Mona Charen Blasts Sarah Palin's Possible 2012 Presidential Run

A conservative columnist whose bonafides include a stint at the National Review and a speechwriting gig for former first lady Nancy Reagan has slammed Sarah Palin, calling the former half-term governor "consumed and obsessed by the media."

Writing on the self-described "conservative" Townhall.com, columnist Mona Charen blasted Palin for her lack of experience:

Palin was advised by those who admire her natural gifts to bone up on policy and devote herself to governing Alaska successfully. Instead, she quit her job as governor after two and a half years, published a book (another is due next week), and seemed to chase money and empty celebrity.

Charen questioned the would-be candidate's eagerness to engage in even the smallest of spats:

She should be presiding over meetings on oil and gas leases in the North Slope, or devising alternatives to Obamacare. Every public spat with Dave Letterman or Politico, or the "lamestream media," or God help us, Levi Johnston, diminishes her.

Charen's doubts about Palin include her judgment and possibly her parenting:

Perhaps the former governor should not be blamed for the decisions of her adult daughter. Yet there in the audience we see Sarah and Todd Palin, mugging for the camera and cheering on their unwed-mother daughter as she bumps and grinds to the tune of "Mamma Told Me (Not to Come)." Her parents had advised her, the 20-year-old Bristol told an interviewer, that she had to stay "in character" if she expected to win. Being "in character" apparently meant descending to the vulgarity that "DWTS" peddles on a weekly basis. The momma grizzly was apparently unfazed by -- or, equally disturbing, unaware of -- the indignity. And this is supposed to be a conservative culture warrior?

Read Charen's entire Palin takedown at Townhall.com.

Comments

[saintpeterii]

05:29 AM on 11/23/2010

Among the many things Palin threatens like common sense, foreign and domestic policies, she threatens the business as usual cabal in the Republican Party. She presents the real possibility that Republicanism as we have come to know it is over and will be replaced by an amorphous, but strident and Balkanized grouping of very unhappy people. The questions about Palin were addressed by Misters Drip & Drop of the 6:01 News in and show called President Palin: The whys and Why Nots. Free no login editorial cartoons http://www.saintpeterii.com

[GerryS]

11:13 PM on 11/22/2010

unfortunately, bible spice doesn't care------------

[ebanks84]

11:10 PM on 11/22/2010

All day long I've heard nothing but how popular Palin is with the republican base, as espoused by the media and commentators. Chris Matthews must get a thrill every time he speaks her name the way he acts and every other female commentator or media source believes she has the better chance in 2012 than any other republican because of her popularity alone. What?

When have we voted for a president because he was popular? When did popularity outweigh intelligence and good common sense? When did "DUMB" become more important than educated? Do we have millions of people in this country who are ignorant enough to vote for a dummy to be our president?

I know Bush wasn't highly educated but at least he could form a sentence once in a while. Plus he had Cheney to tell him what to do. My point is we don't need to be going backwards in the evolution process. We need to continue moving "forward" and we can't do that with unintelligent people leading us.

Why would any of you want a president who isn't smarter than a 5th grader? To even consider such a thing means we need to be more educated ourselves. I hope everybody gets a chance to see the movie "Inside Job" to learn just how we got into this mess in the first place. You need to know so you don't go and make another mistake by allowing that to happen to us again.

Wake up America!

[CorpTreason]

12:42 AM on 11/23/2010

Bush wasn't uneducated. He graduated from Yale and also had an MBA. He was just a self-righteous, self-important, know-it-all-know-nothing, from a hateful family who used all of the above to arise to immense power while hiding behind a "good ole boy" facade. His family is from New England where all those "liberal elites" hail from, not Texas, where they moved long after he was born. It was all a facade, and it worked. His opponents under-estimated him and the truly uneducated folks felt at home with him. Brilliant. Sinister, but brilliant.

Now let us draw from this lesson in considering just how insignificant this "fool" Palin is. I know surgeons with Ivy League medical degrees who are for her - yes, more than one. They trust her character and say they would love to have her as their commander in chief because she is tough, no-nonsense, and just made out to look dumb by the liberal media. They say this with a straight face. Do not ever underestimate the power of the apparent fools within a democracy. It may be the best form of government humans have come up with, but that just indicates the cards are really stacked against the long term survival of our species.

[ebanks84]

11:26 AM on 11/23/2010

Great post and I agree except for the fact that from my readings, Bush's dad got him the education he did "not" desire as much as he should have. He made grades for courses he never took. He barely passed the ones he did take. They gave him C's instead of F's I'm sure only because of his dad's influence. Bush got over and I'm sure that MBA was more BS than BA.

Insofar as Ivy League medical people are concerned, it's all about the person she represents, not who she really is. I'm sure they realize she's not smarter than a 5th grader intellectually, but they know with her in power, they will keep "their" power and money. They are only acting and receiving her as a good capitalist should. Plus they know that just like Bush, her advisors will be running the show basically and no one will have to take her opinions even into consideration if they don't want to. And just like the men they are, of course she looks good to them to boot.

I don't underestimate the power "BEHIND" Palin because by herself, she's no threat to anybody. She's not smart enough to be a threat. Now Todd is the threat that most people don't even realize because he's her power and he's running her show. He keeps out of the limelight as he should. It's him I worry about, not her.

