A Higher Calling

I predict there's another shoe that's going to drop (not sure where she bought this one, but it's coming).

Everything about Sarah Palin has been stunning and spectacular since John McCain announced her as his running mate -- to the "surprise" announcement that she was resigning, followed by the spectacular announcement by her attorney Thomas Van Flein, (full-text of legal letter posted by Sarah Palin on her Twitter account), that he was planning to explore immediate legal action against bloggers, specifically Shannyn Moore, who on HuffPo wrote that "for months the rumors have been swirling about a Federal Investigation." (Hey, Van Flein, did you miss the word "rumors"?) The Governor of the Great State of Alaska gets the Second Amendment, for sure, but maybe she was between schools when they taught the "First" one.

Sarah Palin brings a lot of this on herself, though. She's secretive and she plays by her own rules. She fuels the rumors. Even when she was in public office, she didn't think that her business was our business. (I think I speak for all women in America and their gynecologists when I say that none of us were allowed to fly during our last month of pregnancy, certainly not while we were in labor!)

But she got me this time. Or as she would say, "Gotcha!" I watched her speech four times because I think there were clues in it, and contrary to other reports, I feel that there was nothing "rambling" about it, that it was carefully worded and constructed. And I'm now following her on Twitter because I want to "stay tuned." (Added bonus, I also discovered from Sarah Palin's twitter account that Karl Rove is, also, on Twitter. Who knew?)

But let's be serious here for a minute, the Great State of Alaska is about speculation, it was founded on speculation. Main Street, Anchorage is full of Joe Speculators. People who thought if they just dug deep enough below the ice, they'd discover black gold.

So, here are the clues from her announcement (note to Sarah Palin's lawyer, I'm paraphrasing here):

• "Some will question the timing of this but the meaning of it will become clear," sounding like the Magic Eight Ball or some version of a Zen Christian (if that's not an oxymoron).
• "Facing500,000 in personal legal fees defending 'frivolous ethics violations'..."
• "I asked my family and I got all yeses and one, 'Hell, yeah.'"
• "It's about country..."

Here's the speculation:

Another shoe is going to drop -- another scandal is about to be revealed. Possible sources: the Levi Johnston tell-all book that he's currently shopping, something to the "rumors about the FBI investigation" even though the local FBI agent and her lawyer are denying it (other famous denials come to mind). Maybe it's like a bad "telephone game" and it's not the FBI? Isn't that house-building thing one of the things that got Ted Stevens in trouble? Or, that there might be a personal scandal brewing for her or for Todd on the horizon.

An enormous opportunity with the pending publication of her book) for her to solve their "personal debt" brought on by "frivolous law suits for ethics violations." (An old saying of rock impresario Bill Graham comes to mind, not to be confused with the televangelist, "It's not the money, it's the money.")

And even though, there's no law preventing an elected official from collecting honorariums for speaking fees, there could be some ethics questions raised about the private interest groups she contracts to speak for. And, now, the window would be wide open.
I feel an "athletic shoe" endorsement somewhere in the works -- maybe that's why she challenged Obama to a run.

She is planning to run for President and Alaska's geographic location makes it difficult to campaign in the lower 49 states (practically impossible to, by the way, while "ethically" holding on to your day job).

She's planning to start a new political party.

She's planning to start a new religion and take the frock.

She's planning to host a new reality show called, "So, You Think You Can Be a Televangelist!"

And, then, the saddest possibility of all. That it was just too tough. That she couldn't take it any more. And she quit. (She has a pattern of it, no question about it -- look at the number of schools she attended.) But, if this last turns out to be true, and her "higher calling" is her family, I think I speak for many women in America: I'd hoped she was made of sterner stuff.

Comments

[Dragash]

Sarah Palin: A QUITTER ON TWITTER.

[ramsha]

I have never understood the term higher calling. When I am contemplating a change the only person who has ever called me is my Mom when she was alive. And she usually ended the call with "Don't do anything that I wouldn’t do”. This phenomenon of "Higher calling” seems to be associated more with the self important evangelical conservatives and narcissist egotists rather than down to earth liberals, though it is not exclusively the domain of conservatives. Does it actually mean that God actually comes and tells them what they should be doing like the time when “God” told George W.Bush to invade Iraq and ruin the country? If you notice these “Higher Callings” seems to always happen to people who talk to themselves, who are preoccupied with themselves and slightly delusional people sometimes under psychiatric care and of course terrorists and jihadists. A borderline personality disorder is another terminology that comes to my mind. Coming to think of it Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Mother Theresa never mentioned this phrase that led them to their good work. I wonder and hope some day I will be lucky enough to get a “higher calling” from above. Until then I am on my own for the better.

[rbenjamin]

Palin is shopping her image to the highest bidder.

[dahpunkster]

I think Levi Johnston is going to open up a can of worms with his new book. I also think she was doing some shady stuff in Alaska and was about to get her hand caught in the proverbial cookie jar.
I don't think she is going into showbiz: I think she is gonna hide for a while and get the super conservative elite to fund her campaign for 2012.Whils­t She will reprise her roll of the rednecky politician;
I hope she doesn't fool too many people.

