Sarah Palin manages to make a valid point.
"No! No more Sarah Palin!" I can hear you crying out when you read the headline, but bear with me.
On a January 27 appearance on Fox News' Hannity Show, Sarah Palin was questioned by Sean Hannity about whether she was serious about running in 2016. Then, Sean pivoted to her nonsensical, rambling, incoherent speech in Iowa. And that's when Sarah Palin did the unthinkable—she made a very valid point.
Hannity: Yeah, you also got criticized for the speech, even a lot of the people in the crowd that tend to be supporters of yours. Um, and did the teleprompter go down? Did you have trouble with the copy? Was there any moment in the speech where you had any difficulty because people have been so critical?
Palin: I'm, well I'm, you know I don't read the praise and I don't read the criticism, cuz I know how you guys, or how the media in general work.
Hannity: I'm not "you guys", I don't want to be part of that group.
Palin: I'm used to teleprompters not working. Remember at the, um, GOP acceptance speech back in '08, the teleprompter broke there too and it didn't work and I kept on going, so, no, I, you know, I don't know, I received a standing ovation throughout and at the end of the speech, so I don't know, I think a lot of this herd mentality of some of the reporters would, um, would um, that sort of exacerbates some of the criticism. But, I don't know if anybody really would, when you talk about the meat, the content of the speech, would criticize what I talk about courage, integrity, and a track record of any candidate that is needed in order to, be able to sincerely serve the people of America—who deserve real hope and real change and not more of the same. Not more of the status quo, this old energy if you will, but we need new energy, new ideas and as I say, very, very important we have a track record proving what works.
Let's take a quick pause. Old energy? Possible knock on people like
maverick Senator John McCain? And she's partially right in that instance. Yes, the GOP is in desperate need of new energy and new ideas. She's totally wrong about them having a current
governor with successful conservative policies. But, let's move on to the point where she really nails the truth. You can read it below the fold.
Palin: What I also made a point of in that speech, Sean, and this is important—is, knowing what the media is going to do throughout 2016. And, my prediction, Hillary will be running and she will be—you know—the knighted candidate on the left, and with the media, knowing what the media's going to do, it's going to take more than a village to beat Hillary. There needs to be unity, understanding that conservatives have that against us right off the bat, that being the media, even there—on Fox! (raises voice and shrugs) You know, kind of a qua-say (she meant quasi) or conservative outlet and yet we have all day listening to the tease of Bill O'Reilly—he's, he's talking about the guests on his show tonight or the commentary on his show—and that would be, oh, all these GOP contenders thinking about running for president, like Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, and he names them off—Oh! What a reality show that would be! yuck, yuck. Well, the left doesn't do that, okay, okay. They take this serious. Because this is war! And hopefully the media, even the quasi-right-side of the media, won't be looking at this as some kind of a reality show, a joke because maybe they have theirs, so their taking care of theirs fine. No. The people of America deserve the best and competition through a GOP primary, whether a Bill O'Reilly or somebody else assumes a reality show or not, they deserve that competition to surface the competitor who can take on Hillary, or whomever it may be, and win for this country.
Emphasis added for this critical point. Republicans are keenly aware that they have a primary problem. As in, the primary system is long enough that the Palins, Trumps and the other candidates with losing platforms hang around long enough to drag their real candidates so far to the right that they cannot recover in the general election. Republicans are taking this so seriously that they
changed their rules to dramatically shorten the 2016 primary season. They are trying to keep a cap on the crazy and not get dragged over to the tea party wing of the party. But, the tea party polices
are their policies. And the American people deserve to hear how absurd their polices are and see the candidates that represent those polices. Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump, Ben Carson—LET THEM LOOSE!
Of course, in the end, it will be these very candidates and their whack-a-doodle policies that will be their demise. But, I'm in full agreement that the American people need to see and decide for themselves.
In that spirit—please proceed, Governor.
WATCH:
Hannity: Are you considering for 2016 a run for the presidency? Are you thinking about it?
Palin: I, along with so many others, on a deep bench, no doubt are thinking about it. But, it's much too early to say whether I—and I'm sure others would answer the same way—they would be throwing their hat in the ring.
Hannity: Alright, we do expect, come March or April, a lot of people are on the ground in Iowa, you were in Iowa for this speech—uh, they are putting together campaign teams, hiring people on the ground. Are you talking to people about that? I mean, walk us through the thought process—um, for you—in terms of what it means...
Palin: Well, my thought process personally—um, and, and, and, near and dear to my heart, of course, obviously would be my family and um, receiving their blessing to go forth, this first and foremost and of course, being a Christian and putting my life in God's hands and seeking guidance, and um, inspiration divinely as to whether to run or not is top of the list. But as to the practical, logistical steps, yes, I have a small team and of course that would expand if any decision were to be made to move forward and in the meantime, I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing and that is to helping find other candidates and other positions to um, get out there and do what's right for their cities, their states, for our country, because the middle class—as I said in that Iowa speech—really is getting the shaft. With a lot of policies coming down from the state level, certainly the federal level, hurting working class Americans and the GOP had better find competitors who understand how to not just relate to and speak to the working class, but to implement policies that work and that they have a track record, a lot of conservative governors have that track record, uh, showing what those policies are and how they have implemented them, proving their mettle.