Palin may just win in 2012 "If the economy is still tanking, voters may just ignore everything else, and we will have President Sarah Palin in 2013."
By Arturo Mora, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist 2009Palin presses the flesh Palin presses the flesh
The adjectives to describe Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's resignation are just too easy to come by, unless you’re one of her googlie-eyed followers who’ve drunk her Kool-Aid. Let’s start with: irresponsible, overambitious, megalomaniac, martyr, and of course, quitter.
The one Democrats are most frightened of, though, is brilliant politician. It’s extremely unlikely, but she may just be able to do the impossible and beat President Obama in the next election.
The Facebook statement explaining her decision, besides reflecting her usual poor command of English, is an obvious call to arms for the next election.
“I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint. I hope you will join me. Now is the time to rebuild and help our nation achieve greatness!”
She continues with her usual attack on the press: “How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country. And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make.”
The “higher calling” point might have some validity, if she had not said a day earlier, "Many just accept that lame duck status and they hit the road, they draw a paycheck."
To quit an executive governing position because you are bored with lame-duck status, or even if you don’t like the ineffectiveness of that status, is unconscionable.
Guess what governor? Lame-duck status inevitably comes with most executive positions, unless you’re defeated or resign. What would our states be like if all lame ducks quit once they’d decided not to run again? What if President George W. Bush had decided to quit once lame-duckness made him ineffective?
That’s not how government works in America. You serve out the full term, unless there’s a scandal or illness that forces you out. If you do otherwise because you don’t want to be a lame duck, you deserve only one title. Quitter.
Palin mentioned quitting for a "higher calling" (cue "Hail to the Chief," please), and that is not without precedent. Many have quit the Senate or governorships to run for President. And that can even be honorable, avoiding a situation where you don’t cheat the taxpayers of your state out of your full attention.
First, she blew that argument by talking about the lame duck thing. Second, it’s not a valid point to make when the "higher calling" is over three years away. No one, as far as I know, has ever quit an elected position that far out to run.
So that different standard she pre-assumes the press will make about this doesn’t apply here. Palin loves to use the press as her whipping boy, and play martyr. But the fact is the worse damage the press has ever done to her is airing her inane answers to fairly straightforward interview questions.
Mostly this all shows just how endeared she is with certain other press clippings, the ones about the adoring crowds she draws and how many Republicans view her as the Great Conservative Hope. Her statement shows an extraordinary megalomania. Only Palin can save the country!
It’s also risking an image as overambitious. If you think Hillary Clinton had trouble shaking that tag, watch it become glue on Palin.
The irony is that, as horrible a political move as this is, in the end Palin may be able to win all the marbles. Stranger things have happened, witness Obama’s victory.
The Republican base is so in love with her, they may just drive her to the nomination in 2012. If that happens, all bets are off.
Let’s just hope she doesn’t get bored about 2017 or 2018 and quit again.
Kansas City Star.com July 5, 2009 |
