Palin: President of All Americans

Sarah Palin, even if she serves two terms, would not be able to part the Red Sea.

One of my main selling points to people of various political stripes is that: Sarah Palin will LISTEN to you. And, Sarah Palin will do her darnedest to be PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, not just the president of AL, MS, UT, and ID.

She will uphold the Constitution, even in cases where her views might differ somewhat from those of the Founders. (For example, freedom of speech and press sometimes get misused, but that doesn't mean such misuses are unConstitutional.) I believe she will be respectful of state constitutions, which occasionally differ from the national document (or at least from Supreme Court interpretations.

I don't expect Sarah to come across as an "anti" in regard to groups (except perhaps terrorists). Sarah Palin is not a clone of any of us. And she's not someone comfortable with pitting one group against another.

For example, Alaska people tend to have a libertarian streak, and Sarah is one of them. She seems to be more a friend of small businesses than of the large ones she knows (the oil companies and oil service firms that misbehaved badly in AK). On the famous "social issues," Sarah clearly believes in teaching by example -- through behavior -- rather than by delivering lectures and passing laws that are unenforceable.

Finally, Sarah's appeal to some liberal women (Elaine Lafferty, Lynn de Rothschild, Tammy Bruce, Camille Paglia, and others) results from them seeing her as, in Lafferty's words, a "feminist" and a "brainiac" -- a good and thoughtful person). We don't need ideological tests to welcome people in as Supporters. After Nov., 2012, we can begin squabbling if necessary (or if we can still recall what the argument was about.)

We must get across to Sarah that there are people backing her, including many people working together on the "Sarah Effort," who can play important roles on ensuring she eventually makes the move to the White House. Smart, curious, hard-working, tough, loyal: those should be the main criteria for Sarah's people. A tradition of working on losing campaigns should be a disqualification.

Sarah Needs Many Democrats, Independents

Please participate in the effort to come up with a slogan for Sarah Palin to use in future campaigns. You can do so by going to: http://www.teamsarah.org/forum/topics/share-ideas-for-sarah-slogan I've give my own suggestion tomorrow.

Sarah Palin at huge rally in Jacksonville, FL stadium . . .

As I've said before of the people in the Palin Movement, our goal shouldn't be to become "the nation's most congenial, PERMANENT MINORITY." In politics, there's really no such thing as a "moral victory." You either win in glory, or lose in devastation, as happened last November.

In a state like PA (and many other big ones), we need to figure out how to reach out effectively to Indies and Dems, including ones who are pro-choice. (Reading poll data carefully, it's clear that many "pro-choice" people are actually more pro-life than pro-abortion.) At this point, we're 7 million-plus votes behind Obama, and we need to make up the difference. We can't do that by being ideological purists.

I keep saying, "We need to deal with our world as it is, not as we'd like it to be.' I spent a lot of time in the campaign working with Hillary Supporters who backed -- or leaned toward -- McCain-Palin. I didn't do it because I adored Hillary -- I do not -- but because there was no other way to win than by getting many Hillary Supporters, some of them pro-choice (strongly) and some pro-life, with most of them in the middle.

In the election, it appears we got about four million of Hillary's Supporters. We needed six million-plus, but without the four million it would have been a true landslide for Obama.

In my book, I will discuss the major feminists (Elaine Lafferty, former editor of Ms.; Shelley Mandel, president of the LA chapter of NOW; and, especially, Camile Paglia) who have strongly backed Sarah. There are many others in addition to the women I've named. I want them to continue their efforts, because we need such people to help us win.

I don't want to lose the social conservatives, far from it. However, Sarah Palin clearly is the best possible candidate they can get to run effectively for President. It will be challenging enough for her win -- I believe she can -- but it would be impossible for any other Republican. I don't under-estimate the ruthlessness of the Obama Campaign, which was the direct source of the smears against Sarah.

Frankly, I have zero interest in Sarah running a race she can't win, and I believe she feels the same way. She knows that millions -- tens of millions -- of her supporters are the working middle-class and even the working poor. Seeing the 10,000 people at Sarah's Beaver County rally, it became clear to me that these sure weren't your stereotypical Republicans. I estimate that at least 100 were members of the UMW, proudly wearing their "Clean Coal" hard hats.

I felt very comfortable with these people and talked to hundreds of them as they waited in line for up to four hours. One older man had been a member of the Boilermakers Union for 50 years. He bragged that he's convinced this wife, for the first time in her life, to vote Republican (for McCain-Palin).

