David

Karki

Read David's bio and previous columns here

July 15, 2009

Who’s Scared of Sarah Palin . . . And Why

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin surprised everyone by resigning her office, effective later in July, on Independence Day. While the Beltway political class reacted with its usual imitation of the cabinet meeting scene in “Blazing Saddles” (harrumphing while protecting their phony-baloney jobs), the fact is there were practical and strategic reasons for Palin doing what she did, which has now put her in a stronger position.

• Palin can go on offense, and not be endlessly stuck on the defensive. Once Palin is again a private citizen, sleazy Democratic political operatives with nothing better to do with their empty lives will no longer be able to administer their “Death by a Thousand Cuts” strategy, in filing never-ending groundless ethics complaints against every move Palin makes and every word Palin speaks as governor.

Instead of watching her bank account slowly and inevitably be bled down to nothing (and Alaska taxpayers be forced to waste any more than the $2 million in legal defense fees that they already have) while having to play Gulliver to the Democrats' Lilliputians, Palin can recoup all those costs and then some via a book deal advance, speaking honoraria, and so forth.

Most importantly, instead of having to keep quiet for the sake of legal precaution and continue dodging punches ad infinitum, Palin can freely talk and swing back. No longer will she be on an unfavorable battlefield of the opponent's choosing, but on one of her own. Sun Tzu would approve.

• Campaigning from Alaska is a logistical nightmare. Alaska is farther away than most people realize. It takes forever to fly from there to pretty much anywhere else. Palin would find it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to both perform her gubernatorial duties – even via laptop and Blackberry – and do things like promote a book, campaign for conservative congressional candidates in 2010, or hit the rubber chicken dinner circuit in her own regard for 2012 or 2016.

And that's before accounting for staying connected with her husband Todd and having four children at home to raise, which is the most important priority of all. Adding the job of governor on top of that is just too much, and when there is a perfectly capable Lt. Governor available, entirely unnecessary. (To the extent it helps set up Sean Parnell as the de facto incumbent and helps keep the seat in GOP hands after 2012, it's also politically savvy.)

• It's not just Democrats who oppose Palin, but the entire Washington establishment. The reaction to her resignation has been completely laughable. The Beltway intelligentsia simply cannot comprehend a governor modest and humble enough to put the best interests of her state – or anything else – ahead of whatever personal ambitions she may have. Palin might have taken the hardest hits, but Alaska was simultaneously taking significant collateral damage to its image and reputation, as the Democratic smear machine turned its state politics into a total farce solely for the sake of destroying her. Now, all of that is history.

Nor can the smug, condescending elitists of Babylon-on-the-Potomac deal with the thought of Palin crashing their little members-only party. If there's one thing that drives the 535 members of the private and exclusive Incumbent Club (a.k.a. Congress) and all the hangers-on whose livelihoods depend upon and revolve around it (staffers, Beltway media, etc.) absolutely bonkers, it's the possibility that their ultra-cushy existence might be threatened.

The one thing all the aforementioned egomaniacs are most sure of is their own superiority. None of us little idiots can possibly manage to run our own lives, which is why everything must be put under government control and run from on high in Washington. Which is to say, run by them. And they're not about to let a folksy, populist, non-Ivy League outsider from the frozen Arctic expose what a complete mess these geniuses have made of everything, and thus what a massive, steaming pile of cow flop their insufferable patronizing arrogance has been.

They simply have too much invested in the way things are to run the slightest risk that they might be significantly changed. And that has as much to do with how those that are of, by, and for the Beltway believe society ought to be ordered as with any emoluments obtained, financial or otherwise. The whole worldview of these snobs is threatened by Palin, and that's the reason the attacks on her have been so vicious, frequent and relentless.

Think about it – if she were half the joke of a candidate that both Democrats and liberal establishment Republicans apocalyptically claim she'd be, both should eagerly welcome Palin running against President Obama in 2012.

Democrats would theoretically have an easy win given a weak challenger and the fact that first-term incumbents generally win re-election barring a disaster. Vichy Republican bigwigs wouldn't have to sacrifice a preferred liberal candidate – such as Mitt Romney – against an unbeatable incumbent, and could save their Just-Like-the-Democrat-Only-A-Tiny-Bit-Less guy for 2016. With the loss, both would be rid of her once and for all.

But this isn't what's happening. Instead, both entities are freaking out over Palin, in a classic case of “methinks thou doth protest too much.” (To use the oft-misquoted Shakespeare line from Hamlet.)  And, just as in Hamlet, the very fervency of the dismay inherently undermines its own credibility while revealing more about the critic than the performer.

In Palin's case, it's that entrenched interests on both sides of the aisle are scared to death of her. And even though the attacks on her might actually generate sympathy and draw attention to her, they can't take the risk of just letting her run, watching her lose and being rid of her – because she might well win. The incredible drawing power she has wherever she appears is strong evidence to that end, and something that I assure you has not escaped their notice.

Whatever the future holds, we have not seen the last of Sarah Palin – not by a long shot. And that sound you hear is those who have the most to lose by her success quaking in their boots.  

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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