Rush Limbaugh Interviews Sarah Palin

Tuesday Rush Limbaugh interviewed Sarah Palin for a full one-half hour of his show, less a "prosperity time-out." I believe there are three important points to take from today's discussion between El Rushbo and the former governor of Alaska.

First: while she certainly was on what some might consider "friendly turf," she certainly knew her stance on the issues.

At the "Saddleback Forum" presidential debate held by Rick Warren during the 2008 campaign, one of the most notable things of that event was Barack Hussein Obama's constant "hmm's" and "uhh's" while he pondered and searched for just the right answer. The left constantly made excuses for this long, drawn out approach to answering such simple policy questions as his position on abortion (his record is clear) and gay marriage (again, he's been consistent).

We now see clearly that Obama is lost without a teleprompter. While she may not always have every answer, I believe Mrs. Palin is much more capable of thinking on her feet and would be better prepared, for example, for situations like the recent terrorist attack at Ft. Hood.

In my opinion, the hallmark of a great candidate from either side of the aisle is knowing exactly where you stand on any issue. To quote Glenn Beck; "Say what you mean, and mean what you say." Palin certainly had no trouble responding to the questions Limbaugh offered today, and in that respect presented herself as a formidable voice for "Common Sense Conservatism."

Second: she seems to have a more focused approach to her speech.

Whether is was excitement and nerves, or perhaps an untrained person just being herself with a bit of a different cadence than many from the "Lower 48" including the media elites who took her to task, Sarah Palin today seemed much more controlled and organized in her speech. I also noticed this in the clips I have seen from the Oprah Winfrey interview.

Palin still clearly does not have the prim and proper Ivy League perfection to her sentence structure, and she still uses more "natural" words like "yeah" and has that funny use of the word "too" that drives liberal elites nutty, but amidst the strength of her knowledgeable commentary, an unbiased listener might find those quirks more endearing than irritating.

It is my belief that if Sarah Palin has spent some time working on her grammatical cadence and structure, it will be of incredible benefit to her with independents and moderates from both parties, because her common sense ideas are most definitely in line with the core values of America.

Third, and perhaps most important: She speaks with great respect for America.

Everything Sarah Palin has had to say about America has always been positive. This does not mean that she sees things through rose colored glasses. Rather, she has the ability to take serious current issues and find viable Conservative solutions.

Regarding the economy, she states that things are "bad, it's really bad" but follows that up with facts as to why (Bernanke's announcement of weak job prospects) and then immediately offers the common sense solution: "We need to cut taxes on the job creators. This is all about jobs, creating jobs. We have to ramp up industry here in America, and of course reduce the federal debt, quit piling on and growing more."

Regarding energy, she approaches it as both an economic and national security issue as she discusses "The regimes that can control us via energy, using it as a weapon against us, potentially." When asked her response to Vice-President Biden chiding her about "Drill, Baby, Drill," Palin replies "What is complicated about tapping into abundant, safe domestic supplies that could provide stability for our country and security for our country? I know Alaska has billions of barrels of oil underfoot, and we have the natural gas that's waiting to be tapped, too; and other states do, too. It's not that complicated. It's political, and that's what is the shame in this, is that for political reasons we're not allowing to tap these domestic supplies."

A final thought - she never referred to "The American People." She always spoke of Americans. As fellow blogger DC at Goomba News Network wisely pointed out just about one month ago, "Using "American" as an adjective instead of the damn noun that it is allows such scalawags to avoid calling people "Americans" -- a stronger word that conveys an identity in and of itself."

In my opinion, Sarah Palin definitely conveys a strong identity in and of herself. She may not be our next president, but she most certainly should be a force in American politics for many years to come.

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Part two of three:



Transcript from Rush's website here.