Those my age and older remember what it was like under Reagan. Those younger than my 47 years either don't or were not alive then. It's these people who hold the future of America in their hands.

There is a swath of teens and twenty-somethings whose political socialization will take place during the Palin years just as mine did during the Reagan years. They will learn the philosophy because they are motivated by Governor Palin.

We look toward the future knowing that we can pull the plug on liberal indoctrination and turn our youth around so that they can become productive citizens as they come into the workforce and grow older.

We all can join together now and be a force for renewing and restoring America.

Don't get cynical and don't be afraid. Like Sarah Palin said, “Look around. You’re not alone. We’re Americans!”

Read more here: The Flame of Youth Burns Bright

Is Sarah Palin as unelectable as Ronald Reagan was?

-cross posted at A Time For Choosing

Abie Rubin wrote an outstanding guest submission piece that was posted on Conservatives4Palin that discusses the issue of electability in a Time Magazine article written in 1980 about Ronald Reagan. You see a lot of comparisons between Ronald Reagan and Sarah Palin – their charisma, their political philosophy and their ability to speak directly to the people – but the one comparison that doesn't get much analysis is how she compares to the "unelectable" Reagan when he campaigned for the presidency.

According to today's Real Clear Politics numbers, Obama leads Palin in head to head polling 55% - 35%. In January of 2008, Carter led Reagan in the Gallup polls 62% - 33%. In March 1980, when the Time article was written, Reagan was still 25% down to Carter. Remember, this was after Reagan had already secured the nomination.

It's interesting to note that Jimmy Carter's job approval rating in January 1980 was at 55%. Where Obama's will be in January 2012 is hard to tell; but writing off Palin or any other potential GOP nominee at this point is about as stable a bet as predicting that Obama will be at 55% job approval in January (and even if he is, you still couldn't rule out the GOP nominee based on what happened to Carter). Obama is currently at 44% approval according to Rasmussen with 43% strongly disapproving of his job performance.

Bill Schneider at CNN warned not to bet the presidency on polls 1 year out in an article written in November of 2007 when Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani were the front runners for their respective parties.

The year-before polls got it wrong twice. In 1979, the polls predicted Carter would beat Reagan. And in 1991, they predicted the first President Bush would defeat Bill Clinton. In both cases, voters a year out expected the president to get re-elected.

This year's Republican field is more volatile than usual. Romney may be in the lead, but he must be thinking about Hillary Clinton in the back of his mind. Santorum, who would be viewed as a good conservative candidate in any other year must feel like the invisible man. Pawlenty probably wishes he held off announcing and did a bus tour instead. Bachmann, although happy with her numbers, has to be wondering what will happen if Palin was jump in. The other candidates continue to fight for limited real estate in a crowded field.

With all of that said, Sarah Palin continues to run in the top tier of candidates. Assuming Palin is in a virtual tie for 2nd place with Michele Bachmann based on margin of error, she is defeating nearly the entire field of both announced and unannounced GOP candidates without having signed an FEC candidate form.

Talk continues about the impact she'll have should she run. "All of the Republican candidates right now are looking over their shoulder to see if Hurricane Sarah might strike!” writes Steffen Schmidt at Iowa State Daily (h/t Conservatives4Palin). A Palin announcement could be a political earthquake that will grab national attention and catapult her candidacy into a position of instant momentum coming out of the gate. Where she goes from there would be up to her and how well she campaigns.

You'll hear the arguments again from establishment types that she is too polarizing to win the general election. Along with that you'll get the same argument that was presented about Reagan not being able to appeal to moderates and independents. Yet, it was Reagan who forged a national coalition of independents and "Reagan Democrats" that helped sweep him back into office in 1984. Today, the so-called polarizing Reagan is revered by people across the political spectrum.

Apparently, not much has changed among the GOP establishment in how they assess their candidates despite the Reagan model. You may find this Time Magazine assessment of Reagan very similar in tone to the one we would expect to hear should Palin get the 2012 nomination:

Some party operatives are plainly unhappy with his selection. In Massachusetts, where both Bush and Anderson defeated Reagan, party leaders are not yet reconciled to the Reagan candidacy. Says one: "There's a vacuum of leadership at the national level; and what appears to be the Republican Party's response? A 69-year-old man who has done virtually nothing for years.

There is a lot we can learn from history. Just as the country made the mistake in 1976 to elect Carter, they made the same mistake and elected Obama in 2008. Just as the country forgot how effective the Kennedy tax cuts were in the 1960's and returned to the Keynesian disasters of the 1970's, they enjoyed an economic boom under the small government, low taxation philosophy of Reagan before rolling it it all back to the hybrid crony-capitalist, quasi-socialist state that it is today.

Just as the causes of getting into a mess like this are strikingly similar throughout history, so are the solutions. Sarah Palin holds the same ace in her hand as Ronald Reagan did when he was given the charge of guiding America back to prosperity. She is positioned at a similar point of cyclical history.

The most important line of Ronald Reagan’s 1981 inauguration speech was this:

It is time to reawaken this industrial giant, to get government back within its means, and to lighten our punitive tax burden. And these will be our first priorities, and on these principles, there will be no compromise.

Reagan knew that if he made America business friendly again, he could generate economic growth through production. Production creates real dollars because tangible goods and services and the labor which rightfully goes into producing those is what really generates money. The Keynesian approach to the economy doesn’t work because it takes the taxed portion of money that has already been created through production.

Reagan knew that there was a product out there and a demand for that product that could generate the economic growth necessary to pull the country out of the malaise of the Carter economy. The Soviet Union threatened our way of life in such a visible way that defeating them would require a major reawakening in the defense industry, particularly in manufacturing and the industries which would be needed to build and service the military equipment that would be necessary in order to go up against the Soviet Union.

Defense contractors became productive, innovative and profitable, which in turn resulted in collateral businesses forming. You need housing for those who live near the plant. They need cars. They buy coffee at the deli on the way to work. They pick up dinner or go to a restaurant after work. Their homes need to be landscaped. And so on and so on, jobs are created.

One could argue that it was taxpayer money that was used for the military budget (which is true). But when this money was put back out into the private sector, it acted like a true investment that fueled economic growth with the production it spurred creating capital for businesses, which in turn had a domino effect on the job market and the economy. For all the dollars that went out, twice as much of it was returned to the treasury in the form of increasing tax revenues.

Capital flowed through the system as more money was generated in the private sector through real growth and production when taxes were lowered and regulation scaled back. Private investments fueled the continued growth once the economy began to recover. Supply side theory worked because once the pump was primed, the size and scope of government could be reduced as more and more needs were taken care of in the free market.

History comes similarily full circle. Sarah Palin knows that there is a product out there and a demand for that product that could generate the economic growth necessary to get us closer toward being energy independent. An unstable Middle East threatens our way of life in such a visible way that producing more of our own energy here at home will require a major reawakening in the oil, gas, coal and alternative fuel industries - particularly in manufacturing and related industries that will be needed to build and service all the equipment that is necessary to ratchet up drilling and exploration.

Heavy equipment manufacturers and contractors who lease the rigs and do the exploration will began to see real growth in their businesses which in turn will result in collateral businesses forming This will cause an increase in hiring. You need housing for those who live near the rig. They need cars. They buy coffee at the deli on the way to work. They pick up dinner or go to a restaurant on their way home. Their homes need to be landscaped. And so on and so on, jobs will be created.

