Sarah Palin: Whatever!

I listened to Sarah Palin, the soon-to-be ex-governor of Alaska yesterday and was totally unimpressed.

I was unimpressed with her statement; it was all over the place, presented like there had been little to no preparation.  She rambled; I struggled to find the center.

Then she laid the bombshell: she not only was not going to seek re-election, which was OK,  but she was also resigning as governor.

What the hell?

I thought that I must have missed something in her statement. Whatever had happened to her that does not happen to all politicians? Politics is the dirtiest profession ever. There is no respect of individuals or their families; everything they do is held up to scrutiny. They are held to unrealistic expectations, are crucified when they make mistakes or change their minds; they are walking targets.

That is the nature of the game, right? Destroy someone so that you can rise?

So, what’s the deal with this whining that Palin is doing? Yes, for sure there are double standards when it comes to men and women. Any woman in a profession dominated by men knows that. Yes, the media took some cheap shots. Yes, some comments made about her family were unconscionable. I could not have borne it.

But I didn’t choose to be a politician. Palin did. She opted to play with the big boys, and then, when the big boys showed their game, she quit??? All women in politicis have had to deal with the double standard phenomenon. Hillary Clinton did, but she didn’t quit. She toughed it out. I know, she didn’t have a pregnant teen daughter, and she didn’t have an infant for people to take cheap shots at.

But she had to endure the same double standard that Palin felt.

As she talked, I found myself wondering what the real deal was or is. What, I wondered, is she up to? What is this all about?  As she lifted up her infant son, I wondered if she was or is manipulating the emotions of people, women especially, who are outraged because they believe Palin’s family was unfairly attacked?

As she mentioned the mainstream media, was she endearing herself to the non-mainstream media, which some say composes the Conservative base of the Republican party? Was she, or is she, playing to the already frayed nerves of Conservatives who feel like the United States is becoming a socialist country under the presidency of Barack Obama?

Was this all a set up for the 2012 presidential race?

Today I read that Palin said the “mainstream press will never understand.” Give me a break, Governor. Mainstream, offstream, lowstream … whatever … the press is out to make news, to capture the best ratings, at the expense of anyone who has the unfortunate luck to be in the path of the tornado.

Politicians, especially, know that.

I do not know why John McCain picked her as a running mate in the first place. She never seemed ready to be president. Not of MY country. Nice and all of that, but not ready to be president. And the more she talked, and the more I realized that she seemed to play into the all-too-familiar politics of division and derision, playing on fears of people and using much overused Conservative cliches, I just moaned.

More of the same old same old.

Still, I looked on her as a viable choice for Conservatives in 2012. She was able to electrify a crowd. That’s what the Republicans are looking for now: someone to energize their base, and Palin was able to do that. I wasn’t happy thinking of her as a candidate for president, but I certainly saw her as a star whose brightness had not yet peaked.

But after yesterday, I hope she will go away. If you want to play with the big boys, you have to be willing to play the big boys’ game. That includes taking pot-shots and low-blows, in the name of political victory and gain. It’s just what you do.

You either win or lose the race, but if you win … you stay the course and take the jabs and do the work the people elect you to do. You cry in your soup when your term is over.

I would be very nervous if Palin were president. When the world started to deride her and criticize her, would she cut and run? Remember, the world is still very sexist. The double standard is not apt to go away anytime soon.

Palin has showed, at least to me, that she is not tough enough for the big boys’ game.

That is my candid observation.