Sarah Palin, RIP?

Everyone has an opinion, left and right, Democrat and Republican, main stream, minor stream, and slip stream. It all boils down to the following: (1) She is starkers, or (2) she is not starkers, but something that looks very much like starkers, so maybe she's starkers after all, but we can't tell yet.

Well, relax. Take a deep breath, and entertain the possibility that she is doing exactly what she says she is doing: giving up a governorship solely because she is under such intense pressure from a National Political Delusive Class that she is unable to effectively carry out the program that the citizens of Alaska elected her for (the same citizens who would, by the way, overwhelmingly re-elect her if she had decided to run again). Note also that, as most of the smart money has suggested, she could have simply run out her governorship and then gone on to do whatever else she wants to do in politics. But she answered that suggestion very clearly: she has no interest in remaining governor to "milk" the office as a lame duck.

She ran for Mayor, and Governor, and also for Vice President, as a citizen-politician, i.e. as that rare type of politician who has no interest in the office for the office's sake, but for getting involved so as to do something important for her Country. Many doubted her bona fides in this regard, but her latest political "move" is nothing more than further proof that she was very serious about the matter. If it will advance her Alaskan program to leave the stage and let others accomplish her goals without the harsh glare of national politics that she brings to the matter, then she is willing to leave.

Ronald Reagan once revealed how he was able to govern California so effectively for 8 years: he was always more than willing for others to get the credit, so long as he got what he wanted. That expresses the essence of a citizen-politician, and that explains why Sarah Palin did what she just did.

Certainly she has national ambitions, and now she is freed from the rare (for a politician) concern about her fiduciary obligations to Alaska, freed to raise money for SarahPac, make speeches, help other candidates, write a book, and perhaps most of all, begin confronting her critics in earnest.

With this unorthodox move I don’t know if she will ever make it to the Presidency. But I do relish the energy she apparently intends to bring to politics in the lower 48, and can’t wait to watch the growing consternation of her critics.

She scares the Hell out of the Left wing of this Country, and for good reason. Who else in national politics has shown the ability to regularly draw 20,000+ crowds? No one, except the One, and I don't think he could do so today.

But give Sarah Palin a good, well advertised Tea Party? I see 30,000 as a certainty, 50,000 as a possibility.

Fasten your seat belts, the ride might get a bit bumpy. But I think this Palin person will give us quite a show.