Sarah Palin: Joyful Warrior, Joyful Leader

A friend sent me the photo above a week ago last Saturday under the heading "Sarah enjoying some global warming!" The photo was taken that morning in Fairfax, Virginia as she arrived at one of her huge book signing events. Later that evening she would go on to be a real sensation at the Gridiron Club’s dinner, as one of the keynote speakers, along with Congressman Barney Frank. An event that surprised her critics and wowed her supporters.

Now being the hack that I am, and the global warming hoax being something we have been trying to expose since day one, and of course, knowing Sarah’s own stance on the issue, and well, I knew this photo could see a lot of use!

And why not? This is a great photo!

Well, that kinda became the point, to me.

You see, the more I looked at this photo, the more I realized the photographer had really done something. The photographer had managed to capture the essence of Sarah Palin, the thing that has so many millions admiring her.

Let’s face it, the camera loves Sarah Palin. You rarely find a bad photo of her, but this one hit me as special. The more I looked at the photo, the more the photo kept my attention.

I’ll be straight up here. I look at a lot of photos, every day, of all kinds of things. Most of them I either like, or I don’t. It takes me seconds to figure out if they are keepers, or not. Some hit me as strong and powerful, some just pleasant, funny, or somehow "right" for particular piece I am writing. But this photo stopped me dead in my tracks.

Now let me get the obvious out of the way first: Sarah Palin is a strikingly beautiful woman. In fact, all of the photos from her Fairfax visit have made the guys happy! As you look at this photo, you see that Sarah is really quite a strong figure. Here she is in all black, save the hat, all 5ft 6 inches of her slender frame, looking every bit the fashion model, high heels and all. It’s no wonder that soon after she became Governor of Alaska, Vogue magazine sent a team up there to do a cover shoot with her.

I’m reminded of the popular Alaskan t-shirts and bumper stickers that proudly proclaim "The coldest state, with the hottest Governor!"

All of that was, of course, before Sarah became a national figure. It was OK, even with the dishonest and corrupt national media, to absolutely love Sarah Palin, and salute her as a transformative leader, as long as she stayed in Alaska! But take the girl from the frozen tundra, and all of a sudden this once praised feminist leader, this highly successful wife, mother, reformer, and Governor, becomes "evil!"

Once you realize just how much things have changed in Sarah’s life since the day that Senator John McCain called her and asked if she’d like to help him "change the world" this photo takes on even more meaning. Now like all of us, Sarah’s life wasn’t perfect. She’d had her ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies. But by any measure you want to use, Sarah Palin was, and is, a highly successful woman.

Oh sure, the Alaska Republican Party hates her, with a passion, but that’s because she took many party members down, over corruption. So corrupt that I am reminded of one of the great quotes from Mel Brooks’ original film, The Producers when, at the trial, the jury reads it’s verdict: "We, the people, find the defendants incredibly guilty!" They were that kind of guilty!

So.....some tension was to be expected!

But overall, the Alaskan people were more than just pleased with their choice as Governor. Sarah Palin’s approval rating was in the high 80's before Obama, Pete Rouse, and the Alaska Mafia started their shenanigans. Again, incredibly successful, by any measure.

Once Sarah was picked as McCain’s running mate though, all that is ugly, vile, and hateful about the left, and they really do have the market cornered on that stuff, came to bear on Sarah. I’ve thought long and hard, and I really cannot think of anyone who has been attacked as viciously as Sarah Palin.

The left attacked Sarah, her husband, her children, especially her youngest son, Trig. In this, the left truly outdid itself. The word evil just doesn’t do some of these people and their attacks justice. And these attacks are ongoing, even to this day.

And yet, after the most concentrated, vile, hate filled attacks on a person we’ve ever witnessed, here is Sarah Palin, this strong and strikingly beautiful woman, out in the snow, in Fairfax, Virginia, loving life to it’s fullest!

You see that all of the lies, hate, filth, and unprecedented attacks on Sarah and her family, have had absolutely no effect on this wonderful woman’s spirit. If anything, they have only strengthened her resolve. Made her a little more powerful. Made her a little more "dangerous" to all of those who hate freedom and liberty. You know, the democrats!

The left, and yes, even some on the right, were stunned when Sarah stepped down as Governor, handing the ball off to her very capable Lt. Governor, Sean Parnell. Some simply didn’t understand what was going on up there in Alaska, even though Sarah’s July 3rd Independence Speech was quite clear about the situation.

