I’ve thought a lot about Sarah Palin and her reasons for not running. One may simply be that she feels she needs more time with her family, especially with the youngest one, the little boy with Down’s Syndrome, who would now be about the age where he would need more attention and companionship than she would be able to give if she were running for President.
But the other thing is that I think she was afraid that she was developing a cult of personality and that the race would become all about her and not about her ideas and principles. I think the behavior of the Cain fanatics shows the dangers of this: they are so devoted to him personally that they don’t care about anything else and they’re irrational and absolutely vicious in their attacks on anyone who raises any questions about him. Palin, because she had been traveling around the country trying to promote her ideas and vision, but without the support of a political party or campaign, attracted a lot of people to herself personally.
But I think she’s an ethical person and didn’t want a cult following; I think she wanted to be a leader in ideas and policies, and not have groupies because of her personal charm or image. I bet she will run for state office from her new home in order to get back into mainstream politics so that she can have an actual policy effect as she did in Alaska. And then maybe, next campaign...
Sorry I just don’t see Cain supporters as being a cult of personality. I will say that we did get very defensive over the shameful smear job that these so called charges of sexually harassment, but to be then I think any true conservative should have been just as repulsed by them even if they didn’t support Cain as the attack wasn’t just against Cain, but against us all.
To standby and say nothing as so many did when it was so obviously that these charges were a put-up job was clearly a case of ‘Good men (and women) standing by and saying nothing’.
I so agree with everything you said. I like Sarah Palin and enjoyed both of her books. I read her columns that she puts on Facebook (it's been a while since I've seen one) and she makes a lot of good, common sense.
Around early summer, I started noticing that a lot of her supporters on here were displaying appalling behavior and nipping at the ankles of anyone who didn't completely agree with them.
Some of these were FReepers I had respected and liked for years.
I think what happened is that some of those ardent-to-the-point-of-obnoxious supporters lost face when Governor Palin announced she wasn't going to run and transferred that worship to Cain.
It's a shame to see decent people become obsessed in this manner and I'm sure the candidates (with the possible exception of Ron Paul) don't care for this cult-like worship.
These little hyenas should review their behavior and approach and try to regain their senses of rationale. This is an important election and we could do without the whole giggly, Tiger Beat fangirl thing mucking up the works.