On Sean Hannity's radio program, a Democratic woman, an animal rights activist, was talking to Sean while, in the background, her three daughters were chanting, "Sarah Palin! Sarah Palin! SARAH PALIN!" The woman, a Sarah-backer herself, said, 'I'm afraid the neighbors are going to think I've become a Republican!"

We need that woman (and her daughters and millions like them) on our side.

Palin: The Explosive Abortion Issue

Picture of Trig Palin as a newborn . . .

I count myself as strongly pro-life, but I've argued for a pragmatic approach to the abortion issue. I know, you know, and Sarah knows there is nothing like a majority in the Congress -- or among the states (three-fourths of them needed) to pass a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion.

The last time a Human Life Amendment (see Wikipedia) was brought up in the Senate was 1983, and it failed to get even a majority, let alone the two-thirds vote it needed.

Justice Antonin Scalia, who is personally opposed to abortion, has said, "The Constitution does not permit abortion. The Constitution does not prohibit abortion." The critical point here is not whether one "agrees" with Scalia, but rather that what he says is true, which it is. (The implication in Scalia's statement is that the issue should go back to the states, which probably isn't going to happen. Things will stay as they are.)

Scalia is sometimes sniffed at by leftists as an "originalist." In fact, an originalist is someone who believes the Constitution means what it says. It doesn't mean what the latest Gallup Polls indicates a majority wishes it said.

Sarah's core group is anti-abortion. However, as her number of supporters grows, it will become more and more diverse. People will also come to understand that Gov. Palin embraces a combination of conservative, libertarian, and populist principles.

Her motto has been: "Serve the people." Her motto is NOT "Serve the people who believe exactly as I do." She has said she personally opposes abortion, but that she has no interest in "criminalizing" it. By the way, neither do I. Neither I guess would Scalia.

One of the chapters in my book on Sarah Palin will deal with feminists who support her, including Elaine Lafferty, Shelley Mandell (the head of the Los Angeles chapter of NOW who endorsed Sarah), and Camille Paglia. That chapter will deal with Sarah's obligation as a potential President to those women and others like them.

The key is a question of respect -- respect for those whose views differ from Palin's on one or more issues.

I've had discussions with some strong pro-lifers , including one woman who heads a pro-life PAC. She understands very well what I'm saying about abortion as an issue, that it's one of conscience and education, not laws, and she generally agrees. In time, I think most of the staunch pro-lifers on in Sarah's camp will also agree.

No one sound of mind wants to paint Sarah into a corner that would lead to her inevitable defeat. We can't ask her to run in an imaginary America; she has to run in the nation as it is. Sarah is a person who leads by example, not by barking out orders and using strong-arm tactics.

Camille Paglia Salutes Sarah, Todd Palin

One chapter in the book I'm writing (with help from other very talented people) about Sarah Palin will deal with feminists who strongly support the Governor and see her a role model for American women. They include Elaine Lafferty, the former Ms. Magazine editor who called Sarah a "feminist' and a "brainiac"; Shelley Mandell, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of NOW, who endorsed Sarah in a Carson, CA event (to the dismay of the tree-dwelling segment of NOW) by saying, "This [Sarah] is what a feminist looks like"; and the remarkable Camille Paglia, who voted for Obama, but has paradoxically been Sarah's strongest defender. Paglia wrote the following about Gov. Palin, which I hope you'll disseminate widely.

In an article written on October 8, 2008, Paglia said:

"The mountain of rubbish poured out about Palin over the past month would rival Everest. What a disgrace for our jabbering army of liberal journalists and commentators, too many of whom behaved like snippy jackasses…One of the most idiotic allegations batting around out there among urban media insiders is that Palin is "dumb." Are they kidding? What level of stupidity is now par for the course in those musty circles? People who can't see how smart Palin is are trapped in their own narrow parochialism-the tedious, hackneyed forms of their upper-middle-class syntax and vocabulary…I admire her competitive spirit and her exuberant vitality, which borders on the supernormal…both Todd and Sarah Palin…have emerged as powerful new symbols of a revived contemporary feminism. That the macho Todd, with his champion athleticism and working-class creed, can so amiably cradle babies and care for children is a huge step forward in American sexual symbolism."

Please also pass along the following link to Paglia's extended (and brilliant) analysis of the character, values, and socail significance of Sarah Palin:

http://www.blogrunner.com/snapshot/D/0/9/camille_paglia_on_sarah_palin_barack_obama_joe_biden_and_more/