I’ve been really absent from Redstate due to family and work (new startup company, two kids under five, and everything else that goes with it) and I do apologize. I try to keep up, but… let’s face it, Erick has built the best online community of political activists anywhere, and it’s hard to keep up. 
But in any case, mea culpas aside, let me pop my head up real quickly to say that having watched Gov. Palin’s speech at the Tea Party Convention in full (available here on PJTV — skip the legacy media, support PJTV if you can)… I am more convinced than ever that Gov. Palin should be the next chair of the RNC. In fact, Chairman Steele should step down now, fly to Alaska, and fairly BEG Gov. Palin to take the job.
Erick has articulated why Sarah Palin is such a powerful and dynamic political force. I agree with everything he has written there. But there’s something more to her that I find even more amazing.
She is a full-spectrum conservative: fiscal, foreign policy, and social. She is on record with her pro-life position; in the speech itself, and the interview immediately following, she made an astonishing statement that our political class should not be afraid of affirming their faith in God and seeking divine intervention and guidance.
As a two-thirds conservative myself, such religious statements would normally make me nervous and wary. But not when it comes from Palin.
I don’t know why it is, but she truly gives me the sense that she believes what she believes and will not waver, but that she isn’t seeking to impose her beliefs on me via the force of government. She is the least threatening, least preachy social conservative on the national scene today. I do beg forgiveness from the SoCon members on Redstate for that last sentence, if it offends — I respect your beliefs and your positions, but you have to admit that someone like Huckabee is a bit over the top.
Then when she said that she would support candidates who got the basics right — smaller, more limited government, respect for the Constitution, and strong national defense — even if she disagreed with some of their positions on other issues, she won me over completely.
This is a woman who can unite not only the Tea Party partisans, but the entire GOP, while bringing the Republican Party back to its roots and back to its senses. When Palin spoke about how the Republicans should be thinking how they can bring in as much of the Tea Party under its tent as possible, I thought she was laying out a vision for a simultaneous reform of the GOP and the empowerment of the Tea Party movement through the political power that still exists within the Republican Party. She can build the big tent, accommodate the various factions, while reminding us all of the Basics: limited government, strong national defense, free markets, and values rooted in faith without overreaching.
Given what she’s been through in 2008, a run for President in 2012 is a bit too early for her, I believe. She wields enormous political power already as a private citizen. But the RNC Chair is a civilian position; it isn’t elected office. The RNC Chair is not responsible for governing; s/he is only responsible for strengthening the Party.
Granted, she doesn’t need the RNC to have the political power she already has. She is already more powerful, in my judgment, than Chairman Steele. But the RNC and the GOP need her. The Tea Party movement would only benefit by taking over one of the two major parties. And the country would benefit as a result.
It’s time the GOP rediscovered its roots and its core values. It’s time that the GOP listen to the People, as expressed in the Tea Party movement. It’s time that the Tea Party movement be lifted up, that every primary be contested, especially those of longtime Washington and Statehouse insiders who have forgotten the Basics. Imagine what Sarah Palin could do as the head of the RNC.
Run, Sarah, Run — but not for President. Not yet. Fix the GOP first, and help us set the foundation. Before you help clean out Washington, help clean out the Republican Party.
-TS
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There is a place for Sarah in the Party
BlackConservative (Diary) Monday, February 8th at 1:27AM EST (link)Though I wonder if a better place is as head of GOPAC, simply because while she is an excellent fundraiser, she is so poisoned in some places that she is unable to be effective there. I would honestly rather see her raise money in places where she is effective and have someone like Michelle Bachmann run for RNC-someone with the same values, but a less toxic name at this point. (I’m not arguing this isn’t a misrepresentation of what she stands for, only stating the MSM reality) Its the same reason we can’t run Jeb yet.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.-Jesus Christ
good point BC and great column Sophist - nt
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Monday, February 8th at 12:55PM EST (link)Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Yikes
Amy Miller (Diary) Monday, February 8th at 1:46AM EST (link)I’m so confused by our girl Sarah right now. She just seems to be all over the place. Whatever she does next, she’s going to have to 100% own it.
