Girl Don't Go Away Mad, Girl Just Go Away

I posted a column when Sarah Palin resigned from the governorship in Alaska. Although it was favorably commented on by a plethora of conservative bloggers, I could not understand her reasoning, much less her speech. I said as much in that column. Now Sarah Palin is a commentator for Fox News and will be hosting a Real American Stories piece for them. Although I was skeptical about Palin, I was ready to give her another chance. She blew it before the show aired.

The show lifted interviews previously from the Fox archives and made it seem as though Palin was the interviewer. She was not. LL Cool J protested so vehemently that his piece was dropped from the show. Toby Keith, who got the same treatment, also complained. Palin has the reputation, rightly or wrongly, of not being able to hold her own in an interview. I was willing to give her a chance but the special seems the indicate that this characterization was correct. Either as interviewer or interviewee, Palin is a dud.

There is a group of people who feel the need to prop Palin up because of her life story and frankly because of her gender. Why bother when we have great conservative women in the party like Michelle Bachmann? Why even fall into the trap that we have to have a front-and-center conservative woman? Many women are conservative and those who are, are in it for the ideals the party stands for not because they are falling for some Democratesque identity politics. Smaller government, getting to keep more of what you earn and a strong foreign policy does not affect women less than it affects men. To assume so is inherently sexist.

While talk radio props up Sarah Palin, she fails them again and again. Can she operate as a commentator? The market will decide. Can she successfully run for President? I severely doubt it. If we must have a woman in the running to show we are inclusive, let's shift the focus to Michelle Bachmann who is better able to articulate conservatism to a wide audience.

Sarah Palin is a great woman who truly reformed Alaska in many ways against all odds and did so with a smile. She deserves our gratitude for what she has done up to this point but she was plucked before her time and has become an object of derision. She is incapable of being a viable candidate on a national level and for substantive reasons.

Should she announce that she will not seek the Presidency and allow the primary to occur between the major candidates? In her words, "You betcha."