The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

BLAME ME!

Posted on | October 6, 2011 | 37 Comments

Rejection is painful, and I’m sure that Sarah Palin’s supporters blame themselves for her decision not to run. But don’t blame yourself and don’t blame Sarah — it was all my fault.

Mea culpa. Mea magna culpa.

Don’t ask why or how I was personally responsible for Sarah Palin not running for president. Don’t torture me into confessing my myriad personal failures and my sins — both of commission and omission — which caused her to reject your pleas that she run for president.

It doesn’t matter. I wanted her to run for president and she didn’t. If I had been good enough to deserve it, she would have said “yes.”

The failure is mine alone. Make me your scapegoat, and absolve yourself of any worry that you did anything wrong. All I ask in return is that you do me one favor, and read my column in The American Spectator:

Michelle McCormick was “working on a hellacious bar tab” in Clive, Iowa, when I called her Wednesday evening to get her reaction to the announcement that Sarah Palin will not run for president. McCormick has spent months in Iowa as a volunteer leader of the grassroots group Organize4Palin, and had every right to be bitter about the long waiting game that led up to Palin’s  final “no.” Yet the 28-year-old Texan was cheerfully drinking away her disappointment and still full of praise for the former Alaska governor who inspired her.
“I keep telling people, no regrets,” said McCormick, who left her job and moved to Iowa to work without pay on Palin’s behalf. “I’ve had so much fun doing this — the people that I’ve met and good friendships I’ve made — I would not trade that for anything. Shoot — I got to meet Sarah Palin a couple of times. Man, that was awesome…. We still respect Governor Palin and respect her decision.… I will always respect Sarah Palin. Next to my mom, she’s one of my  biggest role models. I’ve had a wonderful journey doing this.”
If McCormick did not fault Palin for the drawn-out “will she or won’t she” drama that continued all summer and into October, why should anyone else? Yet Palin’s announcement was an occasion for some to mock diehard supporters  like McCormick. . . .

Read the whole thing, please.

But if you don’t, I’ll blame myself for that, too.

It’s all my fault. Because I suck.

Category: Election 2012, Sarah Palin

Comments

37 Responses to “BLAME ME!”

  1. A Sampling of Twitter Links | Reluctant-Rebel
    October 6th, 2011 @ 8:42 am

    […] TOM: BLAME ME! […]

  2. Anonymous
    October 6th, 2011 @ 8:45 am

    I don’t really believe Redstate rates a mention. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t know who they are. Other than that I’d call it a very good article. Just the right tone, in my opinion.

  3. Joe
    October 6th, 2011 @ 9:20 am

    Agreed. 

  4. Joe
    October 6th, 2011 @ 9:25 am

    Given the way people savage Palin and her family, can you blame her for not running?   I have liberal friends and the things they would say about her  at parties made me think they had turned into misogynist cretins (and Morgan Freeman and Sam Jackson, I do not hear the reciprocal personal attacks against Barack Obama on the right that I heard about Sarah Palin–or for that matter George Bush–on the left).  And yeah, there are some back biting creeps in the GOP too. 

  5. Bob Belvedere
    October 6th, 2011 @ 9:32 am

    Well…if you suck, then so do I…so do we all.

    I AM SUCKULOUS!

  6. Garym
    October 6th, 2011 @ 9:33 am

    “Can we all be friends now?” Fuck Erickson!

  7. Anonymous
    October 6th, 2011 @ 9:37 am

    We (on the right) are going to have disagreements, some of which will be serious. We’d rather those disagreements remain constructive as long as possible, but sometimes they’ll be profound enough to generate lasting conflicts and fissures.

    But that’s if we’re talking about the differences that arise between grown up men and women. Erickson has been showing himself to be a petulant little manchild.

  8. JeffS
    October 6th, 2011 @ 9:45 am

    A good article, Stacy.  As for the creeps and cretins mocking Palin’s decision, I can say only this:  “Meh.  Your opinion on this is immaterial.”

  9. TrogloPundit
    October 6th, 2011 @ 9:54 am

    I’d read your article, but I’m enjoying this spectacle of self-flagellation too much.

  10. Anonymous
    October 6th, 2011 @ 9:57 am

    I wonder how many people Erickson and the rest of the mindless knee-jerk snarkmeister Palin-haters sent away from the effort to unseat Obama,  install a liberty-oriented Congress, and restore the Constitutional Republic?

