Marc Ambinder: Getting Sarah Palin's Paradigm
Marc Ambinder, a liberal at the Atlantic with whom we seldom agree, has written an article in which he, albeit grudgingly, is beginning to understand Governor Palin's appeal:
"If the primaries were this year, I suspect she'd be nominated," a senior adviser to one of Sarah Palin's potential rivals confides. It's easy to see why: no one who's thinking of running beats the enthusiasm she generates among Republican activists. But there is more to the case for Palin than just the confluence of her personality and a vacuum within the Republican Party: there is a method to her management of her public image. It strongly hints that she has pretty much decided to run for president in 2012, unless something knocks her out of the race; it is more organized and structured that it appears; and it is something that Republican insiders, in particular, will ignore at their peril.
Next week, Palin will be a VIP guest of honor at the Daytona International Speedway for the Daytona 500. She'll walk among the campers and RVs set up infield. This summer, she's agreed to speak at an international bowling expo. In April, in Las Vegas, Palin will keynote the Wine and Spirit Wholesalers Convention at Caesar's Palace. She will make choices in Republican primaries -- she campaigned Sunday with Rick Perry, bearing a "Hi mom!" on her palm -- more on that in a bit -- and an eloquent jab at the President: "'We will proudly cling to our guns and our religion."
[...]
Not a single other Republican presidential candidate can build a crowd like Palin, can run against something like Palin (be it Washington, the media, the McCain campaign or Obama); no one speaks to the resentment/aspirational conservatives like she does; no one's life has better exemplified the way they perceive their struggle against the elite. We like to think about presidential primaries in paradigms, but candidates who fit with the times often find ways to completely subvert established paradigms.
Read the rest here. I have no idea what Ambinder is talking about when he describes Governor Palin as "Nixonian", but his article is nevertheless an interesting take on Governor Palin's "strategery".
(H/T Philip)
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22 comments:
I don't understand why they keep calling her "Nixonian" either. Barack Obama is more "Nixonian" than Nixon himself was.
This is one of the better articles I have read by media on Palin... make sure to read the whole thing.
It fits into the meme, presented by Noam Schreiber of the Journolist in the New Republic, painting
her as full of ressentiment, talk about missing the point. It plays on the whole misperception of
Tasergate, and some of Matthews more crazed musings
See earlier comments by Section 9 on this weasel. He's trial ballooning the next line of Attack on the Gov.
Ambinder is slowly beginning to understand Palin's strategy. He among others was to quick to dismiss inexperience and lack of gravitas. He forgot one thing that I have tried to remind folks everywhere I am posted: Palin has her hands on the Reagan wilderness playbook and she is executing it to perfection with 21st c technology.
If there was one advantage Reagan did not have was that he was not absolutely sure his playbook would work and secure him the presidency. With hindsight, Palin is certain it will be good enough to do that for her. And being a good student and humble she has no interest in re-inventing the wheel.
She's got her hands on the Alinsky playbook also!
It gets a little closer to her appeal, much like the blind man and the elephant
Ambinder is like Navajo code-talk for liberals. Conservatives need to read him because he telegraphs what Axelrod and Plouffe are trying to get across to the Elite Media as the Meme of the Month.
Again, there's a reason Mickey Kaus dubbed Ambinder The Draedel.
My favorite ‘Sarah Palin’ articles are those written by cultural elitists who are so flummoxed by her nine lives and mesmerized by her larger-than-life persona that they can no longer help but show her begrudging respect. The moment they realize she is a force of God blessed nature that they can do nothing to stop.<span> </span>THAT I love.
This article by Marc (Katie Cougar) Armbinder is a good example, as is Andrew Sullivan’s “<span>beautiful, big breasted, divinely chosen warrior” <span>post. <span> </span>But my favorite is by Michael Wolff<span> </span>of Vanity Fair (a great stylist-and paranoid to boot!). If you haven't seen it, Ch-Ch-Check it out!</span></span>
<span>http://www.newser.com/off-the-grid/post/393/for-me-palin-scores.html</span>
Note that Ambinder took the time to read Jonathan Raban's incredibly condescending essay on the Governor in the New York Review of Books. They can't get enough of her. There is a amusing line in Leon Wieseltier's article in this week's New Republic: "Andrew Sullivan Has a Serious Problem." The problem is not the crazy stuff Sullivan peddles about Sarah Palin; basically Wieseltier is attacking Sullivan for his anti-Semitism. At one point in the article, however, talking about Netanyahu (whom Sullivan apparently hates), Wieseltier drops this howler: "There is no suggestions that Netanyahu is Trig's dad." It is mockery worthy of the governor herself.
It's kind of a curious parallel, because Bibi is the dynamic element in the Likud, as opposed to the stodgier figures like Shamir and Sharon,
Wolf is an odd one, he came to fame by spectacularly failing at the internet business, and moved to a very snarky, vacuosu commenter at NY Magazine, where he savaged W on a regular basis.
He recognizes some of her talents, but honestly can't take it to the logical consequence
Marc Ambinder writes:
"Palin mixes Nixonian derision for those who think they know better with an aspirational dimension that motivates the middle class to vote."
...
"She is, as my friend @thetonylee says, 'a hybrid of Nixon and Buchanan.'"
Nixon was famous for deriding the "elites." Buchanan campaigned against the Republican elites in his primary run against President Bush on a platform of immigration reduction, and social conservatism, including opposition to multiculturalism, abortion and gay rights.
So, the story line that liberals are wanting to put out is that Sarah Palin is a Buchanan acolyte who derides the elites as did Nixon.
The problem is that the story line does not fit, because Governor Palin's "domestic platform" is spending cuts, (limited Federal government, which abides by the constitution), energy development (job and wealth creation) and lifting America's spirits.
