Last year those on the left – and the right – who were writing off Sarah Palin (and they were legion) were directed to some wise words from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tse….. “No disaster is greater than underestimating the enemy.” This sage advice was given by a veteran who had cut his journalistic teeth in the mean streets of Chicago politics.
Roger Simon is the Chief Political Columnist of Politico. He grew up on the South Side of Chicago where politics was a contact sport.
At the Chicago Sun-Times, where he wrote a column four times per week, Simon was taught that the only way for a journalist to look upon a politician was down. He now fights against that impulse daily.
Not the first person who would spring to mind as a defender of Sarah Palin against the howls and sneers of a dismissive and disdainful pack of media pundits from right and left when she resigned as governor of Alaska last summer,
More than 13 months ago, I wrote a column that began: “Sarah Palin can be the Republican nominee in 2012. I am not saying she will be, but she can be. Those who underestimate her do so at their own risk.”
It was not the most popular column I ever wrote. I remember snickering and mockery from those who could not find actual vegetables to throw
I remember reading Roger Simon’s Politico article of thirteen months ago. I also recall at the time constantly checking to see that it was on Politico and not some sort of spoof site – and when I saw that Simon was “Politico’s chief political columnist” I just had to clear my head with a generous gin and tonic to ensure I was still on my familiar planet and had not been transported to an alternative universe by a red shift.
It was fair, it was respectful, it actually accepted her words at face value and it presented a shrewd analysis of her political potential. It wasn’t adulatory and it wasn’t written from the heart because Simon is a hard nosed veteran of the political scene and is very much old school in that he tries to work out the narrative behind the headlines. But also, like the grizzled small town sheriff working a case alongside the eager beaver college FBI suits, he trusts his instincts – and his gut feeling told him something about Palin that still stands true today
Now, more than a year later, I have not changed my mind about Palin’s political potential.
…………
I am basing my belief now, as back then, on Palin’s ability to connect with the base of her party. Name a bigger name in the Republican Party today. Heck, name any name in the Republican Party today.
I also remembered the advice Simon had for her. Now if Palin ever sat down to read the “advice” that she was given from the time she first appeared on the national political scene she would still be shuffling through pieces of paper when Willow was finding her first grey hairs. Fortunately she ignored it all. Yet you must wonder if Simon had a crystal ball somewhere in his office….
Since unsolicited advice is a columnist’s stock in trade, I had seven suggestions for Palin, back last summer when she was still governor of Alaska: Dump Alaska, surround yourself with people smarter than you are, pick a handful of issues and stick to them, study up, don’t believe you can’t do it, don’t go changing and don’t worry about failure.
Whatever Palin has been doing since then seems to be working. And I have noticed a certain change in how the media are viewing her.
Roger Simon is the perfect antidote to the serpentine slitherings of Allahpundit at Hot Air who merely uses Palin to generate traffic and who sentences her to political oblivion every three weeks.
Sarah Palin has something more than intellect. She has the ability to understand, connect with and energize her party.
And considering her likely opposition — Romney, Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee or Haley Barbour — tell me she has no chance. Go ahead and tell me. It’s enough to make one snicker
Read the rest here. As Simon says politics is all about connection and he has grasped a key political fact about Sarah Palin. There are, already, a considerable number of Americans who would sleep more easily in their homes with the knowledge that this fascinating and rather mysterious woman was keeping watch over their land…
