My take on the Palin-Letterman controversy
The recent “comments” by David Letterman have probably been blogged to death. I refuse to go there. However, my takes on it is that had Letterman attacked some liberal he’d be in danger of being fired and that he raises Gov. Palin’s standing with the voters. The comments were beyond poor taste. They were another attack on a “safe” subject: Sarah Palin. Gov. Palin has great potential to commect with voters; she has a family with many of the same issues that others deal with: Special needs kids, unexpected grandkids, etc. This makes her more like an ordinary person, not an out of touch politician.
It has been my theory that if the 2012 election is hopelessly out of reach that Gov. Jindal will not run and wait for 2016 (wonder how easy it is to change a blog name?) but that Gov. Palin will be encouraged to run so the GOP can have the first woman nominee. But if the 2012 election is contested, Jindal will run and he can win the nomination and the election. Of course, former Gov. Romney will try to have something to say about it, too. Maybe Gov. Pawlenty as well.
I suggest that the liberal/radical attacks on Governor Palin can backfire. Camille Pagila had a great column in Salon in November on the Sarah Palin controversy. Pagila says:
Liberal Democrats are going to wake up from their sadomasochistic, anti-Palin orgy with a very big hangover. The evil genie released during this sorry episode will not so easily go back into its bottle.
Isn’t she right? There’s more:
I like Sarah Palin, and I’ve heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is — and quite frankly, I think the people who don’t see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma. So she doesn’t speak the King’s English — big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes. She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns — that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World.
That is what the Palin haters fear. A populist conservative mother who will connect with the American People. While I prefer Gov. Jindal, if they keep it up, they’ll be watching the inauguration of President Palin in 2013.
Sandy
