What’s Next For The Alaskan Iron Lady?

After Governor Sarah Palin’s interview with Fox News’ Eric Bolling on the eve of the Iowa Caucus, I did a segment on my show where I stated that I will not be participating in any Sarah Palin reconsider or “earthquake” movements from now on.  If you missed that segment you may listen here.  I took some flak for it.  Who cares.  I believe after Palin’s interview with Bolling on Monday, she wasn’t reconsidering at this time. 

Granted, she then went on Cavuto the next day and was asked a very direct question.  Cavuto asked Palin if the GOP frontrunner starts to fall by the way side months from now and chaos ensues, would she reconsider?  Palin didn’t rule it out.  Yes, she did claim that “others” could get in.  Whether or not she is including herself in the “others” category—your guess is as good as mine. 

After October 5^th, 2011 when Palin first said no to a presidential run, there was no one more disappointed than ole Mr.L.  I was one of the first people to say, if the establishment can ask Chris Christie to change his mind, then tea party conservatives could do the same to Palin.  The view from here says, she doesn’t want to do this at this time.  And if there is some secret plan for Sarah Palin to get in this race late, she would want to keep it just that—a secret.  The best thing we should do for her is be quiet.  Going around beating people over the head trying  to convince them she’s reconsidering, when that might not be the case, could be counter productive.  In short, she knows we’re out there.  The less media attention that she gets about this the better.  If Palin is planning to open the Bombay doors at the last minute, she doesn’t need her supporters blowing her cover. 

In the meantime, make no mistake—my support for Sarah Palin isn’t going to fizzle out.  She is still a young, experienced, capable, determined, strong conservative woman with a long life and career ahead of her.  So what’s next for the Alaskan iron lady?

If this doesn’t happen, Gov. Sarah Palin could be tapped to head a governmental agency, for example, Department of Energy or Natural Resources.  Newt Gingrich has floated this idea around if he were to become the nominee and win the presidency.  He appeared on the Kevin Scholla show last fall and said he would love to “turn Sarah Palin loose in Washington.”  Clearly, she has proven herself as someone who brought change and championed reform in her home state of Alaska when she took on her own party and exposed corruption as Alaskan Energy Commissioner.  She took on Big Oil and got them to get off their asses and the drilling leases they sat on for decades.  Her administration put the necessary pressure on the oil companies forcing them to finally begin drilling at Prudhoe Bay. 

The energy crisis we face in the United States is a real one.  People need to stop listening to the paranoid, irrational, enviro-zealots and comprehend how important it is for the US to become the leader in energy production in the world.  America’s energy needs can rely on certain countries for only so long.  Sure, we can rely on our friendly Canadian neighbors and, to some extent, Saudi Arabia.  But should Canada become tapped out or limits their harvesting of energy resources and Saudi Arabia becomes unstable due to the so called “Arab Spring”—we’re screwed!   We will then have to rely on hostile countries and Banana Republics in Africa and Venezuela.  Sarah Palin understands this which is why she’d be the perfect person for the job.  Admit it—watching Palin spar with Democrats over energy policy in a televised confirmation hearing would rock.

There are all kinds of pros and cons if such a scenario plays out.  If Palin would accept such an offer with the correct Republican administration, it would put her smack dab in the middle of the Beltway.  She would be able get to know exactly who the trouble makers are and who is standing in the way of American energy independence.  If she could affect positive change in such a bureaucracy, it would certainly add to the long list of her accomplishments.  On the other hand, handling such a bureaucracy could be a daunting task—dealing with Beltway snobs who would refuse to work with her because she’s Sarah Palin, traveling to and from Alaska, the size and scope of the problems within the agency could be daunting.   Also, it may hurt her outsider status if she becomes part of the Washington elite. 

There’s also the possibility that she gets picked to run for Vice President again.  After Sarah Palin’s October 5^th, 2011 announcement that she would not seek the presidency on the Mark Levin show, I wasn’t warm to the idea of another Palin VP run.  However, I’m starting to warm up to the idea.  I know some Palinites believe this would be a mistake.  Some tend to go Greta Garbo on you when you mention it—the drama the opera-tics of, “NO! NOT! NEVER ! She shall never do this again!  I learned from following politics is—you never say never.  When Eric Bolling asked Sarah Palin on Monday that her name was being tossed around by Newt Gingrich and other frontrunners to foot the bill, she didn’t shoot down the idea.  She stated firmly that it is way too early to be thinking about that now.  She’s right. 

However, the Republican Party establishment and the press are thinking about this right now.  As usual, the GOP continues to solidify their reputation as the stupid party by throwing out names like Governor Nikki Haley and Senator Marco Rubio.  Considering Haley may mean they would try and capture the Palin magic of 2008, just without Palin.  Ain’t going to happen.  Haley is not Sarah Palin.  And Haley could not get elected as Governor of South Carolina without support from Sarah Palin and the tea party.  She then repaid tea party conservatives by foolishly endorsing establishment candidate Mitt Romney.  

