Friday night was one of the rare occasions I didn’t get to listen to any of Mark Levin’s show on my weekday drive home… probably a good thing, as I probably would have driven off the road if I’d heard it live.
Doctor Zero on July 5, 2009 at 5:43 PM

It’s a good thing you didn’t since you are probably right. He read extensively from it. Good job!

Some people are basically good and honst. For them, the right thing to do is ingrained. It comes naturally. There is the right thing to do and then there is everything else.
Ohio Granny on July 5, 2009 at 6:21 AM

It is an uncommon quality and it attracts many people who still have good instincts. I believe she represents something at a level where many of us would like to be, but find ourselves falling short. One needn’t be entrenched in the Palin 2012 camp to feel it.

If Krauthammer disappoints, it is because he demonstrates the human trait of imperfection — like everyone else. As conservatives are prone to do, he may find himself admitting error and apologizing one day. Of course, the reverse is possible too, but I don’t think so.

Our age is marked by the individual with a time-consuming and narrow hyper-competence in a specialized field. This is part of the “bubble syndrome” that leads so many good people astray. With the help of leftist evil, our sense of community and continuity is tattered. Our people forgot what connects us, where we came from, and how we reached the heights of material success.

It is my belief and hope that someone like Palin will start the process of re-integrating our society and restoring constitutional government — and remind everyone of the moral foundation on which it depends.

The conservative message is simple: less government, less taxes, less intrusion in our lives as the constitution dictates. Get out the message clearly and we win.

By the way, I can’t stand the hyperbole that follows postings people agree with. A post entirely containing “SARAH RocKS!!!!1!” would’ve been followed by a praise of his analysis and demands that he be paid a bagajillion dollars a year.

amerpundit on July 3, 2009 at 5:53 PM

I’d like to hear more about this bagajillion dollars you speak of.

LOL. Now, it has come time to shoot the messenger. Even a stalwart conservative like Krauthammer who has been around fighting the good fight since Sarah was a nobody, is now a target for the hate that Sarah herself has unleashed by dashing the hopes of her own cult following by quitting.

I thought the Michael Jackson mass denial was bad.

keep the change on July 3, 2009 at 5:56 PM

I don’t know how anyone could read what I wrote, and conclude Krauthammer has become “a target for my hate.” I can only speak for myself, but my admiration for his work is not diminished because I disagree with his perspective on this one issue. With a whole weekend to mull over the events of Friday afternoon, I guess I’d also have to disagree with Ed’s take on Palin’s future, but my admiration for him is not diminished either. Everyone who followed the Palin saga has been either supercharged with adrenalin, or reeling in shock, for the last couple of days. I’m curious to read everyone’s thoughts in the coming weeks, as we hear more from Palin, and have a chance to process the information calmly.

Palin might have many fine qualities, but her performance today was nothing short of bush-league.
RightOFLeft on July 4, 2009 at 12:24 AM

You must be joking. Only a Bush can sink to Ivy League liberalism that low.

…the Hotair meme of slag on Gov. Palin under the pretense that it is “constructive criticism”?
Blake on July 4, 2009 at 8:27 AM

Which is why I’m avoiding clicks or comment on any more Palin hit-jobs here. I’m sure they’ll miss that, heh.

Not just this past week my friend. This death of a thousand cuts has been unfolding for almost a year now. So what if a few assassins didn’t know she was already dead?
Randy

williars on July 3, 2009 at 7:43 PM

Nor, would it have stopped them. The election has been over for months and she has been low key but they still were going after. And frankly, I don’t think it will stop. That’s because the problem is not with her but with the scummy attack dogs on the left and the right.

