It was a teary-eyed Sarah Palin who waved to the crowd in Phoenix last night and is now on her way home to Alaska to split time as Governor and Mom.
She has a son in Iraq, a daughter pregnant and an infant with Down Syndrome.
She has her hand's full.
But she has made it clear that this is not the last we will see of Sarah Palin.
"I'm not doing this for naught," Palin said last week, when asked if all the mudslinging in the campaign made her long for a return to the more sedate politics of Alaska, where she is governor.
After McCain's stinging loss, Palin, 44, has emerged as one of the strongest brands the Republicans have got.
As one of the most recognisable figures in a party searching for direction and new leadership, Palin's future role will be a major theme when Republican heavyweights weigh up strategies for the 2010 mid-term congressional elections.
"She definitely is going to be the most popular Republican in this country when this thing is over," Republican strategist Ed Rollins, and former political director to president Ronald Reagan, told CNN before the election.
And the carefully coiffed conservative Christian who cast herself as a maverick, a reformer and an anti-corruption star, has clearly indicated the 2008 run wasn't an end-all to her national political ambitions.
"I think that, if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender against some of the political shots that we've taken, that would bring this whole" endeavour to nothing, Palin told ABC last week.
In the last pre-election episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live, comedienne Tina Fey, in her much lauded role impersonating Palin, made a show of "going rogue" from the McCain campaign talking points by trying to hawk "Palin 2012" t-shirts.
At Republican rallies in recent weeks supporters too have been seen displaying "Palin 2012" shirts and banners.
There has been talk in Hollywood of Sarah Palin getting a talk show; talk in Washington of Sarah Palin as the best fundraiser the Republicans have; talk in Alaska of Sarah Palin running for the Senate.
There is a world of options in front of Sarah Palin. She is the star of the Republican Conservative base and if you think she will stay in Alaska for long - you're wrong.
21 comments:
If Palin is the republican nominee in 2012 it will only show that this ass kicking has taught them nothing.
The republicans need to reinvent themselves and Palin is NOT a part of that. She's part of the problem.
Of course, now that Sarah lost, Bristol WON'T be entrapping herself her useless drunken alaskan stud.
Another Alaskan Bastard on the rise, huh?
Cheer up, drunk republicans. President Obama just might pick up the tab to send all you losers to rehab.
I would love to see Sarah Palin attempt to debate with Huckabee, Jindal, Mitt, Giuliani, Newt, Ron Paul...
It would be amazing. She would not be able to avoid speaking to the press. She would not be able to choose which questions she answered. It would be an amazingly illuminating campaign.
I am ready for the fight! GO SARAH! You Betcha!
Sarah Palin has taken a beating from the media and American's in general. I don't think another candidate for office has taken the same criticism, lack of respect, and sexism as she has. She's stood up quite well to the bashing and I wouldn't be surprised to see her in 2012.
She is suddenly the de facto #1 booking for every Republican fundraiser in the country leading up to the 2010 mid-terms. Her best bet is to go speak at every Lincoln Day dinner and congressional fundraiser she can over the next two years. It will be tremendous experience as she listens to Republicans from all parts of the country, hones her ability to speak off the cuff and answer a variety of questions, and most importantly of all, STUDIES all the many issues a viable pres candidate must be conversant on. Local dinners are great places to try out lines of argument without picking up too much attention whenever one of those tryout lines doesn't work and has to be discarded. She COULD be a fabulous 2012 contender, but she needs seasoning and further development. And above all, she must NOT get sucked into the Senate. Senators are boring. They only win the presidency when their opponents are senators, too. I am a huge fan, and will back her enthusiastically whatever she does ... I just want her to build herself into the kind of candidate everyone else can back enthusiastically, too.
Whatever Sarah decides to do in the future I hope that it will include being involved with politics at the national level. She is just the kind of leader that this nation needs.
Sarah Palin wasn't aware that Africa was a continent and she and her brood behaved like a band of "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," aides to Republican John McCain are telling prominent news organizations.
Less than 24 hours after McCain lost the presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama, those close to him apparently wasted no time burning up the phone lines to dish the dirt on Palin, the Alaska governor who portrayed herself as a sensible hockey Mom when she was chosen the Arizona senator's running mate in late August.
