Why won't she just fade away into obscurity, already? Nine days out from a decisive defeat (not a landslide, but decisive nonetheless), Sarah Palin is still campaigning. A lot of people say she's positioning herself for a run at becoming Alaska's US Senator or (shudder) President in 2012. I think, like John Boehner and a lot of other Republicans out there, she is a sore loser and needs to bow out of the limelight with whatever grace and dignity she still has.
It's obvious that the Republican party is on the verge of civil war and in many ways it already is. Say what you want about Palin's impact on the campaign or the financial crisis, John McCain never rallied his troops. With the successful hijacking of the Republican party by reactionary, xenophobic religious extremists, politicians of once seemingly sound minds have had to pay lip service to the hateful and divisive elements of the party. Even Johnny Mac, who once correctly referred to Jerry Fallwell and his minions as "agents of intolerance", publicly kissed and made up with the old bastard prior to locking up the GOP nomination. Fortunately, irreparable brand damage and reality itself have countered the appeal of this wretched ideology.
It was this change in the winds that enabled John McCain to secure the nomination. But, it also was his downfall, as it was impossible to bridge the gap between resurgent, old-school Republicans and the now-defamed, newer breed of intolerant xenophobes. McCain, thus, sought to bridge the gap by choosing as his running mate someone who embodies this born-again, red-meat-spewing paranoia; he chose Sarah Palin.
Early on, she was a great hatchet-woman. She went after Obama, Biden, and the "elitist" media with a vengeance. She brilliantly acted as aggressor, while portraying herself as the victim. And despite my post from 9/4/2008 where I predicted she would be the demise of the GOP ticket, I was scared for awhile that voters would actually buy her elite-bashing fear-mongering, like they did with Karl Rove's manufactured distraction of gay marriage in 2004.
However, her gaffes, her glaring contradictions, and her plain stupidity resonated with people and when the economy was on death's doorstep in late September-early October, people woke up and smelled the coffee: this woman could be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Scary. Despite everything telling her and her handlers that her strategy was not a winning one, she not only kept it up, but she increased it. Her attacks on the Democrats and the media crossed the line to where they were just mean-spirited, to the point where at one point she even implied that people who live in less conservative places and vote for Democrats are not real Americans. I don't know how things work up in your frozen, barren, wasteland of a state, Sarah, but you don't win people over by insulting them.
But, a lot of McCain's campaign and his adherents subscribed to this mean-spirited garbage. Throughout the general election campaign, McCain events had a bitter edge to them and his disciples really had chips on their shoulder. Some of his events resembled lynch mobs with one or two yahoo's screaming out that they should "hang the terrorist!". This whole mentality, strategy, and atmosphere was exacerbated by the new Queen of Mean, Sarah Palin.
And she just won't shut up...or give up. She's on Today, Extra!, local news, everywhere still spewing her venom. She's keeping on with this negative campaigning and there is no campaign! The only thing I can surmise she is doing is publicly gunning to be the new standard-bearer of intolerant wing of the party. But, in so doing, she is further alienating the Republicans from main-stream America and tarnishing the Republican brand name. Unfortunately, she plays well in places like Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma where a Darky-Socialist as President is a tough pill to swallow. I expect that she'll be around for awhile, but will hopefully contradict and gaffe herself into oblivion. And when she finally does, good riddance!
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