Put aside mine and others' adoring Reaganism and look at the reality of what really happened in 1980. The people voted against Carter. Reagan was not the mythic figure we see him as today. Although he had a devout following, those who weren't as sure would have stuck with an incumbent who was doing well. But, out of the ashes of the Carter disaster came a leader who by many standards had been underestimated.

Those who were worried about Reagan's "extremism" or polarizing caricature decided that it was a less risky proposition to elect him than it was to leave Carter in there to continue the economic carnage that affected the lives of everyday people. It would not be until 1984 that the public would come to see Reagan as the great one who could successfully lead us back to the shining city.

The same road lies ahead for Palin. She has a devout following and there will be those who are concerned with the future of our country who will support her if and when she gets the nomination. But, ultimately it will come down to whether or not America wants to allow Obama to continue the economic carnage or overlook the caricature of Palin and give her a chance to do what she's already proven she can do in executive positions in the past.

Despite the concerns some may have, it could ultimately come down to that moment in the voting booth when the skeptic has to make a choice between Obama and Palin. Given that choice, I can't see anyone in their right mind (other than a kool aid drinking liberal) pulling the lever for Obama.

If the public can be convinced to look at Governor Palin's record and see who she really is without the media filter and the caricaturing of her, it's possible to get enough people to feel comfortable enough to vote against Obama much the same way as Reagan was able to create enough of a comfort level with the "there you go again" moment he had in the debate with Carter.

So, when people tell you that Sarah Palin can’t win in 2012, don’t listen. Barack Obama is so much of a disaster that the American people should be more willing to take the chance on Palin rather than go with the certainty that Obama will continue to destroy the economy for another four years.

The battle for the presidency is going to take place in the GOP primary. The winner gets to put their name in the "not Barack Obama again" box. Put Sarah Palin's name in that box and you get a bonus that you won't get with an establishment candidate. You will get someone who will drill, cut taxes and be good for small buinesses.

Whether you are convinced yet or not about Sarah Palin is not the question. If she gets the nomination, the real question is whether you are convinced yet or not that Barack Obama has to go. Remember Reagan. We'll deal with the shining city, the morning in America and the "Sarah the Great" stuff in 2016.


Don't miss Patrick's World USA tonight on BlogTalk Radio at 11pm ET and 8pm PT. Brad Essex is my guest. We got a big show coming up next week. Frank Aquila, author of  Sarah Palin Out of Nowhere will be on the show Wednesday August 3, 2011.

Obama's a Lame Duck

She nuked him.

Consider all the bluster that Obama gave us today. Consider that the "Jello" president didn't get a deal done. Consider that he criticized those with an "ideology" for not compromising on a plan that didn't cap spending and move us closer to a balanced budget amendment and tax reform.

Now consider this from Governor Palin posted shortly after Obama's press conference:

Now the President is outraged because the GOP House leadership called his bluff and ended discussions with him because they deemed him an obstruction to anya real solution to the debt crisis.

He has been deemed a lame duck president. And he is angry now because he is being treated as such.

So the beatings begin. Sarah Palin is explaining to us that we are nearing the end of Obama's first and only term as president.

Help is on the way. We have the House and they are doing the right thing. In 2012, it's time to take the Senate and White House to get everyone on board with solving America's problems and getting us back on track to prosperity.

It was a great Facebook Post by Governor Palin because it was flash fast. It was precise and she hit with laser like proficiency. She is going on offense now, running toward the battle.


Special thanks to Conservatives 4 Palin for posting this. Also, thanks to Gary P Jackson for having me as a contributor. I will be posting on A Time For Choosing regularly. I appreciate the great response I am getting from the commenters and those great foks on Twitter.

Blogger Test

I just got an Augen tablet. If I am ever without access to a PC, I can use this baby to access the internet and do simple blogging. It doesn't allow me to copy and paste, but it allows me to post unlike my phone. So if I'm ever on the road and have a WI FI hotspot, I can blog now .

This has been a test of the emergency blogger system.

Check me out on Blogtalk Radio.

Aspirations of Building an Army Like Reagan's

I have seen the video clip dozens of times. Ronald Reagan paid for the venue in Nashua, NH where they were going to have a debate of the Republican candidates for the GOP nomination in 1980. They tried to silence him. He stood up for himself and said "I'm paying for this microphone!" The part I never really picked up on is how his army reacted. I just watched the video over at Dan Riehl's site. Watch how Reagan's army reacts. If you don't mist up over it, there's something wrong.

Which brings us to today. I have watched political candidates come and go. I have never seen an army like the one Reagan had. But something is starting to happen again. It's been a long time. When Ronald Reagan passed, I didn't think it could ever happen again.

It's happening again.



The army continues to grow. Listen to my Blogtalk Radio show tonight at 11pm ET 8pm PT.

Read what I wrote about the Palin army at Gary P. Jackson's site, A Time for Choosing: Why is the Palin Army so Strong?

An Open Letter to Conor Friedersdorf

Note to readers: Please read How I Became the Subject of a Conspiracy Theory as background material before reading further.

Conor, you're right that you haven't been recognized or had the level traffic for a lot of your other better work as you had for your Palin piece. It would make sense that you are associate editor at The Atlantic because of your abilities and talent as a writer. I appreciate success. As an aspiring writer, I look to people like you who are doing well in the field and have no problem giving them their just due and respect for their accomplishments just as much as I would ask people to do the same for someone who has accomplished what Sarah Palin has. With that said, let me give you my take on what happened to you.

You were just blown to smithereens by the Palin army. They have spent three years fighting heartless, spineless and libelous attacks against her from the Left, the establishment and the mainstream media. You may think you have innocently broken a window, but the house has been robbed repeatedly since September 2008. They shoot first and ask questions later.

You wrote an article in a publication that many consider to be left wing at worst, apologists for the worst aspects of the libertarian movement at best.  Read through these and these and tell me how many hit pieces are in there. While you may be more libertarian than liberal, those in the mainstream media who picked up your article and used it to further their attacks on Sarah Palin are not the limited government types traditional libertarians would embrace.

You reference all the more substantive pieces you've written which have gotten less attention. You write "the highest traffic thing I've written, the most liked and the most hated, the most quoted, linked, commented on, praised, excoriated, and widely controversial, is a lighthearted item about going to 'The Undefeated' last Friday to interview Sarah Palin supporters, and finding none of them there."  Welcome to Sarah's world. I can respect where you're coming from because I know of a lady in Alaska whose record, policy positions and accomplishments get way less hits than articles about the clothes she's wearing or whether or not her hair is falling out.

In a fair world, you would be recognized for the talented and accomplished writer you are. In a fair world, Sarah Palin would be recognized for the talented and accomplished leader she is. The two of you have more in common than you think. In fact, many of your complaints about unfair treatment in the pro-Palin media are extremely similar to those that Palin has raised herself about the anti-Palin press.

I don't want you feel resentful. This is war, man; and for your readers that hate Sarah Palin the war wound you just got gives you street cred. If you understand the reason for the attack and the nature of the animal that attacked you, you'll understand why your article raised such a ruckus Let me help you understand what makes Palinistas so quick to the draw.

