PrintOctober 2, 2009
Palin's Revenge: Who's Laughing Now?
Now correct me if I am wrong, but didn't I hear the Jurassic media bury the career of Sarah Palin just last July? And weren't they joined in this mockery by the so-called conservative elites like David Brooks and Karl Rove and Joe Scarborough and so on?
Wasn't Mo Dowd just delirious in fact that the wicked witch (of her world) was dead?
You betcha.
Well, just who is looking out of touch and foolish now? Hint: It isn't the Killa from Wasilla. And yes, I think that is her Brinks Truck in fact. One of them anyway.
The temptation here is to rub the seven million dollar book advance in the face of all her naysayers -- then add that the book is coming out early and in fact breaking all kinds of sales records though not even edited yet. But we won't do that for Mo's sake.
Another temptation is to chide the Jurassics and the elites who were snickering at the thought she could command the six figures fees the big boys get for speaking engagements -- with the reports that she is currently sifting through some eleven hundred offers. Cha-ching. We won't make a big deal over that either. It might make Colin Powell blush.
What is the real story here is that given a set of singularly difficult circumstances, Governor Palin made a counter-intuitive and gutsy decision that has already proven right for all parties involved. We call that brilliance. We call that effective leadership.
Perhaps inside the beltway, those measures of wisdom and intelligence and instinctive leadership are out of date. All too often in that world, decisions are made by what is the safe play and by what will play well with the pundits. Damn the consequences to others, just pull that focus group report and make sure we look good to the media.
That was not how Palin measured her decision. She was willing to look outside the box for a possibility, and when she found an idea that worked for everyone she grabbed it. Quickly. And she never looked back. Why Dan Rather might call that "...courage..."
Palin did not seem to worry a bit about how her decision would look to the pundit class as she strode to the microphones and confidently gave a shocking announcement that she knew would bring down a hell storm of self-important derision. She did not flinch. She made her decision, announced it, and went about making it work for all involved.
And it has. It has worked for the state of Alaska, where their small government is no longer burdened by over the top media scrutiny and an endless string of nuisance legal actions. Alaska can get back to being Alaska, and the state is governed by a man who shares Palin's vision for the state without having one of the biggest media targets in the history of the country painted on his back.
What? You don't know his name? Good. Alaskans probably like it that way.
And the resignation has certainly worked for Palin's family and the former governor herself no doubt. They no longer have the targets painted on their backs either. They no longer are burdened by a mountain of legal debt and the mountain of legal debt is no longer growing like it was. Win. Win. Win.
Heck, it looks like the family will be able to travel the entire country at the request of many other people happy to pay their expenses and a nice honorarium as well. That's not a bad educational experience, and I even doubt the former governor will burden us with stories about how much she has sacrificed while doing all of this jet setting.
Along the way, she will be exposed to millions and millions of American voters who will see her in person or see local coverage of her appearances. She will curry favor with many Republicans and other conservative candidates across the country. Her rolodex will be engorged with valuable contacts. Her work in this area is likely to have a major impact on the mid-term elections of 2010 in fact. If it goes well for the GOP, she will get much of the credit in all likelihood.
There will be sound bytes from her on any number of weighty issues. That started last week in Asia in fact. Even Charles Krauthammer will be impressed. By the time 2012 rolls around - just in case she has that year circled in her day planner - any notion of her lack of depth or experience will have been clearly dispelled.
Tina Fey shooting the moose will be a distant memory. Charlie Gibson will be the one thrown to the curb in his chosen profession. And I doubt Katie Couric will age as gracefully as Sarah Palin will.
To summarize, every single ramification of Palin's resignation has come up aces. For her, her family, her state and even for any future political ambitions, it was the right call.
Even in the one arena the Jurassic media and conservative elites thought they were really expert -- politics -- Palin has trumped them in that too. It is almost 100% certain that she will come in to the year 2012 with a lot more money, a lot more exposure, a lot more commentary on the big issues, a lot more potential campaign workers across the 57 states and a lot more favors owed than she ever could have by hanging around Juneau for two more years. Yes, even in purely political terms, Palin's business and personal decision has proven to be superior to what the pundits thought she should have done.
Now of course this is sending the pundit class in the D.C.-Manhattan corridor into the vapors, not to mention shock. They never have been able to make one correct assessment about Palin and her relationship with the American people and their reaction to their own ineptness is to hate Palin herself.
Millions of Americans are not surprised however. Why do you think so many are buying her book already. You can call those "votes" and also "future campaign contributors."
They are not caught off guard by the brilliance of her decision. They knew it all along.
And I add proudly, so did American Thinker. Our contributing authors penned no fewer than 9 articles in the two weeks following Palin's resignation, and every single one of them supported her decision as wise and several pieces were scarily prescient in how they predicted just this type of success for her in light of the decision.
It is obvious that Palin knew what she was doing all along. Who knows what she will do in 2012. It doesn't matter at the moment. What matters is that her decision to resign as Governor of Alaska will put her in a far superior position for whatever she does or does not pursue.
I think that's hilariously ironic. Betcha she does too. So who's laughing now?
