Run Sarah Run

A moment of high political humor, from a source other than the right, took place Wednesday night on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show. Speaking of Sarah Palin’s future, Mark Halperin said to the host “the more [that] people like you, with all due respect, suggest that ‘she’s not going to run, she’s a joke,’ I think it makes it more likely that she will run to prove people wrong.” O’Donnell’s prompt retort was “OK. Let me just say it again. She’s not going to run and she’s a joke.”

Warning! You might want to stop reading this now. I found the preceding exchange funny and possibly worth your time. But nearly everything about her and her Annie Oakley act that has taken place since her defeat for the vice presidency has not been worth he media coverage it received. Her current bus tour is a case in point.

I’ve been of O’Donnell’s opinion about her plans for some time. To extend Honest Abe’s dictum, you can’t fool all the people all the time, not even all Republicans. Surely a person who chose not to complete a first term as Governor of Alaska would never be nominated as a presidential candidate by a major political party. As a potential president her Gracie Allen type of patter was at least funny, much more so once it became evident that this potential was only theoretical. Since then her rote memorizing of right wing bromides has been anti climactic or, put more simply, dull.

I’m starting to have second thoughts regarding her plans. Her lack of knowledge in matters pertinent to high office is balanced somewhat by her ability at self promotion. Ignorance is not stupidity. She must know that as the most recently failed VP candidate, the shelf life of her act is at most four years. As the second most recent loser it would sell at a considerable discount. This is the way things would go after the votes are counted in 2012, barring some action by her in the meantime, without which she’ll become a political version of Paris Hilton.

Of course she’ll never be president. Apart from being unelectable I don’t think she even wants the job. Tweeting statements at one’s leisure is easier than answering questions extemporaneously, a skill at which she’s shown to be less than adept. But there’s no doubt that by simply declaring, she would accumulate a significant number of delegates, some of whom would jump off a cliff if she told them to. They could play a big part in selecting the next Republican nominee.

Should that nominee become president (perish the thought) Sarah might receive a position to continue her career in entertainment. Offhand I can’t think of a cabinet post for which she’d be remotely qualified. My guess would be the creation of a new agency for which she’d be a natural. Let’s hear it for the establishment of the Department of Perkiness.