Sarah Palin & the Presidency

November 5, the day after Barack Obama has been elected president of the United States, Sarah Palin will commence her own campaign for president in 2012. She will do this because once you've seen The Great White Way, Wasilla will never be the same; once you've starred on Broadway community theater is no longer an option.

The governor will return home to Alaska, but her rise to stardom on the national stage will consume her -- and dominate her ever -- waking moment. Count on it.

But to run for president Palin will have to resign as governor and move to the "lower 48." She simply cannot mount a credible campaign while frozen in the darkness of an Alaskan winter; you cannot remain politically relevant four time zones removed from Washington.

By signing with the Washington Speakers Bureau, Palin will overnight become the most sought after speaker on the American lecture circuit. She will stand to make more money than she ever dreamed possible -- even during a long winter's night in Wasilla. By making that decision she will insure her family's future, which is what any reasonable person would do if given the same choice -- take the money and leave the Northern Lights behind.

Palin, under the guidance of her lecture agency, as a nationally acclaimed public figure, will embark on a two-year get to know America tour. During that time she will average one or two speeches a week and earn upwards of $20 million (that may be a conservative estimate, as both Bill Clinton and Al Gore became extremely wealthy giving speeches).

Before the speaking tour begins Palin will move her family to Mid-America, perhaps Overland Park or Olathe, Kansas, lovely suburban communities within 45-minutes of Kansas City's International Airport, putting her within three-hours of either coast. With Sarah on the lecture circuit, husband Todd will become a stay-at-home dad, he seems good at that.

As Palin travels across America she can accomplish two things: 1) get caught up on all the important books she never had a chance to read, like Michael Gordon and Lou Trainor's Cobra II, Bob Woodward quartet on George W's presidency, Jane Meyer's Dark Side, Scott McClellan's What Happened, Arianna Huffington's Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe, and perhaps a volume or two of Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; 2) she can organize small cells of political supporters everywhere she speaks, insuring that while on the road to riches she will have created true believers and devoted followers from sea-to-shining sea..

During Palin's extensive travels she might discover it's a good idea to balance one's reading of the Wall Street Journal with that of The New York Times. She probably won't like much of what she reads in The Times, beyond Bill Kristol's columns and occasionally those by David Brooks, but it will prove an important learning experience; so the next time she's asked by Katie Couric about her reading habits, she won't appear uniformed.

While speaking around the country, with lots of downtime on airplanes, Palin's newspaper and book reading can prove an invaluable tutorial, so when she announces for president in the spring of 2011, she will appear fully engaged. It may prove the two most important years of her life.

At that point she will be the Republican Party's only credible candidate (forget Louisiana's Bobby Jindal, he's no match for our Sarah). Palin will be John McCain's legacy to the GOP; she will be a reminder that Senator McCain always put America first (Barack Obama shall be forever grateful for McCain's sacrifice).

Implausible, Sarah Palin as the GOP's last, best hope? Hardly.

Ever since Ronald Reagan the right wing has been looking for a candidate whose conservative values mirror theirs. They thought George W. Bush was that person, but he turned out to be the most profligate spender ever in the history of the presidency, the man who oversaw the greatest wealth transference from government to private capital since 1776. Besides, unlike Palin, Bush 43 was to the manor born, a true Yale/Harvard blue blood. Palin's story, coming as she does from modest means, more closely parallels Reagan's - Main Street and small town American mythology come to life.

Palin's political conservatism embraces fundamentalist Christian beliefs. Her Assembly of God background resonates widely among the most uncompromising of true believers, individuals who hold the Bible's authority to be absolute and failure to accept it as Sola Scriptura, will doom you to eternal damnation; the same believers consider abortionist killers and homosexuals as deviant. Sarah Palin believes in the same Bible they do; she can be trusted to uphold their values.

No one knows how many hard-core fundamentalist they are in America, but whatever that number, their hearts belong to Sarah - and she will start her run for president in 2011 with an army of Christin soldiers ready for Armageddon.

Is she my candidate? Puleeeez, but I wouldn't mind being her agent.

Comments

[mommom]

Gop leaders will be eager to win back seats at the state level as well as nationaly.They will dump Palin like a hot potatato after the election,as she has become more of a liability than a plus.More and more baggage comes to light each day,coupled with the evil meanspiritedness of her campaigning that has turned off many more of the ectorate than it has excited. Bobby Jindal will be the only candidate to consider ,he will be able to help other Republicans on his coattails.He is a real conservative reformer with real honest American values and intellect ,able to attract brilliant individuals to his team.He has the honesty,integrity and intelligence that Mrs Palin wishes she had.

By the way,I am voting for Obama ,but Bobby Jinal would get me to return to the GOP that I left because of Palin/McCain

[Surfinbum]

PBS has an online poll posted asking if Sarah Palin is
qualified. Apparently the right wing knew about this
in advance and are flooding the voting with YES votes.

The poll will be reported on PBS and picked up by
mainstream media. It can influence undecided voters
in swing states.

Please do two things -- takes 20 seconds.

1) Click on link and vote yourself.

Here's the link:
[ http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html
]http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html

The last thing we need is PBS saying their viewers
think Sarah Palin is qualified.

[sangean]

All of this assumes that Palin won't be fitted for an orange jump suit down the road. Information about her very large home in Wasila , who supplied the materials and, possibly, the labor, are starting to come out (see the Village Voice). If the First Dude thinks that anyone will believe that he and some of his buddies built this house by themselves, he's crazy. This case, right down to the contractor, is starting to look very similar to something that Ted Stevens is currently on trial for.

[nvzephyr]

If Obama becomes the next president: I see Palin moving to Idaho or Montana, and I see her political rise roughly approximating Oliver North's. Remember him?

