Forgive me, father, for I have sinned by saying nasty things about Sarah Palin. My excuse is the same as Flip Wilson’s favorite character, Geraldine, who said the devil made her do it.
On Monday, Palin will be interviewed and asked to explain herself for her latest social network tidbit that tweaked a few liberals the wrong way. Something about blood letting: hers by libelous political pundits.
Sean Hannity will conduct the interview after winning a bidding war with his fellow anchor persons of our shadow government on Fox News.
Hannity interviewing any Republican bobbling head is like my mother interviewing me from prison for plagiarism. Here, Sarah, hit my gopher ball out of the park.
The thing is, I don’t care what Sarah Palin says Monday night or into the future unless she announces her candidacy for President of the United States.
Until that time we, meaning me since I cannot control your speech, will give her a free pass as to what she says which unkindly as it sounds is usually narcissitically driven.
And, that’s the rub with Sarah Palin. When she speaks, I think of her as in the role of a possible president and not for whom she really is: An elegant spokesman for a small band of political activists who adore her. I respect that.
For such wrongheaded thinking, I apologize to Mrs. Palin, whom I admire as a person. She is what my father called someone who pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps.
She has a remarkable history she tells with filtered memories but a Midas touch we all love from rags to riches based on her own guile and chutzpah.
She has nailed the media universe with her plain talk of an Alaskan frontier woman and mastered the sound bites that circle and drive our world.
Her platform was built on sheer luck and a Hail Mary pass but not before she paid her political dues as mayor, oil commissioner and governor of her state.
I don’t consider this an original assessment but it seems to fit this scenario of Palin’s rise to the highest Q factor in American politics. That is:
In 2008 Palin was a subprime loan bought by John McCain to bolster his sagging presidential campaign and she eventually spun that into a toxic asset for the Republican Party.
Viewed as a presidential candidate in 2012, even Republicans in high leadership roles are mumbling she is not the real thing for the Oval Office.
For some of us who admire her grit and as masterful mistress controlling her disciples, her 8-minute video on a social network defending herself and lecturing Americans on truth in times of crises was in sharp contrast to President Obama’s thoughtful words about healing our wounds on that same Wednesday night in Tucson.
But that is an unfair assessment. Palin is who she is, a woman others think may someday become president. But she is not and should not be judged in those colors until she crosses that imaginary line of declaring herself a candidate.
Until then she can whistle the tune of her breed all she wants and get away with it. The only thing holding her accountable is the lure of future financial contributions to her books, speeches and political action committee.
She is the epitome of a mama grizzly bear and other quaint Alaskan homilies. We best endure her infamous sound bites about rifle scope sights, second amendment wonders, the 10 Commandments meeting all legislative acts, the strict allegiance to the framers intent of the constitution and even misplaced quotations from President Ronald Reagan, who, incidentally, did not attend college in Eureka, Calif., as she once mentioned dumb-wittingly in a speech from a nearby university.
Americans are all wrong to compare Sarah Palin as if she today sits in the Oval Office handling complicated domestic and foreign affairs.
She at this point in her life is not ready for prime time. You have a long way to go Sarah. I’m rooting for ya.
Jerry Remmers worked 26 years in the newspaper business. His last 23 years was with the Evening Tribune in San Diego where assignments included reporter, assistant city editor, county and politics editor.