Former New York Gov. George Pataki has endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman over GOP candidate Dierdre Scozzafava in the race for New York’s 23rd Congressional District.  Principle over party is now the cry!

As Hoffman narrowly moves into first place in a three way race, we are fast seeing who is willing to take a stand:

• George Pataki
• Sarah Palin
• Tim Pawlenty
• Sen. Jim DeMint
• Fred Thompson
• Steve Forbes
• Dick Armey
• Tom Cole (former RNCC chair)
• Ed Meese
• David Keene
• Al Regnery
• David McIntosh
• Brent Bozell
• Jim Miller
• Richard Viguerie
• Tony Perkins
• Tom Winter
• Ken Blackwell
• Craig Shirley

Who is supporting Scozzafava?

• Michael Steele
• Newt Gingrich
• The RNCC

Gingrich has ceded all ties to the conservative movement with this move.  Steele never had any.  Their support of liberal Wayne Gilchrest merely made them look foolish.  However, this race has the potential to be as meaningful to conservatives as the 1976 GOP presidential primaries.  Assuming Hoffman pulls off a victory, Steele’s resignation should be demanded immediately.  Those on the RNC who voted for Steele over Ken Blackwell should be ashamed!  As for the RNCC, no conservative should donate a dime as long as the House GOP caucus is led by the likes of Boehner and Cantor (see below).

Worst of all – Who is standing on the sidelines?

• John Boehner
• Eric Cantor
• Mike Huckabee
• Mitt Romney

This is merely a warm-up for next year.  We are witnessing the GOP elite support statist candidates over true conservatives.  We need to support people like Marco Rubio in Florida and Chuck DeVore in California.  As Neil Stevens recently reminded us, there are two kinds of Republicans.  We know which kind our country needs.

Over the last few days much has been made of Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s decision to step down at the end of the month.  Was it the pressure?  Is there an impending scandal?  Who knows.

Driving back from Baltimore on Friday I listened to the coverage and thought a potentially brilliant political career was over … until I got back to my office and was able to hear GOV. PALIN speak instead of listening to media filtered versions of the event.

Did Palin do the politically smart thing?  Maybe not.  Did she do the RIGHT thing?  Absolutely; and that is why she is so popular.

Given that Palin is popular enough to give a strong Barack Obama (much less the Barack Obama we will see in 2012) a run for his money, the media doesn’t want the public to dwell on why she actually made her decision.  Instead, they prefer to imply all sorts of foolishness.  Unfortunately for them, and Obama, former Gov. Sarah Palin will have three years to communicate her message to the American people.

Whether she decides to run for the White House in 2012 or not, I admire her decision and the conviction behind it.

Before Sarah Palin was elected governor, she was a leader of a movement to clean up Alaska government.  That movement has been highly successful.  However, Palin has been forced to pay a price for that effort.  Unfortunately, the Alaska taxpayer has also been forced to bear over $2 million of the cost of frivolous ethics complaints filed in an attempt to weaken Alaska’s most popular politician (and one of America’s).

Palin could have easily chosen to ride out the next two years as governor.  Perhaps she would run for the Senate next year.  She could then hop on the bandwagon for a presidential run.  That would have been the easy way … the smart way.

Fortunately for Alaskans, and Americans, Palin wouldn’t choose the easy way.  As she stated Friday, her administration has accomplished much.  She has a great team, including Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell.  Palin was faced with a choice – either take the easy way and risk a stop to the reform oriented agenda of the Palin-Parnell team, or … step down and allow Parnell to complete the work that they had started.

This decision may cost Palin her chance for the White House.  If it does, shame on us.  I’m not claiming that Sarah Palin is the best candidate for the 2012 GOP nomination.  Mississippi governor Haley Barbour would be an excellent choice.  There’s Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, and a few others.  However, if Sarah Palin is denied the GOP nod because she did what was right, then we will know that the GOP is not ready to regain power again.

It doesn’t matter how much damage the Democrats do, and they are doing a lot.  If we put forward candidates who choose power over principle, false ideology over ideas, then we don’t deserve to win.  Anyone who attempts to portray Palin as a “quitter” or as a woman “who couldn’t handle the pressure” is simply someone who deserves neither our respect nor our vote.

The media, along with some nominally conservative elitists, want Sarah Palin’s head on a plate.  Why?  Simply because a politically and intellectually more mature Sarah Palin could ring the death knell of both the new faux moderate left AND so many Reagan wannabes.  They believe it’s better to murder her now.

John O’Sullivan provides an interesting comparison between Palin and a true conservative giant – Margaret Thatcher.  O’Sullivan is dead on.  However, if Palin is to emerge as “the next Ronald Reagan” she needs to start working NOW.  She can start by reading a few books.

I realize that anti-intellectual populism is in vogue right now among many on the fringes of the conservative movement.  Unfortunately, these people tend to forget one very important fact – we are about core principles and the IDEAS to apply those principles to our current state of affairs.

