Prior to his 1974 epic battle" the Rumble In the Jungle" with Big George Foreman, rated the most formidable puncher of all time, Muhammad Ali was not only written off as having no chance whatsoever but there were calls for the fight to be cancelled.Long experienced sportswriters expressed genuine concern that Ali might in fact be killed in the ring.
Foreman had won the title by destroying the champ, Joe Frazier, in rounds-knocking him down times and a frightening display of awesome power, no wonder there were fears for Ali's life.
Ali trained for the upcoming fight by having a weighted ball thrown at his body for hour after hour, so by the time of the fight he was toughened up in his midsection to an extraordinary degree.
For the first seven rounds of the fight Ali spent most of the time leaning against the ropes (which had been specially loosened so he could lean way back on them) and with his hands covering his head, he let Foreman pound away at his body with huge, flailing blows.
Just before the end of each round Ali would unleash a flurry of blows to Foreman' head and then, at the start of the next round he would go back on the ropes again. Whilst absorbing this huge punishment Ali kept up a nonstop chatter "you ain't got nothing George" and "is that your best shot George? C'mon, hit me harder". The disconcerting effect on Foreman seeing his best shots being disregarded,which would have finished off any other fighter was disconcerting to say the least. By the eighth round Foreman's blows, in the stifling African heat, were little more than pitter patter efforts.No only was he exhausted, dehydrated, disconcerted but he had no idea what to do.
At that point Ali unleashed a flurry which saw Foreman back off and, whilst doing so, he got caught up in the ropes. Ali unleashed a shot to the jaw just as Foreman untangled himself and, totally exhausted, he went down for the count, barely able to lift his head as Ali became champion again.
The Ali/Foreman confrontation has turned into a perfect metaphor for the Palin versus the left media confrontation-another David and Goliath battle, with the "David" being, once again written off.
On the face of it, one lone woman should have no chance whatsoever against the massed forces of the left. The Democratic Party, their allies in the media, the "progressive" blogosphere, the Hollywood denizens, the television commentators, comedians, talk show hosts, feminists-all lined up against her in a previously unseen massive, and constant attack, for over two years.
Since she appeared seemingly out of nowhere the "Foreman" of the left has rained blow upon blow at her. With her back to the ropes constantly Palin has taken all their best shots and comes bouncing back during each round, or rather news cycle and instead, as previous "champions" have done, hitting the canvas, she unleashes a flurry of blows in return and returns for the next round undaunted.
A fascinating turn of events has now come into play which again mirrors the Ali/Foreman fight. The left has unleashed their most massive series of blows yet, dumping every sort of innuendo tying Palin into the Arizona tragedy-even though there was never a shred of evidence anything she did, or said, had any influence on the shooter.,When she,,rightly,,defended herself, they parsed her every word and attacked venomously again. But Palin, like Ali, kept talking back at then "I'm not going away" " I'm not going to shut up".
And, all of a sudden, there are signs of exhaustion on the part of her enemies.They, like Foreman, have seen their best shots having no effect, and like him, they have run out of ideas on what to do next. A perusal of the left wing media now sees comments like "I am sick of reading about Palin" "Why are we discussing her" "I wish she would go away" "I am not going to read anything more about her". Where an article attacking Palin would, a year ago, get thousands of comments attacking her, the number is dropping dramatically. Even the scandal blogs like Gawker or Wonkette or the radical, execrable, leftist blog Daily Kos readers are commenting they are sick of reading even made up scandals about the Palin's.
it is not just the blogosphere where this resignation is taking place. Charles Blow at the New York Times advises he will not write anything further about Palin, Rachel Maddow at MSNBC said she would not discuss Palin in her show, Mika Brzezinski, also on MSNBC glum facedly discussed Palin, clearly under sufferance, and doesn't want to talk about her anymore.
This advice, that Palin will not be written or commented about has spread to a number of other high profile media operatives. Nick Stefanovich at Nerve Blog made it his New Year Resolution not to discuss Palin any more (whilst discussing her of course), Gail Collins at The New York times refused to discuss Palin at all in respect of Arizona (whichis of course most welcome-long may she and all the NYT hacks not mention Palin's name)
The winner is, of course, Palin. The media have done their best, or rather their worst, and she is still standing-they are reduced to saying "she is finished" (we heard the same wishful thinking after she resigned as Governor and any number of times subsequently). She has her core followers (which they grudgingly agree gives her credibility) and her apparent low standing in the polls is no worse than Reagan's when he was much closer to the presidential election so she can make that gap up.
This is all great news for Palin. From now on, more and more, her stamements can reach the American public unfiltered and undistored by the left wing media as long as the keep ignoring her.
The clear messages from all this are, firstly, a life lesson-as Churchill said, "never never give up." Secondly, Palin is armor plated for a presidential run-there is nothing the media can say that has not been said about her derogatively, so from now on she can concentrate on policy and not worry what the media says. No other prospective candidate can say that. If someone other than Palin got the nomination all the rubbish that has been thrown at her will start on them, and they will not have two years to combat it.
It is just like watching the Ali/Foreman fight in its final stages, all that remains is for Palin to deliver the knockout blows by getting the nomination and the presidency against all the odds, having beaten off the previously undefeated, frightening to everyone else except her, liberal Beltway elite champ.
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