Three years ago, when Sarah Palin was introduced to the nation, many people from across the political spectrum were electrified by her. The exception to that were those on the left and in the media establishment who were scared blind by the positive reaction the nation had to her. It was an emergency for them. They couldn't beat her on her record or her political positions so they had to go after her and her family personally.

The progressive movement has spent nearly a century infiltrating our country's politics, academia and culture. They were willing to go with Hillary Clinton but Obama was just too attractive and so dazzling to them that they dropped her like a bad habit and shot the works on him. They went all in. The "Shadow Party" felt it could come out now and fundamentally transform this thing with him at the top.

Then she happened.

As the revelations about the Journolist listserv show, the mainstream media was complicit in their efforts to try to destroy her. Remember, they were all in. They were ideologically committed to Obama after decades of Nixon, Reagan and Bush bashing. Why do you think people who don't follow this stuff as closely as we do think Palin said she can see Russia from her house? It's because they are more like Jay Leno's "man on the street" than they are their own thinkers and researchers. They believe what they read at face value. The mainstream media has been playing to these rubes for years by advancing agenda over intellect. Smitty at The Other McCain writes "The Progressive project is predicated upon the notion that the American people are sheep."

James Lewis at American thinker writes:

The Undefeated is a stunning documentary about Governor Sarah Palin against the lynch mobs of the left. These are not overly polite Adlai Stevenson liberals. They are radical throwbacks to Saul Alinsky and Jozef Stalin. They follow Alinsky and the ACORN rules

More importantly, this is about a lot more than Sarah Palin. It's about money and power. Sarah Palin is the target because she and the Tea Party stand in the way of the progressive agenda. There were billions of dollars in green money (think cap and trade, alternative fuels, funny looking light bulbs, etc.) and investments in the coming of socialized medicine at stake in 2008 when the liberal media opened fire on her with all barrels. These people were about to take a bath if Sarah Palin succeeded in helping John McCain become president. The same can be said for the progressives who want to fundamentally transform America into a European socialist style democracy.

The fact that she hasn't gone away and still stands between them and their progressive agenda is just eating at them. Add to this the fact that negativity is a communicable disease. I don't have a problem with people who disagree with Sarah Palin, I have a problem with people who foam at the mouth and who go berserk at the mere mention of her name. I'm not trying to be religious here, but back in the day, we used to call that being possessed by the Devil. Negativity is bad. It is also reflective. It comes back at you. So when you see Palinistas being a little less than civil, understand that the devil is a very crafty demon indeed.

Palin is the antithesis to liberalism and progressivism. Her record in Alaska shows she's capable of busting up our hybrid socialist-quasi crony capitalist system. She is a threat to a lot of people who rely on the status quo that benefits them when wealth is redistributed through the tax code, 50% of the people pay no federal income tax and only those in the know with the right lobbyists and inside connections can get around the government made barriers to being successful. They will stop at nothing to destroy her.

When Palin returned to Alaska, that's when the election should have ended. She should have been able to go back to being governor just as easily as John McCain went back to being Senator. But it didn't stop there.

During the campaign, a documentary group called The Wasilla Project ginned up several malcontents to say negative things about Sarah Palin, one of which was that she made rape victims pay for their rape kits when she was Mayor of Wasilla. Their website was later scrubbed but not until after the "Thank You" page following Obama's win warned its readers to continue going after Sarah Palin because she would be back in 2012. I regret not keeping a screen shot.

After her return to Alaska, Palin was hit with the frivolous ethics complaints, which were filed by malcontents, fueled by the agenda driven Alaska Bloggers and picked up on way too easily by the mainstream media. This was all part of an overall smear campaign designed to destroy this woman., which she short circuited by resigning her governorship and sticking it to the media and the ankle biters by becoming a Fox News contributor, best selling author and sought after public speaker.

This only fueled the growth of the pro Palin movement. Supporters started blogs and websites when they saw Palin under attack. The Left and the media have basically created their own monster and now they struggle to contain it as it pulls the spitting high tension wires down on its way to the city of cronyism and socialism that she is about to destroy. There are hundreds of pro Palin blogs and websites across the internet. See if Gary Johnson has that many, or even Ron Paul (no offense to your candidate or to libertarians, but I want to make the point that Palin supporters are the most intense for a reason).

Ask yourself, why all the Palin sites? Why all the Palin bloggers and tweeters? The mainstream media attacks on Palin have been like a medicine ball and now her army's rhetorical stomachs are hard. They have become a well toned legion of well practiced writers, researchers and on the ground activists. Because they worked hard at battling with the mainstream media, they have become good at their craft. They strike with lightning speed and laser like precision.

So, when you wrote that article about the empty theater, you lit a match in a foxhole at night and the Palin army nailed you. The Atlantic is a battleship that has been shooting missiles at her for the last three years and you just happen to put out your observation about the empty theater while standing on the deck of that battleship. Of course you're going to get hit!

Palinistas are conditioned to be this way after how the mainstream media has treated her. They're committed to the mantra that there will be no free shots. This also applies to those on the right. Those who attack Sarah Palin will feel the wrath of the Palin army not because her supporters are mean spirited like liberals or establishment types, but because her supporters know you can't win a street fight by being nice.

I don't like personal attacks, either; but sometimes it happens because that's how the game is played. Politics isn't bean bag. If it's any consolation, I hope she does win and the grown ups get back in charge again. Maybe then, things will be a little more civil.  I, too, would prefer to debate ideas and records. I would prefer to say, hey Conor, you're a good guy but we happen to disagree. But until then, we have to take the good with the bad.

In dodge ball, you have to nail your opponent with the ball because he will have no problem doing it to you. This is not to say that two wrongs make a right. I understand the complaints about the discourse. But I do believe that if someone is coming at you with a weapon, you have to come back at them with one as well.

What you are seeing from Breitbart, Riehl and Collier is their use of a liberal tactic. We conservatives have read the Rules for Radicals and some of us choose to use those for our purposes. The liberals own the board and we have to beat them at their own game or else surrender our country. Do you think Bill Maher wants to play nice? It's part of the dance. Yes it gets personal sometimes, but you can't take it personally. It's a tactic. It's in the playbook.

What you wrote about resenting the attacks on you from the Palin army shows you are capable of empathy in some small way for what Sarah Palin deals with regarding the attacks on her even if you say you would never vote for her. Yeah, you think Breitbart and Collier are bad guys for attacking you. It doesn't feel good to be smeared does it? But there's no need in feeling resentful if you understand what's happening. Don't hate the players, hate the game. There are many in the mainstream media, the establishment and pop culture who have stoked an environment of hatred toward Sarah Palin which has in turn motivated her supporters to fight even harder (and yes, dirtier).

Andrew Breitbart's approach is to beat the mainstream media at their own game and to fight fire with fire. Bill Collier believes there's a conspiracy because, in general, there is - even if it is not specific to this case. They and others came after you because this fight has been going on for three years. You just happened to step out of an empty theater into the lobby to mention that there's no one in the theater during the middle of an ongoing firefight between Palinistas and the media and you got hit.

Conor, I appreciate that it bothers you that you got more attention for your article on Palin than all the other stuff you wrote. It's frustrating when people don't know or recognize your record. I would hope you will eventually get the respect you are due for your record in the same way that I hope Sarah Palin will get hers as well.

