Get Ready for All Sarah (Palin), All of the Time

(AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

The reviews are in and were as expected. If you like Sarah Palin, this was the equivalent of a Super Bowl triumph. If listening to her gives you heartburn, then Palin's persnickety Saturday night performance, was yet another reason to reach for the medicine chest. Might as well get used to it because there's no more doubt that her eyes are set on Washington, not Wasilla.

Less than 24 hours after her speech to the Tea Party Convention in Nashville on Saturday night, Palin said on FoxNews that she would run for president "if I believe that it's right for the country." In her next breath, she was quick to annotate that declaration with a mandatory qualifier that "many, many other men and women across our country" were "in as strong or stronger position than
I am to take on the White House and if they're in a better position than I in three years, I'll support them."

Like who? Mitt Romney? Tim Pawlenty? Sure.

People have lots of opinions about Palin but critics and supporters know that she's a lot cleverer than the caricatures suggest. Palin for president? No reason why she wouldn't give it a whirl given the current short list of potential nominees. Much to the chagrin of the naysayers, all the stars are lining up in her favor.

Quitting as Alaska's governor turned out to be the second smartest thing Palin ever did (The first was accepting John McCain's invitation to become his running mate in 2008.) That freed her to rake in a fortune writing a best-seller and land a lucrative deal as a FoxNews regular. All the while, she's Tweeting and typing away on Facebook, leaving us in breathless anticipation of her next pronouncement on life, liberty and the future of U.S. politics. What with the Tea Party movement emerging as the most dynamic part of the American conservative movement, it's impossible to imagine why she woundn't have a place at the Republican table in deciding who will face Barack Obama in 2012.

Of course, Palin was playing on home court. Even though there was nothing new in the speech - a concatenation of platitudes and partisan attacks knocking the "Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda" - the crowd ate it up. All the lines worked - my particular fave' being when she declared that the nation needs "a commander of chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern." The crowd came to its feet and exploded in applause as she pursed her lips and stuck out a defiant chin. As the Washington Post noted, Palin dropped weight and looked great. She's ready for a fight.

For all their self-congratulatory bombast, however, it would be a mistake to conflate America with the folks congregating this weekend at the Tea Party conclave. Watching the speech a second time after a night's sleep, I was struck by the homogeneity of the crowd. Did this look like America? Well, it looked like one part of America. Each time C-SPAN's cameras panned the room, all I saw were white people. Lots and lots of middle-aged and older white people. Earlier in the day, Angela McGlowan served as the opening act for birther Joseph Farah, but she was the exception, not the rule.)

But Palin has time to expand her "base." What comes next, as Dan Farber suggests, is more $100,000 speeches, prime-time TV bloviation and barnstorming on behalf of favored political candidates. This was just the start. Get ready for all Sarah, all of the time.

[erasmus111]

Oh yeah, what did you say your name was before "Mortar"?

It's okay, you can tell me. I won't tell anyone. : )

[Mortar_29]

My username?

[erasmus111]

Yes.

[erasmus111]

Well, Mortar, it's been fun, but I gotta go now.

Bye bye. : )

[coloradosayd]

i think sarah palin should go into rehab for rolling and smoking all those tea leaves.

[Mortar_29]

You probably know about smoking leaves, right?

[coloradosayd]

sounds like u do mortar or u wouldn't understand the relavance. what this country needs is another gop intellectual challanged president.

[quatermass2]

She'll never run for President. She'd have to give interviews and speeches to unscreened audiences. Good luck with THAT. She can't even name a newspaper.

[cidaia]

Why would she have to give interviews and speeches to unscreened audiences?

Obama doesn't.

[ramos1129]

O Lord, you afflicted Job with many troubles until you finally relented. Like Job, have we not suffered enough? Palin all the time is the cruelist torture.

[erasmus111]

Who b*tches about someone using a teleprompter, and then gets caught with notes on their hands?

To me, it's better to just be honest about not being able to remember, and just use the teleprompter, rather than sneaking peaks at my hand like some juvenile.

I wonder if she ever gets tired of looking stupid?

Obviously not.

[Mortar_29]

You still sutck on stupid? Why do you care?

[erasmus111]

by Mortar_29 February 8, 2010 2:51 PM EST
You still sutck on stupid? Why do you care?


She's an INSULT to all women.

[jntlw]

If they start to talk about her, I change the channel. She is soooo not presidential or VP either. She is self serving and money hungry - that is it.

[Mortar_29]

They all are. What is your point?

[rondivoo]

There is no oppression in Alaska... why? ... that's where all the crooks, uglies, weirdos, confused, mentally-ill, socially inept, dysfunctional family members (who don't want to have anything else to do with their family or people they once knew), and all-around misfits go. They don't stand out there... in fact they fit right in. Anything goes in Alaska. If you want to cop out on civility, escape from reality, hide from the "real" America... just go to Alaska. Need I say more?

[rondivoo]

Jiminey Crickets! ... not Sarah Palin!... somebody tell me it isn't so! ... what is this country coming to? ... hmmmm ... middle-aged and old white folk ... yeah. All of them clueless.

[steeepe]

Why won't she just go away? It's like a recurrent bad dream. Turn a pretty idiot into a presidential candidate. I thought that Bush wouldn't have a chance at a second term because Americans were too smart to re-elect a dangerous moron. Guess what?

[Mortar_29]

Why wont Steeepe just go away?