David Jenkins: Obama vs. Palin; Polar opposite visions of what leadership should be

Pajamas Media ran a piece today, written by David Jenkins today titled, "Tale of the Tape: Obama vs. Palin; Polar opposite visions of what leadership should be." Jenkins highlights the clear contrast between Barack Obama ans Governor Palin in both character and leadership:

On December 4, 2009, pollster Matt Towery predicted that President Barack Obama’s approval ratings would drop to somewhere in the mid-40s by mid-2010. To his surprise, it took only a few days. By the second week of December, Obama’s approval had faded to 47 percent in a Gallup poll. The number of Americans who approve of the president’s job performance has gone as low as 41 percent, and he fares even worse among independent voters. All of this despite incessant drum-beating on his behalf by the MSM.

At the same time, Sarah Palin — whose favorability rating in some polls went as low as 39 percent in July when she resigned as Alaska’s governor — is currently at 46 percent in a recent AP-GfK poll, even though the MSM has treated her to a barrage of disparagement perhaps unequaled in American political history. Yet among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, Palin is viewed favorably by 80 percent — a higher rating than any other potential GOP presidential candidate. And 63 percent of everyday Americans say their views are more like Palin’s than Obama’s.

At first glance, Mrs. Palin and President Obama have many things in common. They are both physically attractive, mid-40s young, and have attractive spouses and families to which they are openly devoted. Both have strong leadership qualities and are dynamic speakers, arguably the two best on the political scene in recent years. In addition, they share to some degree an outsider’s perspective on American politics, hailing as they do from the states most recently added to the union, the only states which are not part of the continental U.S. Scratch beneath their personable surfaces, though, and they represent polar opposite visions of what leadership in this country should look like.

Obama presents as a victim; Palin a victor.

Dragged from pillar to post by an unstable mother and finally dumped on his grandparents, the young Barry Obama seems to have formed the habit of feeling sorry for himself early on. By the age of 12 or 13, as he tells us in his book, he ” … found solace in a sense of grievance and animosity against my [white] mother’s race.” He was mentored by Communist and sexual deviant Frank Marshall Davis through his teen years, and in college consistently chose to associate with radicals and Marxists. As a disciple of Saul Alinsky, he worked as a community organizer nurturing a sense of victimhood among the poor and disadvantaged. For 20 years he was a member of a church which taught black liberation theology, a cult which portrays black people as downtrodden and oppressed. He has built his career on appealing to those who prefer to consider themselves victims in this life.

Sarah Heath Palin, on the other hand, grew up in a lower-middle-class family in the demanding, near-frontier environment of Alaska, where she learned a can-do attitude early in life. She led her high-school basketball team to a state championship while playing on a broken ankle. As a young wife and mother she worked with her husband on his salmon-fishing boat in all kinds of weather. Since being selected as the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate, she has endured personal attacks and vilification unprecedented in living memory. Far from being a victim, she chooses to display courage, grace, optimism, and what can only be described as a joyous spirit

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Obama has campaigning ability, Palin has executive ability.

Getting himself elected to the nation’s highest office on a wave of nebulous “hope and change” was no small accomplishment. Though after nearly two years as “chief executive” he is still campaigning, which is not surprising — it’s the only thing he knows how to do. He had zero executive experience before entering the oval office, and has continued to pass the buck on governing. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, since the voters soundly rejected his agenda in the 2010 mid-term elections. (However, he continues to protest that the voters did not reject his agenda – they just failed to understand it.)

Certainly no slouch as a campaigner herself, Governor Palin has also proven to be an effective administrator, establishing a stellar record all the way from her home town mayor’s office to the Alaska governor’s office, where she earned an incredible 80-plus percent approval rating from her fellow citizens.

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Palin is spotless, Obama is corrupt.

Since entering the national scene as John McCain’s vice-presidential pick in 2008, Sarah Palin has been the object of intense, hostile scrutiny by hordes of leftists. Nothing has been spared. Not her public life, not her private life, not her family. Droves of Democrats have gone to Alaska to examine the public records, talk to her neighbors and townspeople, and file frivolous ethics complaints against her. Legal defense against these complaints has cost her family a great deal of money and required so much of her time and attention that it became impossible for her to continue as governor of the state.

Yet, to the chagrin of the ankle-biters, nothing has stuck.

The Associated Press even assigned 11 writers to “fact-check” her memoir Going Rogue. They were able to find six “errors,” all of which upon examination turn out to be nothing more than differences in interpretation. Beyond her personal spotlessness, there is probably no politician in the country who has anything close to her record of fighting corruption in government, even when the “corrupt bastards” were members of her own party.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama, who gave as his qualification to be president his experience as a community organizer for the thoroughly corrupt ACORN organization, is presiding over what is easily one of the most corrupt administrations in U.S. history while enjoying almost total immunity from scrutiny by the MSM. He has expressed scant regard for the Constitution, which he swore to uphold, calling it a flawed document, and which he has repeatedly violated by his efforts to extend the government’s domination over the lives of the citizens of this country. He has appointed numerous “czars” to positions of great authority without the advice and consent of Congress, another violation of the Constitution.

As for those “czars,” one resigned when it came to light that he was a self-avowed communist. Another czar who has not yet resigned but should is Obama’s hand-picked Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings, who has advocated teaching school children the finer details of “fisting.”

The White House communications director resigned after revealing that she is a fan of Chairman Mao. The director of communications for the National Endowment for the Arts stepped down after he was caught in the act of trying to convert the foundation into a propaganda machine for Obama.

And the Democrats in “the most honest, the most open, the most ethical Congress in history”? Jefferson, Schumer, Rangel, Dodds, Waters, the late John Murtha …

Palin loves America, Obama apologizes for America.

Sarah Palin knows and constantly affirms that America is objectively the most free, generous, and altruistic nation in history, a beacon to the world. A country where minorities find their rights respected and enjoy more acceptance and opportunity than anywhere else. These are the values of a great majority of her fellow citizens, and they respond to her because they recognize that she is one of them.

As for Obama, one of his first official acts as president was to apologize to the Arab world, granting his first sit-down interview to Arab television station Al-Arabiya. He took the opportunity to confirm the Arab view that the problem is America, not the jihadists who have murdered more than 3000 of our citizens. He soon followed up that performance by apologizing to Europe for America’s having been “arrogant, dismissive, and derisive.”

Palin is polarizing, Obama is radioactive.

The MSM’s current buzzword is that Sarah Palin is “polarizing.” This is an attempt to marginalize her by implying that her views are somehow extremist, rather than mainstream. As noted above, 63 percent of everyday Americans say their views are more like Palin’s than Obama’s.

Actually, the one who is polarizing is Mr. Obama himself, whose views are far out of the mainstream. As a senator, he was considered the most liberal member of the Senate. That would place him to the left of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist.

But worse than being polarizing, Obama is radioactive. In the 2010 mid-term elections, Democrats did not run on their records of voting for Obama’s agenda; most ran from their records, and some even ran against the Obama agenda. Very few were even willing to have him campaign for them. By comparison, two-thirds of Palin-endorsed candidates for the House and Senate won their races.

You can read the entire piece here.