While I like Sen. Marco Rubio, he’s stated that he wants nothing to do with being on the ticket.  While he’s a great speaker, he’s virtually done  nothing in his short time as a Florida Senator.  Choosing Rubio, or someone like him, could mean that the GOP will desperately pander to the Latino vote.  One psychotic idea that some Republicans are considering is adding the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and President of the PR Progressive Party, Luis Fortuno, on the ticket.  Early in December I explained why this would be a disaster in a segment titled “Is The GOP Too Dumb To Live?”  

The jury is still out on that one.

The process of picking the Vice President has changed throughout the years.  Years ago, the party leaders would huddle and pick the candidate.  Today, the decision is left solely up to the nominee and his advisers.  Many believe this is no way to pick the person who is next in line and that the Vice Presidential candidate should be elected by the delegates at the convention. 

Many who shun the idea of wasting Sarah Palin’s talents on the Vice Presidency—again, I was one of them—believe as former VP under FDR John Nance once did that the post “was not worth a bucket of warm spit.”  However, history has proven Nance wrong as a total of fourteen vice presidents have assumed the presidency via death of a sitting president or getting elected on their own merit.  Yes, many vice presidents—Spiro Agnew, Al Gore and Dan Quayle—were disasters and failed to make the jump to the top spot.  Others like Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson successfully used it as a stepping stone into the Oval Office.  And while Vice President Dick Cheney was certainly too old and of poor health to successfully run against Barack Obama in 2008, it can be said that he was one of the most hands on Vice Presidents in American history. 

I have no doubt that Governor Sarah Palin would be a hands on and trans-formative Vice President if she accepted the offer from—let’s say for arguments sake—Newt Gingrich, if he should become the Republican nominee. Any potential nominee would be foolish to not offer it to her.  Sarah Palin is a national political figure who has been vetted six ways to Sunday.   There are no more rocks for the media to turn over.  She has clearly immersed herself in policy, foreign and domestic, and has been ahead of the curve when discussing major issues facing America today.  I would love to see her, after four years of sharpening her daggers, face off against the bungling Biden in a debate once more.  Palin was one of the first people to acknowledge and support the Tea Party and, in many respects, has become it’s de facto leader.  Her track record for getting tea party conservatives elected to the House in 2010, shown in the image below, is stellar.  Even the mainstream media had to admit it.  Having Palin on the ticket would no doubt ease the minds of a conservative and RINO weary electorate who may not like the nominee, but trust Palin’s conservative convictions and tea party bonafides.

While many challenged political thinkers, liberals and Palin hating boobs still like to push the narrative that Sarah Palin cost John McCain the presidency, it’s clear from the graphic provided below that this was not the case.  As a series of snapshots taken from the documentary “The Undefeated” show the Gallup organization polling and how the McCain campaign got a clear boost when Palin fever caught fire in the fall of 2008.  Only until McCain shown himself to be inadequate in winning the messaging war during the financial crisis did his lead plummet.   McCain campaign head Steve Schmidt even admitted that McCain’s loss would’ve been much worse had they picked the independently liberal Sen. Joe Liberman or moderate Governor Tim Pawlenty.  

The real question is: would Gov. Palin accept such an offer again?  Financially, it would make sense to join the ticket.  She wouldn’t have to worry raising money to enter the White House.  These costs would be covered by donors and the RNC.   Although, I highly doubt she would relish the idea of once again being told what to do, what to say, how to dress by campaign hacks much like Nicole Wallace.   As Newt Gingrich so astutely mentioned in a radio interview last fall, the McCain campaign was “stupid” when they failed to present Palin to America for what she was—a trailblazing leader with a track record of reform in the state of Alaska.  I agree and if she accepted the offer, I’m almost certain that the Palins would be laying some ground rules down.  Simply, the campaign would have to let Palin be Palin.

In many ways, accepting another VP candidacy could be the most sensible path to the presidency.  Of course, running for president in the future would rely on her performance as VP,  the strength of the administration and a positive record of getting the country on the right track.  The flip-side could be, if the presidential candidate she’s running with proves himself to be indecisive and fails to beat Obama then—no doubt—like in 2008, Palin would get the blame.  Such a scenario would be damaging to her reputation. 

With that said, Sarah Palin may decide to simply make some popcorn, sit back and watch the republicans trip over themselves without her assistance.  Or, she could just keep doing what she’s doing.  In several Fox News appearances, several of her political predictions came to fruition.  She could remain a political commentator, write and sell another book, and do more public speaking.  Just today she was picked to be the key note speaker and will close out the ceremonies at CPAC 2012.  

Like any other modern presidential campaign, this one is rife with candidates trying to attach themselves to Ronald Reagan’s legacy.  It should be noted that Reagan advertised for GE, traversed the country spreading his message of conservatism, worked to get candidates elected, raised money for the Republican Party for years before he ran for the highest office of the land.   She has ample time to do just this.  Perhaps, her message against crony capitalism and pro energy independence needs to be beaten over the head of every American until they finally get it and understand who the right person is to implement these ideas.

Also, her plan to help save the House and retake the Senate as insurance against a possible Barack Obama second term is an option.  I firmly believe that, with a solid Republican holding in both the House and Senate, Obama will be totally vulnerable to impeachment for his high crimes and misdemeanors should he win another term.

Whatever the case may be, I look forward to the future of the Alaskan iron lady. 

Mr.L