I was dismayed, but not very surprised, last night when I heard that Gov. Palin announced she has decided not to run for president in this election cycle. I was hoping she was hanging back to let the field thin out. Allahpundit at Hot Air says it’s a smart call and links Charles Krauthammer saying the same thing. Allahpundit has the following consoling observation:

Maybe she’ll focus now on challenging Begich for Senate in Alaska in 2014, which would be a huge first step back towards national viability down the road. She’s 47 years old, fully 25 years younger than McCain was when he was nominated three years ago. No rush.

However, as Prof. Jacobson points out at Legal Insurrection, Red State’s Erick Erickson went a different way:

At a moment when Erickson could have shown himself to be a mensch he showed himself to be a schmuck. And of course, managed to make it about him. As pointed out in the comments, he is asking “Can we all be friends now?” The answer is no.

Click the link to see why.

Thanks to a post by GOProud’s Christopher Barron at his new personal blog, The Real Red Barron (an homage to the Twitter handle of conservative bisexual singer Sophie B. Hawkins, @therealsophieb), I may see my way clear to supporting Herman Cain:

Finally, far from attacking gay people, Mr. Cain has made it clear that he is willing to be a President for all Americans – including gay people. Mr. Cain does not support a federal marriage amendment, will not reinstate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, supports policies like the Fair Tax, free market healthcare reform and social security personal savings accounts – all of which would benefit gay and lesbian Americans.

I believe that if Herman Cain wins the Republican nomination, he is now the only candidate we have who could beat Obama. The most important reason is he is a real fiscal conservative, while the other candidates are primarily social conservatives. We can only win by showing how fiscal conservatism will restore America to prosperity because our most serious problems for the foreseeable future are economic, not social. If we run a social conservative who is consumed with zeal to solve problems that loom small in the minds of most Americans, the Left and independents will stick with the devil they know. The promise of religious tyranny coupled with fiscal sacrifice is not going to sell.

Two more important reasons Herman Cain can beat Obama are that he would remove the race card from Obama’s bag of tricks and could split the black vote. How much fun is that going to be to watch? I am gleeful at the prospect.

However, I think there’s a kind of laziness, which I don’t understand, among the wealthy Republican donors, the RNC and campaign strategists that will result in Romney being the nominee because they believe he can win, regardless of Romneycare and multifarious other fundamental failings, because he is handsome and rich. This is a miscalculation of epic proportions. But it does help me understand why frustrated Republicans call it “the non-smart party.” I think the best we can hope for is winning Republican control of both houses of Congress in 2012 so we can thwart as many of Obama’s fell initiatives as possible in his second term.

With regard to Gov. Palin, I do hope she sets her sights on running for president in 2016 to succeed Obama. When Gov. Palin spoke on Sept. 3 to a Tea Party audience in Indianola, Iowa, she laid out the most positive and practical path for restoring America to prosperity of any of the candidates. She has the ability to make people believe in themselves and their ability to overcome their greatest challenges, which is not only required for a nation to prosper but also is the most powerful cure for the pathological desire to depend on the government to solve every problem. If she does what she has to do to overcome the objections that establishment Republicans had to her candidacy this time around, she is exactly the person most capable of cleaning up the mess that Obama will leave.

P.S.

Dear Stacy McCain has poll results and more insights on the surge in support for Herman Cain.

Update, 10/8/11, Sat.: Today American Thinker published an essay by Robert Eugene Simmons, Jr., who arrives at the same conclusion as mine, “Palin’s Withdrawal Means Obama Wins.” Simmons adds the point that Gov. Romney is the father of Romneycare, which was the model for Obamacare, so Obama will shellack him with that. I also want to note that Republicans would lose the issue of repealing Obamacare if Romney is the nominee. I don’t know why the Republican establishment is so hot to make the 2012 election a contest between Obama and Obama Lite. Like me, Simmons thinks the best case scenario, with Gov. Palin out of contention, is to keep the House and win the Senate so we can thwart Obama’s socialist agenda, while the worst case would be Obama with a Democratic Congress and not-much-better would be Romney with a Republican Congress.

