Back in the mid 1990's The Chrysler Corporation went public with a really new and exciting business model. The company best known for the K-car and inventing the mini-van at that point in time, had spent a lot of time behind the scenes to totally remake the company. They threw everything out, and started fresh. New "cab-forward" styling on their cars, and a brand new pickup truck, the first completely new truck in 25 years, and a completely refocused management, design, and manufacturing team.
Chrysler became the most exciting car company around. Envied by the other manufacturers. It really was the rebirth of a company that since the it’s formation had always been recognized as one of the best at engineering. This brought Chrysler back in a big way. Record sales, especially in trucks, helped Chrysler show healthy profits. If fact, Chrysler became so successful, Mercedes-Benz would soon come knocking with a bundle of cash and an offer!
The Dodge Division of Chrysler was in a really good place. They not only had a pick-up truck that just knocked people’s socks off! They had a world class sedan in the Intrepid. There was a new mini-van, and at the time Chrysler ruled that market with over 50 percent share. And Dodge really shook things up with the Viper, an incredible hand built sports car/muscle car that just had to be driven to be appreciated.
Dodge had a great slogan they used among the dealers and employees:
"The rules have changed! This changes everything!"
This was a real rallying point. Nothing like being in a room with hundreds of dealers and having the Dodge folks yelling "the rules have..." followed by the dealers screaming "changed!", followed by "this changes..." "EVERYTHING!" shouted by Dodge folks and the dealers respectively.
Well, I’m here to tell you, with Sarah Palin, the rules have changed!
Look, much like Chrysler’s history, the Republican party was known for solid core principles. This dates back to Abraham Lincoln. And just like Chrysler, the party has had it’s ups and downs. It’s had periods of great highs and low lows.
One of the very best eras for the party was during the Reagan years. In car guy terminology, this was like the muscle car era when Chrysler’s Hemi(c) engine was introduced and was unbeatable on the race track. NASCAR actually ended up banning the thing and NHRA factored it into oblivion.
Ronald Reagan was that dominant as well. To this day he still inspires millions.
And of course, there were those heady days in the mid 1990's when the Republicans, led by Newt Gingrich and others took back Congress. That was the culmination of the Reagan Revolution.
But sadly, the Grand Old Party is currently in the K-car business. Utilitarian and somewhat solid, but not exciting, and devoid of any real leadership or ideas. Now for sure, there are some exceptions, there always are. But basically, the GOP is at this point.. Not bad, but certainly not great.
Then there is Sarah Palin.
Sarah defies political definitions and traditions. Yes, she is a true conservative, a novelty in itself in the Republican party these days, but this woman is unconventional, to say the least! Just the fact that she is a woman is a big deal. While there are a lot of women in politics, and a lot of Republican women in key roles, none have the shear magnetism and gravitas Sarah Palin has.
Sarah is different from any politician out there. For one thing, she’s not a Beltway hack. Sarah Palin is an outsider. You can’t be more outside the Beltway than Alaska! Palin is someone who speaks her mind, and when she speaks, people listen. And, unlike most, Sarah Palin says what she means, and means what she says. Unheard of in Washington. In fact, Palin is so straightforward, that many either refuse to believe it, or simply can’t comprehend it.
Case in point: When Sarah gave her Independence Speech on July 3, most of the "elites" in politics, and the media claimed they "couldn’t understand her" or as one put it, they needed "Rosetta Stone" to help them decipher!
Funny thing, millions of us regular folk understood exactly what she was saying. Far from "rambling and incoherent" which has become the state run media’s talking point, Palin simply spelled out what she had achieved in her time as Governor, a lengthy list by anyone’s standard. She also explained why she was doing this. Of course, there were several reasons for Sarah’s decision to step down. This is a complicated situation, the fact of which seemed to fly right over the heads of the elitists.
Not to rehash the whole thing, but one huge factor was the fact the democrat operatives were basically stealing millions of dollars from the Alaska tax payers by filing so many bogus ethics complaints, all of which had zero credibility or merit.
Then there was the personal cost. These democrats have cost Palin and her family over a half million dollars in legal fees, defending false accusations. Palin actually had to set up a legal defense fund to help pay her bills. Of course, this is not uncommon. Many big name politicians have has to do this. But to hear the democrats tell it, Sarah is the first politician ever to do this. They’ve actually filed complaints because she is defending herself against all of the complaints! They even managed to get someone from Barack Obama’s law firm, Perkins Coie to play "special investigator" in this deal! And no one seems to see a conflict of interest by having Thomas Daniel "investigating" Sarah Palin!
