When I had to chance to interact with former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin at SkyBridge Capital's SALT conference, I was surprised to discover that she is intelligent, nice, knows the name of the newspapers that she reads, and has an elaborate tattoo on her ankle.When I asked if I could take a picture of Palin, she graciously asked if I wanted to take a picture with her knowing I was part of the "lamestream" media.
On the way home from the SALT conference, I ran into her at the airport. She was walking behind me and called out to me. Since airport security was escorting her, she did not have to say hello. Even though, they wanted to help her with her bag, she insisted on rolling it on her own. She offered to take another picture at the airport with me. She was the opposite of the prima donna that she has been portrayed to be. When I was walking to my seat in coach, I saw her talking to her seat mate.
Palin is even more beautiful in person. There is never a hair out of place. She is always perfectly dressed for the occasion. She was dressed in all black -leather jacket, shirt, skirt- but tan 6 inch sandals that showed off her tattoo. At the airport, she looked smoking hot in a short dress and Bristol's cowboy boots.
While I do not agree with her positions on the Affordable Care Act and abortion, it is pretty clear that she has been unfairly maligned by the press. I have to wonder if some of the reaction is because she is a pretty woman.
It was easy to unlock the mystery of Palin's newspaper reading habits. When I told Palin that I had written for the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz and Globes in Israel, she responded without hesitation, "I get the headlines from the Jerusalem Post delivered to my inbox daily. I also look at the Times of Israel."
The Times of Israel is a fairly new site, financed by billionaire Seth Klarman and edited by David Horowitz formerly of the Jerusalem Post, with a right of center viewpoint. Many Jews are not yet familiar with the Times of Israel yet, so that she named it tells me that Palin is looking for reliable news from the Middle East and regularly reads newspapers.
Some of the SkyBridge conference attendees were going to boycott her speech. To me, they are just as ignorant as they claim her to be. The conference organizer, Anthony Scaramucci, had the right answer for protesters -"Get over it."
She did make a foreign policy mistake during her prepared remarks. Palin wrongly criticized the Obama administration for military interference in Egypt and Libya but not Iran and Syria. Obama only utilized his bully pulpit at all. The protesters in Tahrir Square achieved the downfall of former President Mubarak all by themselves without any outside interference. Clearly, Palin's expertise is not foreign affairs.
Palin spends a lot of time hunting and fishing. While I know my Arab states, I could not hook bait on a fishing rod. We can not label as unintelligent those that do not share our interests.
Having grown up hearing in the financial industry's mantra of "what did you do for me today," I was a little bored listening to recite 3 year old tales of her gubernatorial fiscal restraint. I did perk up when described the $47000 killer shrub. If she is going to continue to be relevant, she will need to come up with new material. Jokes about the GSA will only take you so far.
Her calling of the 1 percenters in the room "unsung heroes" made me queasy, but all Republicans worship the rich. Embattled Harbinger Capital's Phil Falcone, whose major investment is bankrupt LightSquared, is not my idea of a hero.
She is still defensive about the bad press. At one point, she said, "I can really see Russia from my house."
She reminded the audience, "I had four days to prepare to go on the international stage." Even though I am in the news business, I do not always have time to read newspapers and watch newscasts. Sarah Palin is a busy mother of five that likes to spend her free time hunting and fishing not watching television. That does not mean she is not intelligent. It just may mean that she is not as well informed as news junkies are.
When Scarmucci of SkyBridge Capital threw her the softball question of what is your greatest accomplishment to date, Sarah froze and could not come up with an answer. On the other hand, she gave a beautiful answer to her three guests at a dinner party. She would catch and cook beer battered halibut on Mother's day for her son, who would be home from Afghanistan; Abraham Lincoln, whose Secretary of State Seward purchased Alaska from Russia; and author C. S. Lewis.
Palin is clearly intelligent. She is just not glib. John Edwards is glib, but I think that can all agree not very smart. We as a society have to decide which is the more important attribute for a politician to possess-glib or smart.
