Waking up in a Savannah hotel room that hot August morning, CNN was already speculating that a plane had flown overnight from Anchorage to Dayton, Ohio, the site of a much-anticipated John McCain rally. The likely occupant: Governor Sarah Palin.
In a brilliant move, Senator McCain revived his presidential campaign, which had been on life support since the South Carolina primary in 2000.
In the months leading up to this announcement, I was asked many times who Senator McCain should pick as his running mate. Even without knowing the Democratic contender, my answer was: “He needs a fresh face…someone different from the Republicans spotlighted the face of the party. He needs a woman, like Sarah Palin. Or the son of immigrants, like Bobby Jihdal. Or an accomplished leader brought out of retirement, like J.C. Watts. And, he needs someone with solid conservative credentials, which all three of the people on my short list possess as well.”
At one point, I was looking around online for more information about each of my three picks so that I could include some links with my response, but the availability of profile pieces on Governor Palin was minimal. Wonkette had run something referring to her hotness, but not much else surfaced in my search. Ten months later, she returns 21 million hits on Google.
Now, this political lighting bolt has struck again. While she baffles many, I tend to understand her decisions at every turn. Admittedly, I’m influenced by my own life experiences, but the complexity of her motivations appear crystal clear to me. She’s been in the middle of a political firestorm for almost year, and while she can weather it, her family and her state have suffered.
I was looking around online for a more articulate explanation. It appears the Drudge Report link to Roger Stone’s website has blown up his server, so this link (http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/sarah_palin_roger_stone/2009/07/06/232562.html) and excerpt from newsmax.com.
[Roger] Stone likens Palin’s decision to step down from the Alaska
governorship to that of Richard Nixon, who in 1962 “got fed up with being called
Tricky Dick, got fed up with being the man that nobody would buy a used car
from, and fed up by the constant assault on his values and his middle-class
background by the liberal media,” he says.
“So, in 1962 he did what Sarah Palin just did –– he quit politics. Six
years later he was inaugurated as President of the United States.”
Read the rest—it’s insightful. And then check back in 2012 to see if we’re right.
The SpinDoctor remains as a guest poster to SteakMatters and will singlehandedly save this blog if POTUS could ever open his computer one evening and finally extend the invitation to be a member of The Team. - POTUS
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