[BenjFranklin]

RAISE YOUR HAND if your e-mail's spell-check flags "Palin" when you key it in and asks if it can change it to "Plain," "Palling," or "Pain."

[harvest9]

Mine does.

Then I hit "Ignore." Wish I could do the same with the real thing.

[azravenwood]

The fact that many Americans seem OK about Sarah Palin"s inexperience and glorification of ignorance has me pondering how this could happen.

Having someone unqualified and ignorant in office is not new. Visit any small town and see who is being elected or hired. I have seen it a hundred times, where people are hired (or elected) because of whom they know, not necessarily by what they know. Once in position, these people protect their lack of knowledge and expertise by marginalizing anyone who is intelligent or has an education. (They also resort to lying if this tactic doesn"t work.) In marginalizing everyone else as either an "outsider" or "them", their "us" and "them" mentality keeps them in power

So the question is this, how this kind of behavior has moved itself into larger politics. It is almost as if these same small town people and small town mindsets are giving equivalence to the magnitude of administrative scale between small towns and the nation. (I am a small town person myself " I"m not saying all small town folks)

It"s as if having repaired streets makes you qualified to repair social security and Medicare; or if your answer to economic growth was the bringing in of a new Wal-Mart, or your idea of foreign policy is to annex the land between your town and the neighbors " all makes you quite prepared to solve the United State"s most complex problems in it"s most trying times.

[BJD44]

I do not believe this will happen at all. She has too many problems happening up in Alaska, and even though she may still, at this point, still hold a base there, I think they're getting wise to her act. I also think that you tend to forget that she (still) has a developmentally challenged child who will definitely need her, stay-at-home husband or not. That child needs her. And I can vouch for that because I am the single, full-time working Mom of a handicapped child. And for her to ever think that she could be running around the country giving talks, well, very unrealistic. That child will be requiring therapies, early childhood ed, all sorts of thing, I can tell you that from 17 years of personal experience!

[Audrey704]

we have seen more than we want to see...looked good...initially sounded good...but a rotten apple after all is a rotten apple

[munki]

too many obstacles...
Thanks but NO THANKS

[JennyJay]

Huh . . . . there might be a tiny bump in the road for Palin's presidential future.
She will have to explain how her brand new $800,000. house was built by the same
oil company crook that just put all those repairs into Senator Ted Stevens house.
Todd says that "he and his buddies built the house" . . . I don't think so.
An $800,000., waterfront house - - where did all that money come from?
An oil field worker? . . . . I don't think so.
A Wasilla's mayor's salary? . . . I don't think so.
Big crooked oil company connections . . . .BINGO !

[Yarrr]

Hahahaha. I would love to see Palin run for president. Quality humor there.

[LexiInMichigan]

That picture that goes with this link says "Oh, golly gee, I have no idea what I'm doing here!" LOL

[MBryant]

It is looking like Obama is going to win this. At which point three possible paths lie ahead for Ms. Palin.
1) disappear into the undisclosed location where Dan Quayle resides - Witness Protection Program?
2) remain a player in Alaskan politics for awhile (how you goin' to keep 'em down on the farm, after they've seen D.C.?)
3) run for Prez next time.
--or--
Ted Stevens senate re-election race is very, very close. If Ted Stevens were elected and subsequently forced to resign (and given the first, the second seems almost likely at this point). The governor of the state of Alaska would appoint a Senator for the remainder of Steven's term.

Sarah Palin would not be the first governor of a state to appoint herself. She would then spend the next handful of years in the United States Senate - much more visible and the governor's office in Juneau.

The Senator Palin vs. Senator Clinton discussions on the floor could be quite amusing...

[trescml]

It would be a mistake to not take the threat of Palin run seriously. She has a pull with the Republican base which will allow her to the kind of money to run a legitimate campaign. If she can polish her image and tone to start appealing to moderates, she could be a threat. McCain may have done us all a big favor by picking her for VP and showing her as an inexperienced fool. Two years from now she may not appear to be quite as much the buffoon. She would have to put a lot of work in the next 2-3 years to do that and fortunately for us, she doesn't see the need to know about those pesky issues.

[GreekGirly]

If you want to share your feelings on Palin's qualifications or extreme lack thereof,
PBS has an online poll posted asking if Sarah Palin is qualified. When I voted it was 49/49!!!

Apparently the right wing knew about this in advance and are flooding the voting with YES votes.

The poll will be reported on PBS and picked up by mainstream media.
It can influence undecided voters in swing states.

Please...

Click on link and vote yourself.
http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html

Note: Only one vote/computer will be counted.

[dlinguist]

Oh, I am all for her touring on the speaking circuit! She averages a gem and a half per day as it is, and I would sorely miss adding to her "Palinisms." She has quickly made herself a candidate for the "isms" Hall of Fame. Want proof? Here's three gems in the just the last two days:

"I like being here, because it seems like here and in our last rally too -- other parts around this great Northwest -- here in New Hampshire you just get it." -- Laconia, NH 10/15/2008 --- Northwest, eh?

Reporter: "The investigation by the Alaska legislature found that you allowed your husband in some cases, wrongfully, to use state resources as part of the effort to have Trooper Wooten dismissed."

Palin: "Well you have the facts wrong there. Trooper Wooten is still an Alaska state trooper. He"s never been dismissed." " Interview with Pittsburgh CBS afilliate, 10/14/2008 --- I do believe the word was EFFORT.

and from the same interview:

Palin: "[T]he report that came out also was very clear in that there was no unethical or unlawful behavior on my part. No abuse of power there at all." --- Yes, Governor Palin, we heard and dismissed that the first time.

Please don't let her slip under the radar post-election, she has so much potential.