Regardless of the specifics, Palin's political capital is why she remains in the public eye, leading New York Times columnist Frank Rich to compare Palin to favorite GOP bugaboo Al Sharpton. Rich is convinced that "Palin won’t go gently into the good night, much as some Republicans in Washington might wish."
One of those Beltway Republicans is Peggy Noonan, who declares that "Palin was bad for the Republicans—and the republic". Noonan flails away wildly, slicing and dicing Palin's personal and political attributes finer than a Billy Mays promotional product. Oooooohhhh!
So where does this leave Palin if the Democrats think she's a moron and the Republicans who can think feel that she has outlived her usefulness?
How about a third-party run? I didn't tell you all of that above not to use it for something!
The kicker for me was the announcement today that Palin will campaign for conservative Democrats and certain "conservative" issues. In declaring that people are "tired of the partisan stuff", Palin proclaims that "I will go around the country on behalf of candidates who believe in the right things, regardless of their party label or affiliation."
As a famous TV character once proclaimed, "Ferrrry Eeenterestink - but Shtupidt!"
It's difficult, considering Palin's lack of oratorical erudition, to know exactly what "the right things" are. Palin speaks with innuendo, winks, and suggestions of ideas, but never really gets around to defining what it is she stands for. Maybe her babbling gibberish is her way of quoting the most famous obstructionist of our time — William F. Buckley, Jr. One of Buckley's more famous quotes is “A Conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling "Stop!"” Palin's oratory ends up having the same effect, but only because her audience stops dead in their tracks to ask each other, "What the hell did she just say?" Buckley himself, upon observing such an occurrence, may well have observed, “I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that Sarah really believes what she just said.”
Buckley's son Christopher — among many famous GOP offspring - was a supporter of Barack Obama in this last election. Buckley pere wrote a relatively friendly article in the National Review Online very shortly before he escaped this mortal coil. Could that be why son Christopher thinks that his dad may well have voted for Obama?
Article comments
1 - Ruvy
So many of you Americans seem to mistake stupid for uneducated. You've not seen the last of Sarah Palin. If indeed as the author suggests, she will campaign for those candidates she believes believe in the right stuff, her gut will lead her to pick the right issues. She did not become a mayor for nothing, and she did not become a governor for nothing. And there are things she can campaign for in a morally sick America that need pushing - badly.
Her own expereience with a daughter who would not listen to her sexual teachings, who spread her legs for a boy she loved and became pregnant, only to see the boy back away, will give Mrs. Palin, the mother, a credibility with thousands upon thousands of parents who have similar problems. The imperfect woman striving to improve is a very potent symbol among a population of spiritually wounded people.
And as time wears on, Americans will start to see themselves that way.
2 - Joanne Huspek
This is why we need a real alternative. Everyone pooh-poohs the third party concept, but I'm sick to death of the wheeling-dealing that both sides are into. We need a giant shop vac and clean the halls of Congress, start off with new blood (hopefully none of them lawyers... mix some economists in there and people who can READ legislation with a small amount of common sense) and get a new revolution going.
It worked for the founding fathers.