Where to now for Sarah Palin, the beveled beauty and former Governor of Alaska? The criticisms against her are valid and true but let’s take a step back for a minute and examine how she gained media traction – for a little while at least – in last year’s Presidential campaign, as Senator John McCain’s Vice-Presidential running mate.
Just one year ago Palin was a media darling; she was plucked from the backwoods of that other Pacific Rim wilderness, Alaska. According to ‘Vanity Fair’ (“It Came From Wasilla” by Todd Purdum, August 2009), McCain had only met her for a couple of hours before choosing her as his Vice-Presidential running mate. Here was a fresh-faced, ‘hockey-mom’ with a pregnant teenage daughter – the perfect antidote to Hillary Clinton, who was embattled in the Mother of All Primaries. Clinton was paranoid and media-hating and it showed. For the Republicans Palin was, as ‘Vanity Fair’ says, “by far the best-looking woman ever to rise to such heights in national politics, the first indisputably fertile female to dare to dance with the big dogs.”
But it’s been a blessing and a curse. While it allowed her entry to places where other, less good looking women wouldn’t get a chance, her beauty queen looks have also made others doubt her ability. As Republican strategist so succinctly put it: “If Sarah Palin looked like Golda Meir, would we even be talking about her today?”
Here’s How Sarah Palin Got Traction
- She did what most good popularists politicians do – emphasise their maverick status. Emphasising her ability to hunt wolf and moose won her a strong rural right-wing base
- In claiming she wasn’t a member of the Washington Beltway she further emphasized that maverick status.
- She had a tense relationship with Republican Party elders (her nemisis was the Chair of the Alaskan Republican Party) cementing her image as an outsider and one of a growing number of disaffected Republicans
- Like all populists, Palin has great instincts and has seen openings where others haven’t.
- In doing all of the above she espoused the cause of Right-wing populism, which is the politics of the lower middle-class. It’s centred on a theory of media conspiracy.
Here’s Where Palin Went Wrong
- She failed to grasp that while she was a darling of Alaskan media, her relationship with the national media was a best tense, at worst – at the end – paranoid and media-hating, just like her old nemesis, Hillary Clinton, was in the Primaries.
- As the ‘Vanity Fair’ article says, “she surrounded herself with an insular coterie of trusted friends, took disagreements personally, discarded people who were no longer useful and swiftly dealt vengeance on enemies, real or perceived.” Which maybe gives you a clue why she was called “Barracuda” in high school.
- Palin paid no heed to detail; aides tell stories of failing to prepare for key media interviews (eg her appalling interview with Katie Couric) and debates.
- She has trouble with the truth – about what it was and whether it mattered, which led to real issues with her aides during the Presdential election.
And Now The End is Near
It came out of the blue. Her resignation speech show Palin at her fresh-faced, Hockey-Mom best – or worst – depending on where you stand in the political spectrum.
Although Palin’s popularity was falling in the polls, commentators were still predicting that she would have won next year’s mid-term elections.
So why did she resign?
There are a number of reasons doing the rounds.
1/ In resigning now Sarah Palin was laying the foundations for her nomination for the 2012 Presidential race. A recent US poll has Palin in a three-way tie with former governor Mitt Romney and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
2/ There’s an upcoming scandal about to rear its head. This could be possible given the reams of tabloid controversy that have followed her; the surprise pregnancy, both her own and her daughters, the tacky in-laws and common-law kin selling drugs or poaching game. However the FBI says Palin is not under investigation for any crime.
3/ It’s about the money. The (former) good Governor got herself $US500,000 in debt fighting ethics charges. And remember the money-for-clothes saga where she went on a $US150,000 shopping spree? Also, there’s a book deal in the wind. Now that she’s no longer Governor she can do a big publicity tour which in turn will prepare her for the speaking circuit – where the big money is made.
For what it’s worth, my money is on the last one.
Hi Janet,
I have no particular brief for or against Sarah Palin, although I think the choice of her as VP candidate was indicative of McCain’s unsuitability for job of POTUS. I will miss the amusement she generates, both for its own sake and for what it says about those pointing the finger.
to the point; Sarah Palin is the parent of a disabled child. While she is much better off financially than, say, my sister, one thing I have noted in such situations is simply the amount of time it takes to parent, to physically care, for a disabled child, let alone the issues it raises in the other children in the family.
I believe that she has just decided that there is too much to do and is cutting back on a less important part of her life. There’s still plenty of opportunity for her to make money being THE Sarah Palin (speaking engagements, book deals etc), but these will not require the semi permanent absence from her family that engagement in US national politics will require.