There are a lot of people who don't like politicians. Or they say they don't like them, since it seems that a lot of the population of our nation don't actually know any politicians in a meaningful way. I grew up around them, so the idea of hating them seems a little bit like self loathing. Still there are times when the actions of high profile pols stain everyone in the business of government with a black mark.
That is where we are in regards to Sarah Palin. As trashy and unselfconscious as she is I don't have problems with her being controversial to get more attention. That is part of the nature of politics, but this bus tour of hers is going to be one of those times where people see on politician doing something really distasteful and put it on the all of them.
You Sister Sarah is on vacation and her Political Action Committee are paying for it. That's right all the bills for the bus, the driver, food and anything else is being footed by not by the Palin's but by the donors who hope that she will run or support candidates or some such.
Just to rub salt in the wound, it is all completely legal. You see SaraPAC is what is called a "unconnected PAC" which means while it is a still a political action committee it is not associated with a campaign and does not have the restrictions on what it can spend money on. If the erstwhile half-term Governor wants to buy out the gift shop at the Statue of Liberty, then she can do it on the SarahPAC credit card.
Obviously we can't know what is other peoples minds. Even when they tell us what they think and why they do things there is a good portion of doubt as everyone is the hero in the movie of their lives and heroes don't (at least the run of the mill heroes don't) have complex and conflicting desires and varying levels of the awareness of them.
Still, even given all the above, there are times when you have to wonder "I "X" really that staggeringly stupid?!?"
This is where I am with half-Gov. Sarah Palin this morning. The New York Times has a good piece running down the factors that make it look as though La Palin might actually be considering a run for the Republican nomination for president. She has bought a house in Arizona which would make travel easier (plus it gets her away from the Payton Place of the North that is Wasilla and all the antics of her meth fueled in-laws and out-laws).
She has rehired staffers who used to run her political appearances. She is having the dreadful documentary of her time as governor shown in Iowa and she is starting to schedule more appearances. All this looks like someone that is at the very least considering running.
Maybe it is the perception that the current Republican field is weak. Maybe it is that all the ones who are even vaguely reasonable as candidate are so damned boring. Last week I was waiting to see Tim Pawlenty give and interview and it was five minutes into the thing before I realized the picture was not just of a blank beige wall, but rather Gov. Pawlenty sitting there!
Will 2012 be the year of the Republican Dwarves? Let me through some names at you;
Mike Pence, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mitch Daniels, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Haley Barbour, Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann. Now being political junkies you are probably going to at least know those names, with the exception of Herman Cain, who is the founder of Godfathers Pizza (a so so chain that has had decent success) who is also a regional Rightwing radio talker. But try to think outside your political knowledge bubble for a minute. Do you think anyone really knows these folks?
Sure folks know the last VP candidate from the Republican Party. She has made a business of being famous, but it has only worked because she stays either to mediums that don't allow back and forth or safe outlets like Fox News. Her response to the Arizona shootings showed that she really does not have what it takes to be president no matter how popular she is with her fans.
The half-term governor of Alaska was on Shaun Hannity's program last night for a softball interview to try to walk back the damage done by her self-obsessed video from four days after the shootings in Tucson. The questions she would be asked were fairly predictable, after all she is a paid Fox News Analyst and even if Fox were a real news network and the propaganda arm of the Republican party, they were not going to put one of their own on the hot seat in any meaningful way.
If you can stand it you can see the whole thing below. It is just under 10 minutes long. While many may feel that they have gotten more than their yearly recommended dose of Mrs. Palin, there are some things that are worth seeing in the "interview". You can watch it at this link. , if you want.
It is an article of faith that the 24/7 news cycle has changed politics. The voracious appetite of cable news for anything the least be contentious or scandalous has, the conventional wisdom says, coarsened our discourse and made the political arena a lot wilder. There is a lot to support this, with constant focus on candidates like Christine "I'm not a witch" O'Donnell. Even before those kinds of things started to come up it was widely recognized that she had no chance of becoming a Senator, yet the news cycles were filled with the tidbits from her past and present.
The thing is that it seems that we are moving into a time when it does not destroy every candidate when they say outrageous, even insane things. Four years ago a sitting Senator, George Allen, basically flushed away his political career by calling a Democratic campaign aid "Macaca". It was, at the time, a mildly obscure racial slur, but once it came out it was the wind that the Webb campaign needed to push it to victory.
Nothing personal against Senator Biden, but the Sarah Palin - teabag type of GOP is here to stay.
Whomever the 2012 GOP ticket consists of, its probably a safe bet that one of the spots will be a mama grizzly aka Palin or Haley. Having Hillary in the VP slot will provide a buffer to GOP 'Mama Grizzly' attacks.
And, let's face it, the midterms have shown us that the President needs to shore up the fractured base heading into his re-election.
This is not a new idea - it has already been written about and I have to agree with Mr. Hutchinson's assessment:
As Obama's VP in 2012, Hillary will bring the same top notch political qualities to the reelection campaign that she brought to the 2008 campaign. ... She will still be a role model and inspiration for millions of women young and old. She will prove that women can hold a top political power spot that requires providing valuable policy guidance and expertise on tough domestic and foreign policy issues...
Hillary will also bring another priceless quality to the ticket. She is not intimidated by the GOP smear machine.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed third-party American Constitution Party (I'm sure glad they specified "American"!) gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo this afternoon. In what appears to be a recorded message for get-out-the-vote phone calls, Palin says Tancredo is the "right man for the job."
If he somehow wins, one can only hope he has the awesome staying power of Sister Sarah:
The Alaska governor's disastrous star turn as John McCain's running mate, followed by her lurching, controversial encore on the national scene, had already sealed her fate - except, perhaps, with the GOP's most far-right wing.
Still, the experts were unanimously stunned to hear her walk off the job with 16 months left in her term - shrinking her résumé even more and surrendering the best platform she has beyond her double-edged celebrity status.
Right wing blogger, Warner Todd Huston of the Publius Forum, in his blog commented on the fact that First Lady Michelle was one the list Forbes list of powerful 100 women (see link). He felt that to put her on the world’s list of power woman was a disservice, since was she was not an “elected” official. He felt that her role was nothing more than “traditional” and diminished the list. He further commented on the rest of list of the top 10 list. He took issue with Lady Gaga, Ellen Degeneres, and Beyonce; and, I may understand on why one may not see them as “power women,” but I have to respectively disagree with his perception of power.
One of the things that I always wonder when I see Republicans spouting guano crazy stuff is; do they really mean this or is it an act to enflame the their base? There is no way to tell as a general rule; even the half-governor of Alaska is wily enough to say some things that are guaranteed to be red meat for her Facebook followers without having to actually believe them herself.
However there are times when we do get to pull back the vale a little bit. One of those times was yesterday on the MSNBC's Ed Show. You have probably seen the clip of where Rep. Tom Tancredo called for sending the President back to Kenya since the First Lady calls Kenya his homeland. You might have seen the TMP TV clip where he tries to defend that by saying it is like saying "Let's send Carter back to Georgia". All of this makes it look like Tancredo is as serious as a heart attack about this Birther idea.
However, if you saw the whole interview (which is unavailable on line anywhere) you would have seen the opening which puts a completely different spin on things. Ed Schultz had just finished his Psycho Talk Zone segment, where he usually blasts some right-wing talker's insane blather. When Tancredo came on, was smiling and asked Ed, "What do I have to say to get into the zone?"