I hope you find the reasoning behind the Palinista tactics informative. I hope it gives you a better understanding as a journalist what's at stake here. It's great you don't want Obama to be president. It's great you have a candidate you believe in. I tell people all the time if you got a horse, ride it first and foremost before trying to win by beating down the other candidates.

I admit I can be an attack dog at times (although I prefer the positive approach, I understand the nature of the game). I consider myself an ordinary barbarian who takes on elitists, the media and smear merchants both inside the arena of ideas and, when their rules call for it, outside the arena of ideas. Someday, I hope everyone in America is free to live the way they want and be productive as long as they don't get in each others' way. Until then, I must fight.

Hopefully, someday when this is all over you can have a beer with those who have attacked you. But for now, suit up and clean your weapons. The war is on. Now get back to your people at The Atlantic and I'll do the same and get back to mine. Despite our differences, Conor, I leave you with this: may the best man or woman win in 2012. Oh, and keep your head down; we Palinistas are a good rhetorical shot.

We Can Learn About Liberalism's Deception By How The Media Lies

Negative media spin on "The Undefeated" is nothing more than intellectual prostitution for the Left

If those who oppose Sarah Palin do so armed with talking points and arguments that they get from the mainstream media, it will be quickly apparent that their sources are sources of lies. Their feeble attempts to prop up their arguments are easily exposed when one comes to understand how they link to, argue and cite "facts and figures" that exist just because some writer, anchor or guest said they do in order to argue against the truth.

Liberalism is a vapid ideology that does nothing but limit the power of one's mind with its cynical approach toward attacking the very nature of life, man and God. When unaffected people see this, they are quick to recognize it and distance themselves as far from it as they can. Catharine Evans writes at American Thinker:

Since the takeover of the DNC by Obama and his minions on May 31, 2008, millions of independents and Democrats have lifted up the rock of so-called liberalism and seen the sludge and slime underneath. The left's class warfare/racial rhetoric is a masterful lie, a ruse, a con job, a ruling class ploy to amass followers, using them to promote an agenda that will eventually do them in.

We can learn how they hide the sludge by observing how the media lies with a complicity of intent to cover the underlying fact that liberalism's only way to achieve its goals of equality through wealth redistribution and government centralization has failed every time its been tried. Liberals casually change points of argument conveniently to fit situations and hide the fact that they stand on liquid ground with no firm core or basic moral foundation.


Conservatives fear Americans will lose touch with the truth. Liberals fear Americans will find the truth. It is there that the two ideologies become incompatible and resistant to compromise at all levels. This is the dance that observers of the political process watch.

Liberalism thrives on misinformation and spin. When conservatives call them on it, they react emotionally and turn to personal attacks or the policy of personal destruction. When you can't defeat the message, it's more important to defeat the messenger.

Liberals and the media know "The Undefeated" is a big deal. It is as existential a threat to their memes about and caricatures of Sarah Palin as Palin is an existential threat to the very existence of liberalism.

The media has taken to its old tactics of lying to the public about the attendance and enthusiam for the movie. They learn once again that the Palin army is quick to trigger and laserlike in its precision. No shot goes unanswered. This time, the target is cited and rhetorically destroyed by as Newstweeters expose the tactics of The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf:

The problem with Friedersdorf was he attended a midnight showing that was not scheduled or promoted by any marketing effort save for one obscure line in a newspaper movie listing. Oh, and if you googled the movie, the town, and the day, you might actually find the one place where you could possibly get tickets. It is clear Friedersdorf selected this movie showing because he knew no one would show up for a movie that no one, but him, seemed to know about. He did this clearly to rush home and ‘get the scoop’, spread the narrative he hoped would end the Palin Movie surge and, by his reckoning, the potential presidential run by Sarah Palin.

Alas, poor Conor now has to wake up to reality, not that he didn’t get a dose of it yesterday, as the counter surge emerged to expose this journolist hack for staging, or at least trying to stage, a crushing narrative against THE UNDEFEATED. From the Freedomist to Conservatives4Palin to even Mark Levin, the voices of truth shouted down the lies of Conor Friedersdorf and his MSM propaganda efforts.

Conservatives4Palin clearly broke down the numbers so that anyone with half a brain could clearly see that the roll out of the film was a success. The independent film outdrew all of its commercial and independent competitors with the exception of Harry Potter, which was to be expected given the advertising budget of the movie and the added twist that it was the last movie in a widely known and well liked series.

The most damaging evidence of all against the leftist lies is the press release from Arc Entertainment which clearly shows how happy the company is with the strong opening weekend. Josh Painter at Texans4Palin writes:

 "The Undefeated," now in the third day of its opening run, is already a indisputable success. ARC Entertainment has crunched the numbers from the box offices of its ten theaters showing Stephen Bannon's Palin documentary, and the company is very pleased with the results.

But, why let the truth get in the way of a good smear campaign. Even when the theaters are full for "The Undefeated," the media screwballs use questionable journalistic tactics to undermine it. CNN, in its complicity with the progressive movement, sent a reporter to Georgia to ask loaded questions and try to set up Palin supporters so they would look uninformed or say something that could be taken out of context to be used against Governor Palin's image. Viewers who also watched CNN over the weekend have indicated that they got the impression the movie was panned based on the way it was covered.

It's a sad fact when journalists will put their integrity aside simply to squeeze their size 16 bag of lies into a size 4 bag of truth. They would rather bend their own minds and perform the rhetorical contortions required to twist their vacant ideology into something palatable enough for susceptible readers who may be looking for a way to project the misery and anger of their own personal failings onto the person of Sarah Palin.

Gratifying Palin Derangement Syndrome victims who believe lies by giving them more lies to believe is simply a journalistic keyboard job given to those who get off on their hatred of Sarah Palin. More to the point, these "journalists" sell their twisted articles based on unfound facts in such a way that it is little more than intellectual prostitution.

What Sarah Palin Reads

I read this article earlier this week. It was great.

Rob Cunningham writes at American Thinker:

It [The Undefeathed] will awaken the senses for those previously unconvinced of exactly how the modern day "progressive" movement comfortably uses lies, ridicule, false narratives and intellectual laziness to mislead their audiences. This movie delivers a massive body blow to the media, it dilutes the effectiveness of liberal scare tactics and will vaccinate millions against infection from traditional "news" reporting. By powerfully highlighting the media's methods of distortion, one of the most powerful weapons used against all conservatives, is damaged.

I wasn't the only one who read it. A certain former governor who ran for vice president also caught it.

Despite being nuked, the media still continues to lie about the movie.

CNN's Scumbaggery

The media lies.

Quotes of the Day 7/15/11

There is nothing I can write that can say this stuff any better. So let's get to it.

Sam Bain at FoxNation:

The only reason this is a serious issue now is because Obama is not done with his spending spree. America’s credit card is maxed out, but when you could care less about balancing the budget, all you have to do is increase the credit line. Well, thank God for the Strong Red November we had last fall. Had the GOP not taken over the House, the debt limit would have already been raised, with no balanced budget amendment and no spending cuts. There’s a good chance taxes would have been raised too and America would continue plummeting down the never ending abyss of government spending.