“I’m a conservative, I’m a textualist, I’m an originalist, but I’m not a nut.”
~Scalia, J.
See your point...
TheSophist (Diary) Monday, February 8th at 8:24PM EST (link)But I for one don’t believe she’s “all over the place”. The woman is steadily building a powerbase. The TV show will provide both income and a platform for her to remain very much in the public eye. The electioneering ensures that (a) she is promoting the conservative candidates she believes in, and (b) she will have chips to call in when she wants to in the future.
Everything points to Sarah wanting to take over the GOP… I do see her possibly running in 2016 or 2020 (she’s still young, and by then, her children will be mostly grown up) for the POTUS job. But in the meantime, for her purposes, reforming the GOP (and bringing the Tea Party elements into it) while serving as the voice of the “loyal opposition” (a great line from the speech), will be a powerful path forward.
GOPAC is an interesting idea as well, but I have a feeling that the Tea Party people are taking a page out of the Dean handbook. Bypassing the big donors for millions of citizen donors is the new rulebook anyhow.
RNC Chair would give her the platform, the ability, and the power to take herself (and the Party) to the next level.
Final note: if you can think of a conservative politician (apart from Erick Erickson) who is leveraging social media more effectively than Sarah is, I’d like to know who that is.
-TS
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” – Ronald Reagan
Fantastic
speciallist (Diary) Monday, February 8th at 1:49AM EST (link)and well put…she’s out there fighting….she’s working hard…she cares what we think…she is succeeding
which is more than I can say for current R leadership
Agreed
6eorge Jetson (Diary) Wednesday, February 10th at 9:08AM EST (link)I’m late to the party on this one, but please accept my belated “Reco”
Go, Sarah!
chub38 Wednesday, February 10th at 5:19PM EST (link)Sarah fights for family, for God, for true America!! She is a light reflecting “that shining city on the hill.”
From: David Oliver
Subject: Australian Cartoons – Not seen in America
To: “7_DWO”
Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 7:22 PM
Good gracious can you imagine the battle for that?
JadedByPolitics (Diary) Monday, February 8th at 5:29AM EST (link)Steele just about tore that oldboy network apart Sarah Palin would EXPLODE it. It is unfortunate but those running that show are just a tad bit stuck in the past and unwilling to move forward and it shows!
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I've been wishing Ken Blackwell had won the job.
Brian Hibbert (Diary) Monday, February 8th at 8:14AM EST (link)And I hope that he runs for the spot when it’s time for Steele to go. But you make a fine argument for putting Sarah in the RNC driver’s seat.
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Yeah, I have to admit to some buyer's remorse.
Steph C (Diary) Monday, February 8th at 8:48AM EST (link)I thought Steele over Blackwell because Steele seemed more dynamic. However, where Steele seems to be floundering, Blackwell is writing articles and has concrete ideas. Steele had ideas but execution of them is lacking. Not so with Blackwell.
The other candidates for the job at the time? Neither seen nor heard anywhere.
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
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Got that right
djemi (Diary) Monday, February 8th at 9:20AM EST (link)“she isn’t seeking to impose her beliefs on me via the force of government.”
I couldn’t agree more with your view and acessment of her SoCon position. I would add that it just shows that she understands the 1st Amendment
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”
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RoguePolitics (Diary) Monday, February 8th at 9:54AM EST (link)She has an ability to outfox the MSM in ways that are classic.
http://biggovernment.com/jhoft/2010/02/07/you-betcha-palin-campaigns-for-rick-perry-writes-hi-mom-on-her-hand/
I think she would be better at Steele’s job than he has been.
“So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot.” George Orwell
“Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what’s going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?” Will Rogers
When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object. Patrick Henry
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Because the Republican Party is NOT going to fix the Republican Party.
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Because Washington is NOT going to fix Washington.
