A Time for Change

I don’t know if you have seen the ads that the “Our Country” political action committee put together for Sarah Palin to air over the Thanksgiving holiday. Apparently they feel that the media and the less American blue part of the country have been pretty mean to their gal and they wanted to give her some support. The “Our Country” PAC website explains the need for the three ads as follows:

More than 100 Californians are appearing in a new television ad campaign this week that will be directed to Governor Sarah Palin. Because of what this group is calling bashing from the media, they’ve decided to instead thank Palin for her work in the 2008 Presidential campaign. The ad is being produced by a conservative group called Our Country Deserves Better and people from all over the country are heading to Rancho Cordova to take part.

The Republican vice president candidate received a lot of media attention during her run for office. Everything from her hairstyle, glasses and manner of speech was critiqued. Others argue that is true for any one running for public office and she shouldn’t be singled out. Our Country Deserves Better disagrees and plans on showing America another side of Sarah Palin over Thanksgiving weekend, when the advertisement will air on cable television stations across the country.

The timing for the ads could not be more odd after the turkey pardon interview debacle that once again had everyone shaking their head in wonder or laughing or both.  When I saw the ad, at first I thought it was one of those parodies on Saturday Night Live, but it is quite “real.”  Due to the timing, every time we see one of these ads running over the holiday, we are going to be thinking of that darn turkey pardon interview though.  And if they like her as much as they claim, why do they want to pay for air time to remind everyone of all the gaffes she made?  Some sort of weird rehabilitation message?

Anyway, if you watch it, her political fans thank her for her “articulate advocacy of common sense conservative values.”  Yikes! I am not sure what that means, but here are a few “articulate” comments that she has made that were compiled on About.com:

 ”As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border.” –Sarah Palin, explaining why Alaska’s proximity to Russia gives her foreign policy experience, interview with CBS’s Katie Couric, Sept. 24, 2008 

“We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. … We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.” –Sarah Palin, speaking at a fundraiser in Greensoboro, N.C., Oct. 16, 2008

“Ohh, good, thank you, yes.” –Sarah Palin, after a notorious Canadian prank caller complimented her on the documentary about her life, Hustler’s “Nailin Paylin,” Nov. 1, 2008 

“Well, let’s see. There’s ― of course in the great history of America there have been rulings that there’s never going to be absolute consensus by every American, and there are those issues, again, like Roe v. Wade, where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So, you know, going through the history of America, there would be others but ―” –Sarah Palin, unable to name a Supreme Court decision she disagreed with other than Roe vs. Wade, interview with Katie Couric, CBS News, Oct. 1, 2008 

“All of ‘em, any of ‘em that have been in front of me over all these years.” –Sarah Palin, unable to name a single newspaper or magazine she reads, interview with Katie Couric, CBS News, Oct. 1, 2008 

“They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan.” –Sarah Palin, speaking at a fundraiser in San Francisco, Oct. 5, 2008

“[T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.” –Sarah Palin, getting the vice president’s constitutional role wrong after being asked by a third grader what the vice president does, interview with NBC affiliate KUSA in Colorado, Oct. 21, 2008 

“If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations then I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.” - Sarah Palin, getting First Amendment rightsbackwards while suggesting that criticism of her is unconstitutional, radio interview with WMAL-AM, Oct. 31, 2008

“I’m the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can’t.’” –Sarah Palin, as quoted by former City Council Member Nick Carney, after he raised objections about the$50,000 she spent renovating the mayor’s office without approval of the city council

It is no wonder that most of the nation drew a collective sigh of relief on the day after the election that Sarah Palin was on her way back to Alaska rather than on her way to Washington!  Do you think “Our Country” gets that?  Doesn’t look like it.

I have asked it before, but I really wonder what these political fans see in her that they admire so much.  I wonder if the group is really the “our Country, Not Yours” Political Action Committee.   I wonder.

The “Our Country”  political Bus to Nowhere 2008