Palin's Departure

So, less than a year ago, I was (on a different blog) quite pleased with John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Obviously that didn't work out too well (though I also noted that if she bombed all she might cost us was a McCain presidency, and despite the fact that I have no love for the Obama administration, I have no delusions that a McCain administration would have been so much better).

As time wore on, I became a little tired of Palin's populism. I don't like populism, and I tend not to support populism. Still, I thought Palin had potential, and I still think she does. There may be a lot of work for her to do if she is to salvage her political career, or to become the politician I hoped she'd become. However, if she's done, well the 'Repubs' still have people like Mitch Daniels, Bobby Jindal and Tim Pawlenty to turn to. I can't get too upset about 'losing' a politician... and if I were, it'd probably be the 'loss' of former Rough Rider quarterback J.C. Watts. So close to a Grey Cup championship, but I digress...

What I find sad about it all is the way it went down. There was an unfounded and incredible vitriolic response to her. The dislike for her policies seemed to spread to a hatred of the person. Sadly, she, her 'people' or her handlers (or all three) never seemed able to properly handle any of this. The back and forth deification and demonization grew quite tiring.

All that being said, the poorly formulated (or maliciously formulated) rape and hooker jokes about her young daughter were too much. No matter what the situation, the children of politicians should never be treated that way, regardless of their parent's policy decisions or whether or not they or their teenage sibling got pregnant out of wedlock.

(Hell, if Letterman ever made such jokes about my daughter, I'd probably accept the invitation to go on his show and then beat the sh*t out of him; Everette v. Rome would be an episode of Firing Line in comparison.)

Hopefully, the Sarah Palin phenomenon (both positive and negative) will die down. Assuming she actually tries to leave the spotlight for a while, I hope that everyone will just let her. I hope that her life can get back to normal, or atleast to some other state where her kids aren't mocked and she can be happy. If she re-enters politics, hopefully we can all just address her policies and judge her fitness to serve on those grounds.