Politics ain’t beanbag, and never was. But the changes already sweeping over America these past few months feel like Demolition Derby meets The Twilight Zone. America is morphing into an economy run on bailouts, handouts and government-without-limits-or-borders. The Fourth Estate has re-zoned itself as a domain of blatant bias populated by anonymous sources (as “people familiar with the discussion said“). At the United Nations headquarters in New York, where Saudi Arabia is sponsoring a conference this week on “World Religions,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is now demanding — (I’ll translate this for you) — that whatever resources America might have left after the current exercise in self-evisceration should be turned over to the uses of other governments, especially those which have already so grossly mismanaged their own countries as to beggar their own populations.
In this landscape, from which John McCain seems to have vanished without leaving even a vapor trail (apart from a booking on Jay Leno), Sarah Palin has been left trying to fend off smears that inevitably return to such stuff as that $150,000 campaign wardrobe. No doubt this topic is terribly important, and I look forward to the day when the World Bank, in its global database, will include seasonal wardrobe expenditures by every prominent politician on the planet, including the poverty-fighters at the UN.
But from reading the current coverage of change, game-change, climate change, wardrobe change, and all the other changes now coming, I infer that if Sarah Palin wants to get ahead in today’s political climate, she’s a woman in serious need of goal change. To fill the big shoes of national office these days, one needs to think big, walk big, and above all, spend big. Forget that old-fangled business about success breeding success. To succeed these days, what it mainly takes is being too big to fail.
So my advice to Palin is, get in step with the changing times. She should put in an order this weekend for $15 million worth of clothes — no, make that $15 billion, or maybe $150 billion. Hire some of the big unions to organize the orders and haul them around. Then she should find a couple of foreign tycoons to fly her in a private jet to the UN in New York, where they’d surely give her a stage if she offers to pledge the entire oil and gas income of Alaska, in perpetuity, for carbon-neutral development programs administered out of Geneva, Beijing, Pyongyang and Nairobi. Then, by executive order, she should raise taxes on all Alaskan citizens greedy enough to be earning any taxable income at all, while signing orders for free universal healthcare, daycare, college tuition, and low-interest small business loans — to be forgiven for any business that fails, or repaid at triple the prevailing interest rate for any business that has the audacity to succeed. (It’s OK, celebrities keep saying they like being taxed, and in this climate, any business that makes money would be an instant celebrity.)
With credentials thus reinforced not only as an agent of change, but change that is Too Big to Fail, she could then head to Washington, flanked by her new staff of UN, academic, media and eco-advisers, to huddle with the U.S. Treasury over a bailout which, at least for those Americans still able to afford socks, would knock-yer-socks-off. Then she could pick up a couple of awards at Washington and New York banquets, plus maybe a Nobel for subordinating the entire state of Alaska to the global cause of “economic justice.” After that, could anyone seriously question her credentials to run this country?
OK, I know … it’s not Palin’s style. But looking at today’s political landscape, exactly what is it in this scenario that qualifies as over-the-top crazy?
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11 Comments
1. Sarah Palin On Best Political Blogs » Blog Archive » Sarah Palin’s Path to Redemption?:[...] Sarah Palin’s Path to Redemption? In this landscape, from which John McCain seems to have vanished without leaving even a vapor trail (apart from a booking on Jay Leno), Sarah Palin has been left trying to fend off smears that inevitably return to such stuff as that … [...]
Nov 11, 2008 - 3:43 pm 2. heather:there was a minute, just one minute, during Matt Lauer’s interview with Palin, when her inner Steel Woman came out: she was not going to involve herself with that intra-campaign gossip and attack!
She will be a great leader.
Nov 11, 2008 - 5:31 pm 3. John Austin TX fitness:The cover of Newsweek has a picture of Palin with the caption: She is one of us – that is the problem. They, the elite MSM, see that as a problem. Amazing.
Nov 11, 2008 - 5:57 pm 4. Ann:Sweetie, all this stuff is happening in America because of the nitwits you have been pushing for EIGHT YEARS.
That is not hard to get, is it?
LOL
Nov 11, 2008 - 7:49 pm 5. Jonathan:3. Ann:
Sweetie, all this stuff is happening in America because of the nitwits you have been pushing for EIGHT YEARS.
That is not hard to get, is it?
That is an astonishingly stupid take, Ann. The UN is Bushes fault? The totally-in-the-tank media is Bushes fault? Or is it Cheney’s? Or is it Ann Coulter’s? Have you paid any attention whatsoever to the parts played in Freddie-Fannie’s failure by Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Jamie Gorelick? You’re an idiot. I usually don’t flame the mentally deficient, but you have it coming.
Nov 11, 2008 - 10:28 pm 6. David Thomson:Sarah Palin will easily “redeem herself.” She will spend a lot of time studying foreign policy issue the next three years—and will greatly impress the American voters.
Nov 12, 2008 - 10:13 am 7. BAW:Palin will be America’s version of Margaret Thatcher.
I think you had entirely too much fun weaving that ridiculous (but appropriate) yarn. But when given the choice of laughing or crying, I’ll laugh with you.
Nov 12, 2008 - 8:52 pm 8. Deb D:I think the media and those really “smart” opinion writers have a problem with people (like Governor Palin) who speak like a normal person. It’s like a foreign language to them. They are so used to listening to claptrap from politicians, who answer a question by not answering it, that they have trouble with a normal person whose first inclination is to actually try and answer a question. A normal person who sees what’s happening to the country and doesn’t feel the need to whitewash it for the American people. We need what McCain said he had: straight talk. That’s Sarah Palin.
Nov 15, 2008 - 2:28 am 9. ate mely:Sarah Palin defended herself well with these smears. Thank God. A conservative Republican who fight back the MSM supported anonymous smears.
Nov 16, 2008 - 1:01 am 10. Jim Baxter:Now that the election is over Gov. Sarah is being attacked by the leftist-humanists because they fear her re-appearance on a future ballot. They are afraid and rightly so! She is a perceptive excellent candidate to represent the Founders Principles and our American way of life.
Additionally, since no one is smarter than their criteria, the collectivists are working from a pre-chosen mediocre (and worse) set of man-made opinions that limit perception of consequences-of-choice prior to choosing. In other words they lack vision. Based on a universe-sized ignorance, such devices are self-imposed, thus, the lefties can accurately and historically be defined as unintelligent.
On the other hand, Sarah and her chosen criteria, which is far superior to any man-made system of opinion, reasonably scares those who possess no practicing standard greater than mediocrity. Their collectivist opinion rises no higher than eyebrows – or belly-button.
Sarah is governed by God’s principles as found in The Holy Bible. Judeo-Christian principles are the founding principles of the greatest nation in human history; our America! Including, but not limited to, Human Defined: Earth’s Choicemaker, Individual Unique Value, Personal Rights and Responsibility, and Representative Government. Add: The Creative Process is a choice-making process and functions best in Freedom.
Sarah is recognized by friend and foe as a worthy representative of all that is wonderful about America. 2012 will be here shortly. Keep your eye on this courageous principled leader – and pray!
Jim Baxter
semper fidelis
Nov 16, 2008 - 7:11 am 11. Sarah Rolph:Sgt. USMC
WWII & Korean war
a point-man/follower of The Lion of Judah
Actually, John, the exact words on the cover are “She’s One of The Folks… and that’s the problem.”
Your conclusion is quite correct–insufferable elitism. But it’s somewhat less mysterious when you realize that by “folks” they don’t mean “us.” They mean “them.”
Dec 2, 2008 - 6:36 am