It Seems I Hit A Nerve With NRO’s Kevin D. Williams

July 10, 2010...5:47 pm

By Gary P Jackson

 On our nation’s birthday I published my thoughts on all of those establishment types who are continually trying to find Sarah Palin a job, any job, that would keep her from what she is up to.
In particular, I addressed the nonsensical idea thrown out there By National Review Online’s Kevin D. Williams: Make Sarah Palin RNC Chairman, replacing Michael Steele. Now frankly, if he wasn’t such a condescending, uninformed writer, I might have been a little less harsh on the guy. This cat is typical though of the Beltway insider elite.

The way these Beltway insiders think is pretty transparent. They love the fact that she’s out there whipping up the base, who can’t stand them, and see them as the problem, not the solution. They also love that she can raise a lot of money for candidates, as well as pick solid people to endorse. They are also happy that she’s out there doing ALL of the heavy lifting, and taking ALL of the flack, this way they never have to take a firm position on things.

These establishment types are all too happy allowing Sarah Palin to work her butt off, as long as she “knows her place.”
The one part Mr Williams wrote that really sent me over the edge is this:

A Chairman Palin would help set the right tone for the Republican party without having to get herself entangled in the minutiae of policy.

As we pointed out at the time, this is a supreme insult to Sarah. What does Mr Williams think she did as the Chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission? How about as Chairman of the nation’s Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission? For that matter, what does this fellow think she was doing as the Governor of Alaska?
At any rate Mr Williams wrote a reply to my angry tome, so let’s take a look at it.

There are few more enthusiastic partisans of Sarah Palin than Gary P. Jackson. Palin deserves better hacks.

OK, I deserved that one. I did call this guy a clown. Maybe it was the ridiculousness of his idea that threw me. We all have dumb ideas from time to time. We’ll see.

Writing in response to my suggestion that the RNC dump Michael Steele and hire Sarah Palin, Mr. Jackson launches into an angry, knuckle-draggingly misinformed, conspiracy-minded tirade, the upshot of which is that my proposal must be a naked bid to keep Palin out of the presidential running in 2012 in order to make room for the country-club Republican establishment’s anointed candidate, in whose service I labor so passionately.

Angry, oh hell yes I was. Still am. Mr Williams insulted Sarah Palin, and his reader’s intelligence. His “You’re too stupid to be President, but can we use your skills to rebuild the RNC?” attitude made a lot of people’s blood boil.

People who support Sarah Palin are sick and tired off this sort of nonsense. On the one hand these Beltway types, are all too happy to benefit from Sarah’s skill and wisdom, but find new and inventive ways to put her down at the same time. So pardon the outrage. We don’t put up with this crap from the Marxist-democrats, we aren’t about to put up with it from the supposed intelligentsia on “our” side.
Maybe Mr Williams should inform himself, and review some history of the coordinated attacks on Sarah Palin. Maybe that will help him understand why us hacks push back at people who insult or demean Sarah Palin. Why we are a bit touchy.

As for as Mr. Williams’ thoughts on my assertion that he is part of a “conspiracy” to keep Sarah busy, I would think he would realize that I was making those comments, not just about him, but an entire group of people. He just happened to be the one who stuck his head up and hollered: “Here I am, look at me!“
Last night I read a piece by John Ellis. It was another attempt to do something about the “Palin problem.” In this one, Ellis, who is Jeb Bush’s cousin, admits that Sarah Palin is all but a shoe to win the 2012 presidential nomination, should she chose to run. He gets into the thinking behind the Beltway elites, and the establishment Republicans. Mr Williams says he’s not the latter, so I’ll accept that I am an uninformed knuckle-dragger, but he is most certainly the former.
Ellis notes:

Sarah Palin cranked up her 2012 presidential campaign another notch today, with the release of a campaign video aimed directly at women. The basic math is simple. If she gets half of the female primary voters and caucus attenders to support her, then she standing starts at roughly 25% of the total vote. Throw in a third of the male vote and she’s at roughly 40%. Forty percent wins the Iowa caucuses, handily.
[ .... ]
Assuming that the race is then reduced to Palin and Romney, the next critical state primary is South Carolina. At that point, I don’t think the specifics really matter. The fact is that the Republican Party of 2012 is not going to nominate a Mormon as its standard bearer. And the more important fact is that the base of the Republican Party doesn’t just favor Sarah Palin, they love her. She is their standard bearer. And they will not — this time around — be denied.

