Elect Sarah Palin President 2012

The Palin Family aims high, as Piper demonstrates in this photo.

In about a week, this election-specific blog basically will cease to exist . . . in that there will be no more posts. John McCain will either have won Pennsylvania (and the presidency), or he won't. Starting today. I will be blogging basically at two sites: http://stevemaloneygop.blogspot.com/ and http://draftpalin2012.blogspot.com/. I urge you to visit both sites and bookmark them.

I also ask you, if you're a blogger, to join the ReadMyLipstickNetwork, which I've already done. The purpose of that network -- and the purpose of my blogs -- will be to ensure that Gov. Palin occupies the White House as soon as 2012. For that to happen, we're going to need a million-plus activists and organizers, and I certainly hope you're one of them. I'll have some other activities, which you'll hear about soon.

I very much appreciate the tens of thousands of people who've visited this blog. I especially appreciate the tens of millions of Americans who are going to cast their ballots for John McCain and Sarah Palin.

In the meantime, please contact friends, neighbors, and family members to ask them to vote for John and Sarah, two outstanding Americans.

Volunteers Urgently Needed for Philadelphia!

Elizabeth Hasselbeck of "The View" and Gov. Sarah Palin make a dynamic duo on the campaign trail!

Andrea Snell sent me the following; it's is a great opportunity for NYC and northeastern volunteers...

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** Anyone who is interested in this please email snellthewise@yahoo.com, tell her Jean referred you. Trip is THIS Saturday; it's now or never!! **

Hey Jean, We have a bus ready to go to NE Philly on Saturday and need people to fill it! PA is the make or break it state & the Philadelphia office has been needing more people for awhile. There are a large number of McCain supporters and we need to make sure to maximize turnout. (I went out & phonebanked yesterday and had an all Democrat call sheet- 3/4 of the people I spoke to are voting McCain)We have had a lot of volunteers going out but they have tended to go to other areas.


The campaign will be sending us to targeted voters (Soft Republican or Moderate Dem) that are likely to vote McCain but may need a little push- so we will not be wasting time going to hard core liberals.Will you post to your boards and contact your Princeton connections please?? (I know you must be swamped)We will be leaving at 8:30am from 34th St & 10th Ave, NYC (though an earlier NJ pick up could probably be arranged) and getting back at 8p. Have people contact me to confirm.EVERYone is saying PA is much closer than public polls suggest.

Important Study Needs Your Participation

I received the following request from Benjamin Cross, a psychology professor at NYU. I believe this is an important undertaking, and I'm going to participate. I hope you will also.

"I am writing you on behalf of a research team from the Psychology Department at New York University, in the hopes that you might be able to help us with our timely and important research about the cognitive bases of electoral decision-making. We would be very grateful to you if you could possibly help us recruit politically inclined respondents to our survey by posting to your blog the link to the online survey we are conducting as part of this research. We began data collection in September, after the Vice-Presidential candidates were announced, but we are particularly interested in how people respond to the candidates when Election Day is around the corner."

Here is the link to the survey: http://www.psychsurveys.org/brietruesdell/2008elections

Sarah Palin: First Woman President

"Will Sarah Palin's time come next week? I don't know. But her time will come." (Elaine Lafferty, feminist and campaign adviser to Gov. Palin)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-10-27/sarah-palins-a-brainiac/1/


Sarah Palin's a Brainiac, By Elaine Lafferty

Elaine Lafferty is a former staff correspondent at Time magazine and the Irish Times of Dublin, features editor at MORE magazine, editor in chief of Ms magazine. She has covered everything from the OJ Simpson trial to the Unabomber case, natural disasters in Central America, and conflicts in Kosovo, the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The recipient of numerous journalism awards, she co-authored My Turn At the Bully Pulpit with Greta Van Susteren.X Close The former editor in chief of Ms. magazine (and a Democrat) on what she learned on a campaign plane with the would-be VP.


It's difficult not to froth when one reads, as I did again and again this week, doubts about Sarah Palin's “intelligence,” coming especially from women such as PBS's Bonnie Erbe, who, as near as I recall, has not herself heretofore been burdened with the Susan Sontag of Journalism moniker. As Fred Barnes—God help me, I'm agreeing with Fred Barnes—suggests in the Weekly Standard, these high toned and authoritative dismissals come from people who have never met or spoken with Sarah Palin. Those who know her, love her or hate her, offer no such criticism. They know what I know, and I learned it from spending just a little time traveling on the cramped campaign plane this week: Sarah Palin is very smart.

I'm a Democrat, but I've worked as a consultant with the McCain campaign since shortly after Palin's nomination. Last week, there was the thought that as a former editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine as well as a feminist activist in my pre-journalism days, I might be helpful in contributing to a speech that Palin had long wanted to give on women's rights.What is often called her “confidence” is actually a rarity in national politics: I saw a woman who knows exactly who she is.

