Throughout much of 2011, I gave serious thought to changing my registration from Democrat to Republican. Is it because the scales miraculously fell from (or, rather, fell into) my eyes, enabling me to see some glaring truth? No, nothing of the sort. I live in a state that does not allow for crossover voting in its primary elections, and that is fine. For good or for ill, only those people who have proactively aligned themselves with one party or another should have a say in choosing that party’s candidates. Of course, general elections are an entirely different matter.
In this present election cycle, the presidential nominating process within the Democratic Party will be a non-event. Unless Mr. Obama drops dead tomorrow, he will be the candidate, period. On the other hand, there was the potential for a great deal of drama on the Republican side of the process, and, indeed, we have seen it play out that way so far this year. My most compelling reason for changing my registration would have been to cast a vote for the Republican who had the best chance of defeating Sarah Palin, who, back then, seemed like a viable candidate, at least in terms of popularity.
Mind you, the last thing I want to do is nit-pick, but I did have a small issue with Ms. Palin’s candidacy: namely, that she may not be as qualified as (Here is where you picture me flipping the phone book open to a random page and arbitrarily jabbing my finger onto some name in the middle of the listings.) to be the leader of the free world.
At some point, to give the lady her due, Sarah Palin put an end to my anxiety by declaring herself out of the race for the nomination. Then, as if to further mitigate against a propitious party-shift, the more clearly and obviously unsuitable candidates bowed out, once their unelectability became clear, even to them.
As of this writing, there is a fair chance that Mr. Romney may gather enough delegates to win the nomination at the start of the convention. If he does not, even if he has more than anyone else, then it becomes an interesting situation. As we all should remember from our long-ago civics classes, delegates are bound to their candidates for the first ballot only. After that, they become free agents.
In the face of that possibility, Sarah Palin recently saw fit to tell the world, or the Republican world at any rate, that she would be amenable to a draft, should the delegates fail to decide among the still-declared politicians. She made it a point to mention she would not “close any doors” in regard to the process, should things come to that point.
A year ago, that notion would have engulfed me in another wave of despair, but, since then, I have had enough time to put the whole thing in perspective. The surest way the Republican Party can guarantee Mr. Obama another term in office is to offer up Sarah Palin as their nominee for president. It is for that reason, I have come around to the point of saying, “Run, Sarah, run!”
As if to confirm my present state of mind on the issue, Ms. Palin was kind enough to speak out about the recent Rush Limbaugh flap. Fool that I am, I thought I had said the last word on that situation in a recent article, but I had not counted on the ex-truncated governor’s perspicacity.
“I think the definition of hypocrisy,” she said, “is for Rush Limbaugh to have been called out, forced to apologize and retract what it is that he said in exercising his First Amendment rights, and never is that applied to the leftist radicals who say such horrible things about the handicapped, about women, about the defenseless.” This was entirely in keeping with Mr. Limbaugh’s explanation that he was merely stooping to the level of rhetoric that the “liberals” so often employ.
But then, Sarah Palin makes a good point: Big Brother had no right to clap poor Mr. Limbaugh in irons for his inflammatory remarks. I boldly say: FREE RUSH NOW! FREE RUSH NOW! FREE RUSH…what, they didn’t? In the words of the late, great Emily Litella, never mind.
I suppose it would be asking far too much of either of these political scholars to produce any specific examples of such hate speech from the other side of the spectrum. Were I to lose sight of the original intent of this essay, I might be tempted to say, “With all due respect to your high and exalted resigned position, Madam Governor, please either give us some direct quotes where left-wingers talked smack about women (That is, women in general, not you, who invites massive disrespect with your every word and deed, in particular) and the handicapped or shut the f**k up.” But then I would be working against, not for Sarah Palin’s quest for the presidency. Forget I said anything, okay?
Run, Sarah, run!
Sources
http://now.msn.com/now/0306-palin-cnn-convention.aspx?ocid=ansnow11
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/03/06/why_are_people_shocked_at_rush_limbaugh_s_non_apology_.html
http://voices.yahoo.com/have-we-really-come-far-11047996.html?cat=9
