Well, after seeing nothing but Sarah Palin on MSNBC, FoxNews, and POLITICO...I have finally decided to direct my attention towards Palin. She is possibly the most divisive person in American politics, even more so than President Obama in certain aspects. So attention has been given to her as of late that CBS conducted a poll on how Americans see Mrs. Palin but I'll get to that in a little bit. In the meantime, I'd like to address Palin's book and its attack on McCain aides who she claims held her back and pushed her into situations she was comfortable with. While there is likely some truth to these claims, almost every major news agency and non-partisan groups (such as POLITICO) have found that most of her claims are false and McCain's aides have even provided emails to counter Palin's comments but I think there is a bigger issue here that no one seems to be addressing...if it weren't for these aides and campaign officials no one would even know who Sarah Palin is! Sure the people of Alaska knew of her but I consider myself a pretty politically aware person especially during elections and her name wasn't on any of the short lists of VP candidates I saw...whether she agrees with the decisions of McCain's advisors is largely irelevent considering she owes her very national political fame to them..it's called being a decent and RESPECTFUL. To be honest, she was the VP candidate not the actually candidate and very rarely does anyone even pay much attention to the VP choice in the grand scheme of things but she has changed all that (which I do give her cudoos for). And there are some that see her attitude towards the McCain campaign in her book that indicates she thinks if she had been "let loose" McCain could have won the election....which I think is honestly ridiculus.
I myself was seriously considering voting for John McCain in 2008 but John choosing her for VP was the main reason I didn't vote for him. And I'm not the only one. There are many people I know in my home state that have told me time and time again that she is the reason they voted ultimately picked Obama over McCain...and the recent polls by CBS continue to reflect this belief that most Americans find her unqualified for national office (if she were to run). In this poll, 66% of Americans don't think she should run for President in 2012. The surprising thing to me is that this poll shows that only one group would like her to run, White Evangelicals and only by 4 points. Republicans are split right down the middle and Democrats (not surprisingly) overwhelmingly denounce the idea of her running.
Honestly, I don't think Sarah Palin is nearly as dumb as many people say she is, I just don't think she is as great as other people think she is. She does have one real thing going for her, she is definitely a political outsider which many Americans see as a good thing (something I don't really agree with). The problem(s) I have with Palin is that she doesn't seem to have much perspective on many political issues and she just seems to speak the conservative line and as of late seems to do nothing but complain about the 2008 campaign she has yet to take any real responsibility for her mistakes and if she can't do that she will never win over independents who want politicans who act like adults and not like a spoiled child blaming everything on someone else which is just dishonest and pathetic. The other problem I have with her is this claim her supporters say over and over that being a governor of a state means she has more experience than Mr. Obama before he was elected. While in theory this is a good argument it isn't true for ALL governors. Alaska is one of the smallest states in terms of population and population density and to me the only governors that are really qualified to govern the whole nation would be governors of Florida, Texas, California, or New York because not only have they had to deal with large populations but large and diversified economies and a diversified electorate. Claiming running the state of Alaska is the same as running the country just on a larger scale is absolutely ridiculus and obsurd. I said the same thing when former Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa tried to win the Democratic nomination last year. This claim is further crushed by the fact that she QUIT as governor because she claimed she wouldn't be able to win another term and would be a "lame duck" term which says alot. If she wasn't confident her own state would re-elect her for another term how does she think she is going to convince the American people to vote for her? Many have compared her quitting of the Alaskan governorship to Dick Nixon's actions after losing the 1960 presidential elections which eventually propelled him to the Presidency in 1968 but there is a flow in this thinking as well. Dick lost the election and spent several years prepping himself for the national stage and used the Governorship of California as a stepping stone to the Presidency (much like Ronald Reagan a decade later)...Palin seems to be plunging right back into the political arena just a year after losing an election (as VP) and just months after quitting as Governor of Alaska which just makes me wonder...what if Congress challenges her and makes her presidency stressful and bothersome will she just quit like she did as Governor? She can't even seem to take responsibility for her resignation and blamed it on the Alaskan legislature and her former brother in law and not on her own inability to handle the situation....can anyone think of the last time a political quiter still acted like they had a chance at higher national office? That would be like Dick Nixon acting like her could run again for President just a year after he resigned...it's just crazy!
In normal times I think people (including Republicans) would largely ignore such a quiter but these aren't normal times. There is a strong anti-government sentiment in American and she is just the kind of political outsider people are looking for. To top that off, when one looks at the possible Republican candidates for 2012, she is the only exciting possibility. To be honest I don't think she will run in 2012 because she knows she can't win...just yet. If she is thinking what I'm thinking (frightening thought I know) she is waiting for 2016 because she knows with Obama gone (if he runs for a second term and wins) it would be much easier to challenge any likely Democratic successor and in the mean time she can build up political alliances and stay out of the political fray of Washington and repair her image and quietly build support. But by then she will have lots of political competition from another young Republican upstart, Bobby Jindal. So she may very well be tempted to run in 2012 because she knows she has a better chance of winning the Repub. nomination but I doubt she could defeat Obama (unless he does something really really stupid) due largely to her image as a quiter and a whiner. But I will give her this, she does have a hell of a following and definitely a larger one than any other well know Republican and I think that says something about the shape the Republican party is in these days...
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