I can’t agree more with the assertion that Palin will be a force to be reckoned with when she has had a few months to study the issues and prepare for the gotcha questions.

The reason the media hates her so much is the same reason I love her so much:

She demonstrates, for little girls like my daughter, that she does NOT have to be a militant, pro-abortion feminazi in order to be a strong and independent woman, and that taking her husband’s last name and cooking meals for her family does not make her weak or inferior.

I’m a conservative with Palin fatigue, and I’ve only known her for a couple of months. I’m not sure what kind of conservative she will end up being. [And yes, she is comparable to Obama in the area of inexperience and lack of resume.] She is charming and down to earth. But her whole act has gotten stale quickly(“you betcha,” winking, non-answers to questions, phony anti-elitism, etc…) A lot of conservative pundits seem to be in love with her, but most of my conservative friends are lukewarm at best. Actually, lot’s of regular conservative folks find her completely uninspiring. Heck, most everyday conservatives have a better grasp of the issues than she does – and they know it and find it troubling. She may be a natural television personality, but not a natural politican. And don’t blame the media or McCain. A politican must navigate all that – that’s their job, especially if they are a natural at it! Let’s just stop talking about her, let her develop a second act, and look around at all the other leadership possibilities for party. Continued focus on her will actaully further divide the conservatives. So many conservative commentators seem to be saying – if you don’t like Palin, then you’re an elitist snob. Oh, how I miss Buckley!

My wish for Palin is that she modestly keep her name and face on the national scene. Fred Thompson was built up to an unsustainable degree of expectation by the very media that then did everything it could to put him in the ditch. They also put his wife and family through the mud ringer, but, not to the degree they are doing with Palin. But, she, like Fred, is above it all. She can take it, and will only come out the stronger for it in the end.

And eventually we will all be talking about Palinism!

I’m a long time lurker. I’ll defend Palin against the media and Dems any day and have nothing against her. I just think her political talents are being overrated by conservative blog world. And I don’t understand why everyone is so convinced that she’s a real conservative. We’ve been fooled before – think Bush. She should be considered an up-and-coming talent in the party. But there are many others as well.

She’s led a charmed life so far. After she bolted the Murkowski Administration, the Left and the Anchorage Daily News made her every Democrat’s favorite Republican because they thought she’d be easy for a Democrat to beat. In ’06, Alaska’s economy was just coming out of two decades of stagnation and Frank Murkowski had committed ritual hari kari. Binkley couldn’t get any traction and she was the nominee. Before I retired, I got all the unions under contract, so they didn’t play much of a part in the ’06 election. As it turned out, The People had had enough of old boys and old ways and much to the Ds’ chagrin, she trounced Knowles.

She’s had two budget years in which we’ve spent money in ways drunken sailors couldn’t imagine. The Permanent Fund Dividend was in the realm of $2K and there was enough extra money to give out $1200 per capita. It’s hard not to be popular in those circumstances!

In about a month she has to have a budget for SFY 10 and oil prices are in the toilet. Life in Alaska is dictated by a simple formula: Revenue equals Price times Production. And policymakers have to understand that we don’t control price nor production and production is inexorably declining. I haven’t looked at the Fall Forcast, but I know they were basing the budget on $83/bbl.

There’s going to be a furball between her OMB and her appointees, many of whom are holdovers with no particular loyalty to her. Then, there’s going to be a budget bloodbath with the Legislature. The two year honeymoon she had with our largely Lefty media ended with the VP nomination. The alliances she could make with Democrats ended with the VP nomination and her newfound National prominence. The remaining Republicans in the Legislature have begun to notice the stench of the dead Republican bodies around them. It’s going to be an interesting couple of years.

Gekster, So if you don’t think Palin is the FUTURE NOW, then you’re a Rhino! Charles Krauthammer. Rhino. George Will. Rhino. Apparently being a conservative isn’t about your political world view, your convictions and how you got there. Its about Sarah! The Palin litmus test! Good luck with all that. I’ve always been a conservative first, a Republican second. I don’t take the pols that party feeds me without question. Besides, worshiping pols is the job of the Left, not the right.

I like Michael Reagan a lot and actually saw him speak this past weekend. He’s fantastic and a Reagan, which just makes him even better. President Reagan and Palin are obviously very different, but where they came from, their sudden emergence, and their belief and practice of the conservative way are very much the same.

The Sarah Palin Era hasn’t even begun. She’s up in Alaska for the next 2 years where she should study day and night so when she finally does have her moment and her own ticket, she owns it. Whether it be in 2012 or 2016, this woman will be a name at the top of ticket for the conservatives.

If Palin fatigue is going around, then I think you’re watching too much MSNBC. Those who are tired of her are tired because they are seeing the same light shed on her over and over again. Give this woman time and I promise she’ll blow us all away.

It’s Ok to be told to run along and die now, and I’m too dumb to respond to is OK. It’s OK to say “for CHRIST”S sake, which I personally find very offensive, and to be told that I am an idiot is OK. There were many posts above mine that called a poster a “Twit”. That’s OK.

I still don’t know what I said that was so terrible or beyond acceptable.

To be told to “run along and die now” is more than anyone should have to bear! That is beyond reasonable.