I've always thought this woman was a basket case; but this latest stunt is just bizarre. How anyone can take this woman seriously is beyond me. I have always thought of her as a joke. She seems like a nice enough person; but she always struck me as the most unserious, unprepared, and erratic candidate for national high office that I've ever seen. There was the cringingly embarrassing Katie Couric interview, which should have been enough evidence of her incompetence for any intelligent person; but now there's this resignation.
What does it say that she can't even finish her first term as governor of Alaska? Nothing good, I think. No matter what rationale she gives, the fact will always remain that she just quit.
But let's look at the specific reason she gave. It went something along the lines of: "I don't want to waste the taxpayers' money and time as a lame duck executive." WTF?!?!?! How lame can that be? What would we think about Sarah Palin as President after a stunt like this? I can see it now, after just 2 and a half years as President of the US, facing all kinds of scrutiny and criticism, President Palin calls a hasty press conference to quit the job.
Let's just face it, the woman never has been and never will be cut out to be President. Anybody that continues to support a Palin Presidential run simply isn't thinking straight and just can't be taken seriously.
I've never been crazy about Palin, but I do think she'd have made a better POTUS than Obama or McCain (which says more about my low estimation of those two than my high ranking of Sarahcuda). I tend to think last week's actions would make a Presidential run a non-starter for her, but that is the kind of prediction that always comes back to bite me in the arse. A lot of people really like and respect her, and she seems to be trying to keep all her options on the table. I'm sure the real details of her resignation will become more clear over time, but I suspect a large part of it was hinted at in her reference to her family's legal tab and the need to raise serious money to it off, probably by cashing in on her celebrity status in ways that would not be proper for a governor. I will say this: I've long though public officials who want to run for another office should be required to resign from their current post BEFORE starting a new campaign, and this whole fiasco has served to solidify my opinion. Palin's choice to run for VP, over the long term and for a variety of reasons, seriously impeded her ability to govern the state of Alaska, and she would have been better off to resign her post before committing to the McCain campaign.
ReplyDeleteBut looking forward, even if she doesn't run for POTUS, I think Palin can do a whole lot of good for conservatives if she focuses on helping to expose and support serious, reform-minded, small government candidates to run in the 2010 mid-terms. A lot of incumbent RINO's in red states are already starting to see serious primary challenges from grassroots newbie politicians who have arisen from the Tea Party movement, and there will be many opportunities for Republicans to pick up House and Senate seats next year as Americans continue to better understand the Obama/Pelosi agenda and its long reaching consequences. Palin can do the most good by going to areas where her ratings are high, especially in the increasingly 'purplish' midwest, and lending her name to serious conservative candidates in those areas. She has experience in grassroots politics, and enough love from the party faithful that her endorsement could clinch the deal for a previously unknown primary contender. That is ultimately a huge part of the problem for the GOP, in order to be effective they have to do two monumental things at once: replace ideologically undisciplined incumbents while also picking up seats across the board. Palin can do a lot to help with that, if she understands her role. If her intentions are simply to start a 2012 POTUS campaign now, she'll do more harm than good.