PAGE EIGHTY
Instead of getting angry at him, she turns his hostile thrust back on him by responding with grace and humor.
On p. 80 of GR, Sarah is describing her mayoral reelection battle against ex-Mayor John Stein. At the bottom of the previous page, she recounts the insulting language that Mr. Stein employed against her during the campaign: He called her a "Spice Girl" and a "cheerleader."
At the bottom of p. 79, she dismisses his words with her customary and wonted wit and humor: " 'A cheerleader?' I thought. 'Come on, don't insult cheerleaders like that.' I was just a jock and I couldn't hold a candle to their pep and coordination.
" 'At least get it right,' I laughed when it was my turn to respond. 'Call me "Sporty Spice" ' "
At the top of p. 80, Sarah continues with this account. She says, "I thought the whole thing was hilarious because a TV station was covering the debate and I knew that his sexist remark would play to my advantage. (As Napoleon said, 'Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.') A young female reporter, brand new to Alaska, caught Stein's 'Spice Girl' comment.
" 'I can't believe what that candidate just said about you!' she told me, appalled and sympathetic.
"I shook my head in a 'can you believe what we women have to put up with?' way and milked it for all it was worth. 'I know, I know,' I said. 'But you just have to rise above all that and plow through! Look, we have to work twice as hard to prove we're half as capable as men think they are.'
"Then I gave her a wink and whispered the old familiar punchline, 'Thankfully, it's not that difficult.'
"I won the election with about 75 percent of the vote in a three-way race. In my second term, I had the honor of serving my peers from around the state as president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.
"In that position, I led dozens of other mayors in dealing with statewide issues, such as municipal revenue sharing and advocating for local control of government. I loved being able to help other communities, and it allowed me to expand my contacts around the state."
As we see so very often in her masterpiece, there are multiple layers of instructive and illustrative material contained in these few lines!
She immediately perceives the political and personal advantage that will accrue to her from the fact that Stein's insult has been shown on TV, and that her response will also be viewed by many people. Thus, instead of getting angry at him, she turns his hostile thrust back on him by responding with grace and humor.
And I think this tactic worked because it was real: She is naturally a person of wit and good grace, so her counterthrust against Stein, I am sure, sprang with laughing spontaneity to her lips and to her eyes, and resonated resoundingly in the hearts of that TV audience!
Look how she wins over the young female reporter. Sarah possesses the magical personal touch more than any public figure, I think, since Reagan. If this reporter was a citizen of Wasilla, we can be sure that Sarah got her vote for mayor. Certainly she got her vote if the reporter was still living in Alaska when Sarah ran for Governor some years later!
We could multiply this incident ten-thousand fold and more. So many ordinary men, women, and children have experienced Sarah's one-on-one gentleness and kindness and charm since Sarah Palin Day, 29 August, 2008.
Ah, then there is that wink. I think that Sarah is a master of the Art of the Wink. In this case, only a lone person, a lone reporter witnessed it. However, on 2 October, 2008, tens of millions of Americans witnessed her power with this tiny but mighty gesture. She wielded the Sword of the Wink as one of the multifarious weapons that she unleashed upon joe biden as she blew him out in the VP debate that night!!
Also behold her literary skill in juxtaposing the data about her overwhelming margin of victory, 75% in a three-way race, right next to and after the incident with Stein and the reporter. I think that she is saying that, in politics as in life in general, seemingly tiny incidents and events can lead to stupendous results.
I just wonder if, in a national debate against obama, a similar small episode and moment could help lead to an overwhelming victory in November, 2012, maybe not 75%, but huge nonetheless!
We may note too that she served as president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors. She does not explicitly state it here, but leaves implicit the fact that her fellow mayors, I would assume, elected her to this post. That is quite a tribute from her peers. Sarah, however, with her characteristic modesty, leaves this fact implicit in her narrative.
We may be sure too that, just as her many, many trips around our country in the last three-plus years have prepared her for national office, so her activities as president of the mayors' conference helped prepare her the Governorship of Alaska.
Also, while expanding her reach and her horizons to include "statewide issues," she also remained focused on and devoted to "local control of government." She broadens her horizons, but never loses sight of the "little people" and their local communities.
She will bring this same wisdom to the White House: A world stateswoman who also sees and is concerned about each State in America, each local community in America, each family in America…EACH INDIVIDUAL CITIZEN in America, from the youngest to the oldest, from the smallest to the greatest, from the weakest to the most powerful. A Providential Hand always seems to be guiding her!
However, with all of these observations that have been made, I think that the most important words on this page, for our current situation, may be her citation of Napoleon:
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
Would it be too strong and too much to say:
That the GOP establishment is Sarah's dire enemy (almost as much as are obama and his Chicago thugs)?
That the GOP establishment has made a terrible mistake not only by failing to help Sarah, but by disowning her, by abandoning her, by actively opposing her?
That Sarah, with that political savvy and wisdom that crown her brow and head like an Olympian wreath and garland, is RIGHT NOW QUIETLY LEAVING THEM ALONE AS THEY MAKE MULTIPLE MISTAKES AND HANG THEMSELVES???
As I said yesterday in similar remarks about p. 79, I do not know if this is Sarah's strategy right now, but, based on her past actions and words, it well could be.
Anyway, let us persevere, guys, in praying and sacrificing ardently and indefatigably for her.
She has so many forces arrayed against her:
The GOP establishment;
The obama Dems;
The lame-stream news media;
The "academic" world;
Hollywood;
obama's one billion dollars…
…BUT, IMHO, she has on her side:
The Lord and the best and noblest and bravest part of the American People.
My money is on SARAH!!!!
