Palin for Pres: Why Quitting Won't Work

"Sarah Palin might have been the best thing that ever happened to the Democratic Party in 2008."

So, are you saying that Obama could not have won the election if McCain had not chosen Palin as his running-mate??....

Obama could not have won the election if George Bush had not been such a tragic mistake in the oval office.  Obama was an exceptional candidate, but as a black man and a relative unknown, he was the very definition of a long shot.  In any other election he would have been a non-contender.  But the widespread desire to punish the Republicans for the Bush years made his candidacy possible.  His own skill, intelligence and ability made it viable. 

McCain was losing and knew it, so he went for a Hail Mary pass, hoping that having a woman as his VP would attract disenchanted Hillary supporters.  Palin was so transparently one-dimensional as a candidate that McCain's troubled campaign was finally sunk for good as a result of his poor judgement in choosing her.

So, to some degree, she did contribute to Obama's victory.

No Berf, I'm saying that people were no longer able even to pretend they were getting competence from the Republican Party.

How is saying Sarah Palin might have been the best thing that ever happened to the Democratic Party in 2008 actually saying people were no longer able even to pretend they were getting competence from the Republican Party??....

She certainly was the worst thing that could have happened to John McCain, that's for sure...you betchya!

Awwww, sort of feel sorry for her.  But I suppose an argument could be made that she chose her path and a political path can be a mean one.

Berf, you made me laugh.  I'm sure it helped a great deal.

Lee, you are unfailingly nice. Indeed, she chose her path and she opened her mouth, and now it is time to pay the piper.

BERF - Thet's funny stuff, raht ther'.

Sarah is a twit, and I just wonder what's coming next.  I dunno that we need her to be the opposition in 2012, but it couldn' hoit.

The legal fees will only go up if she plans on suing the entire internet for saying bad things about her. Hows that gonna work for ya Sarah?

I can't fathom how quitting your one major office is a sign of a good leader!

I've made no qualms about letting anyone knowing that I am not a fan of Sarah Palin. There has also been speculation that she is doing this so she can remove herself from the media to ensure the safety of her family. I hope this is true.

"...Palin asserts that "it always feels good to do what is right." This is clearly the statement of someone who has never even remotely been acquainted with doing what is right."

Agreed.  Doing what is right is often incredibly hard and hurts like hell.  Knowing that you've acted in a way which is consistent with your moral and ethical values is satisfying, but that's quite different from saying it always feels good.

I thought she sounded like a person swimming hard against a rising internal rip tide.  For quite some time, I've felt that she must have a really twisted and self-justifying personal understanding of reality.  She's made it work, keeping persistent external realities from raising the spectre of self-doubt, through the skilled application of her forceful personality, an absolute commitment to closed-mindedness and what passes for 'charm' among the easily manipulated.  Now the vast inconsistencies between her personal reality and most everyone else's is kicking up so much cognitive dissonance it's threatening to tear her apart.

Her speech, and the subsequent posting on her Facebook page, are almost entirely about herself.  It's all about how much she has suffered, even though all she ever tries to do is help people.  She lays the blame on whole categories of people, for evil acts directed at her and all right-thinking people.  She doesn't get specific enough for anyone to effectively refute her claims.  If she tried that crap where I work, she'd be placed on a mandatory stress leave and required to receive counseling.  It would be up to the psychiatrist when and if she'd be allowed to return.

All of which points to the likelihood that she's up for a well-paid speaking tour on the ultra-conservative circuit, and a high-profile job at Fox News.

"...are almost entirely about herself." I read somewhere that McCain staffers speculated on the likelihood that she suffers from Narcisstic Personality Disorder.

.....unless they're Democrats....

if she wins, whoa. If she doesn't win, maybe this time she will get a talk show, and then she can pay back her legal fees AND write a book until  THE REST OF THE COUNTRY is sick of her.

She is delusional.....

"She is delusional...."

Well, I think that's an actionable statement right there, Kathryn. I'll bet you're just quivering in your boots, huh?  <wicked grin>

Too Late, Kate!  The majority of the country is already sick of her. 

