The Pressure On Palin

Two weeks ago Sarah Palin entered the political arena like a princess entering a ball.

Her speech at the Republican National Convention captivated the nation and propelled the McCain/Palin ticket in the polls.

But in modern Presidential Politics, two weeks ago is a a lifetime.

The attacks on Palin started immediately. At first, they were ugly and personal. Rumors that she didn't give birth to her infant son Trig, that she covered for her daughters pregnancy. Then the forced admission that her 17 year old daughter Bristol was pregnant.

Those attacks backfired and it was time for the Democrats to try a new strategy. She had to be taken down a few pegs or the election was lost.

Next came the lies. Sarah Palin banned books at a local library. Sarah Palin cut funding to special education children. Sarah Palin wants Alaska to seceded from the Unite States. The lies piled up so much that the Independent Site FactCheck.Org started a separate section called "Sliming Palin" to dispute the claims.

Sarah Palin was becoming even more popular, as the nation came to her defense, like a community supporting a beloved neighbor.

And then the media started in. The favorite attack dogs of the left.

They cried and whined, "Why doesn't Sarah Palin talk to us? What does she have to hide?"

And so she did an exclusive interview with the always affable Charlie Gibson. But the Anti-Charlie showed up instead. He grilled Sarah Palin like no other candidate in this race has been grilled. He tried to trap her and trick her with his questions and his attitude was pompous and condescending.

Charlie Gibson suffered as much as Sarah Palin did. But still, they continued to chip away.

Then came the Katie Couric interview. This time Sarah Palin looked bad all on her own. You cannot accuse Couric of going after her. Although the McCain campaign has in recent days. Republicans always do well attacking the "elite, liberal media."

But, in fact, Couric gave Palin opportunities to clarify her answers. Palin seemed nervous, almost shell-shocked, but who can blame her. No candidate in history has gone through this many attacks on her and her family in this short a time.

As Andrew Malcolm wrote for the LA Times, "If a candidate's family is not being arrested or not out on the campaign trail inviting news coverage as McCain's 96-year-old mother, Roberta, does, why don't we just leave them alone?

The way the U.S. media has so conscientiously managed to deny itself virtually any inquisitions of Barack Obama's poor half-brother in Africa and his half-sister in Hawaii and Joe Biden's mother and Michelle's family."

Why go after Palin, her children and her husband so viciously and leave the family members of the other candidates untouched? Some say it is because she wore the fact that she was a Mom of five as a badge of honor and opened herself up to scrutiny. But hasn't Barack Obama talked about his family and his upbringing? He ran ads showing his relationship with his Grandmother. Shouldn't the media then seek out the rest of the family?

And still, even conservative columnists, who once supported Sarah Palin, are now turning on her. Kathleen Parker garnered a lot of publicity with her request that Palin drop out of the race for the good of the party. But let's be honest. Did you ever hear of Kathleen Parker until she wrote this column. No. She became a star by doing exactly what conservatives have decried for years now; she wants to "cut and run."

A friend of mine once told me that no one wants to be first, but everyone wants to be second. In proof of that theory, a Congo line of Conservative Commentators have now shown up with their "me too" buttons to share in the national notoriety of turning on one of their own.

A legion of conservative cowards have now followed Parker's lead in criticizing Palin. And what is her biggest sin, according to these turncoats, that she did not perform well on TV. Rich Lowry wrote that her "performance was dreadful." David Frum wrote that Dan Quayle "never performed so badly."

Conservatives it turns out are like a flock of seagulls. When one of their own is injured, they kill and eat him, or in this case her.

They all mention her Television performance as a reason for turning on her. Apparently, her performance as Governor of Alaska where she was widely popular for reforming government and taking on corruption and big oil are irrelevant. As Barack Obama has proven, it's not what you have accomplished, it's how you perform on television that matters.

And yet, we have seen this once before. In fact, just three weeks ago. Palin was derided and ridiculed for a week and then she got up at the Republican national Convention and touched people. She reached out to women, working families, parents of special needs children an christian conservatives and excited them like never before.

There is still an excitement for Palin. She now draws crowds bigger than Obama, sixty-thousand in Florida last week.

And now she will address the nation again, this time in a debate with the seasoned and verbose Senator Joe Biden at the most anticipated and talked about Vice-Presidential debate in history.

I fully expect Sarah Palin to once again to look at the camera and connect with people like she did at the convention in Minneapolis. I will go as far as to say that Palin will win the debate. Heck, the expectations are so low for her, all she has to do is speak in full sentences and she wins.

But it is more than that.

There is a large group of Americans cheering for Palin to do well. They have been called "The Reagan Democrats" and "The Silent Majority," working class Americans who Barack Obama accused of being bitter and clinging to their guns and religion. but they are joined by another large group, women who don't appreciate that one of their own is being attacked by the boy's club. The same women who were angered by the way Hillary Clinton was treated are somewhere deep down rooting for Palin, even if they don't agree with her on all of the issues. Because if Palin fails at looking competent, all women fail in workplaces across America. It is sad, but true.

Sarah Palin has already turned up the heat and has looked good on the stump the past few days. She has attacked the press for "Gotcha Journalism" and took a swipe at Joe Biden saying, "I've never met him, but I've heard about his speeches since the second grade."

She is great at attacking with a smile. Democrats in Alaska have warned in a memo, "Do Not under estimate her." She destroyed former Alaskan Governor Tony Knowles in a debate and won the election by a landslide because of it.

And so Sarah Palin is preparing in Arizona for her next chance to speak directly to the country, just like she prepared in Minneapolis three weeks ago.

She won us over then.

There is no reason to believe she won't do it again.