[MelRoy]

If the latter - it was too tough, it was taking its toll on her family and she wants to take a break from politics - then God Speed to her.

But call me a cynic; I think she's tasted the fruit and wants the whole tree.

[isadora]

To republicans like Saint Sarah 'higher calling' is a euphamism for money. Come to think of it, let's call her $aint $sarah.

[rolodex]

I tend to agree she is headed for radio/tele­-evangelis­m for the far right. However, if we're lucky, her higher calling will be to join her pal, Rev. Muthee, in Africa persecuting witches. That will be our gain, their loss.

[elaygee]

Maybe she'll surface as Michelle Bachmann's chief of staff

[TRYKER]

No matter what her intentions are, she will muck them up with some personal stupidity and do another "abrupt move" to the next "door" on her list.
I too think she might think she can make more money (tax free $$$, no IRS hassles) and babble without consequences if she decides to move into evangelism­...good grief, she can just talk in tongues wherever she goes and not get one whit of rebuff because they won't know what she said anyway. Like she does now, babble babble, making no sense and then having to go back and manufacture some idiotic sidebar blame game to cover her foibles.
She could become a lobbyist like the rest of the failed rethugs, millions can be hers. Her book deal will be lucrative if she can get it out before she totally implodes. I think it is all about the money. When she sent the lawyers bill from the campaign cover-ups to the McCain camp, they mailed it back to her...that must have really burned her bottom.
How AK can ignore house-gate situation is another mystery.

[SILVANUS]

I saw the lights of $HOWBIZ glitter in little $arah's eyes during her convention prattle.

It was clear as Evian (spelled backwards is Naive; how 'bout that?) water, then, that $arah was going to dump polly-tics if she didn't win VP and head for the brights lights of Holly-Hellwood and Limbaugh-land.

I can hear her telling Todd, now: "To hell with this headache; I can make 20 million a year being the new ANITA BRYANT on the frigging radio! Let's ditch this ice cap"

Time will tell...

[dzuh]

The fact that Palin saw fit to mention in her resignation speech that one of her kids said "Hell yeah!" about her decision to quit says a lot about her. That is, she's shallow and undignified. She would excel in the gutter of right-wing radio punditry, which is where I expect she'll wash up.

[Amy Ephron - Huffpost Blogger]

thanks for your comment but frankly, we're all speculating here, and let's give credit where credit is due and not assume it was one of her kids, I figured it was Todd who weighed in with the "Hell, yeah!" But the shallow part I agree with, I think that as an elected official you have an obligation to your constituents not to just to yourself and your family and that's the oath you've taken!

[S1m0n]

Or it's a made up detail.

I'm pretty sure that politics hasn't been much fun for most of her kids, with the possible exception of Bristol, who appears to enjoy attention every bit as much as her mom.

[jedimmel]

Actually I think you are partly there: I think she's going to become the spokesperson for the Religious Right. The scandals of the Republicans lately, the move by their center to distance themselves from the Religious Right, the Far Right's infatuation with Palin, I think it all adds up to her trying to lead the Far Right in politics. This could also possibility have her leading/creating a new Religious Right political party whose main goals are social, not the anti-tax/s­mall-gover­nment Republican heritage. In any case, I would bet anything this is NOT the last we've heard from her.

[termgirl]

I agree with you. When she says "higher calling" she means "higher calling." She'll mix in the smaller government, anti-tax mantra with the reactionary social rhetoric. I think she'll become the leader of the tea baggers, but her ultimate goal is to replace representative democracy with Christian theocracy. Hey, her witch doctor has her back, so the sky's the limit.
.

[BobLablah]

It's pretty darn sexist to say that a person's "higher calling" can't be her family. Shouldn't feminism protect the right to do whatever you want to do?

[aloha43]

No it isn't sexist to say that a person's "Higher calling" can't be her family. Why does the word sexist come out, no matter what, no matter the reason, if it deals with Sarah Palin.

To her....her higher calling isn't her family....­she already showed the whole country that she only cares for her political props. Her "higher calling" is her "word from her God", who she "thinks" is opening a door for her.

Sexism has NOTHING to do with her "higher calling", nor does her family.

[isadora]

Hello repub. Someone taught you the word 'sexist' and you are flexing it around in the manner of Falwell and Robertson. Saint Sarah is a wretched excuse for a woman who does no represent anything close to a feminst idea. Sarah IS sexism.

[trisha08]

She mentioned higher calling, but also included a bunch of cryptic words about her plans to change government and effecting change. If this were just about her children, she wouldn't have included all the other cryptic language. Her last words of her latest facebook rant are "join me".

Huh? Join her in raising her kids? No, this isn't about her higher calling raising her children, it was a call to action.

[been2there]

How would you feel about a man's higher calling being family? A feminist perspective is that either Palin could be a homemaker. The question is-Does Sarah Palin's past behavior lead one to think her family will be her higher calling? No.