She can wite a book, and she can work to secure republican seats in the house (another bottomless, baseless rumor goin' 'round...) 

I'm voting for Faux Noise.  Starting with guest appearances, and then her own show, if the ratings condone such idiocy.

Wilka

Linda, ha...oh quivering....I have better Western boots than she does, any day..

Wilka, I hope Faux does that, and they probably will. SUCH GREAT EDUTAINMENT. NOT. ENTERTAINMENT....

Featured in the Triple Name Club

I think she needs a reality show. It could be called "Train Wreck in Slow Motion."

She is not going to win over the female voters unless they are of diminished mental capacity or raving loony fundies.

ha...that is funny.

I don't think she'll be a good leader anyway.  Afterall, she quit her job as Governor of Alaska.

yeah, bet she didn't consider THAT angle coming back to haunt her..

I read part of an article online this morning, which suggested that there are a great number of Alaskans who feel that she never really "came back" to Alaska after the campaign ended... that she didn't really seem to care much for her job. I can't find that article now; I was going to post a link.

Or maybe it was just my overactive dream state...

No, you didn't dream it, Julie. It was on the opinion page at The Anchorage Daily News website.

http://www.adn.com/opinion/view/story/852900.html

There's another article with reactions from Alaskan officials--only one Democrat out of about 10 quotes--and only one positive quote about her resignation. I just don't see how the bad press can all be attributed to Democrats when members of her own Party don't have anything nice to say about her either....particularly state officials who arguably know her better than the Lower 48.

 

Thanks for saving my sanity, Linda. :) I was pretty certain I had seen it on my home page, and I found it most interesting. But I couldn't even find it in the "old" news.

She's probably all lined up with a good ook deal, and will be promoting that, and doing the lecture circut, as this pays very well.  She's still a good money draw if the Republican Party uses her correctly, but she may be looking to just pay down those lawyer bills, and promoting her particular brand of ideaology via, the lecture circut.

I do not care for many of her political ideas, but I do wish her well, and much success in her ventures, as long as they do not affect me, at all.

If you understood her 18 minutes of rambling, you are much better than I am!  I'm still trying to figure out how a FIRST TERM Governor can be a "Lame Duck"!  Lame, I buy...it's the duck part that escapes me!

Doesn't have to make sense, Spartan.  It's an animal metaphor - that's all you need to know to accept it. 

the duck part could mean "look out, here I come again!"

I heard she was going to impersonate Tina Fey on SNL...as her opening gambit.  She'll have to do a lot of rehearsing...and lose the "gotcha" and "you-betchas..."

LOL...I would then give up on SNL.

Wilka

That would be funny...

I still want her specs. I am getting new glasses soon, and I want HERS...

Liberals really do fear Sarah, don't they?  Is it because 20% of all Americans and 60% of all Republicans love her dearly?  We love that she is not part of the Washington dung.  We love that she didn't attend Harvard or Yale and yet is highly intelligent.  (Sorry folks, it's true.  Her IQ is right up there with Obama's.)

The ethics claims against Palin were done by liberal left wingnuts and have all proven false.  There is no FBI investigation against her.  And she's doing the right thing by stepping down, because now the idiots will stop.

But she can get a great TV gig on Fox and make sure that the rest of the Republicans come to love her as well, then look out in 2012.

"Liberals really do fear Sarah, don't they? "

No.  Liberals adore Sarah Palin, because she's the ultimate symbol of the dumbing down and the absolute smoking wreckage of the Republican party.

 "We love that she didn't attend Harvard or Yale and yet is highly intelligent.  "

So is a German Shephard, but we don't want one of them to be President. 

This is a woman who couldn't name a magazine she read.

"But she can get a great TV gig on Fox and make sure that the rest of the Republicans come to love her as well, then look out in 2012."

Thinking Republicans will never love her.  Of course, most of them will have been booted out of the party by the big druggie by then.

Marilyn, what you love is that you can identify with her. She believes the earth is less than 5,000 years old, that abstinence works and that a world war beginning in the Middle East is a necessary part of creating future history. That is an accurate description of your beliefs, isn't that right? Oh, I left out Creationism, the pseudo-science that says people were magically 'poofed' into existence 5,000 years ago.

