The 30% Solution

You may have heard that Sarah Palin's political career is over, finished, done, doomed, vaporized, fricasseed, flambe'd, burnt toast, stick a fork in her. Yes! Yeess! it's over (touch me there, again)! Yep, she won't get any traction in Iowa now. No one will stand with her. Romney's the "solid" pick. Not Sarah! Nope. Not happening. She's outta there. Struck out. She air balled it. Doom Doom Doom! We tried to tell you. Oh, yes we did. It's the end of the Christian right. It's the end of the culture wars. It's the end of the GOP. We used to think It was Bush's fault, but now we know It was Sarah's fault. All Sarah's fault. Everything. 47 million uninsured? Sarah. Global warming? Sarah. The Iraq War? Sarah. Sing it with me, "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah all day long!" But not anymore. Because her career is over. Because we said so.

Some would beg to differ like former SF mayor Willie Brown who, as Speaker of the California Assembly, was the most powerful Democrat in California during the Eighties and Nineties: Sarah Palin, Political Genius

The pundits are wrong. Conventional wisdom is wrong. Sarah Palin's decision to step down as Alaska governor was a brilliant move.

Palin has some of the best political instincts I have ever seen. She became a pop-culture superstar overnight when John McCain made her his veep pick, and she's still second only to President Obama among politicians the public is interested in. Even in liberal San Francisco, she'd be front-page news if she ever came to town.

And Tammie Bruce, who knows a thing or two about feminism, the Left, and the cuture wars says Palin could be a galvanizing force for a legitimate conservative political movement independent of the two major parties. Call it the 30% solution: Palin Hints At Independent Conservative Movement

In an interview with the Washington Times, Palin makes her most direct comments yet about Conservativism versus the Republican Party. In my humble opinion, it’s clear the GOP, unfortunately, is lost beyond the point of return. When you’re one year out of key campaigns to take back Congress in 2010 and Meghan McCain is The Oracle of the party, you know it’s over. If Tina Brown thought Ms. McCain’s willingness to be a Useful Idiot for liberals would undermine the conservative movement (and consequently Sarah Palin), she should take a serious and long look at what their attacks on Palin provoked: a stronger, more independent, more determined conservative leader and base.

Most important, her detractors still feel compelled to write about her. And, they aren't tramping the dirt down. They are attacking her as if they still need to convince the public, and themselves, of Sarah Palin's on-going badness. I don't remember Gary Hart (whose career really was over when "everyone" said it was over) getting this level of attention P.M.B.

Consider Maureen Dowd, now on her third straight column about the ex-gov.Sweet Tweet Revenge

MCCAIN: @AKGovSarahPalin — I see u still can’t control Levi, who says u quit 2 cash in on the book and TV offers. On Fox, you’d b just another fox.

PALIN: @SenJohnMcCain — Just progressing my bank account. Couldn’t marry rich
like some lucky cusses we know.

MCCAIN: @AKGovSarahPalin — Leave Cindy out of this and I won’t tell you how I really felt about antics of “The Real World: Wasilla.”

PALIN: @SenJohnMcCain — I should’ve quit ur campaign when ur team was undermining me, just like Obama WH is doing 2 me now on ethics complaints.

MCCAIN: @AKGovSarahPalin — That’s ridic. You’re more paranoid than Hillary. Quitting isn’t noble. That’s why I’m still fighting nasty earmarks.

Consider Frank Rich, who has simply gone mad: She Broke the GOP, Now She Owns It

The essence of Palinism is emotional, not ideological. Yes, she is of the religious right, even if she winks literally and figuratively at her own daughter’s flagrant disregard of abstinence and marriage. But family-values politics, now more devalued than the dollar by the philandering of ostentatiously Christian Republican politicians, can only take her so far. The real wave she’s riding is a loud, resonant surge of resentment and victimization that’s larger than issues like abortion and gay civil rights.

(snip)

The latest flashpoint for this kind of animus is the near-certain elevation to the Supreme Court of Sonia Sotomayor (SOTOMAYOR?? I thought we were talkingabout Palin? - Psota), whose Senate confirmation hearings arrive this week. Prominent Palinists were fast to demean Sotomayor as a dim-witted affirmative-action baby. Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard, the Palinist hymnal, labeled Sotomayor “not the smartest” and suggested that Princeton awards academic honors on a curve. Karl Rove said, “I’m not really certain how intellectually strong she would be.” Those maligning the long and accomplished career of an Ivy League-educated judge do believe in affirmative-action — but only for white people like Palin, whom they boosted for vice president despite her minimal achievements and knowledge of policy, the written word or even geography.

If you support Sarah Palin, you have much to be ashamed of! The tide of history, and unimpeded illegal immigration is against you!

Look, I'll be the first to admit that there is not, as of this day, a clear unimpeded pathway to the White House that Sarah Palin can follow. The timing's a little off. She's very young. Her knowledge base is deep, but too narrow. She has a lot of work to do.

But, plenty of people have had positive effects in US politics without becoming president. Should we think less of Eugene McCarthy because he lost the '68 nomination? Should we think less of Jack Kemp? Howard Dean (well, I do, but he was admittedly a real galvanizing force)? Ben Franklin? Alexander Hamilton?

None of the people linked to above are writing dispatches from the future. They are writing more for themselves, than for Sarah Palin. But the Northeast media's attempts to write her obituary, even as she captures even their attention is a sign that there's no need to put down a deposit on a cemetary plot just yet.