IS SARAH PALIN MAKING A COME-BACK?
….Here’s Palin, looking a bit aged.
Today, QAnon’s Marjorie Taylor Greene holds the
pole position over Palin
The following is an article from one of my favorite Washington Post writers, Dana Milbank.
As he says,”she's ba-ack!
The former Alaska governor, vice-presidential
nominee and late-night TV punchline, Sarah Palin is teasing running for the
U.S. Senate against incumbent Lisa Murkowski.
At first, the move would seem to make some sense. After all, per Milbank, "Palin was Trump before Trump. Can she be Trump, after Trump?"
"Doubtful," Milbank continues. "When she burst onto the national stage 13 summers ago, she was on the cutting edge of crazy." Palin maintained notoriety by saying and doing things that most elected Republicans feared to, but many Republican voters were thrilled to.
"But the problem with launching a crazy contest," Milbank concludes, "is that, once started, it never ends: There’s always somebody willing to take things up a notch . … What was crazy in ’08 is now the Republican norm."
As he said: “Sarah Palin was Trump before Trump”. But can she be Trump, after Trump? You betcha! (At least that’s what she thinks.)
An article from Dana Milbank:
The 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee, reality TV personality and human gaffe machine is teasing the possibility of challenging Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska’s Republican Senate primary next year. “If God wants me to do it I will,” she told the: New Apostolic Reformation movement leader Ché Ahn, as first reported the Right Wing Watch.
Hopefully, for Palin’s sake, this is a different God from the one she appealed to in ’08 when she put the election “in God’s hands, that the right thing for America will be done at the end of the day on Nov. 4.” She has also said it was God’s will to fight the Iraq war, to build the Keystone XL Pipeline, and for her to skip an important speech in 2011, just because: “I had nothing to wear, and God knew that, too.”
The more immediate obstacles to Palin’s ambition, though, are not in the Heavens but here on Earth.
Will Tina Fey revive her Palin Impression? (“I can see Russia from my house!”) Has Alaska moved on? Murkowski already has a (Trump-Backed) challenger, and Palin has been spending a lot of time in the far southern part of Alaska, namely, Arizona. And has the party moved on? Palin captivated the Republican base in 2008 with her unique blend of ignorance, insults and winks at political violence. But such attributes no longer make her a standout in the GOP.
For those who came of age in the last decade, it’s hard to appreciate the many gifts she bestowed on late-night comics. Her answer, when asked then by a commentator in what her understanding was of the Bush doctrine: “In what respect, Charlie?” When asked on which newspapers and magazines she reads: “All of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.” On examples of her presidential candidate’s, John McCain’s record: “I’ll try to find you some and I’ll bring ‘em to ya’.” On foreign policy: “As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska.” On her ethics woes: “I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we’ve been charged with and automatically throw them out.”
Those of a certain age remember, fondly, her telling us the difference between hockey moms and pit bulls: (“it’s lipstick”), her Christmas gift exchange with her husband (“he’s got the rifle, I’ve got the rack”), and there was the time she fielded questions while turkeys were being slaughtered in the background. We remember, rather less fondly, her “death panel” lies, her pioneering attacks on Joe Biden’s age, her claim that Barack Obama was “palling around with terrorists,” and the map she promoted in 2010 showing 20 Democratic districts in rifle crosshairs.
She so dominated the political landscape, Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly had done 664 segments mentioning her, and Sean Hannity 411 segments. That, after 42 columns mentioning Palin, Milbank pledged to quit her for an entire month in February, 2011. “This is kind of stupid,” Jay Leno remarked at the time. “If you’re going to choose a month to be Palin-free, don’t pick the shortest month.”
Palin’s star has since fallen. Husband Todd filed for divorce. Son “Track” amassed an assault record. Family members took part in a boozy birthday-party brawl. Her Political Action Committee (PAC) was closed. She has a website that posts “byline-free clickbait,” the Anchorage Daily News reports….and she makes video messages wishing people happy birthdays and the like, all for $199 a pop.
She floated a Senate challenge to Lisa Murkowski last fall, and nobody much noticed. Will they care now? It’s doubtful. Palin herself has acknowledged that people think of her as a “has been.” And there’s a specific reason for that. When she burst onto the national stage 13 summers ago, she was on the cutting edge of crazy. But the problem with launching a crazy contest is that, once started, it never ends: There’s always somebody willing to take things up a notch.
Trump supplanted Palin, and now there are 147 insurrectionists Republicans in Congress and countless would-be authoritarians in state governments. QAnon’s Marjorie Taylor Greene holds pole position today, and Palin is in the back of the pack.
What was crazy in ’08 is now the Republican norm.
This is why Mr. Milbank is one of my favorite writers.
Copy Right: Dana Milbank & G. Ater 2021
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