Palin Showing Her 'Serious Side' With Obama Critique
Prominent Republicans have criticized Sarah Palin for failing to join the national debate
Outgoing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's op-ed in the Washington Post Tuesday may have offered a preview of the next stage of her long-range political strategy. And so far, the reaction from members of the Republican establishment has been positive. [See photos of Sarah Palin.]
Palin, who was the GOP vice presidential nominee last year and remains the subject of intense fascination as a possible presidential candidate in 2012, criticized President Obama for proposing a "cap and trade" system for limiting carbon emissions. Palin wrote that the Obama plan is "an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage." In addition to boosting energy costs, Palin argued that the plan would increase unemployment in the energy industry. She said the answer is to "responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil" while at the same time protecting the environment.
Prominent Republicans in Washington have criticized Palin for failing to join the national debate on major issues since last year's campaign, but her essay suggested that she will now become much more vocal.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee gave Palin credit Tuesday night for showing her "serious side." Huckabee told Fox News, "Clearly, the op-ed that she did for the Washington Post I think outlines a very important piece of policy that America ought to be talking about. That's probably not Sarah Palin's typical crowd. So maybe she's showing her...serious side." Huckabee added that the op-ed demonstrates that Palin is "not interested in exiting the stage and leaving the spotlight" but wants to speak out as a private citizen and perhaps as a presidential candidate.
However, Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the GOP presidential nomination last year and is considered a possible candidate again in 2012, said he was troubled by Palin's recent comments that she might help candidates who aren't Republican. "I hope she remains—let me be real clear—a part of the Republican Party," Huckabee said. "I'm a little concerned when I hear her say that she may sort of branch out and go third party or go independent." He added: "That would be a big mistake because we need to rebuild the Republican Party, not abandon it."
Pain announced earlier this month that she was resigning as Alaska governor at the end of July—with 18 months to go in her term—because the many attacks on her and her family had become a costly distraction. She left the door open to running for president in 2012 but in the meantime is expected to write a book, make paid speeches, campaign for conservative candidates, and, as her op-ed shows, promote conservative ideas. Adds a senior Republican with close ties to the party leadership: "She needs to offer more of her views on policy as one of her major objectives."
- See photos of Sarah Palin and her family.
- Read Palin's Exit Perplexes Republicans.
- See a gallery of political cartoons.
- Read 10 Things You Didn't Know About Sarah Palin.
- See a charicature of Sarah Palin.
Reader Comments
Re commentors
I find the asnti palin detractions so filthy and sisgusting like thier authours. I am not suere whether i would even like to speak with one. Certainly, I wouls feel sick to have to invite one into my home. The crap they spout is just hatred.
Whist they do not look at the quwstionable Obama negatives, neither do they wish to see any positves about Sarah Palin. Count me in on those who find her very capable and count me in as someone who would prefer to trust her than almost every politician can think of bot in EU and US.
People of US, do not be deterred by the Palin hate and by people who have been to the big universities, they do not even kmow what a marriage is or a man or a woman, neither do they know that when a woman is pregnant she is carrying a human child. neither do they know that terminating a pregnancy is ending of that life. How nice or clever are thay then? Their bad opinion is a better reference than any good opinion of thiers could ever be.
Why not link the Op-Ed?
You have links of "pictures" of Sarah Palin, etc ... but no link to the article that you are obstensibly discussing?
No at least one of the commenters categorized it as "bible-thumping". Sheesh.
Ignorant drivel
Palin's op-ed piece isn't anything new. It's the same bible thumping, ill-informed rhetoric one would expect from America's most anti-intellectual would-be politician. This latest outburst stands as a rather humiliating attempt to establish herself as other than the ditsy, flighty, corrupt nightmare of a politician that her whole 2 months of undeserved limelight revealed her to be.
How easy it is to spew forth invective against Obama, unqualified, uninformed invective coming from a woman who publicly demonstrated to the American people her complete lack of relevant or even common knowledge concerning even the most mundane aspects of foreign or domestic policy? Palin failed to muster the wit to sit with Katie Couric for 20 minutes, she thinks proximity to Russia counts as foreign policy experience. We really ought to ask ourselves - who really cares what Sara Palin thinks?
advertisement
