Flailing at Palin

Peggy Noonan can no longer be taken seriously as a voice for conservatism. She is not the same writer that helped craft the Reagan message a generation ago. Indeed, over the last year or so her work has become increasingly hostile to what Americans value most, grit, courage, and authenticity (i.e. substance over style and fluff).

Noonan has particularly lost her moorings when it comes to Governor Sarah Palin. I’m not sure why Mrs. Palin irks her so, but it has been palpable since the Republican convention. Evidently, she doesn’t measure up for Noonan in style points. Is it because she winked to America during the Vice-Presidential debate? Certainly, Governor Palin doesn’t display the hollow sophistication of the secluded Washington – New York elites, or the arrogance of many of our college professors, and she has little use for the self-aggrandizing non-sense of Hollywood. Instead, she is the feminine personification of genuiene Americanism which is new to our political stage, and yet not unlike the American masculinity exuded by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt. Inexplicably, Noonan claims “there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for, and expects, in a holder of high office”, and insinuates that Palin lacks direction and core-beliefs other than in her own ambition. Apparently, promoting (and living) a culture of life, limited government, and a foreign policy that puts American interests first, and doing so with magnatism and vitality, is not good enough? Reagan would be surprised, especially when these core-principles are directly contrasted to Obama’s cold and calculated utilitarian disdain for human life, his cynical domestic agenda of class warfare and wealth redistribution, and his naive “citizen of the world” first foreign policy.

Sure it would have been better if Mrs. Palin had a few more years under her belt running the State of Alaska. But, we are not comparing her to Winston Churchill. She is running with John McCain against Barack Obama who has absolutely no history of accomplishment. Nothing, naught, zilch. The only thing he has ever accomplished is to carefully align himself with the Chicago political machine who skillfully maneuvered him into a U.S. Senate seat. Since that time he has been too busy running for President and being the Messiah of all things Left to actually accomplish anything. Palin by contrast has been governing, standing up to a corrupt political system, and advancing our nations’ energy interests. Moreover, she has given conservatives a reason to vote for the Republican ticket and more importantly hope that even if the Obama fiasco is fully realized in his election this Fall that we have up-coming conservative stars waiting in the wings to clean up the mess.