Random thoughts on Palin

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What happens to Sarah Palin after the GOP ticket goes down in flames? After further exposure to her since my first post after her selection, I suspect she will continue to be a force in national politics, but she won't be on the top of the ticket for a while without a serious policy makeover. She's the anti-Hillary -- the left despises her as deeply as the right despises the junior senator from New York. Palin will be most useful in her current role as attack dog/crack for the base, until she gets the opposite of a Clinton makeover. Since she's clearly heterosexual (unlike Hillary), she doesn't need softening so much as sculpting. Perhaps Kissinger will spend the next couple of years giving her an education.

I suspect that she's a lot brighter than she has let on in the national campaign, although she's almost certainly no intellectual. No self-respecting intellectual has the kind of self-discipline and cunning it would take to play dumb for this long. But a Machiavellian power player certainly would. And she's clearly very capable.

While she has tapped into a large reservoir of support, Palin is likely a dead end for conservatives unless she shifts on foreign policy. The National Greatness, Neoconservative foreign policy stuff is likely over with on the Right for a while (although not on the Left!) and the GOP's most productive topic of meditation while in the wilderness is probably a return to it's curmudgeonly roots -- less government, lower taxes, get the hell of my lawn kind of thing. Otherwise, the GOP will lose more and more conservatives. Even a President Obama won't be able to shove his opponents into their arms unless those arms are open.

4 comments:

mathle said...

Wishful thinking. I think some Today show reporter, probably Al Roker, is going dig her up 20 years from now in a segment called, "Where Are They Now - People Who Should Have Never Had Their 15 Minutes."

Why is there a need to cast her as brighter than she has let on? This was a rep. cadence over the last 2 months. I don't get this. I think the exact opposite is true, and I think the McCain campaign discovered this. Hence the zero-access policy in which she was cloaked. No there, there.

I think the only reason she gained a modicum of interest from reps. was their uneasiness with McCain. Can you imagine a strong conservative, fully-supported rep. candidate choosing Palin? I can't.

CCW said...

Well as I said I don't think she's an intellectual but that doesn't make her stupid.
The reason why I think there's some there there is because of her Tenacious D-like rise to power in Alaska. That doesn't just happen by accident. She's definitely got some exceptional political skills. And lest we forget, she is still a very popular governor in her own state.

Unknown said...

She just got popped toting her kids around on the state dime... breaking news...

CCW said...

Yeah, she'll attract scandal -- that's entirely consistent with a Clinton comparison.

I'd be surprised if she didn't have her hand in the till. After all, she is a politician and that's like breathing for them.