Adrienne Ross at MotivationTruth:

Is it just the film debut that's got the PDS-sufferers all wee-wee'd up? I believe there's one more thing that has them running in every direction now. On Wednesday night, Governor Palin told Sean Hannity that a 2012 announcement is imminent. Could their worst fears have come upon them? Is it possible that the one they attacked, the one whose record they tried to sully, the one they worked unceasingly to destroy but couldn't--yes, the undefeated one-- might just be the one to take on the GOP machine, the 2012 Republican candidates, and ultimately the so-called anointed one? Is it possible that the truth of her record, so ably communicated in The Undefeated, will help make this next step that much more likely to be a success?

Roaches thrive in the dark, but they cannot tolerate the light. When it comes, they scurry. In other words, they get all wild and crazy. They try anything to keep themselves alive and their infestation preserved. They crave the darkness again. The problem for them, however, is that darkness doesn't really exist. What we call darkness is simply the absence of light, but once light comes, we see more clearly, we understand better, and we act accordingly. Light has come. The Undefeated is light. Governor Palin's 2012 announcement will be light. The roaches don't like it, and they're already scurrying manically, but it's too late. Their fate has been sealed.

Tony Lee at Human Events:

America has been shaped by those who have defiantly stared down failure and tried again.

In a sense, that is what “The Undefeated” seeks to convey, and it is that state of mind that can potentially propel Palin to the nomination and beyond.

“The Undefeated” is Southern in the sense that it captures the essence of a proudly defiant spirit. And Palin can claim that mantle more than anyone in the race.

“The Undefeated” is also an exurban, frontier state of mind. Americans go to the exurbs and the frontier to start anew and to reinvent themselves, often after failing. In many cases, the failures have been exacerbated by liberal government policies.

In the end, the defiant optimism in the face of the failure, which “The Undefeated” is about, is really the story of America.

Jamie Radtke, US Senate Candidate in Virginia:

But for millions across this country, Sarah Palin represents a new direction. That direction is personified in her documentary, Undefeated, which premieres Friday. Governor Palin has stood up to the Washington double-talk and inspired millions of Americans to say “no” to politics as usual. To badly paraphrase Johnny Paycheck, Sarah Palin isn’t afraid to say, “You can take these peas and shove it!”

When Governor Palin came to the Richmond Raceway during the 2008 presidential election, I attended with other moms like me who were growing increasingly concerned about the direction of our nation. It was a chore to push my children in a double stroller across a field while carrying homemade signs and keeping up with my six year old. Governor Palin spoke to 20,000 people and inspired us to end ‘politics as usual.’

So you can imagine what an honor it is for me to have a small part in Sarah Palin’s Undefeated documentary, and to share with others the influence she has had on conservative thinking in America. Here’s a brief preview of the film, if you haven’t seen it already.

Undefeated will change your opinion of Sarah Palin, because she possesses the rarest trait in politics today: Courage. Sarah Palin is a woman of conviction and integrity who stands up to the good ‘ole boys of her own party (who believe constitutional principles are a detail to be discarded whenever a poll fluctuates) and demands the political games stop. She speaks with candor and acts with boldness.

Robert Stacy McCain at The Other McCain:

Sarah Palin: “I don’t trust this President. . . . He doesn’t know how to make those cuts. He’s never had to do this before. He’s always just been one to spend other people’s money even if that money is just borrowed money or printed out of thin air. He’s never had to exercise real executive authority like that.”

[She's] Exactly right! Go through Obama’s resume and try to find when he was ever in a position of executive authority, responsible for making tough decisions about budget matters, especially in a situation like this, where spending must be cut or else.

Barack Obama today said he can beat any Republican candidate in the presidential debates on the budget. Oh really now, Mr. President? Sarah Palin would kick your ass all over that stage!

I heard him say it on Fox news. If anyone has the exact quote, please put it in the comments. I had to laugh when he said that. Sarah Palin would tear him to pieces.

Conservatism, Palinism Getting Back on Track Ahead of Schedule

Conservatives, particularly those of the Palin brand, are finding that while our country has come up short on time (we still have over a year of Obama left and things are teetering on the edge), we are way ahead of the game compared to where we thought we’d be three years ago. The low point for conservatism was a stinging electoral loss in 2008 followed by Obama’s proclamation during his inauguration speech: “On this day, we come to proclaim an end to…worn out dogmas…” Today, the conservative movement and its "worn out dogma" is the strongest it’s ever been since Reagan was president.

The revival of the conservative movement began on August 29, 2008 when John McCain introduced America to Sarah Palin. It had been a long slog between 1988 and 2008, a period which saw a hardly noticeably slow decline in the conservative movement. This was born more out of complacency than any loss of favor with the movement. Bill Clinton’s triangulation and America’s unified response to the 9/11 attacks were seen as indicators that despite our political differences, Americans were Americans and that most people would shy away from outright liberal or radical candidates.

In many ways, the progressive movement was in our shoes during the 2000s. The 9/11 attacks renewed a patriotic nationalism that this country had not seen since the Reagan years and the fall of the Berlin Wall. This was the antithesis of progressivism which sees America as a super power in a world which should be full of equals, even if the maples and the oaks have to be kept at level heights by hatchet, axe and saw. Progressives seized an opportunity to open the wedge when there were no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq. From there they found their messiah in Barack Obama and went to work at rebuilding their movement.

Liberals believed that their movement had finally come out from under the shadows of Ronald Reagan and went full steam ahead in destroying conservatives through the pop culture, in the academia and in the press. After nearly a century of working in the weeds and infiltrating the institutions, the progressive movement bet the farm on an inexperienced community organizer from Chicago. They believed the days of hiding one's liberalism were gone. But their bet didn't work out. By the time Obama is done, they may want to go back into the shadows again.

The liberals got so good at marginalizing George W. Bush that his approval rating dropped into the 30’s shortly before the 2008 election. Bush and the conservative movement dismissed the liberal tactics thinking that most rational people would never buy the nonsense about him betraying our country and lying to us about WMD. As conservatives dozed off at the wheel, a network of well financed people (think George Soros types here) were gaining traction in an area traditionally owned by conservatives: business.

They thought they had the Alinsky technique perfected after honing and toning it on George W. Bush. So, when Sarah Palin scared the living crap out of them, they figured okay, marginalize. They pulled out the playbook and called an "86 wide left." It worked on Bush. It will work on Palin they figured. They figured wrong, even if it did work at first.

Al Gore and General Electric became heavily involved in the green movement. Liberals were finding business opportunities as well as pollitcal ones in the new media, which was originally going to be a place where liberal citizens could form an informal “Journolist” type of relationship to continue to build on the destruction of conservatism.

They came so close to defeating conservatism outright. They also came so close to defeating Palin.

Conservatives were on the ropes and never realized it until Palin's spark was followed by the formation of the Tea Party. Republicans and conservatives were reading the "Rules for Radicals" and studying the media. How did liberals get such on a hold on America? The answer to this question was in reading their playbook and doing the research that Glenn Beck did. The solution to this problem was for conservatives to understand their playbook and realize they were playing the wrong game. Once conservatives figured out the nature of the game, they set out to win it.

