sarah_palin I really do not care about the political actions and ambitions of Sarah Palin. For one she never even finished a single term as governor of her state. Through an inexplicably strange choice made by John McCain (I wonder if he would do it again?) she came on the national stage with an amazing splash. She did fire up the far right for an election but the damage she did was also immeasurable if my political instincts have any sense in them. One thing is certain. She was and is a polarizing figure. The darling of certain media types on the right she is clearly loathed by the far left and she plays off this loathing routinely. Almost everyone has an opinion about her. I think I can safely make two predictions about her political future. First, she has about a 1% chance of being nominated for the presidency. Second, if nominated she has an even smaller chance of being elected. But then the GOP has no strong person out front right now so time will tell.

My concern about Sarah Palin is very different than concerns related to her political aspirations and silly videos. She is toxic and often badly misguided. A recent target of the relentless former-governor’s rhetoric was the prize-winning conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer.

Krauthammer, seen often on Fox as a panelist, dared to suggest that Palin looked less than “presidential” while shooting caribou with Kate Goslin on her hit TLC reality show. Palin then told Bill O’Reilly, who is no liberal for sure, “Well, bless his heart, he’s probably used to those in the political beltway who perhaps aren’t out there workin’, but they’re talkin’ and there doin’ their ‘strategery,’ whereas I’m workin’ and havin’ a great time doin’ it.”

CK This might be humorous, if not ridiculous, but it is really much worse. First, Palin is actually working in the same way as Charles Krauthammer, by writing and talking and making media appearances. And she is doing quite well at it thank you. The biggest difference here is that Sarah Palin is earning far more than Charles Krauthammer! And yes Krauthammer would have to agree that he is a “high-falutin” guy with educational credentials Palin never dreamed of in her wildest moments. He studied at Oxford, earned an MD at Harvard Medical School, and is a paraplegic Canadian-raised son of struggling European immigrants. Rather than a product of the establishment, as the former governor of Alaska clearly is, Krauthammer made his way forward in this media industry on good sense and hard work.

Sarah Palin may be a best-selling author and interesting person. She might even be a swell person to hang with, though I’m not interested myself. One thing is for sure though: there is one major difference between her and Krauthammer, as Michael Medved noted: “Only in terms of intellectuality, not wealth or influence of celebrity status, could a Krauthammer qualify as an ‘elitist’

[more] than a Palin,”

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Comments

  1. Jeff Keach January 22, 2011 at 6:42 am

    I am a conservative in agreement with you.

  2. Jessica Mokrzycki January 22, 2011 at 7:56 am

    Got to love how personality and reality shows can help drive in the money for some! She is an interesting character…someone I’d want for president? I wouldn’t necessarily say that!

  3. Joe Heschmeyer January 22, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    I’m going to stay out of the Palin debate, but I did want to mention something tangential to what you wrote. You mentioned that Krauthammer “studied at Oxford, earned an MD at Harvard Medical School, and is a paraplegic Canadian-raised son of struggling European immigrants. ”
    What I hadn’t realized was that he was paralyzed in his first year at Harvard Medical School, one of the toughest med schools on Earth. He was hospitalized for something like a year. And get this: he didn’t miss a semester. Whereas most of us would have probably put the med school dreams on hold indefinitely (or at least until we were out of the hospital), he just carried on like nothing had happened. I don’t always agree with Dr. K (he’s pro-choice, for one thing), but I have an immense amount of respect for anyone with that on their resume.

  4. www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=589847303 January 22, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    I find it sad when politicians quit one office to take another, not to mention the huge amount of neglegence their campaining while in office requires, but the idea that Mrs. Palin quit her duties to pursue celebrity is quite troubling.

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