After a Year of Sarah Palin, Alaska Wonders, "What the Hell Were We Thinking?"

What a difference a year makes. A year ago today, after being stunned by McCain's VP pick, I had finished writing a piece called "What Is McCain Thinking? One Alaskan's Perspective." It's hard to imagine a time when the country was asking "Sarah Who?" but it was only one short year ago.

One of the selling features of Sarah Palin was her astronomically high approval ratings in the state of Alaska. After all, how could a governor have positives in the high 80s or low 90s and be anything less than an ace in the hole? So McCain must have thought. The answer became obvious, and embarrassing to those of us in the Last Frontier. We weren't paying attention.

During the gubernatorial debates in Alaska in 2006, Palin said to her opponent, the infinitely smarter and more qualified Andrew Halcro, "Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers and yet when asked questions you spout off facts, figures and policies and I'm amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, 'Does any of this really matter?'" That may have been her shrewdest political statement. To Alaskans at that moment in time, it didn't matter. She was cute, she was spunky, she was gonna take it to the man, she had a scrumptious family, she was an underdog, she was one of us, and she had ... charisma! That's all we needed to know.

Gone was the stale, old, corrupt crankiness of Frank Murkowski, our former senator turned governor turned most loathed politician in the state. The lure of the bright shiny object was irresistible. Palin clobbered Murkowski in the primary, with the incumbent garnering a humiliating 19 percent of the vote. The devastating blow added to her appeal, and the promise of a Cinderella story in Alaska's future. Who doesn't love Cinderella? And the rest is history.

In many ways, it seems longer than a year. Much longer. Palin went back to Alaska, where her life turned into a nasty soap opera. There were revelations from McCain's staff about her behavior on the campaign trail; she was hit with a myriad of ethics charges (some of which, contrary to Palin's claims otherwise, stuck); she bailed on her relationship with the state's legislators and played politics with the federal stimulus plan; she got into a dog fight with Levi Johnston; she began a series of odd Twitterings, replete with a six-part ramble on Mommy Bear; she resigned amid chaos and deception, only to return as a diva on Facebook.

The very Democrats who served as a catalyst to the passage of Palin's grand ideas for a gas line were thrown under the bus. The Republicans who called Palin a "socialist" during her early governorship were already there. There's an old saying -- "How do you get Nellie back on the farm once she's seen Par-ee?" It became obvious to everyone when she returned to Alaska that she was wearing a metaphorical "Hi My Name is Nellie" name tag on her designer lapel. We were the farm, and the glittering white marble world of Washington D.C. and the great "Outside" was most definitely Par-ee.

As Geoffrey Dunn notes in his excellent piece today, another strange phenomenon became apparent -- an obsession with Barack Obama. The moment Palin started slamming community organizers, and talked about "pallin' around with terrorists," and telling the swooning crowds that Obama didn't see America like "we" see America, it began. She had found her niche, but in her home state, where Obama either trailed or lead McCain by a mere 3 percentage points before her nomination, it didn't play well. Neither did her bizarre habit of committing to events, and then canceling at the last minute, denying she'd ever said she would attend. First it was the national GOP who bore the brunt of this passive-aggressive event coordinating. But this week she did it twice, right here in the state, ostensibly accusing the predominant mega-church, and the head of Alaska's pro-life movement of lying. From the moment of her nomination until the day of her resignation, her numbers sank. It was like watching a slow motion film clip of the Hindenburg. The week after her resignation, the dirigible hit the dirt, and her negative numbers topped her positive numbers for the first time in her home state.

Alaska doesn't like a quitter, and the majority of Alaskans grew tired of having her speak for us.

But some Alaskans stuck with her anyway. Acknowledging her unsuitability for public office meant to acknowledge the horrible mistake Alaskans had made. We're already "on the farm." We don't need to give all those folks in Par-ee another reason to look down their noses and ask, "What the Hell is the matter with you people?" But they asked anyway. And we really had no good answer, other than to look at the ground and scratch our toe in the dirt and say, "I guess we weren't paying attention. Sorry..."

But, I won't allow Alaska to take all the blame. You'd like to think that anyone worth their salt, who has served in the senate for many administrations, would take a little time to find out about the person who would take the helm of the ship of state if you were to suddenly meet your maker. It's called "vetting," and it's a good idea. If the buck stops in the Oval Office and it is there that the responsibility lies, I wonder why nobody was asking Arizonans "What the Hell is wrong with you people?" Perhaps I'm a little bitter. Alaskans have been picked on an awful lot this year.

The Blame Game has become the favorite pastime of the Palin camp. It's Barack Obama. It's the ethics complaints. It's mis-communication. It's the Republicans in the legislature. It's the Democrats in the legislature. It's her daughter's ex-fiance. It's the damn "law." It's a misunderstanding. It's socialism. It's the media. It's haters. It's bloggers. It's a diabolical cabal of event coordinators across the nation telling lies.

