Palin's Future

My thoughts about how she can rehabilitate herself back to a serious contender for national office are here:

In exchange for delivering her constituency on Election Day, IMO she should be offered something like responsibility for putting the country on the path to energy independence (I presume that such a role can be created in a way that passes Constitutional muster).

Success at that would reposition her to run for President.

Other posts of mine in the thread are related.

Deflated Trial Balloon

Palin's latest book came out a couple of weeks after Bushes. I suspect that's not a coincidence.

If Palin had outsold Bush, we'd never hear the end of it from the Palinistas. As it is, we don't hear a peep.

Palin and the Ryan Roadmap

She endorsed it.

That's not enough to reinstate my support for her, but credit is due where credit is due.

Iirc I've commented somewhere that I'd like to see Ryan become governor of Wisconsin and if successful, ideally in two terms, run for President.

Was This Was Expected All Along, or Is Sarah Testing Our Faith?

Checking the bestseller lists, Amazon's in particular, I noticed that the latest book published under Palin's name isn't doing exceptionally well.

Now her blogosphere has noticed and gone into spin mode.

Btw, Palin's cover portrait on her latest reminds me of a stereotypical beauty queen smile[1]. (Or a Playboy Bunny's. Confirmation here: Palin gives the logo while Glenn Beck stands in for Hef.)
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[1] Come to think of it, the stereotypical beauty-contest smile may be designed to minimize the display of crow's feet around the eyes, and to minimize the disruption of pancake makeup--both of which are relevant to the image of a 46-year-old mother of five with a strenuous life.

Encounter with an Entrepreneusse

While at the laundromat, I chatted with the Filipina who bought the place a few years ago and has been putting in eleven-hour days and seven-day weeks running it.

"What do you think about Palin?", I asked.

"Don't like her. Drama queen. Big mouth. Now, Hillary Clinton, she is smart. Educated. She is a lawyer."

I was not surprised at the direction of the response, but was surprised at its vehemence. This is the kind of person that Palin purports to speak for.

Maybe she is blowing a dog whistle to whites who are below the upper middle class.

A Generalization about the Right

Most Palin supporters aren't aren't crazy, but most crazies are Palin supporters.

It Finally Came to Me

The Palin persona and high voice have been rubbing on my memory, and it finally came to me.

Some enterprising cartoonist should start portraying Palin as Rocky the Flying Squirrel. With Todd as Bullwinkle.

Rockette the Flying Squirrel, I should say.

Palin

Was she a plus or a minus for the GOP?

Palin endorsee O'Donnell lost. Intrade says Palin endorsee Angle will lose.

Expect some scorekeeping when the dust clears.

Fair Is Fair

I have come to view Palin as a right-wing version of Obama, and to view her supporters as irrational as Obama's. The blind faith of her supporters resembles the blind faith of Obama's.

Having elected a manifestly unqualified (in hindsight) candidate to the Presidency, are we really talking about replacing him with another, similarly unqualified candidate?

But since I'm trying to base my preferences on objective facts, it's fair to ask what would change my mind and make me give Palin serious consideration again. Otherwise I am open to the same charge of close-mindedness that I make against others.

If she became governor again and had a successful term, obviously I'd reconsider.

If she made a few appearances on political/economic talking-head panels and held her own, I'd reconsider. I don't mean hostile gotcha situations like the and Gibson and Couric interviews: I mean environments with flexibility and give-and-take.

Evil Crazies

Palin-Coulter 2012.

Yee-haa!!

You betcha.

Here and here.

Palin and the Oil Spill

I am disenchanted from my initial hopes and support for Palin, but I have to concede that she'd do a better job than Obama on the oil spill.

Unlike Obama, she has actually worked with her hands.

I Thought My Opinion of Palin Couldn't Get Lower

The British press reports that Palin is planning a photo op with Margaret Thatcher.

Using a person with dementia as a political prop is disgusting and vile. (Hey, she uses Trig.) Hopefully this will be news--but not in the way Palin intends.

What's next, posing with an exhumed Reagan? (If she asked for a photo op with Nancy Reagan, I hope she got turned down. But Nancy Reagan favors stem cell research, which means she isn't a real conservative...)

Fairness Compels Me to Admit (via Clenched Teeth)

The media are giving Sarah "Drill Baby Drill" Palin a cheap shot after her criticism of Obama's relationship to Big Oil and the implications for his handling of the BP oil spill. They wrote exactly what was on my mind until this piece reminded me that Palin was no friend of the oil companies while she governed Alaska.

How the incident reflects on Palin's political skills is yet to be determined. Is she naive, or is she laying a trap for her critics?

Palin is the Obama of the Right

I've been groping for some time to express my reaction, and have finally found something that rings true. It's in the title.