My prediction is that Palin will be a major force in the Republican Party for years to come. She has a good grasp of the issues that she cares about and knows how to frame them in a way that Middle America understands.
Dear Laura,
ReplyDeleteGlad to see that a fellow Philadelphian has had her eyes opened to the real person of Sarah Palin. You might want to ask yourself: Why did it come as such a surprise that she is warm, genuine, unpretentious?
Once we realize that she has been the object of perhaps the greatest political and media smear campaign in history – exacerbated by the sad fact that in America it is still okay to beat up on women in the most vile and disgusting ways - we can also begin see how her political positions and her wonderful career have been viciously distorted.
It surprises me that you have not received any hate posts over your article. I get them all the time for supporting and defending her.
But I certainly admire you for having the guts to speak up for her as a person. And I would predict not only that she has a great future in the GOP - as you do - but that her role as a visionary American leader will become evident a lot sooner than people think.
Keep the faith,
Benyamin Korn
JewsForSarah.com
Well, this article was faint in its praise for Sarah.
ReplyDeleteSarah was wrong? Laura says instead - "Obama did not interfere in Egypt at all"
Hello??? Laura better go back and re-read her papers and media for the last year or so. Starting with the US "not interfering" with Mubarak's fate or the US's involvement with the Egyptian military.
"Palin and I are equally unintelligent in different areas".... no Laura... you are unintelligent in many areas while Sarah is intelligent.
I found it interesting that you are tired of hearing Sarah's repeating of her record in office and other jokes and lines from previous speeches. That is really interesting considering you are a liberal. You listened to her previous speeches?? You are bored hearing all her lines more than once?? Just how many times have you monitored Sarah Palin before this?
And I love this line... "While I do not agree with her positions". This must be a line that is taught to liberals from birth to use when talking about Conservatives who make sense.
Exactly what positions do you not agree with her on... please be specific.
- smaller, smarter government?
- more individual freedoms?
- adhering to the US Constitution?
- doing away with crony capitalism?
- increasing energy supplies IN the US instead of importing expensive energy?
- less corruption in government?
- being proud of the United States and not kowtowing to foreign dictators?
- defending Israel, an ally instead of appeasing its enemies?
I could go on, but how about I leave it to you to be specific and tell all of us those policies and ideas that you DO NOT agree with her on. I really would like to know what they were.
P.S. Please don't say anything about gays/lesbians because it is well known that Sarah actually supported measure in Alaska re pensions related to gays/lesbians against her party because it was the right thing to do based on the Constitution (and one of her long time best friends from college is a lesbian)
Please don't say anything about religion because Sarah is religious but has NEVER brought it into her governing while serving in office.
Come on... lets hear about ALL THOSE policies and ideas you are so against that are Sarah's.
The sum total of the above article and the two comments (so far):
ReplyDeleteANYONE, even a "liberal" can lavish praise on Sarah Palin, but woe betide anyone who dares to challenge her statements, facts about her past record, her appearance (which, at times, has been messy, to be kind; remember the picture at the Hong Kong airport when she had a booger in her nose?), or her insatiable need to be talked about?
Sounds like a good candidate for PTA.Not so much for POTUS.
ReplyDeleteAlways immaculate?Not so much. http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/LjcBnvi8_iU/FIJI+Water+MSNBC+Correspondents+After+Party/h-kOpdzn7mh/Sarah+Palin
Sarah has been right very often.
ReplyDeleteIf you hear she was wrong, it is probably a lie.
SP2012
Ms. Palin wrongly stated that the Obama administration militarily intervened in Egypt. I should have been more clearer. I do not agree with Palin's position on abortion, end of life counseling, and the recently passed healthcare legislation.
ReplyDeleteExcept of course, they did. Covertly, through the Army. Which has made a complete hash of things and has paved the way for the rise of the Brotherhood to take power.
DeleteOnce they threw Mubarak over the side (again, by means of their contacts in the Army) the Brotherhood understood that other American clients in Egypt were on the run.
