Prelude to 2012: how did Democrats let Sarah Palin destroy health care reform with Facebook?

September 2, 4:49 PMProgressive ExaminerD.K. Jamaal

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  Sarah Palin stands on stage during the election night rally on
November 4, 2008 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Getty images)

It’s not even 2012, and Sarah Palin, the “lightweight” Caribou Barbie stupid dumb right-wing inexperienced unqualified unaccomplished religious wacko birther enabling nut that came from Wasilla, has already defeated President Obama.

CLICK HERE to see SLIDESHOW of the Palinator!

She has trounced Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

She has trumped MoveOn, ACORN, and Obama’s mass army of volunteers at Organizing for America.

She has out-demagogued the three stooges of MSNBC Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, and Rachel Maddow.

Oh, and she did it with Facebook notes.

Read that again: she did it with Facebook notes.

The notion that Obamacare would include panels making end-of-life decisions for Americans had floated unnoticed in the ether for months, before Palin’s Facebook note dated August 7, 2009 – ominously warning of “Obama’s death panel” stocked with “evil” government “bureaucrats” who would deny care to the “sick, elderly, and disabled.”

Now, let’s keep in mind that Mrs. Palin is (should be?) little more than a celebrity curio at this point.

She holds no elected office.

She is not a party official, nor the head of any chartered political organization. She is not a Fortune 500 businesswoman, not a powerful member of the prognosticating pundit class, not a cited academic authority.

She is a private citizen. But, oh, what a private citizen!

Sarah Palin speaks at the Republican Governors Association
conference November 13, 2008 in Miami, Florida.(Getty images)

How should those who disagreed with this private citizen’s assessment of the health care debate have responded to her allegations? Simple.

They should have ignored her, as they would do any one they really considered a rube with no credibility and no power.

But many Obama supporters aren’t that intelligent, and the ones who are know Sarah Palin is nobody's village idiot.

That's why they -- stupidly -- tried to silence her so viciously. Oops.

Palin-the-puppetmaster uttered “death panel” and the left-wing, right on cue, went running after the thrown bone, tails wagging and tongues slobbering in hyperventilation.

The self-defeating inability of Democrats to ignore the Palinator magnified the “death panel” claim.

They kept Palin squarely in the mainstream, made “death panels” the talk of the town. And by the time you hear something enough it becomes true. Seniors were scared. Independents were worried. And the debate was completely hijacked.

Palin distracted health care progressives at a time when we should have been explicating an optional government plan to compete with predatory private insurance companies as the pragmatic alternative to socialist single-payer and the laissez faire rapaciousness preferred by Wall Street-Washington oligarchs.

Democratic talking head Paul Begala got a lot of press by summing Palin up as a "whack job" and a “lightweight.”

In the meantime, Palin kept releasing healthcare killing Facebook notes – spreading conservative anti-Obamacare articles (August 8 and 9), doubling-down on death panels (August 12), accusing reformists of wanting to ration health care (August 13), and pushing tort reform (August 21).

As the arguments gained traction, and as Obamacrats continued bending to the big pharamaceutical lobby in compromising away real reform, liberals – instead of pushing back with relentless, focused talking points in for price controls, public options, and mandates – frothed at the mouth, launched sexist attacks against Palin, and denigrated town hall protestors.

The result of all this?

Counseling is out of the proposals – just like Sarah Palin the Lightweight of Wasilla wanted. And as an added bonus, the neglected public option is now off the table, with the President unwilling to fight for it. Government ability to bargain for lower drug prices? Denied. Consumer ability to buy cheaper drugs from other countries? Gone. A universal mandate? Obama wouldn't even support that in the primaries.

PERRY, GA - DECEMBER 1: Sarah Palin arrives at a campaign rally for Republican
incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss, on December 1, 2008 in Perry, Georgia. (Getty)

So that’s all folks. There goes real health care reform.

I wish I, a private citizen, could write some Facebook notes and get the kind of health care bill I wanted.

It is, as Hillbuzz.com put it, “truly, truly remarkable.”

If Palin can manage to throw Obama off message with Facebook, I shudder to think what Palin can accomplish with the entire right-of-center electoral apparatus behind her at the top of a national ticket.

