Thursday, September 4, 2008

My last word on Sarah Palin

Before last night Hillary Clinton was the most likely woman to become President of the U.S.

Last night, with that speech, Sarah Palin became the most likely woman to become President of the U.S.

She's not a lock, mind you, there is a lot of campaign ahead before she can even become vice-president; but you can be sure nobody in the media or among the political types will be taking her for granted or petting her on the head and saying she's just a token woman after her speech last night.

Which puts Hillary in a tough situation. In order to become the Democratic Party nominee in 2012 she needs to make sure Barack Obama loses to John McCain this November. But if Barack Obama loses her toughest rival becomes vice president.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

One difference I've noticed between Sarah and Hillary is that when Sarah smiles, it appears to be genuine. I generally don't get that feeling with Hillary.

I'm willing to bet that Hillary was doing a slow boil as she watched Sarah's speech.

I've been contemplating what the 2012 presidential campaign would be like if Hillary ran opposite Sarah. I bet it would get pretty ugly.

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Sully said...

I think Palin is sincere, but I haven't watched her enough to have a strong opinion. There's an old, old saw that 'if you can fake sincerity you've got it made.' Very few people can.

Additionally, sincerity doesn't necessarily translate as good, gentle, thoughtful or wise. Danton and the other French revolutionaries were very sincere, as was Vhe Guevara.

The old Mayor Daley of Chicago was also sincere about being insincere. He was a business politician and unashamed boss. He was a far better mayor than the vast majority in the country - didn't steal too much, didn't tolerate too much police brutality, etc. I would have joined a violent revolution to bring him down if he had ever attained national level power where he wouldn't be restrained by a bigger force than himself.

Hillary, what can one say about Hillary? She can't be separated from Bill. They're a package. Sincere seekers of power. Fortunately (from my political point of view) she doesn't do sincerity very well except when her fangs are forthrightly showing.

Palin is, I think, different. She seems to do sincerity very well, but she will always be constrained by the left bias of the media, which does have it's uses. The Republicans are much sharper and smarter and even cleaner in politics than the Democrats in part because they have to be by virtue of the constancy of the media spotlight on their lapses.

But that's just me, sometimes I see so many wheels within the wheels within the wheels that I wonder if it's only me that's sane or if it's only me that's nuts.