Gregory D.

Lee

Read Greg's bio and previous columns here

July 3, 2009

Why Sarah Palin Scares Democrats

Recently, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin traveled to Auburn, New York, and led a parade to celebrate Founder’s Day and help raise money to build a museum to honor William Seward, the secretary of state who was instrumental in acquiring Alaska for the country. Twenty thousand people attended the event chanting, “Run, Sarah, run!”  

Would Sen. John Kerry attract that many people in Massachusetts for a similar event? Not likely.

That’s the rub with Democrats. They see Gov. Palin as a unifying force within the Republican Party who will bring a credible challenge to its power base. Her rock solid conservative credentials, coupled with charisma, affable personality and abundance of common sense, scare the hell out of Democrats who have already started demonizing her before she gets too much more traction. Unfortunately for the Democrats, she is the most popular Republican since her vice-presidential nomination acceptance speech at the 2008 convention, and there are no signs her popularity is waning. In fact, it seems to increase with every Democratic attack hurled toward her.

Last week an esteemed former Democratic presidential nominee and sitting member of the U.S. Senate, took the latest juvenile potshot at Gov. Palin. After hearing that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had gone missing for several days to have a rendezvous with his Argentine mistress, Sen. John Kerry remarked to a group of businessmen, “Too bad if a governor had to go missing it couldn’t have been the governor of Alaska. You know, Sarah Palin.” What a guy! It’s too bad he didn’t go missing in Vietnam where he could have had long conversations with Sen. John McCain.

To compound his stupidity, at the time of Sen. Kerry’s remark, Gov. Palin was overseas visiting members of the Alaska National Guard who were called to active duty, to express her thanks and support for their service. Contrasting this patriotic gesture, Sen. Kerry is on record accusing U.S. soldiers of terrorizing women and children in Iraq.

I heard something about Sen. Kerry being a Vietnam veteran during his presidential campaign. (Who didn’t?). While running for president, Democrats wanted you to forget that as an anti-war advocate, he lied in congressional testimony about witnessing alleged atrocities committed by military members. He also lied about being in Cambodia on a secret mission when no such mission took place. But he gets a free pass from liberals and the press (I know that’s redundant) because lying is acceptable to achieve their goals of undermining national defense and raising taxes.

David Letterman’s writers seized the opportunity to slam Gov. Palin on her recent visit to New York City to accept an award as a strong advocate for children with disabilities. During one of his monologues, Letterman said that Gov. Palin and her daughter were attending a baseball game at Yankee Stadium and “during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.” It turned out that the daughter accompanying the governor was her 14-year-old, and not the vilified 18-year-old Bristol Palin, who became pregnant out of wedlock. Regardless of which daughter was there, would any prominent Democratic woman governor be the butt of such jokes?

Letterman later reluctantly apologized, but the damage had already been done. Americans admired Gov. Palin’s composure, and Democrats cringed once again.

Gov. Palin’s popularity among liberals would increase substantially if she had aborted her Down Syndrome baby. Maybe, if she said she smoked but didn’t inhale marijuana, advocated open borders, opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, called the CIA a bunch of liars and believed in spreading the wealth around by spending trillions of borrowed dollars on the guise of “economic stimulus,” the media would fawn over her.

But that’s not Sarah Palin. She’s the real deal. She’s the antidote for President Obama, Sen. Kerry and their liberal friends in Congress. As president she would restore national security, fiscal responsibility and U.S. world leadership. And the Democrats know it.

The more Democrats hurl insults at Gov. Palin, the stronger and more resilient she becomes. If she should become the first woman president of the United States, she will always be compared to another non-white male president, President Obama.

I look forward to the comparison. Run, Sarah, run!

Gregory D. Lee is a nationally syndicated columnist who can be reached through www.gregorydlee.com.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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