Now by “smart,” I don't refer to a person who is wily or calculating or nimble in the way of certain talented athletes who we admire but suspect don't really have serious brains in their skulls. I mean, instead, a mind that is thoughtful, curious, with a discernable pattern of associative thinking and insight. Palin asks questions, and probes linkages and logic that bring to mind a quirky law professor I once had. Palin is more than a “quick study”; I'd heard rumors around the campaign of her photographic memory and, frankly, I watched it in action. She sees. She processes. She questions, and only then, she acts. What is often called her “confidence” is actually a rarity in national politics: I saw a woman who knows exactly who she is.

For all those old enough to remember Senator Sam Ervin, the brilliant strict constitutional constructionist and chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee whose patois included “I'm just a country lawyer"...Yup, Palin is that smart.

So no simple task then, this speech on women's rights. For the sin of being a Christian personally opposed to abortion, Palin is being pilloried by the inside-the-Beltway Democrat feminist establishment. (Yes, she is anti-abortion. And yes, instead of buying organic New Zealand lamb at Whole Foods, she joins other Alaskans in hunting for food. That's it. She is not a right-wing nut, and all the rest of the Internet drivel—the book banning at the Library, the rape kits decision—is nonsense. I digress.) Palin's role in this campaign was to energize “the Republican base,” which she has inarguably done. She also was expected to reach out to Hillary Clinton “moderates.” (Right. Only a woman would get both those jobs in either party.)

Look, I am obviously personally pro-choice, and I disagree with McCain and Palin on that and a few other issues. But like many other Democrats, including Lynn Rothschild, I'm tired of the Democratic Party taking women for granted. I also happen to believe Sarah Palin supports women's rights, deeply and passionately.

Many of those—not all—who decried the sexist media treatment of Hillary Clinton have been silent as Palin has been skewered in the old ways that female public figures are skewered, as well as a host of sexualized new ways as well. Some feminists have weighed in; “Even the reportedly clear glasses she wears to play down her beauty queen credential and enhance her gravitas can't make up for experience,” writes my heroine Suzanne Braun Levine, former editor of Ms. Oppose her on policy? Fine. But how sad for feminist leaders to sink this low, especially when Palin has worn glasses since she was 10 years old.

Last month a prominent feminist blogger, echoing that sensibility, declared that the media was wrongly buying into the false idea that Palin was a feminist. Why? Well, just because she said she was a feminist, because she supported women's rights and opportunities, equal pay, Title IV—that was just “empty rhetoric,” they said. At least the blogger didn't go as far as NOW's Kim Gandy and declare that Palin was not a woman. Bottom line: you are not a feminist until we say you are. And there you have the formula for diminishing what was once a great and important mass social change movement to an exclusionary club that rejects women who sincerely want to join and, God forbid, grow to lead.

But here is the good news: women, citizens of America's high and low culture, the Economist and People magazine readers, will get it. They got it with Hillary even when feminist leaders were not supporting her or doing so half-heartedly. Yes, Palin is a harder sell, she looks and sounds different, and one can rightfully oppose her based on abortion policies. If you only vote on how a person personally feels about abortion, you will never want her to darken your door. If you care about anything else, she will continue to intrigue you. As Time's Nancy Gibbs noted a few weeks ago, quoting bioethicist Tom Murray, “Sympathy and subtlety are seasonings rarely applied to political red meat.”

Will Palin's time come next week? I don't know. But her time will come.

Hillary Clinton: No Sarah Palin

I was honored to be at Sarah Palin's Rally, which drew a huge crowd, in Beaver County, PA. She was splendid. She compared "Joe the Plumber" with "Barack, the Wealth Distributor."

The following is an e-mail to many hundreds of my political allies -- some of them closer allies than others.

Right now, the election boils down to this: If John McCain prevails in Florida, Ohio, AND Pennsylvania, he has a fighting chance to win the election. If he doesn't, he won't. That means we need tens of thousands of people to go to JohnMcCain.com, use the Online Phone Bank, and call into those three states.

After Nov. 5, no matter what happens the day before, I intend to work with kindred spirits, particulary the people at http://moderconservative.com/ to build a huge organization of activists who will win federal elections in 2010, 2012, and beyond.

After Nov. 4, "NoBama Mission Bloggers" will cease to exist. There will be another organization with a new name, but (I hope) with a lot of the same players.

In this election year, I focused on Hillary Supporters who would consider voting for John McCain, and later for McCain-Palin. Frankly, I thought there would be more of them than turned out to be the case. I believed -- and was partially correct -- that John McCain's status as a military hero, a reformer, and independent spirit would have great appeal.

Some people receiving this note believed that it would be possible to "reform" the DNC and the Democratic Party. Honestly, I thought (and now I know) they were engaged in a fantasy. Who exactly was going to reform the Party? Barack Obama? Howard Dean? Jay Rockefeller? Bob Casey? John Kerry? John Edwards? Ted Kennedy? Hillary Clinton?

