Quoted Text

This past weekend, I traveled to Chicago to speak at the Conservatives4Palin meetup, where Mama Grizzlies, Palinistas and "ordinary barbarians," as she's now taken to calling her followers, gathered to hear speeches, talk about conservative issues, celebrate a hypothetical Palin 2012 campaign and generally worship at the altar of Sarah Palin.

At one point during the program, Palin made a surprise phone call to the group, patched through one of the organizer's cell phones and played over a loudspeaker. The room burst into spontaneous applause and frenzied yelping as she launched into a warm and cheery 20-minute "thanks for all your hard work" chat.

I returned to New York from the Chicago gathering to find Palin again, not in my ear but on my television screen, bouncing gleefully around Alaska on her new TLC documentary series, "Sarah Palin's Alaska." She and Todd (her "neat husband," as Phyllis Schlafly put it recently) went fishing, rock climbing and bear spotting in between appearing on Fox News and ducking from their nosy new neighbor, who moved in just to write about Alaska's former first family.

It seems everyone wants a piece of Palin these days. Some are fans, some are hostile foes. But regardless, we just can't stop talking about her. Will there ever be a time when we decide that we've figured her out and there's nothing else to say?

And then it hit me. The reason Palin has become such a lightening rod, a kingmaker and a punching bag, a celebrity and a power player, is simple. It's because she's so gosh darn happy.

For her fans, like the ones I had the pleasure of meeting in Chicago, she's refreshingly upbeat and resilient, the bubbly friend from childhood who was always great at cheering you up and cheerleading you on.

But for her detractors, nothing raises the ire of cynical liberals more than a happy-go-lucky, totally unburdened, freethinking and self-assured conservative woman who has everything she wants and then some. And without anyone's help.

Sure, she'll tell you that Todd, her parents and her children are an invaluable support system. But after eight years of hearing that George W. Bush was a nepotism experiment gone wrong, Sarah Palin has made it here (wherever this is) on her own. John McCain's imprimatur certainly launched her into the national spotlight, but she became the youngest and first female governor of Alaska all on her own.
How dare she?

Liberalism, after all, needs to imagine an unhappy populace. Passing sweeping entitlement programs and convincing voters that big government is the answer only works if people are frustrated with their stations in life.

Quoted from Shadow

Obama is even less qualified to be president and the mistakes he's made since he's been in office are worse than the ones Bush made so don't brag too loud about other candidates not being qualified. Obama has never governed anything and it shows.

Quoted from 612

Palin is an affron to all women.  AND SHE IS NOT QUALIFIED.  Some people on this board that I consider to be smart must realize this.

Quoted from 612

DVR--what the he!! do you smoke?  Did you NOT learn what Palin was about during her last run?  She is a MORON.  Yes she is beautiful.  Yes she is  media hound.  But she has NO GRAVITAS!  

Well I hope she does run.  Saturday Night Live will have even better skits. I am sure.  Looking forward to that.