They took the new media from the liberals and set up base. They took to the streets, holding Tea Party demonstrations - peaceful demonstrations that showed those Molotov cocktail throwing hippies of the '60s how to do resistance right. They marched on Washington over a million strong in 2009. They formed websites and media outlets. They wrote books, released documentaries and exposed liberal hypocrisy at every turn. Had conservatives not figured this out, we’d all be eating peas right now.

Today, conservatives are defeating the liberals in nearly all facets of the game. Even the hold on the mainstream media is losing its effectiveness. The last bastion of liberal information and mind control just put out a fair piece on Sarah Palin in Newsweek. Liberal heads are exploding. The bricks in their wall are starting to come out. The conservative movement gets closer with each passing day to the city on the hill which no longer shines and is in need of return to its luster.

Liberals succeed when they infiltrate and lull people into a sense of complacency or turn people’s outrages and frustrations on the traditional establishment. Liberals fail when their philosophy is discovered to be morally and intellectually bankrupt because it cannot be backed by any historical proof of success. What liberals didn’t count on was that their tactics (many of which conservatives now use to beat them at their own game) only work so long as people don’t realize that there is no substantive underpinning to their philosophy. For conservatives, matching or outplaying them at their own game can keep it close. But winning requires the truth; and that is the key ingredient the conservatives have that the liberals don't.

Sarah Palin has turned Twitter and Facebook into her own personal tools of mass communication, completely sidestepping the traditional means used by other candidates. With the release of “The Undefeated” tomorrow, conservatives will be able to watch how Stephen Bannon was able to lay the charges and push the detonator all the while having worked in the film industry, a normally liberal bastion of left wing ideology.

The movie is the final death blow to the media myth about Governor Palin. In a review of the film, Jennifer Stefano writes (h/t Conservatives4Palin):

"The Undefeated” will not only change minds about Palin but also bring shame to those who added to the vitriol against her. Through this film, the conscience of a conservative is awakened once again. Viewers will be forced to reconsider Palin and her role as Reagan’s heir apparent. As the film opens in this theaters this week, somewhere, Goldwater is smiling as the revolution rolls on.

In 2008, the “Alaska Mafia,” a handful of hateful bloggers from Palin’s home state were nearly unchecked in their ability to participate in the marginalization of Sarah Palin all the way through the frivolous ethics violation charges which they fueled with their rhetoric and underground networking. Today, these blog sights are crusty old remnants of a now well understood “Axelrodian” tactic of how to gin up hatred against your opposition by using spin, false or sketchy information and by creating the illusion that a small group of malcontents’ beliefs are shared by an invisible many. Tomorrow, they and those in the Palin hating complicit mainstream media will whither away after all they have written and said about her is vaporized by Bannon's movie.

Sarah Palin was once bloodied and nearly out. In anticipation of her resignation, she told her followers "politically, if I die, I die." No one doubts that the woman would have went to her final public breath espousing the truth of conservatism no matter what. But her minions would not let her die. They rallied around her, forming the hundreds of websites, thousands of twitter pages and millions of Facebook followers who will draw sword and give blood if necessary to defend her.

She has not let them down. She has done more than just the work to revive her image and her standing in American politics. The truth of Sarah Palin is finally making through the smokescreen put up by the media. She is turning a corner now as she prepares to run for president.

Conservatism is also back on track. The Republican Party has been getting stronger because of the influence of the Tea Party. Americans are getting to finally see the real Obama and they are having serious buyers remorse. People have lost faith in the media and are turning to alternative sources of news.

Taking back the shining city on a hill is far from a done deal, but we grow closer with each passing day. People are gaining trust and faith in the process again because they can influence it through the Tea Party and soon more and more people will come to trust Sarah Palin again when they find out the truth about her and the media caricature is dismissed.

There is nothing else that the Left and the media can do to destroy Sarah Palin. There are three groups of people: Palin supporters, those who have not decided yet and the hard core kool aid drinkers who will never like her anyway. "Media derision only feeds those who don't like her already," Andrew Malcolm writes at the Los Angeles Times. "It actually strengthens Palin with a wide swath of overlooked Americans who don't trust mainstream institutions but do identify with the mother of five."

If Sarah Palin is going to have a shot at the presidency, she will have to beat the media monster first. "The Undefeated" is going to be Palin's biggest weapon in that battle. Three years ago (even a year ago) so many were saying that she could never win because of the media. Now, people are starting to marvel at how she's been able to overcome that.

Why It’s So Important We Get People to The Undefeated

Listen to Patrick's World USA BlogTalk Radio show tonight at 11:00 pm E.T. 8:00 P.T. or click on the link if you're reading this post after the show has aired to hear the podcast. The Transcript is here.

I will lay out the danger that lies before us if Obama gets elected again, explain why Sarah Palin should be our president after 2012 and encourage people to take those who are not yet sure about Governor Palin to see "The Undefeated."

You will want to listen and pass it on to everyone you can. Think of it as a Mr. L's Tavern without the video.

Sarah Palin is Too Good Looking For Liberals

Jonathan Capehart at the Washington Post thinks "being dressed like that" is not presidential. He says people don't want to see the president in Maxim Magazine or voted "Sexiest Woman Alive." Sarah Palin is dressed casually in a photoshoot for Newsweek. There is nothing provocative about the clothing or the way she's dressed. The real problem for liberals is that she is too good looking for them in those clothes.

It represents the very heart of Palin Derangement Syndrome. For the last three years, they have been trying to hide a daffodil in a sea of written weeds. I'm not just talking about her looks. Her political philosophy and her record of accomplishment are stellar, so the Left has to hide that by creating the illusion that they're not. This is no different than their attempt to either play down her looks by saying "ew, look at the clothes she's wearing" or to play up her looks and say that someone who would wear the type of running outfit she wore for Runner's World is too pin-up for the presidency.

Matt Lewis at the Daily Caller adds to this by pointing out that the issue of her attire is also born out of a snobbish DC elitism.

How much of this might have to do with the disconnect DC denizens have when it comes to judging people from more rugged regions, such as Alaska? Real people don’t always wear blazers.

I also wonder if there might be a double standard here. Is the fact that Palin isn’t donning a traditional ladies’ pantsuit any different than male politicians who pose sans business suit? Jon Huntsman, for example, walks around in cords and jean jackets — and people seem to think it’s endearing…

Billy Hallowell at The Blaze also takes issue with Capehart's article. It's flat out sexist.

It‘s interesting to see such criticism of a potential presidential candidate’s clothing, considering the praise President Obama has received for his shirtless escapades on the beach. President Bush, too, was known for occasionally sporting “plain folks’” clothing. Is there a difference, here, perhaps due to the fact that Palin is a woman?

It's obvious that the Left breaks into night sweats and trembles with constant fear at the mere thought of Sarah Palin being president. Good for them. Now they understand what the rest of America feels when they think about Barack Obama and how he is destroying our economy, ruining our healthcare system and running amok abroad.

The problem is the angst about Palin is an irrational fear based on contrived misperceptions. The reality is the angst about Obama is real, felt by everyday people who are sending resumes looking for jobs and worrying about their children's futures as massive debt is piled on.

If Sarah Palin was as big of an idiot and detriment to the United States as liberals make her out to be, she'd be Barack Obama.

