Palin on Today: Not Goin' Anywhere

There a lot of things one can say about Sarah Palin, but this one cannot be disputed: by one measure, at least, she is true to her word. Sarah Palin is not going anywhere.

That, you'll recall, is what the Alaska governor and former vice presidential candidate told ABC's Elizabeth Vargas on the day before Halloween, "I think that if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender against some of the political shots that we've taken, that -- that would bring this whole -- I'm -- I'm not doing this for naught."

When her remarks were widely interpreted as indication of a likely 2012 presidential, she artfully dialed back. The day after the Vargas interview, she told me, "I'll be campaigning for John McCain's re-election in 2012."

That commitment now wiped off the slate by reality's eraser, Palin has set off on a charm offensive that will serve her well should she choose to toss her hat back into the ring of national politics. In this morning's Today show interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, Palin came off as endearingly combative, calling the unnamed leakers quoted in Newsweek "cowards", and cooking a halibut and salmon casserole for Lauer -- while being interviewed.

For the sit-down portion of the interview, which took place in the governor's office, she wore a jacket more reminiscent -- in color, if not cut -- of those she began the campaign with. Her hair was pulled up in a relaxed manner that suggested she did it herself. She denied all the talk about her alleged extravagance in the purchase of her campaign wardrobe, telling Lauer that her campaign duds were being purchased by the Republican National Committee before she ever even arrived in St. Paul for the Republican National Convention. Of Neiman Marcus, the high-end retailer that an unnamed McCain adviser claimed had been "looted" by "Wasilla hillbillies," Palin said, "I've never even been in those stores..."

Far more interesting than her denials, however, was her failure to deny Lauer's suggestion that it was the decision of McCain's people to keep her from the press, and her assertion that she would have liked to talk more to the media (which she once famously derided). "You can't just assume that the voters are going to be able to guess what's going on," she said, and that means talking to the media.

Which she's doing with a vengeance. Literally. Just ask those "cowards" who leaked the allegation about Palin not knowing that Africa is a continent, or that she greeted male campaign staffers while wearing nothing but a towel.

More important, though, than Palin's own self-redemption crusade is the national media's continued interest in her. And who can blame them? Like Barack Obama, Palin is a bundle of contradictions and seeming non sequiturs -- a bundle that represents the tensions in play in the lives of many Americans. In Obama, the tensions of race, culture and the structure of the modern, blended family were all brought into play. In Palin, as Katha Pollitt has sagely written, is the irony of the ambitious and talented woman who embraces a conservative, truly right-wing, worldview. As Lauer interviewed her in her Wasilla kitchen, it may have been the governor herself who made the casserole, but her hunky, blue-collar husband held the baby with utter comfort, patting him nonchalantly as if this is something he does every day (because it is).

I've heard liberals say that Palin's the one they want their president to face in 2012. And given her performance with Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson, I can understand why.

But Sarah Palin is not stupid. She's no Barack Obama, but she's not dumb. Needs a little schooling, but I suspect she's a quick study. And who knows what the president-elect will face in the next four years? Absent a credible ideology on the real problems facing America -- the economy, international relations, health care -- the Republicans have little left to run on but the culture wars. While that may seem so yesterday, the passage of anti-gay ballot measures in a handful of states on Tuesday proves the wars have not yet ended. And Sarah Palin could prove to be a great warrior icon -- Alaska's own Athena, goddess of hearth and war.

In the Wasilla segment of Lauer's interview, the adorable grade-schooler, Piper Palin, was asked how she would feel if, when she's 11 years old in 2012, her mom came to her and said, we're going run again. (Lauer was not specific as to which office.) Piper turned up her palms and said, with a little laugh, "I don't know."

Her mom didn't miss a beat. "Would you want to do it again, sister?" asked Sarah Palin as she stirred the casserole.

Piper suddenly knew the right answer. "Yeah," she replied.

After all, she hadn't done it for naught.

Follow Adele Stan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/addiestan

Comments

[daedelus]

Learning doesn't make you smart.

[Economike]

Yes but not learning makes you ignorant. Mark Twain believed ignorance was the biggest problem facing the human race and it doesn't look like much has changed in America.

[LiberalBuzz]

I like the headline of the post best.

Sarah Palin not going anywhere.

Yep truer words were never spoken.

[Herodias]

I agree with the comments that note that no amount of "schooling" will help someone who does not want any knowledge. A co-worker of mine said about Palin "she is not ready yet". I responed: She will never be. Not at age of 50, not at age of 60.
I bet Hillary Clinton was ready when she was 25. I bet Barack Obama was ready when he was 30. It is just like with athletes or balley dansers. I will never be one no matter how much training I get. I am not the material. And Palin is not the material for the presidency.
She perhaps can pull it off in small town or even state where no one questions. But to withstand the scrutiny (and she is complaining now!) associated with going for the presidency? Good luck!