I originally posted the following on August 13, 2011. It was lost on Sept. 17. I am re-posting it from Google’s cache:

Dan Riehl has been writing some very positive and insightful posts on Sarah Palin, whose interview with Sean Hannity last night at the Iowa State Fair was electrifying. Today he is posting on “Why Sarah Palin needs to run for president in 2012.” I re-cast that statement in my headline because it is America that needs Gov. Palin to run for president. Gov. Palin would not run for president out of her own ambition, so she will never need to run. However, it is easy to see that none of the other candidates have her ability to articulate the principles of fiscal conservatism and fill people with the belief that they can overcome the challenges they face in their own lives and in our nation. In addition, Gov. Palin has the best qualifications of all the prospective candidates, especially her knowledge of what needs to be done to make America energy independent, which will simultaneously improve our economy and national security.

Palin for president in 2012.

Peter W. Davis commented on 8/13/11:

Cynthia, Gov. Palin may well decide that she does need to run for President. Need arises from more than personal desire. The LEO does not run toward the wild man shooting up a crack house out of desire for excitement but out of duty. The mother that jumps into a fast flowing river after a total stranger’s child does not jump out of a desire to cool off but out of duty. And if our Sarah jumps into the race it will not be for personal profit but out of, you guessed it, duty. She does not need more money, nor does she care much about “glory”, unlike others I could name.

If Gov. Palin believes someone already declared can pull our chestnuts out of the fire she will gladly support him or her, meanwhile having a helluva good (and profitable) time in the speaking circuit. She can spend time with Trig and Piper, support PerryChristyBachman??? between very lucrative speaking engagements.

So that is one of only two ways Gov. Palin will jump in. The other? If the Obama attack machine is too much for her preferred candidate, she could jump in and act as a flak catcher. Just by getting near the race she would start absorbing much of the hate and money from the Donkey’s machine, and every penny spent attacking her is not going toward another. So, we shall see.

I just noticed for the first time that Conservatives4Palin has a series entitled, “The 25 most unlikely Palin fans,” with Kevin DuJan of HillBuzz being profiled today as number 7. I don’t know why I can’t get anyone from Conservatives4Palin to answer my e-mails, although it’s been a year since I last tried — perhaps everyone was very busy back then. I would certainly love to open a line a communication with them since Gov. Palin is the candidate I support for the Republican nomination. I hope that if I didn’t make the cut for the top 25 that the list gets expanded to include me and made my case as follows in a comment:

I am a staunch supporter of Gov. Palin and I hope that your list of “Most Unlikely Palin Fans” is expanded to include me and my blog, A Conservative Lesbian.

I’ve also been taking time off from my blog for my health, so I have not been very active since November. But please keep me on your radar since I’m working on my health and finances this year so that I will have a strong foundation for our fight in 2012 for the future of America.

I became a fan of Gov. Palin’s the moment she had the majesty of soul to thank Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro in her first moments on the national stage. I think Gov. Palin is the right person to be America’s next president because she always speaks and works to bring out the highest and best in everyone. And Gov. Palin understands liberty.

I have to admit that I have been reserved in expressing my emotions about Gov. Palin as effusively as Kevin does. The presence of lesbians and gays as conservatives in the conservative movement is so new, I have been concerned that any positive feelings I would express would be interpreted as a sexual attraction. Certainly Gov. Palin is a very beautiful woman, but that is not why I love, respect and admire her. She reminds me of the greatest leader I’ve ever known, my own late life partner of over 20 years, who gave me her secret of leadership: when you want people to do something, ask yourself, “What would make them want to do it?” It looks to me that Gov. Palin has the same philosophy of leadership and goes about it the same way — putting her attention on the greatness in us all and calling it into manifestation. Gov. Palin’s ability to inspire people to positive action and her executive skills make her the only prospective candidate who can restore America’s greatness as president. That is why I support her.

I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last post. I’m working on my health and creating a career that generates money. My weight loss program is coming along slowly, but surely — over 42 pounds lost so far. But I don’t like writing about the process — it feels better to keep that private. I’ll report on results when I’m ready.

However, I’m writing this post to draw the attention of my dear gentle readers to a video by Tammy Bruce about Gov. Sarah Palin as a policy wonk and a blog post by DaTechGuy pointing out Gov. Palin’s leadership on policy issues and predicting that that is why she will run for president and win in 2012. Certainly Gov. Palin is the only prospective candidate in the field with both a mastery of energy policy, the most vital expertise for restoring health to our economy, and executive branch experience.