Fortunately people like that don't often get elected to positions of power although we do consistently elect people with Narcisstic Personality Disorder, which accurately describes the entire House, Senate and Congress as well as the President and his round table.

John, it's 6000 years old. 5000 would be revisionist history.

""We love that she didn't attend Harvard or Yale and yet is highly intelligent.  "

So is a German Shephard, but we don't want one of them to be President. "

Truly one of the best lines I've ever read on Gather!  Bravo, Ali!

You know, that comment sums up a large part of what is happening to take down this country...the feeling of anti-intellectualism, anti-knowledge, anti-truth in a large portion of the US (although I believe it to be mostly found in the mid-west and south).  It won't be long until these people (who tend to have many more children than those Harvard/Yale-educated types) will become a significant majority.  That's when I definitely move to another country because the country I love will be gone.

Far from fearing her, what I am reading from most liberals is:  "Run, Sarah, run."

It is hard to imagine a better electoral scenario for Obama come 2012 than to have Palin back again as the top of the ticket instead of the bottom.

And Sheryl is absolutely right that the anti-intellectualism, anti-knowledge, anti-truth movement in the USA is at the root of a lot of your problems.  It is why Bush got in.  People though they could "have a beer with him", instead of being lectured by Gore.  Gore reminded them of the boring high school science teacher who put them to sleep or who's class they skipped regularly.  But who wants some folksy barfly running the country and having his finger on the button.

As president Palin would shooting 'A-rabs' from a helicopter and yelling "YEeeeeHaahh!"

Sheryl, you just don't get it.  There are many Americans who are tired of the Harvard/Yale lawyers.  We want to see REAL people in Washington, not career politicians.  Not attorneys.  I think it should be a requirement that anyone who wants to be in Congress should have owned or run a business at least for a short while.  If they had, they would not demonize businesses, nor would they think they can run them better from Washington.

What divided us the most during the election and continues to do so is the mindset that the sun rises and sets only on those who live near Washington DC, NY/NJ, Chicago, Detroit and big California cities.  Guess what.  There are plenty of people in the rest of the country!  And being from these places or going to school in these places doesn't impress us.

Just so you know, Marilyn, not everyone that graduates from Harvard and Yale are lawyers.  In fact, it is a rather small percentage of their overall graduates.  As for demonizing businesses, many of the top CEO's and business people come from Harvard and Yale. 

And it is an unfortunate fact that many of the states that gave their greatest support to Palin simply because she was an 'anti-intellectual' were the mid-west and southern states.  That doesn't speak well of people who look to leaders who are at their own intellectual level or, actually, much below.

If you really know your Founding Fathers, as you say you do, they held life-long education, especially studies of the classics (which the Ivy Leagues are dedicated to), as absolutely critical to effective leadership.  I find it rather ironic that a group of people who so extol the 'Founding Fathers' and 'the way life used to be' turn around and openly assault the very institutions that were founded and/or supported by those great minds. 

"And being from these places or going to school in these places doesn't impress us."

Apparently, going to school anywhere doesn't impress you.  The Republican "leadership" continues to pray for your rank ignorance. 

 "Celebrate stupidity, it's the Republican Way!"

I want my leaders to be better educated than I am.  I would have loved to go to Brown or Cornell, but I didn't have the money, and more than that, I didn't have the grades. 

You're still not getting it, Sheryl.  Let me explain it in simpler terms so you can.  It's not about being anti-intellectual.  Betch by golly, no way.  It's about someone who is a breath of fresh air, someone who doesn't come from the STINK of Washington politics.  Get it yet?  Or do I have to make it even simpler?  And, BTW, if you paid attention, a greater number of gool ol' boys in Washington are attorneys than are not.  People make jokes about lawyers all the time for a reason, Sherly, and yet they conveniently forget that they have elected those same shady characters to protect the Constitution.  I find that rather funny.  And sad.

Lopez, education can be excellent anywhere in the country, not just in a few schools.  It's snobbish and a slap in the face of anyone who has an education from schools elsewhere to think otherwise.  Besides, what is also important - and more important to many of us - is common sense and real life experiences.  Your favorites in Washington have no common sense and most of the Dems cannot possibly identify with what regular folks experience.  They just deceive you into thinking they can. 