[trisha08]

Does it bother anyone else the way she uses those kids as props? It seems like they are always paraded out to make a point. Yes, we know that Palin is a mom. It also seems like Piper is cued to say something cute. There is just something very fake about it. Very different from the Obama family who show genuine affection and love for each other.

I do believe that everything about Palin is for show, and Matt Lauer--------shame on you for falling right into her little web of lies. It should have been kept professional, but Sarah is trying to make the point that she is not a Diva and would NEVER spend that kind of money on clothes.

[Bronx56]

Why does every Palin apologist spew forth some variant of the: she may be ignorant, but she's a quick study" narrative??? She is bereft of the intellectual substance required to be an effective national politician. She may indeed gain traction and enter the national politican scene, but it will not be because she instantly absorbed all the knowledge and experience required. It will be because she represents our most cynical version of a politician. She is aware that her beliefs and actions are not consistent with national political success. She knows her only hope is to hide her shortcomings by more dishonesty and misrepresentation. She will do so without shame until the opportunity presents itself for her to revert to the myopic right winger she revealed during the general election.

[Freesia2]

Good points. That "quick study" apology grates on me. She's not constitutionally made for the Presidency. She lacks much of anything except an ability to hide her shortcomings just as you said.

If she wanted to make her prayers for that political open door she spoke of more accurate, she should actually be saying "Please give me the skill to be an even better con artist. Help me to bluff well and fake with grace. "

[profounddogs]

You both have hit the nail well on the head ...

[Itchybiscuit]

A truly amazing blog - and not for any 'good' reasons. To imagine that a prospective American President just needs to be 'coached' a little and it'll all be fine and dandy. She wouldn't be sitting a test - I can imagine coaching someone before they sit their driving test or before standing in front of the class for a 'show and tell'. It's a pity the Greeks didn't have a Goddess of Bull**** - Palin would have fit that mould perfectly. Perhaps the Norse God Loki would be more appropriate - the trickster, the prankster. If your idealogical starting point is creationism, zero choice for other women and a belief that your god is personally looking out for your ambitious, black little heart, then no amount of schooling is going to change you or your outlook.

Thank goodness the majority of Americans had more sense than some..

[JeffmChicago]

So Sarah Palin needs a little schooling, eh? I am so happy that Obama is our president but make no mistake racism isn't gone from our society not by a long shot! All Sarah needs is a little schooling never mind that she got crowds worked up into a frenzy of hate for the entire World to see.


I

[gulopartisan]

It's foolish to judge people's intelligence by things like their accent or use of localisms, although that's one of the great traditions of stereotyping. However, what's wrong with Palin's talking is not accent or slang, it's the incoherent babbling. She's a media "personality" lost without a teleprompter. Her "thinking" is a stew of narcissism, hatefulness, and hypocrisy with no ideas in any sense of the word. Her chirpy ranting is maddening not because it challenges us to express our disagreement, but because it offers the pure, unalloyed essence of neocon values, as meaningful and unanswerable as the snarling of a rabid fox.

[dynagirl7371]

I agree... when backed into a corner (either because she doesn't have the answer or because she doesn't want to answer) she tends to try to make herself look better by insulting the other person or by trying to make them look bad. Or, she babbles and drifts off with a smile. Later, when she's had time to think about what her answer should have been, she's able to say something vague and you still can't understand exactly where she stands. In order to answer the questions that everybody seems to want to know, she goes on some lame interview with Greta of all people!!

I guess I'm torn. I don't want to be guilty of just bashing this woman (although that's not like me at all), but I don't want to submit to these hysterical people defending her and calling people like me cruel or attacking because I don't think this woman is at all smart, honest or compassionate. She seems very self-serving.

[Helmsey]

I am must also agree with many of the comments already posted. Palin is hardly Athena like in her qualities. If we are going to use a mythological comparison, I would go with a muse. She is entertaining, but ultimately of no real substance. A yet better comparison maybe drawn between her and someone like Paris Hilton or Brittany Spears. All famous because of the wrong reasons, mainly entertaining blunders that amuse us, but no true merit that warrents them to have our attention.

[JeffmChicago]

Sarah Palin means different things to different people. When she incited her rally with hateful messages and the crowd roared with anger and approval screaming things like TRAITOR and TERRORIST I could only think about the song Strange Fruit sung by Billie Holiday.

[Helmsey]

I have never heard that song. I am gonna try to find it on itunes.

[Freesia2]

My only hope is that between now and 2012 the segment of the American population that gave us Bush twice and wanted to foist Palin on us will have an epiphany and realize who she is and what she stands for and want none of it. I can hope.

