“You can absolutely say that I am seriously ?interested.”
These were the beautiful words uttered by former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin when asked by the Washington Post if she is considering a presidential run in 2016. Yeah, you heard right. Sarah Palin is in the news again, and it’s surprising Republicans as much as anyone else.
As the Chicago Tribune reports, several Republican commentators are rolling back their support for the one-time darling of the far right. Craig Robinson of the Iowa Republican Blog called her recent 35-minute string of clichéd one-liners and run-on sentences in Iowa last weekend “a long and incoherent speech.”
Charles C.W. Cooke of the National Review wrote quite eloquently of Palin’s remarks, “The foreordained culmination of a slow and unseemly decent into farce.” By the way, this is from the same news outlet that deemed her “mesmerizing” back in 2008.
My favorite, however, was Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, who walked back his early support of Palin with a quick and poignant “Did I say that recently?”
While it can be quite fun and just plain easy to make fun of the conservative caricature Palin is, her rise to fame and her stubborn persistence in Republican politics is representative of a much larger issue the GOP must address if it wishes to connect with the hearts of America once again.
Despite what you may think about Palin or fellow sideshow Donald Trump, if either were to actually jump into the Republican presidential primary, they would undoubtedly gain enough attention and support from the fringes of the party to be considered serious contenders — if only for a brief time.
Don’t worry, America. There is absolutely no chance either would be able to sustain enough support to actually win the nomination. However let’s not forget this is the party which in 2012 briefly saw Herman Cain as the front-runner for the presidential nomination. You know, the guy whose qualifications to hold the highest office in all the land was that he was really, really good at selling pizza.
These fringe candidates the GOP is so fond of elevating don’t need to get the nomination to cause major problems for Republicans.
It was the very existence of such a level of crazy in 2012 that helped remind voters why President Obama was elected in the first place, and if Republicans are ever going to be able to been seen as the sane, mature party for presidential politics, they need to dismiss these individuals quickly.
Based on the reactions to Palin’s announcement, it appears the party is trying to do just that. But the bigger question is: Will those candidates and their voters play along? I hope, for comedy’s sake, they don’t.
thompjak@umail.iu.edu
