Posted by
David C. Innes on Thursday, July 23, 2009 8:44:28 AM
Harold Kildow writes: Allow me to take the part of the Governor over against the
oleaginous and unctuous Peggy Noonan. Sarah Palin was thrown into the imperial
snakepit before her time, no question about that. But the only people
that have any chance to survive that trial by slander, rumor, and
humiliation are those who grew up with the boys and girls in that
little club and are thus just like them. The savaging she has endured
from the best and the brightest is unprecedented, and she has had
zero--ZERO--support from the heroic elected Republicans inside the
Beltway. In fact, some of the most outrageous attacks have come from
the little backstabbing bedwetters inside the McCain campaign itself.
As far as supportive pundits or journalists, I think it reduces to Bill
Kristol and a couple of others at the Weekly Standard. (See Victor
Davis Hanson's thoughtful reflections in "
What is Wisdom? Sarah Palin and her Critics"
) With only support from the great unwashed, she has held her ground.
And I don't know where this charge that she doesn't know anything comes
from--aside from beltway ambush interviews.
While being a mother of
five, she dominated multi-party, multi-million dollar negotiations on a
giant pipeline deal that had been mired for decades in the corrupt good
old boy network and got a deal done. How did that happen? I notice hers
is one of the few states in the Union that is in good fiscal
condition--a veritable petro state awash in petro dollars, which few
politicos would be able to keep their hands off of. She has, and the
state of Alaska is positioned to be a leading economic factor when
grownups get back in control of the national economy and energy policy.
Oh, and as far as not being thoughtful, how about leading a meaningful
reassertion of the Tenth Amendment as
part of the conservative resurgence of constitutionalism among state
legislatures and governors? This is just the first of many moves she
will be making. She may not be destined for the presidency, but she
will galvanize the conservative movement in ways Noonan never has or
ever will, a factor that ought not to be overlooked when judging
Noonan's analysis.
And lets face it--it doesn't matter whose face is
associated with conservatism, he or she is portrayed as either stupid
or evil or both--e.g., Gingrich, Reagan, Thatcher. Besides, the left is
brimming with really smart people who think they know how to run
everyone's lives, and where has that ever worked out? Self-organized,
bottom up structures such as political self-rule and free markets rest
more on practical wisdom than the imperial court craftiness and
scientific management principles the left prefer for their scheme to
rule every last detail of our lives.
I don't think the left's
attempts to hang Palin around our necks as some kind talisman of stupid
is going to succeed, despite all of Peggy Noonan's good work. And
regarding the
Time magazine cover above (I agree with your assessment
of what they are attempting), Palin will be around long after
Time and
Newsweek have died from lack of circulation. George W. Bush, the
dumbest president ever, ran circles around them for most of eight years
despite their shameless derogation of him. And remember that even
Reagan was just an "amiable dunce" to these geniuses. Which leads me to
a final thought.
What would Noonan's old boss think of Sarah Palin? I'm
guessing he would be her biggest supporter, and would be disappointed
at Noonan's slide into lust for the cocktail party circuit at the
expense of conservatism. I think Peggy Noonan left the reservation long
ago, and I never read her anymore--not since she was caught on an open
mic disparaging the rank and file of the party--something Ronaldus
Magnus would never have done, or accepted.
-- Harold Kildow (Ph.D. Fordham University) is associate blogger at Principalities and Powers.