Sarah Palin: Game Changer Or Sacrificial Lamb?

If the Republican Party was a Fortune 500 corporation, the sudden and dramatic arrival of Sarah Palin on the national stage would have all the markings of an orchestrated sacrificial lamb strategy.

In the corporate world, when a high-profile project is wildly off-track and facing unlikely odds of success, a tried-and-true executive cover-your-ass strategy is to bring in a young, hungry, eager-to-please "game changer" to ostensibly push the project to success. The strategy works well because if the game changer actually manages to pull off a miracle the corporate executives win bonuses. However, if as anticipated, the game changer fails to turn the situation around the executives save face, keep their jobs and, most importantly, get to participate in the next high-profile project slated for 2012. The game changer becomes sacrifice.

When I say executive, I don't mean John McCain. In this case, John McCain and his wildly off-track campaign are the doomed project that top-level GOP "executives" appear to be busy insulating themselves from.

Keep in mind that, on her way to the podium/sacrificial altar Wednesday night, Sarah Palin had to walk past Meg Whitman (founding President and CEO of eBay), Carly Fiorina (ex-CEO of Hewlett Packard), as well as Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Tom Ridge, and other more qualified oval office hopefuls; none of who wish to carry the memory and burden of a failed campaign into a 2012 Presidential bid. "Country First" can only take a truly ambitious Republican so far.

Interestingly, Sarah Palin appears to be the perfect person to carry out a dead-old-man-walking strategy. She presents well and is smart enough to be perceived as a contender. She's also eager to please, hungry for recognition...and most importantly, if she fails, she gets a one-way ticket back to the Alaskan wilderness. After the election, nobody within the GOP top-tier needs to worry about running into Sarah Palin at the DC water cooler.

But what's really useful about sacrificial lambs is their blood. As any Christian can tell you, sacrificial blood has the unique property of washing away countless sins. Although, it will take much more than Sarah Palin and 500,000 square miles of Alaskan wilderness to absolve the sins of the Bush administration, as sacrificial lambs go, Sarah Palin is particularly well-suited to help erase two long-standing GOP sins: 1) the sin of melding religion with politics and, 2) the sin of being a testosterone-dominated party.

Since Sarah Palin embodies what John McCain once referred to as "the agents of intolerance," when she's banished to the wilderness Republicans will be granted a 30-second window of opportunity to reclaim their party by sending the religious right along with her. Furthermore, Sarah's historic walk to the podium/altar Wednesday night opened a door that Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, and countless other women couldn't open it by themselves. Ironically, by elevating women inside the GOP and possibly unwittingly helping to drive the religious right out, Sarah Palin may actually end up saving the Grand Old Party from itself by making it look more like the Democratic Party. But then again, given enough time, religious zealots have a habit of finding their way out of the wilderness.

Read more analysis from HuffPost bloggers on Sarah Palin

Comments

[Dalpine]

Christian or not, I doubt Palin is the victim type. I'm an Independent and while not a big fan of McCain, I admire his guts to go with the unknown Palin. Rugged Individualists are America's strengh. I don't share the Democrat desire to do as the Europeans do.

[goatboyslim]

One thing to remember about Sarah Palin: Take away the L and what's left? Nothing but pain

[standard]

"by elevating women inside the GOP and possibly unwittingly helping to drive the religious right out . . . "

There's a slight problem with that premise: it's completely divorced from reality. On both counts.

Women are no more elevated with the Republican party by McCain's selecting Sarah Palin to run for VP now than they were elevated in the Democratic Party by Mondale selecting Geraldine Ferarro to run for VP in 1984 or Pat Shroeder's run for the Presidency in 1988. Even the Clinton machine wasn't able to move things to the next step among the Democrats in 2008.

Sarah Palin is not a force driving the Religious Right out of the Republican Party, she is the very embodiment of the Religious Right within the Republican Party. If the 2008 ticket fails, she and Huckabee all but inherit the Republican Party.

If she's a blessing in disguise for Democrats, then it's a blessing disguised beyond recognition.

[pastor123]

Game Changer for sure. Yes, I am so excited about the Race now that Palin is in the mix. I am a conservative leaning independant. Glad to see a conservative in the mix. Hard to find info on Palin. McCain needs to let her talk to the media so we can find out more about who she is.

Has anyone else read this story about a possible Affair Sarah Palin had? That is just one of the Scandals listed at this site. http://www.hotpres.com

This site has the inside scoop about the Palin Dui Secret, http://www.duihelpguide.com Why hasnt the news covered this?

This site has background info on sarah Palin Bio, Pics, Videos, Alot of Polls like how many people actually think that she is attractive? http://www.theveep.com

Despite all of this, and her lack of experiance she would probably make a much better president then McCain., Because like Obama she hasnt been corrupted by washington yet. We should probably reverse the ticket Palin/McCain.