    Granted there were a lot of people who were engaged in Palin hero worship, but unlike most politicians, Palin herself wasn’t doing anything to encourage that.  As far as I could tell, all of her public comments re-directed the attention back to the public policy issues and the problems faced by this country.  Whenever she was asked if she was running, her response was  consistently a variation on the theme of “I’m praying about it and talking to my family.”  And surprise!  her decision was based on prayer and what she thought was best for her family.  What a tease!  She’s obviously just in it for the money!

    The Palin-haters of the right made the basic mistake of conflating the over-enthusiastic Palinistas with Palin herself.  That’s the thing I found most frustrating and appalling.  In the process, they may very well have successfully taken a sizable chunk of the liberty coalition and sent them to the sidelines.  And the grave-dancing I’ve seen in various places in response to Palin’s announcement will keep a lot of people on the sidelines.

    Everyone needs to remember that politics is people.  People have feelings, and people have memories.  You don’t burn sources if you’re a professional journalist, and you don’t burn political allies if you’re really interested in winning elections.  Some Palinistas forgot this, but a whole bunch of Palin-haters on the right forgot it, too.

    I hope we don’t all pay for decades for their self-indulgent juvenile spite.

  11. steveegg
    October 6th, 2011 @ 10:05 am

    A holed Hoover missing a drive belt sucks more than you.

  12. Anonymous
    October 6th, 2011 @ 10:14 am

    Serendipity.  Heinlein comments on another thread here.  And then, I find this:

    Robert Heinlein And Evolving Probabilities

    The relevance:

    From memory, Mike, the computer, explained that there were various paths to success, but that selection of any one thereby eliminated alternatives, reducing the odds. As they proceeded, the odds continued to reduce.

    Eventually, of course, they neared their goal sufficiently for the odds to begin increasing.

    So, we’ve eliminated one path, and maybe things look a little darker for now.  But we can still get there.

  13. Joe
    October 6th, 2011 @ 10:28 am

    Suck This McCain!

    It is like you have both these guys in your brain!

  14. ThePaganTemple
    October 6th, 2011 @ 10:31 am

    The Daily Caller is piling on as well, note the post titled Goodbye Cruel World One guy made that remark and they use it as the title, portraying that as the general attitude of Palin supporters.

  15. Andrew Patrick
    October 6th, 2011 @ 10:37 am

    To me, this is but the confirmation of what I have long suspected. She felt like she owed it to certain folk to run, but never really wanted to. Can’t say as I blame her. It’s a craptastic interview for a thankless job.

  16. Richard Mcenroe
    October 6th, 2011 @ 10:41 am

    OK, fine, it’s your fault.  So what do we do about it?  Shave your head and ship you to Afghanistan?  It didn’t work with Smitty and look how many Presidential contenders HIS support ruined.

    BTW, happy birthday, you Palin-ruiner you.  Hitting the tip jar.

  17. ThePaganTemple
    October 6th, 2011 @ 10:45 am

    Overall, a damn good analysis, but I do take exception to your views of we Palinistas. Please bear in mind that a lot of what you might have interpreted as over-zealous devotion to her was more in reality a reaction to what you accurately described as the Palin haters. Granted, there were some of Palin’s supporters who were over-the-top regardless of any kind of reason by any definition of the word, and I like to think I am not one of that minority.

    But as for spite? Oh yeah, there’s going to be payback. And it’s not going to be pretty. It might even be somewhat, well, let’s say “depressing”.

  18. Adjoran
    October 6th, 2011 @ 10:50 am

    Yeah, if we needed any extra proof that leftists are, in fact, the lowest form of human scum on the earth, their treatment of Palin and her family provided it.

  19. Adjoran
    October 6th, 2011 @ 10:51 am

    At least they can’t blame you for the problems at Apple.

    That’s all on Obama, that Jobs-killin’ bastard!

  20. Anonymous
    October 6th, 2011 @ 11:01 am

    I actually AM a “Palinista.”  And the phenomenon I’m referring to is where someone not inclined to support Palin would object to one comment from one Palin supporter on a blog or site somewhere–a comment that might actually have been “out there” at best, and not only take exception to the comment, but conflating it to come from not only ALL Palinistas but from Palin herself.  This ignites a kind of feeding frenzy which rapidly spirals out of control.  More Palin supporters join the thread to try to defend Palin, they get attacked in turn. 

