News of The Weird...

It's a funny day, and sometimes politics don't get any weirder. Here we have celebrities dropping by the score, so much (and yet so little) to think about this news bit, but I feel the need to write about this anyway...

Yes, this is political, so please move on if it hurts you to read negative things about Sarah Palin specifically.

I found it highly interesting yesterday to see Sarah Palin is quitting as governor of Alassska 18 months before her term is over. Even Rush Limbaugh had to say it was "risky", which my Democrat-to-Republicanspeak Decoder Ring says is code for "swan dive into political oblivion".

As I hoped would happen post-election, a healthy chunk of people with a brain on the right side of the aisle have come to recognize Palin for what she is: A political opportunist whose public service ethic and feminist ideals extended only as far as it would get her. But she failed to do her homework, and anyone who watches the Katie Couric interview and proceeds to blame the media for that debacle in public relations I would argue needs to get a few screws tightened in their head and watch it again...

Not a lot of people would argue against me that Palin was done shortly after that interview and ones like it. Once the election was lost (or perhaps a few weeks in advance of that), the Party itself had already started to blame her for the loss.

Still, she managed to stay in the news a little longer, especially with the rather schizophrenic combination of "Isn't my family fabulous?/Stop reporting on my family! Pay attention to me because I'm still relevant!/Leave me alone!"

While I can hope this is a swan song of her political career only because I truly LOVE America...I can't help if this is just a ploy so she can go write her book and do her fundraising and "consensus building" among the anti-Choice wingers without having to deal with pesky taxpayers and constituents who want her to do her job.

But secretly, there's a part of me that wonders if everyone has underestimated her, only because it's taken slightly longer than the 15 minutes most of us anticipated for her to become a cocktail party joke.

I'm not sure who she's listening to, but perhaps she understands that governorship of a sparsely populated state isn't power, but the money is...and sitting around approving legislation and plotting one's political future while the media has the audacity to question your money spending and motivations behind every move you make isn't going to get you anywhere either. At least it's a lot harder than making a few million from a book/speaking deal.

Plus, she'd be better off reading a few copies of the The Washington Post, New York Times and the Wall Street Journal for a while -- you know -- to get her bearings on what is actually happening in the world while there's still newspapers to report it.

My main wish for ALL Americans, including any future leaders -- like say Palin -- is that the next time she opens her mouth about Russia that she doesn't sound nearly like the ditzy Wasilla High School cheerleader that she has in the past.


Maybe then she could run for Senator from her state and give someone a plausible run in 2016 after President Barack Obama's eight years are up in The White House. Being a Senator isn't executive experience, but it seems to work for a lot of Presidents...

Plus I think it's going to take longer than four years for her to catch up and do her damage control/wheel reinvention, and a few more of her kids can be out of the house by then and able to make decisions for themselves about whether or not they want to be part of the campaign rather than trundled out for consumption.

But you can count on me to be among those who won't be holding their breath for it, but at least I can say I didn't count her out when even Rush was ready to.