Liberalism lives for strife and suffering so its proponents can complain about it and use it as a reason to advance a collectivist agenda. The idea of having Sarah Palin reviving our economy by drilling for oil, reforming the tax structure and bringing our military in line with our national interests is just way too good looking for liberals to handle. As for me, if she looks that good in a jogging suit, bonus.


On a more serious note:
Contemplating a Second Obama Term

If We Fight, The Future is Bright (Updated)

As we journey toward our future, we take solace in one great notion: socialism and statism is a failure. We laugh at those who want to marginalize us, call us out of touch or old school. We're busting a gut over how ironic it is that their philosophy has never succeeded, yet ours was called an outmoded dogma with tired arguments. We get what Obama calls our failed theories from reading "extremist right wing" literature such as the Bible, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Yeah, we're a bunch of far right reactionaries, the far right fringe as some would call us. We derive our values from the writings and speeches of such far right extremists as Patrick Henry, George Washington, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

I guess we're just not as sophisticated as the left wing. They poo poo our reading list. For these are the people whose philosophy and values are inspired by the likes of Karl Marx, Josef Stalin and Saul Alinsky. Just ask the president. The president and his followers have studied these thinkers. These philosophers believe in building their philosophy by destroying others'. Today's liberals are more revered for their ability to tear down people like George W. Bush, Paul Ryan, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh than they are for accomplishing anything positive.

Under the regulation of liberals, our financial system collapsed and we now head more and more towards government control over our economy. Punishing, over-taxing or over-regulating honest businesses or destroying the capitalist environment in which they flourish is not the answer. If an incompetent, corrupt and insolvent government regulated the private sector into incompetency, corruption and insolvency, what makes anyone think the government is still the solution?

We must remember, many of these banks failed because of government regulation, not because of the lack thereof. Government forced them to write bad loans. We must consider how many businesses fail because they are overly regulated or because they were destroyed by ruinous legal proceedings that occurred in the grey areas and fringes of the regulatory and legal tort system. These are the techniques liberals have been using to encourage the destruction of the capitalist system since the New Deal. They now call on their messiah to finish the job.

Because of capitalism's cyclical nature, recessionary periods are viewed as prime opportunities for the destroyers to come back out of their holes and repeat the same old Keynesian failures of the past. They bring their old style socialism dressed in a new style suit. Once again, they offer no new alternatives, just recycled garbage dressed as something different.

The stimulus plan has failed. That flushing sound you heard in 2009 was $800 billion dollars in stimulus money going down the drain. As Mark Levin said on his radio show Friday, we pissed that money away. The next flush you hear are jobs going down the toilet.

Conservatives are optimists. We believe in the American people and confidently await the day they wake up and reject this "Obamanation." We need not be seen as alarmists or fight out of fear that some how our great nation is going to fall, but we must realize deep down inside that's where we're headed if we don't stop Obama's radical agenda with a positive and courageous message that can capture those who are soon to be disillusioned. We can optimistically tell our fellow country men that there is a correct way to do things, and if we are willing to embrace the correct way of doing things, we once again can rise to the greatness we once were.

The first step is to defeat the media. They lied to us. They gave us Obama. The next step is to be courageous. If we are willing to take the risk to go with a leader who is gutsy enough to take the system apart, renew and restore it, we can win. If we are willing to fight, our future is bright. Sarah Palin is that leader. The new movie, The Undefeated explains why.

Rob Cunningham at American Thinker nails it dead on.

The Undefeated "brilliantly serves as a modern-day case study, and clearly illustrates how our agenda-driven news media, entertainment industry and political power brokers brazenly operate, in plain view and with cold-blooded intentionality, in a tireless attempt to destroy a very decent fellow citizen. When presented with basic facts, Americans will recoil in disgust."

Despite our election loss in 2008, we take solace in the words of Ronald Reagan: "Don't get cynical because, look at yourselves and what you were willing to do and recognize that there are millions and millions of Americans out there that want what you want, that want it to be that way, that want it to be a shining city on the hill."


UPDATE: It's ironic that I wrote about why our future is bright just as Sarah Palin wrote more substantly on the same issue. A great leader is someone who can take what I'm thinking and articulate it back to me in a better, more clear and concise form. Sarah Palin has given THE DEFINITIVE solution, a solution that she best articulates today:

Real hope comes from realizing how God has blessed our exceptional nation, and then doing something about it. We have been blessed with natural resources, hardworking entrepreneurs, and a Constitution that preserves the greatest form of government ever devised by man. If we develop those natural resources, allow our entrepreneurs to keep and invest more of what they earn, and adhere to the time-tested truths of our Constitution, we will prosper and endure.

She also describes the type of leader that we need. "We are in desperate need of real leadership..." She writes and talks of a leader as if it is someone other than her. The humility is frustrating. So, let's tell it to her straight. That leader is you, Governor Palin.

Sarah Palin Has Walked the Coals

It will take the election of a citizen politician like Sarah Palin who has run businesses, regulatory agencies and governments in order to de-institutionalize all the nonsense we have in our system and re-institutionalize in our culture a sense that governing ourselves from the bottom up rather than the top down is the key to restoring American exceptionalism and to providing a perpetual path for growth for future generations.

We need a time tested warrior to fix our country. Don’t be fooled by the demagoguery that lurks in the Republican Party either. Replacing Obama with just another Republican, or a generic Republican as the polls suggest, will end the socialism and reckless spending. But, returning to business as usual means a continuation of crony capitalism – a false brand of capitalism that relies on the lobbying and the legislative process to choose winners and losers based on who you know rather than what you do.

A truly conservative system with a libertarian flavor almost came into full existence under Ronald Reagan, but was not allowed to take root and grow past the elections of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

It will take someone who has already been battle tested and has who survived the ridicule of the Left and the doubters in the establishment to prove beforehand that they have the courage to flip the tables and upset the apple carts that need to be upset in order to clean house so that a new philosophy and strategy can take root. It will take a spine of steel for our next president to make this happen. We can’t roll the dice on unproven candidates or those who have not walked across the coals already.

It is time to wake up, America. The binge is over. Had we had the fortitude to go through the shakes and withdrawal symptoms necessary to fix our problem three years ago, we’d be through the worst part of the pain by now. But because we kicked the can down the road, it’s only getting worse. It’s now or never. Fix it or die.


Read more of my analysis on why our economy is in the shape it’s in:
We Could Have Been Through the Pain and on the Road to Recovery by Now

Read about The Undefeated.

Why Robert Stacy McCain Convinced Me That Sarah Palin Will Run

Who am I? I'm just another Sarah Palin supporter who spent the last three years blogging about why she should be president. Actually, I'm an American who sees the job and housing market going down the toilet who wants to see someone get into Washington and flip some tables and toss a few people out on their asses. Either way, I've been all in for Sarah Palin since I sent an email to friends declaring her the next Reagan the day after she gave the Minnesota speech.

I argue until I'm blue in the face with idiots and good hearted people alike. One argument has always been why she would allow the crazy number of people supporting her continue to blow off about her running for president.

Watching Governor Palin interact with her army has been like watching a perfect example of leadership. Her supporters are their own people with their own opinions who act independently of any official Palin organization. Yet, she has never been shy about stepping up and joining a battle with her online supporters. Nor has she been shy about telling them to keep their powder dry or to set them straight on something that they're wrong about.