When the Democratic Congress finally passes its Palinized, Obamagutted health care non-reform bill with nothing in it resembling cost control, competition, or anything remotely progressive, the epitaph should read:

“Here lies health care reform: killed by Facebook, buried by Obama.”

By Facebook. By Sarah Palin’s Facebook notes.

You don't have to agree with Palin's policies to be wowed by this -- or to get a kick out of seeing the misogynist, working class-hating East Coast manchild geeks get their butts handed to them by this PTA mom. This is populism at its most stunning.

Whack job? Depends on your politics.

But lightweight? Ha! Whatever you say, Begala.

See you in 2012, private citizen Palin. Do your thang, babe. Lightweight your way right to the Oval Office.

Godspeed.

Senator Saxby Chambliss from Georgia had the following to say at the Augusta Museum of History for a chamber of commerce forum on health care reform:

"I don't agree with [Governor Palin] that there will be death panels created by any of the plans that are out there," said Chambliss.

There are two problems with what Chambliss did; first of all, Sarah Palin back in November saved his political as* by campaigning for him. In point of fact, Chambliss himself credited his victory to Sarah Palin. So this is how he repays the woman who saved his political as*! I should also note that Chambliss was guilty of being part of the Bush Republican congress that spent money and grew government like a drunken liberal. Ah, Caeden what are you saying? The point is that this is what you get from an inside the D.C. beltway big government Neo-Conservative. This is why folks it is of the upmost importance in the next GOP primaries in 2010 to nominate true Traditional Reagan Conservatives, and not Bush Neo-Cons who differ very little from many Democrats.

The second problem for the backstabbing Chambliss is that he is either ignorant of what Obama is proposing or what Sarah Palin actually wrote. What Sarah Palin was primarily writing about when she said “Death Panels” she was referring primarily the rationing of medical care by government bureaucrats in Washington, and those who have historically has suffered under a health care system which ration care to the elderly, the infirm, and the handicapped. Here is what Sarah Palin wrote in context:

“The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.”

   I was disgusted with a recent Townhall.com article by Charles Krauthammer and I have often been bewildered as to why they would even post his articles because he is hardly a conservative. He barely even qualifies as a left leaning “Rockefeller Republican”, and he has a long history of working for the left and against Traditional Conservatism as espoused by President Reagan. Melissa Clouthier rightly notes the following concerning Krauthammer:

"Although widely touted as a conservative, Krauthammer was a moderate Democrat who worked for the Carter Administration and as a speechwriter for Walter Mondale. Before gaining a reputation as a conservative columnist, he wrote for such hard right-wing media outlets as The New Republic, TIME magazine and the Washington Post. Some of his views on domestic issues are not those one would expect from a conservative. Krauthammer supports abortion, opposes the death penalty, rejects intelligent design, preaches evolution, favors embryonic stem cell research and advocates radically higher energy taxes as a conservation measure."

   So what did Krauthammer write that seriously pissssed me off? Well, first this leftist moron actually had the lunacy to claim that there were no “death panels” concerning Obamacare and he also decided to take a swipe at Sarah Palin who popularized the notion of Obama’s death panels and who completely put both the Obama administration and the entire Democratic Party on the defensive by writing two articles on her face book page! Nevertheless Krauthammer wrote:

"Let's see if we can have a reasoned discussion about end-of life counseling. We might start by asking Sarah Palin to leave the room. I've got nothing against her. She's a remarkable political talent. But there are no "death panels" in the Democratic health care bills, and to say that there are is to debase the debate."

   First of all, Sarah Palin was first and foremost referring to the rationing of care to those with special needs and the elderly, and for reasons of financial concerns these people will not receive care. Secondly, she also referred to end of life of counseling for the elderly with a government check for doctors who push this idea onto patients. Funny, if Krauthammer claims there were no death panels then why did the Senate act swiftly to remove this provision from their bill? Have a hard time answering that one Charlie? I thought you might.