Sarah Palin set herself free today. Free to write a book. Free to make a pile of money. Free to campaign for conservative candidates and values. Free to run for higher office, perhaps.She left behind an office where she would be increasingly hamstrung by partisan Democrat anklebiters. trigon on July 4, 2009 at 3:58 AM

Can you just imagine the political envy these “wanna-be” Democrat hacks up in Alaska must have felt after Palin returned from the national stage? Anklebiters seems a fitting word for those who stooped so low to get their 15 minutes of fame. The typical liberal tactic, (and yes, Docs description of the beltway babies), is, if you can’t attack the message, go after the messenger. After six or seven bogus ethics charges, (including where she agreed to pay back the kids plane rides–hypocritical, if these demagogues’ want to look at every “free ride” not reported by politicians in every state), Sarah Palin chose the only path available to her under the circumstances. That she took Michael Jackson off the airwaves speaks volumes to how the liberal media still see her as a threat to their elite world. The media-elite truly believe they are the “King-makers” and political shakers. As long as there are “Sarah Palins” out there touching and relating to mainstream America, we will see them under attack even with the innocent,(yet naive), comments like Greg Jarrets.

Or the child-like comments written here a Hot Air that we would expect to see at the DaliyKos:

Greta:
STFU please. If it wasn’t for women voting for Dems, this country wouldn’t be on the road to ruin.

As a conservative advocating for every vote in the upcoming election cycles, this is hardly the rhetorical babble that will convince women to vote conservatively.

Congrats to Doc Zero for framing a critical portion of the political spectrum, (the Beltway elites with their ad hominem solipsisms vs. the gun-totten’ Bible beating middle-Americans that can relate to Palin’s views).

As trigon said above, “Sarah Palin set herself free today”. Free to set her own priorities and agenda without the bondage or shackles the media or her liberal foes preferred. The ground around her feet just got a lot bigger while the rocks her critics just crawled under are no longer big enough.

She left behind an office where she would be increasingly hamstrung by partisan Democrat anklebiters.

It was all in her speech. Didn’t some of you listen to what she said? This may be the best news for conservatives in a couple of decades.

First, Palin hasn’t declared her intentions, and has no obligation to do so. It must be terribly frustrating to pundits and other media elites — so much so that they project their frustration as unwarranted criticism. Palin doesn’t play by their rules, wah-wah-wah.

These same know-it-alls are busy pre-selecting their Republican club-members of choice. The electorate will then be urged to project another round of false hope on the likes of the Bush dynasty, Romney, or other elite chameleon. Reagan was never one of them and the Ivy League trash quietly hated him for it.

Finally, people who didn’t experience the Reagan era can’t appreciate the most important thing about Palin: she connects with people, coming across as genuine and honest — because she is genuine and honest. She radiates confidence and optimism. It is a quality that can’t be faked. She resonates with the Heartland the way Reagan did. It is something largely incomprehensible to the post-modern mind.

Two things left out of all the ridicule and calculation: the elites can’t break the connection between Palin and the non-leftist public. They try, but they can’t. Even with the economy in tatters and corruption beyond imagination, I suspect many in the smart-boy political bubble don’t begin to comprehend how fed-up the average person is with the ruling class.

Terrie on July 4, 2009 at 1:05 AM

My theory posted above does not contradict Palin’s stated concerns about her personal debt and the toll on Alaska. I’m sure they were factors bringing her to the tipping point — and probably other issues we may never know about. But that was the part of her decision she felt obligated to explain to her constituents. The rest was private and she owed that to her family.

My guess is something similar to a Sandford scenario that we don’t know about yet.

Why does everything have to be about power and sin? From The Big Chill: “Are not the satisfactions of being a good man among our common men great enough to sustain us any more?”

Once Palin decided that she had to restore as much normality to her family life as possible, I think she saw no reason to delay. My sense is that she is not a quitter and it was incredibly difficult to let go of her dream.

She did not have a Nixon or Muskie moment. There was no visible self-pity or anger, except for the “hell, no!” moment. Given the circumstances, including the fact that she was not working from a teleprompter or script and appeared revealingly thin, I think it was a triumph of grace and grit.

Krauthammer’s statement that “You cannot sustain a campaign of platitudes and clichés over a year and a half if you’re running for the presidency” is so powerfully contradicted by recent history as to be surreal.

It’s not contradictory though. I’m sure Krauthammer isn’t an idiot. Obama got away with this because he was black. Plain and simple. The fact that he belonged to a racist church for 20 yrs and suffered nothing is, in itself, proof of that double standard.

Palin, however, isn’t black. She’s merely a very naive and fairly confused third rate politician from Alaska who had beauty (some would say) on her side, but very little else.

