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Could Sarah Palin cause the upset of the century?

Credit: Getty

April 20, 2022 - 7:00am

A bona fide celebrity ever since she was introduced to the nation in 2008, Sarah Palin speaks for the forgotten men and women in the heartland (even though she is, literally, from the far periphery). She may be light on the whole governing thing — she resigned her last political position, Alaska governor, mid-term — but as a political commodity she seems evergreen. Is she the one to lead the sad sacks roughed over by the globalists to a populist revolution?

In some ways a harbinger of Trumpist populism, the odd thing about Sarah Palin is that she comes not from this political era but the last one… even as she’s running for Congress for Alaska’s at-large district.

The late John McCain’s hail-Mary selection for Vice President on the 2008 Republican ticket, Sarah Palin looked at one point a smart pick. Forgotten now in what is written off as a doomed race, McCain-Palin actually briefly matched the Obama-Biden ticket in the opinion polls. She united both William Kristol, the godfather of neoconservatism, and Steve Bannon, who made a film about the wunderkind of Wasilla.

This was before that brutal autumn of 2008, remembered now for two things: Western financial ruination and disclosures that the governor of the Western Reserve possibly didn’t know the name of a single newspaper, nor who comprised the Triple Entente.

It ended badly.

Years on, Palin staggered through macabre family embarrassments, which may have bolstered her standing among downtrodden Americans whose lives have been marked by a similar severing of familial ties. Leading opinion polls for president in 2012 at one point, along with Dick Cheney, she passed on a run before jumping on the Trump train early in 2016. But, yet again, she disappeared from the frontlines of American life.

But that hack Fitzgerald got it wrong. In the 21st century there are many second acts in American life.

So now that President Joe Biden has told his old boss Barack Obama that he’s apparently running for president again, who’s to say that Sarah Palin shouldn’t be in Congress? I’m on record with enthusiasm for Dr. Oz, your next senator.

And after Congress, what could come next? Palin and Biden, after all, have history (she once accidentally called the future president “O’Biden” on national television). Might she get the opportunity to face off against him again on a debate stage in 2024? If the anti-pope of Mar-A-Lago and the regent of DeSantistan are somehow sidelined for the prize, literally all bets for control of the GOP are off.

Ultimately, it was Bill Kristol who saw what was special about Palin: prepossessing and imperfect, she’s the vox populi on horseback. She’s got a national profile and and we certainly won’t stop talking about her. It would be a bold bet, but not unheard of. The name of that Bannon film? “The Undefeated.”


Curt Mills is a senior reporter at the American Conservative.

CurtMills

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JR Stoker
JR Stoker
2 years ago

Why McCain selected her must remain one of life’s mysteries, (other than the most simplistic ticket balancing) but she just was not, is not, will never be up to the job, any senior political job.

If the GOP want to really destroy themselves as a credible force, then Sarah is the one, but if they want to win in ’24 and heal and repair a wrecked country, they need a much stronger candidate than this

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
2 years ago
Reply to  JR Stoker

This article is fantasy. Palin’s not getting anywhere near the presidency. The terrifying fact we have to live with in reality is that Harris is literally standing next in line.

Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
2 years ago

Yes, but there will be an election……..

R S Foster
R S Foster
2 years ago

…nor was Trump, as I recall…

Ed Cameron
Ed Cameron
2 years ago
Reply to  JR Stoker

McCain’s story made him my hero.
Revisiting Hanoi, where John McCain was shot down and held as a POW – CBS News
The Palin episode confounds me to this day.

Jesper Bo Henriksen
Jesper Bo Henriksen
2 years ago

It’s hard to imagine a dumber vice president than Palin would have been, or Dan Quayle was, but Kamala Harris has them both beat. All three were apparently chosen for their looks. Here’s to an ugly but competent VP candidate in 2024.

Warren T
Warren T
2 years ago

You forgot about Joe Biden in your list of pathetic VPs.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 years ago

Sarah Palin should be a comedian: it is patently frightening that any country on the planet could possible take someone with the vocabulary of an 11 year old, parochial ignorance, and absurd lack of knowledge seriously…. let alone in such numbers

Terence Fitch
Terence Fitch
2 years ago

She is surely inarticulate? Mind you so are Trump, Biden and Harris as was Bush jnr. Time for a literacy test for the Presidency? Just read any of Lincoln’s correspondence and weep.

William Hickey
William Hickey
2 years ago

Sarah Palin is running for Congress, folks, to be one of 435 in a body where Maxine Waters, Bennie Thompson and AOC are considered leading lights and where the Black Congressional Caucus bills itself as “The Conscience of the Congress.”

As I said a couple of weeks ago, “Two, three, many MTGs!”

Last edited 2 years ago by William Hickey
Alan Hawkes
Alan Hawkes
2 years ago

Well, if Donald Trump could be President, anything is possible.

James Volk
James Volk
2 years ago

When a headline ends in a question mark the answer is usually no or probably not.

Michael K
Michael K
2 years ago

Can anybody with more insight give me a very quick breakdown of what to think of this Palin person? Is she more of a corrupt career politician, or a populist? Does she have real policies or just fluff? Is she more of a fearless leader like DeSantis, a cautious actor like Abbott, or a pushover like Romney?

JR Stoker
JR Stoker
2 years ago
Reply to  Michael K

You need to read about the run up to, and the process of the 2012 Presidential election. She is a populist certainly, whether that be good or bad or neither here or there, but she is not at all bright; very emotional, has little foresight or insight; and over reacts to criticism. There were suggestions and suspicion of some corruption, but that was more to do with extreme naivety than genuine badness.
The GOP can do so very much than her. It is time for a woman Republican candidate, but not that one!

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 years ago
Reply to  JR Stoker

Aka an imbecile

James Volk
James Volk
2 years ago
Reply to  JR Stoker

“not at all bright; very emotional, has little foresight or insight; and over reacts to criticism.”
Seems to have worked for Joe.

Michael K
Michael K
2 years ago
Reply to  JR Stoker

Thank you so much!

Warren T
Warren T
2 years ago
Reply to  Michael K

She is no different than any other modern politician, who you apparently put too much faith in.

Michael K
Michael K
2 years ago
Reply to  Warren T

I literally wouldn’t have asked the question if I put any faith in politicians. Not sure why you would assume anything about me from asking a simple question.

Warren T
Warren T
2 years ago

Sorry, but there are many who use the term O’biden as a reference to the current POTUS being just another 4 years of Obama. Good sophomoric attempt, however.