When you have a group of people, headed by the President of the United States, out to destroy you, your family, and your state, in any and every way possible, you have two choices: You either allow them to destroy you and everything you love, or you take drastic and dramatic action. And dramatic action is what Sarah took.

For those that don’t know, Pete Rouse, then Barack Obama’s campaign chief-of-staff, and now a White House adviser, not only played an active role in the so-called "Troopergate" witch hunt, or as Sarah calls it "Tazergate," he had an active role in the rest of the attacks, as well.

When Obama’s thugs failed to destroy Sarah with "Tazergate," named for the fact that her ex-brother-in-law Trooper Michael Wooten, among other things, tazered his step son, Sarah’s nephew, seemingly for the hell of it, Rouse then worked with the various far left extremists in Alaska, including the bloggers, and other undesirables, to recruit people to continually file bogus ethics complaints, exploiting ethics laws that allow absolutely anyone to complain about anything.

As we know, all of these complaints have been dismissed as unfounded, but in the process, this ran up Sarah’s own personal legal bill to over a half million dollars. The state does not defend it’s executive from bogus attacks. Alaska is unique in this fashion.

Also, unique to the executive is this: While it is against the law to discuss or publicize any of these complaints, until they are resolved, the hate bloggers, Jeanne Devon and Shannyn Moore, who contribute the radical left wing rag, the Huffington Post, along with Linda Kellen Biegel, the democrat/communist party’s "official blogger for Alaska" and various other smear merchants would publish the details of the complaints all over the internet, many times before the complaints were even officially filed.

Of course, the dishonest and corrupt Obamacentric national media would run with these complaints like they had struck gold. All of this illegal under Alaska law, but, and this is what makes the entire ethics process a joke, there is absolutely no punishment for those who break this law. Even better, while one can file complaints willy-nilly against legislators too, if you break any of the laws, like confidentiality laws, the complaint is automatically dismissed and no further consideration given to the complainant. They are protected, but the Governor, and their staff, are not!

But, with all of the personal havoc Obama and his Chicago thug tactics were causing Sarah, that paled to what it was causing the Alaska tax payer. These complaints had basically shut Sarah’s administration down. Her staff spent much of their time dealing with Freedom of Information Act requests, including the well publicized fishing expedition by blogger Linda Kellen Biegel, who talked her readers out of a considerable amount of money so she could pursue all of Sarah’s e-mails, just looking to harass her. So far, that has not been money well spent, but that’s another story.

The bottom line on all of this is, in less than six months, Obama’s Alaska Mafia had cost the Alaska tax payers a whopping $2 million! Basically, these thugs, using typical Chicago, Saul Alinsky tactics, had, up to that point, stolen $2 million from the Alaskan people, and as we looked at it, at the time, reading the leftist blogs, and knowing these online terrorists we going to keep on filing complaints to the bitter end, we figured that these terrorists, and make no mistake, that’s what they are, were on track to cost Alaska’s hard working tax payers as much as $10 million dollars, had she stayed for the last year of her term.

So, to all but the silliest among us, Sarah did the right thing, the honorable thing, and stepped down. Now of course, her critics went into attack mode, how she "quit when the going got tough" and all of that jazz. Since then, every action Sarah has taken, has proven that little theory dead wrong.

In fact, Sarah jumped out of the pan, and into the fire. She has been more outspoken than ever, and more effective, too! As far as I am concerned, the moves by Obama to drive Sarah out of office will go down in history as one of the greatest political and tactical blunders of all time.

As Governor, Sarah was highly restricted. It was hard to leave the state, not only because of the great distances to the lower 48, but also because of the loons who always had a complaint filed when she did. It was impossible for her to write a book, for money, or give paid speeches due to Alaska’s strict rules. Another thing, Obama and his people had turned the once relatively cordial Alaskan political scene into a virtual state of war. So, as Governor, Sarah was careful in her criticism of the Dear Leader.

When you hear Sarah say that "politics changed" once she was chosen by McCain, this is what she is talking about.

We all know, as a private citizen, Sarah has been anything but quiet! She has been a constant thorn in Obama’s side. She has taken on the unconstitutional power grab, disguised as "health care reform" and she has hit Obama on energy policy, and monetary policy. She’s been quoted world wide on all. Recently, her sights have been set on crook, liar, and global warming hoaxer extraordinaire, Al Gore, the Bernie Madoff of the climate change crowd, as the entire global warming hoax collapses at his feet.