So here is a sample of DaTechGuy’s examples of Gov. Palin’s leadership:

Do you remember when Sarah Palin said this about drilling:

For years, states rich with an abundance of oil and natural gas have been begging Washington, DC politicians for the right to develop their own natural resources on federal lands and off shore. Such development would mean good paying jobs here in the United States (with health benefits) and the resulting royalties and taxes would provide money for federal coffers that would potentially off-set the need for higher income taxes, reduce the federal debt and deficits, or even help fund a trillion dollar health care plan if one were so inclined to support such a plan.

So why is it that during these tough times, when we have great needs at home, the Obama White House is prepared to send more than two billion of your hard-earned tax dollars to Brazil so that the nation’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, can drill off shore and create jobs developing its own resources? That’s all Americans want; but such rational energy development has been continually thwarted by rabid environmentalists, faceless bureaucrats and a seemingly endless parade of lawsuits aimed at shutting down new energy projects.

Sounds pretty topical, When did Palin say this? AUGUST OF 2009 when gas was still in the low $2 per gallon. Bloggers covered it. The MSM didn’t. Where would gas prices and the economy be today if the MSM reported this and the president listened to her 2 years ago?

Note to DaTechGuy: Obama intends to destroy the U.S. economy by skyrocketing energy prices — that’s a feature, not a bug. So, of course he’s not listening to anyone who would interfere with that.

Here’s Tammy Bruce explaining why Gov. Palin is a policy wonk — I saw this the first moment I read about Gov. Palin’s experience and it’s always puzzled me why others don’t see it immediately, too:

By the way, in this video Tammy talks about Gov. Palin predicting that quantitative easing by the Fed would lead to inflation. I spent Easter with Dad in the emergency room — he was finally diagnosed with a urinary tract infection and is feeling better now — and had several hours with G. Edward Griffin’s The Creature from Jekyll Island, which was given to me by FreedomWorks at BlogCon in September 2010. It describes the creation and operation of the Federal Reserve System, which is all about bilking taxpayers through inflation. I expect it’s a book that Gov. Palin has read, but even if she hasn’t, reading it has enabled me to see that Gov. Palin clearly has a grasp of the Fed’s modus operandi and therefore can predict accurately the consequences of its actions.

Update, 4/28/11, Thurs.: While Gov. Palin is a policy wonk, White House correspondent Keith Koffler explains why Obama is silly. I explain why Obama is a sociopath.

Sarah Palin should run for president and be the Republican nominee — Sarah Palin should BE president — because she knows more about energy policy and what it will take to secure energy independence for the U.S. than any other nominee, as her recent speech in India shows. Energy independence will drive down the cost of living and make our economy more secure from the whims and malice of the oil-producing nations that hate America. Obama pledged in 2008 to make the cost of energy skyrocket — and he is making use of the oil spill in the Gulf last summer, the tsunami’s destruction of nuclear reactors in Japan on March 11 and civil war in Libya to realize that goal. The rationale is that when conventional energy sources are expensive, then green energy can compete.

However, for people to want to trade cheap, conventional energy for green energy, then green energy has to be able to deliver reliably and at a reasonable price — neither of which it can do. People who don’t want to be making a choice between food and gas for their cars are likely to see the virtues of the candidate who can deliver on a pledge to make the U.S. energy independent and bring down energy prices. And that candidate is Sarah Palin.

I love Sarah Palin — love, love, love her. I respect her. I admire her. I am in awe of her ability always to call forth the highest and best in everyone, as she does in this speech, which is all the more inspiring considering the viciousness and insanity of the attacks on her and her family by the Left — Allahpundit notes that death threats against Gov. Palin are at an all-time high.

For better commentary than I can come up with right now, I direct you to Moe Lane, Gabriel Malor at Ace of Spades HQ addressing objections to Gov. Palin’s use of the expression “blood libel,” Ed Morrissey at Hot Air (along with transcript of the speech), and Ace.

Over the summer of 2008 during the presidential campaign, Barack Obama’s policies drove me out of the Democratic party, but it wasn’t until John McCain announced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate that I felt confident I had someplace to go. I didn’t vote for John McCain. I voted for Sarah Palin. She is a self-made woman, had taken on her own party over corruption — and won!, and she had executive branch experience — all of which made her significantly more qualified to be president than McCain, Obama and Biden put together. I considered the prospect that she would be only a heartbeat away from the presidency, if McCain won, to be a feature, not a bug.

