It's not about Sarah

I finally read John Ziegler's piece. What a hit piece. It's hard to know what motivated him, but I suspect that, as with many conservatives, he is freaked out by the vitriol aimed at Sarah and honestly believes it is too intense to allow her to win the presidency. Also factor in a bit of sour grapes or wounded vanity.

I had a more brilliant insight, however. It strikes me that the vitriol is not aimed at Sarah Palin. It is aimed at "we the people." It is aimed at the heartland and its values, which liberalism has been steadily eroding for the past several decades, under the "enlightened" administration of Boomer elites. With the election of Obama, these elites imagined that they had finally overcome the evil arising from the traditional values of the heartland. Suddenly, Sarah Palin appears, and it is evident that those values still reign. The bearer of those values has to be destroyed.

Sarah Palin has consistently said that "it is not about me; it is not about Sarah Palin." The media, however, has framed a narrative that it is about Sarah Palin. Thus, my advice for a Palin for President campaign is as follows: Sarah P. has to overcome the "personalization" inherent in this narrative. I think that the remaining caution toward her among some conservatives (not me!) -- the notion that she lacks "gravitas" -- may stem from the sense that she hasn't been able to rise above the attacks on her.

Recently we conservatives have continued to defend her in the Palin v. the Media scenario. She is the underdog, and we are for her. In doing so, however, we lose sight of the fact that the real aim of the media and the elites is to destroy US and our values.

If Sarah can rise above the way she has been "framed" (quite literally) and take the fight to another level, make clear what the attacks on her are really about, then she will truly be Reaganesque, not only in ideals but also in temperament.