If you want Sarah at the helm of the RNC, first
ColdWarrior (Diary) Monday, February 8th at 4:24PM EST (link)you have to get more conservatives in the party precinct committeemen ranks. Precinct committeemen elect the electors/delegates to the state conventions that, in turn, elect the RNC delegates (each state gets three delegates — the state chairman is a delegate and then one man and one woman are elected by the state convention delegates). (Every state is different — the Rules of the Republican Party (see below) set forth three different ways the RNC delegates may be selected by a state, but in the end, with 50 per cent of the PC slots in the Party having been unfilled on Election Day, 2008, we could have had a more conservative RNC Chairman elected in 2008 if we had had more conservatives in the PC ranks.)
Wishing Sarah Palin or some other conservative will be elected RNC Chairwoman won’t make it so. If we conservatives want conservative leadership elected, we need more conservative precinct committeemen to elect more conservative delegates to the state conventions who will in turn elect more conservative state chairmen and RNC delegates.
It’s a numbers game.
If the makeup of the Party stays the same at the precinct committeeman level, you’ll end up with some moderate again like Steele.
For reference, see Rules 1,2 and 5 of the Rules of the Republican Party: http://www.gop.com/images/legal/2008_RULES_Adopted.pdf
Thank you.
ColdWarrior
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100%, totally agreed (nt)
TheSophist (Diary) Monday, February 8th at 8:17PM EST (link)“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” – Ronald Reagan
Check ColeWarrior...and I am gonna ask the Tea Party groups
rcov092 (Diary) Monday, February 8th at 11:59PM EST (link)to come in and help me take it back.
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Let's not micromanage Sarah's future.
mikerazar (Diary) Tuesday, February 9th at 11:12AM EST (link)I agree with your sentiments, Sophist. I can’t quite make the leap to her not being ready in 2012. Surely, time will tell. So much can and will happen in the next two years, that worrying about her electability now seems premature.
For now, she is my first choice for any conceivable position she chooses to seek. If I were asked for advice, it would be to study, study, study. Become a policy wonk. Have a well thought out position on every current issue. Train to be interviewed again by Katie Couric (admittedly a tiny hurdle). Show Katie to be the doctrinaire liberal nonthinker that she is. Go up against anybody; even the biased MSNBC crowd. Each time she buries these clowns, her approval rating will soar.
Sophist, notwithstanding my previous paragraph, the best thing we can do to help her is to let Sarah be Sarah.
We have a nation to save, people.
One little detail...
TheSophist (Diary) Tuesday, February 9th at 11:19PM EST (link)If you’ve been watching Palin over the past year or so, I think she’s essentially setting out the blueprint for conservative politicians everywhere with respect to how to handle the MSM.
I don’t think she was kidding when she said at the TPC, regarding the unfair treatment by the MSM, “Who cares?”
She is seizing social media in ways that I wish the RNC were doing much more strongly. Screw Katie and her ilk. Why bother with the handmaidens of the enemy? Go direct to the people. The gatekeepers have no power anymore.
Plus, I really would rather that she not go the policy-wonk route. If I were advising her, which I am not, I’d be telling her that unlike liberals who have to invent some newfangled way to screw us, we conservatives don’t need to invent new ideas all the time because we believe in the old ones: individual liberty, free markets, strong national defense, federalism, etc.
Americans don’t want to be led by some professor of public policy from Harvard. They want to be led by one of them, who can articulate common sense principles, and hire experts to do the wonky stuff. That’s my feeling anyhow.
-TS
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” – Ronald Reagan
I think SP and DeMint are ALREADY the de facto RNC co-chairs
E Pluribus Unum (Diary) Tuesday, February 9th at 5:22PM EST (link)Both have PACs that are leading the way. I don’t know how actively either has been recruiting quality candidates, but if they pick the ball up in that dept they are in essence doing the second task of the RNC Chair (first being fundraising and backing candidates, which they’re already doing)
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