[connector69]

06:02 PM on 11/23/2010

In response...

"Do we have millions of people in this country who are ignorant enough to vote for a dummy to be our president?"
The answer is yes. These are the same people who do not want to be taxed yet want everything to stay as it is. Most live in states that where they (and you know who they are) have taken their jobs and shipped them overseas and are repossessing their homes at a steady rate. How hard is it for these, and I use the term with love, morons to figure it out that all the indignities they are being asked to endure were created by the same nit wits they want to put back in power. I can only surmise they have serious guilt passed on to them from either their religion or parents and want to be punished, but come on folks wake the F&*^% up. Real change will take putting real people back in power, not "reality people". All they have the ability to do is smile, sign flags, and at night when they are sleeping have their brains leak out all over their pillows. Nuff said...

[Wanda717]

10:47 PM on 11/22/2010

How are people wanting to vote for a woman for POTUS who could barely run a state with a population smaller than Jacksonville, FL. I want a POTUS with brains and integrity Obama in 2012

[GerryS]

11:15 PM on 11/22/2010

fanned and faved,

for that thought---------

[CorpTreason]

12:50 AM on 11/23/2010

If only we all lived in the rational society of your mind. Alas, we clearly do not. Hopefully rationality will squeak out a victory in 2012, but it is by no means guaranteed. The enemies of the left always set aside their differences when it comes time to win the general elections (Miller being an exception), but on the left there is not this same cohesion and falling in line. It is in the nature of progressives to be eternally dissatisfied with any imperfections, and between the Obama administration enforcing new food rules that may imperil small organic farms and farmers markets in a misguided attempt to protect us from food borne illnesses (which actually originate in the large factory farms almost exclusively) and the administration's backing of TSAs civil liberty violating unreasonable searches of naked body scanners and criminal like pat downs ... well really I could go on... between all these things there may be far more enthusiasm for Palin's supporters than Obama's come 2012. The progressive voters may stay home and cede the election to Palin. It could happen. Or a third party spoiler like Nader could do to Obama what he did to Gore. Many possibilities for how Palin could actually wind up the president of the most powerful nation on Earth when she can't even govern a state for a full term.

[starfish80]

09:40 PM on 11/22/2010

This is scary that a women who was part of an administration who started the downward spiral of this country is seen as a sane person in this debate, this is very unnerving in regards to the direction of this country.

[jacksparrow34]

08:54 PM on 11/22/2010

The biggest bypocrite and liar the world has ever known that is SP will run in 2012 and she will be loved by racists and anti Americans. That would be election for the survival of America not on SP or Obama.

[onecrazyprogressive]

08:50 PM on 11/22/2010

A Presidential NASCAR Wreck
http://and­rewsulliva­n.theatlan­tic.com/th­e_daily_di­sh/2010/11­/a-palin-p­residency.­html

[A] Palin presidential campaign in the general election is the sort of thing that journalists and pundits would love to see for the same reason that many NASCAR fans watch those interminable, dull races: they are holding out hope for a spectacular, destructive multi-car pile-up. Imagine how terribly earnest and serious an Obama-Daniels competition would be. That would be no fun at all. It’s much more fun to imagine one of the major parties consciously deciding to destroy itself, which is what a Palin nomination would be for the GOP.

[CarolinaYankee]

07:35 PM on 11/22/2010

Oh, that was my favorite look for her GOTH. She had to put together her own outfit after the GOP handlers took her clothes back..Soooo, I have concluded she cannot put a decent outfit together either.. Can she do anything?

[manyamile]

07:26 PM on 11/22/2010

Mona Charen. i remember Mona Charen from long ago, when her column regularly and faithfully exposed her nasty, bitter, vindictive perspective on just about everything. Mona wields a hot poker because Mona needs to wield a hot poker i guess.
True, in this case she's correct .
but Mona Charen? eccchhh, what else has been released from Mordor?

[Stella2]

07:16 PM on 11/22/2010

Who would her running mate be? Consider this, she runs, she wins, she quits. This country would be stuck with who she chose for VP, scary.

[ebanks84]

11:15 PM on 11/22/2010

Imagine Angle as her running mate :O.

[reneestake]

06:10 PM on 11/22/2010

Sarah Palin should do as Barbara says. Stay in Alaska.
check out www.fergusonstake.com

[jjgg5]

05:10 PM on 11/22/2010

Sarah Palin / Paris Hilton 2012

[ny66]

05:50 PM on 11/22/2010

Don't insult Paris Hilton! She is lots more intelligent than Sarah!! Even her ad for Obama had more depth than anything Sarah has done/said!!

[Mum]

06:01 PM on 11/22/2010

Now that's what we all "damning with faint praise"!

[DesertRatzoRizzo]

05:10 PM on 11/22/2010

Mona Charen has nailed Gov. Quitty Pants! ROFLMAO!

[lodazal]

04:55 PM on 11/22/2010

Run Sara run! Win Sara win! The tea baggers want you to succeed. The fundies have got your back. You are just what America needs to prove to the rest of the world that we have truly lost are minds.

[JacksonJones]

04:31 PM on 11/22/2010

You tell 'em what they want,
What they really, really want.

I'll tell 'em what they want,
What they really, really want.

You betcha.

3:16 - Gospel According to Bible Spice