Sarah Palin?

Well, I just finished reading Going Rogue, and I don't want to pick on this former governor, but she has no business writing books.  She is an amazing orator, but her text is rambling and nonsensical, shifting between past debates in which she was victorious and sunk a lot of ships, or whining like a wet cat when she lost.

The most glaring thing I found about this woman was how much she had changed in 10 months on the campaign trail.  The strong, independent woman capable of leading Alaska to great economic prosperity and political purification had melted away by the time John McCain's campaign "headquarters" was through with her.  It was painful and pathetic to read through her treatment on the campaign, although it did answer a lot of questions.  Why did many doubt her capabilities as a leader on the national front?  Well, point blank, because she never took the stance to show those capabilities on the campaign trail.  I was waiting for Sarah Palin to tell Katie Couric to shove it on the first interview, let alone granting this leech to have the rights to a second interview.  I was waiting for Sarah Palin to tell the Biggies on the trail that she was not going to change to fit a broken mold, and was going to campaign in her way, and in her time.  I was waiting for Sarah Palin to get out there and hit the streets in much the same way she did in Alaska.  To stand up for her then pregnant daughter, and her mentally retarded son.

As a matter of fact, I'm still waiting.  Why did it take Sarah Palin losing the VP chance to finally strike back?  I have my guesses.  I believe that she was the only one who could muster votes for a failing from the gate campaign for McCain.  He was no conservative, he had sat in on corrupt practices under the Bush presidency as a Republican, he was promoting a war in times when people were focused on putting food on the table.  Palin was the answer to his failure. But I believe that the campaign cringed inwardly (and outwardly towards the end) at her conservatism.  But really?  Who were they going to put up against the most radical liberal we've ever seen on the Democrat ticket?  They needed Sarah Palin, they despised her too.  Why did she just sit there and take it?  Any mom who can tell me how much it hurts when her family is attacked, and just sit there and wring her hands, has no business have control of the nation's security.  She couldn't even get media outlets under her heel, why would I trust her diplomacy in Iran?  North Korea?  The Democratically controlled houses?

When all is said and done, I like Sarah Palin.  I could identify with her as a wife and a mother.  But as a politician, her trip to the Lower 48 was a disappointment, when it should have been a shining moment.  And that moment, had she mustered her grit, could have lasted through at least 4 years.  So either Sarah Palin is a fake, which I doubt after reading her memoirs, or she became spineless.  And if she's going to have a go at it again, she needs to either regrow that spine, or she needs to keep it firmly planted in Alaskan soil.