Marilyn, you are the one who doesn't get it. This is a quote from the Harvard College curriculum page: "the faculty has an obligation to direct [students] toward the knowledge, intellectual skills, and habits of thought that are the hallmarks of educated men and women." Faculties everywhere have this obligation, but they do not always fulfill it. Frankly, in many places, they don't even think much about it. With the number of no-questions-asked, open enrollment community colleges churning out "college" graduates, the hallmarks of educated men and women are becoming rarer and rarer.

We need people who are educated and educable to lead our country. Sarah Palin is neither.

Sorry, Ann.  You can keep your snobbish Harvard buds to yourself.  Give me a graduate of Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Northern Kentucky University, or any of the other fine institutions in our country.  Give me someone who actually worked for his/her education, instead of having it handed to him/her.

The thing that divides us most is this attitude that the only good education comes out of Harvard and Yale and the only smart ideas originate in DC.  That is such foolishness.

Marilyn, you cannot get someone to run things who is not a politician.  To be elected you have to run, and that makes you a politician by trade.  All of those politicians up there in DC running the show were "real people" prior to getting elected.  They all had mothers and fathers and people in their lives.  This illusion of "real people" is self defeating and amounts to nothing at all.  What are you looking for, someon with no credentials at all?

Rory, you're not serious, are you?   First, as I've said before, I don't think we should be anyone in Washington who has not had some experience running or owning a business.  Secondly, I think that lawyers should be banned from office.  :)  I think we should have term limits set so there are never career politicians.  And I think that once they reach 80, they should be booted out the door no matter what.  (And earlier if they cannot pass a test designed to make sure they still have all their marbles - which should be administered every year past 65.)

You are so clueless, Marilyn.  You don't think that people who go to Ivy League schools 'work' for his/her education?  My daughter went to one, and I'll have you know that she worked her ass off - to get into it, to stay in and pay her way, and to do well in her classes.  You have absolutely NO freakin' idea how HARD IT IS to get into those schools and graduate.  Or, what a superior education you get there, so far beyond your state university it isn't even comparable. 

There are those like George Bush, sure, that get into an Ivy League school not on their intellectual merits and hard work, but on their daddy's family name and money.  But, most of the people my daughter wen to college with were middle or lower-class kids who worked their tails off since elementary school.

Unbelieveable.  Stick to the subjects you have first-hand knowledge of, please, and stop humiliating yourself.

"Your favorites in Washington have no common sense and most of the Dems cannot possibly identify with what regular folks experience.  They just deceive you into thinking they can. "

Sounds exactly like the Republicans who have consistently convinced their sheep to vote against their best interest, like "trickle-down" economics, tax cuts for the wealthy, the destruction of the middle class and supporting debacles like the Iraq war.  

Marilyn, running a business is not the be-all, end-all of what makes a person qualified to lead.  In fact, government is not a business and should not run like one.  Businesses serve the interests of their owners first, their customers second and the general public not at all.  Government must serve the general public first, have no vested ownership interest like a business and view all citizens as their 'customers'.  A lot of what government does cannot have a profit motive, the driving force behind all successful businesses.  Policing, courts, prisons and legislating cannot be a profit making enterprise, but comprises most of what government does.  Many government services (like food inspection, water purification, public transit) are also not profitable in the monetary sense but are beneficial in the social sense. 

Sheryl, your knowing something through your daughter is not first hand, it's second hand.  :)  That being said, the mere act of attending an Ivy League school does not make one superior.  Sorry.  There are plenty of intelligent people who attend the other fine institutions throughout the country.  Further, it's insulting to the fine professors and instructors throughout the U.S. to believe that they offer inferior instruction just because they're not part of the elitist Ivy League.

We all know that Washington is full of Ivy League persons and they are not impressive.  Perhaps if those persons had been exposed to those who were not so elitist, they might understand them better.   

