Sarah Palin said she had a “higher calling” that required her to resign 17 months before her term ended as governor of Alaska, and not to seek a second term.
I have no idea where this “higher calling” came from, but I suspect it could only have come from two sources. The first one is God. I don’t know what God said to Sarah Palin, but I suspect it might have been something like this:
“Sarah. I am a patient God. But, you have tried my patience. You are an embarrassment to my ideals, to yourself, to the people of your state, and to your country. Me, and my wolves and moose, would like you to please resign and devote the rest of your life in spiritual embrace of a better life. Oh, by the way, I knew a Sarah, and you are no Sarah.”
The other possibility of her “higher calling” is from the Sultan of Greed. I also haven’t talked to him about Sarah Palin’s “Higher Calling,” but this is a possibility of that conversation:
“So, Sarah, what do you earn as governor?”
“About $125,000.”
“Would you like to earn more? Lots more?”
“You betcha! Half my salary is already taken up on clothes and jewelry so I can be the best darned governor in these here greatest United States of America!”
“Resign as governor, sign with me, and I’ll get you a book deal worth millions.”
“But I’ve never written nothing before.”
“All you’ll have to do is talk into a tape recorder. We’ll correct some of your facts, add some stuff, take out some stuff, and make you sound as if you were Hillary Clinton but without all that liberal nonsense.”
“Maybe you could put in a lot of pictures. If there were a lot of pictures, I wouldn’t have to have as many words.”
“We’ll give you the best writers and fashion photographers. You’ll be in the Best Sellers list the day our—I mean your—book is published.”
“You would do that for li’l ole me?”
“Not only would my team do that, we’ll get you speaking engagements.”
“But I already give speeches. All the conservatives want my opinions.”
“It isn’t your opinions they crave, but that’s another story. I can get you speeches at maybe a hundred thousand each.”
“And it’s all mine!”
“Minus expenses, administrative fees, and commissions.”
“You’re taking a cut of my wisdom?”
“Trust me, Babe, we don’t want your wisdom, but that’s how this business works. You want to ride, you have to pay the operator. Now, about punditry.”
“But, Sultan, I’m not so good with puns. Maybe—”
“Not jokes, Darlin’! We’ll get you a radio gig. Couple of hours a day. You just say whatever you want into a microphone.”
“That sounds tough. I might have to spend time researching issues, and reading something, like maybe a newspaper.”
“You ever listen to talk radio?”
“No research and reading?”
“It’ll only hurt your credibility. Once we get you a radio contract, we’ll move you onto TV.”
“Do you think I’ll be able to do TV?”
“You’re a beauty queen. Miss Wasilla. America’s favorite hockey puck.”
“Hockey mom.”
“Whatever. You’re photogenic, nothing else matters. First, we get you a gig as a paid guest commentator on Fox—”
“Like, wow, that’ll be the ultimate!”
“Sweet Cheeks, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet! Make the audience salivate when they see you on air, and we’ll get you a regular slot. An hour, maybe more every week night.”
“Wow! Like my idols Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly? Will Fox pay for my wardrobe? That’s important. My contract has to have a wardrobe and jewelry clause. And makeup. I’ll need my own makeup artist. And hairdresser. I can’t be seen not looking like a superstar.”
“No problem, Honey Bunch. Fox will probably throw in a personal trainer to make sure you don’t gain any weight. It knows talent when it sees it.”
“And I can make millions, just like Rush and Glenn and Bill, the greatest Americans ever!”
“Not as much as them the first year, of course. Maybe only a couple of million. But, hey, aren’t I the Sultan of Greed? Am I not the one to lead you to the promised land, where you can rant all you want about high-paid celebrities and the government-controlled media? Did I not lead you to believe you have a higher calling than being a governor? Sign with Greed International, and we’ll get you anything you want!”
“Can you make my ethics problems go away?”
“Hey, Doll, you’ll be bathed by the media. Ethics won’t be a problem.”
“Sounds just gosh-danged wonderful, Sultan, but do you know what I want, what I really really want?”
“Whatever you want, we’ll get. You’re a money machine. So what can we get you?”
“Maybe a full time babysitter for Todd and the kids. They might be lonely without a wife and mother.”
Walter Brasch is a professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University. His most recent book is Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush. He can be reached at brasch@bloomu.edu
Who ever wrote this does not know Sarah Palin NOR DO THEY KNOW MY LORD!!!!
I have no idea who YOUR Lord is, but mine is the God of Israel, who led the Jews, his Chosen People, out of the wilderness. Apparently, you are still in the wilderness. I hope you emerge some day and see the light.
