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Conservatives, don’t put your money on Sarah. In a world of capricious political maneuvering and personal baggage, Sarah Palin is the quirkiest of the quirky. Her sudden Gubernatorial resignation last week in my opinion, makes her DOA as a presidential candidate in 2012, or any other office for that matter.
Sarah Palin was a great idea. The Democratic convention was just over. Barack Obama had named everyone’s favorite uncle, Joe Biden as his running mate and the Republicans needed something to derail the political juggernaut that was creating a media sensation threatening to overshadow their entire convention. She was different, she was exciting, she was a maverick. She was also woefully unprepared for the task ahead. If we believe the recent Vanity Fair article written about the Governor, she was also reluctant to become prepared, resisting assistance from her handlers.
She captured the imagination of the American public, and electrified an otherwise ho-hum convention. She gave Republicans hope that they might actually pull off a win in spite of the obvious media bias exhibited in convention coverage. And then, reality struck. It became clear to even the most casual observer, that Sarah Palin was completely out of her league when dealing with Washington insiders and smarmy news people looking to advance their own careers at the expense of hers.
We all know how it turned out, and it is impossible to say how much of the result was her fault, and how much was the responsibility of John McCain. At any rate, Palin and her family became the target of an unusually large amount of abuse from the news media and media personalities. The criticism of her lack of preparation and DC sophistication probably deserved, the cruel attacks on her family not. The nastiness directed toward Palin culminated a couple weeks ago when late night talk show host David Letterman delivered a tasteless joke about her daughter that crossed the line by many magnitudes.
If you think the joke had any merit at all, let me paraphrase it with one small change:
"One awkward moment for Michelle Obama at the Yankee game, during the seventh inning, her daughter was...”
Do I need to continue? Do you suppose Letterman would still be on the air if that joke had been about the Obama family? It is troubling that we are living in a political climate where anyone would even begin to think such a thing was acceptable. There seems to be a sense among many Liberals that it is OK to say anything they want about their political foes regardless how irrelevant to the issues or mean spirited it might be.
So Sarah Palin is a quitter. The citizens of Alaska have been shortchanged because she is not fulfilling the wishes of the electorate. The Libs have another excuse to criticize her and ample ammunition to use against her should she run for office in the future. What has she accomplished by this move? It is hard for many of us to understand, but I believe she made this decision for her family. How do you answer your daughter when she asks you why people on TV are saying awful things about her? If what Palin says is accurate, her family voted to leave the political arena. Rather than quitting politics, I prefer to think that Sarah Palin renewed her commitment to her family and particularly, her children. So maybe she’s not such a good politician, but instead a devoted wife and mother who is willing to do what is right for her family, regardless of the consequences for her career. That is not a bad thing.
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