Sarah has certainly not run from the fight!

They want me to sit down and shut up. Politically speaking, if I die, I die, but I’ll know that I’ve spoken up. Stand up, speak up and be bold! Screw political correctness, never let them tell you to sit down, never let them tell you to shut up!

___Sarah Palin in her speech introducing Michael Reagan to an audience in Anchorage, Alaska in June, 2009

This brings me back to this simple, but magnificent moment in Virginia, caught on film. When I look at this photo, I see a supremely confident and virile woman. A woman who truly has the bull by the horns. A woman filled with unbelievable vitality. A woman who is in charge. A woman who wields great power.

You know what else I see? I see joy.

Sarah Palin is a happy, joyful woman, and that my friends, is the key to the whole thing. Here is a lady who has had the very worst the hatemongers of the world have to offer up thrown at her. I mean for one year solid the most vile of attacks have come her way. Most people would have stepped back, and maybe went underground for awhile, and certainly, no one could have blamed Sarah had she, herself, taken that route. But obviously, this is a woman who simply isn’t built that way.

Instead, Sarah is the team captain who would lead her high school basketball team to a state championship, playing on a broken ankle, and scoring the final game winning points. This is the young wife who, while working in the rough world of commercial fishing, had an accident that would crush her hand, sending her to the hospital, only to see her return right back to work that day.

This is the PTA mom who thought she could make a difference in her hometown and would eventually turn into a crusader against corruption as both a city councilwoman and two term mayor. This is a woman, who after being appointed the to powerful job as the state’s chief energy and environmental regulator, saw massive corruption not only in the industry she regulated, but within her own political party as well.

Unlike many of those around her, Sarah not only didn’t look away, she actively pursued justice. When it became apparent the sitting Governor, her boss, himself a Republican, would continue to block her efforts to bring those corrupt officials to justice, Sarah did what had to be done. She made the tough choice to resign and as a private citizen, take these people on. This of course, is why she is public enemy number one among the Republican Party "elites" both in Alaska and nationally. She upset a lot of apple carts in her quest to end the corruption. Kept the FBI, the courts, and the prison system in business too!

This would lead Sarah to the Governorship, and her accomplishments as Governor most certainly speak for themselves, as do the consistently high approval ratings. The highest for any Governor in the nation.

In fact, at the height of the attacks by Obama, Inc, just before her resignation, when her approval ratings eventually slipped out of the stratosphere, and came back to more earthly numbers, the left celebrated to no end that she was finally no longer the most popular Governor in America. And all it took was a constant and coordinated effort from the White House and the entire corrupt media, daily, for almost a solid year! When she left office her approval was still about 25 points higher than Obama’s is now! (And he has the most glowing press imaginable)

With all of this going on around her, just how was Sarah able to maintain her strength and remain so joyful about life?

Sarah speaks about her faith in God often. Unlike other politicians who seem to be afraid of becoming labeled as a religious extremist for daring to mention their faith, Sarah readily speaks of the strength and guidance she receives from God’s word, and how this strength and guidance serves her as she goes through life. How this helps her as a leader. As with most Americans, faith is the strong foundation that Sarah builds her life upon.

Sarah recently visited with the Reverend Billy Graham and his son Franklin. During this visit Sarah set down for an interview and discussed how her faith guides her. This is a great interview that you can see here.

It’s very important for a leader to be humble enough to say "I don’t have all of the answers."

____Sarah Palin

Since leaving office, Sarah has written a best selling book, one that has broken records. The day the book was announced, and online retailers like Barnes&Noble and Amazon offered it up for pre-orders, it became the number one best seller at both retailers, and soon other retailers would see it hit the top of their charts, as well.

The publisher, HarperCollins, has went from an initial printing of 1.5 million, to the announcement that, so far, they have a total of 3 million books ordered for print. They are saying
this is the best selling book of the year. By the way, if you don’t have this book, you really are missing out on something special.

Sarah’s book tour has been nothing short of phenomenal. For the very first stop, in Michigan, people lined up 36 hours ahead of time, just for a spot in line to meet her. They slept outside in cold weather, braved the elements, just for the chance to get a few seconds of time with the Arctic Fox, as well as her autograph, and maybe a handshake. It’s been like this at every stop along the way. Thousands have lined up in support. Most wishing her success if she runs for President of the United States, and many convinced they had just met the next President of the United States!