Whether or not Sarah will run in 2012 is yet to be seen. Resigning her job as Alaska’s governor is a politically unconventional way of doing it.
One thing is presently clear. And that is 70% in a new USA Today/Gallup poll say Palin’s resignation has “no effect” on their opinion of her. Of the remainder, 9 percent say they now see her “more favorably” and 17 percent “less favorably.”
Moreover, in the same poll, 43 percent (and 72 percent of Republicans) say they would at least “somewhat likely” vote for her if she runs in 2012.
It has got to gall the many political geniuses — the journalists, consultants, bloggers, academics — that so many at America’s grassroots refuse to see what is so obvious to them. So why, after Palin has partaken in what is supposedly forbidden political fruit, do so many not readily grasp that her death sentence is pre-ordained?
Pundits live in the world of the conventional. They assume if you know what happened yesterday, you can predict tomorrow.
But life is art, not science, and freedom is about enabling the inconceivable. It’s where principles, faith, and courage depart from expertise and analysis. Surely everyone, they think, should understand, as do they, that Palin is a vacuous shooting star whose selection by John McCain as his running mate showed nothing except McCain’s questionable judgment. But we’re still left with the fact that fresh out of the Republican convention, with Sarah Palin on board, the Republican ticket moved out front. They were in the lead. Then, of course, McCain showed his mettle to the many around the country looking for a Republican leader who actually believes that government is the problem, by suspending his campaign to go back to Washington to talk to politicians about a government stimulus package. That was the end. Now John McCain and Sarah Palin have moved in very different directions. McCain has shown what a maverick he truly is by announcing that at the age of 72, after leading his party to defeat, he’ll run for yet another six-year term in the Senate. And Sarah Palin, at age 45, has announced she’s resigning her job as governor.
More astounding than Governor Palin’s audacious move is the fact that her political base appears unfazed. It appears as strong as when the McCain Palin ticket surged into the lead after the convention.
So why, after Palin has partaken in what is supposedly forbidden political fruit, do so many not readily grasp that her death sentence is pre-ordained? Pundits live in the world of the conventional. They assume if you know what happened yesterday, you can predict tomorrow.
But life is art, not science, and freedom is about enabling the inconceivable. It’s where principles, faith, and courage depart from expertise and analysis. Reagan’s experts didn’t want him to speak those historic words in Berlin — “tear down this wall.” The words stayed in the speech because of Reagan. Reagan himself drew derision from the media and the pundits, not unlike what Sarah Palin gets. Even though he served two terms as California’s governor, he still was an ex-actor who went to Eureka College. How could he be president?
But grassroots America heard him. As they do Sarah Palin. American entrepreneurship — whether in business or politics — is always unconventional. The experts then step up and write how-to books after entrepreneurs break the mold. These are not usual times. Many, legitimately so, are deeply concerned for the future of this country. It’s more than the latest economic statistics. It’s knowing that what will drive the future is freedom and values, and both are disappearing. Genuineness and conviction are more critical in these challenging times than resumes and appearances.
So stepping down from a job in which you are no longer realizing your ideals to reconnect with family and self is not necessarily political suicide. But doing what everyone says you are supposed to do, compromising your values, and letting pundits and experts run your life is.
So far, Sarah Palin’s audacity of the unconventional is playing just fine.
Alaska is the largest receivers of Federal monies per capita for the last 10 years(in 2007 one fifth of all money in alaska was Federal), Palin helped force the oil companies to pay up for using natural resources that belong to the people of Alaska to the tune of over $3,000 per person every year, and apparently thinks the people that voted for her simply wanted any Republican as governor, not her specifically. Those 3 things have some appeal, no doubt about it. Maybe we all should vote for a party instead of a person, get in on the Federal gravy train, and start charging businesses that use the public’s natural resources a fair price instead of a pittance.
I’m glad she’s shown herself as a quitter now instead of later. If she thinks she got treated too harshly by the press she wouldn’t have survived the White House. It’s most likely the end of her career as a politician. Her rambling about ‘lame duck’ politicians shows her ignorance. First of all she’s using the term wrong because a ‘lame duck’ is someone who ran and lost. She quit before she even finished her term, not after she ran again. Some politicians have accomplished a lot after losing a re-election run because they could concentrate on the business at hand rather than worrying about running. Her complaints about a free ride at public expense apparently apply to herself since she would be the one deciding to do nothing.
Now she can get in on the liberal bashing circuit and preach to the choir. She doesn’t have the smarts to convince anyone of her position(if she has any) on anything but her followers will follow her.
I struggle to think of an IDEA she’s had on her own.