Rethinking Sarah Palin For President

Although I have written several columns expressing my admiration for Sarah Palin, I admit I have never taken her seriously as a 2012 presidential candidate. I've always felt that her greatest asset was as a kingmaker and behind the scenes advisor. In addition I've assumed that she wasn't that interested in pursuing the job but rather enjoyed making waves in the liberal media. The more I read the continuing attacks on Palin and her family I've started wondering why the Democrats and their media lapdogs fear her so much. Even some conservative pundits have determined that she is unelectable because of her high negatives. Those negatives are actually bogus and based on lies and misinformation and there is really only one word to describe Sarah Palin - indomitable.

Bill Maher played to the lowest common denominator and insinuated that Palin was a "dumb tw**t" and his moronic audience cheered. Ari Fleischer, a former press secretary in the George W. Bush administration, said recently that he couldn't see "any way, shape or form that [Palin] can win" the White House. Naturally there was a Public Policy poll that determined that Democratic and Independent voters would vote for Charlie Sheen over Sarah Palin. The fact that there was even such a poll should indicate the vigorous campaign to minimize her credibility as a serious candidate. Who's paying for these skewered polls anyway?

The anti-Palin campaign stretches to foreign media where Canadian TV columnist John Doyle writes in the Globe and Mail that television forever killed Palin's chances to be president. He writes: "television duly destroyed the Palin authenticity. The arc of her national political career began with a defining speech at the Republican National Convention in September, 2008, and ended in November, 2010, a few episodes into Sarah Palin's Alaska. The show, a cringingly inevitable reality-TV series, gave her a huge platform and she blew it. If her exposure on TV in 2008 brought out the authenticity, the show brought out Palin's inner princess. She talked about being a mom 87 times an episode (I'm exaggerating, but only a little) and made dubious attempts to make political parables linking her family, the outdoors and wildlife. It was ego unbounded. And this after quitting her job as governor of Alaska."

Why on earth American voters should listen to Doyle who has been an outright critic of all things conservative is beyond me but then again why does anybody watch The View? What he gets completely wrong is the impact of Sarah Palin's reality show. It probably did more to promote tourism in her state than all the previous travelogues. It was also clear from the TV show how much Ms. Palin loves Alaska which is the real reason she quit as governor. If Mr. Doyle had done any research he would have learned that staying in office while she was being pursued by unending bogus lawsuits and vicious media attacks made her duties as governor near impossible.

I didn't watch the entire Palin series but the ones I did watch left me with the impression that Sarah Palin represented the American woman we rarely get to see in the media-strong, independent and proud to be a mother. Mr. Doyle found this last image so offensive, he had to mock it because what mainstream media anchorwoman touts that familial connection? Fox News on the other hand has its anchorwomen proudly blooming on air throughout their pregnancies and not hiding their womanhood.

I also came away with a wishful thought about how wonderful it would be for our country to be represented by such a strong, vibrant woman who clearly loves this nation. I felt the same as a teenager when John F. Kennedy emerged as a presidential candidate and the nation was overwhelmed by his youth, charisma and beautiful family. We knew very little then about Kennedy's negatives and if the Internet had been around in 1960, it's doubtful he would have been elected. Conversely, we know everything about Sarah Palin and despite the distortion and lies about her character, what we see is what we get and frankly that honesty is what we need right now.

Each time the mainstream media tries to belittle her accomplishments she seizes the opportunity to set the story straight and the demonization backfires. The New York Times published an article attempting to denigrate her record involving Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share (ACES) which allows residents to share in oil revenue. Palin wrote a rebuttal on Facebook called, "NYT-There You Go Again.":

"Most importantly, Alaska enjoys a $12 billion surplus thanks to ACES and the sound fiscal policies of my administration. I put billions of dollars aside in savings accounts (though I could have easily spent those billions and made a lot of friends with big-spending legislators on both sides of the aisle), and I continued to veto excess spending and Obama stimulus funds, and chopped earmarks by 86% - much to the chagrin of liberal legislators who were used as "sources" in the article. It's kind of amusing to see state legislators claim credit for the surplus when they didn't vote for ACES, and they cried to high heaven when I vetoed their wasteful spending on their special interest projects."

The liberal media is also not reporting the success of her trips to our allies India and Israel because our president himself would not fare well in comparison. His last overseas trip is regarded as a colossal failure and more of a distraction from the serious global events like the imploding Mideast and the looming nuclear disaster in Japan. Obama effigies are being stomped on and beaten by Sri Lankan Muslims over the bombings in Libya. The question inevitable arises - what would a President Palin do? Better?

Barack Obama was never fully grilled on his ability to govern because he had no real executive experience and frankly the media didn't wish to expose his shortcomings.

Sarah Palin does have that experience as governor and we can gage from that what her priorities would be as president. Her record shows that she would not be burdening the American people with a multi-trillion dollar budget that would bankrupt the country. Her recent interview with Greta Van Susteren proved her to be a realistic and sympathetic observer of the difficulty Israel faces on a daily basis. Unlike our president who leans more towards the UN condemnation of that harried nation, Palin asked the question Israelis have been asking for decades: "Why is it that in the past, too often, the U.S. government has told Israel that they're the ones, the Jewish community, that they need to back up, they need to back off or there will never be peace? They need to keep conceding? Why aren't we putting our foot down with the other side and telling the Palestinians, if you're serious about peace, quit the shellacking and the shelling, quit the bombing of innocent Israelis. Look at the young Israeli family that was slaughtered in their house a week or two ago. Look at today, the bombing of those innocents at a bus station in Jerusalem."

This is not a dumb woman. This is an extremely competent and courageous woman whom I'd vote for in a nanosecond as my Commander-in-Chief. Dream ticket-Palin/Rubio.

The more the media attacks her, the more we get to hear her intelligent and self-assured responses debunking them all - and all without a teleprompter. No wonder they hate her.

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com