Robert Stacy McCain knows this all too well.

So why the silence from Wasilla now?

Stacy posted:

There was zero reaction from Palin to this morning’s quote from a grassroots organizer in Iowa, saying he’s “100 percent” sure that she’s running. Instead, she reacted to a U.K. Daily Mail article about the Iowa premiere of The Undefeated.

She knows Organize4Palin is out there. She knows that Stacy is trying to get her to cough it up about running (who can blame him?). We know she reads Conservatives4Palin and other blogs about her because she's retweeted them. What websites and blogs does she read? "All of them."

She hears us. She knows we want her to run.

Memories of the Fourth of July - 2 Years Later

It's been two years since Sarah Palin resigned as Alaska's governor. It's incredible how so much has happened since then. What she has accomplished these the past two years while withstanding the most intense smear campaign ever against an American citizen is simply amazing.

Sarah Palin with son Trig, and daughter Piper holding grandson Tripp Johnston watch fireworks on 4th of July evening at a beach near Todd's parents house in Dillingham, Alaska on Sarah Palin's Alaska.

Let's look at the last two years in order to explain why Sarah Palin is extremely qualified to be president. Her work ethic is astounding. In the past two years, she has written numerous Facebook Notes which delve deeply into policy (her critics called her a lightweight two years ago and still do today). She has written two books (her critics didn't even think she read newspapers). She produced and starred in Sarah Palin's Alaska, a television series that educated America on Alaska while allowing them to get a glimpse of her and her family interacting with her state's natural beauty (her critics thought she was turning her back on Alaska). She has appeared numerous times on the Fox News Channel and the Fox Business channel. She has given speeches, many of which were done on a charitable basis or for the purpose of fundraising for some very great causes besides her own political cause.

Oh, let's not forget that in between tweets, speeches, Fox News appearances, book writing and Facebook posting, she managed to put together this thing called SarahPac and was instrumental in helping a lot of conservatives and Tea Party candidates get elected in the 2010 elections.

There is probably a lot more that I've overlooked or forgotten. But, the point is this: who is humanly capable of doing all that in two years and if someone is capable of handling that kind of a workload and accomplishing so much of what she's done in two years, wouldn't that person make a great president?

Her accomplishments clearly outshine those of Barack Obama who has made vacationing, golf and basketball his only real accomplishments outside of signing off on the killing of Osama bin Laden. Yes, I give him credit for that. It took less than an hour to complete a mission that was prepared for by the Bush Administration. What has he done with the other 1 year, 364 days and 23 hours? He has given us the disaster that is Obamacare and he has implemented policies that are destroying the American economy.

The Palin army has come a long way since two years ago. Her resignation didn't destroy her. It made her stronger. Her army didn't shrink; it grew. She is considered a top tier candidate for the presidency should she decide to throw her hat in the ring (writers note: please do, please, please). The smear campaign didn't ruin her image; it backfired into 24,000 pages of emails which demonstrated how effective a governor she was and it motivated the creation of "The Undefeated." There's egg on all faces there, lefties.

So let's party like it's January 21, 2013 this Independence Day. I hope and pray that everyone's 4th of July is not just to celebrate the past but to look to a future when we renew and restore the United States of America.

And let's also remember what it was like two years ago when I wrote about it last year :

Last year was the roughest Fourth of Julys I can ever remember.  I had my Palin shirt, my Gadsden flag and a cooler full of cold beer and good food all ready. Even though it was the beginning of the Obama years, I wasn't going to let his America - a lackluster apologetic weak excuse of a nation - interfere with my celebration of my America - the shining city on a hill. It was going to be my way of declaring Sarah Palin as my real leader and the successor in my heart to Ronald Reagan. I was at Virginia Beach when a friend of mine called me on the beach to tell me that Sarah Palin had resigned.

When I went up to the deck, Stuart Varney replayed Sarah Palin's speech on Fox News. I watched stunned as the pundits talked about a possible FBI investigation and how the frivolous ethics violations had cost her and the state of Alaska a fortune. I was alone in the wilderness. Obama was leading my country off a cliff and my leader just stepped down from her position of power. I felt like I wanted to throw up.

There was a 5 minute period during the entire time I was at my friend's condo when his son was not on the laptop, so I read everything I could about her resignation the next morning which was July 4, 2009.

Sarah Palin called her minions in off the ledge with a tweet (link no longer available - emphasis is mine): "Critics are spinning, so hang in there as they feed false info on the right decision made as I enter last yr in office to not run again...." On her Facebook page, she wrote (emphasis is again mine):

I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint. I hope you will join me. Now is the time to rebuild and help our nation achieve greatness!

She put her resignation speech on her Facebook page underneath the headline which included these words: "it is good, stay tuned." I read the speech and this line jumped out at me (emphasis not mine - Sarah capitalized the word TRUST):

I do not want to disappoint anyone with my decision; all I can ask is that you TRUST me with this decision - but it's no more "politics as usual".

I'm a political science guy who was taught from the textbook in college. It would have been easy to draw a conclusion that she was done. A friend told me it was her "Checkers" speech. It would have been just as easy to get off the emotional rollercoaster of being a Sarah Palin fan at that point. But she said the right words when she was talking to her fans. She was talking to us. She was talking to me. She was asking me to hang in, join her, TRUST her. And like I did before when the media lies were going un-debunked before the Palinista presence we have on the web today, I decided to listen to her.

I wrote:

Take a deep breath. There are 3 1/2 years left until the 2012 presidential election. A lot can happen. Sarah Palin holds the answer. Whether it works or not is totally up to her now. With more freedom to control her brand, her future will no longer be in the hands of an unchecked hostile media that spreads lies about her.

We will be participants in a future political science lesson that has yet to reveal its answer to us.

I deferred the future to Sarah, knowing that the only way to explain the resignation could not be done until after the fact. Now that it is after the fact, I can explain it. I also know that I was right to trust her.

I put on my Sarah Palin shirt last Fourth of July and flew that Gadsden flag that day. When someone commented on my shirt "looks like your girl's in trouble," I hid my concern and simply told him, "nah, she's just getting ready to run in 2012."

Now that the emotion and the uncertainty of last year's Fourth of July is over. Let's do this again right this time. I'm wearing the shirt again this year and this time I'm really going to enjoy it.

It's a year since Sarah resigned. Since then she has made over $12 million dollars and her PAC has donated tens of thousands to political campaigns across the country. She is a best selling author, Fox News contributor, professional speaker and a documentarian. Did I mention she's in the top tier of contenders for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012? Resignation, smesignation.

In 2010, I will shoot off my fireworks off at make believe Taliban and al Qaeda strongholds in Afghanistan. And despite my disgust at the Obama administration, I believe in the American people. I believe we will get the bum out of office. Five years from now, it will be morning in America. And kid's who weren't alive when Reagan was president will be able to graduate college and go wide-eyed into a world with unlimited potential. The economy will be cranking, the job market will be great and we will be militarily strong. The terrorists will be on the brink of collapse.

It will be morning in America again. Sarah Palin will give her "Statue of Liberty" speech and we will beam with pride and joy over our great nation and the great woman who will be leading it.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! And God bless Sarah Palin and the United States of America.