In Defense Of Sarah Palin

Today is the day of the great Palin Email Dump. Reporters and pundits will pour over as many words as they can read hoping to find something scandalous, salacious, controversial or at least interesting. Their findings and interpretations will flood the media and the blogosphere for days. Was that Anthony Weiner I just heard breathing a sigh of relief?

Much of what has been, and will be, said about Palin will be cast in a negative light. It always is. She’s the Wicked Witch of Wasilla, right? Caribou Barbie. The half term governor. Pick your pejorative. Ya know what else she is? An American success story. A mover and shaker of the nation. A force to be reckoned with.

Please don’t get me wrong. Short of a gun being held to my head, I wouldn’t vote for her. But, that’s because I disagree with her on fundamental policy issues, not because of lack of respect for who she is or what she’s accomplished. Granted, she could be a bit more studious or engage a bit more aforethought before speaking, but that could be said of many who have risen to leadership.

Here’s what Sarah Palin’s got that doesn’t come in a bottle or printed on a diploma. Guts and leadership ability. She didn’t get where she is through the hallowed halls in Cambridge, Mass. She got there scrapping it out in small colleges many of us never heard of. She took on the “man’s job” of being a sportscaster for a local station and the tough task of making it in Alaska as a fisherman’s wife, then took to civic responsibility in small town America.

Sure, she’s had her feuds with the elite, beginning with Alaska’s entrenched Republicans. But, ya know what? She took ‘em on…her own party…and came out the winner. Don’t underestimate that. There aren’t many, at least not since Teddy Roosevelt, who can say the same.

Remember that Sarah Palin came from nowhere to be followed by millions who hang on her no-holds-barred conservative rhetoric. She wows them, and speaks to them, and more importantly, they listen and follow.

Should she be criticized for leaving Juneau to make her fortune? I don’t think so. She is, in many ways, the living embodiment of the American dream of success. And, she knows how to grab the spotlight and not let go. She’d have faded into oblivion had she stayed to complete her term. She understood, when others criticized, that leaving when she did was necessary to perpetuating her relevance. She may not be a Rhodes Scholar, but she’s got street smarts and marketing savvy that Madison Avenue execs would kill for.

You’re right. Tomorrow I’ll probably be having fun with the latest Palinism from this email or that. Having fun with pols is part of the game. And, I still won’t vote for her for the same reasons I took McCain off my radar after he nominated her as his VP choice. But, at the end of the day, ya gotta respect the woman.