In the early 1900s, there was a famous Australian opera soprano, Dame Nellie Melba.
One of the things Dame Melba is well remembered for is her seemingly endless series of “farewell” appearances—a farewell “tour” that lasted about eight years. Hence the popular Australian expression, “to do a Melba” (or, “more farewells than Nellie Melba”) for making repeated farewell appearances.
Dame Melba’s popularity led to various foods being named after her, such as peach Melba, Melba sauce…and Melba toast. This brings me back to our elections and specifically to one of the “stars” featured in them, Sarah Palin.
The news media and blogs are full of speculation as to the future of Sarah Palin. Some say she still has a bright political career ahead of her. Some say she is done—she is toast.
My personal opinion lies somewhere in between those two extremes, hence my “Melba toast.”
I believe that, just as Dame Melba, Sarah Palin—and her handlers—will try to “do a Melba” for as long as possible, but that eventually the novelty will wear off and her star quality will fade away, at least on the national stage.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the Republican long knives are already coming out and many are aimed right at the Alaska governor. Reporters, even Fox News Chief Political Correspondent Carl Cameron, are beginning to spill the beans on the true character, knowledge and intellect of Sarah Palin, and “it ain’t pretty.”
In “Hackers and Spending Sprees,” NEWSWEEK reports on the infighting, tensions and, in particular, on Sarah Palin‘s diva behavior and her lack of knowledge about even simple, elementary-school-level geographical, current events, and historical facts.
With respect to Palin’s alleged diva behavior, and back to Melba toast, the following excerpts from Wikipedia are interesting and perhaps appropriate:
Despite the angelic voice for which [Melba] was admired, she was also known for her demanding, temperamental diva persona; often she would make last-minute decisions before a performance, and often would deliberately upstage other sopranos during their performances, grabbing the attention for herself. She felt that the three words “I am Melba” were sufficient to explain her every wish or whim. She tolerated no rivals.
Of all people, Fox’s Carl Cameron rattles off a long litany of such diva incidents and about concerns the McCain campaign had about the fact that Palin lacked “a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, a heartbeat away from the presidency…”
Even the Anchorage Daily News asks the question “Can Sarah Palin go home again?” and, furthermore,
In the 68 days since Alaska’s governor began her run for vice president, things have changed on the home front. Some of her former allies are fuming, and former enemies are lying in wait. Public perceptions of the governor have also changed. Has the governor changed as well?
Questions about Palin’s future began to circulate at Alaska’s Election Central on Tuesday night almost as soon as the national election results came in.
Undoubtedly, “questions about Palin’s future” will continue to dominate the news and gossip columns for a long, long time.
She may be toast, or she may rise again and perhaps even run for the presidency in 2012, 2016, or beyond.
My personal opinion is that she will be “Melba toast.” That is, she will continue to do farewell appearances for a long time. She will have many things named after her: perhaps a street in Wasilla, perhaps a soufflé—the kind that collapses when you open the oven door prematurely. She will continue to govern Alaska for a while. She will write books (have them written for her), perhaps appear in movies, and perhaps one day even become a Fox “reportette,“ as Limbaugh refers to them.