The George W. Bush’s and the Tom DeLay’s of the world have put us in our current position by pandering, looking for short cuts, and outright abandonment of those core conservative principles.  Neither Ronald Reagan, nor Margaret Thatcher, did that.  Reagan not only adhered to core principles, he knew WHY he believed in those principles.  Reagan was a voracious reader.  Reagan had Heritage.  Thatcher had Keith Joseph and was one of the founders of the Centre for Policy Studies.  Thatcher had actually read Hayek’s Constitution of Liberty, and understood it.

Palin needs to prepare herself intellectually for the fight ahead.  Do not misinterpret what I am saying.  I am not claiming that Palin is stupid.  Quite the opposite.  Palin has almost the entire package.  She’s bright, charasmatic, and attractive.  Her public speaking and debating skills could stand some polish; but not at  the expense of her inherent charm.  There is no doubt that she is conservative.  However, until she develops her own intellectual framework for WHY she believes what she does Palin will be unable to defend her ideas.  This could make her look foolish.  It could also allow her to wind up taking the dark path of “big government conservatism”, an oxymoron if ever there was one.

Thatcher not only knew what she believed, but why.  This was why she was considered such a threat by the Tory wet’s (a British euphemism for squishes or RINO’s if you prefer).  A Sarah Palin who depends on “advisers” rather than her own intellectual discovery may one day be elected President; but would be a disasterous leader.  A Sarah Palin who continues to take her own path, by developing her own intellectual framework, may one day be worthy of legitimate comparison to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

… and Myriad Other Sins.

Would we expect less?  The MSM is doing everything it can to shield “THE ONE” from his ties to domestic terrorists.

Bill Ayers participated in the bombings of a police memorial in Chicago, the New York City police HQ, the US Capitol and the Pentagon.  This is not supposition, or right wing propaganda.  Ayers proudly admits to these acts in his own memoir – Fugitive Days.

Barack Obama has “repudiated” the acts of someone “he barely knows”.  Unfortunately, this is another example of “THE ONE” not being very honest with the citizens he wants to lead.  He knew Jeremiah Wright for 20 years, but never heard him make the kinds of comments that caused Obama to distance himself from the radical preacher.

It’s similar with Ayers.  Obama claims to barely know Ayers, but it was Ayers who recruited Obama to serve on the board of the Chicago Annenberg Project.  Obama and Ayers served on another board together.  Ayers contributed to Obamas campaigns AND even hosted a campaign event for Obama during his first run for office.

What is the media’s spin?  An Associated Press article (parts of which are in today’s Daily Times) is typical:

By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is “palling around with
terrorists” and doesn’t see the U.S. like other Americans, vice
presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering
campaign.And though she may have scored a political hit each
time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged
subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.

Note that the McCain campaign is “faltering”.  There is an inferrence of desperation to diminish the credibility of VP candidate Sarah Palin’s statements.  If that wasn’t sufficient, discussion of Barack Obama’s ties to an admitted domestic terrorist are “unsubstantiated” and carry a “racially tinged subtext”.  Since Ayers is white, I’m really trying to figure that one out.

According to AP writer Douglass K. Daniel:

Palin’s words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there
another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential
nominee “palling around” with terrorists while assuring a predominantly
white audience that he doesn’t see their America?

Daniel and a seeming majority of his media colleagues seem to believe that Obama should be given a free pass for his past associations.  The man who bankrolled Obama’s early political career, Tony Rezko, is a convicted felon.  Obama associated with an admitted terrorist.

Obama, his wife and their now former pastor all seem to have a distinct disdain for America.  Rev. Wright says G__ D___ America!  Michelle Obama was never proud of her country … until her husband was nominated to the Presidency.  Obama himself travelled to Europe, behaving as if he had been coronated, and denouncing America and her government’s policies.

According to the media, these are not fair fodder for public discourse.  We’re somehow racist because Obama is black.  We’re not “sticking to the issues”.

It’s a wonder that liberals don’t control EVERY seat in Congress and that EVERY President since 1933 has’t been a liberal; given that the media only wants to discuss the liberal talking points.

A recent article on the Huffington Post exemplifies the media’s attitude towards Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin – she’s just too “folksy” and isn’t smart enough for the liberal elite.  This also explains why a VP candidate has had such a huge impact on the presidential race.

The lead to Arianna Huffington’s post sets the stage:

I watched the vice presidential debate in a ballroom at the Four
Seasons hotel in Aviara, just north of San Diego, along with a couple
of hundred women attending Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women Summit…

The average voter always hangs out at the Four Seasons – Aviara, at a SUMMIT, no less.

Huffington, who earned her wealth the old fashioned way – a divorce settlement, personifies the attitude of the media’s liberal elite when it comes to Sarah Palin.  She just isn’t one of us.

Palin strikes a nerve with both the MSM and the lefty blogosphere.  Whether you agree with Palin on the issues, or not, there is no question that she is genuine.  She walks the walk.

If the media subjected Barack Obama to half of the ridicule slathered on Palin, the election would be over now.  Fortunately for Obama, he’s a liberal.  Consequently, every gaff is overlooked, every lie ignored.