Addendum 20100208. Like this gal says.

Hitchens on Palin

In Slate:

...the usefulness of Sarah Palin to the right-wing party managers is that she combines a certain knowingness with a feigned innocence and a still-palpable blush of sex. But she should take care to read her Alexander Pope: That bloom will soon enough fade, and it will fade really quickly if she uses it to prostitute herself to the Nixonites on one day and then to cock-tease the rabble on the next.

He comes up to the edge of what I've been meaning to say.

Palin's looks are going. Video close-ups reveal heavy pancake makeup that doesn't entirely conceal crow's feet.

Soon she'll look like Harriet Miers.

In 1992 Hillary Clinton successfully mimicked an all-American girl, but she has found a way to age in the public eye. In contrast, Harriet Miers looks will not mesh well with Palin's high-pitched voice and cheerleader demeanor.
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Hitchens says that a key Palin advisor is linked to Nixon's anti-Semitism. Maybe so, but I recall a video that showed an Israeli flag in then-Governor Palin's office.

Obama and Palin Speak

In Moscow:

The future does not belong to those who gather armies on a field of battle or bury missiles in the ground.

Really dumb thing to say.

Speaking of dumb, that's what Palin thinks her supporters are.

Time: Why July 3? Because I think that date more than anything set people off — right before the three day weekend. People assume scandal.
Palin: Yeah, that's amazing to me. That hit me like a ton of bricks there, this assumption that there must be something more to it than the altruistic, sincere and articulated reasons why I know that this is best for Alaska, that there was speculation that there must be scandal.

Palin is so selfless and high-minded that it comes as a complete shock when somebody suggests she has ulterior motives.

This is interesting too:

Palin: ...It's that our administration is so stymied and paralyzed because of a political game that has been chosen to be played by critics who have discovered loopholes in the ethics reform that I championed that allows them to continually, continually bombard the state with frivolous ethics violation charges, with lawsuits, with these fishing expeditions.

So Palin is responsible for the bad law?

After reading that interview, I'm actually starting to think that Huckabee would be a less cataclysmic President than Palin. The only people who will support Palin are the people who think Bush belongs on Mount Rushmore.

The Divine Sarah

From Palin's Facebook page (HT: commenter Susan at The Secular Right):

...
The response in the main stream media has been most predictable, ironic, and as always, detached from the lives of ordinary Americans who are sick of the “politics of personal destruction”. How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country. And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make. But every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it’s right for all, including your family.

I shared with you yesterday my heartfelt and candid reasons for this change; I’ve never thought I needed a title before one’s name to forge progress in America. I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint. I hope you will join me. Now is the time to rebuild and help our nation achieve greatness!

God bless you! And I look forward to making a difference – with you!

Sarah

Whaaat...?

What next?

She's keeping my attention, I'll give her that.

Not Ready Unfit for Prime Time

Palin just doesn't have what it takes.

Too bad, but that's the way the wind has been blowing for a long time.

Colin Powell was right about her. Camille Paglia was wrong.

The Palin Prank

Ouch: here, here, here, and here.

I don't want to believe she's a hick with a glassy smile & cheerleader persona, but you don't always get what you want...

Sarah Quaylin?

Palin and the Campaign Staff

The Politico reports:

And the final straw for Palin and her allies was the news that the campaign had reported spending $150,000 on her clothes, turning her, again, into the butt of late-night humor.

"She never even set foot in these stores," the senior Republican said, noting Palin hadn't realized the cost when the clothes were brought to her in her Minnesota hotel room.

The McCain campaign retaliates:

A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.

"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," said this McCain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.

So, Senator Gang-of-14, how does the maverick stuff feel when you're on the receiving end? (Assuming you're even aware of what's going on and what your staff is leaking.) CNN:

Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says

"Her lack of fundamental understanding of some key issues was dramatic," said another McCain source with direct knowledge of the process to prepare Palin after she was picked. The source said it was probably the "hardest" to get her "up to speed than any candidate in history."

And what did you expect when you picked a low-population-state governor who'd served less than two years of her first term?

Back to the Politico:

Palin's loyalists say she's grown particularly disenchanted with the veterans of the Bush reelection campaign, including Schmidt and Wallace, and that despite her anti-intellectual rhetoric, her closest ally among her new traveling aides is a policy adviser, former National Security Council official Steve Biegun. She's also said to be close with McCain's chief foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, who prepared her for the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate.

That's a constructive sign. If Palin is to have a positive future, she needs to create an intellectual basis for her instincts.
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I've been getting disenchanted with Palin, but, okay, I'll give her a pass about the clothes and the make-up. My concerns about her spending and her immigration position remain.

My concerns about McCain have been resolved: I flat-out think he shouldn't be President.