And the way that each of these entities (regardless of size) was dealt with was with a big, fat sledgehammer. Barack Obama? Pals around with terrorists. Ethics complainers? Hope they get "backlash." Legislators? Don't give them face time. Levi Johnston? Liar and money-grubber. The law? Ignore it. The media? Quit making stuff up! Haters? You're jealous. Bloggers? Threaten to sue them.

Nuance is not the ex-governor's forte.

And how did those strategies work out?

Attacking the president with vitriol made her the Democrats' number one fundraising tool. Ethics complainers mentioned in press releases? Brought lots of attention to the ethics complaints. Freezing out the legislators on both sides of the aisle meant nobody really felt like 'playing ball' any more. Levi Johnston is probably going to be writing a book, and I'm betting it will outsell the puff piece "Everything I Need to Know I Learned Playing High School Basketball." Shredding the media and then asking them to be nice to you is generally not a good PR strategy.

And the bloggers? Well, every time she, or any of the pro-Palin websites or blogs acknowledge local Alaskan bloggers, it gives them more traffic, more attention, a more interesting story that people want to hear, and more credibility. Maybe I shouldn't let that little secret slip.

But it has been a fascinating year. The Clinton years when people opened one eye and said, "Everything looks pretty good I guess," and then rolled over and went back to sleep are gone. America has awakened. The conservative movement did not believe that Barack Obama could get elected, and like a beast who is cornered and threatened with its own mortality, it is raging. Nobody could have imagined the conditions today last year when everyone was frantically Googling Sarah Palin; that she and McCain would have been roundly defeated, that the country would have elected Barack Obama, that she would not even last one term as governor, and that such ugliness would have awakened in American politics.

What a long, strange trip it's been. Next year on "P-Day?" It's anyone's guess.

[Cross-posted at The Mudflats]

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Comments

[FantasticFourFan]

Those of us who live in the bible belt understand completely how this could have happened. It's called the Culture War, and it's the reason why we ended up with eight years of Bush. It's an "us v. them" mentality and it's based on the idea that only those who like certain things are "real" Americans and the big bad "other" is not. The left needs to start taking this seriously and confronting it because it is destroying America. Competency and good ideas no longer matter in this new dynamic. Only "values". No matter how bad you screw up. If you hate gays and love guns, your in.

[waitek1]

They may have sunk but not as fast as President Obama's have.

[Taiyo]

But they have sunk a LOT farther.

[rad21]

"how could a governor have positives in the high 80s or low 90s and be anything less than an ace in the hole? So McCain must have thought. The answer became obvious, and embarrassing to those of us in the Last Frontier. We weren't paying attention.... She was cute, she was spunky, she was gonna take it to the man, she had a scrumptious family, she was an underdog, she was one of us, and she had ... charisma! That's all we needed to know."

Are not the above same reasons we elected George Bush ... TWICE? We claimed, "He's the guy we could have a beer with!" The description in the article is the shortcoming of Americans in general, Republicans in particular. And Conservatives have made a virtue of it. We fall for slogans and cliches. We went into Iraq because of "9/11 and WMDs". We hate healthcare reform because of "government take-over" and "death panels". Leave aside that, Iraq invasion and healthcare are bankrupting individuals, corporations and the country.

[Horus45]

Why any American would want a President they could have a beer with running the country is beyond me.
I want someone who is smarter than me making the important decisions for this country!

[Taiyo]

Ditto.

[MarkEdwardGillar]

So are Obama, Biden, and Pelosi actually smarter than you?
Please view these clips before answering:

http://www.hootervillegazette.com/dumbdemocrats.html

[dakotawoman]

"We must not forget that the radical right has a media presence and control that is unmatched by any other voice."

Rupert Murdoch's voice, for one.

Love how those conservative powers that own the media keep throwing sand into the eyes of the American public with their repeated lies about "the libera biased" media.

Of course, at what point do I join the ranks of the hopelessly paranoid and begin searching for the One World puppet masters pulling our strings?

But it's also still true that even the paranoid can have real enemies.

Sigh.

[Martha12]

But, I won't allow Alaska to take all the blame. You'd like to think that anyone worth their salt, who has served in the senate for many administrations, would take a little time to find out about the person who would take the helm of the ship of state if you were to suddenly meet your maker.
~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~
The Alaskan legislature failed Alaskans (and the rest of the country as it turns out) miserably, when it comes to Sarah Palin.

The Branchflower report found Palin "abused her power by violating section 39.52.110 (a)".

What other state in the union, has had it's legislature find their Governor guilty of abuse power, then fail to impeach or at the very least sanction them?

