Newsweek magazine has given Sarah
Palin, yet another, cover story to add to her plethora of coverage. She is teetering on over-exposure, but, to my great misfortune, hasn't become the social pariah she should be.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hold fame against anyone. Let the idiots from Jersey Shore have their moment in the sun. Give Spencer and Heidi their book deal. If a random, somewhat straight bachelor can find on-air love, more power to him. The deal is that these people all have to go away when their 15 minutes is done.
Unfortunately, Sarah Palin, the greatest no-talent, reality show star of them all is still here. My question at this point is 'Why?'.
Sarah got her big break when John McCain chose her as his running mate in 2008. One would think that would be a nod to her experience, intellect, and political savviness, but in this case, it wasn't. The timing of this choosing happened to coincide with Hillary Clinton's rise in popularity. She had become such an extraordinary candidate that there was no ignoring the fact that the ladies on both the right and left were pulling for Ms. Hillary. Although she was losing the party's nomination, the idea that she and Obama would join forces would have certainly sunk the McCain campaign, so in desperation, the Republicans went on a vagina hunt.
Although there were many great Republican women with incredible talent to choose from, they needed a vagina with a little pep, one that wouldn't upstage McCain, and one that would fit into his 'women belong in the kitchen obeying their men' persona. Hence, Palin was pulled from Mooseland and into the spotlight, along with her opinionated husband, non-college bound children, one of which was pregnant at 17, and her terrible record as a mayor, which at the time, was the longest public office she had held.
She was great at reading from a teleprompter, which is what she went to several colleges to learn how to do, and she looked really fantastic in expensive business suits. She used ignorant, folksy language to claim that she related to people even though most of us would have likely turned around and walked away in disgust had she said the same thing to us in real life. In the end, McCain lost, and Sarah was supposed to go back to Alaska only to be seen again during a CNN 'where are they now' show in 2012, but Sarah had other plans.
The limelight is intoxicating, and no one is exempt from it, not even Princess Palin, and here is where the fraud comes in. While television shows still regard her as governor, the fact is that she didn't really govern. She was in office a short time before she started campaigning for Vice President, which took her out of the state for nearly a year, and then came back for a few brief moments to resign. What did she really do for the people of Alaska aside from walking out on them when something bigger and better came along?
Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected to govern California, and he served his full term. If we compare the experiences side-by-side, governing Alaska is like governing an upper middle class preschool where the building is new, you have an assistant and healthy classroom budget, and all of the parents bend over backwards to help you. California, on the other hand, is like running an inner city middle school in a 100-year-old building with leaky pipes and no heat, where you have to beg a local dollar store for chalk so you can write the day's lesson on the blackboard, and most of the students you are teaching are becoming parents at the end of the semester.
California is in a huge financial crisis, whereas Alaska has their budget padded by oil revenues, something no other state has. The California legislature is corrupt, whereas Sarah's legislature was from the same party. California has one of the largest populations, severe border problems, and has yearly wildfires that create a constant strain on state resources. Alaska has none of these issues, yet Sarah didn't want to stick around. Arnold didn't have to, but he did.
Now Sarah is everywhere, and people talk about her running for president. Why? What will this person bring to the highest office in the land? She doesn't have a background in Constitutional education, neither learning it nor practicing it. She doesn't have much foreign policy knowledge, and given that we are in a huge trade debacle with one of our largest debt holders, we might need someone with a clue to figure that out. She doesn't have much of a record when it comes to leadership. She can talk folksy, and spew rhetoric about loving the U.S. of A and believing in Jesus, unfortunately, that doesn't translate into jobs, debt reduction, and dealing with two expensive and on-going wars.
It would be one thing if Sarah made it clear that all she wanted to be was a Fox News correspondent who was paid a healthy sum of money to give speeches. She could write books, have a half-hour show, and follow the Glenn Beck playbook on fame and wealth. I wouldn't hold it against her. However, her constant teasing at a presidential run constitutes fraud, because she isn't qualified for the office. She doesn't know how to deal with complex issues of state, and she doesn't have the intellectual capacity to review and decide on policy that will set America on the path of prosperity, yet she will go on television and pretend she does.
It's sad to think that I have more respect for Snookie from Jersey Shore than I do for a fellow suburb mom like Sarah, because Snookie would never attempt to do brain surgery. Brain surgery takes a lot of skill, intricate knowledge and years of experience, and Snookie would be the first one to tell you that she doesn't have any of that, because unlike Sarah, she isn't a fraud.
