The arrival of her memoir, "Going Rogue," further reinforces the fact that Sarah Palin refuses to go away. The folksy, not-even-one-term governor from Alaska has absolutely captivated a large number of American conservatives; Sarah PAC, the political action committee Palin created in January 2009, raised upwards of $730,000 in just five months, presumably to support a Palin 2012 presidential bid.
Claims by Palin supporters that she is just as qualified as Barack Obama was when he began his bid for presidency are simply wrong: Obama's three years in the U.S. Senate and seven years in the Illinois State Senate outweigh and outrank Palin's less than three years as Alaska's governor and six years as mayor of Wasilla, AK population 7,028. Those that herald Palin as a "true maverick" and celebrate her political arrival as the end of "politics as usual" would be well-served to observe the list of Palin's scandals — her "bridge to nowhere" line, her dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan and the Branchflower Report findings, among others, as well as her incessant use of dirty smear tactics and gross oversimplifications, like her statements "Obama pals around with terrorists" and "health care death panels."
Palin represents the frightening trend in American politics to completely disregard any semblance of reality in political discourse, to avoid any issues of substance and to gain political support not through some form of intelligent or rational conversation but by getting a reaction out of a crowd. This is not a trend limited to the Republican Party by any stretch of the imagination — who could forget such meaningful slogans as "Hope" engineered by our current President during the 2008 election? But Palin's brand of mindless politics represents a unique challenge for the highly-fragmented Republican Party.
One can cite the now-infamous Katie Couric interviews as proof of Palin's shortcomings, but surely she has matured politically since. Palin appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show on Monday and, when asked why she chose to write her book, gave a two-minute response, of which a minute-and-a-half was used to explain how she has a journalism degree, loves writing and loves looking through her childhood diary entries about stacking firewood and the highlights of her hunting and fishing trips.
The fact that Palin is in any way still relevant in American politics is sickening. The shameful circus that is her national political career is insulting to Americans, regardless of individual political persuasion. Those who hail Palin as the future of the party need to quit deluding themselves and take a good, hard look at reality: Sarah Palin is not and never has been a maverick. She is a small-town, former beauty queen who blatantly shirked her one responsibility to the citizens of Alaska by refusing to finish her first and only term as a scandal-plagued governor. She is the epitome of a political one-trick pony and further legitimizes the irrational state of political discourse in this country while simultaneously eroding the ideological foundations and political base of a once-proud Republican Party.
If Republican National Convention Chairman Michael Steele is truly concerned about resurrecting the Republican Party and affecting politics for the better, he will rein in Palin. Then again, asking Steele for any sort of leadership is not unlike asking New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick to punt on fourth down: It simply won't happen, even in an obviously critical situation. In short, it would be best for all parties involved — men, women, Republicans, Democrats, blue-collar workers, white-collar workers, Rust Belt residents, Sun Belt residents, Joe Bidens, Joe Six-Packs and even Joe the Plumbers — if Sarah Palin sat down and shut up.
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Teddy Minch is a senior majoring in political science. He hosts "The Rundown," a news and sports talk show that airs from 3 to 5 p.m. every Friday on WMFO. He can be reached at Theodore.Minch@tufts.edu.
This article was edited on 11/18/09 from its original print version for purposes of clarity.