What I can't do is forgive. She can stand in kitchens with cute kids and stir casseroles and drop Gs all she wants but I will always remember those rallies. Her idea of running for office (ironically as a religious person) is to stir up hate and I felt real fear for Obama all during those last weeks thanks to Sarah. (The FBI thwarted 2 plots and have 7 under investigation, all helped along by the climate she created.) While my fear was for him, I realized the secret service was probably keeping him under tight watch. What I worried for was some young man walking down a street in an Obama tshirt or an old lady driving with a Change We Can Believe In bumpersticker. Palin's crowd fired up on lust and "patriotism" suddenly thinking it might be a good thing to beat the boy up or run the old gal off the road. If it had gone on, someone was going to hurt.

She's intellectually and morally unfit for the White House. I hope people realize this before 2012, because she never will. She'll never get it.

[SonomaSunshine]

Exactly. When will the interviewers compare the "bad" treatment Palin got from the "media" to the hateful messages she and McCain were putting out there at the rallies? There is no way I can sympathize with this woman after the way she spoke of Obama and the divisive hatefulness she preached. Stay home,Sarah. We know you are lying and we've elected a great president despite your best efforts to sling mud. IT"S NOT ABOUT YOU.

[shadowgm]

Comparing Palin to Athena is high irony. Athena's role as a goddess of War is in strategic thought and intelligence; Palin thinks Russia is going to invade across the Bering Strait.

[jchflorida]

We used to make fun of Reagan too . In the late 60"s he was the b movie actor with no political knowledge who laughingly had no business entertaining a thought of being President.

[Economike]

I still think he had no business being President. The trickle down theory didn't work then and it hasn't worked under either Bush.

[kingroy]

Sarah Palin learned some hard lessons from being a Republican woman.
1. The Republican men dressed her up to disguise as a Neiman Marcus model to fight a black man and an old man.
2. When the fight was lost, they took off her dress then threw mud at her pretty face.
If I were DNC Chairman, I'd invite her to join the Democratic Party which is full of gentlemen, no jerks.

[mh01]

Gentlemen, no jerks?

Yeah, John Edwards is a gentleman. So is Tim Mahoney.

Just ask their wives.

[JulieSA]

Hillary Clinton found out how sexist the media and the DNC are.

[Pyryck]

To me, Governor Palin's campaign as Vice President on the Republican ticket represents some of the major things that I see wrong with our country and its politics. As the Republican campaign rumbled on, she didn't focus on offering positive solutions to our pressing problems. She pointed fingers and falsly accused her opponent of not being an American. She called her opponent a socialist while she herself governs the most socialist of states in the union! She appealed to the baser human emotions of hatred and fear in order to distract her audiences from the failure that is the Republican Party. She sought to divide the country instead of uniting it. She, and the party that she represents, do not deserve another chance to run this country. They should not be allowed to finish dividing the people of this country based on race, religion, gender, creed, sexual persuasion or any other reason they may come up with.

[KayJay90]

Actually, Pyryck, that wasn't HER opponent she pointed fingers at, and called a socialist. That was her running mate's opponent. She was merely the VP candidate. She was JUST the VP candidate. She was ONLY the VP candidate. Sarah Palin wasn't running against Barack Obama, her opposite number was Joe Biden.

Listening to her the past couple of months, sometimes you'd think it was otherwise. In some of her speeches it seemed like mentioning John McCain by name was an afterthought, as if toward the end she had to be reminded she and McCain were running together.

Personally, I hope some investigative types start digging into her Alaska political dealings, and I wouldn't be surprised if they find she's as corrupt as Ted Stevens, even for as short a political career as she's had. Just so long as these investigators manage to avoid Sarah's Posse....

[rbenjamin]

If I remember my 8th grade mythology, Athena was goddess of wisdom and war, with attributes of arts, industry, justice and skill thrown in for good measure. A class act. Palin is combative, but it's a stretch to find much evidence of wisdom in her speech or actions, or skill in her run for VP. Moose hot dogs are a sign of industry, but where is the art? Athena sprang forth, fully formed, shield, armor, spear, from the head of Zeus. The notion of putting Palin on the ticket was pulled from a different, less noble, part McCain's anatomy, or so the legend goes. Much shopping was required to get Palin up and running. The minor goddess Eris, bringer of discord, seems a better fit with the Gov.

[Adele Stan - Huffpost Blogger]

I have obviously forgotten my eighth-grade mythology. I mixed up my goddesses, ascribing to the Greek Athena the attributes of the Celtic Brigid. My apologies -- especially to the goddesses.

[JulieSA]

She's Diana.