I support Sarah Palin for president in 2012. She always appeals to the best in people and has an uncanny knack for overcoming her enemies. Her understanding of fiscal conservatism and the economic theory behind it is solid and she knows how to put those principles into action. She supports securing our borders. Our nation’s enemies who take her measure will know better than to test her. We need a president with those qualities to restore America’s economy and position as a world leader.

I am joyful tonight to see that Prof. Jacobson, of Legal Insurrection, a staunch defender of Gov. Palin, has had his own epiphany about her qualifications for defeating Obama and becoming president in 2012:

I’ve put forth the proposition that the best way to defeat Obama is to put forward a conservative but non-controversial candidate who will keep the election focused on Obama. Because the Obama record and devolving persona are the equivalent of a death panel for Obama’s reelection.

And nothing matters more than defeating Obama because the damage he is doing to the country is generational.

But as I reflect back on the past two plus years since Palin’s nomination, I’m wondering if an all-out, knock-down, drag-out fight with the Palin haters is just what this country needs most, not least. And whether that is just as likely to be successful in defeating Obama as the “safe” route.

I still like Camille Paglia’s defense of Palin in October 2008, and Paglia’s observation of how disruptive Palin was to standard liberal doctrine:

The hysterical emotionalism and eruptions of amoral malice at the arrival of Sarah Palin exposed the weaknesses and limitations of current feminism. But I am convinced that Palin’s bracing mix of male and female voices, as well as her grounding in frontier grit and audacity, will prove to be a galvanizing influence on aspiring Democratic women politicians too, from the municipal level on up. Palin has shown a brand-new way of defining female ambition — without losing femininity, spontaneity or humor. She’s no pre-programmed wonk of the backstage Hillary Clinton school; she’s pugnacious and self-created, the product of no educational or political elite — which is why her outsider style has been so hard for media lemmings to comprehend.

And also Paglia’s assessment of the Democratic Party (notwithstanding her adoration of Barack Obama at the time) and how Palin hatred fit into that scheme:

The witch-trial hysteria of the past two incendiary weeks unfortunately reveals a disturbing trend in the Democratic Party, which has worsened over the past decade. Democrats are quick to attack the religiosity of Republicans, but Democratic ideology itself seems to have become a secular substitute religion. Since when did Democrats become so judgmental and intolerant? Conservatives are demonized, with the universe polarized into a Manichaean battle of us versus them, good versus evil. Democrats are clinging to pat group opinions as if they were inflexible moral absolutes. The party is in peril if it cannot observe and listen and adapt to changing social circumstances.

Nothing and no one brings out the worst in the Democratic Party, in the liberal media, entertainment and academic establishments, and in the left-wing blogosphere, as does Sarah Palin. Bringing out this worst may be the path to a lasting, generational conservative victory.

Maybe this is the battle which needs to be joined, once and for all.

The path forward, or just obsession?

I recommend that my dear gentle readers read the whole post. And to Prof. Jacobson, I say, yes! This is EXACTLY the battle that needs to be joined and drafting Sarah Palin as the Republican candidate for president is, indeed, the path forward. There’s no avoiding a knock-down, drag-out battle because Obama is a Chicago Democrat and that’s how he fights. The only successful weapon he ever had against Gov. Palin was to lie about her. Now Gov. Palin is getting her own story out through her books, Facebook, Twitter, speeches, appearances on Fox News and her show on Alaska, where she routinely pwns Obama. So lies are not going to work any more. Gov. Palin is not only our best candidate for president, she’s also the one who knows how to win AND the only one that the Obama machine will never figure out how to defeat.

THANK GOD unwed mother Bristol Palin broke up again with Levi Johnston, the father of her child. I hope this time she’s had it with him once and for all, although I fear for her because I believe she thinks everyone is honest and that she believes everyone can be redeemed.

