"Fight Like a Girl"

Say what you will, but Sarah Palin gives great concept.

Speaking yesterday in Madison, Wisconsin Palin laid down the gauntlet to Congressional Republicans. She challenged them to emulate the example of the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team, national champions that they are, and “fight like a girl.”

With a single concept Palin rebuked and shamed male Republicans, presented herself as a fighter, and challenged the feminist left. She took what is generally used as a term of derision and made it into a sign of pride. If you want to draw women voters to the Republican line, you can’t do much better.

For all the feminist insistence on making women strong,  movement feminists are so viscerally opposed to anything military, or to anything that has to do with guns, that they are  constantly projecting weakness.

While Donald Trump is sucking up political oxygen with his quixotic thrust at the presidency, Sarah Palin did what Trump has not done. She gave voice and gave intellectual coherence to the GOP critique of the Obama administration. She also formulated a strong and coherent Republican message.

Think what you will but Scott Walker did not have the rhetorical or conceptual skills to frame the issue as Palin did.

Sarah Palin is clearly a great speaker. Everyone with any discernment noted it when she gave her 2008 convention speech.

Can she win the presidency? That is more iffy.

Palin had been in something of an eclipse lately, largely because she decided to star in a reality show that highlighted her everyday life with her family.

Given that the media has focused a harsh spotlight on Palin‘s family, the better to make her look unpresidential, it did not help her to focus the spotlight on her family life.

I also suspect that a Palin candidacy would be more likely to elicit an independent run from everyone’s favorite vainglorious billionaire, Donald Trump.

Thus, I still favor Chris Christie. The governor of New Jersey has the same genius for forming concepts, framing a message, clarifying the issues, and communicating with the public.

For all the talk about how stupid Palin is supposed to be, how many national Republican leaders have spoken as clearly and as forcefully about the issues? For now, none.

However, if you want an example of true stupidity, how about shining a little scrutiny on a man who sat in Jeremiah Wright’s church for twenty years and did not understand what Wright was preaching.

Or else, imagine that this same man was listening to Wright, understanding the message, and thinking that it made good sense.

That, my friends, is true stupidity.