You can read more about that here, and more on Perkins Coie, here.
Basically the democrats had ground Palin’s government to a halt. Nothing was getting done. That bothers Sarah immensely. Sarah is a doer. And someone who is all about getting things done doesn’t allow themselves to be halted for long!
Now one other thing that helped Sarah make her decision was the fact that to the media, and the democrats, her children absolutely fair game. Everyone knows the details, so I won’t waste your time, but the really low point was the concerted and coordinated effort to attack her youngest, Trig, who has downs syndrome. Even for democrats, this was as low as it gets.
But, the media conveniently overlooked one of the really important reasons for Sarah’s decision to step down and redeploy her efforts. Maybe since common sense is in short supply among the media and the Beltway elites, the idea of a politician stepping down voluntarily for a higher calling seems silly. To that bunch it’s all about acquiring power and never letting go. This is why they all complained that Palin’s speech was "incoherent!"
Of all of the reasons Sarah is stepping down over, the one big reason, in my mind, is her love of country. Her deep patriotism. Her sense of duty.
Sarah knows that Barack Obama is heading us on a road to ruin with his communist ideals. Obama’s plans are destroying the economy and destroying our liberty and freedom. And he is doing it at breakneck speed!
Sarah, a fiscal conservative, who slashed Alaska’s budget by nearly 17 percent for FY 2010, sees that Barack Obama has spent more money and created more debt than all of the previous 43 Presidents combined. Palin instinctively knows that Obama and the democrats are bankrupting the country, and stealing our grandchildren’s future.
Sarah also knows we need energy independence and has actually taken concrete steps toward that effort. Palin knows the nation’s economy runs on energy. Cheap, plentiful energy. This is a foreign concept to the democrats and Obama.
Sarah understands instinctively that schemes like cap and tax, and the government take over of the health care industry, are destructive to the economy, will cause massive job loss, and will destroy freedom and liberty.
Sarah gets national security. In fact, according to A.B. Culvahouse, the high powered D.C. attorney, and former Reagan advisor, who vetted all of John McCain’s prospective vice presidential candidates, Palin’s offer to be the vice presidential candidate came after her solid answers on three national security questions.
Like the rest of us, Sarah looks at Barack Obama and sees Neville Chamberlain, wrapped up in Jimmy Carter, and seasoned with a good dose of naivete. This is a dangerous world, and this is no time to be the appeaser-in-chief, or the apologist-in-chief.
So, what’s a girl to do?
Well, if you are Sarah Palin and know that Obama and his minions must be stopped and stopped now, before he and his gang do irreparable damage to our nation, you can’t sit idly by and watch.
Sarah knows she couldn’t be effective as Governor. Never mind the fact that the democrats in Alaska, the anklebiters, went insane every time she even thought about leaving the state. And logistically, Alaska is too far away from the rest of the country. So it makes sense for Sarah to step down, so she can step up.
The media elites and the establishment Republicans can’t comprehend the fact that one doesn’t have to be in any sort of political office to effect change. They certainly can’t comprehend anyone giving up what they perceive as power. These cats are the ones who have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of somewhere once they have wore out their welcome!
The media elites and the good old boys in the GOP don’t know Sarah Palin!
The story of Palin is that of a true reformer. She has done it since her earliest days as a Wasilla councilwoman, where she battled with a fellow council member over ethics. Nick Carney, the council member that actually encouraged her to run for office in the first place, had a waste management business. Not a shock, most small town council members and mayors do have some sort of business. But Carney was pushing for an ordinance that would have basically given his company a monopoly in and around Wasilla for garbage collection. Even though they were friends, Sarah fought and defeated the measure, and thus, a reformer was born.
The most well known story is how Sarah cleaned up corruption at the AOGCC. The oil and natural gas commission she chaired. This was pure Sarah Palin.
After being term limited as mayor, Palin ran for Lt. Governor. Even though she didn’t win, Palin caught the eye of Governor Frank Murkowski. Murkowski appointed her to the AOGCC. This is a powerful, good paying job. So what happened next had to be a tough decision to make.