    Lather, rinse, repeat.  Thread breaks down into vitriolic shouting match.

    People really, really need to understand what happens when they participate in this kind of thing.  There are actual PEOPLE on the other end of that keyboard.  This is all too easy to forget.

    The term that comes to mind is “fratricide.”

  21. Bob Belvedere
    October 6th, 2011 @ 11:16 am

    Fuck him and the Establishment Horse he rode in on!

  22. Richard Mcenroe
    October 6th, 2011 @ 11:20 am

    DEATH BEFORE RNC!

    That would be “no.”

  23. Dell Hill
    October 6th, 2011 @ 11:22 am

    The masses who adore SP react in near suicidal fashion to a decision she made.  There’s something terribly hypocritical going on there.  If they truly supported her, they’d support her decision, no matter what the topic might be.

    If they took the time to analyze her statement, they’d realize she’s right.

    And those who think she just threw away all of her support are sadly mistaken.  The woman will continue to draw massive crowds wherever she goes and her influence will be felt where it counts – at the ballot box.

    I don’t believe a Republican can win the presidency without Sarah Palin’s support.  That’s political clout and her so-called “supporters” should recognize that fact.

  24. Bob Belvedere
    October 6th, 2011 @ 11:24 am

    I knew there was a reason I was feeling I had missed something, or was about to, these past few days!

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STACY!

    Have a Boy Howdy on me.

  25. anthony
    October 6th, 2011 @ 11:28 am

    They way I looked at as Establishment 1 tea party 0.      I’m afraid the great movement is in peril.     I’m not even sure Herman Cain wants the job.     He is supposedly taking time off to sign books with Palin

  26. Richard Mcenroe
    October 6th, 2011 @ 11:47 am

    Linked.

  27. Ace
    October 6th, 2011 @ 11:55 am

    He is such a Scandi scamp, his unmarried Scandi parents named him twice. 

  28. Anonymous
    October 6th, 2011 @ 12:43 pm

    Well, well, well, Mr. TOM. You are so clever with your titles. And an adroit practitioner of bloggers’ self-promotion credo. Nice!!

  29. Quartermaster
    October 6th, 2011 @ 12:54 pm

    If we ship him the AFG the Taliban will groveling at the Embassy in Islamabad asking what it would take for us to ship him back to CONUS and never let him OCONUS again.

    Since he has fessed up to being at fault for Palin not running, I suggest we have a party and burn him in effigy. A few moonbats might want to do it realigy, but you can only do that once and all the fun comes to an end at that point. Effigy allows more fun in the future.

    Oh, Happy Birthday!

  30. Quartermaster
    October 6th, 2011 @ 12:55 pm

    +1. I’m gonna shamelessly steal that one!

  31. Garym
    October 6th, 2011 @ 1:06 pm

    I agree with every point in this statement.

  32. Garym
    October 6th, 2011 @ 1:07 pm

    The master who wrote the Rules.

  33. Anonymous
    October 6th, 2011 @ 1:23 pm

    Tucker Carlson is a POS.

  34. Serfer162
    October 6th, 2011 @ 1:34 pm

    Sorry, but Palin knew this a long time ago, but dragged it on. Milked the donations like O’Donnell and then quits.
    I now have a low opinion of her and consider this was really all about money.
    She is scratched from all consideration and interest.

    My support goes to Cain.

  35. Sarah Palin Bows Out Of The 2012 Presidential Race « Blog de KingShamus
    October 6th, 2011 @ 2:20 pm

    […] Robert Stacy McCain would like to apologize. LD_AddCustomAttr("AdOpt", "1"); LD_AddCustomAttr("Origin", "other"); […]

  36. David
    October 6th, 2011 @ 2:55 pm

    Erickson is not even a redstater. He’s more comfortable with Beltway types, which explains his contempt for Palin. Oh, and I don’t expect apologies for the Perry boosterism, Erick, LOL. BTW, who demands an apology from people he doesn’t even know and never talked to? Weird.

  37. David
    October 6th, 2011 @ 3:08 pm

    I also predict Erickson will be the next Charles Johnson. And I won’t expect an apology because, well, Johnson types never apologize.