As Bill O’Reilly put it Monday night on his television show, Sarah has been so successful since steeping down, that she is now running victory laps around her critics!

Part of what brought this out of him was her surprise appearance on the Tonight Show. William Shatner, who has been doing the beatnik gig for decades, doing this sort of thing with popular songs and the like, has poked fun at Sarah by reading her tweets or other pieces of work. This time he set out to give a "reading" from her book. As usual, Shatner was funny. The set up, of course, was Sarah then coming on and turning the tables on Shatner by reading from his book.

The crowd in the audience was unaware, as they had been sequestered during auditions, to make it a true surprise to them, and the audience at home. The roar heard when Sarah took the stage was simply incredible. Of course, her performance was great. Even the far left was going "oh-oh" as they realized they totally misunderestimated her talent. They begrudgingly proclaimed her performance good.

If you haven’t seen it, click here. Sarah also put up some photos on her Facebook page. She was happily entertaining some members of the Wounded Warrior Project backstage. You can view all of those by clicking here.

By the way, that red jacket? That’s the same one she wore for her book cover photo, and the same one she and Laura Ingraham are auctioning off to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project and the Fisher House, two wonderful groups that help our wounded troops and their families.

Leadership is not waiting to see where it’s going. Leadership is making it go somewhere.

____Tammy Bruce

Time and time again Sarah Palin has proven she is a true leader. While other see the problems facing us, they are timid in their actions. It’s tough politically, to be a true leader. You actually have to stand for something. You have to go on record, and in this day and time, that record will follow you. God help you if you change your stance on something, even if it is because you have learned more about something that has caused you to rethink your position!

There is a difference between changing your mind based on new and important information about a subject and flip-flopping with the change of the political winds. But you’ll still catch hell!

When Sarah so eloquently spoke of "death panels" earlier this year she was slammed from every direction. The far left, the squishy Republicans, the media, and the President all pronounced her crazy, and more. Funny thing though, the people understood. One of Sarah’s great strengths is that she can take rather complicated issues and distill them down to a single, simple to understand concepts.

Health care rationing is a grim reality in government run health care. Nameless, faceless bureaucrats, using formulas created by panels of accountants, not doctors, decide who is worthy of the best treatments, and who isn’t. This discussion can get lengthy as one goes through the process governments use to come up with all of this. To say the least, it’s a complicated issue.

"Death panels" really says it all though. It cuts to the chase.

While Sarah was catching hell for all of this, the usual suspects, the so-called Republican leaders, and "2012 front-runners" were hiding under their desks.

This is a pattern that is followed over and over as Sarah speaks out on the most important issues of our time.

In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated, and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot.

____Mark Twain

We saw no better example of Mark Twain’s words than the special election held in New York’s 23rd Congressional District earlier this year. No need to rehash the whole affair here, but that was a true stand against the system. You had a backroom deal, not a primary, that put a supposedly "moderate" Republican, who was actually a far left "progressive," in the running. DeDe Scozzafava was more radical than 43 percent of the democrat/communist party in the New York State Assembly, from where she was plucked!

Enter Doug Hoffman. He was the long shot independent with no hope. The Republican Party considered him a nuisance that would spoil their ideal "moderate" candidate’s chance. He was a spoiler.

A hand full of Conservatives came to support Hoffman. Then came the endorsement from Sarah Palin. Money came pouring in, and immediately Hoffman’s poll numbers increased. In fact, in some polling, Hoffman went from a distant third, to leading. This of course brought national attention to a small, little know race.

Sarah, because she is Sarah, was then vilified by the media and the "good old boy" Republican establishment. She was called every name in the book. The Republican "elites" were losing their minds. Sarah was singlehandedly destroying the Republican Party!

Then a funny thing happened. All of the momentum shifted to Hoffman. It seemed he had a real shot. Even better, DeDe Scozafava, the "moderate" Republican dropped out. At this point support for Hoffman came out of the woodwork. One by one, the so-called leaders all came out from under their desks and jumped on the Hoffman bandwagon. Gutless wonders all.

Whether it’s corruption, health care, energy, monetary policy, Afghanistan, the global warming hoax, or any other pressing matter, Sarah always has the courage to take on the establishment, to speak out. To take a stand while others remain timid.

Hemingway called courage: grace under pressure. Sarah Palin is one of the most courageous politicians in the modern era of American politics.

That’s a lot to get out of one photo, I know, but this is the very essence of Sarah Palin