I thought Johnston was scamming Bristol when they announced their reconciliation. If this were a novel or soap opera, Democratic operatives would have paid him to string Bristol along for as long as possible and use her to cause as much hurt and chaos in the Palin family he could while keeping himself in a position of credibility to tell any lie about Gov. Palin that served his handlers. But apparently Bristol has more intelligence and self-esteem than Levi remembered, while Levi is too stupid to handle the demands of a long game.

But somehow the headline for this post didn’t just pop into my head in the night, it woke me up to watch a whole train of thought. To wit, bitter and dissatisfied people, especially those who see no way of getting out of their plight, are easy to turn into traitors. This might have started with posts by Ace about the gay serviceman who is the source of the leaks about U.S. forces in Afghanistan — he was bitter about a break-up but is dressing up his treachery as a blow against “don’t ask, don’t tell” — which linked a Harper’s piece from 1941 brought to light by The Anchoress, who says she got it from Bookworm, pondering how to tell, when this was worth knowing, “Who goes Nazi?”

Somehow in my sleep it occurred to me that the Left immediately saw that Levi Johnston was traitor material: under financial pressure, young and naive, conceited, lazy, bitter, hurt, angry and easily led. This is the IQ test that conservatives flunked — when Johnston tore up the golden ticket of being a member of the Palin family, probably because it involved a little too much work and responsibility, conservatives responded by vilifying and shaming him. That was the flunking part. Because it was so easy to neutralize Johnston as a threat by giving him a job that paid enough to solve his financial problems, puff up his vanity and give him a sense of purpose. This young man was not raised to understand delayed gratification or the concept of earning credentials.

Now, I do understand why it might not have occurred to conservatives to do such a thing: they would be derailing Johnston from getting an education or a trade for which he actually was qualified, so they would be destroying his life. That is not the same thing as stepping back from his tantrums and getting out of the way of his destroying himself. I think it is morally repugnant to conservatives to use someone in this way and then throw them under the bus when they are no longer useful, or actively a liability.

By the way, I am NOT suggesting this is something the Palins should have done, or arranged. But it is for damn sure the kind of loose cannon that a competent Republican National Committee chairman would have seen and dealt with.

Meanwhile, I am concerned that Bristol is the Fredo of the Palin family. In 2008, she knew her mother was governor and how babies are made when she decided to have unprotected sex. Recently she blindsided her mother by announcing her reconciliation with Johnston in a magazine before telling her family. The Left knows that Bristol is Fredo. And they are experts at rubbing raw the resentments that turn the Fredo’s of the world against the people to whom they owe the most loyalty.

What we on the Right need to do for conservatism is to have Bristol Palin’s back and make the price for attacking her such a heavy one that the attacks stop. In addition, the people with the power and wealth to do it should see to it — if they haven’t already — that Bristol gets highly-paid work that allows her to complete college and care for her son in comfort and dignity. Then, with more maturity, she’ll have a shot at meeting and marrying a man worthy of being the love of her life, father to her children and support through good times and bad.

One of the drawbacks of conservatives’ love of individualism is that we leave our heroes to fight their battles alone instead of leaping to their side when they are surrounded by packs of Leftie wolves baying for their blood.

I have been particularly concerned for Andrew Breitbart, since he is leading such effective battles against ACORN and the race-baiting of the Left. It doesn’t matter how strong you are, a thousand cuts can take you down.

So one of my goals in going to CPAC last month was to have a chat with Andrew Breitbart. I was in luck, and had two, one of which Melissa Clouthier videoed and posted on YouTube. (I will put it in a different post.)

The main thing I wanted to ask Andrew is whether it would be OK with him if I wrote public affirmations of praise for him. I wanted him to know my fell ulterior motives. First, what you put your attention on grows stronger, so I make sure to praise behaviors I want to encourage. And I support most of Andrew’s battles (and find him talkable on his opposition to same-sex marriage equality, if you’re wondering). Andrew is subjected to such vitriol from the Left that I want to counter that to the best of my ability. Second, my praise is heartfelt and not a manipulation.

Actually, Andrew agreed to be praised before I explained my motives. But there’s no way I would have started my “praise Andrew Breitbart” program without having him understand what I was doing first.

Anyhoo, I launched my little crusade a couple of days ago when I saw Andrew retweeting some of the more toxic attacks on him to humiliate his attackers.

Then something clicked about my grasp of the Twitter gestalt. Somehow I only just realized how much it is a conversation, like the blogosphere, only vastly quicker and more nimble.

