There’s Something About Sarah

by Andrew Marcus

We have been poring over our thousands of photos from the Tea Party Convention, and in so doing, we discovered the following shot among our Sarah Palin files.

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Founding Bloggers photographer, Michael Kadela, didn’t know it at the time, but he had captured the exact moment Sarah Palin glanced down at her left hand, to read the note she had written there earlier.

sarah hand closeup

Those among the outraged Progressive Left trampled each other in the rush to launch personal attacks against Governor Palin, calling her stupid and hypocritical for needing a hand-note in the same speaking engagement in which she criticized President Obama for his constant use of a teleprompter.

The gleeful vilification of Sarah Palin for her use of a note during her Q&A segment betrays any facade of decency or humility on the part of the Progressive Left of the Democrat Party, let alone the slightest sense of irony, given our Teleprompter-in-Chief.

As for the alleged hypocrisy of Sarah Palin, the implication is that the use of a hand-written note (as it were) during a packed ballroom speaking engagement is somehow equivalent to the inappropriateness of the President using Teleprompter-One in a classroom of 6th graders.

This implication is both false and laughable.

The judgment of the Progressive Democrat Party on matters such as this are completely irrelevant. By design, the National Tea Party does not exist for, nor does it seek, the approval of the Progressive Left. In fact, Progressives constitute a very reliable reverse barometer. If Progressives are angry or otherwise screeching, you are doing something right.

Further, Progressive elites weighing in to consign Sarah to idiot status doesn’t exactly diminish her standing among the average Tea Partier, who love her almost in direct proportion to how much Progressives hate her.

Progressives traffic in the politics of name-calling and character assassination. They have forfeited any goodwill presumption of credibility when it comes to objectively criticizing anyone on the Right, let alone their most vilified American citizen target, Sarah Palin.

We’re reminded of that scene in Animal House when Otter says to Boon, “He can’t do that to our pledges!” And Boon replies, “Only we can do that to our pledges.”


In the spirit of Boon’s reply, let’s examine Tea Party ‘pledge’ Sarah Palin’s performance at the 1st National Tea Party Convention.

Sarah Palin delivered an unapologetically critical rant directed at the many faults of the Obama administration. This was exactly what the Tea Party crowd wanted to hear from their keynote speaker. Job well done, Sarah.

Let’s address the hand-note for a moment, which became the storyline of the event for the mainstream media. The problem with the note written on the Governor’s hand has nothing to do with either her alleged lack or abundance of intelligence.

From one perspective, Sarah’s note-taking is indicative of how important she felt it was to hit each point she believed pertinent in answering the questions posed by the event organizer.

From another perspective, however, there is a valid argument to be made that Sarah Palin should have been able to answer the questions posed to her without the need for notes. She couldn’t, and that’s fine too because there wasn’t any expectation that she had never heard the questions prior to the event or that she would be note-free. Also, after reviewing the footage, it is clear that she was not trying to hide her hand. To the contrary, she was regularly waving it around as she gestured.

The hand note reveals something though that is worth examining in context and without the venom of the Progressive Left.

Governor Palin’s need for a hand note in order to answer the questions posed reveals not so much that she is stupid, as the never-compassionate Progressive Left would have you believe, but rather that Sarah is a Tea Party Keynote speaker and not yet a Tea Party leader. (Note that we are using the term “a” instead of “the” to qualify leader. There is no central leader of this movement and that’s a good thing)

A Tea Party leader should not need a note card in order to answer the question, ‘What are the top three things that need to be done if the House and Senate are flipped to Conservative?’ (Just to name a few in any order: 1 – Abolish the Progressive tax code and replace it with something fair, flat, and loophole free. 2 – Exploit ALL of our own energy resources. 3 – Lead the charge against the global Jihad)

In addition to needing a hand note in order to answer that question, there is something else that is preventing her from truly being a Tea Party leader, as opposed to an excellent Tea Party speaker, and that is the isolated bubble she is in.

Sarah Palin didn’t make herself available to any media covering the event. Not even to conservative bloggers, which is a mistake for any leader in the tea Party movement). While she’s not obligated to answer any questions, the refusal to do so adds to an accurate perception of inaccessibility.

Additionally, that Governor Palin was seated in an exclusive roped-off area in the banquet hall and never mingled with the regular attendees makes it hard to not feel like Governor Palin is more a part of the inaccessible machine against which the Tea Parties are protesting, despite her image as an outsider.

This is unfortunate too, considering the degree to which the establishment on both sides of the aisle have thrown her under the bus. The abuse she has taken cements her position as an outsider and underdog, therefore, her inaccessibility paints an inaccurate image on this score.

To illustrate the importance of coming out of the bubble, the following anecdote might be relevant.

In 2007, at least one of your Founding Bloggers was invited to cover the Yearly Kos Convention. Every major Democrat candidate for President made an appearance in an attempt to woo the Netroots.

A striking difference between the candidates was displayed that day, a difference which proved to be a very telling precursor to the decision to run Barack Obama as the Democrat candidate for President.

When Hillary made her appearance, it was from within the bubble. She was whisked in through a back hallway and onto a stage in a medium-sized room. She gave her talk, answered a couple of questions, and then was whisked back out through the hallway, never to be seen again.

That’s a bubble of inaccessibility.

In contrast, when then Senator Obama made his appearance, he walked into the room through the same door everyone else did. He remained on the floor level, never taking to the stage. People were not prevented from approaching him, and approach they did. He was greeted and treated like a rock star. People responded very favorably to his accessibility, especially in contrast to the Hillary bubble.

It was in that moment that this blogger realized Obama had a serious shot at his party’s nomination.

If Sarah Palin, or anyone else for that matter, wants to try and be a leader of the Tea Party movement, they are going to have to come out of the bubble and relate in a meaningful way to the people on the floor. Anything short of that simple task runs contrary to the Tea Party spirit.

Our last observation about the need for a hand note has nothing to do with intelligence or accessibility, and everything to do with getting your money’s worth.

It doesn’t matter who it is – for $100,000.00 it is reasonable to expect from your speaker off-book, off-the-cuff answers to at least a few basic questions.

In Sarah’s case, she was on stage for a total of 58 minutes. That comes to $1,724.14 per minute. If that is not enough to get Alaska’s former Governor off-the-cuff, it begs the question: how much is enough to get Sarah Palin completely off book?

Before the Progressive Left jumps all over that as proof of some deficiency, they should consider the teleprompter-in-chief. He consumed almost a BILLION dollars to get elected. He’s been in office for just over a year. That comes to $2,617, 801 per day, or $109,075 per hour. That should be more than enough to get him to appear in a 6th grade classroom without the crutch of Teleprompter-One.


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Posted Feb 11th 2010 at 1:11 pm in Culture, News, Obama, Politics, Tea Party | 402 Comments