Indeed, this will be like 1980. All well and good, but here’s the part that says it all:

As the Republican avalanche of 2010 builds — and I saw a poll the other day of a Democratic-leaning state Senate district on Long Island where the “right track” (8%)/”wrong direction” (83%) was unlike anything I had ever seen — Palin has smartly positioned herself as the champion of the conservative counter-revolution. By December, she will almost certainly be the de facto front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination.
By the time the Establishment GOP wakes up to this reality, it may be too late for them to do anything about it. Their view of Palin is that she’s useful to the party because she can help keep “the Tea Party types inside the tent.” And maybe she can serve coffee while she’s at it. Palin’s view is that (1) “the Tea Party types” are the party, (2) she is their standard bearer and (3) anyone who thinks “the Tea Party types” are there to lick envelopes and knock on doors should think again. They’re there, she asserts, to take back their party and to take back their country.
“She’s too stupid” is what the Establishment GOP really thinks about Sarah Palin. “Good-looking,” but a “ditz.“

In these few paragraphs, Ellis sums up the GOP establishment mentality perfectly. Of course, this isn’t a new phenomenon for the country club set. The last time they were this panicked was when Ronald Wilson Reagan challenged their stranglehold on the party. They were more diplomatic though. They called Reagan an “amiable dunce.”

Just like Mr Williams, and others of his stripe do with Palin, they chose to ignore that Ronald Reagan had been Governor of California, and a long time activist for Liberty and Freedom. Nope, they called him a “B movie actor.” Never mind he was president of Screen Actors Guild. They do the same with Sarah Palin. She’s a “celebrity” not a former Mayor, chief energy and environmental regulator, or Governor.
Ellis goes on to say this about all of that:

This is unfertile ground, since Palin can turn the argument on a dime and say: “They drive the country into bankruptcy, they underwrite Fannie and Freddie, they bail out Goldman Sachs, they fight wars they don’t want to win, they say enforcing the immigration laws is silly and they call me stupid! I’ll give you a choice: you can have their smarts or my stupidity, which one do you want?” A large number of GOP presidential primary voters will take Palin’s “stupidity” in a heartbeat.

And he’s correct. Of course one needs to substitute “stupidity” for common sense, and you have it right.
All one has to do is go back and review comments from the elites to see this is pretty standard fare though. They are every bit as bad as the Marxist-democrats who, when faced with an actual debate from a superior, blurt out: “Oh yeah …. well …. you’re stupid!” If you can’t compete in the marketplace of ideas ….
 One example of this was during the height of the debate trying to stop ObamaCare. Early on, Sarah Palin pointed out that under this unconstitutional mess, there would be massive health care rationing, as there is in every country that has socialized medicine. She went on to talk about Obama’s health care adviser, Dr Ezekiel Emanuel, who had authored the “Complete Lives System.” This is a truly alarming document that lays out who “deserves” health care, and who doesn’t. Josef Mengele would have been proud.
In her first writings on this monster, she noted that she did not want to see her beautiful special needs son, or her elderly parents, to have to stand before Obama’s “death panels” and argue their worth, in order to get health care.

With those two words, Sarah Palin summed up the entire concept of ObamaCare perfectly, succinctly, and completely. This changed the entire debate forever, and turned the tide against ObamaCare in a big way.
This is something she is a master at. Few can distill complex issues down to simple words, as she can. This was a trait the great Ronald Reagan had as well. Only a person who deals with (and understands) the “minutiae of policy” can pull this off.

Anyhow, the elites lost their minds. These so-called educated men attacked her as hard as the left. Of course, the left knew she was spot on, and had to discredit her in any and every way possible. The Republican elite are just dumb. They went on and on about “end of life counseling” and other such stupidity. Many didn’t actually read her substantial piece, they just bought into the hype. Of course, these are the same geniuses who allow two and three thousand page bills to come to a vote without ever being read, so one should expect no less.

Others, were offended that Sarah would use such “incendiary language.” They would say “this isn’t helpful.” In their world, one can’t get too overheated with the rhetoric, not even when the enemy is hellbent on destroying the nation with an unconstitutional boondoggle. To this bunch one must maintain a level of decorum and civility at all costs, even while being destroyed. Charles Krauthammer actually suggested that Sarah should “leave the room.” Nothing condescending there at all.
Of course, these are the same sort of brilliant men who lost their minds when Reagan called the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and sat in stunned horror when Ronald Reagan said “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

In other words, the Republican elites, as well as the Beltway insiders who cover them, are a bunch of squishes who are simply too timid to lead, and deathly afraid of those who aren’t.
BTW, Sarah Palin never backed down when one of these losers attacked her for saying “death panels.” In fact, the harder they attacked, the more she talked about them! This woman does not back down. In the end, she has been proven right a thousand times over. The more one learns about ObamaCare, the more we become painfully aware just how right she was!

