My Take On All Things Palin: You Probably Didn't See This Coming.

“It’s easy to take the quitter’s way out.” –Sarah Palin, in her resignation speech.

A lot of people are piling on Sarah Palin right now. They’re saying that she resigned because it’s the easy way out, that she doesn’t want to risk sagging popularity getting in the way of her next political campaign. They’re saying that she’s only interested in her personal political goals, that she doesn’t want to do the hard work of actually governing like she was elected to. They’re saying she’s just another politician who only cares about the next election and that this is a cynical attempt to free her up to campaign for the presidency in 2012. To these people I have one thing to say.

You are absolutely, one-hundred per cent ….. correct.

That’s right. I am one of those people. You can pretty much already cross her off my ballot for the 2012 Republican primary. Before I start listing reasons why I’d like to say a few things I do like about her.

-She gave a very good speech at the convention. The best I heard last year.

-She brings out the worst in the Left. At no time am I more cognizant of the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the modern Left than when Sarah Palin is being discussed. (Sadly this is similar to one of my negatives with regard to Ms. Palin.) This is particularly true of the so-called feminist leaders. If you did still take them seriously (and I have no idea why you would after the last 20 years or so) their behavior toward Governor Palin should serve as a reminder that the line about “advancing women’s issues” is exactly that, a line of BS.

-At one time I thought perhaps she embodied the Jeffersonian/ Jacksonian ideal of the citizen serving their country as opposed to the idea of a permanent political class like we see in the stagnating nations of Europe, and increasingly the United States. This could be the case with Sarah Palin I suppose, but not for long. It certainly seems less likely to me than it did last September.

-She agrees with me on most political issues. Can she intelligently articulate to others why they should agree? I doubt it. She’s a lot like Sean Hannity to me in that I agree with his positions on most issues, but hearing him try to explain why makes me cringe and grip the steering wheel tightly.

-That’s it for positives. Now for what I don’t like.

-I once read a comment that Sarah Palin’s main qualification with the Right is that she didn’t have an abortion. This is somewhat blunt. It is also, I feel, accurate.

-Now that the emotion of the campaign is over, go back and watch the debate with Biden. There are more cringe-inducing moments than I remember back when I was watching it happen live. In many cases she goes into the old North Carolina four-corners “kill the clock” offense, throwing out a lot of meaningless phrases to fill the allotted time and avoid having to say anything of substance. If she’d been a man Biden would have lit her up like a Christmas tree.

-Gender cuts both ways. Has there been sexism directed at her? Absolutely. But she’s gotten some bounces herself from that one. Can you imagine a male candidate trying to wriggle out of questions by winking and saying something cute? I can actually. Bush took that route a few times. I didn’t care for it then either.

-Her hold on many of the crucial issues of the day was about as steady as the vertical hold on a 30 year old RCA television set that had been dropped down a flight of stairs. Not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is? That was straight up embarrassing. 90% of America could not have answered that question, but they weren’t running for Vice President. I’d bet my right eye that Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton are in the 10% or less that could answer the question. This would have been a softball for me to slam into the parking lot beyond the left field fence, but I digress.

-The sports references are really flowing tonight.

-In the past 8 months I really haven’t seen any development in terms of depth. Do you think if Sarah Palin were ugly she’d be allowed to slide by so many people? It is ironic how the two ends of the political spectrum mimic each other’s worse qualities. Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have some of the same jokes being thrown around about them (you could include Mrs. Obama here too), the only difference is which end of the political spectrum they’re coming from, and whether the epithet used is “Nazi” or “Communist”.

-“She did a good job as governor of Alaska. Look at their economy.” Just for fun, look at how the Alaskan oil economy works. I remember a few months back when Glen Beck had an expert on Socialism on his show. I also remember the priceless look on Glen’s face when the expert told him that the real Socialist in the race was… that’s right, Sarah Palin.

-The behind the scenes political moves made during the late stages of the ’08 campaign (among other things Todd Palin telling major donors to hold their powder 2012) seemed to me to be indicative of political social-climbers of the worst sort. Is that what the rest of the pols do? Yeah, probably. So if she’s just like the rest, I’ll take one with a better resume and who can articulate the issues. Even though she does read “all of the newspapers”.

-She is another in a line of style-over-substance feel-good candidates. She seems more about hype and image than reality and hard work. This kind of fits the direction our society is going even further into. A kind of society where the average person under 25 takes like a thousand photographs of themselves every year doing absolutely nothing just to boost their online personas.

-This is why I’m leaning toward Newt for 2012

-Does it bother you how much people on the Right seem to love her more because they don’t view her as an intellectual? It does me. I don’t mean “intellectual” the way the left views it. They mistake academics for intellectuals on a daily basis, trotting out some professor who is incapable of dressing himself and telling me I should listen to this person without question due to what’s hanging on their wall, no matter how asinine the statements they make are.

- Michael Steele should get honorable mention in the “embarrassment sweepstakes”.

-Do you really think “being close to Russia” is foreign policy credentials? Be honest. I guess every governor of a border state can claim foreign policy experience.

-The left is doing her a huge favor politically by going after her family. With everything I just listed, (far from a complete list just what came to mind in the last hour or so) all they want to talk about is her daughter having a baby?

-These views are not set in stone. If she showed me some substance, some willingness to work hard and actually make me believe that she believes in something, that she has a vision other than advancing her career, I may change my mind. I’m not sure that can be done with speeches or fielding easy questions from sympathetic interviewers. She’s not going to have the easy road that Obama had in terms of media coverage. This actually could be a blessing in disguise if she manages to hold her own against hostile opponents. Anyways, you probably didn’t see that coming.