Refreshing Gov. Palin cracks me up in Runners World Magazine

link to interview

I'm super cynical about politician's actions and statements: I sort of believe every single thing is script and posturing. Yet, I don't believe that about Gov. Palin. If she is a faker, she's the best faker I've ever seen. To me, she knows who she is, and she believes she has nothing to hide, and therefore she can very naturally be who she is at all times. These qualities have to scare the bejeebers out of the left; and obviously do, as evidenced by a new Palin hit-job in Vanity Fair magazine (Geraghty mocks Vanity Fair; The Other McCain weighs in: 1,2,3).

Here is Sarah in Runners World. See if you think this is natural ebullience and honest self-confidence, or posturing:

Our President, I'm told, is a runner. Would you ever run with him?
I would, absolutely. I would and people have asked if I'd ever challenge him to one-on-one because we both love basketball. But look, he towers over me and I wouldn't be complaining about an unfair advantage there, but maybe I'd do better playing H-O-R-S-E with him than one-on-one.

What about in a race? Could you beat the president?
I betcha I'd have more endurance. My one claim to fame in my own little internal running circle is a sub-four marathon. It wasn't necessarily a good running time, but it proves I have the endurance within me to at least gut it out and that is something, if you ever talk to my old coaches they'd tell you, too. What I lacked in physical strength or skill I made up for in determination and endurance. So if it were a long race that required a lot of endurance I'd win.

That final sentence: "So if it were a long race that required a lot of endurance I'd win", also has to scare the bejeebers out of the Democrats.

I'm excited about Repub 2012 Presidential hopefuls. I really, really like Jindal, Romney, Pawlenty, and some others who are just peeping their heads up. I really like these guys. I do. But, I'm most likely to vote for Palin.

I trust her motivations. I'm impressed with her instincts and with her judgment. She's inexperienced, but she's a spunky learning organism. I agree with what a McCain aide said of her: "What she knows, you can't teach. And what she doesn't know she can learn."

She will unavoidably get squashed by a hostile media and by her own inexperience.* If she can then pop back up again in the minds of the electorate, she could win. I think she's already shown she can do that: she's already been squashed, and she's already popped back up.

She has high negatives, and political commentators say that is bad. However, I think they are analyzing her high negatives incorrectly. Many of the voters who dislike Sarah Palin really do not know her. They only know the demeaning apocrypha. Hillary had high negatives, and everyone knew who Hillary was, and that was bad for Hillary. Palin has a chance to win some of those negative impression persons over to her side, as they get to know her beyond the cartoon characterization.

Update:
*In comments, Paul joke/rants about Barack's inexperience.

During the campaign, Barack made repeated gaffes which ought to have gotten him squashed, yet did not. The media protected him. I remember a two week period where Barack made Dan Quayle "potatoe" quality gaffes at least every other day. From the media: crickets.

Some of Barack's campaign gaffes:

• "I don't want my daughters punished with a baby";
• "My grandmother is a typical white person";
• “In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas[tornado]. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed.” [actual death toll: 12];
• 57 states;
• Austrian language;
• exaggerated claim that he served on the Senate Banking Committee;
• falsely claimed his parents met as a result of the Civil Rights movement and of a JFK initiative re Africans visiting America;
• claimed translators needed for Afghanistan were being diverted to Iraq[failing to understand Iraqis speak Arabic and Afghanis speak Farsi];
• said "Iran doesn't pose a threat to us" - followed the very next day, by "I've made it clear for years that the threat from Iran is grave";
• bungled punchline into: "Cinco de Cuatro"[i.e. 5 of 4];
• confused Buchenwald[Germany] w/Auschwitz and Treblinka[Poland];
• "the bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor";
• "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula? I mean, they're charging a lot of money for this stuff";
• "Israel is a good friend of Israel".

Palin didn't gaffe anywhere near as often or near as stupidly as Barack, yet Palin is sneered at as an imbecile.

So, I no longer think the squashing will inevitably occur b/c of Palin's inexperience. I think it will occur b/c it is preordained by the same American media which said Ford was stupid, Reagan was stupid(senile), G. Bush Sr was stupid(Grocery store bar coder), Dole was stupid(senile), GWB was stupid(Texan). McCain, as I best recall, escaped stupid in favor of "unsuitable temperament", and also b/c the stupid label was focused upon Palin.