Those people apparently are quite happy with the Party as it is. They have all enthusiastically endorsed Barack Obama, a man having no accomplishments in the past and showing little promise of any in the future.

My low point in dealing with Hillaryites came when I highly praised John McCain's naming of a strong woman as his vice presidential choice. One woman told me that by saluting Gov. Palin so highly I had made Hillary Clinton look bad by comparison.

Actually, I made no comparison, but if I had, my critic would have been right: HRC is NO Sarah Palin, not even close. Unlike Hillary, Sarah cannot be intimidated, cannot be made to toe the Party line, cannot be dismissed as someone who ever rode her spouse's coattails. She has the courage, compassion, and candor we should require in political candidates. "Country first" is the right motto for such an admirable woman and her remarkable family.

Gov. Palin has said that her goals for America are a society that promotes "freedom, tolerance/fairness, and opportunity." I don't know of any Democratic elected officials who share those goals. I know some individual Democrats do -- generally people in transition toward becoming either Independents or Republicans.

I believe Barack Obama (and Joe Biden) are the fulfillment of what Lyndon Johnson called "The Great Society." What that "Great" aim led to was a society in moral and cultural disarray, one where half the people are dependent on the other half. In that kind of society, concepts like freedom, tolerance/fairness, and opportunity become mere words.

In the future, I'll be dealing mainly with moderates and conservatives, almost all of whom will be either Republicans or Independents. In terms of candidates, I'll be looking for people of uncommon honesty and courage. Candidates who are poll-driven cynics and careerists will be the enemy, because they are so destructive of our country.

I wish John McCain and Sarah Palin all the best on election day. I will continue to work hard for them, and I hope all of you will do so also.

For some of you, this is a good-bye message. For others, it is a pledge to work with you to build a stronger America. But God bless to all.

Hillary Clinton: No Sarah Palin

Mistakes made, lessons learned in the 2008 Campaign . . .

Karen [a friend]: At one point in the JustSayNoDeal atmosphere I gave a ringing endorsement to Sarah Palin. I was told by a Hillaryite that by praising Sarah Palin so highly I had upset her because, by comparison, I'd made HRC look bad. Actually, I said nothing about Hillary Clinton, whom I admit I don't believe is in the same league as Sarah Palin.

Let me be frank: HRC is obviously a Party first person. Sarah Palin is country first.

Your comment about the "maverick" (i.e., naive) political participants is accurate. Frankly, the hundreds of thousands of hours spent on "Denver" and on wild flailing at Obama were a gigantic waste of time and money. The time expended on Denver should have been spent organizing -- and raising money -- to defeat Obama.

Sen. Clinton and her husband, both labelled racists (and worse) by Obama, have been out campaigning for their tormentor. The excuse given is that Sen. Clinton "has to do what she has to do." I compare that to Dosteoevsky's comment that, "If God is dead, everything is permitted." As long as someone like HRC is held to no standards, she "lives up" to that just fine.

One reason I like Sarah Palin so much is that she is not -- and will never become -- a Washington insider. She is incorruptible and totally fearless. The Hillary Supporters who have faced up to reality (and it is horrifying to say the least) will be great allies. The ones who remain in fantasy land would be no help to us.

You raise a point that Chris, Katie, and I have not discussed; the crying need for political training -- basically, to acquaint people with what works and what doesn't. Also, we need to inform people about how to build small organizations into large ones.

As for bloggers, they can be great assets. At times, however, we sounded like the second coming of the Tower of Babel. At our worst, we were all trying to produce a "knockout" (one more juicy expose) but generally didn't lay a glove on BHO. The birth-certificate non-issue was a classic case. I doubt 1% of the voters can identify the name "Raila Odinga." Michelle Obama's Princeton thesis is of interest to almost no one.

What are Americans interested in? And of even more importance, what are they NOT interested in? I asked people many time to be brutally realistic with themselves, but that message didn't get across to many.

We also need to coalesce around a specific candidate. I've said I hope that will be Sarah Palin, but I'm open to other names (if there are some).

McCain-Palin Can Still Win

A Hillary Supporter wrote asking if I had "given up" on winning this year's election; the following is my response.

I have NOT given up on the election at all. I've worked so hard for so many months that I have something approaching Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Hell, I'm still trying to win Pennsylvania, which I believe we just might do. I've predicted (guessed?) that McCain may take the national lead by the end of October. We shall see.

However, I realize that after an election -- win or lose -- a whole lot of people tend to disappear. Then, two years or four years later, everybody starts re-inventing the same wheel that they already "invented" previously. It's impossible to win modern elections that way.

Thanks for your continuing support of McCain-Palin, a ticket of two honorable people.

As you already know, I do not believe the Democratic Party is going to "reformed." Who on earth would reform it? I have scrupulously supported such "reform" efforts for many months now, but at this point I regard them as folly and fantasy.

Democrats -- like the Clintons -- who should be leading the reform movement are running around drooling over Obama. His despicable campaign will be the "model" for all future Democratic Party efforts.