Outside of Alaska, few people knew Sarah Palin, until she was thrust onto the national scene as one of the few bright spots of John McCain’s abysmal presidential campaign.
What, after all, did Obama really bring to his ticket? All the liberals and Blacks vote Democrat anyway. McCain’s tone deaf campaign management failed to capitalize on the large number of swing voters, who had serious doubts about the slick-talking and essentially vacuous senator from Illinois. Indeed, Palin succeeded as a sort of hatchet woman, and no doubt the swing voters were disappointed when McCain himself refused to hit hard.
To no one’s surprise, after their loss, many of McCain’s operatives leaked various stories to the media, blaming the loss on Palin. It was only after several days of that sort of thing, did the “gallant” McCain defend her—and even then, it was hardly a ringing endorsement. We might have expected better from this so-called war hero.
Indeed, one good measure of a society is how it treats its women.
Palin became a major target, of course, because she was not only pro-life, but she knowingly gave birth to a boy with Down Syndrome. Consider that there is no more politically correct precept than abortion on demand, and that virtually all female politicians are Democrats. Note further that unlike Palin, most women in politics are ugly, dowdy, or both, and only a tiny number of them will advance their own opinions on anything. Finally, realize that unlike Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, who was on a ticket that had no chance whatsoever, Palin actually could have become the vice president.
It didn’t help that she came from a distant state, viewed as a backwater, or that she did not attend an Ivy League school. In short, the Democratic establishment hated her, and so did most of the Republican operatives. This should not have mattered, though, because the people—outside of the Left—liked her a lot.
As it happened, during the campaign, the attacks on her largely backfired, but once McCain’s loss was in the record books, the blows against her started to land. The turning point came with the Palin family’s rather stupid assertion that her pregnant daughter Bristol would marry the baby’s father Levi Johnston. Few believed that this would ever happen, and when the couple broke up, the Palin attack machine went into a higher gear.
One wonders where Sarah’s male defenders were. Where, for example, was her husband? Was he under orders to keep mum, and if so, why did he comply? It could have been because she wanted to fight back herself. However, the only problem with playing Whac-a-Mole is that the moles outnumber you. Worse than that, by reacting to each and every insult, you are only encouraging the other side, and give credence to the notion that you have nothing better to do.
Her most egregious mistake was pimping out her own daughter for $300,000 to People magazine. This was followed by Bristol trying to become a spokeswoman for the cause of abstinence—if you can believe it.
At that, the crazed Dem attack machine went into overdrive, with a flurry of ethics complaints, including one against her for wearing a jacket featuring the logo of a company that sponsors her husband in snowmobile racing. Inasmuch as she believes that these attacks will continue, and will take up official time and money, she has decided to resign as governor.
Many are speculating on her motives. My take is that she can be an effective voice from outside the system, and could worm her way back into it, after some months.
Only time will tell.