   Lastly, what needs to be pointed out is that Krauthammer knows that he has been outclassed by Sarah Palin. Krauthammer is a “professional” Washington “journalist” and guys like him should be framing the national debate on health care. However, Krauthammer’s influence has been zilch, zero, nada. It was Sarah Palin who with two facebook articles completely rope-a-doped the entire Democratic push for nationalized healthcare. Sarah Palin caused Senate Democrats to cut and run on their version of the bill and even caused Obama himself to explain to a town hall meeting that he is not going to “kill grandma”. Now when a president has to defend himself against wanting to kill off a part of the American population, he obviously has completely lost control of the debate and is wholly on the defensive. Thank you Sarah! Hey Charlie you could learn a lot from Sarah Palin if you would just let your pride and elitist Beltway arrogance get out of the way.  

So where does Sarah Palin stand right now? Well according to the recent Public Policy Poll (PPP) she is doing quite well, in fact she is in the lead of all potential GOP 2012 contenders.

Sarah Palin favorability rating among conservative Republicans is 73%, Huckabee is at 65%, and Romney is at 53%. Sarah Palin also has a 45% approval rating among registered independents, which is just under half of their support. Sarah Palin also scored huge among Hispanic voters with a 51% approval rating, with not even a close second among GOP 2012 hopefuls. Sarah Palin also leads among GOP 2012 contenders with the 18-29 age range with 51% having a favorability rating in what is traditionally considered a Democratic stronghold.

In every region in the country Sarah Palin is in the lead against all the other GOP 2012 hopefuls; with 43% in the Northeast, 47% in the South, 50% in the Midwest, and 51% in the West.  

How about among GOP “moderates” surely Sarah Palin is not doing well with this demographic, right? Wrong the PPP Poll finds that, “For the second month in a row we found Sarah Palin as the most popular of the leading 2012 GOP hopefuls among moderate Republicans. 64% have a positive opinion of her compared to 57% for Newt Gingrich, 53% for Mike Huckabee, and 45% for Mitt Romney.”

So for Sarah Palin the sky is the limit, and she has yet to really start taking the fight to the Democrats and Obama. Sarah Palin finds herself in an excellent position if she decided to run for the White House in 2012. As I said before he comes The Northern Storm!

Is Sarah Palin framing the debate? Today Sarah Palin attacked Obama over the “cap & tax” energy bill in the Washington Post of all places. Well it did not take long for George Soros and his ilk at Moveon.org to strike back at Sarah Palin, who is the Republican they fear the most. This leads me to wonder if over the course of the next three years a ferociously bloody battle will rage between Sarah Palin who represents the GOP conservative opposition and the Obama Marxist regime. Sarah Palin I believe is learning how to master the liberal media who are obsessed with her, and with no other Republican. What do I mean by this? The liberal media is so obsessed with Sarah Palin that they report pretty much everything she says and does; even when it hurts their own cause, like today’s Washington Post oped piece by Palin. Thus, Sarah Palin knows that when she attacks Obama that the liberal media will faithfully report it even though it hurts their precious Obama, and she is the only Republican who can do this because of the liberal media’s obsession with her. Sarah Palin knows that she has the biggest microphone in the GOP and this frames the political landscape for the next three years as Sarah Palin vs. Obama, which will put her in an excellent position for the GOP primaries in 2012 because she already will be seen as the “anti-Obama” candidate. I am certain that we will see a very bloody battle between Sarah Palin and the Obama machine over the next three years. As I have said before here comes “The Northern Storm” from Alaska!  

   However some bad news came out for the GOP elites and Mitt Romney today. Sarah Palin’s political action committee raised in 5 months $733,000 with very, very, little advertising and no campaigning by Sarah Palin, (she has raised another $200,000 since her disclosure). Romney’s Political Action Committee raised $1.4 million over six months. Now what is interesting is that Romney is and has been in full campaign mode for years now and his only current job is raising money with the help of rich GOP elites for himself. Sarah Palin’s PAC is little known and Sarah has not been in campaign mode, and she will not until she steps down as Governor of Alaska in about two weeks, and it should be noted that most of her financial support comes from the grassroots and not the overly rich like Romney.

   So Sarah Palin must first defeat the GOP elites and their candidate of choice, Mitt Romney and then remake the GOP back into the image of Traditional Conservatism, back into the image of Ronald Reagan. Then she must take out Obama, and never fear Sarah Palin is quite skilled in hunting, politically killing, and mounting a donkey’s head on her wall.