The Trouble With Palin
Well, the elections are over, McCain's vice-presidential candidate Palin has been discovered to have spent more than $150,000 of Republican party donations on a new wardrobe and extras, as well as been involved in a number of other scandals - and plenty of political commentators are expecting her to go back to Alaska and vanish from the political scene.
My opinion on this? Don't bet on it.
Plenty of people got the impression that Palin is dumb. But plenty of people also thought that Bush is dumb, and he isn't - just terribly ignorant and too full of himself so that it didn't make a difference as far as his policy decisions were concerned. But in certain ways, he was very cunning - remember, this is the guy who not only became American president, but was actually re-elected into the office despite his many horrible mistakes. An idiot (or a mere sock-puppet, for that matter) wouldn't have managed that. He had good instincts for presenting himself well to the voters - which only failed when the results of his many mistakes became too great for the voters to ignore. And then it was too late.
From what I've read about Palin, she is pretty much the same - the same ignorance in the skills required to be a good president, the same inflated opinion of herself. The main difference is that she seems to be far more ruthless, and (unlike Bush) quite willing to throw former "friends" and associates under the bus once they cease to be useful to her.
She will go far. Perhaps even all the way.
She knew exactly what she did when she and her friends and family went on that shopping spree. She knew that the campaign was doomed, and thus set out to grab what she could for herself. But does anyone really think this and all the other scandals will hurt her? She will just deny them, blame it all on others, and present it as "proof" to her followers that the Mainstream Media(TM) are out to get her. And her followers will eat it up! After all, it is a Well-Known Fact(TM) that the Mainstream Media(TM) are hives of Liberality, and out to get any True Conservative(TM) who attains any position of power!
And the other Republican party officials who are pissed off at her because of her behavior on the campaign trail? Sour grapes, that's all. They didn't like her because she, unlike the officials, was not from Washington(TM) and thus couldn't be controlled by them. And it was they, not her, who lost the campaign. She had said what was going wrong with the campaign, but those fools didn't listen to her. Isn't it time that these hacks got kicked out of the party?
That's how she will spin things. And those in the Republican party structure who despise her might very well find themselves removed from the corridors of power within the Grand Old Party, with her supporters taking over and running a presidential campaign as Social Conservatives(TM) in 2012.
Of course, in any reasonable election campaign she wouldn't stand a chance against Obama. But we are not living in reasonable times. The American economy is extremely volatile at the moment, and Obama might not be able to do enough to turn things around by 2012. If the economy doesn't improve, a Republican contender might have a real chance of unseating him. And that contender might very well be Sarah Palin.
I have seen the future of the Republican party, and it scares me.
My opinion on this? Don't bet on it.
Plenty of people got the impression that Palin is dumb. But plenty of people also thought that Bush is dumb, and he isn't - just terribly ignorant and too full of himself so that it didn't make a difference as far as his policy decisions were concerned. But in certain ways, he was very cunning - remember, this is the guy who not only became American president, but was actually re-elected into the office despite his many horrible mistakes. An idiot (or a mere sock-puppet, for that matter) wouldn't have managed that. He had good instincts for presenting himself well to the voters - which only failed when the results of his many mistakes became too great for the voters to ignore. And then it was too late.
From what I've read about Palin, she is pretty much the same - the same ignorance in the skills required to be a good president, the same inflated opinion of herself. The main difference is that she seems to be far more ruthless, and (unlike Bush) quite willing to throw former "friends" and associates under the bus once they cease to be useful to her.
She will go far. Perhaps even all the way.
She knew exactly what she did when she and her friends and family went on that shopping spree. She knew that the campaign was doomed, and thus set out to grab what she could for herself. But does anyone really think this and all the other scandals will hurt her? She will just deny them, blame it all on others, and present it as "proof" to her followers that the Mainstream Media(TM) are out to get her. And her followers will eat it up! After all, it is a Well-Known Fact(TM) that the Mainstream Media(TM) are hives of Liberality, and out to get any True Conservative(TM) who attains any position of power!
And the other Republican party officials who are pissed off at her because of her behavior on the campaign trail? Sour grapes, that's all. They didn't like her because she, unlike the officials, was not from Washington(TM) and thus couldn't be controlled by them. And it was they, not her, who lost the campaign. She had said what was going wrong with the campaign, but those fools didn't listen to her. Isn't it time that these hacks got kicked out of the party?
That's how she will spin things. And those in the Republican party structure who despise her might very well find themselves removed from the corridors of power within the Grand Old Party, with her supporters taking over and running a presidential campaign as Social Conservatives(TM) in 2012.
Of course, in any reasonable election campaign she wouldn't stand a chance against Obama. But we are not living in reasonable times. The American economy is extremely volatile at the moment, and Obama might not be able to do enough to turn things around by 2012. If the economy doesn't improve, a Republican contender might have a real chance of unseating him. And that contender might very well be Sarah Palin.
I have seen the future of the Republican party, and it scares me.