This diary originally appeared at Palin's Q&A + fun and is posted here with permission.
Many of Sarah Palin's fans have tried to insinuate that Sarah Palin is like Ronald Reagan. They have done so apparently unaware that Reagan completed two terms as governor of California and didn't quit. They have gone so far as to say that Palin is "in the wilderness," after quitting, like Reagan is said to have been between the time he completed two terms and successfully ran for the presidency. That notion was exploded when Sarah Palin appeared on Chris Wallace's program, February 7, 2010, the day after her speech to the Tea Party convention. Beyond the fold is that portion of the interview (Sarah Palin's attempts to evade the issue of why she quit are marked with asterisks, ***, and were treated here):
Wallace: The second thing is your decision to resign as governor of Alaska...
Palin: Yes.
Wallace: ... with 17 months left in your term. You said, "I wasn't going to run for reelection. So I was going to be a lame duck." You said that the state was being paralyzed, because all of your opponents were filing these lawsuits." Didn't you let your enemies -- your opponents drive you from office?
***
Wallace: But -- but...
***
Wallace: ... they're going to think they won, cause you're no longer governor. Let me -- let me just make...
***
Wallace: Let me just make this...
Palin: I don't think that they think I -- look it. I'm sitting here talking to Chris Wallace today. I think some of them are going, "Dang, we thought she'd sit down and shut up after we tried to do to here what we tried."
Wallace: Yes. Well I don't know that that's going to be
-- instead of this...
***
Wallace: OK. But wait a minute. When -- before we were talking about Ronald Regan (sic), do you openly admit he was your political inspiration...
Palin: Yes.
Wallace: ... really a formative figure in your...
Palin: Yes.
Wallace: ... developing of political consciousness?
Reagan during his entire second term as governor of California was a lame duck. Reagan in that second term was being sharply attacked by anti-war radicals. I can tell you, Ronald Reagan would never have quit.
The next day, February 8, 2010, on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," there was a discussion, with Peggy Noonan present, where whether Sarah Palin is like Ronald Reagan was considered. From the discussion, it became apparent that Reagan was civil when he spoke of his political opponents and had read basic historical source material pertinent to his conservative views. The conclusion was that Sarah Palin is not reaganesque. Here's the video (the discussion about whether Palin is comparable to Reagan begins about the 2:30 mark; you'll have to endure Chris Wallace's eye-roll during his interview of Palin, and Andrea Mitchell doing handprompter comedy, before that discussion begins):
Video at MSNBC
[editor: Joe Scarborough may have been referring to the nasty mail he'd get from Sarah Palin's fans when he mentioned being burned at the stake. He must have known that Mika might agree with the rest of the panelists, so he very graciously refrained from asking her whether she thought Palin is comparable to Reagan.]
That's a scathing indictment of Sarah Palin. And, if that weren't enough, U.S. News & World Report ran an article on Wednesday, February 12, 2010, entitled Why Sarah Palin Is No Ronald Reagan:
Sarah Palin did her best to try to channel Ronald Reagan in her speech to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville this weekend. She may believe that adopting his conservative rhetoric and following his example will take her to the White House, but let’s face it -- she’s no Reagan. ...
... This is what above all else distinguishes a Sarah Palin speech -- the snide put-down and the snarky remark delivered with a broad, sneering smile and spitfire demeanor. She doesn’t seem to think a speech is complete if she hasn’t winked and name-called her way through it. It’s not a coincidence that her nickname as co-captain of her high school women’s basketball team was "Sarah Barracuda." She probably wasn’t afraid to throw a few elbows then and she certainly isn’t now.
It must take an awful lot of self-confidence, or maybe just bad judgment, to refer to the president as a "charismatic guy with a teleprompter" when you have crib notes scribbled on your hand.
If her implication was that Obama is an empty suit, she couldn’t be farther off the mark. As illustrated by his recent meeting with Republicans, he is supremely intelligent and has an impressive command of facts and public policy issues -- something even her most ardent supporters would have trouble claiming about Palin with a straight face. ...
... Members of the Republican party establishment can’t stand her. Privately, they are all too happy to tell you they don’t think she works hard or knows her stuff and they certainly don’t think she’s paid her dues. But they have come to the realization that they have to take her seriously.
[editor: The President's "recent meeting" with Republicans was covered, here]
Then on "The Journal Editorial Report" of February 13, 2010, hosted by Stuart Varney, there was this exchange:
VARNEY: Joe, you're probably the more negative on Sarah Palin running for the presidency. But you'd have to admit that she is the freshest and brightest new face in the Republican Party, wouldn't you?
JOE RAGO, SENIOR EDITORIAL PAGE WRITER: Sure, but what does that say about the Republican Party?
(LAUGHTER)
VARNEY: OK.
[...]
BRET STEPHENS, COLUMNIST & DEPUTY EDITOR: Yes, look, the freshest, maybe the brightest, I'm not so sure. Yesterday evening, I spent time reading a collection of Reagan's personal letters. And she sometimes compared — she's been compared to Reagan. I think she'd like to compare herself to. And when you read Reagan you see here is a man whose mind kind of moves from thought to a set of ideas, from, you know, discrete thoughts to a set of ideas of political philosophy. In Palin's case, you get the sense of somebody moving from cliche in ideology and then kind of trying to struggle to get the thought behind it. I think that's the problem that a lot of Americans and an awful lot of conservatives have with her. It's not that they disagree with her per se. It's the sense, the distinct sense that if you asked her a follow-up question, she wouldn't have an idea how to answer it.
VARNEY: Oh.
[...]
VARNEY: And you challenged her intellectually. You said she's maybe not the kind of person who would answer a follow-up question.
STEPHENS: Yes. I think that's right. And I think that's —
VARNEY: That's a mocking in a sense.
STEPHENS: I mean, Chris Wallace asked her, what about the 5.7 percent growth in the fourth quarter. She didn't even know how to answer — answer that. She sort of touched on unemployment, but there was no sense that she understood that well, this is kind of what you bottom out —
Sarah Palin is no Ronald Reagan. Sarah Palin is a fallen star.
This diary originally appeared at Palin's Q&A + fun and is posted here by permission of its author.