Posted on 04/29/2014 7:20:30 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
After this weekend, it's probably safe to say that Sarah Palin is done. Like Jesse Ventura or Ross Perot, she may show up every once in a while to hurl red meat or use stunt cameos to remind us a little of her awkward charms. But recent events seem to confirm that she is an Obama-era novelty politician — and not much else.
First she gave a speech to the NRA in which she joked that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists, offending people who otherwise make up her base. Next, Robert Costa reported on the ever-smaller crowds that have been greeting Palin in Iowa.
When Palin took the stage at the Hy-Vee Conference Center under a banner that read "Heels On, Gloves Off" on Sunday at an event for Senate candidate Joni Ernst, the ballroom was half-full, with a couple hundred attendees scattered in clumps. [Washington Post]
If the politically engaged seem bored with Obama, they have all but forgotten Sarah Barracuda, the manqué of anti-Obama populism. After years of halting appearances on Fox News, gaffes about Russia, and a parody by Tina Fey that nearly eclipsed the original, it may be hard to remember the whirlwind national introduction to Sarah Palin, which culminated in her galvanic speech to the Republican National Convention in 2008. Sarah Palin wasn't a joke back then — she was a live threat. In a few days, with the help of an ace stylist, an ace speechwriter, and sheer novelty, Sarah Palin almost transformed that election.
It later became a reason to knock Palin's vanity and ambition, but Lisa Kline's work as a stylist gave Palin a frontier glamor — that red leather jacket, the military-cut coats — that put starbursts in commentator's eyes. She was an idealized image of a hockey-mom governor from the endless Alaskan wild. Obama was new, but cool and aloof. Sarah seemed relatable and engaging.
Until the introduction of Sarah Palin, the 2008 election had been almost entirely framed as one of "change" vs. "experience." But speechwriter Matthew Scully must have discerned a kind of frontier populism in her accent, history, and politics, and wrote a convention speech that gave the election a completely different cast.
Here's how CNN summed up the speech:
She slammed Obama for "saying one thing in Scranton and another in San Francisco," argued that he had written two memoirs but never authored a major piece of legislation, and asked what he would do "when those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot," a reference to the stage where Obama gave his acceptance speech last week. [CNN]
My personal favorite line was this: "The American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of 'personal discovery.'" You could almost hear that punch landing.
Palin gave what many in the Republican base had been craving all along. It was no longer McCain's long résumé against Obama's promise of change — it was a more primal election of "us" versus "them." She humblebragged, "I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment.... I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion."
And there on that convention stage we saw a preview of the "summer of rage" over Obama's health-care reform and the Tea Party rebellion of 2010.
For Republicans in 2008, alas, it became apparent that the McGovern presidential coalition had waxed in the past 40 years, while the Nixon coalition had waned. And for Palin, it's basically been all downhill since the convention: Saturday Night Live, a disaster interview with Katie Couric, an election loss, a boring reality television show, a number of her endorsed candidates flaming out, a clash with Roger Ailes, and one too many appearances on Fox News in which she seemed on populist autopilot or totally anodyne.
My theory is that Palin will have trouble finding a niche in the post-Obama world. She was the right minoritarian foil for the White House. The president is a brainy, cool-tempered, wonkish Hawaiian; he is a bit like the man from nowhere. Palin was slashing, heated, and defiantly Alaskan.
As his administration comes up more and more lame, what role will Palin play? Maybe none at all. The Obama-Palin dynamic may go down as a Pacific Ocean holiday from the Clinton-Bush rivalry that is the natural embodiment of our two-party, two-family American political system.
he only wishes!!!
Did anyone think to mention to this retarded metrosexual c*nt that Katie Coutic makes $7500 an hour on an "off" day?
Meaning that she could work a week a year, and could afford to hire his little b*tch ass to do her dishes, mop her floors and clean her toilet without breaking a financial sweat?
That idea scares the snot out of swishy metrosexuals such as the author of this article.
I'm brainy, and all my friends are brainy. Obama is my kid brother's age.
And even though my kid brother isn't "brainy", he's not a dumb enough Stoner to think that a Navy "corpseman" can speak "Austrian".
If they could think, and thought about the way they think they are thinking, I don't think they would think so much of themselves.
That’s a pair to draw to!
What “gaffes about Russia?” Has this clown been sleeping in a hollow log”
I can name you some Freepers who were.
He probably has a Twitter.
They love to get harassed on there.
_resident Zero can't even properly pronounce the name of one of the most liberal of the 57 states and one where claims he resided while fulfilling a quota at Harvard. He always refers to Massachusetts as: Mass-ah-TWO-chuts. Biden and Reid were so wrong. He is not well-spoken and does have an annoying Ebonic tinge to his vocalization as he mangles the English language peppered with an endless stream of "ah" and "um".
Pretty much a lock: despite trying to latch on to a star, this guy’s “name recognition” will remain near absolute zero.
Of course it’s over. That’s why so many commentators could write or talk about someone or something else (it’s not as if there’s any shortage of material) and choose to talk about her instead. Just like so many times before.
Look, the waterboarding line was a bit much. I think she’ll figure out she can beat the crap out of Barry (and Hillary and Liz) about being soft on terrorism without going there, and it’ll be handled.
Sarah will be relevant long after Obama leaves the stage.
...when he's frogmarched in an orange prison jumpsuit for his high crimes against America.
The anti-Palin crowd is deluded
bkmk
The latest trashing of Sarah Palin seems to come from multiple directions, Left ones and RINO ones.
Are the RINO’s upset with her involvement in primary elections and maybe fearful she will endorse Matt Bevin over Mitch McConnell in Kentucky.
I don’t know....
The critics don’t speak for me and many others. They are in their own world cut off from the truth about a nation and a world slipping towards a disaster that will cause public opinion to change dramatically in favor of anyone who will offer people hope, including Sarah Palin.
And Runt Paul did what?
In your dreams.
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