Now I want to involve ALL of the conservative Twitterverse in the Wave of Love meme, identified in tweets by #wol. To participate in the Wave of Love, when one of our own is under attack, I’m asking every conservative on Twitter to tweet a Wave of Love message saying anything positive about the person being attacked. Here are some examples:

@(nameofLeftie) God bless and protect @andrewbreitbart #wol #tcot #tlot

@(nameofLeftie) I left my heart @andrewbreitbart #wol #tcot #tlot

@(nameofLeftie) @andrewbreitbart does the reporting the “news” media won’t do #wol #tcot #tlot

@(nameofLeftie) Wave of love for @andrewbreitbart #wol #tcot #tlot

and another favorite of mine and dear to my heart for her courage, intelligence and clear vision:

@(nameofLeftie) Wave of love for @SarahPalinUSA #wol #tcot #tlot #foxnews

@(nameofLeftie) God bless and protect @SarahPalinUSA #wol #tcot #tlot #foxnews

@(nameofLeftie) We laugh at you! We love @SarahPalin #wol #tcot #tlot #foxnews

I don’t think it’s necessary to try to be witty or original — just tweet “Wave of love for (fill in name)” quickly to respond to the negativity. It could create a Twitter “trending topic.” And it will definitely make some Leftie’s heads explode. So there’s the schadenfreude bonus to consider, as well.

P.S.

Hashtags — the # symbol — help people search and find tweets relevant to a particular topic. “#tcot” means “top conservatives on Twitter.” “#tlot” means “top Leftists libertarians on Twitter.” Use #p2 to include Progressives.

I know I am late to the discussion of the “Family Guy” episode that took a shot at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin through a character with Down’s syndrome identifying herself as the “daughter of the governor of Alaska.” But I have to say my piece.

The dear Anchoress — I am never ironic or sarcastic when I use terms of endearment — went to great lengths to condone the scenes aimed at Gov. Palin through her son Trig, who has Down’s syndrome and is not quite two years old. She also chided Gov. Palin, and her oldest daughter, Bristol, who also is a mother, for springing to Trig’s defense.

I am shocked that I have to keep explaining the following point to conservatives: the families of our politicians are out of bounds, period. There is NO SUCH THING as a rationale for attacking a politician’s family in any way. They are civilians — non-combatants. It is against the rules of war.

The MAFIA does not attack rivals through their civilian family members. The MAFIA!

Gov. Palin ALONE, of ALL politicians, is expected to be gracious and/or silent when her children and husband are attacked by the Left. Then, regardless of how she responds, she is then attacked by everyone else. Basically, everyone thinks it is safe to attack Gov. Palin through her children. No, no, a thousand times, NO! We are entering the campaign season — we must not permit the tactic of getting at our candidates through their children to go unchecked and unpunished.

Instead, what conservatives must do is commit to protecting our politicians’ families. Making a big show at the beginning of such an enterprise saves untold labor later. So I suggest we vaporize anyone and everyone who even looks at our candidates’ children funny until the correlation between unacceptable behavior and immersion into a world of pain is clear to all and sundry.

We must protect our politicians children and families not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because our best candidates will leave public service and its marketplace of ideas, or never enter it, if we do not protect their loved ones. They simply cannot do this alone.

Additionally, there is something evil and corrupting about failing to stop abuse. It gives permission. And research suggests that the people witnessing abuse feel it as if it were being done to them. When no one stops the abuse and they cannot stop it, it creates feelings of powerlessness in the abused and correlating feelings of omnipotence in the abusers.

To give a specific example, some time in the 1980′s, my late life partner Margaret and I listened to the autobiography of Judy Carne, who was the “Sock it to me” actress on “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in,” which I watched when I was a teen. She would say, “Sock it to me” and then get doused with a bucket of water, or otherwise assaulted. In her book, Laughing on the Outside, Crying on the Inside, she described how seeing her assaulted on the show made people feel safe — entitled, even — to throw water in her face everywhere she went. These constant assaults destroyed her life.

We cannot give permission to any form of assault on the children and families of our politicians. We must vaporize the people who assault the children and families of our politicians until they stop. This will be tough to do because nothing makes Lefties go psychotic faster than setting a boundary. But it must be done.