There was a serious good old boy network in and around the oil business in Alaska. Many of the state GOP party officials worked at Palin’s agency. Most notably party chair Randy Ruedrich and former attorney general Gregg Renkes. There were major conflicts of interests between AOGCC people and those in the oil, and coal businesses which the commission regulates. Additionally, Ruedrich was known to spend a lot of company time doing party business.
When Palin tried to fix these issues, tried to clean house, she met incredible resistence. Her boss, the Governor wanted to protect his boys! In what had to be a painful decision, Sarah Palin decided to resign. She "quit." But, she didn’t really quit!
Now just like today, all of the so-called experts said she was "committing political suicide" was destroying her chances of ever being in politics again. It seem they was slightly incorrect!
You see, far from quitting, Sarah Palin had only begun to fight! In the end, resignations were tendered, fines were paid, and some ended up in prison. As a private citizen, Sarah Palin basically took down the whole Republican establishment. No wonder the establishment types hate her!
Sarah wasn’t done quite yet though. Her next move was to run for Governor of Alaska. She beat Murkowski in the Republican primary in a landslide and then took on popular former democrat Governor Tony Knowles and beat him convincingly.
This is the history of Sarah Palin that the state run media, and Beltway elites either ignore or simply don’t understand. For someone like Sarah, an out-of-the-box thinker, and an incredibly unconventional politician, it makes perfect sense to "give up power" and step down as Governor. Just like she saw an unwinnable situation over at the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, she saw an unwinnable situation if she stayed on as Governor.
Anyone paying attention knows that Sarah Palin is not going to fade into the woodwork. Palin has already said that she is ready to come to the lower 48 and support pro-American conservative candidates. She wants to promote candidates that share her philosophy of small government, fiscal responsibility, strong national security, and energy independence.
Sarah already has speaking engagements lined up and more invites than one can imagine. If you are one of the nearly 120,000 people who follow her on twitter, you know Sarah is chomping at the bit wanting to get busy. She’s been dropping a lot of hints, and going after Obama. She will have a new account after she leaves office, and has promised it will be less "politically correct!" More of a Sarahcuda unleashed!
I did get a kick out of this tweet from Friday night:
Detroit Down" & "Rollin": "Aint gonna shut my mouth/I know there's got to be a few hundred million more like me/just trying to keep it free"
That pairs up quite nicely with her comment made in June in Anchorage at an event honoring Michael Reagan. Sarah was talking about how bad of a shape the nation is, and how Barack Obama’s policies were doing grave damage. She spoke of how all of her critics wanted her to just sit down and shut up. She said this:
"Politically, if I die, I die, but I won’t sit down, and I won’t shut up!" She then added: "Stand up, speak up, and be bold! Screw political correctness!"
Words to live by.
And that in a nutshell is what Sarah Palin is all about. This is someone who doesn’t care if she has hurt her chances of ever holding public office again, she has bigger fish to fry!
Sarah has a deep love for this nation. She has a love that will not allow her to just go with the flow. As she said in her Independence Day speech: "Dead fish go with the flow!"
Sarah Palin has guts, something sorely lacking nowadays. She is fearless. Sarah sees the dire situation we are in and has decided that since no one else is answering the call with full force and determination, that she will do it herself. With Sarah Palin, the rules have changed.
No one knows where this journey will take her. But we all know it will be exciting and productive. Frankly, if all Sarah accomplishes is getting a great number of conservatives elected and helps take back Congress so we can stop Obama and start reversing all of the damage he has done, she will forever be remembered as a patriot.
But Sarah Palin is a unique figure in American politics. She draws huge crowds wherever she goes. And once she has these crowds she doesn’t fill their ears with empty rhetoric like that hopey-changey guy we know. Sarah talks substance and policy. That will prove problematic for the unicorn and rainbow salesman-in-chief!
Look for Sarah to energize the nation. To lead a real movement in this country. She has the Republican base. In fact, latest polls show she has a 76 percent approval rating among all Republicans. And her numbers among independents, and even moderate democrats are growing.
Much like Ronald Reagan, Sarah has the ability to build a strong coalition of common sense Americans who have had their fill of business as usual in Washington. A coalition, that if she chooses, can propel her into the White House in 2012.
By seizing the moment and breaking all of the rules, Sarah Palin will be able to turn the Republican brand around. She can bring it back to it’s solid conservative roots. Sarah can transform the GOP from the K-car of politics to the most dynamic and exciting brand going!
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