If the anonymous McCain insiders are to be believed, Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five, was unaware that Africa was a continent, arguing that South Africa was simply a region of the larger country of Africa.
She also didn't know the three countries that are in the North American Free Trade Agreement, namely Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
A call last week by a Quebec radio prankster pretending to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly became a fiery source of tension between the already feuding McCain and Palin camps. An aide to the Alaska governor, Steve Biegun, OK'd the call without discussing it with McCain's people or the U.S. State Department.
The Los Angeles Times reported that an outraged Steve Schmidt, McCain's top strategist, organized a conference call after the prank - which revealed Palin to be ill-informed and naive - made international headlines and brought further ridicule to the campaign.
He demanded to know who had arranged the Sarkozy call and questioned why anyone would have agreed to such an unusual request without clearing it with top staff.
Biegun immediately took responsibility.
"I was fooled," he told the L.A. Times in a report published Thursday. "No one's going to beat me up more than I beat myself up for setting up the governor like that."
The leaked stories about Palin's alleged antics throughout the campaign are appearing in publications that include Newsweek magazine and the New York Times just as Republicans gather Thursday in Virginia to discuss the future of the party.
Many in the party's ultra-conservative wing are enthralled by Palin and her socially conservative views, and hope to make her a presidential candidate in 2012.
"I'm not doing this for naught," Palin said recently when asked about her aspirations.
Yet soon after she was chosen McCain's running mate with very little vetting, his campaign insiders say they became queasy with the growing knowledge that Palin was desperately unqualified and ill-prepared to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
They attempted to bring her up to speed on the issues of the day, but she refused any efforts to prepare her for a string of disastrous interviews with CBS's Katie Couric that proved extremely damaging to the McCain campaign.
The McCain insiders have told various news organizations that Palin nonetheless threw angry temper tantrums over their mishandling of her when the Couric interviews went badly.
The most salacious of the stories leaked - with many more supposedly still to come in the days to follow - involve Palin's infamous US$150,000 spending spree at some of the most expensive stores in the United States.
Despite her self-styled image as a down-home working mother opposed to big government spending, the aides told Newsweek she behaved like anything but: she spent tens of thousands of dollars more than the US$150,000 originally reported on clothing, accessories and luggage for herself and her family.
One senior aide told the magazine that she was told to buy three suits for the Republican National Convention and hire a stylist, but instead, the vice-presidential nominee began amassing costly goods from stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.
At one point during the campaign, Palin's youngest daughter, seven-year-old Piper, was photographed carrying a US$790 Louis Vuitton bag.
Two sources told Newsweek the goods were bought by a wealthy donor, who was flabbergasted when he saw the bills. Palin also allegedly instructed low-level staffers to buy her new clothes with their credit cards, something the McCain campaign only discovered last week when the aides tried to get reimbursed.
Palin aides had a different version of events, with several telling the Los Angeles Times that she was outraged by the amount of money being spent on her clothing, adding she was naive about what the clothes cost.
"The very first day of shopping, there was a $14,000 price tag and . . . she was absolutely shocked," one of the Palin insiders said.
Another told Newsweek: "Gov. Palin was not directing staffers to put anything on their personal credit cards, and anything that staffers put on their credit cards has been reimbursed, like an expense."
On Wednesday in Phoenix, Palin said: "There is absolutely no diva in me."
Nonetheless, a Republican party lawyer is reportedly heading to Alaska to inventory and retrieve the clothes still in Palin's possession.
The tensions between the two camps reportedly continued even into election night, when Palin met up with McCain at the Biltmore hotel in Phoenix with a concession speech in hand that she wanted to deliver before he took to the podium to address his crestfallen supporters.
Much to her chagrin, she was told by senior McCain aides that such a speech would be inappropriate since vice-presidential nominees do not traditionally speak on election night.
The relationship between Palin and McCain, in fact, had deteriorated in the final days of the campaign to the point that they were seldom talking.
"I think it was a difficult relationship," one top McCain campaign official told the New York Times. "McCain talked to her occasionally."
On Wednesday, Palin disputed suggestions she contributed to McCain's loss, but said she was apologetic if she had.