Her campaign would attract social conservatives and evangelicals because of her personal values, but "social conservative issues" would not be at the core of her political agenda.
My thoughts for what they are worth.
The only parallel with Nixon is that like him, after her resignation, the conventional wisdom was that she was finished politically.
Roger Stone wrote a piece for RealClearPolitics titled Palin's Plan which is well worth reading:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/07/07/palins_plan_97333.html
Ambinder misses one important point; Nixon did not have much of a personality and certainly was not a "people person". Neither is Buchanan. Also neither can be called a happy or optimistic person, whereas Sarah just oozes happiness, optimism,and warmth, and her people skills are almost unparalled. The much closer comparison is to Reagan, whether Ambinder wants to admit it or not.
This comment from Adam Brickley on Race42012, illustrates that point, more clearly RedDave:
Haven’t read all the comments here – but will say I’m pretty good at reading Palin tea leaves since I’ve pretty much been watching the woman’s every move since January 2007. Palin has NEVER, and I do mean NEVER, concerned herself with what Governors and/or Presidents are supposed to look like. I remember one time in early 2008 she went to a National Governors Association dinner and was described by Gov. Rendell as “the first governor to dance and the only Governor to do the Electric Slide.”
She infuritated her security detail as governor by walking Piper to the school bus every morning, jogging alone, etc. She insisted on dirving herself to work when working in Anchorage and I remember one time when she almost got in a wreck. She very, very conciously focusses on NOT being gubernatorial and presidential and throws official pretention to the wind almost as a matter of policy. She makes it very clear that what you see is what you get and absolutely refuses to budge when it comes to “being Sarah” (one time she made Vogue magazine photographe her in clothes from her own closet rather than furs thay brought up from the Lower 48) So – as for the hand notes and other things that don’t look Presidential – I’ve learned that they mean absolutely nothing. Not caring about whether she “looks right for the office” is a Palin trademark and she does it on purpose. Based on everything I’ve seen so far, she’s seriously thinking about running. VERY seriously.
Americuda,
Long time since I've seen you on the board. Welcome back.
Not to relitigate that, but one aspect of that whole story that no one ever really mentions is that Sullivan nor any of the other loons have ever suggested that Todd is not Trig's father. They've never suggested that Levi is Trig's father, and he has never claimed to be. They've never questioned his role in things. The implications of that are so disgusting the mind reels.
Basically they're pushing a story that's so sick and twisted and some mixture of Chinatown and Absalom, Absalom the fact that any "serious" media outlet still pushes it tells you all you need to know.
You are correct, but there is no way liberal pundits like Ambinder are going to draw that comparison.
Agreed. Apparently Nixon had this strong notion of people who had "done him wrong". That saw him as this poor kid from Whittier and not fit to mingle with the elites. You can see this in the Checkers speech when he talks about Pat's coat. And how he never forgave the Kennedys and their elite and priviliged status.
I think he was going on that angle and that a lot of what she's doing is based on resentment a desire for revenge against the elites(media, DC establishment, etc...) she feel went after her.
He also subtly pushes this idea that she's a stealth candidate for the Aryan Nation and keeps bringing up this ID as center of white supremacy idea. She was born in ID and moved to AK when she was 2 months old. What any of that has to do with anything I have no idea. She did go to college there for a couple years, but is he suggesting that anyone who spends any time in ID is a bigot? That will continue to be a recurring theme, taht she's somehow a vehicle for alienated, racist whites aghast at the thought of black guy as President(Never mind that 99% of them would gladly take Clarence Thomas in the WH any day over the current occupant). And of course a white supremacist would fall in love and have 5 children(7 if you count the 2 miscarriages) with someone with "native" blood. And of course they'd single out Joe Lieberman for praise, and highlight a charity affilated with Orthodox Judaism, and be virtually more pro-israel than Israel itself currently is. Please.
And if we're going to examine people based on where they spend their time I must have missed his in-depth MSNBC style investigation of a certain someone's 20+ years as close friend and protege of one Rev Jeremiah Wright, for starters.(not to mention Michael Pfleger and James Meeks) Not to mention a childhood spent in a muslim country at an Islamic school. Nor a close friendship with a couple of terrorist masterminds and communist revolutionaries(Ayers and Dohrn). Nor a professed admiration for radical black muslim leader Macolm X. Nor a mysterious college trip to Pakistan in the early 80s during a time when the only reasons anyone went to Pakistan were to a)join the mujahideen or b)buy drugs(or both). I could go on and on.
But, otoh, Nixon did come to power only 4 yrs after a landslide liberal victory when everyone had written off conservatism and the GOP and all agreed that the dems and the liberals would dominate for a generation. He was re-elected, and got the chance to appoint 4 justices to the SC. If Palin wins, gets re-elected and appoints 4 SC Jsuctices, I'll take that any day.
My own thought on the "hand notes" is that she wrote the notes down to protect herself in case she had a mental blank out, which we have all had from time to time.
She then decided to have a bit of fun when answering the specific question, suspecting that the liberal media and some conservative pundits may well go "bonkers."
While I don't know if she thought the whole thing through, this has allowed her to "riff" off of the "fuss" beautifully, starting with "Hi Mom!" the next day at the Perry Rally and then following up with "Loggers Rock" in Redding, California.
The fuss made by the media has "galvanized" her supporters and the response by Gibbs clearly shows that she is "living rent free" in the heads of the administration, while making Gibbs look like a jealous teenager.
FYI, before the weekend, the number of "fans" on her Facebook page was around 1.250 million. As of now, the number of "fans" stands at just over 1,317 million. She is gaining over 1,000 fans an hour. Not bad for a woman who is supposedly "clueless" according to the liberal media story line.
And "with Sarah insisting on being Sarah," this is why the political junkies among us enjoy "the show" so much and ...
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