Sarah Holds the Left In the Palm of Her Hand

by Ric Albano

Sarah Palin sure is stupid. In fact, she's so stupid that she can't even get through a simple little, hour-long speech without looking at some hand-written keywords that she jotted on her own left palm.

Such an act of pathetic ineptitude prompted the brilliant and clever White House spokesman Robert Gibbs to rightfully mock and deride Palin by revealing his own “handwritten” notes during an official press briefing earlier this week.

It was a moment of levity well deserved by this White House which has spent so much time and effort trying to “not let a good crisis go to waste”. Over the past year, they have worked super-duper hard by pushing health care reform, cap and trade, and the employee forced choice act. The have also been inventing this innovative, new math to show us how many jobs were actually “saved” in the past year without relying on those pesky, old outdated metrics such as unemployment statistics. Yet, despite all of these noble efforts, nothing has worked. It appears that, like Sarah Palin, the American people are just too stupid to know what's good for them.

And so it is important that Citizen Sarah be answered, mocked, ridiculed, and discredited at every turn, so that the people see just how foolish is the alternative to the Left-wing agenda. Conventional wisdom says this strategy will eventually get Sarah to shut up, go back to the sticks, and leave the governing to those who are born of the proper pedigree, alumni of the proper university, or married the proper prodigy.

But have these experts of conventional wisdom ever heard of a “rope-a-dope”?

In 1974 Muhammad Ali faced George Forman in a heavyweight title fight. Foreman was considered one of the hardest hitters of all time and most analysts and “experts” believed that for Ali to have a chance, he would have to use his speed advantage and stay as far away from Foreman's massive blows as possible. But Ali employed a different strategy.

For much of the first five rounds Ali simply put his gloves up to protect his head and face, leaned back on the ropes, and let Foreman pummel away at his body. Those watching the fight assumed Ali was losing badly, and Foreman would eventually knock him out. But they didn't know that Ali had done thousands and thousands of sit-ups in preparation of this strategy which, along with the elasticity of the ropes, helped Ali to absorb much of impact of the punches all while Foreman got more and more tired trying to knock him out. By the start of the sixth round, Foreman was visibly exhausted and was suddenly shocked and demoralized when Ali suddenly sprung to life and went on the offensive. Within a few short rounds, Ali knocked Foreman out and regained the belt.

Up until that historic fight, conventional wisdom in boxing was simply that the man who landed the hardest and most effective punches would win – there was really not much thought involved in the process. Muhammad Ali's “rope-a-dope” changed all that.

Likewise, conventional wisdom among the Left is that you must destroy your political opponents personally through ridicule, innuendo, or laser-like focus on the faux pas that they make. According to this train of thought, it's quite simple – politics is about the cult of personality and if you can just generate enough negativity about a political opponent they will surely be knocked out politically – there is really not much thought involved. This strategy has bourn out well for them in recent years as they successfully demonized President Bush and issued in the era of “hope and change”.

But, what they seemingly fail to notice is, Sarah Palin is different and each “punch” that they subsequently throw at her has less and less impact as their overall tactic is really starting to tire with the American people. In fact, it is getting downright amusing how seemingly easy it is for Palin the “push their buttons” every few weeks or so and how, once again, she sends them into yet another predictable frenzy. It is as though she holds them in the palm of her hand.

Sarah Palin may never hold political office again and I really doubt she will ever become President of the United States. But she may well be the most important political figure of our time because she is a true pioneer who is willing to take all the “arrows” that come with that role as she is blazes a new path for the generation to come.

I predict that, in the very near future, we may see two or three or five or ten “Sarah Palins” enter the political arena. These will be just regular, common-sense Americans with conservative values, who may not have a huge trust fund or an Ivy League education, but who nonetheless believe they can play an active part in preserving or restoring the America they love and believe in. And with this new group the true “genius” of Mrs. Palin will be revealed. Largely because of her rope-a-dope strategy, an the exhausted and passé Left will no longer be able to convince the people that any of these new folks are just as “stupid” as Sarah is.

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