The report also found that "the Attorney General's office has failed to comply with my August 6th 2008 request to governor Sarah Palin for information about the case in the form of e-mails".

Was that request ever complied with? Did the Alaskan legislature ever follow through on that?

Representitive Les Gara has said that "there was no political will" too take any action against Palin after this lengthy, costly investigation, resulting in the Branchflower Report.

In other words , we found Palin guilty, but simply can't be bothered to do anything about it.

Why hold with the investigation in the first place?

You needn't look any further than the Alaskan legislature, for giving Sarah Palin a free pass to carry on as she pleased.

[guilatty]

The most disturbing thing about the Palin "Phenomenon" is we are forced to confront the fact that our "elected" officials are seriously inadequate people. That McCain would choose someone of such poor qualifications, not marginal-a­nd-believe­-she-grows­-into-the-­job qualifications but patently, frighteningly poor qualifications is scary. We had the idea the more comical politicians out there were intentionally dumbing themselves down to appeal to the common man, aw-shucksing and gol-darning. But Ms. Palin opened a window on a new reality. Because our leaders now must become celebrities to get elected we are stuck in some reality show where folksy and winky and other quirks are more important than a deep understanding of policy, negotiating skills, a rigorous education or experience at all levels of leadership. You can be a bona fide idiot and get elected.

Believing nothing happens by chance I then have to wonder who is really running this country? If our elected leaders are this bad, someone must be filling the vacuum at the top. Then the evidence of a corporate oligarhy (as Glenn Beck would spell it) begins to mount up. The United States does function, sort of. But it seems to function exclusively for the benefit of corporate interests. We have corporate wars, corporate agriculture, corporate medicine, corporate food, corporate jails and prisons, corporate news. All benefit from government protection, facilitation, or money. None have their power balanced by government power. Sarah Palin's trespass close to the lever proves it.

[Horus45]

McCain made the big mistake of listening to the people who told him to pick Palin.
Plus it has become evident that the accusations that were made back then, that "Palin was not vetted" were completely true!

[MarkEdwardGillar]

Yes Guillatty, you can be a bona fide idiot and still get elected. These video clips prove that:

http://www.hootervillegazette.com/dumbdemocrats.html

[RumiSouth]

Palin has flaked so much lately she could be a breakfast cereal. Honestly, what IS the matter with this person? Diva-ness doesn't explain everything...

[dakotawoman]

Nail on the head!!

This is the best summary of the whole debacle that I have yet run across.

Well done.

Now, if the raging conservative beast could be finally and mercifully administered a sedative until it can be treated for its mental disease, we might have a change to recover.

Whew! That was a close one, and we aren't even outta the woods yet.

You know, the woods were lurks that raging beast.

Not the ALASKAN woods, of course.

[FairCitizen]

This was a great article and gosh you nailed it.....! I said it from the very beginning when she read that vindative speech at the convention. I was there and I knew we were done with her on the ticket. The writing was there and no one paid attention b/c she was cute and a woman.

[jsarets]

The Sarah Palin VP selection was the ultimate example of Republican short-sightedness.

Remember, for about 2 or 3 days after the announcement, plenty of Democrats thought we were screwed for sure. Palin looked absolutely amazing on paper. It wasn't until they let her open her mouth that we breathed a sigh of relief and began to make her the butt of jokes.

Palin was a political strategy that worked brilliantly for like one and a half news cycles. In terms of the sheer short-sightedness, it was simply breathtaking. How will the GOP be able to top that?

[MarkEdwardGillar]

We'll combat it by posting video clips demonstrating how dumb elected democrats actually are:

http://www.hootervillegazette.com/dumbdemocrats.html

[AContrario]

Alaskans should do what all sane people after a lousy one night stand,
forget about it...

[Horus45]

They can't because she won't shut up and go away!

[devans00]

My favorite Sarah Palin contribution to the American consciousness is the amount of material she gave Tina Fey to entertain us on Saturday Night Live.

[tomcatv1]

It's not what were we thinking rather what were we drinking.

[MsTick]

Interesting piece; just one correction: Plenty of us, down here in Paree, were asking, "What was McCain thinking?" (Not that we Dems weren't pleased with the choice); and, by extension, "What's with Arizona, that they keep voting McCain in, when he'd so readily sell out?"

[Horus45]

Before I moved to Arizona from New York 6 years ago I would be asking the same question.
But, now I know why, this state is filled with some of the most vile, racist and ignorant people on the planet!

[tracyedw]

Excellent post, and thanks for the link to Geoffrey Dunn's piece. I think you are dead on about 'Nellie' and 'Par-ee'. AK just wasn't big enough for her anymore.

Drill baby, drill. Keep drilling yourself further into the nuthouse.