Oh, and this week, Barack Obama recess appointed Donald Berwick to head Medicare and Medicaid. Berwick is a far left loon who has preached health care rationing as a matter of “social justice.” He finds the British system, which is a total disaster, “romantic” and “alluring.” The reason why Obama abused his power to recess appoint this guy was because the Conservative Republicans were spoiling for a fight, to expose what a radical he is, to the entire nation  Obama wanted to sneak him by under the cover of darkness, to avoid what would be a hard battle to win.
 Donald Berwick is “Dr Death Panels” in the flesh!

But alas, Sarah Palin is just a “ditz” who doesn’t understand the “minutia of policy.” Maybe if the “brilliant” elites had paid attention to her we wouldn’t be in this mess now. Maybe, just maybe, if the so-called smart guys had been less worried about decorum, and Sarah Palin’s “intelligence” and joined her in the fight against this evil legislation, it wouldn’t be the law of the land now. But proving how smart they are always seems paramount to anything else.
OK, enough bloviating, lets’s get back to Mr Williams. He continues:

Second, Mr. Jackson writes that I am a “clown” for suggesting that policy minutiae is not Palin’s forte. He suggests that I educate myself by checking out her Twitter feed. Egad: When I wrote about the minutiae of policy development, I did not mean thoughts expressed in 140 characters or less. Perhaps I have an unrealistically high bar to clear for “minutiae,” but I did not mean right-wing haiku.

It appears that I may have given Mr Williams a tad too much credit in my original piece. When I suggested he follow her various writings, such as her brilliant Facebook posts, and twitter, I sort of assumed he’d know to look elsewhere as well. Of course we know what happens when one assumes, don’t we. Also, outside of cartoon villains, who uses the word “egad“?

It’s funny how Mr Williams blows off such pedestrian venues, and yet others have called her Facebook post that recapped her recent speech in Virginia as “One Of The Most Sophisticated Analysis Of Obama’s Defense & Foreign Policy Ever Published.” One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.
Maybe I should have been more specific. Besides looking through Sarah’s many strong Facebook blogs, how about looking at her writings as Governor of Alaska, her many op-eds that have appeared in major newspapers like the Washington Post, Investor’s Business Daily, the Wall Street Journal, and so on. I figure Mr Williams does know how to use Bing. Perhaps we are back to what happens when one assumes though. 

Mr Williams might also take a peak at Kay Cashman’s book: Sarah Takes on Big Oil. In this book, Cashman points out some of the “minutiae of policy” that Sarah dealt with, as she took on some of the largest corporations in the world, on behalf of her state.
I could recommend more, but I’ll still risk it all and assume that Mr Williams gets the point. Many apologies to Mr Williams for not spelling it out better the first time.
I kinda love this part:

Writing that policy detail is not Palin’s forte is not the same as writing that Palin is unintelligent, which seems to be what Mr. Jackson and a few other like-minded people took from that self-evidently true observation. Ronald Reagan was a big-picture guy; Newt Gingrich is a devil-in-the-details guy.
The world needs both, and there is no reason to think less of one than of the other. (I do not think that Sarah Palin would object to my suggesting that she is more like Reagan than like Gingrich; just a hunch.) Maybe Sarah Palin has authored a detailed policy paper on what to do about the Af-Pak border situation or the derivatives proposals in Frank-Dodd. If she did, I missed it. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that she hasn’t. And that’s okay. She doesn’t need to. We have people for that. Which is why I didn’t suggest sending Palin to a think tank, but putting her in charge of the Republican party.

It’s kinda sweet that he throws in Reagan now. On this Mr Williams and I agree. I think she is a heck of a lot like Ronald Reagan. In fact, in some ways better. Now this isn’t me trying to be blasphemous here. Sarah Palin is a student of Ronald Reagan, and he’s a political hero to her, like he is to most of us. My point is she’s been able to look back and learn both what he did right, and what he did wrong, and build on that.
Has she written detailed policy papers on Afghanistan or Frank-Dodd, nope. Of course, neither have any of the GOP show ponies who lust after the presidency. With that said, I have no doubt that when pressed, she could manage a coherent word or two.