The Peace Treaty with Israel exists until the Egyptians decide otherwise, which was one of the points of the Brotherhood taking power.
OMG I'm embarassed to live in the same city as you.
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin is a mythical creation. Please do some research on the real Sarah Palin. She faked her pregnancy with Tri-G. That is the only explanation for all the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of this child. Look at photos of her from March 08 at the Republican Governor's meeting. She is flat as a board. A few weeks later she is 9 months size...this defies human physiology.Her "doctor" is a family practice physician who was not a high risk OB. She would NEVER be qualified to deliver Palin at MatSu, a local hospital that does not do high risk births. Her doctor is on record as telling Palin it was "Not unreasonable to fly" on two long airlines flights after her membranes rupture prematurely. There is no WAY this happened. There are regulations and standards that hospitals and doctors do not break if they want to be in business.
Have you ever given birth? Just do the smallest bit of research into Palin's pregnancy and birth tale and if you have any brains at all, you will see that the story she tells is just that... a story...for political gain. It matters not where Tri-G came from, who is his real mom. What matters is that he did not come from Sarah's loins on 4/18/08 at MatSu hospital.
Do you know Sarah said she did not show with her 7th pregnancy because "my abs were tight and I could hide it". Yes!!! She actually is on Elan Frank's video stating that she could suck in her abs and hide her belly......except that doesn't explain her defying human physiology and going flat to huge in 5 weeks. If she went flat to that big in five weeks she'd be deathly ill in an ICU with a ruptured uterus.
Also, you know trisomy G is another old name for Down Syndrome. Yep. Curiously this child with Down Syndrome is named another name for Down Syndrome. Tri-G.
Many of us in healthcare and many of us who have given birth, knew from Sept 08 when she was first tapped as VP candidate, that something was SERiously amiss with her. Wwe did the most rudimentary of research on her and went down the rabbit hole. If you spend just alittle bit of time researching this, you will come to the same conclusion. I'm happy to leave links to photos and videos or just go to politcalgates blog and start reading and watching.
Enjoy!
And sure as Bob's your Uncle, the Trig Truthers show up.
DeleteDamn right. We're everywhere. Getting people to think. You have nooo way to spin any of what is posted above.
DeleteGet some meds for that PDS. Your hate is showing!
DeleteInstead of ad hominem attacks on me, please spend time addressing the facts I've outlined above. Again, you have no positive way to spin this. I guess all you have are ad hominem attacks. You just prove my points :)
DeleteSo instead she was willing to risk the life of her unborn child by flying from Texas to Alaska,2 long flights,ride for hours in a car bypassing hospitals that do deliver high risk infants? That shows extreme indifference for the life of her unborn child or extreme poor judgement.I personally believe she did give birth to Trig,hiding it with tight girdles,not abs,and that she did exercise extremely poor judgement.The Sarah Palin you salivate over on the C4P blog is a fraud.Now wipe that drool off of your mouth and send her some more money,she needs some more botox,Todd needs another hooker and the family needs another vacation.
ReplyDeletemommom Who do you believe was her physician and where did she deliver then? CBJ as a family practice physician who had only delivered three kids in the years previous to Palin's "pregnancy", would NOT be qualified to be a high risk OB. MatSu has no NICU and doesn't allow high risk births. It could not have taken place at MatSu. Palin and her fundy cronies were on MatSu hospital board and could easily have provided an empty room for the baby exchange and Tri-G's presentation to the world. We agree she is a fraud, but I know she did not birth Tri-G as stated.
DeleteAll the released emails show Sarah and her staff spinning their wheels, asking how to dispel rumors that Bristol wasn't TRi-G's mom. Just show a birth certificate. What mother would put a teenage child through such emotional trauma? Just show a birth cetificate and be done with it.
Except she doesn't have a legitimate certificate that states Tri-G was born 4/18/08
http://scharlottsbeacon.blogspot.com/2012/05/definite-case-for-palin-birth-hoax-in.html#comment-form
ReplyDelete