Sarah Smile
Truthfully speaking I am nothing if not cynical. The problem is that I am usually correct.
I have found in most areas being cynical is almost a necessity, but none more so than when it comes to politics and the political players. Our public servants have discovered that in most cases rhetoric garners more positive press than actions. Talk is cheap but actions can cost you an election.
That is why I am so disappointed by the resignation of Sarah Palin from her position as Governor of Alaska.
Just a year ago this conservative bombshell was feared only by crooked Alaskan lawmakers and antler bearing wildlife. She burst onto the national stage as John McCain’s running mate and immediately struck the same level of fear into the hearts of liberal politicians and their equally narrow-minded base. Led by the constant drum beat of a liberal media that cast aside any hope of fairness and equality, Palin was hammered from day one for one reason and one reason only, she was a woman. And perish the thought an attractive conservative woman at that.
I am certain that there were times during the campaign that Sarah Palin wished she was back in wilds of her home state holding a jammed rifle and facing a pack of ravenous wolves rather than another so called interview with a member of the national media. The questions posed to her were insultingly stupid and no matter how she replied her answers were dissected and ridiculed to prove her unfit to hold the number two position.
We are now in the process of approving a Supreme Court Justice who claims that she is eminently more qualified than a white man to rule in our highest court simply because she has lived the life of a minority woman. Yet when it came to Sarah Palin, she was deemed completely unqualified, even though she had held the top executive position of our largest state, simply because she had lived the life of a conservative woman. I wonder what the reaction would have been had Palin said she was more qualified than Joe Footinmouth because she was a woman.
Even after the election heavy breathing reprobate news pros rummaged through expense reports and receipts to try to damn Palin for wearing Victoria Secret underpants and Foot Locker crew socks. Months after the election David Letterman saw fit to insinuate her teen-aged daughter would be having sex with a baseball player and said Palin looked like a slutty flight attendant. Yet the national news media for the most part remained silent. To be sure they covered the story with a certain feigned disapproval, but can you imagine what the reaction would have been if a conservative comic like Dennis Miller would have made similar remarks about Hillary Clinton or Biden’s wife Jill?
Palin has announced she is leaving to follow a higher political calling. Many have assumed that she means a 2012 presidential run. But I’m not so sure. Maybe Sarah Palin is just who she claims to be and decided she had put up with enough of the political meat-grinder and was now choosing to remove her family from the fray? If her intent was to run for President, than quitting was exactly the wrong thing to do. By the next election the country will be woefully aware of just how dangerous an inexperienced person can be as President. Having had less than one full term as Governor, Palin’s resume will not hold the necessary bullet points to dissuade those fears.
But maybe there is more to the story. Maybe Palin sees the weakness at the top of the Republican National Committee and is interested in filling that post. Or maybe she sees that a strong conservative woman can do much more to help the conservative movement by hooking up with a media outlet like Fox News than she can up in Alaska. Or maybe there is a radio talk show in her future.
Whatever she decides the most important thing Sarah Palin can do is remain Sarah Palin. I admire her for being one of the very few who is not afraid to take a tough position and more importantly
live up to the ideals she speaks so passionately about. She is the greatest threat there is to liberal rhetoric and faux equality; a strong woman with convictions and a lifestyle to back it up.
As for President Palin, I’m not so sure the country is ready for a strong and honest woman with that level of veracity. It makes too many folks uncomfortable when you start to talk about personal responsibility.