I do agree with Mr Williams that Sarah, like Reagan, is a “big picture guy.” One of the phrases often used when describing her political savvy is: “She’s playing chess, while the others are playing checkers.” Few can look at a situation, size it up, and make a stand as well as she can. It’s what leaders do. And that was my real point all along. Sarah Palin is a leader, not a clerk. She’s been a leader all of her life. From her days as captain of her championship basketball team to now.
Mr Williams goes on to say:

I didn’t suggest replacing Steele with Palin because I think poorly of Palin, but because I think highly of Palin. I do not think that she is going to run for president in 2012. In any case, there is no reason for her to fall victim to Giuliani Syndrome — the belief that the only job in politics worth having is the presidency. (Seriously, New York could have used a Governor Giuliani.) I am not at the moment very much interested in the question of whom the Republicans will run for president in 2012; first, because none of the usual suspects are all that interesting, second, because I expect that Barack Obama will be re-elected.

That doesn’t match up too well to his condescending tone, but OK, I’ll give the guy the benefit of the doubt and allow that thinks highly of her. That’s as far as one can go. From there, Mr Williams shows just how disconnected from reality he is.

I know a lot of people think she won’t run. A heck of a lot more know she will. I guess Mr Williams missed events like the launch of this outstanding video. I don’t know, maybe Mr. Williams doesn’t own a television, and doesn’t read much, but pretty much everyone has taken this video as a signal she’s running. The one word used to describe it, and her, is “presidential.”

Maybe Mr Williams isn’t one of those who, as Neil Cavuto would say, “demands” the Fox Business Channel. Had he been more demanding, he would have seen this interview with Eric Bolling a few nights ago. If that’s not someone running for President, I don’t know what is!
Oh, and take note Mr Williams, even though she is hammering Obama and his failed policies, and offering up ideas of her own, she is incredibly optimistic, and just oozes confidence. This is Ronald Reagan at his finest. Like Reagan, Sarah is a happy warrior. Oh, she’s mad as hell, but she knows she has a plan, and she knows we can defeat the evil that has gripped this nation, starting in November.

Even the loons over at MSNBC have resigned themselves to the fact that Sarah Palin will be the Republican nominee! Chris Matthews went so far as to warn her that they’d be out to destroy her. Yeah, like they haven’t since day one! How’s that worked out so far?

This brings me to another point, unlike the GOP show ponies, like Romney, who are maneuvering for 2012, Sarah Palin is focusing on November 2010. It’s all she talks about. She knows if we don’t win, and win big in November, there won’t be anything left of the Republic to be President of!
As far as her “falling victim to the belief that the only job in politics worth having is the presidency,” is this guy serious? Sarah Palin is a woman who stood in Anchorage, Alaska in June of 2009, while introducing Michael Reagan, and while addressing the relentless attacks from Obama’s Alaska Mafia, and said:

They want me to sit down, and they want me to shut up. Politically, if I die, I die, but I won’t sit down, and I won’t shut up!

Sarah constantly tells everyone that no one needs a title to be effective. This is quite empowering. Remember, Sarah Palin has a record of being incredibly effective as a private citizen, and not just since she resigned as Governor. When she was Chair of the AOGCC, and found massive corruption in her agency, she was stopped by her boss, the Governor, from taking the action needed. She resigned in protest, and as a private citizen saw to it that things were taken care of.

Currently, without any title at all, Sarah is effectively leading the free world, against those who peddle tyranny and oppression. She’s doing a good job too. More importantly, she has emboldened other patriots to jump into the fight. Many great men and women are starting to join in by either running for office, or helping others in their efforts. Many take their inspirations from Sarah Palin. This is where she is effective as a leader.
This is why I wrote originally that you don’t take the Commander-In-Chief off of the battlefield and make them a clerk. While I am absolutely sure Sarah Palin would make an excellent RNC head, that would have to be one of the most complete wastes of talent ever.

Like I said before, call up Ken Blackwell. He is a solid administrator, and would make an excellent RNC Chairman. Even better, he actually wanted the job!
I stand by my statement that this is nothing more than an attempt to find Sarah Palin a job, any job, to keep her from running for President, and winning. I’ll take Mr Williams protests that he isn’t part of the GOP elite, at face value, but we know what the country-clubbers know. They know what Sarah did in Alaska. They know she took on corrupt members of her own party. They know she teamed up with the FBI, and sent some to the gray bar hotel for an extended vacation. They know if Sarah becomes President, whatever shenanigans they are engaged in will come to a loud, grinding halt, because that’s how she rolls! Many in the GOP are more interested in holding on to their own little fiefdoms, their own power, than what’s best for the nation.

Case in point, John Ellis’ piece I referenced wasn’t so much in praise of Sarah Palin, and a take down of the GOP elite, as it was a warning to the GOP elite to take a look at his cousin Jeb if they want to stop that “crazy moose woman” from upsetting the apple cart.
If people think the only problem in this nation are the rabid Marxists that have seized control of the democrat party, they are mistaken. There are more than a few Republicans that need to be taken out of positions of power as well. While not as bad, and certainly not as evil, these progressive Republicans act as enablers to the Marxist’s agenda. They must go.

