Human Events Names Palin 'Conservative of the Year' ... (And What They Missed)

...Imagine my disappointment to learn that Human Events had named Sarah Palin the "Conservative of the Year." After all, despite having written for HEO myself, this was the tenth consecutive year I was passed over (I'm sort of the Susan Lucci of conservative politics).

In all seriousness, the honor is well-deserved. And if one measure of a politician is the ability to excite -- then Palin is, without a doubt, the biggest conservative rock star since Ronald Reagan.

Ann Coulter was chosen to write the column outlining why Palin has earned this distinction, and she did a fine job. But because part of my job is to add something to the conversation, I wanted to focus on some of the things Coulter neglected.

Interestingly, Coulter's portrayal of Palin is at least partially based on the template which was created by the liberal media. This is surprising, inasmuch as Coulter typically rejects the media's premises.

As my intern Adam Brickley -- founder of the Draft Palin blog -- told me today, the only criticism one could have of Coulter's column today is that she focused primarily on the Palin phenomenon -- not her policies as governor. While this makes sense when talking to a national conservative audience, it does not serve to set the record straight regarding how Palin's record was mischaracterized since becoming the vice presidential nominee.

Where Coulter did focus on Palin's policies, she focused a little bit too much on Palin as a "hard core conservative" icon. While there is no doubt Palin is a solid conservative (fiscal, social, and national security, by the way), her conservative bonafides were never in question -- it was her competence and experience that were wrongly undermined these last several months.

In fact, in Alaska, Palin developed a reputation as a technocrat who could reach across the aisle...so she is a "hard-core conservative" who knows how to draw in moderates and even liberals to her way of thinking (something which never seems concern Coulter all that much..but which Reagan leveraged very well).

Coulter's column fails to focus on the truly remarkable work Palin did in office, such as: Oil Tax Reform, Gas Pipeline (all of the gas line and oil tax deals were passed with Democratic help and only a minority of Republicans in the Legislature... the Stevens-Murkowski wing of the GOP hated her guts and refused to work with her on just about anything), slashing budgets with line item vetoes, cutting earmark requests, etc.

So basically, when operating outside of vice presidential "campaign mode," Palin managed to be both a "hard core conservative" -- and a "reach across the aisle" person, both a technocrat and a philosophical conservative who manages to combine a flair for the dramatic with an actual ability to lead (most politicians have only one of those two traits).

I applaud Human Events for naming Sarah Palin the "Conservative of the Year." However, if conservatives are to help her rehabilitate her national image, they would do well to focus more on setting the record straight regarding her experience, competence and truly remarkable record as Alaska's governor. These are, after all, traditionally conservative attributes, too...

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