Because the MSM whores do not analyze Barry’s glaring idiocies, feckless follies, goofy gaffes, sheer stupidities, childish blunders, and his failures to speak out when history is being made - as with the protesters dying in Iran, or for speaking moronically & inaccurately- as with his “coup” take on Honduras.

Palin is fighting the entirety of the media, liberal and mock-conservative, while Obama is being nursemaided by these same pimps. Their work done with a fulsome licking of presidential spittle and a startlingly unprincipled dishonesty about Barry’s character, actions, intelligence and aims.

Obama will unravel as his b.s. bluster frays and wears so thin that even the nakedly-shameless liars in his media won’t be able to re-weave the Barackish calamity cloth into a serene suit of lights.

Palin will shine as Obama dims and shinks.

Wrong. Krauthammer has it exactly right. EXACTLY. Anyone that thinks the platitudes she uses now will work in 2016 or 2020 are incredibly incredibly… she will be older.

Danzo on July 3, 2009 at 9:28 PM

Uh, yeah. So what male platitude-spouter do you think it’ll be in 2012?

Sarah is real. Obama is a fraud, recreated by the left. One day this house of cards will come tumbling down and when it does it will be the biggest scandal in out nations history.

If the left didn’t view Sarah as a threat they wouldn’t bother filing bogus ethics complaints against her.

She just resigned her office before her first term was even finished. She’s toast, as even supporters of hers in non-HotAir areas of the universe have conceded.

amerpundit on July 3, 2009 at 5:49 PM

Did you borrow this tactic from the State Controlled Media? Simply manufacture a fact and throw it out there as truth.

I’m a supporter – and I’m not leaving her. I may leave the GOP – and really … I’m so, so, so very ready to do it. All that needs to happen is for Palin to give the nod and start a new party.

Let’s have some fun huh? GOP (Name your Ayatollah) vs Palin Conservatives vs Obama in 2012.

I’m ready – are you?

She just resigned her office before her first term was even finished. She’s toast, as even supporters of hers in non-HotAir areas of the universe have conceded.

amerpundit on July 3, 2009 at 5:49 PM

I’ve listened to her entire press conference twice and her explanation makes sense to me. I doubt it will be appreciated by the politicos, elites and inside the beltway types. They’ll excoriate her, and doesn’t that just prove her point? If you take her statement and rationale at face value, it makes sense. But then again, I didn’t graduate from an Ivy League school, so maybe I’m just ignorant.

She doesn’t have a chance now in 2012, but all the blog posters on HA already [wrongly] wrote her off for that anyway, so any “NOW she doesn’t have a chance in 2012″ from the blog posters would be disingenuous.

I think she indeed has nixed her chances for 2012, and Sarah fully factored that into her decision… and Krauthammer is right on all counts.

I hope Palin runs for 2010. She already has my support, my donations, and my vote.

I was listening to Levin on the way home and he started reading it.

I had JUST read and posted my comment and got in my car got on the freeway and heard it and almost drove off the road cheering for you! The Great one pays homage to very few. Feel proud.

Doctor ZeroHero…who is NO Doctor Zero. LOL.

Congrats!

IrishEi on July 3, 2009 at 6:14 PM

FIFY.

By the way, I can’t stand the hyperbole that follows postings people agree with. A post entirely containing “SARAH RocKS!!!!1!” would’ve been followed by a praise of his analysis and demands that he be paid a bagajillion dollars a year.

amerpundit on July 3, 2009 at 5:53 PM

That’s really good to know. Please tell us more about this fascinating topic.

Anyway, good deal on the Levin nod, Doc. Heard it in the car and had to slap the dashboard. (Don’t ask with what.)

I’m not opposed to Palin, but I’d love for her to stop sounding so FARGO and stop speaking like everything is an obvious complaint. She hasn’t a voice that dogs would respond to. My advice: Bark competently and commandingly.

ericdijon on July 3, 2009 at 2:58 PM

Sorry she irritates you, but she doesn’t need to be anything other than who she is, as long as she believes in what America has always stood for and continues to articulate it, as imperfect as her voice may be. She speaks for those of us who are equally despised by the DC elite.

Thank you, Doc Zero, for an excellent analysis of what ails us.