Mr Williams says he’s not interested in 2012 because “none of the usual suspects are all that interesting, second, because I expect that Barack Obama will be re-elected.” Now he’s partially right. None of the usual suspects are interesting at all, except Sarah Palin. She’s the only true leader in the bunch. She’s the only one out of the lot who is inspiring the nation.
As for Mr William’s idea that Obama will be re-elected …. it’s painfully obvious just how out of touch with reality Mr Williams truly is, but typical of the Beltway elites. Mr. Williams seems oblivious to the fact that Americans oppose absolutely everything Obama is doing, at a gut level. I guess Mr Williams just sees this as politics, and thinks Obama can do some sort of pivot come 2012 and win. Maybe “clown” wasn’t the right word after all. 

It seems, just like Mr. Williams hasn’t done his homework before commenting on Sarah Palin, he hasn’t paid a hell of a lot of attention to Barack Obama either. (Or the mood of the American people!) Everyone I know has been buying stock in companies that make fine products like tar, feathers, pitchforks, and torches!
Between all of his criminal activities, insane moves like suing Arizona for enforcing the Rule of Law, and having his Justice Department overturn the voter intimidation and civil rights convictions of two members of the racist domestic terror group, New Black Panthers, Obama will be lucky to escape without impeachment.

Obama has his party on a suicide mission. Many of these cats ended their careers the second they voted yes on ObamaCare. I guess Mr. Williams thinks Americans are just gonna let all of that go.
Obama is a committed Marxist. The man was raised by communist parents, and communist grandparents. Active communists, who supported the Soviet Union at a time America was trying to defeat the “evil empire.” Obama was mentored by hard core communists and 60′s radicals. He’s surrounded himself with this sort all of his life. It’s who he is. He’s not going to change.
The chances of Obama winning are slim, and none. Mostly none. That Mr Williams doesn’t grasp this really puts this entire episode in context, doesn’t it.
Mr Williams finishes with this:

On the other hand, I am very much interested in the size and character of the Republican congressional majorities that are expected to emerge in the next couple of elections, and having Palin at the RNC to help recruit, fund, and motivate the candidates who will constitute those majorities probably would be an excellent thing.
Palin is often accused of being poorly informed and overly defensive. I do not think that is true of her, but it certainly seems to be true of her loyalists. Happily, there is no transitive property of buffoonery.

I agree, there is no shortage of buffoonery, or jackassery, for that matter. What does this glittering jewel of colossal ignorance think Sarah Palin has been doing for the last year, selling Tupperware? She’s inspired any number of candidates to run for office. Good ones. She’s been supporting strong candidates who are winning.

As Rick Santorum recently said, her’s is the only endorsement that matters.
If Sarah endorses a candidate money comes flooding in to their campaigns. I can’t think of a single instance where donations, after her endorsement, haven’t exceeded whatever the expectations were.
Past that, Sarah has fired up the nation. She has people involved and engaged. Mr Williams, in his original attempt at this nonsense, called her polarizing. Yeah, she’s polarizing, in so far as she has galvanized the nation to stand up and take our Republic back from those who would destroy it.

Only a true buffoon, or an elite with an agenda, would think it would make sense to take the leader, our Commander-In-Chief, out of the fight, off the battlefield, and make her a clerk. Being RNC chair is a fine job …. for someone. It’s an administrator’s job. The ideal candidate needs to be smart, and in touch with the American people. Obviously, Sarah Palin is that. But the RNC Chair also needs to be a bit of an insider as well. Sarah is far from that.
As much as we all detest the GOP elite, who ever is running the RNC will have to deal with them. Somehow I picture an RNC led by Sarah, or any other strong Conservative, being an exercise in futility. Past that, this is quite the insult. It goes back to the same old idea that this bunch wants to use Sarah’s incredible talent to help them out of a jam, as long as she “knows her place” and stays the hell in it! “Don’t get too ambitious there little lady.”

Now this isn’t really a girl thing, completely, I imagine if this genius was around in 1977 or 1978, he’d be begging Reagan to take over the RNC and help that version GOP mediocrity out.
There are plenty of great people who would make a solid RNC Chair. Again, call up Ken Blackwell. He is a serious guy who would do the job better than most. He should have been in this job to start with.
As for Sarah Palin, well …. let me paraphrase what Lincoln once said of U.S. Grant: We just can’t spare the woman, she fights!