While one is running at the top of the ticket and the other for VP, a comparison between Obama’s and Palin’s rhetorical styles is compelling.  Obama lives by the teleprompter; Palin speaks from the heart, or gut.  Obama parses every word, Palin says what she thinks.  Obama is polished beyond belief; the stutters and hesitations of Palin only lend credence to her genuineness.

“You’re just whining about the media, like you right wingers always do.”  Wrong.  The liberal nature of the MSM is a fact and must be accepted.  My quarrel is not with them at all.  My quarrel is actually with the McCain campaign.

The people running McCain’s campaign are products of the “Inside the Beltway” culture.  They all seem to want to sit at the “cool kid’s table” which is defined by a liberal media elite.  Palin needs to ignore their advice and simply does what she does best – connect with ordinary voters.

I am reminded of another candidate who was ridiculed by the media as “folksy” – former Senator and Virginia Gov. George Allen.  People have short memories.  Allen was the front runner for the 2008 GOP nod.  He was one of the few GOP politicians who was the “real deal”.

While the media despised George, the average men and women of Virginia loved him.  As he became more visible nationally, a growing number of average Americans began to feel the same way about him.

George just made one major mistake.  He put the cart before the horse.  Thinking that he would be a shoe-in for re-election, he put together a team for re-election that was nothing like the army of true believers that had served him so well in the past.  Instead of keeping his eye on 2006, George and his team was thinking about 2008 – and lost his seat.

Time is short.  For Sarah Palin to be effective, she must be allowed to do what she does best – connect with real, average Americans.  I believe that she has learned her lesson from the Couric interview – ignore the media elite.  Don’t allow them to filter her or her message.

Unlike some in my party, I don’t believe that Sarah Palin is the second coming of Ronald Reagan.  In four years, whether as VP or the GOP’s presumptive nominee, she could be the next best thing.

One thing is certain.  The day John McCain put Sarah Palin on his ticket, the prospects for the GOP for the next decade rose immeasurably.  Win or lose – Palin needs to keep her eye on the ball and not allow herself to be manipulated by Washington elites of the media, or either party.

… So What?

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post claims that the MSM is getting mad at John McCain and Sarah Palin.  Again, SO WHAT?  It’s not like we’re going to get a fair shake from these guys to begin with.

Maybe it’s a sense that this is crunch time, that the election is on
the line, that the press is being manipulated (not that there’s
anything new about that).

Typically, the arrogant press believes that a candidate’s message has to come through them before we – the great unwashed – deserve to hear it.  It’s not their job to worry that “the election is on the line”.  Supposedly, these folks are neutral reporters of the news.  I know.  I don’t believe it either.

If the McCain-Palin campaign is smart, they’ll keep these guys waiting.  Whether or not McCain and Palin make themselves available to every journalist in the country… or not, the MSM will soon be back drinking the Obama koolade.  Take their message DIRECTLY to the people and win an election.  Don’t worry about how a bunch of elitist reporters feel about them.

According to Blog PI and Instapundit, Obama supporters appear to be vandalizing GOP V.P. nominee Sarah Palin’s entry on Wikipedia.

WAIT! I thought that Barack Obama was all about change … a kinder, gentler, politics. These disciples of the ONE aren’t following the true path … or are they?

WWOD?

I’ve been a huge fan of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. She’s honest. She’s tough. She’s not afraid to fight the good fight. Unfortunately, Palin obviously didn’t study much economics.

Palin and the Alaska legislature instituted a tax on oil companies very similar to the one being proposed by the man who would be Messiah – Barack Hussein Obama. The results – Conoco has delayed development of a refinery and BP-Alaska has delayed development in the western region region of the North Slope.

We can expect to hear from the left side of the aisle that this is merely “corporate greed”. Given that these folks believe that all industry should be state controlled (they just don’t have the guts to admit it publicly), they can’t grasp the concept that a company’s primary responsibility is to its shareholders, not some amorphous “public good”.

If Congress adopts a tax policy on oil akin to the one signed by Gov. Palin, we can expect more of the same – only on a global scale. Decline in development. Reduced investment. Why put capital at risk when the government is going to take the lion’s share?

Demand is set. It is going to continue to grow. The only control we have over the equation in both the short and medium terms is supply. To steal a line – IT’S THE SUPPLY STUPID!

It’s a shame that someone like Sarah Palin doesn’t grasp such a simple concept. I’ve always questioned whether she possessed a core philosophy. Perhaps she is too similar to Sen. John McCain. McCain’s biggest flaw as a leader is that he responds from the gut. There is no question that they both are endowed with a strong moral compass. Unfortunately, they both seem to lack the strong philosophical underpinnings of a Ronald Reagan or a Margaret Thatcher.

In McCain’s case, I have no doubt that this strong “gut instinct” served him well as a naval aviator. There is no question that this similar instinct has served Palin well in giving Alaska back to the people who live there rather than a few corrupt politicians.

If Gov. Palin wishes to be the leader I believe she was born to be, I would recommend that she start spending some of her downtime with a little light reading.

Thanks to the Delaware Curmudgeon for pointing me to the article on Gov. Palin.