Op-Ed: Palin Pre-Presidential Politics: The First 100 Days

Sarah Palin has a purpose. It likely isn’t just to run again for Governor of Alaska. The gal has mighty plans. History and political revisionists will help. So will the base. She could use a little time to catch up.

The base is that group of people who like her great looks and her political agenda. But will that be enough? Palin thinks so, likely, and has been reinforced to continue her wishful thinking by the Republicans who talk about her having a great future. During the campaign for the Presidency, John McCain picked up Palin as part of his plan. Speculations and language led people to believe that this choice had to do with Hillary Clinton’s loss to Barack Obama in the primaries and the GOP hope for a successor. GOP stands for Grand Old Patterns, so it’s likely the base won’t change much and Palin won’t either if she wants to keep their loyalty. Here in Louisiana Palin was a hero for the guys in plaid shirts driving trucks and looking for deer to shoot. She can carry a gun with the best of them. She has kids and plenty. The blue collar look and feel of the husband, the pregnant unwed daughter happily giving birth to a boy, the son-in-law without a steady job looks just like a typical family in these parts. So folks didn’t get mired in the muck of personal Palin material. Instead they just saw this good-looking gal bashing Obama, a guy whom they said “scared” them and will likely be on the Palin team the second time around. Will there be a second time? There will if Palin has her way. The first 100 days didn’t start with the inauguration of Barack Obama. No indeed, it started right after the election in November. Palin has been on television almost constantly from her denials about the clothesloaned to her by the Republican Party, to her statements about John McCain intimating the loss of the Presidential – Vice-President ticket was more his fault than hers. How can we forget the torture and killing of turkeys at Thanksgiving heard screaming behind Palin as she smiled for the cameras? Now she has gone to Washington having set up a political action committee called Sarah PAC, in hopes of being seen prominently, as if getting in the limelight with her particular folksy style doesn’t count. I hear folks around where I live thinking she’ll be a great contender for the Presidency in 2012, which is likely what Sarah PAC is all about. If these Palin preliminaries in her first 100 days, due to end in less than two weeks, are any indication, Sarah Palin is apt to be with us for awhile. Her grabbing the spotlight will likely continue since she believes her own press and political party edges and not the pronouncements of the rest of the United States. That’s my observation as Palin’s first 100 days running for President of the United States is nearing its end. Will people remember Tiny Fey’s portrayal of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live? Or Palin’s interview with Katie Couric? If they do, Palin has the distance to go to catch up with Most high school graduates on matters of history and political thought. Watch the Palin train of a video collection of selections from her interviews and see how far and fast it may have to travel to catch up.