"I don't think anybody should give Sarah Palin that much credit that I would trump an economic time in this nation that occurred about two months ago," she told CNN. "If I cost John McCain even one vote, I am sorry about that because John McCain, I believe, is the American hero."
If Palin runs for President in 2012, at least she has name recognition going for her... but that may not work in her favor
I, for one, am troubled to see all these attempts to discredit Gov. Palin. Was she as well-versed in foreign policy and basic geography as one might desire in a national-level candidate? Perhaps not. But as a strong, Bible-believing Christian with a "pipeline" to God, she is owed our support!
It appears "Anonymous" is highly knowledgable about the inner workings of Palin's campaign. Could s/he be an "insider?"
What always astounded me was the glaring media bias in favor of Obama from nearly the beginning. He almost always got a pass, on his personal associations, blantant refusal to produce offical/certified copies of his birth, medical, or college records or even questionable fund sources. The media (& SNL), were nearly orgasmic over Obama's political stardon and glowing retortic. Clearly, all that free upbeat publicity on top of Obama's huge campaign chest eclipsed the Republican's ticket from the start but they fought the fight with what limited resources they had. Obama could afford to be cool, calm, and collected while his army of wordmongers paved his golden way. Their horse was going to win this race no matter what it took!
The problem was McCain's conservative camp were not effective streetfighters like the more youthful & daring Obama camp who knew how to play down and dirty Chicago style politics. The media and their viewers were caught up in his energy, hypnotic speech and glowing promises- NONE based on experience- but typical for inspirational "community organizers."
As for Palin's wardrobe- what about Obama's lavish Greek columns decor at his rally or using a 757 to jet to see Grandmother rather than charter a far more fuel efficient and smaller jet from the same company. It likely cost about $400,000 to fly to Honolulu for one man and his handlers. That's nearly three times her wardrobe. Most of us fly coach when facing family tradegies. Surely the airline company would have provided an alternate aircraft for him. And why did Hawaii's governor seal his birth records immediately after his visit?
Then there is the "Africa" comment debate. Apparently the goof happened in both camps. For Palin, we don't know the context in which it was spoken- only the anonyous & cowardly gossip of bitter staffers- but when Obama's citizenship birth was questioned in several lawsuits, his "people" posted online a poor copy of Obama's "certification of birth" where his Kenyan's Father's NATIONALITY was listed as AFRICAN-shouldn't it have been listed as KENYAN? Those irregularities further led to concerns since his Kenyan grandmother alledgedly claimed he witnessed his Kenyan birth & that his Mom flew back to Hawaii only days later. While this is only conjecture- it does raise concerns . Had he simply agreed to produce a stamped, signed vault copy of his official birth certificate, as citizens must to even get a driver's license, the questions would have been silenced- but he refused and the media again turned a blind eye.
We really don't know who this president elect REALLY is- we only know what he says, about redistribution, and restricting both the first and 2nd constitutional amendments. Still, the lemmings, drunk by the aura of this great new American hope, went in droves to cast their votes. History unfolding.
On the other hand, we DO know who Palin is - we just don't know who is trying to destroy her from within.
Wiskey brains( that says it all) and Marie almond are the typical Obama supporters- full of red neck, hateful, and profoundly ignorent comments. They would likely fight to the mat anyone who said that about their own kids. BUT
This kind of hateful speech is still protected by the first amendment- but watch out- the democratic congress is after free speech ( talk radio the first target)- Remember what they did to Joe the Plumber for just asking a question- nothing else about him should matter.
PS:
By the way, Obama ACTUALLY said ( it is on tape) at a rally that the USA has 57 states... YES- 57!
Media response? ZIP! Talk about the fix being in from day 1
wiskeyBRAINS and wiskeyMIND are two entirely different posters...
Easy to get mixed up-
WiskeyBRAIN trashes Palin and her daughter. This is deplorable and ignorent behavior- but he's free to do it!
Wiskey MIND ponders the possiblities with clear respect and intelligent introspection.
Saw the official Palin in 2012 t-shirt on http://www.DieHardThreads.com/
Sarah Palin 2012!
Sarah Palin 2012!
Sarah has it all: attractiveness, she is pro life and pro family. She is the only republican able to take down Fraudbama in 2012. If he gets there! America will see its first female president in 2012! I'll be still young to celebrate!
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