Rory, being able to run anything would benefit those who are running the lives of US citizens.  Businesses as you describe them are the ones that have ended up begging for government hand-outs.  If we had established a sink or swim attitude towards individuals and businesses long ago, the government would not be in the mess it's in now.  Yes, it have hurt for a short while, but it would have been beneficial to all in the long run.

We obviously differ on what the U.S. federal government is supposed to do and what it should keep its hand out of. 

And once again, you remind us that it is a waste of time to try to convince the clueless of facts, Marilyn.  You can't even stay on the same topic during a discussion, nor glean the points from someone's comment based on your previous remarks.

I take it you are the product of one of those superior community colleges you rave about.  One thing you are very right about - Sarah Palin IS just like you.  It must make you feel very, very good about yourself that someone just like yourself can rise to such 'prominence' in your party. 

Even if she did study up and become more knowlegable, the idea of her as president scares the hell out of me.

I'm with ya on that, Ellen!

LOL, Thanks Jerry!

Poor Sarah Palin, even Fox News is after her now.

Fox News: Sarah Palin is inarticulate, undereducated

Arguing Democratic and Republican politics and ideology, conservative and liberal, whatever you choose to call it is precisely what the two parties want. That way they can hand off power to one another for another 100 years and perpetuate their control. There's no difference between the parties. They create minor differences for appearances. Both have the same larger goals and they don't include any of us.

For the most part, I think you're right.

After watching her press conference, I felt kind of sorry for her. And for her family. In a way, she reminds me a little of a former Australian politician, Pauline Hanson. After that press conference, and the stuff on her Facebook page, I wouldn't be surprised if a similar "If you're seeing this, I'm already dead" type video surfaces sometime soon.

 

Save your pity, Wil.  I'm sure we'll be seeing and hearing a lot more from Ms. Palin, to our great misfortune, in the future.  People that clueless never learn.  She'll be back out there in the media with some false, re-made image faster than she can wink-wink, believe me.  She'll be f-g up the news for many, many years to come.  If you lived here, you probably wouldn't be so kind-hearted in view of the up-coming onslaught.

"People that clueless never learn."

That's why I feel sorry for her.

"If you lived here, you probably wouldn't be so kind-hearted in view of the up-coming onslaught."

Maybe, but I hope I will continue to be able to pity people like Sarah Palin no matter where I'm living.

Personally, I think she should grab Joe the Plummer (intentionally mis-spelled since he really isn't a plumber) and co-host one of those cable hunting programs on at 3:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning.  That's just where she belongs. 

Politics is a strange game. I remember one person that lost his bid to be governor saying that he would NEVER run for political office again. A couple years later, he was elected President of the U.S.

So, anything, even quitting your job as a governor, could work in politics LOL

I hope you're wrong about that, buddy.

Only Time will tell. Voters are a strange breed, you know :)

She is an embarrassment to herself and doesnt know it!

MSNBC reported this evening that there are many scandals brewing in Alaska.  She is getting it from all sides for her incompetence and irresponsible money management. This is not going to help her very much in 2012.

Palin for president! Whoo hoo!
Te he!
As if.

There is no way in hell the Republican Party in it's present form will ever nominate a woman for president. I wonder how many Republican men stayed home on election day because McCain picked a woman...

I have removed comments by Micky D. because they bordered on hate speech and strayed from the topic. I will remind all who wish to comment that the discussion here should remain civil, on topic, and refrain from abusiveness.

Marylin! Are you such a hillbilly? You would rather have someone in the White House (again) who says "shucks" and means it!

I cannot believe the lack of brainpower the mainstream of the gallant south seems to have fallen to. As proved by our President, black people have more gumtion and brain power than the white trash who listen to Rush and watch FOX News like it was real!

I am sorry, but look at the intelligent people, yes the ones who went to good universities and not trade schools and ITT Tech (like the guy on the commercial "...I didn't want a mondane job..." It's MUNDANE tech grad!

Stop trying to dumb down this nation as the way most Europeans do see you!

Palin:

''only losers quit''

next sentence:

"I quit''

Very ironic.

''they just can't handle any criticism''

Criticism directed at Hillary Clinton was FAR worse than that directed at Palin.

Our local morning news show is looking for a new weather girl. Palin should send her resume in.